Bonjour everyone :) 

This week was great! We had a snow storm on Monday night... We texted everyone and cancelled our YSA FHE because the roads were so bad but the Elders texted everyone and uncanceled it because they didn't want to sit in there apartments and so we all risked our lives and went to the church to play games... we played "murder in the dark" and it was terrifying but pretty darn fun. 

We got a new Elder in the area because Elder Cox went home, His name is Elder Argyle, he served in Fredericton which is great cause i can ask him about all the people i worked with there :) One of my old investigators got baptized last week!! woohoo!!

We had a hot chocolate stand this week, we just give out free hot chocolate and talk to people on the street as we do it. We were soooooo cold... BUT you know how i told you the story of finding that less active Steven? (form China) a while back when we were clearing off cars? WELL we found ANOTHER less active while we were doing our hot chocolate stand! His name is Michael and he is from Sweden. He ended up coming to church this sunday with Steven haha we told Bishop about him and he was like "Where do you keep finding all these people??" Apparently less active students are just crawling all over Wolfville! 

This is the first day of my last transfer!! I have been reflecting a lot on the things i have learned over the last 17 months and i must say that the greatest knowledge i have gained on my mission is the truthfulness of the Book Of Mormon. I am in awe of the many wonderful lessons and experiences i have had from this simple testament i am so grateful. The testimony i have gained of this book will carry me through any trial i face in my life and it is such a significant blessing. 

I hope everyone had a great Valentines day! I got a cute package from my mama, the picture of just me was during the snow storm, looks lame cause you cant actually see the snow.. and then our "Godfather" pictures that we took before Elder Cox went home.. they are pretty sweet. 

Love ya all! 

Sister Lambert :) 

November 16..We have a Prophet!

Hello hello everyone! 

Another wonderful week has come and past and new adventures yet await! 

So this week we had the opportunity to attend a Remembrance Day ceremony! And oh my goodness, the spirit was so strong! And I found that to be really cool. It reminded me that this is still a country built on God. It was touching to have an opportunity to remember those who have and do fight for our freedom. This week happened to be the week I was reading through the war chapters of the Book Of Mormon. And it was upsetting to me to think about how we are still fighting today for the freedoms that the Nephites fought for (and at times the Lamanites) but I went to the ceremony with a few American missionaries so it was a nice time to show off some Canadian pride! 

We helped out at a family history fair this weekend!! And man oh man.... I am so pumped about family history! On Tuesday they taught us missionaries how to index... And then we taught people how to do it on Saturday! Then we also got to learn a little about how we can expand on our own family trees :) I am so stoked. 

My dearly beloved companion Sister Fenn is going home tomorrow :( it is a heart breaking day... I will miss her greatly! I have loved serving with her! But I am also really excited to say that I am going to be staying in Hali for another transfer and I will be serving with Sister Weckesser. She is a sister I already know pretty well and she is awesome! We are going to get along great :) She is a fellow Alberta dweller... She is from Rocky Mountain House and lived in Edmonton for a year so we probably know some of the same people! 

My spiritual thought is based on the craziness that is exploding on social media due to the policy change made last week (from what I hear, I really don't know what is going on with social media...) but the other day I was reading the account on Alma 30 when Korihor goes and is leading away the hearts of many to believe in his wicked teachings. 

"18 And thus he did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men" 

This account made me think of the people in the media and even close friends and fellow members who are being lead away from the teachings of the Prophet due to worldly views and pressure from society. BUT what I absolutely love about this story is how the people of Ammon react to these teachings:

"19 Now this man went over to the land of Jershon also, to preach these things among the people of Ammon, who were once the people of the Lamanites.

20 But behold they were more wise than many of the Nephites; for they took him, and bound him, and carried him before Ammon, who was a high priest over that people.

21 And it came to pass that he caused that he should be carried out of the land." 

And so with this in mind, how do we react to teaching against the church? Do we allow these negative thoughts and teachings linger in our mind and in our homes? Or do we bind them up and cast them out? 

With this said, I am not saying that we should not ask questions and I am not saying that it is a bad thing to address doubts. But my advice is to keep it between you, the Lord, and If needed trusted priesthood leaders. But don't listen to the voices in the media. Those who try and look to other sources are simply allowing Korihor like characters into there life, risking the testimony that they have built from years of spiritual confirmations. We must look to the one source of ultimate truth with a spirit of humility and understanding. 

But hey, I trust you all to find the truth :) I will tell you that I know that we are lead by a Prophet that is called of God. And although I may not have a perfect knowledge of why the changes were made regarding the children of same sex couples, I DO have a knowledge of Thomas S Monson being called of God. And that is enough for me to have the faith and patience to know that understanding will come with time. 

Love you all :) have a great week! 

Love, 

Sister Lambert

November 9th... Finally found good mexican food on the east coast

Hello Everyone :)

What a good week this was!! The week itself was slightly uneventful but at church we had 2 less actives, an investigator and a potential who we met on friday attend :) So the Sunday really made up for the rest of the week!! 

I cannot remember if i mentioned this in last weeks email... if i did i am going to emphasize the excitement of it again... WE FINALLY FOUND GOOD MEXICAN FOOD IN THE EAST COAST. I feel that only those who have served here will understand this excitement... but it really is quite wonderful. We went there this week to celebrate Sister Fenn's 18 month mark!! It sure is a mix of emotions hitting these point in your mission... tomorrow i hit my 14 month mark and my plan is to pretend that its my 4 month mark.... woohooo for 4 months!!

This week we went to an international student event at Dal, and they have this program where once a week a bunch of international students come together and basically just talk... (to practice their English)  and so obviously it is the perfect place for us to go!! We went with a recent convert from China named Sharon and we just talked to people, we ended up getting 3 potentials and one of the people came to church on sunday!! It was funny cause one of the english volunteers there was a girl who we street contacted into just a couple days before and she shut us down pretty hard... you could tell she felt awkward having us there, but hey... its only awkward if you make it awkward right?

Anyways, i am really excited for this new finding tool we now have! And we are starting up a institute class on campus hopefully this week. I get so excited when we continue to find so many ways to work on campus!!

From what i hear there is a whole lot of nonsense being talked about with the churches handbook change regarding the kids of a same sex relationship. It's times like this where i am happy i can avoid hearing all these silly things on the internet... i think that the simple way to put it is just to remember who is giving this new commandment.

So i had the most wonderful morning before emails today! We (as in me, Sister Fenn and the Assistants) met with the Institute teacher here Brother Cartier. The reasoning for it is was because i asked him about how i can better read the old testament. It is something that i have a hard time reading because it usually leads to confusion... both in the language and understanding. And with this question i ended up learning SO MUCH ABOUT EVERYTHING. Mainly about how everything links back to the plan of happiness. Throughout this discussion we talked on plural marriage, blacks and the priesthood, and the new handbook change. All i can say in the email (because it would take forever to explain everything) is that God knows what He is doing. Thats it. His ways are higher then our ways, and if we prayerfully study these things out, and do not base our opinions and the opinions of man, then we will be able to find ultimate truth. 

I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of this gospel in my life. Everything this gospel brings it so remarkable and leads to such immense joy. I feel so blessed. I am grateful to be sharing this with those that i meet, and i pray every day to find those who are ready to accept it.

I love and miss everyone back home, i hope you are all doing well!!

Love, 

Sister Lambert :) 

October 12... answer to "What is it like to serve a Mission"

I will be having thanksgiving dinner at Presidents! I'm actually at his
house right now, he invited us to spend the day here haha

What is it like to serve a mission? That is sooo hard to summarize mom!!!
I would say that a mission is the best thing any girl can do to start off
her life as an adult and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. You learn skills
like talking to people, and how to study and work hard. You also get
to help people change their lives for the better and build life long
friendships. But the best thing of all is you build a strong and personal
relationship with your Heavenly Father. Through this relationship you learn
of your true identity and your potential. You are shown your weaknesses and
then you get to see these weaknesses be turned into strengths through the
atonement of Jesus Christ.
So what is it like? It is hard, but it is rewarding. We are promised in our
call letter that "greater blessings and more happiness than you have ever
yet experienced await you" and it is SO true. Any joy and happiness that
those young girls have experienced thus far will be magnified by 100 if
they choose to serve God and go on a mission.
The best thing members can do is to be friends, not just fellowshippers.
Fellowship is key, to help investigators and less-actives feel welcome at
church and is essential to conversion. But to be a friend is so much more. It
means asking them about their life, their problems, even if they are not
gospel related. It means inviting investigators or less actives into your
home not just for missionary lessons but also outside of a lesson
setting, to just to hang out and have fun. Build a real desire to want to
help them no matter what decisions they make regarding the gospel. Because
as you build that Christ like love for people, that love will radiate into
their lives so much more than you could imagine. It helps people recognize
that this is not just a church, but a family. This is something that
missionaries can't do, so members are the only ones that can not just
fellowship but friendship. It is SO important to building Gods kingdom.

September 7th.... 1 Year Anniversary

Yes yes, the rumors are true.... I HAVE BEEN OUT FOR A YEAR. my goodness.... it's crazy. 

This week as flown by!!!! Moncton. Dartmouth and NFLD Zone conference.... so much fun! But i am a wee bit tired now... just a little bit. The conference was jam packed with info and it was very uplifting and inspiring! We had the couple who is in charge of the medical stuff in our mission (and like 6 other missions) come and give us a training on how to stay healthy and stress free. Then Brother Cartier who is the CES representative in the east coast (and the institute teacher here in Halifax) gave us a training on how to study the scriptures and get the most out of our personal study. That was an awesome training! It is amazing how much you can get out of a single verse of scripture. 

THEN President gave a training on member presents and near the end said "and now the STLTs are going to train you on IPERF" (a new concept that we had just learned about from president the night before) So we had zero idea he wanted us to train on it.... and we barely understood it ourselves....but we did it. And it turned out pretty good. It was a fun surprise.... 

It was so great going back to Newfoundland again! Me and Sister Fenn both served there so it was a good time. And my old comp Sister Pitcher was just made STL there so we got to go on exchanges with them :) It was a struggle getting to NFLD though. The assistants put my name on the ticket as Emily Fenn, so i couldnt use the ticket. And to get my name changed on the ticket was a hour and a half long process.... and the check in for my flight was closing in 10 minutes... so i had to buy a whole new ticket (didnt help that it was 5am so nobody was answering the phone) ive decided that airports are the biggest rip off in the world... so sneaky with all there hidden fees and silly rules. anyways, it was great once i got there but a bit stressful. I had a nice chat with the assistants after that. But all is well!!!! 

I am loving serving with Sister Fenn, she is so fun!!! We are getting along great :) 

I may have sinned.... i didnt write in my journal all week.... MY BAD! so i dont have much to tell...Sister Fenn almost got hit by a car in Halifax and then we got in a car crash in NFLD. THAT was fun. I would tell details, but i think its funner to just leave it at that. 

The greatest thing that i learned at Zone Conference is that their are two reasons to read the scriptures: 

1.To be changed

2.To obtain light and truth that will save me, my family, and those i serve. 

And if these are not the reasons we have in mind as we read, then they need to become the reason! 

Thanks for the emails and the support, It is a blessing to reflect every monday on the love and care i receive from those at home. Love you all lots :) 

Sister Lambert 

August 10th... That's How IT's Done Folks

Yes it is true. Today is my 11 month mark. And YES it is ALSO true that i am going to be turning the big 2-0 on friday..... the teen life of wild games and adventures is over... or have they just begun? i guess only time will tell. 

My goodness what a fun week this has been! I must repent, i only wrote in my journal once this past week, and it was last night... and this morning... 

So on Tuesday we got 3 new investigators! They are all chinese (of course) Sam and Amber are students, they are dating and so darn cute. They have been here for 3 years and have pretty good english. We are also teaching Ambers mom Mandy, she has only been here for a month, and has brutal english, luckily we have some pretty solid Chinese members in the ward to help us out. In our first lesson Sam said "do you always talk to strangers on the street?" and so we explained how thats how we find people to teach, and he's like "i introduce you to my Chinese friends, you teach them so you dont have to talk to strangers on street anymore" hahaha it was great. On Sunday Sam and Mandy came to church, our recent convert sharon translated for Mandy and we sat with Sam. The gospel principles lesson was on tithing, Sam turned to us and said "i want to pay tithing" "okay great, you don't need to pay tithing unless you are a member though" "what do i need to do to become mormon?" "get baptized, do you know what baptism means?" "no" *explain baptism* Sam: "okay,i want to do that" ....... and thats how its done folks. 

We also started teaching another girl who lives next door to our investigator Glenna, her name is Kim. She converted to Muslim 9 years ago but is very interested in what we teach. She has a 2 page list of questions for us! We went over and started answering some of her questions. When we started we said that we are not perfect teachers, and we may not be able to answer all her questions but that doesn't mean that there is not an answer, and that the ones we don't know we will write down and study. Then Glenna stops us and says to Kim "if the sisters dont know the answers, you can just read the Book Of Mormon. It answers lots of questions" .... gotta love when an investigator teaches for you. 

How great are the people we are teaching right now???? so great... 

YES I DID GET TO GO TO NEWFOUNDLAND THIS WEEK! AND IT WAS SO GREAT! So we were supposed to go tuesday night, but then we may or may not have missed our flight... woops. But fret not, we left wednesday morning instead. We get to St. Johns safely and work with the St. Johns sisters for the day. We went to the Regatta which is apparently the oldest boat race in North America. It was pretty sweet! There were thousands of people there and it was pretty insane. The Sister i was with has some pretty bad anxiety so we took it pretty easy while we were in the crowd. It is hard to talk to people about the gospel in large and loud crowds, but i still managed to pass out at least one Book Of Mormon. Then we went to Bay Roberts and had an awesome time with Sister Christiansen and Sister Fenn. Im 99% sure Sister Fenn is going to be my next companion, she is an awesome sister! 

I forgot how easy it is to talk to Newfies. They are just so nice!!! You really will not meet a kinder soul, sadly more often then not they are also very content with mediocrity, making them hard to teach. But you will have a hoot talking to them!! 

But i am happy to be home in Halifax. There are some great works going on here and im very excited for these next couple of months!!! 

As for my birthday. The YSA is having a activity in honor of me turning 20. okay... well they might not know its my birthday, and they may have planned the activity before i got here... but my plan is to just walk in and be like "wow!! for me? THANKS guys!" and hopefully everyone will just play along.... 

I know these 7 months are going to fly by, and i hope to cherish every moment. It was a very cool experience to be back in my first area and see the progress i have made over the last 11 months. And i still have so much more work to do!!! And so little time!!! So i better get off this computer and get to work! 

Love you all lots, thank you for the early birthday wishes! have a great week me duckies' 

Love, 

Sister Lambert

July 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.