First week in Collingwood/Stayner (Week 27 (Transfer 5, Week 1)

Hello everyone!

Mikkia ran out of emailing time today and could not send a group email but she sends her love and wants all of you to know she is doing well and that she is sorry that she did not have enough time.

Last week, she reported that she got transferred to Barrie, actually though, she found out that she got transferred near Barrie to a small town named Collingwood, assigned to the Stayner Branch (a congregation that is smaller than a ward). Collingwood is absolutely beautiful, situated on Nottawasaga Bay at the southern point of Georgian Bay with sandy, fresh water beaches and near the Blue Mountain ski resort. Mik loves to ski, but not this winter, though she will receive plenty of snow :) Anyhow, she loves her new area and her new companion Sister Tang from Hong Kong who is an absolute delight.

Excerpt from her email to me:

Stayner branch is really struggling. It only has 20 active members and 50 inactive so we have MUCH work to do and if we can't build this branch, they are going to close it. Which means many of these inactive people will likely never return to church and many of the active will go inactive. So I feel very much responsibility on my shoulders right now.... This area has so much work to be done! I'm glad that Heavenly Father sent me here!

Have a great week and thank you so much for all your love. Sister Osman is always so upbeat in part because she has all of your great support and she knows she's got a home where she is known.

Talita :)

Happy Hanukkah -Transferred to Barrie (Week 26 (Transfer 4, Week 6)

Sister Osman will miss Sister Price, so, so much!

Hey everyone!

It's not Hanukkah here. It was Thanksgiving this week but I wanted to be different.

This week was amazing! We went to the Francis' house for Thanksgiving and got to meet all of their family. I love the Francis'. They are such an incredible family and always have our back. We also got some cool new people to teach this week and had some really cool lessons. :) My favorite new investigator is Brother R*. His name is actually F*, but his last name is R* so we have fun and call him "brother". Because I mean...why not. 

This week one of my favorite experiences was teaching G*e. She is an investigator who we had previously taught about 3 times. We went over to teach her this week on Thursday and taught the Plan of Salvation. G* is the biggest sweetheart and has such an incredible relationship with the Savior. Everything we said she was agreeing with and the Spirit was so strong! When we got to the end of the lesson to teach her about the 3 kingdoms of glory, I was nervous because that is where most people want to argue. We read her a scripture from 1 Corinthians 15 that explains the different kingdoms. As we read and explained, her eyes lit up and she said, "Now I understand! There is this scriptures that comes to mind where the Savior is telling his disciples about the many mansions in the fathers house and that he prepares a place for us there. I never understood what it meant, but now it's so clear!" The Spirit was so strong and she started to cry and of course I got all teary and then we were all excited about how amazing the restored gospel is and she started to understand why there was a need for a restoration and it WAS SO AMAZING!!!!!! Two days later when we were teaching her best friend who happens to be a less active, we told her about the experience and she too felt the Spirit, as well as the member with us, and we all started to cry again! Hahaha and now she has decided to come back to church and get ready to go back to the temple and then the member who was with us at the lesson invited us for dinner. So the next day at the dinner appointment, as we shared a message about the gospel, again the Spirit was so strong. We had a very sacred conversation and I am so grateful for the amazing people here. They have changed my life. :)

Sadly, I'm getting transferred. I'm going to a new branch in Barrie, about 2 hours away from here. My new companion will be Sister Tang. I'm so sad about leaving, and did plenty of the silent-laying-in-bed-in-the-dark-pretending-not-to-cry-silenlty kind of crying last night but it's okay. Things will be great and my new area will be awesome. I'm excited for my new companion and Sister Price will be staying here and training a new missionary. Yayyyyy!!!!

Well I love you all. Have a lovely week. I hope yours was as amazing as mine.

Love,

Sister Mikkia

Good-Bye Companion. Wonderful Sister Price!

Canadian Thanksgiving!

S* our Catholic investigator. She's 88.
She's fiery. Just enough to singe the eyebrows.

Fall is here! So pretty!

Pluviophile: I just love the wonderful rain!

Great leaders are great servants! -- Week 25 (Transfer 4, Week 5)

A*'s baptism with Sister Price on the right.

Hey everyone!

This week was a great week. A very calm week compared to normal. We still taught as much, and had a baptism and confirmation, which was awesome, but I felt super relaxed! I don't know why. It just felt less busy this week.

One of my favorite things that happened this week was on Sunday. Sister Price and I were informed that there was no one to teach relief society, so we would be teaching. We quickly threw together a lesson and went into relief society to teach. Well, as they were doing announcements, the young mens president came in and said that they were preparing for a missionary fireside and he wanted us to come to class to help brainstorm some ideas. We didn't know what to do because we had to teach relief society! Then Sister Price had a brilliant idea--we could go on splits! Of course she didn't want to teach relief society by herself, so I offered to do it and the next thing I new, I was teaching an hour lesson all by myself that Sister Price and I had only been informed about 10 minutes before with a manual that was completely different than any I had used before. Oh man. Luckily, being a missionary, you can whip anything out. The lesson was on leadership, and of course when you are teaching about being a leader, you turn to the Saviors example. I whipped out some scriptures in Matthew 20 where the Savior explains about how the greatest leaders are those who serve. After all, Christ who was the greatest of us all, washed the feet of His disciples and gave His life for all mankind. The lesson went by so quickly and at the end I found that there was still more that I wanted to cover that we hadn't even gotten to in that hour! At the end I had the chance to bear my testimony to all of the lovely mothers in the room of their divine role and leadership. :) I told them all about my mom and that if it weren't for her, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I'm so grateful for her leadership, and the Saviors, and that Heavenly Father helped me teach that lesson!

Sister Price and the young men brainstormed some awesome ways to get the ward more involved in missionary work and change the mindset. We are so stoked! The ward has changed so much in the time that I've been here!

After church A* got baptized! We were so excited! But it was most gratifying to see his mom get up and bear her testimony. Her family has been inactive for years and she is sooo grateful to be back. She thanked us for our help and she totally had me in tears. It felt so good to know that we were able to help someone receive the gospel and accept the help of the Savior into their life again! And our ward has been so kind and supportive and they really have our back. I think they give us more credit than we deserve.

Anyway, I love you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Osman

What a great kid!

A Week to Remember - Week 24 (Transfer 4, Week 4)

Note from the editor: It is getting cold in Canada, but Mik is in good spirits though both her and her companion are a little under the weather! They are teaching around 30 lessons per week and are super busy and super tired and SUPER happy!

Here is her letter:

You know what I love? I love that missionary life is measured in weeks. And transfers. And hours. Our whole life is mapped out by the hour. Our planners are organized by transfers, and within those transfers is 6 weeks. It makes time FLY. I love it. I can't believe I've already been out for 5 whole months, almost 4 transfers! I'm so old.

This week was incredible! A number of things happened this week. First of all, we had general conference.  As I've been a missionary I've come to realize that in a very real way we have living apostles and a prophet called by God TODAY. So you can imagine my excitement to hear these men speak.

Elder Hollands talk on Christlike love really hit me. I'm so honored to have the privilege of being a mom some day. And mom--I love you! I'm so grateful for your example. Your love truly is an example of Christ's divine love for every single one of us. :)

I also loved how all of the talks seemed to be centered around discipleship. I think our leaders recognize that the worlds standards are getting farther and farther away from God's standards. To be a disciple truly means to be an example--set apart from the world. I love being a missionary--set apart from the world.

Also, the gospel is so simple! This applies so much to missionary work; as missionaries you need to simplify EVERYTHING that you teach. It is often when investigators get too caught up in the nit picky details that they end up confused rather than enriched. The truth is, we don't need to understand every detail of HOW God works. We just need to understand that HE DOES and that He loves us.

Also, this week: G* got baptized! It was such an amazing experience. And sooo funny. He had to be baptized TWICE by two people, and pushed under the water. Ahhh I love the hilarity of missionary life. You can only understand it if you're a missionary. Also, I got to sing at his baptism and play guitar! It was so fun! And next week I get to sing in sacrament meeting! I'm so pumped!

This week was ALSO Sister Price's birthday. And since we do everything together, it felt like my birthday too. We had cake for breakfast this morning. It was delish. But man oh man, even though this week was sooo amazzzzing and we saw so many miracles, I was so homesick! I don't know why! A good kind of homesick though. More like...grateful homesick.

Well I love you all!

Sister Osman

Sending an "I love you" sign!

G*s baptism! What a glorious day!

It's all About LOVE! - Week 23 (Transfer 4, Week 3)

Hellowww everyone!!!!

This week was a fantabulous week. We taught 30 lessons again! And we would have taught 36 but 6 lessons canceled and rescheduled. So it's okay. Sister Price is the BEST. I finally am able to be the missionary I knew I could be! I love it. Never better. But I swear, Sister Price and I are so busy that every week feels like an entire transfer. But it's incredible because the ward here has really stepped up. The members here are so amazing and so incredibly grateful! They thank us for the work we do and really make an effort to be involved, which I am so grateful for. It means the world to Sister Price and I that they want to work WITH us.

Man, I feel like so much has happened this week that I don't know where to even begin. It's weird when you are in a different country, with a jillion new people who none of your loved ones know, with an entirely new lifestyle, and no matter how much you want to just write down every detail and explain it all...you just never could because the only way to really understand our day is to live it. Haha missionary life is the most unique lifestyle ever, but I LOVE it.

This week we had some really cool experiences, but again, it's so hard to explain...

Our awesome investigator G* is going to be baptized next week and he is SO PUMPED. He truly is so amazing. I feel like I haven't even done anything...he just willingly accepted the gospel into his life. It's awesome. Also, we had a whole ton of less active members return to church for the first time this week in YEARS!!! And we found a lost member who no one knew about, and our ward, being as amazing as they are, stepped right up and he already has home teachers going out to visit him. Ah, and the members have started to text us and update us on our less actives and investigators that they are going to see and help. It's so amazing! People have no idea how much missionaries DEPEND on the members and I cannot be more grateful for the amazing members here. The work really is starting to progress and it's all because of the new mission vision which tells us we HAVE to work with the members. And we have!

This week we went over to a members house named the A*. They live in a retirement home and are just so sweet. Two floors down lives a less active member named Sister Z* so right after dinner with them we went downstairs to teach her. (She came back this Sunday and was at church!) At the end of the lesson we asked her if she could think of any of her friends who would be open to meeting with the missionaries. She said there was one lady but that she had already invited her to learn more and she said no. So anyway, we went back upstairs in the same apartment building because one of our investigators lives 2 doors down from the A*'s. As we waited at the door for S* the investigator to answer the door, the lady who Sister Z* was talking about passed by. We talked and she ended up inviting us in and agreeing to meet with us again! So we taught S* and this new lady G*! After the lesson we went downstairs to the lobby to leave and a bunch of old people were there. They asked us who we were and when we told them they said that they would love it if we arranged a time with the supervisor to invite everyone in the building to learn more! So pretty much we rounded up the whole building of old people and taught them. Oh man, that day was so exhausting. It was just lesson after lesson. But it was so fun!

But oh poor Sister Price. This week she was SO sick, but because she is so positive she didn't say anything! Since she is the designated driver, I am ALWAYS on the phone setting up appointments and calling everyone including members, investigators, new converts, and returning members all day and so sometimes I wayyy over book us with appointments. So sometimes we don't have time for lunch and often even dinner (which I feel bad for), and so Sister Price has just been suffering! I don't know how she does it...but yesterday she finally said something and we ended up going over to a members house who lives two houses down for some help. They were so kind! Their name is the D* family, and Sister D* just took care of us. It was so cute. It made me think of my mom. She made us food and got Sister Price a bunch of medicine, and sat on the floor and rubbed Sister Price's feet while she told us stories about her son who went to Kenya on his mission. She told us how she wished that someone had taken care of her son when he was sick and that she knew how our mothers felt. It was so cute and made me even more grateful for my mom. She always made me food and took care of me. :) Awww. So anyway, after a while we realized that Sister Price was actually in a lot more pain than she let on and we ended up going to the hospital because no other clinic would help us since we are from out of the country. So Sister D* took us to the hospital and stayed with us for 10 hours while we waited for a doctor to see us. That is not an exaggeration. The healthcare here is terrible. The doctor didn't even do anything. He said nothing was wrong. But anyway, so finally at 1 am we went home and her son who is a recently returned missionary gave Sister Price a blessing and the spirit was so strong. We were all in tears and I just want my dad to know that I am so grateful that he is worthy of his Priesthood and that he has always been there for me and my family. I always want that in my life. So anyway, after he gave her a blessing we finally went home and slept and this morning she feels so much better. The doctor said it would take 10 days for her massive migraine to go away, but this morning it was gone. The priesthood is real people.

Okay well sorry for the long email. I love you all!!!!!

Love,

Mikkia. The Sister one.

P.S. Oh yeah, we got ambushed by Jehovah's Witnesses at an investigator lesson while we had a member with us. It was the worst