Transfers

I guess missions are roller coasters thats for sure... if you didn't have the hard hard uphills then you wouldn't have such exhilarating rushes down and have so much fun.

We still have 7 investigators which is more than most missionaries could ever say. We are so blessed. however C got into anti stuff and it made me cry.. she is so smart but she looked in all the wrong places for more knowledge :(

We got a family to teach!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Same way E committed to the lessons by "practicing" with us so we can get better but then they actually end up wanting to learn more lo, I love them. both the kids. 16 and 14 years old thirst after knowledge and have such good questions, but the reason my heart is breaking right now and my eyes keep welling up with tears...

we got transfer call this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

my best friend is leaving me... she's been called up to Edson and I'm getting a new companion.

I'm a little bit confused cause we were just getting started on all this goodness and we just learned the ward together and they love us and we are best friends and know exactly how each other works and what to say and work with each other..... BUT thats not what missions are for.

Missions are for growth. and I was getting comfortable...definately not relaxed but I was getting comfortable....

We spent the better part of the morning crying.. but we needed to put on our faces on so we could take cute pictures lol, I love that girl and I'm going to MISS her, also my mind as BUSY AND CRAZY as it has been going trying to take care of everyone and talking to hundreds of people a day drifts home in my dreams and I have had like 4 dreams where mom and dad come visit me or I see grandad or I visit home for a day and I love them but its breaking my heart!! I miss you!! Last night I had a dream that mom came on splits with sister H and I and I just kept trying to hold on to mom's hand cause I didn't want her to leave haha. ugh no, im crying again... DANG IT!!!

I have never felt so heartbroken and happy at the same time.
I know I'm supposed to be here. I know that it's all supposed to work out this way and I'm REALLY gonna learn how to rely on the Lord to help me remember everything about this area and where to go and and HOW to get there and that I'll be able to make friends with Sister B as well :) I'm sure she's lovely.

Welllllllllll, I'll stop being a downer and tell you about this week :)

We've really gotta learn how to get investigators to progress now cause we haven't had real investigators for so long cause we have just been finding so much and now we have so many people to teach we don't even know what to do with them haha...

sooooo we are going finding lots still, but studying a lot more the lessons and how to apply them to all the peoples needs...

3 different of our invsetigators are from all over the world.. one from cuba one from swaziland and some from brazil... its SO COOL!! :) the family from swaziland is a little harder cause the lanuguage barrier but were just taking it slow and asking lots of questions to make sure they understand. its not about learning another language but learning the language of the spirit and how to teach them to understand it. crazy stuff

we have felt the fire of family history this week. there is a native family we are working with and she started doing family history and alot of the names are still in cree so not only are we finding the people we have to TRANSLATE their names!! its sooo neat.. and i have NEVER felt such an urgency when we have been at their home when we talk about family history.. there is alot of her family taht needs their work done.. and its made me soooo excited to come home and do mine!!! or at least learn it :) I love it :)

I love you all I dont think I feel like writing much more :/ but I'll keep you posted on how it goes with everything next week!!!

I love and miss you!!!!
love Sister Douglas

With tomorrow being the anniversary of Grandad's "transfer", I'm dedicating this one to him. He would've loved this!

Today is a special day isn't it :) sigh...... i cant believe how fast time goes... we are so blessed.

ok i have NO WORDS FOR THIS WEEK... like........................................
i dont even know where to start...umm, ok

so we are FULLY RECOVERED AND HEALTHY SHMEALTHY :) thank you for all your prayers on our behalf. i know that is why we are better. i also know we needed to be better and on top of our A game so we could handle all the INVESTIGATORS Heavenly Father threw our way. ya. real live investigators!!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOO its this beautiful weaving of how everything needed to happen!

the week before we got sick we were FINDING machines just knocking every door, going crazy and thinking we could do everything by ourselves..... but we had some humbling experiences where we KNEW that we needed to work with the members... so we focused ALL our energy on building relationships with the members and working with them on getting them excited and then we got SICK?????!!!!! and that was when we had the epiphany to FIND FOR THE MEMBERS!! and our finding craziness gets blended perfectly with working with the members and getting them excited about who we are teaching because its THEIR investigators as well!!! SO i feel like the fire of this week of wonderfulness started a couple days before district meeting where sister h and i just had these puzzle pieces of revelation just come to us on how to find and use more effective door approaches and just like... everything was falling into place... THEN at district meeting.... ah MAN! it was CRAZY!!!! LIKE SPIRITUALLY OVERWHELMING i dont have words to even explain to you how INTENSE it was..... we just... like EVERY COMPANIONSHIP had experienced these moments of adversity but then we had all over come it and had new insights and were pumped for this next transfer and coming weeks... president is upping the expectations of how many baptisms and all that soon and we know big changes are coming we could FEEL it... it was like static electricity in the air of excitement and i think empowerment as well... Heavenly Father saw how ready we were to just go to work and the whole meeting was just line upon line of perfection inspiration and enlightenment.... at the end of the meeting we all agreed that before next week (our last district meeting all together) we would each have 2 more new investigators... and we KNEW that Heavenly Father was preparing people at that moment for us to find and to teach. we ended singing at the top of our lungs called to serve..... there were 8 of us missionaries singing but i know angels were singing with us.

WELLLLL I left that room just SHAKING i really can see why people in the book of mormon would faint when they were overwhelmed with the spirit haha... it was crazy

so we went to work

praying every ten minutes it seems..
asking seeking and FINDING!!!
we went tracting every spare second we had and we would look in areas with members near by.

ON JUST ONE STREET WE FOUND 11 POTENTIAL INVESTIGATORS AND GOT 6 RETURN APPOINTMENTS for this week...... just to put that into perspective for you we maybe will get ONE of those a WEEK and we got that many in ONE DAY.

it was insane i felt like singing the whole day and wanted to just SHOUT TO EVERYONE THAT WE HAVE THE TRUTH CAN YOU SEE THIS!!?!?!??!?! also i dont think i have ever been so tired in my entire life... haha like.... hiking the grand canyon status of fatigue.. but the Lord has really been in our lives... He has been our rearward, gone before us, beared us up on every side... we have been so strengthened and uplifted when i have felt like i could drop dead on someones porch haha

oh so we found tons there and i dont even have time to tell you all the miracles... one lady in broken english asked for a book of mormon.. and we just so happened to have one in punjabi in our bag... like... we never carry punjabi book of mormons with us... BUT WE DID.... and then we found a boy who had been baptized then moved and he wants to come back to church and then a lady who has gone to our church but her fellowshipper moved... like all these insane PERFECT times for us to find them.. who have been SO prepared...

OUR TEACHING POOL HAS DOUBLED.

one of our new investigators i just need to tell you what she said... it makes me cry..

after teaching her for about 20 minutes... and getting through some of her TOUGH questions i was beginning to think this lady was never going to believe what we were teaching her.. she was so skeptical of our beliefs and i was just like ugh... but then... we got to the part of the restoration... let me tell you when we teach the restoration, no matter WHAT, a special spirit comes...she changed completely when we started talking about the first vision... and this girl is SMART let me tell you like VERY INTELLIGENT.. and we let the silence just sit for a second.. and then she's like.. "WOW...wooooooooooooooooooow... this is so crazy... this is so heavily weighted.... you guys are either the craziest people i have ever talked to for believing something like this... OR this is the best news i have ever heard." and we were like... "uh... ya. thats how it is supposed to be" and then she sat there for a second and shes like" well shooot!!! im only one girl how am i supposed to convince my church that the mormons had it right all along!?!?!?!" HAHAHAHA it was so cool.... so ya c is my favorite and after sister h and i left we had to pull over on the side of the road and bawl for a little bit as we thanked Heavenly Father for what a blessing it is to be apart of that, to SEE light change people.

man... there are so many other people that have been ABSOLUTE miracles this week.. like w who ACCEPTED THE INVITE TO BE BAPTIZED!!!! and L who invited us back as soon as she talked to us and said i have been WAITING for you girls...or C who has been searching for the truth and s who left the church but wants to come back.. like we are at our boiling point here trying to balance it all but i know that the Lord doesnt give us anything we cant handle... and i KNOW that i have the best friend ever working along side us... i dont remember what chapter but in revelations it talks about the Son of God working in the vineyard.. i know that the Savior works with us.. this is HIS work!!!

i love you all so much :) thank you for your prayers i really do feel them.. and i LOVE you :):))

Im trying to think of any other crazy things that have happened that i could tell you real quick before i go... umm we had delicious cinnamon rolls TWICE which i ate to many of but it was worth it :) its warmer outside today, the temple is wonderful, we got a CARWASH! thats a miracle haha... i dont even know its just been a miraculous week :)

tell everyone in the family that i love them... when you see all my cousins and aunties and uncles hug them ALL for me and tell them i love them and that I am thinking of Grandad too.. but he is working with sarah and me too :) missioanry work is EVERYWHERE :) i love you so much!!
love sister douglas

I know it and I love it

Hello my lovelies!

this week i will not even try to beat around the bush... it was ROUGH!!! sister H and i got sick... and by sick i mean up and down cough and cold and flu.. but not enough to kill us so we still went out and did missionary work but then it went to -30.. so the guilt almost KILLED me but we stayed in for two days.. we totally got approval from our leaders cause you have to recover when your sick or else the sickness drags on and on and on.. but so we got a blessing on thursday from the elders in our district, and over and over they said "contingent upon our faith we would be healed" soooooooooo we were like.... does that mean we need to be FAITHFUL in letting our bodies HEAL? or just be FAITHFUL in missionary work and go work work wooorrrrk.... and so we prayed alot about it and we stayed in :/ i was super bummed but it worked out how it was supposed to. i got to know sister h better than ever! its weird how SIMILAR we are.... and then also how OPPOSITE we are haha... we are the best of friends and i LOVE that girl. man she is great :)

sister halverson helped me do something this week that was HAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRD.

i purged my clothes. im definately a clothes hoarder. and that is NOT good on a mission cause there is NO room and it makes for getting ready in the morning a slow process if i can never decide... so i got rid of so much... and i totally cried lol im so dramatic but it was so hard for me... and then im sending some skirts home that are a little "to good lookin for the mish" haha.... but i do want to keep them so ill just send them home.. as for the rest of the stuff i gave it to some other sisters.... aw man... so hard... but it was good. you'd be so proud of me dad.. less is more lol

ok story time!!!!!!!!!

coolest tracting story.. it made me tear up just finding them it was so neat.

SO there is a young family in our ward that is just on fire with missionary work. they want so badly to have missionary experiences and they are always so willing to reach out to anyone to share the gospel with them, and recently they were like "man we just want to have misisonary opportunities here cause we always seem to have them when we are on vacation or something but never someone that we can WORK with day by day ya know?" so sister halverson and i were like.. hmmm what can we do to help... SPIRIT COMES AND GIVES US AN ANSWER.

we decided that we were going to go FIND someone for them to teach and fellowship!! cool right?!?! so we would go tracting in the area that they live... LOOKING for a family their age or that they would have something in common. we knocked on like 10 doors... which is alot in one night.. and we werent having any real success.. (we did find a few ysa referals :) ) but so finally JUST 3 DOORS DOWN from where this awesome missionary family lives.. we knock on the LAST DOOR for the night....
and he invites us is... and introduces us to his wife who is expecting a new little baby (the family in our ward JUST had a baby)

AND THEY PROCEED TO TELL us that they love visiting other churches and that they know a mormon lady and they wondered why she was so happy and they want to learn more!!!!!!!!!

3 DOORS DOWN FROM THE FAMILY IN OUR WARD.

they are the same ages

same kids ages

neighbors

both awesome and friendly

its like they were made for eachother!!!

aw man so after they were like "ya come back we want a book of mormon" we boooked it down to the O's to go tell them how AMAZING this is and were like basically screaming we were so excited to tell them and THE O's are so excited to they were like YA WE'LL GO MEET THEM tomorrow!!! woo hoo!!!

soooo thats gonna be our new thing... were gonna FIND PEOPLE for the real missionary minded families in our ward to fellowship, so we can get them really excited about missionary work and be needed. its so cool :)

also this week i have fallen in love with the book of mormon all over again. that book is.... i have no words for how much i LOVE IT! for how POWERFUL IT IS for how cool it is!!!! like the stories have all come together for me... and i dunno its just like... I KNOW ITS TRUE.. and i think i have always known it.. but like i KNOW IT and i LOVE IT.... annnnnd i just want kyra and morgan and the boys to just know these things BEFORE they go on their missions.... READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY.

oh my goodness another story.

M our investigator.... oh my goodness we met with her on tuesday... and SHE PRAYED for the first time ever... and it was like no other experience i have ever had... i felt the spirit like a BLANKET COVER THE ROOM... and afterwards she was shaking and she's like "feel my hands... theyre all sweaty/" haha she had felt the spirit so strong she was like completely overwhelmed... and in her prayer she thanked god for sending us to her to teach her the TRUTH!!!! SHE KNOWS ITS TRUE.. so now we are just trying to help her bring her family to this so that they can all learn together and come TOGETHER... i just love how the gospel blesses families... it brings LIGHT and LIFE to family. man... so cool

also we have had like FIVE potential investigators just come from everywhere!! the elders tracted into a couple kinda  the same way we did (with looking for investigators around where solid members live) and we are going to teach them. our zone leaders street contacted a lady who wants to learn more about God, marlenis family is coming soon, lots of tracting potentials.. like i can just FEEL the potential of this area like energy from a battery... its about to explode!!!! sooooo NOW that i have overloaded on vitamins and tylonel and drunk enough water to drown a COW im feeling so much better and this week we are going to WORK work WOOOOOOOOORK and we are fasting and praying that we are going to see some BAPTISMS... thats what its all about! bringing people and helping people come to know and trust God that they are willing to make promises to him to follow him forever... man... its so cool :)

last thing before i end....
we had stake conference... HOLY COW.... it was SOOOOO GOOD!!!! the saturday night session all the full times missionaries sat on the stand, and sang the first verse of called to serve and then as a pledge to work WITH us.. together united in the work of salvation... the rest of the congregation... like a whole stake center full of people... STOOD UP AND SANG THE SECOND VERSE WITH US...

Called to know the richness of his blessing--

Sons and daughters, children of a King--

Glad of heart, his holy name confessing,

Praises unto him we bring.

Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;

Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name;

Forward, pressing forward, as a triumph song we sing.

God our strength will be; press forward ever,

CALLED TO SERVE OUR KING.

coolest. thing. ever.

the WHOLE program was about missionary work. preparing. doing. working. temples. fellowship. unity.. like... it was this HUGE puzzle piece just fell into place in the congregation and everyone was like... everyones eyes were singing with excitement... THIS IS THE GREATEST TIME TO BE ALIVE AND HERE AND WE GET TO SHARE THE BEST NEWS EVER WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!

i love you all so much!

and i love hearing about all your missionary experiences!

This is the best work EVER!
LOVE SISTER DOUGLAS

the sun has started going to bed later and i am so thankful.

God is great. tears are coming to my eyes today but not in homesickness or because i am sad, but i am completely overwhelmed by the perfection in the Plan.

i have learned alot this week. wow that was an understatement.

i have LEARNED THIS WEEK. this week i BECAME. IM BECOMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and again here i am being selfish talking "i i i i did this i am this" laaame.

STARTING WITH LAST MONDAY:

we have such an AMAZING zone... i cant say i know everyones names yet but i know everyones faces and i can say we are all friends...my old district leader from spruce grove is now one of the zone leaders and that elder is wiser than wise... it was sooooo cool to instead of going and playing games and sports a group of us just talked and talked about the scriptures. i guess the whole theme of the conversation was not just being servants of the Lord but becoming His Friends.... really coming to know him and not just about him. it was really inspiring to me and i learned alot about who i am as a person and my deeper desires that come from my soul. im learning alot about change. im so humbled and blessed to be able to SEE people change as they come to accept the gospel of jesus christ. and its not just non members right? its EVERYONE.... ANYONE who wants to change for the better CAN!! "all men are privilaged the one like unto the other and none are forbidden...come unto me and buy milk and honey without money and without price"

man.... im just overwhelmed by how perfect this all is. im so happy with the process of it all... we are all imperfect. HE KNOWS THAT. we all make mistakes. HE KNOWS THAT. we are going to mess up over and over. HE KNOWS THAT. so he invites us to COME. come to him... do as he asks.. do the things that will make us HAPPY and then we can CHANGE and become who he has KNOWN us to be all along... man... so beautiful and perfect.

so... after that tangent...

I MET CATHE! my GOODNESS i love that lady so much already... AND LET ME TELL YOU.... she absolutely ADORES grandmom... it was the most happy thing to have in common... someone that we both completely adore and look up to... man... grandmom is such an inspiration. we just got to talk for so long about how she gets such joy in the little simple beauties of life... in CREATING and in seeing and hearing and smelling and shopping and making the world beautiful in a simple "christlike" way :) i love seeing how much of a difference Grandmom has made in cathe's life... she lives for the letters that she gets from grandmom.

goes to show how much a difference ONE FRIEND can make in someones life...
i have been thinking alot about the girl i used to be..... i wish i had been kinder. i wish i had reached out to more people.. befriended everyone. i wouldnt have lost ANYTHING. im learning so much about the girl that i want to be forever...someone who spends all her time reaching out to everyone... i want to teach my children the JOY of service.. something i have always admired about you mom is your ability to serve without even THINKING about it.. its become a part of your nature... i love it :) i just want that for my kids... for EVERYONE... how HAPPY IT IS TO SERVE AND TO MAKE FRIENDS!

anyways the ward is picking up the spirit of this all. the spirit of service and unity and love and FRIENDSHIP. our goal for the month for all the families is to have another family over that you dont know in the ward for dinner or for games or for something fun to just make for friends in the ward... im excited to see what happens with it. another thing we have been emphasizing is taking care of everyone because we WANT to not because we HAVE to like with visiting teaching and home teaching. sister schofield used to say "the Lord is not going to bless us with more people in this ward if we cant take care of the people we already have" SO... we are gonna start going with visiting teachers to get to know EVERYONE in the ward and love everyone in the ward and help everyone get their visiting teaching done... im excited :)
we got ANOTHER new investigator.... the flood gates are starting to open... i feel a baptism's coming our way ;) pray for it :D 

the sun has started going to bed later and i am so thankful... the whole sunset at 4:30 thing was a little depressing... now its like 6!! whooo hooo!

and ALSO i loooove sister halverson..... every week im amazed at how good of friends we already are... for the kind of friends we will always be! like.... her and sister schofield i feel like are my sisters! last night we talked and talked and TALKED till much to late but i thought how neat is that... that we can laugh our heads of... bear testimonies....tell crazy stories and then talk some more... man... haha i love it :)

fast sunday was beautiful.... one of the best i have ever experienced. im sad to say that it was one of the few that i have been able to make it a full 24 hour fast.. but i am definately going to have to do that again because it was so worth it. so beautiful. during studies yesterday i was reading from the book "teachings of president David O. Mckay" and here's a quote that i love:
he true end of life is not mere existence, not pleasure, not fame, not wealth.

" The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God’s inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one’s self of the real joy of living."
the true purpose of life :) we are so lucky to know these things :)
and i LOVE THIS read it :) :
"
When God becomes the center of our being, we become conscious of a new aim in life—spiritual attainment. Physical possessions are no longer the chief goal in life. To indulge, nourish, and delight the body as any animal may do is no longer the chief end of mortal existence. God is not viewed from the standpoint of what we may get from him, but rather from what we may give him.
Only in the complete surrender of our inner life may we rise above the selfish, sordid pull of nature. What the spirit is to the body, God is to the spirit. When the spirit leaves the body, it is lifeless, and when we eliminate God from our lives, spirituality languishes. …"
oh i love it.
i love you.
i looooove you.
love sister douglas :)
ps.. OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes! i forgot to tell you all the answers to your questions hahahah!
i DID get grandma and grandpas package THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO THEM... i just barely got it.. it was a lovely scarf... super soft :) annnnnnd i have a card in the mail for them...i should email them to actually.... i love them
annnnd a typical pday goes as follows
get up at 6:30
work out for 30 minutes
get ready for the day.. or like this morning we talked for way to long we had like 15 minutes to get ready haha..
eat breakfast and do studies for an hour
do companion study...
then we go with the millwoods ysa sisters cause we dont have a car on mondays and so we come email at the library which EVERYONE comes and emails here so its like taken over by missionaries haha
then we go grocery shopping and shopping and shopping which i do0nt like... plus theres an ardenes near by... not good haha i have like 500 socks that i need to send home that only cost me 5 dollars!!! wow! bargain!!
thennnnnn what else do we do?? ummm oh then we go to the stake center for zone sports! so fun! plus i have worn a different cat shirt every week LOL boots and cats... ;) i love it pday rocks... so ya were there from around 3 to 6... today im going to write more letters... else i will prolly melt away from guilt lol
i love you so soooo much!!