Fear Not

Hello hello!

So this week was really good! The work is picking up pace little by little. This week we visited the Mandarin Chinese district's district meeting (and they mostly spoke English for us), we did a member split - I got to spend a few hours with a 17-year-old in our ward who's preparing for a mission - and we did a regular exchange with the Greenfield Park sisters! I was on exchanges with Sister Prince. It was so fun because this is her first transfer and we got to ride the metro together (her first time on metro!) and teach and find and it was awesome. I love that new-missionary enthousiasm! 

I have a funny story. Our apartment has wooden floors and normally that's no problem, but the other day, just as we were about to leave, I spun on my heel and got a small sliver in my foot. When my companion asked why I was taking my socks off, I explained. As soon as she understood what a "sliver" was, face lit up and she said, "Stay right there!" and disappeared to another room. I started trying to pry it out with some tweezers, but a few seconds later, Sister Clement was back - with two HUGE knives from the kitchen and this scary look of determination on her face.

Yeah...that didn't happen! I convinced her to find me a sewing needle instead... She was like, "Sister, don't you trust me? I chop vegetables all the time. What's the difference?" The horrified look on Sister Arizmendi's face was pretty great when she said that. Fun times! :D 

Anyways, transfers are coming up! We're getting our call this week. I hope we don't change, but Sister Clement has been having a lot of dreams about moving, so we'll see! We've been focusing a lot on boldness lately, and we're getting better at talking with everyone and pushing past boundaries of comfort. I mean, it's a little awkward to sit next to the only other person on the bus, and a little scary to approach a group of men standing outside in the dark smoking and speaking Russian. But hey, sacrifice is what it's all about! When you think of it as, "What am I willing to sacrifice in order to bring someone salvation?" it's a lot easier. Doubt not, fear not! 

Sister Shaver

My awesome district!

Me with a member.

Prison

So when the sons of Mosiah (people in the Book of Mormon) went on their mission, basically the first thing that happened to all of them was they got thrown in prison and were threatened to be put to death. They eventually all got out of prison and had wildly successful missions, baptizing and bringing thousands of souls unto Christ. 

But let's think about that time they were stuck in jail. They were great missionaries, they had good goals, and they had the Spirit with them in full force. But let's face it, they were not getting anything done. Despite everything they were doing right, nothing was going the way they thought it should.

For most of the past 2 weeks, Sister Clement and I have been "in prison," meaning that nothing is happening! It was so frustrating because we planned carefully, set goals inspired by the Spirit, prepared diligently, and worked hard - but every appointment we had fell through. Every person in our already-too-small teaching pool was either too busy or too tired or just dropped off the face of the planet. To make things more awkward, as missionary leaders, our area is supposed to be an example from which other missionaries can learn and we had an exchange last weekend. With the new way of doing exchanges (determined by the First Presidency), both sisters come to work in our area, leaving theirs empty for a day, which means we get twice as much done. Except that we had no appointments scheduled, let alone enough to fill two companionships' schedules....

President Patrick loves to bring up the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) and then encouraging us not to be insane. Sooo we looked at the things we'd been doing to find new investigators and what things we hadn't tried. We hadn't really spent time knocking on doors yet, so we decided to give that a shot. And guess what! This weekend, we found 3 new families to teach and several more potential investigators - one of those new investigators has even accepted a baptismal date already! MIRACLES! 

The moral of this story: God will always bail us out of prison if we let Him.

Other than that, we had a really good zone conference this week. :) Have a great week, everyone! 

Sister Shaver

 We made sushi

It snowed

There are weird monkey murals in Montreal

Dinosaur Day

On the way to the church to email home this afternoon, a woman stopped us because she thought Sister Clement was someone she knew. When she figured out that we were mormon missionaries, she gave us a loud, long-winded rant about how we have a different bible and we don't believe in the Holy Ghost or that we need to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. I asked her, "Where did you hear that?" And she yelled in my face, "In the Bible!" So then I had to explain, "No no, I mean where did you hear that we don't believe that?" We then had the opportunity to calmly explain that yes, we do believe in the Holy Ghost. We do believe that every person must be baptized, or "born of water and of the spirit." We do believe in the Bible. And we believe in ongoing revelation from God. She calmed down pretty quickly and chatted with us for a few minutes before her bus came. By the end of the conversation we had given her our card (and she had given us her own) and had a group hug. Sigh. People. 

Other than that, this week has been swell! My companion passed her 3-year anniversary of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We also had GENERAL CONFERENCE, which is always AMAZING. We visited my last area, Kirkland, to attend their district meeting, which was fun. We gave a training on having faith to find, and we managed to incorporate trust falls. That was entertaining. :) 

Oh, and one of the BEST things about this week is that we went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with a recent convert in our ward! She was able to submit names of two of her own ancestors. It was a joyful moment when she entered the water of the baptismal font to perform this essential ordinance for her very own cherished grandmother. Now her grandmother will have the opportunity to accept or reject baptism, whereas before, she didn't have the option. If she accepts, she may also accept the higher ordinances of the temple performed in her behalf later on, the highest of which being sealing to her loved ones, to live with them forever. I wish everyone in the Church could have this experience!! Imagine that - a soul who has passed on who was previously powerless to change her fate now has the opportunity to be justified and sanctified by the Atonement of Christ and to receive eternal life in the celestial kingdom. What could be more beautiful? I myself got to go in the water to do baptisms as well. (It's the closest thing to going swimming I've experienced in over 13 months.) It was awesome!

AND guess who was in the parking lot when we arrived at the temple!!!!! RAFAEL AND MAXIMO!!! My recent convert from the Victoria ward and his 4-year-old son!!! I was SO HAPPY to see them!!! :D :D :D The blessings of temple attendance are endless!!!

I hope everyone had a chance to watch General Conference. What insights did you get? What are you going to change? I'd love to hear from you all! :) 

Sister Shaver

Stay On Course

Hey everyone!

So this past week has been AWESOME. (See last week's email.) There were so many great things happening all week - we had some great lessons, mission leadership council, the stake Easter cantata, a new investigator came to the women's broadcast, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting (which I actually love doing), pretty much ALL the less-actives we work with came to church, a complete stranger walked into church and turns out to live in our area and gave us his contact information, we went on our first exchange of the transfer, and we had a wonderful Easter dinner with two of the senior missionary couples. So basically, it was amazing.

This coming week should be pretty exciting too. We and the zone leaders have decided to start visiting the other districts in our zone to see how it's going and what we can do to help. This week we get to visit Kirkland!!! I'm excited to visit my old area. :) Although the majority of the missionaries who are there now were not there when I was there, so it won't exactly be the same. Still though, it should be fun!

The talk I gave on Sunday was about how the sacrament influences my life each week. I decided that with only 5ish months left on my mission, it was about time I use a swimming analogy to preach the gospel. I remember one time when I was a lot younger that I was taking swimming lessons and my instructor asked me to take my goggles off and swim to the other end without opening my eyes underwater. I did, but it wasn't long before I felt myself hitting the lane rope on my right. So I corrected my course and continued. But only a few seconds later, I hit the lane rope on my left. I ended up zig-zagging all the way down the lane! 

I told that story, and compared the black line on the bottom of the pool to Jesus Christ, and the lane ropes to the sacrament. When we always remember Him, it's easy to stay on track. But when we forget, or get distracted, we start to veer off course. So we need a regular, consistent, effective reminder to catch us before we stray too far. When you take the lane ropes out of a swimming pool, people crash, they get hurt, and in extreme cases, they could even get a concussion from a head-on collision, pass out, and drown. When you take the sacrament out of your life, you risk potentially fatal spiritual damage. Not only does the sacrament protect us spiritually, it gives us access to Christ's Atonement, which does FAR more than simply take away our sins. It helps us grow into a strong person who resists sin and has the spiritual stature to dwell in the presence of God. Anyway, I enjoyed giving the talk. Moral of the story: GO TO CHURCH. 

I love you all! Happy General Conference! :)

Sister Shaver

#Hallelujah

Easter is here again!!! It's weird being out for more than a year because I remember LAST Easter and I was already on my mission! Crazy! Anyways, I'm really looking forward to this week. We have mission leadership council coming up (a meeting with all the zone leaders and sister training leaders, the assistants to the President, and President Patrick) and a stake Easter concert on Good Friday (there will be a missionary choir!). I also get to give a talk next Sunday about how the sacrament affects my life each week (I am so excited) AND we were invited over for Easter dinner with a senior missionary couple who works in the office. Basically, this week is going to be great!

This past week was also pretty great. We went to the temple on Friday and ran into a member from Quebec city who's preparing for a mission and who used to come teaching with us all the time. :) We also had transfers, and of the 6 sisters in our zone (that's not including us) 4 of them are new in the zone and 2 of those are greenies!! I can't wait for exchanges with them. There's something about brand-new missionaries that's very exciting and makes you love being on a mission. I also got to go to my first district meeting in this district. I've been here for a couple of weeks, but we haven't had district meeting because of zone training. So that was fun! I officially win the who's-been-in-the-most-areas game. We even have a few elders who are very close to going home, but I don't think anyone else has served in more than 4 areas besides me. 

Most importantly, for anyone who hasn't heard, there's a new video and website launched by the church to help us focus on Christ this Easter season. It's at followhim.mormon.org and it's REALLY good. Every time we share with someone, the Spirit testifies very strongly about the Resurrection of Christ. I love the message of hope; that because of Jesus Christ, we can ALL find new life and live happily forever in the presence of God. That's what I'm celebrating this Easter. He lives, so I can live too. Since I've been on my mission, some people I was close to before have passed away. It's been hard, and it's been sad, but I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, each of them will be made alive. HALLELUJAH! :)

Sister Shaver

Here's a blurry picture of my companion                                                      and a creepy note I found on my desk :)

                                                                                                   (Hermana Perdue lives just down the street from us!)

Preach

Hey guess what!!! Transfer calls came this weekend and, miracle of all miracles, I'm STAYING with my companion in Montreal! There are some pretty interesting changes going on in our zone, though. A new set of sisters is moving into Kirkland. :) And my greenie is TRAINING! I'll be a "grandma" (in missionary terms)! I'm excited for this transfer! 

We also had another zone training meeting last week. It turned out really well.We discussed principles of faith, accountability, and consecration, along with some specific goals to work on and things to improve. And it's always nice to see the rest of the zone. It was funny for me to see the difference between this one and the last one. At the last one, I only knew like 5 people in our zone, but now I know most missionaries by name - although now everyone's getting transfered so I have to start over again. -.- 

Another REALLY cool thing that happened this week was we had a missionary fireside for the youth last night. The youth and their parents were invited to attend, and they rotated through different stations where they heard from the bishop, other church leaders, and the full-time missionaries. We were asked to talk to them about who we were before our missions, why we came, what we wish we would have known before we came, and what our day-to-day life is like. It was SO GOOD. We really enjoyed it. The Spirit was very strong. The bishop gave some closing remarks (and cried), and they gave each youth a Preach My Gospel on their way out. Members back home, take note! It didn't seem too complicated to organize, and it was really successful! :)

I love my mission. I love talking to people on the metro, teaching in people's homes, waking up early, studying, going on exchanges, edifying everyone around me, explaining the doctrine of Christ, planning in detail, running to catch the bus, going numb from the cold, and I even love having doors slammed in my face and people yelling at me in other languages because when I'm doing all of these things, I know that I am where God wants me to be, doing what God wants me to do. I will never regret my decision to serve. As hard as it is sometimes, the trials are NOTHING compared to the blessings. Not just the blessings I receive, but more importantly the blessings that those around me receive as a result of my being here. There is nothing happier.

Sister Shaver

Welcome to/Bienvenue à Montréal

Aloha!

You know it's going to be good when the first member of the ward you meet is a recent convert who's an ex gang member. He's awesome.

Well, moving into a new area is kind of becoming routine. The last few days with Sister Schuerch were great. It was sad to leave her at the mission office. But she's home now and hopefully doing well!

My new area is in the heart of Montreal. I remember being sooooo excited about driving a car when I was in Kirkland - but I'm at least twice as excited to be on metro and buses now!! I loooove not having a car! I might not have loved it when it was -35 degrees, but now that it's warming up, it's awesome! However, "real" transfer calls are this Saturday, so I'm currently living out of my suitcases just in case I move again. I could go back to Kirkland, after all. But honestly, I don't think I'm going anywhere. Yet.... 

My new companion is Sister Clement. She was born in Haiti and lived there until she was 10 or 11 and has lived in Florida since then. She's super cool. I'm pretty excited to work with her! It's funny how as sister training leaders, there is no senior and junior companion, but normally it feels that way anyway at first because one of you knows what's going on and one of you doesn't - but it's more balanced in this situation because I know all the STL things we need to be doing, but she knows the area. She's actually only been here for 4 weeks, so we're still figuring some things out!

Anyway, despite it being a little hectic, I don't actually have much to report. I wanted to share an idea though - you know how companies put their logo on everything they produce? When they make something, they're proud of it, and they want everyone to know that it's theirs. When we are baptized, we are made into new people through the Atonement of Christ. He places His name upon us because that is where His perfections are made manifest - He's proud of us, and wants everyone to know that we are His. We covenant to take His name upon us. As we keep that covenant, the light of Christ shines through us, and people recognize us as His disciples. I can't think of many things more beautiful than that. I hope all of you reading this who are members of the Church remember that this coming week, and that your week is excellent as a result! I love you!

Sisiter Shaver