Tuesday, May 27, 2014

 Spring Blossoms
Down town Ottawa
Member getting ready to leave on her mission

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

We do not have this holiday here, we had a holiday they call Victoria Day last Monday, but I hope that you enjoy it! This week was a great week and a very busy one! Since I have been here people always told me how slow it was in the summer time because all the students go home so it is really hard to find people teach. Never did I think clear back in October that I would actually still be here in the summer to experience that, but as we all know God has a great sense of humor and I am still here in the summer seeing what the people meant by slow. It has been harder to find people to teach lately and so Sister Verdin and I set a goal to just talk to everyone young and old and teach them. We started this goal with a fast last Sunday and I can testify that fasting and talking with everyone works wonders. This week we were able to find 5 new investigators. With two of them already having been taught by missionaries when they were younger. We have also been able to give a Book of Mormon out everyday this past week. These people are older and we will have to pass them off to missionaries, who are with family wards, but we still feel very accomplished with our missionary work and that is what counts. Our District leader told us something that I really enjoyed he said, "The lord knows you are doing good work and teaching his children. He will bless you with younger people to teach if you just keep finding his children that have been prepared to teach."
  I tried to be more Canadian this week so I made a shepherds pie and what do you know it was editable and it didn't kill anyone who ate it! I guess its not to late for me to try to learn how to cook! This week we were able to help a former investigator clean here house. She had told us a couple months ago she didn't want to be taught anymore because she liked her church more. Well she called us because her church or her family wouldn't help her move out. It was cool to be able to do a service like that because she was so surprised that we were willing to still help her.
  This past Sunday was super busy because most of our YSA ward went to Palmira New York to a conference there and they new the missionaries couldn't go anywhere so they assigned some of us to give sacrament talks and teach classes. I was able to give a talk in sacrament on Alma 41 it was so cool to be able to really research and dig deep into this chapter. It made me realize that we cant just sleep until the resurrection comes because the people we are in mortality will be the people we will get restored to when we are resurrected. My favorite scripture from the chapter is

 10: Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

One of my favorite members is leaving on her mission to Vancouver Canada this week and we helped her set up a farewell get together after church. She has helped me realize what kind of member missionary I want to be when I get home and I am excited for her to join the team as a missionary in Canada.

I love you all tons

-Sister Dick

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

 Too much to eat, we can't move!!
 Ottawa Tulip Festival


Tulip Festival

Hello!!

I hope everyone had a great week this week. May is just flying by as we are in the last full week of it. I got to experience the true meaning of April showers bring May flowers. In Ottawa this past week it has been a tradition to have a Tulip Festival. It started a long time ago with the Netherlands giving Canada flowers. The sisters in the apartment were able to go this past Monday and it was so cool! There are just rows and rows of tulip beds that are just full of different colors of tulips. As we gathered for district study this past Wednesday we conversed over how pretty they were. The Adams the senior couple in the District told us how they had no one to take their picture so they would ask people to take them and it would bring a great conversation with them. The Adams challenged all 10 missionaries that some time this week we should do it to contact.

CHALLENGE
* Go with companion and have different people take your picture.
* Take other peoples pictures.
* Ask lots of people questions about the festival and Ottawa.
Winner- gets a free Beaver Tail (pastry) from the Adams and of course bragging rights.  

 The Elders were very excited for the challenge and started as soon as the meeting was over. We had a hard time finding time to do it, but on Saturday I was on splits with Sister Wright and all of our appointments fell through so we were able to go! On the bus over there we ran into a women and two children who are Mormon from Washington they were also headed to the Tulip Festival. We helped them get there and when we arrived she took our picture and sent it to our moms. We ran into many members there and were able to take lots of pictures for other people and have people take pictures for us. This indeed brought up some great conversations about the church and we were able to hand out cards and receive contact information. I made a best friend with this Chinese girl who I took a picture for, I told her I could say a sentence in Chinese and when I said it she was so amazed and I told her you just wait until you meet my missionary friends who can actually say more then just a sentence. She then wanted to take a picture with me and told me how big my eyes were compared to her squinty eyes. Have I mentioned before how much I love Chinese people because they are the funniest!  

The work is going well here and we have been contacting a lot! It’s been really fun and as scary as contacting can be sometimes the reward is all the funny people you get to meet everywhere. I never knew how many ways you can start a conversation until now. Its easy to sit down on the bus, doctors office, restaurant, airplane, etc... And just not say anything to person next to you, but how are we going to share the gospel if you don't open your mouth. We should be praying for missionary opportunities and how we act upon them is by taking action and that starts with talking!  
D&C 123:12 "For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it"

A funny for this week is as you all know here in YSA we never get fed.. Well for the sisters we live with it is the opposite they get fed too much and many nights come home dying because of all the food they have had to stuff in their mouths. This is a funny story from this week with one of their many instances of eating too much I thought you would enjoy!

"There is a wonderful family from Nepal who we are teaching and they make dinner for us and feed us right after week teach and they insist on feeding us as we are feeding them the word of God. 
So.... we have an appointment that was right after them so sister may and I agreed that we would eat quickly and them excuse ourselves and run to the car pick up the member and then go to the lesson. So as soon as the blessing over the food was done we attacked the heaping piles of rice, curry and chicken that were on our plates. I guess we didn't think out our plan carefully because the message that we sent to them was not "We need to leave soon" it was "we are starving" and as I was eating as quickly as I could with my spoon Sister May was right beside me with a spoon in each hand shoveling food into her mouth. They looked on with amazement as we devoured a mountain of food and then they started piling more food on and we couldn't say anything because our mouths were full of food and they didn't seem to understand our gestures to please stop.  
And something else about this food was that it was really spicy. Burning lips and burning mouth spicy.... I thought I was stubble in hiding the fact that it was a bit much for me but Sister May said that my watering eyes and running nose were evidence as well as the fact that I was drinking lots of water. 
This family was laughing at us so much and they kept putting more and more on our plates as we insisted that we were full and then they told us that we had to finish because it was rude not to. After wards they asked me if it was spicy for me and I admitted that it was a little spicy and they about died laughing. Those shriveled black and red spicy peppers are so hot. 
Then we couldn't run to the car... it physically hurt to walk!"

This week I was able to get a wonderful priesthood blessing from Elder Adams to start this transfer off right! It was an amazing blessing and really made me grateful for the priesthood that we have here on this earth. I have seen many people already on my mission receive a priesthood blessing. They were not even members and didn't even know much of anything about a priesthood blessing and yet every one of them could feel the spirit so strong. I am happy that I was able to feel that spirit this week with a priesthood blessing of my own.
If any of you did not catch the Elder Ballard CES Broadcast that was broadcasted 2 weeks ago go and watch it because it is amazing! I love you all have a wonderful week =)


-Sister Dick  
Cinco De Mayo with the Sisters
Service Project on the Garlic Farm

Mother's Day

Hello!

There is not to much to say this week because I got the awesome opportunity to talk to my family over Skype yesterday for mothers day. That was so awesome and I hope everyone had an amazing mothers day. This week the weather has been gorgeous no coats all week. We have been able to do a couple of service projects like putting pipe to water a garlic farm, Cleaning a park with a couple of other faiths in Ottawa, The soup kitchen and Cleaning the church. Its so great to be out in this wonderful weather doing service. We had some unfortunate luck with everyone canceling this week. We thought it was some kind of curse because we would have days where everything would cancel, but the good thing is there is always something to do with missionary work! The young single adult ward I am in did not have a service yesterday because of mothers day so we had to go to the family ward and it was so weird there were babies crying and there were old people ha-ha jk but really it was weird being in a family ward I have been to use to my young adult ward!
Transfer calls were this past week and I am STAYING for my 6th transfer and Killing my 3rd companion =) I could not be happier though this area is amazing and I love the people here so much. Ottawa is being all mixed around with missionaries. In August we are loosing 1/3 of our entire mission because with the age change they all came out and now they will all be leaving. President is getting ready for it i am sure. I am excited to see what this next transfer has in store for me. I wish you luck and lots of love this week


-Sister Dick

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

 Lean on the Book of Mormon


 Beautiful Ottawa Sunset
 Celebrating Sister Verdin's birthday
 One of our favorite members


HOLA,

Happy CINCO DE MAYO =)
How cool is it to spend this day with a real Mexican.... Super cool ha-ha and it gives us a great excuse to eat lots of Mexican food!! This week was just another great week in the city of Ottawa. In Canada you get all the seasons in intense ways, so it has been raining lots here. This week was Sister Verdin’s birthday and we went out to eat yummy food with the Adams. The Adams have been taking us around Ottawa trying to find Less active members and this week we have had a lot more success with it! We stopped by this one girls house and she was finally home she welcomed her in and we taught a short lesson on faith. We set up a ride for her to take her to church the next day and she came and even bore her testimony about how we answered her prayers because she has been really wanting to come back to church but just to shy to ask for help. I love fast and testimony meeting here the young single adults are so awesome here there is never a quite moment someone is always up there baring such a spirit filled testimony. We also had a really great relief society lesson on prayer. The Relief society president said she had something else planned but felt really impressed to talk about the power of prayer she really involved all of the sisters there and discussed how people have answered our prayers and how we can be an answer to other peoples. at the end she had us write down a name that we did not see there that week and to contact them this week. It was really cool to see how many experiences people have had with answers to their prayers. I have had a couple of cool experiences of people saying that we have been an answer to their prayers. I believe that you can be an answer to a lot of people’s prayer if you will seek those opportunities. Pray and ask Heavenly Father how you can help other people and then be in tune with the spirit so you can act. Next week we don’t have church in the ward because they let the young adults go to their family ward for mothers day so I am really hoping I don't get transferred because I wont get to see any of them next week if I do. Everyone keeps telling me that I am leaving but I am convinced that I am staying here.... well that’s just what I am really hoping for! Sister Houde came this week and it was good to catch up with her. Sister Houde couldn't believe I had hit eight months yesterday because she says she feels like she just barely picked me up yesterday to start my mission. This week we had a really intense zone meeting talking about the mission’s goals of changing our direction from less active work to convert baptisms. It was really cool to see the affect of getting people to church in our mission 1 out of the 4 people that come to church get baptized. The key is just getting people to come to church! We have also still been reading the Book of Mormon with people with our 50 day challenge and it has been really cool to hear the members response on their reading. I know that I have learned and read things that I never even knew were in that amazing blue book! I hope you all have a wonderful week and all the mothers out there have a great and happy mothers day!
Love,

Sister Dick