A hard week

i think this week has been the hardest of my whole mission so far. but blessings have abounded... (is that a word? :D)

im learning to get thicker skin... i have never been spoken to soooo rudely this week... lots of anti mormons have been encountered... BUT something i learned in the MTC is that if opposition increases?? it means we are doing something RIGHT. so we are definately doing right over here! haha :)

lets see... some crazy cool things have happened though :) it was warm warm WARM for like 4 days in a row which was lovely for street contacting and it makes people more open to listening when we are standing on their porch... but it also makes the roads a little bit of a challenge.. haha we got stuck like 10 times a day....and my boots have salt water stains :( but maybe it makes them look more vintage.. ahha thats what i tell myself anyways

im making friends with some of the families in the ward... aw man.. the martins.. i LOVE THEM they are from england and they will do anything for us at the drop of a hat... they are WONDERFUL and lovely :) and i love love love them.

OH I ALMOST FORGOT TO TELL YOU i MADE CONTACT WITH CATHE MULLER!!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE the day after you asked about her i was thinking about how its almost impossible to find her cause i dont even know what ward or anything she would be in... and we were at dinner at some members houses and i mentioned that my mom is from south africa and she said.. oh i know a south african... she lives in the lakewood ward.. muller i think her last name is.. and i wasw like WHO WAHT WHERE WHERE DOES SHE LIVE WHO IS SHE I KNOW HER I NEEDED TO FIND HER! and then we got her number and i CALLED her :):):)) annnnnnd we are going to go visit her soon and drink bush tea :D haha... can i just say i love and miss hearing that accent. so that was super cool :)

were getting the families in the ward.. (well at least trying to ;D) more excited about missionary work... so we have been working on lessons that even little little kids could understand and love... so like remembering principles of the lessons with handsigns and songs and things like that

umm what else has happened this week....

oh.....

something not all that cool.

we got a flat tire...
and no one could come help us for like 40 minutes..

i figured out how to do that jack all by myself and i remembered dad told me to loosen the lug nuts BEFORE the jack goes up... so i was pretty proud of myself... finally someone came to help us.. bless them. it was bro. redoy a recent convert, is so so cool. actually let me just tell you about him and his mom, eena. so eena and her NINE kids came to canada from a little country in south america after her husband died, and then 20 years later missionaries found john... one of her sons.. he lives with eena now.. adn they will feed us whenever we dont have a supper.. and LAST NIGHT we went over there and she made the funniest food i have ever had... but it was actually delicious... it was sardines and eggplant and potatoes on rice.... HAHA and then she offered us mullet... i think thats how you spell it but john was like no no mom they wont like it.. and im glad cause it still had their eyes and everything and i really didnt want to eat fish eyes...

but eena is the cutest little lady ever and she.. man... we gotta get her to church.. shes like already a member ya know?? and john is just eating up all the stuff we have been sharing with him.. he reads the book of mormon everyday and hands out the pamphlets on the bus hahaha

so ya he helped us with our flat tire... which will be fixed tomorrow... we have to drive around on a donut for 2 days... not really sure thats the best idea in the world but we do what we can do!

hmmm lets see what else......

we had 10 lessons with less actives this week..
oh my goodness i need to tell you this story!!!!!!!!!!!!!! laura!! i love her! she is a less active that has been inactive for over 20 years and no one had even met her yet and so we stopped by... no answer... but the door was open? so we waited and waited and rang and rang... finally we got a clue... we could HEAR PEOPLE IN THE BACK YARD! hah sooooooo we just skipped our way to the back door and lo and behold there was a fence and when we peeked THROUGH THE FENCE.... we could see a lady and there was a DOG THE SIZE OF A COW.. SPOTTED LIKE A COW AND SOUNDING LIKE A COW/// this thing was HUUUUUUUUGE/.... and then he saw us and started galloping over to us.. like charging us and i almost peed my pants cause he was sooooo huge and he ran up and barked right in our faces... cause ya know he could see OVER the fence he was so tall......hahah

but it was good cause then laura was laughing and she let us in and she told us she hasnt had ANYONE from the church over for like ever!!! and we just made friends with her except lazerus... her dog.. he HATED us and kept barking and keep in mind this is a HUUUUUGE DOG LIKE GREAT DANE MIXED WITH A COW dog.... so barking is like like the whole house was shaking.... annnnd we couldnt really share anything with her cause he kept barking so finally i was like... WHAT can i do to make him like us laura?? and she started alughing and was like there is only one way and your not gonna like it... and i was like.. tell me we gotta get this done... we gotta make friends with this dog... and sooo

she gave me a dog treat... and i had to hold it IN MY MOUTH FOR HIM TO TAKE.... (they treat lazerus like a little baby or something haha) but....I HELD THE DOG TREAT IN MY MOUTH.. MORE THE HUGE COW DOG THAT HATED ME, TO TAKE FROM. MY. MOUTH. TWICE. i did it twice... cause i wanted camera proof lol

so now he loves us.

hahah. suuuuper cool.

another amazing thing.

this one is more spiritual.

marlenis.. our new investigator.. the one i tapped on the window... we had a lesson with her today (yes even on pday.. it was the only day she could meet) and we brought with us courtney from our ward who was sooooo perfect for the lesson.. like... holy cow... both of them needed the lesson... and then courtney shared some profound things and then basically bore witness of prayer and how marlenis could pray to know if all of this was true and that if she listened to here heart she will feel the spirit telling her it is true.... it was the most powerfull lesson ever.. like its like you can feel the spirit littlerally just in everything.. in the air!!
and i am SO HAPPY.. everything is worth it..
through all these trials that sister halverson and i have been going through we have been getting to know each other so much more.. so well. like i feel like she is my best friend already... and i know that going through these hard things together and supporting each other has been what we needed to make us more unified than we ever could and so quickly so that the more people we come in contact with we can teach them so well TOGETHER. i know there are more people here in ellerslie.. tons of them that are just WAITING to hear what we ahve to say to them... and all they need is the invitation to come!! but i gotta knock on a million doors to find em and take a bunch of criticsism to find the one... but its worth it. so worth it
why do i do this??
why do i get up before the sun everyday, why do i walk through slush and ice... and freeze my face and fingers off?? why do i talk to everyone even when they are mean?? why do i work as hard as i can EVERY HOUR? WHY DO I NOT QUIT WHEN ITS HARD??

because i love jesus christ.
i have been called as his representative. he needs me. i love him and he loves me and he LOVES these people. he LOVES THEM SO MUCH and i love them.
thats why.

this is his church... his work and his glory is missionary work. its the salvation of souls... "bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"

catch the vision of that...!!! catch the wave!! be a part of HIS WORK.

i love you all so so soooo much and i miss you!! ill see you soon!
love sister douglas

Attitude is the helm of our ship

Hello one and all my favorite Peo-PALL! (see it rhymes)

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW so im in ellerslie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. SITER HALVESON ROCKS and i love her to pieces already she reminds me so much of caia... and then she is also crazy like kaylea and she makes me laugh till i almost peed! soooo thats lovely

she kinda reminds me of anne of green gables haha cause she is so funny and bold AND a red head haha :) we are going to be "bosom friends" lol so far so great. i love this chick to death already.

2. the area we cover is huge and the streets dont go like a grid they are CIRCLES so try to wrap your head around that... im supposed to be the map reader/navigator but really i just pray the whole time and some how we find where we are supposed to go.. its totally the spirit guiding us.

3. Ellerslie ward is SO FUN its a bunch of new families with little kids which is super exciting and fun and refreshing.. really different from spruce...

(thats also a weird thing.. like spruce grove was like my home ward.. and i keep waking up thinking im gonna go back home to spruce and be done with exchanges... haha but this is for reals... i do love it though its just been different.)

4. i am turning out to be quite an awful airhead.. on the FIRST DAY in ellerslie i lost BOTH my tags AND the keys to our appartment.......

i dont even know how..
well the tags is cause i put my clip tag on the right side and my bag must ahve pulled it off then i had to put my magnet one on my coat which turned out to not work and that one got lost to.. i dont even know where the keys went thats why they are lost ha. but we had to wring EVERYONES doorbell at our appartment just to have someone come let us in.. then the manager had to let us in....

but we solved the issue got new keys... and thanks to alot of prayers and being "sister halverson for a day" both of my tags were found!! ON. THE GROUND. miracles. miracles everywhere

5. THIS IS THE CRAZIEST STORY EVER AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU!!!
soooo sister H is so so fun right?? and hillarious and really creative as to tracting and all taht... so instead of just knocking on doors we go "garbage tractin!! hahahaha so we get in pday clothes and just knock on doors and say "we are missionaries from our church and we are doinga  service project compitition and we are seeing how many peoples trash we can take out in one hour.... do you have any trash we can take out!>???" and then if they do we get them to write their name down so we get "credit" check yes or no if they wouold like more service in the future and then we tell them what kind of service we can do and our greatest service is teaching people and then chekc yes or no if they would like to learn more! so far we have gotten 2 investigators from that! which is more than we ever got in spruce really so we were super stoked!

so that makes tracting even more fun then it even is and more upbeat and exciting and people keep asking us why we are so happy hahaha

but to the BEST STORY EVER!!
after a successfull few hours of tracting we went to visit a potential which turned out to be not so rewarding and the whole appointment fell through so we were gonna drive somehwere else but the day was soooo nice like... 45 F so warm! :) and so we just kept walking around not realy sure where to go talking to people on the street as we go... but we needed to say a prayer cause we werent gonna go normal tracting cause that is not reaklly effective... but i felt super strongly about going and knocking on this door.. and sis. H was like well what are we even gonna say? cause she hates the whole "hi were missionaries and we have a message for you" (its not really effective.. i hate it to)

and i didnt really know what we were gonna say but we both were like we need to knock on this door and this house was in the middle of the street like we hadnt knocked on anyother doors we just knew we should knock on this one.. so i was kinda joking when i said it but we ended up saying it anyways haha we knock on the door and this little indian lady answers the door (real indian with the cool dress thing and everything.. she's uh... sihk?? i think??)

"hi! how are you!? good good well we are missionaries.. we usually teach people about the word of God, but our appointment fell through and we felt really strongly about asking you if you wanted to hear what we are all about" and then sister halverson asks" DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD?"

and she says... SURE! COME ON IN!!!

:O thats what i felt like.. so we go on in... she lets us share the whole first lesson... she knows its true... no big deal... she says she'll pray about it no big deal.. SHE ASKS US TO COME BACK no big deal.. NEW INVESTIGATOR. no big deal...
actually we almost peed our pants when we laughed we were so excited...

NOT ONE HOUR LATER we tried to get into another potential appointment... so far Sis H says theyve visited this house like 8 times and no one ever answeres the door but someone referred us so we wanted to try again....and we ring the doorbell and the lady was laying on the couch inside i could see her and she looked at us and then just ignored us and i was like are you kidding me this is the best news you will ever hear and your ignoring it... so we knocked again and she still isnt answering..... SOOOOO i tromped through tthe snow to the window.. knocked on the window.. NOW shes looking at me haha.. so i waved and did the whole come here beckoned with my hands and she FINALLY gets up and answers the door... haha

TURNS OUT that she had been praying to know which church was true and her grandpa just died and she wanted to know where he was...so we taught her lesson 2 plan of salvation and sister h was a boss talking spanish to her every now and again. (cause she is from cuba.. her name is marlenis)  AND SHE IS NOW AN INVESTIGATOR. TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS IN TWO HOURS!

it. was. SO COOL.

ummmmm questions??

oh YA!!!!!!!!!!!!! EPHRAIM AND MAHONRI AND TEUNIS ALL came! :) and we went out to lunch! to boston pizza!! and it was so fun and good to see familiar faces and talk to family.. love them :)

i cant believe that you all saw my hair already! bah! i was gonna send pictures but the surprise has been spoiled :P laaaame.. but a lady in our ward is going to help my A-line is a little more and make it a little more funky and me-ish :D

sister halverson IS from davis county... a little farm town inbetween Sacramento and San Fransisco.... small towns rule

im living in a ghetto lil apartment.. that actually is really nice INSIDE it just looks sketch from the outside haha... i cant give you my real address cause im scared of stalkers lol... plus even if you mailed me things we never check our mail here cause its way out of the way. but ill be getting mail once a week here!!! or potentially if i HAVE mail LOL

we email from a library in the mall here... but like 3 zones do so its suuuuper crowded with missionaries everywhere and i dont ahve very long to do so...

ellerslie is split up into 2 areas that we go to millwoods... which we call millHOODS cause thats the ghettttoooooo.. not really but some parts are suuuper sketch and we dont go there after dark..
then the south side which is all newer houses and it looks like candy cane lane doll houses everywhere that are so cute :) millwoods people listen better ;)

ummmmmm i cant think of anything else............ ermmm. OH i held a three legged cat yesterday.. haha his name is tripod.. LOL love it

but i love you alllL!!!!!!!!!

oh i know.. ill share my goals...
i have realized im NOT all that great teaching the gospel SIMPLY annnnd thats kinda necessary when we are teaching people with no christian background at all.. its really challenging... but sis H is like a pro teacher... she is soooo talented and im learning alot from her.. so i hope to become a simple yet powerful teacher this transfer so i gotta study the lessons alot better and then simplify them to the needs of who we are teaching.

i love the gospel. i know its true.

yesterday i was feeling really blue for like 30 minutes and then i realized where i am and what i am doing... and WHY i am doing it.. and i got so excited and i felt so much for empowered.... attitude is the helm of our ship... Doctrine&Covenants 123  verses 16-17.. look it up! :)

 16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is ^abenefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

 17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us ^acheerfully ^bdo all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the ^csalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

be happy! CHOOSE HAPPINESS!!

i love you!
love sister D

What a great surprise! My cousins have found her. These guys rock!!

Cheese!!

 

Sporting the new haircut

Lunch with three awesome cousins and her new companion Sister Halverson from Davis area in California

To E-Town she goes

DEAR FAMILY... so i got a call yesterday from president (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

I'm being transfered.

what
the

heck!?!?!?
that never happens to newbs!! they stay where they were trained!!!!!!!!

soo I'm a little heartbroken and today we have been going around saying goodbye to everyone.. so i dont have alot of time cause i have to fit everyone in!! its sooo hard to say goodbye cause i dont know when i will ever see some of these people again :'(

but i also am ecstatic.... (i have alot of emotions goin on right now) because... im getting transferred to...
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 drum roll please....
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Ellersie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hahaha and that means nothing to you cause you dont know what it means hahahaha....

but in other words its THE CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! apparently... i dont really know but i THINK its down town.. oh i HOPE its down town.. that would be so rad... apparently it has the highest stabbing rate.. LOL ok thats not funny but the city is the BEST for street contacting and i LOVE street contacting its so so soooo fun... and i got to do that this past week with sister budge when i went on exchanges...

i have to tell you about that actually :)
exchanges: so i went to kingsway which is north edmonton but they serve in the ysa ward so we drive all over but we did street contacting for like 3 hours and i was blue from head to foot from the cold wind BUT it was sooooo cooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cause normally.. NORMALLY when you go street contacting or tracting or whatever you get maybe 1 or 2 potential investigators out of it and like 5 good conversations about a gospel principle.... so uh not to brag or nothin but uh... sister budge and i???

WE GOT 7 POTENTIAL INVESTIGATORS... that means they gave us their number and address and what they wanted to learn about.... BOSSSSSSS! jk its not us its the Spirit but i was so blessed to  be a part of that whole experience :):):)

umm simone didnt come to church :( lame. and imma miss her baptism... cause she is STILL GONNA BE BAPTIZED! I CAN FEEL IT haha

BUT elysha came to church!!! :):):) i LOVE THAT GIRL ugh i am gonna miss these PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! she is reading the book of mormon and even played us a song on the piano that was just perfect about her whole life changing and stuff.. haha shes so great :) (tape ;) thats for you elysha if you ever read these)

OH and guess WHAT? sister schofield is gonna be a sister training leader!!!!!!!!!!!!! go her!!! im so excited for her.. except she didnt seem to thrilled.. haha that is a HARD calling... but she will do so so sooo good :):) she is the best.. and im prolly gonna cry when i have to say see you later to her :(

i told mom already but for the rest of the world to know i chopped my hair off!!!!! i dont really know what possesed me to do such a thing but i made a video of it.. ill send it home on a flash drive.. im hillarious i just hacked it off!! but dont worry cate... its still fun :) annnnnnnnnnnnd now i have no split ends.. haha like zero!!!!!!!!!!!

ummmm what else what else.. ooooh for our last district lunch we went to this place that is called bad-a jacks.. we all thought we were hillarious... but it was great cause we taught the workers about the gospel. LOL and the wraps were delicious so it was a good deal.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH sooooo i dont know if you have seen it yet or accepted but i need you to accept the friend request for my fb from a lady named marjorie. please?? :) thanks :)

also i havent written back to anyone this week so im soooo sorry everyone i will write you next week:) i love you all!!!

gotta run!

but before i go i gotta bear my testimony (else i would be not so missionaryish... which is silly cause i havent really been sharing my testimony in these emails that much and im sorry)

here we go:

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!

the end.

ha jk... 

i KNOW that Heavenly Father is a real person a REAL being who LOVES us more than we can comprehend.. who is AWARE of all of us.. yes even the weird ones :) i know that his son, Jesus Christ, made it possible to live with Heavenly Father again some day, and to be so happy now, and in the future and throughout all eternity because of Jesus we can all have PEACE AND LOVE AND HAPPINESS. and i know all of this because of the Book of Mormon. which is my favorite book. it changes lives, because it has the doctrine of Christ in it.. the FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL and we are SO BLESSED because we are apart of the church that contains it! that has the proper authority to perform the saving ordinances and i am so happy to know it and believe it and be out here living it and telling people about it. i know the gospel is what makes me so happy, and i know that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and he always provides a way to do what we need to do to be the MOST happy we can be.

i love you all i love love love you and i love the Lord i love the gospel and i will see you soon!

love sister douglas

HAKUNA MATATA

it means no worries!!! for the rest of your days!!!..... ok so not REALLLLLY cause this life and being A MORTAL means that problems come up and scary things happen and life can be HARD..... BUT. when it comes to the gospel of jesus christ... when LIVING the gospel of jesus christ.... FEAR IS OUT OF THE EQUATION. we can be bold. we can be strong. we can do alll things through CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS US. we can!!!!

what a lovely intro eh? :)

dear my lovelies :D

i. love. you! :) and i miss you.. my heart is kinda achey breaky today for you. but thats ok... cause guess who's got my back???????? :) pah! only the strongest person in the universe... and guess who reminds me it shall be "but a small moment"??? HIM. were getting along super great right now. i love the lord, and i love serving him. all he asks is all weve got. something tali used to say... at least i think it was tali... was "is anything to hard for the lord?" is it? is anything TOO hard..? ummmm no. nope! "art thou greater than He?" no... nope! your'e not... so i need to buck up and get to work and quit yer whinin! haha :) lifes so good :) God is good.

anywho....
this week!!!
miracles abound :)

Simone came YET AGAIN TO CHURCH... except her GORGEOUS child has seperation anxiety so she LOATHES nursery.. but she did well for the most part.

Wanda is in the hospital!!! she fell and broke her hip... and they dont know if she will make it :( but the day she fell was the morning we went and visited her.. which makes me feel guilty for some reason like maybe we coulda come later or something it wouldnt have happened????? but everything happens for a reason and its in the lords hands... but her daughter has already asked us to help with the funeral... its just a matter of time. :/

elysha is like BEST FRIENDS with us now :) annnnd she is taking the legit lessons... BAHAH the spirit rocks... it makes people do things they never would otherwise :3 plus also i KNEW that i would love the people here and i knew that i would want to see them after my mission but like..... rachel and elysha... like we HAVE TO BE FRIENDS forever else i will cry.... SOOOO they are coming down to utah when i get home. or else.

my arm hurts from typing so fast... wow im such a good typer... the whole screen is like red underlines of mistakes! :P what ERR!

NATASHA PRAYED..... thats a miracle in and of itself! it was super cool!! :) and made me cry... i dont know what it is about her house but EVERYTIME i cry here.. its at her house!!! and at the library,,, but that's YOUR fault lol

her grandma... "nan", we gave her a book of mormon.. she's anglican i think.. and the whole time i was showing it to her she just kept saying "this is the word of God!" haha i was like "YA!!!!" haha but then she was like... "where's psalms?? this is a strange bible i've never even heard of mosiah..." hahaha sooooo that went well but she does like Doctrine and covenants so we got Nan her own triple combination. \

natasha is coming to church next week with nan :):):):):):):):):):):)) and i keep getting in trouble for "gloating" with i am totally innocent of!!! i dont even gloat... that is such an ugly word anyways haha :)

can i just say i love seeing people change for the better... cause the atonement changes people even when they dont even realize it!!! its so  crazy!!! like you can SEE THE LIGHT.... its like tangible change... i love it :)

ummm i dont even know what else to tell you...
OH IM DRIVING NOW!!!!!!!! ya its SUUUUUPER crazy scary..... cause this car is not made for snow and they dont really plow the roads.. haha but fishtailing is like... Tokyo drift here.... you just go with it :D

ermmm what else can i tell you....... ummmm i can think of anything else really...
the church is true... like i say this to my family cause thats who im writing to... but to any of you out there reading this on the blog WHOEVER YOU ARE.... The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is TRUE! The Book of Mormon really IS the Word of God and Jesus Christ Lives and runs this church. He loves yoU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and i love you my family! i love love love you!

ttfn
ta ta for now! :)
love sister D!!