Thinking outside of the box

Helloooooo everyone! I'm doing well! This week we taught Nanthini a couple of times and committed her to baptism on May 6! We still have a lot to cover with her because she is Hindu...but we taught a really powerful lesson at the Brampton Soccer Center while her son was at school. haha We taught her how to pray and the Spirit was so strong! Sister Anusuya (that's how you "officially" spell it) said it in Tamil so Nanthini could understand it more fully and Nanthini just started crying. We just wanted her to know for herself that God loved her and knows her personally and she got that answer! It's probably the coolest lesson i've been involved with thus far. Having SisA translate some parts in tamil is such a blessing. I think she'll be in this area for a long time because there are so many indian people here. Why i'm here with her? I'm still trying to figure that one out...haha So that was really exciting. We are working towards that date as a goal but her cousin is getting married and she has something wrong with a disc in her back causing headaches and what not. She was coming to church yesterday to get a blessing but couldn't make it because she felt so sick. Investigators ALWAYS get sick and miss church the week after they commit to baptism haha...ironic, eh? She loves meeting with us though and we have a great relationship so I really hope we can help her out. Sister Wirthlin left on Tuesday. Her companion arrived from the MTC so we sent them off to Oakville. But Sister Scott invited us over for dinner on Tuesday night so Sister Anusuya, Wirthlin, Harwood & I got to spend dinner with President and Sister Scott! We're pretty lucky. In attempt to find some new investigators we've been thinking out of the box. So this week we set up a table on the grass outside the church by the sidewalk with BOMs in all different languages, pamphlets, cards...you name it, we had it. The coolest thing happened. Amidst the people crossing the road to avoid us a car came to a slow putt-putt stop right in front of the table. We stood there for a second in pure shock and then walked up to them and their car had run out of gas right in front of us. hahaha There's a gas station just 200 yards down the road. They were sikh but were totally open to hearing what we had to share. They said they were really excited to read the BOM...I was back at the table talking to people who were passing but the sisters didn't get their #! So hopefully they'll call. We thought that was the coolest thing though. I got a GPS! It's saving our life every day. :) It was right after SisW left we drove to Canadian Tire (kind of like WalMart but not as good) and there it was- the cheapest i'd found it so I bought it! So to answer about Vivian---she sounds great on the phone. Now that missionaries are in Oakville hopefully they can meet with her again. We took Sister A to her first Dairy Queen visit. I bought her a choc dipped cone. She kept saying, "oh sister, this is sooo goooood!" haha she's so funny. Every time we pass she says, "next month we're going there again!" If any of you would like to write her, she would LOVE it! Sister Wirthlin and I got on a topic about how scary it is to run up the stairs in front of someone in your family because they always try to spank you or something...you know what i'm talking about? hahah We were laughing and both agreed that when your dad follows you it's always the worst for some reason. Anyways, she was teary eyed and expressed how sad she was never having a caring dad because her dad was abusive and left her family when she was young... We got stopped by a pastor from a different church the other day. He was passing in his car and saw us walking so he pulled over and started to talk to us. He asked us how many people we had converted. haha He was really nice and was just curious about the work we do. He even thanked us for being young and active in church. It was interesting. We continue to do work in Brampton!Can't wait to talk to ya on Mothers day! I realized yesterday that it'll be here before ya know it! I"ll try to find someone who will let us use thier skype! :) love and miss you sister messer

Life in Brampton

April 16, 2012
Hey Everyone!
How do you like your apartment? What does it look like? The new apt is pretty good. It's in an older apt building and it's on the 4th floor. We have a balcony that overlooks some new townhouse apartment buildings and you can see some taller apt building in the distance in downton Brampton so that's good. Our fan in the bathroom hasn't worked in a couple years so we have some mild mold issues. I called the super intendent and they said, "ya, you've told us that before, we don't know what to really do about it." hahah well, thank you kind sir! So the couple missionaries in charge of our apt said they'll take care of it. What does it look like? Well, it's got hard-wood parquet flooring throughout the whole thing, except tile in the kitchen and bathroom. It's got a bedroom and a bathroom ... i'll try to remember to send some pictures :)
What are you learning from Sis. Anushya? Is she Sr. companion? How do you phonetically say her name? Why did she stand in elephant poo? Sis Anushya has been out for just a couple of transfers. I'm the senior companion. It's pronounced Anoo-sha. Standing in elephant poo is something to do with Hinduism. I'm sure you can google it ;)
Are you driving now? I am driving! We have a 2011 white Chevy malibu. It was weird driving after like 6 months. haha To make it even better I had to start driving on 6 lane freeway after dropping off SisWirthlin in Weston. It was quite exciting...But we made it alive. have i told you about the black boxes installed in all the cars? They talk to you if you speed it says "speeding violation" and you have to slow down or it's recorded. It's moniters your driving so they can tell who needs to be 'red dotted' and can't drive anymore and stuff. I only heard speeding violation a few times :)
Did Sis. Wirthlin leave today? She hasn't left yet. Her companion is being held up even longer but we do find out if she's staying with us the entire transfer or going somewhere else later today.
What did you do this week? I"ll tell ya in a sec!
How did your church tour to the Hindu family go? The father just came and it went pretty well. We need to focus on his wife but they're really hard to get in contact with.
Did you get a follow up with the film maker at the library last week? Nope, he never called. haha
Alright, so this week was pretty good. We had dinner with the Temple president and his wife. He actually served his mission here in Toronto and was the AP to Pres Monson. They're from Santa Monica and he said Pres Monson talked to him over a conference call and asked them to come back out here. I really like them, they're nice. Know what else he told us? Well apparently there are sister missionaries just assigned to do flower arrangements in temples! how cool is that? They were just here in Toronto and spent like 3 days in the temple making new arrangements for the rooms. They fly to different temples and do that. They had just been at the Boston Temple...cool, eh?
I got an interesting call from the mission office at like 8:45 on Thursday. It was sister sippel who works the front desk. She said, "a lady named Vivian just called the office looking for you." haha Vivian had called looking to talk to me but we're not supposed to call out of our zone. She said i could call her this once so i did. She was just wondering how I was...i talked to her girls and told them i'd come to their baptisms! haha
We were at the stake center for our district meeting on wednesday and saw this lady sitting on the bottom step of her bus in the parking lot, smoking. So we went and talked to her. She drives a school bus once a month to the temple with members from Toronto ward in it. She was interested in the gospel! Sadly for us she lives in Scarborough which is not in our area but we had a great chat with her and referred her to some awesome sister missionaries there. It was cool!
We have started teaching a woman named Nanthini. She's from Sri Lanka and speaks Tamil which is the same language sisterA speaks. She came to church on Sunday with her 2 boys! She's great. We were sitting at a park teaching her and she touched my legs and said, "so nice"...see? President put me here because of my porcelain whiteness! hahah whatever helps the work!
Wanna know something cool? The bishop's wife in this ward helped to translate the BOM into the Tamil language. She's tanslating the D&C right now...cool, eh?
Dad asked how Sis Anushya joined the church. She was 16 and she worked nearby the chapel in her town in India. She said they walked in and were interested. (golden!) She said her mom stopped worshipping idols and what not a couple of years earlier. They were Hindu and worshipped idols! So that's basically it...the rest is history!
We're trying to teach a few yw aged girls in the ward who aren't members...this area is open! The people have been really nice, even if they aren't interested. YEs, i AM getting sick of the indian food smell...I'll have to burn a candle...i did this morning!

love and miss ya!
Sister Messer

New area-Brampton, Ontario!

Me and sister Anushya with the Weston sisters at the Toronto Temple



Hello!
Whew, what a week! It's flown by. I LOVE serving in the Brampton 1st ward! Brampton is super diverse and it's actually the #1 most populated with people from India outside of India. Plus my companion is from India-she says they love white people. So we should have some success here-i'm basically as white as they get. There are old guys walking around with turbans EVERYWHERE. There are tons of sich people here (prounounced seek)-which are the guys with turbans and ladies with dresses. It's the strangest thing. The funny thing is they are super friendly and if you say "nameste gee" to them it means good afternoon in hindi. Sister Anushya (my new companion) taught me that. She speaks a little hindi and tamel. By the way i'm probably not spelling any of this stuff correctly. :) So we stop and talk to them often. They try to communicate but don't speak english hardly at all. The same man with the turban comes and sits on the church stairs every day at the same time and talks with 2 other sich guys too. On Saturday the elders in our ward had a baptism and we went and saw them sitting on the steps so we invited them in! Here come 3 turban guys walking down the hallway and sitting in the relief society room in the front row. It was quite the site. We tried to communicate but it didn't go very well. Sister Anushya can a little bit but doesn't speak their language very well. After about 10 minutes they all got up and said bye so they missed the baptism but they're the coolest. We wave to them a lot and say hello. They're pretty cool.
So a little bit about my new area- We share the brampton 1st ward with elders. We took the north side and them the south. It's cool having other missionaries in the same ward. They've never had that in this ward before so it's like whitewashing. We're opening up a new area. The mission home is less than 3 kilometers away and the mission office too. So sending packages to the office would be better than sending them to my new address-
47 McMurchy Ave N. #411
Brampton, ON
L6X 1X5
Because our mail comes through a slot on our door. Packages have to be picked up somewhere i think. We go to the office every pday to look for mail sent to the office so if you ever have a desire to send a package, send it the office :) But guess what? The temple is in our area! I get to see it every day. In fact, last Friday we got to go! Every 6 months or so the missionaries in the surrounding areas get up early and get to attend. It was a great day. We also had interviews with president that day too, they went well.
Sister Anushya is from South India. Her family converted to the church 6 years ago. She was Hindu and was blessed by elephants, stood in their poo, all that good stuff. It's really interesting to talk to her about it all. Her culture is SO different than ours! She was telling us how she would like an arranged marriage, she cooks indian food every day (it's pretty good!) and they sleep on the floor back home. Sister Wirthlin is with us until the 16th when her companion who is held up at the MTC gets here. Being in a threesome is actually pretty fun. However, we look like a mob if we're tracting or street contacting. haha
I was able to say goodbye to great people in Oakville. The saddest was definitely Vivian. We went to Dollarama (that's where she works) and she got off her ladder (she was hanging up paint rollers) and was really sad, she gave me a big hug and asked me to write down all my information for her. I told her i would come to her baptism...a couple of days later she was on the phone with Sis Wirthlin and she found out I was right by her and asked to talk to me. She was soooo excited to talk to me and I felt like maybe I had helped her out a little bit, it made me feel like my effort with her in Oakville really did help her and it made me really happy!
Easter for us was great. We dropped by some former investigators and met some Hindu people that are really interested in the fact that families can be eternal. In fact, the woman was crying the whole time...we're giving them a church tour this week so hopefully that will go really well :) Brampton area is so open to listening compared to Oakville. We had dinner with the elders in our ward (elder fox and elder raikes) and elder and sister carrol-a senior couple that also is brampton 1st that works at the mission office at the DeDios family's house. They're great! They have a son named Matty who wants to be a music producer and he is sooo talented at the piano, he played me a taylor swift song...shhh don't tell :)
For your questions-
What day did you end up moving? Tuesday we got to Brampton
Tell us all about your new place and your new companion. We live in an apt complex..it has a balcony, parquet flooring and with a little sprucing up can shine like the top of the chrysler building.
Maybe she can teach you some of her India dance….You know that’s one of the first things I’d ask her about! I did too! haha we haven't had time yet but she's going to teach me.
Can you still see Lake Ontario and Toronto? I can see Toronto when we're driving to Caldone (part of our area). But we're not close by lake ontario anymore.
Well, i hope that answered your questions...and i hope i didn't forget much information. We're just getting this are rolling and meeting all sorts of interesting people! The guy at the computer next to me told me i type really fast and then told me about a job he had working with a movie producer...i think he needs to hear about the Gospel! wish me luck :)
Sister Messer

I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!

Pictures attached: Sister Woo and I at sisters conference in Brampton (she's from Hong Kong and i went on exchanges with her in Weston a couple of months ago) and our district at our district meeting in Hamilton...as well as me with my Easter packages! Thank you! haha

HEY Everybody!!!
Guess whaaaat?! I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED! Yup, we thought we were safe 100% but then this morning during companionship study, Assistand Pead called and gave us the news. I'm moving to Brampton 1st ward. Not too far away! Nearby all the mission headquarters and what not. Crazy, eh? I even recorded videos of me talking on my camera but the files are too big to send via email-what's a girl to do?! But really...what am i supposed to do? Hmm But more news about that area- my companion's name is Sister Anushya. She's from INDIA. Not even kidding...I was talking to her a couple of weeks ago at our zone conference. She seems pretty cool- but India? insane! She may be a woman of few words soooo that's gonna be a change. Probably means i'll have to talk a little more...haha Sister Wirthlin is training but her trainee is stuck at the MTC for an extra week, so she'll be coming to Brampton and we will be a threesome for a week.
This week has been full of miracles.
On Friday morning we had an appt with a member who had invited her friend over to be taught. She cancelled last minute so we were left with the morning empty. We called and got an appt with a less-active member so we decided to head over to that area and find something to do there before the apt. Usually we hate to tract in apartment buildings because missionaries get thrown out sometimes if they're caught but we had a prompting to tract this particular building, so we did! It's in a pretty sketch area (shhh don't tell Gma) But we started on the 10th floor and listened at the door- if there was weird rap music or yelling we didn't knock.haha But we knocked on a couple of doors and we met Charlene. She's living common law with her boyfriend and they have 4 year old son. She's super cool! They have been looking to get married and actually called our chapel in Oakville and talked to Bishop Watson about using our church for the wedding/reception. That was pretty recently and then we found her! She's really interested and we have an apt with her this week...well, i don't. :( Such a bummer! On our way out of the building, we ran into Mr.O (remember them? the family that were former investigators) and he said, "hey! how are you?! Why haven't you been coming?" and we were like, "hey, you bombed 2 apts with us!" and he's like, "whatttttt, whenn?!" So anyways, he said he wants us to teach him still. So we met with him and his 2 sons last night. He said they all would love to be baptized if they're mom agrees. She's busy but as soon as we can meet with them as a family they will be baptized! how great is that? Well to make this story even better as soon as we left our less-active cancelled. Had she cancelled any earlier we wouldn't have even gone to that area, tracted into Charlene and ran into Mr. O. God's timing...eh?
On Wednesday we had sisters conference! It was really great. We talked a lot about our calling & ministry, what makes the ideal missionary experience, how to work with The Spirit and things the other sisters didn't learn at leadership conference. It was really great to be able to see all the sisters. We took a picture all together- hopefully they'll send that around soon. Something I really like that I heard was "God's motivation is love, Christ's motivation is love and ours needs to be love too." Just as we try our best to be Christ-like and love everyone it's a great reminder. There was also a lot about love in General Conference this weekend which brings me to my next topic--
General Conference was great!
It was like Christmas for missionaries. I didn't notice Archie in the choir but that picture you sent me was sweet! I did see Taylor Cox in the choir though-how cool would that be? To be able to sing at GC? man...and with Archie! haha They talked a lot about families, eh? and missionary work too...i've never gotten so much out of Conference before! We did get to watch all 4 sessions. They started at 12 and 4.
One more story for ya, after the Saturday evening session, we were dropping by former investigators and at one house found Dani (a former's cousin) She said she had been crying the night before and really loved what we had to share with her. We haven't been able to talk to her since but hopefully we can get in contact with her soon. It was another miracle!
We continue to struggle getting V to set a baptismal date...but being so nearby Oakville maybe i'll get to come to it when it actually happens!
So you had a great time in Utah? That's cool. I thought of you as I watched all the way from here. haha We watched it at the chapel and not very many people came, i think many of them just watch it at home on their computers. But both days we were invited inbetween sessions to have lunch with some members so that was fun.

Sister Ence and I (who we met in St. George before I left)
The new elder from mexico sounds miserable! Is he getting taken care of by members? Something that means a lot to missionaries is a dinner apt on a hard day...do they get fed a lot by the ward? I think i'm good as far as stuff from the dist center or deseret book. Thanks for the Easter packages! They were fun to open :) i guess i could've waited until easter butttt the though didn't even cross my mind so i guess it wasn't supposed to happen! :) haha
Well, this should be a very interesting week. A new start...in Brampton! I'm kinda scurrrred. haha Love and miss you
Sister Messer

A pretty good week!

pictures- The one with 6 sisters is at zone conference last week in Etobicoke. It's just a few of the sisters in the parking lot at the chapel. Spot a familiar face? Sister Ence is the one we met in st. george back in September/october.
Also Vivian and her daughters Allegra and Chancey. Chancey is hamming it up. haha Vivian doesn't look too excited, i'm not quite sure why! haha Notice how it's in front of the baptismal font doors- we were showing her the font, of course!
And a picture of us bowling last Pday.


Anyways...this past week was a pretty good one. We were able to meet with Vivian a couple of times and at church on Sunday we were showing her the baptismal font and a member came in and was like, "hey Vivian! You're getting baptized! When is the date?" I just looked at her and waited for her response cuz we wonder the same thing! Every day. She said, "soon, it's soon." Sooooo how soon? Hopefully this sunday? :) Who knows if SisW and I will be here next transfer! It's possible but ya never know. We're really working with her though! She told us if she doesn't come to church, Allegra will cry. She's 9 and we asked her if she wants to be baptized and she said yes, then Chancey (who is 7) yelled,"That's not fair! I wanna be baptized too!" haha So hopefully Allegra and Vivian will be baptized together- soon.
Before a family moved out of the ward and to Utah we went to say bye and asked them to hand over some referrals because they'll never see these people again- they gave us 3 and we went to see one the a couple of days ago. She told us she was Catholic and wasn't really interested but we kept talking and found out she was a genealogist! We told her about our family history class on wednesday nights and she got super excited, we're teaching her this wednesday! I've learned that a lot- most times people will say they're not interested but as you start just talking and relating to them they become really open. You smile really big and just be really friendly and by the end they're totally open to meeting with you. It's happened a couple of times now. We're learning (SisW and I) how to be missionaries together. Who could resist a couple of faces like ours?
Last Monday was a fun Pday. We ate out at Swiss Chalet (a restaurant here in canada) and went bowling- as you can see. It was a really warm day and it was fun to just get out and do something different.
Zone Conference was really good. Elder Duncan and his wife came (He's president of the 1st quorum of 70 i believe) and they like to shake everyones hand and talk to you for a second before the meeting starts. He told me that his family used to live in St. George. He talked about concerns we had, how to work with spirit, exact obedience and some other good stuff. :) After the meeting we took a big picture outside with everyone. Hopefully a copy of it will be getting sent around! We shook his hand goodbye and he was talking to just sis W and I and he said, "I noticed both of you were really in tune the entire time, you're great!" Something like that, but it was pretty neat to be told we're awesome by someone so "up there" haha How could you not be in tune the whole time? I'm going to have a whole new appreciation for General Conf next week! Weird how that's the type of things I look fwd to now. Oh, i forgot the best part. I forgot my nametag! On our way there i looked down and i didn't have it on. So i wore sisW and covered it with my hair. I told Sister Scott (mission pres wife) and she laughed and said, "i've done that too- it always happens on the important days too!"

Well, it should be interesting to see if we stay another transfer. Sister missionaries only have 13 transfers and I have 10 left! Another in Oakville? If so we'll be moving into our new apartment then. March flew by! I can't believe it's amost April! Thanks for everything- love and miss you!
Sister Messer

Contacting Contacting Contacting...

Hello!

Well this week was another week calling a lot of former investigators and setting up appointments. We figure there is a reason we found over 100 former investigator sheets in a file folder in the bookcase so we're contacting all of them! We have gotten quite a few appointments and investigators from doing that. Hopefully some of them are interested! We walked a lot this week because it's been so warm and sunny, talking to people along the way. Street contacting in Oakville is really not very successful. There are a lot of very wealthy people around here. We were going through old baptismal records- the last baptism for the Oakville ward was in July! Plus all the baptisms in the last couple of years have all fallen inactive except for one. Not cool, eh? But we did get a new ward mission leader yesterday! He is great! His name is Brother Taylor and he just got released from the stake high council when the stakes split. Him and his wife are from the states! :) He works for General Mills and so he travels a lot but maybe he can supply Cheerios for us ;) haha They have a daughter on a mission in Arizona. They're very missionary minded and his wife is the Primary President. He's got some great ideas, hopefully this will help get the ward involved and some baptisms in the works!

One of our investigators came to church yesterday with her two girls. We have talked to her a lot about baptism and she said she will tell us when she is ready. It's pretty frustrating, but we continue to work with her. We've been able to help her a lot in the last few months and i know she'll get baptized...i just would love to be here when she does :) Her 9 year old daughter asked for an english Book of Mormon yesterday...maybe she'll get baptized before her mother does! haha We have been making some good progress with her though. She always says she's too tired to pray when we're there but on Saturday she said a very nice prayer! It was in french...but i understood the words "Christ" and "missionaries". that's good enough for me!
We've been focusing on less active families too. We were at a family's house last week and they have a son who is 18 and he came downstairs and talked a little bit with us...he said he was preparing to go on a mission and getting ready for that and that he wanted to go. After he left his mom (who has a strong testimony) said, "that's the first time i've ever heard him say that!" she was shocked! Yesterday he was ordained as a priest! He really is working towards a mission. So even if we don't see baptisms in oakville, hopefully we helped some other people.
Today we aren't going to the CN Tower. SisW wants to wait until she's got some more money because it costs like 30$ to go to the top. But some day....SOME DAY! Even if i have to come back in like ten years. I will reach the top :) But Sis Doehring, a member from Lindsay is coming to take us to lunch and stuff. SisW knew her from her last area and established a great relationship with her. She comes down every once in a while and we have a good time with her.
To answer your question about the different races and prejudice people---i don't see any of that. I really don't think i've ever heard one prejudice remark. People here just come from all necks of the woods.
We talked to a lady the other day who's car was broken down in the middle of the street. I think she was glad not to be awkwardly standing there alone.
No, i haven't heard from any of my BYUI friends. Maybe some of them read my blog? WRITE ME dang it! ;) I do hear from Corinne A LOT! she is in a spanish speaking area in New Mexico but she's speaking English! She says she writes down her testimony or prayers in spanish and reads it. haha her Mission pres said he knows she is supposed to be there, not learning spanish...crazy, eh?!
This week we have a zone conference in Etobicoke (JoeyVotto in the house!) and next week we have a sisters conference in Brampton at the mission home! All the sisters in our mission are traveling down and we get to love it up i guess. Both should be awesome! Can you believe the end of March is approaching? i can't! Thank you for your prayers!!!
Love Sister Messer

For those BYUI friends Sister Messer's address is:

Sister Austriana Messer
Canada Toronto Mission
197 County Court Blvd Suite 203
Brampton, ON
L6W 4P6
Canada

pictures: A great family in the ward (Madsons) moved to Utah this week so we went over to say bye and they gave us a TON of food. That was a blessing! haha But for real, it was so magnificent we took a picture with it!
SisW and I were bored driving to Oakville one evening so we took some great pictures...

A bit better than last week

Hello everybody!
This week went a bit better than last. holla! We dropped some of those "golden investigators"..i think dad took the words right out of my mouth when he said it's hard when those "golden investigators are bronze at best" however, they turned out to be more 'rusty nail' than anything. We dropped them...didn't care to progress-said they had been "looking for the true church for 40 years!" Alas, the promise that if they read and prayed about the BOM last week they would get their answer was not taken seriously.
Good news with another though! She came out to church yesterday! With her 2 girls! She even found her own ride! That's a huge milestone. We had left her alone for all of last week and called her on Friday and she was so excited to hear from us. She said, "i'm coming to church on Sunday and i'll call you if i need a ride!" She was a little late so we were thinking it wasn't going to happen but then she walked in! Good thing we saved a spot for her! Her daughters loved primary, at the end of church they were walking around everywhere and i was like, "are you going to come back next week?" and they both really wanted to. So that is so great! She is realizing how important this is and hopefully we'll be able to extend a date to her this coming week.
We also had an appt with another family. They have been taught SO MUCH. Missionaries hadn't been back to visit in over 5 years. We had a really powerful lesson about following Christ and baptism- set a date for April 1 for the father and his son. (the rest of the family wasn't home) But he said, "if i get baptized, my whole family is getting baptized." We're like...no problemo! They have 2 boys-one is 9 and he was playing with his DS at the beginning and he was taking pictures of us! it was so funny, he was holding it up all sly and then when he pushed the button it made a camera taking noise and his eyes got really big and his dad looked at him like what the heck are you doing? haha he continued to take pictures with the sound off.
We got approved by the AP's to go the CN Tower! So next Pday i think we're gonna go! sweet, eh? We're excited. Mississauga is real close to Toronto and I can see the CN tower almost every day way out in the distance- it's HUMONGOUS! In fact, we were visiting a less active and she lives on the top of a tall apartment building in Oakville and I said, "can you see the Cn tower from your deck?" and we were looking and I found it way out in the distance and she got really excited and was like, "thank you so much for showing me that! It really inspires me!" It was weird though because I thought about it while we were talking to her earlier and I wasn't going to say anything and I kept thinking- i should ask her, i should ask her and like noooo that's stupid. But I brought it up while we were getting up to leave and it really made her day. I don't know why...but she got super excited. Odd prompting, eh?

Well, thanks for all the pics- hope i had some to send to you but i don't...i need to take more pictures! I'll be better at that!
Love Sister Messer

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARNIE!

I miss you & and all of your funny faces.

Love ya!

*no worries, this post was made a long time & scheduled for today :)

Discouraging week!

Hello!

Well today is a much needed Pday. This week was a poopy one. But you still gotta find blessings out of it right? and we definitely have had our fair share of blessings. Here's the latest with our gators. (investigators)

Laura was doing so well! She cancelled our appt this week because she is busy with work. She said she would continue to read and call us if she had any questions. I'd be real concerned about her but if she's ready, she's ready. The only hope is that she did answer when we called her and returned our text. haha There could still be hope! I surely hope so because she is a really great girl.

Another family also cancelled our appt because they "were going to church". nice, eh? So we are rescheduling this week.

Another sister.. Our ward mission leader had a cottage meeting at his house. (never hear of that until i got here but it's basically fhe) and we talked to her and she wanted to come but had to work. So we got her a ride and he picked her up from work, was going to take her to her house to get her kids and then take her to milton for the cottage meeting. Well, she was really tired and didnt really want to go but ended up going anyways. Her girls didn't come and everyone else going to the cottage meeting cancelled last minute. In her culture it's very scary for them to get in a car with someone they don't know and she expressed that concern to us. Makes sense-don't blame her. But she waits to tell us things like that after it's happened like 5 times already. So there are some communication problems and we're at a loss. It was a really awkward evening. luckily the meeting went alright and that day is in the past.

We don't have any baptism dates set. I think that's why this week has been kind of hard. We feel discouraged sometimes because we don't see our hard work turning into anything very often. But we have some good appointments this week and hopefully whatever the Lord needs us to learn from this we will learn :) Oakville is teaching us patience and teaching us to rely on the Lord...all while testing our faith, i suppose!

We did pick up two new gators though. From the stack of former investigators we found, we called them and they were excited to meet. Mr & Mrs Longman are in their 50s or 60s. They're the sweetest couple and are from Pakistan and India. They met with missionaries over 20 years ago and he said he's "been looking for the truth for 40 years". We promised them that if they read the BOM this week and sincerely prayed about it that they would receive the answer they 've been looking for. I called and talked to Mr. Longman last night and he was like, "is this sister messer?!" and was excited to talk haha he said he'd been reading about planting a seed and nourishing it. So i told him how that can apply to him and he said and i was reading Alma 36 about Alma too! he is such a talker but i told him how repentance and baptism can bless his life and how as we turn to Christ we can find that path that leads to happiness and he was dead silent. It was actually a pretty cool experience. They would be really great members and I really hope there's something we can do differently than the missionaries in the past that will prick their hearts.

 The pioneer trek sounds like an AWESOME experience! Dad said over 1000 people were there that day at st. thomas, that's sweet! 

So we were visiting a less active lady this week and she looks at me and her eyes get really big and she says, "You look like sara fergusson!!! When she married Prince" ---(whatever his names is) haha i was like...really? Aren't her daughters the ones that wore the ugly hats to the royal wedding? haha I have never gotten that one before.

We should be moving out of our house in Mississauga on april 1. We were approved for the appt by Lake ontario! So that should be pretty cool. That's also the same day as transfers...so that will be interesting. Make sure if you send anything towards the end of march that you send it the mission office address instead.

Well, pray that success happens this week! :)

sister messer

Picnic at the church

*Attached is a picture of our picnic at the church. We didn't have very many dinner appts this week and it takes to many kilometers to go home for dinner so we had dinner at the church! haha It was so pathetic I took a picture of it. 

Hello Everybody!                                                                               2/27/12

Well, it's been a pretty good week. Is that what I always say? haha We picked up some new investigators! Let me tell you about everyone we're teaching...don't worry, it won't take that long. The pickins are slim...Canada is harsh!

We were going through "former investigators" last week, which means they have been taught atleast once by other missionaries, and we called Laura. She was excited to hear from us and we set up an appt for later in the week. Well, the lesson went INCREDIBLE. The spirit was so strong and she is so ready to hear the Gospel! She had sat in on a lesson last May with an older lady who lives in her building but wasn't interested in hearing more from the elders. We taught her the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then she just started asking questions, especially about life after death. So we taught her the Plan of Salvation as well! Invited her to be baptized and she said yes! She is about 30 and we have gained a great relationship with her. It's crazy because we hardly even know her but it feels like we've been good friends for a long time. She works in downtown Toronto and invited us to take the train with her on a Pday so we can go to the CN Tower! :) double excitement! We're teaching her again tonight!

We also are teaching  A FAMILY! We also found them in the former investigators list. Their name is the Alegados. Wanna hear something crazy? The mom's brother is in the area 70 in the Phillipines. Crazy, eh? We just dropped by and she let us in and was excited to invite us back. She said she can see the happiness in her brother's family and would love her family to be happy too. We're teaching them this coming week as well. Pray that these appointments go well! It's such a huge blessing.

Now, about Vivian. She didn't show up to church yesterday so we called her and her husband told us she got called into work. So last night we dropped by and she was home. We asked her if this is something SHE wants because she understands the commitment and baptism is a big deal. She layed it all out on the table. She is so upset about her job right now and they basically work her like a slave. She's supporting her family, as well as her family back in Congo with small support from her separated husband. This is all with her minimum wage at the dollar store. She wants to spend more time with her family and even making time to meet with us is a huge sacrifice for her. So we're setting her up with our ward employment specialist and we're going to get her physical needs met a little better before her spiritual needs can be met. She wants to be able to give all she can to God when she is baptized and she told us she has way to much to worry about that she doesn't think she'd be able to do that right now. Her testimony is strong and she will be baptized but first sister wirthlin and I are going to help her become a little more happy and confident with her life. As well as getting the ward to fellowship and really help her out as well. It's the beginning of an upward climb for her! 

Last but not least, Kimberly- who's been taught for a long time by missionaries but we're taking a big of a different approach this time. We're gaining a great trust with her and she's been coming out to church. She has 2 little girls that are fun to play with as well.

So those are the main people we've been seeing lately.

So, you asked about the ward changes. Nothing happened in the ward, we still are in the Oakville ward but we're in the Hamilton stake now. So we drove out there this Wednesday for our district meeting. hamilton is really pretty! It looks like a European town. There are bridges that go over Lake Ontario...or other little lakes...and lots of trees and even hills! There's also a "castle" but it doesn't look like a castle, it looks more like a mansion. It's still cool though! Our new district is pretty big. There are 6 companionships. A funny story for ya, Elder Wheeler sat down next to me and we were talking about how we both went to BYUI and he asked where i lived and turns out we were in the same ward! haha I thought he had looked kinda familiar but i thought that was funny. Small world, eh?

We got a text from a recent convert that we meet with sometimes, her name is Victoria and she was like, "I just did baptisms at the temple and I was baptized for Elisabeth Messer!" Think we're related?! 

I got the Barlows package, thank you!

To be closer to Hamilton, we're trying to move to Oakville. It makes sense because right now we live out of our area and travel A LOT. We're probably moving to an apartment complex on Marine Drive in Oakville which is one block from Lake Ontario! If there's a tsunami we're in trouble. That's a weird thing about Lake Ontario is it looks like the ocean because it's so big. Just some useless information for ya.

Answering your questions...

-Nope, we're not teaching ESL anymore! It's sad but the elders in our old district aren't even in our stake anymore so it doesn't make much sense plus we weren't getting any new investigators out of it for us, but we were setting the elders up with some great people. haha

-I don't know if Archie has gotten his call yet. i just heard he was going.

-Street contacting effectively is just all about being bold. Instead of stopping the people and talking to them, you walk with them. Then they're kind of stuck with you. But also just being super bold and talking to EVERYONE because sometimes people look scary but they're really not!

That is really cool that mady got into BYU. Does she know where she's gonna live or what classes/major she wants yet? Lots to think about! :) All of her friends going off in a different direction, that's cool!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Sister Messer