Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors....What?!!!

Hey everyone!

attached are pictures of this week. We had some odd plumbing issues i let sister Tuia handle...and these 2 sikh guys are at the church every day. The one is reading a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet in Hindi :)

Well, this week has been a good one. We've been teaching Subhash a lot and he's doing so well! There were 2 baptisms last night- one from the elders in our ward and from the Heart Lake ward and he stayed for both! haha He met President Scott and talked to the RS president about food for after his baptism. After asking for permission to walk up and stand next to the font for the second one, he got up looked at us and put 2 thumbs up in the air! haha we just laughed. He's so ready and really excited for NEXT sunday at 5pm! holla! We had the funniest thing happen while teaching him the 10 commandments a few days ago. He was reading them out of Exodus and he got to "thou shalt not covet thy neighbors ass" and he paused and said, "oh my gosh....am i allowed to say that?!" Sis Tuia and i looked at each other and busted up. In his indian accent it was priceless. We assured him that it meant donkey and he was ok with it after that. But thinking about it how he initially thought it meant made me laugh even harder. He's awesome. Last monday he and his wife came over for dinner at the Bishops house. He has an amazing relationship with Bishop Solomon and his wife :)

This week we picked up a few new investigators. One being a lady named Nadine from Jamaica. The spanish elders found her about 2 months ago and we've been in contact w/her, inviting her out to church. 4 weeks ago, she came out and luckily sat right in front of us, since i didn't recognize her-after sacrament meeting i leaned forward and introduced myself and found out it was her! she had come! Well, 2 weeks later she came again (that was last week) and we taught her this week. She's gotten a lot more comfortable and fun to teach. We're seeing her tonight! She ran into her fellowshipper on the bus a few days ago and was asking her about baptism :) She even missed her stop (on purpose!) to continue to talk with the member!

We also started to work with Kira. Last week we were the elders at the church and they got a phone call from a Less active member who had just moved back into our ward boundaries. Luckily she lived on the North side which is our territory so we've gone over a couple of times to see her. While we were there on Saturday, her friend who lives upstairs (brampton is all about basement apartments...) and offered us some snacks and asked if she could sit in on our lesson. Well, she sat in while the elders a few years ago taught the less active member and she knows quite a bit. We're excited to try and continue to meet and teach the both of them together. Other than that, the other investigators we have are off and on. We had some good lessons with some this week but they haven't been answering calls. typical...

So it's been a good week. Pretty warm and humid but cooled off mid week making it a little less sweaty.  Sis Tuia and I are having a lot of fun. It probably helps that Subhash is such a golden investigator- we're excited for his baptism on Sunday! 

Love Sister Messer

Totes presh

Hey everyone!

Sister Messer and Sister Tuia

See her awesome tan line?

Their living room

Their kitchen

Sister Tuia teaching Sister Messer Samoan hair decorating

Well, this week has been pretty great. Last monday I got that picture and email you sent the office on my bday! haha We had interviews at the church but sister sippel printed off the picture of you guys at girls camp with the email you sent with it and gave it to me. Totes presh. That night we had dinner with the temple president and his wife. They're awesome. He was the AP to Pres. Monson when he served as mission president here. In fact, he showed us a picture in Pres. Monson's autobiography and it shows him in it! If you wanna search for it, it's on a page of pictures that also shows the old mission home in Ossington (downtown toronto) and Pres Monsons family too on the same pages.

I forgot to tell you about my new district at transfers. And now the transfer is 1/2 over! crazy. Well, Elder Rogers is in it! He serves in brampton ward too. He's from Vegas and we were in the same mtc district! So that's fun.

Samantha didn't get baptized yesterday. This week we've been trying to resolve her concerns a lot. Right now she still likes her old church because she has friends there and it seems more like 'home'. so we're working with the families in the ward to try and fellowship her more. I know if she felt like this ward was her home that she would love to be baptized.

Subhash is doing amazingly! We've met with him a few times this week and is progressing super quickly. He's really intelligent (retired physics/electronics professor) so he soaks it all in. He wanted to meet with us, Bishop Solomon and his wife, and the Starks (fellowshippers) yesterday after church. He had brought everyone flowers and expressed his deep gratitude for everything. It was a cool experience- He's been so prepared! Sis Tuia and I were like, "what did we ever do to deserve such an awesome investigator?!" Really though, we feel so blessed and love him to death! He brought his wife to church yesterday, too! her first time at a christian church- she's great. She's not as open as subhash but with time, who knows! The Starks invited us to lunch after church with subhash and his wife and it was a great time too.We're working towards the 29th for his baptism and he's already prepared...we can't wait!

We had a cool experience yesterday with an investigator named Parm. Sis anushy and I gave him a church tour last month and a few weeks ago sis T and i called him and taught him briefly. He told us that he has finals and is busy but is done on the 15th and if we're supposed to meet things will work out. WELL, last night we were walking around brampton and here he comes riding past on a bike! I was like, Parm! you know what this means! hahaha it was sooo meant to be. He laughed and kind of made up an excuse but we hope he really does think about it and realize we didn't run into each other in coincidence! haha

as for michael, his mom had a heart attack and he had to go to Calgary. We've been in contact through text but when he gets back, hopefully we can meet.

So things are keeping us pretty busy. Sounds like you are all doing well too. We were also listening to the nauvoo pageant cd in the car! haha i love torturing my companions with it. I guess it just doesn't have the same sentimental value to them :)

Have a wonderful week, i think you're pretty awesome too!

Love Sister Messer

(Oops! Forgot to post this for 7/3/12!) A NEW COMPANION

Sister Messer with first companion, Sis. Wirthlin and new companion, Sis. Tuia

Hey everyone!

Well, this week has been full of finding. Sister Tuia and I have been coming up with new finding ideas, trying to coorelate them and talking to everyone. We get along really well and we're super stoked to work together. Well, that's coming from me- if you asked her she may disagree ;) She's from Samoa, her dad is a stake president there, she's taught me how to do samoan dances and this is her 7th week in the field. She came pre-trained though, she's awesome. I'll attach some pictures!

Yup, yesterday was Canada Day. It's to celebrate their freedom, i guess. We sang Oh Canada in sacrament meeting- that was fun. Probably won't ever get to sing Oh Canada on Canada Day in sac meeting ever again in my life! haha

Yay, it IS my birthday on Friday! We planned to go out to lunch or something but we just got an email telling us we have interviews with President Scott. So that will be a good way to celebrate too, i suppose! I've gotten some packages from Gma/Gpa, Leavitts, Tar/Jenn and you guys! i'm waiting to open them on my bday, of course! THANKS!

I got a letter from Gma with some chapparel in it! it smells like desert rain! It was so cool to smell it, it made me think of walks around the reservoir! It looks like it's gonna rain here today- perfect for the picnic we've planned to have with our district.

With our district at the mission office

This week we stopped by our Bishops house and his wife said, "i'm translating the Doctrine & Covenants into tamil right now! Do you want to see?" she showed us her computer and all the notes and writings she's made. it was really neat- it was like behind the scenes joseph smith action goin on! She said it will be printed in about 6-8 months or so.

Well, I was reading about Abish in alma today and I love that she was just a servant...alas because of her boldness in sharing the gospel she was able to help with the conversion of thousands of lamanites- along with the testimonies of other people. She's the woman! It helps me to open my mouth and talk to everyone because you never know who you come in contact with if they're prepared to hear the gospel.

have a great week! love and miss ya'll

Sister Messer

8 MONTH ANNIVERSARY!

Hey everyone!

Well this week was basically amazing. Great week to celebrate turning 22! First things first, you want to know about my birthday:

it was really hot but good. Thanks for all the bday packages! I love everything you sent! all of you! gracias! We had interviews with President Scott and it was wonderful! I was walking down the hall for my interview and him and Sis. Scott approached me and said, "we saw it was your bday this morning! Happy Birthday!" and then Pres asked if the district had sang happy bday to me (ofcourse they hadn't, a bunch of elders- they had no idea.) and So he was like, "well there's no time like the present!" so he made the district sing happy bday and  then we carried on with our interview. He said he is really excited for sis Tuia and I to work together and that he wanted to get us together. I told him I had seen her picture in the office before she got here and I had thought we were going to be companions her 1st transfer. He sat back and said Really? and i was like yaaa! and he's like, "well I wanted to! but things just didn't work out with everything." but he's really excited to have us together and I LOVE being her companion! We have so much fun and work hard. We've seen some amazing miracles this week and i'm excited to tell you all about it!

Meet Subhash- 65 years old, from India, retired professor of electronics, hindu background. We met him street contacting near the church. We've taught him 3 times this week and he's planning to be baptized July 29!! He's absolutely, incredibly prepared. I don't even know where to start. He comes right out with his concerns so he is easy to teach and really cooperative and excited about everything! He calls us like twice a day-last night he called and said he LOVED church. He said, "it's like a kid's first day of school!" He was so excited and met some really awesome members. He just called us like 5 min ago because he wanted to show his grandaughter around the church. His family should come around in the future, too. He even brought us flowers as a thank-you, showed up 30min. early to church and we're meeting him again tomorrow. He's got some great fellowshippers and is building upon a GREAT foundation. pinch me, i'm dreaming.

Meet Michael- White, canadian, 40s, former professional lacrosse player. Met him street contacting...he had just been feeding the ducks at the pond across the street and didn't have a shirt on-i was apprehensive to contact him but thanks to Sis Tuia's bravness, we did! He wants to change...he's very unhappy and last night we met him at the park and taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ 5pts. He got really excited and found some hope for his life! He wants to be baptized on august 5! He yelled, "you guys have to come to my baptism!!!" haha so he really wants it! We're excited to help him quit some bad habits and we hope he has the strength to make it throught.

Samantha's baptism is this coming Sunday. She's got some concerns that we need to figure out this week. She is doing really well, and has a testimony...she's scared of something and we're working on it. We made calendars to chart bom reading for her and the 2 kids she lives with. They're great fellowshippers! We got them prizes for when they complete it and they're reading out of the kids picture book that tells the bom stories. They love it and they brought their calendars to church yesterday to show us how much they've completed. We rewarded them with some stickers.

So this week we've been very blessed! We're so excited to help them and grateful, too! We've been trying new finding ideas (story of my life.) and we had been advertising a church tour all week long with everyone we met. Guess how many people came? zip. 0. zilch. But we know our efforts were seen and we were blessed in other places.

Gma, you sent me that Amy B. Hansen cd- she's sooo good! We were driving listening to the first song (mix of sweet hour of prayer/praise to the man) and we were like holy cow! this is our jam! It's so awesome...youtube it or something. We agreed we need her address so we can write her a letter- wanna find that for us?

Kyle Shumway served in Brampton? It's definitely my fav area thus far. I haven't met anyone from zimbabwe. we were wondering about the # of referrals they got from the temple openhouse. We run into people often that said they went to it. 1500 referrals. WOW. we're lucky if we get 1 a week. Brampton has 3 wards- Brampton, Heartlake and spanish chingacousey. as well as credit view nearby.

Our bishops wife is indian, yes. She speaks tamil and hindi. He baptized her when he was on his mission!

Have a great week!

love sister messer