Merry Christmas!

Hey everybody!

Skyping with Sister Messer on Christmas!!!

It was fun to skype a couple days ago! Thus I have not much to say...I was going to send home pictures but I may have to do it snail mail style because it keeps freeezing when i try and upload it...and my converter isn't working so i borrowed an elders but it's just freezing. weird.

Sister Casner is sick and has been since cmas night...that makes the works a little bit slower but hopefully she gets well soon.

mom, i like my sweats! I tried them on that night and we were going to do some yoga this morning alas sister c is sick. so the time will soon come. I played with the family whose house we were at while sister casner skyped.

We're teaching  a couple of people. Amanda and Viola. They both have dates for Jan. 13, we've been working w/them a lot and hopefully things will go well! especially as cmas season slows down and what not.

Thanks everyone for all the stuff you sent me! It was fun to get some new things, sister missionaries get tired of the same ol' stuff...at least i do :) Gma the fleece lined tights are great- i wore them yesterday!

Cool story that happened yesterday- we've been delivering the living cmas cards up until cmas and a member invited us over Sunday to deliver to some neighbors, well they called us yesterday during comp study and said that the neighbor had mentioned us a couple of times since we had stopped by and that they were coming over for a late cmas/boxing day lunch and they invited us! So we went over and had a great dinner and talked with them some, got to know them. They're awesome! They asked a lot of questions about the church and are quite knowledgable already...hopefully we can keep working with the family and can start teaching them!

Well, i wish i could get some pictures sent! :( I'll try to figure something out...maybe it's my new memory card? something is up...who knows. Have a great week! Talk to you next wednesday!

sister messer

In Kitchener with Sister Casner

Hey Everyone!

 New address is

475 Lancaster St. W. #18

Kitchener, ON N2H 4V9

    Well this week has gone by rather quickly! Transfers on Tuesday went well. After emailing on Monday we met our district and went out to lunch. Then packed and then i drove Sis. Wester to Woodstock (her new area) Her companion just had her appendix out the day before so she was expecting a pretty slow week. Then I switched companions and brought Sis. DeRuvo back to Waterloo with me. She's from Italy! She's really cool. Hopefully we can serve together some day. :) Then Tuesday morning we drove to Brampton. As we were driving up, I saw Subhash! So i rolled down the window and yelled at him and he came over. We were able to talk for quite some time. It was really cool to see him! He's doing really well. Then I waited around for a couple of hours until Sis. Casner arrived. Then drove back to Kitchener. That night we had dinner with the Mitchells. We're also skyping at their house on Christmas. They're from Utah! Bro Mitchell is in the bishopric. Sis Mitchell's brother married Pres. Scott's daughter. Small world. After dinner, Bro. Mitchell asked us to speak in sacrament meeting Sunday so we did, and it went really well. Spoke on charity/service. Perfect! The KW ward is great. I think we're going to really like it. There are a lot babies...which is a big change from YSA :) Quite a few families from the states...It's going to be great! Sis. Casner is really sweet and funny. Everyone likes the fact that we're both from NV. We even sang the state song when we were at a members house a few days ago. Winning the hearts!

   We found a couple of new investigators this week. Viola was a member referral from someone in Brampton and we've taught her a couple of times. She's really sweet and hopefully things continue to go well for her. As well as William, the husband of a part-member family. We're having FHE with them tonight!

   We've met a few families throught dinner appts this week. One of them is an older couple and they had jars of water all over their kitchen. When we asked them what that was all about they went on this long explanation about some Japanese guy who's figured out that after talking to water or wrapping words around the bottle it's in and then freezing it that the crystals look different. Then after drinking the water it directly affects your attitude and stuff. It was quite interesting...i made the mistake of telling him i drink tap water though. Apparently that's REALLY bad.

   On Saturday we were at the church and someone was decorating for a wedding. They brought in some flowers and said, "do any of you know how to arrange flowers?" So i got to do a simple bouquet for the wedding. It was fun, hadn't done that in a long time!

   Remember Sister Ence? The one we met in st. george before i left? Well she's serving in the Kitchener spanish branch now! We see each other all the time. Funny, eh? Who knew that after meeting in st. george a year later we'd both be serving in kitchener/waterloo. Haha i guess Heavenly Father did!

   Something else that is kinda cool is that the artist Simon Dewey, with all the sweet church painting- his son is in our zone. I'd been talking to him all the time and had no idea there was a relation until sis. wester actually told me haha. When he was at the airport leaving to go to the mtc, his dad was like 'oh by the way i just finished my painting' and he showed it to him and it was him and Christ in front of the toronto skyline. The picture is on our cell phone cuz he also served in the kw ward. it's really neat!

   Enough randomness i suppose. our next pday isn't until After Cmas- next thursday...woof. BUT i'll talk to you on skype Tuesday! holla! Have a great week! I'm out of memory on my camera card, so i'm buying a new one today. I'll take more pics this week :)

Sister Messer

I'm being transferred!

Hello everyone!

attached are pics of us volunteering at the Waterloo Region food bank, cmas caroling and our district at our zone training this past week.

   Guess what? I'm being transferred! We got calls last night telling me I was whitewashing the Kitchener 2 ward but then they called me again this morning and said they are moving me again...so legit this time i'm whitewashing in the Kitchener/Waterloo ward. My new companion is S. Casner. We were in the same MTC district and she's also from NV! I believe Truckee or Sparks...i'll let you know next week. haha So I get to stay in the same area basically but again with the whitewashing...they really need to stop that. :) I'm totally bummed to be leaving YSA but the cool part is that many of the YSA members that I worked with-their families are in the ward! So that's cool.

   To answer your weather questions- yes, it's been quite rainy and wet. No snow though! And about Owen Sound exchanges- I DIDN'T GET TO GOOOO! Sister Wester isn't allowed to drive for a while and the sister she was going to be companions with doesn't drive at all. So they had to cancel it simply because of driving issues. :(

   Downtown Waterloo and Kitchener are both decorated for Christmas. It's cute with all the wreaths and lights and of course ice skating rinks! Too bad we can't play winter sports! We have a very tiny cmas tree in our apt...i don't know if my new apt with have a cmas tree- we may have to go find one somewhere! 

   Our district went Christmas caroling on Friday night in downtown Kitchener, it was an interesting experience- Kitchener downtown has some one-of-a-kind characters. But it was a lot of fun! I attached a picture. We had to reserve this place called 'speakers corner' where different preachers and what not can stand and preach. haha but i think we're doing it every friday this month.

   We learned a lot about involving prayer in our goal setting this week. Since we were struggling to find new investigators and reaching our goals we were extra prayerful in the eperience. Last Monday we made a goal to have a new investigator and an other lesson, not knowing exactly how it would happen. When pday was over we went out and started street contacting. After about 10 min someone we had met on the street a few days before called and wanted to meet with us! So that was pretty neat. Prayers are answered- go figure :)

   So other than all that good stuff i'm trying to think of interesting things to tell you. Oh! There's an elder in our zone that we've been working with and he is Simon Dewey's son- like the hardcore artist. Pretty neat, eh?

   We had dinner with Arthur this week and he recieved the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. yay! He's doing great. He's going home to Brazil for Christmas but hopefully can attend the temple while he's there. We're excited for him.

   Wellllllll wish me luck this week! keep S. Casner and I in your prayers!

Love Sister Messer

We're trying our best to find the elect!

Hello Everyone!

  Well this week was a pretty good one. A lot of our investigators dropped us (the not so good part) But we did gain one new investigator who we committed to baptism in a few weeks. The lesson was great, you could tell he was feeling the spirit big time! He's from Africa.  With finals and everything going on it's been pretty slow in the YSA. Our most progressing investigator (Derick, the one with a muslim mother and hindu father) came to church yesterday and it went REALLY well! His baptismal date is on the 16th BUT we were walking with him down the hallway and he said something and then said, "and i'm 33, so blah blah..." NOOO!!! His dad had told us he was 27. So we have to hand him over to the elders in the family ward :( We were so bummed! He even signed up on our dinner calendar! go fig. So things have been changing a lot with the people we're working with. But we know there are people in this area (under the age of 39..) who ARE prepared! Who are the elect! We're just trying to find them.

   This week our district had our district meeting at Pres. Olsen's house. They fed us a big breakfast, hooked us up. He's in the mission presidency so that was neat. Then a less active in the branch invited us to the Mandarin (a popular buffet) that he works at, and then a couple hours after that we had a dinner appt and we went to our fav indian restaurant. We were stuffed to the rafters. We're very grateful for memebers! haha

 Ya! It's been pretty cold this week! It snowed a good amount on Friday but it rained yesterday and killed all the snow. The weather is supposed to be pretty mild the next few days...over 10*C. Today i'm not even wearing tights! You can call me a brave soul.

   Transfers are indeed coming up! Calls are Sunday. This week President Scott called our zone leaders and requested that I do a couple days exchange up to Owen Sound. That made me kinda nervous. haha I'm not sure why but i'm excited! I'll be doing that Wed afternoon drive up/all day Thurs/Fri coming back. There are a bunch of new sisters coming in january. 10 english speaking, a few spanish...so things will switch up a lot soon! I'm sure it'll start this transfer! Sister Scott said that President gets emails whenever someone gets their call to our mission and after conference one night it kept beeping and that most of them were sisters. haha lots of changes!

   We didn't get to watch the 1st presy message last night. It didn't start until 8pm and you could only go if you had legit investigators going. I'm sure it was good though!

   We had a funny experience this week. Our zone leaders were moving apts in their complex and our district went over and helped them out. Their superintendent saw us helping and after we left said, "So you guys have a couple of girls moving in with you, eh?!" hahaha I guess just some of their many wives... ;)

Well that pretty much sums up the week. This next week should be interesting! Thanks for the prayers :) We're trying our best to find the elect! . . . and then pass them on to the elders ;)

Love Sister Messer

Hermana Messer

The sister i went on exchanges with is Hermana Carroll. She's from Downtown SLC (she lives in the avenues!) She has an uncle who's a scarf designer in SF. cool...

Hey Everyone!

  Well i'm quite jealous to hear about your wonderful weather. It's started to snow...nothing too serious but the ground has been white for the last couple of days...and it's been pretty chilly!

   This week we went on exchanges with the spanish sisters in our area. So guess what I got to do? Speak spanish! haha it was classic. We wrote "hermana" on a piece of paper and taped it on my nametag over "sister". it was the true sign of really becoming a spanish sister. I hope you can see it from the picture i attached! haha Besides the fact that I really stood there or sat there and was really confused the entire time, it was a really cool experience. My desire to be a language missionary came true for a short 24 hours. The spanish people are sooooo kind and loving! I secretly hope I get switched languages the last 6 months of my mission :) that would be holla worthy, and i'd probably cry a lot too. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, eh?

  Our American Thanksgiving was lame. We did our weekly planning and car fasted so we walked everywhere that day. We had 2 good appts that night though. no turkey for us! haha but it's all good- Not many americans in our branch. Sounds like your Tgiving was great though! Maybe next year for me, eh?

   Our investigators are doing pretty well. No one came to church yesterday but that's ok, we're still working with them and have been in contact with them daily.

  About Cmas packages- YES, we do have the zone conferences in Dec and so to be 100% safe sending them to the mission office would guarantee that i get them before cmas...as long as our zone leaders make a trip down. I did get gma's pre-cmas package! Thanks gramma! We've been enjoying the goodies :) and Annie- we've been sooo impressed with our pickle elevator! No lies, we use it daily.

   That's really awesome that Jenn Neil got her mission call! She'll love it. Does she leave soon? 

   Well, not much to tell around here! Transfers are yet again right around the corner! Things may get switched up around here...ya never know! Somos misionaras de la iglesia de Jesucristo..... ;) Have a great week!

Love Sister Messer

Blasted miracles?

                                                                                       

Hey Everyone!                                                                                                              Nov. 19, 2012

This week was full of blasted miracles.We had a leadership training meeting on Tuesday with the District & zone leaders and trainers/trainees in the Kitchener and Brampton areas. SOOOO yes! I got to see Sister Tuia! It was the closest i've been to crying in a long time. It was so good to see her again and talk about how everyone back in Brampton is doing :) It's weird it's been 2 months already since I left that wonderful place. But Kitchener YSA is bomb so it's all good. We learned a lot about street contacting and how to ask thought searching questions. That night we had 1/2 hour until our curfew and so we decided to put it to test. We've been really blessed for implementing everything we've been learning! We had 3 new investigators this week and committed 2 of them to baptism in December! The only reason we couldn't commit the 3rd is because we got escorted off Waterloo campus by police for "recruiting" on campus....gosh dang it. Luckily it didn't freak the poor guy out too bad. He followed us out and told us he wants to meet this week. haha so things are going pretty well! Minus the fact that we are trying really hard to find new locations to teach at. You can't really meet with YSA in their apartments and restaurants we have to buy something and it's loud. Soooo ya. One of our new investigators we met street contacting is from Toronto and his friend is serving a mission in Utah right now. He had gone to activities with him before he left on his mission and he's really cool. Another one has a mother who is Muslim and a father who is Hindu. But they both want their son to meet with us and we taught the Resto. with his mom there and committed him to baptism and she was like, "maybe your sister will follow you too." It was really odd. What muslim woman wants her son to be Christian? holla!

     Alison and Arthur were both confirmed at church yesterday! yay! It was great! Our branch missionaries are teaching Arthur the new member lessons and at church yesterday he said, "are you girls going to teach me anymore?" and we explained that we will just not as much and he said, "awww i wanna be baptized again." hahaha it's good to be appreciated.

   So our zone leaders asked us to cover for them (one was sick) and teach their ward's primary yesterday. So we taught sharing time for jr. and sr. primary. It was quite the experience! It was fun. We packed a suitcase with stuff that help us prepare to do missionary work every day and pulled each item out and talked about it. Then asked them how they can prepare to share the Gospel with their friends. I'd like to say it went pretty well. They seemed to enjoy it alteast!

   To answer your questions- what are we doing for Thanksgiving? Mady suggested I make a turkey sandwich. That'll probably be the extent of my American Thanksgiving. There are already Christmas parades going on and lights and stuff all over. They start the party early around here!

   Well, Have a great Thanskgiving this week! 

Love Sister Messer

Arthur was baptized yesterday!

Sister Messer's been out one year now!

Arthur's baptism!

Elora

Elora

With other missionaries near Elora

Hey Everybody!
Good news! Arthur was baptized yesterday! I'll attach some pics to proove it :) He was so flippin excited, it was awesome. Our branch mission leader (Jack), Arthur and our investigator Kevin all drove to church together yesterday. It was stake conference so there were a ton of people there and we didn't see them arrive. A couple of min before it started we text Jack to see if they had arrived and he said, "oh just woke up, sorry." I was like, uhhh he's kidding. He's totally kidding. he better be kidding. We asked him if he was lyin and he said, "um i wish." So we text Arthur and asked if he was able to get to church but he didn't reply! We were a hurtin' unit (as dad likes to say). But like 10 min. later he text, "jk we're sitting in the back." All 3 of them had decided to play a funny prank on us. How nice of them, eh? I thought the joke had continued when he came and found us to tell us that he had started filling the font but the people in the "scent-free" room just happened to be where the font was and it was making too much noise for them. Long story short we just turned it on really low and cranked it before the baptism started...it did get started a little late but whatever. So it was a high-stress morning. Perks of working with YSA- they're all jokers.

   Our other investigators- Kevin, he came to church and is reading/praying. Hopefully he'll continue to progress. He was able to attend Arthur's baptism :) We'll see, we're meeting him again this week. Jame dropped us- she said that she can't commit to something (so awesome) at this time in her life. I added the awesome part. So we're low in our gator pool but have been doing a lot of finding and talking to lots of strangers and have some great appts this week and potential to get some new ones! holla!

   Last pday we went to Elora with a bunch of missionaries in our zone. It was a lot of fun. It's a really old small town with a quarry and gorge. There was a small downtown with cute shops and stuff. I"ll also attach some pics of that too. We just explored the canyon and old ruins of buildings. It reminded me of our New Years adventures! 

   Yesterday was Remembrance Day here. There was some sort of parade done by the army peeps but it was during church. Everyone and their dog wears a poppy though. It's crazy! They've been wearing them all week. We even got free ones in the mail. I rocked one on my satchel.

 Hope that all goes well with football state and whatever else is kickin. Oh and the glorious Vet Day parade. It's gone down hill ever since Muddy River Cloggers and Corinne's Creative Dancers stopped stealing the show...oh and when the class of '08 graduated for Pirate Motion. But i'm sure it will still be thrilling. Have a great week!

Love Sister Messer

Yay Alison!

Hey everybody!

Alison's baptism!

Well good news! Alison was baptized yesterday!!! Can you believe it? Just a month ago I decided to approach the girl in the hot pink pants even though i knew we wouldn't be able to teach her cuz she's chinese but i did it anyways and now she's a member! She was sooo excited. She sat by us in Relief Society and right before her baptism i was like, "alison! are you excited?!" and she did a happy dance! hahah then last night we had dinner with her and Kate (a recent convert) She made us real chinese food. I even ate with chopsticks. But who knew- if you stick both your chopsticks in the food so they're sticking up it signifies death. I found that out the hard way. hahah I just stuck them in the rice and elder mangum was like "don't do that!" hahaha we all got a good laugh out of my dumbness. 

Arthur had his baptismal interview yesterday and he's all ready to go! He's quite nervous but soooo ready. We're so excited for him! He's basically the coolest guy ever. I asked him if he'd told his family in Brazil about it and he said he talked to his mom about it and she was pretty shocked but supports him. He said he grew up only 2 blocks away from the temple in Brazil and had always wondered what it was. Only a few days ago did he put the two and two together! cool, eh?

We've also been working a lot with Jamie. She's been noticing answers to her prayers which has been super cool to see! She went from being semi- athiest to really knowing that God is communicating with her. It's sooo neat. We taught Word of Wisdom and we'll see how that goes. College kids and their partying... 

Halloween was pretty uneventful on our end. We did dress up...as sikh people! is that a disgrace? hmm. Hurrican Sandy was also pretty uneventful. We got caught out in the worst of it- just some rain...we were soaked though!

from L to R. Elder Sorenson, mangum, lynnm, ellsworth, lai, bean, sis. wester, me, sis carroll, sis varley 

Well, our district had been changed up! We have some new sisters! They're covering the Spanish branch. Sister Varley I came out with! It'll be fun to have some other sisters around. I attached a pic of our new district. We're going out to Elora today. It's a big gorge somewhere nearby. There were snow flurries on our way to the library- hopefully it doesn't start snowing! yuck. But we're leaving pretty soon so i'm in a rush today! Have a great week! Pray for Arthur's baptism this Sunday :)

Love Sister Messer

p.s. ya, ya, ya...i can't believe it'll be a year this week! insane.

Hard to believe with these pictures that Hurricane Sandy's coming...

Last Monday we went to Victoria Park. It was a sunny, warm day so we took advantage of it. We drive through the park often and we love it! So we decided to walk through it. Enjoy the pictures! 

Our District

Heyyyy Everybody!
 I received halloween cards from rod/camille, gma/gpa and packages from gma/gpa and sis zundel this week! So thank you! :) oh, as well as Michaela willard's wedding announcement- cute!  it makes rainy days totally worth it. Speaking of wet- apparently hurricane Sandy is making its way up the east coast...and the two kinds of weather and gonna hit right over ontario and we're supposed to get the worst of it. Like over 3 inches of rain tonight and tomorrow with high winds. They have us taking some precautions and stuff. I doubt it's gonna be anything bad but it's kinda exciting! haha Oh, transfers came and went! We're excited to be here another transfer and YES! to witness Arthur being baptized. We're ecstatic for him! He's been progressing very quickly, for example: We haven't been able to teach him the Word of Wisdom yet but he said he read about it on mormon.org so we gave him a pamphlet about it and the next time we saw him he had stopped drinking coffee! What a champ. He was in Luxembourg- Europe this weekend because he won a contest at school and got to fly over and deliver a speech about it. double champ! He was even going to try to go to church over there but his plane landed to late. So november 11 is the big day. Keep him in your prayers!

   We were able to do some fun things this week. I went to Guelph on exchanges and was there for a full day. It was good to be in a family ward again for a day but right now i'm totally excited to be in YSA. and even more excited i'm assured ysa for another 6 weeks!

   I had to call the office this week and Sis. Stark (office missionary, her and her hubby helped us with subhash) told me that Subhash is the one that baptized Gay! How cool is that? I just wanted to appear magically in Brampton and give him a big hug! Totally against missionary rules, i realize that. I'll just wait until May.

   We also were able to serve dinner at a wedding this weekend. The couple that got married were in the YSA branch so us, some other members and our zone leaders broke out our waitressing skills. It was pretty fun, something i didn't think i'd get to go to while on a mission! haha I just imagined it was tar & shanes. ;)

   You asked about pink pants girl- Allison! She's getting baptized THIS sunday! That's pretty sweet, eh! She's been coming to church steadily and the mandarin elders have been teaching her. She's awesome- I was talking to her yesterday at church. Sis. Wester and I had to teach the RS lesson. They called and asked us on our way to church sunday morning. haha classic.

   Welllllll so things are going pretty well. looking forward to a lot of rain this week. I'm wearing my fleece lined tights as we speak. I wouldn't mind a 2nd pair of those...hint hint. I'll send some awesome pics we took this past week!

love sister messer

Things continue to chug along

Hey everyone!

soaking wet after getting caught in the rain street contacting.

Well this week has been cold. Dad you said 55-60*? Well our car says 6*C so i think that's around freezing, no? Not sure. But we've got our boots and coats out for some days- especially when we're walking a lot. We found some hand warmers in our apt and they saved our lives a couple of days ago! This week was also a little slower...students are having midterms so they aren't to fond of meeting with missionaries. But a few of them are! and those certain people are awesome:

Garrett- IS DOING FANTASTIC! he's getting baptized on Sunday! :) :) :) He got a priesthood blessing last Sunday from our zone leaders and I was asking him about it and it really calmed his nerves! He had a very cool experience that definitely strengthened his testimony! It was really cool to see the spirit work through me as we were teaching him after GC last Sunday and I just felt like i should ask him if he needed a blessing because he was telling us how anxious and nervous thinking about it all was making him. He didn't know anything about blessings but as we taught him about it he said he would like one. So we called up our ZLs and they came and helped him out. As we were planning his baptism with him yesterday before church you could just tell how excited he really is for it. His parents are coming and if his mom is on call for work she doesn't want her phone to ring during the baptism. So pray that she's not on call and that it WILL happen on Sunday! The chinese elders in the branch also have a baptism so it's a double whammy. We're having dinner with his family tonight!

Pink pants girl- her name is Alison. We went with the chinese elders and met her this week. It's cool to listen to a lesson in mandarin! They committed her to be baptized the first sunday in November. She was at church yesterday, i hope things continue to go well!

Justin- Bombed our apt this week, and was sick yesterday. Boo. But we did talk to him and after midterms get over with hopefully things will pick up again.

Kevin- Midterms...

We have a couple of new gators. Jamie plays hockey for Waterloo. We taught her the Resto and it went well. She googled mormons before hand...haha but wasn't anti'd. that's a bonus!

Things continue to chug along. We got quiet a few potentials this week that we're excited to contact and hopefully teach!

Homecoming festivities sound good as usual. Sounds like Aunt Audrey represented!

a train that runs through Waterloo- carries people, reminds me of the harry potter train

Mom, that show 'the district' you were talking about that was on inbetween GC sessions- we use those daily! Especially while training. They're fun to watch, eh?

We went to Cambridge yesterday-another city within our boundaries. Technically our stake boundaries are huge. (from what i understand) i think they go way up north...owen sound? anyways, we don't ever go up there, just work around the universities but we did go to Cambridge and its beautiful! You would all love it. We crossed this bridge and looked down the river and it looked like europe. those rivers that run through england and what not. Large stone churches and walking paths lined the water. It was so pretty! especially because it was raining and the trees are still kind of orange and red. Very picturesque!

Well...I think that about covers it all. We're excited for this coming week- hopefully lots of miracles will happen! Including Garrett's baptism!

Love

Sister Messer

Wow...this week has been like a week full of Christmases!

Hey Everyone!

Wow...this week has been like a week full of Christmases! We had interviews with President Scott with the Kitchener zone, was trained a bit by our zone leaders. Then we went to the temple! We had to get up at 3:20am. haha We rode down with the zone leaders and another elder (gotta make sure #s are always right! haha) and that was sooo awesome. The only missionaries that get to attend the temple are those within an hour radius. So we're very lucky! Kitchener is just about at the border of an hour so i'm super happy we were able to go. It was a lot of fun and we were back in our area just in time to volunteer at the food bank. Lots of students also volunteer at the food bank, so over the past few weeks we've been getting to know them a lot better and witnessed the Lord's hand in our lives a lot! Andy is one of them that volunteer there all the time. He showed us the ropes the first time we went there and every week we get to talk to him a little more. The cool thing about YSA is they're open to talk about basically anything. So we've been able to ask him a lot about his religious beliefs and what not. He has an aunt that lives in B.C. who's a member of the church! He came out to our church a while back after some other sisters invited him but didn't think too much of it. We're hoping that we get to talk to him a lot more! Right before leaving we prayed that we'd have the opportunity to talk to him a lot about the gospel and right when we got there he was with us the entire time. So guess what, prayers are answered. booyah. Another girls name is Sandy. As soon as we walked in she was like, "are you missionaries?" Well apparently her parents are both members, went inactive all while raising their kids but because of his home teachers, they've recently started to come back to church. Sadly none of their kids are interested at the time being but hopefully as we start to love her up a little bit we'll be able to help her understand the importance of it.

    Our gators this week are doing very well! Garrett and Justin both came out to General conference on Sunday morning. Afterwards I said, "Well Justin, I know you have questions, what are they?" and he said, "Well I did have questions, but they were all answered in that meeting." haha We had promised him that if he came with questions in mind, they'd be answered. When we taught him this past week we asked him how he feels preparation for baptism is coming along and he just said, "i'm ready." So we have a lot more to teach him but are meeting him on Wednesday- hopefully all continues to go well! It was pretty funny, we had two RM's teaching us with him and we were asking him why he has such a desire to be baptized and he said, "because i'm not perfect." and we were all kinda silent and just shook our heads and were like, "alright- yup...that sounds pretty good." So all is well for the time being! We also met with Garrett this week and had some great experiences with him. We challenged him to not pray and ask for things such as should i get baptized... but to instead pray with your decision made up and then listen to how you feel about it. That really helped him with his indecision to be baptized and told us that 100% he knows he's being baptized on the 21st. The only hold back is that his parents want to come and his mom is a nurse who is on call that day. She doesn't want her phone to ruin the experience and go off while the service is going on. Lame excuse, eh? haha So we know all will work out for him for the 21st!

   We also picked up a new investigator named Kevin. He'd been taught for 4 weeks by elders in another area but moved here to go to school. He looks like Sid from Toy Story. It's so cool to see people that "look" like they wouldn't be interested truly be the ones that are prepared. He's got tattoos up and down both arms but has a heart of gold! We hope that he feels prepared as we continue to teach him.

   General Conference. Holla! That 1st session on Saturday blew my mind! It was a really neat experience for me personally. As soon as MoTab started singing I could feel the spirit really strongly- that continued as Pres. Monson made his announcements and through the whole session really. When Pres Monson started making the announcement Sister Wester and I looked at each other and i was like, "he's gonna change the age!!" and sure enough! haha CRAZY! There were 6 missionaries there watching it and like 4 members and we all freaked out. You do realize if i had left when i was 19 i could have served like 2 missions by now...haha nice. But in all honesty I think Heavenly Father made sure i was out before he made that announcement. I can't imagine myself out here at age 19! Mady- I think you could def do it though! haha You could leave in JUNE. that's insane! ah! Sister Wester and I will just be getting ready or walking around and just say, "i can't believe they changed the age..." It's still mind blowing.

   I received 2 packages this week! Thanks Log2 YW and Gma! :) It's always fun to receive mail! You're the best.

   To answer the questions about Thanksgiving- ya...basically just like USA thanksgiving. They're celebrating the harvest though- which makes sense. However, we got the shaft- no invites from anyone. haha But neither did most the elders so after sunday's last session we had our tgiving dinner at the church! it was a lot of fun.,, So we did A LOT of walking yesterday but met some neat people and had one very neat experience: We were just about to go home to grab dinner before some appts last night and there was this chinese girl at the bus stop wearing bright pink pants and i was like- those are cool pants! So i walked up to her and started talking to her but her english wasn't very good. We asked her about God and she said some classmates has mentioned him but she didn't know much about religion. So we told her that as missionaries we're teachers but she was confused thinking we were teachers at the univ. So we gave her our card and told her to scan it and it would take her to mormon.org. THEN last night we recieved this text, "Jister? am i right to type your name? I am the chinese girl who is in the bus station. I don't have any religion, but i'm thinking about it. Before I make a decision, I will read Bible. If u can help, plz tell me. My english is not good. Please text me." We were driving home and sis. wester read it out loud and we both flipped out! It was pretty much the coolest thing ever. We work very closely with the mandarin speaking elders so we called them up and we're going to meet her on Friday! We were so excited. It's really cool how the Lord puts people in your path- all you have to do is talk to them.

sisters messer and wester

   How do i like the Toronto temple? Well, it's great! The celestial room is tiny but very pretty of course. It has the capacity to be a busy temple- a cafeteria and all but they don't have it open because since surrounding temples have been built it's not busy. but some day it will be busier! Once Subhash gets his recommend! haha

a cool car in the parking lot!

sister messer with the Caldwells at the toronto temple

celebrating canadian thanksgiving with the elders in their district

  Well have fun with homecoming! Sounds like arnie is tearing it up in vball. MVP.MVP.MVP. She's gonna be an olympic star by the time i get home...and mom, thanks for rubbing in the 11th mark month today :) haha I hadn't even thought about it! You do really lose track of the time. Love and miss ya'll!

Sister Messer

college towns that aren't Rexburg, Idaho

Hello everyone!

Well these week i've learned a lot about college towns that aren't Rexburg, Idaho. Who knew that college students were so nasty nast. Friday night street contacting takes on a whole new meaning. Let me elaborate. (is that how you spell elaborate? missions kill good spelling habits for some reason) Remember how I was telling you about the 2 universities in town? Waterloo (smart/engineer/asian population) vs. Laurier (party/white people) Well they both had their homecoming this weekend. We had no idea. There was beer, pong tables and red cups all over the lawns on saturday morning. haha who knew i'd experience real college towns on my mission...No worries, they're quite harmless. But we had an appointment on Laurier campus in the dorms the same time that everyone was going to the football game. WOW! Like i said, new experience...Let's just say we didn't exactly fit into the crowd. So we went to another part of town for the rest of the day. Good times.

Sister Wester had her first baptism commitment experience this week. His name is Justin. We taught the Restoration and after the 1st vision he said, "i believe that 100%." But wait, it gets better- after inviting him to baptized when he knows it's true he said, "absolutely." Sooo that was pretty amazing. We've been in contact with him the last couple of days but he couldn't come to church yesterday because his dad got bit by some crazy spider and he had to take him to the hospital...i hate satan. Hopefully things continue to go well with him.

We're also working with the coolest kid on the block. His name is Garrett- i mentioned him last week. He's doing great! I really hope he holds solid for his date.

Other gators right now are pretty flaky...One girl is writing a paper on mormons. haha we told her we're going to teach her just like any investigator. we're hoping in the process she comes to find what she's looking for!

We've had some great blessings by working with a few less-actives. It's so easy to love the YSA in this area. They're so great. Pres. Buckingham (branch pres) doesn't think it's any coincidence that sis.W come from similar branches back home. He wants to implement some things that we did in our branches back home in this branch.

This week is full of great things! We have interviews with Pres. Scott on wednesday, going to the temple on Friday and GenConf on Sat/Sun! holla! We're pretty excited about all those things. Plus i get to go back to brampton for a few hours :)

to answer your Qs-

How is your new area and companion treating you? It's gooood. Still trying to get things figured out but so far so good.

where do you email from now? Waterloo public library on albert st. It is green! and the trees are turning bright red and yellow and orange. it's very pretty! We've been pulling leaves off and drying them but i'll take more pics for sure!

Well, have a great week!

Sister Messer, Jessica (a new friend from the YSA ward), and Sister Wester

Sister Messer with Jessica's bango

Love,

Sister Messer

Sister Messer & Sister Wester!

Hey everyone! 

This week has gone by pretty quickly! Things are hectic, crazy and going well. My baby's name is Sister Wester. After introducing ourselves we've learned to take a pause and wait for a laughter...it's a great intro do gain attention! Try saying it outloud- "Hey! I'm sister messer and this is sister wester." yup. laugh away. She's awesome. She's from Florence, AZ and she's the only member in her family. She was just baptized a little over 2 years ago. Training is hard...however it's made me be more outgoing! Because i know she'll do what i do not what i say. So it's been good for me to have to be the good example. 

   Actual transfer day was crazy. It was pouring rain and sister Tuia and I had to pack our car in it. It made for a great hair day! We had a really great meeting with all the missionaries that were training and then met all together with the new missionaries, had a testimony meeting and then they assigned us. Sister Wester and I were announced very last :) Then we had a luncheon with everyone and went the mission office, got supplies and drove to Kitchener. Now let me tell you a little bit about Kitchener- It's a tri-city area. So we actually cover Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge. We live in Waterloo right by two very big universities. U of Waterloo and Laurier Univ. U of W is a very smart school- well known for their engineering programs which attracts A LOT of asian people. We work a lot with the mandarin speaking elders and they baptize a lot! Laurier is a party school. We live within close walking distance to both Universities...quite the college town! Street contacting is much more useful now- there are always lots of students around. However, talking to kids our age is intimidating! haha It's hard, most of them will listen for a minute but then just tell us they're not interested. BUT that doesn't mean anything. We're working on our approach to ask better questions to make them think about their future and how much they really need the gospel! :) For example, we stopped this guy and he told us he was athiest so i asked him what he thinks the purpose of life is and it was quiet for a second and then he said, "to eat." and walked away. It's gonna take some getting used to. haha It's sooo different than working in a family ward but i know i'm growing to really love it. We serve in the Kitchener YSA branch which is VERY similar to ours back home! Same size and everything. It's very strange working with kids our age but they're SO missionary minded. They have no fear of sharing the gospel with their friends and that is very nice compared to family wards :) So all in all i'm overwhelmed but totally excited to work with YSA. should be interesting. Our branch pres is Pres. Buckingham. He seems to be super cool too.(of course not as cool as my old branch pres. leavitt)

Sister Messer and Sister Wester!

   To answer some of your Q's- YES! we saw mennonites! We had dinner out in the country with the Sellars (in branch presy) and there are mennonites out there- riding around in their horse & buggy.

   Investigators- We are teaching 2 people right now. One is Jeff, he wants to be baptized but is working on WoW problems. He is so humble but we have to teach very very very simply to make sense to him. Another is Garrett who is totally prepared and hopefully makes his date Oct 21. He has been working with the sisters since March and is sooooo ready! Hopefully Sis. Wester (being a convert and all) can really relate to him. He came to church yesterday, we taught him with our Branch mission leader and asked to meet with us this week again. Super cool guy. We're also working with some cool less-active members as well.

   New living quarters are big. In an older, kinda run-down apt complex by Waterloo Univ. But it's not too shabby. Hopefully we'll have time to unpack today.

The Kissing Bridge-Only open for Mennonite horse and buggies!

Isn't it impressive!

The new apartment in Waterloo

Living area

Looking out the apartment window

    I love the pictures and all from Tar & Shanes wedding. Looks super classy! holla! She looked beautiful!  It's getting quite colder already and Saturday while we were contacting people in the rain, i was thinking about Tar getting married! haha Figuring ya'll were having quite the good time. well just for the record, so was i! :)

   Well, it's been a pretty good week! We have some appointments this week with some potential investigators and hopefully some baptisms coming up! We're excited! YSA is a new adventure but i know i'm going to learn a lot about myself as I teach and contact people my same age.

Love Sister Messer

Splitting up the team!

Hey everyone!

Boy, have I got news. PRESIDENT called last night to let us know that he was "splittin up the team!"  Sister Tuia and I will both be training. I'm whitewashing Kitchener YSA ward and she's staying here in Brampton. I'm pretty bummed to be leaving the hub but feel real lucky to have been here for almost 6 months. Kitchener will be a fun area...so i hear. YSA should be interesting :)  Hopefully i get the hang of things quickly.

  Cool news also is that Oakville sisters and 3 baptisms this week and when I was there we taught them too! It's cool to see that they continued to work with them and hammer things out. One is a father of a part member family and the others are 2 sons of a less active member.

  zone conference this week was good. We learned about managing stress (haha but good), about filling the gaps that cause stress and the savior to fill them, helping us to grow and become better disciples of Christ. We also practiced teaching members to get referrals. All of you please do missionary work. Working with members is a pain sometimes! They're worse at keeping commitments than investigators are! haha

Zone Conference

Gay, Navene and Clint with Sis. Tuia and Messer

   We had some great experiences this week. We gained the same amount of new gators this week as we have the rest of this transfer! We worked hard and hit the standards of excellence set by Pres. Scott. One of the new gators' name is Linette- an old lady from guyanna. We set her for baptism Oct7. We brought a member and her daughter to the lesson with us. While we were there, Linette's daughter ran through the living room, she was getting ready for work and the member we had with us said, "hey you!" and they both jumped up and started hugging each other! Well, apparently the work together and have a great relationship! It's really cool to see the Lord's hand in the work. Now this member can introduce the gospel to Linette's daughter at work and be able to really be a great fellowshipper to the family! Super cool, eh?!

   The elders met Anita in the elevator at the hospital and referred her to us. She has 3 small kids, her husband just up and left them so they're really struggling. Amongst that, her youngest child has seizures every 10 days or so making him stay in the hospital a lot. She is from India and is losing all belief but found out that someone could give her son a blessing so we invited her to church and she came with her kids yesterday! THey loved primary and her son was able to get a blessing. She met some great members that are excited to help her out. I'm sad I don't get to continue to help her too but know she's in good hands and hope she accepts the gospel!

   We met one more cool guy from Jamaica that was really excited to read the BOM. Bummed that i can't teach him again cuz he's so open! but again- in good hands!

   Our recent converts are doing well, thanks for asking :) Our meeting with the sikh lady was interesting. .. She's not interested. But it was a fine experience. We introduced the 15 step stop smoking program to the trio last night- today is the day the start it. Hopefully they're game! We got the supplies for them and they seemed really excited about it last night. Now it's all about follow up!

  Have a great wedding weekend! Wish i could be there :)

   Have a great week everyone! I'll need your prayers so pleasssse dont hesitate to belt one out for me :) thanks!

Love Sister Messer 

FULL of miracles, that's for sure

Hey everybody!  

I didn't even realize i had hit my 10 month mark until basically every email mentioned it! haha thanks for rubbing it in ;) Weird thing is, I had two different members ask me if I was "almost done"...what's that supposed to mean? I took it as i must not be caring as much about what i look like i.e. if my clothes match, if my shoes are falling apart...maybe my hair is bad..but i just got it cut on monday! And it was my first hair cut since i'd left last november. Hmmm. whatevs! This week was a pretty good one. FULL of miracles, that's for sure. Remember Michael David from July? We met him street contacting and he had just been feeding the ducks? Anyways, he needs the gospel and he knew it but wasn't ready to give up all his bad habits. Well, a few days ago we got a text that said, "i'm ready. when can we meet?" We were like say whaaat?! He came to stake conference on Sunday! Hopefully we'll meet him this week and things will continue to look up. Another miracle took place as we were dropping by a less active. We had gone by 4-5 times in the last month and they never answered so we knocked on the landlords door and it was an older indian lady and she was smiling really big. She spoke broken english and told us the people had moved. Then she said, "i was feeling really disturbed inside and was praying and then one second later the door bell rang immediately!" She invited us in and gave us water. (indian people are very good at offering water whether or not they're actually interested) She's sikh but we started to talk about prayer. Sikh beliefs are interesting. They worship gurus and there's 10 of them. So whenever a prayer is answered it's the gurus that are answering their prayers. However, on the street they'll always say "god is one! god is one!" so i'm a little confused at whether they believe in God as well or what. Anyways, she invited us back next Sunday and we're bring Bishop Solomon's wife who speaks hindi so we can communicate. That was our only new investigator for the week.

     I learned to do a couple of new things this week! One, I mowed a lawn! Two, I made homemade tomatoe sauce with an italian guy! It's a member family from Italy and every year they make their own sauce and bottle it to last the entire year. They made us pasta and pizza the italian way and it's quite delicious! But the process was pretty fun- as you can see in the pictures!

   The trio's smoking problems are getting better but are still there. They came to church yesterday and had a great experience! They're so humble and are really great at recognizing blessings that have come into their life since they've been changing and seeing answers to their prayers. Navene left church for a few minutes and last night she told she left and went over to the temple. She said while she was there she was praying and got the answer that she shouldn't wait so long to be baptized. (her date is for nov 25 and she wouldn't budge!) But now she wants to get baptized with her bro and sis on Oct 28. Still too far away but better, eh? They're all very excited to get baptized. Now if they would stop procrastinating and quit smoking, they'd be prepared! That's what we're working on now.

 Now i'll answer your Q's, mom. Did Subhash bless the sacrament again this week? Nope, it was stake conference!

Did Joseph come to church? Of course he did! He's awesome. Before stake conf we had a meeting for all investigators and recent converts with the stake pres and pres scott. He made some great comments. he's definitely super solid!

 Any more luck with Shannon this week?  Did she come to church? We've talked to her and she's still struggling a lot. She didn't make it to church. But we're still in contact with her.

How was zone training?  It was good. we focused on meeting with members and getting referrals. We're implementing that into our dinner appts now and it makes the message we share a lot more powerful.

A cucumber a member in our ward gave us

When is zone conference? Tomorrow! I'm excited. We're the last zone to have it so we've heard a bit about it and it seems to be a wonderful conference. We'll see quite a few sisters :)

 So that's this week. Thanks for the prayers and everything!  Love and miss ya

Sister Messer

he told his boss that he can't work on Sundays anymore and his boss said, "oh ok!"

us at the office with ysa elders elder soo and rodee. 

us with the Nwaka family

This week has been a pretty good one. Joseph was confirmed at church on Sunday. Then he bore his testimony and it was awesome! After sacrament meeting he told us he had been praying about working on Sundays and that he told his boss that he can't work on Sundays anymore and his boss said, "oh ok!" and was pretty impressed by it. So he's made a personal commitment to make sure he's back in Brampton every Sunday for church! (he travels in the U.S. every week) Subhash blessed the sacrament! He's on fire and he's so close the spirit, it's amazing to hear him talk about it. For example, yesterday sister Tuia and I were feeling a little down about our pool of gators and their progress and we were talking about how transfers are coming up (never do that!) and baptismal dates etc and we get a call from Subhash and he's like, "how are you doing? i just felt like i should call you." So even in times where things aren't going as well as they were last month, Heavenly Father reminds us of how blessed we have been! We know we  have to work harder and take care of the gators we do have in order to be able to find more.

We did find one new gator this week. We were able to visit her and she's great. her name is Shannon and she told us she wants to be baptized! She's a single mom right now and has two kids under the age of 2...so she didn't make it to church on Sunday :( but we're definitley not giving up yet, she needs the gospel! While we were in the area, we were street contacting and talked to this man who said, "oh, i know you you are! I'm related to one of the founders of that church. But i'm not interested." He told us he is a cousin to Brigham Young! haha but he wouldn't stick around to talk to us...his loss.

We're still working with the trio (Gay, Clint and Navene) However, this week we had a great lesson with Bishop Solomon there and he explained authority to Navene and she commited to be baptized! However, not until Nov 25. Gay and Clint are set for Oct 28. SO FAR AWAY! it's killing us. We're hoping that as they stop smoking, their desire to be baptized will quicken and happen sooner. Pray for that, eh? :)

We got a new ward mission leader this week- we're really excited to work with him. The RS, Pri & YW all got released so there's been a lot of awesome changes in the ward. Stake conference is coming up this Sunday and there's a meeting beforehand for all recent converts and investigators to meet with Pres Goobie (Stk pres) and Pres Scott. Should be a great week! We have zone conference coming up as well and a zone training tomorrow...lots of training. yippee!

Other than that, we have quite a few gators ready for baptism but they just won't commit to a date. Gah! It's so frustrating at times but Dad, the quote you sent me put it all in perspective. :)

How was it without a kitchen? Well it wasn't bad at all. It was only a few days and once we leave in the morning we aren't back until 9. We usually pack our meals unless we have a dinner appt cuz we live so far away from our area. So it wasn't bad at all.

 Umm, about the vegetable question- i can't think of any weird veggies here...oh wait, i tried these weird fruit things from Subhash. It looked like a yellow grape tomato but it had a outer shell that was like a leaf. So it looked like a lantern...can't remember what it was called. but they were good.

Have a great week!

Love sister messer