1/25/16 Group Email

This week....

BRYAN WAS BAPTIZED!!! Ahhhh it was the best day ever.  In the morning, we got to go to the temple with a Recent Convert, which was a really really neat experience.  The temple twice in one month, pretty lucky :)  Then we went a la capilla and set everything up for the baptism.  Baptisms are so so stressful... But it was so worth it.  The program was really good and very very spiritual.  I felt so happy! I'm so happy for Bryan - it has been a long process working with him.  We tracted into his house back in November, and it's been a long two months, but I'm so happy for him! After the baptism, after he recieved el espiritu santo y el saceredocio, he was telling us how he has never felt so loved.  Two weeks ago when we invited him to eat with the family Fernando, he said that meant everything to him.  He said he's never been invited to eat in somebody else's house, and he feels like the members here are his family.  He was suuuuuch a miracle and I'm so lucky to have been apart of his conversion.  

So at the beginning of the transfer, back before Christmas, we had Alma 6:6 up in our apartment and had decided that we were going to fast every Sunday.  Yesterday was our last Sunday fasting for "the souls who don't know God" and wow.. It has been the most incredible experience ever! Every single week of this entire transfer, every single week that we fasted, we had an Investigator or a Less Active come to church.  The power of fasting and prayer is so incredible! Espeically continuous fasting and prayer.  The blessings and miracles we saw.... so amazing! An experience that I will never forget.  

Such a good week! I love being a missionary! We have been working so hard with Bryan, and everything payed off as we were able to be apart of the baptism and to see his life completely change.  Helping others and changing their lives is what this work is all about - and I couldn't love being here and being a Missionary more than I do now! 

Amor - 

Hermana Dean 

1/26/16 Pictures

El bautismo de Bryan!!! yaaaa! 

 Javier, one of our members, painted a picture of me

 Esemeralda! She's up here visiting Hermana Ferndando for a couple weeks and we're gotten super close! She just got her mission call to Salt Lake City, Temple Square woot woot! 

We went to the temple on Saturday with a recent convert in our ward, Valerie - she's the ones in the red coat. 

 In our session, Eli and Rosa from our ward happened to be there too! Rosa and I had on matching dresses :) 

 

1/18/16 Group Email

Another week up here in cold Canada! Our investigator Bryan is getting baptized on Saturday - yay!! Pray that everything works out! Baptisms are very stressful!

On Friday we had dinner at the house of the family Fernando, and it was probably the best food I've eaten so far on the mish (and we eat A LOT of food) We got there and it wasn't ready, so us missionaries, Hermana y Hermano Fernando were all back in their little kitchen cooking like crazy! The food was super yummy, I love Mexican food :) We invited Byran, which was super cool to have him there. He's good friends with the Elders and wants to serve a mission someday, so it was cool to help him see into the life of a missionary. Then afterward, we watched the 20 minute restauracion and had a sweeeeet lesson with him. It was super cool! 

Yesterday, we were in consejo de barrio with all the leaders of the ward, and they started talking about a less active family that they haven't been able to get in contact with.  They asked us what number we had for them and asked us if it worked.  We didn't know, so we gave the number a call and the Hermana answered! We just told her we were the missionaries and that we wanted to visit her sometime this week and had this converstaion with her.  Every single Leader in the room's jaw DROPPED. They could not believe that we got ahold of her! Hahah it was the best thing ever.  And then... wait for it..... THEY CAME TO CHURCH! The entire family came.  I'm tellin ya, us Hermanas have divine power from God! It was super cool and definitley a super cool miracle.  

Pray for our baptism on Saturday! Ojala que todo pase bien! 

Que tengan una linda semana

Abrazos y besos,

Hermana Dean 

1/18/16 Pictures

The Bow River! Can't tell in this pic, but the water is super blue! 

There's this cute little pond, it's super cute when it's melted haha, 

but people ice skate on it! We didn't have ice skates, but we went out and stood on it! 

Cena y noche de hogar con la familia fernando - cantamos a mi companera 

The zeds (zone leaders) and a companionship that is in our district - 

we teach classes of english with them every sunday and thursday 

Hermano Fernando - he's like my Dad on the mission. 

He's ward mission leader and we're always over at their house.. he's the best! 

1/11/16 Group Email

Oh my goodness.... this week was literally the best week ever!! Soooooo many miracles and so much happiness.  

SO last Sunday, our investigator was sitting next to me and asked "Where is the temple?" So I told him and said "Oh we're actually going to the temple this week!" Then on Wednesday morning, we get a text and he says "Hey can I come to the temple with you guys?" HERMANA AND I LITERALLY DIED.  So we came up and we walked around the temple grounds... in the FREEZING cold.... and taught him el plan de salvacion and it was soooo amazing.  One of the most incredible lessons I have ever been in. It was so powerful and the spirit was so strong and even though I couldn't feel any part of my body afterward, it was the best thing ever.  Then afterward we had an amazing session in the temple and ah the Calgary temple is to die for beautiful. Then to top it all off, we went over to our ward mission leader's house with his whole family, all the elders in el barrio, a less active, and a recent convert.  El 6 de Enero is a big holiday for Latinos, so we ate this huge Mexican dessert thing called abuelitas with chocolate and man it was the best moment ever.  I feel like I'm at home when I'm in the Fernandos house.  All 14 or so of us were sitting around in their living room, one of the Elders was telling a funny mission story and we were all cracking up and in that moment I just felt soooo happiest.  One of the happiest moments of my life for sure.  

Yesterday at church... everything was crazy. I have never been so tired by the time that we got home.  To start it off, we taught Bryan before church with Hermano Fernando... the coolest lesson ever! I shared the story about our car accident and how the espiritu santo es real and then my companion challeneged him to be baptized el 24 de enero and I told him that this morning we had been praying about a date, and the spirit told us that he would be ready by the 24th. Well after I said that, his mouth just dropped and he was said "that's the date I was thinking about too! How did you know?" Hermana just started crying and Hermano and I were just ear to ear grinning.. it was the coolest moment EVER! And we just told him the spirit is real, there's no other way we would've known.  So hopefully everything follows through and he is able to get baptized in TWO SUNDAYS! yay! 

Following the lesson, we went straight into reunion sacramental and of course Hermana and I had to speak haha AND I had to play all the songs of the reunion.. I felt like I was runnning everywhere.  I felt good about my talk! I decided I was not going to write everything down word for word because that is a goal that I have had my whole life that I've been wanting to change, and it went way well! It was Hermana's birthday yesterday, so when I got up the first thing I said was "quiero decir un feliz cumpleanos a mi companera! Te quiero mucho" and EVERYONE turned and looked at her and said "aweeee" and her face went bright red! Ah and then the entire day all I heard was "feliz cumpleanos!" I swear every single member told her Happy Birthday... it was sooo funny! 

So... as most of you know.... I sleep walk.  Hermana Ratliff has already seen some weird stuff that I've done / said sine we've been together haah but I think Saturday night tops everything that i've ever done.  (I was totally asleep for ALL of this...) Hermana wakes up to me standing by the wall, with the light on.  I was looking up at the window, because I had been dreaming that someone was sitting up there, creepy, and so I was looking for them.  Then Hermana says something, apparently I turned and looked at her, and then I JUMP onto her bed. She said it wasn't a little baby jump, it was a straight "both feet off the ground" jump. I start jumping on her bed singing Happy Birthday.. in Spanish... and then get off. Then I woke up and had no idea what was going on, and it was 12:51.... hahaha we definitley had such a good laugh the next morning! 

This week was so good! I absolutely love being a missionary in Canada.  I love the people I serve and all the incredible miracles I see every day. The Lord knows everything and he has in hand in our lives - so many miracles every day! 

Que tengan una linda semana!

Hermana Dean 

1/11/16 Pictures

The Mejia family :) 

They have six kids, he's from El Salvador and she's from Guatemala

they are the cutest family ever! I love them

One of the coldest I have ever been... and yes,
 my companion doesn't have tights on. She is CRAZY! 
It was soooooo so so so cold that night up there overlooking the city 

 

 

Hermana Allphin and Sister Wagstaff!! 

 Karla came up to the ward and it was so good to see her :)

 Are you ready for the coolest sunset you will ever see? I LOVE CANADA

Seriously, the sunset last night was probably top 3 of the most
 amazing sunsets I have ever seen.  Canadian sunsets are to die for 

 

 

 

I'm obsessed with the city and the huge sky! 

 

  

 

 Off in the distance you can see the Olympic Park! The ski hills are lit up every night and it's super pretty 

WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!

 

 

Beneflora! One of my favorite less actives.. we visit her every week :) 

 So people in Canada don't have garages that connect to the front of their houses... they have these SUPER ghetto allies behind their houses where they park and it's so sketchy haha and we're throwing out our gang sign that we made with our Mission Ward Leader who's from Mexico hahaha

 

1/4/16 Group Email

Ah this week was wonderful! Just like every week out here as a Missionary :) 

So we had a lesson with our Investigator, Bryan, and it went really really well! He really wants to serve a mission someday! Heck yeah! Our member just basically told him he's gotta get baptized and he was super frank with him and up front, but it was exactly what he needed to hear.  The spirit just completely overcame me, and I looked him right in the eyes and told him how the mission is the best thing he could ever ever ever ever ever ever do for his life.  It was a super cool moment and I told him how the spirit was in the room and I could feel our Savior's presence. It was really powerful and afterward I was shaking because I had testified so hard! It was amazing, I love the feeling of testifying about the gospel! 

We've been tutoring one of our less actives in math because she has this huge exam coming up, that basically her entire life depends on.  After she had studied for awhile, she just started crying and telling us all the things that were going on her life... and another crazy amazing, spirit-running-through-me moment happened and I told her how that morning when I was saying my prayers, I received the personal revelation that she needed to go to church.  I told her that the only thing that was going to make her happy in her life, was if she went to church.  We tell her that every week when we visit her, but something about the spirit was different this time.  The spirit was SO strong when I committed her to going to church.... and the next day, SHE CAME! Ah she looked so happy!!! Best thing ever! 

For our language study last week we watched the New Testament and holyyyy it was incredible.  I had never seen it, but it's the story of the life of Jesus and then when he goes and visits the Americas, from the Book of Mormon.  It was SO powerful and I want you all to watch it! 

On Saturday night for our dinner we were invited to a wedding.. well because we are missionaries, it turned around and we ended up having to cater the food haha and we had to serve all the guests.  So we were all over the church figuring everything out, serving the bride and groom, and all their guests. But it was SO much fun! Oh man I love weddings! We had to stay for a good 3 hours or so because we were helping, and my comp and I were just watching the bride and groom and they were so cute! And all of our members were there and there was music and everything was decorated. So much fun! :) 

Okay... so a couple weeks ago we had the prompting to visit Hermano Caldera, a member who was perfectly active and we knew him.  We went over there, drank some hot chocolate, chatted with him for a bit, and shared a message.  Then as we were putting on our shoes talking to him and his son, I had THE strongest feeling to ask him for a referral... So I did and he said "you know what, there's actually a family that lives across the street that speaks Spanish. I've never talked to them, but I know they live there." When we walked out, my comp told me she had been getting the impression to ask him for a referral too! We tried to knock on their door, but nobody was home :( WELL on Friday, we stopped by the Bishop's house to talk with him, and he told us that there was a family coming that the Caldera's had been talking and sharing the gospel with and that he wants us to meet them and start visiting them... WHAT?!?~ Hermana and I freaked out when we left! All because we followed the prompting to ask him for a referral, he realized that he should introduce himself, they started talking, he started sharing the gospel, and now they are interested... The Lord works in mysterious ways!! 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY

Tengan una feliz semana!
Hermana Dean 

Not many photos this week... my bad!

But this is one of our less active's daughter, Adriana. My comp tutors her mom in math, so I sit and hang out with her, she's darling!