Hello Family and Friends,
How are you all doing? I haven't heard from a lot of people, so I would love to hear from you.
What a crazy week I has been?! But I love every second of it. We had transfers this week, but as you could tell from my email last week, it snowed! In September! It's all melted now, but what a welcome and sendoff for the missionaries coming out and going home. Transfer day was a crazy day. The power was out in most of Calgary, but not our house luckily. All the traffic lights were not working so traffic was backed upt for ages. To top that off all the roads were slushy and tree branches were scattered on the roads because of the weight of the wet snow on the trees that hadn't lost their leaves yet. It took us over an hour to get to the transfer meeting, a drive that normally only takes 20 minutes. When we got to the chapel, the power was out there too, so we had a transfer meeting in the dark, with no heat. Ya, that was an interesting day.
It was quite the experience to send a missionary home, only to get a brand new missionary. I got both ends of the spectrum this week, but it has been a great experience so far. I will miss Sister Lamont, she was a great missionary, but I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to train Sister Howard. She is awesome and a lot like me when I first came out into the mission. I was quiet and shy. I would rather listen during lessons and when contacting people, then do to the talking and that is exactly how Sister Howard is. She knows she is that way and that she needs to overcome those things, but she has hard time overcoming the wall in front of her. Because I had to break that wall down too, I know how to help her do that. We haven't had a lot of lessons to teach this past week, but when we did, I was able to turn to her and allow her to speak and teach and she always did great. When we would go tracting I would gave her opportunities to chose a door we should knock on, then encourage her to greet the people when they answered the door. As I push her to get out of her comfort zone she will grow and overcome her wall in front of her.
This week Bernard was supposed to get baptized, but obviously that didn't happen. We didn't have contact with him for about a week. I felt best to wait until he contacted us, or we felt the need to call him or stop by his house. On Saturday after calling our ward mission leader, I felt impressed to call Bernard and ask if he was going to come to church on Sunday.When he answered the phone, yes big surprise there, he said he had just turned off the lights to go to bed, but started to think about the missionaries and wonder if he should call us, then we called him. That's the spirit working in action! He told us to call back the next day because he was getting ready to go to sleep. Yesterday morning before we could call him, he called us during studies and told us to come by and for a "bible discussion" after church. He said he wasn't coming to church. So we had to rush at church to find someone to come with us on such short notice, Sister Davidsen, a ward missionary, came. We had a great lesson with him where we finished teaching lesson 2, the plan of salvation He said he knew it was from God. I brought up baptism. He still wants to be baptized, he just wants to wake up one day and feel that its the right time then call us and have us plan it all. I tried to say that wouldn't work, but he didn't listen. He said he would come to Jordyn's baptism on Saturday though, which would be a great experience for him. I think when he comes to Jordyn's baptism he will realize that he needs to plan a date and stick to it.
On Saturday we had zone blitz in Okotoks. We met at a church there, then dispersed out. We drove to an area and got out to go tracting. Not long after walking along the streets did we both get weird feelings, like we were out of place. We felt uncomfortable and the farther away from the car we walked, the worse we felt. So we decided to go back to the car and drive to another area. When we got there, it felt so much better. We were able to talk to a few people about the gospel. They weren't interested, but I know they were placed in our path for a reason. Then we came back to our area and tracted for an hour before our dinner. We were lead through the streets and to a dead end. Sister Howard was struggling. She said she realized we needed to feel unsuccessful so we would recognize the joy that comes from success. Then we continued walking towards a walking path between some houses. As we got close to that path, a lady walked in front of us walking a dog. I stopped her and started talking with her. Our discussion lead to me reading a Helaman 5:12 which led to more discussion. She said the scripture gave her chills! She opened up about how God has helped her in her life. I gave her the book of Mormon in my hand and our phone number. She said she was busy this next week or two, but she would definitely read the BOM then call us. Afterwards Sister Howard and I turned to eachother and said, God lead us around to those houses where no one answered or was interested in listening to us, just so we would cross her path at the right time. I love the spirit and how it works. I love that we have been in tune with the same ideas as a companionship, even something as simple as which way we should turn when we come up to a T in the road.
I'm probably one of the few missionaries that would say I love training, but it is true. I have learned a lot already these last few days. I've learned mostly about the spirit and being able to recognize it in me. I don't think about what I'm going to say or need to say next, I just say what comes to mind and let the spirit take over what I say. I thought I was doing that before I started training. I probably was here and there, but now it is almost every time I open my mouth. I have realized I don't know what the people we meet need, but God does and if I let the spirit do the talking, everything will go okay. I love this gospel so much. I love my companion and this opportunity I have to teach her. Thank you for all that you do!
This morning I was reading in Preach my Gospel about prayer. The first paragraph really stood out to me and I want to share it with you. It says:
God commands us to pray to Him. Youcan pray at any time and in any setting.The Lord has taught us to kneel and prayin the morning and in the evening, asindividuals and with our families. OurHeavenly Father hears and answers ourprayers. Through daily prayer we receivedivine guidance and blessings. We shouldalways pray sincerely. We should alsopray with “real intent,” which means weare committed to act on the answer thatwe receive.
What stood out to me was the last line, that I underlined. I realized everytime we say a prayer we have to be willing to act on the answer God gives us, even if its not something we want to do. We must be humble and willing to submit to God's will, then he will answer our prayers. Until we humble ourselves to his will, we won't get answers to our prayers. This is something I need to work on. I invite you all to think about this and work on it yourselves too.
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,Sister Barton
Sorry no pictures this week. I need to get a card reader.
