Fredericton, New Brunswick, Here I Come

So i will start with the exciting news of Transfers... drum role please....... IM GETTING TRANSFERRED to Fredericton New Brunswick. Am i freaking out? yes. Am i excited? Heck yes. Honestly soo many emotions. I am soooo sad i am leaving St.Johns. Newfoundland in the promised land. Strong families continue to be moved here, and it is so they can help the work to grow and build up the branch here. There is so much work to be done here and i wish i could have done more while i was here. Its a pretty crappy feeling to wish you would have done more, so thats something i will make sure i will never experience again. I am here to work hard and give my all. I will make sure that at the end of each day i will have the assurance that there is nothing more i could have done that day, and i will have nothing left. Because this feeling of wishing i helped and gave more is the worst. I dont know anything about my new companion. Her name is Sister Hughes, but nobody here has served with her. I will be serving in the same area as my zone leaders who are Elder Torie and and Elder Tusa. Elder Torie was the assistant when i came out and he is awesome, Elder Tusa i hear a lot about because apparently he is really funny, so i am excited. And i might be serving in one of the few wards in the mission!!! That will be cool! Elder Gibb is going to be the Zone leader here in NFLD!! crazy!! 

Thank you for all the packages and gifts i have received! i feel so loved!!! And it really does make my day! My favorite thing to get is letters and pictures!

The weather in Newfoundland will forever be the weirdest thing in the entire world. It is so warm lately, it had been raining a lot and it looks like they may even have a green christmas, no snow here. In one day you will experience snow, insane wind, sunny skies and then rain. But i will miss the warm times and the lack of snow, because all i hear about NB is snow, snow, and more snow. 

We had our Christmas Zone Conference this week, my trio and elder Gibb may or may not have performed a little song... it was pretty great! Santa came and gave us all gift cards for timmies, and we had a white elephant gift exchange and i got a massive stuffed giraffe that i am determined to take with me, it is going to be a huge struggle to try and stay under the weight limit when i fly out. 

Christmas is a great time of year because everyone really stops and remembers family and service. After the Zone Conference a bunch of missionaries who traveled from all over NFLD as well as the assistants went caroling with us in Downtown St.Johns, it was so fun! We sang Christmas carols, talked to a lot of people, and even had pictures and videos taken of us. People really loved it! It was a great opportunity to share the He Is The Gift initiative with many people and help others recognize the real meaning of Christmas! 

Something we have been focusing on a lot is faith. It is such a simple word with so much power behind it. It is truly only through faith that anything can become possible. If you lack in faith then you lack in power, in teaching, in the spirit, in everything really. And the best way to gain faith is through prayer. So thats something i have really been focusing on lately, my prayers. It is an amazing blessing to be able to have such a personal conversation and connection with my Heavenly Father, it would be crazy for me to not take advantage of that! 

At first, i was so nervous about transfers, this is my first area and i love it here with all my heart, but i am comfortable and i could see my progression slowing down. So i cant wait to have a change and to once again be pushed out of my comfort zone, because that is the best time to grow and become better. Its a little sad it is happening right before Christmas since i wont know people yet and i now have to figure out how to get my gifts from here to there. But all will be okay because this is Gods will. I am here to follow Gods will, not my own, and i am here to work to the point where my will and Gods will are aligned. Because it will be at that point that i will reach pure happiness and satisfaction in my abilities and talents given to me in this life. But i didnt recognize this at first, i needed to pray, and i needed to have faith that President Leavitt puts us where God needs us and wants us to be. 

A mission is not what i expected it to be, its harder, it creates hardships and at points, sorrow. But it has been the most rewarding time, i have never felt so much joy, and ive learned so much. And its only been 3 months!! I know that great things lie ahead for me and for this work. And i cant wait. 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas! I hope everyone has seen and shared the He Is The Gift video on christmas.mormon.org because its awesome and needs to be shared withe everyone! I love you and miss you all!!!! 

Love,

Sister Lambert

Love My Companions

My companions and I get a long so well, we have so much fun together. We are just all really silly and find each other hilarious. We jam out in the car to circle of life a lot, its like the only somewhat upbeat song sung by MoTab. We all have our own parts in it and everything. I cant even explain how we have fun because it just sounds silly to everyone else. Elder Gibb compares us to Cohen, Kaden and Brayden if that helps...
That is crazy about Riley!!!! And Taylor!! (I am sure she would add her congratulations! haha)

We had a girl on date for baptism december 20th, and then this week she texted us out of the blue and told us she doesnt want to meet with us anymore and now she wont answer any of our calls or texts. not gonna lie, it really broke my heart. To know that someone had recognized the truth of this gospel and felt that spirit all of a sudden turn around and deny it, just kills me. I feel sorrow for her because i know that she is probably feeling so much sadness from it. 
There is a couple that moved into our ward 2 weeks ago, the Earls. and WE LOVE SISTER EARL. and brother earl, but the elders get him.  She is from salt lake, and she is a amazing member missionary. He is here for the oil and she had decided that the reason she is here is to build the branch and do missionary work. She is going to be working a lot with the ysa, which is good. 
We actually got a decent amount of dinner appointments this month, must be the christmas spirit haha the members here are starting to get excited about missionary work and i actually emailed President Leavitt telling him i really dont want to leave because i love it here. There is soo much potential in this branch and i just so badly want to be apart of the growth that i know is coming here. Because they didnt have a lot of strong families here in the first place God is putting job opportunities here to bring in strong families from afar. And those families are going to bring in more families and really help build up the church here. 

We made a ginger bread temple for christmas, its pretty great. First temple is St.Johns ;) 

Email from Emily's companion, Sister Sharp

Hello! This is Sister Sharp. I am currently serving with your little one, Sister Lambert. She is fantastic! I thought you should know that you have raised a fine daughter and a fantastic missionary. I feel privileged to serve with her and am thankful to have her friendship. She maybe has told you some silly stories about me but rest assured that I do know the sacredness of this calling. I hope your family has a wonderful Christmas! I have seen pictures and you are a good lookin' bunch! Keep up the good work. 
Sister Lambert is hard working and always striving to improve and serve the Lord more fully. I am very impressed with how quickly she progresses. I know that she will have important responsibilities in this mission. 
Merry Christmas! And if you haven't seen the church's video "He is the Gift" then you should watch it immediately. 
And if you wouldn't mind, would you pray that we will find people to teach? That would be a marvelous gift to us sisters. 
Thank you for being so supportive of the fabulous Sister Lambert. I just love that gal!

Christmas Season is Here!

The Christmas season is officially here!!! Since my companions are Americans... i was not allowed to be stoked about Christmas until after american thanks giving, which actually ended up being a bigger deal than Canadian thanks giving in the St.Johns branch. This is because pretty much half of the branch are engineers for Exon oil and so they are all from Texas and other places in the states... so for Canadian Thanksgiving I had mexican food...and this time I had two Thanksgiving dinners!! One on Thanksgiving with a member and the next day because all the oil families got together and had a big thanksgiving meal at the church (we werent actually invited, we showed up to cook our dinner at the church (canned soup...) cause its faster and found them there, and they felt bad so they let us eat with them haha)   

So something im working on this week and for the rest of my mission is being better at waking up in the morning... I will admit that I am not much of a morning person but I read a quote this last week from Elder Holland that said "You tell me how those first few hours of a missionary's day go, and I'll tell you how the rest of their day will go. Ill tell you how their week will go, how their month will go, how their year will go, and ultimately how their life will go." And so I realized that I didnt like how my mornings reflected my attitude. So now, instead of laying in bed for 4 minutes wishing I could sleep longer, I get up within like 5 seconds, say my prayers, make my bed, and start my 5BX workout. And as I've done that, I have noticed a huge difference in my day. Who knew how much that 4 minutes laying in bed affected my attitude!! lesson learned. 

We had our interviews with President Leavitt this week, and by interviews I mean him talking to the 3 of us for over an hour about our facebook usage and then talking to each of us for 5 minutes making sure all is well haha  In our mission they have really started encouraging us to use facebook and email way more. And its weird to do because I feel like I am not really doing missionary work when i am using facebook but I am!! I talk to way more people and effectively teach about the gospel more in 30 minutes on facebook then I do in 2 hours walking around downtown St.Johns. And its an amazing way to get in contact with less actives! The point that President made is that missionary work has been the same for the last 100 years, knocking on doors, talking to people in the streets, and getting ditched for appointments. If we are going to continue doing the same thing we can only expect the same results, but we need to be hastening the work which means we need to change the way we do things. The internet can be an amazing tool when used correctly! And people arent as open to allowing missionaries into their home anymore, or talking to us on the streets and giving us there info so we can contact them again, but people are more likely to be comfortable giving us there facebook name so we can send them a mormon message. Its great! 

I read a talk this week called "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" by Elder Gene Cook (great talk, everyone should read it) and it really helped me recognize the role faith has in my work as a missionary. And i know this probably sounds like a "duh" moment to everyone else but it just really hit me this week. We need to be always willing to give everything to the Lord at the very moment he asks it of us. If you have any doubts in your mind. any fear, or any distractions, then you will not have the power you are capable of having. When you FULLY trust in the Lord you will have "sufficient faith that the people cannot disbelieve their words" what an amazing blessing we have been promised! Having faith does not just change our attitude but it is something that others will recognize and desire to know more about. There are so many blessings promised to us in the scriptures, all we need to do is work to be worthy of those blessings!! 

The church has put out a new video called He is the Gift and i will ask all of you to watch and share that video with the hashtag #sharethegift, its an amazing video and deserves to be shared be everyone!!! It is something we have been asked to use as our main focus in our missionary work this next month, we have pass along cards and we are asking everyone we meet to watch the video, lets show how we can use social networking to  bring Christ into the lives of everyone!!! 

I love you all, I wish I had pictures of the snow here but I dont yet, I will work on that! miss you, and hope everyone is staying warm!!

Burden free life

I read a talk this week called The Challenging and Testifying Missionary, great talk. It really made me realize that I need to really let go of my fear. This message is so important and I need to help people recognize that. I also need to worry less about how I teach a lesson and focus on just inviting the spirit, because in the end it is the Spirit who is the true teacher. 

I have thought a lot about trials and the lessons you learn from them. Like I said in the letter last week, this is a time for us to learn and grow. And something I have learned to do on my mission is when I get frustrated and things just really are not working out, I just stop and  say "what am I supposed to be learning right now" and as I ponder that, I receive personal revelation on what I am supposed to learn, and what I need to do to apply that lesson to my life and how I do my work. And once you recognize what you need to learn, it never feels like a burden, its an exciting opportunity to grow even more and become closer to our Heavenly Father. Its a really great way to achieve a burden free life. Don't think of trials as burdens, think of them as opportunities!! 

I love to hear everything that is going on at home, it makes me happy when people reference my letters so that I know people are actually reading them haha I love you all, I will try my best to answer everyones emails but I do promise I read every single one!! I am happy to be serving here, I know this is where I need to be and that I am growing from the experiences I am having.

Proselyting in the rain for three days straight!!!

October 27th Changing my Heart

In my personal study I was reading the fourth missionary talk and pondering a lot about what I need to do to improve my missionary work and my attitude towards the work. I even talked about it in my farewell talk a bit, about changing the intents of your heart and giving your desires to the Lord. I seemed to have an idea that you can do it like a flip of a switch, easy. Just give yourself to the Lord. no problem. 

Changing the intents of your heart is hard, it can be a real challenge. And its a process, it really does take a lot of change. But what is the purpose of our time here on earth? to change!! Saying that its in your nature or its just the way you are, is never an excuse. The atonement and the plan of salvation is tilting everything in our favor, with help from the Lord and sincere prayer, we can be like our savior, and be able to live up to our divine potential that we each have received in the pre existence. Nothing we can create ourselves will be better than what the Lord has created for us. 

A barrier I've always had is that I never had good grades, I never thought about myself as a smart person and that has limited my ability to progress, I was constantly limiting myself. But I am a daughter of God, I was born in this gospel to progress, and help others to progress.I am a daughter of a King and therefore I have no limits to what I can become. If I want to be loving, caring, affectionate, AND smart. than I am going to work to become that. I never got good grades in school because I didnt allow myself to.  This is a life of no limits. This is a time where we can learn to become like God. 

My challenge to everyone this week is to think about the barriers you each have and about how you can overcome them, and what steps you need to take to become the person you want to become. Because most of the barriers in life are mental

ones that we have created ourselves. 

Thanksgiving

In the season of thanks, i would just like to give a quick spiritual thought on recognizing our blessings. The other day we were street contacting in down town St. Johns, which we do at least 3 or 4 times a week, and i was having just a downer of a day. Nobody was talking to us and i was (still am) having troubles talking to people, and we were walking back to the car and i was just thinking about how many things i need to work on and how ineffective i was until i perfected those aspects, and really just bringing myself down, i was tired and just wanted to go crawl into my bed even though it was only the morning. Then i just had a voice come into my head that said "think about how blessed you are" I turned around at the top of the hill we had just walked up to see a beautiful scene of St. Johns. How blessed am I. I am serving my mission in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. I have a companion i get a long with, I have a name tag with the name of Jesus Christ on it. He has chosen me to represent Him. How blessed am I. I was raised with an amazing family who is strong in the gospel. I have a knowledge of our Heavenly Father who loves me and will bless me even though im not a perfect teacher. I get to spend the next 17 months of my life, not having to worry about rent and money, or any worldly thing, i get the opportunity to share my knowledge and my blessings with everyone i meet. And how blessed am I to have the Holy Ghost with me to remind me of these blessings when im feeling down.

Alma 32:1 "And it came to pass that they did go forth, and began to preach the word of God unto the people, entering into their synagogues, and into their houses; yea, and even they did preach the word in their streets."

During Sister Lambert's first visit to downtown St. John's, she took the opportunity to share about the Book of Mormon!

Like

Sister Lambert in Newfoundland

HEELLOOO!!!! 

I will finally start being more consistent on emails, with traveling and everything my Pdays were basically not a thing.

So i dont know if President Leavitt told you but the area i am now serving in is St.John's Newfoundland. And all i can say is wow. This place is beyond beautiful. The sights are amazing and the houses are adorable. They have these little house called Jellybean houses and they are all connected but they are bright and muli colored. Super cute!!!

Paige, or Sister Pizzey had actually been with me a bunch since ive been here!!! Its been so nice! She says hi by the way. So much has happened i dont even know where to begin.

So the mtc continued to be awesome, it was sad being split up from my district, we all got pretty spread out throughout the mission. I reallly really really appreciate all the letters and packages i received from people while i was in the mtc, it helped a lot when i was feeling stressed. So i wanted to say thank you to Mom, Jenna, Kristen, Derek, the Nelsons (Carlow's and McReynolds) and Brad and Lesley Burnside! The things you sent were beyond encouraging and helpful! 

 The first full day in the mission field i got to go out with Sis Pizzey for a little bit which was really awesome, She is a amazing missionary! The next day i got to go to the temple since my flight wasnt until friday morning so that was awesome, them i went out contacting with the Cole Harbor Sisters. Me and Sis Pizzey sat beside each other on the plane ride to NFL and then i met my new companion!! Her name is Sister Mangelson and she is awesome. She is 24 and a soft ball player, she has been out for 6 months and we are getting a long great!! I am excited for her to be my trainer and the opportunity to serve with her

So Elder Gibb is my disrtict leader haha which is actually super fun, he was there to pick us up at the airport. And so ill be seeing him pretty often, a familiar face is very comforting!! 

I am serving in the largest branch in all of Newfoundland. It consists of roughly 80 people and that includes the 6 missionaries that come in for sunday. And about a third of that are these super cute families that came in from the states for the big oil projects going on here, we call them the oil families and sadly they will only be around for about 3 years which is a bummer cause they cover most of the callings in our branch. We are going to be working a ton with less actives and trying to build up the branch that way, we do street contacting and knocking everyday but not a ton of success so far, the people here are very set in there ways and very unwilling to make much change in there lives, but dont worry. i got this. Ill help them out.

I love hearing about everything going on at home!! Except about Nana!! thats to bad!! i hope she is doing well, i will keep her in my prayers! 

Adjusting to missionary life has been an interesting experience so far! Im tired pretty much all of the time, getting used to going to bed early has not been an issue whatsoever. Waking up early is a whole other story. President Leavitt (who is the coolest guy btw, he is so awesome and Sister Leavitt is hilarious) he had a workout plan that every missionary has to do in the morning, so yes mom, im working out. He makes it competitive within the mission to keep missionaries motivated to workout. Its a great way to keep the missionaries healthy. Im also hungry all the time, not much time to snack in the mission, not much time for anything really. The members dont really feed us, like ever, so thats something im gonna work on while im here haha! Im always busy!!! its exhausting but helps you know that you're doing what your supposed to do.

sometimes i just stop and think "wow, im actually here, im on my mission" and it brings a solid range of emotions. Im so excited to be here and serve the Lord, this gospel and given me so much and here's my chance to give back. The people here could benefit so much from this gospel, and its up to me to show them that. Im super awkward at talking to people right now, stopping people on the street to tell them about Christ and his restored gospel is super scary, but im getting better and can only improve from here, through prayer and relying on the Spirit, as well as having faith in Christ, i know i can do all things. 

I miss everyone, a lot, but reading your emails had really lifted my spirit and i am confident that this is where im supposed to be. 

Love you all!! talk to you again on monday!! 

MY ADDRESS

1A Chimo Place

St. John's, NL

A1A 3P7

First Real Email Finally

I FINALLY GET TO EMAIL!!!! HURRAY!!

So i am sorry i didnt get to email till now but english missionaries only get one p day and thats today!! I have so many things to tell you but so little time! 

So the first day i was pretty emotional but then Marrissa Humphrey saw me and yelled my name and gave me a huge hug, seriously made me feel so much better, it was awesome to see a familiar face!

My companion in great, we get a long super well. Her name is Sister Pitcher, she is from medicine hat and we know a bunch of the same people which is kind of fun. There are two other Sisters in my zone and then 12 elders. And everyone is great, the other sisters have sweet spirits and are great gals. We all get a long. I get along with the elders great, they are all hilarious. 5 of the 8 missionaries in my district are from Canada. One elder, Elder Kruger is in my district and he is from red deer. He knows Eponine. 

There is such a special spirit here at the MTC, its an amazing experience! I can not believe how much i have learned in such a short amount of time, and its only going to get better!! The teachers are great and i get seriously no free time which helps cause it leaves me no time to realize how tired i am and i never even get a moment to feel home sick. But i keep a family picture in my scriptures at all times to remind me of home, i do really miss everyone!! but i havent felt the tiniest regret for going on a mission. this is the best decision i have ever made, this is truly where i am supposed to be. I cant wait to get into the field to really start!! We have in-field orientation tomorrow so hopefully that will give me a good idea about street contacting. We teach about 3 lessons a day here, in between our 2 - 3 hour classes, and then any other time is to prepare our lessons and companion study. I have never been so reliant on prayer and the spirit!!! 

We get a lot of awesome speakers here who give amazing insight. On sunday we had Sister Stevens, the general primary 1st councilor speak to the sisters in relief society, then for our fire side that night we had Elder Collister, the General Sunday School President, my dream is to use scriptures in lessons as effectively as he does!! He gave an amazing talk about the plan of salvation, which was awesome cause me and sister pitcher were freaking out about a lesson we were giving the next day on the topic. Then on Tuesday we had Richard G. Scott come speak to us on the power of prayer. I have never known how dependent i could be on prayer until this week. I have never said so many prayers in my life and i still feel like its an area i really need to improve in. 

On my second day at the MTC we met our branch presidency, seriously the coolest bunch of guys i have ever met. Apparently you can get callings in the MTC, something i didnt know about until they called me as a Sister Training Leader. It was only the second day so of course i was freaking out, 20 minutes earlier i couldnt find my own dorm room and all of a sudden i was in charge of the sisters in my zone! luckily there was only 3 other sisters at the time so it was fine. Last night i met the 4 new sisters who i will also be in charge of, they are super sweet. Doing the MTC orientation with the new district in our zone was a bunch of fun! 

Although the MTC is challenging i have never had so much fun in my life! Since our zone gets a long so well we all hang out together any chance we get. We all sit together at meals and the laughter is endless. We are one big family! Everyone in my zone is from either US or Canada, except one elder from England.   Everyone in my zone is going to Halifax except 4 elders (including the one from england) who are going to Micronesia Guam? there are 9 languages in there mission and they are all native to each individual island so the missionaries get taught as english missionaries then have to learn the language when they get in the field! crazy! 

I have seen Elder Prepchuck twice already now!! a familiar face is always fun! I have been playing basketball everyday during gym time! i beat all the elders when we play bump which is pretty awesome, they all call me a balla' (well one elder did, but they are all thinking it, obviously.) 

I will be leaving the MTC on the 23rd and wont be getting into halifax till late that night. We do have the option of calling home in the airport. Dont hate me, but i wont be calling home cause ive done really good so far at not getting home sick and dont want to mess that up by hearing your beautiful voices haha. 

I am feeling very blessed here. There are stressful moments but im learning how to handle them. I am starting to get more confident in my teaching abilities and i am really starting to think that i can actually do this!! Thanks to Mom for the quick letter and thanks to Kristen and Derek for the awesome packages they sent!! getting mail really helped when i was feeling overwhelmed!

I love you all and really miss you, but i am loving every minute of the MTC! Your next email from me will be when im in Halifax!! Crazy!!!! 

First Day at Missionary Training Center Email

hey so i only have a minute to tell you im good. soo I AM SO GOOD. i love my companion, we are getting along great. the girls in my room are super nice and im excited to serve with them. we have barely started and i already feel as if ive learned a bunch.

i love you and i will email you again soon with some more detail

tons of love,

sister lambert

Emily Lambert has been called to serve in the Halifax, Nova Scotia Mission for a period of 18 months.  She is to report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah where she will receive training for approximately 10 days.  She will then fly from Provo to Halifax to begin her service there.  She would love to receive letters at the address on the side or emails to emily.lambert@myldsmail.net