Winter Wonderland!

Well, so much for spring.  It has been snowing the past three days.  Nothing major, but it's been around 20-30.  Brrr... I am praying very hard that it will not snow this weekend because Brother Cranmer needs to listen to all of Conference.  If it snows he will have to go out and shovel/plow roads. I will talk about that later.

THANK YOU FOR THE LETTERS!!!!

Our District Leader, Elder Stephan was making fun of me because I got EIGHT letters on Friday!!! He said that's more mail he has received since he has been on his mission.  When he called to check up on us that night he wanted to know who they were from.  I told him half of them were from dad. Haha! Ah! It was so nice to hear from people. Thank you thank you!!

This week has been pretty good.  Defiantly some ups and downs. Miracle for Sister Douglass.  I wanted to get a purse/satchel for myself because the backpack was a wee bit too bulky.  It was on sale for $20.  I went to the register and asked if I could pay in American money. She had to call up the manager and they were trying to figure it out.  Finally they just scanned the bag and it was only $5!!! I had $5 in Canadian money! Yeah! The Lord looks out for His missionaries, even with simple things. :)

Thursday was a specialized training meeting up in Calgary.  It was focused on how the  Book of Mormon is the essential tool for conversion.  Sister Nielson and I want to use this as a door approach "We have a gift for you, it's from God.  If you read it all of your questions will be answered and you will find true happiness. Take it and read it." Yeah...we will see if that happens. President Archibald told us that we need to do what Elder Holland says to do when we find out that people have not been reading the Book of Mormon - we need to be devastated.  We are to casual about it.  He says we need to be like Captain Moroni with the sword of Laban...yeah...that was a funny image in my mind, but I know what he was saying.  We then listened to a talk that Elder Bednar gave to the mission presidents before they came out.  He said that there are three reasons it is the greatest tool we have. 1- It is a key of our witness of the Savior - Clarity and teaches doctrines of Christ 2 - It is relevant to our day 3 - It is tangible evidence - reality that cannot be ignored. Ah! So much good stuff and too little time to talk about it.  I LOVE Elder Bednar, he's so amazing.

Friday we were suppose to do service at Sister Fancourt's again, but she was too tired.  So we watched another Conference talk, "The Songs I cannot sing" By Elder Cook.  While we were talking Sister Fancourt mentioned how she is a convert.  Sister Nielson then asked her how she came in contact with the church and her conversion story.  We are excited to go back and talk to her some more.  We told her that it is Conference this weekend and she seemed really excited about it.  We feel that she is so close to coming back to church.  We're going to try and find someone to help fellowship her.

That evening we got a call from a member that we had given the 7 Day Challenge to (We ask them to find someone in the next 7 days for us to teach in their home).  He was wondering if we have 2 Books of Mormon that he could give out. YEAH!!! I love when members to their missionary work! I'm excited to follow up with him and see how it goes.

Saturday was crazy, but good.  We found out that there was a less active/part member family moving into one of our wards.  Sister Nielson and I helped unpack the kitchen and talked to the mother.  She is interested in having us over and wants to hear the missionary discussions! yeah!  We stopped by Karl's to see if he was coming to church.  He said that he wanted to, but he has to find a place to move into asap.  He has to be moved out by Saturday.  We asked about his reading and he has been reading from the Book of Mormon EVERY NIGHT! I was so happy I could have fallen over!! Not only that, but he is sharing what he is reading with co-workers and applying what he is learning to their lives! What? Ah!!! I am so happy for him, but I'm a little heart broken that he is moving out of our area.  We will be threatening the Elders that get him...or Sisters. :) A little while later he sent a text that said (We had made him some cookies) "And I texteth unto thee: these are the most awesometh cookies ever." It was probably the best text I have gotten since I've been out ;)

Sunday was great.  The mission leader in the DeWinton ward said that he feels that we are on the verge of a ton of miracles happening.  I can feel it too.  We have a lot of members who have a non-member friend, co-worker or neighbor and they have felt that they should talk to them. We are so close to having some new investigators!

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I know that as we feast upon the word we will find answers to our questions.  Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants us to be happy!!

I want to hear from everyone what they learned from conference/favorite speaker/talk!!!
LOVE YOU!!!!
-Sister Josie Douglass

For all you Josie fans/friends...

Josie really misses her friends.  If you read this blog, please leave a comment and I will let her know who's checking in on her.  I think it would really give her a boost to know that people still care.  Of course, the address is to the right if you want to drop her a snail mail.  We got a letter from the mission president the other day, and it really did take 10 days to get to us.  I had heard that Canadian mail was slow, but...really? 
Thanks for your time and comments in advance. 
~Ruby (aka Mom)

Spring...maybe and Schnooks!

Well last week went by rather quickly.  We were planning Thursday night and I kept saying, "tomorrow is FRIDAY?" Crazy!!

Really neat experience. Tuesday night all of our drop byes were not home or they looked like they had already gone to bed.  It was about 8:10 so it was too early to head back to our place.  Both Sister Nielson and I had this very strong impression that we needed to talk to someone.  We knocked on one house and the man actually let us talk.  We got in the car and the feeling was still there.  We prayed and on the way home we saw a lady walking.  She stood out to us because she was the first person we had seen out walking without a dog (Canadians love their dogs. I about 85% of the people we visit have dogs). We parked the car up the street and began to walk towards the lady.  We started to talk and walk with her and she said "can I please be excused from this tonight? I really need to get home to my kids." Thankfully she took our pass along card and a booklet on the restoration and gave us her name and address.  We were told that we could stop by on Saturday.  Sister Nielson and I anxiously waited for Saturday to come.  When it did finally roll by she wasn't home, but her husband was.  We can't teach in a home with a male, we have to have another female adult with us.  He told us that his wife is home Saturday mornings...so hopefully we can get a hold of her this Saturday.  I know Heavenly Father put her in our path for some reason.

In my personal study I have grown to love Nephi.  I'm sure I'm not suppose to say this, but he's a stud. I decided he is the definition of diligence.  Whenever his family is going through a trial he NEVER complains.  He takes that opportunity to teach his family and he doesn't complain.  I love 1 Nephi 18:16 - Nephi has been bound to a mast for four days, through a storm, hasn't been fed, probably hasn't slept very well and is in great pain.  Once he is released the first thing he does is praise and thank God all day long.  He has a perfect hope in the Lord. He KNOWS that when the Lord promises that He will bless us. He WILL bless us.
 

Tender mercy for the week - The Christensen and Sister Halowski's dog.  So the Christensen family has an adorable dog! It's a Maltese/Yorkie mix. She is so cute!!!! She would lay her head on the couch and look up at me and her ears would just be perked up. Ah!! So cute! Saturday we visited Sister Halowski who has a Shi Tzu/Maltese mix. She's a cutie too! She loved that I would pet her - Sister Nielson is not a dog fan.

So, Friday night we got a call..around 10:20 from Elder Stephan asking if we could speak at a baptism on Saturday.  It was a last minute thing.  He asked us to do a 10 minute 1st - meaning give the 1st lesson from Preach My Gospel in 10 minutes.  I was freaking out, especially when he added that President Archibald was planning on being there.  Thankfully Sister Nielson reassured me it would be okay and that she would be right there to help me.  (We do it together). I was nervous, but not as nervous as I usually get about speaking in front of others.  I was just praying that people would be able to feel the spirit and that we would teach with clarity.  President and Sister Archibald did come and there was an investigator there.  Once it was over President Archibald came up to me and said "Sister Douglass, you presented that like you were a missionary that has been out for 18 months, not 10 days." Eeek! He asked how our 10 minute 2nd and 3rd were - we haven't worked on that at all. :) Sister Nielson is convinced that he's going to ask us to do our 10 minute 2nd at Zone Conference. Ah!

I love you all and I'm so excited for Conference! It always seems to come right when I need it.  Hopefully it won't make me too homesick! The church is true and God LOVES US!
-Sister Douglass

Happy Are We!

President has a 15 minute rule which means we need to have something scheduled for
every 15 minutes. If they fall through we go tracting.  Guess who got to go tracting after being in her first area for maybe 4 hours? Me. I wasn't expecting everyone to let us in and say "I want to get baptized", but I was amazed how many people wouldn't even let us get two words in.  They would see us and says "I'm not interested."  Sister Nielson told me that in the Okatoks area people are very comfortable with where they are at and they don't see a need for change.  (Okotoks is just barely south of Calgary).

I love personal study time, it's usually what gives me my boost for the day.  My second day out I was reading in 1 Nephi 3 & 4 and it struck me how many times Nephi says 'let us be faithful and keep the commandments of God'. He knew the Lord has promised that Laban would be delivered into their hands and Nephi kept the faith.  I likened it unto myself by saying 'Sister Douglass, you have only been in the mission field for one day. The Lord has commanded you to serve a mission and He will provide a way for you to be able to accomplish all that He has planned for you.'

Sister Nielson shared a part of a talk with me.  It's by Elder Holland, I think it's called The Atonement and Missionary work.  He talks about how Christ's ministry wasn't easy.  There was nothing easy about the atonement - so why should we think that our mission will be easy?

 
A miracle we saw was visiting a less active member, Sister Fancourt. We watched 'We matter to Him' by President Uchtdorf from last conference.  It was amazing to see her whole countenance change as we watched the talk.  She has been through a lot of rough times in her life.  She doesn't understand why God lets people suffer.  She scheduled for us to stop by and do service next week. Sister Nielson was so excited because Sister Fancourt usually doesn't schedule for the
missionaries to come back.  They have to call or stop by to set up an appointment.

I love Sundays. They are so rejuvenating and a little more relaxed than the rest of the week. A returned missionary spoke in one of the wards.  His talk was focused on the Good Shepherd. He told one of his favorite stories.  A man traveling in Morocco saw that an accident had happened.  They pulled off to see what had happened.  A car had stuck a lamb belonging to a local shepherd.  The man saw the shepherd gently pick up the injured lamb and tenderly stroke it and kept saying something over and over again.  The driver explained that the shepherd
was calling the lamb by name, for he knows all of their names.  The missionary said that we are all sheep and we all get hit by cars, different sizes and speeds, at all times during our lives.  The Good Shepherd is always there to pick us up and to help us.  Love it! 

The Canada Calgary mission has been given the challenge to baptize a new stake before the temple opens - so about 2600 people.  We are at about 900 people.  President Archibald spoke to the mission leaders and promised them that if every stake will baptize at least one member per month until the temple opens.  Woot! Let's get to work!

- Sister Douglass

O Canada!!

Well...here I am...in Canada...weird. 

Yesterday was super crazy.  I got up at 1:30 am to get ready to leave at 2:45 to get on the bus taking us to the airport.  We got there, go our bags checked in and went through security and made it on the plane with about five minutes to spare.  The plane ride was good until the right before we landed.  I think we hit some turbulence and I almost lost some crackers.  I was praying so hard that I would be okay until we got off of the plane.  Heavenly Father loves His missionaries because I was able to keep everything down.  We landed in Denver and got some breakfast. 

Our flight to Calgary was about 50 minutes late.  I tried writing a letter on the plane, but I ended up falling a sleep for most of it.  When I was looking out the window before we landed I thought "Oh my, I am not in the United States any more - that is Canadian soil I am looking at."  Yeah...there's a lot of snow up here.  Nothing drastic, but the last day at the MTC was soooo nice, like in the 60s or something.  And now it is 20. :) It's all good. 

The man I talked to at Customs kind of scared me.  He said that I would only be allowed to stay in Canada for 6 months.  I was super confused.  We then went through immigration and I was given a temporary...residency...something like that. I was really worried about one of the Elders I was traveling with.  Elder Orozoc is from Mexico and he didn't have his mission call with him and I had been given a packet that had letters from the church that we were suppose to give to immigration...I didn't have one for him.  Thankfully he was the last of our group to go and the lady only asked to see his passport.  Again, the Lord looks out for his missionaries. 

We met President and Sister Archibald and headed off to their house.  We had lunch and were told some of the rules and what goes on.  We were all so tired.  Then we had dinner and went to the new arrival program at a church.  There we met our trainers and got assigned to our first area.  I am in the Foothill Zone which is in North Calgary.  My trainer or "mother" is Sister Nielson.  They have a new program where I will be with my trainer for 12 weeks (two transfers).  She has been out for 5 months and will be one of the "oldest" sisters out here after our next transfer.  She told me that after the next transfer all of the sister will be under 9 months.  Crazy!

I was kind of overwhelmed yesterday with everything.  I was finally getting the hang of the MTC and now I have no idea what is going on.

Oh - Sister Archibald said that it is easiest just to send letters to the mission homes rather than giving out my current address. The zone leaders will pick up the mail and since I am in Calgary still I should get letters fairly frequently.

The Lord loves us! I know He knows this is hard and scary for me, but if I serve Him with all my heart, might, mind and strength He will bless me.  I know He will be there every step of the way for me.  I am excited to go out and serve with Sister Nielson.

 -Sister Douglass

March Fourth and Be Amazing Missionaries!!

That's what the MTC President's wife, Sister Patricia Brown told us yesterday.

 

I wanted to share some of the cool experience I had this week at the MTC.  I cannot believe I am leaving tomorrow- CRAZY!

 

Last Tuesday guess who came and spoke for devotional? Any guesses? Well, if you guessed Elder Jeffrey R. Holland you are correct!!! It was AMAZING!!!! He is already one of my favorite speakers and he was at the MTC talking to us.  He lovingly chastised us.  Okay it wasn't really chastening, but he said that we cannot let what we do fail after 18 months or two years.  We must have the gospel penetrate our souls.  If we want our investigators to endure to the end - why in the world would we slack off once we get home.  I guess there is an alarming rate of missionaries who go inactive once they get home. What? Really? My district talked about how we are amazed that people do that.  One of my favorite things that he said is "You are God's investigators.  If you want your investigators to read the Book of Mormon, God wants you to read the Book of Mormon.  If you want your investigators to pray more earnestly, God wants you to pray more earnestly." He told us several times how much he loves us and not to let the tradition of missionary work die.  Yes, Elder Holland! I am so pumped!

 

Another unbelievable experience was our fireside last night.  Guess who the speaker was? ALEX BOYE!! Ah, it was so fantastic! He sang for us twice, which was pretty sweet.  He shared part of his conversion story with us.  Oh my, he is so funny.  He talked about how in London they liked to scrap.  He said, who knows what scrapping is? I'm not talking about scrapbooking. hahaha, scrap = fight.  He has a co-worker that would stop him from fighting and Alex asked him, "What does it matter if I get into a fight? If I get two black eyes you can't tell." I was dying of laughter. It was so great.  Then he told us about how two sister missionaries came over and Alex gave them a hard time because he invited a bunch of his friends over to see the two American girls.  He invited them to come back, but he was only giving them an hour to give a lesson then he would send them on their way.  An hour came and went and he finally gave a hint for them to leave.  As they were leaving one of the sisters stopped in the doorway and began to pray.  Once she was done she turned back around with tears in her eyes. Alex apologized for being so rude and she explained that they were tears of joy.  She has been out for two months and they had not been able to teach anybody.  Alex was the first one to let them in.  She then bore her testimony about the Savior and Him being resurrected.  

 

Alex stopped her and asked about living after you die.  He had has consistent nightmares earlier about death and he was terrified of it.  They taught him about the plan of salvation and he was baptized three weeks later. Boo-ya!! He then got choked up talking about these sisters.  He said that when we go out that people will talk about us all the time.  We will be one of the most important people in their lives.  He then talked about in Joseph Smith History is says something about how they draw near with their lips but their hearts are from me and they deny the power. I think he said Elder Packer told the missionaries that when we remember who we are and what our calling is that we can call upon the powers of Heaven.  When we have negative thoughts and have doubt and are discouraged and are saying "I can't do it" - we are being selfish and WE are denying the powers of heaven.  I thought that was super neat.  I love how animated and passionate he is.  It really was something that I needed and now I am even more pumped and ready to go!

 

I love you all!!! I'm a little nervous for the airport and immigration, but I know the Lord is looking after me! God lives and He loves us so much!!!

-Sister Douglass

 

MTC district

Sister Douglass, Sister Mazzolini, Sister Condie