Angels In The Outfield

Sister Hall's new address!! It's her birthday on June 3rd (next week!!) so make sure to send her a card/letter or an email!

2381 Marine Dr, Apt B2

Oakville, ON

L6L 6R4

Angels In The Outfield

Alright so it's safe to say that I'm pretty in love with Oakville. The ward members absolutely spoil us missionaries! At church I had 2 different people come up to give us groceries! Oakville has the cutest little stores and restaurants and there are always people to talk with by the lake shore. Right now the only down side to Oakville would have to be the fact that this little oasis reminds me SO much of the movie Charley St Cloud, which happens to star Zack Effron (you can see how this can be a problem for me). Sister Ogden and I will be jogging in the morning down by the pier with all the boats and old men fishing, the sun will be rising and I'll be admiring the view and then without fail I'll think to myself:

"Man this sure reminds me of that movie Charley St Cloud! Jill and I sure liked that movie!"

which then prompts the thought
"Zack Effron was in that movie..." 

"STOP IT!!"

"I am a child of God....." 

haha that's pretty much my thought process every other morning. It makes me smile though cause it brings back some good memories with Jill :) (Yes it does!!!-J)

Anyways, I can't remember if I ever told you about our new investigator, but his name is Sammy and I adore him! He's probably in his 60's or 70's, he lives alone, very strong Christian and is from Egypt. The first time we met with him we talked with him about the restoration of the gospel and introduced the Book of Mormon to him, which he was very interested in. He got a little confused about the whole priesthood being restored because when we invited him to be baptized, he said that he had already been baptized. The whole trinity thing is also going to be a tough one to clear up, but all in due time. He really is just the sweetest old man though! When we came in he had cookies and drinks set up on the table and as we were leaving he was saying how he was so happy that we came to see him because when he met us on the street he saw angels with us and he felt something good in his heart and knew we had something important for him. 

Oh. My. GOSH!!! 

We went to see Sammy again last night and we planned to go in and clear up the priesthood/apostasy/restoration bit with him and re-invite him to be baptized, unfortunately that didnt quite go as smoothly as we had envisioned (but when does it ever haha). He still doesn't understand what it meant when Joseph Smith was given that power to restore the church BUT he has been reading his Book of Mormon! He is already into 2 Nephi! He believes it to be the word of God, but does not believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. Instead he sees Joseph Smith as a saint, but because he did not recieve any new revelation and just translated old scripture, he was not a prophet. I hadn't heard of that one before, so we had a good long silence, but then the scripture about how a seer is a revelator and a prophet also came to my mind...but I couldnt remember the reference so I had to settle for talking a little about D&C which didn't satisfy his concern (by the way its Mosiah 8:15) . What I should have done was born my testimony about Joseph Smith.... why I insist on throwing facts at people I will never understand! 
I guess I will just have to take comfort in knowing that the Lord intends and needs Sister Ogden and I to be teaching Sammy right now. 

Line of the Week: 

We are in district meeting and we are talking about how to ask inspired questions. Our district leader asks for examples of inspired question and a few people throw out some suggestions and then one elder says in his best batman voice,

"Where are the drugs!" 

lol we got a good kick out of that one.

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 28:32

"Wo be unto the Gentiles, saith the Lord God of Hosts! For notwithstanding I shall lengthen out mine arm unto them from day to day, they will deny me; nevertheless, I will be merciful unto them, saith the Lord God, if they will repent and come unto me; for mine are is lengthened out all the day long, saith the Lord God of Hosts."

A Haiku for You: 

Return Appointment

Oh How I Have Missed You So

One In A Billion 

I love you all and so appreciate the letters and emails! =) 

Have a great week and Treat Yo-self! 


Sister Hall

Look Dad I can check my oil! AHHAHAHAHAHAH! 
So at our last zone teaching thing our zone leaders realized that a lot of the missionaries *cough the sisters cough* didnt know ANYTHING about cars, so they did a little how to lesson with all of us and taught us how to check our oil! 

My thought: Pffft what is this Amateur hour! 

When one sister asked what colent was I turned to her tried to figure out if she was joking, realized she wasnt, and enlightened her. The elders were  impressed and satisfied with my answer. Thank goodness you raised me like a boy haha

New Kid On The Block

New Kid On The Block

It's official, I have been out for 6 weeks aka I am into my second transfer! Ah I'm growing up SO fast haha ;)

Our last district photo outside an A&W... so full of class. Sister Colvin, Sister Wester, Sister Williams, Me, Elder Thompson (district leader), elder Ashton (zone leader), Elder Jones, Elder Johnson (zone leader.) ->note the nice gap between elder thompson and I... elders have cooties hahaha

So the BIG news is that I have been transfered! I am now in Oakville with Sister Ogdan. Oakville is still in the Hamilton stake, its supper nice and right by one of the great lakes, AND our area covers a little of Missassagua, but not Grandma and Grandpa Davidsons area :(. Sister Ogdan is as sweet as the day is long! Oh my she is just so kind and loving! She's from Utah and this is her 3rd transfer. I'm excited to work with her and experience what the work is like here in Oakville. I will, however miss my dear sister Williams AND The Mountain to bits!! Oh my gosh I am SO sad to leave Hamilton, buuuuuttt I know the Lord has put me in Oakville for a reason.

P.S. They white washed us out of Hamilton!!! The Nerve! haha.... but seriously, president -_-

 

So now that we have established how seasoned I am out here in the mission field, I wanted to share some of the things I have learned these past 6 weeks on the "Mountain" with Sister Williams

-Faith is SO important! If you do not have faith that the Lord will put someone in your path or dont have the faith that you can baptize, it just wont happen. That being said, what you want is not always what the Lord has planned for you. Heavenly Father knows best. Trust in Him and council Him on everything you do.

-Do not role down a hill with keys in your pocket

-Be grateful for the trials the Lord gives you. "The gospel is ment to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted." Whenever we are given a trial it is because we are ready to be molded into the kind of person God envisions us to be. It is because He knows we are strong enough to handle it and He trusts us.

-Do not go about waiting for happiness to come. Enjoy the journey, pot holes and all.

-Understanding the Faximilies of Abraham..... not important at this time in my life

-When you say something stupid on a mission the spirit is there to back you up. When you say something stupid at home, its just stupid. In other words open your mouth and talk with everyone and Heavenly father will make up for your downfalls.

  

These are just a few of the things I have learned this transfer so far and just think, its only been 6 weeks!!

 

As for my last week on the mountain I had some truly wonderful experiences

 

This is the Pulsipher family. They are SO awesome! both of them used to be missionaries out here in Ontario so they were always really good about us using their house for lessons

The Gallicher family! I love these guys and their awesome back yard

The Hillman fam Jam! She was my second mom out here always looking out for me and making me candy yams..... sooooo good! You know they love me too because I smelt strongly of camp fire haha! Nicole their oldest daughter went out teaching with sister Williams and I a bunch and she will be preparing to go on a mission pretty soon here; she is going to be a stellar missionary!

Experience number 1

Sister Williams and I finally talked to Tarzan aka Jay! Ok so every Sunday on the way out of Church, Sister Williams and I see this guy walking home from the gym. He has wicked long hair, is always in sweats and a tank top AND HAS THE BIGGEST BUTT I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!! It has been our hope and dream to share the gospel with this man and this week it happened! We were driving home after giving service and on the horizon I see this long flowing hair and a giant butt so what do Sister Williams and I do??? Pull over immediatly and jump out of the car to intercept him on the side walk. So we do just that, we pull over onto a side road and run to the main street where we "casually" walk towards Tarzan. We then ask him some questions and he drops a couple F bombs and hucks a lugie on the ground..... BAHAHAHAHA Oh my gosh Sister Williams and I nearlly died laughing! Not at all what we expected, but he said he would share the gospel message with a guy he sees at the gym all the time.

 

Experience #2

This is the family the stole my heart =) they are the ones who think I am normal haha. This is just after we roasted smores.

We finally had the chance to have dinner at Lindsey's house aka the part member less active family that thinks I'm normal! It was SO much fun! She made us the best tacos I have ever had! We helped her make dinner and joked around with the kids. She showed us her house and we talked a little about what mission life is like (she asked us tons of questions!) After dinner we started talking a little about the gospel, Price had never really talked with her about the gospel or Joseph Smith (guy, what have you been doing!) So we sat down with the family and explained what prophets were, who Joseph Smith was and what the Book of Mormon is. It was SO sweet! As I recited the first vision, the spirit was so strong and Price grabed Lindseys hand. It is just so touching to see how bad Price really wants this for his family, even though he is not living the gospel right now, I can see its something he wants to start doing. And their kids are so good! Connor their youngest boy really likes church and praying. We talked about how to pray and asked him how he feels when he prays and he said he feels nervous at first but after he feels good. Then we asked him if there was anything he wanted to ask God, and he said he would like to know if He is real. So we invited him to pray right there to know, and it was just the sweetest thing I ever did see! At the end of the lesson we invited Price and Lindsey to read the Book of Mormon together, to pray and come to church. Lindsey was all for reading but doesnt know if she is ready to pray yet. After the lesson we went into the back yard and they had us roast smores and even invited us to go set of fireworks with them. (ya I was confused too, fireworks?!) Unfortunately I had to to put off the natural man and say no to the fireworks... ah growing up can be so hard sometimes. Saying good bye to Lindsey was really hard, she kept saying how comfortable she felt around us and how she would love to make dinners a weekly thing, but I know that these new sisters are meant to teacher her and that they are just what she needs. We exchanged emails though and told her to let us know when she prays for the first time :) This is definitely a family I would come back to see!

 

 

Line of the Week:

So brother Peters takes Sister Williams and I to a place called the Magrine to eat. It is an all you can eat chines food buffet. Once we had filled up our plates with food, Sister Williams looks down at my plate and then up at me with a quisical look on her face and this was my response:

"I made a special effort not to get anything ethnic..."

my plate was full of meat, mashed potatoes, and gravy

 

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 26:24-25

**Jill could you please type those out :)

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall now partake of his salvation.

Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price." 

Hiuku:

Transfer calls

Anticipation

Change is Good?

 

Well I am excited to know what Heavenly Father has in store for Sister Ogdan and I out here in Oakville! Say your prayers and read every day!

 

Love Sister Halla

 

P.S. Ill try and get my new mailing address to you as soon as I can

This is the letter my dad wrote me.... he is just the cutest!! I about died laughing and then my heart melted just a little

This picture is glorious and if you want to look up perfect timing in the dictionary this picture would be there. elder thompson and elder jones after being shut down hard by those 2 old ladies hahaha!

Look who I ran into at transfers! Elder Campbell... still tall as ever :)

Look who I ran into at transfers! Elder Fox!!!

Love and Chastising Go Hand in Hand

Love and Chastising Go Hand in Hand

This week has been a great learning experience. The Lord loves me so much that He chastised me haha. Most of you who have served missions know that a mission has this funny way of magnifying all your weaknesses 10 fold, and this week one of my weakness has been magnified 70 x 7. I'll give you a little back ground on what brought about this realization; this week we had 8 appointments fall through on us (Mitzie, Grace, Chris, Rose, Kimberly etc..). By Friday I was feeling pretty discouraged and couldn't figure out why these awesome investigators had suddenly turned cold. Sister Williams and I sat and discussed and came to the realization that we both lacked Humility. We have been teaching and trying to find people on our own knowledge, not relying on the Lord to help us and guide us to those who he has prepared. Our prayers have lacked sincerity and now we and our investigators were paying the price. My stomach had this sinking realization when I put 2 and 2 together. Because I had not put my trust and faith in the Lord to guide me to the elect and put the words in my mouth to those who we teach, I had let all our investigators down. The Lord truly must have infinite patience for dealing with us imperfect missionaries.

One particular instance of me being too caught up in my own logic was last week as a thought popped into my mind that we should NOT extend a baptismal invitation to Chris... I thought that was just me having a lack of faith cause Sister Williams and I had felt so good and confident that the Lord would provide! This thought occurred to me several times, but I ignored it. Sister Williams extended the baptismal invitation and Chris declined, which we were not too choked about, but our mistake took light in the coming days as Chris didn't show up to church and then cancelled on our appointments and didn't return our calls..... AH! I have been praying to have the gift of discernment, to have Heavenly Father lead me by the spirit so that I can help all our investigators, but when He tried to tell me Chris is not ready for baptism, I ignored Him and trusted in my own understanding. 

I felt terrible! I may have just messed this mans eternal salvation up for Him because Im ignorant and imperfect. So what do I do? I get on my knees and repent. This time I felt the need to call and apologize to Chris, to let him know that I ignored the spirit and that Heavenly Father knew he wasnt ready for baptism. So I called and left a message. Not 3 minuets later his wife calls us to scheduled an appointment. 

Lesson Learned: When you make a mistake, do not run and hid, the Lord is always there to help us right our wrongs. He will lovingly let us know our weaknesses and when we repent and humble ourselves before Him, He will help us. I cant describe the love and gratitude I feel towards our Father and Heaven over this experience and I can only hope and pray that by the end of my mission I will have learned how to fully rely on the Lord in all I do.

-> if anyone has advice for me send it my way! 

Zone conference last week and this is my MTC district!

moving on ---------->

Interesting and cool experiences this week

Interesting: I got spanked by an old Catholic Italian women on the street as I tried to share the gospel with her.....

Cool: Dante is a man who we've talked to once in the elevator in our apartments a few weeks ago and as we were walking in to our building for lunch he stopped us to ask us for the address to our church so he could go... he didnt show up but eh thats alright!

Cool: A man knocked on OUR door to talk to us about something and when he found out we were missionaries he told us if we were ever near his place to come over and teach him about God and then proceeded to give us his name and number. Unfortunately he lives on the east side of our mission, but transfer calls are this Sunday......

Awesome: Sister Williams and I, having been chastised already this week, have made a special effort to do everything we can to become more humble and even more obedient. Sunday roles around and it's 7:40 at night, and we haven't had the opportunity to talk with anyone and we still have companionship study we have to do before 9. We drive around for 10 minuets looking at bus stops and drive the main roads looking for anyone to teach, but the weather is bad and there isn't a soul outside. We drive back to our apartment and decide to pray that God will put 10 people in our path in 10 minuets. Now let it be known that our apartment is not near any main roads and not very many people walk down our street. However, less then 10 minuets latter and we have talked with 10 people and we didnt even leave our street. aka Heavenly Father will provide if you ask AND THEN act.

Super Sweet: A week ago, sister Williams and I challenged a family to give a way a Book of Mormon and their son Mark took it to heart. HE prayed and felt prompted to give the book to a friend he hadn't talked to since grade 5. It went well, his friend Zachary took the book and ended up coming with Mark to church on Sunday. Zachary has had some health issues so Mark asked him if he would like a blessing and Zachary agreed... the elders gave him a blessing and then we taught him. THIS NEVER HAPPENS! You cannot deny how present the Lord is when it comes to His missionary work. He knows everything that is going on and as long as we are willing to be humble and submissive, He will guide us to those who are ready and will direct us in the things to do and say. Where this will go, I'm not sure but I will most definitely be counseling the Lord on everything I do.

I am grateful for my weaknesses and I am grateful that the Lord loves me enough to show them to me. More importantly though, I am so grateful that despite these weaknesses, Heavenly Father is stilling willing to bless me =) 

I love  you all, embrace your weaknesses and glory to The Lord! 

Line of the Week:

After our investigator Grace leaves for a second to help her son and after I finish telling the awesome story of the great apostasy.

Sis Williams: Why are you yelling at our investigator?!

Me: What? 

Sis Williams: Stop yelling at our investigator

Me: Im enthusiastic...

Anyone who knows me knows exactly what Sister Williams was talking about haha poor Grace. 

Scripture of the Week: Ether 12: 27

After the sting that comes from being Chastised by the Lord, I hoped my scriptures to find comfort and flipped open to Ether 12. The whole chapter is amazing, but this stood out to me.

 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weaknesses that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." 

A Haiku for You:

Jesus Christ

Atonement at Work

Nations Healed  

Sister Hall

These are the NASTIEST mints you ever did eat! So I decided to eat them all at once...

And then spit them out over the balcony because they're just that gross.

Spagetti and bacon for dinner! AKA it's the weekend and we're running out of options..

Working Hard and Getting Tanned!

What. A. Week! Holy Molly! Where to begin? 

First and foremost, I HAVE THE BEST GRANDPARENTS EVER!!!! I got a package from them this week and it brought too much joy into my life ;) haha Dad how many packages did you get from your parents while you were on your mission? I've only been out for a month and I've got 1! HA

My package from my awesome grandparents!

Sister Will. wearing my clothes....she really likes the sweater grandma! Haha

Well I guess I will start off with the craziness that was this week a.k.a I went on 2 exchanges this week!

Exchange 1

Sister Hutchings and I

I went over to Atobaco with Sister Hutchings. Atobaco is supper close to downtown Toronto a.k.a they live in the ghetto and there are drug deals and gun shots a.k.a my kinda scene! haha! Sister Hutchings is awesome, she is from Seattle and is just the most outgoing girl around town with a sweeeeet taste in music! Spending the day with her was supper fun and we got along really well. I got to go to a few appointments with her and such.. blah blah blah..

This is on my exchange with Sister Hutchings and that is Toronto..haha

Exchange 2 (which was for 2 days) 

Sister Thompson and I

On this exchange I got to go to Oakville with Sister Thompson, who is my new best friend :). She is from Raymond Alberta (what what!) and played rugby out there as well as was captain for the Canada rugby team.... lets just say we had a lot to talk about. While all those things were great, probably my most favorite conversations with Sister Thompson was about the atonement. She shared some insight into the atonement with me that touched my heart. The atonement is soooo much more than what we can comprehend. There is a line in preach my gospel that says, "Through the atonement ALL that is wrong in life can be made right." I never fully understood that line, and probably still dont, but I was able to get a better picture of its meaning from a story Sis. Thompson shared with me... President Erying went to speak at a funeral for a girl who had been abused as a child and as a result committed suicide. In his talk at the funeral, he said "she would become the celestial being she was meant to be." Through the atonement, it would be as if she were never abused, she would be the person she could have been..... wow. We come into life as the celestial being we were before a.k.a our true nature, but as we experience life our "software" gets downloaded with viruses a.k.a sin. These viruses, or sin, are not who we are but they can distort and hinder our true nature, our true nature being that we are sons/daughters of a Heavenly Father. The atonement cleans out our software. It gets rid of those viruses that prevent us from being who we truly are. Ponder on the meaning of what I have just said and let me know your insights.

Trying to take a zone photo...I may or may not be yelling at an elder to get out of the way

Our little old zone

Now for Mitzie:

So we went to teach Mitzie about the restoration of the gospel and it went swimmingly! Before we started the lesson we asked her about her experience at church. She talked about how when she came into the building it was like a weight was lifted off her shoulders.... BAHHHHHHH! Then we asked her what she expected from meeting with us and she said she wanted to gain a better relationship with God and learn more about the church and that she really liked being around us.... AKA she loves the SPIRIT!!!
Honestly, where did this girl come from and Heavenly Father please send me more!
We were nearing the end our 1 hour limit, and we were only just getting to Joseph Smith. We asked her if she thought that God could call a prophet again and she said she did. Then we introduced the Book of Mormon and how this is convincing evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth once again. We then committed her to read the Book of Mormon to know for herself if the things we have told her are true and she agreed. I then asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. She said that if she felt that this was God's church she would be baptized, but she wants to know more. Then I committed her to prepare to be baptized by May 19th and she said............YES! WHoop whoop!
We did more of teaching a lesson than a person..... omph our bad, but thankfully the spirit made up for our down falls as teachers.

Fast Forward to Sunday...

She came to church again and this time she brought her brother! Ah! She had another good experience at church and her brother (who is 15) also enjoyed it and said he would come back next week. We really need to see her again though and help her progress more in the gospel or else she will not be ready for baptism on the 19th.

As for sister Williams and I, we have come up with a Book of Mormon challenge that we are giving to people who we visit in the ward and I am extending the same challenge to all you all! Its to give away a Book of Mormon this week :) But dont worry, we have devised some steps to help everyone do this...

1. A prayer of faith 

-ask Heavenly Father to help you give away a Book of Mormon. Ask for guidance as to who He has prepared in your life to learn about the gospel 

2. Make a list of non member people you know

3. Read the introduction, Nephi 6: 4-6, 2 Nephi 25:23 &26, and Jacob 4:3-4

4. List the reasons why the Book of Mormon was written and identify the blessings in your life from the Book of Mormon.

5. Write your testimony in the front

6. Give it away within the week

Some Good News!

Sister Williams and I went to a church activity yay. Via inspiration from on high, we sat with a part-member VERY less active family! (dad is less active and wife is not a member) We talked a bunch with them and I joked about how excited we were to be feed here because all we have is pickles at home. They got a kick out of that one which sprung questions about what we do on a mission. By the end of the night, Lindsey, the wife, had enthusiastically invited us to come over for dinner. 

The next day I phoned her to see when would work best for her. At the end of the conversation I was thanking her for letting us come over and telling her how excited we were etc... and she said and I quote "Ya no problem, we are excited to have you over! I was surprised at how down to earth you were. Most missionaries blah blah blah..." I tuned her out at that point because she thought I was NORMAL! She even remembered my name and my hair colour! (haha she asked when I fist called if she was talking to the brunette or the blond) I am really excited to go over and see them, we heard that they tend to avoid missionaries. 

Anyways that is my exciting news for this week. A bunch of exchanges, some cool experiences with Mitzie, and one person in Hamilton thinks I am normal. Id say this week I am winning :) 

Line of the Week: 

"Righteous women who stand in holy places are stronger than 400 lb bikers...."  

Curtesy of our ward mission leader as he bore his testimony with the utmost seriousness about women 

Scripture of the Week: 

Helaman 10: 1-5

The fist few scriptures give a description of Nephi walking home alone after a very discouraging effort of calling the people to repentance. He is weighed down with the sins of this people and is feeling discouraged when he hears a voice...

vs 4-5 

"Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou has done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the world, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

And now, becuase thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to they word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will."

A Haiku For You: 

My Darling Mother

Selfless Caring Loving 

Families Forever 

Sister Hall

This is our previous investigator Leslie. We ran into him outsife the church. He is just riding his bike home from work..... Oh how I love him haha 

Sister Hall requested that this video be shared on her blog post this week!

Who wouldn't want to talk to us?! We look so good!

Oh my goodness. My week has been full of blessings from the Lord. My heart is full of gratitude and I never want to leave Hamilton..... EVER! Thank you for all the prayers and for all the emails people have been sending me, it is so wonderful to feel so supported. A special shout out to the Summers for all the encouraging mail! I love getting your letters, they put such a smile on my face and I want you to know that I have a letter written for you guys, its just a matter of getting a U.S. stamp haha.

So let me tell you about this amazing week I have had. 

Me and my trainer, Sister Williams

First off, let me be one of the many to testify that God is watching over ALL of us. I know that He knows our challenges and our struggles. He knows the intentions of our hearts, hears our prayers, and wants us to have success. So Sister Williams and I have been praying to "find the elect" or in other words, find those of God's children who are prepared to hear the gospel. We do this by talking with EVERYONE. This week however I made a special effort not to let rejection get me down. I was determined to put my faith in the Lord, to know that He will provide and make up for my downfalls, and He did :)
Now, prepare to be spiritually feed as I tell you about some of the people we met and have worked with this week. (This is a long one so please get comfortable)

Chris

I have mentioned Chris before in previous letters. His wife is a member of the church and he has expressed a desire to have and eternal family and so he had to agree to meet with us wonderful sister missionaries haha! Chris is awesome! He is a mans man who is really uncomfortable with anything to do with feelings and talking about those feelings. Haha you can imagine how uncomfortable our lessons can be for him when we talk about those spiritual truths and ask him to explore what he is feeling. The thing I love most about Chris though, is that he wants what the gospel has to offer him. He knows that he will be baptized haha he talks about how he doesn't want to get a calling, about how he knows the word of wisdom will be really hard for him, but he is willing to try, and to work towards keeping those commandments. Last time we saw him we committed him to read the Book of Mormon every day and to pray to know if it is true. We also committed him to cut back on coffee and drinking (2 cups of coffee a day and only 4 drinks aloud on Friday and Saturday). We followed up with our commitment we left with him and he has been faithful to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. He says that he has noticed a difference in his week and told us about a random lady who came up to him in Tim Horton's and talked with him about how God had answered her prayer this week.... both our jaws dropped when he said this. What an amazing experience this was for him AND he recognized it! This week we talked with him about prayer, the importance of prayer and how he could know when he receives an answer to those prayers. It went really well and at the end of the lesson we knelt down looked at Chris and asked him to offer the prayer... he has never before agreed to say the prayer... but this time he agreed! Huzzah! He offered a beautiful prayer in the manliest way possible and tried to keep the feelings to a minimum haha, but really it was one of the coolest prayers I have heard yet. He prayed for us. I have never had an investigator pray for me. He thanked God for the patients we have with him, thanked him for teaching us and thanked him for his family. It was simple and sincere.

Mitzie

So Mitzie is pretty amazing, right after sister Williams and I pleaded with God to put the elect in our path, we met Mitzie in our elevator we chatted with her  and learned that she is from Jamaica and that she has been trying to find a church to go to. By the time we had reached the bottom floor she asked if she could come to church with us... I just about died of excitement! We readily agreed and offered to give her a tour of our chapel this week before Sunday so that she could become more familiar with our church and she agreed! 

Fast Forward 2 Days....

Sister Williams and I go to the church to get the chapel ready for the tour with Mitzie, pretty much everything is ready, we have a member coming to go on the tour with us, all the lights are on things are great EXCEPT we do not have the key to the font... aka the most important part of our tour is hiding behind an ugly accordion curtain from the 70's -_-. We call around to see if we can get our hands on a key and someone tells us there should be one in the clerks office. Score! We head over to the clerks office, unlock it, open the door and are greeted by this beeping. We are confused and try to figure out where it is coming from and shortly after the beeping turns into this ear curdling screech.... we have set off the alarm that no one told us about -_-. We look at our watch and realize Mitizie should be here any minuet! What do we do!? I rationalize that the code is probably Micheal Jordains number 2323 so we enter it in and no cigar, it just made the alarm more mad. Then we figure we should probably call the bishop. The bishop just about dies laughing at our predicament and lets us in on the code. He then informs us that there is no key in the clerks office to the font and agrees to come over and unlock it for us. Phew! The alarm is off and we have some one coming with the key, all will be alright. Mitzie arrives soon after. We walk through the chapel with her, talk about the relief society and primary and then show her the font. We explain baptism to her, the importance of it and the blessings that come from being baptized. Then we took her into the chapel and talked about the most important thing we do at church, partaking of the sacrament. We explained that the sacrament is a way for us to remember the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us. It reminds us that it is only through Him that we can be made clean and return to our Father in Heaven. Oh man was the spirit ever strong. She expressed how she could feel something special about the church and said she was excited to come to church this Sunday and that she would invite her mom to come with her. 

Fast Forward to Sunday

This Sunday was a special Stake Conference and it was special because the stake president was being released due to the fact that he has been called as a general authority.... BAH! We had 3 general authorities speaking to us AND Mitzie got to hear them! The meeting was SO good. It was really long, and at times I looked over and Mitzie would be drifting off (I mean it was 2 hours of straight sitting), but you could not deny the spirit that was felt as people testified of Jesus Christ, how His gospel has been restored to the Earth through a modern day prophet, and how this church is lead by a prophet of God with Jesus Christ at the head. After church we asked her about her experience and she said church was wonderful, that she was excited to come next week and thanked us for letting her come. We made an appointment to come and see her Tuesday to talk more about what we believed.

Attila & The Deaf and Mute Lady

After lunch, Sister Williams and I are getting ready to leave the house to get out and find a man that we had run into the other week. His name is Attila and we talked to him about how families can be together even after death. He seemed interested in our message and he gave us his number so that we could scheduled a time to come back and talk with him. Unfortunately he hadn't returned our call so we decided we just try and find him again. Before we left the apartment we prayed that we might find Attila so that we could share the gospel with his family. I kid you not, we walk for 3 minuets and there Attila was, out on a walk. He greeted us warmly and apologized for not getting back to us. He had been quite busy. We talked with him a little more and asked if it would be alright to stop by and share a message with his family and he said yes. We then got his address and said we would pop by. He said he was looking forward to it and commented that we were nice young ladies and hoped his daughters would grow up to be like us :). Cute! We part ways and not 30 seconds later we run into a lady and her children. We introduce ourselves and she squints at our name tags and then gets this 'ah ha' face. so makes hand gestures like she wants to write something so we get her a pen and paper. She rights down that her friend doesn't know how to pray and that we need to go and teach him how to pray. She then gives us his address and her email, shakes our hand and walks away.... BAH! Why can't that happen every time! Unfortunately the man doesn't live in our area so we passed on his information, but it was an incredible experience non the less.

Ryan

It is a beautiful day out and sister Williams and I are walking to an appointment when we come across a man in a work uniform sitting in the shade. We stop and start to talk with him. We ask him about his belief in God and he says he believes something is out there but has never really gone to church or figured out what that something is. We talk a little more about our church and our beliefs, talk with him about his experiences with religion and joke around with him. As the conversation dies down he thanks us for stopping to talk to him. He tells us about how he had been have a pretty rough day and that we had really brightened up his day. We smiled and remarked on how God is very aware of everyones situation and then ask him if He has ever heard of the Book of Mormon. We explain what the book is about and then give him his own copy. He thanks us for the book, laughs and says we will never believe this, but he had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend about how he was needing a new book to read. Looks like God has just put a book in you lap there Ryan! We got his number and committed him to read the Book of Mormon and told him we would phone him and follow up with him Wednesday. He agreed, thanked us again for stopping to talk with him, and then gave us a referral. Ryan I LOVE you haha! He told us that we should go and check out a lady that lived in house 270.  That she had told him her grandpa was a Mormon and that maybe she could use a visit from us.

The Lady That Lives In House 270 AKA Kimberly 

We knock on the door Ryan gave us and are greeted by the nicest lady with the kindest smile. We introduce ourselves as missionaries and she immediately invites us in and starts talking with us. Let me give you a little background on her. She has had a lot of trials in her life, she has over come addiction and currently works as an addictions councilor. Through the trials in her life has gained a very strong relationship with God and Jesus Christ and she has had missionaries in and out of her life since she could remember. Her and her family got really close with a couple of elders who would come over and help out around the house when her father was sick. She knows all about the church and even received a priesthood blessing in her youth and explained that when she received that blessing she felt the power and the love that God had for her. While we were talking with her and learning more about her I experienced what it felt like to love someone you barely know. She already believes so many things the church teaches I couldn't comprehend why she hadn't been baptized yet.... so I asked her why she hadn't been baptized. She talked about how she didn't feel like people needed to go to church to worship. I asked her if she knew that God's church was here on the earth if she would go. She thought about it and said she guess she would. She talked a little about why women didnt have the priesthood and we explained to her that the priesthood was just the power given to act in God's name through him.  When you look at women we are naturally more care giving and service orientated than men are, and that the priesthood gave men the opportunity to give that service. She thought about it and agreed. We asked if she would come to church with us, she was hesitant at first but then agreed. We also asked if we could come back and talk with her some more and she readily agreed with a smile on her face. She told us how nice it was that 2 young ladies knocked on her door instead of 2 boys and made a comment to the effect that maybe two sisters is what she needed. Ah! I am so excited to go back and see her!

Yesterday was zone conference. It was awesome! We had a general authority Elder Johnson come and talk with us. It was incredible. 

If you cant tell I'm getting tired of writing as I am sure you are tired of reading all about me haha.

It was truly a beautiful week in the kingdom! 

Scripture Of The Week:
Alma 26: 11-12

I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Line Of The Week:
Before leaving the house for the day turning to sister Williams,

Me: "Who wouldn't want to talk to us?! We look so good!"

At the end of the day, a text message I have to send to a 19 year old boy we meet on the street and tried to teach the restoration to.

"Ohhhh get it now. Well, while we are on a mission we dont date... but we would love to get together and have a gospel discussion and baptize you!"

A Haiku For You:

The Gospel

Glorious and True

What Blessings 

Sister Hall

Our zone leaders...in a tree prison

Some of the elders in our zone

Most of our zone on a rock

Sister me Sister Wester and sister Colvan

Sister Hall