to all the Cheerleaders

i want to dedicate this letter to all the cheerleaders in my life :3 ha.. im gonna be a cheeze ball today but i had a cool thought that im going to tell you about so just bear with me

giving someone support is an interesting thing. cause i dont really understand HOW it works i just know it does. i dont know HOW all the prayer and love and support from you all lifts me up so much, i just know it does
i dont know HOW heavenly father is able to bear us up, to lift us higher, to change our very natures... i know its through the ATONEMENT, i just know He does.

i was thinking about all of you. EVERYONE THAT SUPPORTS ME AND LIFTS ME HIGHER. for once i was thinking about all of you and not aching to see you again but just out of gratitude. and i thought about all the people HERE. the leaders and people here. president and sister manion, my sweet companions.... all of you and them have CHANGED ME SOMEHOW. and i dont really understand HOW that works... like what you all did to change me...you have prayed for me, i can feel them. you have loved me.. and I LOVE YOU :)

i thought about when i was in cross country, and all the cheerleaders our team had. all our parents and friends. i thought about how mom you came to almost every race, and dad you did to! you never could take away the discomfort i felt in the race, or make me run faster, but being able to look into your faces and seeing the pure BELIEF you had in me.. .and knowing i could do it, helped me believe that i could do it to.
thank you for believing in me.

and then i thought about Christ. how much he believes in us. how much he supports us. and i thought its so cool, cause i think that in the moment he laid it all on the line, when he was in that garden, we all watched. he had to feel alone... but i think all of us were hoping praying believing willing him on. and i love thinking that the way we live our lives now, is still showing our support for HIM, our COMPLETE BELIEF in HIM. because he DID DO IT. HE WON. HE CONQUERED DEATH. SIN. DESPAIR. FATIGUE. DEPRESSION. EVERYTHING. HE WON.

thank you for believing in HIM. and helping me to do the same :)

sooooo this week :)

it was pretty good. we had a TON of lessons fall through which was such a bummer but we still worked really hard and got alot done and saw alot of miracles.
some highlights:

-doing zombie makeup for carrie and marylou and kids

-teaching gina about prayer, and then her really praying

-helping kathy and kaylie can tomatoes, and them asking us LOADS of questions :)

-building a shed with paulette

-reading the book of mormon with denise

-meeting zachary, 10 year old down-syndrome boy, and making a new best friend :)

-having supper with the millers and laughing my head off

-getting the cops called on us cause they thought we were vandalizing the church.. OL

-teaching peggy and charlie.. ok not teaching cause I DONT SPEAK MANDARIN... but listening and seeing the gift of tongues literally.. for anyone that reads that dont think we speak in tongues as in a creepy way hahaha... two elders just taught a whole lesson in mandarin and they only studied it for 10 weeks.... so that was pretty cool. PEGGY AND CHARLIE AND OFFICIALLY INVESTIGATING AND READING THE BOOK OF MORMON :)

-supper with the currys.. i sure love them.

-tracting into marsha... who let us in despite being uninterested at first... and then watching the spirit change her mind and heart.

even tho we werent able to meet with EVERYONE we wanted to this week.... we were led to specific people this week and able to make a difference.

both sister boyd and i have been struggling and fighting to feel happy all the time.. which was usually a gift that came easy and naturally to both of us.. i dont know if its the weather hormones or the cold that we both have but man grumpiness and just feeling down in the dumps can nip you in the butt sometimes... but we found a cure...

HYMNS!!

you literally cannot sing some of those inspired tunes and feel sad.
you just cant :)

you guys i really know this church is true.

i know that Jesus is the Christ. i KNOW he loves us. and that love makes a DIFFERENCE. i know that through the atonement of christ ALL MANKIND MAY BE SAVED BY OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF THE GOSPEL.

i know he lives. he loves. he saves.

i love you!
love sister douglas

A, She got baptized!!!

this might be the longest email i write home cause SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED I LITERALLY CANT CAPTURE IT ALL.. but it has probably been the best/hardest week of my life. i say that all the time. but i MEAN IT. ha

dear everyone

first of all TARRYN IS A LITTLE HOTTIE BABE BRIDE and i am SO HAPPY FOR HER!!!!!!!!!!! :') she's is so beautiful and i AH im just so happy for her :)

poopy i just realized i forgot my old planner so i dont remember every little thing that happened this week.. good thing sister boyd has hers :)

ok....

so monday we met with A.. we were thinking before we went that we were gonna help her plan all the little details of her baptism yatta yatta yatta and when we get there she is so excited to give us something and what does she pull out but the PROGRAM FOR HER BAPTISM THAT SHE MADE HERSELF!! HA she just googled one and organized and planned the whole thing and mormon.org-ed all her questions!! hahahahah she is so crazy i love her :) 

oh and like 5 minutes before going to her lesson i had like a mental break down but i didnt ACTUALLY HAVE the time to cry so i felt like i GIANT BALLOON ABOUT TO POP and then it was like slowly deflated in her lesson. i love the spirit.

tuesday was celestial. oh it was perfect.

we woke up at 5 am... yes folks. 5 am. drove to the city watching the sunrise... sat at the feet of Elder Martino (from the quorum of the seventy) and we were taught wonderful things about being better missionaries and we set lots of goals to improve.. then we went to the temple and i LOVE the temple. ANNNNND in the celestial room i was able to talk to brother and sister wright from spruce grove!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he was our ward mission leader there :) and they said they really missed me and sister schofield and that we were the best missionaries they ever had .. hahahhaa i love them. and they told me that j v is getting baptized!!!! he was married to a member and investigated for like 3 years so that was GREAT NEWS :) then we talked to a lady named S from serbia at tim hortons and then drove home :) exhausted and happy

wednesday we met with A and J came with to help make sure everything was good to go :) they are such amazing inspired women and i love them

then with P a less active lady who i love and cant wait to see her back at church :) shes wonderful

then out to tomohawk... then back for supper to the strausbergs and then... THEN this miracle happened.....

we were TRYING to get out to B H's.. but i got us lost on a range road somewhere... and we were like WELLLLLLL we better make the most of it and knock on a few doors.... 

first door- no one was home

second door- rottweiler chased us... (they obviously arent ready for the gospel... ;) haha)

third door (this time we PRAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYED) annnnnd this girl answers the door talk to her for 3 minutes or so her mom comes to the door.. invites us in.. tells us she's from poland and catholic and has religious questions for us... 30 minutes later they are new investigators with a return appointment this weekend to teach their whole family.

pretty neat stuff.

what if we hadnt got lost? what if we hadnt stopped?

what if we didnt ask the questions we did?

so cool.

thursday we saw sister phipps and her cute lil Filipino babies :) and then helped P finish her shed (ill send pics) then out to see C our new investigator of LAST week.. and we were having a nice lesson about the holy ghost when the jehovah witnesses came to see her... ha AWKWARD.. but it really wasnt awkward we just left with a prayer and it was good and C still loves us and is learning well :)

had supper with the perretts and then on the way home from evansburg we got a call from president henriksen with a referal for us for a lady named Al ......

our plans for that night had fallen through so we were able to contact her that night and she asked us THREE TIMES that visit if we could come back and teach her whole family. THEY ARE SO PREPARED AND ARE TOTALLY GONNA BE BAPTIZED THIS TRANSFER

friday was insane.. cause we had weekly planning and the whole time i kept bursting into tears cause we were planning for a week that i wasnt even going to be here for, cause i was gonna be transferred so that was really hard and emotionally draining and i just kept thinking about tarryns wedding that i missed on wednesday and all that and i was so trunky so i just kept PRAYING and sister boyd helped me and hugged me and it was dramatic but hey we're girls and we have alot of peoples problems to deal with its STRESSFUL sometimes.... but we got over it and went to work and had an amazing evening seeing C and the W's and the C's and then H and her kids are now new investigators as well cause they aren't baptized and want to be and we taught them the plan of salvation and it was one of the coolest moments of my life watching them get it and love it :)

saturday

WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE

YES A WAS BAPTIZED

YES 

YES 

YES 

YES

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and it was so BEAUTIFUL!!! and her whole family came from all over canada to support her and it was just so HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

like i dont even know what to say about it.. oh i gave a talk on baptism for her.. and it was great in my opinion haha :)

and she was just so happy

ill send pics of that to :)

then we went out the heilgers "cave" its a GIANT QUANSET and had the branch family barn dance and basically sister boyd and i should enter a virginia reel competiton cause we KILLED IT!!! haha :) SO FUN! oh ANNNNND on the way out there we saw THREE MOOSE!!! miracles

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh

ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND crazy side story

so sister boyd and i went early to set up the primary room with tables and chairs for treats after A's baptism and we looked out the window and in the parking lot was this cute little asian family just playing and laughing and we were like.. who the heck are they!??!?! and we looked at each other and then just booked it out into the parking lot to talk to them haha

and we met them and their names are (well their english names) p and c and s (she's 3) and they have only been in drayton valley for 3 months and we invited them to A's baptism and THEY CAME and loved it and had all these questions.. but their english is a little new and such and so we called the mandarin elders in the city and they talked on the phone for like 15 minutes and the dad  was SO impressed with the Elder's chinese he couldnt believe he had just learned it. and so skip forward to last night sister boyd and i went over to their house and they are the CUTEST PEOPLE EVER they have such a little asian apartment like chairs that are on the ground and little asian posters and i LOVE them!!! i want to go to china!!!

but so CRAZIEST lesson ever... they couldnt understand all that we say so we had to talk so simply and slowly and they asked questions and THEY WANT TO LEARN AND COME TO CHURCH AND SO THE MANDARIN ELDERS ARE COMING OUT HERE TO TEACH THEM!!!! and they are so excited..... ya. its insane..

so this week we got EIGHT NEW investigators and... oh shoot i havent even told you about J so crazy story about her too...

so the kinniburghs bring their friend j to like everything and she is the sweetest girl ever she is like my age and expecting and trying to get out of a bad scene and stuff so we havent ACTUALLY been able to meet with her to TEACH her but we have been working with her for a while and she is totally interested and wants to learn we just need to nail down a time.

now get this.

her last name is M and the people we tracted into.. the mom and daughters that let us in and let us teach them.....their names are R, N, and A... M. Same last name and J IS THEIR DAUGHTER!!!

their family is so hosed.. like heavenly father has us working with their family in two different places and we didnt even realize it!

HOW NEAT IS THAT!??!?! pretty neat :3

then sunday was so sweet cause H and her kids came to church and R loved it and she said the "holy water is so delicious." hahahah (she's seven :D )

and then we met with P and C, the asian family, so it was the best day ever! and i went around saying goodbye to a bunch of people like almost bawling my eyes out ..

only to find out this morning that

IM STAYING IN DRAYTON VALLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SISTER BOYD AND I ARE STAYING IN DRAYTON VALLEY!! SOOOOO i dont know what the heck is going on cause she goes home this transfer so when she is gone ill have to stay for at least one for to train the newbie to this area.. which means ill be here for 5 transfers... thats seven and a half months... that never happens.. but it IS happening :3 im so happy :) :):):):):):):)

so ya.

life is perfect

its so busy 

crazy busy... and ive almost reached my breaking point a few times this week as we have just go go go goooooo all day... and then never get enough sleep but the lord just leads us along and makes things happen and its HAPPENING! SO IM HAPPY :)

i love you all so much

the church is so true. it really is

miracles happen :)

i love you!

love sister Douglas

dear everyone

the library is acting up again YET AGAIN soooo i don't have as much time YET AGAIN. I'm at the palskys :) lovely palskys. and this keyboard is tiny so its hard to type on haha....

lets see i feel super scatterbrained cause I'm trying to be fast but lets see

this week......

much better than last week emotionally... soooo thanks for praying for me. i know it was cause of you guys. i also had interviews with president manion and those went really well and he told me he was really proud of me so that was really nice  to hear. dad, whenever i would get blessings from you you would say the lord was proud of me and i have missed hearing that... something cool happened...:

this week...

we had the musical fireside on sunday (which i shall talk about more later on) but as i was sitting listening to bro palsky playing the piano i tried really hard to listen to the spirit and i just smiled cause i was so happy and my mind was just cleared of everything i wasn't really thinking of anything in particular and then this sentence popped into my head 

"I'm proud of you."

so i don't need to hear it in a blessing to know that heavenly father is proud of me :) he just told me! it made me very happy.. but the quiet reverent happy that i usually struggle to understand. but i understood it :)

so I'm trying to think what all has happened this week. let me get out my planner.

we went out to the kesslers.. a family in our branch who i haven't been out there before and their house is gorgeous and i LOVE THEM!!! so cute :) so many people are just so inspiring

G, our new investigator is progressing well... we have met with her a couple of times and she is doing well, we're trying to help her and give her the support she needs as she is making a lot of big changes in her life really fast. but she has awesome fellowship and is doing really well

we saw J!! she voiced that the book of mormon is something she is really skeptical of and i can see why, when she has been raised in her church her whole life and told that everyone else is wrong and they are right... so her heart isn't exactly that opened........... so that made me sad... but she still loves US... and she sees a light in US.. so hopefully that will help that seed grow

we tracted the whole HAMLET of tomahawk and that went well we got a few potentials and boosted out spirits with our effectiveness

practiced and practiced and practiced singing for the musical fireside thing

had supper at the giddies.. man i love them!

interviews.. those were good :)

stopped by C's!! we found her sing tracting and she is WONDERFUL and gonna be the next relief society president when the branch in evansburg is created hahaha

had supper at a restaurant with the hewitts and strausbergs and then practiced singing some more with the currys and the currys sound like professional singers... they are glorious

A HAD HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW and she is soooooo excited to get baptized since!!!! so that is the best news in the world

the sun is back!!! its no longer winter.. just back to autumn :D

A is gonna be  baptized we're planning that this week

saw G and J man they are so stubborn

M had her baby shower and we gave her a book of mormon! hahaha we said "babes first book of mormon" on it haha.. hilarious

stopped by the tongans.. i have missed them.. they still haven't come to church tho :P i just wish there was a pill i could give to people to stop them from being so flaky.

"anti-flakiness: take every time you feel like you want to flake out"

i guess prayer works to ;)

sunday was one of the best days ever... just sooooo FILLING. sacrament was especially good. A was there and stayed the whole 3 hours and sister B  and i did singing time in primary so that was fun :) i like singing

The musical fireside was so well attended!!! over 20 people came who were non members . the chapel was filled!!!

D came and was just loving it. she said "i just feel like i know all these people!!" i can't wait to teach her about the plan of salvation haha :) i sure love that lady.. she asked if she could adopt me haha! i said..... well could i adopt YOU??? she said she would come live with us in utah... so ya ;)

so ya thats my week in a nutshell!

its been humbling and exciting. frustrating and exhausting, exhilarating and happy all in one. 

i will say this.. i think i am going to have to sleep for a whole week STRAIGHT just to recover from the exhaustion that NEVER GOES AWAY. like ever. people always try to help with sleep and stuff and give good advice.. I'm not struggling to get to sleep or stay asleep.. but i just never get ENOUGH!!! 

so ya I'm just really excited for this week. its going to be really full. tomorrow we have mission tour. a seventy is coming to talk to us for basically a whole day about cool stuff.. so ill take good notes and then we are going to the temple after. i am SO PUMPED TO GO TO THE TEMPLE. i love this temple .well i love all the temples.... edmonton will forever be so special and holy to me. especially so :)

I'm trying to think if there is anything else i should tellllll you.......??? a;ksldfj;alkdsfj;lakdsjsf

meh :)

i just love you all

and please accept my apologies of not writing everyone back... i just really don't have time today :( i will soon. next week? :D

i love you all

i pray for you

i love love love you

love sister douglas

Some photos from this week

Pranking the Elders

Sister B               

exchanges

exchanges

new sunnies from the dollar store

Hard week

Big storm

After the storm 

Clothing swap

                                             

This is how fast we've been going this week

it is SNOWING FOLKS!! a thick wet snow! whats funny tho is that it made me really excited cause it reminded me of being a little greenie in spruce grove and just giving it my all and i am just happy to be here.

although it was been a rough week.

Dear Everyone,

ha the weirdest thing is happening right now like,,, as i start typing to you i havent even said anything and i just start crying.. hahaha kinda like you know when you just hold it in hold it in and someone asks you "whats wrong?" and then you just burst into tears???? ya well thats happening over email haha.

so... this week.

ok.... so we had exchanges with sister H and it was so good... and i love her to the moon and back and i feel like.. like were just soul sisters ya know?? but it was also hard cause i just have been feeling so distant from everyone and everything and not really FEELING a whole lot of anything except little random moments of frustration but i was actually probably getting DEPRESSED and i was like "what the heck is wrong with me.. why am i not laughing at all these things that are hillarious and why am i annoyed all the time and whats with me falling asleep all over the place??" ya depression. please dont think that i am like really unstable... really it was neat cause i was able to figure out something was wrong... but when your feeling down in the dumps you gotta figure out WHY???? and what was bothering me so much was i DIDNT KNOW WHY.. i was just plain SAD!! and i cried alot.. and poor sister b was trying to help me.

so... i had this neat experience.

theres this lady in our branch that is kinda cookoo crazy and drinks alot and has the saddest life..like ever.. and pres. henriksen always asks us to go see her and i was annoyed because i didnt WANT to go see her and then i was more annoyed at myself for not wanting to go see her... and as we were sitting out side her house in the car i said the prayer and i asked God to give me charity for this lady... to love her, just love her.

and so she came out on the porch (it started to rain) she wasnt dressed properly, drunk as a dog, and SO SAD she just stood there and cried... her life is such a mess, and this lady (she's in her fifties, and has lost everything) just stands there and looks into my soul and says "thank you for loving me" and i loved her so much i wanted to just wrap her up and give her everything she every wanted... I STARTED to cry cause i just felt her pain this poor poor lady.. and all we could do was sing to her. we sang with tears streaming down our faces there is sunshine in my soul today.. haha... and she just bawled and hugged us.

as we were leaving the line from les mis came into my mind "to love another man is to see the face of God"..... 

more talks with sister B to try and figure out what is WRONG with me.... 

its just really painful not being able to HELP IMMEDIATELY. its painful to watch my BROTHERS AND SISTERs make STUPID choices. its painful to see humanity and i can understand now why GOD WEEPS for us.

i got a blessing from brother N... he didnt even ask me why he just gave me a blessing that was SO INSPIRED.

something he said was "those that be with you are more than they who are against you. be patient in peoples progress and patient in yourself and you are learning to love more deeply than you ever have." 

my HEART HURTS... its been rough guys.. not gonna lie.. i miss you lots. i still miss you. and to hear about kendal levine (Bron's good friend from High school who is currently serving a mission in Sydney AUS got hit by a car on Saturday and is in a coma)... man. i just wish i could do something. i wish i could hug you all! :) but thats ok

ill share with you what i shared at testimony meeting yesterday

"when i was in grade 10 my english teacher told me that i was a little bird because i was to scared to jump off the edge and i was never going to learn to fly if i didnt take risks. i have always been petrified of taking risks because i am so so scared of getting hurt. i hate hurting. there have been times when i have taken that risk.. and i have jumped.. and then i have gotten hurt, and then i have gotten angry and mad at the world and sometimes frustrated with God for not helping me FLY! i so badly want to just fly and never experience pain. i have come to see that we dont learn to fly just from jumping off the cliff... we learn from falling. because when we get hurt and fall we get the opportunity to have the savior pick us up dust us off and show us a better way. a man who was in the willy handcart company said  "I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.’”

He continues: “‘I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.

“‘Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.’

i am thankful for the times that god has let me hurt. and let me cry. and i am grateful to have in those moments seen and felt angels around me and the love of the lord encircling me. 

my heart is aching but it is full. i love you guys. 

bah i havent even told you about the rest of this week!!!!!

ok so A is still planning on being baptized...she really really wants to know the book of mormon is true.. and i really really want her to know that she KNOWS THAT!!! she loves the book of mormon.. and she prays about it all the time.. and the church makes her so happy but she is waiting for like so BIG answer.... SHE'LL GET ONE it is miraculoous.. but its quiet you know/? so we have been talking alot about revelation. and G and M have really reached out to her and D which is awesome :) A DID read a bunch of anti crap.. which scared me for a sec.. but she is to smart and to intune and it hardly phased her. we warned her that the advesary is going to try and stop her from getting baptized... so she knows to stay strong

ummmm what else what else... oh the stake president came out to tell us were 13 people away from becoming a ward but he upped the number to 34 for a good comfort space.. so thats exciting.. we are gonna make it happen.. gotta find some FAMILIES!!

OK I REALLY dont know what else to tell you.. i feel like i word vomitted at the beginning of this email.. and all i really want is to talk to my mom but i cant so that sucks

the church really is true and that really is a great fact that should make anyone happy!!!! the world spins madly on and we keep working on and the Lord is working with us.. which is comforting and exciting.. great things are happening all around the world and we are apart of it!!!!!!!!!!

i love you

love sister douglas