Merry Christmas!!!

What a week!! Being a missionary around Christmas time is the best thing ever :) I love teaching people about Christ. We taught a lot of lessons this past week which was such a miracle. We got a new investigator as well! I've seriously never been so busy on my mission! I LOVE IT! We went on 2 exchanges this past week, trying to fit them all in before the end of the transfer. One of our investigators dropped us a few weeks ago but we stopped by and started teaching her again. She told us that she doesn't want us to give up on her yet and that she still wants to be baptized. She was so happy to have us there and it was such an awesome experience. We had this crazy experience when we were teaching Barb. She looooooves her coffee like so much! But I promised her that she could quit the next day. Anyways the next day she went to go drink a cup and all the coffee in her cupboard was missing! She tore everything out but she could find no coffee even though she had just bought some. Miracles!! Also we met this man out on the street a few weeks ago. Like we litterally pulled over on the side of the road and jumped out at him. He's from mexico and is super nice. There was a Spanish baptism this past weekend and we invited him and he came! I love feeling the spirit even though I had no idea what they were saying! Anyways I'll keep this short because I get to talk to you tomorrow!! YAY! I'm so excited! Anways the gospel is amazing :) Thanks for everything you do :)

Love 

Sister M

Merry Christmas from Sarah!! 

Sister Doty, Sister Martin, and their District Leader Elder Shaw. 

Sarah cut 6 inches off of her hair!!

So this week was just crazy! Crazy cold! Monday and Tuesday we had the crazy blizzard and we weren't allowed to go out. The whole week was freezing cold. The coldest I saw was -36 Celsius with the windchill being -51. If missionaries are in a walking area they aren't allowed to go out but me and Sister Doty have a car so we've been out in the cold. Haha its such a strange experience breathing and feeling the inside of your mouth freeze. Also side note this whole week me and Sister Doty's hot water has been broken....so not only is it freezing outside but we have ice shooting out of our shower and so we've gotten really good at boiling our water in the morning to try and take a warm shower......hahaha our lives are hilarious.

We couldn't go on one of our exchanges this past week with some of the sisters because of the weather, I feel bad because we might not be able to go with them now since we're so busy with other exchanges the rest of the transfer. I love being busy though, I've never been busier on my mission. A lot of people cancelled this week because of the weather.......lame.....just because its freezing doesn't mean its the end of the world! Anyways........Wednesday was kind of a weird day since we had to catch up on P-day stuff like buying groceries since we weren't allowed to drive and get them on Monday. We also had to cram district meeting in and a bunch of other little errands. We did have a really good lesson with Jessica. She was getting super nervous about her baptism so we just tried to calm her down and reassure her that it was the right decision.  On Thursday we had this crazy intense lesson with one of our investigators, last week he texted us and told us he went online and read a bunch of things about Mormons online....stupid! I told him that we would love to answer his questions and concerns and told him to go to lds.org and mormon.org. Anyways I was freaking out right before the lesson because I don't know much about anti-mormon stuff so I went and said a prayer for help and the Spirit instantly came over me. I was very much reminded of the authority and power I have as a missionary. I'm not out here to argue with people but I'm here to testify of Christ and that he lives. Nobody can argue a pure testimony that has come by the power of the Holy Ghost. I was reminded of a scripture in Alma 4:19 "seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them." We went to the lesson and it was very good and he said that he wants us to continue to come over and teach him, its looking like it will be a slow process but as long as he's stepping closer to Christ thats all that matters. 

On Friday we woke up early went to i-hop with a couple of other missionaries that were headed to Calgary and then started the drive up. Luckily the roads weren't bad at all. MLC's were good and I'm always grateful to be able to go and see how the mission is doing and be able to council with other missionaries on how we can make the mission better. President is such an inspired man and I'm so grateful for everything he does for all of his missionaries. The drive back to Calgary wasn't bad either we just saw how cold it was and we decided to jump out of the car and feel the icy cold winds.....I have no idea why we did that......probably because me and Sister Doty are crazy and are so excited to be living in Canada. 

Saturday is a special day its the day we had a baptism! (Please sing that to the tune of that one primary song..thank you.) Anyways Jessica's baptism went so well. She was so excited and the spirit was so strong. Her husband gave an amazing talk on the Holy Ghost and its been equally as fun to see him grow in the gospel and return from inactivity. He came up to us after and said this is the reason your in Lethbridge right now, to teach my wife. I loved it. Such a great day, we had our Christmas party that night which was really fun as well. Lots of less-active and non-members came which was awesome! Jessica's confirmation was such a special experience on Sunday. She was filled with the spirit. I felt so very blessed that I've had the opportunity to teach her. 

So this week is a busy one as well! We have a ton of meetings tomorrow with President and then we're having a dinner with him with all the zones in Lethbridge. He's going to be giving us our Christmas packages! Yay I'm excited :) We also have 2 exchanges this week and a big church tour on Saturday. Hopefully it goes well, we have the whole stake involved. 

I hope you all had a good week! I love you all. Just remember it might be cold in Utah but it can always be colder :) Love you all!

Love

Sister M.

Count your blessings it's not -36 :) 

Jessica's baptism.

Blizzard Warning

Sometimes I forget I live in Alberta and that sometimes it gets really cold! This morning our mission president said all missionaries are not allowed to drive so me and Sister Doty bundled up and walked in -27 this morning just so I could send out this email to anyone who decides to read it hahahaha it better be good.

This week was awesome. On Monday we had dinner at our Bishops house and they invited a non-member over for dinner, we shared a little Christmas message and it was really good, at the beginning of the lesson she seemed a little standoffish to us but by the end she was so happy and we could tell her heart was softened to missionaries. Here in Lethbridge it can be pretty hard since almost everyone has heard about the church and most of it has been pretty negative things so its awesome when we can break the stereotypes. We had a long day Tuesday of district mtg and then doing service for a less-active lady in the ward...which by the way I have such a testimony of service. This lady never lets us into her home, she never wants us to share a message but we asked her if we could help her clean her home and she said yes. We went and cleaned for an hour and then asked if we could share a message with her and she kindly agreed. The spirit was so strong. Its amazing how service can soften someones heart. Also a lady in the ward called us and wanted us to go and read scriptures with her daughter who has cancer and is at home most of the time. She's in her teens and we had such a good time teaching her and reading from the Book of Mormon with her. The Book of Mormon truly does bring the spirit into our lives. It is a true book that was translated by the power of God. I have such a great love for that book. That night we had a lesson with our investigator Barb who wants to be baptized sometime within the next month. The lesson went amazing and its so great to see how the Lord has been preparing her for this step in her life. The work is moving forward and won't stop. The Lord truly is in charge and we just need to trust him.

We had zone conference on Wednesday and combined with the Lethbridge and Cardston Zones it was also my half way mark on my mission. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT??! I CAN'T. It was a great conference and it was a perfect way for me to reflect on the last 9 months and to start the next 9 months of my mission. I got up and bore my testimony and I was just overwhelmed with how much I love my mission. I love putting my name tag on every morning. I love being able to have so much time to study from the scriptures and to learn from the Spirit. I love seeing the change in other people. Its been a very good last 9 months and I hope the next 9 don't go as quickly. We went on exchanges with some Sisters on the Westside from Thursday to Friday and then right after that went on exchanges to Med Hat from Friday to Saturday....I pretty much didn't see Sister Doty for 3 days it was crazy. But I had a really good time in Med Hat with Sister Clegg.....all of these missionaries amaze me with their knowledge of the gospel and the strength of their testimonies. We went to a dinner appointment and a little girl who was 4 years old recited the first 9 articles of faith it was so cool! I can't wait to raise my little family in the gospel! 

We had 2 of our investigators at church yesterday which made us super happy. Our investigator Jessica who will be baptized this Saturday came and her husband who has been less active for a long time bore his testimony for the first time in 10 years the spirit was so strong. He talked about how when they got flooded out in High River they were so grateful for the missionaries who just stopped what they were doing to come and help with the flood. It was cool to see how that service is still affecting people. He also mentioned how appreciative he is for missionary work and how he's so grateful for me and Sister Doty for teaching his wife. He said that this is the reason me and Sister Doty are in Lethbridge to help his family. It was one of the most touching things I've ever heard. I feel awful that I doubt sometimes why Heavenly Father wants me in a certain area or why things don't go the way I want them to but we need to trust in the Lords plan, its better than we could ever imagine. 

So all in all things are awesome right now. We get to go up to Calgary this Friday and I'm super excited about it. Its going to be freezing all week so that should be fun :) I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I hope Sam had a great B-day as well and Mom I hope you have a great birthday this week!! I love you all!!

Love 

Sister M