Monday, April 25, 2016

Another amazing week! 
We had 1 baptism, picked up 3 new investigators, and had a family of 6 come to church! This next week is looking really promising! I am really looking forward to it!! 

This week the ward has really gone out of their way to make Andy feel welcomed and loved! It has been so amazing to see the difference their love has made in his life! On Monday we went to dinner at the Pearson's home, and they invited the Bunes family over, and invited Andy to come too! Both families have sons that are around his age, so that really helped him to make some friends that will be in the YM's with him! 

On Tuesday we had our last district meeting with our old district! It was Transfer's this week, so we lost 3 elders and 1 of the new elders is straight out of the MTC! So I am no longer the "Newbie!" Hooray!!! It feels pretty good to be honest! We got a new district leader, Elder Parker. He seems nice, but it was really sad loosing elder Varble. You just become good friends with your zone so quickly and then it kinda stinks once they leave! But I am really looking forward to getting to know the new elders! I love seeing how different we all are, and how different all of our backgrounds are, and yet becoming friends so quickly because of our common purpose! :) 
Later on Tuesday we went to check out a referral the elders gave us, and we walked to the house just as he pulled into his driveway coming home from work! We started talking to him, and he seems really interested! He said that his wife isn't opposed to talking to us either so when we go back to see him she will sit in on the lessons with us! He said that his 26 year old son also lives with them, but he doesn't think that he would be interested- but we're not giving up on him quite so easily:) We made an appointment to go see Alex and his wife tomorrow! So we are really looking forward to that! 
We also knocked on the door of an Indian couple that told us we could come back some time this week too, but they wouldn't set an exact day and time for us to see them, so fingers crossed that they will be home, and really will be interested! 

Wednesday we had another lesson with Yohan, and he is doing really well! He is keeping commitments, and coming to church every week! We talked to him about the priesthood and he seems really excited to work towards getting the Melchizedek Priesthood. 
Then we went over to the Heninger's house and had Andy's baptismal interview! It went really well, but we forgot to have Elder Varble sign the paper that says he passed the interview... so we had to call our mission president because Elder Varble was transferred the next day, and we couldn't get his signature! Luckily President Miles said that our new district leader could sign the paper and we didn't have to interview him again!
On Thursday we were able to finally get a hold of the Aubert Family again! (Nadia & Jonas, and their 4 wildly active kids!) We haven't been able to see them in about a month, so we were really getting sad and were starting to have to think about dropping them. So when we were going to visit a less-active that lives right by them, we decided to try and knock on their door one more time. And thankfully when Nadia answered the door she was so happy to see us, and invited us in right away! We talked with her a little about the Restoration finally and gave her a French Book of Mormon. She was SO excited to see that we had the book in French! She told us that she would start reading it right away! After we had been talking to her for a while her husband Jonas came home. He stayed in the other room for a while, but then finally came out and joined us. He started asking us a lot of questions about the church, God, and our life as missionaries. After answering lots of questions he told us that he was so impressed with our answers. He told us that we had all the right answers about God, and was grateful that we never told him we didn't know, but would find out and call him with the answer later. (That happens a lot with other churches I guess..?) He was so impressed that we pause our lives for 18 months and are missionaries 24/7. He then said that when he was in the other room he could feel that he needed to come in and talk with us. And then continued to call us angels and thank us for coming into his home because we brought God with us everywhere we went. We gave him a "The Family:A Proclamation to the World" and he really loved it. Then he asked us what time our church services were, and where they were held. We told him we would text him the address, and they told us they would love to come this week! 

On Friday we met our new zone members, and played some get to know you games at the church for a few minutes. Then we stayed at the church and made up Andy's Baptism program! 

And finally! On Saturday we had Andy's baptism!!! We went out to lunch with him and then went to the church. We had over 60 people show up for the program and even more come to the Heninger's house for food after the service! It was so great to see all the support that the ward has given him! Several ward members all pitched in to buy Andy a white church shirt and new tie! He was so grateful, and ran and put it on as soon as they gave it to him! 

His confirmation was amazing as well! 
...We actually almost missed it! We were standing outside waiting for Nadia and her family to come, but they were running late, so at one point we just had the prompting to run inside and check on where they were in the meeting and we were JUST in time for his confirmation! Everyone was just walking up to the front for the blessing! So we hurried and scrambled into the back for the blessing and then ran back outside to find the whole Aubert Gang walking up to the door! When I saw them all dressed up I had this amazing feeling of joy and love come over me! I knew that Heavenly Father loved them so much and was so happy to see them coming to church! So we ran into the meeting with them and sat down. They were there for about 20 minutes and then Jonas got a call from his friend that said they had a flood and they had to go right away to go and help him. But they told us they are still looking forward to seeing us this week. We called them again after the meeting was over to see if they needed any help with the flood, but Jonas said they had it covered. They felt really bad for leaving early, but they enjoyed the small portion they got to be there for. 

SO that's it! Like I said, It's been another quick, busy week! It has been such a blessing to get to work with Andy and see all of the progress he's made in these short 2 months! It's a pretty weird feeling realizing that he is no longer an investigator!!! But we love it! His baptism was an amazing reminder of my own baptism and all of the joy and peace that has come into my life because of it. I love this gospel, and I love my mission! I can't wait to keep teaching people about Heavenly Father's beautiful plan for each of us. 

I hope you all have a lovely week, and I encourage you all to think back on your own baptisms and the blessing the gospel really is in your life. I think we forget all too easily how much we owe to our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. Keep them in your lives and you'll see the blessing unfold all around you! 
I love you all so much! Can't wait to hear from you and how your lives are going!
-Sister Dobyns



~This week we took lots of pictures! It was a really beautiful, bipolar week weather-wise so made every day count!~

After our dinner appointment we did some drop-by's and a little tracting, and contacted some referrals. Then we had a little time before a member was going to give us a ride home, so we ran up this hill and took some fun name tag pictures! 

This one is for you mom! You asked me to take a picture with my name tag in the snow, but there hasn't' been any since I got here!!! Instead it was 25 degrees for 2 days and all the flowers and trees started to blossom! 


I can't believe I hit my 2 month mark already! I swear I JUST hit my 1 month mark!
The days are flying by so fast!!!


We got Andy a tie for his baptism this week, and using my extremely sad sewing skills, put this on the back so he will be forced to remember us whenever he wears it! haha:) 

Earth Day was this week! So our STL's told us to take pictures of us hugging a tree... this is in the Heninger's back yard! (He is our ward mission leader, and the one that lives next door to Andy!)

TAH-DAH! The big day!!! So this is Andy, and then Dalton Michelsen. 
Dalton is the one who first invited Andy to come to church with him, so Andy asked him to baptize him!!

#Canada... This is at the Heninger's house after the baptism when we had everyone
come over for dinner and get to know Andy!

The awkward safe distance apart photo... sometimes being a missionary is really hilarious... 


Monday, April 18, 2016

Alright, I am officially starting to panic! 
I have already been serving my mission for 2 months!!! 
I swear I just got here like yesterday! 
Everybody that I have talked to has said that the first 3 months of their missions felt like a lifetime, but then the rest of it just flies by. And I've already been out for 2 months, but I have felt like it's flown by already! So if it starts to fly by any faster I am going to have no choice but to move to Canada permanently and just hang out with the missionaries 24/7 so I don't have to accept that it's over! The last 2 weeks have honestly gone by so fast, I don't know how it happened!
We were walking into the library today to do our e-mails and I thought.. "didn't we just do this?" And then I thought back over the last week and realized how much had happened, but how quickly everything went by!
So here are the highlights of the fastest week of my life: 

On Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president in the morning. It was really great to be able to talk with him for just a few minutes, but it was a really breif, pretty uninteresting interview. I walked out and sat down and talked to Sister Miles while I was waiting for Sisters Allard, Trimble and Blaser to have their interviews since we all drove over together. Each interview got longer and longer, and every single sister came out of the interview drenched in their tears! At first when Sister Allard came out, I figured she had just talked to him about her struggles with the pains in her neck, and how hard she can be on herself when she is having those struggles, so I gave her a hug and talked to her for a little, but she just wanted to go to the washroom and take a minute to breathe. Then Sister Trimble came out- again, covered in tears. A little unsure, I just kept talking to Sister Miles, and let her walk past to the washroom where sister Allard was. THEN sister Blaser came out trying to wipe the tears from her face. I didn't say anything for a while but I was really confused as to what on earth was happening in their interviews!! I guess I was not doing something right because I was not anywhere even close to thinking about crying when I finished... 
After the interviews we all grabbed lunch together and I asked them what had happened, and if I was not aware of something that was suppose to happen in the interviews. They all just talked about how they were struggling with different things, and President Miles helped them talk it out, and gave them some great counsel. 
It still seems pretty crazy to me because I know all these girls and know how amazing and strong they are, and what fantastic missionaries they are!
Needless to say, I am appearntly not very normal becuase I really feel like life is great out here! And I don't really have anything that I am struggling with THAT much... I feel like I am learning so much every single day, and have so many oppertunities where my testimony has been stengthened. Yes, there are times where I am really pushed to get out of my boundries and grow and change. But that has been the best part of serving so far! I don't know, maybe I'll figure it out a little bit more the longer I am out, but so far I have just had an amazing time, and great chances to rely fully on my Savior and His Atonement and His love for me. I have such a strong testimony of Heavenly Father and Christ's love for me, and that has been something I have fallen back on many times the last 8 weeks. But like I said, through it all I have just been able to grow and become better each day. 

Anywho! After we had lunch together we went on exchanges! So I went with Sister Trimble to the Bow Valley ward! And that was really fun to be able to go back to where Sister Allard and I were already working with so many people! We did lots of street contacting, which was both terrifying and awesome. And we even put a Book of Mormon with their phone number in one of those "take a book, leave a book" things... Funny enough the book was already gone by the next morning when we went for our walk... So I'm not too sure that was the BEST use of our Book of Mormon... But maybe someone just took it because they wanted it! You never know! :) 

Then on Wednesday we had our district meeting. But before the meeting we had a breakfast all together! It was actually really amazing and really really fun! Each companionship brought something different, and everything just pulled together really well in the end! It was a really great chance to be with our zone and get to know each other even more. President Miles has told us several times that we have the most unified zone in the mission, so I feel really blessed to have been able to start out with such amazing people and make really great friends that I will hopefully see around from time to time once we're all back in Utah! (Since almost everyone is from utah, and if not, will be moving there after their mission...)
We also got our bikes finally on Wednesday! So that has definitely been an adventure. Then we met with Yohan, one of our Less-Actives we've been seeing every Wednesday for about 3 weeks. And he committed to coming back to church and working towards getting a temple recommend again! We are SO excited for him! 

Thursday was the first time we really used our bikes. And if I had any say in the matter it would have been the last time we used out bikes. Turns out, our entire area is made up of very steep hills. Everywhere. So! We were an hour late to our dinner appointment because we had to go from the very bottom of our area to the very top. And it was All uphill. Needless to say, I thought I was going to die right then and there, and once we showed up we could tell they were not very happy that we were late, even though we called ahead to let them know we were going as fast as we could! But now we know how long it takes to cross our whole area, so we won't be so late in the future! 
After Dinner we went to visit the Daly's. They're another less active couple that we are working with right now. They just bought a new camera so they were excited to take a picture of us when showed up on our bikes:) 

Friday we met with Andy to talk about the Priesthood some more! It was a really amazing lesson, and Andy really opened up and started talking to us about how happy the gospel makes him, and how grateful he is for us helping him get back on the path. He said he talked to his mom too and she told him that she is so proud of him, and has been praying for him to come around to the gospel since the day she left him. I still don't know the whole story there, but it really meant a lot to Andy that she was proud of him and his decision to be baptized. 
Towards the end of the lesson he told us that his cheeks have been hurting a lot lately, and when we asked him why he said "I guess I've just gotten in the habit of smiling lately." We wanted to start crying ourselves when we heard that because we know how hard Andy's life has been for the last several years, and knowing that the gospel has been able to help him find that happiness again was the best feeling I have ever had! 
After our lesson with him, we were running late to our lesson with Jeremy, but Heavenly Father blessed us with a total tender mercy and Guara, (my favorite less active from Bow Valley ward) pulled up next to us on the street. She offered us a ride to where we were going, and we got to catch up with her on the way! It was so amazing to see her again because we hadn't seen her in almost 3 weeks! 

Then on Saturday we got to see elder Christofferson!
I know you're going to kill me mom, but I am actually completely out of time this week! I love you all so much and I SWEAR I will tell you all about this week!
We are getting rides from the Bow Valley sisters now and they are very punctual about our e-mail time, so they told me they are pulling out of the parking lot in 2 minutes, whether or not we're there... so yeah! I don't really have any more options! 
I love you so much! And hope you all have a wonderfully terrific week!
The church is true, and Jesus loves you!

Sister Dobyns

When we found out we have to wear helmets... haha

 Basically the story the of our lives... 

The picture from the Daly's

Monday, April 11, 2016

So I forgot my Journal in my apartment this morning, so I won't be able to type as many stories today I think because honestly, all the days and weeks run together here I can't really remember the things I have already told you all about... So bear with me this week! :) 

So this has been a really great week again! And it's honestly FLOWN by! I couldn't believe it was Monday again when I woke up this morning! But I guess that's what happens when you are running around non-stop! You don't have time to think about what day it is, and then all of sudden a whole week has gone by! 

This week we spent a lot of time working with Andy. Since he decided to be baptized on April 23rd, we have tried to see, call, or at least text him every day. As a result of that, we actually had 3 lessons with him since I last e-mailed! 
The weekend of General Conference Andy moved to a different house. Thankfully, he is still in our area, so it wasn't too dramatic. BUT as it just so happens, Andy moved RIGHT next door to Brother Heninger, our ward mission leader! 
So on Tuesday we were over at Brother Heninger's house having our coordination meeting, and when we finished we thought we would stop by Andy's house and just talk to him for a minute and see how his scriptures were going. When we called him and told him we were on his street, we were all surprised to realize we were actually right outside his house! We talked for a minute and explained we were just next door at the Heninger's, and then Andy wanted to go say hi to them! So we all walked over and they invited us back in, and we had a really amazing mini lesson on prayer, and the power of personal prayer. We even read a little bit of the chapter we had assigned to him for the week and talked about the importance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Then on Friday, there was a boy in our ward who turned 8 and was having his baptism! So we invited Andy to come with us to the service so he could see what his baptism would be like! We called him the night before and asked him if he had any fun plans for the weekend. When he said no, we told him we had a party he could come to since we wasn't going to any of his own! He was a little disappointed when he realized it was a baptismal service party haha:) But he told us he would come if he wasn't doing anything else. At that point I straight up told him it had better be one epic excuse because he had just told us 4 minutes earlier that he wasn't doing anything all weekend! He laughed and agreed to come! So on Friday we met up with Andy at the train station, and rode it down to the church together and went to the baptism. It was a really great experience because it opened up some questions that Andy had about it. After the baptism was over, we rode the train back up to the station nearest his house. He told us he wasn't doing anything the rest of the night, and wanted to know if we could read some more of the Book of Mormon with him! So we went and grabbed some subway sandwiches and then went over to the Heninger's house again to have our 2nd mini lesson that week! Overall it was a really great night because we were really able to get to know Andy more as a person, and help him see that we are normal people too! (For the most part anyway) We were able to build a lot of trust that I know has helped him open up to us even more as we continue teaching him. 
Then on Saturday Sister Allard and I were heading over to drop by a less active member when we got a call from Andy. He told us he had just lost his job, and wanted to know if we could come over. We told him of course and headed over there right away. We met up and talked with him about what happened, and if he was going to be okay. Andy has lived on his own since he was 16 or 17. His mom left his family when he was younger, and then his dad moved back to Korea to teach English, so he's been taking care of himself since then with no support from his parents. We were worried when he lost his job he wouldn't be able to pay his rent or buy groceries! But he told us that last week one of his teachers at school found out he was living on his own, and got him into some program for high school students that funds him $700/month for rent and groceries! So that was a big relief to hear. We talked about his baptism some more, and read a few more versus in 2nd Nephi before we had to head back home. 
On Sunday, Andy came to church, and Sister Allard and I retaught the Plan of Salvation in our Sunday school class since that was the first lesson Andy had, and we wanted to make sure he understood it. We went straight from church to the Michelsen's house where we had our "4th lesson" with Andy about the commandment. The lesson went really well! He had lots of questions, that once we answered, helped him to feel really confident in his decision to commit to them, and be baptized. During that lesson Andy told us that he had only prayed 3 times since he met us, and I'll admit I was really surprised, sad, and frustrated by that! But we decided that we would call Andy every morning and every night to help kick start his habit to pray every day! 
So we called him last night to remind him to pray right before we went to bed. And when we woke up in the morning we had a text from him. It read:
"Okay, so this might sound really weird but I lied yesterday. I haven't prayed. So I prayed for the first time and I just woke up from a dream that seemed like it was real. I'll tell you about it when you call. It's a bit hard to explain."
So when we called him at 7:30, he told us all about how he had this dream, and honestly I didn't understand 90% of what he was saying, but when he woke up, he knew that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and this is Christ's church!!!! 
Not too shabby for his first prayer eh? 
We were so happy to hear him say that! And we will be meeting up with him later today to talk some more about it! 

There was so much more that happened this week, but I'm out of time, so I guess I'll tell you all about it someday several years from now...! 
But I am looking forward to this week!
I have an interview with the mission president, exchanges with the sister training leaders, and Elder Christofferson is coming to talk to us! So it's going to be a good week!
I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week!
Keep Andy in your prayers! He is doing so great, and we want to make sure he keeps moving forward! :) 
I will talk to you next week! 

Sister Dobyns

This is Doreen. We visit her every Wednesday at 3:30, she is the sweetest lady in the world! She had a stroke a few months ago and has dementia, but she always remembers "the girls from the church" come to see her every week! We sing hymns to her, and this week she sung along and started crying when we sang Nearer my God to Thee, and I Stand All Amazed. We love her.



There was a super gorgeous sunset the other day! ...The pictures never do them justice though... :P



This week we went to a "Volunteer Appreciation" meeting for one of the foundations we do service for and they gave us these flowers! Yay for Spring! And then we also went to this amazing bakery and bought a loaf of Sourdough Bread, and they gave us free Raspberry Scones since it was our first time there! ...Needless to say their tactics worked, because we will be going there far more often now!!



On Tuesday we had re-trainers meeting, so I got to see Sister Black and Sister Atkinson again! We all went out to lunch together after, so that was really fun! We were really sad that Sister Messick didn't come! Apparently her Zone Leaders never told her about the meeting! So that was a bummer! But I really loved seeing sister Black again, it was like a throwback to good times in Pleasant Grove! :) 


Sometimes life is exhausting, and I need to lay down on the cool tile....
Shout out to Hannah Davis... learned this one from you;) 



...It was a very exhuasting week turns out...
I didn't realize I had so many pictures of me laying down in exhaustion... whoops! But I love it! So all is well!:)



This was today when Sister Allard gave me our "generation Tie" 
... Not really sure why the sisters do generation TIES, but... whatever?
I'm probably going to start a generation scarf:) 

Monday, April 4, 2016

You guys, being a missionary is the absolute best thing in the world! I don't know if I have been able to make that clear enough... Seriously, If you're thinking of going on a mission, or know someone who is, you need to know that it is the single greatest experience I have ever had in my life, and I would encourage everyone I know to accept the amazing invitation to serve! 

This was a really amazing week! So for starters, on Friday Sister Allard and I started what is called a "40-day Fast." There is a talk written called the 40-day fast that explains really well what it is, and why it is a great thing to try. But is summary, You start your 40-day fast with 1 day of actual fasting from food and drink. And as you go throughout this day, you pray to know the things that Heavenly Father would have you work on, or commit to, in order to become an even more effective missionary, or more effective disciple of Jesus Christ. As things come to you mind, you write them down. At the end of the 24hr fast, you review the list you made and then begin your 40 day fast from those things. So if you wrote down for example, I need to not put myself down so much, then you would fast from negative comments and feelings toward yourself. The goal is that by the time you have gone 40 days without doing these things, you have made it a lasting habit not to do them anymore. Anyway, Sister Allard and I each made a small list of things we want to work on and do better, and are now doing our best to "fast" from these things! I am praying that this process with help me become a more devoted servant to the Lord, and better yield my heart to Him. 

On Friday we had a really cool experience that really humbled me! I know, that's always interesting to read because the variety of experiences that could have happened to cause that are pretty much numberless!
So Sister Allard and I were going to try to visit one of our investigators, Nadia (The one with the crying daughter that I sang to.), for the second time that day. When nobody came to the door for the 3rd visit attempt in a row, I felt a little discouraged. I knew that Nadia and her husband had been really open to hearing our message, and coming to church with us the last time we had visited, but we hadn't been able to get back over there in over a week! So when they didn't answer the door, we had some time before we needed to head over to our dinner appointment, so Sister Allard said we should go try to see a less-active family that lived nearby. I agreed, and went to get in the car, and she said the family lives really close, so we should just walk. I agreed, even though I wasn't quite sure what the point was of taking longer to walk to their house and then back to the car, especially when I knew it was our last day with ever having the car! So with a little bit of a grumbling heart, we started to walk to their house. After we had been walking for 5 minutes I started to get annoyed because again, I didn't understand why we had left the car. The family's house clearly wasn't THAT close... It was 20'C and I was dressed way to warm to be taking a long walk in the heat. When we finally reached the family's house, they were just heading out the door, and clearly had no interest in talking with us. So with the door slammed in our faces, I turned around feeling quite justified in my grievances. As we started the not-so-short walk back to our car we ran into a little girl, her mom, and grandma. The little girl ran ahead of us on the sidewalk, and her mom quickly followed, but the grandma lingered behind us. We turned around and said Hi to her, and asked her how her day was. She replied it was good, and told us we were very gorgeous girls. Before we could thank her for the sweet compliment, she continued... "I'm not trying to come on to you. I am straight. I am not gay." A little shocked by this seemingly random declaration we awkwardly replied "we're straight too!" ...Not our finest moment as missionaries. But then we asked her what her name was, and she told us her name was Myra, and her address was... and her phone number is... and made sure we wrote it all down! She then told us that we should come by and see her sometime! We hadn't even been able to explain that we were missionaries, and she scurried along to catch up with her family. 
Needless to say Sister Allard and I walked away completely shocked at what had just happened. As we walked the rest of the way to the car, I had the rebuking impression come into my mind that the reason we couldn't meet with Nadia, and the reason why we walked to the LaPonte's home only to be turned away, was because all of that had to happen exactly in that way for us to have been able to run into Myra and her family. So while I am not proud to say that I had a bit of a murmuring heart, I quickly learned my lesson to trust God, and trust in His timing. 

General Conference was obviously amazing! It was seriously better than Christmas!! I love being a missionary because while you watch the speakers, you are hearing their wonderful messages, receiving personal revelation for yourself, and then receiving revelation and guidance for all of the people in your stewardship as well! I couldn't help but write down someone I was excited to share this talk with for every single speaker! I think when you are serving a mission, and are out teaching people about the amazing blessing of having a modern day prophet today, it makes conference that much sweeter! 
We even had Andy come to the last session of conference on Sunday! When we had our lesson with him later that night, he told us that he really enjoyed it! He said he was worried he was going to be really bored, but then was surprised at how much it helped him feel like he was part of the LDS community- not just in Calgary, but the world! There were actually only maybe a dozen people at the church that weren't missionaries, so I was impressed that he came away with the feeling of being loved, and a part of something. 
Andy is the coolest kid! And the Michelsen's are the most amazing family! So The Michelsen's are Andy's Fellow shippers. We have our lessons at their house each week, and their son Dalton, who is in the same grade as Andy hangs out with him at school! They have really taken him in under their wing, and it has been amazing to see the world of difference they have made in his life. 
We actually had dinner at the Michelsen's house last night, with Andy. And then we had the lesson right after we finished. I think the combination of his younger age, and chances we have to see Andy outside of our lessons like dinner, have really helped us to build a friendship with him, rather than having that "teacher-student" relationship. It has really helped us to be able to show Andy that we don't care about his statistic (If he is a number under 'investigator' or 'baptism' or things like that), we just care about Andy. I feel like it has helped him take to heart the things we teach him because he understands we want to help him be happy, and that's it. 
Last night we taught Andy about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He took everything really well has he thought about what we said and what that meant for his life. When we were reaching the end of the lesson he asked us if you could be baptized more than once in your life. We explained it was a one time event, and then all the reasons you would want to be baptized again are the same blessings that come with taking the Sacrament. He nodded, and then said "I wasn't baptized when I was 8. So is it too late now?" As you can imagine my heart was just about pounding out of my chest at that point as we explained again the purpose of our missionary service. He got a big smile on his face, and then I extended the invitation for him to be baptized. He looked at us with a big grin on his face and said Yes!! I could barely contain my excitement! I told him we would be having a baptismal service on April 23rd, and he agreed to be baptized on that date!!! 
WHHHHAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! 
Thankfully, Heavenly Father blessed me to be able to keep my cool at least until I made it back home in our apartment. Once that door was shut behind me though, I will admit there was a lot of triumphant dancing... 
Since our lesson with Andy all I have been able to think about is the scripture about how great shall be your joy if you shall bring save one soul unto me. I can testify of the truthfulness of that statement. I have never felt so excited in my life! 
I love this gospel. It has changed my life. And I know that it will change each person's life that will let it. That is why I am so excited about Andy's commitment to be baptized and follow the Savior. 

Okay I have to run! Everyone is waiting on me!! :P 
I love you all and hope you have an absolutely beautiful week!
I miss you leaps and bounds, but I love every single day that I am out here!
Keep Andy in your prayers if you can, and have a great spring break if you're in Utah! 
With tons of love, 
Sister Dobyns

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Late Happy Easter!

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Picnic in our apartment while our clothes dry everywhere...

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Random Photo-shoot at the church with the Canadian flag:) 

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There are bunnies outside the window of the library right now... I just can't get used to it! 

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Insert from Mom...

We were pleasantly surprised to get these great pictures from a kind member who had the Sister Missionaries over and taught them how to make Sushi! Knowing that Sister Dobyns LOVES Sushi... this made my heart smile! I know that she is having fun as well as growing as she faithfully serves the Lord!





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