Pioneer Faith

Hello to all! I have had such a fun week!

Last Tuesday, Sister Y and I spent some of our Preparation Day making some chocolate chip cookies and watching Meet the Mormons from the Gospel Library app. We also did some tracting (knocking on doors) in a trailer park, and met D.

Wednesday, Sister Y started reading the Ricciardi Letter. All I know from it is that it has lasting impact from reading it, so I'm really excited! We also had dinner at Boston Pizza with one of the Sisters from the Ward so that was fun–Sister Y and I shared a chocolate cake dessert and it was so good! The highlight of the day however, was when we attempted to walk to a street on the other side of the town. We met a couple of people that were interested so that was great. My favourite part was as we kept walking we walked by a graveyard. We came to a stop along the sidewalk outside of it and took a moment to reflect on those that had passed on. Sister Y said that she could feel their presence, and so could I. We talked about those that have passed on but didn't have the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. How we felt that some of them in this graveyard had accepted the gospel in the Spirit World, and were waiting to have their work done by those on who are on Earth. We were interrupted by someone shouting at us–we turned around to find D (the one from Tuesday) pulled over in his car. We were able to talk to him more about the Gospel, and found out that he was actually a less-active member! So we are hopefully meeting with him this week when he doesn't have work. We didn't make it to that street at all but we knew that we were being led in the right direction at the right time.

Thursday, as Sister Y called it, was a "Gong Show" day! Things happened, but not when we had planned them... We rushed out the door for District Meeting. Later, we arrived to an appointment to fined T not home... so we walked down the street talked to a couple of people. On our way back to the car we found T and her friend V, whom we also had been trying to contact, on the porch. So we were able to have a lesson with both of them on the importance of Scripture reading, prayer, and Church attendance. We then had to dash to our next appointment 20 minutes away. Even with arriving 5 minutes late, it didn't matter because F wasn't there... So that changed our plans again. Later, since she dropped her daughter off at the chapel for Young Women's, we were able to ask her if we could have a lesson with her, which she agreed to. We were able to teach her the Restoration. We had to dash home after that because we took more time then 30 minutes for the lesson.

Friday, we did planning indoors when it was raining. We happened to have sunny weather as we went knocking on doors.

Saturday, was PIONEER DAY!!!!!!!! It was a blast!! So Pioneer Day is a celebration that basically Utah, and Cherry Grove have. I'm not sure how many other areas around the world celebrate it. It is in remembrance of the members in the early years of the church, and the hard things they had to go through to find a place where they were not persecuted. Cherry Grove  was a Latter-day Saint settlement in the mid 1800s. Most of the families here are descendants of the Pioneers that settled in this valley. So it was a fun day of activities, there was a family history booth, and we even were able to set up a booth. There was food all day long... We are feeling a little bad with the amount of sweets we have had within the week..

Sunday in Sacrament Meeting the theme was Pioneers. I'm grateful for the example they set for all of us so long ago. There was this quote I really liked: "Pioneer faith is needed as much in the world today as in any period of time" (The Strength in Our Heritage–Elder L. Tom Perry). It has made me think of what is "Pioneer Faith"? As I've referenced, I've thought of those times during the week that haven't been planned or when we don't really understand why exactly we are doing or going a certain way. Some of those times make sense, others, it will be much later in life, or even the next life, that things will make sense, but we press on because we have faith that things will all work out as they should.

Monday, we were able to meet with W. We had a great lesson with the help of Brother V. Following that, since a couple of our afternoon plans changed, I prayed for guidance of where we should go. I felt that we needed to go to 24 (whether St. or Ave i wasn't sure) between 3-4pm. So I looked at a map and the closest thing to 24 was Township Road 624. So after sharing this with Sister Y we drove out to a subdivision just off that road that we had planned to tract the other day but had not been able to. As we got there, we prayed again to know if we needed to be here or on Township Road 624 instead. After praying we both agreed that we needed to be on 624. So we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked from house to house–all of them were really far apart. I don't know why we were there or whom we influenced–maybe the lady who asked if we were Mormons and asked us to get off her property, and to take her home off of our map. It was a great opportunity to apply Pioneer Faith.

Dinner was delivered to us by a member so we were able to watch the Studio C Face to Face from the Gospel Library app. We then had a great Book of Mormon read with F and her daughter, J. In regards to the introduction, F made a great comment that God's not going to do His part if you don't do yours.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Lots of love!

Let the Holy Spirit guide

Hello everyone!

It has been a busy week!

Wednesday we had lots of teaching appointments, so it was fun getting to know new people and sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We were also able to help out at the Food Bank.

Thursday we tried parking-lot contacting. We went in the evening so there weren't many people but they didn't seem as rushed. We met a really nice lady who seems interested in the Book of Mormon as she loves the Bible. We are hoping we can meet with her this week to talk more about it! It's an amazing book and I have really grown in understanding how to get answers as I've read it! It makes it so much more meaningful!

As we started our walk back to our apartment, we had a spectacular lightning show!! We didn't get any great pictures but it was amazing!! Sister Y and I also thanked Heavenly Father because, right as we got into our apartment, it started to pour!

Friday was my 1-month mark!! Shout out to my fellow District!!! Sister Y likes celebrating these events so she gave me a candle and I pretended to blow it out because we didn't have matches or a lighter... haha

Saturday Sister Y finished reading this talk from Elder Holland entitled "Miracle of a Mission"–it was such a great talk!!! He talked about President Hinckley's experience as a young missionary, and I'd heard the story before, but it was a great to hear it again. That evening, our Sister Training Leaders (Sister G & Sister W) for our Zone arrived at our apartment for exchanges the following day. Due to their late arrival we didn't talk much that evening.

Sunday I was with Sister W all day, and it was amazing the things we learned. I learned that it's okay to not know exactly where you are going, as long as you rely on the Lord to guide you, and listen to the inspiration you receive. We had that happen a couple of times so it was really neat. I also learned if we are guided to one area and you are to go to the right, you might end up on the left. We had this happen as well. We drove out to Pierceland, Saskatchewan (just as small as everything else around here!), and desired to go to 2nd Street... Well if you look it up, you will notice that it appears on part of a water pool. So when we got there, there was just one house. So we turned to the other side and knocked on those doors. We met some really nice people who were interested in our message of Jesus Christ. Had we just turn away and not tried anything because there was just that one house on the right, we would have never met them. Sister W called it a day of adventure.

After our long day of adventure and learning we met up with Sister Y and Sister G at the apartment and shared how our days had been. Sister G mentioned that it was her 8-month mark so Sister Y got a glass of water... lucky for Sister G, Sister Y only flicked her with water. Sister W said that had it been her she would have poured the entire cup on her.

Monday was another miraculous day! All our teaching appointments fell through. We had to sit and think where Heavenly Father wanted us if it wasn't teaching those we had planned to teach today. We prayed about it and I felt we needed to go left . Sister Y had thought about visiting someone she had met a couple of weeks ago, who lived to the LEFT. We decided to go, but he wasn't home. We were about to turn and leave when he pulled up! We were able to talk to him and set up a better time to go visit him. Later in the day, we prayed again for guidance of where we need to be. We felt we needed to go visit someone who had been brought up several times in the past two days. We really didn't know where we were going but the first home we tried was the correct one. We were able to talk about the importance of Church and reading the Book of Mormon. She asked if she could have a copy which we were more than happy to give her!!

Hope all is well and you are all enjoying the summer sun!!

Love Sister Tatjana Zumbach

First week in the field

Hi Everyone!! I have arrived in Alberta!

Sister P and I got up at 3:30 am to check out of the MTC. We then had an hour flight to the Salt Lake airport, and after getting through customs, had about an hour before our first flight, taking us to Washington. After an hour to have lunch, and some delays with our flight we were back in the air to CANADA!!!!!!! We made it safely to the Edmonton airport. We had an eventful time getting through customs here as I was the only Canadian, and the other 3 Sisters and 10 Elders in our travel group were not, I just followed them through. I was asked to fill out this border paper, which turns out at another checkpoint I didn't have to do it... I felt bad for the Officer who was really confused and then realized that she had a Canadian passport. She had a good laugh about me following the crowd.

Once we were all done, we went out and met President and Sister Pattison! They are awesome! They brought us to one of the chapels where we had lunch, were introduced to Senior Missionaries, and had an interview with President Pattison. We were also brought out to do some street contacting–the first person we talked to had just moved from Ontario! We then were brought over to the Mission Home to have dinner, and a small devotional. At the conclusion of the devotional we took a picture and all 5 Sister were brought to the "Claire Close Castle"–special residence for the Sisters!

The following morning we were picked up to have breakfast at the Chapel beside the Temple (we took pictures with it). The next is the exciting part: we got to meet our trainers and get our assignment!!!!!!!!! So my companion is Sister Y, and we are serving in Cherry Grove. A little bit about her is that at the end of this transfer (transfers are every 6 week), she will have been out ONE year. She is from California, but has acclimatized to the Canadian sun and finds 24 C hot. She does not like the cold, rain or snow. However, she loves nature, reading, and tracting.

After assignments were made, we had a devotional where all the departing Missionaries gave some advice and their testimony. As new Missionaries we were then asked to share our testimony. After this we left and had a 3-hour drive to Cold Lake where our apartment is. Even though I was assigned to Cherry Grove, I did not get to see the hamlet until Sunday.

Over the past couple days I have found out that Missionary work is and is not what I thought it would be. My days are spent studying, planning, teaching people the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and walking and talking to everyone about Jesus Christ.

Hope you are all doing well!!

Lots of love!

Departure

Hi to all! I fly out to Edmonton tomorrow, and have received special permission to write today. 

This is the third week in the life of a Sister Missionary! It has by far been the best!! As my companions and I would say, it was a hard week, that brought some amazing learning opportunities. 

Tuesday evening was so exciting! The three of us got a chance to sing in the choir during the Devotional. We sang Praise To The Man as it was the anniversary of the Prophet Joseph Smith's death. Our excitement was magnified when we had 10 out of the 12 Apostles walk into the room for the Devotional. Elder David A. Bednar and his wife were our speakers for the evening.

Wednesday we were able to host the new Sisters and Elders that arrived to the Missionary Training Centre. It was a lot of walking in the hot weather, but was so much fun! It reminded me of my first day here, and made me a little sad to be leaving... Later on in class, we (Sister A, Sister P & I) had the chance to teach our teachers, which turned out to be one of my favourite memories of my three weeks here. As we were teaching, I was told by the Holy Ghost what to say; so I said exactly that. It was such a unique experience that we stopped the lesson and talked about our calling as Missionaries. The three of us, with our teacher Sister Ekstrom, talked about our stresses, and all the emotions that had built up without realizing over the past few days. She told us that the Lord CAN and WILL bless His missionaries. I have decided to rely on the Lord to help me bless the lives of others.

The rest of the week was more relaxed with our new realisation. 

We sent off half of our District this morning really early!! Class was not the same this morning, and we really miss Sister A!! She and the three Elders should have arrived in Spokane, Washington by now. Sister P and I have been cleaning up our room and packing. We will leave tomorrow morning very early as well. 

Next email will come from the Edmonton Mission field!! 

Sister Zumbach