September 20, Halifax

Well hello everyone!! What a fun week this has been!

I am now in Halifax and i am loving every moment!!!! I am just so excited about everything that has to do with missionary work right now!

So it was sad leaving Cole Harbour, since Sister Shannon was going home we spent more time than i usually would during transfers saying goodbye to members, packing, and preparing the maps and books for the new sisters coming in.

On our last day we decided to go knocking in North Preston. For those who are not aware (and im sure most of you are not) North Preston is the largest black community in all of North America! And it was sooooo much fun. There is not a single white person in the whole area and we were getting the weirdest looks. Cars would drive past us, turn around and drive past us again like 6 times. I think a lot of them thought we worked for the government or something. There were some moments where i thought i was going to get jumped.... but i didn't. so all is well. Everyone we talked to was sooo nice... super Baptist, but so nice. It was a good time haha 

We went to the temple for transfers and it was weird saying bye to Sister Shannon after as well as Sister Spencer who was one of my trainers!! 2/3 of my trainers are home, and the 3rd (Sister Mangelson) is going home at the end of this transfer.... crazy!

And now Halifax! It is so so great here! Sister Howell is great! We get along really well and i have so much to learn from her! And everyone here is so ready and prepared to hear the gospel! Just the other day we walked around our apartment to a bus stop and got 5 potentials and set up 3 lessons.... THAT NEVER HAPPENS. only in Halifax... We are currently teaching 2 people from China, 2 from Nepal, and 1 girl from Bolivia... it is so diverse and exciting here! (and we are teaching a couple canadians of course...) But this has been a very humbling time for me! It has been a great because i am learning to teach more simply and take out the filler words in my sentences. (which im sure you can tell by the million run on sentences in my emails) 

So we are covering both the family and Ysa ward in Halifax. It is a hoot and a half. We went to the church at 8:30am for correlation and then didn't leave till 4:30pm, just enough time to make some calls and then head to the mission home for dinner and a meeting with President & Sister Pratt and the APs, that meeting goes till 8pm and then we ran to a lesson with a Child of Record we are teaching. it was a looong day. And it is going to be like that every sunday!! woohoo!  

I am really excited for the responsibilities we are given for this transfer (now that i know what they actually are) This upcoming week we get to travel to my favorite place of Fredericton NB for zone training, and then go on exchanges with the STLs in St. John. In a couple weeks President is flying us out to NFLD for exchanges which i am so excited about! Me and Sister Howell both served in St.Johns so we are hoping we get to spend some time there in our travels! 

OH and i have a ipad!!! Only about 6 missionaries in the mission have them, us, the APs and 2 other elders. They are so handy to have!

When we met with President Pratt on sunday we talked about the focus for this upcoming transfer, what the members need, the missionaries need, and what we need to do to strengthen the missionary success here. Our focus is on keeping the sabbath day holy. It is the Churches focus right now and is really such a simple answer to so many diverse and complex issues. And as missionaries, we can sometime be surprisingly bad and keeping the sabbath day holy. Not in the way of playing sports. But we are bad at making Sunday separate from every other day. Since we focus so much on the Lords work everyday, it makes it hard to remember that sunday needs to be different from every other day. We are going to be focusing a lot on encouraging missionaries to finish all they need to do before sunday, and use the sabbath day as a time to meet with member in the ward, less actives, and doing service. I have come to know as i have studies the purpose of the sabbath the many blessings that come as we focus on the savior. There is a talk called "The Sabbath is a delight" by Elder Nelson that talks about how we need to not focus on the things we can't do on sunday but instead focus on the good things, that blessings that come. I hope everyone can take a moment to read or listen to that talk and consider there own sabbath day activities! My favorite part of the talk is when he says "

my conduct and my attitude on the Sabbath constituted a sign between me and my Heavenly Father.12 With that understanding, I no longer needed lists of dos and don’ts. When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, “What sign do I want to give to God?” That question made my choices about the Sabbath day crystal clear."

I feel blessed for these opportunities given to me. This transfer is going to be a huge growing experience for me! I Cant wait to see what lies ahead.