Peace on Earth and Mercy Mild....

hello Hello beautiful friends and family! I know that I am emailing a little/lot later than usual but don't freak out, all is well in Alberta.... This morning the Wrights from our branch took us SNOW SHOEING and it was SO FUN. I loved every second of it. But we didn't have time to email during the day, so...we're emailing now. :) See no need to panic.

But as usual I don't have a ton of time, shocker ha. And, I left my planner in the car, so I kinda sorta dont really remember that week that well.

David (our investigator) is doing amazing. HE IS SO EXCITED TO GET BAPTIZED. Ha and we're so excited for him as well. He's just been eating up everything we teach. I love it. Definitely prepared by the Lord. Such an amazing man. 

I'm alive and healthy. :) I thank Heavenly Father every day for that. He has given me so much and I am so appreciative. I love him so much, and I know that he loves me, and you. 

Sorry that this email is lame and not really long.

I saw "Meet the Mormons" this week! SO GOOD, if you haven't seen it yet, go. It really wasn't what I was expecting, it was better ha. :) 

We had our branch Christmas party this Saturday and a ton of people came! It was so fun ha, I love our little branch.

Welp, I promise that next weeks email will be MUCH better. 

Scripture of the week:

DC 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not." 

Especially with this Christmas season, direct your thoughts to your Father in Heaven, and our Savior Jesus Christ. :) With out them we are nothing, with them we can do EVERYTHING. 

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer.

I love you all more than words can describe. Thank you for all you do.

Until we meet again!

xoxo

Sister Jaynie Connor

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Hello Friends and Family!

It's that time of year again where every single picture you see me in I have on my beige huge coat. Ha sorry. Basically live in it.

I'm just gonna warn you right now that this email is going to be all over the place and probably really short. Not a whole lot to say this week honestly ha, things were pretty crazy.

It was transfer week!! And sadly me and Sister Jones are no longer. My new companion is Sister Murphy! Yep, me and Lamborghini Murphy from the MTC are reunited once again for round 2. Hmm what else is new? We drive a huge white mini-van temporarily. I call it the Great White Shark, gets us to and from pretty good ha. I feel like a mormon mother in training when I drive though. Super spacious ha.

Our investigator David is doing amazing!!! He just soaks everything up like a sponge! Still on date to be baptized January 10th. He even watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional last night and loved it. I feel so blessed to help him come unto Christ at this time. I'm so excited for him.!!

Things are getting busier and busier with Christmas coming up, I hope all of you are doing well! :)

I miss and love you all. Thanks for all you love and support!

xoxo

Sister Connor

Oh! I need a favor!! Well, more like the world needs a favor! We need to #sharethegift. Don't know what I'm talking about? Go on Christmas.Mormon.Org and find out! Then Share!!!

Scripture of the Week:
Romans 5:31-4

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Keep swimming. You are just learning more than you can imagine.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful.....

My oh my ha, this week was intense ha. Just pure craziness, or I guess I just keep telling myself that its serendipity. I had an amazing week full of happy random events ha. But Im running out of time for my emails so I'll try to summarize it as best as I can.

ser·en·dip·i·ty

ˌserənˈdipədē/

noun

1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

   "a fortunate stroke of serendipity"

Monday: Pday, so we were in Calgary for the day and played Volley ball with the Calgary West zone. Then we had dinner with our Branch Mission Leader :) We then drove out to see the Cochrane sisters and to go on splits with them in their area. It was a lot of fun! Ha, I was with Sister Schell, and not one person let us in. But it was fine because she's one of the funniest people I've ever met. :)

Tuesday: District Meeting in Calgary. It was awesome! Focused a lot on the Atonement. Super powerful and spiritual. Then me and Jones head out for Jaffray, British Columbia to go on exchanges. There was a huge storm in Banff so we had to go the long way around, crazy drive! So much snow! But we got there safely in our little malibu. Ha I was so tense from driving ha.

Wednesday: I got to go on exchanges with Sister Clabaux in Jaffray. She was born in France and is the sweetest little thing. Funny story actually, Sister Clabaux and I actually knew each other for a few weeks before our missions! Well, on Facebook haha, and we went into the MTC the same day too. :) We had a ton of fun knocking doors in a small town called Elko in a blizzard. That night me and Sister Jones then drove over to Invermere BC to stay with the sisters there. Also in a blizzard haha, it was coming down hard! But we made it, felt like we were driving for ever! We had an awesome time with Sister Shumway and Sister Matheson.

Thursday: AMERICAN THANKSGIVING! It was so hot that all the snow melted and all I wore was a cardigan, gotta love BC ha. I got to go on exchanges with Sister Matheson. She is AMAZING. Such an amazing little missionary, I learned SO MUCH from her. We had originally planned to then drive back to Canmore that night, but due to weather we had to stay another night. Which was fine, we had thanksgiving dinner that night with their branch. Yep, their whole branch! Ha Elder and Sister Rash made Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. So fun :)

Friday: Friday morning the storm was STILL raging. We were thinking of just leaving but we decided to pray about it since my gut told me not to. Holy Ghost confirmed, so we stayed ANOTHER day. By this time I was starting to run out of clothes ha but we managed. I then got to go on exchanges with Sister Shumway! Who I love dearly, she has become one of my greatest friends out here on the mission. I feel like we've known each other for years. I look up to her so much, such an amazing example. We had a great exchange and I got to meet a huge pig named Roxy. Win win. Ha since we couldn't drive back we stayed for dinner again and ate left over turkey sandwiches with the Rashs, and folded out the couch bed for a 3rd time. Good thing we love those two haha and they love us, I hope ha. 

Saturday: The weather was FINALLY good enough to drive back! Ha we came back to our area to find it had snowed almost 2 feet!!! Like no joke the snow almost went to my knees! We had a good day contacting in Banff and then went and shovelled some driveways in Canmore. WE had an amazing lesson with our investigator David. He is on date to be baptized on the 10th of January and we are so excited! We went over the law of tithing and the law of the fast with him. Went great. :D We finished our night by doing some service for our new friend Monica.

Sunday: IT WAS -37 C. -___- Thats almost -22 F for my Mericans. It was so cold it just hurt to exist. Church was good though! Me and sister Jones both spoke. Jones, agency and opposition, 2 Nephi 2. Sister Connor, endurance and oppostion related to snowboarding (obviously), 2 Nephi 31:17-21. The rest of our day was spent planning and catching up on all the things we missed when we disappeared to a different province for a week. We ate dinner with Sister Falzon (who we live with) and then head out for a lesson with Keven. 

All in all, awesome week. I really learned that Heavenly Father is in charge and that everything happens for a reason. We can choose to align our will with his and just roll with it, OR be stubborn and try to do it our own way anyways. I like the first plan :) 

I love and miss all of you so much and I hope my email wasnt too boring. THank you for everything all of you do continually for me!

Love you miss you Merry Christmas!

Sister Jaynie Connor.

xoxox

You all need to watch this, I'm not kidding, click on this.

#sharethegift

 

 

Where did November go?

Tomorrow is November 25, that means that I have been on my mission now FOR 14 MONTHS! What the heck? I cant believe how fast it has gone. I feel like I was in the MTC and I blinked and now I only have 4 months left!! I don't want it to end :(

I don't have much time today, so todays email will be a bit quick and most likely scatter brained.

Things are going awesome in our area. Our investigator David has agreed to get baptized!!! So exciting to see how much he has grown just in these past couple weeks! Such an amazing man. He is 74 and just proves that you are never too old to accept Jesus Christ in your life. I love teaching him because he just accepts it all, makes it so easy. He was definitely prepared by the Lord.

We have another investigator that is doing amazing as well! His name is A and we just started teaching him this week. He's also accepted everything we are teaching so far as well! He is just soaking it all up ha. He is 20 years old and moved here from India. I love teaching him because he is so real and just wants to do the best he can in this life. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this week with little pictures. He loved it so much he pulled out his phone and took a picture of the diagram haha. While we were teaching him about the Celestial Kingdom he said, That is now my motivation, I want to be there, I want to be there with God and Jesus Christ. Ha multiple times during the lessons with him my mouth will just fall open with shock and the things he does and says. We found A while we were walking around last week when our car was in the shop, Heavenly Father definitely wanted us to cross paths.

I feel so blessed to be a missionary and to share my testimony of this Gospel. I know that this is the Lords work and that it is true. If you EVER see misisonaries, ANYWHERE, listen to them. If you are a member or not, listen to what they have to say. Its from God.

I love an miss you all so much! I hope you are all happy and safe. Thank you SO MUCH for all your love and support. :)

xoxo

Sister Jaynie Connor 

​

Scripture of the Week:

Doctrine and Covenants Section 58 verses 3 and 4.

 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory‍ which shall follow after much tribulation.
 4 For after much tribulation‍ come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned‍ with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.

Heavenly Father has a plan for you, we cant see the whole plan, but that's where faith comes in. Trust him and just keep going. I love you and so does he!

Bring on the POUTINE...

Hello Family and Friends! Good news! I'm alive. Bad news? I'm freezing haha. Man I thought that if you can survive one Canada winter you're good to go. Lie. I'm still cold. And its not like I'm not dressed right. I wear a down filled coat, leggings, boots, mitts, and a tuque everywhere I go. Ha I'll survive don't you worry.

 

 

 

This week was a long one and a ton of stuff happened. But, I don't have enough time to type it all. SO..... bullet points here we come.

 

Monday-

- We went to Calgary for Pday, but since it was so snowy and gross we didn't get there until dinner time. But we had and awesome dinner with the Alvarez sisters from the Brentwood ward.

- I got my mind blown with some scriptural knowledge with Brother Pitcher. He's so smart! And knows so much about the scriptures. So he shared some knowledge with me and gave me a new perspective.

 

Tuesday-

- I gave my first training at a Zone Training Meeting as a Sister Training Leader on the Atonement.

- Then I got to go on exchanges with Sister Kolodisi from Fiji! SO FUN

 

Wednesday-

-Went up to Lake Louise with Sister K for lunch with the Wrights and to look at the beauty.

- Taught our investigator David who's doing awesome, agreed to be baptized!

 

Thursday-

- Helped some members move

-Way cold.

- Had some car mishaps :( Temporarily with out a car now. But its being fixed as I type. :D

- Miracle after Miracle with street contacting.

 

Friday

- Sick in bed.

 

Saturday-

- Saw a herd of at least 40 elk!

- Contacting miracles continued.

- Had a super Saturday event up in Banff with the Branch Relief Society.

 

Sunday-

CHURCH.

 

 

 

I love how in each of my areas there's a specific food we always eat.

Queensland- Donairs or FiveGuys

Shawnessy/Evergreen- Brothers Chinese Food

Raymond- Subway

Canmore/Banff? - La Belle Patate POUTINE

 

It is soooooo good! Ha this place specializes in poutine so they have a ton of choices. My favorite and the one pictured below? Shepherds Pie Style. #heaven 

 

Haha sorry this email is not the most informative. Know that I love and miss you all. Thanks for all that you do for me. Keep praying, he's listening. All we can do is our best.

 

Love you Always!

 

Sister Connor :)

You've had an extra pair of gloves this whole time?!

 

Welp, ha finally got a card reader that worked!!! Ha that collage sums up the last 3 weeks pretty well I think haha.

Bad news, winter finally hit. :( Yep, it was -10 C this morning and it snowed all night. I finally caved and got out my boots and leggings ha, It was time.

This weeks emails going to be a bit short.

BUT I want you all to know some things.....

1. I'm alive

2. I'm healthy

3. This gospel is TRUE!

We had a dang good week for teaching. We picked up two new investigators and made some awesome progress with one of our other ones.

One of our new investigators is from Ethiopia! We gave him an Amharic Book of Mormon and he started to read and he was so surprised that two white girls had a book written in his language ha.

Our other investigator lives up in Lake Louise and we just knocked on his door. I was on exchanges with Sister Shumway at the time and while we were teaching him the first lesson he was like, "Yknow its weird that you guys are here, I was just thinking about God this morning. I want to follow him but I don't really know the right way." Pretty sure my mouth fell open.... So that was way exciting. We were teaching him in lawn chairs under a car port while it was pouring rain. I love being a missionary. End of story.

This Friday was Mission Leadership Council, so we got to drive in to Calgary. So that was fun! I got to see some of my favorite missionaries. :) And then afterwards since MLC was in one of my old areas, I took Sister Jones to my favorite chinese food place for dinner. But even better...we got it to go and I went and knocked on Sister Peters door in Evergreen. (The one we used to live with) Such a blessing to be able to see her again, I love that woman. :)

I'm kinda spacing on what else happened this week.... must not be too urgent haha.

I hope that all of you are doing well and that things are going good. Im so thankful for all of you and all that you have done for me. I want you to know that I have a testimony of this Gospel. I know that it was restored through a prophet.

scripture of the week:

Doctrine and Covenants 11:28-30

 "28 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and the light of the world.

 29 I am the same who came unto mine own and mine own received me not;

 30 But verily, verily, I say unto you, that as many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name. Amen."


Receive him. And don't turn back.


I love you all! Have a marvelous week!! :)


Check out my sick new sweater!!! Yep.

xoxox

 

Sister Jaynie Connor

This is Halloween....everybody make a scene?

Ello Loves!

This week was interesting and exciting haha. I think eventful is the proper word for it.

I bought a card reader this morning so I could send home pictures finally! Plugged it into the computer.....doesn't work. Typical haha. So I need to exchange it for another one. Sorry bout that.

I love being a missionary.

Mmkay, Day by Day run down time.

Monday:

Monday was PDay!! So we emailed and did some quick shopping, then took off for Calgary. We played flag football with our zone at a park and then all just hung out with each other at the Olgeins in the Arbour Lake ward. Sister Olgein's the sweetest! She found out that we didnt have a dinner and invited us to stay and eat with their family and all of the Mandarin Elders. That night we spent the night with the Arbour Lake Sisters, Sister Butler from Utah, and Sister Kolodisi from Fiji.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was Zone Conference!!! I love zone conferences, so spiritual and amazing. We (the Calgary West Zone) combined with the Calgary Central Zone. I learned so much!! It went by so fast and I was so sad when it was over. I am so thankful to be out here on a mission surrounded by all these amazing people, and missionaries. I'm so thankful that I decided to come on a mission, best decision I've ever made. Tuesday night we went on exchanges, I stayed in Calgary in the 17th Ward with Sister Davis from Arizona. SHE'S AMAZING. Convert to the church at 18 and has a burning testimony. She has been on her mission now for 17 months. I learned so much from her and felt so blessed to even be around her. We had so much fun doing work in their area.

Wednesday:

I was still with Davis for Wednesday during the Day and we went around their area and walked around trying to contact some less-actives. We had a good time! :) Then it was time for me to come back up to Canmore with Sister Jones. We came back just in time to eat dinner with Sister GP. She lives in the 3 Sisters area of Canmore, there's tons of apartment buildings, so we decided to contact some people that we had found the week before tracting. No one answered. Ha. So we tried a door across the hall from one of them. A lady answered the door and was so frazzled, she looked down at our tags and immediately sighed a sigh of relief. She then proceeded to tell us how crazy of a day she had and her whole life story, complete with tears. She finished looked up with us and then said, "So what are you guys doing? Going around sharing some sort of message?" We were like ummmmmm yeah! Ha then proceeded to tell her the miracle of the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so grateful and even said that we could come back and share more! I'm excited :) I love how comfortable people get around us, they see JESUS CHRIST on our name tags and immediately open up. So amazing to be a servant of the Lord.

Thursday:

Lake Louise Thursday ! Ha once again we made the trek up to Lake Louise. I love it up there, so many missionary opportunities. ( running out of time so these days are about to get real short ha) We came back to Canmore and taught one of our investigators named David the Plan of Salvation. And he loved it. We asked him if he came to a knowledge that what we taught was true if he would get baptized and he said YES. I was like wait what? Super exciting! We're hoping to meet with him again soon to teach him more :) Super sweet grandpa. Thursday night we went on exchanges AGAIN with the Sisters in Cochrane!  I got to go with Sister Cheney. She's been out now the same amount as me, we were in the MTC together. She's from Wyoming and is a convert to the church as well. She joined at age 19. I feel so lucky to be able to serve around these amazing sisters and to hear of their amazing stories. And I just love sister Cheney anyways ha we get a long so well!

Friday:

Friday was HALLOWEEEEEEEEN! Kind of different to be a missionary for Halloween but hey its all good ha. Me and Cheney brought out or Black and Orange outfits for the occasion. We had to go into Calgary to drop off their gas receipts and had a spare hour before we were going to do some zone contacting in Tuscanny. So we decided to get permission to go downtown street contacting in Calgary. My favorite thing ever! I hadn't done it for 6 months so I was a little rusty, but it felt so good! We only had a short amount of time once we finally got there on the C-Train but we were able to give a copy of the Book of Mormon away to a guy. I hope that he reads it, it's life changing. Then we went to do the Zone finding activity with the other missionaries in the Tuscanny ward. Me and Sister Cheney were out contacting and ran into someone who was putting on a HUGE haunted house that night, it was massive, built with wood pallets in their drive way. So being a missionary of course I walked up to them and asked if they'd like to learn about Jesus Christ. They said no. So I asked if they knew anyone who did. They said, "No, but if you want you can do a walk through of our haunted house and then tell us what you think!" I was like, "Shoot, sure! see you in a bit!" And walked in. Ha things havent changed much, still hate halloween. But they did a really good job, I was quite impressed.  Since it was halloween we had to be in by 6 pm, so me and Sis. Cheney went to our dinner and then went back to their house to meet Sister Jones and Sister Schell. We ended up just spending the night with them because we had to go to a relief society conference in Calgary the next day.

Saturday is a special day....

Ha we went in for that Conference, It was over on the East side of Calgary and we got to hear from Sister Carole M. Stephens of the General Relief Society speak. It was amazing, she has such a good way with words and I loved learning from her. We were sitting there and the phone rang on my lap, it was Sister Martin! One of my favourite Sister Missionaries who has recently finished her mission. She was in CALGARY, AND I GOT TO SEE HER!  Ha I was so excited!!!! I love that girl so much. Absolutely made my day to see her. :) After the Conference the Cochrane sisters and us went to the infamous Peter's Drive Inn for lunch and then headed back up the Mountain....IN THE SNOW. -___- Welcome November eh. hahaha 

Sister Blomhaert, Martin, Sister O'Dell, ME, Sister Jones.

K, Out of time for real now, sorry for the novel of an email!!! I love you guys so much! Keep being good!

Sister Jaynie Connor!