Transfer town, Canada . . . .

Hello America! Greetings from the great city of......OWEN SOUND! No, I wasn't transferred, but Sister Tuisku was sent to Brampton for her last transfer so I am now here with fantastic Sister Arnold, from Australia and England so I'm keeping my international companions going. Yesterday was crazy because they combined transfer day and p-day because of Family Day on Monday. So we woke up at 5, because Sister Tuisku had no time to pack the day before, left Owen Sound at 7, arrived at the Brampton Stake Center at 10 where Sister Tuisku promptly left with her new companion and I waited for the 11:00 transfer van with Sister Arnold on it, then we made a trip to the mission office and got lunch and hit the road. We got back to Owen Sound around 4, had time to do laundry and plan out our night, and at 6 p-day ended and we went back to work. So this is probably the most exhausted I've ever felt, which is probably pretty sad to say only a few months in.

It's super weird how fast you love new companions! Sister Arnold has been out the same amount of time Sister Tuisku had when we were put together and is a total pro. She was in her last area for 8 months, this is only the 3rd place she's served, and she's been with every one of her companions for 2 transfers so I think I'm going to be in Owen Sound a while longer! Whoo hoo! It's also super weird being the young, junior companion and yet at the same time being the old companion from the area. It's good for me because anytime I didn't really know what to do I would just rely on Sister Tuisku to decide things and I can't let myself do that anymore because Sister Arnold doesn't know the people yet. So while thankfully my prayers were answered and I'm not training (hopefully that will be pushed off another year), I am being forced again out of my comfort zone- which is super good for me.

 Family Day was really fun, we dropped by a few of the less actives we were close with so Sister Tuisku could say good bye and share a last message. It was cool because she was extra bold and everyone was extra willing to agree to do things since it was her last day, so the Spirit was so powerful the whole day. We had dinner was a less active woman who's husband is in the Philippines, we called and asked when would be a good time and she said "Come over for pizza Monday night, you girls can be my family!" It was super cute, she's so sweet. No mom, I was not served any cookies or hot chocolate, though I was offered ginger ale in every home I think. Ginger ale seems to be the soda of choice in Canada (yes, everyone drinks Canada Dry) and I've never craved ginger ale EVER in my life but since coming to Canada I honestly want it all the time...super weird... Also good that I like it, because the other popular drink is Pepsi....

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. Mom have fun in Chicago, that is sweet! How do you have the best job ever? Hope everyone in the ward is doing well, I get letters and emails occasionally from members and it's always a super sweet surprise. Also, thanks to the Stays for the hugs and kisses package, so cute!! I'm looking forward to it being warm enough to wear the cute new scarves :) Hope Grandma Jensen continues to improve, as always you're in my prayers. Love you all and I'll talk to you next week!

New favorite scripture: 3 Nephi 17: 20....Our Lord's joy is our faith, and what better way to exercise faith in Him and His gospel then by sharing it with others?

Sister Tuisku and I at the Tornoto Temple right next to the stake center where we had transfers

My new companion Sister Arnold

 Love my city!

I've wanted to take pictures with this sign since the first day we came to Owen sound.

A week of visiting members

Hello my fabulous family! First of all, I think there's been some confusion about mail, so real quick...

-Mom I got you Valentine’s Day package this morning and it's AWESOME!! I read the customs description before opening it and promised Sister Tuisku we'd give all the candy and cookies away and not eat anything, but then when I saw it was dove and lifesaver mints and girl scout cookies I reneged and told her we're eating all of it! You always put together awesome boxes, I love the sweater and JB cards :) (Justin Bieber Valentine cards) And the stationary had perfect timing, I was planning on buying cute paper and stuff today! Did Erin add in the glowsticks? It seems like something she would do, too fun! I love the family history folder Dad, I'm going to keep my pedigree chart and patriarchal blessing with it. Thank you all! And thanks for sending me those pictures of Erin, they're AWESOME.

-Megan Hanlon, I did NOT lose your letter with the ring in it, no worries! I sent a reply letter, hopefully you get it soon, but I've also gotten your letter where you resent your blog, so I'll send you another letter too.

-Megan Hurst I'm so sorry I haven't been getting any of your emails! :( but I got the package and various letters from Megan, Shannon, and Madison, I love y’all, thank you! The homemade cards and JB valentines made me just about pee myself laughing, I loved them! And that President Monson block is too cute, thanks :)

-Carly I got you letter as well, thanks! Love you and I'll write you soon!

I think that's everything, thanks for all the love :)

This week was really good, it was a week of visiting members. One of the most memorable visits was to a family in our ward who is building their own underground house so inside it looks like a normal home but the outside it looks like a hobbit house in middle earth, it's built right into a hill and all you see is the garage and front door! They've been working on it for about 10 years and still aren't totally finished, but she said they love it. Her only complaint is that sometimes they have ants chew through the ceiling and they're still trying to figure out how to stop that. We got to sign the house on parts that are unfinished, the walls are COVERED with signatures and messages. It was weird to see the names of Elders that are all over the area book on her wall. But Sister Jensen from Houston Texas will forever be a part of that house :) It was also memorable because she told us about her conversion story, and said something I loved. She talked about Elders that visited her about 5 years before she started investigating the church, they left her a pamphlet but that was about all. She said she wish they knew that she eventually joined the church and they played a part in that even though to them it seemed like just another rejection while tracting. Pretty cool to be reminded of the roles we often play and don't realize, she could name 6 encounters she had with church members before she actually started investigating the church.

Cool thought for the week- we were talking to a man who asked us what we thought the universal language was when we die. Sister Tuisku said she had no idea, but she did know there was a universal language the Lord uses and that's the Holy Ghost. Later that day a member from Chile was telling us about a time she walked into a barn and heard a voice in her head say GET OUT, so she immediately turned around a left. About 30 seconds later, a huge beam fell where she was standing. Then she said "You know what's interesting though? It was like hearing a voice, but I've thought about that experience over and over and cannot tell if I heard it in Spanish or English. It was just a communication I knew!" I don't know how the Holy Ghost works exactly, but it's amazing that it can communicate with everyone, no matter what language, country, race, nationality, or anything. It reminded me of one of my roommates in the MTC talking about how she loved how praying in Spanish was praying to the same God as praying in English, she felt totally different but it had the same power and same Spirit to it.

The weather continues to be crazy. We had 3 days of spring, to the point flowers were starting to grow again, and then we were hit with 3 days of snow so now I have to kick the car door open if we park by a curb because the snow is so deep and heavy. Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We have a new investigator, Harmony. She's the daughter of an inactive member and is super sweet, so we're really excited about that. We're praying for some more investigators soon, because we don't see Marlene often and so are really just teaching 2 people right now. But we're so grateful we have that many!

Love you all, hope you have a great week and a good Valentine’s Day!

Photos of the week:

 Proof that I can shovel snow!



With our fantastic ward mission leader & missionary, who were both released this Sunday :(

Bonus pictures!

These are some trees on the way to a meeting...

...this is about the same area after the meeting, maybe 6 hours later.

 

You would never guess but I'm standing on a road.

Canadian weather be cray-cray!

I'm good, life's good, my mission and area are good!

Hey familia!

Mom Sorry I didn't get your email last week, that's super weird it sent to dad but not me, but I did enjoy all the emails this week so Thanks! :)

Dad I'll definitely let the boy scouts know about the wimpy Texas requirements, they'll die. I'll send yall the picture Brother Hindle printed out for me of Sister Tuisku and I cutting a log, the snow is pouring down and it'll give you a pretty good idea of what an easy warm year looks like here.

Joe I hope you're doing better and healing up! I just about died when I read you had an ulcer and couldn't figure out why no one had told me, but then Mom's letter talked about it and I realized I just had the timing off, your letter was only a day old not a week, so all is forgiven. But I'll work extra hard to catch a polar bear to ride for you so you'll have something to cheer you up while you're sick!

Mel I hope you're totally recovered as well. Of COURSE Byu has the worst application ever, if it was easy you know you're doing something wrong and are probably actually applying to USU. Hopefully you figure out that terrible, terrible website soon!
Erin congrats on getting into the pre-med program at UT! Don't forget to send me your shirt when you decide where to go :) Also, I'm STILL waiting for a picture of you in your play in your ugly stepmother makeup! I'm glad fiddler on the roof went well though, that picture does look awesome.

So my miracle of the week has to do with less active work, this area has really taught me the importance of working with less actives, which I've never really understood before. It sounds terrible, but my attitude has always kind of been that they know the church is always open so when they're ready they'll come and then we can support them as they return. Last year at school my stake was really big on emphasizing "the rescue mission" we all have for less active members, but I didn't really know anyone who wasn't active that I felt comfortable enough inviting back to church. But I'm seriously repenting of that, cuz in this area we have a LOT of less actives and as we've been visiting them I'm realizing more and more than just assuming they know they're welcome back anytime isn't going to help them, they need support and encouragement. But this week, about half way through sacrament meeting Sister Tuisku nudged me and pointed out a less active sister we'd been visiting who hasn't been to church in YEARS who had walked in! And then, she got up and bore her testimony! She said she'd never done that before but she knew that the church was true and that was in her core essence, and even though most had never met her because she didn't come she encouraged everyone to keep learning about the church until they know in their core it's true. Afterwards we ran and caught her before she left and she hugged us and thanked us, saying we were the reason she had borne her testimony because we had helped her feel the Spirit. It was the best part of my week, I'm so glad we were able to help her, especially when we had talked multiple times about how we weren't sure how to help her or if our visit were doing her any good. It was so cool!

So cool thing that happened in the mission this week, President Scott has started what he calls the Mission Training Plan. I don't remember if I told you this, but the church has started a new training program for missionaries for the first 2 transfers which is supposed to make you able to be a trainer yourself by the 3rd transfer (notice I used the word supposed-Sister Tuisku keeps telling me I'm training next transfer, but I'm praying that WON'T be that case lol!) So President Scott made some changes in how we plan and set goals as a mission. It brings us more in line with Preach My Gospel, because we've been setting monthly goals and goals as a district and zone, but PMG says nothing about those kind of goals so we're getting rid of them. Instead, every area is to totally focus on weekly goals for just their area, backing them all up with names and dates as much as possible, and then as a district and zone we're just supposed to support each area in achieving that. It makes a lot of sense, since we have very little control over what our district accomplishes but a lot of control over what we accomplish. The mission is also going to start focusing each week on a different fundamental covered in the training program- revelation through prayer, revelation through church attendance, the holy ghost's role in conversion, ect. So it should be cool to see how those changes, which don't seem to be a big adjustment but that have been really strongley impressed to President Scott need to be made, can make a difference in our mission!

That's about it. I'm good, life's good, my mission and area are good! I'm loving Canada and surviving the winter (which is actually pretty easy, I think it was above 0 this whole week!) Love you ALL, thanks for the emails again! Talk to ya next week!

Remember, remember, the month of December....

Hey howdy hey to all! Hope y’all had a good week, I look forward to my double emails next week :)

This week was super fun, for a couple of reasons. First of all Steve is in love with the Book of Mormon, he wants to tell us everything he's reading and he's studying Heleman and Moroni and the stripling warriors, he told us that Alma 53:20 (I think, the one about being faithful in all things they're entrusted) is his new life mission statement and he's being trying to apply it to everything in his life. It's just so cool to see how much he's grown since he started really applying the Book of Mormon to his life, it's incredible. Talking to him just brings back my basic testimony about the Book of Mormon, I get excited and feel like I'm on fire. Every since I've come on my mission there's so much stress and emotions in my life that I feel the Spirit but I almost forget sometimes how easy and happy this gospel is, and this week has just been a reminder of all that, I'm so grateful Steve was able to help me remember that. He has a new baptismal date and is just progressing like crazy, we love it!

We also had a day where we got to teach some kids and that was so fun! One of them is 7 and literally the most adorable thing ever, we went to his grandparents' house for dinner and he pulled out the chairs for us to sit down, kept insisting we get to talk first and dish up first and have the last chicken ball because even though they're his favorites we're the guests. He asked what we do as missionaries and before we could answers told us we're the luckiest people in the world because we have the best jobs. And Sister Tuisku is so lucky because she speaks another language and I'm so lucky because Texas is so close to the sun all the time and he loves the warm sun. I was dying, he was the sweetest little gentleman! He showed us his room and was so embarrassed it wasn't clean so we had to close our eyes and let him clean up. Then we taught him about Daniel in the Lions' Den, my favorite scripture story ever, and he thought Daniel was superman, it was so cute. He kept saying "Not Daniel! Daniel can't be tricked! Daniel won't stop praying! Daniel can't be eaten! He knows God, so not Daniel!" I didn't think it was possible for me to love Daniel more, but I do now! Then we sang follow the prophet with him and he acted everything out, and we sang As I Have Loved You and showed him the sign language, then he signed Martin Luther King's dream speech for us. By the time we left we were ready to just bring him home, I've never seen such a cute kid! It's been our goal for a while to find a family to teach but now I'm determined to find one because I love teaching little kids, they just get it! It made me think of you Mom, talking about how awesome your sunbeams are. I'm so helping you when I get back from my mission, forget singles ward!

On Saturday we went to the Boy Scouts Winter Camp and helped deliver hot chocolate to the volunteers. It was a sweet camp, the scout troops were doing this rescue run where they pretended one of their members had a broken leg so they had to bandage it, make a sled to carry them on, pull them around the woods and stop at different stations where they did things like tie knots, start a fire on snow and melt/heat snow, etc. They're luck they had the snow to do it on though, Thursday morning there was no snow on the ground but it snowed just enough the troops could use their sleds. It was cool to talk to the different troops, only 1 was from Owen Sound, a few were from the US. The ward's troop wasn't there but a lot of the leaders were volunteering, which is why we got the assignment to help with hot chocolate. One of the members was running a station where you used a 2 man saw to cut a log so he called us over and had us do it. We sawed all the way through in under a minute, which supposedly is a good time but I'm not positive he wasn't just being nice.

We have a new investigator! Her name is Marlene and she's awesome, we met her a week or 2 ago. She told us she was church hopping at the moments, so we taught her about the apostasy and the restoration and she was super interested. She took a Book of Mormon and gave one to her sister too, and has been reading it. This week she said she would pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and we're seeing her again on Thursday. She lives about 30 minutes away so she's a little harder to see than Chris or Steve, but she's so solid! And the best part- Sister Tuisku and I were role playing for her lesson and I was playing Marlene, and we knew almost nothing about her so I just made stuff up. I said I had moved from Collingwood, because everyone here and their dog seems to have some connection to Collingwood, and Sister Tuisku laughed and said if she was from Collingwood she'd buy me an ice cream. And wonderful Marlene is in fact from Collingwood, so she won me a McFlurry! (Btw, they have Smartie McFlurrys here- smarties are like M&Ms here, not like American smarties, but I was so grossed out when I saw that on the menu, and even more grossed out when Sister Tuisku ordered one. But then it turned out to be chocolate candy so it was fantastic, not disgusting.)

I found a new favorite scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants, I think it's 88:4- basically it promises if we'll but open our mouths and speak we'll become as Nephi of old. So that's my new goal, our district focus this week is talking with everyone so I'm going to try to open my mouth and see what happens. So it should be a pretty awesome week! Hope everything back home is still well, love you all! Do missionary work!

Prayers, Stares, and Smiles

Wow, I need to guilt trip about emails more often, my inbox rocked today! And it's amazing how exact they all hit on things I've been thinking about so well done to all.

First of all, Dad- yes we have a ward mission plan but it doesn't really talk much about how members will work with the actual missionaries, I wish it did more. We have an amazing ward mission leader, Brother Parsons, and his wife is a ward missionary. They do a ton of teaching with us, we really appreciate them. We also have 2 priest age young men who are preparing for a mission who are ward missionaries, but unfortunately we haven't been able to utilize them much. They both live at least half an hour away and work, so it's been hard to coordinate with them. We're hoping to start bringing them more though, because we only ever have sisters with us at our lessons and we think bringing some priesthood holders to meet our investigators would help them. Other than that, there's a few people in Owen Sound we bring consistently, but most of the ward doesn't live in the city so we haven't had much success bringing them to appointments. So I'm super grateful you went teaching with the missionaries, yes hearing things from members can definitely make a big difference.

Mom, sorry your trip was so crazy! I'm glad you made it safe though and hope y'all are having a great time in Utah. Grandma and Grandpa are in my prayers, I hope everything continues to go well.

This week was really interesting. We had a pretty amazing lesson with Chris, he basically explained to us how he sees the great apostasy going on all around him and we were like, well yeah that's exactly right, that's why the Lord needed to restore His original gospel through another prophet, and he was like, yeah I know. We were super excited, everything we taught him about the plan of salvation he just thought about for a second and then said "I already believe that, I just wouldn't use those words to explain it. Are y'all the only church that teaches this?" Unfortunately, our lesson ended abruptly because his daughter came home and he needed to go help her with something, but he is SO ready for the gospel, I'm super excited to invite him to be baptized this week. Steve on the other hand was a harder situation, he hasn't quit smoking yet and said he isn't ready to be baptized. So we're moving his baptism back and are really praying for help with helping him quit smoking. He's developing an awesome relationship with the Holy Ghost though, which is cool to see. He told us about how he had what seemed like a really good opportunity for him that he should have taken in a heart beat, but he just had a nagging feeling not to and he prayed about it and decided he needed to pass on it, that he would do more good staying where he was even though he didn't want to. He also came in to one lesson really excited about the chapter he read in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 17, and said he can just relate to everyone and that was the first time anything in it really struck him. So pretty much, our investigators are amazing!

This week has been ridiculous weather! In the morning it will be raining and 5 degrees, then at night it will snow 6 inches and be -15. Then two days later all the snow will be gone again! I left my camera, but I'll send you some pictures next week so you can see how bipolar the weather here is. So I've learned I prefer tracting in the snow over tracting in the rain- for some reason it's just a happier experience, AND when it snows everyone goes inside so we get to talk to more people! I also had some OYM experiences where we just stopped people on the street, and get this...it was kind of fun! It wasn't terrifying and stressful and awkward and hard, at least not every single conversation. We talked to one guy, I think he said he was 19, who at first was really not thrilled to be talking to us because he said he's talked to missionaries before and they're all rude, then 5 minutes later he was telling us his life story. he stopped and said "Wow, I don't usually tell people that...weird...What church do you go to?" He wants to meet us this weekend. So cool, that almost never happens here!

Well, that's all I can really think of from this week. 2 of my favorite quotes from this week....

-Chris was looking for something on his computer for like 10 minutes and couldn't find it. Finally Sister Tuisku suggested he pray. 30 seconds later, he found it. She asked if he had said a pray and he said "Maybe a little....oh the power of prayer and your stare!"

-Steve described our lessons as "You guys just stare and smile. Which one is it time for now?"

So I guess that's missionary work- you pray for people, stare at people, and smile at people. I love it.

Teeth and tiaras girls, teeth and tiaras!

Well I was going to apologize for emailing later than usual, but since I didn't get an email this week (except Dad, thanks for the family history story!) I guess I don't have to! Hope everyone had a good week, especially Grandma and Erin, I hope y'all are feeling well.

So I've started having princess dreams, seriously I've had 3 this week. I'm not sure what to blame, but it does mean I've had lines from that Barbie princess training movie running through my head all week. You can tell she's a princess..... It's made me miss my sisters quite a bit! So has the fact that a few times this week Sister Tuisku has told me "I just want to squeeze you!" so it's like Melissa is here.

It amazes me how comfortable you become with your companion and how well you get to know them with out actually getting to know them ever. Sister Tuisku and I went to the mall because she's in desperate need for some clothes, and I bought this skirt that I LOVE and she looked at me odd and said "You're funky. I didn't know that." It was super funny. I was also telling a couple we had dinner with about ice blocking (which everyone thought was super awesome and extreme sounding, they were very impressed) and she stared at me and said "How have I not heard about this?? You're crazy!" Also, it took me 7 weeks to learn Sister Tuisku doesn't like bugs. We went out to a farm where one of the members lives and he showed up his barn where he raises bugs. Seriously. He grows beetles, breeds them, and sells the larvae to the pet stores. He had rows and rows of trays with THOUSANDS of bugs in them! And he would just stick his hand in and pull a handful out while he
 talked about them! Sister Tuisku's eyes went wide and she went quite and I thought she was going to have to leave, she was so grossed out. (In her defense, it was pretty gross, and the smell was TERRIBLE! But I told her about cockroaches in Texas and she just about died.) And yet I probably know her better than anyone should, we're probably way to comfortable with each other. (She keeps telling me she's going to get transferred because she's made me unholy so we won't be allowed to be companions anymore. If only she knew that me being unholy is NOT a new thing....)

This week has been the coldest so far, and it's also the week we've really started tracting. Not the best timing, but thankfully it's ONLY gone to -15 C. I've been told it should be in the -20s and -30s this upcoming week, and we're going to try to tract an hour a day soooooo that will be interesting. This week has also been the most...testing I guess. We didn't have anyone at church, Steve got the flu and Chris has rehearsals for a play he's in in February, so he's probably not coming for the next 3 weeks or so. Steve is also really struggling to quit smoking so it's a little worrying. And we had no new investigators this week. So it's been stressful, but it was still a good week. We got to visit a lot of members we haven't had a chance to see yet, which was nice. 2 of them said they'd love to go teaching with us, which was much needed because we call the same 3 families or so all the time.

The thing I really have noticed the last 2 weeks or so is how much stronger my testimony has become about Joseph Smith. Not that I've ever really doubted that he was a prophet, but my testimony about him has mostly been based on the fact that I know that this church is Christ's true church on Earth so he had to have been a prophet. But Since coming on my mission, every time I've shared the first vision, even is I'm just role playing with Sister Tuisku, I feel the Spirit so strong! It's amazing what a powerful experience it is telling someone about how he actually saw and spoke with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I know that's an event that really happened. I love teaching people, it's still nerve wrecking at times but I love how I feel sharing with people about the Book of Mormon, I love that book! I wish I'd had the nerve to do it more back home, that's probably why I was sent on a mission- so I would learn some courage and quite being a pansy.

Anyways, that's just about everything new with me. I love y'all! Talk to you in a week!