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

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