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.

March 23... Just flurries

Hello everyone! Sounds like its been a crazy week! Congrats to Paige and Richard on tying the knot!! I've gained a real appreciation for the temple and the amazing gift of being sealed for time and eternity. It is so exciting to see loved ones make that commitment to each other and to our Heavenly Father. Im sure they are on their honeymoon so they will probably never read this... so if someone could pass on the congrats for me that would be great...

Also a big congrats to Lili Atwood for her farewell talk! I heard it went amazing! 

This week has been a bit crazy... losing some investigators due to some poorly used agency, as well as gaining some wonderful people with a pure desire to come closer to our Heavenly Father! I am currently teaching 2 ex-Pagans, so ive got to learn a lot about that religion lately! Its pretty cool... But God is cooler so... 

We had Stake Conference this week and had a General Authority, Elder Wilson come visit. Luckily the stake centre is in Fredericton so we didnt have to travel, but there were 6 sisters in our apartment which is a blast! The Aps started calling us hotel fredericton because of how often we have sisters staying with us while in transit. 

Elder Wilson gave some great talks, one that stuck out to me the most was his push on education. We need an education to be succesful. And obviously money is something that God does not care about, but when you are in a place where you dont have to worry about money, you have so much more time to focus on your family and the gospel, and on serving others. There is a very spiritual side to being financially stable. He was pretty funny about the weather, he was like "In utah, they would call this a blizzard, here, they said it was just flurries" haha welcome to spring time in eastern canada. 

Ive been really pondering on how I can best build my teaching skills and become more effective with my time, so that I am constantly and consistently working to fulfill my purpose as a missionary. Whenever I do this I end up making these big goals and never knowing where to begin.I did this a lot at the very beginning of my mission. I wanted to become consecrated to the Lord, in every way possible. And I continued to fail, over and over again I fell short to what it means to become fully consecrated to the work. I got so frustrated with myself  (i continue to get frustrated with myself) and as i was reading a talk just this morning by Elder Dallin. H. Oaks called "The Challenge To Become" I realized that the reason I continued to fail and becoming fully consecrated is because I was not yet fully converted. Now dont get me wrong, I know more than anything in the world that this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and the Book Of Mormon gives us the knowledge and instruction needed for eternal life. But have I allowed this knowledge to change me? to make me into what my Heavenly Father wants me to become? It is frustrating at times because this is not a goal that can be achieved in a week, or a month, or a year. But it is a life-long process that is hard for a impatient soul like mine, who has been trained by the world to want and desire immediate results at the blink of an eye. But as I set small, every day goals, like memorizing a scripture reference, doing small acts of kindness for my companion, and simply loving those i teach, i can work towards that conversion process, and i know that as i work towards that goal, i will become more consecrated to the work, to my purpose, and to my Heavenly Father. 

This is a gospel of learning. It is amazing that we have so much opportunity to change as we put our trust in an unchangeable God. Someone who will never disappoint us. 

It is great hearing from everyone! There is some amazing stuff going on at home from the sounds of everyones emails! And there is some amazing things going on here in Fredericton as well that I am very blessed to be a part of. Love you all!!! 

Sister Lambert :) 

6 month mark, 1 year left!

Yes yes yes, all the rumors are true, i HAVE been on my mission for 6 MONTHS now. Sometimes I'm excited that i have made it this far and learned so much already. And sometimes I just want to cry thinking that i have only learned so much already and i have SO MUCH MORE to learn!! And thinking that 1/3 of my mission is gone is just the saddest thing in the world...

So yesterday morning me and Sister Pitcher decided to be good girls and complete our personal study before running to the church to check transfer letters. During our study we get a text from the Elders saying "woah....." and then a text from the STL's saying "Well that's a twist...." So of course we are freaking out the whole time and not even focusing. We get to the church and turns out they were just messing with us.... Me and Sister Pitcher are both staying in Fredericton. WOOHOO!!! What they were talking about in the text is all the changes they are making to the leadership. Since we have sooo many new missionaries. And all the leaders are going home, they are putting all the current leaders (zone leaders, district leaders) with new or less experienced missionaries to help train all the new missionaries. So now we only have 1 zone leader instead of 2. But then we also have 3 STLs instead of 2... its all confusing. Im not in leadership (thank goodness) so i don't really have to worry about it right now. 

I have been having some awesome personal studies this week. I have been focusing a ton on building confidence, and self-esteem. I talked about it a bit in my last email but its really interesting when you really look at it. Low confidence in yourself is the root of so many issues and is often what leads to disobedience. So how do you combat it? I was studying and studying and then realized "wow... im so dumb. (obviously a great example of self confidence) I have been studying this for 3 days.... but the church has men called of God who have probably already thought about this. Where would their findings be? In a place that is easy access to the main focus group for this issue. The Young Women." So what do the young women recite every sunday? The key characteristics needed to have love for our Heavenly Father, those around us, and ultimately ourselves. Faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue. As i have been studying these characteristics i have thought about the countless times i recited this theme without have a real understanding of what i was saying. And they all interconnect with each other. You need to have faith in God and His teachings to understand what your divine nature is, and once you understand that you will gain more individual worth... and so on. 

This is where it comes down to faith. Just the other day, Sister Pitcher asked me where i found my faith, how i got it. And the only thing that i could think of is "well, it just makes sense." and i stand by that! Why not choose faith? What else is there to choose? Doubt? fear? loneliness? no thankyou... I would rather put all my trust, love, and time into a God who loves me, who has a plan for me, who cares for my well-being, and who is consistent and will never let me down, then in a world that is shaky and forever changing. 

So this is my plea to all that I meet, including anyone who reads my emails. Choose faith! It is the only option that makes sense!! 

Thanks for letting me rant to all of you! I hope at least some of you chose to accept my Book of Mormon challenge! I love and miss all you! 

hope ya'll are enjoying the nice weather i keep hearing about. This week was actually so beautiful!! We had awesome weather!!!! 

Love, 

Sister Lambert :) 

In honor of my 6 months, im gonna flash it back to the mtc, where i was still with sister Pitcher haha and i was actually tanned and warm...and cute and not pale and tired of snow...and being cold.