No Exceptions

Hello hello!

                  Mexicana me!

This is the best week of the year - Christmas, my birthday, and New Year's Eve all in one! Don't worry, we have more than enough chocolate to celebrate. 

Christmas was wonderful. Talking to family was, of course, the highlight! And it didn't make me miss home as much as I thought it would - it was just really nice. :) However, after we skyped home, my companion and I went to a dinner appointment. Then we went to another dinner appointment. Then I got sick. I still feel unwell, but it's probably more due to the fact that our water has been contaminated for the last week and a half and no one told us....whoops. No wonder our whole district is sick. But hey, it could be worse! Our elders had a dinner appointment last week where they were fed pork skin and one of them was up all night throwing up. So I really can't complain! 90% of the time, food in the Hispanic wards is the best. 

I also got to play the organ in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was really sweet because this ward hadn't had anyone who could play organ in a really long time and it made them really happy. We also had an awesome lesson last night with a new investigator who has a TON of potential! The funny thing about lessons is that my Spanish is fine whenever we're teaching. I understand basically everything and I can get my ideas across okay. But when we're not in a lesson, I'm still pretty lost. I think the Lord helps me just enough to do the work He needs me to do. From here, I have a lot of work to do to improve.

I was reading a talk this week and there was an idea that caught my attention. With regards to missionary work, and to lifting those around us, the author wrote that none of us can reach everyone, but each of us can reach someone. She expressed how wonderful it would be if each person in the church brought just one other person to full activity. What a huge impact that would make!! SO....I invite each of you reading this who is a member of the Church to commit to bring one person to full activity in the Church in 2016. This person could be a less-active member or someone who isn't yet baptized into the Church. To you who are reading this who are not members of the Church, I invite you to try something new this year. At https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/bofm-title?lang=eng you can find the Book of Mormon. At mormon.org you can read more about the Church and why this book is so important. 

God loves all of His children. There are no exceptions. He wants each of us to be happy. Sure, we may find pleasure and temporary happiness in the world. We can spend time with family and serve others and go on fun vacations - but there is only one source of true joy. There is only one path that leads to eternal happiness and everlasting life. Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me"(John 14:6). There is only one church on Earth where mankind can find the fulness Christ's gospel. There is only one church on Earth that holds His authority to perform saving ordinances like baptism and confirmation. That church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We don't bring people into the Church because we want bigger congregations or more tithing money or because we're competing with the size of other churches. We bring people into the Church because we know of God's incomprehensible love for every single one of us and we know that this is the only way back to His presence. Please. Make a new friend, call someone you haven't seen in a while, pray. I promise that as you ask Heavenly Father in faith to help you achieve this goal, He will help, and you will see miracles and blessings you can't even imagine right now. I also know that we who possess the truth are commanded to share it. As Joseph Smith stated, "After all has been said and done, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel."

Hermana Shaver

                an elder stuffed my bag full of popcorn balls      a tower of chocolate that fell right before I took the picture

                                                           

gifts we made for the ppl we work with

mi companera!

   Sister Carpenter in a bag 

people from Ottawa

                                food from the Greenfield Park ward

Feliz Navidad :)

Hola!!!!

Well. Sometimes, I feel like my mission is trying to kill me. In case any of you were wondering if it's possible to experience culture shock halfway through your mission in your own country...yes. It is. 

In all honesty though, I LOVE it! I love the Spanish language, I love this ward already, and I love my new companion. I'm still deciding about the Latin American culture haha. (But secretly I love that too.) We had a ward Christmas party last weekend that was scheduled to start at 6 but the opening prayer wasn't said until 7:45 - typical of Spanish wards, apparently. I mean, if everyone's okay with it then I guess that's great! On my first Sunday, I performed TWO musical numbers in sacrament meeting. TWO! I think that's a record! We sang a hymn medley with the elders in our ward (by the way, all three of the other missionaries in our ward are native Spanish-speakers) and then literally 5 minutes before church started, this one YSA told us that the girl who was going to sing with him lost her voice and asked us to fill in - so we sang O Holy Night in English as well. I also got delegated to introduce our song in Spanish before we sang. It was just...a lot! But everyone has been super nice and pretty patient with my Spanish. Mostly I just start talking and then when I don't know something I get my companion to translate it from English for me and then I keep going. It works. Also, a lot of the members speak French. 

My companion is Hermana Rivas. She's Venezuelan but lives in Utah but is from Florida. And she is the bomb dot com. She has spent the past 6 months with my MTC companion, who is someone that I got along great with, so this companionship is one of the best things that's ever happened. I've been so blessed to have so many awesome companions! 

But anyways, something somewhat important is happening this week....LA NAVIDAD! CHRISTMAS! NOEL! Whatever you call it! I am super excited. Along with all the celebrations, gifts, decorations, and food, I really really love the emphasis that is put on the birth of our Saviour. D&C 6:13 says: "If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation."

This Christmas, pause and remember Jesus Christ. Remember that He is the sole reason for which we can experience hope. Joy. Peace. Love. This time of year and always, remember Him. He is the greatest gift ever given, because through Him came not only salvation, but "every good thing"(Moroni 7:22). Remember that we celebrate Christ.mas because Christ.was.

Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Shaver

In at least one way, I'm just a stinky fish.

I'm being TRANSFERRED again!!!

^Story of my life.

I'm really getting the FULL Canada Montreal Mission experience. In my mission, there are 5 zones and 4 languages spoken (by missionaries). After this next area, I will have served in 4 zones and 3 languages! (In other words, I will probably be the first Chinese-speaking sister missionary in the Mount Royal zone later in my mission. For the records: I called it.) Sooooooooooo....... I'm going to a SPANISH ward!!! I'm replacing my MTC companion, Hermana Perdue, in the Victoria Ward in Longueuil. She's taking off to be a sister training leader, and I'll be companions with Sister Rivas! It's super funny because when we were in Montreal for the temple open house, these are the sisters we stayed with! So I've already seen the apartment, the church building (next to the temple!!!) and some of the members and people I'll be working with! I'm so excited!

SISTER BROOK!! 

I'm also, admittedly, a little nervous - the MTC was a long time ago, and I haven't exactly been speaking Spanish all day every day! In this way, I am a lot like stale bread and stinky fish. Explanation: Remember in the Bible, when Jesus is teaching a great multitude of people? There were thousands of them, and they were hungry. Jesus asked what food was available, and the answer returned that all they had to offer was a few loaves of bread (probably stale by then) and two small fishes (probably stinky by then). Then Christ took their meager offering and by it worked miracles. Every person who ate was filled, and there was food to spare. In the same way, I believe that Jesus Christ takes what little, insufficient, and severely lacking offering we have to give - our talents, time, and abilities - and miraculously uses that to accomplish His miracles and His work among the people around us. I know that I'm not very good at speaking Spanish and I'm not a perfect missionary, but as long as I give what I can, He will more than cover the rest. He has called me to do this work through a prophet, and He has called me to the Victoria Ward through my mission president. I know that His grace is sufficient.

I'd also like to mention that this has been the perfect week to end on in Riverside! We achieved the mission's standards of excellence this week, and even exceeded them a little! We've had tons of amazing lessons and spirit-led discussions, and I'm glad to see the area growing. It's sad to leave, but I know Sister Cunningham will take good care of these people. :)

I love you all! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Shaver

Beavertails with Sister Calderon!

 Sisters Christmas party!

 My next planner and the TREE!

 Me with Fred and  Sarah, and a random tree in the park.

Therefore, let us glory!

...yea, we will glory in the Lord"(Alma 26:16). I looked up the word 'glory' in the dictionary. To glory in something or someone means to honour, praise, triumph, delight, and exalt. As someone said in sacrament meeting yesterday, if months of the year were days of the week, December would be Sunday. It's a time to reflect on your relationship with Jesus Christ, to evaluate your life on a more spiritual scale, and toglory in our Saviour.

Things do not have to be going well in life for you to glory in the Lord. My understanding of this concept grew this week! In all honesty, it just wasn't a good week! But that's okay, because this is still the Lord's work, God still loves His children, and as long as we're choosing the right and doing our best, things always get better. And they already are getting better! After several bad/mediocre days in a row, yesterday was a really good day. We had 3 lessons, all of which went extremely well, thanks to a lot of divine influence. It's so good to be a missionary!

I might as well tell you about some of our adventures though! We got to do service by gift-wrapping in a mall one day. It was really fun! Most of the day was really slow but while we were there, we had lots to do! We also had interviews with our mission president, which is always uplifting. We had this one dinner appointment last Friday night that was....an adventure. The quality of the food wasn't an issue - these Ethiopians know how to cook - but it was the quantity that was a problem....one should never ever eat that much food all at once. My stomach didn't start feeling normal again until today. We also had our ward Christmas party this weekend, which was a great success. :)

I'll write again next week with news from transfer calls! Have a jolly week!

Sister Shaver

 Freezing rain

 and Christmas!

#ASAVIOURISBORN

Hello hello!

First of all, before I even get to this week, have you seen the video on christmas.mormon.org yet? If not, go watch it! And then share it on social media! Because, guess what? A Saviour is born. And THAT is amazing. Because of Christ, there is hope, joy, and meaning in life. Without Him, we wouldn't have any of that.

Soon this week was overall really good, but had its ups and downs. On the on hand, we had to stop teaching our super golden muslim investigator, whom we love to pieces, until she gets her immigration status sorted out. Breaking the news to her was hard. We also had a first lesson with someone who flat out rejected the gospel. That's always sad too. 

But on the other hand, we had another first lesson, this one with a man from Congo, who happily accepted the message of the restoration and accepted a baptism date! And some of our people came to church for the first time in forever! She's well on her way to baptism, and her husband is well on his way to receiving the Priesthood. Yay! We also had American Thanksgiving dinner with some of the American families in our ward. Of the 6 missionaries in our ward, my companion is the only American. Weird. And the Primary presentation was yesterday, and it was super cute. It was fun to see our 9-year-old recent convert participating, too. 

So, I have a quick funny story! We had been trying to drop by these less-active members for a long time, but they live in a bad part of town and for some reason we only ever had tie to do it at night. But we finally had a chance to go during daylight hours, so we did! When we got off the bus though, we were getting these really weird vibes from the people around us. And then the man walking in front of us paused and turned to look at us. In this really creepy voice, he said, "Welcome to the South side," laughed, and walked away. And then some people across the street started yelling at each other and cursing and threatened to call the cops. Annnnd we just kept walking! Haha. It was great though, because one of the people we were trying to see was actually home, and she gave us pie and chamomile tea. 

Oh, and I'll hit my halfway point this week!

Love you all!

Sister Shaver