I HAD LAMB!

HI!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

Wish i could have been there for the bday dinner especially after you told me it was the classic family dinner menu. I HAD LAMB. No lie. We had a dinner appt with the Smith family in our ward. First experience with lamb! It smells kinda weird when it's baking and it tastes a little different too. haha it wasn't absolutely disgusting but i'll stick with roast beef

Sister Wirthlin and I got our first parking ticket! haha we were at a less actives house that we have been visiting on/off for the past couple of months. We were late for a dinner appt and i was like, we HAVE to be out of here by 5:40 and she talked too long and we got our ticket at 5:41...i knew it! haha but that is something that definitely irks me-being late for appts. gah.

Well, Vivian ditched our appt last friday and wouldn't answer when we called her for church on saturday night and Sunday. It was really discouraging but i finally got ahold of her last night and was like, listen viv, do you want this? We have an appt with her this friday night. Poor lady is a single mom of 3, living in Gov housing and works 12 hour shifts at the dollar store. She only works 6 hr shifts on fridays so she told us she would be home if we came over friday at 7pm. So that's it! I think she has Sundays off as well. She knows it's true but we've got some things to sort out with her. She wants it! I know she does! Her face when we asked her to be baptized said it all. She'll come along, i know she will...it just might take a little longer than feb 19. Pray for her! :)

We got 2 new investigators this week. We did 13 hours of finding (tracting/street contacting) and found NO ONE. But we were definitely blessed for doing so! We have an appt with a lady named Judith in a week from today who is also a single mom and super busy so hopefully that appt sticks. She was a potential from the elders a couple of transfers ago. Then there is this great lady named Kimberly who just moved to Mississauga from Weston but she had been going to church for like 6 months there! She showed up at the Miss chapel last sunday and the elders referred her to us. We are meeting her on Wednesday- should have some great potential! I know i've told you about Pat before-she owns Leslie's Music Supply in Oakville. We drop by and talk to her about once a week. She's awesome, she's actually sold music to MoTab and they've recorded it! Same with BYU choir. So she's affiliated with us but doesn't know much about the church BUT she's reading the BOM! Sure catch, right? She thought we were pligs. Boooooo.

Mail has been slow lately. I haven't gotten the package yet...hopefully soon! I got taryn's letter that she mailed on the 18th on Saturday though!

We were in Milton on Friday at a lunch appt with the Lindsays. When we got out of the car, sisW noticed we had a screw in our tire! So we drove to a car place and they went to fix it and pulled out the screw and the guy comes into the waiting room and says, "is this the screw you were talking about? It hardly punctured the tire. no charge." hahaha rookie mistake? We didn't want to pull the screw out! How were we supposed to know how long it was? We thought it was pretty funny. But we got to talk to a nice old lady in the waiting room.

We found out that Milton is the fastest growing town in North America. Crazy, eh? We're the only missionaries in that area but about 80% of the ward lives there. just a tid bit of info for ya.

So i have to go to a training conference on Feb9 in Brampton. I'm scared! I'm not sure why they want me to go...hopefully i'm not gonna be put training somebody! I can't do that yet! Then on the 19th we have a multi stake conference with Elder Kevin R Duncan. Being close to Brampton, we actually get to go! So that should be fun :)

Hope everyone is doing great!

Love Sister Messer

My First....BAPTISMAL DATE!!!

( A super jenky picture of me in a sketchy elevator with all the numbers plunked out- In a tall apt building in Oakville where we go to visit someone.)

YUP! Sister Wirthlin and I have something the last elders didn't have...and i'm not sure what it is but it got Vivian to come to church! We committed her for baptism on February 19. (the day after your bday mom! haha) So it's both of our first baptism date! The awesome part is-about a week ago i said, Vivian is gonna get baptized on February 19th and i wrote it on our calendar. She hadn't been coming to church but she came yesterday! She's excited and already has a very firm testimony. yay! We just have to teach her the commandments and get her to commit to those and we'll be good :) Did I tell you about Pat? She owns a music store called Leslie's Music Supply and sisW went in to buy reeds one day and we started to talk to her. She invited us to come back whenever and teach her...so we've been there twice now. She's super nice and open. We're hoping that w/out stressing baptism and really gaining her trust she'll come to gain her own testimony. We committed her to read & pray so next time we'll see her we will know a lot more. Mike (who we tracted into last week) said he would also read & pray. We haven't talked to him in a few days but we will be contacting him soon. There is a lot of potential for some great investigators IF they keep their committments! Jun didn't come to church on Sunday. She speaks ok English but better mandarin so we might talk to the mandarin elders about teaching her.

We've been doing a lot of finding lately as well. We volunteered at the Heart & Stroke Foundation Rally that a lady in our RS was in charge of. We met a lot of people, didnt find any investigators out of it, but they fact that they saw us and our nametags hopefully planted a few seeds. One lady thought we were nuns. sweet.

I got some new shoes! Sis. Cooper in our ward (she's the one from Utah, moving back to Utah) was telling us about good shopping places. We were asking her if there were any stores like Ross or TJ Maxx around..she led us to the best one and i found some red flats! But shoes get salt stains around here so i'm hesitant to wear them. haha We continue to visit a lot of member families and are on the brink of getting some great referrals, i just know it!

Interviews with President Scott were awesome! I left feeling rejuvinated and ready to go! He told us we were doing a great job and to keep on it. It was a really positive & spiritual experience. It was really fun to see all the missionaries in our zone and get to talk to them. There are 8 sisters in our zone and about 15 elders maybe. mandarin, spanish and english speaking. Like I said, it was a lot of fun to just get to see and talk to other missionaries! Our new district has been 100% better than last transfer. Even the elders that were in our district last transfer are a lot happier. A good leader makes a huge difference!

 Well, sounds like Logandale is as busy as usual. Hope everyone is doing grrrreat! Glad you posted a pic of corinne and i on the ranger to wish her luck! She'll love the MTC. I can't believe its the end of january already. Crazy! last january seems like a month ago. Time flies!

Love and miss you!

Sister Messer

WATCH OUT ARIZONA!

THANKSGIVING OF 2010 AUSTRIE'S FRIEND, CORINNE, SPENT THE HOLIDAY WITH US. WE GREW TO LOVE THIS GIRL WITH HER SOUTHERN TEXAS CHARM AND BIG SMILE. IN 2 DAYS SHE WILL HEAD TO PROVO TO THE MTC! SHE WILL BE SERVING IN THE TUCSON, ARIZONA MISSION! WATCH OUT ARIZONA FOR YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN :)

WE LOVE YOU CORINNE!

*THE MESSER FAMILY*

Home sweet home

Nice place for missionaries, eh? (said with a Canadian accent) They live in the basement.

kitchen

study area

Hola!

 So this week has been pretty good. We invited 2 people to baptism! In our district meeting they reminded us how to challenge them right off the bat...so we did! We ran into a 26 year old guy named Mike while tracting. He was really open to everything we had to say and we asked him if he knew the BOM was true if he'd like to be baptized and he said, "ya, possibly"...haha so we have to contact him, not sure if he's "golden" but we'll see. Then we also challenged JunYan (a chinese lady who just showed up at church on Sunday) and she was like, "ya, i'll mark my calendar." So i don't think she knew exactly what we meant. hahaha we laughed about that one. Our closest investigator to baptism is a lady named Vivian. She's from the Congo and the elders had been teaching her for months. But for some reason couldn't get her to come out to church---but sisW and i can! She was really sick on Sunday but our ward mission leader is picking her up next Sunday and she has been taught everything, we just have to commit her. That can be done! Hopefully she'll have a bapt date soon :)

Our district got swapped around a lot this transfer. All the new companionships (3) except sisW and I got a new companion. Our new District Leader's name is Elder Snow. He's from D.C. and cool (he looks like Prince William. don't worry, my heart is locked) ;) Also Elder Sloan from Alberta and Elder Prince from...Alberta too, i think. But our district seems to be going better already.

We visited some really great members this week. The Coopers are a family from the U.S. so we really like them because they're so american! haha She made us enchiladas (like you make mom) so we were happy! They are moving back to Utah next month and are so excited about it. We visited Gma Krause (i've told you about her before) and she was looking at the pictures i brought from home and she saw the one of all of us in front of the vegas temple and she pointed at trent and said, "oh, he's a good lookin guy!" then pointed at ty and said, "so is he!" hahaha i laughed. We had dinner last night with the Christensen family. They have 7 kids and are fun to be around. Crazy house, though!

This past week we've been working a lot finding people. which means being BOLD and talking and tracting...it's not the most fun thing but it's getting easier. We focused a lot on being Positive this week and were definitely blessed for it. It makes a big difference, it really does!

So the irrigation water froze? I see that all the time here! It probably melts a tad faster there though. That's a pretty big deal for little MV though.

Hope everyone is doing great! Just still tuggin along in Oakville...trying to get the work rolling! We have interviews this wednesday with Pres.Scott so it will be fun to get out a little bit (it's in weston/jane&finch area) and see other missionaries! 

love sister messer 

Like the Hunger Games...

These are the missionary sisters in Sister Messer's area with Sister Scott, their Mission President's wife next to Aus.  

Hello Everybody!

I'd like to compare this past week to the Hunger Games. Just as we're about to die in the depths of the forest, someone sends a little parachute carrying life saving ointment. But, it's true! All of our appointments wed/thur/fri were cancelled. ALL OF THEM. even dinner appt with members! We're like what theeee! So we decided we were going to pray more. So we started praying every time something good happened or even after an appt wasn't cancelled--basic things. Our shower head broke so we stopped at home depot to see if they had the part we needed..well, the didn't but the guy that helped us asked us about our nametags! haha and then we were praying in the car and we got a text with a referral from salt lake. right during our prayer! haha then we were calling former investigators and a lady named judith was interested! So things happen we you pray. just remember that! Of course seeing those things happen humble you and strengthen your faith. no complaints on my end! THEN yesterday at church, a woman walked in-she's totally open. Coming back next sunday, loved church, has a 17yr old daughter, is from china so she's mostly been taught that God doesn't exist but our ward has a gospel principles class for investigators or RCs and the lesson was on our Heavenly Father so it went really well! Super blessing alert.

I totally forgot to mention a super funny phone call we got about 3 or so weeks ago. I answered it and he was like, "Hi, this is John-i'm going to India to find myself a wife and i keep hearing my ex-wife's voice in my head saying she's going to kill me, I suffer from scizophrenia (sp check?) and i was wondering if you could say a prayer for me right now." I was like uhhhhhh and by this time i had it on speaker and sis Wirthlin was listening and i held it out to her and mouthed, "you do it! there is nooo way i'll be able to." So she was like, "uhm, ya...sure...what do you want me to say?" he explained the situation over again and we just couldn't stop laughing. which is probably pretty bad but we had no idea who this guy was! So we said a prayer and he really appreciated it but that was one for the books.

I WENT ON EXCHANGES! Wednesday night we drove down to Weston and I was companions with Sister Woo from Hong Kong. They only ride buses there! So i got to talk to people on the bus and we had some great appointments and i committed someone to baptism! First one! too bad i have nothing to do with her now! haha It was a great experience. The zone leaders were at the lesson too and then they drove us to another appt with a lady who is trying to quit smoking so she can get baptized. I learned a lot, it was really good! It forced me to be more outgoing and it got easier throughout the day. We were in Jane&Finch, a super sketch part of Toronto, haha it reminded me of ghetto Vegas. Plus riding the buses...quite the experience. Sis Woo was like, "you shouldn't be afraid to talk to people, they'll like you cuz you're white." hahah I was definitely a minority there! It was sister Woo's 6month mark and we had met up with some elders at subway and they convinced her to burn something. elders usually burn ties i guess? ya, so we burned an old shirt. Effective use of time? probably not...but it was fun! 

 I can't believe you quoted me in stk conf dad...totes embarrassing! haha 

To answer your questions...

no, didn't get a baptism date this week. it's been a hard week! our ZLs got mad at us cuz we use so many k's. like there's a zone party/get together in weston today but we would use over 200ks to go there and drive to milton that we told them we can't come. Hopefully that will show them that we're trying and make them feel bad for rebuking us. Today is transfers! and we got a new district leader and a 2 new: a mandarin & spanish speaking elder.  Sooo we're trying our best! and are frustrated sometimes but holiday weeks are super slow. and we're seeing things get picked up! holla!

Mom, do you put pics on my blog too? 

Well, this week has been slow but miracles have happened! I survived jane&finch and we're excited to be staying in Oakville another transfer.

love sister messer

A NEW YEAR...NEW GOALS!

Milton, Ontario-This is in Sister Messer's area

Hello everyone! It's cold. Today we stepped out of our apt and breathed in a little and we both started coughing. hahaha i was like, "so thiiiiiis is what they all warned me about!" it took me back to the old stomping day of Rexburg, ID. It basically feels like -30* in idaho when it's -15*C here...but i think that's only like 10*F. whatever, it's pretty chilly... and we didn't dress for it. holla! 

Our New Years celebration...well, we had to be in by 6pm but we had a dinner appt at 5:30 so we were home by about 6:45. We just did boring stuff and went to bed early. We thought about setting our alarms for midnight and then said ehhh nope, not gonna happen.

This week was slow too...we just are having the hardest time finding people! We got our oil changed yesterday at a jiffy lube. The mechanic working on our car was really nice and as we were paying he asked us how our new years and cmas was. So we told him that were missionaries and what we do. He is from Orange County, California and hadn't heard what we believe before so we gave him a mormon.org card and our numbers...hopefully he'll call! we've been praying that he will! It would definitely be a miracle.

We also met a 13 year old girl through a recent convert, her step sister, who is my age. She's interested in the Gospel but her parents aren't too keen on the idea but we went over and had a super casual conversation with her parents and just kind of got to know them. Hoepfully we will go over again this week. She's super cute, and really into ballet. Her name is Caroline.

Right before we went over, we had a dinner party with some families from the ward. They were all Phillipino and the food was so interesting! I might have eaten squid...but i though it was zuccini. So the good news is i survived.

We both set new years resolutions physical, mental & spiritual. We hung them on our wall and are trying to be better at them :) One of them is more energy at our 630 work out time! haha sometimes we just lay there and think about stretching. Most days are pretty good though. 

We think of new goals daily that will help us and help us find people. This week we're really focusing on loving EVERYONE! There's  great things in Preach My Gospel that are really helping us do that. Serving is a big one, we have a meeting at this place called Interim today. It's a house for woman who are being abused and have no where to go. We'll see how that goes...and how often we'd be able to help and what kind of stuff they would have us do. We're not entirely sure that's where we should be serving so we're gonna be really open to the spirit while we meet with this woman today. We are trying to serve the members more though because gaining that trust will hopefully lead them to giving us referrals and that's what we need, people to teach! The work continues to go along, and we have our great times and our slow and doubtful times but there are goals to work towards!!! 

Miss and love you!

Sister Messer