Hello Everybody!
First off I just want to say how excited I was to find out
that our dear friend M.... that Sister Gillins and I were working with was
BAPTIZED on Saturday! I'm sad I didn't get to go but I am just so proud of him.
I know how hard he must have worked this week to quit smoking. I am so excited
to hear what his experience was like!
So I only have an hour on the computers here in this
library. I am a slow typer and even slower reader haha so I have to ZIP through
reading the emails! PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!! But I'm sorry if I am horrible
with responding to them because my time is limited. Handwritten letters are
like the best thing ever just so you know :) I'm glad to hear all is going so
well though with soccer and engagement pictures and everything!
Toronto is the promised land. I thought my love for
missionary work couldn't get bigger, but coming to Toronto, I found out it
could. I find myself eating, drinking, singing, sleeping, EVERYTHING about
missionary work - how I can improve, where we should go, how to get the work
moving forward. This is all so much fun. I have never met so many amazing
people in one week in my entire life.
We are in a bus/street car/subway area so we are literally
talking to people all day every day. So much better than having a car I feel.
It's so much fun bringing up random conversations and finding a sly way to
bring in the gospel. It's like a 24/7 game of spiritual awesomeness. For
reals.... I'm beaming right now.
Here is a little bit of Toronto North area:
-There is a barber shop every other shop on the streets haha
-Jamaicans RULE the town - I love them so much
-The biggest, strongest, most intimidating looking people on
the bus are the kindest, most spiritual people to talk to.
-The people in our ward represent 70 different countries
around the world. We are very diverse
-Our greatest way of finding people is through our ESL
class. It's AMAZING. Around 10-12 new people come in every Tuesday and
Saturday. I was asked to be desk manager for it, meaning I get to talk to every
single person who comes in and try to hand sign what they are supposed to
do and where to go. It's such a blast.
-Our apartment was definitely not designed for three sisters
to live there haha but we've made it work. We decided that we share the apartment
with a hobo named Donovan. If anything happens, we blame it on Donovan.
-But anyways our apartment has the BEST VIEW EVER of the
CN-Tower
We have such an amazing ward. Bishop Hamblin and his family
are from California. They came to Canada for a 3 year business trip and he
ended up getting called to be bishop! He is totally focused on missionary work.
The entire ward council is and it makes things SO AMAZING. Our ward mission
leader is totally on the ball. We found out that we actually white washed into
the area. We haven't had anyone in the Toronto North for three weeks because of
an emergency transfer so two companionships were taking over our area while no
one was here. This was by far the busiest week I've had on my mission and the
most unsuccessful (numbers-wise) of my mission as well. This week will be
different. We are totally going to see miracles here.
Whitewashing also means that we had no food in the house
either, just random cans and sauces here and there. Good thing Sister Von
Niederhausern is a master chef haha. We've survived :)
My companions are awesome! They are great
missionaries. This is Sister Marler's last transfer, and Sister Von
Niederhausern's second to last. We are going to make sure this is the most
miraculous transfer of their entire missions! Sister Nicole Marler is from
San Diego California and Sister Serena Von Niederhausern is from Logan and she
knows all my frisbee buddies from BYU! We laugh so much in this companionship -
I love being in a tri.
Well that's all I have time for. I KNOW this gospel is so
true. My understanding of how important this work is has accelerated like none
other being in this city. I promise I am going to work until I drop. I will
talk to everyone who comes into my path. Every person in this city will know
that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. This message truly is good news and
I love seeing the faces of people God has been preparing as they ponder upon
the things we share with them on the streets. There is no greater call on this
earth than missionary work and WE ARE ALL CALLED AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST!!! The
Atonement is real and it is powerful.
I love you all! Have a great week!!!
Love,
Bodine Sister
So I guess I have more time hehe
Missions are so much fun :)
So I guess I have more time hehe
Crazy story. we decided to go subway contacting to see what
it was like. Sister Marler sat down on the subway next to this black man
(probably YSA age) and invited him to our church's open house we are having
next week. When this woman comes over and stands next to them and starts
ripping apart Sister Marler. She was destroying Joseph Smith - yelling loud
enough for the entire car to hear - talking about things about him that I for
sure have never heard of. Then she started talking to the black man apologizing
to him for Sister Marler talking to him because our church is racist. Sister
Marler did such a great job of standing her ground, and stating the truth after
she backfired something. The lady started yelling at her about harassing the
black man and we should be charged for harassing people on the streets, on the
TTC, and everywhere else now. The black guy was AWESOME and came back as well
by saying things like, "She's not harassing me, you're harassing
her!" and "Ya they may not have allowed blacks into their church back
then but times are changing".
I have had so much more harsh rejection than I ever have
before in this past week. I love it haha. It doesn't feel very good but it is
such an eye opener to how powerful this message really is. I was reading
Lawrence Corbridge's talk on Joseph Smith in the last General Conference this
morning and over and over he talked about the rejection that Christ and
Joseph Smith received and answered by saying "Why? Because the truth will
always be opposed." I have been seeing that I lot. And as a result I
KNOW even more than I already did that this is true. And when you meet someone
who agrees and who is willing to listen, it seems to be that much easier to
recognize the spirit in that situation.
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