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