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