Monday, February 23, 2015

Week 4 - Okie Dokie, here goes another week! Frozen in Toronto!

                                                                                  February 23, 2015


Week two is down, and on to week three here in Toronto! This week has been super cool (in many ways)! But, before I get started, I just wanted to do a quick shout out to Kelly, because her birthday is this week! Ahh! She is so cool everyone. Like really, no joke! I also wanted to do a quick shout out to Sister Horn who enters the MTC this week! I love these two ladies so much and am so excited for each of them!

So, Canada is cold. It wouldn't be too bad if it were not for the crazy wind! 80% of the great lakes have frozen this winter! Crazy! Quite often, my companion and I leave our apartment building, and just 1 short minute later, our nose hairs are frozen... it is the weirdest sensation! The other night, we got off the subway and were headed home. It is about a 7 minute walk in the cold. We got in, and both had mascara running down our faces. We were so confused. Turns out our eyelashes had frozen whilst we were walking, and had started to defrost/run down our face once we got inside. We both had a good laugh!

My companion and I find ways to have fun. Just the other day, as we were leaving our apartment, we saw a nice leather love seat sitting by the dumpster. We joked that if it was still there when we got back, we would take it up to our apartment. Unfortunately, we came back with no time to spare, so we could not. However, the next morning, during our exercise time, we ran down 24 flights of stairs, grabbed the couch, and carried it back to our apartment, with the help of an elevator of course! It makes both of us smile every time we use it!

Since being out here in Canada, my testimony has strengthened in a lot of ways. One of the ways in being that the Lord has called me, Katie Robison, to serve here in Toronto for certain reasons. Because of that, I need to be myself! Through being myself, and using my talents I have been given, my testimony of that has grown! Once a week, we go over to an investigators house to teach a lesson. After the lesson, we spend about an hour doing service. This investigator has a bit of a hoarding problem and is trying to get her life in order. We are helping her through organizing and cleaning EVERYTHING. As some of you might know, organizing things is right up my alley! I have just always been good at it, and it is something I kind of even enjoy! It makes it even better to know that our investigator is improving greatly, and has accepted a baptismal date! The gospel is awesome!

Want another example of me using my talents? Okay! haha :) Sister Maas and I went over to do some service for this old brother in our ward. He had just downsized and had so much furniture everywhere! He asked us to help him arrange it all. It was great fun. He then sent us home with a large jug of apple juice, and a thing of frozen chicken strips! Yumm!

This Thursday, we were able to attend a special mission conference. We were all hoping they would be talking about Ipads! Apparently the mission has been promised them for quite some time now... Ipads would be so nice for so many reasons! ah! But, it was not about Ipads. President Clayton is so focused on the work of salvation. This means that as missionaries, we are no longer only working with investigators, but we are also working hard with the ward, and new and returning members. We went new goals and new ways to bring about the work of salvation. It is our goal to have 1,000 baptisms this year in our mission, because this is the time for the hastening of the work! President Hinckley told the church that the number of baptisms was going to double. It is our job as missionaries to help bring that to pass. I am SO excited to be here during this time. I am so excited to watch this mission grow as we are implementing these new goals! I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now. I can't even imagine being at school or anywhere else during this current time!

After the conference, Sister Maas and I were supposed to meet with president. However, things ran later than expected. So, instead, President and Sister Clayton joined sister Maas and I for an hour and a half of our weekly planning! My oh my it was so fun to have them there! We were able to seek insight for our investigators, and talk about other things! It was a great experience!

The work is going well here! I am enjoying it! I am still learning, but I feel like I am becoming much more comfortable with teaching and opening my mouth! This past week I had an aha moment during one of our lessons. I was struggling with staying completely focused on the investigators and what was being taught. I would get distracted by people walking by or random sounds, and so on. But, when we are constantly praying for the spirit to be there and for our companions, all while listening to what is being said, miracles happen! While following the promptings of the spirit, I was able to invite our investigator to be baptized in the middle of our lesson. He now has a baptismal date for March 22nd! We just need him to come to church... but, it is still awesome! We currently have 4 solid investigators with a baptismal date. SO COOL!

All in all, Canada, although it is cold, is not too shabby! I have been able to got to Walmart and Party City, as well as eat at 5 guys and Wendy's! But, I am also trying a lot of new cultural foods, like fish and home made dumplings for Chinese new years, or Tim Horton's (The Canadian equivalent to Starbucks even though there are a few Starbucks here...)!

Well, I hope you are all doing well! I love you all so much! Keep being so cool!


Sister Robison

No comments:

Post a Comment