Full Circle

Full Circle

Shout Outs! 

Thank you Sister Layton for the letter and picture! I absolutely loved it! I'll be in Cardston for thanksgiving so maybe we can visit your family! 

Thanks Nate for the letter as well! I enjoyed your comments immensely haha! I hope studying and exams go well! 

DAD!!! Thank you SOOO much for the summary of my mission! Oh my goodness that is just about the best gift I could ever receive! 

Alright everyone! Hold onto you spiritual pants cause the weeks seem to just keep getting better and better! 

First off, I will introduce another training tactic that I have come up with. It's called a "Spiritual Harvest". Essentially what it is is I pick an area to work in and then I have Sister Urie prayerfully picks a street to go to. Then we drive down the street and Sister Urie writes down all the houses that stick out to her. After that we go and tract all those houses. Well I did this with her our first week together and we didn't have a chance to finish tracting all the houses she picked. This week we get a referral from church headquarters for someone in Guelph. I look at his address and it's for Deerpath which happened to be the road that Sister Urie felt inspired to go to. Then we look at all the house numbers she wrote down and his was one of them!!!!!!!!!!! BAH! We freaked right out! Turns out he is in high school. We've been able to make brief contact with him over the phone but haven't been able to meet with him.

Another miracle that happened was during our weekly planning. We forgot the dot map in the car so we ran out quickly to get it. On the way to the car we pass by this nice lady. We smile and say hello but don't stop to talk to her. A few seconds after we pass her she turns around and asks us what church we go to. I tell her and she asks if there is one in Guelph. I say there is and tell her that we have a card in the car if she would like one. She said she would so she walks with us to the car. She tells us that she has been looking for a church to take her son to and told us about how churches now a days seem to lack community and are all about money. We gave her our card and shared our testimony with her and asked if we could come over and share a message with her. She said we could and gave us her information, turns out she lives right bellow us in our apartment building!  

Next is Sol :) Sometimes that man drives me crazy haha! He is full of parables! When he voices his concerns, they aren't actually his concerns but hidden messages with deeper meaning. I love him to death though so I put up with it ;) He came to church this week because it would be my last official Sunday. It was very sweet of him! He still hasn't prayed yet -_- I am determined that this week he will so hopefully all goes well :) 

I had THE cutest experience at church this week! It was fast and testimony meeting and Justin and Brian told me that if I got up to bear my testimony they would go up too. I shook their hands to make a deal with them but when the time came Justin was a little nervous so I bribed them with chocolate haha. We all walked up together and I moved the little stand for kids so that they could reach the mic. Justin went first. He got up and I stood beside him. He looked over at me and I whispered to him "I'd like to bear my testimony..." he took it from there and said "know God lives... Amen!" and then ran down to his seat. (SO cute!) Next was Brian. I motioned him over to the pulpit and he walked over and asked me what to do. I whispered to him "I'd like to bear my testimony, I know that Jesus Christ is my savior, Joseph Smith restored the gospel to the earth and I know the book of mormon is true. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." IT WAS SO CUTE!! My heart just about melted. That night we went over to teach them and Justin asked if he could knock on a few doors with us so we took him out for like 10 min :) We talked with David about setting the boys with a baptismal date and he said it was fine with him and so the boys chose to be baptized on october 19th :D AH I am so excited for them! 

Us and Justin tracting 

I'm saving the very best for last. I got to go to the temple with Sam on Saturday and she received her endowment. Oh my. It was the most sacred experience I have had thus far on my mission. It was interesting how I felt through it all. I wasnt overly excited or anxious. I felt very calm and aware of my surroundings. I was able to soak in every moment :) Throughout the whole session Sam was just beaming! She handled everything SO well and felt the spirit so incredibly strong. At the end I was waiting for her in the Celestial room. I saw her walk in the doors and we just embraced as she cried on my shoulder (they were happy tears haha!). As this happened an image entered into my head of this exact same moment happening except we would actually be in the Celestial Kingdom. It was sacred and something I will cherish for the rest of my life :) 

What an amazing blessing from Heavenly Father to be able to go to the temple with my very first convert and be with her as she receives her endowments at the very end of my mission. Oh the blessings of serving the Lord! #howgreatshallbeyourjoy

Our Temple Day!

Thats it for this week! Please dont forget to count your blessings! 

God Bless! 

A Haiku For You 

covenants

eternal blessings

temple day

My Daughters :) 

We were driving to the temple when we saw this sign for the Jehovah Witness compound and we HAD to pull over to get a picture! 

Unexpected Breakdowns

Unexpected Breakdowns (emotionally)

This was another great week :) Time seems to not be on my side and it keeps slipping past me! I can't believe we are already on week 5 of the transfer! :S

 

So this week was full of fun activities and spiritual experiences! We weren't able to coordinate our scheduled with Ronda and Kassidy this week so we weren't able to see them and Kassidy went to her dads on the weekend so they didn't end up coming to church but this is a new week! We have been having B.e.a.utiful fall weather here! All the leaves are changing and there is a slight crisp to the air AND NO snow! Lol silly Calgary! Every time Calgary gets snow the members text me laughing at me lol.

Fall in Ontario

 

We had a lot of spiritual experiences this week, one of them being with Jen, David and the boys. They have been coming to church and they are moving along slowly. We talked with them a lot about repentance and forgiveness and Jeremy brought up how he didn't like when his dad would make fun of him.

*cue the awkward silence*

We weren't sure what to say or how to go about resolving this particular concern because we didn't feel like a couple of 20 year olds should tell a father to stop making fun of his son. We spent a little time asking questions and talking to David about how he felt and then the revelation hit me. I looked at Jeremy and told him that throughout his life he will have people who may make fun of him and may tease him but that what they say doesnt matter because HE is a son of God. As soon as I said that the spirit filled the room :) I went on to explain that God loves him and created him just the way he is and that we are all special and unique in our own ways.

 

Also in primary Jeremy gave the closing prayer! Ah! I am so proud of these boys :) Brian said that next week he was asked to give the prayer and that he was excited to do it.

 

As for training Sister Urie- things are going great! She has adapted flawlessly to missionary life and my training methods haha. One of the new ideas I'm trying out was inspired by Jill's favorite swimmer Michael Phelps. So something his coach would do to help Michael are things like purposefully being late to pick him up to a competition, making him compete without goggles etc... He did this to help Michael learn to perform under stress and unforeseen obstacles. I thought that was pretty ingenious so I decided to try that out with Sister Urie! In missionary work things usually never go according to plan and sometimes you get companions who don't do a lot. To prepare her for these types of situations I figured I would have to create them! For example we were about to walk into our first lesson with someone we met on the street. Right before we got in there I told her that she would be teaching the whole lesson by herself (hahaha oh man I am SO mean)! She looks shocked and I knock on the door before she can say anything. We get in there and she starts teaching. She is a little shaky at first and looks over at me and pauses a couple of times to see if I'll come in and talk but I just smile at her encouragingly. So she keeps going haha. I made her teach by herself up to prophets and then I came in and offered some insights. Lol the look of relief on her face was priceless! Other times we would drop by a member or a less active and I'd give her 5 min notice for her to organize a spiritual thought to give to the members. Sister Urie would start flipping through her Book Of Mormon trying to find something to share.

I've had a lot of fun with this one and Sister Urie has been a great sport about it and is usually up for the challenge ;) She has grown a ton in these last few weeks and never ceases to amaze me!  I haven't come up with a name to title this training method so I'm open for any suggestions :)

 

Another cool experience we had was just this morning. We went over to teach a lady named Jennifer for the first time. We had tracted into her and her husband about a month ago and they asked us to come back in September. She has a strong belief in Christ and is very family centered. We taught her about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through living prophets today. Everything went smoothly and she asked great questions! At the end Sister Urie invited her to be baptized and she said that if she received an answer from God that she would. We proceeded to explain how after she is baptized that she will receive something called the gift of the Holy Ghost. We explained that with the gift of the Holy Ghost you have the right to his constant companionship and that he would comfort her, bring her peace, warn her of danger and give her guidance from God. I related to her about how my parents were constantly praying and seeking inspiration from God on how to raise my sister and I. That they admitted on numerous occasions they would be prompted by the Holy Ghost on how to treat certain situations while raising us. The spirit was strong and she listened intently and admitted that that would be very important as a parent. All in all she is wonderful and we are excited to start working with her :D She is pretty busy so we won't be able to see her for around 2 weeks but all in all it was a great morning. 

Ok last story, I promise! So I had my very first breakdown this week haha. It was on friday and some of our investigators were causing us grief- needless to say by the end of the night I was tired and I started to tear up. I tried to laugh it off and told Sister Urie I had no idea why I was crying. Then she looked at me and told me the reason why I was crying was cause I was going home. Silence.... *cue uncontrollable sobbing*. It was sooooo bad haha. I was trying to drive home whipping away the tears and just telling Sister Urie over and over how I didn't want to go home. She just rubbed my back and told me everything was going to be ok. Ah good times. 

Post breakdown picture 

Alright that's all I have time for! I hope you all have a fabulous week!!!!  

Line of the Week: A little background to this story. So Sister Urie really sucks with accents haha and we approach an old Russian man.

Me: "Hey, how are you doing?"

Guy: "What are you going to try and teach me?"

Sister Urie: "OH NO! We arent going to attack you!!"

awkward silence.... 

Me: "He asked what are we going to teach him."

Sister Urie: "ooooohhhhhh"

A Scripture For You: D&C 1: 33

"And he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he has received; for my Spirit shall not always strive with man, saith the Lord of Hosts."

A Haiku for you: 

break downs 

awkward silences

mission life 

Sister Hall

 

Traveling to conference for Elder Cardon

Some of the folks I came out with :) 

Positive Energy

Positive Energy

So let me just tell you how my day has gone so far. Go to the university to email and the stinking fire alarm goes off so we head to the mall to see if we can use computers there. They are closed monday so then we drive all the way to a members house to email. As soon as we get to the members house Sister Urie realizes she left her SD card in the computer at the university so then we had to drive aaalllllll the way back and here I am. Unfortunately I won't have much time to email so this will be a brief one :)

Shout Outs! 

Happy Birthday you old lady! I can't believe you are turning 50 mom! I hope it's wonderful and you should be getting my card in the mail any day now :) (Mom's going to kill you for telling the word how old she's getting!! -J)

Happy Birthday to Victoria! 

Thanks mom for the package and the card :) It was SO cute and I loved it. The money you gave me went towards fast offerings cause I didnt have any cash on my so it was a big blessing! 

Also Family I'd like to know if you would like me to bring you anything home so that I can start looking for things so please let me know as soon as possible :) 

I'll be a little selective at what I share with you all but lets start out with Kassidy and Ronda. So they are doing really well :) We taught Kassidy the Plan of Salvation and invited her to live the word of wisdom which she was excited about. Ronda wasn't able to join in this time cause she had some last minute stuff she had to get done. It was so cute when we saw Kassidy though cause she had gone onto mormon.org and had looked up stuff about Jesus Christ and wrote down all the stuff she learned so that she could show us :) Who is this kid!? The one problem we have is that they still haven't come out to church :( They are excited and happy to learn about the gospel and Kassidy really wants to come out but things just keep popping up and Ronda gets side tracked.... 

We saw Sol a couple times this week which was awesome! He is still taking things really slow which is just fine however he hasn't been putting an effort into reading and praying. I feel like part of it is because he is afraid of change and of receiving an answer. While we were talking to him he mentioned to us how the time seems to go by so fast whenever we come over and that he really enjoys our company and feels good even though we talk about things that make him uncomfortable. He shook his head while saying this with a smile on his face like he was surprised and unsure why he felt so good even though we talked about a subject that was a touchy one for him. We smiled and identified that that feeling is the spirit and he shrugged it off as positive energy and good people. Lol one day he will realize and when he does he will be a power house :) I can't complain however because whenever we go over to their place I leave 1 size bigger! You are so right dad about the Latin culture :) they feed you snacks upon snacks with all sorts of nice drinks. Ah it makes me want to move down there :) 

Ah! Sorry this is so short but I have to run! Hope you all have a wonderful week ! 

Peace and Blessings! 

Sister Hall

Tender Mercies 101

Tender Mercies 101

It was another beautiful week in Guelph! Sister Urie is blowing it out of the stinking water! She is picking things up SO fast! Like it's kinda insane!! Her contacting has noticeably improved a ton! She has already moved passed the whole, "Hi we are sharing a message about how families can be together forever? Would you be interested?"...and is asking people questions and getting them involved in the contact so they are invested. I'm pretty sure I didn't start doing that until well into my 2nd transfer and this is only her 2nd week! It's really cute to watch her teach lessons :) She still gets a little nervous especially if it's our first lesson with them. This week we taught Curtis for the first time and I had her lead out the message of the restoration. I guess Sister Urie got a little nervous because in about 3 min she had blown through God is our loving Heavenly Father, God blesses our families, skipped over how God calls prophets completely and went right into Jesus Christ and the atonement hahaha! I was just sitting there waiting for an opportunity to cut in and so we could retrace and cover some important points she had breezed over but she wasn't taking much time to breath so it was a little difficult. But I was able to cut her off before she got to the first vision haha! In the end it was one of the shortest first lessons I've ever had but he understood the message and accepted Sister Uries invitation to be baptized :) 

Ah before I forget I must tell you about Ronda and Kassidy! So just before transfers Sister Maeta and I were walking around and saw Ronda her daughter Brianna and some guy sitting outside her house. We walked up to them and started talking with them and it turned out that years earlier Ronda had met with missionaries in Toronto and they had helped her quit smoking. We asked if we could come by and share a message with her and her family and she told us that we could talk with her 8 year old girl (Kassidy). So we made an appointment and kept walking. 

Fast forward to the appointment ------>>>>------>>>>

So I'm with Sister Urie now and we go over to teach Kassidy and to our great surprise and pleasure... Ronda sits in! As soon as I started talking with them I could sense that there is something very special about this family. Kassidy is one of the most choice spirits I have ever met on my mission! Ever since she was a little kid she has loved learning about Jesus Christ and meets with the Jehovah Witnesses (Ronda isnt too excited about that just because she doesn't agree with some of the teachings). She is so sweet and innocent and I just love her to bits! Ronda seemed happy that we were coming over as well. She had a very warm smile on her face and was encouraging Kassidy to participate. So we are teaching the restoration and things are going well but we were teaching mostly to Kassidy and I felt strongly that we needed to involve Ronda a little more. But I had no idea if Ronda had good experiences or what when she met with the missionaries so I was nervous about what I should ask her. Then all of a sudden, words just started coming out of my mouth and I ask Ronda what her experience with reading the Book of Mormon was like. She got this big smile on her face and recounted to us her experience on a crowded subway. She was reading the Book of Mormon and all of a sudden she was filled with this burning warmth that overcame her. She felt happy and like crying all at the same time. As she was talking the spirit was strong and I could see that this was an experience that she had treasured for a long time. I asked her if at that point she new the Book of Mormon was true and she said she did. Then she told us the reason she didn't get baptized was because her boyfriend or husband at the time was Muslim and was really controlling. So she just kinda fell away. My heart started burning inside me when she told me this story and all I could think of was now is her time. AH! This is why serving a mission is the best thing in the whole world. I know that Heavenly Father lead us to her and I feel so blessed to know that I was able to help Heavenly Father reach out to one of His precious daughters. At the end of the lesson we had Kassidy say the prayer and it was so sweet! Ronda got down on her knees and would whisper to Kassidy things to say... AH! Oh my heart and soul, I could have shed a tear the spirit was so strong! 

Since that lesson we have seen them once and we invited Ronda to start meeting with missionaries again. She agreed and now her and Kassidy have a date for the 5th of October :D 

To add a little more joy and goodness to this email I got a visit from my dear SAM, which by the way- today is her 1 year anniversary of being baptized! She came down to take us out for lunch and give me a package from my momma :) While out to eat Sam told me that she had gotten her temple recommend and asked me if I would be her escort. AH! I dont know how much more goodness my little heart can take! I was SO touched when she asked me and I feel so privileged! What an amazing way to end a mission, to go through the temple with my first convert :) Heavenly Father has blessed me more than I can describe and most certainly more than I deserve! 

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 5:27 

"And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness." 

A Haiku For You

His timing 

foresees all things

perfected

Sister Hall

Sam!

Ooooh Mmy Gooosh A Baaaabby?!

Oooh Mmy Gooosh A Baaaaabby?!

A glorious week in the kingdom folks! So I got my new baby and she is just as sweet as the day is long! Oh my! Her name is Sister Urie and she is from- wait for it...... Utah! SURPRISE! She reminds me a lot of Sister Rogers in that she is super excited to be out, loves to work hard AND will do anything that I ask her to do (YUS!). She has a perma Utah smile on her face and when she talks to people over the phone she yells cause she talks so loud hahaha! I stinking love her to bits! She is full of sunshine and awkward happy moments and I love it! 

Sister Urie and I, our first day of church together! 

Let me fill you in on some awesome adventures Sister Urie had on her very first day in the field! 

•  On her very first day I committed her to invite a stranger on the street to be baptized. She looked at me like a deer in the headlights, but nodded her head and said she'd do it. The first couple of people she talked to she wasn't quite able to sum up the courage BUT on her 3rd or 4th go she just walked right up to someone told them about Jesus Christ and asked them to be baptized! They said no but it was glorious! 
• I took her out contacting and tracting and it was sooooo much fun hahahaha! Before knocking on her first door I gave her a low down of what a door approach could look like and then I knocked on the door. She stood there paralyzed with her Utah smile on her face and then someone opened the door! We stood there in silence for a good 10 seconds and then Sister Urie clued in and introduced herself and told them that we were missionaries. I just stood there smiling. After she introduced herself she didn't know what else to say so we stood there in silence for a little longer while she just stared at me (I continued to look at the person we were talking to) and then in front of the person she said: "I'm not sure what to say, can you talk now?" I just about died laughing!!!! Oh my gosh she is so cute! I finished up the door approach and told her what a great job she did :) I'm having a lot of fun just watching her contact and start to figure things out. Before I was concerned with having the "perfect" approach but over the past year I've realized what you say doesnt matter so much as how you say it. If its from the heart and its sincere the spirit will be work with it.
• I took her to the ghetto :) She was raised in a small Utah town with 4 stakes.... needless to say she has never seen anything close to a ghetto. It's so much fun to see her reaction to situations and people! I'm pretty sure she was a little traumatized but she's still with me so that's a good sing : )

So this go around I'm doing things a little different as a trainer. Now that I have a few more transfers under my belt I see things a lot differently so I'm excited to try some new things out on Sister Urie :) I'm focusing not so much on teaching her the lessons so that she knows them really well but more so on following the spirit, the importance of following up, commitments and loving the heck out of people. I like this approach a lot better cause I know that all the knowledge and stuff will come with time but those things aren't what converts people. But rest assured that I will be using the, "Follow the spirit to the investigators home cause your trainer wont tell you," tactic AND I am thinking up some more! 

Shoot I'm running out of time! Remind me to tell you all about Kassidy and Ronda next week! They are two new investigators and they are awesome! 

Quote of the Week: 

A text from one of our special needs members:

Captain: "Do you ladies have any reports from Lord Vader" 

Sister Hall

Sister Tebbs and I on transfers :) 

My family tree! My two daughters (Sister Rogers and Urie) and my granddaughter (Sister Rogers was training as well!)