It's an HONOR! -- Week 22 (Transfer 4, Week 2)

Oh Canada!

Hey Everyone :)

This week has been truly humbling. I feel like this week has been an accumulation of every experience I've had on my mission so far, and every effort I've put in. It's so hard to try to explain the many miracles I've seen while I've been here in Canada and the many times I have felt the Savior by my side on a daily basis. I've come to truly recognize and understand the presence of the Spirit and the way that he talks to ME on a personal level. At times in my mission when I have felt alone, He has been there and for that I am so grateful. :)

This week was incredible! Sister Price and I have been working so hard to be UNIFIED and to put all of our ideas and efforts into the people here. She has taught me so much about what it means to be a real friend. It doesn't matter if we don't have much in common, or many of the same interests, or a different style, or even a different way of going about things. It only matters if we have a common goal and interest: to do the work of our Father in Heaven. I've found that so long as we consistently and constantly have our eyes set on the same goal, and are both equally committed to making that goal possible, then everything else will fall into place. This same principle can be applied to EVERYONE involved in this great work i.e; the ward members, the other missionaries, our leaders, our families, our friends, God, and all of these amazing people around us. The gospel is all about WORKING TOGETHER! And oh my stars, how the world changes when everyone is working together towards a common goal, towards Gods goal. So much of missionary work is about aligning your will with Gods will, the same way Christ demonstrated throughout His life in the garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary's hill. All that being said, I am so so so so so grateful for everyone's unique qualities and talents that set them apart from the rest of the world. Everyone here has a unique and very important purpose. :)

This week we were working very closely with our friend G* and with the L* family. G* is on track to be baptized Oct 4th and it is so cool to see how the gospel has already started to change his life. When we asked him in one of our lessons what it meant to him to know that he had the opportunity to be a part of God's one and only church he said very simply "It's an honor." I was stunned and so humbled. I recalled so many times before my mission, and maybe even during, when I had taken my knowledge of the gospel for granted. Truly, everything I have is because of my Father in Heaven, and every opportunity I have to be someone better is because of my Savior. I am so honored that my dear Friend would give His life for me, and that my Father would give His Son. It's an honor.

It's also been cool to see how the gospel has been changing the L* family! Their 9 year old son is ready for baptism on the 27th of this month, and his family is returning back to church after 10 years! I'm so grateful for the missionaries here in this area who served before me who paved the way for all of this progress!

A couple shout outs this week:

Shout out to the Burnett family! Your deck looks great. So glad it's done. C, you know what you should be doing. Do it. :) I miss you guys!

Shout out to my mom and dad. The cup cakes were the best. Thank you. :)

And shout out to my Uncle Jared and Aunt Anne. Ich liebe dich. Vielen dank!!!!

Love you all! I hope you know how much of a difference you make! The missionaries NEED you. You are our best ally.

Love,

Sister Osman

P.S. Since you asked, here is a normal day for us:

Tuesday Sept 15:

6:30 am wake up. Work out for half an hour. Which usually ends up being us laying on the floor doing leg lifts because we are so tired. Hahahaha
7:00 am get ready for the day! I usually lay on the couch for 10 min before I can get ready. Sometimes not.
8:00 am Personal studies!!!! We study for one hour by ourselves. I've been reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage and I am almost done! Also, I've been reading the Book of Mormon, and the a lot of the bible. I know my stuff A LOT better now. :)
9:00 am Companionship studies! Sister Price and I study together for an hour and make plans for all of our lessons. We role play the lessons and choose scriptures that people will need to hear and experiences that we have had that will help them. We practice practice practice!
10:00 am. Time to go out! If we don't have appointments we start tracting or talking to people on the street.
10:30 am. We had an appointment with * for one hour. He is a New Convert on the verge of less active. :)
11:30 drive to next appointment and make calls in the car.
12:00 pm * -he's a less active. We meet with him for an hour.
1:15 pm we go and see *!  also a less active. We pick up members to come with us in the 15 min between lessons.
2:30 pm We go teach * our investigator!
3:45 pm We go and teach * our investigator!
5: Dinner/make everything ready for other appointments
6: Go and teach *,* and *! A cute investigator family.
7: Go by a couple of potential investigators for an hour/tract
8: Virtual ward council! And make calls!
9: go home! plan for half an hour for the next day.
9:30 update teaching records, clean stuff
Then we get like an hour to take a shower, get ready for bed, chill...etc
10:30 go to bed!!!!! SO TIREDDDD

Yeah we are busy. :) Usually we are supposed to take a lunch break but we haven't had time. hahahahaha

This is G*. What a cutie!

Cupcakes from my mom & dad

Ward picnic

Out tracting with Sister Price

Cambridge for the win! - Week 21

Hey everyone!

Cambridge is amazing. The first day here, walking down the street, I just felt this overwhelming sense of peace. It felt like...the calm after the storm. The incredible thing is that Christ has the ability to calm any storm. Our area is quite large, but by the end of the week I had already met about 50% of the ward. I really feel like there are so many people here that I was meant to meet.

Another cool thing is that there have been A LOT of changes to the mission! President Clayton is very inspired. We now have new "key indicators", or numbers, that track EVERY area of the work. So we now track the progress of New Converts, Returning Members, and Investigators in our key indicators and we have new standards! Every companionship in every area should now have 2 investigators at church weekly, 1 baptism per transfer, and 1 ordinance date per transfer for New Converts and Returning members. And we are now required to teach at least 20 lessons per week. So we have NO TIME to tract at all. But it's soooo cooool because we still find people. I don't even know how, they just find us. But this week was INCREDIBLE because we taught 30 lessons! That is the most I've taught in a week my entire mission. But it totally works. It's awesome. So we are even more busy than before, but I love it because it really requires Sister Price and I to WORK TOGETHER.

And that's the other cool thing: Sister Price is amazing. I love her so much. She has the Spirit with her so incredibly strong. She is so kind and knows how to serve others. She is almost 21 and has been on her mission for almost a year now. She is 6ft and has red hair and is just the sweetest thing ever. We have had a ball of a week. So busy. Such a whirlwind. And she is now the designated driver, so I get to make all the calls while we are in the car. Which I LOVE because then I get to set up as many appointments as possible while we drive. It's awesome.

Well I love you all so much! I really hope you are all doing well. Also, if anyone has news about Coldplay and if they are going on tour soon, then please let me know. :) I need to know.

And everyone should go listen to Hazy by Rosi Golan because that song has been stuck in my head the past couple days and I don't think it will leave until everyone listens to it. So just do it. :)

Okay byeeeeeeeee

Love,

Sister Osman

Goodbye Georgetown, transferred to Cambridge Second Ward -- Week 20

Mikkia did not have enough time to write yesterday. So here is an excerpt from an email that she sent to me, so you know what is going on. We don't have her new address yet, we will pass it on when we get it. 

She met her new companion Sister Price today and she is so super excited for what the future will bring! Mikkia is doing well! Thank you for all your prayers!

"Okay so the assistants to the president called with transfer news last night. I was supposed to go back to Georgetown (which is why I only packed stuff for a week) but apparently President C says God wants me elsewhere after all. so I am going to the Cambridge Second Ward. No idea where that is. but that means that tonight we have to drive all the way back to GT from here (St. Catherines), get all my stuff, prepare everything for the elders who will be coming in (which is so stressful because I have to force myself to remember EVERYTHING I've learned about the area in the last 5 weeks and write it all down in a way that elders can understand hahaha) and then tomorrow morning we will be driving back to Brampton for transfers. My new companion's name is sister Price. I have no idea who she is but I'm stoked! 

Also, this week was so amazing. It was so nice to just have a vacation. At least that's what it felt like. But we taught some really hard investigators who almost convinced me that we are wrong. BUT I PRAYED SO HARD FOR SO LONG AND I READ THE SCRIPTURES FOR SO LONG AND I WENT TO THE TEMPLE and I ASKED God about it. And he answered my prayers. Again. But this time, more real than I have ever experience. In the Celestial room. The temple truly is...a gateway. It's so real. Mom, there are a lot of things that I still don't know and haven't received answers about yet, but this I do know: temples are real. God is real. Christ is real. And that's the end of it. No one can convince me otherwise ever. I know today there are still prophets on the earth. I know many things are restored. And I know many more things still need to be restored."

Love, MIK