Not Satisfied

Hey! 

A lot of things happened this week! We had a wonderful zone conference, the theme of which was "Always Remember Him." We talked a lot about the Sabbath day and the sacrament, and we got to watch video segments from the training given to General Authorities at last April's General Conference. It was so good! Those of you back home who are in ward councils either have seen or will be seeing the same ones. :) And then our mission president happened to randomly remember that President Russell M. Nelson's birthday is September 11th, so afterwards he took a video of us singing Happy Birthday and emailed it to him!

Shortly after zone conference, we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. It was so much fun! Sister Azimi-Tabrizi is fantastic! She and I stayed in my area while Sister Cunningham and Sister Hill went to Gatineau (and Sister Cunningham got to speak French!). It was awesome, but it was also raining and suddenly really cold (it's been really hot the last few days). I wasn't prepared. I got sick. It's sad. 

I also have a funny story from last week. Sister Cunningham and I tried to make Haitian food together but instead all we got was a very smoky apartment and some burnt mushy inedible mess. We later found out that when one wants to fry plantains, one must buy the green ones, not the yellow ones. And that one shouldn't make the oil too hot. We have so many adventures!

We also learn a lot of great lessons. One lesson I learned (or re-learned) during zone conference is that Heavenly Father just isn't satisfied with who we are. It sounds a little harsh, but it actually isn't. He loves us immensely, but He is not content with who we are right now because He knows out great potential. In the parable of the prodigal son, found in the Bible, (if you don't know it, look it up:) ) we often focus on the two sons and their behaviour, and we often overlook the things we can learn about the Father. In the story, the father sees his returning son when he is "yet a great way off" and rejoices. For him to have seen his son from so far away, he would have to have been watching and waiting for him. He never forgot him. He never gave up hope. In the same way, our Father in Heaven is watching and waiting for each of us. He rejoices when we take steps in His direction. He knows how far we've come and He sees how far we still have to go. And He helps us.

I hope that you're all doing well! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Shaver

 Me at Parliament and on my 6 month mark!

  

              SUPER awkward district photo.                        Ethiopian doughnuts. Yum!

                                               We have representation from mexico, Haiti, 

                                                france, Tahiti, the US, and Canada. 

   

              Round two of getting soaked! It was so hot that day,      A random farm in the middle of Ottawa 

                          and we wished we could swim. Well, wish granted. 

                                                   IT POURED.

Six Months!

Salam alaikum! 

I can't believe I hit my 6-month mark this past week! A year from now, I won't even be a missionary anymore! Crazy! While I can't say I've loved every minute of it (because there are downs as well as ups), I wouldn't trade these past 6 months for anything. Serving a mission is 100% worth it, and I LOVE being a missionary! :)

The biggest news this week is that we got a new investigator, who is GOLDEN. We'll call her Ella. We actually met her last week but I didn't write about it because we weren't sure if we'd be able to teach her - since she's muslim, we had to get permission from the mission president. Anyway, Ella is from Kuwait and is actually a direct descendant of Abraham. She has her genealogy all the way back to Adam. A member brought her to church last week and at the end she practically ran up to us and said, "Baptism! I want it! How do I get it?" Since then we've had two lessons with her. At both, she felt the Spirit very strongly. She is already willing to accept the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith! Obviously, we still have a lot to discuss with her, but so far, she is just amazing!

Another big thing that happened this week is that school has started up again. We are often near the university, so we see a lot of students. 

We had a dinner appointment about a week ago with a family that has a bunch of kids, and the 5-year-old told us all his best jokes: "Why did the squirrel climb the tree?" "I don't know. Why?" "Because his nest was at the top!" "....Okay. Well, that makes sense." "No, I mean at the very top!" "Oh, okay...haha..." Kids are great.

I love you all! Have a great week! :)

Sister Shaver

P.S. Sorry for being a day late! Since yesterday was a holiday, we got to spend it proselyting and taking advantage of people being home. :)

Every Language is Useful

You know how sometimes in Primary, they teach the kids a song in sign language? And it's super cute and all the parents love it? I remember doing that. Unfortunately, I only remember, like, 3 words in ASL. Fortunately, one of those words is Jesus Christ. Do you see where this is going yet? Haha yesterday Sister Cunningham and I were sitting across from two men on the bus who were communicating in sign language. I really wanted to talk to them but I had no idea how to start a conversation! It took me until we were almost at our stop, but eventually I gathered up the courage to wave at one of them and make eye contact. Then I took off my nametag and showed him (I really wish I had an English one...I don't think he reads Spanish). He didn't know how to talk to me either since I obviously don't know how to sign, so he pulled out his phone and typed in 'For?' Then I signed 'Jesus Christ' and his eyes got all wide and he made a cross with his fingers and smiled. I gave him a pass-along card and he said thank you and taught Sister Cunningham how to say you're welcome and then we had to get off the bus. It was so cool!! Day made!

I have also had opportunities this week to use my French and Spanish, and the very limited knowledge I have of Mandarin and Tagalog as well. I think the next most useful language in this particular area would be Arabic. It's everywhere! And then Haitian Creole. That would come in handy too. But regardless of the language or the circumstance, I am always amazed at how the Lord is constantly preparing people to receive the Gospel. My testimony grows a little bit with every new contact we make!

The other exciting news this week is that we got bikes! The Spanish sisters had some in their apartment that they didn't use. I've kind of decided that you haven't lived until you've ridden a bike in a skirt. Every day is a new adventure as a missionary!

Sister Shaver

Welcome to Ottawa!

These past few days have been some of, if not THE craziest days of my mission so far!! SO much has happened!

First of all, last Wednesday I met my new companion, fresh out of the MTC. Her name is Sister Cunningham and she's from Utah. I love her! I'm going to enjoy these next couple of transfers together! :)

After that, we took a 3 hour bus ride to Ottawa, met some other missionaries, and found our new apartment. It's really cool because we live downtown - as in, within short walking distance of City Hall and Parliament. (We caught the beginning of some fireworks over Parliament Hill the other night.) Elders used to live here, but they did a nice job of cleaning up before we arrived, so it's pretty nice....but there are definitely some eyebrow-raising anomalies.....like SIX tubs of margarine in the fridge/freezer.....(We asked about that. Apparently they were all gifts. The elders were like, "I don't know, maybe you can use them as thank-you cards after dinner appointments?") Cool.

So, we're also on transit in this area. It's a pretty huge change for me, coming from an area where we drove 100+ km daily to lots of walking and learning to decipher bus maps...we've made a lot of mistakes...we missed one appointment completely because we got lost and were going to be an hour late, and another time we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk twice as far to get home in the pouring rain. It's been an adventure! But we're actually really enjoying it! :) On top of all that, we have a tiny teaching pool because even though technically we didn't open a new area, we kind of did. The previous sisters are still here, but they now only teach in Spanish, so they kept all their Spanish-speaking investigators and less-actives.

But hey! We've had some cool experiences! The other day we were walking down the street and this man leaned out of a coffee shop and asked if we could talk about the Book of Mormon (so we did). Haven't had that one happen before!

Till next week!

Sister Shaver

 Saying goodbye to Sister Hinkson and Saint-Jérôme families.

 Hello Sister Cunningham! (with the Patricks)

us soaking wet the day we got caught in the rain 

a squirrel we named Nemo because he has a gimpy paw

The transfer call strikes again!!!

Honestly, I think zone leaders enjoy doing transfer calls too much. Here`s what our conversation was like last Saturday:

ZL: Are you ready for your transfer call?

Us: Yes!

ZL: Sister Shaver - you are...(suspense)....GOING.....to.....Riverside!

Me: Where is that? (Ottawa) What language? (English) etc.

ZL: Oh, and Sister Shaver?

Me: Yes?

ZL: ....... You`re training!

*explosion on our side of the phone*

Yes! So Sister Hinkson is going home, elders are moving into our area, and I am flushing into an area and TRAINING! Whaaaaa! And it`s a little bit complicated, but from what I gather, there are already sisters where we`re going - who are staying - but they`re becoming exclusively Spanish sisters, and we are taking over their area. But they`re keeping their apartment and car etc. which means that on top of whitewashing, I`m also going into a new apartment! (There are pros and cons to this...)

So, that`s my exciting news for the week. It took me like 3 hours to fall asleep that night because there`s SO much to do in the next few days! Our members and investigators are really sad about it. Those poor elders. But I`m sure they`ll warm up to them quickly. :)

This necklace was given to me by an African family. It's in the shape of Cameroun.

Otherwise, it`s been a generally good week! Nothing else major happened except that one of our less-actives actually came to church for the first time in forever! Yay! 

Our peanut butter party snacks.

It`s bittersweet leaving an area. I won`t have a chance to say goodbye to some of the people I really got to love. 

But I am WAY excited for this next adventure!
Sister Shaver

My district is (was) Elder Sumsion, Elder Gonzalez, me, Sister Hinkson, Sister Meldrum and Sister Rawlings

There IS a plan!

A 30-minute zone training and sacrament meeting talk later and I`m still here! Wow! Amazing! Actually, I really enjoyed doing both of those! I didn`t end up being as nervous as I thought I would be to give the zone training. We did a little skit at the beginning that got people interested and laughing right away, and it turned out to be pretty good! It was cool to meet the zone. I didn`t know anyone. But I did meet up with Sister Beaumont, who`s also from BC. :)

One of the things I love about missionary life is that God always has a plan for our day - He just doesn`t always let us know what it is! But generally, when the plans we made don`t work out, it`s because there`s somewhere else that He needs us to be in that moment. This week a lot of lessons got canceled last-minute. But that was okay because it gave us opportunities to do other things we otherwise wouldn`t have thought of! 

For instance, yesterday we went to an appointment with a less-active who turned out not to be home. So instead we dropped by a former investigator who lived in the same complex and we ended up actually getting in and having a long conversation with this woman from Uganda. She`s a single mother of three working to learn English (an opportunity she missed because of having spent her childhood fleeing from one war-torn African country to another) so she can get her high school diploma so she can better support her family. We meet the most interesting people! That`s another thing I love about being a missionary! We also ran into this man who had traveled all over the US and visited Salt Lake and when we offered him a Book of Mormon he was like, "I already have one of those!" So that was cool.

I think that`s about all I have to say this week! I can`t believe this is already the last week of the transfer! Time flies when you`re having fun ;) 

Soeur Shaver

      

Sister Hinkson is going home next week!

   

This is the house I live in right now. The mom of the family sometimes leaves us food in our room...  

 "Eet Smakelijk!" is Dutch for "Bon Appetit!"

Friendly ducks, phone calls, and dignity

A really cool thing happened the other day! Sister Hinkson and I stopped by a less-active member to see how he was doing and see if we could maybe have a lesson with him. He happened to be available, so we went to a nearby park where we sat at a picnic table that was surrounded by probably 50+ ducks. I`ve never met such friendly ducks. It was strange. 

But that wasn`t the cool thing! While we were talking, an old man on a scooter drove up next to us and said something like (rough translation), "Oh, I was hoping you were eating something and I could maybe grab some" (jokingly) and the man we were teaching looked at his scriptures and was like, "No... but we are feasting on the word." And then that led into a Gospel discussion with this stranger who had some really sincere questions, and the one with whom we had been in the middle of a lesson got to bear his testimony about the topic we had been teaching! The stranger said he didn`t have a phone number but accepted a mormon.org card and said he`d call us.

But the REALLY cool thing is that he actually did call the next day!!! Unfortunately it was while we were in church so we didn`t answer, but he left a message and said he`d try again later! (Just so you know, when people say they`re going to call us, they don`t. Almost ever.)

Aside from that, the only other cool news I can think of right now is that Sister Hinkson and I have been asked to give a training on dignity at the next zone training meeting this week! It`s exciting! But also a little bit nerve-wracking. This zone is almost twice as big as my last zone. We`re looking forward to it though!

Until next week!

Soeur Shaver