New Area, New Companion, Great People!

This week has been full of miracles! We have seen the Lord bless our area so much! It has been amazing to see that the Lord truly does have a hand in our lives. I think my favorite miracle happened with Larry, one of our investigators (he's preparing for his baptism at the beginning of next month). On Saturday, we taught him one of the lessons, and then we left him with a word of wisdom pamphlet to read through before our next appointment. On Sunday, we dropped by his house after church and he told us that even though he doesn't understand why we aren't allowed to drink coffee or tea, he gave all of his away to his neighbor. He's already living the word of wisdom and we haven't even taught it to him yet! It was such an amazing experience! It was so good to know that the Lord really is preparing people to receive the restored gospel! We also have two investigators named Catherine and Jean Marie who are both deaf, so we've been trying to learn some good ways to communicate with them. One of our returning members, Sister Timms, knows a little bit of sign language, so she's been trying to help us out. She told us that as soon as she agreed to help us out with teaching Catherine, she and her husband have been given so many blessings. It's cool to see how the Lord blesses us as we share the gospel.

I love my new area! I'm in a city called Brockville, that's right on the St. Lawrence River. It's a beautiful city and I'm so excited to be here. My companion's name is Sister Hunter and she is an amazing missionary! She's from Cardston, Alberta. I'm very excited to work with her. She has a powerful testimony of the Savior and she truly loves the people here. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

 

Sister Dille saying goodbye to Sister Davenport (the ward mission leaders wife) in Cobourg.

Sister Dille and Sister Spiekerman together one last time before transfers!

 

Transfer Week!!!!!!

TRANSFER WEEK!!!!!!!

This week is transfer week and I'm leaving Cobourg! I'm so sad because so many of the members here have become like my family away from home! I love the people here so much, but I'm excited to go meet more people in my new area. Sister Spiekerman and I leave tomorrow morning to go to Brampton where we'll meet our new companions. I'm going to a little branch in Brockville (which is in the most eastern zone of the mission), and my new companion will be Sister Hunter. I'm excited to meet her and to learn from her.

We got to go to the Toronto temple this week and it was so amazing. I love being in the temple because there is such a strong feeling of peace and love. I also got to see one of my MTC companions and two of the sisters that were in my district in the MTC. It was so fun and we learned so much!

Something that I learned this week is that testimonies are so powerful. I've had many experiences this week during my personal studies and during interacting with members and investigators where my testimony of the gospel has been strengthened so much. This week especially, my testimony of prophets has grown so much. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father loves us enough that He has given us a living prophet here on the earth to guide us, to counsel us, and to help us learn about the truth. God really does want all of his children. One of the sisters in my zone told us that Heavenly Father doesn't want any empty chairs in His Kingdom, and it's so true! He loves His children and He wants to help them. I know that He lives, I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and I know that through the power of His Atonement, all of our sins can be wiped away!

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and for your love!

Sister Dille

 

 

                                               Sister Spiekerman and I helped some members peel sugar beets on                                                   p-day last week. It took quite a bit of scrubbing to get the purple off.

                                     These are called kinder eggs (they're illegal in the U.S.) They're chocolate                                                                                   eggs with a toy inside and you buy one the Monday before transfers                                                  so you can make a transfer prediction.

These are the toys that were inside our kinder eggs.

Sister Spiekerman and me at the Toronto temple.

Here's the Toronto Temple!

                                                      I saw one of my MTC companions at the temple trip and                                                          6-week training on Friday. It was so good to see her!

 

Trust in the Lord

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a great week and I hope you all had the opportunity to watch general conference! It was truly an amazing experience to listen to the words of the Lord's servants and to feel peace as they gave us guidance and direction. The Saturday afternoon session was a bit of a shock to the missionaries here in the CTM because our mission president got called to be a general authority! We were all really surprised! This means that we will be getting a new mission president in July. We're all sad to see President Clayton go, but we know that the Lord needs Him elsewhere right now.

I think the talk that I loved the most this general conference was Jeffrey R. Holland's. It was exactly what I needed to hear! As I sat and listened to his words, I felt so much peace and I knew that even though this is hard, everything will be okay if I put my trust in the Lord and learn to rely on Him. He really is our loving Heavenly Father and I know without a doubt that He loves every single one of His precious children here on the earth. I know that everything He does is because He loves us. I have been asked several times on my mission so far how I can believe that God is real even with all of the bad things happening in the world. I know that even though life isn't always fair and that even though we experience hardships, God is there and He is walking beside us. I know that He loves us and that He will help us through every trial we will face in this life.

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your prayers and your good examples!

 

Sister Dille

 

Sister Spiekerman and I woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground 

 this morning! It must be some kind of cruel, late April fool's joke! :) 

Easter, Ice & Teaching

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a happy Easter! We had a crazy week here in Cobourg. We had two ice storms come in that made it a bit difficult to work, but they were still cool. The trees were all coated in ice and they would start creaking every time a breeze came through. The sidewalks were super slippery because they were one big sheet of ice. 

We had zone conference on Wednesday and we learned how to weekly plan more effectively. It was really great to be able to learn from other missionaries. We really learned how important it is to focus on other people and how we can meet their needs, because missionary work is all about how we can help other people. I've been working on trying to do this. It's so important for us to be able to learn how to have charity for the Lord's children.

We had a really cool experience this week when we were teaching one of our investigators about the Plan of Salvation. We were talking to her about the resurrection and about how every single person will be able to receive a perfect, resurrected body just like the Savior. It touched her heart so much because she has cerebral palsy and she was really excited to be able to learn that someday, that trial will be taken away from her. After learning about Heavenly Father's Plan for His children, she also told us that she's not afraid of death anymore. It made me so happy that the gospel was able to help her in this aspect of her life. The gospel really is for everyone and it really does bring peace and joy to our lives.

I also learned an important lesson about faith this week. My mission president told me that missionary work gets a lot easier when we learn to rely on the Lord. We have to go out and do our best, but rely on Him at the same time. The Savior Himself said "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." I love how the Lord really does want us to rely on Him and to have faith in Him. If we let Him help us in our lives, there won't be any trial we can't overcome.

I hope you all have a great week! I really appreciate all of your love and prayers!

Love,

 

Sister Dille

 

 

Thanks to the Hoopes', Uncle Tobie & Aunt Darcie, Grandma Mo & my family for all of the Easter candy!

This is a layer of ice that was on our window. It took us almost 20 minutes to scrape all of the ice off our car!

Haha, one of the members in our ward gave us chocolate bunnies for Easter! :) 

The entire sidewalk is a layer of ice!! It made tracting a bit tricky. :)

 

Moroni's Challenge (This one's for you Brother Nordgren)

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are all doing well! We had a busy week here in Cobourg. A lot of our lessons fell through unfortunately, so we spent a lot of time contacting and tracting. We found a new investigator named Yasmine. She is super nice and she has a very powerful testimony of God and how He gives her direction in her life. She's a very sweet lady and we are excited to meet with her again.

We also had exchanges this week with our Sister Training Leaders. Sister Spiekerman went to Osahawa with Sister Mousley, and I stayed here in Cobourg with Sister Bott. I had to drive for the first time and I was pretty scared, but the car is still in one piece and all went well! :) Sister Bott is very good at contacting and I learned a lot from her. I'm excited to go try to practice the things she taught me.

I had a very neat experience at the beginning of last week. About three years ago, Brother Nordgren challenged us to take Moroni's challenge during class. In Moroni 10:3-5 it reads, "Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts. And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." I tried taking the challenge for a few days, but nothing happened, and eventually, I just gave up trying. Several days ago, I was studying the Plan of Happiness in the Book of Mormon for a lesson we had later on in the evening. As I was studying, the Spirit touched my heart and a peaceful feeling came over me. I knew without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true, that it does testify of the Savior, and that God does have a plan for all of His children. I know that He truly does listen to our prayers and that if we listen, He will answer.

I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for all of your love, prayers, and support!

Sister Dille

This is one of my STL, Sister Bott. She's from Idaho too, but her family just moved to Baker City! She only has one transfer left before she heads home.

Here's a picture of Lake Ontario. Apparently, the water is super gross, but people still swim in it. 

We found a potato sign while we were contacting! I think Canada's a little bit confused as to who really has the ultimate potatoes. :)

Mission Milestone

Hi Everyone!

We had a pretty good week! We found five new investigators, which is really good for our area. We're going to start meeting with some of them starting tonight and we are super excited. 

We had a baptism on Saturday with an investigator named Hunter. He's a super cool kid and we were very excited for him. The fact that he was able to get baptized is actually a miracle because we almost didn't have enough water in the font for it to be performed. My companion and I showed up at the church two and half hours early to get everything ready, but we found out that it was going to take twice as long to fill as we had thought. We said a prayer and we let it keep filling. By the time the actual baptism was supposed to take place, we had just enough water in the font. It's great to know that God really does listen to our prayers.

We also had some fun contacting and tracting experiences this week. Usually when we're contacting, we're lucky if we can get someone to stop and talk to us long enough to give them a card, but on Saturday, we stopped to talk to a guy and he talked to us for almost 45 minutes! We couldn't get him to stop! It was pretty funny. Also, I hit a big milestone is the mission: I got yelled at for the first time while tracting! It was so awesome, I love it! 

The Church put out a new initiative yesterday. It's a super neat video called Hallelujah. If you haven't seen it yet, definitely watch it. It focuses on how the Savior can help us with our trials, and it's fantastic.

 

The most important thing I learned this week is that God will not abandon us. We can always turn to Him in prayer and He will listen. He is always watching over us and He loves us more than we know. He placed us on the earth so that we can experience joy (2 Nephi 2:25). By living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be joyful and we can have peace even if life is hard. I know He lives and I know that He is always there for us; we just have to look.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, 

 

Sister Dille

 

 

This is my district. They are really awesome. The Elders from left to right are Toly, Bertagnolli, Pumford, Tolley, Johnson, and Taylor. Elder Pumford and Elder Johnson are our ZLs and Elder Taylor is our DL.

The Sisters are Keidman, Crawford, me, and Spiekerman. Sister Keidman came out with my group.

Here's a picture of Hunter's baptism. He's a really cool kid and he reminds me a lot of Bronson.

Okay, so Tim Horton's is like a huge deal out here! In big cities there is seriously one every couple of blocks. I tried it for the first time about two weeks ago, and then after our district meeting on Friday, we ate there again to re-experience the joy! :) They're famous for their donuts.

 

He Hears Our Prayers

Hi Everyone!

Well, another week has come and gone! It seems like I was just sitting here sending an email yesterday. 

I went on exchanges for the first time this week with one of our Sister Training Leaders named Sister Mousley. She is super nice and she is a really good missionary. I had my first funny contacting experience while I was with her. We were walking up to the library to meet with an investigator and we tried to stop and talk to people along the way. We stopped to talk to a man, who we found out was homeless and just wanted to argue with us. We told him to have a great day and we started walking away. As we were walking he yelled at us that he "believes in Godzilla! He's coming back!" It was pretty funny.

We have our first baptism coming up this Saturday, and we are very excited! He is about 11 and he reminds me a lot of Bronson actually. He's a super cool kid and my companion and I are really excited for him. He's such a good example and I'm excited that he is taking this important step in his life.

This week, I learned about the power of the priesthood. There have been some days where we have struggled to move the work forward in Cobourg. On Sunday, I asked for a blessing to help me continue. It was such an amazing experience and I really felt that the Lord is aware of each and every one of His children. I know that He hears every single word of every single prayer we say. I know that He will answer our prayers, although it may not come in the way we might expect. I know He lives and I know that He is truly with us every step of the way as we go about doing His work.

I hope you have a great week! I love you all!

Love, 

 

Sister Dille

 

 

Sister Dille and Sister Spiekerman

 

 

 

Sister Dille & Sister Mousley on missionary splits.

 

 

Sister Dille & Sister Spiekerman with the Davenport's dog, Gracie :)

 

 

 

They have the maple leaf on everything!