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| Beach Bumming Canadian Style! |
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| Baptism Day! |
June 30, 2014
Our newest member
(investigator’s name) got CONFIRMED YESTERDAY! YAYYY! A brother in the branch gave
the confirmation and it was a beautiful blessing. The spirit was really strong
and it was just really really good. During the confirmation I just felt so much
love for her. I know Heavenly Father is very proud of her and the decisions she
is making in her life right now. She is going to be bringing her family to a
Canada Day activity at our branch tomorrow so that should be good.
Speaking of which
HAPPY CANADA DAY TOMORROW! You should all get together and sing a verse of
"O Canada" for me. And you should put the Canada Flag out! Like I said our branch is holding an activity where they are
going to play softball and have a barbecue. Obviously we can't stay ALL DAY at
it so we will be popping in here and there.
We saw (names) for the
last time Saturday. They are officially moved. Sniff...sniff...Man I just
love them so much! After we left I just felt so grateful to God for putting
them in my life. Although I wasn't able to see her be baptized, it was amazing
to see how the gospel changed her and IS changing her. She loves it. And good
news is they are getting married in October! YaY! They both are going to
go places and I know that they will make such a great difference and influence
on those around them. Awww I just can't believe they are gone!
Zone Conference was
good as always. I loved it because my mission president talked about Light and
Dark. And how both influence us. It reminded me of how dark the world that we
live in is...but how we don't have to feel that influence as we put more light
in our lives. There were some really deep insights and I loved it. It was the
smallest zone conference I've ever been to...there were only two zones in it.
It was also really emotional because it was my last zone conference....and I
had to bear my testimony along with the other missionaries who are going home
before or with me. We also said goodbye to Pres and Sister Scott. I didn't
realize how sad I would be to see them go. They've done great work here and I'm
just grateful for all the love that they showed to each of us individually.
They've helped me through a lot and I'll always be grateful for that.
But...I'm excited to
meet the new mission president and his wife. They are meeting with all the
missionaries this week. We are doing interviews with them this Friday in Kingston
with our zone so it should be good. I'm really anxious to meet them! They sound
amazing!
ummm....I don't know
quite what to say about our exchange last week. The STL came on trios with us.
I'm grateful for the exchange because I learned A LOT. I regret the exchange
because I was just not myself...I was nervous/anxious/on edge/ and just
off my game. But by the end of the next day it was better and we still were
able to do work and see miracles. I'm just trying to learn from the experience
and move on and not dwell too much on the disappointing side of it.
So if you haven't
noticed it's just been a little bit of an emotionally run down week and I'm
just getting a little worn out and overwhelmed with everything going on. I don't even know
if I can explain it. But I know that we have experiences and weeks like
this to grow. And it's been really cool because the past few days
I've really felt the influence of "grace." I've really turned to
God...sometimes I've asked him why things are going the way they are. But the
other day I was praying and I just felt Him say something along the lines of,
"This is a time where you are getting to know me." And it's so true.
It's times like these where I've been really turning to the Lord for guidance
and it's amazing how it's been changing me. If we always had good experiences
on the mission, we wouldn't rely on the Lord as much as we should. I know He's
with me...and I know it's going to be okay. :)
(name) is doing
ok...obviously not the best. I love her so much....and I can't imagine how hard
it is for her now... Anyways we went to her husband’s Celebration of Life and
it was very very good. There was a simple beautiful service done by a
catholic deacon and a pastor who were friends of hers, and we were able to talk
to her family and some friends. I think she felt our support and love for her
and I think that's what she needs. It's sad to say goodbye to him but I, as
well as many of his friends agree, that he isn't in pain anymore which is
really comforting. He's had physical problems for a long time, so it's
reassuring to think that he's free of all of them. But I really really really
hope he learns and accepts the gospel in the spirit world. I really hope that's
why we met him before he passed.
So...our bikes came
back from the shop last week...and we tried riding them again yesterday. It was
actually really fun and I loved it! We dropped by some less actives and rode to
a dinner appointment. And then it rained.Actually,
it POURED on us. We were riding them back to the member's home where we
got them from and it was just raining and raining and raining on us. Like I
felt that I was in Hawaii again. Crazy. We got there and we were so drenched. But it was pretty fun! Gotta love the luck that we have on the
bikes! haha. Biking in the rain...can't get better than that! :)
New investigators!
Well we had a pretty crazy experience last week. We were going to drop by a
less active in an apartment building but there were some people unloading
groceries and we decided to talk to them and offer service. After we helped
them we invited them to learn more about our message and one of them accepted.
So we went to his apartment (I forgot to mention we were on exchanges with the
STL) and we started to teach him about the Book of Mormon. THEN...his friend came
along....Then after 10 min another friend came and sat....THEN another friend
came and sat. So by the end we were teaching five guys! They are all from
Jamaica and they work on a mushroom farm here but they have a strong faith and
they appreciated us coming and sharing with them. So we are teaching them again
tonight. It was pretty crazy!
We also visited this
woman from India. We knocked on her door and we talked to her a little bit.
She's a sweetheart. She wonders if God exists especially because so many bad
things have happened in her life and she doesn't understand why. She's a cutie
so we'll see how it goes with her.
But we are still
trying to Find here. Hopefully God will continue to lead us to the elect.
Anyways I love you all
so much. I pray for you guys every night and I hope you know that I'm so
grateful for all you do and all that you are. Have a good week! :)
Sister Ogden
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