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 :) 

Ello me duckies, March 2

Ello' me duckies.

Sounds like everyone is doing well at home, with baby blessings and weddings and all that fun stuff that makes me freak out for when i have to go home... But i am glad everyone is doing well! 

So just a funny little example of how much snow we have here... Me and Sister Pitcher are teaching this girl, and we were talking about having our next lesson at the church and she says "Oh yeah its the church with the park behind it right?" And we are like "uhh no there isnt a park..." and we get into this 5 minute debate about this park that she thinks is behind our church. And she is saying that she has been there before for blood drives and stuff so she knows there is one. 

We go to the church today and are looking around for this park, and then i look at this 20ft snow bank that has been there all winter and just think ".....no way" i climb it and lo' and behold there has been a park literally 15 ft from our church THIS WHOLE TIME but its buried under 8 ft snow and then hidden by a 20 ft snow bank! Ive been here since december and Sister Pitcher January so we dont know what this place even looks like without snow! It was pretty funny though... 

We have had a great week! The work here in Fredericton is increasing like crazy! we got 4 new investigators this week that are building up our teaching pool, and the Elders are finding even more success! We are all really excited for the work here! We have transfer letters on sunday and i really really really dont want to leave so we will see what happens. 

Something i have recognized is a common theme with a lot of people we teach and is the root of a lot of problems within the church as well. This problem is self-worth and struggles with low self esteem. So i have been focusing on it a lot in my personal study this last week and wanted to share at least a little bit of what ive learned with you! 

When i think about the worth of souls the first scripture that pops into my mind is D&C 18:10 "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" And i would always read this and just skim past because i am always told that God loves me. But this time i looked up the definition of 'great' in the dictionary. Great means remarkable and outstanding. So each soul is remarkable. But how often to we think of ourselves as remarkable? Not as often as we should!! To deny ourselves that title is to deny what God is telling us. To think less of ourselves could in a way be considered a form of disobedience. We are denying what we have been told, and we are then denying ourselves our true potential. 

We are each remarkable and outstanding. God teaches it to us. Christ had a full understanding of the worth of our souls. It is because of His understanding that He so willingly died for us and created the atonement. Because He fully understood what our potential was and knew that we need a little help. 

When my mind wandered to the Atonement i then got to thinking more about Christ. When He was a child, he had the veil put before him just like the rest of us. Christ had to find His potential. He had to learn who He was and what He was capable of. We in turn must follow Christ's example and find our for ourselves what it is that our potential is. What makes us remarkable. 

As you are obedient to God's commandments, and follow His council (including remembering the worth of your soul) you will be able to build a closer relationship with Him as you work towards the potential and the blessings that are yours to receive. 

I love you all, i promise im not buried under snow. Their

snow removal systems here are top shelf. The only scary thing is that almost every stop sign here is buried under the snow haha luckily nothing bad has happened yet! 

Love,

Sister Lambert :)