Our Two Missionaries: Saturday is a special (or scary) day!!

Again...another week come and gone....

What a crazy and exciting week this has been! We said goodbye to one of the dear Elder's we have been working with. We found new investigators and now we are preparing for transfers this Saturday.

This week had a goal set by our zone leader to have 4 new investigators, which I think to me I had a hard time expecting it to come to pass just because of the past three weeks... I know that i have been trying to build my faith in this area but it has been a bit difficult....It is hard to explain. I think I had the faith that it would happen but expecting it every single day was a bit difficult for me.

Tuesday we had district meeting with the Elders and the Sister's in Hampton. We focused on finding and I think that that definitely helped us in many ways. Sadly we then had to say goodbye to Elder Moore.We were excited for the new adventure that he would be going on but hard to say goodbye and continue on at the same time. I think that is the worst part of the mission....Saying goodbye to the friends and family that you make on your mission. I have come to love everyone that I have worked with and have served around. Some are truly my best friends and nothing can or will change that because we have all gone through similar things that we are able to help each other through. What a blessing my mission has been to my life.
I read a talk by President Utchdorf this morning and I loved what he said and now I would like to share it with you... “Once upon a time” promises something: a story of adventure and romance, a story of princesses and princes. It may include tales of courage, hope, and everlasting love. In many of these stories, nice overcomes mean and good overcomes evil. But perhaps most of all, I love it when we turn to the last page and our eyes reach the final lines and we see the enchanting words “And they lived happily ever after.”

So this is what I would like to start my email with is Once upon a time..... Once upon a time I was preparing to go on a mission, not knowing what would come of my experience or how my life would go... As I have gone these 8 months away in this amazing place of Atlantic Canada....What an amazing place to build a relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ....I have come closer to both of them as I have had to rely on them for everything, literally everything. Yes my family is always there for me but being in Newfoundland and New Brunswick I have had to come to understand and do things on my own. It is amazing that I am able to go and share the gospel with complete strangers and love my life, be called every name and love my life, feel totally alone and love my life. All of this is possible because I have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who love and watch out for each of us every single day. As we are on this journey of Once upon a time we come across trials but then we also come upon great blessings and experiences....

We had gone to Holly's and asked about her neighbors, we thought we could work in her area while we were there. She told us about her neighbor Rick. He is a dad of 3 and is married. Well when we went to contact him, he was the only one at home so we weren't able to go inside. As we talked with him we found out that his grandfather was in the hospital and wasn't doing the best. We started to teach the plan of salvation and about the Book of Mormon. He expressed that he is going through a difficult time and would like to learn more but would like us to come back when his family was home. We set up a return appointment for Sunday (yesterday). We went and once we had gotten there he had a bunch of company over and had a lot on his mind so he asked if we would be able to come back another time. We said yes but yes we are excited to start teaching him and his family.

The weather has been up and down and all around this week! We have had beautiful sun shining days of 5-8 degrees, rain storms where you get soaked and then sunny but freezing -12 degree days! (we even went running in this cold freezing weather..I would not recommend it.) The snow is almost all the way gone now!! But we just found out that we are getting another storm tomorrow night...not sure what kind..rain or snow...either way I HATE IT!!

Friday we had gotten a call from our district leader.... He had said that our mission president had asked that he work in our area to try and help us find new investigators and try to jump start our area... We did work with them. We each had asked to "receive a referral from God" aka picking a street to knock. As we did I tried to understand more of how this would help us when we really can't go with them to work. So we had our streets and we went. We decided that we weren't going to drive and we would knock to the street we picked so that we could be out of the car as much as possible talking to people along the way. We got to the street and had prayed right before we went. We saw an apartment building and we were going to skip it at the beginning but then I said "No, let's do it first." We decided to start at the top floor. We prayed that we would be led to those who were willing to receive the gospel. The first door we knocked on a teenage girl answered the door. Her name is Brittney. We asked if her mom was home because we knew that we couldn't teach her without her mother's permission. Her mom came to the door and we started to teach them about the gospel. We asked if we could come in and share more of this message with her, she said that she wasn't interested but then we see Brittney coming behind her and listening and she said "I want to learn more!" We asked her mother if we could teach she said sure... We taught the Restoration as we were standing at the door. She looked so excited and interested in the things that we were saying. As we finished we asked her "Why are you so interested in learning more?" She said "I know that there is more out there." Brittney is not baptized in any church but she goes to a youth group every Friday night to play games. We asked if we could come back and teach her more and Brittney asked her mom and she said "Whatever." So we are going to see her tomorrow. We left her with a Book of Mormon. She is so great and interested. Her face was just filled with excitement. As we left we could hear Brittney saying to her mom...."I really like them." We are concerned that her mother will hold her back but with faith in the Lord everything is possible.

We saw Ester, Rosa and Claudia! It was a great lesson. We had planned to teach about repentance as we started teaching we just felt like we should continue so we finished the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Rosa expressed her desire to be baptized. She is turning 8 on Friday so she has reached the age that we can. Now we just have to help the family come to church more regularly and continue to work with the ward in helping this amazing family.

Saturday night we went to visit a former investigator, but sadly they weren't home. We didn't have time to knock the whole street so we decided that we would pick a few houses that stood out to us and we would knock them. We picked about 3 and the last house we went to it was an lady named Lori. She has a degree in special education and also is a principle at a high school and is baptist. As we talked with her she expressed that she wasn't interested we asked if we could leave her a card to our website...As she looked at the card she said "Would it be okay if I share this website with my high school students... They are in that time of their lives when they aren't sure what to do and how to go through some things." We said of course you can we would love to give you a handful of cards that you can give to them. It was so great! Even though we didn't find anyone interested or prepared to receive the gospel at this time I know that one day, those high school students or even she will be ready. It was an amazing thing that had happened.

Sunday is just such a great day as a missionary. I love going to partake of the sacrament and renewing my covenants.

Now back to our once upon a time story.....
You need to know that you will experience your own adversity. None is exempt. You will suffer, be tempted, and make mistakes. You will learn for yourself what every heroine has learned: through overcoming challenges come growth and strength.

It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.

There are those among you who, although young, have already suffered a full measure of grief and sorrow. My heart is filled with compassion and love for you. How dear you are to the Church. How beloved you are of your Heavenly Father. Though it may seem that you are alone, angels attend you. Though you may feel that no one can understand the depth of your despair, our Savior, Jesus Christ, understands. He suffered more than we can possibly imagine, and He did it for us; He did it for you. You are not alone.

Enduring adversity is not the only thing you must do to experience a happy life. Let me repeat: how you react to adversity and temptation is a critical factor in whether or not you arrive at your own “happily ever after.”

We all search for happiness, and we all try to find our own “happily ever after.” The truth is, God knows how to get there! And He has created a map for you; He knows the way. He is your beloved Heavenly Father, who seeks your good, your happiness. He desires with all the love of a perfect and pure Father that you reach your supernal destination. The map is available to all. It gives explicit directions of what to do and where to go to everyone who is striving to come unto Christ and “stand as [a witness] of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.” All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan.

We all have a great deal to do in this life. A great plan that is before us but we don't have to do this alone. We have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior who have a plan and a road map for us.... May we strive to follow them in all that we do.

This week we will be going on exchanges on Wednesday to Thursday! We also have transfer news on Saturday....It will be interesting to see what happens! I am getting a little nervous for that.

I was telling mom earlier that I never thought that I would love this work the way that I do. There is nothing else that I would rather be doing. Sister Davis and I have been talking about where we would be if we chose not to serve. I know that I would not be (spiritually) where I am now. I know that there are good, better and best decisions to be made about everything, and this was the best decision I made!!

I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Love,
Rachele