YEAR MARK

#SOUTHERNALBERTALIFE

Quote of the week from an investigator: " I don't know man, I'm training to be Captain Kirk in 200 years y'know." #livelongandprosperhomies #hewascompletelyserious

I am completely flabbergasted that I have been on my mission for a year now.

I feel like I blinked and boom its September again.

Its gone by so fast, but not at the same time. 

I love being a missionary, I always have the hardest time on Monday mornings because I simply cannot put into words the moments that I experience during my week. Because there just arent words that exist that can do it for me. If my emails are ever random or choppy its because Im just trying to get the words from my circus of a mind to the keys thank you for bearing with me for the past year. ha I dont know how I got so lucky. In everything. I have amazing family, amazing friends, and amazing support. I feel so blessed. Thank you all for EVERY THING that you have done for me. I COULD NOT do it without all of your love and prayers.

This week was a busy one! We went on splits with ALL FOUR of our wards ha definitely a successful week for teaching. We got to see a TON of people. 

Our mission has a challenge this month to give away 10,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. Since there aren't that many people in Raytown that arent members of the church, and most of them already have a Book of Mormon. So what we have decided to do is at all our dinner appointments, and any other appointment we have with a less-active member or a member, is challenge them to write their testimony in the front of it, then to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help them know who they can give it to, and then to do it. This week alone me and Egs gave out 25 copies. That means that there are 25 families or people in this town that are ready to share the gospel. How amazing is that? I know that when you are prepared and ready to go, Heavenly Father WILL place someone in your path that is ready to hear the Restored Gospel. So, I challenge all of you, to write your testimony in a Book of Mormon, pray and ask, and then to act, and give it away. I can promise you that if you do this with real intent the person that needs it will come to you and you will be able to share it. If you are not a member of the church I challenge you to get a Book of Mormon, from the missionaries, from a member, from Mormon.org (theyre free), and to read it. You will never know if its true or not, until you read it. Just give it a try.

This Saturday while I was watching the Womens Broadcast I had a little thought. I am so grateful for the Gospel. I am so thankful for the truth that has been restored. I realized that our church is indeed the exact church that Jesus Christ himself established while he was on the earth. And I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and restored that same church to the earth. I love that our church is built on divine truth, not on some ones interpretation of what a scripture or a set of scriptures means. I just love it SO MUCH. I recommend that you listen to "17 points of the True Church" by Floyd Weston. :)

Sister Jensen put on a1 year mark breakfast for me this week :) So cute! She's the greatest.

                                  

Its been a year since I cut my hair, a full year! I'm giving it a nice little trim this week ha. I just wanted to be able to say that I didnt cut my hair for a whole year. :)

TEAM HOPE

This week was great!! ha I can't really think of a more exciting way to start out my email this week. Let me try again with more adjectives. This week was extremely snazzy and sparkly and divine. :D Much better.

Welp, quote of the week from Relief Society last week. "A skirt hides a multitude of sins..." I was like wait what did you just say?! I was the only one that thought it was funny ha. Well, me and Egbert.

Monday, the most amazing woman, Sister Cosman gave me and Sister Egbert a pedicure. It was heaven, gah our feet needed it bad after walk and talk August. And she's the funniest little thing ever so the whole time we were just busting up laughing. We had our church tour that night and it went really well! We focused on Christ this time and taught about his life. We had almost 40 people show up. 

Tuesday, I cant remember much.....ha must have went good. :)

Wednesday.....

We went to 2nd wards Activity Days and talked with them about missionary work and of course I taught them how to play Ninja after, naturally. We taught 3 teenagers like a little mission prep and taught them some teaching tips. We had interviews today and I got some AMAZING advice from President Nicholas, whoops pressed send half way through that email. 

Back to Wednesday....

President and I were talking about circumstances, and he said, "Sister Connor, the Lord always takes into account the situations were in and the level of difficulty. Just like in diving its very easy to get a perfect score on a swan dive, but the score is lower because the level of difficulty isn't very high. If you through a double back somersault, the level of difficulty is higher and the score you receive will be higher as well. You may not be perfect on your double back but the judges take into account the level of difficulty."  Absolutely blew my mind. I loved it, its so true though. I think that summarizes perfectly the balance of justice and mercy.
The Lord always takes into account our circumstances and the level of difficulty.Alma 32:22 (Book of Mormon)  "And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye shouldremember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name;therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea,even on his word." 

Thursday was planning day! Always delightful ha. We had lunch with Sister Jensen and went out to the Hutterite Colony Hutterville and got to listen to the kids sing! Gah, everytime they just melt my heart. I love them so much. We also got to teach our favorites the Powelsons in 6th ward ha, they crack me up so much :) Super funny Mom with her hilarious little girls.

Friday we volunteered at Good Sams and they had a birthday party for some of their residents, one of them turned 100 years old! Friday was also the day of the Stake Fall Fair at the Stake Centre which we also volunteered at, we must of handed out 200+ hamburger buns! ha it was a lot of fun though we got to talk to so many people!  We went and taught the Tolman family that night as well, they're crack ups too ha I just love children! 

Saturday is a special day its the day we......

Saturday was great! We got permission to go to the temple again with a woman we've been working with! She finally decided to go through and receive her endowments, and it was AMAZING! She's the cutest little thing. I'm so glad that I got to be apart of it all.

Sunday Runday. Lots of church :) Lots of learning ha. We ate at the Strongs that night and ate so many ribs! ha They were delicious, we ended up teaching Ray there that night as well about 1 Nephi Chapter 8,  and about how this life is a time for us to prepare and to learn. 

Monday! We got to go into Lethbridge for a mission conference with Elder Allen F. Packer of the Seventy. It was so good! AND I GOT TO SEE MY FAVORITE SLOP (Sister Heslop, my trainer) I hadnt seen her in 9 months! 

Welp out of time ha, I feel like my emails get less and less interesting as I go through the days, ha sorry bout that. :) 

Here enjoy this awesome Mormon Message, I can promise you that it will touch your heart, maybe even answer your prayers. If you can watch endless pointless videos on Youtube, you have time to watch this. It wont be a waste of your time. Just remember that Heavenly Father does hear your prayers, he may not always answer the way you think he will, or how you want, but he WILL. We also have to remember that God has his own timing, he knows best everything that we need and what will help us most. I have a testimony of that. And I know that God lives, and that he loves his children. ALL his children. Not just a select few, but all. Remember that you are ALL children of God. He's waiting to help you, but you need to ask sometimes. If you're afraid to pray, don't be. 

I love you all, thank you for everything.

Sister Jaynie Connor

Scripture of the Day: 2 Nephi 32: 8 ( Book of Mormon )

8And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

whoops im a mess ha here's the video

The HOPE of God's Light

RAAAAAPTORRRRRRRRRRRRRRR........................

Holy Velociraptor ! This week was AWESOME!

It SNOWED! IN SEPTEMBER....

Such a spiritually uplifting week, ha and a cold week as well! I love the Gospel. And I know that it is true with all that I have. Everyday I feel like that testimony gets stronger and stronger if get out of the way and let it happen. I've learned on my mission that it's entirely up to me though. My relationship with God has to come from me. I pray, I read, I go to church, I pray and read some more. It's never ending, and that's what I love about it. It's not a one and done kind of deal. The gospel blesses your LIFE. Not a moment or a season of your life. But your WHOLE LIFE, if you open up and let it in. And I'm sure glad that I let it in and didn't look back. I know that this can change people because its changed me, :) , and I love being on a mission and getting to tell everyone that I come in contact with that their Father in Heaven loves them.....no matter what. 

All righty THENNNNN, back to my day by day break down! :)

Tuesday was PDAY! So we picked up the Magrath sisters and drove on down to Cardston to hang out with the other Missionaries in our Zone. We just ate junk food and lounged around ha. Me and Sister Egbert got pretty bored so I took off running while she tried to rope me, ha Im pretty sure I havent run that fast in over a year ha. I had to say good bye to Sister Martin on Tuesday, I was not happy about that, but Im so glad that I had the opportunity to serve around her for the last 3 transfers of her mission. She helped me so much and was such a great example to me, she will be missed!  Tuesday night we went to 4th Wards Young Womens and taught them how to make sweet scripture cases out of magazines and recycled cardboard. It was a ton of fun! 

Welp, nevermind about that whole day by day thing ha Im out of time :( Ill tell you about the best thing this week instead! 

This Saturday we got permission to go to the temple with Ray Castle! (Next to me in the picture). The missionaries have been working with Ray for a long time, and he has done amazing! This Saturday he went to the temple and was sealed to his deceased wife and deceased daughter! It just strengthened my testimony so much that families really can be together forever. And Im so honored that I was able to be here for it. Definitely a huge highlight of my week. I love the temple. If you have questions about the temple have them answered here: temples . 

The rest of our week was good too! Lots of contacting and walking around ha. We even went out to the acrages outside of town and started to contact those people ha. And we met some pretty dang sweet people!

Im sorry that this email is so lame and short ha I hope you enjoy the pictures though.

Thank you so much for all that all of you have done for me! :) I promise next weeks email will be better.

I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU.

I know the Gospel is true. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true as well.

Until next time friends....

Sister Jaynie Connor

You know you are in southern Alberta when......they have a potato masher with a shovel handle.....

Sweet home Al...

BERTA.....

hehehehe :)

Hello lovelies!

GUESS WHAT?! Outside right now, in Raymond..... its 1C..... in September. I LOVE CANADA. 

It rained tons again this week. :) 

Day by day play by play GO!

Monday! It was PDAY PDAY PDAY! And I took Egs into Lethbridge to do some shopping at the Mall :) It was fun! Ha and why'll we were there I ran into about half of Raymond any ways ha so that was swell. Lethbridge took up most of our day, then we came home and went to see some families in 2nd ward. Ha we were in a super goofy mood from having such a great day that we were all giggly. As we were walking up this family's stairs I was still laughing, I laughed so hard that I skipped a step somehow and tripped going UP the stairs haha. Thankfully I fell super slow mo and soft onto them but then my laughter was even more uncontrollable as well as Egberts. Ha eventually I got a hold of my self and went inside ha. 

Tuesday!

We had an awesome Zone Training Meeting in Glenwood. AND THEN, I got to go on exchanges with Sister Martin again but this time in Cardston! I just love her. She goes home this Thursday! She's done!! So crazy how fast time goes! Ha we always have the best time on exchanges though, we can never stop laughing. We were visiting an older lady in their ward and before we left Sister Martin asked if we could say a prayer. To which the lady replied, "NO, you have to sing to me first" I was like wait what? Ha Martin looks at me, "Do you sing?!" "NOT AT ALL!" Ha but the Sister was not going to let us leave without singing ha and neither of us had our hymn books. So we decided to sing "I am a child of God," mostly because it is the ONLY hymn I know by heart ha. Sister Martin isn't a big singer either and looks at me and goes, "You're going to have to start us off here Connor..." Ha so I did, in my terrible singing voice. "I AM A CHILD OFFFF GODDDDD...." AND MARTIN WAS LAUGHING TOO HARD THAT SHE DIDNT SING! So I had a one line terrible solo for this poor sister!! Ha eventually Martin got a hold of her self and we continued, shakily, ha but at the end I looked up and the woman was crying, not from laughing but because the spirit had touched her heart by using us, It was pretty cool. But, for the rest of the day we would just think about how awful that was and giggle haha.

Wednesday! 

There was like Notebook status rain in So. Alberta! Me and Martin worked in the Cardston Temple Visitor Centre. I love doing that and meeting the people that stop in :) There was a lady and her father from Saskatchewan that had been driving by and the temple had stood out from the town so much that they couldn't help but to pull in and check it out. We got to tell them all about the temple and the church and everything, they left with arms full of pamphlets to read up on it. So cool. Then! That night when I was back in Raymond we went to see Sister Heggie in the 4th ward to pick up my scripture case and she showed us THE COOLEST video ever about missionary work and the atonement...... It's called "Missionary Work and the Atonement" Watch it Here! Answered just about 2 months of prayers for me in 10 minutes. I love being a missionary, sometimes its extremely hard. But, I know the reason why I'm here and that out weighs any bad day.

While sitting behind the desk at the Visitor Centre I started to doodle....naturally. :)

Thursday! 

Was planning day! And it was such a nice day that we decided to do it outside, in our hoodies. :) And the rest of the day we just did stop by visits. Went great! That night though there was a miracle!   WE had 30 minutes until it was time to head home so we decided to hand out invitations to our church tour next monday, and we stopped by a house that we had been referred to. A woman answered the door and was so excited to hear about the tour! "I've always wanted to go inside that building! But I didnt know if I could!" We were like OH YES, YES YOU CAN! We ended up teaching her the first discussion on her porch! And when Sister Egbert got to the Joseph Smith's First Vision, the woman got chills, the spirit was so strong! We set up an appointment with her to come back this week and teach her more! We cant wait to teach her more!

(I'm running out of time, :( as usual..... so bulletpoints here we come ha)

Friday! 

- We got one of our Less active members to finally say a simple prayer at one of our lessons! SO EXCITING.

- A woman freaked out and wanted to bash with me and Egbert because we go to church on Sunday. It was scary ha, wouldnt even let us bear our testimonies. So we got out of there as soon as possible, ha invited her to the church tour though.

- We taught our investigator family by kerosene light at night! So sick and it went so well! They're progressing so well.

- We worked at Good Sam's and played Bingo with the residents there, ha so entertaining.

Saturday

- Trimmed Rasberry bushes in a denim/flannel coat in the sun for 2 hours.....#joy

- found magical Jalepeno Macaroni and Cheese Chips

- Chased Sister Egbert on foot down Hwy 52, she just took off running cause she realized we were late for dinner ha.

Sunday

- Fast sunday! Went great!

- Proverbs 13:11

welp, now im forreal out of time!

I love this gospel with all that I have and I know its true. And you can as well, if you kneel down in prayer and ask your Heavenly Father. That's a promise Moroni 10:3-5 p529 Book of Mormon

Miss you. Love you. Merry Christmas.

Sister Jaynie Connor.

"Fat Night FHE with the Sugais. Canadian Chocolate bar taste testing!"

trimming bushes like a champ

And it came to pass......

It's Corn season, eh.

Just playin' in the corn all Pocahontas like....

Howdy Friends and Family! Happy Labour Day?! Can you believe that it's already September?! In 24 days I will have been on my mission now for A YEAR.  

This week was kind of slow but good at the same time? Like syrup?! Ha I don't really know how to describe it. 

But Monday was SWEET! Our favourites the Robsons picked us up for PDay and took us down to Waterton to play and hike! We had so much fun!!! I just love Waterton so beautiful, and I just love the Robsons. Their girls just make me laugh so much ha and have become some of our very best friends here. We had so much fun that we were just flat out exhausted. We came home scarfed some quick dinner, changed, and went out to work for the night. We walked around trying to contact people then headed over to Brother Depews for our Biweekly missionary meeting with the Elders.

Tuesday we went out to Magrath for district meeting with the missionaries over there. Magrath is a smaller town like Raymond, only a smidge smaller. We then came back and had lunch with Sister Harker in the 8th ward and then drove around with her to invite people to an 8th ward Relief Society people. It was really good for us, helped us to know the members and nonmembers in the ward a lot better. :) The rest of the day we just tried to contact all the referrals that we have. We had a quick correlation meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader and his wife in the 2nd ward, they both served missions and are so excited to start working! And then we went to the Jardines in 4th ward for dinner! And they are the cutest! We had such a good time and had so much fun talking with them. They have TWO daughters out on missions right now.

Wednesday was a busy day! We taught 3 of our less-active members that we've been working with. And one of them we just found last week! We were walking home in the rain from an appointment and decided that we should knock all the doors on that block to figure out who everyone is. We were walking along but for some reason we skipped this small little gray house and went to the next one. They weren't interested and so we went back to the gray house. Turns out that there's a man there who is a member of the church but not active! We shared a quick little message with him and set up an appointment for the next week (this week.) And it went so well! The spirit was so strong and we committed him to come to church next week and to start praying again. He offered the kneeling prayer at the end of the lesson. When he stood up he said, "Well, that's the hardest part now I have to do the rest." It's so amazing to see people start to come unto Christ again! :)

Thursday was planning day! ha so not too exciting. It was super windy. We walked from our edge of town all the way to the other edge of town to contact a referral from the Elders, our hair was whipping all over the place along with our skirts ha took us about half an hour! We climbed the steps and knocked on the door and THEY WEREN'T INTERESTED! Ha so we made the best of a sad situation and took pictures, naturally. haha. Then IT RAINED A TON that afternoon. Like the clouds moved in so fast and were so black we legit thought it was a tornado and the town forgot to notify us. Ha I love hard rain though, so much! It's just beautiful to me, when I'm not walking in it of course ha. 

Friday Friday Friday.

We volunteered at Good Sam's like always, and had the time of our life, like always. The residents there make us laugh so much and we just love them. This week we were waitresses for their ice cream social, aprons and all haha, I wish I had a picture. The rest of the day was pretty slow, no one really wanted to talk with us. /: So I started to preach to the corn and to any animal that would listen of course. We had our Stake Basketball Tournament Friday night as well.

Saturdayyyyyy. Lots and lots of walking around and talking ha. We ate dinner at the Fromms. I love them as well :) They're related to the Jardines. They have a daughter out on a mission too! Such a cute family. We ended our night  with a less active family in the 2nd ward.

Sunday Runday had a lot of running in it haha. We went to three different sacrament meetings and they were wonderful :) We ate with the Thompsons in 2nd ward for dinner. That morning our dinner appointment had cancelled so we were just going to eat at home. But, Sister Thompson said that when we walked into sacrament meeting she got the strongest prompting to invite us over to eat! We didnt know this till after, but I'm so glad that she did! We had a great time with her and her family. I also found out Sunday night that a less active man we've been teaching for a while now got his temple recommend and went through the temple! I WAS LIKE WAHHHHHHHT?! So exciting!!! 

I love being a missionary!!!! It's pretty hard work but I'm the happiest I've been in my life. The Lord's work is amazing.

Doctrine and Covenants 6:36

 

"Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not." 

Always turn towards the Lord he can help. With anything and everything. I know this to be true. Don't doubt and don't be afraid to reach out, he's waiting to help you. Try your faith and pray.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love, prayers, and support. I couldn't do it with out you! 

Love  you always.

Sister Jaynie Connor