Je Taim Toi!

Heavenly Father  knows exactly what all of his  children need! Sister B and I have been working with this wonderful family here in St. Cats. The Mom and the daughter are active, but because of the death of a father the 2 boys have fallen away. The oldest son, who is LA, is dating a non member. She begs him to come to church eachSunday and for the past couple weeks she has been every time. We knew this was the best thing any missionary could ever wish for, a non member begging her less active mission age boyfriend to come to church? What missionary doesn't dream of this?! Well, every time we planned on asking her if she would like to learn more we both felt the spirit tell us not to. Yes, we were confused but we listened.

Sister B and I have become really close with her. She is our age and she has a really cool name, its E. She plays sports, she is hilarious. She is just so great. She comes to church all of the time and she is always at FHE and dinner with her boyfriends family so we have gotten to know her well. She was so sad when she found out it was transfers. She asked us if we could give her our emails so she could email us each week. When we called the families home and she heard that we were both staying in St. Catharines she jumped up and started dancing... they all thought it was a little strange buuutttt... this next paragraph explains it. 

Last Monday at FHE she pulled Sister B and I aside and she said, "I prayed last night for the first time. I asked God if you two could stay here for another six weeks and you did." She continued to talk about how she knows that God wants her to learn from us so we stayed here to teach her. We invited her to learn more and she said yes. She texted us last night asking when she could be baptized and what she needed to do. She also told us that she had been reading the Book of Mormon all day and that she had been looking up some blogs about Mormons. Her personal favorite was Al Fox talking about the Atonement and how God loves all of his children. She told us how inspiring it was. 

"Being a goof with Sister B"

Heavenly Father is preparing EVERYONE in Ontario to dram closer to him. Our responsibility is to follow the spirit and teach and invite people to come unto Christ when they are ready. 

So, you may be wondering. Where is Sister L in all of this goodness? Well, the Lord has called her else where and she is now home with her family. It was a very strange week! Monday night we drove to Georgetown to take Sister O to her area to pack. Tuesday we were in Brampton at transfers until 3:00 p.m. Wednesday Sister L woke up with severe pain and we spent the day in the clinic and on the couch. Thursday we were once again in Brampton at the mission home (I found my nice free new coat). Friday & Saturday it rained ALL DAY and everyone and their dog cancelled our appointments. Sunday we were in Hamilton in Stake meetings! It was so crazy and some how we still had time to teach people! 

Friday we met with a Returning Member who is having a very hard time overcoming a smoking addiction. We talked about the Atonement and how Christ can help him. After the lesson he had a new found desire and hope to stop. But we told him that he needed to take baby steps (baby steps to the elevator...What about Bob?). We talked about the times in the day he smokes the most. He said that when he is bored he plays solitaire and when he plays he smokes. So I told him how much I love desserts and how I have also been trying to stop eating them. He promised that he would not smoke while he played solitaire and I promised I would not have sweets! So far it has been good. Some members took us to Avendale ice cream which is like coldstone I think? I don't remember if that is what it is called. But anyways. I totally did not get any ice cream!!! I felt so sad, but it really did help me understand at least a little bit about how he feels. 

I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that no matter what addiction we are overcoming he is the one who will help us be completely healed. And not only addiction but sadness and pain. Everything can be made perfect through him.  I strongly and boldly testify to you all that Jesus is the Christ! Because of him we will live again, death has no power over us. Because of Jesus Christ Satan also has no power over us. We can be made perfectly pure if we will let him. He will not make us clean against our own will. I know that we are sons and daughters of an all knowing, all powerful God. He is our father and we are created to become like him. Now is the time to step up and allow ourselves to reach our full potential. Don't let someone who can not further his potential ruin your eternal godly potential. Turn to Christ! Follow the Book of Mormon's teachings and find out how you can honestly, "Come unto Christ and be perfected in him." 

Je taim toi!  

Sister Chelson 

A cool mailbox

This week in Canada

Wow! Transfer calls were last night and Sister B and I will be staying in St. Catharines!!! We will be in a trio for the entire transfer! That is really really exciting! Her name is Sister L. She was in my zone for my first transfer. I wish I knew more about her so I could tell you all about how wonderful she is, but I have only talked to her once :) But what I do know is that she is a powerful missionary and she has been serving for a little bit longer than I have. I am excited!!

This last week we were able to go to the Temple as a mission! It was so wonderful. I was able to go and do the Temple work for Elizabeth Bubach. I know that the work that we do in the temple is real and that our family is waiting for us to help them! I am so grateful for the temple. :) Thanks Daddy for sending that family name. Go and seal that family together now!!

This last week was such a wonderful week. We were able to meet with so many different people. :)

Our investigators are doing awesome! We had a really good finding this week! We were so busy one day that all of our appointments seemed to be thirty minutes later then when they were actually supposed to be. So while we were rushing to teach a family we saw this awesome guy with a bandanna carrying boxes. So we ran across the street and we asked him if he needed help. HE told us that he didn't need any help so we started talking about God! He started asking us questions and my companions being missionaries like the ones in the Book of Mormon started to answer all of his questions through the scriptures. After talking for a while he told us that just the other day he had been praying for something good to come into his life. We told him that this was an answer to his prayers. :) We set up an appointment and are going to be meeting with him again this week! We had another instance very similar to this but this time he was telling us how he and his friends were just talking about how Christs church MUST be on the earth today! We told him that he was right and then after talking we set up an appointment to meet with him this week. :) Heavenly Father will always place people in our paths, and he will always put words in our mouth so we will be able to touch the hearts of the people we meet. 

Have any of you ever had a headache so bad you can't open your eyes? This last Saturday I woke up with a headache. I just brushed it off and went on with our day but progressively it just got worse. After dinner we were going to go and drop off papers for the ward council members so we were going to be driving for the rest of the night. I didn't think that it was really safe for me to be driving because I wasn't feeling very good so Sister B drove. (She was very excited to drive in Canada for the first time. Haha it was the most adorable thing ever. She was grinning from ear to ear.) Anyways, as we were driving my headache got worse. We decided to have Sister O sit in the front with Sister B and have me lay down in the back. Well, while I was sitting in the back it got worse and worse. I couldn't open my eyes it hurt so bad. Then came the stomach ache, then came the sweating...I was in so much pain. I have experienced pretty bad headaches with the concussions I had in high school and I have never felt so much pain in my life. I was just silently crying in the back seat and I guess I must have looked pretty bad because Sister B and Sister O called the District leader and told them that I needed a blessing. We drove back to the church and when the Elders pulled up they told me that I looked so sad and sick. I don't remember much of this but I guess I yelled out the window to them that I was dying.. I am so grateful for the blessing that I received. The District Leader, Elder J, gave me such a wonderful blessing centered on the power of the Atonement. After the blessing they all insisted that I go home and sleep. As I was saying my prayer I felt so bad. I told Heavenly Father that I was sorry I couldn't do his work that night. But that I had tried my hardest. I know that is all he asks of us is to try. I am so grateful for the priesthood. I know that it has been restored. I was able to wake up the next morning with only a slight headache, and now I don't have one at all. I know that because of the Atonement we can all be healed spiritually and PHYSICALLY. God loves each of us so much. Right now while I am away from my Dad, I know that I can ask for a priesthood blessing and that it will come from the same source, my loving Heavenly Father. 

I love you all. I hope you have a great week. Know that I am praying for you and that I am so grateful to be serving my mission. You all have helped me so much.   

-- 

Sister Chelson 

Trio, People We Teach, Families, Prayers.

Well this is exciting news! I have been on my mission for four transfers and I have had seven companions!! Saturday night after Sister B and I had planned for the next day, we got a call from President Clayton! Anytime we get a call from the mission president we know that he called for a specific purpose but he loves to small talk before. So after we talked about the weather and about our day he told us that we would be picking up our new companion Sister O in Hamilton the following day! I feel so blessed to have had so many companions! Heavenly Father must know that I love to learn, that is why he continues to send me PHENOMENAL companions. Sister O is from Alpine, Utah. She is majoring in music at BYU, lets just say our singing in the morning has gotten a little bit better. :) She has been on her mission for 4 1/2 months at the end of this  transfer. I love her! She is so outgoing and loved the cookie dough Sister B and I made yesterday which automatically made me love her. She will be serving with us in St. Catharines for the next week until transfers! Keep our trio in your prayers! 

A couple weeks ago Daddy in his email talked about having our scriptures be our friends. Well, one of my best friends is in D&C 82:14. That scripture is what the CTM is basing our mission vision off of! Sister B and I were blessed to teach 34 lessons this last week! I am so grateful for all of the people living here in Ontario. 

R and C: Wow, when we first started meeting with these two they just wanted to tell us that we were wrong and that The Book of Mormon was not the word of God. Sister B and I continued to pray to Heavenly Father if we should continue to meet with them. Sometimes it was soo hard because we "knew" that they would never listen to anything that we were saying. One day Sister B and I went to go teach them a lesson, and we were actually going to tell them that we were going to dis-continue our meetings with them. As we were praying, we felt inspired to tell them that we have a series of lessons that we teach people about what we believe in. We told them that while we teach people these lessons we invite them to pray, read The Book of Mormon, come to church, and to be baptized as Jesus Christ was. Shortly after we told them all of this they told us that they would LOVE to continue to meet and that they would be baptized if they knew that this was true. We made sure that we studied out the Restoration from both the Bible and The Book of Mormon. The morning of our lesson with them I was praying after my personal study. I told Heavenly Father that I had done all that I could and that I trusted that he would make up the rest for me. I asked to be able to remember the scriptures I read and I closed my prayer. As we taught them we were able to pull out scriptures from the Bible and The Book of Mormon. Some of the scriptures we read were from studies weeks ago! I am so grateful to be a missionary for our Savior. Without him I wouldn't have anything to teach people about. I wouldn't be able to bring hope to people. I am grateful for the Holy Ghost and the promise that I have from Heavenly Father, "For it shall be given to you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say." (D&C 100:6) It was such a pleasant lesson and the message was received so well that they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. :) 

Other Investigators: Well, this has been a wonderful week! We were able to teach all of our other investigators! Two of them called us deceivers! K is doing good! We set a new baptismal date with him! He is such an incredible person. D and M and their daughters A and E are so awesome! I just love all of the people we are meeting with. 

Other People we are working with: We are working with so many Returning Members! That is awesome! Some of them have dates set for them to receive their next saving ordinance! A cool story about a RM of ours. We met with C this last week and set a date for him to receive the priesthood. He was so hesitant and told us that he did not trust himself. We continued to encourage him and then we ended our lesson with him committed to his date. After we left our WML, who was at the lesson, talked with him. He told him that everyone in the ward is supporting him and that he can do it. The next day after Sacrament meeting he came up to us SOOO HAPPY and told us that he felt really good about his date. He told us that he had started to do things a little differently. :) We are so excited for him to receive the priesthood, because after that he can go to the temple for baptisms for the dead and then he will work his way up to his endowment and sealing to his family. The Gospel is a beautiful thing. 

Families sealed in the temple is what missionary work is about. Baptism is just a step towards that ultimate Earthly Goal of the Sealing. Families sealed for eternity to each other opens the gate for us to live in glory and never ending happiness with our Father in Heaven. The Gospel is real. I know that God lives. I know that he loves you. I know that Joseph Smith saw him and our savior in the sacred grove. I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today and that he receives revelation from our Father. I know that each of us can receive revelation from our Father. 

Something that I found very interesting this morning while I was studying about prayer was the attitude of prayer. I know that there are mornings when I wake up and I just roll onto my stomach and sorta kind of kneel. Then in my prayer I don't really remember anything because I am still waking up. THIS IS NOT THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE! Jesus Christ  is the perfect example of how we should offer our prayer. A time when his attitude of prayer is recorded in the Bible is while he is in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Luke 22:41) Jesus Christ was perfect and when he was suffering for our sins he knelt down and prayed to the Father. So likewise, when we are struggling whether it is overcoming sin, temptation, heart ache, or any struggle we may face. We need to kneel down and offer a prayer to our Father. In Joseph Smith-History 1:15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down... When we need knowledge we need to kneel and pray. Enos is also an amazing example, And my soul hungered, and I kneeled down before my maker.` All of these people I shared had amazing experience with prayer. Jesus took upon himself the sins of the world, Joseph saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, Enos`sins were forgiven him. The attitude we have in our prayers shows our Heavenly Father that we love him. And that we have faith that he can do all things. I pray that each of us will become more mindful of the attitude of our prayers. 

I love you!
-- 

Sister Chelson 

Porter's Perspective: That One Time I Went to Snuck to Em's Door

Sister Chelson mentioned how I went to St. Catharine's and left a note on her door...here's the story as I wrote it to her: 

So...I'm not sure if you got our note or not...but I went to St. Catharine's Thursday! Haha, I couldn't pass up the opportunity while I was so close...so before me and Hannah went to Niagara Falls I dropped her off at a mall and I went into Canada. It was so exciting! Haha, my phone stopped working because I was out of the country so I just hoped the map with directions to your house was working. I was driving on the QEW (whatever that means haha) and I saw a sign that said 80km/h and underneath it it said (80km/h=50mph. It seems like they probably have a lot of Americans driving through. Anyways, I pulled off the highway and it wasn't too long to I was on your street! Then panic settled in and I was like, oh no!, I can't let her see me but what if she is walking down the street or comes out of the house (the plan was just to leave the note and candy on your door and slip away without you knowing) she'll see me! So I parked down the street and walked to your address,and there was a car in front and so I asked a guy across the street if he knew the Mormon missionaries that lived there and I asked him what kind of car you drove and he said it was a little car and it wasn't the car that was parked in front of the house. So I felt a little relieved and went up to the door, and I decided to knock on the door to maybe meet the member you live with. She didn't come to the door, but some barking dogs did. :) So I left the note on the doorstep. Afterwards I realized it wasn't the safest place to leave it...so if you didn't get it some dog probably carried it away. 

It was so fun to be in St.Catharine's and see what you see every day! I still can't believe I was on your doorstep haha.

This is a picture of the note and candy we left her.

Busy Week, K and other Investigators, Food, and Porter visited my house say what?

NOTE:THIS LETTER MAY OR MAY NOT MAKE SENSE. READ AT OWN RISK OF BEING CONFUSED. 

Wow this week was the busiest week of my entire life, yes even more so than State DYW! President Clayton has changed the way we are doing missionary work here in the CTM. Just because I could talk about it for hours, I will briefly summarize. We are now going to be reporting the usual key indicators like every mission does, but we are also going to be reporting on Returning Members, and Recent converts in the same way we do our investigators. With the new changes in the mission we are going to easily be teaching 20+ lessons each week. Crazy eh? Oh, and on top of that. We are going to be so busy teaching everyone that we won't have time to tract or contact anymore. Sister Clayton actually talked about how if we have a little bit of time we should plan and make calls to meet with people. This doesn't mean we will call people all day if we don't have lessons, of course we will tract and contact. But the idea is that we will be busy teaching members, returning members, recent converts, and investigators. Well, Sister B and I were so excited when we found out about all of this that we left and got to work. President Clayton promised us all that if we would do mission work in this way we would be able to find the elect to teach, that Heavenly Father would place these people in our path. We learned all of this and a whole lot more on Thursday. Like I said, Sister B and I got straight to work. We were so busy teaching people since Thursday that we have not had one minute to knock on a single door. We were able to receive so many referrals from members and non members. And we found a strong potential in between every appointment. I know that this is how the Lord wants missionary work done. I feel so blessed to be able to be apart of it. At the start of this training last Thursday we started by discussing Doctrine and Covenants 82:14. It is such a powerful verse that talks about what the Lord wants us all to be doing. I invite you all to read it and personally set a goal to help achieve that goal. Last night after our follow up calls I counted how many lessons Sister B and I taught and we taught 21 people about the Gospel. I love being a missionary in the Canada Toronto Mission. I am also very sorry if I just confused anyone with this first paragraph! I tend to not make sense when I am excited. :)

Okay, okay, I will write about K, don't worry. ;) He is doing so well! This last week we were able to meet with him several times and he is doing amazing. The first time we met with him this week we finished teaching the Plan of Salvation, and we taught about the importance of prayer. Later that night we got a text from K, in the text he said, "I talked with God. He told me to listen." Sister B and I FREAKED out. I was so excited that I did a back flip off of the car we were walking past...Okay that was a lie I am sorry. But I was so excited! THHEEEENN the next morning we got anther text of him telling us that God told him to trust in our religion and that it was good! THEEENNN we met with him Friday. We had planned to teach him about the Law of the Fast but when we asked him if we had read his Book of Mormon he said that he had not. We pulled out our books and we started to read in Alma 22. K loved the entire chapter and told us that he learns so much from the Book of Mormon. And that he believes it is the word of God. Before we even asked him to read he told us that he wanted to read another story like Alma 22 so we had him read the story of Alma the younger. That night he told us that he loved how Alma gained his testimony, he also told us that he was going to start from the start. So, from all of that you can see that K is an amazing person. Last night when we were talking about his Baptism Date he told us that he wants to be completely loyal and true to his decision. He told us he has been praying to ask God if he should be a Mormon.  God told him that he needs to use his agency. He is doing all he can to prepare to be baptized. I love the Gospel. :) 

Our other investigators are also starting to progress! Four of the people we meet with LOVE this Bible, which is awesome because so do I, and they just have been having a hard time with the Book of Mormon. All we can do is to invite people to  pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I know that they will receive their witness. I love Ether 12:12. Miracles will happen if people exercise faith. All four of them told us that when the came to know that this is true that they would be baptized!

The Zone Leaders do YSA work in this zone so they have the option of going to any area and working there. This last Friday Sister B and I got a call from them. Just the night before they had called us and followed up with us on our obedience and our area. So it was really weird when they told us they "felt impressed to call us" and when they asked us about our obedience. My heart dropped. The only other time I have ever felt my heart drop like that was when I was in High School and I got called to the principles office. I was in Seminary and had to walk back to the school and the entire time I was walking back I was thinking about every single thing I could have done wrong. Yes, I did the same thing this time. After five seconds of Sister B and I not knowing what to say we said "good", questioning ourselves. They started screaming and laughing and they told us that they had found us a family of four to teach! My emotions were all over the place I went from so nervous and sick to Celestial happiness and ,idk, puppies! Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries as they are obedient. I am so grateful for an obedient companion. Sister B is the best.

I don't have much to say about food this week.. But to explain the entire weeks food experience, I will give you one phrase. TWO ICE CREAM CONES. 

​So Porter visited my house this week!! I wish I had time to tell you the story from his side but I don't! I was so happy and giggly about it all day! I will put the picture on the bottom! :) He is crazy. I have the best family! All is well in St. Catharines. I love you all! ​

Sister Chelson

(she was excited to have pajamas like Mom's)

The Gospel has been RESTORED TELL THE WORLD!

This email will be broken up into days. :) 

Tuesday:This last week our zone set a goal to invite 1300 people to church. There are 13 companionship's in the blessed Hamilton Zone, so we all needed to invite 100 people to church this week. Sister B and I LOVED this challenge. This last ​Tuesday we were walking to our Ward Mission Leaders home we were inviting everyone we saw. Sister B is such a great missionary and was so enthused about the challenge that she invited everyone she could see to join us at church. This woman was running behind us pushing her child in a stroller and when she passed by Sister B took off and ran along side her to invite her to church. I stood back wide eyed and trying to not laugh and watched it all happen. The woman laughed herself and stopped when she figured Sister B was just  going to run along side her. :)  That day when invited 48 people to come to church. And by the end of the week our companionship invited over our goal. And the zone ended up inviting 1400+ to come to church!

Wednesday: I don't know what it is about Sister B, but everyone seems to always want to give us gifts?! We went and visited an older member of our ward this last week to help her with some service. She recently had a pipe break in her apartment and she had a big flood. She had to move everything around and her house was just in total chaos. So we told her we would LOVE to come help her. We got there and she wanted to show us around her house and she took us to her back room and we saw these beautiful paintings. She is such an amazing artist! I instantly fell in love with a painting of the Niagara river. She told me that she would love for me to have it. So she gave it  to me. She also gave Sister B several paintings. She told us she would teach us how to draw and paint someday. I am excited for that day. Then we went and helped a Returning Member with some service, and she gave Sister B an awesome new bag. (Not so new, but new to Sister B) Then we went  to a Recent Converts house and his mom gave us granola and an entire jar of pickles for Sister B. So, if any of you ever want any gifts, find Sister B and then you will receive plenty. 

Thursday: We had an awesome weekly planning day and we were able to set goals for our next week (this week). We really felt inspired and knew Heavenly Father was telling us what we needed to do to help our investigators, returning members, members, and recent converts progress in the gospel. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father answering my prayers.

Friday: This day we had our District Meeting! We worked on Revelation through the Book of Mormon. I have such a testimony of Role Play and personal study. While we were role playing Sister Bell and I were able to find out what we needed to do with one of our Returning Members. Later that night we did that and she committed to reading her Book of Mormon and praying about it for the next week. We were so grateful for our District leader feeling inspired to have District meeting centered on the Book of Mormon.

Later that day the Elders invited our investigator K to come play basketball at the church. Sister B and I decided to go and play with them. K told us that he wasn't going to be able to make it and we were sooo sad. But when we got there Kwas there. And not only was he there but he had invited a friend to come along as well. She was awesome! Her name is K. She had an amazing time playing basketball and she told us she would LOVE to meet with us again! So many of my favorite things happened that day. 1. I was able to beat everyone in bump (Lightning) 2. K introduced a friend to the church. 3. The Book of Mormon answers all of our questions!! 

Sunday: Sister B l and I decided that we wanted to hold a "Why I Believe" fireside a couple weeks ago. We prayed about who we wanted to speak, what the opening song and musical number should be, what Mormon message we should show, and who should say the prayers. We put so much preparation into this fireside and we were praying all week that it  would work out and that there would be a good turn out. It started at 7:00 p.m. last night and at about 6:45 people started showing up. We thought that maybe 20 people would come if we were lucky but 61 people came! We were so excited! The fireside went great. The people who spoke did such a wonderful job and you could feel the spirit testify of the love that God has for all of his children. I know that as we rely completely on the Lord he will help us. But we have to do our part as well. Just like Sister B and I prayed to know what we needed to do, we all need to do the same. But what is important is what we do after we pray. We have to show our intent to our Father. He is not  going to bless us and help us if we are not doing our part. We need to "ask with a sincere heart and real intent" and that is when we are going to be helped. I love the scripture from Ether 12:12"For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." I testify that as we put our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and we pray to the father with a sincere heart and real intent, willing to act on the answer he gives us. Miracles will happen. Last night was a true miracle as Sister B and I saw 55 members of the church come together and as we saw 6 future members of the church join together to hear the testimonies of those who have truly become converted to the Lord and his Gospel. 

Saturday: The highlight of this day was meeting with K and re-teaching the Restoration. We decided that to help him progress better we would start over. This lesson was my favorite time I have ever taught the Restoration. He asked so many questions and he loved the lesson. I wish I could describe it better! Just know that it was powerful and beautiful. In his prayer he said that he understood better and that he enjoyed the lesson. (Just in his really stubborn sassy wording) :). We were so pumped! I LOVE THE RESTORED GOSPEL. 

Today: I am grateful to be a member of this church. I am also grateful to be a member of the Chelson family. I love the joy I have when each Monday at FHE I am able to quote the Chelson Family motto. I believe that we really do understand who we are because we have been taught about our pre-mortal existence our purpose on earth and the potential we all have in the life to come. I am striving with intention as I actively work and serve my God. I pray for you all hoping that I will be able to build you all up spiritually. And I labor every day in the St. Catharines vineyard the Lord has allowed me to be in charge of, so I can build up the kingdom of God. I love being a member of this family. The Heavenly Family we are all apart of and the Chelson family. I hope you all have a wonderful day. I love you.
-- 

Sister Chelson 

The latest from Canada

What a week in St. Catharines. :) 

This week was so fun! We had our Ward Picnic, we taught the commandments, OYM'ing always brings fun stories, and Heavenly Father watches after his children. 

This last week St. Catharines had the annual ward picnic! It was held at Niagara on the Lake. As Sister B and I were driving there we were getting closer and closer to the United States. We w ere so close actually that if we would have drove 1 KM more we would have hit the bridge to the USA. I was glad my GPS worked well and didn't glitch out because we would have had no where to turn around! The area was so beautiful we were in. It had a monument at the Park Actually, it was called the Brock Monument, you can look it up if you would like! So many members Less active and active  came to the ward picnic. There was really good food and a lot of fun fun games. We were able to talk with alot of people who we don't usually see, and were able to build relationships with more members of the ward. It was awesome! This ward is a wonderful ward! We invited K and our other investigators to attend but they didn't come. K texted us later asking about it and told us that he regretted not going. :)

K is doing wonderful if you were all wondering. We were able to teach him the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity this last week. He told us that it all made sense and at a time in his life he chose to live his life like that but he was always stressed and the only thing he could do to take that stress off was to break the commandments. Sister B bore her testimony about the strength that we can get from God as we pray and ask for strength. He told us that he would pray and ask Heavenly Father what the point was in living his commandments. He wasn't able to attend church this week which made us sad. We know the way coming to church helped him progress and we were sad he missed out on those blessings. 

After church we were talking to our land lords about him (They come to lessons with us for him) and Brother N told us that he was just like K when he was investigating the church. It has been so cool to see the N's reach out to K and try to help him. Having them at the lessons has helped us help K see the change the Gospel really does bring to our lives. I am so grateful for members who help us. It has been so powerful to see the love they have for him and the deep desire they have for him to take the first step towards living with God. They are wonderful.

This last week we were out contacting on the streets and we ran into this guy getting out of his car. We started talking to him and he told us that we were "special people" and he could tell so he wanted to give us a gift. We looked at each other a little worried about what he was getting out of his car. He pulled out two arrowheads and put them on the hood. He told us to pick one in our mind and then go to grab it. Neither of us picked the same one, he said he was glad because he would have had to do some big long thing? We don't know. So Sister B and I got really cool Arrow Heads! We in turn gave him a Book of Mormon as a gift. It  took everything in me not to say "This is a book about your people!" (He was a Native) :) 

Later that week we were trying to find new investigators. We were talking to everyone in Downtown St. Catharines! We saw this lady carrying bags and we went to ask her if she needed help. She took one look at the nametags and said "OH no." We still invited her but she took off. After that we were just going to continue down the street but we got the feeling we should turn around and continue on the other way. We were in a parking lot so we turned around and walked to the other side of the lot to a side walk. As soon as we turned onto the walkway we saw a mother and a daughter carrying bags. We once again offered to help. They declined and said they had it under control but they didn't go anywhere! We talked to them about who we were and what we do and they were interested. We asked them if we could come to their home to teach them a lesson and they said yes!! We were so excited! Heavenly Father blesses us as we are doing all we can do.

I love you, 

Sister Chelson