June 27,2011 Best Ever!

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK WE'VE HAD! I tell you what. It has been a great week. I got to go on exchanges with Sister Dunn. She goes home at the end of this transfer so I got to learn a lot from her. She is an amazing missionary and follows the promptings of the spirit. I gained a lot from her and hope to work on a lot of the qualities she has.  Thursday night KAMILLE CAME TO INSTITUTE!!! It was sooooooo great. The ward just ate her up. They loved it...she loved it...we loved it. She had a great time. We talked with her a bit afterward and resolved a lot of her concerns. I tell ya...every time we meet with her the spirit is just so strong. Sunday was the big day this week. Our Samantha came to church! :) It was so good. She loved church. She made comments and asked questions and everyone introduced themselves to her. The relief society lesson was a talk from conference and she asked for a copy of it. We met with her afterward and talked about the word of wisdom. The big one! We knew she struggled with coffee and smoking...so we were just going to go for it. SHE LOVED IT! She said...wow that's going to be hard...but if God wants me to do it...you know I’ll do it. I can do it. I know He will help me. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER. The spirit was so strong and you could just feel her accepting everything. She said she knows this is the right path for her. She knows she needs to be doing all these things. She told us she wants to have a full hearted testimony and to give everything her full heart. So we talked about her baptism date and we got it all figured out. She is so excited and told us she NEEDS to meet with us more than she already is. She loved how loving everyone was at church and the boy that gave her a ride just treated her like a queen and she said she wasn't used to it...but she loved it. It was amazing.

Then after church Sister Hope and I were finding. We started talking to this lady and asked if she was interested and said well yes. I’ve been reading my Bible all day,  for some reason am really into this today. So she gave us her information and asked us to send representatives over. Then she said, you know what, you need to go meet my friend Anita...she lives just around the corner and she gave us the address. So we were like ...alright...let's go. :) So we walked to this place...a little bridal shop...and walk in and this little Asian lady pokes her head over the shelf and says pooh hoi and comes down. We tell her we just met her friend and she wraps us up in a big ole hug and tells us to come upstairs. So we go upstairs thinking...wow...this is huge...way to go Anita. So we go upstairs and there are 4 ladies just sitting there...they were having some kind of health presentation learning about some health products and they thought we were there for that. Ha. So we said oh we can't stay we just wanted to share this card with you...all the sudden this lady steps up and says..You’re on your mission!! You’re the Mormons! Hi hi hi and gives us a hug. And she said...ladies these girls are from Brett’s church!! We were like hush?!?! She said that Brett is their boss guy and he is a "real good Mormon" that she had been a several business trips with him and he taught her all about the church. She said every time they would go to a city they would walk up and down the streets looking for the elders to take them out to eat. She said she's fed so many missionaries and she's not even e member. She was so happy to see us. So excited. So she then said...ya know what sisters, I would be Mormon. And I said...well Sandi...what's holding you back?! And she said...well...to be honest....just my coffee. We looked at her and said. Oh please Sandi and she said I know, I know I just love my coffee. We talked about it for a few minutes and told her she needs to have the Elders over to her house in Alberta...she gave us Brett’s number and her number she got our number and she said. You know what, I’m giving up my coffee...I'm going to be baptized. I’ll call you this week. WHHHAAAATTT JUST HAPPENED!? It was amazing! Sister Hope and I just walked out of there with huge ole smiles on our faces. We felt so grateful and so humble. It was a roundabout way to get to Sandi...but we got to her. The Lord defiantly directs our paths!!!

Then...we had our mission fireside!!! Sue our little investigator came and so did Kamille. Kamille brought her brother!!! Which is a HUGE step. They loved it. He said he felt so welcomed and loved how everyone there wanted to be there and were participating because they wanted to participate. Kamille was glowing. She was so happy he enjoyed himself. It’s so true though...as members of the church...we are there because we want to be...we are there because we have a testimony. We do the things we do because we know they help us...we know they are blessings, we know it helps us get closer to our Heavenly Father! THIS CHURCH IS JUST SO TRUE! There is no doubt in my mind. I love it. I love the gospel with all my heart. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the power of prayer. I am so grateful this week and so humbled to be serving a mission. Life is good. Life is really good.

I hope you all had a great week. I hope you have a happy Canada day *July 1st* and Fourth of July!!! Love you all. Be good. Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

June 20th 2011

Can you believe it's already the end of June? Where is the time going?! It’s been crazy! We met with Samantha this week. We set a date with her and are working toward baptism with her in July!! She is excited about learning more about the gospel. She’s got so much potential and so far is willing to do anything. Last transfer we tracted into this little Chinese lady named Annie.  She couldn't understand a word we said but her daughter translated for us and she said they weren't interested. We asked them if they were interested in learning English...she said yes so we set it up for the elders to go over there...turns out...they taught her...and she got baptized on Saturday! She was so happy. It was so neat to see her get baptized and to see her so happy.  For that baptism Sister Hope accompanied an opera singer...Dustin Hines to sing at the baptism. Of course I was the page turner...you know how important that is :) it was great. He is so talented it was fun to work with him. 

As we were finding this week we met a man named Lawrence Witlock. He came right up to us and started talking to us. He said he learned from missionaries years ago in Selkirk. He said at the time I was not ready, things were crazy...but I’m ready now. I’m ready for them to come back. :) The elders went over this weekend and said he is fantastic. He’s on the right path now.

Sister Hope and I are going to be doing a piano duet in church in 2 weeks. I am so excited. We’ve been on the hunt for some good music.

Sister Hope and I are doing great. We’re finding a lot and have seen so many blessings already from our efforts together.

The weather is getting hot! It was 31 degrees c. this week!! and HUMID! super humid. It’ll be a fun summer for sure. :)

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

Sister Smith

I was just sitting here thinking...

It’s neat to see the Lord work through me as I share the gospel with others. There are times when I don't even know what I’m saying...I just talk. I know that the Lord is filling my mouth and using me for an instrument in His hands. It is such a miracle and I feel so blessed to be here. There are so many things each day that I see and I feel so blessed that I have the gospel in my life or I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family or good friends. There have been so many times when I’ve been able to just think about a question that someone has or about a principle of the gospel.

This church is so true. How could it not be? We are ALL God’s children. He loves us all. No matter what or where or who, there is a plan for us...and the center of the plan in our Savior, Jesus Christ. There IS a prophet on the earth today. God has always been the same and will be...so of course he would call another prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is called of God. I know that I have been called by a prophet of God to invite others to come unto Christ....to know for themselves the truthfulness of the gospel. How blessed are we?

I love you!!

middle of June

What a week, what a week! I love it. Well. We had transfers!!! Sister hope and I are now on perm exchange! :) We are so excited. We’re just having the time of our lives. We have some really neat goals set up for this transfer and are excited to get started.  It’s going to be great.

We have a fantastic new investigator! Her name is Samantha. She is just too excited about the Book of Mormon and the gospel. She said, if it felt right when the others came, they would be sitting in her living room, but it just feels right when we Mormons come over. That’s why we're there. She’s working on strengthening her faith and building her relationship with Heavenly Father.  We talked a lot about doing things to strengthen that faith, and sometimes God asks us to do things we may not understand, but we do it anyway. It will be a good preface to when we talk to her about the word of wisdom. She likes her smokes and coffee. But she calls us just to see how our day is and loves to just chat. We’re so excited.

Kamille came to a baptism this week and loved it. She was so excited to see her first baptism. Afterwards we talked with her. She had questions about the confirmation and about the temple. Then she said, "At my baptism can I talk and bare my testimony?" OH OF COURSE!

Then we met with her again on Saturday morning. We talked about tithing and it was her birthday so we did an object lesson and "showered her with blessings (candy)" for paying her tithing. Then she brought up talking with her family. We asked her what she thought she needed to do...she said she feels like she needs to talk with her family. Then we said, what you think God wants you to do, she said, talk with my family. We’re going to practice with her sometime this week so she feels ready. She said she felt so different when she didn't meet with us for a week and she knows she needs to meet with us more often and keep learning. She’s getting there for sure.

Yesterday was a very interesting day! We were downtown street contacting. We had a supper appointment at the bishop’s home at 5.  We were on our way back to our car and we saw this couple...so we just said hi and they said no no we're late we're on our way to pizza...and we said ok well...and they said no no no, no time. So we let them go. We got in our car to find that our tire was flat as a pancake. Two sisters in Shadeville with a flat tire. Ah. So we try and get the spare out but it's bent into the back of the car. So we call the elders...they didn't answer...we call some other elders who were doing interviews...so we go knock on this random door. This man comes out to help us. He is dripping in sweat tying to get the tire and jack out. He finally gets it out 30 minutes later but then couldn't figure out the jack.  He finally gives up and says to call C.A.A. so Sister Hope and I try and do it all on our own. Sister Hope is pushing and pulling to get the nuts off and all the sudden this big voice comes from behind and says alright girls, move aside...ITS THE MAN WHO WAS TOO BUSY BECAUSE HE HAD TO GO GET PIZZA!!! Ha. His name is Randy. He just got right down in there and fixed our tire while his little lady friend told us all about Furby Street and all their adventures. Right as he is done...the elders pull up. So we ask the elders to take our picture with Randy. Randy is this big burly man with lots of hair on his face, a hat on backwards, sweating like beast. And before I know it..Rrandy has the tire in one hand...and me wrapped up in a big bear hug in the other! I was like wooooo Randy!!! I went stiff as a board Sister Hope  dying of laughter and Elder Skinner snapped the picture. It was the most adventurous Sunday afternoon of our lives.

We called Sister Wood to tell her we're on our way. She said, well sisters this happened for a reason. An inactive member called bishop right after we did and said he wants to come back to church and asked what he could do to start. Bishop said well you need to come over for dinner. So bishop left to go pick him up. If we had been to their home on time, we would have already started and been done with supper. Little miracles even in flat tires! I love it.

I love the scripture "working mighty miracles, signs and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith." there are miracles and wonders in our lives daily...it's just up to us to have faith to see. "According to their faith." allow miracles to happen.

The church is true. I love the gospel with all my heart. It is who I am.

I love you all. Hope you had a great week!! Remember who you are. Live it. Love it.

Love you

Sister Smith

6 MONTHS?!

Hello again.

It has been so nice up here lately. This week it rained for a couple days, but it stayed pretty warm. It was SUPER hot yesterday...I guess super hot to me know is pretty nice there in Idaho! Ha. But for me here...it is hot! :) We had a good week.

First news first...I am staying in Winnipeg YSA!! :) :) I get another transfer here which I am SO excited about. Sister Hope is going to be my new companion.  Sister Reid will go to the Waverly Ward...just down the road...so we'll still see each other ALL time. So it's a win win situation. I am really excited! It should be great.

We had some great appointments this week. One with a girl named Jaz. Her friend is a member and she asked him straight up if she could just come to church. He said well sure...she came. LOVED it and asked him if she could meet with missionaries. OF COURSE. So we met with her. She had all sorts of questions and when we would ask a question and she didn't know...she would just say...well that's a great question...could you tell me?! We had a great talk about things. The other was with a girl named Sam. Sam’s brother joined the church in Montreal in February.  His fiancé recently died and so he came in to town for the funeral where Sam starting asking questions. Last Sunday, he said well let's just go to the church and find some missionaries. So they went to the church house...talked to the elders...the elders gave us her info...we met with her. She is fantastic. She had a lot of question and a big Christian background.  The only problem is she is in grade 11. :( So we will still teach her...but she won't be able to come to YSA ward.

3 of our very less actives made it to church yesterday!! We met with the 3 of them and hit church attendance pretty hard...and they all came :) it was SO great. 2 of them hadn't been for at least 6-7 months... (I had never seen them there since I have been here) and the other hasn't come for about 2 months. It was so great.

Kamille texted us this week and said "hello sisters. I’ve been thinking about you all day, and I need our appointments. I need to meet with you again." :) :) :) :) :) SOOOOOOOOO GREAT! We were so happy. So so many blessings!

We had so many turn over’s this week!! Hard work pays off. Always just have to have the faith that what you are doing is important and you will be blessed. I love missionary work.

I love the scripture in 1st Nephi 1 "If God had commanded me to do all things, I could do them.  If He should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth, and if He should say it, it would be done." I love this. Nephi had so much faith. so often I think there is no way we can do all that has been commanded of us, or that we can't do hard things, when in fact...God will always provide a way.  If He asks us to do it, it can be done. We just have to have the faith to do it.

I learned a lot about faith this transfer. I love it. I learned a lot about making the best out of each situation we are in. our attitude can change everything. Yes there are hard times, yes we can get frustrated...but if you have a good attitude...everything can be for our good and for our experience. I’ve learned to find joy in the journey I’ve learned how important to love ourselves and to serve others. I’ve learned the importance of prayer and of humility.  I am so grateful for this past transfer.

Hope you all had a great week!! Happy June!! Time is flying by!!!

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

Sister Smith

End of May

Hello! Hello! Hello!

Another week. :)

Sue and Sam met with us this week! Things were great. They both had a LOT of questions. Sam has been reading from the Book of Mormon and had lots of questions and was excited to keep reading it. Sam was supposed to come to church yesterday, but her aunt came into town and they all left the city for the weekend. So it didn’t happen. BUT Sue is planning on coming this Sunday. We’ll hope for it.

Kamille didn't end up coming to church or the fireside yesterday :( it was pretty sad. She said she needed to stay home with her mom...and that she hopes we understand. We’ll just keep inviting and doing our best :)

We had exchanges this week!! I went to the Pembina area again with Sister Hope. We had a pretty busy day! We had an appointment with a part member family, the Merasty!! Sister Merasty fed us supper then we planned on teaching a lesson. As we started one of their sons came up to us and asked us what we were doing, we told him we were just reading out of the scriptures and talking about faith. He asked if he could join us. OF COURSE :) He sat down and read versus with us and said comments and everything. When we left the invitation I looked at him and said, well junior, are you going to do it? And he said well yeah, I’m just going to need one of these books, as he pointed to the Book of Mormon!! His mom’s eyes were huge and just sparkling!! He came out to the car and we gave him a copy and we told him all about the stories and about the wars! He was so excited. He said, so what do you want me to read a chapter a night? We said well that would be great, he said, ok, I’ll start tonight. As he walked away he was flipping through and reading little versus. He had the biggest smile on his face. It was amazing!!

We also met with Barbara Lopez again this week!! Usually her sister has wanted nothing to do with us, but as we were talking, her sister came in and sat down and asked what we were talking about, we told her we were talking about the blessings we receive from going to church...she asked if she could write some down and join us..OF COURSE :) so she did. She wrote a couple things down and talked with us for a while. Then her mom came in and wrote down some things we get from church and talked with us for a bit! It was a  BIG hour!! Made us so happy.  Little miracles all over the place. So much progress.

Rumor has it there was a tornado here in Manitoba this week. It didn't hit us at all, we just heard about it at church on Sunday. craaaaaaaaaaazyyyyy.

We were so blessed this week! So many little things happened that just proved to us that the Lords hand is in this work. We are being so blessed and are so watched over.

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!

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