Sister De Groot and I made it safely to LONDON!

Hey Everyone!

    Sister De Groot and I made it safely to LONDON! Figuring out the buses has been super interesting. Still not even close to knowing what we're doing but it sure has been fun. We have a super cool story from it and i'll make sure to tell ya soon! But first i must tell you about my 3rd child- Sister De Groot. She's from  UT, she's only 20 and is my most favorite companion i've had thus far. (she's reading over my shoulder) but i wouldn't be completely lying if i really said that. She's pretty awesome, super duper funny. We have a blast. Best moment of the week was when we were waiting for the crosswalk to turn and the bus was coming on the other side of the road. It was 8:45 and the buses only come once an hour by that time. so it was do or die. She started pointing at us and the bus and we're yelling 'we want. your bus!' the driver saw us, waited and we ran through the snow and caught it. bless that bus driver. he'll be rewarded in the eternities.

   Just the other morning we had an early appt and we were at the bus stop waiting and then found out because it was saturday the bus still had over 30min til it was coming so we decided to go put more socks on and walk to the appt. We ended up getting a couple of calls while getting more socks and so we decided to catch the bus after all. While waiting a lady in a wheelchair drove up and we started talking to her. Rewind a few days, we were dropping by some less actives in the area and one had no address and so we were like well, we'll just tract and find her cuz we did know the complex she lived in but no one had seen her for years. That night didn't go as planned and we ran out of time to tract. But as we talked to that lady we found out that it was HER! As we talked to her she expressed how she had left the church and what not and had a bad experience with some missionaries in the past but after talking to her she said 'well if it was the 2 of you that came over i wouldn't mind'. we're going over tonight! pretty sweet, eh? it's cool to see the Lord's timing.

   So we are re-opening this area. it's been closed for almost a full transfer. We've been really blessed this week with some new investigators and members that are willing to drive us places and feed us. it's been great! The ward is really excited to have sisters and that's always great!

Sister Messer and De Groot

Loving riding the bus

Poor little pass along card!  Someone must have accidentally dropped it!

   new address- It's high rise condos. it's right by a river but it's been real snowy and cold this week. perfect week to be out walking again! haha

  We're in the ward with chinese elders as well. wow i'm not sure what to tell you. so much new stuff.  oh! i forgot to mention- sister wester is also training this transfer. there were 12 sisters i think that came out this transfer. We had interviews with President a couple of days ago. He thanked me for being 'a rock' and then basically told me i'm training again next transfer as well as sister de groot so i'll be moving again.  yayyyy. Saying goodbye to kitchener was sad. seriously bummed. but we had an amazing week, hit standards and everything so it was fantastic! I called our gators and told them goodbye and Ann ( the 75 yr old) was sad and she said, 'well it's a good thing i decided to be baptized before you left, eh?' i'm so bummed i'll miss it! we had it set up to have a baptism every week of feb in KW...hopefully they'll still go down!

   well my dearest people, thanks for the prayers, it's been a great week! it's supposed to warm up this week as well. that's just swell!

love sister messer

  

"I understand why you invited me to be baptized so soon, it's the beginning of learning...not the end."

Amanda, Louie, Sister Casner & Sister Messer

Sister Messer looking fashionable in her sneakers

Hey Everyone!

 Well, transfer calls came quick last night and i'm super stoked...and super nervous! haha Sister Casner is staying in KW ward. I've been transfered to London, opening a new area, training and it's a BUS area! Public transportation say what? That'll bring me even more out of my comfort zone and help me to develop all sorts of new skills! So i'm really excited. Should be interesting, that's for sure!

   This week has been absolutely amazing! Sister Casner and I hit the standards of excellence set for our mission :) We had 3 investigators at church & 4 baptismal dates. Other key indicators you probably don't care much about but we've been so blessed and I was bummed to leave the ward! This ward is so great! Amanda called us on Thursday and said she had decided she wanted to be baptized! She's set for Feb. 3. Her and her fiance came to church yesterday and it was greeeeaaat! We're teaching them together this week. err i mean, sister casner will be teaching them this week. Ann, our other gator, came to church also. She's the one who lives with a member, is 75 and from Tennessee. We invited her to be baptized and she said she'd pray about it. Turns out the lesson in RS was about baptism and confirmation and it helped out a lot! Afterwards she said, "I understand why you invited me to be baptized so soon, it's the beginning of learning...not the end." The older members in the ward are amazed that she's come out to church cuz in the past she's been so close  minded about it all. Great things are happening! We also picked up 5 new gators this week. holla! One of them, Ken, his mom was a member and had 22 children. wow.

   We had a neat experience Sunday morning when we were doing our studies before church. It was snowing pretty heavy and we knew that Anne and her roommate have a hard time getting out when the weather is bad. So we prayed that the snow would stop so they could feel well and make it to church. We waited a few minutes and the sun came out, we gave them a call and they both said, "we're ready to go!" It was an awesome Sunday.

   Let's see, Viola not only has pneumonia but also Strep now...so that's made it hard for us to meet with her and really hard for her to come out to church but we re-set her with a bapt. date to work towards.

   This transfer has been one full of service. We've really tried to just go about doing good. It's produced so many blessings! The members are really trusting us it's been great.

Our Kitchener Ward District!

Have a wonderful week!

Love Sister Messer

within the next 2 transfers, there will be 80 new missionaries and 40 new areas and only 2 new cars...

Hola!

   This week was a great week! We picked up a couple new investigators, got a hold of Viola and Amanda after not being able to see them for a couple of weeks and had 2 gators at church. So that was pretty sweet. We have tried hard this transfer to really build up this area because there was only 1 investigator when we got here. But we have quite the teaching pool now and into the new year, they're over the cmas holiday making more time for us...and church :) However it's the last week of the transfer and within the next 2 transfers, there will be 80 new missionaries and 40 new areas and only 2 new cars. haha Lots of busing, biking, walking and sharing cars so we're told. maybe i'll finally be transferred to toronto! haha I really do love this area though. we've really put our heart into it so i'll miss it if i go but who knows! I may be staying!

   You'll LOVE this experience. Last night we were scrambling to find one more investigator with a baptismal date to hit the standard of excellence. We were dropping by formers and we found Lena. She lives in a house that a former investigator used to live in. When she answered she told us that she had worked with LDS members a long time ago in Lindsey, ON. She said, "i even went out to visit some of them in Vegas." I said, "hey! I'm from Vegas." she said, "do you know Betty and Keith Adams?" I was like WOW! you bet i do! That's my great uncle! My gpa is his brother! She was pretty excited about that, and so was i. She asked if they were both alive and where they were and stuff, so I told her that I would ask if keith remembered her.  Cool story, eh?! 

   We went on exchanges this week. I served in Guelph with Sis. Brown. It was a great day! We talked to some really great people, one lady we met sitting on a picnic table and she has been living outside for over 2 years in Guelph. Some may call her homeless i suppose...but she has family in Toronto, it's just something she chooses to do. She had a bike and it pulled this little trailer that she kept everything she needed in. Some people are so interesting. Then we met this 17 yr old boy named Tony who decided to accept God and wanted to learn about Christ when he was in prison. They're teaching him tonight, i hope it goes good! He was a really cool guy that really regrets some choices he's made in the past. It's cool to see how humbled he had been and his desire to change as we told him what we do as missionaries.

   So I can tell you a little bit about our gators since it sounds like you usually like to hear about them. We're still teaching Viola, in fact she's stopped smoking as of today! We set her with a new date for Feb 10 and gave her a calendar to help her progress towards that date. Amanda is still sick but getting better. We had a great meeting with her this week and she told us a lot about her that we can hopefully teach to meet her needs better now. We are teaching Pedro, he's from Brazil and is 10. His dad used to be a member and so we're teaching them kind of together. They're great though! They came to church yesterday and Gabriel, the youngest son was clutched onto his BOM the entire time. We're having FHE with them tomorrow. William (pm family) has become more and more interested as we taught him about eternal families and how his family can be together forever! He came to church yesterday with his family, suited up in his white shirt and tie. Then there's Ann, the 70 yr old woman who is roommates with a less-active member. She told us that the first time we met her she felt like we were meant to be here to teach her, that it's the perfect time for her. Then her roommate was sick so they didn't come to church because she doesn't feel comfortable coming without her but we basically got a pinky promise for next week so i'm holding them to it. They're all so great! I wish you could meet them :) we're working with some great less- actives too. This area is really starting to pick up (knock on wood). But wish me luck with transfer calls! I'll let ya know next Monday what's goin down. Love and miss ya'll

Sister Messer

I wouldn't trade it for anything

Hey everyone!

BOM read a thon cmas eve! 

    I can't believe that for the entire 2012 i've been a missionary. It's crazy to think! I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's absolutely flown by. I'm looking forward to 2013...until May ;) As you know, the mission read the BOM together on Christmas eve/day and on New Years Eve and New Years Day. We finished it right on schedule! It was a neat experience. Reading about people doing that in the new era and what not- i always thought they were crazy. But now i can say i've done it! haha I'm one of those crazy people! Reading it as a missionary, with a bunch of missionaries was cool because you always tell your investigators to read certain portions for assignments and the spirit was really strong in some of those particular parts, strengthening my testimony of the truth of the BOM. Like at the beginning, the intro to 1 Nephi, 3 Nephi 11 and Moroni 10. It was fun to be with the zone too. We had the Woodstock sisters over on New Years night. Sister Wester (my baby!) and I had a good talk about our new areas and our struggles which is what both of us really needed. My testimony of prayer being answered through other people has been strengthened a lot this week. I know the Lord uses all of us as instruments to help those who need it. Whether it be finding the elect or just calling someone at a time when they're feeling down. I'm definitely going to try to be more aware of those promptings now and forever.

. our zone after winning PMG jeopardy at our cmas zone conference

Some Americans gave us Life cereal.  We can't get that in Canada!

     It's been a rough week. Sister Casner got real sick Pday night last week and for the next couple of days making it hard to get out of our apartment and that was REALLY hard for me! I'd never felt like such a useless missionary. haha But that gave me the opportunity to serve and to work on my patience. After all of that, we were blessed on Sunday to get a new investigator through a less active we've been working with. Her name is Anne and she's in her 70s. She has met elders in the long-ago past but said she felt really overwhelmed (because elders would have always had to have brought another male member to make numbers right) and said that she felt a special connection with us. They had us over for their Christmas dinner Sunday and we were able to teach her about the BOM and answer some of her questions about baptisms for the dead. She's never been to church so that's our next step. She's a really sweet lady, they both are. We're excited to keep working with them.

   To add to the not-so-good week, both or investigators had some interesting things happen. Viola is sicker than a dog...we stopped by to get something from her yesterday and she was soooo sick. We found out that Amanda was in the hospital Cmas Day and haven't been able to contact her. Sooooo ya...

   It's been snowy and cold this week. But it's sunny out right now (but that means extra cold...) We have some good potential investigators to visit this week and hopefully things will pick up! It's a slow start sometimes for a whitewash but that's the story of my mission.

   I got Mady's package this week! thanks! As well as some cookies from the Carsons. Good, old Tiffany's! :) Thanks for the love during Christmas, everyone! Talk to you soon!

Love Sister Messer