Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Well, this week has been rather crazy, but it's been good.  We've seen so many miracles, so I'll try to remember all of them!

We started off the week by heading off to Brampton for transfers.  We woke up early on Tuesday morning, said our goodbyes, and got our new companions.  It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Snickers, but she'll be amazing in her new area!  I'm with Sister Barrow now.  She's from Ogden, Utah! (Utah companion #4, ha ha).  She's a really good missionary and I'm learning a lot from her about talking with people, teaching, and loving the people.

So our first big miracle this week...we were walking down the street and Sister Barrow asked me if we could turn around and go knock on a door we had just passed.  I said, "why, no!" And back we went.  A Scottish lady named Roberta answered and although she wasn't interested in our message, she did agree to let us come back and help her!  A few days later, we went back and ate lunch with her and helped her clean her house.

Another big miracle...we went to drop by a less active member and we had such a powerful, powerful lesson with her! There was one point in the lesson where Sister Barrow and I both felt such an overwhelming feeling of love for her.  We are so excited to work with her and be able to bring the hope of the gospel back into her life.

We've also had so many small miracles throughout the week that have helped us remember that God truly is helping us.  Last week, one of our zone leaders shared in a meeting, that he writes down miracles he sees everyday and it helps him to be grateful for what the Lord has blessed us with.  I started doing it, and it truly does help me to be grateful.  It's helped me see that even on the toughest days, there is always something that we can thank our Heavenly Father for.

Since it's Christmas, I wanted to share my testimony of the Savior.  I know that Heavenly Father truly did send His Son down to earth for us.  I know that He loves us and that He wants to help us.  I know that following His teachings is the only way to find lasting peace and happiness in this life.  I know that God's plan only works because of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and I know that He will never forsake us!

Merry Christmas!

Sister Dille

We helped the Bailey's with their Christmas tree!

Voila!

Bye bye Sister Snickers!  There's nothing like waking up
at 5:00 in the morning for transfers!

Holy cow! It's so cold!

Saying Goodbye to Sister Snickers

Hello!

Sorry, we have very little time to email today because of transfers so if you emailed me, I'm really sorry if I don't get a chance to respond to you today.

We had a really cool zone council on Saturday...it was the best and most spiritual meeting I have ever been in.  We learned about teaching better, finding joy in the work, having the language of faith, planning more effectively, and working with the members to find people to teach.  Every instruction answered a question that I've been struggling with my whole mission.  It was such a revelatory experience and the Spirit was there for sure!

So, before I tell you about transfers, allow me to share a funny story of the week that ties in quite nicely...Yesterday, we were having a wonderful day!  We were working in Newcastle, we had lunch with the Boulters, visited the Wojnicz family, the snow was falling (the really pretty sparkly kind that comes when it's really cold), and everything was going perfectly.  BUT, then we came home from Newcastle to finish weekly planning and do language study before transfer calls, and then we realized we didn't have the phone.  We prayed, emptied our bags, checked and double checked our coats, prayed some more, searched the entire apartment, looked in the car, and nothing!  We had our landlords call it, we checked with the appointments we had just been at earlier, and that little phone was nowhere to be found (it was also on vibrate, great...right?). Well, at this point, we began to panic a little bit because transfer calls were beginning in about three hours and we didn't have our phone if we got a transfer call.  In a final attempt to find the phone, we began searching in the snow where we had been cleaning off the car windows several hours earlier.  (Several inches of snow had fallen since then with plenty more coming down, so I wasn't very optimistic).  After searching for a few minutes, Sister Snickers pulled it out of the snow! I don't think I have ever been so relieved to find a phone in my life! Isn't it nice to know that God really does answer our prayers? :)

It's a good thing we found it too because unfortunately, we did get a call.  :(  Sister Snickers will be leaving me to go to Welland and I will be staying in Bowmanville.  I don't know who my companion will be until tomorrow morning, but I'll let you know next week.

Love you!

Sister Dille

Conversations With Cats & An Ambulance Chasing A Drunk Guy...

Hello!

The longer I've been on my mission, the harder it is for me to remember what I did that past week when I sit down to write my email!

We went on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders and it was a much needed exchange!  I was feeling really overwhelmed with trying to be exactly obedient to the rules, trying to work with the ward, trying to talk with people, etc...Sister Allred helped me understand the rules better, she helped me with talking to people, and it was such a good exchange.  It really taught me that I just need to be patient and I need to have faith.  Sometimes the Lord makes us wait awhile before He answers our prayers, but we have to keep exercising our faith...we can't give up and lose faith when life gets difficult.

Well, the time has come for another funny story!  This one may be the best so far, so get prepared.  Once upon a time, two sister missionaries went to a lesson with a less-active member.  This less active member kept going off on completely random and extremely awkward tangents.  The two sister missionaries were trying to teach her about the Sacrament, but she was having none of it!  Then she proceeded to let us know that she has a conversation with her cat every night before bedtime. She then gave us a little demonstration by meowing back and forth with her cat, Daisy.  Meanwhile, I was sitting there thinking to myself, "Wow! This lesson keeps getting better and better!"  But!.....that's not the end!  The tale continues.  Later that night, the sister missionaries were driving to an appointment with a member when they spotted a dog sitting on the side of the road with someone laying down in the grass beside him.  We turned around and ran out to see if he was okay.  (Another car had pulled up in the meantime and was on the phone with 911).  We started asking him questions like, are you okay, what's your name, how old are you, etc. but he was just laying on the grass singing and laughing to himself.  Then, he sat up, and was like, "Holy cow! What are all of these people doing here!"  (He was pretty drunk).  He started  walking away and then the ambulance showed up.  So we watched the ambulance chase a drunk guy down the street to end the day!  The adventures we have as missionaries.

I wanted to share this with everyone...watch it and go Light the World!!!!

https://www.mormon.org/?cid=HP_FR_25-11-2016_dMIS_fmorg_xLIDyL1-A_

It is an advent calendar, but with service instead of chocolate!  We've been sharing this with people and it's really cool!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dille

We made a birthday card for one of our less-active members,
and we were quite proud of ourselves...until Sister Snickers
noticed that I spelled "sister" wrong (and I'm supposed to be
teaching HER English, ha ha).

The Time Is Short...

Hey Guys!

Sorry, this will be really short, because we're running really low on time!

Last week, we had a cool miracle.  We're really trying hard to find people to teach, but we had to turn quite a few people over to the Lord during our weekly planning.  It was difficult because we already have a very little teaching pool.  It was a bit discouraging.  We went out tracting afterwards and within just a few minutes we found a really cool family!

In district meeting, we were role playing with each other, and we were trying to teach the Restoration. Our district leader was trying to get us to teach very simply and to really focus on the investigator.  It was really hard! But we noticed that as we centered the lesson on Jesus Christ, it was easier to teach simply and to help the investigators apply it to their lives.  It was cool to see that He really is the center of everything we should be doing as missionaries.

I just realized that my mission is over halfway done.  I'm almost to my last four transfers and those ones go by so fast from what I hear! It's so weird because it doesn't feel like it should be coming to an end that fast!

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

Love,

Sister Dille

Nine months ago...where does the time go?

The Field is "White" and Ready to Harvest

The field is white and ready to harvest....you know why?  Because it's snowing!  Yesterday, we went out tracting  and the temperatures were below zero (celsius), and the wind was howling!  Our feet were completely numb by the time we got back to the car!  Anyway, it kept getting colder and colder, the clouds rolled in and by the time we woke up this morning, there was an inch or two of snow on the ground.

We had stake conference this week, so I got to see some of the members from Cobourg, which was exciting!  Our mission president and his wife came too, to speak a little bit.  The main theme of the adult session was the importance of the Restoration.  I think the Restoration of the Gospel is something I take for granted a lot, but it was so wonderful to be able to hear so many testimonies about the impact that it has had on the lives of others.

This week, I learned about the importance of using my time wisely.  Chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel talks about how important it is to be effective with our time, and it's so true!  The time we have to dedicate to the Lord as missionaries is very short, and it's getting shorter every day.  This really is the Lord's time, and we can't waste any of it.  Sister Snickers and I have really been working on being as obedient as we can and trying to work harder.  It's really cool because this week, we were able to find three new investigators.

So the funny story of the week....On Tuesday, one of our lessons fell through, so we tracted in the area for a few minutes.  One door had a "no soliciting" sign on it, but we're not selling anything, so we knock anyways unless it specifically says "no religion."  We knocked on the door and a huge Rottweiler starts jumping at the window on the door and nearly gave us a heart attack.  Eventually a guy came to the door, we told him we were missionaries, and he yelled, "Oh, so you can read the Bible, but you can't read my sign?"  Afterwhich, he slammed the door and we continued working.  A few days later, we were back in the same area dropping by a potential investigator and we were getting in the car to leave.  We saw a guy walking towards the car, and we decided we should be obedient little missionaries and go talk to him (I bet you can tell where this is going).  I started talking to him, and realized it was the same guy who had yelled at us a few days before.  Luckily, I don't think he recognized us :)

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dille

The field is literally white, and ready to harvest!

I found Sister Davenport at stake conference!

These are called cuberdons....they are a Belgian candy.

This is our emergency chocolate supply :)

A Restaurant Named After Me...But With The Wrong Spelling

Oh my goodness!  I forgot how cold it can get here!  Holy cow....we were out tracting the other night, and I thought to myself, "Self, it's really cold here!"  We have officially pulled out our winter coats and it's only November!  We're going to be in big trouble in a few more weeks when the temperature really drops!

Despite the cold, we did have a really cool experience last Saturday night.  We had been out tracting, it was dark, and the wind was really blowing.  We still had one more potential investigator to drop by, but I was about done with the whole tracting thing at this point.  Luckily, Sister Snickers set me straight (ha ha) and we had a really cool miracle that followed.  We knocked on Veronica's door, and she let us in (that hardly ever happens)!  We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and then she gave us chocolate cheesecake (all the tracting was suddenly worth it).  It was so cool.

Last week, we still had some time one night before we could go inside, so we went and OYMed down town.  There was a man sitting in his car, so we started talking to him.  Unfortunately he just wanted to argue with us and tell us all the things that were wrong with our church.  He told us that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and that we should really question our testimonies of the First Vision.  He also said we should go and burn the Book of Mormon Sister Snickers was holding in her hands.  We did not question our testimonies and we did not burn the Book of Mormon, because we know it's true.  The gospel has changed our lives and we can't deny that it's true.  We will have people like that in our lives.  People who will question what we believe andwho will try to get us to question what we believe.  But that's why it's so important to build our foundations on Christ like it says in Helaman 5:12.  If we build our testimonies on Him, we cannot fall.

Last week at district meeting, our district leader challenged us to study chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel.  He reminded us that this isn't our time, it's the Lord's time and we need to use it as fully and effectively as we can.  So this morning during studies, I started reading through it, and it was the answer to my prayers.  It was such a wonderful reminder that the Lord expects me to give Him everything and serve His children diligently for this short period.  He needs us to be as diligent and obedient as we possibly can be.

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dille

I think it's so sweet of Bowmanville to name the restaurant after me....
It's just a little embarrassing that they spelled my name wrong!

This guy in our ward has the coolest way to pick up leaves I've ever seen!

Christmas Has Come to Bowmanville!

Hey Guys!

This week was absolutely crazy and we learned a lot!  Our week got off to a rough start.  The people we were working with weren't doing so well, our lessons kept cancelling, we couldn't get ahold of our most solid investigator, and so many other things were happening.  Then, on Friday, we went to zone council and our sister training leaders did an instruction on obedience.  Our whole zone really felt like we could do so much better at being obedient and at being more diligent and urgent in the work. So, when Sister Snickers and I got back to Bowmanville, we were trying to be as obedient as we could, and we saw so many miracles!  We found two new investigators and our desire to do the work increased so much!  We were able to have a wonderful lesson on eternal families with our most solid investigator, and the miracles just kept coming!  On Sunday, one of our members brought her friend to church, and we were able to teach him the first lesson.  He wants to come back next week to learn more!  I heard once that obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles.  I can testify that it is true! The more obedient we are, the more the Lord can bless us!

Something really big happened this week..................after five months of practicing and trying and practicing and trying...I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO KIND OF PRONOUNCE MY R'S IN FRENCH!!!!! I kind of want to learn French when I get back.  It's a really pretty language. Sometimes I make Sister Snickers speak just so I can listen.  If she speaks really simply and slowly, sometimes I can pick a word or two out.

One of my investigators from Brockville emailed me today, and her baby was blessed in Sacrament Meeting last week!  I was so excited!  I love hearing about how well she's doing.  One of our returning members emailed me too and her husband just received the Melchizedek priesthood!  In a few weeks, they're going to take out their endowments and be sealed.  I don't know how to explain how excited I am about that and I hope President will let me go.  They've worked really hard to get to the temple and now they're going to be sealed together!

Well, I think that's about it!  We had transfers last night, but we lucked out and didn't get a call!  We have another transfer together!

Love you!

Sister Dille

The Felipes and Bishop Barter

Christmas has come to Bowmanville!

The Baileys