November 26, 2019

Hi everyone!

What a great week we had!

We had THREE back to back exchanges! It was pretty exhausting, but I saw oh so many miracles from all of them! The first one was with sister Watson. We went to pass by this referral from the elders and he wasn't home, so we talked to his neighbors. They were kind folks. We invited them (and many others that day) to a special music night our Branch was putting on called Prelude to Christmas. It was a good exchange. She is such a hard worker! We think that she will probably be leaving us this next transfer. She has been in Yarmouth her whole mission so far and I think she is ready to go and see other places. I love her. Next, I was with sister Bromley. We went to Middelton and were walking around when we found a cute lady named Kayla that had been baptized a year ago. She has been kind of off the radar because she has been going through some things but she was so excited to see us! It's also really cool because my district leader elder Hatch, was the one that taught and baptized her a year ago, so when we told him that we had found her he was super excited! We also ran into the cutest family from Nigeria!! We also had dinner with the Sproules and they had Brian over as well. We taught him the plan of Salvation. He is really progressing and growing in understanding. It is so beautiful to see.

The next day, we had just enough time to do our weekly planning and then we had the Halifax sisters! Okay this one was cool. I was with sister Rhodes and we had SO many miracles that came about because we were in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Okay so backstory real quick. Several weeks ago, we were doing a booth in the mall with the Yarmouth sisters and this guy comes up and starts talking to us about the unknown secrets of the universe and all this deep stuff that no one really understands. We had like a 45 minute conversation with him about what we believe and about the Book of Mormon. We challenged him to read it and he said that he would do it in 4 days haha. The only thing was that he doesn't have a phone and he didn't want to give out his parent's address. So we had only an email address. He never responded to that so we kind of assumed that he forgot about it all. Then, just last Saturday, sister Rhodes and I were doing our language study in the mall and he comes walking by! He seemed to be in a hurry so we only had a brief conversation. But then like 20 minutes later, he came back and we talked. His demeanor was so different. He said that he had read the book in 6 and a half days. He said it was not at all what he expected, that there were a lot of answers in there and that it was the most interesting book he had ever read. We invited him to pray about it and he said that he would. The Pedersens, some members in our branch came walking by then too. They had a good conversation too. I think of all the people that he could have met at that time, they were the best. Bro. Pedersen thinks like he does. We invited him to come to the Prelude to Christmas and he said that he just might. It felt like exactly what he needed. The Pedersens also mentioned that they were going to a surprise birthday dinner for one of the members. This was a miracle in itself because with all of the craziness these past few days, I had completely forgotten that they had invited us too! So, we went to that right after, and it was no biggie ahah! If they hadn't have come by and mentioned it, I would have forgotten completely! Missionaries are human too! Haha! So everything this week really fell into place and worked out the way it needed to. Sister Rhodes and I had a very good exchange review at the end. I love her a lot. And I really think I needed to get to know her. I learned so much from all of these beautiful sisters! It was kind of sad though because this was sister Burton's last exchange and we had to say goodbye to her. She has been here since the beginning of time! She was my STL in Quebec! My first area!! That's crazy! I am going to miss her so much! 

We had the prelude to Christmas Sunday night and it was a huge hit! Sister Livingstone and I and some other ladies in the branch all sang this beautiful song called come and see. (It's on YouTube. I would recommend giving it a listen:) Lots of people from other congregations came and they all agreed that we should make this an annual thing! We even had an Anglican Padre that we had knocked into came and he loved it! Also, Brian came! This was the biggest miracle of the nightl! That was the first time he had gone to a social event in years, and he LOVED it! Our phone call with him the next night was so tender. He told us that he had never seen so many people with such love. "It really takes the weight off of ya" I love that light the world can mean so many things. It can be seen as a light, something that enlightens. But it can also be something that lightens, like lightening a burden. That is Christ. He lightens, He enlightens, and He is the Light.

This weekend we will get transfer boards so I will find out if I am staying or going! I don't know what's going to happen... I would be happy staying and happy moving on to the next adventure. I'm glad I don't have to make this decision! ahah! The time is running short and I am trying to work hard and make these months to the Lord my best offering. My testimony has grown a lot this week. I know that I succeed when I follow a prompting. It doesn't matter if the person was interested or not, or kind or not. I succeed when I follow a prompting. So I started telling myself that was I walked up to the doors that the spirit told me to knock. "This is me succeeding." I know that God loves his children. I know that he knows each of us perfectly and loves us perfectly. Each one is being prepared in their own way to have the chance to receive the truth one day. God is merciful and he is kind. He is waiting for us to come to him so that he can show us that he has always been there. He has loved us since before we can remember and that has not changed. I know that.

I hope that you all have a great week!

much love, Soeur Bates

November 19, 2019

Hello everybody!!

I don't even know where to start. This weeks had some high highs and some low lows. But everything ended up working out in the best way possible. 

We had zone conference with an area 70, elder Bassett. He and his wife were incredible! Really kind down to earth people. They brought the spirit so strong and opened my eyes a lot. They talked about conversion and how it needs to be with the heart, not just the head. We can't do that kind of converting, only the spirit can.

Yesterday, we went to a funeral for a member in the ward, a lesson fell through, it was raining like mad and on top of it all we got news that a missionary in our mission just lost their dad in a tragic accident...Everything just kind of hit me and I got really sad and sort of broke down on the car ride home. My sweet comp handled it like a pro. She let me cry and then we watched a christ video and ate gummy bears on the couch. Haha I felt a lot better after and we spent the rest of the night working hard and I felt extremely at peace and happy to be here, even though it was still raining and we still had to go out. Haha it was a tender mercy too because we got all bundled up to go out and got our umbrellas and we started walking. Our umbrella started turning inside out because the wind was so strong. Then we had the thought to visit one of our friends named Carol. We met her my first day in Greenwood. I guess we needed to prove to the Lord that we were willing to go out into the storm to declare his message before he would tell us where he actually needed us to go that night. On the way over there, we passed this poor lady pulling suitcases, so we pulled over to help her. By the time we chased her down she was on her front steps, so we knocked a few houses. It's funny because that doesn't sound like it was a success at all, but it was because we felt a prompting and we followed it. There is no better feeling than that. We went to Carol's and had probably the most amazing discussion ever with her. She told us that she wants to be baptized and that she knows she needs to come to church and that she just loves this church with all of her heart. What a tender mercy from the Lord after a very hard day. She brought up all of these things on her own. She has the softest heart I think I have ever seen and I truly love her with all of mine. They are going away to Ontario today, so if we wouldn't have passed by them last night like we did, we would have missed them for several weeks. Ouch! I am so glad we were lead there. This week we have also started calling our friend Brian every night. He reads a few verses in the book of mormon and then we discuss them and answer any questions that he has. it has been so great. I am seeing brighter than ever before how strong his testimony is getting. Every phone call he asks more and more questions and, he unknowingly testifies about the things that he reads. He is being changed. truly changed by the spirit and it is a beautiful thing to see. He is a man with the gift to see miracles. We set up a lesson at a member's house.  He told us that he woke up wishing that he had some better boots so that he could slip them on and off easier for when he goes into their house (it's hard for him to do that because of his arthritis) He said, "if only I had a pair of jet boots, but they don't make em anymore" That same morning, he went walking up the road to get some wood and he saw a bag on the side of the road. He went and looked inside and there was a pair of lightly worn jet boots. They were dry even though it had been raining all night. I know that God knows his children. He knows Brian, he knows me, he knows each of you and he is looking for every opportunity to bless you in the ways that he knows would be meaningful to you. He knows how to bless his children and he knows how to give good gifts! I am a witness of the love of God. I know pain but I also know immense joy. These experiences on my mission have grown my testimony of the Savior's reality. He lives, I just know that he lives.The experiences that I have had with him are more real to me than anything I could ever physically touch. I just love him so very much. He gave his entire life, every day of it for me. I am giving 18 months. It seems so insignificant. But it is the least I can do for the one I love so very much. 

I hope that all of you are happy and healthy and seeing the Lord's hand in your life. If you're not, I promise that he is not the one that left.

I love you all! Thanks for your letters and prayers and love! I really do feel it.

love, sister Bates

November 11, 2019

Salut!

I'm writing this on a Monday since our p day got switched because we have MLC again on Tuesday.

This week was pretty miraculous! Lot's of cool things happened! Especially at the end.

For one thing, we got our first snow last Friday! (it's all gone now..) It's kind of depressing because that means I will pretty much see snow for the rest of my days as a missionary. I am really going to miss the sun. It's hard to stay awake when it is 4:30 and pitch black outside... Oh well, I'll keep taking my vitamin d haha

I was feeling kinda frustrated this week because the people that we have been focusing so much of our time on keep letting us down and smurfing us and just not taking things seriously. It's hard to stay motivated sometimes when we just keep repeating the same vicious cycle. So I was praying really hard about it and asking God to lead us to people that really want to change. We have been realizing that if we want to see change then we need to change what we are doing. So we have been trying extra hard to go out and work hard even when (and especially when) we don't want to. We went knocking in a snowstorm. Even though it's super cold (so cold that my nostrils were freezing together!😨), it's one of my favorite things to do. It feels like an adventure! So yeah we have been working really hard and trying to be efficient and on Sunday, it felt like it started to pay off. Last transfer we had met this Jamacian guy named Greg through a bible ad and when we went to drop it off, we found 10 more guys living there as workers as well. They all wanted copies of the bible and the Book of Mormon but we weren't able to get enough copies of them until recently. Anyways, we brought them over to them last night and taught them about how it came to be and they all thought that it was so cool! All of them committed to read in 3 Nephi! So yeah we picked up 11 new people in one night!!! I think I just hit a new record. It was such a spiritual lesson. It was standing room only in that place so we just all stood in a circle and testified! Man we just left that place on cloud nine... Then we went to do this pass by. She had moved but the lady that lives there now was so sweet. We showed her a video and she just started sobbing! We also found two lost less actives AND we knocked into a guy named Nick who seemed like he wanted to talk but he also didn't seem sure. So we gave him our card and told him to check out the website. And that was it. We kept on knocking. Then like 10 minutes later, we got a text and it was HIM!! He asked us where the church was and also if he could text us with his questions. He also agreed for us to come back and talk more with him. It was so darn cool!! I have a lot of faith in this guy. It felt like he is ready.

I know that we were lead where we needed to be. I am so grateful to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I love him. I know that this gospel is true and that God loves all of his children and is very aware of each of them.

November 5, 2019

Hello everyone!
This week was a crazy one! We went to Montreal and back for MLC and exchanges. MLC was incredible as always. The testimony meeting at the end was extremely powerful, everyone was sobbing. When disciples of Christ gather, Christ is there too.
We had an extremely great lesson with Brian this week. It is so amazing to see how much he has changed. He opened up about why he hasn't been to church yet. He is starting to see so many miracles that are coming into his life because he is acting in faith. There is so much power in that. Acting in faith allows God to bless us. Faith is the act of lighting the match and starting the woodpile and unleashing all of the power within it. Wood won't give us warmth until we light it! And that is what he is doing. I love him a lot and I am proud of his courage to take these steps of growth.
We also picked up another person this week! Her name is Silvia and she's incredible! She had been taught in the past so she is familiar with missionaries and what we do. She also told us that she would talk to all of her friends and invite them to come and talk with us because "everyone needs to hear this!!" It was pretty amazing! So we are finding some really solid people! I love sister Livingstone seriously with all of my heart. We work SO well together! We laugh all the time but we work hard and get things done. It's awesome! I can tell that there is going to be a lot of growth this transfer. 

Another super cool miracle happened on Sunday too! Our friends from Jamaica came to church and they brought this huge box of apples to share with the branch! Everybody really liked them a lot before but, man, after those apples they kind of became celebrities! Haha!

I have been thinking a lot about the book of mormon this week. There have been a lot of things that I have read that have never stood out to me before. That book is seriously infinite. You could read it a million times and never really get everything. It is such a blessing to me that we have the Book of Momon along with the bible to teach what we need to know about doctrine and truth. It truly does hold the answer to every question. Even if it's not written on the page the answers can come with the spirit that accompanies you when you read it. It is truly my favorite book and I am so grateful for it. To all who have never read it, I invite you to try it out. You won't lose anything by doing so and you will gain much more knowledge about Christ than you ever bargained for! And with it, a new light will come into your life.

I love you!! Have a wonderful week!

Love, sister Bates