MIRACLES!

MIRACLES! WHAT A WEEK, WHAT A WEEK! I love missionary work.

Well… last week we met a lot of people. We were contacting one day and met a girl named Sam. She had just graduated and was walking to her last class or something. She was so excited to meet us. We talked with her for a while and she set up an appointment for Tuesday!! We were so excited. Then we were contacting and knocked on this door we had tried before but asked us to come back. The daughter answered this time her name is Sue and we chatted with her for a while. She loves Utah and her sister lives there. She studying for a HUGE exam and so she said she would love to meet up with us in JULY. ooooh ppplleeeasseee. On Tuesday Sam came for her appointment and with her...was SUE. They are best friends and Sam told Sue she was coming to meet up with us and Sue said oh well I’ll just come with you. OF COURSE. So they are both loving the Book of Mormon and we are meeting them again tomorrow.

KAMILLE… we met with her last week and had a good appointment. She told us she feels like she isn't doing everything she should be because she slacked on her reading this week. She said she knows it’s all her fault and she needs to do her part. :) We also met with her yesterday for an emergency meeting. She is feeling a lot of pressure and she keeps having a "thought" she needs to talk to her family. We talked a lot about following promptings and about taking a step of faith...Kamille and Sister Reid and I are all fasting for her to find the strength, courage and words to use when she talks to her family.

BARBARA: is a less active that I met my first transfer. We only met with her a couple times until lately. We haven’t let her go...even when she says she can't meet we try real hard to get into their house and see her. It’s paid off. We met with her on Wednesday and had a really good lesson. She brought out her Book of Mormon and was excited to start reading it again. As soon as we said amen with the closing prayer she said...do you know how to bake? We talked about it and she asked us to come back on Sunday to help her learn how to bake cookies. :) We went back Sunday and she had all the ingredients out and the cups and bowls. She had cut up strawberries and had glasses for juice. She was SO excited to have us there. We made the cookies then had a lesson about faith from Alma 32. We drew it out and she was in heaven. She found things that we can do to "nourish our seed" such as having good friends. GOING TO CHURCH AND READING THE SCRIPTURES. All of which she said she is going to be working on. Then...last night...she came to FHE! :) She brought her brother. There are 4 YSA kids in that family. This is just the first step.

It was a very productive week and I feel so blessed. We have seen so much progress with all those we are working with. I always just think of it can't get any better than this...then bam it does.

I hope you had a wonderful week. Have a great holiday weekend.

Love you all.

Be good. Remember who you are. Live it.  Love it.

Middle of May

WHAT A WEEK! We hit 30 hours and 4 hours of service this week. It was crazy great. I loved it. We were moving every minute of every day.  We made good progress with Ainsley.  We met with her two times this week.  Her date is for the 28th and so far so good. :)  It looks like we have to turn her over however. :( She is 31 and so she can't come to the YSA ward. It’s been a crazy week with that situation but I know that the Lord will take over and handle the rest of it. We just keep praying that things pull through. :) We met with a girl named Daisy. She is from china. We met her on the street a couple weeks ago and got her number but when we called it was the wrong number so when we saw her again she started talking to us saying how she really wanted to learn so we set up another appointment. She called us every day till that appointment making sure of the address and asking if she could bring friends with her. She brought 2 friends with her. They loved it. They had all sorts of questions and were begging for a tour of the church. We are meeting with them this week again as well.  Kamille is doing great. She couldn’t meet with us this week because of midterms and such but we have been in contact with her all week. She is reading and praying every day. She loves looking up talks from the Ensigns. The ward has been inviting her to hang out with them which she loves.

I thought I’d tell some more about Winnipeg. It finally warmed up this week. It was 20 yesterday and 20 right now. It is LOVELY. We love it.

1.  There are murals on just about every building as you drive down the streets. The end buildings almost always have huge murals that have been painted on about the culture or history or just artistic things. It’s pretty neat.  Winnipeg is a city that is a bunch of cities mixed together. Downtown Winnipeg...the shops are really nice and kept up but the surrounding neighborhoods are pretty run down and rough. Pretty shady at night. To the east is St. Vital and it's pretty nice. Up north...if you go up high enough it gets pretty nice again. So the inner city can be sketch city but the surrounding areas are usually pretty nice. They have parks everywhere. A lot of "forests" nothing like forests in the states just tall skinny trees...but that's what they can forest...there is a forest right across the street from the mission office. The river runs through the whole city. It’s a fun city in the summer. Lots of people out and about doing their thing.

2. EVERYONE rides bikes and rollerblades. There are SO many bikes.  Old and young...everyone rides their bikes everywhere...the big busy streets...the little streets…the neighborhoods.  They ride to get groceries...there was one bike that had a wagon bucket on the front of it and they put their kids and the groceries in there. It was great.!!

3. EVERYONE has a cat and/or dog. They LOVE their animals.  They all have signs on their windows "in case of an emergency...please save Trudy"

4.  There are no parking/stopping signs all over the city because you just park on the road...BUT we have learned...that if it says no parking or no stopping, you just put on your hazards and you're good. No we haven’t tired it...but every day we see cars just parked on the side next to a no parking sign with their hazards on and it's all good. This weekend we were finding on the street. When we started there was a car parked with its hazards...when we came back an hour and half later...same car...same spot with hazards. It’s pretty amusing.

5. About 70% of the people here believe in God or belong to a religion but only about 20% go to church.

6.  They don't pull over for emergency vehicles.

I love Canada. Next week is Victoria Day so we won't be emailing till Tuesday. Got to love the long holiday weekends.

Hope you all had a great week. Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

Love

Sister Smith

Mother's Day

Well gooooood morning!

It’s another rainy day here!! But things are good. We had a great week. We met with Camille 2 times this week which is always the best!! She talked about the temple! She had watched Singles Ward 2 and was sad because she knew that that might be her...getting married in the temple and her family not being able to be there.  She told us that the only way to get married is in the temple so she knows she will get married in the temple but it just makes her sad that her family won't be there. She has so much faith. She talked a lot about her baptism and how she wants her family to be there for the "most important day of her life." we're getting so close!! :)

We also met with Ainsley 2 times this week as well!! She has a date for the 28th and is just moving right along. She has committed to all the commandments so far...such as law of chastity and word of wisdom and prayer/scripture study. She loves the Book of Mormon. She reads every day and is almost done with 2nd Nephi!! She loves it.

Winter went out of town this week :( she won't be getting baptized this next weekend. She still hasn't made it to church. We’re trying to help her connect spiritually.  It will happen for sure. Just takes some time and some faith :)

It was so good to get to call home. Sister Cutts fed us dinner after we talked with our parents. All of her kids and her husband were out of town for Mother’s Day so she was excited to have "her girls" home with her. It was a fun day.

We had a pretty funny moment this week. We were contacting and came across a bunch of first nations in their front yard so we stopped to talk to them...they were all pretty out of it and drunk.  The lady came up to me and put her head on my shoulder and was just crying saying she needs to stop she needs to trust God and stop drinking.  She said she knows that God could help her...but then when I said ok then just dump out that beer, she would say. Ohh noooo I can't do it...I can't do it, then all the sudden I just said, so you're saying you love beer more than God? Sister Reid just stopped talking and looked at me...I just looked at her then back at the lady. She looked at me and said. No, well, yes...well no. I guess it got her thinking a little bit. It was pretty funny.

Anyways, I hope you all had a great week!! Hope things are well.

Love you all.

Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

Sister Smith

May!

Why hello!
What a fast week! It seems like last week just started and now we're on to another! The weather was EXTREMELY nice till Saturday then it snowed....all day Sunday. :( Welcome to May in Winnipeg. Ha! But it was a very good week. We had the opportunity to teach a lot this week as well as use our finding time very effectively. We really saw blessings as we stretched ourselves and worked harder!! It was great.

Camille came to stake conference. Elder Shayne Bowen of the 70 came. We talked a lot about the temple and the things the people need to do here to prepare for the temple and to work on missionary work.  He talked a lot about priesthood and had a president from each quorum come and give their testimony...then explained how we don't need a general authority or a member of the 70, these priesthood brethren hold the keys we need and to look to them to help guide our stake. He said that the Winnipeg stake is the only stake in this new temple district!! They still haven’t published it in the public but everyone is SO excited about it. :)

We had a very good lesson with Winter this week. She really opened up and talked to us about her life and the things she has gone through. It really makes a lot more sense now that she has opened up. Things click. Amazing what communication can do eh?! She even said a formal prayer this week :) like Elder Bowen said...temples don't come without miracles and we saw lots this week.

We met with Ainsley and she set a date for baptism!! She is planning for the end of May!

We were so blessed this week. I am excited for another week. Sister Reid and I have big plans for this week and for another transfer together. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful week. Love you all. Happy mother’s day! :)

Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it

Sister Smith