Called to Serve: It Finally Looks Like Canada!

WOW! What a week of miracles!

First off, I LOVE this area! I love being in YSA still, and I really love all the amazing members of this ward:) I love my companion Sister Halliday, and I love all the missionaries in our zones! It is such a blessing to be where I am right now:)

So last monday was Canadian Thanksgiving, so we got to go over for dinner at Shelby's house! (A sweet ysa sister we have been working with) It was so much fun! And they taught us how to make little turkey's out of candy! :)

Tuesday night we had a really great miracle! It was 8:00pm and we didn't know what we should do with our last hour of the day because we didn't have any appointments- So we said a prayer, and then looked over the list of names we want to try and see that were in the area, and had 3 names stick out to us. We stopped by the first name, and found out the he has only been a member of the church for 2 years, and is less active now. But he was really nice, and set up a time for us to come back and visit with him! Then that took a lot longer than we thought, (And because we were out in okotoks, we had to drive for 30 minutes to get home) we didn't have time to see the other two people that stuck out to us.

But we called the family ward missionaries that cover the guy were able to see to find out if they knew anything else about him, and also found out that those elders had been by the houses of the other two names that we had been impressed to see that night! It was so cool to just see that this really is God's work and we are all on the same team. I am so grateful that He leads us to where He knows we should be. It is never anything short of a miracle each time I recognize how involved He truly is in our every effort.

On Thursday we got to have a lesson with our investigator Shaun. Shaun is Jewish, and has been taking the discussions from the missionaries for 8 years!! Crazy right?? He is an extremely intelligent guy, and literally knows more about the church than I do... So when we were preparing for his lesson I was really puzzled on what we could possibly share with him that has hasn't already heard a million times. He had asked to just read the Book of Mormon with us, because he finds that it is "a hard read." This coming from the man who could explain every passage in the Bible... So we read through the introduction and 1st chapter of 1 nephi with him, and explained/related them to him as we went. At the end of the lesson, Shaun said that his goal is to read the whole Book of Mormon (again) and then to "do the Moroni promise thing at the end." At that point I felt stronger than I ever have before to promise Shaun that if he will do that, he WILL receive the witness from the Holy Ghost that it is true in a way that we will recognize. He responded saying he didn't know if that will happen, to which I again felt so impressed to say "That's okay. I do." The spirit was so strong as I felt Heavenly Father's love for Shaun, and the importance of him coming to find the truth.

The next mighty miracle we had this week was we were out in High River (Side note: we cover a part of Calgary sw, and then a bunch of stuff outside the city too. But the two main cities we visit outside of Calgary are Okotoks, and High River) for a dinner appointment, and yet again, the appointments we had set up out there fell through on us after we had dinner. But High River is a long ways away, and so we didn't want to just go home and put all those km's on or car for 1 member. So we called up the family ward missionaries again to ask if there were any ysa we should visit down there, and they gave us 3 names. The very first one we saw was named Denver. We just dropped by quick and met him, and set up a time to come back and get to know him better, and he said that we was planning on coming to the ward on sunday. And then he really did come! (That alone is a miracle because that almost never happens!) So we sat with him in Sunday School and got to know him a little more, afterwards, we had a member take him to priesthood. Then, as we were walking in to RS another member asked us how we got Denver to come today because he is "extremely less active." We had no idea! We were really excited after that for him coming to church, but then at the end of RS our ward missionary gave us our dinner calendar that they had passed around for us, and Denver signed up to have us over for dinner too!
We could not believe it! I have just been so amazed this week at the miracles big and small that are happening all around. I know that they have always been there, but I"m grateful my eyes have been much wider to all the amazing things Heavenly Father has got going on:)

On Wednesday I got to go to my first MLC Meeting (Missionary Leadership Council). And that was pretty fun:) I got to meet a lot of other missionaries from around the mission:) And tomorrow I am going to do my first training as an STL, so wish me luck! :)

So it was a really good week for me. I have been SO happy! The area transition has been so much easier than I thought it would, and Sister Halliday is so perfect and easy to get along and work with. I have nothing to worry about but the work! And that is going really amazing aswell, so I have a very grateful heart this week:)

OH! One last miracle, was on Saturday we had another city-wide ysa event where everyone went and did service projects at the church across the parking lot from the temple! And then rotated through baptisms and endowment sessions at the same time. It was a lot of fun because I got to see tons of my friends from carburn park ysa again:) But on top of that, we had 2 investigators come! (One of which is new!) Shaun came, and we were able to have a really cool lesson in the very front waiting room of the temple, and he absolutely LOVED that! He didn't stop smiling the entire time he was there! Then we also got to talk to Nick, A recent Convert in the ward's younger brother. His sister was baptized a little over a year ago, and actually left on her mission the week before I changed wards- but Nick came and we got to talk with him in the temple waiting room for a little while too, and he asked to have a lesson with us some time this week!
So we are super excited to start teaching him. When we asked him about his experience with the church, and with his sister serving a mission and all, he said that he used to think that he sister was crazy, and there was no way it's real. But then he started praying and coming to activities some times and said that he can feel a difference here. And he feel calm.

So as you can see, there are miracles all around because God is so good, and so loving. and there are so many more that I know are coming this week!

Today I hope you to know how much Christ loves you. He is always there for you through it all, and is just waiting for you to open your eyes to His infinite love and mercy. I hope you see all the beautiful miracles that are going on all around you this week! And I love you all and hope you have a great fall break! :)
Love,

Sister Dobyns