A week of firsts :)

4/15/2013

This week was pretty spectacular! First of all, I learned how to play Phase 10. Sheesh, where I have been this entire time it's been out? Hiding under a rock? :) Family- you should invest in it and we shall commence in playing it when I return, okay? Okay.  We have an Elder from Bolivia serving in the West Zone, Elder Pozo. He is hilarious! And we had a zone meeting last week and he made us Bolivian food.  It was pretty great - so that was another first - Bolivian food.

We had interviews with President and car inspections.  We got 100% on our car inspection and we have to get an oil change and our tires rotated.  Thus, we have to go to the North East side of Calgary. We are having a member print off directions, but I have a feeling that we will have a great adventure ahead of us this week. hahaha. Pray that we won't get too lost. :) Another exciting thing for this week: President gave us permission to continue to teach Barb!!!!! yeah!!!! She was thrilled to hear this news!!!! Ah! I just cannot get over how excited I am!!!!! We had lunch with her this week and we will be back to our regular Wednesday evening appointments.

Other firsts that happened this week: first time going to Costco (we only have Sam's Club in Logan), I tried poutine for the first time (the most authentic Canadian food you can get) ;) and...wait for it...we went to the temple! No, this isn't a first for me, it was for Sister Fenn (the Calgary temple) but we both went through a SPANISH session. hahaha. We were going to the dressing room when someone asked if we would need a headset for the Spanish session.  Of course, of course I would manage to choose the ONLY Spanish session they have a month to attend. But it was really really neat- it sure makes you pay lots of attention to what was going on.  Good times, good times.  Sister Fenn survived her first winter snow storm.  It may have been a blizzard. And she shoveled snow for the first time. :)

Due to spring break we moved our 5th Sunday combined lesson to this week.  It was really neat.  Bishop Evans, did a wonderful job presenting the temple open house follow up.  He also shared a really neat story with the members.  Last week we had dinner with his family and we shared a message and asked them how they are "Catching the Wave?" Everyone told us what they are doing to share the gospel, which was fantastic.  We then left two commitments with them: one - to have the family pray for our investigators this week and two- we asked Bishop if he would call/text/send an email to two of our investigators this week to help them continue to have a spiritual experience during the week.  Bishop Evans then shared how he heard back from one of our investigators and thanked him for sending a message.:)  Bishop assured the members that we will not be pressuring them into doing missionary work and we will probably be asking them to pray for those we are working with.  We felt that this will really help move the work forward! It was a really neat experience. yeah!

I cannot remember if I had told you about Thandi or not.  Thandi, oh my, is hilarious and amazing.  She joined the church two years ago and she went a little less active, but now she is back.  She is attending a family instead of a YSA ward for now because she is trying to help her younger sister feel comfortable coming to church. Random fact- she's from Botswana, yeah it makes the coolness go up a notch. :) I had one more bag full of spices for Pumpkin Cookies. Mom, they are famous up here in Canada. You should patton the recipe :) People go gaga for them.  Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Any who, we went over to Thandi's and made them and watched some golden oldie films on lds.org such as "The Phone Call" and "Johnny Lingo".  Good times, good times.  Thandi makes me laugh so hard every time we go over, to the point of tears. She's just so great :)

We were unable to get in with our investigators this week, besides Barb, but good things are going to come.  Especially if we get members on board to pray for our investigators.

Hope you all have a fantastic week.  Spring will come....so they say...

-Sister Douglass

And it's back

4/8/2013

It's snowing outside. Welcome to Calgary. I thinking Sister Fenn is having a harder time with it than I am.  People don't seem believe me when I tell them Cache Valley has very similar weather.  We're use to it being funky, especially during the spring.

If this letter seems a little scatter brained I apologize, I woke up with a headache and it has not gone away so I'm having a hard time concentrating. Don't worry, nothing too serious, just enough to make it a little more difficult to think.

We have been seeing small miracles this week.  At our dinner appointments with members we have been asking them to pray for our investigators.  We were able to get a hold of two of our investigators that we have not been able to get a hold of for about three weeks.  We had an appointment with Sharon, but she had to reschedule for this week.  We asked the RS President to invited her over to dinner when she is feeding us this week.  We are really trying to get the Ward Council involved more with our investigators and really trying to work on having members at all of our lessons or members invited investigators to have lessons at the members home.  We saw the Bates and they are really close to dropping us. :( Sister Bates told us they are just so busy with life and lots of things are happening right now, so church is not at the time of their priority list.  We talked to her about General Conference and asked her to watch/listen to it and we promised that she would receive guidance for what she needs to do in her life.  We are hoping that we will be able to get back in this week to talk about it.  Our ward mission leader came with us to some appointments that we had set up.  He is so great at helping people feel comfortable and just reminded them that we are here for them, no matter what, and that we hope they always feel welcomed at church.

We also got in with a less active who wants to come back to church.  I cannot remember if I told you about Brittney or not, but the Spanish Elders tracted into her back in December and we have been trying to get a hold of her since.  She told the Elders that she wants to come back to church, but is scared to do so.  We had a good conversation with her and she just let everything out.  Another miracle for the week- she scheduled a return appointment with us! It's really tricky to tell people to come back to church when they do not know anyone in the ward, so we are taking the RS President with us and hopefully we can work through some of the concerns that she has about coming to church.

Now onto the big news...General Conference!!! Okay - Cedar City is getting a Temple!!! I am super surprised by that announcement.  Sister Fenn and I have been talking about what "themes" we picked up from this Conference.  The two that I got were: true discipleship and obedience. So good. I just love Conference. It's the BEST!!! I have to admit I was having a hard time with the realization that this is my last Conference on the mission.  Some of the Elders like to remind me of that fact. I was a little emotional during parts of Conference, but over all I was just filled with a sense of peace.  I just have to trust in the Lord that all will be okay and that His ways are not my ways, but He will lead and guide me. And I just have to say: I love when General Authorities talk about musicals. :) Oklahoma and Les Mis!!!! Yeah! Sister Fenn also is a huge Les Mis fan, which is great.  Most of my other companions is not super familiar with it.

Any who, we have interviews this week and hopefully Sister Fenn and I will be able to go to the Temple! Hope all goes well for you and it is not snowing in Utah. ;) Lots of love!

-Sister Douglass

Spring, spring, spring...almost

Calgary has been experience a rather warm spring, which is fantastic! I think it might be a little bit cooler this week, some storms coming in, but I think it's rain instead of snow.This week was rather difficult to get a hold of people: Easter weekend and Spring Break for most schools, but we still pressed on in the work of the Lord.  We got in with some less actives this week.  We helped one do some house work and she fed us lunch.  Another one told us about how she knows that she needs to come to church.  She even had a dream about it. :) We followed up with her that evening to make sure she had talked to her mother about driving her and her sister to church.  And she did!!!! Ah! It was so great to have the two of them at church! She shared her testimony in Relief Society about how she joined the church two years ago and she loved the feeling of peace and joy in her life.  She said that despite being ridiculed by family and friends she knew joining the church was the right thing to do.  She has been less active for about two months and she said that it crushed her, because she never ever thought that she would be one to go less active.  We are hoping to get her as a ward missionary and to keep her involved with the ward.

We had a dinner with a part member family, which was great.  It kind of was a last minute arrangement, but they love to help out any way that they can.  The husband isn't really interested in taking the lessons right now, but he is open and willing to listen to spiritual messages that we leave.  We attempted to introduce them to family history and we are hoping that a member who has more knowledge and experience can come with us next time to help us help them with their family history.  We will let the Spirit of Elijah work on them for a little bit :) But the wife shared a cool experience that her husband had.  I guess some Elders approached him (this was probably 5ish years ago) and gave him a Book of Mormon with their testimonies written in it.  He has kept the Book of Mormon and really treasures it.  I have a feeling he will join some day, but now may not be the time for us to invite him.

We have been trying to think out of the box for finding activities and our brilliant idea for the week was: put pass along cards with the QR scan on them in Easter eggs and place them along walking paths and benches at bus stops. :) It was pretty fun! We may not see immediate results from it, but we prayed that the people who find them will go to mormon.org and feel prompted to learn more.  Since the weather has been nicer we have been trying to do more street contacting - taking walks.  We got into a heated discussion with a Seventh-Day Adventist.  It was intense.  She was nice, but she kept going off about how we should not teach from the Mormon book and we only should teach from the Bible.  She was offended that my Bible was tucked away in my backpack and I had a Book of Mormon in my hand.  Then she went off about how we do not worship the Sabbath correctly.  I think we ended on good terms.  I just get frustrated when people tell me that I am on a mission because I have been "indoctrinated" and that I am "forced" to go and that I need to pray about the "truth" and find the "correct" path.  Yeah people, that is the whole reason I am on a mission.  Because I have prayed and I do have a testimony about the whole truth. :)

We did have a miracle this week, okay we have miracles every day, so this is our big one for this week.  A member of the Temple Presidency called.  Let me tell you, it's a little intense when you are having your personal study and your phone rings and "Calgary Temple" shows up on the caller id. :) President Stonehocker told us a man walked into the temple wanting to know what church it was. :) President Stonehocker had a good twenty-minute talk with him, gave him some pamphlets.  The man, Frank, really wanted to join us for Sunday services. We called him twice, but he didn't answer the phone. We have the community where he lives...but that's about it.  Pray that we will get in touch with him this week! We need to remind him of what he felt when he went into the temple.

We didn't have much success getting in with less actives with weekend and sharing an Easter message, but we did finally get a hold of Sharon and scheduled an appointment with her.

Easter was great. I didn't realize it was testimony meeting (due to conference) but there were some powerful testimonies born.  Especially a 17 year old girl who lost her father last year and this is their first Easter without him.

Good things are going to happen this week! Hope you have a fantastic week!!!!!

Love!

-Sister Douglass

Ward hopping and fast offerings‏

3/18/2013

 

This week has been a little crazy.  Let me start off with the most important details: My new companion is Sister Fenn from the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas (needless to say she is freezing).  She is the third oldest out of eight siblings.  She was going to BYU-I studying International Studies.  She was there when President Monson made the announcement of the mission age being lowered so she sent in her papers and boom she is here.  Yes, she is 19. :)

I will try to explain how crazy this week has been.  It all began when we went to the fireside with the new missionaries.  At the fireside the new missionary gets a paper and it says where they will be serving and who their companion will be. Sister Fenn read out that we were going to be in 17th ward. I had a slight heart attack at that point.  It is because the Zone Leaders had told us about a week before that we were only going to be over one ward, Arbour Lake ward and the Elders in Bow Valley Ward would take over 17th ward. Sister Little and I had been prepping 17th ward so it would be a smooth transition...and then this happened. I asked President about it ...twice and he said that the Elders in Bow Valley were covering Arbour Lake ward and we were to be in 17th ward. Well, my stress level just sky rocketed and all of the appointments we had set up for the next day went out the window. Calling everyone (ward mission leader, investigators, less actives you had been working with, ect) that night= not fun and tears were involved. We tried to not let this hiccup affect us too badly, we set up appointments and tried to press forward. Things were going fine. I just accepted that we needed to be in 17th Ward and that is where the Lord needed us to be. 

Barb was thrilled! We had a great lesson with her and she even mentioned baptism to us.  She still is struggling with the trinity, but she will accept the truth as she continues to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  I have a feeling that she will be baptized.

Life is peachy, we are getting appointments set up...then...Saturday afternoon we got a phone call from the Zone Leaders.  They inform us that the Elders in Bow Valley will now be in charge of 17th ward and we are officially over Arbour Lake Wards. Gong show.  I asked when this was effective - immediately.  We showed up to Arbour Lake ward on Sunday and the ward council had been informed that they were getting Elders...surprise! I'm sure 17th ward was also in for a little bit of a shock when Elders showed up instead of us. It's been a slight headache, but I know there is a reason for this. Sister Fenn and I have been having fun trying to come up with every possible scenario of what President could do for next transfer. :) We technically are living with members from 17th ward right now, so my guess is 17th ward will get their own set of missionaries and we will have to find a place to live in Arbour Lake Ward and we will be placed in the three leg. haha it's been great.

There is a great blessing with paying fast offerings as a missionary.  You get food coming out of your ears.  I've been bad and I haven't paid fast offerings for a while. Mostly because I never had cash with me and we would forget to go to the bank. We had our mission debit card recently change so I had to pull all of the money from my old card and thus I have cash to pay for fast offerings...and the food keeps coming.  Keep the commandments, you will be blessed. :)

I think that was most of the highlights for the week.  It's been a little cold (in the 20s) but not bad.  Hopefuly it will be warming up soon, but people had said to keep expecting snow. yeah!

Love you lots!

-Siste Douglass