Heat of the Moment

Heat of the Moment

SISTER LAING CAME TO VISIT ME!!! AH! On thursday we were out giving some service when I get this text from a random number. We look at the message and it says it's from Sister Laing and that she is in my city! AH! It was wonderful to visit with her :) We got to share a short message and I got to see how she was doing. She also took all my winter stuff home which was a huge bonus! 

ALSO SHAWN GOT BAPTIZED!!! So Shawn is Sam's husband and Sam is one of my converts from Oakville :D Her husband got baptized this past sunday! Ah I am SO happy! Now they can go to the temple and get sealed!!!!

Besides that my week has gone by super fast- so fast that I don't know what I should email you about....

Well let's start off with Scott. So he didn't come to church this Sunday... he slept in instead so we are going to drop by him tonight to talk to him about that. He also doesn't seem like he wants to give up some of his word of wisdom problems cause he thinks it will be too hard. We don't want to cut him loose but you can't magically give people a desire to change... 

Brother Ellis worked this Sunday so they couldn't come to church BUT we did have a really good visit with them this week! There was something different about them. Sister Ellis seemed a lot less wary of us and Brother Ellis was less sarcastic and more open to talking about the gospel and such. It was really cool to see this little transformation ;) we asked them if they had been reading and praying as a family this past week and they had for a few days!  

Other than that things this week have been good... Im trying really hard to remember what we did but I honestly can't think of anything! 

Oh let me tell you about Chris! So we were working with Chris last transfer (he is Kyri's step dad). We took a break from teaching him just because there was family stuff going on that needed to be taken care of first BUT we have picked him back up and he has a date for June 15th. He is looking pretty solid cause he finally started listening to the Book of Mormon! He now has a testimony of Joseph Smith and doesnt have any major barriers when it comes to commandments. 

We are also teaching a single mom. Her name is Pam and she has 2 little boys. Preston is 7 and Logan is 2. Logan is crazy and hates clothes so when ever we go over he is butt naked and NEVER listens to his mom. Preston is really excited to learn about God :) He LOVES praying and now they all pray every night. And when we told him they need to start reading the Book of Mormon too he told his mom they needed to read it right now. It was really cute especially cause he hates reading. They came to church this week and he really enjoyed primary too. We aren't sure how committed Pam is.... I feel like she thinks this is just a fun thing to do with her family but doesn't understand the commitment. It's hard to bring the spirit into the lessons cause she spends most of them yelling at her boys but she has a date for the 15th and she told her mom about it so who knows! 

Anyways I really got to go! Do good this week! 

Also its 32 degrees with the humidity! KILL ME! 

Y.O.S.O 

Sister Hall

Raining Blessings

Raining Blessings

CAN YOU SAY MIRACLE SUNDAY???? CAUSE THIS MISSIONARY CAN! Haha if you can't tell, we had a very good Sunday this week :) The Lord has been looking after us over hear in London 2nd E! 

Before I get into that though its time for....... 

SHOUT OUTS! (I've come to realize that I have a loud voice since I've been on my mission haha so it's funny that these are called shout outs... just thought I would share that with everyone) 

Thank you Brother Stewart for the letter about how our church is different. I really enjoyed reading it and will share it with the other missionaries :) 

Back to Sunday :) The tender mercies just kept on rolling allllll day. There are 4 specific ones that I'd like to share with you all:

1. SCOTT CAME TO CHURCH! Praise the Lord it's a Christmas Day miracle in May! After 4 weeks of trying and failing, Scott finally stepped through the church doors. We phoned him in the morning to make sure that he was up and everything and when he answered the phone he didn't even seem tired! Not only this but saturday night his dads truck caught on fire.... Scott looked at us during sacrament and shared the thought that it was Satans way of trying to make him not come to church. After sacrament meeting he had a big smile on his face and told us that it felt really good to keep his promise to God. 

2. So we have been working with the Ellis family who are less active. Brother Ellis has a very dry and sarcastic sense of humour and the 2 of us together are a deadly combination. Hahaha! We get along really well and it can be hard not to just feel like we are talking to friends so we will have to be careful of that. Anyways we were trying to think of a way to get the Ellis family out to church when I got another brilliant idea. Sister Shurtliff was going to be giving a talk in sacrament meeting and we figured that's as good an excuse as any to come out to church. This is what our conversation went like: 

Me: Brother Ellis! Sister Shurtliff is giving a talk in church and I will have no one to sit with! You should bring your family so I wont be lonely! 

Nate: Sounds like a trick! 

Me: I have no idea what you could possibly be talking about... but if you come we can make faces at her and it will be great

Nate: I dont even know your name. Do you expect me to sit with a stranger? Sister is much too generic and doesnt identify you well

Me: Maybe if you come to church and sit next to this stranger you might find out her name...

Nate: Too vague.

Me: Well you will have to show up to see  

Nate: Oh for sure. Then we can go out after church and get tattoos

Me: Only if they say, "I love the missionaries!" 

Nate: That could do

Me: Well I will have a seat saved for you :) we hope to see you there

(he is the master at avoiding commitments and anything we want to talk about)

So sunday rolls around and I am completely preoccupied with Scott when I notice Sister Shurtliff making weird eyes at me and pointing. I thought she was crazy so I just ignored her. Once sacrament meeting ended Sister Shurtliff runs past me to go see someone and I take Scott to go meet the bishop. I'm standing there doing nothing and look back to see where Sister Shurtliff went off too. That's when I see another Christmas Miracle in May..... BROTHER ELLIS! BAH! My mouth literally hung open and I may or may not have left Scott standing with the bishop to go over to see him. He actually came! It's like the first time in YEARS! He also brought his 2 cute little girls :) My heart was SO happy :) After church we discussed where we would get our tattoos and he invited us to go watch the fireworks but we declined saying that there were some souls who needed saving.

3. Chris Harris has been taught on and off by missionaries for the past while and has had lots of baptismal dates. We decided to put him on the back burner for now cause things weren't going anywhere. Well Chris just happened to show up to church too! At the end of church Brother Alicen came up to us to let us know that we have 2 appointments with Chris this week and that he has a baptismal date for June 15th. Wait what! We stand there a little confused and dumb founded and our member just walks off haha. Sweet! 

4. Last transfer Sister Tebbs and I contacted a guy named Brandon on the street and talked to him briefly about church, gave him a card and told him to give the YSA Elders a call. Well yesterday HE GOT BAPTIZED! BAH! AND on top of that Sister Shurtliff and I contacted another YSA named Shawn on the same street last week on mothers day. We got his information and passed it over to the Elders and HE also was at church this sunday! It was so cool to see him there and the Elders tell us that he is so prepared! He has a date for baptism on the 8th of June :) 

It's been a great week :) lots and lots to be thankful for! We also got to see Amanda and taught her and her boyfriend! We found a few solid potential investigators and got to do lots of yard work! 

Time is running short though so I'm heading out! God is good and miracles come as we are exactly obedient! Keep smiling, it increases your face value. 

Line of the Week: We are over teaching Misty 

Misty's daughter: "This is the longest staff meeting ever!" 

Scripture of the Week: Helaman 3:35

"And never the less they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

A Haiku for you

looked after

protective Father

from on high 

Y.O.S.O 

Sister Hall

My shoe tan!

Christopher in cake form

It Was Mom

It Was Mom

Holy Humidity Batman! Man sometimes it feels like I'm serving in a totally different country! Besides the humidity we have had a good week! Lots to tell and so little time so I will get right into it! 

So we have been working with a lot of new people this week that we have found from just talking with everyone and from our member Christopher Wilde. We met Misty in her complex as she was walking her kids home and we asked if we could come over to share with her and her family a message about Jesus Christ and she said sure! She is a single mom of 2 kids, has a positive outlook on life, is Native and her grandmother is Christian. Since she doesnt really come from a Christian background, everything we are talking about with her is really new. We taught her the restoration first which was cool. She had a lot of good questions, but the plan of salvation is where it is at! So before we taught her the plan of salvation we asked her about her beliefs on the creation. THEN we likened her beliefs to the plan of salvation! IT WAS SO COOL! I felt like I was Ammon or something. Teaching her about the importance of Christ was very spiritual as well. She asked such good questions about why we needed him and stuff like that. We have high hopes for her :) 

So you know how in the scriptures it says, "Open your mouths and they will be filled"? Well I totally had one of those moments this week. So we weren't able to get a hold of Scott all week so early on saturday morning we went over to his house and ambushed him haha. We asked him what had been happening and he started talking about how he knew that there were things that he needs to give up but that he didnt feel like he was ready to give those things up. He still likes smoking and going out to the clubs with his friends and all those things like that. 

-> Sister Hall's thought process while he tells us all this…."Are you kidding me? You are 27 years old with a 3 year old! Grow up!" 

He rambled on for a few more minutes about all the excuses as to why he shouldnt meet with us and then I opened my mouth and spoke the words God needed him to hear. What I said wasn't profound by any means, but they were exactly what he needed to hear. As I started to speak, the words just seemed to flow out and I didnt even have to think about what to say. I told him something to the effect that following Christ was not meant to be easy. That giving up those things are hard right now because he hasnt been able to feel Christs love for years and so he doesnt realize what he is missing, but that as he draws closer to Christ and feels His love, he will begin to desire to give those things up and it wont be as hard. But that in order to get to that point he needs to start to make those little changes by coming to church, reading, praying and meeting with us. 

We have also started working with a less active family named the Ellis's. I like them a lot and I get along with Brother Ellis pretty well. He served his mission in Utah so he knew exactly why we were coming over. He was trying to steer the conversation away from the invitation he knew was coming, but Sister Shurtliff extended the invite to take his family to church. He said maybe... and then tried to change the subject again. I steered it back and told him that we didnt want him to come to church and then I paused. I had caught his attention at this point and then I continued. I said we didnt want him to come to the church because we invited him to because we both knew that that wouldnt last long. We wanted him to come to church because He wants to do it for his family. I then bore my testimony about how going to church as a little girl really helped me in my teenage years to stay on the straight and narrow especially when I started to stray away from that path. That really intrigued him. I have good feelings about him but only time can tell. They invited us back though for dinner on tuesday! FREE PIZZA! YUS! 

Anyways im outta time! Love you all and Happy Mothers Day once again! 

Haiku For YOU! 

Gods helper

calling all mothers

divine role 

Sister Hall

The west sister :)

We made Mothers Day lunch together :)

Get Out Of Canada

Get Out Of Canada

Well hello family and friends! Another wonderful week out in the mission field to report on, BUT first some business to take care of. 

Shout Outs:

My dad is becoming an old fart this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Mothers day is coming up and I have the best mother EVER so I'll be getting to celebrate that whoop whoop! 

Thank you to the canyon creek young women! I loved the chocolate and nuts and the card was so sweet :)

I've had a lot of people ask me why I would go on a mission and miss my own sisters wedding. This is a good question and one that I couldn't quite answer at first. My dad shared with me an experience this week where someone asked why I wasn't allowed to come home for her wedding and he got a little stumped as well and did his best to explain why, but wasn't sure if his answer satisfied the person. Now if I were to be asked this question I'd have the answer for them. A missionary is a person who leaves their family temporarily so that others can be with their family for eternity. Its a big calling and is one of eternal importance. 

As for this week, Sister Shurtliff and I had lots of fun walking around in the rain because it is so much better than snow HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA. Mom sent me pictures of all the snow you guys are getting. Welcome to Alberta eh! 

We weren't able to see Amanda again this week.... she told us that she is still out of town, but she did tell us she has been reading and praying. We just hope she isn't avoiding us. Its a rare occurrence but it happens once in a while to us missionaries ;) On that note we also haven't been able to see Danielle haha HOWEVER we have gotten to see Scott and he is doing really good! We had a lesson with him with one of our members Brother Broadley and he pretty much ran the show. We focused on CPR (church, pray, read) and how that was the key to receiving his answer. Brother Broadley did a wonderful job of testifying how the gospel has blessed him and his family and how as much as he would love to give Scott all the answers, Scott needs to find them himself. It was powerful and the spirit was very strong. We had high hopes that he would make it out to church but he didn't... Theres always next week though! Maybe we will have to cook him breakfast.....

So as per usual we had lots of tender mercies this week. I've come to realize that Heavenly Father is teaching me patience and real charity. Want to know how I've come to know this? It's because I've been praying for it! Rookie mistake! The peoples' hearts have been a LOT harder then usual lately. Like usually people will entertain us and answer our questions and take a card but now a days people do more of an exasperated yell and wave their hands around and throw our card down (it's kinda amusing). Anyway this week we had interviews and I expressed some of my feelings of frustration to President and he advised me to focus more on turning out and be more selfless. I took his advice and the very next day we knocked on a door of a lady. The first thing she said to me was that she was sorry for being so rude to me on the bus the other day but that her grandson had been in the hospital. WOW! I don't even remember this lady but what a nice thing to have someone apologize to me :) She even said that we could come back and visit her :) 

Lastly, just a few hours earlier today Sam and Jorden (my very first converts back in Oakville) came up to take Sister Shurtliff and I out for lunch! It was SO wonderful to see them! My heart was over joyed and I couldnt stop smiling. In fact, my face hurts from smiling SO much! They have been doing really well and Sam's husband Shawn has been taking the discussions. Jorden is going to the temple for the first time tomorrow! I am SO excited for him :D Also Sam told me about her trip to Calgary where she attended the Canyon Creek ward! WHAT WHAT! She said that the people were SO friendly and she felt SOOOO welcome that if she were to move to Calgary she would HAVE to move into the Canyon Creek ward :D You all make me so proud! 

Well thats all for now! Dont forget to follow up and if you have no one to follow up on then go commit someone to do something! 

Love you all! 

Y.O.S.O

Line of the Week: While Sister Shurtliff and I are walking down a street

Random guy from a car: "Get Out Of Canada!!!"

Me: "Did that guy just tell us to get out of Canada?"

Shurtliff: ".... I think he did..."

We both look at each other and die laughing! Little does he know we are both from Canada ;) 

Scripture of the Week:  D&C 50: 23-25

"And that which doth not edify is not of God, and is darkness.

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continuity in God, receiveth more light; and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

And again, verily I say unto you, and I say it that you may know the truth, that you may chase darkness from among you;...

A Haiku for YOU:

dear president scott

to every time a season

our last interview 

Sister Hall

The Awkward Week

The Awkward Week

Shout Out! 

Thank you Summer's family for the wonderful Easter letter :) You are too kind!

We weren't able to see Amanda at all this week due to her grandfathers poor health. I hate it when we don't see our investigators all week. The longer I am away from them the more I worry about them. Haha Im starting to feel like my mother!

Danielle wasnt able to come to church this week because of she couldn't find a car seat which is a bummer. We also didnt get to teach her this week cause she got pretty busy but we are seeing her tonight and we are teaching her the W.O.W which will be fun! We found out that she has a male roommate though which means she will have to move out before she can get baptized... Never before in my mission have I had so many investigators with "big" commandment issues. 

Me and my new companion :)

I find the new week to a transfer to be an awkward one. You and your companion are figuring out how each of you teach, you have started to clear out your pool of people who arent progressing so you suddenly have a lot of free time, etc... This week has been no different, but Sister Shurtliff and I have continued to see Heavenly Father bless this area despite all the ups and downs! One day this week was a particularly long day. It was windy and raining. Everyone seemed like they were in a bad mood and no one wanted to talk with us. On top of that we had no appointments AND I lacked the motivation to talk with everyone. I was sitting on the bus when I started to feel really guilty for not talking with everyone so I put my wants aside and went to work. By the end of the day we hadn't seen much success and it was nice to be able to go to bed. The next day however we got a phone call from someone I had talked to on the bus! I remember him as well. He as a man from Nigeria and he was the last person I talked to before we got off the bus to head home. He said he was interested in checking out a service and wanted more information. What a tender mercy :)! We had to hand him over to the other missionaries that covered his area so I'm not sure if he actually got out to church but I sure hope he did.

Another tender mercy Heavenly Father gave us this week was when we met Scott. So sister Shurtliff and I were walking around in a neighbourhood when we saw a lady get out of her car. We went over to go and talk with her and she invited us in. She told us that she already went to a church but that her son Scott could use Jesus, so she went and got her son and told him to listen to us haha. Scott is 27 years old and is a single father with a 3 year old named Thunder who has gotten quite attached to us. Scott used to be strong in his church, but in high school drifted away and made some bad choices. He really wants to get involved with church again though and is excited to come out. We taught him the restoration and he said he would prepare for baptism on the 25th of May. Exciting!

Anyways thats all for this week! Love you all! Enjoy the snow in Calgary haahaha!

A Haiku For You: 

becoming 

lifes whole purpose 

more like him

Scripture of the Week: John 15:18

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."

Line of the Week: At the end of a long day Im lying in bed talking to Sister Shurtliff as she puts stuff away

Me: "I'm just closing my eyes, but im still listening to you."

Shurtliff: "Ya no worries! So what does your family do for fun?"

Me: "well... they really like to play cards and...."

->next thing I know I open my eyes and the room is dark and Sister Shurtliff is on her knees praying… 

Y.O.S.O

Teaching on someones sketchy door way haha. His name was Richard and he kept telling us that Joseph Smith was an alien..

Because of Him

Because of Him

Shout Outs! 

Victoria I want to hear about RUGBY! 

Happy Birthday to Naomi, Olivia, Genevieve AND Heather!! 

So I want to apologize for the short emails. Things have been getting busy and we only have 90 min on the computers = not enough time! 

Transfer time again and Sister Tebbs is leaving me :( She is going out by Kingston and I get a new companion. I think her name is Sister Shurtlif or something like that. Im super sad to be leaving Sister Tebbs!

As for this week things have been going really well! We taught Amanda about the law of chastity. It was kinda nerve racking cause we knew that we would have to invite her to get married before she could get baptized. Things were going pretty good. She understood the importance of the law of chastity and everything but I could tell it didn't click with her that being common law doesnt mean you are married soooooo I looked her in the eye and said she would have to get married before she could get baptized.... awkward silence hahaha! Maybe not the smoothest way to let someone know, but it got the job done. We talked it out with her a little more and narrowed down her major concern to the fact that they dont have a lot of money for a wedding. I have faith that things will work out though :) We invited her to pray about the law of chastity and told her that God will answer her prayers. 

We meet another single mom on the streets. Her name is Danielle and she has a 4 year old son named Dominic. She is SO sweet! We taught her the restoration and talked about how having God in our lives and having a living prophet has blessed our families, especially when it came to us being raised with good morals. I told her about how having a relationship with God while I grew up helped me to make good choices and not fall into the pressures that come from high school.The spirit was strong and she is super interested and has committed to work towards May 4th as her baptismal date! SO EXCITING! When we asked her why she wants to meet with us she talked about how she wants her kids to have a better life than she did and thinks that God can help with that. We promised her that He will help her out and more cause she is His daughter and He loves her. It was a powerful moment :) 

Man I just have to say that we are being blessed with amazing people to teach! After dropping like 20 investigators, God has come through with prepared people who desire to learn about his son. Missions are amazing :) 

Also I got to teach all the relief society ladies how to line dance this week hahahaha! It was SOOOOOOOO funny and I never thought I'd be saying this on my mission but its a good thing I went to Ranchmans ;) (Oh good heavens… -J)

I'm running out of time… some things never change haha. I love you all though and hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Oh and check out this video!  It is absolutely incredible so share it with your friends on facebook :) 

http://easter.mormon.org/

Dad if you have a Haiku could you do the honours? im outta time again! 

A Haiku For You (By Dad)

Grief and Pain

Love

Victory Over Death

Sister Hall

Goodbye Tights!

Goodbye Tights!

Shout Outs!

LAUREN GLENN YOU MUST EMAIL ME ASAP. IF YOU DONT THERE WILL BE ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES! (lauren.hall@myldsmail.net)

No tights weather!

So I'm sure you all are dying to find out if we met our goal of 15 member presents annnnndddd.... we didn't haha... BUT we did get pretty close with 11 so we are happy :) As for the zone we had a goal of getting 100 member presents this week, we totally made it! It was honestly a miracle and we could not have done it without God considering last week I think we got 64.

We have decided that Wayne has no need to be baptized due to his disability. In Gods eyes he is prefect and therefore has no need to be washed clean of any sins at this point cause he isnt capable of that.

We got to meet with Amanda this week and she is absolutely amazing! We talked with her about why she wants to meet with us and she expressed the desire to raise her kids with good morals. She talked about how on her side of the family there are a lot of addictions, etc... That's when I felt prompted to share the story of my dear mother :) I told her about how my mom was raised in an environment that wasn't the best and that she desired more for her family. She found the church when she was young and chose to get baptized. I expressed to her for how grateful I am for my moms choice. I was raised in a family that is centered on Jesus Christ with strong morals and standards that helped me to make good choices while growing up. If it wasn't for Christ and his teachings I'm not sure where I would be at this point in my life, but I know I would not be as happy. The spirit was strong and I could tell the experience touched Amanda. At church Amanda was able to meet lots of different people and really enjoyed herself. She has committed to work towards May 4th to get baptized! It may take longer though cause we found out she isn't married... when we asked her why she isn't married she said that she has always wanted a big wedding but can't afford it, as well as she knows a lot of people who get married and then get divorced. She thinks marriage puts too much pressure on people. This coming Tuesday we are going to talk with her more about the law of chastity. I am a little nervous cause I have never had to invite someone to get married, but I have seen miracles and I know that the spirit is capable of changing Amanda's heart. Our next goal is to get her husband to sit in on discussions to get him more on board. Keep us in your prayers!

Time is running short again, but I made sure I would have time for a Haiku

Line of the week:

Sis. Tebbs to me: "You are FULL of emotion. I can see it in your eyebrows."

Scripture of the Week: 3 Nephi 27: 14-15

"And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil--

And for this cause have I been lifted up; therefore, according to the power of the Father I will draw all men unto me, that they may be judged according to their works."

A Haiku for you:

enduring

faithfully always

to the end

Love you all! You are in my prayers always :) Do good this week!

Y.O.S.O

Sister Hall

We eat shwarma ... we are in love with it

This is my new cat named Spanks (dont ask about the name haha).  We found Spanks in the ghetto near our place and he walked around with us all our doors