Transfers came and went

Hello everyone! Transfers came and went. Sister Wirthlin and I are both staying in Oakville! Which is fine with me. On Saturday night we went out on what we like to call and "obedience walk" where it's like 8pm and we still have an hour to proselyte so we picked up our area book and started looking for former investigators and went and contacted them. It went really well! We found a family that could be interested and a lady named laura who we have an appt with this week! Even though neither of us were transferred, some big changes happened! We had the multi-stake conference this past Sunday. It was fun to see some missionaries I came out with! I saw Elder Bybee who was put into Farci speaking and he was telling me there are only 4 farci speaking missionaries in the WORLD and they're all in Toronto! how cool is that? We have 10 languages in our mission right now! There'a a missionary from the Czech Republic and they found some people who needed to be taught in that language so President made a couple of Czech speaking missionaries this transfer just to see if goes well. haha but 10 languages! Toronto is so diverse! Anyways, the meeting held some big changes. They dissolved the Mississauga stake (which Oakville was in) and made the Barry stake (which is by Brampton) So the wards all got shuffled around. AND, since I was in the Mississauga zone and the Mississauga district...we got kicked out of that and put into the Hamilton zone (since Oakville is in the hamilton stake now) confused yet? ya...well it should be pretty neat. We have to travel to Hamilton now for district meetings and what not. Hamilton is a pretty good hour drive or so away. But i will miss our mighty mississauga district! That also means we probably won't be teaching ESL anymore either, because the miss chapel is not in our zone. sad day, huh?! But our district got together yesterday for lunch at this Vietnamese restaurant (that's what you get for letting the mandarin speaking elders choose) as a last hurrah. Things got shuffled quite a bit but i'm excited to be in the Hamilton zone now. 

So i probably shouldn't be as excited about this as I am right now but Amanda J sent me a letter this week and in it was about how David Archuletta is going on a mission! I almost died! How awesome is that, eh? 

We had a funny street contacting experience this week. Sheridan College is in Oakville and we heard it was a great place to street contact in Oakville so we planned to go there. We were walking down the street and our zone leader and one of the ap's were there too! They were on exchanges and decided to contact in that exact place. It was crazy because they're usually in Weston which is a good 40 min drive from there. So it was a huge blessing because we saw how they street contacted and it really taught me how to be better at it! I've really lost a lot of fear i've had. I usually don't have a problem walking up to people and talking to them now...crazy huh? haha But "usually" is the key word. :)

 We got to teach Vivian twice this week  and we taught her about keeping the Sabbath day holy and her new baptismal date is March 4. Pray that she keeps it! She's so ready and she's excited. We have an appt with her tomorrow night. 

We were hanging up ESL posters and we ran into a possum! It was scary-i'd never seen one before! But they're ugly little things and i thought it just may bite my leg off.

So another transfer in Oakville should be great! I'm no longer being trained. yay! We're getting better at planning and really getting to know  everyone. We are getting more and more people interested in what we have to share and hopefully they'll want to hear more :)

Thanks for the letter and packages and prayers!

Love, Sister Messer

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

I love & miss ya!

It's probably about time to send me another package :)

LV temple Sept. '11

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

The Church is Closing?

Hey Everyone!

This week had some really great things happen! Not so much for investigators (Let's just say Vivian's date is not for the 19th but hopefully WILL happen and we lost our progressing investigators for now...but this week should be able to pick them back up) but the leadership conference was really great! There were about 60 or so missionaries there (that's about 1/3 of our mission) and out of all of those missionaries, only 7 of us were sisters. All of the district leaders & zone leaders were there, a few other hand picked elders and then 7 sisters. Why they chose the missionaries they did? I have NO CLUE! But it was such a great privilege to be able to attend! Bro Watson was there (Director of proselyting for the world, helped put together preach my gospel) and another guy. They were such awesome speakers and taught us some really great things about teaching The Resoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about planning. It was really inspiring and we got to role play teaching and practice how to implement the things they taught us while teaching investigators. When they talked about planning, it was great. They taught us how our weekly and nightly planning session should be spiritual and how we need to have a vision and goal while doing it. Then schedule to meet those goals. It's hard to put into an email everything they taught us, i don't even know where to start! But they did tell us how they travel around the world to a lot of different missions and that what is happening in our mission is great and Pres Scott is doing exactly what The Lord would do. I must also tell you he got really teary eyed (Bro Watson) and said if our parents could see us right now they'd be really proud of every one of us in that room. So there ya go, even though i felt totally under qualified to be there i suppose you can be proud of the opportunitiy i had to go! :) We have a huge multi-stake conference this coming Sunday and "big changes" are supposed to be happening. We'll see what those are. Think i'll be transfered? I know not! haha Should be interesting to see though. Anyways, i'll move on to some other stuff.

We were having dinner at the Arce's this week. They're a super awesome older couple. She really reminds me of gma Nelda. they could be sisters! It's so crazy. But they have this black cat named Phantom and sis wirthlin is allergic to cats and it kept jumping on her lap while we were eating dinner haha and so sister arce got a spray bottle and would spray it so it would keep away. Well, it came up by sister wirthlins legs and so she started spraying it and it ran away...but she kept on spraying it and spraying it...but she was really spraying sister wirthlins legs! (she was wearing black tights) hahaha When sister arce realized what she was doing she just started laughing and laughing. It was hilarious!

Things are pretty slow with investigators but great things are coming out of ESL. i think i've told you about Amal but she is getting baptized! Sis W and I have had a big part in introducing her to the gospel and we committed her to baptism but she lives in the elders area so we had to give her to them :( So they'll teach her and on march 18 (if we're both still here) we can go to the baptism! A couple of months ago, our previous district leader said they tried to teach her and she wasn't open. Well, an elder in our district saw her on the bus a few weeks ago and told her she should start coming to ESL again because she hadn't come for a few weeks. So she came and sis W and I got to know her and she really opened up to us and she was totally open to the Gospel. If the church wasn't true, the elders would have destroyed it a long time ago...

We also asked Richard to be baptized and he was really hesitant and said (in his thick taiwan accent) "i'm 50-50" haha but for some reason he gets super anxious and uncomfortable around the elders but loves us! So he said we could talk to him this tuesday about teaching him more. Richard is so awesome. I love the students that come to ESL! Too bad none of them live in our area. But i forgot to tell you the best part of that story is Richard attends a church in the mall in downtown mississauga and every week he picks up this 90 year old woman and takes her to church with him. I was like, "richard! how was church on sunday?!" and he said, "oh! the worst thing happened! It's closing!" apparently, the lease for their space they rent in the mall is up and so the church is closing! If that's not a sing, i don't know what is! haha

 What do people do for exercise here? Well, you see people walking their dogs ALL THE TIME. Seriously, more people have animals here than any where i've ever seen. They'll be walking their dogs in the middle of a snow storm..anytime.

Do i miss tv? haha No...surprisingly you really never think about it. It will be on in people houses sometimes and it's just a big distraction. Of course they don't have good shows on...if it was Say Yes to The Dress it might be an entirely different story! Nick Jonas did come on in the bathroom of a store i was in a couple days ago and so i got to hear that! haha Taylor Swift seems to come on every time i walk into a store too...so i get my fill ;)

Another quick story about Brian (the guy we tracted into, and we told him we'd be back to pick up the BOM in a few days) Well we showed up and he handed us the BOM and said he read it and it was interesting. So we were like, "well, do you want to read it more because you can!" and he was like, "yes! i do. Give me a couple of weeks and then come back. " So hey, maybe he'll do the golden pray & read and boom.

Well, maybe next week's email will be full with interesting information I found out at stake conf...maybe i'll be packing to head somewhere else or maybe we'll have a baptism date for vivian again..ya never know! Missionary work is soooo unpredictable, eh?

Love,

Sister Messer

Mailing a post

Hello Everybody!                                                                                                        

Well, I guess i'll start out with the most important topic-the weather has been great! haha I didn't wear a coat today...The members continue to tell us that the snow level is usually a couple of feet and that we are super lucky that it's such a mild winter but so far i'm diggin it! Last week we had our first real snow storm (see attached picture...i was mailing your post! That's what they call it hear..."post".) But they usually don't get much more snow this time of year so the worst of winter might be done...and it wasn't anything compared to Rexburg!

Vivian and Kim both came to church yesterday and it was great! They both continue to progress. Vivian's only concern is that she wants to learn more doctrine before she is actually baptized. But she does want to be baptized and she knows the church is true. She actually cried in RS yesterday. That's what i'm talkin' 'bout! Her lesson on Friday went really well. We brought Sister Taylor with us. Her and her husband are from the U.S. and moved out here a year ago because her husband works for General Mills. They have a daughter on a mission in AZ right now and they're both RMs as well. Super awesome couple. She's actually the ward primary pres. Kim isn't as "golden" as we thought. But she's great! She's been taught by missionaries for a year who would give her a lot of bible study. We don't think she'd been committed to baptism yet because when we asked her she said, "wow". hahaha She needs to read & pray but she's great. Things have picked up finally and we're enjoying it! They only scary part is transfers are in 2 weeks and something is going to happen...not sure what but the fact that Sister Wirthlin & I both have leadership training this week. The situation for that meeting is weird because only certain missionaries are going and they're even splitting up companionships for the day and sending companions on exchanges while their comp is in Brampton at the training...ahhh! But who knows, right? haha Could be prep for the future!

Everyone and thier dog tells us about Mitt Romney. Even an elder in my district text us and said, "Mitt Romney is leading in NV right now" haha all the members are talking about it.

The Stake activity down to St. Thomas will be a fun. I do remember going down there a little bit, that was a long time ago! But having the different families at the houses is a neat idea. I wanna see pictures of that one! haha

Good news! I am becoming more bold! I think my perspective has changed a lot since being out here. My desire to develop Christ-like attributes and do everything right has never been so strong. When I keep that desire strong, I have no fear about talking to people on the streets or tracting. It's the craziest thing. The other day we were street contacting in Oakville on a road called Lakeshore which reminds me a lot of the shop area in Maryland that we visited on our summer vacation a few years back. It's right by a pier and boat docking area. Anyways, the people there aren't the most humble and i talked to the rudest guy! Rude people can totally ruin your mojo for the day. But eventually you get over it and he'll apologize one day...see you on the other side mean man!

I was reading dad's talks for stake conference and Sister Wirthlin and I decided to get rid of a few negative anchors ourselves. But there was a story in there about the lights of Vegas reflecting off of the temple--what is that story?

 I'm excited to hear that i have some packages being sent! :) If you wanna stuff in my black/white pencil skirt i wouldn't complain. It goes to my knees, right? It would be nice to have cuz it doesn't blow up in the wind! that's always a plus.

Missionary cars do not have GPS...That would be helpful but they do give you maps. Let's just say SisW's gps saves many arguments that could result because of maps. We've had to use maps a couple of times but you taught me well! If i do buy a gps, it will be 2 weeks from today after I know if i was transferred, depending on where i'm going if i'd have a car/bus/subway and if i'd be training...but nothing might happen so it's all good so far!

 3 months! i know, it'll be 6 before i know it, then 9 and i'm 1/2 way done. I'm getting an idea of what the Lord's time is like. haha it really is flying and the other missionaries say after 4 months is when i really starts ticking.

We continue to teach ESL twice a week and i've learned that a little love goes a long way. We've been "blitzing" a lot which means we hang up ESL posters all over and it has been helping to get more people to come! No one knows why it's called blitz but blitzkrieg was brought up..i suppose it's a similar task. All you have to do is be nice to these people and listen to them and they love you! It's the craziest thing...This one girl told me i looked like was 30 so that part i didn't like so much but the elders and I got a good laugh out of it. She told one of th 19 yr old elders that he looked 25 so i think she's got her numbers mixed up. Atleast i hope so. haha

Well, thanks for all your prayers! I think they're working!

Love and miss you,

Sister Messer

  

I HAD LAMB!

HI!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

Wish i could have been there for the bday dinner especially after you told me it was the classic family dinner menu. I HAD LAMB. No lie. We had a dinner appt with the Smith family in our ward. First experience with lamb! It smells kinda weird when it's baking and it tastes a little different too. haha it wasn't absolutely disgusting but i'll stick with roast beef

Sister Wirthlin and I got our first parking ticket! haha we were at a less actives house that we have been visiting on/off for the past couple of months. We were late for a dinner appt and i was like, we HAVE to be out of here by 5:40 and she talked too long and we got our ticket at 5:41...i knew it! haha but that is something that definitely irks me-being late for appts. gah.

Well, Vivian ditched our appt last friday and wouldn't answer when we called her for church on saturday night and Sunday. It was really discouraging but i finally got ahold of her last night and was like, listen viv, do you want this? We have an appt with her this friday night. Poor lady is a single mom of 3, living in Gov housing and works 12 hour shifts at the dollar store. She only works 6 hr shifts on fridays so she told us she would be home if we came over friday at 7pm. So that's it! I think she has Sundays off as well. She knows it's true but we've got some things to sort out with her. She wants it! I know she does! Her face when we asked her to be baptized said it all. She'll come along, i know she will...it just might take a little longer than feb 19. Pray for her! :)

We got 2 new investigators this week. We did 13 hours of finding (tracting/street contacting) and found NO ONE. But we were definitely blessed for doing so! We have an appt with a lady named Judith in a week from today who is also a single mom and super busy so hopefully that appt sticks. She was a potential from the elders a couple of transfers ago. Then there is this great lady named Kimberly who just moved to Mississauga from Weston but she had been going to church for like 6 months there! She showed up at the Miss chapel last sunday and the elders referred her to us. We are meeting her on Wednesday- should have some great potential! I know i've told you about Pat before-she owns Leslie's Music Supply in Oakville. We drop by and talk to her about once a week. She's awesome, she's actually sold music to MoTab and they've recorded it! Same with BYU choir. So she's affiliated with us but doesn't know much about the church BUT she's reading the BOM! Sure catch, right? She thought we were pligs. Boooooo.

Mail has been slow lately. I haven't gotten the package yet...hopefully soon! I got taryn's letter that she mailed on the 18th on Saturday though!

We were in Milton on Friday at a lunch appt with the Lindsays. When we got out of the car, sisW noticed we had a screw in our tire! So we drove to a car place and they went to fix it and pulled out the screw and the guy comes into the waiting room and says, "is this the screw you were talking about? It hardly punctured the tire. no charge." hahaha rookie mistake? We didn't want to pull the screw out! How were we supposed to know how long it was? We thought it was pretty funny. But we got to talk to a nice old lady in the waiting room.

We found out that Milton is the fastest growing town in North America. Crazy, eh? We're the only missionaries in that area but about 80% of the ward lives there. just a tid bit of info for ya.

So i have to go to a training conference on Feb9 in Brampton. I'm scared! I'm not sure why they want me to go...hopefully i'm not gonna be put training somebody! I can't do that yet! Then on the 19th we have a multi stake conference with Elder Kevin R Duncan. Being close to Brampton, we actually get to go! So that should be fun :)

Hope everyone is doing great!

Love Sister Messer

My First....BAPTISMAL DATE!!!

( A super jenky picture of me in a sketchy elevator with all the numbers plunked out- In a tall apt building in Oakville where we go to visit someone.)

YUP! Sister Wirthlin and I have something the last elders didn't have...and i'm not sure what it is but it got Vivian to come to church! We committed her for baptism on February 19. (the day after your bday mom! haha) So it's both of our first baptism date! The awesome part is-about a week ago i said, Vivian is gonna get baptized on February 19th and i wrote it on our calendar. She hadn't been coming to church but she came yesterday! She's excited and already has a very firm testimony. yay! We just have to teach her the commandments and get her to commit to those and we'll be good :) Did I tell you about Pat? She owns a music store called Leslie's Music Supply and sisW went in to buy reeds one day and we started to talk to her. She invited us to come back whenever and teach her...so we've been there twice now. She's super nice and open. We're hoping that w/out stressing baptism and really gaining her trust she'll come to gain her own testimony. We committed her to read & pray so next time we'll see her we will know a lot more. Mike (who we tracted into last week) said he would also read & pray. We haven't talked to him in a few days but we will be contacting him soon. There is a lot of potential for some great investigators IF they keep their committments! Jun didn't come to church on Sunday. She speaks ok English but better mandarin so we might talk to the mandarin elders about teaching her.

We've been doing a lot of finding lately as well. We volunteered at the Heart & Stroke Foundation Rally that a lady in our RS was in charge of. We met a lot of people, didnt find any investigators out of it, but they fact that they saw us and our nametags hopefully planted a few seeds. One lady thought we were nuns. sweet.

I got some new shoes! Sis. Cooper in our ward (she's the one from Utah, moving back to Utah) was telling us about good shopping places. We were asking her if there were any stores like Ross or TJ Maxx around..she led us to the best one and i found some red flats! But shoes get salt stains around here so i'm hesitant to wear them. haha We continue to visit a lot of member families and are on the brink of getting some great referrals, i just know it!

Interviews with President Scott were awesome! I left feeling rejuvinated and ready to go! He told us we were doing a great job and to keep on it. It was a really positive & spiritual experience. It was really fun to see all the missionaries in our zone and get to talk to them. There are 8 sisters in our zone and about 15 elders maybe. mandarin, spanish and english speaking. Like I said, it was a lot of fun to just get to see and talk to other missionaries! Our new district has been 100% better than last transfer. Even the elders that were in our district last transfer are a lot happier. A good leader makes a huge difference!

 Well, sounds like Logandale is as busy as usual. Hope everyone is doing grrrreat! Glad you posted a pic of corinne and i on the ranger to wish her luck! She'll love the MTC. I can't believe its the end of january already. Crazy! last january seems like a month ago. Time flies!

Love and miss you!

Sister Messer

WATCH OUT ARIZONA!

THANKSGIVING OF 2010 AUSTRIE'S FRIEND, CORINNE, SPENT THE HOLIDAY WITH US. WE GREW TO LOVE THIS GIRL WITH HER SOUTHERN TEXAS CHARM AND BIG SMILE. IN 2 DAYS SHE WILL HEAD TO PROVO TO THE MTC! SHE WILL BE SERVING IN THE TUCSON, ARIZONA MISSION! WATCH OUT ARIZONA FOR YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN :)

WE LOVE YOU CORINNE!

*THE MESSER FAMILY*

Home sweet home

Nice place for missionaries, eh? (said with a Canadian accent) They live in the basement.

kitchen

study area

Hola!

 So this week has been pretty good. We invited 2 people to baptism! In our district meeting they reminded us how to challenge them right off the bat...so we did! We ran into a 26 year old guy named Mike while tracting. He was really open to everything we had to say and we asked him if he knew the BOM was true if he'd like to be baptized and he said, "ya, possibly"...haha so we have to contact him, not sure if he's "golden" but we'll see. Then we also challenged JunYan (a chinese lady who just showed up at church on Sunday) and she was like, "ya, i'll mark my calendar." So i don't think she knew exactly what we meant. hahaha we laughed about that one. Our closest investigator to baptism is a lady named Vivian. She's from the Congo and the elders had been teaching her for months. But for some reason couldn't get her to come out to church---but sisW and i can! She was really sick on Sunday but our ward mission leader is picking her up next Sunday and she has been taught everything, we just have to commit her. That can be done! Hopefully she'll have a bapt date soon :)

Our district got swapped around a lot this transfer. All the new companionships (3) except sisW and I got a new companion. Our new District Leader's name is Elder Snow. He's from D.C. and cool (he looks like Prince William. don't worry, my heart is locked) ;) Also Elder Sloan from Alberta and Elder Prince from...Alberta too, i think. But our district seems to be going better already.

We visited some really great members this week. The Coopers are a family from the U.S. so we really like them because they're so american! haha She made us enchiladas (like you make mom) so we were happy! They are moving back to Utah next month and are so excited about it. We visited Gma Krause (i've told you about her before) and she was looking at the pictures i brought from home and she saw the one of all of us in front of the vegas temple and she pointed at trent and said, "oh, he's a good lookin guy!" then pointed at ty and said, "so is he!" hahaha i laughed. We had dinner last night with the Christensen family. They have 7 kids and are fun to be around. Crazy house, though!

This past week we've been working a lot finding people. which means being BOLD and talking and tracting...it's not the most fun thing but it's getting easier. We focused a lot on being Positive this week and were definitely blessed for it. It makes a big difference, it really does!

So the irrigation water froze? I see that all the time here! It probably melts a tad faster there though. That's a pretty big deal for little MV though.

Hope everyone is doing great! Just still tuggin along in Oakville...trying to get the work rolling! We have interviews this wednesday with Pres.Scott so it will be fun to get out a little bit (it's in weston/jane&finch area) and see other missionaries! 

love sister messer 

Like the Hunger Games...

These are the missionary sisters in Sister Messer's area with Sister Scott, their Mission President's wife next to Aus.  

Hello Everybody!

I'd like to compare this past week to the Hunger Games. Just as we're about to die in the depths of the forest, someone sends a little parachute carrying life saving ointment. But, it's true! All of our appointments wed/thur/fri were cancelled. ALL OF THEM. even dinner appt with members! We're like what theeee! So we decided we were going to pray more. So we started praying every time something good happened or even after an appt wasn't cancelled--basic things. Our shower head broke so we stopped at home depot to see if they had the part we needed..well, the didn't but the guy that helped us asked us about our nametags! haha and then we were praying in the car and we got a text with a referral from salt lake. right during our prayer! haha then we were calling former investigators and a lady named judith was interested! So things happen we you pray. just remember that! Of course seeing those things happen humble you and strengthen your faith. no complaints on my end! THEN yesterday at church, a woman walked in-she's totally open. Coming back next sunday, loved church, has a 17yr old daughter, is from china so she's mostly been taught that God doesn't exist but our ward has a gospel principles class for investigators or RCs and the lesson was on our Heavenly Father so it went really well! Super blessing alert.

I totally forgot to mention a super funny phone call we got about 3 or so weeks ago. I answered it and he was like, "Hi, this is John-i'm going to India to find myself a wife and i keep hearing my ex-wife's voice in my head saying she's going to kill me, I suffer from scizophrenia (sp check?) and i was wondering if you could say a prayer for me right now." I was like uhhhhhh and by this time i had it on speaker and sis Wirthlin was listening and i held it out to her and mouthed, "you do it! there is nooo way i'll be able to." So she was like, "uhm, ya...sure...what do you want me to say?" he explained the situation over again and we just couldn't stop laughing. which is probably pretty bad but we had no idea who this guy was! So we said a prayer and he really appreciated it but that was one for the books.

I WENT ON EXCHANGES! Wednesday night we drove down to Weston and I was companions with Sister Woo from Hong Kong. They only ride buses there! So i got to talk to people on the bus and we had some great appointments and i committed someone to baptism! First one! too bad i have nothing to do with her now! haha It was a great experience. The zone leaders were at the lesson too and then they drove us to another appt with a lady who is trying to quit smoking so she can get baptized. I learned a lot, it was really good! It forced me to be more outgoing and it got easier throughout the day. We were in Jane&Finch, a super sketch part of Toronto, haha it reminded me of ghetto Vegas. Plus riding the buses...quite the experience. Sis Woo was like, "you shouldn't be afraid to talk to people, they'll like you cuz you're white." hahah I was definitely a minority there! It was sister Woo's 6month mark and we had met up with some elders at subway and they convinced her to burn something. elders usually burn ties i guess? ya, so we burned an old shirt. Effective use of time? probably not...but it was fun! 

 I can't believe you quoted me in stk conf dad...totes embarrassing! haha 

To answer your questions...

no, didn't get a baptism date this week. it's been a hard week! our ZLs got mad at us cuz we use so many k's. like there's a zone party/get together in weston today but we would use over 200ks to go there and drive to milton that we told them we can't come. Hopefully that will show them that we're trying and make them feel bad for rebuking us. Today is transfers! and we got a new district leader and a 2 new: a mandarin & spanish speaking elder.  Sooo we're trying our best! and are frustrated sometimes but holiday weeks are super slow. and we're seeing things get picked up! holla!

Mom, do you put pics on my blog too? 

Well, this week has been slow but miracles have happened! I survived jane&finch and we're excited to be staying in Oakville another transfer.

love sister messer

A NEW YEAR...NEW GOALS!

Milton, Ontario-This is in Sister Messer's area

Hello everyone! It's cold. Today we stepped out of our apt and breathed in a little and we both started coughing. hahaha i was like, "so thiiiiiis is what they all warned me about!" it took me back to the old stomping day of Rexburg, ID. It basically feels like -30* in idaho when it's -15*C here...but i think that's only like 10*F. whatever, it's pretty chilly... and we didn't dress for it. holla! 

Our New Years celebration...well, we had to be in by 6pm but we had a dinner appt at 5:30 so we were home by about 6:45. We just did boring stuff and went to bed early. We thought about setting our alarms for midnight and then said ehhh nope, not gonna happen.

This week was slow too...we just are having the hardest time finding people! We got our oil changed yesterday at a jiffy lube. The mechanic working on our car was really nice and as we were paying he asked us how our new years and cmas was. So we told him that were missionaries and what we do. He is from Orange County, California and hadn't heard what we believe before so we gave him a mormon.org card and our numbers...hopefully he'll call! we've been praying that he will! It would definitely be a miracle.

We also met a 13 year old girl through a recent convert, her step sister, who is my age. She's interested in the Gospel but her parents aren't too keen on the idea but we went over and had a super casual conversation with her parents and just kind of got to know them. Hoepfully we will go over again this week. She's super cute, and really into ballet. Her name is Caroline.

Right before we went over, we had a dinner party with some families from the ward. They were all Phillipino and the food was so interesting! I might have eaten squid...but i though it was zuccini. So the good news is i survived.

We both set new years resolutions physical, mental & spiritual. We hung them on our wall and are trying to be better at them :) One of them is more energy at our 630 work out time! haha sometimes we just lay there and think about stretching. Most days are pretty good though. 

We think of new goals daily that will help us and help us find people. This week we're really focusing on loving EVERYONE! There's  great things in Preach My Gospel that are really helping us do that. Serving is a big one, we have a meeting at this place called Interim today. It's a house for woman who are being abused and have no where to go. We'll see how that goes...and how often we'd be able to help and what kind of stuff they would have us do. We're not entirely sure that's where we should be serving so we're gonna be really open to the spirit while we meet with this woman today. We are trying to serve the members more though because gaining that trust will hopefully lead them to giving us referrals and that's what we need, people to teach! The work continues to go along, and we have our great times and our slow and doubtful times but there are goals to work towards!!! 

Miss and love you!

Sister Messer