Tuesday, May 28, 2013

"To every land and people we'll go..."

Alright, this will be a short one because I"m running out of time. But that's ok.

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. I know that we are being led by a true Prohpet, Thomas S. Monson, and that his councelors and the quorum of the 12 lead the Church in righteousness today.

I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he was called to restore the church, restore the priesthood, and start the work again. I know that through him and the power of God, the Book of Mormon was translated.

I know the Book Of Mormon is the word of God. I know that it's teachings and principles are applicable to me today, despite the fact that it's the history of a people who lived anciently.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He lives!

I know that I have been called by God and a prophet to serve as a missionary for this church.

The work is moving. The future is bright. God is good.

That's my testimony. That is what I know, and I'm learning more each day. And life...

Life is just peachy keen.

I hope all of you are hangin' in there. I love and miss you all.


With love from Can-Win

"This is my work and glory...if ye love me feed my sheep.."

Just another day in the life of a Sister misisonary. It's been slightly stressful due to our, (Sister Harrison and I), trainer leaving us to go train a new sister while we train each other. o.O Urch! It's amazing how many tiny details go into missionary work that you don't know about until you suddenly have to do them yourself. (Sorpresa!)

But other than that life is good.

Sister Harrison and I are a companionship now. We've been together since the MTC, two months yesterday. She's probably ther biggest blessing in my life right now. The next weeks would be so much harder without her steadiness. She reminds me to breathe and "consider the lillies" when I start getting tense...or worrying...or getting frustrated. Ah, companionships. There's a reason we go in two's. :)

The best experience of this week was this past friday night. Sister Harrison and I went to a dinner appointment at a less active members house that we had almost considered cancelling. The couple in particular doesn't have much food, and we didn't want to make things harder for them. Nevertheless, we went anyways and brought a small side dish to share. When we walked in the door the first thing we noticed was Brother St. G in his white shirt and tie, grinning proudly from ear to ear. The second thing we noticed was that Sister St. G had tried her very hardest to clean up the living room, and set the table with a cloth, napkins, and ceramic plates. The plates were mismatched, and the meal was simple, but it was one of the most humbling experiences I've had to date. Sister Harrison and I talked about it afterwards, and we both said we felt the Spirit so strongly we knew the Lord was pleased with their efforts.

Uh! Life is just so good as a missionary. It really is. We're working with an eight year old boy and his mother right now. She's less active, but he wants to be baptized so badly he asked Sister Harrison and I to come teach him. It's so good.

 I can't think of anything else to say. But I hope everyone reading this is having as great a day as I am.
 
Keep on keepin' on, friends.

With love, from Can-Win.

You Know You're a Can-Win Missionary When...

1. You get anxious if you find yourself alone for more than 5 seconds.

2. You start skipping songs on your LDS cd's because you think they might be inappropriate/ against the white handbook.

3. Your slang consists of words like "Pros", "Apostate", "Dramastic", and "Urch!"

4. Mondays become your favorite day.

5. You spend two hours walking in the rain to get to an appointment who cancelled and didn't tell you.

6. 9:30pm feels like midnight.

7. You don't dive for the vollyball during p-day activity because you might bump into an Elder.

8.That ten minute nap you took felt like a four hour coma.

9. You forget your planner at home and all of a sudden you have no idea what's going on.

10. If you aren't wearing your name badge you forget what your name is.

11. In response to being asked out on a date you ask if they want to learn about Jesus.

12. You hear the word "awesome" or "cool" and you feel like someone just swore in front of you.

Ah, life is so funny these days. :) Miss you all. Stay safe, and stay happy.

With love from Can-Win

Saturday, May 11, 2013

"Stand and Be Not Moved"

Moroni 1:2-3

This week has been a glorious one. I have received so much spiritual enlightenment it makes my head spin a little bit. Elder Foster came and addressed us for Zone Conference and it was absolutely marvelous. The whole mission is really pushng now to get every single ward fired up and burning with the Spirit of God.

 There's a song called "Work" on the Cd "The Work: a national tribute to missionary work" and it is so good. It talks about how if we wanna get things done it's gonna take work. My favorite line is "Bringin' in the harvest for the Lord.." Uh! Life is good here in the field.

 Lately I've been studying the concept of being faithful and steadfast. (Hence the title.) I am so in love with this concept, of being so grounded in the Gospel that nothing can shake you. If you haven't watched the Strength of Youth 2013 video on mylds.org I encourage you to do so. Right now. Go watch.

Alma 56:47

 Life is hard here in the field, and so very different from everything I ever thought it would be. But it's so good.

Side story: this week we as a companionship had an adventure on the bus for the very first time. It was so funny. We took three investigators on the bus with us to Church and then walked another mile to get there, showing them how they could do it themselves. Well since we left our car at their house we had to take a bus back to get it just after the London ward meetings started and Gateways' had finished. SO I don't want to walk the mile back to where the bus stop is, and Sister Rush says "We'll wait for 15 minutes to see if the 90 comes, if not we walk." Well just then the 85 came around the corner and we look at each other and she says "Or we could just take that one and pray it stops near where we need to go." And that, my friends, is exactly what we did. :) Moral of the story: the bus is way fun.

 In the meantime, I hope all of you are doing well, and learning to "be not moved". I am definitely learning this lesson. There are days I look down at my badge and wonder "How did I get here?" And then Sister Rush`s voice comes to mind and I hear ``God sure must love you.``

 And you know what...

 He surely, surely does.

Doctrine and Covenants 87:8








With love from Can-Win