Hey family!
Transfer news! Sister Hsiung is being transferred to China,
her new companion is to be determined hehe. We're still not sure what is going
to happen with her release, if she is getting released here before she leaves,
or over the phone in China or something. She isn't allowed to wear her name tag
flying home or anything. We had a really really cool experience a few nights
ago while we were laying in bed. A major pep talk. She feels ready now. The
spirit was so strong, it was really cool :) I'll tell you about it someday.
As for me, I get to stay in Mississauga. I couldn't be
happier :) I could stay here for the rest of my mission and be the happiest
person in the entire world. My new companion is SISTER MENCARELLI!!! We called
it haha. I am stoked. Claudia Mencarelli - she is from Rome, Italy. She is a
convert. I'll let you read about her! Check our her mormon.org
profile:
She was an exchange student with an LDS family in
Springville, and she was good friends with all my soccer teammates! Kaisa,
Megan, Megan, etc. If you see any of them or are FB friends with them please
let them know! So cool! She is a powerhouse missionary from what I've heard. WE
are going to have a blast here.
Holy cow Mississauga is in a break through right now with
learning to work with members. I could go on and on about wonderful things that
happened this week, but we are just so excited about the member work that has
been happening that I need to just vomit all my excitement out on you. Haha vomit
isn't a very good word to use is it? But anyways here is goes...
Wonderful experience this past weekend!! Sister Hsiung and I
have really hoped to gain a better relationship with our Relief Society
president, Sister C.... She is Spanish and is very close with the Spanish
missionaries and members, but we have felt a little distant from her. On
Saturday we called a less-active, Sister Ch.... to see if she could drive
one of our investigators to church. She answered that she was unable to but would
love for us to visit her that night at eight because she has been going through
a hard time. After we hung up, we phoned Sister Ch....'s visiting teacher to
see if she could join us. She couldn't. So we decided to call our Relief
Society President and she accepted! We picked her up a little earlier and spent
the entire ride there talking about her life, her conversion story, how she and
her husband met. By the time we got to our less-active friend's house the three
of us were in tears haha. It was wonderful. We got into the home with a lesson
plan in mind, asked one question to Sister Ch..., Sister C....
responded to the comment with her own testimony about the temple, and the
spirit hit the three of us so hard that we needed to change our plans and focus
on the temple. The spirit was powerful that entire lesson and Sister Ch....
joyfully agreed to begin preparing for the temple. Afterwards, we praised and
thanked Sister C... a lot for her comments and joining us. We left her
with a thank-you note that we had previously written for her and her family.
The next morning, Sunday, Sister C... approached us saying, "I heard
that Sister Z... is unable to take your friend S... to church next week.
Maybe you could try asking the Lopez's or the Foutine's to see if they would be
able." SHE WAS HELPING US!!! It was a major break through. We were so
excited, and we feel so much more confident that we will be able to work with
her and help her with her sisters.
Next experience :) We have been singing to members, less-active
members, and anyone that would say yes to our invitation to sing! We got a call
from Bishop a few days ago saying that the non-member wife of a part member
family talked to Bishop's wife about how we went to sing to her and she loved
it! Bishop was very excited and pleased. Yesterday, Sister Hsiung and I sang
"The Miracle" in sacrament meeting for Sister Hsiung's last Sunday.
At the end of Sacrament meeting, Bishop stood up and shared the story of his
part-member friend calling his wife in excitement. He also shared the
experience from a couple months ago when we sang to his next door neighbor,
John, while we were waiting for correlation. Bishop expressed how of all the
years he has lived next door to John, and of all the things missionaries have
done for him throughout the years, he has never seen John be as excited about
the missionaries as he was when he was sung to on his driveway. Bishop
announced that he received a very strong impression to invite members to allow the
missionaries to sing in their homes and send us to their friends! The spirit
was so strong when he made that invitation. During the third hour, he came into
Relief Society again and made the same invitation. He said that he feels really
strongly about this. I got up and bore my testimony of how we did the Living
Christmas Card last year and it was really successful! After the Bishop left
the room, our Relief Society teacher automatically announced to the whole class
that we as missionaries can go sing to M...' family (a friend of hers that
we contacted into a few preparation days ago)! Not only so, a part-member
family invited us over to their home for dinner that night and we sang to them!
I love the Christmas spirit. The Ward is definitely more unified and loving.
They are really excited share their love for the Savior this Christmas
Season!!
And
yet another experience, we decided to visit this really cute young family, the
A...'s. After our short visit with them - we have been visiting members
throughout the week in 20-25 minutes to get to know them and teach them short
pieces of the missionary lessons. At the end of the lesson, Brother A...
told us that right when we started teaching, a friend of his that lives a
couple floors above them came into his mind, and he is planning to introduce
him to the gospel. Wow! Can the spirit be any more powerful and wonderful?? It
was amazing.
And
there are even MORE stories just from this last week!
Oh and I
can't forget this experience!! Holy cow this was amazing. On Sunday morning we
called C... to see if she could come, we woke her up when we called her and
she said she would get up and get ready. Immediately when we hung up the phone
I said "quick! We need to say a prayer!" Haha so we ran (literally)
from our bedroom to our study area, kneeled down and said a prayer. As we were
praying, I felt the need to say "And if there is anyone else you need to
have come to church, even if we haven't talked to them before, please guide
them to the church." At the start of Gospel Principles class, Sister
Degazon (our YW President) walked into the class with this cute Jamaican lady
right behind her. We had this new woman introduce herself to the class and what
brought her here. She said, "My name is M...., I am from Jamaica. I live
right across the street from here and I was on my way to my own church, but
when I passed by here something told me to come here and try it out. So here I
am." OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!! It was my turn to teach so I was standing up in
the front about to faint with excitement that God had TOTALLY answered our
prayer and lead His daughter here. AND WHAT'S MORE!!!! There was another lady
who came church, she introduced herself as G.... She is a member from Jamaica,
and moved here from Brampton about four months ago but for some reason just
couldn't muster up the courage to get to church the whole time she was here.
But for some reason, on Saturday night, she really felt she needed to go and
her non-member husband was even pushing her to go to church. So she came. She
is SOLID. And she testified to Sister Hsiung and I after church that she knew
she needed to be here because the day she felt to come back was the day M....
came and she feels she can be the perfect friend for M.... Wow. So happy
right now :)
As
you can tell, we are just so happy right now. This ward is amazing. We have A
LOT of awesome plans and ideas of how to work with members throughout this
Christmas season. Living Christmas cards, a life-size plan of salvation with
the youth in charge, Book of Mormon testimony signing to give to friends, ward
Christmas party, A Christmas musical Fireside. We'll see what will end up
happening but for now, people are getting excited. This is going to be great :)
Long
letter! Enjoy it! Love it! I love you so much! Have a great week. Keep your
standards! Mom and dad Sister Price is coming home November 19th! Her
homecoming is November 23rd and she said she would love for you to be there!
Sister
Bodine
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| And most of our District plus Ekam in the middle - greatest member missionary in the world (she is one of us haha) |
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| Our AWESOME District and zone leaders |
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