Family Day!

February 18, 2018

Happy Family Day!! That is a holiday here in Canada. The kids get the whole week off school for it! This week was another good week!! It is super funny, everyone asks me and Sister Gatten if we are sisters.. Like actual sisters. We must look alike! The only thing is the height different. She is quite a bit taller than me, but that's not too hard!  We have a member in our ward whose daughter turned 6 this week. All she wanted for her birthday was for the missionaries to come over. That was super cute!! We were street contacting one day and met a guy that went to USU and had friends who were mormon so he went to church for 2 years while he was there. The only bummer was that he is actually living in Saskatoon so hopefully missionaries there will teach him!! We met a family from Syria while tracting this week. They were super nice and asked for an Arabic book of mormon! Hopefully we can teach them. They are muslim so it will be hard but they were very nice! Kendall came to church this week! She only stayed for sacrament but we were very happy that she came! It was a miracle. Although she told us that she got offered a job in AZ this past week and is going to take it so she will probably be moving there in march.. We were super sad about that. Not sure what will happen. Her daughter still has to finish school here so maybe she will travel back and forth for 6 months and we can still teach her but we will see what happens. Sometimes it is frustrating because we know that there is a reason that everything happens but you just wish it could happen your way. We just have to trust in God's plan!!

I have been reading in 1 Nephi the past month and I have loved it so much! That family is awesome! I read the story about Nephi getting tied up by his brothers. In 7:17 it talks about how according to his faith he asked for the strength to burst the bands himself. We can ask for strength to face our trials and draw on the Atonement of Jesus Christ rather than asking for Heavenly Father to take about our trials. He knows what is best for us and what we need in order to grow. I know we are never alone. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of the gospel!! Love you all!!

Are you Boys

February 12, 2018

Hello everyone!! This week was pretty long, but super good!! Here are some highlights:
-We got to teach Kendall again. She is SO awesome!! She started studying about the Atonement on lds.org. I just want her to get baptized so badly!! Please pray for her and her family that her eyes will be opened to the truth and blessings of the gospel. Also she will be in Logan for her daughters wedding in the summer so it'd be cool if you could meet her!! And her future son-in-law served his mission in bolivia.. Maybe braxton knows him!?

-We got to be in a Tri-pan for a day while transfers were going on. Sister Peacock (one of my MTC companions) came with me and SIster Gatten. It was super fun! We showed up to lessons with members and I think our investigators were a bit overwhelmed becuase we had so many extras. It was awesome though! 

-We met a Philipino guy one day while tracting. We taught a brief restoration at the door and then asked to come back when his wife would be awake so we could teach them. He said yes so we left a book of mormon and planned to go back. Well sister gatten lost her preach my gospel that day so we were thinking maybe it fell out of her bag at his house. When we called to confirm the appointment sister gatten asked if they found a book anywhere that day. He said yeah you left one.. the blue bible do you want it back?" Haha wrong book. He ended up cancelling on us and not wanting us to come back but atleast he has the book of mormon still!! That was kind of a random story but it was super funny. 

-We decided to rest Chelsea and Jay for a bit. They are the ones who were supposed to get married a few weeks ago. THey havent been progressing at all so we thought we should use our time trying to find people who will! Kinda sad, but hopefully they will now realize what they are missing and start progressing again. 

-We were tracting one day and both had our toques (canadian word for hat) and hoods on. We knocked on a door and a guy answered. He thought we were boys because he could not see our hair. Hahaha 

Something I learned this week.. "Charity, like faith leads to action. You will develop charity as you look for opportunities to serve others and give of yourself." Charity is one of the greatest qualities and traits of Christ that we can develop. I hope that you will all look for ways to serve those around you and develop this trait in your own lives!! Love you all, have an awesome week!! 

COLDDDDD!

February 5th, 2018

This week was a slow week! I have realized that is usually what happens when you have a super great one, then things get slower. But things will pick up again this week! It was SUPER cold this week. -38 most days which was painful.. literally. Almost all of our lessons fell through so we did a lot of finding. We were out tracting one day and we decided it might be easier to bear the cold if we imagined ourselves in Hawaii.. Our feet were burning from the burning sand, not the cold. Our faces were red from getting sunburnt, not wind burn. My companion slipped and fell from slipping on some water on the boat deck, not the ice. There was water on our faces from the ocean, not the tears. Haha surprisingly it actually helped!! I am exaggerating though, it wasn't actually that bad. We just couldn't stay outside for longer than a half hour. We'd have to warm up for 10 min, then go back out again. 

We were able to meet with a lady who has been an investigator for years now. She is practically a member and would have gotten baptized a long time ago but her husband will  not give permission. We found out this week that he was actually set to get baptized as well but then found out about the church's history in polygamy and got super angry. He has been ever since. It is very sad. Hopefully some day he will come around and the whole family can get baptized. Right now only the two daughters were able to. 

We have been training a lot on working with members this month and it can be hard!! I know that the best way to do missionary work is to involve members but it can be very trying at times working with schedules and such. I have been praying a lot for help to have the patience and persistence to work with members and I think the answer has come because most of the people we have found over the past few weeks have been men. So we will have to bring members to our lessons! It's funny how he works! Moral of the story, help the missionaries out! Missionary work is so much more successful when the missionaries work with the members! And missionary work is important for all members of the church, not just the missionaries!!

This week I was reading the talk from the past general conference called "Turn to the Lord" by Bishop W. Christopher Waddell. I loved this quote.. "In this mortal experience we cannot control all that happens to us, but we have absolute control over how we respond to the changes in our lives... Whatever change in life's circumstance may come our way, and whatever unexpected path we may have to travel, how we respond is a choice. Turning to the Savior and grasping His outstretched arm is always our best option." Love you all, have an awesome week! Also I almost forgot.. We got transfer calls today and I will be staying in Regina with Sister Gatten for another 6 weeks at least. I am SOO happy!! We are going to see miracles in this area together! Love yous!!

Bump, Set, Spike it.. That's the way we like it:)

January 29, 2018

This week was great! We saw so many miracles!! Here are some highlights..

-Last week at district meeting our district leader asked me to do a portion of the training. As I was preparing I though about how it related to volleyball and decided to relate it to bump, set, and spike. Then of course my inner cheerleader came out and I had to use the cheer from the glory days haha. Anyway, so this week our district leader decided it would be funny to use the same bump, set, spike analogy for our training and then had the other district come in and do the cheer. It was pretty funny. (That is the explanation for the picture it)

-We were able to teach Kendall! SHe is the lady whose daughter is getting married in the logan temple this summer! It was awesome. I have high hopes for her. I hope that she will come to accept the gospel just like her daughter! 

-We also had interviews with President Craig! Those are always good. He is the best mission president ever:)

-We got to go to the temple this week! It was amazing! Probably one of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission so far. I didn't want to leave! 

-We got a referral from our bishop last week and were able to teach him a lesson this week. It was awesome! The spirit was really strong in the lesson and even I learned a lot! We set a baptismal date and he's been to church twice now. The only bummer is that he is actually in the other ward so we have to give him to the elders now:( I am glad I got to teach him at least once though!

-We were also able to teach one of our media referrals from salt lake. His name is Julius and he is from Africa. (Regina is one of the most diverse places in the world I think.. It's awesome!!) He came to a baptism at the church on saturday as well as church on sunday!! THat was awesome too:)

-We got a call on saturday from a guy named jack who we had tracted into and just wanted a pamphlet.. Usually those people aren't actually interested they just ask for a pamphlet so you will leave. But this guy was different! He wanted to come to church! So we found him a ride and everything was good until the member didn't actually go pick him up:( There was some miscommunication so he did not get a ride:( We haven't been able to contact him since so hopefully is isn't too terribly upset and we can still teach him! We will see!! 

Favorite scripture of the week: (I may have already shared this one?) Mosiah 7:33 "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

One of my favorite scriptures since being on a mission! I know that if we turn to the Lord he will deliver us out of any bondage that we may be in.. according to His will!! I love this gospel so much!! Love you all!! 

Happy Monday

January 22, 2018

Hello everyone! I can't believe it's Monday again!! I have noticed on my mission that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It's crazy! Not a lot happened this week but here were some highlights. 

-Last week we tracted into a lady whose mom and sister are members in Calgary. She has a yoga studio at her house. She did not really want us to teach her but she said we could come and do yoga for free so we went last week. It was fun! Also a member in another ward here teaches Caribbean dancing so last monday for pday she taught us a mini class. It was fun! 

-We got to watch the announcing of the First Presidency. I am so grateful for the leadership we have in the church. We are so blessed to have such inspired and worthy leaders!!! I am looking forward to hearing them speak, already counting down the days until general conference!! 

-We got ANOTHER online referral. That is 4 in 2 weeks. which is very rare. The Lord answers prayers!!! Not all of them have worked out as we would have hoped but hopefully we are atleast planting some seeds and later down the road this will help them to accept the gospel!

-There is a member in our ward that fed us this week, their names are the Lafontaines and he is from Tonga. He looks and talks exactly like Maui from Moana. It is super crazy! And it's funny because they have an 8 year old daughter named Moana! 

-It was a bit warmer this week and so we went street contacting at this big lake that people walk around. We met a lady who lived in Utah for a while and her daughter was baptized in Minneapolis a couple years ago! She is getting married in the Logan Temple this summer!! She told us we could come over so I am super excited about that. It was a miracle! I hope that things will go well with her. 

We also met another lady at the lake who talked to us for 45 minutes about how the word of God has saved her. She LOVES the King James version of the bible. I was super excited because I thought she was so prepared. But when we finally got a word in and tried telling her about the book of mormon she wasn't very accepting.. She kept telling us how heavenly we were and how she wants to read the bible with us. So maybe we will go read with her and soften her heart so she can accept the book of mormon! 

-I let sister gatten cut my hair this week! It was her first time but she did great!!!:) 

-Linda, the lady we have been teaching english and slowly teaching about the gospel came to church this week!! It was the best. I don't think she understood much but I hope she felt the spirit and will come again, and bring all her kids too!! She is the best! 

-I spoke in church this week about how my spiritual preparation has helped my missionary service. It helped me realize how important it is that we are spiritually prepared to face the storms of life. THat is what will help us face our trials and challenges. Read your scriptures, pray daily, go to church, and listen to the prophets!!! 

I loved what President Nelson said about being a covenant people, staying on the covenant path, and if we have fallen off the path, GET BACK ON!!! Also to wake up eager for the day.. That is something that I sometimes struggle with so I thought it was just what I needed to hear. One thing he also said that I loved was, "You can face the future with optimism and joy when you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." That is SO true!! 

Love you all, have an amazing week!!! 

Freezing Rain

January 15, 2018

This week was good! A little bit of a slower week. We had zone conference and it was great as usual! We got a lot of training on member work so we are trying to work with the members more! THat really is the best way to do missionary work! We just have to get the members on board and excited as well! After zone conference on tuesday we walked outside and it was raining! But it was freezing rain so the roads and side walks were SUPER slick. Both me and Sister Gatten fell at least 3 times in about an hour. It hasn't really melted either so the whole week we have had to be super careful. No serious injuries though! At least one of us slips every day haha. The next morning we got in our car and instead of scraping the outside of our car we had to scrape the inside. I am not sure what made it do that but it was kind of weird! Our investigators that set wedding/baptismal dates last week have had some set backs this week. It is crazy how Satan works:( They both want to wait a while before they do anything. Hopefullt we can rekindle the spirit they felt and get them back on track!! We met a single dad this week with a 12 year old daughter who has leukemia. He is super prepared and wants to learn more! She actually had a bone marrow transplant recently and he was the donor. I was able to relate to them a little bit with that! It has been a struggle trying to get members to our lessons so that we can actually teach them but hopefully we will see some more progress this week! Also I got all the Christmas cards this week! Thanks everyone, that was the greatest!! 

I was thinking a lot about my time in Warroad this week and about something that one of our investigators said. She was talking about someone that had been a member but then stopped practicing it and doesn't believe that it is the true church anymore. It made me so sad! But I was thinking about how it makes sense that this lady would lose her testimony because she wasn't doing the simple things like going to church, praying, and reading her scriptures. It's like with any sport or hobby, if you don't practice it, you will lose it! So my advice for this week would be to never stop "practicing" the gospel. It is the greatest thing that we have here on this earth and will bless us most in the eternities. Practice so you don't lose your testimonies!! You are all so awesome! I appreaciate the love and support!! Have a wonderful week:)

 

pics: bowling with the zone on pday, our investigator linda, inside of our car, wild bunnies!

Miracle filled week!

January 8, 2018

This week was so great!! We saw many miracles. Here is what happened:

-I got to go on exchanges with my trainer Sister Stokes this week! That was super fun!! It was a bit weird to be with her again. Brought back lots of good memories! We were able to teach some lessons together and find some people for them to work with in her and her companions area. 

-The cord that we use to plug in our car at night has not been working so we had to go get that fixed this week. It was a bit of a pain and we were stuck at the car dealership for a while but hopefully it is fixed now so we can plug our car in! It warmed up this week so we were able to start it without problems but last week when it was in the -40s it was a bit rough! I am grateful it is fixed!

-Sister Gatten let me cut her hair this week. So that was fun!! 

-Two of the investigators that we are working with committed to baptismal dates this week! Both of them have been living with less active members and working with missionaries for quite some time so it was a miracle that they had a change of heart and want to get baptized! We just have to plan weddings now... So that may be a bit interesting haha. We are excited though! If anyone has any wedding planning tips send them my way:) 

-During our weekly planning this week we decided to pray for referrals again. Me and Sister Knight did this in Warroad and we got a referral about a week later so me and sister Gatten decided to do it! That day we received TWO media referrals from salt lake. One was a guy requesting a book of mormon and another was a lady requesting a bible! Unfortunately the lady wanted the bible already had a book of mormon and didnt want to meet with us but we have high hopes for the guy! We are meeting with him tomorrow!! 

-We had some fun experiences tracting one night! Me and Sister Gatten both had to use the washroom really bad.. So we at one of the doors after the lady told us she didnt want us to come in I asked if we could use her washroom. She was happy to let us in for that haha. Turns out she had went to the Regina Temple open house so we got to talk to her about that!! Another lady opened the door and screamed like she was super excited. We were a bit confused and soon after we realized so was she, turns out she thought we were her friends. It was kinda fun to get that reaction though. Another lady answered the door and said "What did I win?" I replied, "A unique message about Jesus Christ from the missionaries." She was not very amused and shut her door.

That's about it for this week! I was reading in Preach My Gospel about the Book of Mormon this week and it talked about how it is the keystone to our religion. I thought about how the Book of Mormon is also the keystone to our lives! If we remove it and stop reading it daily we will crumble!! I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It truly is the GREATEST book we have on the earth. Don't let your life crumble by not reading it DAILY!!!! I am also grateful for our beloved prophet President Monson. It was so sad to hear about his passing but I am so grateful that the Lord has provided a way for us to always have a prophet! I love this gospel and I KNOW that it is true!!! God truly does hear and answer our prayers! Have a wonderful week!!

Love, Sister Godderidge

Me and sister stokes on exchanges!!

hair cutting:)

At the subaru dealership doing our studies..