January 6, 2014

Happy New Year!

2014 is here and it’s so exciting!! This year will be a year that I will be a full time missionary the entire year. The Bishop invited us over for New Years dinner and we had a good time celebrating with his family the New Year. This week has been CRAZY cold it has been -30 and -47 on Tuesday. When you go outside your nose holes just freeze shut it’s an interesting feeling! Since were not aloud to street contact in colder then -25 we have a good time doing bus contact. This week has started to really pick up with everyone coming back from the holidays the students might not be happy that school is starting back up, but all the missionaries are very excited! We got transfer calls this Saturday and the news is, I am staying in Ottawa and....... my new Companion is Sister Olsen. I don’t know a lot about her other then she is really cool and she is almost done with her mission, so it looks like I will be killing her off the mission as well. This week has been sad knowing that it’s the last with my trainer Sister Houde, but I know that she has prepared me so well. Our Last District meeting this week we all wore black in honor of Sister Houde’s funeral for some reason she didn’t think it was as funny as we all did! This Sunday was so special for her it was Fast and Testimony meeting and one of her recent converts was passing the sacrament for the first time, one bore an amazing testimony about how thankful she was for sister Houde changing her life, and the other had a meeting with the bishop to start his mission papers. Sister Houde has really changed this ward with her sweet spirit. Yesterday was a day that I will never forget as I have mentioned in e-mails previous we taught a girl named Taylor who is an amazing person, but unfortunately her parents did not agree with her decision in wanting to join the church they came to Ottawa and moved her home two providences over. Sister Houde and I were devastated the whole ward loved her sweet spirit and could she what a great person she was. We stayed in contact with her over the holidays, but the phone calls with her were never good. She said her parents told her she could join the church or have a family. Yesterday after finishing our second fast of the week for her we got a text from her say "I have really good News! I'm on the train right now going back to Ottawa. Decided to be independent form my parents. So I’m Staying =)" When I read the text I started to cry and I couldn’t believe that after so many prayers and fasting that Heavenly Father had answered my prayers!!! We called her and she said that her family had taken her Book of Mormon and cut it to pieces and threw it away in front of her. We comforted her telling her that we are with her all the way and that heavenly father is going to help her so much. She also asked us if She could still be baptized soon. I’m so thankful for all of your prayers for her I know it helped her to make this decision and I know they will still continue to help her as she keeps going with this journey. I’m so thankful to be a missionary and to be witnessing these miracles. I Love you all so much and hope you have the greatest week!!

-Sister Dick