Let it Snow!

September 24, 2018

No, I am not joking.. IT SNOWED THIS WEEK!!! Winter is officially coming. It is so crazy! We are having to get our leggings, boots, and sweaters out of our suitcases. It is unreal! 

This week was good. We saw some great miracles! We have really been trying to apply the training we have gotten over the past week which has resulted in some great things! 

We decided to fast as a companionship for Alice this week. After our fast we texted her mom to see how she was doing and if she had been praying about baptism. A few days later she texted us and said she wants to get baptized on October 13th!!!!! WE WERE SO HAPPY! Such a miracle. We also had the primary program in our ward yesterday and all the kids were so cute! The Chen's especially did well speaking their parts in english! Our ward mission leader and his wife both served their missions in Taiwan and so they had us and the Chens over last night for a FHE. It was great!! Miracles are happening here. I pray that things continue to go well and Alice gets baptized on the 13th! 

We also went on exchanges this week with the YSA sisters and I got to get to know Sister Brooksby better! She is super cute and from South Jordan! We had a lot in common so that was fun. While we were on exchanges we met a chinese guy and he taught me how to say "I like moon cakes" in mandarin! Remember moon cakes dad?? :) 

I was able to finish reading the Book of Mormon this week and it was such a testimony builder. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. While being on my mission my testimony of it has grown so much!! It is amazing how everytime I read it I learn something new that applies to a challenge I am facing or a question I have. It is so amazing to me that it was written so long ago yet it applies to so many people today. That is evidence to me that God truly does love us all!! He speaks to us through the Book of Mormon. I know that without it I would have no testimony. Just like it is the Keystone of our religion it is the keystone of my conversion!! I get so sad when I think about all of the people in the world who dont know about the book of mormon or dont have it in their lives. I am so grateful for the impact it has made on my life! If you are not reading it everyday! DO IT!! Follow the prophets counsel:) Love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Godderidge

dont be fooled by the smiles.. we are not actually excited to see the snow! 

CLEANEST CAR!!

We had a good, busy week here in winnipeg!! It is starting to get colder already which is kind of a bummer. This morning we woke up and it was 4 degrees!! Pretty soon we are going to have to get out our leggings and boots! I cant say that I am ready for that!! 

So this week we had a couple people from the missionary department visit and evaluate our mission. They went out with the zone leaders, sister training leaders and assistants to ask us a bunch of questions and evaluate how we do things. Sister Gatten and I were super nervous but it ended up not being as scary as we thought it would! Their names were Brother Littlefield and Brother Beaston. Brother Littlefield took Sister Gatten and I out for lunch on Tuesday and asked us a ton of questions. Then on Friday we had MLC where they showed us all the results and told us what we can do to improve the work here. It was awesome!!!!! We learned so much and are really excited to apply everything that they told us. I just wish I was starting my mission so that I could have more time to apply the things they taught us. We are going to have a good last few months of the year and reach our mission goals!! 

Wednesday we had zone conference and that was also really great. Sister Gatten and I trained on What our purpose is as missionaries and how we need to be sure to remember our purpose in all that we do each day. It's kind of like preparing for a talk where you learn more than anyone else does so that was good!! ALSO we had a cleanest car competition and we worked really hard last monday so that we could win. I think we wiped down the inside and outside of our car like 4 times. We took our car mats in and put them in the shower, then used Q-Tips and dish soap and scrubbed every little square to be sure to get everything. We also got two car washes and then used paper towels on our mats and made sure to take our shoes off every time we got into the car so that the mats would stay clean until wednesday. It seems a bit over board but it was totally worth it because we won!! The only sad part was that wednesday night we had a huge storm and we got caught in it so we were wet and muddy by the end of the day and our car was no longer very clean. It was nice while it lasted though!! 

We also had a lesson with the Chen family this week and were able to resolve some of Alice's concerns about baptism. We are making some progress and will hopefully set a baptismal date with her this week!!! 

During zone conference we talked a lot about obedience and how it's important to not only obey, but to obey with a willing heart. Our will is the only gift we have to offer that God doesnt already have!! I came across one of my favorite scriptures while studying this week that I think goes along with the idea of being willingly obedient. I may have already shared it but here it is again:)

2 Cor 9:7 "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." 

I know that as we give our will cheerful to God we will be so much happier and so much more blessed!! Love you all, have an amazing week!! 

Love, Sister Godderidge

cleaning our car mats

cleanest car champions!!

the chen family. I love them!! 

Choose to BE HAPPY

September 10th, 2018

What a week!! There were lots of things that happened this week that seemed to be crazy coincidences. But I am sure it was the Lord working!! 

One day we were out and it was just sister gatten and I because Sister Nauna was helping in the office. We were walking into the office to pick up sister nauna and we saw this guy so we started talking to him. After having a brief conversation with the man I asked him what his name was. He told me it was Bruce and so I got super excited and said, `No way that is my dads name`. Then he said that is was actually his middle name and his first name was thomas. Sister gatten got excited and said, `that`s my dads name!!` It was kind of crazy! Unfortunately he wasnt interested in learning more but at least we found some common ground on his name! 

One of my least favorite things about Winnipeg is their photo cops. They can catch you speeding or doing something wrong without you even realizing it. Then several weeks later you get something in the mail telling you what you did and that you have to pay. I got caught this week:( That was a lesson to me that you never know who is watching!! The coincidence of this story is that I went to the mission office to pick up the ticket and one of the sweet office missionaries could tell I was a bit discouraged and upset at myself for this mistake. She pulled out an article she had just read that morning from a sister in the general primary presidency (I think). It was about an experience she had when receiving a ticket and how satan tried to tell her that she was an awful person but she really wasnt. She had just made a mistake. So that was very fitting at that moment. It`s amazing how God can work through other people to help you!! 

We met a deaf lady this week and it was cool because we were able to talk to her in sign language since we have been learning a bit of ASL each week!! We also tracted into someone we do volunteer with each week at a local soup kitchen type place. That was a coincidence as well because we were tracting on the opposite side of the street when we decided to cross and try one house on the other side that had lights on. Sure enough that was the house that we saw the guy we do service with! So hopefully that planted some more seeds!!

We started a service jar within our companionship so that we can make more of an effort to serve eachother. When we fill the jar we will reward ourselves in some way. We arent sure what yet but it has been kind of fun!! 

This week I was reading an article in the ensign that talked about choosing to be happy in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. We will always be able to find something that is lacking in our lives, but there is always good to be found as well. Heavenly Father has a plan and knows what is best for us in our lives. He will guide our steps if we just move forward! As we have faith and a positive attitude about our lives we will find more joy in each day and realize His plan is bigger than anything we could imagine. So I want to invite you all this week to just CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!!! 

Love you all!! 

Love, Sister Godderidge

We went to the Human Rights Museum in winnipeg for pday last week so here are a bunch of pictures from that! It was so cool!! I wish we could have spent more time because there was so much to see! 

Transfers

September 3, 2018
We survived another week here in Winnipeg!! We also got the transfer news today and we are all staying together! No changes!! This is pretty crazy but I am super excited! That means that Sister Gatten and I will serve a third of our missions together! That's 6 months!! It's a good thing we get along so well! And I am happy to be with sister nauna as well! This is a pretty rare thing in our mission so it's awesome! Also for them to keep a tri pan together for 2 transfers is a bit crazy but we are super excited and happy for what this next transfer will bring! As for the rest of the week... 

I am going to start with another funny story. It seems that there is always a funny story to tell each week. 

So Monday night we were out tracting and we tracted into this man from China who spoke very little english. Since we have been teaching so many people that speak mandarin I have been working on learning some mandarin. This was the perfect opportunity to use it! So he told us he didnt speak english so then I said,  "Wo shi chuan jia shi. Wo Chaun Jidu ciao".. which means. "I am a missionary, I teach about Jesus Christ." He nodded his head like he understood and then said something back to us in mandarin. I had not thought this far haha. I had no idea what he said or how to respond so I responded "Okay, shi shi" which means "thank you" and we walked away. We got a pretty good laugh out of it. I need to start learning more. It is a pretty complex language though so I dont know if I will get too far! 

We also took Sister Nauna to the dentist this week! That was fun. 

One night we planned to go stop by this lady right after we ate our supper. As we were going to go we had some unforeseen events arise and we were not able to go when we planned to. Finally a couple hours like at around 8 we were able to go and so we decided to still go try and see her and if she was home. When we buzzed into her apartment she let us in and said that she had just barely walked in her door! So it was a good thing we didnt go earlier! That was a miracle!!

We were teaching the Chen family this week and Sister Chen told us that her daughter Alice told her she wanted to be a missionary someday. She told her that that meant she needed to get baptized!! So that is some progress! We are hoping to help her understand more so she can get baptized soon! 

Yesterday at church one of the members gave us a copy of a Winnipeg newspaper article. Remember when I said we got interviewed at the prophet!? They put us into the article! That was kinda cool! 

We also had MLC this week and it was really good! There was one thing in specific we talked about that I wanted to share! 

We were shown a picture of Abinadi and started talking about his story and what we noticed about the picture. We talked about a few things.. 

-Everyone is against Abinadi, he looks alone, frail and weak

-There is a glow around him to show that he is NOT alone! He has strength from the Lord and you can tell that he knows and understand the Atonement.

-There are many people in the picture and everyone is against him, but he is the only one standing tall. 

-He does not look afraid, though he has every reason to be afraid!

-He was not able to see any results but he did so much good and was a major role in conversion of many! 

I learn so much from the example of Abinadi. He is amazing!! I think that we can all learn from him and what he did. Sometimes we may feel alone in the world and like everything is against us but we are never alone! If we learn to understand and apply the Atonement in our lives we can face the difficulties of life with much more hope! We never need to be afraid because all that matters is what God thinks of us! We may do a lot a not get much recognition or not think that we are doing a lot but we ARE!! I love this gospel so much and I love the Book of Mormon and the lessons that we can learn from stories and teaching we find there! I hope you are all making time to read it every single day! Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Godderidge

District picture
The dentist

We were having a skype lesson on our phone and sister nauna thought it would be funny to take a picture of us

Receive the Spirit

August 27, 2018

This was kind of an odd week. A lot of just funny random things happened. We were pretty busy though so that was good!! 

Monday we had some car issues.. Sister Gatten and I were reflecting back on a time in regina when our key got stuck in our car and the zone leaders had to come and take apart our steering wheel to get it out. Later that night we went to get out of the car and I couldn't get the key out. What are the odds! We called for help and then right as we hung up the phone I decided to drive around and try again. I quickly realized that I had not put the car in park before I tried turning off the car so no wonder the key wouldn't come out!! I do not do well with cars haha. Not my finest moment! Then that night we got stuck in our car and had to call President Hitchcock.. another long story.

One of my companions Sister Nauna has tattoos and scars on her legs and face so SIster Gatten and I were asking her about them one night and what they all mean. In their culture they all get tattoos when something significant in the family happens. Anyways, she told us a story about how she got stabbed once! ANd she has quite the scar from it!

We started having bugs all over in our apartment this week. It was pretty gross! One night I prayed that they would go away and the next day they weren't as bad!! We think it is because of mold in our bathroom. Hopefully we can get that to go away. We are still alive though! 

As for missionary work this week we were able to have another lesson with Brenda and Blessing, the girls from Nigeria this week!! They are so awesome:) The only bummer is that they are YSA so we will probably have to turn them over. As long as they get baptized I am okay!! We also taught Alice Chen and Jojo. A couple of our Chinese investigators. And lots of Chinese people came to church so that was great!! I still love being a missionary:) 

This week I read the talks "His Spirit to be with you" by President Eyring. I loved when he talked about Joseph Smith and how we should follow his example to receive continual spiritual direction and comfort through the Holy Ghost. 

1. Choose to be humble before God

2. Pray with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ

3. Obey exactly

4. Pray to know the needs of others and how to help them for the Lord 

I also found a quote that goes along with the spirit while studying the safeguards for using technology booklet for missionaries this week. it was by Boyd K. Packer-- "No member of the church - and that means each of you- will ever make a serious mistake without first being warned by the promptings of the Holy Ghost." 

I love this counsel and am really striving to apply it in my missionary work. The spirit is so key to everything we do on this earth. We need to RECEIVE IT!! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! 

Love, Sister Godderidge

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