July 25, 2016 P-Day #13

Hello my loves!!

This week has been great! We have had a lot going on, so I feel like it went by so fast! I am on week 5/6 of this transfer,which means I am almost done training! Which is so weird! I have learned so much, but I also still feel like a fresh missionary!

This week we got a new investigator! He is absolutely hilarious!! He accepted a baptismal date in our first lesson and I am so excited about that!! The date is a ways back because we have a lot of thing to work through with him before he can be baptized, but it's happening!

We also were able to teach our 10 year old investigator this week! He (and his mom) accepted a baptismal date as well! It's really amazing to be able to teach someone young.  It forces us to teach very simply and come up with creative ways to teach things through activities! It's allowing me to use some of the skills I learned teaching preschool!

This week we had a mission wide skype call for a training! That seemed fun to me, until President Pratt let us know that Sister Anderson and I would be training! I may have freaked out a little! My thoughts were as follows, "Me?!? Give a training to the whole mission?? I am not even done with my training, and they want me to train??" Haha so I was stressing! But with Sister Andersons reassurance that we were training for a reason and  a lot of prep we did it! It went good and I'm honestly just glad it's behind me!

This morning to start off our P-day on the right foot we headed downtown (cruising through the alley) to a restaurant called The Duke of Duckworth! It was to die for!! HOLY!! We had the fish and chips (The cod was literally probably caught that morning) They also put gravy and savory on the fries...wow Canadians know what's up, well at least the Atlantic Canadians(;

Funny story for the week:

This more a funny theme for the week, old men hitting on me!

Wow I seriously don't what it is about me, but I attract all the funny old guys! I've been forced into two hugs and almost been kissed this week! Luckily only one wanted me to marry him haha!! Ahhh Newfies and too funny, and sometimes a little too friendly (; But don't worry, nothing too worrisome!

Well I hope you all have an amazing week! I am so thankful for all the love and support coming my way!! Keep smiling and praying my friends, it's the key to a happy life(:

Love you all!

-Sista Hird 

July 18, 2016 P-Day #12

Just another week in Paradise! (funny cause one of the cities we are over is called Paradise) 

This week has been great!! The 10 year old boy I talked about last week is now officially and investigator! We were able to meet with him twice this week and he has such a strong desire to learn! It's amazing! I am so excited to see the way the gospel can bless him and the whole family!!

We taught them how to do a family prayer the way my cute family does it, (We all sit in a circle holding hands and one person starts it and says all they want to and then they squeeze the next person's hand and they add to it.  It goes all the way around the circle with everyone getting the chance to add to the prayer then the last person ends the prayer) and they loved it and are now praying as a family every night! It was such a spiritual experience and it also reminded me so much of home, so I was super happy!

I mentioned awhile back that we have another set of sisters as roommates so I thought I'd tell you a little about them!

Sister Bailey is the 1st, she is from Utah too (woooo Ute pride) and she was also born in North Carolina because her dad was in the army! So that's crazy!! She has been out almost a year!

Sister Cahoon is from Alberta and is actually not  called to this mission, she was called to Arizona but is waiting on her visa, so we get her until that happens (:

I love them both sooo much!! It really is sooo fun having them with us!

This week's funny thing is that being roommates just wasn't enough for us! Soo obviously we decided that life would just be so much more fun if all four of us we're sleeping together.  So we have four mattresses on the ground in our kitchen that pretty much take up the whole apartment...totally worth it! It's like a giant sleepover every night!

Sorry I'm lame this week and my post is a little short and I don't have pictures because I left my camera at home...next week I'll be better, I promise(:

I love you all so much! Thank you for the love and support! As you read this just imagine I'm giving you a big huge squeeze through the screen because I am (:

-Sista Hird

July 11, 2016 P-Day #11

July 11, 2016  P-Day #11

This week flew by! I'm pretty sure I say that every week...but I've already been out in the field two months already! I think when you're this busy time just is gone so fast! 

This week was a blast! After I e-mailed last week we went up to Twillingate! It's beautiful! There was a mermaid statue I got to take a picture with so thats pretty cool too(: 

Sister Hird and Sister Anderson

Mermaid McKell

Twillingate

Twillingate

Twillingate

This week was a little disappointing with investigators, because we weren't able to meet with any of them! BUT it's all good! This week will be better(:

We were able to meet with a less active this week and get her and her 4 adorable kids to church with us this week! One of the four kids is old enough to be baptized and has read the WHOLE Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized! So we have our first lesson with him tonight for fhe! I'm super excited about him! I mean how many 10 year olds do you know that have read the Book of Mormon on their own out of sheer desire?? ...Exactly! 

We did a lot of finding this week and were able to meet a lot of very fun people, which always makes the week great! We talked with this super amazing guy, who works at a shop downtown that promotes mental health awareness! So we shared the "Like a broken vessel" Mormon message by Holland that just came out! (If you haven't watched it yet...DO IT!!! It's amazing! I cried so hard while watching it!) He watched it then text us the to tell us how amazing it was, so we went back to talk him some more and he told us he liked it so much he started to research the church on youtube...so of course I'm thinking to myself, "oh great, lay the anti on me" And he goes, " Yeah so I found this mormon movie and it was sooo cool" after telling us more about the movie we realized he had watched the entire meet the mormons! We were sooo excited! We passed him over to the elders, since he is a male of certain age.  So they are teaching him now(: He told them a Jehovah's witness came into the store and asked if he would want to study with him and he said, "please I'm already halfway to being mormon!!" Soo we are super excited about that! 

Funny story of the week:

While walking downtown I saw something on the ground as we approached I realized it was in fact a dead squirrel...so naturally I posed as a Princess and pretended he was just sleeping haha my comp was dying taking the picture for me..because who does that? Obviously me (: 

Princess McKell and her sleeping squirrel

So Sweet

I love love love you all!! I hope you have a magical week and smile all day every day because that's what I'm out here doing (: 

- Sista Hird 

Here we are up at middle cove this morning(:

Sister Anderson and I celebrating the 4th of July with the fun swag Granny B. sent us! 

July 4, 2016 P-Day #10

July 4, 2016  P-Day #10

Hello hello my sweet humans!! Happy 4th of July!! Eat sooo many hot dogs and watch fireworks for me okay??

Canada Day was this week! So I did get a BBQ with the branch and some fireworks(:

Today Sister Anderson and I are up in Gander with some Sisters, we had sleepover with them last night and now we are going to have some 4th of July fun this P-day!! 

Sooo this week has been the coolest!! Sister Anderson and I got to do something most missionaries don't even dream of doing on their missions...CAMPING!! 

Yup, that's right! We went camping this week with the young women in our branch! The coolest part is that our 14 year old investigator who gets baptized this month (July 30th) was there and then all the other young women there aren't members! They and their families are former investigators, and the girls just kept coming to young women's! So that was a super great experience! We did an activity with them that was AMAZING!! So to start we read the theme for the youth this year, 2nd Nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hop, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

We explained to them that we would be doing and an activity with them and the only help we were giving them was this scripture. We told them we would give them something that was Christ, and they would have to be steadfast and never let go of that thing if they wanted to reach the end and receive eternal life.  Then we told them to feast upon the word of Christ, which was what we (the missionaries) were telling them and that they shouldn't listen to anyone else.  But that if they needed help they only needed to ask us. Then they were all excited thinking it would be sooo easy...BUT then we pulled out blindfolds! Haha their faces were priceless! So we blindfolded them and then lead them to the rope course we had set up. We had tied a rope through the forest from tree to tree leading back to our campsite. One by one we put the girls on the rope (Christ) and told them to be steadfast. This is were the leaders came in, they were the adversary and were trying to get the girls of course.  Now I was thinking Sister Anderson and I would have to do a lot of saving, but to my surprise every time one of the girls was told to "let go and I'll help you over that log then I'll put you back on" by one of the leaders their immediate response was "NO! I cannot let go of the rope!!" One of the girls even fell, but she still held on with all her might and did not let go! It was amazing!! They truly understood being steadfast in Christ and they all held on for dear life, because they knew eternal life was at stake! 

The coolest thing about this whole experience is the leaders told us up until this point they were really struggling with the girls, and none of them (accept our investigator, wooo!!) would read scriptures and were refusing to participate in the spiritual activities.  Then after our activity the girls were arguing over who got to pray and asking if would be okay if we all knelt to pray!! It was amazing to see the spirit working in them!!  

Funny story of the week:

Soooo you know when you complain about something so then it happens ALL the time after that...well I had an experience with that and shirtless old men this week haha! While out and about knocking this older man answered his door shirtless and after as we were walking away I was like, "oh my gosh, does he not realize he should probably put a shirt on to answer the door??" Sooo pretty much every door after was an elderly man with NO SHIRT!! One guy even answered the door with not only no shirt, but no pants as well, and he was a whitey tighty underwear fan! Like what the heck?? Then over the past week its warmed up a ton so pretty much every guy we've talked to has been shirtless!! Sister Anderson thinks it's pretty much the funniest thing ever because she knows I just hate it haha! Our landlord has even decided he is no longer a shirt fan!! So pretty much every time we walk out our front door I am immediately graced with his shirtless presence haha! Heavenly Father sure has a sense of humor! Lucky for me my papa prepared me for seeing shirtless grandpas (; 

Thank you everyone for the love and support!! I hope you have the BEST week!! Celebrate it up! I love you all!!  Make it magical!

-Sista Hird

June 27, 2016 P-Day #9

June 27, 2016

This week went by crazy fast!!! Transfers are over and Sister Anderson and I are still together!!! Wooooo I only cried twice in fear they would take her from me haha!! I'm pretty sure she worries about the amount of crying I do! I don't know what happened to me...but I've turned into Angie! I weep at everything! Like this week, I cried while a lady told us about a cartoon she watched about a boy who had a missing leg getting a puppy with a missing leg...haha but don't worry they are good tears! With transfers came two new sisters!  We now have roommates! It's pretty fun!! Like a sleepover all the time! 

One of the highlights from this week was, while park contacting at Bowring Park we saw a lady sitting on a bench so we went over to say hi.  She was really friendly and the conversation just flowed naturally! She started to talk about how she knew her ancestors who had passed away long before she met them, are walking with her everyday and that she knows that one day she will be able to wrap her arms around them in heaven.  It was amazing! So we taught her the plan of salvation! Then, thanks to my dear Grandma Buehner who sent me a photo album this week with a picture of my Nene wearing the necklace of hers that I now wear, next to a picture of me wearing it. I was able to show her a picture of my Great Grandma Nene.  Who I know is with me every step of the way while I am out here serving.  The woman we taught was going crazy over how crazy similar she thought Nene and I looked! It was a really cool experience and her and I really connected!! 

We taught our 14 year old investigator about repentance this week and it went great!! It was amazing to see her simple, yet perfect understanding of true repentance. After we explained it she went, "Oh so to repent you tell Heavenly Father what you're sorry you did, in prayer? I already do that everyday...cause no ones perfect!" I was amazed!! She's never been taught repentance before but she was already doing because she just felt like she needed too long before we came along!! She is truly prepared! I am so excited for her to baptised and feel the blessing of that!!!

We've been working with Christine, the member I told you about and let me just tell you..I LOVE HER!!! She's hilarious and great!! She's been baptised a year, and her testimony is beyond amazing!! She's working towards the temple! So we love working with her and helping her see that the temple isn't just more rules to following, but all about blessings! 

Funny story of the week: 

So I've had a rash on my neck since about the 2nd week in the MTC.  It wasn't too bad then, but it just keeps getting worse and worse!  It got to the point this past week I knew I had to do something about it! So naturally I just asked all the moms in our branch their opinion of it! I got many different answers and one woman said it looked like chicken pox...so of course I went with that (dramatic? Me? haha always) I decided that that is TOTALLY what it was.  So I was scratching like crazy and it was itchy and I was dying! Then when we went to Christines house I felt like I should ask her about it, even though I knew I had chicken pox.  So she checked it out and then said, "Do you have a lot of dairy?" and it hit me! I am sooo dumb! I've had lactose problems in the past! Of course that's what it is!! That was 3 days ago and I've cut out dairy completely since and the rash is almost gone! The itching also stopped...about 2 minutes after Christine spoke haha funny what your mind will do when you convince yourself you have something, right?! Sister Anderson thought this was hilarious because I was being all dramatic and scratching like a crazy person for two days,convinced I had chicken pox!

Well I hope you all have a great week and enjoy life!!

Because life really is whatever you make it, so choose to make it amazing!

Sister Hird

Canada Halifax Mission

June 21, 2016 P-Day #8

June 21, 2016

We've been so so so busy….which makes time go by sooo fast!! Yesterday was my two month since I was dropped at the mtc! Crazy it's been that long!! I'm also in the 6th week of this first transfer, which means that next Monday is the start of my 2nd transfer!! CRAZY! As a sister I only have 12 transfers and one is already almost gone! So if you're missing me, don't worry I'll be back in your loving arms soon enough(;

This week we taught like crazy!! We have a new investigator! He is a less active member’s husband! It will be cool to teach them and see their life change with the gospel! We did the Resto with them this week and it went great! The wife participated a ton and her husband was glued to the pamphlet!

We were also able to teach our 14 year old investigator twice this week! We did a FHE in a member's home and it was amazing!! This member is a bodacious black woman and she is loud and wonderful!! Our investigator has a.d.d so sometimes getting her to focus on a whole lesson is a struggle. But, this member had it down!! We taught the plan of salvation and Christine, the member, had all us of screaming “I GOT A BODYYYY” over and over haha and that's pretty much how the whole lesson went! Our investigator paid attention the whole time and had the plan down by the end of the lesson! The member involvement is such a blessing!!

For our second lesson we had another amazing member there with us and it was another awesome lesson! But in a completely different way! We did a church tour and then a lesson about baptism and the atonement at the end. We started the tour in the chapel and then ended in the room with the baptismal font. That is where we did our lesson. Let me tell you, watching the bible video of the atonement with the font right there brought such a strong spirit! It's seeing the why, what and how all in one place. Our investigator was able to stay focus no problem! I know the spirit was the one who was able to teach her and give her that focus she needed and...it paid off!!! She is officially on date for baptism!! September 5th! (which is cool because that is some of my close homies birthdays) (:

We also had exchanges this week! Which is just when we work with other sister missionaries for a day and see what they do so we can improve our skills! That was really fun! Although I missed my dear Sister Anderson that day! I seriously don't know how I'll manage when one of us is transferred!!!

As always I must have a funny story for the week, this week is no exception! I even have two! So you know me, lovin' animals and such! 1St: The part member family I mentioned above has a deaf dog, she's so cute!! And one of the things she does that is sooo weirdly adorable is suck people's thumb. She crawls up on the couch behind you sits on our shoulder and then if you put your thumb up she'll suck it. Now, she won't just suck anyones thumb so when she did it to me during our lesson I was stoked! Sister Anderson whipped out my camera as fast as she could and tried to take a picture. But of course the dog stopped when the camera was out. While I was trying to get her to do it again Sister Anderson didn't realize the video mode was on. So this 3 second gem came to be. (It won’t send through email L)

2nd: While driving on a busy road (I was driving) and talking to member on speaker phone I freaking hit a bird! Like a big huge red bird! We all know that I am all drama, so of course I start screaming my head off...with the member on the phone and to top if off Sister Anderson was hysterical and crying she is laughing so hard! Needless to say, the member, who we were calling to coordinate us picking her up decided to drive herself to the appointment. Haha woops!!

Ahhh well, I love and miss you all bunches!! I hope you have a great week and laugh lots!!

Sister Hird

Canada Halifax Mission

June 13, 2016 P-Day #7

June 13, 2016

This week has been so great and full of soo many miracles!! So I'll apologize now for jumping all over the place hahah!!

First things first, I hit my one month mark!! In exactly one week I'll hit my two months from the time I went into the MTC, which has just come so crazy fast!!! I can't believe it!!

So this week started with a little stress...It all started with Elder McNabb, an elder in my district saying to me and and Sister Anderson, "do you love God?" we responded "yes" of course and then he asked us two more times if we loved God, then followed it up with, "Well if you love God you'll sing at district conference this Sunday" ha ha rude!! There is this weird thing about being a sister missionary where everyone just assumes you can sing...but this sister just cannot! Lucky for me Sister Anderson is an amazing singer! So with lots of promise of practice and that I would be blessed to be able to sing if I tried they convinced me! So this week was lots of singing in the car and stressing haha! So by the time Sunday came along we knew it so well and it went off without a hitch! I also dragged Eleder McNabb into singing with us, haha that's what he gets (;

Then of course I got the opportunity to sing a second time this week! Remember the less active member I told you about last week? Well at our lesson with her this week we talked about the importance of church attendance.  Like I said before this week we had District conference (which is the Utah equivalent to stake conference) So we invited her to go with us to that and then the potluck and talent show after the Saturday night session. Then she said, "Talent show? I play the guitar!" So we convinced her that she should do a song! Which then of course meant we were singing with her haha! I'm really not kidding when I say everyone just assumes every Sister Missionary can sing!

So she picked the song, "I can only imagine" by Mercy Me and we did it for the talent show and it also went really well! I'd never heard the song before and it's now a new favorite!

This week we also picked up a new investigator! She is 14 and has been at church every week since I got here! Her parents just weren't okay with her meeting with the missionaries, but something changed this week and we were able to start teaching her! We are so excited that she is so desirous to learn and grown in the gospel! Now of course you know I have some funny story every week and teaching this girl is how this week’s happened.  We taught her at the mall, because she is a child we can't be alone with her and her parents don't want her to be taught in the home.  So after we finished our lesson I look up and see this guy walk by...skinny, blonde hair, hat, sunglasses, and a Justin Bieber hoodie.  So I naturally assumed it was Justin Bieber and was like "we have to follow him" So we started to follow him and our investigator decided to just run up to him and ask if he was Justin Bieber, because I was 100% convinced it was.  So she did, came running back and was like, "he said yeah" So of course we just left...wait what?! Yes you heard right.  WE JUST LEFT!! So the whole time we were driving away I was freaking out that we just saw Justin Bieber and then left! So I called our District leader Elder Brienholt and told him the story (probably sounding totally crazy) and he was laughing so hard that he gave us permission to go back to the mall and find out if it truly was Justin Bieber.  So we did...and guess what! It was just a guy that kind of looked like Justin Bieber while wearing glasses...honest mistake! Haha it was seriously the funniest thing when I realized it in fact wasn't him just like Sister Anderson had been telling me! I'm not kidding when I say we find something to laugh about every single day!

We also had a great experience this week teaching a family! We knocked on their door and they let us in because they have an 8 year old little girl with LOTS of questions! So we sat down with this family to answer this little girl’s questions and they all related to the Plan of Salvation, so we taught them the whole thing! Then at the end we taught them about prayer and how they can know if it is true and about the Holy Ghost.  I asked the little girl how she felt the Holy Ghost would feel and she said, "a little voice telling me" and then her mom chimed in with , "or the fact that I've had chills this whole lesson and keep feeling like I'm just going to burst into tears" WOW! I was amazed! Most people have a very hard time recognizing the spirit and they knew right off the bat! Then we found out right as we were leaving that the moms mom had just passed away and they were really struggling with it. Amazing how that little girl lead us to the exact lesson they needed to hear!! We are so excited to continue to work with them!!

One other blessing I just have to tell you about is my companion!! Holy heck!! Sister Anderson is my favorite!! We are learning so much with each other!! We are seriously like BFF's!!! It's so fun!! We complete each other completely! I love it and her!! Companions are seriously picked for a reason!! This transfer is over next week! So pray we will stay together, I know I am!!

Which reminds me, with transfers next week my P-day will be on Wednesday (:

I love you all!!! Have the BEST week and remember to be the good you want to see in the world!

-Sister Hird