An Update from Canada

The members in the London YSA branch are so cool! Daddy asked me if I am just in the branch or if there are other wards I am over too. The answer is no! I am just serving in the YSA branch. It is really fun. :) We teach so many wonderful members.

H: H is a member that is originally from Manitoba. I love her so much. We go over to her house every week to teach her the missionary lessons. She is one of the most solid missionaries in the branch. She comes to so many lessons with us and has been inviting people  to be baptized like crazy. I admire her dedication to the Lord, it is so evident by the way she shares the gospel. Yesterday we had an investigator who was having a really hard time. The investigator texted us in the morning and cancelled our appointment for Tuesday she then told us that she also wasn't coming to church and she didn't want to meet anymore. Sister Penrod and I were so confused! Just the day before she told us that she believes God is her Heavenly father and that the Book of Mormon was true. Then she texted us yesterday saying that she didn't believe any of that anymore. We finally asked the right question for her to open up and tell us her concern. After talking with her about the concerns she had she said that she would try to come to church next week. We encouraged her one more time to come this week so she could receive an answer to her question she had but she decided not too. H has become really good friends with her and before church started she told us, "I am going to be friends with her no matter what. I'm not her friend because of the church but because I actually want to be her friend." I  was blown away by the spirit I felt as H said that. In the opening hymn I heard the door open so I turned around and I saw M! H and I exchanged looks and H got up from her seat to come sit by M. My heart filled with love for H and for M as we finished the opening song. I just know that true love and true friendship is one of the best ways to invite others to come unto Christ. H is a great example of that.

This week was so warm! We drank so much water! My watch tan line is beginning to get ridiculous again. :) Yay for missionary tan lines! Sister Penrod is one of my many favorite companions. Let's be real, I love all of my companions so much. The other day we made the yummiest dinner ever. I made some lemon pepper chicken and she made some good vegetables. Sister Penrod always teases that this is the closest that she has ever been to being married. ( I think when she says that she means time because she is going home in like 7 weeks!) :)

Well, I love you all. You are in my prayers.

--
Sister Chelson

An Update from Canada

Wow this week was such a crazy week!

After emailing last week we got a call from J one of the members in the branch and he told us that he had a referral for us! Side note, Sister Penrod and I set a higher goal this last week to contact for referrals. We got all of her information and found out a little about the relationship between the two of them and then we called her! Two days later we brought one of my favorite members H with us to teach her. We had planned to teach her the Plan of Salvation but we asked her what her beliefs were and she told us she had none and that she didn't know who God or Jesus Christ was. We taught her about the Godhead and how to pray. H helped the lesson so much they exchanged numbers at the end and H invited her to church it was awesome! Then we went back the second time with J and taught her the Restoration, at the end of the lesson J invited her to be baptized. I love when the members invite their friends to be baptized it is a lot more powerful then when we do it! She came to church yesterday and had a great experience. She texted us later that night and told us that she was really nervous and decided before that if she didn't understand what was being taught that she would not have come back. But she did! And she loved it. The branch loves her and she loves them. It is looking good.

Sad news about E. He bombed every appointment that we had and we decided that for him to ultimately return back home to Heavenly Father we were going to need to give him back to the lord. We won't be teaching him for a while. But all will be well! We still love him lots.

Okay, here is the crazy news. Wednesday morning Sister Penrod and I went out to the car to leave for an appointment. (we park in a locked parking garage) As I was putting my bag in the back Sister Penrod asks me why the car was such a mess. We always leave the car spotless before we go in and we had put everything away. Every single compartment was open in the car and our stuff was thrown around the car. We hurried to see if any of the car cards had been stolen and if any extra kilometers had been driven but there was no trace. Sister Penrod's GPS that was in the car wasn't taken either. At this point we knew that somebody had broken into the car. We looked on the outside to see if there was any evidence of the car being broken into and there was none. Then a question came into my mind. I asked Sister Penrod if she had the spare keys, she looked at me and quickly examined her bag. We leave the church keys and spare keys in a hidden compartment in the car. We couldn't find them anywhere. We ran back upstairs and frantically looked for the keys. We left the house fast because we knew that somebody had our house keys. WE called the district leader, zone leaders, mission office and President Clayton and they all told us different things to do. Ultimately we asked the zone leaders if they could come up to our apartment and check in out so we could get a suitcase of stuff to live out of before we got our house re -keyed. The next two nights we stayed at different sisters houses.

I think I have really only told mom and dad about being sick. But for the last year on and off I have been struggling with stomach issues. Sister Penrod finally convinced me to go and see a doctor. This last week I went with the mission nurse and his wife and another sister to Oshawa to go see a LDS doctor. For the last two months I have been on several different medications and none of them have seemed to help me. This doctor appointment added to the craziness of our week. Wednesday night we drove to Kitchener which is about an hour and a half away to the other sister training leaders house to stay the night. Then we woke up and drove about another hour and a half to Brampton. Then I got in a car with the mission nurse and his wife and drove another two hours to Oshawa, they got lost a couple of times. Then I had the doctors appointment. Then I drove with them again to Brampton, with the other sister back to Brampton, and then back to London. I was in the car from 8 to 8 that day. When we got back to London we realized we were homeless so we called the London Spanish sisters and they kindly let us stay at their house. This upcoming week I have an ultrasound for my stomach to rule out the more serious complications people can have with their intestines! Wish me luck!

Before going to the doctor President Clayton called and left us a voicemail. He told me not to hide the pain that I had been feeling and to keep him in the loop. He always helps me feel comforted. I love him and Sister Clayton. I am sad to see them go so soon, but I am excited to have a new mission President that I know will love me just as much. President Brown, the branch president, also called me a couple times while I was at the doctor. Finally I got back to him and he told me that he had been thinking of me and asked what he and Sister Brown could do for me. I love them! They are such good saints. H, the coolest potter ever, :) also texted me and told me she was praying for me. I feel extremely blessed and comforted having the knowledge that god sends people to bless us.

The next day, we went back to our apartment to ask if they had gotten our house re-keyed and if they had looked at the cameras. They forgot to do it and were so rude about it to us as well. It was really sad. :( But we stood strong and they did it right away. As Sister Penrod and I were waiting for the apartment to get re-keyed we went up to eat lunch in our apartment. We grabbed weapons like a broom for Sister Penrod and a frying pan for me. We went together to search out the apartment, don't worry we were safe. Now we have new keys and locks and we bought extra locks to put on the door.

With all of this crazy stuff that happened this week we somehow managed to still teach many people! We had awesome people come to church and we just felt like we gave Heavenly Father all that we could.

 

The night before the doctors I was praying and asking Heavenly Father to really help me feel peaceful. It had gotten really hard to eat and every time I did eat I felt so much pain and sickness. I am so grateful for the peace that comes as we pray out loud to our Heavenly Father. He loves us and I know that this entire week he was watching over me and protecting me.

I love you all. I hope that you all had a good week. And I hope you all have a good week this week! Have a good one!

An Amazing Week

This week was so amazing!

This week my zone and another zone in the mission had zone conference. This was President and Sister Claytons last meeting with us before they fly out on the 29th! I was asked to perform in a musical number with some other missionaries. We chose to sing the EFY medley, one of President's favorites. As we started to sing they started to cry. At the end we invited all of the missionaries to stand and sing with us in unison. It was such a special moment. We all love the Claytons so much. In zone conference we also learned about teaching simply  the Restoration. In the Canada Toronto Mission we teach 15-20 minute lessons so we don't have a lot of time to add in all of the fluffy pretty stuff. We teach doctrine and that is it! It was awesome! We were able to practice role playing with so many different missionaries, all who are wonderful. I learned so much. President and Sister Clayton for the last hour of the conference gave us advice on the future. Some of the things they talked about were: getting sealed in the temple, getting a good education, raising your family, and building your foundation. I learned so much and wrote so much in the "Things to  think about in the future" section of my study journal. Hahah.


E! I want to smile and frown at the same time! He is really having a hard time! I feel so bad for the guy. We taught him several things this week one being the review of the Baptism Interview Questions. He understood them all and has such a great testimony of them all he just has a hard time moving out from his girlfriends house. We got a text from him one day telling us that his girlfriend was having roommate issues with another girl  and that he wasn't going to be moving out that day. We wanted to text him back and say, "You are having issues with your roommate!" But we held it back. He is doing so good though as well. We were following up one day on his Book of Mormon reading and he told us that while he was reading about a famine he thought about the power of fasting. He said that those people had to be humbled and that because they fasted for such a long time they were able to learn more about God and follow him before. It was a super sweet insight!

W has a big desire to repent. We were visiting with him this last week and we taught about Faith and Repentance. We were actually in a super weird place. We were teaching in his backyard sitting on several different snow machines. It was super funny. :) Anyways, as we were there he brought up the concern that he couldn't forgive himself. I think that that is a very common thing. I even struggle with that! But the cool thing is that the Atonement of Jesus Christ works for all of us! I think we all are a little to hard on ourselves sometimes. Just last night before Sister Penrod fell asleep I asked her, "Am I a good missionary?" I don't think anything could have woke that girl up faster than that question. She bolted to her study desk and got Preach My Gospel and Adjusting to Missionary Life. I have a great companion. As we talked we talked about the Atonement and with her I talked myself out of the negative feelings Satan put in my mind. I know that the Atonement is for all of us. I know that it is here for our success, not to pick us up from failure.

I love you all! I love Ontario! Last night Sister Penrod and I were talking and holding back tears I told her about the deep love I have for Canadians and for the people in our mission. I love being a missionary! Until next week!

London Ontario not London England silly

I just love London.

This week was awesome we were able to teach so many cool people. While on exchanges this week with literally a movie star. I am being serious she is in movies. All of our appointments canceled. I am still pretty new to London and I don't know where anyone lives. Finally I got into the car and prayed to know where to go, as I was praying I got the idea to go and contact a referral new a returning members house and drop by the returning member. As Sister Nelson and I were getting out of the car we saw this guy walking his dog to the near by park. I saw him and knew that he was the one. We walked over to him and as usual I stumbled on my words, but when I asked him if we could share a fifteen minute message with him he said yes. Sister Nelson is in her 2 week of the mission and looked perplexed when he said yes. We went over to teach him at the park and after teaching the simple truths of the Restoration he said he would be baptized pure miracles.

E is doing great everybody! You know in Helaman 5:12 when it says "that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirlwinds yea when all his might hail and storm shall beat upon you.." That is pretty much what has been happening to him this week. He is going through a lot but he still manages to read pray and come to church. He is incredible and we are so excited for him to be baptized into the best YSA branch. Keep him in your prayers. Everyone else is doing so good! I am so grateful to be serving in this wonderful mission! Sorry I have been slacking a little bit on the letters. I  will definitely repent next week and write more! I love you all!