January 26th Transfers

So yes, we did get transfer news this week. And thank the heavens i am staying in Zion. I am going to be in Fredericton for another transfer and my new companion is Sister Pitcher who was my MTC companion!!! I am beyond excited!!!! I love that woman. We got along great and worked really well together so i cant wait to be serving with her :) We are both pretty young missionaries so it will be a great opportunity for us to really step up and stop relying on our companions for everything. 

With missionaries dying.... there is a bunch going home this transfer so they are "dying". We have been making jokes for the last two weeks about Elder Tusa being on his death bed. This is Elder Torrie's 5th kill. He is basically the assassin of the mission. But next transfer there are a bunch of missionaries going home to, basically all of our leaders (zone leaders and STL's) are going home! So it will be interesting to see what happens! Almost every Elder i have come out with from the MTC is either training or a district leader this transfer! There were no sisters that came out this transfer, just elders. 

 Yesterday we had a Q&A with Elder Torrie. We asked questions about how to be a good leader, effectiveness, helping others improve, and working with hard companions. I recognized a lot i need to change in myself, not just in my actions. But changing my heart and my will to fit the Lords. But what i need to start with is changing my motivation. It is easy to get caught up in the goals and the key indicators, as well as working to impress President and the other missionaries, that you can easily forget your true purpose. I was sitting in a lesson the other day, and last minute, the member that was supposed to come ditched out. And my first reaction was "dangit, now we wont hit our goal for a member present" My first thought was about the goal we set, not about the girl we were teaching. In the moment i realized that this is not the way i should be thinking, and i needed to change. You will not do any good without the spirit, but the spirit is here to help us bring others unto christ, not to help us hit the standard. 

I think this same thought of motivation can be transferred to many different aspects of the gospel. Our we praying out of habit or for sincere desire to communicate with our Heavenly Father? Are we following the guidance given from our Prophets because we recognize the blessings it brings and out of desire to come closer to Christ, or because we dont want to be judged by those around us for not following them? It goes back to the CES devotional given a couple weeks ago. It all comes down to what is your motivation. What do you truly desire?

Just something to ponder... and if you recognize that your desire is not in the right place, just remember: everything leads back to the atonement. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ all things are possible. It is only through Him that the desires of our hearts can be changed. It all leads to that foundation, that testimony in Him. 

I love you all :) my address is the same so if you sent me mail, i will get it. If you havent sent me mail... thats okay. 

Have a wonderful week :) CONGRATS TO KENSEY AND ALEX ON THE BABY!!!!!!!!! i am so sad i wont meet Lydia, but all im missing is the boring stage where all you can do is look at her anyways, ill get back just in time for when she can really start playing and interacting with everyone :)

The Perils of Pride

So the weather here is crazy. It was super cold all week and then yesterday warmed up a bit and now its raining. Its the middle of winter! Get it together New Brunswick. 

Also i have a cold which is lame. Its fine cause i can still go out and do stuff but its getting kind of noticeable that i'm sick.... but i refuse to stay in the apartment. Im not on my mission to just sit around, that would just be silly. 

I am loving Fredericton!! We are getting out transfer letters on sunday and i'm freaking out cause i dont want to leave!! Sister Hughes has been here for 3 transfers now so she has a better chance of leaving than i do but still... ya just never know what's gonna happen transfer week. 

We got some new investigators this week which is exciting! Sadly no super funny stories... sorry everyone. I haven't heard back from my baptist friends which is to bad. But we have been focusing a lot on less-actives. We are hopefully going to start teaching a super cute part-member family! Im excited because i haven't taught a family yet! 

We had a zone training this week and had a really good training on how to use our time wisely. We basically realized that missionaries are amazing at wasting time and we need to remember that this is the Lords time not ours. Its hard because most of the members and less actives in this ward live 20-40 min out of town. And so we spend a lot of time traveling. We are focusing a lot on using that travel time wisely to make calls at set up appointments. We have also been having lessons over facebook and skype which is pretty great because the spirit is still there but then we don't hahave to drive for 45 minutes to have a 40 min lesson and then drive 45 min back....  

I have come to realize that i am awful at talking to people on the phone. I am super awkward and i sound like a robot. I told the zone leaders about this and they said that i was probably over exaggerating. So we role played talking on the phone and he was like "wow... i see what you mean.." So then he helped me learn how to talk to people on the phone. I had to practice just saying "Hi this is Sister Lambert" about 12 times. It was embarrassing but i finally know how to talk to people... yay for me! 

I have been struggling a lot with my own pride since i have been on my mission. I recognize that i just really hate being bad at things. And my first reaction is that if im bad at something then i just dont do it. But you cant do that on your mission! Like the talking on the phone. I was really bad at it, so i just didnt want to talk to people on the phone.... and it was really embarrassing for me to have to turn to someone else for help. But because i did, i know what i need to do to be better and i will improve because of it. We all need to do this in our lives daily. Recognize our weakness, and admit that weakness to our Heavenly Father and ask Him for help to over come it. And He will help you by giving you the strength and knowledge you need to do it on your own, or put people in your path to help you. 

One other thing we talked about at Zone training was how every single concern or problem you or your investigator have in the gospel can be resolved with the first 3 lessons. The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you have a testimony of these 3 things, mainly that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and the Book of Mormon is the word of God, then there is nothing that can shake your testimony. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. That is something i will never be able to deny because i have learned it for myself through reading, praying, and personal experiences. This gospel can bless every family and every individual. And it is the responsibility of those who already have that testimony to share this knowledge with everyone. Remember: Every member a missionary :) 

Love you all, thanks for the love and support! 

Sister Lambert

-30 in Fredericton and the Baptist are having a Potluck!

I met this cute girl on the street, found out she is from Alberta, so we chatted, me being the awesome missionary i am, set up an appointment with her and got her contact info. Her being the awesome person she is, calls us up and invite us to dinner. We have a hoot of a time, we teach her and her husband (also from Alberta) about the restoration, we leave feeling jolly as can be. Try and set up another appointment and instead they say "hey, we are having a potluck at our house with all the friends from OUR church. want to come?" And we were like "do we want to come to a baptist potluck? Heck yes we do." (i was of course more professional and missionary like in my vocabulary) And i had sooo much fun. It was great! Everyone was super nice, they asked us questions about ourselves, we ate some good food. There was this guy visiting from Germany for a couple weeks and he asked me why i decided to go on a mission so i got to share my testimony with him and ended up teaching him most of the restoration. I bet none of ya have ever taught a resto lesson at a baptist potluck before.... (just kidding, kind of...) 

There was this guy who was pretty intense though. They were talking about potatoes so i asked him if he was a farmer, and he goes on for 20 min telling me how he found Jesus in his life. (jesus told him to plant the potatoes) and then he said that he shows his love for God through singing so i said i would love to here him sing some time. And in the middle of the room he just starts singing this Christian song and he gets so into it he starts crying! In the middle of the room! And then when we were leaving he quickly moves his truck in front of our car, blast some music and starts belting this other Christian song, and starts crying again and got so emotional that after he gave us a big group hug and is just like "God bless you girls, God bless" IT WAS AWESOME. i had a great time... 

Other than that, this week has been good. We have a girl on date for baptism! She is  a student at STU and she is actually from Newfoundland, i just cant get away from those Newfies. She is a sweetheart though! 

Did everyone watch the Worldwide broadcast that was on last night? It was amazing! He talked about having real intent in all we do. And it honestly is so important. On your mission, real desire and true intent is what makes the difference between a good missionary and a great missionary. 

As you come closer to Christ you recognize that God really does have the power to change your desire and the intent of your heart. You just need to simply allow him into your life to do so. You need to ask for his help and be completely vulnerable to Christ and his everlasting atonement. I am so happy to be sharing a message that changes the course of peoples lives. The gospel of Jesus Christ can completely change someones life from destruction to everlasting and eternal happiness. What an amazing opportunity!!!! 

I love you all, i miss you. Sounds like a lot of great and exciting things are going on and i am happy that everyone is doing well.

Love,

Sister Lambert

-30 and all alone on an otherwise crowded bridge

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!!!