Monday, May 26, 2014

Fiddleheads!



Hi All!

Jason and Rachael Murchison were baptized and confirmed this last week. I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in these baptisms! Jason and Rachael were prepared and ready for the gospel. They weren't going through a hard time or seeking for anything when the sisters knocked on their door a few months ago. They were just open to listening and decided to read and pray. Rachael told us how they started reading the Book of Mormon together each night as a family and how she already felt an added measure of peace in her home. Today we had a ward picnic for Memorial Day. The Murchisons came and we sat with Rachael, laughing and enjoying talking to her. They are an amazing family, and I am so excited for them to continue on the path they have entered. I look forward to the day that they will go to the temple! Ah! The gospel is true and it blesses our families. It makes us better people and provides us with the knowledge and peace we need. I have no doubt about that and I know from my own experiences and from seeing how it truly blesses the lives of those who accept it and apply it into their lives. 

The Murchison's baptism
This week, Sister Christensen and I saw many miracles. We went to supper with a member out in the boonies and while we were there she told us about a family that had just moved in down the road. On our way out, we stopped by and they invited us in. We taught them the message of the Restoration and have a return appointment this week. My testimony of the Lord guiding this work is strengthened each day. So many times this week, the Lord answered my prayers as we were out knocking. Do we realize how many times the Lord tells us to "knock" or "seek" and then promises that He will open and provide us with answers? All we need to do is ask! We are kept from reaching our full potential, simply because we don't ask! So simple. So true.

We had a fiddlehead feast yesterday. Every spring, people go out to the rivers and harvest these little ferns that look like the scrolls on a fiddle (hence the name fiddle heads). I'll attach some pictures of us preparing them. Usually people eat them with vinegar and butter. They taste kind of like cooked asparagus and spinach.



Oh My!, Fiddleheads!




THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! This is Christ's Church! The Book of Mormon is true! If I could, I would shout it from the rooftops! Ah! It makes me so happy and I wish everyone I met could understand that and feel the Spirit testify to them of their identity and worth in the eyes of their Heavenly Father. 

I love you all! Keep up the good work back home! :) Enjoy In'N'Out with the sisters tonight.  My new address is:

555 Main Street #8
Presque Isle, ME 04769

Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Renda

May 19 2014. A Week On Almost An Island

Fun fact of the day: Presque Isle means "almost an island" in French. The town got its name because there are a few rivers surrounding it that intersect, making "almost an island" out of the city. 


This week has been incredible. Sister Christensen is from Washington state. She has been out for over a year, and she is a hoot to work with. She loves the Lord and shines with the light of Christ. She is quirky and loves life. We received transfer letters yesterday morning and we are both staying. She has served in the area since the beginning of December, minus the last month. Her companion went home and so she ended up in a couple different trios in Fredericton and Cole Harbour. Now she is back, and boy, is the ward excited that she is back. We are booked for two weeks straight with dinner appointments. I have never had so many dinner appointments in my life!

Over the last month, the Caribou Elders continued teaching many of the sisters' investigators. On Saturday we had a baptism! Her name is Delores. She is in her 70s and has a Down Syndrome daughter. The Spirit was so sweet at her baptism and during her confirmation yesterday. She told everyone after her baptism that she felt such a difference. Afterwards, Jamie, her daughter, came up to us, shook our hands and told us thank you. Then she pointed to our name tags and said, "Jesus Christ." She knows that her mom did just as the Savior asked. 

There is a couple preparing for baptism this Saturday as well. Their names are Rachel and Jason. The Elders kept teaching them after the sisters left, too, and now we are tag-teaming teaching them until their baptism. They have two kids, a teenage boy and a younger girl. Their daughter comes with them to church, but I have yet to meet their son. I am so excited for them to enter the waters of baptism this Saturday! This is what this work is all about! Helping others receive all that the Lord has in store for them by making covenants and receiving the ordinances necessary for their salvation. 


It's amazing to me how different the culture can be in two areas that are so close geographically, simply because of a man-made border. I feel very much at home here, even though it's not Utah. So weird.

As I was reading about Helaman's stripling warriors this week, Alma 58:40 really stood out to me:

"But behold, they have received many wounds; nevertheless they stand fast in that liberty wherewith God has made them free; and they are strict to remember the Lord their God from day to day; yea, they do observe to keep his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments continually; and their faith is strong in the prophecies concerning that which is to come."

Let us, too, stand fast in the liberty wherewith God has made us free. That freedom comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 2 Nephi 2:26-27 teaches us more about that freedom that comes because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I love this work! This is Christ's Church! The Book of Mormon is true and it has the power to change our lives! 

Love you all! Have a great week. Look for opportunities to share the gospel each day. 

Sister Renda

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

I'm Going to America!

Hello from Canada! I found out this morning that this will be the last time for awhile that I will be able to say that. I am being transferred to Presque Isle, Maine tonight. Emergency transfers always have a way of reminding you to trust in the Lord. A sister missionary just arrived from the recently closed Ukraine mission, and she will be serving here in Wolfville with Sister Lee. My new companion will be Sister Christensen. I've met her a few times. If I remember correctly, she is from Washington. A new adventure lies ahead in the land of the free and the home of the brave! I'm sad to be leaving Sister Lee. We've had quite the adventure together, but the Lord has other plans for us. Our plotting of being companions for the rest of her mission seems to have been foiled. Oh well. :)
I learned this last week how important it is to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Many times when those promptings come, I don't recognize immediately that it is the Holy Ghost speaking to me. We were walking into the church one morning this past week and saw a lady walking by the church. It would have been so easy to just walk inside the church, but I felt this urge to go talk to her. We hustled over to her and introduced ourselves. She told us that she was on her way to the hospital for an appointment. It was a simple conversation. She told us that she had been thinking recently about strengthening her relationship with Jesus Christ. We invited her to meet with us and to come to church with us and prayed with her. After that experience, I knew that the urge to talk to her was more than just my own thoughts. It was inspired by the Spirit. The woman didn't come to church on Sunday, nor did our lesson with her go through, but I knew that the Lord had worked through us in that brief moment. Perhaps His plan for her includes those important steps in the future, but for right now, maybe that was all she needed. I need to be more in tune with the Spirit so that the Lord can trust me to be His hands. 

There is no better feeling than that of knowing the Lord can trust me and that He is pleased with the work I am doing. Sister Lee and I spent an entire day contacting and knocking this last week. It rained most of the afternoon and we didn't find a single person that day who would listen to our message, despite our invitations to learn more about the Book of Mormon. At the end of the night, we were tired, but we felt good knowing that we had done what the Lord asked us to do. I'm sure I will have more days like that in the coming weeks and months, and while they aren't always "fun," my devotion to the Lord and His work matters more.
 
Love, 
Sister Renda

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Hola Amigos !

 
I had some powerful experiences this week. We had exchanges with the sister training leaders. It was the first time that I have done a complete exchange. Sister Laxton came here and I went to Halifax for a day. It was fun to be back in the YSA branch and serving in my old area. I realized a lot of things while I was there about myself as a missionary and where I am now compared to back then. We also had district leader visits this week. One of the zone leaders came with him. We don't have a ton of investigators right now, so we spent the day finding and ended up teaching a lesson to a woman in Grand Pre. We taught her and her husband on Saturday. It was the worst bash session I have had as a missionary yet. I will never forget how strong the Spirit was when I bore testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. I cannot deny the testimony that I have received from my Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. I will not deny what I know to be true. Others may scoff and ridicule, but I know where I stand and Who stands with me. Jesus Christ lives and this is His Church. I will forever stand with Him. Who's on the Lord's side, who? Now is the time to tell.

Love,
Sister Renda