Happy Boxing Day Everyone!

Wow it's been such an exciting week! so much going on in the missionary world of Lacombe with all the wonderful Christmas events!

We didn't have a chance to teach a lot of lessons this week with people being super busy with Christmas but we were thankful to be able to be at the Live Nativity/ Creche display set up at the church. It was amazing! i have never seen a live nativity, with all the ward volunteering to be the many parts of the Christmas story and people bringing in their animals - sheep, donkey and goat! it was so well done with music, lighting and costumes. I'll attach pictures for everyone to see. on Tuesday we helped set up the creche in the gym for six hours. all the walls were covered with white fabric and tables were set up surrounded with Christmas trees and white lights with the 200 creche's set up. people from all over the communities came and enjoyed the show, the creches and some hot chocolate and apple cider with cookies after! i had a lot of great conversations with people and invited many to take the lessons. i didn't have any immediate luck but i know the community's prospect of the church has increased in respect :D

Christmas eve was exciting! we had our whole day set up with lessons and everybody cancelled.... so we decided to go and visit a little old lady in the lodge senior centre, sister silliker. who I've come to know really well,we went to visit her and she was stuck in her wheel chair needing to go to the hospital! so we got her to the emergency and they gave her strong pain killer shots for her new knee. it was intense and I'm so glad that we were there at the right time, she still tells us we were the angels that arrived right on time! we then came back and went caroling with ward members at another senior centre. it was so fun to sing all the songs and meet new people. we then went to a Christmas party at the bishop's and his family and headed home for the night!

Christmas day was AMAZING! we got to sleep in.... which was awesome! we went to church at 10am and had a wonderful program of commentary that included Jewish customs that they did at the time and musical numbers including one i got to sing in with the choir - Where shepherds lately knelt - it was beautiful! many of the members invited us over but with time constraints we opened presents at home.... had a great brunch with the cuff family that we live with and then headed off to talk to the family on skype! it was so great to see the family... it's been 7 months! we chatted and then headed off to Christmas dinner with the hill family, stopped at a couple other homes and then headed to bed exhausted.

one of my favourite Christmas presents this Christmas was stopping by our new convert's home - Anne - with her new husband Neil! i was so worried if he was actually interested in the gospel and if Anne would stay active. we hadn't heard from them in a week and when we stopped by they said they've been reading the book of mormon together, a chapter a day! that makes me so excited for the work here!

so many blessings to be grateful for. But most of all I'm grateful for the family and friends that have supported me so much throughout the past 10 months of my missionary service. i have good days and harder days but all in all I'm thankful for you guys who remind me of my purpose and pray for me! I love you and miss you! Seven months today I'll be home in surrey! hard to believe.... stay strong and keep the Christmas spirit with you all year long.

lots of love

sister wotherspoon

Christmas Week

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Elder O'Randy, Sis. Wotherspoon, Elder Lee

Surrey 1st Ward Missionaries

New Puppies!!!!

A Visit from Santa...HOHOHO

Hello from Winter Wonderland!

I now know first hand why they call Canada the Great White North! It just keeps getting colder.... what a difference between just cold and when there's wind! haha well enough about the weather i had a CRAZY busy week this week. Poor sister Milburn isn't getting her newbie studies in but i think real life training is better then sitting reading out of a textbook anyways!

Well let's see if i can remember it all...

Anne Peters is doing great! she's reading the scriptures and going strong, she came to all three hours of church and to our ward potluck because it was ward conference! Of course her fiance Neil came too and i think he really enjoys church! They are super cute together and through a wonderful miracle Anne and Neil were both able to find their divorce certificates and are getting married by bishop Lowry tonight at the chapel at seven o clock! It's so funny.... Neil - age 84, is
sooooo nervous to get married in front of people that he has to go to the doctor to get a pill for his anxiety! it's going to be fabulous! i asked a lady in the ward who does weddings to decorate, I'll take lots of pictures!

Something fun this week! The Kasners in our ward are breeders of my favourite dog! an Australian sheep dog! they have five puppies and they are so cute! I'll have to go back in a couple weeks when they are running around!

Thursday we had a crazy experience, we were planning on going to this sister missionary cookie thing in Edmonton and on the way there we realized we didn't have our phone.... we went home and couldn't find it! well we had no way of knowing the numbers or address of the place so we missed it.... we were so upset and spent four hours looking for it! we ended up driving up to Edmonton that night for the Christmas conference the next day and just had fun. The Christmas conference was awesome! three hours of training, a great turkey lunch and three hours of hilarious random talents by the missionaries! i sang a Christmas medley including chestnuts roasting on an open fire and have yourself a merry little Christmas with elder smith (from my first district, he's from Toronto). we sang it jazzy at a keyboard and it was super fun! we then found out at ten to four that we being outlying missionaries could go to the temple at four! o man..... we ran! it's a good thing i had my recommend on me!

it was so wonderful to go, i haven't been since April ish! it was so peaceful AND the officiator was Brother Patrick!!!!!! I also saw a guy from one of my ysa wards and a lady came up to me in the celestial room and told me i was pretty ha ha it was a good day :D

well.... later that night after searching for the cell phone more sister Milburn said i wonder if we threw it out in the trash? we decided that couldn't have happened but it wouldn't leave my mind so at ten thirty i said wanna go dumpster diving?!?! we did! when we got to the church parking lot she got out of the car and right there in the snow was our phone!!!!!!! it was a Christmas miracle for sure! it was nearly dead when we lost it but was still alive working in the
snow after two days of -20 degrees!

Another blessing.... Stephen during finals week called us and set up an appointment and invited us to a Christmas band concert at the seventh day Adventist college! he then came to church and he's just plain awesome... Last night i also performed in the red deer Christmas stake fireside singing a song with the choir along to bells!

it's been a crazy week, so many blessings! i know this email was super long but i hope you enjoyed something! thank you all for your emails and your cards and packages! i feel so loved and know that my blessings come from your prayers!

love you all so much! and i really miss you. Happy Holidays!

sister wotherspoon

Sunday November 27, 2011

Hey everyone!

This week was SOOOO busy! we had to organize and get the baptism all planned and prepared for while still trying to maintain the quota of twenty lessons a week and fasting and praying for our other investigator stephen, but i'll talk more about that in a minute!

Anne's baptism was fabulous! I'll send a program your way! Sister Cuff and Sister Pelletier two sisters in the ward that know Anne well gave the talks and me and sister Milburn sang "learn of me" by Janice Kapp Perry! Everyone said it was beautiful. The water was warm and a part
of me wishes they would hold her under longer because it just goes by too fast for all the work we do! haha about 60 members of the ward came and we had lots of treats and goodies to eat. We decided to continue my tradition of getting those who attended to write their testimonies on index cards for Anne so that we could put a book together of pictures and testimonies. We also got her ordered a quad of scriptures with her name on it ! i know she loved it! Anne also
invited her "boyfriend" Neil, who's 84!!! haha he's so cute, and i really want to start teaching him this week too we'll see!
we also taught Stephen this week and had a really intense lesson on the second half of the plan of salvation. he has so many questions and the language barrier is hard! ..... well we prayed that night and the next morning we got a call from him saying he wants to come to church and come to all three hours to experience the whole thing! i was so happy! he came and every meeting went sooooo well! he participated in Sunday school and everyone came up to him and was so friendly :D i can't wait to see what he really thought at our lesson this week.

Well that's really all the excitement this week! I'm really loving
sister Milburn, we get along great and she's so excited for missionary
work.

love you all! and miss you a lot..... especially this time of year! :D

love sister kara wotherspoon

Church Building in LaCombe, AB

Kara & Sister Milburn-Day 1!!!

Kara with Senior Missionaries from Stettler AB

Hey Everyone!

Wow it's been an INTENSE week! so much going on, so much to write about! here it goes...

As you all know I am staying in Lacombe here and training a new missionary! Her name is sister Milburn and she's from Bonnie Lake Washington, just outside Seattle! It's so crazy how we grew up only a couple hours away from each other, had the same temple growing up, we're the same age and she went to BYU too. she's really nice and sooooo excited to do missionary work! i just love her! she's so fun and likes to talk! the members are just loving her and everyone is being so nice and loving to me. I just feel the missionary work booming!

So Wednesday we woke up early at 5:30 and drove into Edmonton. We had great weather and went to the riverbend stake centre where the Edmonton temple is under construction for the trainer meeting. It was great and I picked up sister Milburn! the sisters then went out for lunch at red robin for sister Thomas who was the only sister going home. I just had a feeling we should get sister Milburn a winter jacket and boots instead of waiting till pday and president agreed and thankgoodness we did! the NEXT day we had a huge snow fall and it got down to -26 during the days this week. I was so nervous to drive but took it slow and we are still in one piece! We went to dinner at the stake president's house that night and invited Anne with us to dinner and then went to the Addiction Recovery meeting with her. Anne is doing fabulous! she's gone 8 days without smoking and her Baptism is a go for this Sunday i'm SOOOOOOo excited!!!!

Thursday we found out that our district has been changed so we are meeting only every two weeks with the senior couple in Stettler and a companionship from red deer. so we didn't have district meeting but we taught anne, some member lessons really trying to get more referrals and went to the farmers market in lacombe. they had a huge Santa Claus parade in the snow and then a moonlight midnight shopping day where all the shops were open till late and the farmers market was at the convention centre. we went around talking to people and i hope something comes out of the contacts we made! we also did a little tracting and found a guy who wants us to come back! I'll keep you updated!

Friday was our planning and we also met with our investigator Stephen the french speaking guy from Quebec. i found out he's twenty six and he read from the book of Mormon. We had sister cuff come because she served her mission in France and the spirit was so strong as sister milbu
rn asked him to be baptized! he said it was a big question but that he would continue to pray to know if the book of Mormon was true ! we are really excited for him.

This weekend was stake conference and we had a visiting general authority of the first quorum of the seventy come elder Johnson? he was GREAT! and Anne loved it! we also heard from the temple president and our mission president. the spirit was so strong. The general authority recounted a story about his daughter saying that she had bought her daughters some beautiful jewelery boxes for Christmas and a smaller one for their cousin. when she showed the little girls the small one they just started balling their eyes out because they wanted it so bad. he related it to how our heavenly father has greater things then we could even imagine waiting for us! i loved it.

Emails were changed to today because we volunteered at the festival of trees in red deer and set up garland and decorated trees! it was intense! and so fun. really got me into the Christmas spirit!

well this is all for now. I'm glad you are all doing well and hope to hear from you really soon.

lots of love!

sister Wotherspoon

Sis, Randall, Kara, Bro & Sis Cuff

Tyler Wotherspoon & Kara @ Red Deer

Hello my family!

This week has just flown by! Last pday we were having issues with getting mail but of course you can't stop sister wotherspoon.... so we got a member to drive us into red deer and get our mail and i wrote lots of letters which was wonderful. i knew this pday would be busy with transfer news so i'm trying to be prepared. We had a great teaching week we made our 20 lesson goal by teaching 21 lessons even though we only have one investigator. Unfortunately Anne is still smoking and hasn't been able to quite. The devil is working really hard on her through her former church and through her family, lots of drama, so we met with her on Sunday and she told us all about it. it's exhausting..... as much as i love people i can't do everything for them! so i prayed about it... and as i was pondering the thought about having her go talk to a counselor with family services came so I called the bishop and she went to see him that night for a referral. She has been through so much abuse and drama i think it would help her best if she could talk to professional and get the skills she needs to help her over come and deal with her family so the quality of her life can actually change! i love ann so we'll keep working with her and keep helping her prepare for baptism!

Friday night i had a call from the new high councilor in the stake over missionary work that he was going to be speaking in our ward and wanted me to be his speaking partner. He told me to talk on the conference talk by president monson to the priesthood on standing alone. It was amazing! i learned so much and i gave a great talk on how in the world today moral decisions and dilemmas are seen as personal and different for each individual but we know differently. God has always and continues to reveal his laws and what is right and wrong. we are always to stand as witnesses of him. i tied it in to our role as missionaries to invite people to come to know truth and have strong testimonies in the savior and also to be baptized and make the covenant to stand up for God at all times, in all things and in all places. Something i loved is i recited doctrine and covenants 4 verse 2 that says "o ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart might mind and strength that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day". i then asked the question "Brothers and Sisters, can we stand blameless before God at the last day if we are not willing to stand for him in this latter days?". it was my first talk on my mission and i learned a lot! :D One of the women in the congregation came to me and said she had came up with a nickname for me, she calls me "nephi-a" haha she's funny.

Wednesday we were able to take Anne to the Addiction Recovery Program in REd Deer and it's aamzing! the spirit was so strong and i just loved being there and sharing and learning from others. I honestly felt the strength of the spirit similar to the spirit i feel in the temple. When i asked the stake president why that was he said ti's the spirit of the atonement at work. so cool. if you ever have a chance to go , please do it will change your life! It's open to all members and non members and is great for any changes you want to make in your life.

Well not too much else exciting! O ya... transfer news! I will be staying in Lacombe and training a new missionary! i guess the lord really trusts me with his fresh and ready servants! I'm excited for a change and i know sister randall is excited to go to my first area up in the north end of Edmonton. She'll do great. We've come to be good friends.

love and miss you all so much, thank you for all your support i love hearing from you!

sister wotherspoon

Hallowe'en 2011

hey

Hello Hello!

This week in Lacombe (Panoka, Rimbey, Clive, Tees and Bentley...) haha we had some great times! I for the first time in this area really am starting to see the members start to trust us and really see the desire to do missionary work come out! It's truely amazing how that works...

Monday we had a lesson with the girl emma that i mett at the flat iron building museum here in Lacombe. I can't remember if i told you about her... we mett her labour day when the museum was supposed to be closed and her best friend is a member that's curently in school down in lethbridge! Well we set up a lesson on that only day that worked for her and sacrificed our "day off" but it was worth it! We had two members there and mett at a coffee shop were we just got to know her religious background and talked about God is our Loving Heavenly Father and read a bit of the introduction of the Book of Mormon and then Moroni's promise! It was so awesome.... she's such a sweetheart! But of course i didn't want to really expect anything for all we knew she was just being nice! BUT today we mett with her again, this time at tim hortons, and had lunch and taught her the restoration! OMG it was the BEST restoration lesson i've ever taught it was just like a discussion with her totally into it! She's like how does God pick prophets, WHAT? there's a prophet living now.... where is he? hahaha i laughed so hard she's so funny but so sincere and just LOVED the joseph smith experience. When i asked about her book of mormon reading she had decided to read the chapter around Moroni's promise..... you just never know what part of what you share will influence and have an impact on the people you teach. Gotta love the Spirit! Well she is pre law (psychology) major and is really busy with school and working so i had a prompting to leave her with Alma 32 on faith and she's so excited to read it she said she'll let me know when she's read it! So awesome..... i love teaching the gospel there is NOTHING like it :D
Soooo that was our FIRST new investigator last week this brings the total of investigators to 3.

Wednesday we drove our to Rimbey because we have never been there and heaven forbid we get transfered we wanted to say we'd been our there so we took the over an hour drive and only one of our appointments with less active members was home so we mett with sister kirk who is elderly and restricted to her home because they did a surgery on her arm for carpel tunnel and she didn't even have it! so now she has these nasty scars all over her hand and arm, it's swollen like a balloon and she can't do anything it's so sad..... so we cut her some peppers becuase she was making bucket pickles? she was a sweet lady i'm not worried about her. well we've decided to put rimbey aside. there are no active members there and it's way too far to go we don't have the km's for it but it's just not where we need to be!

That night we decided to organize our area book and i was looking on this sheet of potentials (people that missionaries have contacted in the past but never taught) and there was a list of people with only numbers no addresses so i called the first one, lindley, who answered and said he'd like to meet and we mett with him the next night and taught him the first lesson!!! it was crazy.... you tract and tract and then you call someone up and you get an appointment! it's amazing who the lord is preparing i really hope he'll meet with us again he's living in the country and is a welder. super open to the gospel but has dyslexia so we'll have to work with him on reading the book of mormon but that's no problem!

It was great to be able to go to the Relief Society Broadcast i just balled like a baby through the whole thing... not because anything was wrong but there was just something about teaching people about the prophets and apostles and testifying of them and then to see them just and listen to their counsel was so just intense! I know they are truly men of God because.... they actually understand women! hahaha

Well nothing much else, we are just working hard and really trying to find people. i'm so excited for conference this weekend!!!! I challenge all of you to watch one more session then you usually do, and if you watch them all koodos!

I love and miss you all! thank you for the support!

love sister wotherspoon

p.p.s the weather here has been fantastic! hotter than there summer! :D

Pictures

Hello from Millwoods!

Hey Everyone,

So.... it's been a busy crazy week in edmonton! Monday/ Tuesday we spent all our time rushing around to appointments, getting ready for michelle's baptism and packing before leaving super early wednesday morning for transfer meetings.

Michelle's Baptism was amazing..... about fourty five people came to support her and she was baptized by a member that referred her to us! Michelle was VERY nervous but also excited of course and just couldn't wait to be baptized. The program was full of spiritual talks and i decided to sing "Daughter of a King" from the 2007 young women's theme cd. I was very nervous but i just felt like the song was exactly what michelle needed to hear! Her family, mom and grandma, and three friends came to support her which was so tender.... her mom got all teary eyed as i was singing and it took everything in me to keep going. As michelle went into the font she immediately plugged her nose and started leaning back! Adam had to restrain her and remind her that there was a prayer first. We had explained and even practiced what would happen but of course she was so nervous! hehe i love her so much she is going to be an amazing contributor to our heavenly father's work!

Wednesday was very overwhelming but i was so excited! I was so excited but had absolutely no idea where to put my energy so poor sister Heo my new mission companion from korea just kept giggling at me as i probably walked in circles for ten minutes untill i could focus my head around being in a new place. Our car was packed full of luggage and odds and ends because of course we need EVERYTHNG we've accumulated so far! lol We unfortunately are living in a "old" apartment on the THIRD floor so ten trips later up and down those stairs with huge suit cases my legs were trembling but we finally got everything inside the door and we just collapsed! Next we approached each room.... cleaning out droors and closests full of old clothes from missionaries past and cupboards full of food..... we found old stockings, pictures and goodies from last missionaries which was crazy! we decided just to clear everything out, clean and make it feel like home! Eight hours later.... we were moved in and we hadn't even touched the area books yet!

The next couple days we mett with our distict, a couple members, the bishop (bishop white) and went on some dinner appointments with the elders! We of course have been doing a lot of finding and have five new potentials who we are hoping will meet with us soon! Mill Woods is a small area..... WAY smaller then my last but still so much work to be done of course! we live down the street from the mall and everything really just feels like a two minute drive away! We don't have any investigators here so we are starting from scratch but after much fasting, prayer and scripture study there is no doubt in my mind that heavenly father has prepared people here for us!

Chuch on sunday was great and although the ward is tiny with about 50 members in the summer they are super supportive and friendly! Susan Anderson is our relief society president..... funny enough she grew up in port coquitlum ward and we went to young women's camp together growing up! it was great to catch up with her since it has been about six years! Well we are being fed, we have lessons, and a great hope for this area!

Thank you everyone for your emails, mail and prayers!!!! They are seriously what motivate me to keep going, can you believe i've been out over five months already?! craziness!!!!

Love ya'll,

Sister Wotherspoon

p.s. here's the photo of me and sister hayes with michelle at her baptism <3

Pictures

Hello...i've got news!

Hey Hey!

So this week has been the most crazy busy/ stressful (in a good way, no complaints!) of the mission so far! We had our first baptism!!!! This was the first time i was able to see someone take all the lessons and then join the church! It was the highlight of my week by far....

Andy Bastien was baptized saturday July 9th at 10 am at the North Edmonton Stake centre by his much taller friend Joseph who is preparing to go on a mission right now! The turn out was great and we had lots of fun treats afterward. During the baptism Joseph couldn't get Andy all the way under the water so he had to be dunked three times! each time he had to do it again Andy would say "jo, just don't kill me!" haha it was hilarious and everyone just loves andy! While andy was getting changed we had everyone there write on a square peice of paper their testimony, we talkeda bout the importance of testimony in scripture and in our church and then assembled it into a book for andy to read along with his blessing he received after receiving the gift of the holy ghost.On sunday Andy received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, then the Aaronic priesthood and a temple reccommend so that he can go do baptisms for the dead on tuesday before the Edmonton Temple closes till december for renovations! It was a whirl wind but o man andy is so ready.... he has that testimony, a change of heart so it's full steam ahead on enduring to the end! He's thinking about serving a mission and i can't wait to see him just soak up all the blessings the Church of Jesus Christ has to offer :D

This week was also my 22nd birthday!!! I received an amazing package from my family and had a lot of fun opening it! i definitely am spoiled to say the least! My comopanion also made me no bake cookies (gluten and lactose free of course! ) they were delicious and we wore new years eve hats while singing happy birthday and blowing out candles. The members were great and i got a couple cards and a marangue fruit cake at the bennett family's house after my favourite dinner of bbq chicken and corn was eaten! they are the best. i'm really going to miss kingsway ward....

because i'm being transfered! I am being sent to the Millwoods YSA ward, which is an area of Edmonton. The area was closed down last transfer and me and sister Hao are going there to reopen it.... yes it's the same sister Hao from South Korea that i came over to edmonton from the mtc with! so crazy!!!! We are excited but sooooo nervous because we don't know anyone, the area, or anything! it's going to be interesting but i'm so prepared to do the work! Sister hayes is staying in kingsway and will be training her last three months. she's amazing, we are best friends and always will be! the new sister is lucky to have such an amazing trainer and i'm happy we'll run into each other as we both will be going to church at the institute building!

well we've had so much rain this week! we went for a run and got caught in a terenchal down pour half way.... now i really know how fast i can run! lol

Other then that i'm just VERY excited for Michelle's baptism tomorrow night! michelle is a special girl.... she's been through so much and through listening to the holy ghost and having a desire to follow christ is going to be reborn and start a new life tomorrow! she has such a strong testimony i feel so blessed to be a part o fher life and know we'll be good friends forever.

Alvaro our mexican investigator is so cute and funny.... he was having some troubles with doubts as we were discussing the gospel of jesus christ steps: faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. we told him to pray and he asked us to pray for him. yesterday he excitedly told us that he received an answer to his prayers and will be baptized july 31st so that his friends will be in town! hopefully because i'm in the city i'll be able to go to the baptism!

I am LOVING my mission..... i can explain it enough i'm just loving all the experiences and learning and meeting such wonderful people. it's hard to believe i had a life before this! To infinity and beyong :P

Love ya lots,

Sister Wotherspoon

Hey Everyone! (July 4)

hey everyone! t

his week has been crazy i have absolutely NO idea where the time has gone so here goes the email....

Not a ton of things to announce today but i had a super fun week! had lots of lessons with investigators and had the priveledge to have my first investigator get interviewed for baptism.... and he passed! Andy Bastien will be baptized this saturday at 10am at the North Stake Centre in Edmonton and of course you are all invited! lol :D i'm very excited and andy is so wonderful and so ready he's practically a member already i swear it!

Lots of birthdays this week which was fun! Andy and Kevin our two investigators were celebrating birthdays so we made them crepes with nutella, peanut butter and fruit and ate them while having our usual morning lessons. it's a great way to start off the day! for andy i made him wear a birthday hat, we sang and had a candle in his crepe it was hilarious! I'll attach some pictures...

Canada day was friday and we had some lessons set up but because of the no proselyting rule on holidays me and sister hayes hit the parties! We first went to St. Albert and went to their celebration in the park. there was entertainment, watermelon, tatoos, baloons, tanks and cherry picker machines you could go up in! haha good times.... we then went and stopped by a free bbq and it was so funny...... we were standing in line when we realized we didn't really fit in with the homeless crowd but we enjoyed the burgers and hot dogs and chatted with the people :D We then spent the rest of the afternoon down at the edmonton legislature building because it was open to the public! so we got to go all around inside and all the fountains out front were just full of little kids swimming and playing. the weather was perfect and overall i had a blast! lots of love for my home country :D

Well! we spent a lot of our time finding also this week and i had a really intense experience that is hard to share over email but in short it really affected me to the point that when i was sittign in fast and testimony meeting this sunday i couldn't help but get up. i felt so strongly to share my testimony of the book of mormon.... a lady we had tracted into after a while of chatting looked at me straight in the eye and said to me, after i had bore my testimony of having a prophet, "i am so sad that a young girl like you would blindly follow a man's interpretation of the scriptures, you need to read the verses for yourself and interpret them for yourself to know what they say and follow your own spirit". i was shocked! and hurt..... had my testimony come off as fake or brainwahsed? i litterally write this letter today to tell everyone who reads it that i know PERSONALLY that the book of mormon and the bible are the word of God. i have ready EVERY verse of scripture, i have prayed, studied and read them again and i can bare witness that the book of mormon is the book in which we can be the closest to God and Jesus Christ. If there is any thing going wrong in your life, questions, concerns, trials, unrest, turn to the book of mormon and in it you will receive peace, direction and confidence. i love this work, i love being a missionary and i love seeing the way people's hearts change and turn towards christ as they read from the book of mormon. i love you all and thank you for all the birthday wishes! i'm excited to turn 22 tomorrow... craziness!!!

peace and blessings ( haha)

with love, sister wotherspoon

Hey Hey from Edmonton! (June 27)

Hey Everyone....

So that postal service eh? it's been rough! no mail now for three weeks in a row! The mail boxes here are locked so don't be offended if you don't get mail from me in the near future! The word on the street is that the government will step in this week and force them to go back to work but you can only dream!

So this week on the mission has been busy! We have so much to be greatful for in the kingsway ysa area!! My most exciting news is that we have three solid baptismal dates set now for july and i just feel so blessed to have seen the change of heart occur in these people's lives!

Michelle is amazing! We asked her to pray this week and ask heavenly father when she should be baptized. We told her preferable on a friday or saturday. She said she prayed and after her prayer the date july sixteenth came to her head.... she then thought wait when is that? looked at a calendar and saw it was a saturday! i was so impressed by the faith she had to ask heavenly father and open her heart and mind to an answer from the spirit. i know and am confident that when we go forward in faith every pray we say is answered!

Alvaro is a sweet heart and says "wow" after we teach him a gospel principle! he's so excited to learn more and feels that everything we believe just makes sense. he's preparing to be baptized july 23 and is amazing and reading and understanding the book of mormon even though english is his recent second language! so impressive...

Andy bore his testimony to us this week on how he knows that the book of mormon is the word of god and that he wants to follow the savior. he's so excited to be baptized next saturday and we're working hard to help him feel ready and confident to enter the waters of baptism.

Right now there are so many things going on the world! Also so many things that at times i feel i'm missing out on... i've been really sick this week.... no mail.... and did everyone hear my brother was drafter june 24th in minnesota to the calgary flames!!!!!! i'm so proud of him! i wish so bad i could have been there and can't help but tell EVERYONE about it.... he's amazing and is such a great example of someone who works so hard and sacrifices to make his dream come true!

No matter what happens though i feel so blessed to be here on a mission, i've grown so much, and can you believe i've been out of just over four months! boy does time flie!!!! transfers are comming up fast again, july 13th! it's definitely the time of the transfer to really get to the grind and do everything you can to accomplish heavenly father's work in your area!

Love you all, stay strong, and keep the faith!!!

sister wotherspoon

Hey Ya'll

Hello from Edmonton!

Another crazy week in the Kingsway YSA ward that's for sure!

This week as a missionary it was definitely a rollercoaster of emotion! overall we had four investigators drop us and mett three new investigators! I don't even know where to start...

We mett with mark and sara this week and i was all excited to have a spiritual discussion when mark let us know that these lessons once a week were turning into too much of a time committment so this would be the last time we mett. i was shocked! The lessons have always been amazing and he definitely agrees with the teachings of the church but i guess he just wasn't ready. Sara said she's not done with learning however and would like to pick the lessons back up at the end of the summer. There's hope!

The other two investigators that have decided to stop meeting with us are Renee and Peter, yes! the two with the baptismal dates in the next two weeks. They are both amazing people with really strong testimonies of the gospel of jesus christ. Renee had been taught all the lessons we teach plus set up an interview with the bishop and Peter had just one more lesson to go! Sadly i would really like to take this opportunity to share my testimony of the importance of attending church! Something i know to be true is that our worship each week on the Sabbath day is not just to make our Heavenly Father happy but it's to bring peace, direction and strength to our lives. I don't hesitate to say that Satan works really hard on us and it's so important to have that one day a week to seperate ourselves from the world and kind of sit back and take a look at the bigger picture, the eternal picture! Both of these people had missed a couple weeks of church in a row and of course they arn't perfect and fear and doubt came into theird minds. Is their spiritual journey over? of course not! they will always have the knowledge of the gospel they earned i hope more than anything that we will be able to see them in the future and remain friends!

But of course... the missionary work, the work of the Lord goes forth! We mett some AMAZING people this week! Michelle is great and she came to our first lesson with a solid background of mormon.org! Which was fantastic and kind of a missionary's dream! because of her knowledge she came to the lessons prepared with questions and we were able to have a really intimate real conversation about the restoration of Christ's Church on the earth through a prophet! it was great, she's been reading from the book of mormon and came to church yesterday. i love seeing the excitement and joy of the gospel in people and pray that her happiness in learning the gospel and following jesus christ will continue!

We taught Kevin after church yesterday and he's actually a friend of one of our members! Joseph is preparing to go on a mission and mett kevin at work. We learned a lot about kevin's background and he is so excited to have a personal experience with Heavenly Father and reading the book of mormon for himself to know if it's true.

Alvaro was our third new investigator and he blew my socks off! we mett for the first time with him yesterday and learned he's from mexico here on a work visa and learned english. he's a chemist and one of the youngest of 9 children. he grew up in the catholic church but didn't agree with all their teachings. so.... him along with some of his friends in the ward taught him the first lesson and while sister hayes recited joseph smith's first vision experience alvaro's eyes filled with tears and he didn't know what to say! the spirit was VERY strong and as we invited alvaro to say the closing prayer he literally pleaded with the Lord to help him know if joseph smith and the book of mormon are true. he said he'd be willing to do anything to follow jesus christ. i couldn't help but tear up a little bit.... how sweet and how prepared he is.

i know that the lord prepares through his angels and the holy ghost EVERY single person on this earth. we are all his children and he loves us and knows us all intimately! I love being a part of the missionary work and pray every day that the lord's will will be done in the edmonton area. I have been blessed to teach many people of the gospel of jesus christ but like it says in the scriptures (ether 12) we will not gain a witness of true testimony of this restored gospel of jesus christ untill after the trial of our faith. The trial of our faith will not be one event but is the purpose of this earth experience!

I am so greatful for everyone's support and prayers and hope that you all are experienceing missionary experiences each day as you live as an example of christ . as sister hayes would say, love ya'll!!!

love sister wotherspoon

Yo ho from Edmonton!

Hey Everyone,

Another week in the mission life can you believe it? We are so busy i swear each day feels like a week and each week a month, in a good way of course! :D

Well this week the kingsway ward put on a fun fhe activity, they played quidditch, it was super cool and i wish i could have played! i would try to explain how they did it but it's too hard so just imagine multiple balls being used with trashcans and no they didn't use flying brooms...

For service this week me and sister hayes assesed the needs of our area and decided to pick up trash in the community! our helping out cleaning dishes weekly at the kara centre has come to an end for the summer break so we got some of those pick up trash things from the city and headed out on the streets... an hour later and two trash bags full we had only walked one block... so sad! I guess we are in the ghetto city of edmonton area though so what do you expect.... we definitely picked up a lot of tim hortons cups! lol hopefully our efforts made some difference :D

This week was a BUSY week! we had 21 lessons this week and 13 of those were with those investigating the church! We are definitely the busiest area in the zone right now and i'm just loving every minute of it and counting my blessings! We have two new investigators this week. Jessie mett the elders while she was going door to door trying to sign people up to support a child from a foreign country (i can't remember what the company is called?) and so we mett with her and she is super sweet! Then on sunday one of our members brought a friend to church and we are meeting him this week! We also had a crazy cool experience, a guy named Rom just walked into church on sunday! He is from china and just moved here from ottawa. He's 36 years old and is married with a daughter but knows members of the church and even though he's never been to a church before said he just felt in his heart to go. We taught him the 1st lesson right away and gave him a book of mormon. he says he likes that the church stands for family and hard work. he's amazing and i hope all the best for him! :D

Unfortunatley, we also ran into some hard times this week, truely the first time i've ever cried over an investigator.... we've been meeting with dale and sophie now almost every day for three weeks. We've been teaching them lessons and then just recently helping them with their english which is really fun and rewarding! They have been super stars and excelling so fast! However, friday night they went online and came accross some anti-mormon websites.... my heart broke. He told us about how people were saying that the book of mormon is taking the place of the bible and other nonsense. I was in shock and just sad that they could listen and trust someone's opinions from an article on the internet they've never mett yet me and sister hayes have been with them in real life bearing our testimonies to them and teaching them from our hearts for three weeks...but i guess that's where this world is at now? people are taking the words of individuals on the internet over then those they meet in real life... scary!

well we prayed and fasted for sophie and dale and i received a lot of comfort from the holy ghost. I feel peace knowing i did my best to represent Christ's gospel and know that their lives have been blessed because of it and of course which them every happiness!

Well on a bright side Renee and Peter and still preparing for baptism in the near future! i'm so excited for them and it's been a blessing to be a part of their journey.

I love you all and am so greatful for all your support with letters and emails. please stay strong in the faith and love those around you and i know you will be blessed!

with love,

Sister Wotherspoon

p.s. the postal system in edmonton right now is on and off striking so don't worry if mail doesn't come to you asap! :P

Hey from the mish

Hey Hey!

Well this week was fun! my first week with only one companion and it's awesome! it's so much easier to make decisions, clean up, plan and do things in general with one other person! i do miss sister wilcox i know it's always a hard thing for big changes and i hope she doesn't miss the mission too much! well we've been really busy this week we had 13 lessons with those investigating the church!

Andy is one of our investigators from montreal and he's so awesome. we taught him twice this week and went over the plan of salvation. i loved his excitement when he learned about where we come from why we are here and where we are going. i just have such a strong testimony of how we should not take this knowledge for granted! our member Joseph has to pick him up early for our lessons so we surprised them with some tim hortons breakfast sandwhiches and i could tell they enjoyed them.

Things are going great teaching Dale and Sophie!!! They are so awesome, we started teaching them english classes this week and it's been so fun! They know english really well BUT reading the book of mormon is a different story. Half of the time they ask a question i'm just thinking why do the prophets explain things in such a round about/ backwards way! It's definitely not as plain and simple as you think! We learned greetings and directions this week and played some fun games. I did a blindfolded obstacle course one day, i remember it from my days learning french, where one person is blindfolded and then the other one has to guide them through the obstacle. It helps them practice their speaking, vocabulary and their listening! it also made for some hilarious entertainment because sophie could not remember the difference between left and right and dale walked into a couple walls haha. We are now also teaching them about baptism in the lessons and they are just so open to the message! Dale has a baptism date set for july 2nd and i'm so excited for him.

All of our baptismal dates have been rescheduled this week. Even though they are more then prepared knowledge wise and have prayed to know it's true the dates have been changed because they either just don't feel ready and want a week more to prepare or want certain people to be there. I know that everything will work out though and i pray for strength that satan won't influence this decision that they are making because it brings so much happiness!

Well i'm hearing all about the canucks and it's awesome to see that grads went well!!! so much fun....

Well everything in edmonton is going great and i'm looking forward to finding new people and continue helping all those in need.

Thanks for all your support and love!!!

Sister Wotherspoon

Transfer Update

Hello everyone,

It's been six weeks since sister Hayes joined our companionship and you know what that means..... TRANSFER NEWS!!!! This morning was transfer calls and i was a nervous wreck just sick to my stomach! I wanted so bad not to be transfered to a new area because of course i want to be here for Peter and Renee's baptisms! We've also seen so many miracles in the area i really feel like i have more work to do here :D

Well the news is in.... me and sister hayes are staying kingsway ysa ward together for another six weeks! I'm so happy, overjoyed, just ridiculously excited to say the least! I love kingsway and i can't wait to be here for another six weeks of awesomeness. Sister Wilcox will be leaving us on wednesday and she's been busy packing. She's a little upset of course but i know this is perfect timing for her to move on with her life and really look back with righteous pride at all the wonderful things she has accomplished and the amazing person she has become in the last eighteen months!

This week has been BUSY!!! So much has happened! This week we started meeting with our new investigators Dales and his girlfriend Sophie. They are both from china and are amazing! We've mett with them three times now, they've come to two ward bbq activities and one baptism..... and yes all in this last week! They are really jumping in with both feet! Our lessons together have been so filled with the spirit and it's fun to have our member Ryan there to translate into manderin when needed. Sophie struggles with english and Dale struggles with random vocabulary in the Book of Mormon like we all do so me and sister Hayes have requested teaching materials and are starting an english class this week :D Any ideas for teaching?

We are having just beautiful weather here in edmonton right now, sunny and warm! Me and the companions have been jogging still every morning and we are now officially up to running 5km! Our goal for this upcoming transfer is to run 10km by the end.... it's possible right? i've noticed that although you would think that missions are all about memorizing the scriptures that it's very important to take care of yourself. i know on days that i've excersized that i feel so much better and am able to be my best missionary self possible!

District Meeting was fun this week, we had a surprise visit from our Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Campbell! They had some great words of advice to us when it came to the concerns we had in the area. I'm so greatful for our mission leadership they are so wonderful! One of the concerns we had in our are was a women that has been given two months to live and has requested to be baptized. unfortunately she is not able to be fully immersed under water so what do you do? Unfortunately there is no way around that. I'm greatful for the knowledge that i have of the plan of salvation and to know that our weaknesses or things that are not fair in this life will be made up through the atonement. Life doesn't end after this life people! haha

Our weekend was fun, we were able to take two of our investigators to baptisms. Peter went and so did Dale and Sophie as i mentioned. They loved it! and the spirit was very strong. it's so important for an investigator to see a baptism before they are baptized! I also was asked to share my testimony on joseph smith while the young girl was getting changed and i was nervous at first but i love having the opportunity to share something that has changed my life!

Saturday we were able to help the ward out with a service project. we mett at kinsmen park down town edmonton along the river and cleaned it up by collecting garbage. we then of course chatted while eating Brother Freemans yummy bbq. I wish it was summer all year round!!! I love bbq....Sunday was great too because i was asked to speak! The topic of my talk was Friendship and it's role in the Gospel. I thought a lot about this topic and got a little emotional. Friendship is always something i've struggled with in my life, it's hard to make good friends but i my topic down to three points - first that we need to know who we are and love ourselves before we are able to be good friends, second that in our baptismal covenant we actually promise to be friends and develop friendships in this life through service and third that our heavenly father and jesus christ are our BEST friends. They are perfectly patient and loving and we should feel comfortable in building relationships with them. I then shared an experience about how i mett one of my best friends of all time, Christina Nelson, and how i was so nervous but wanted friends so bad at byu that i litterally sat next to her in physics class and asked "do you like to party" she said yes and the rest is history... hahaha

well i'm working hard and loving every minute of it. i love serving the lord and being apart of people's lives! Remember that most people only need an invitation, the gospel of jesus christ really does "sell it's self ! " :P

Love you all!!

Sister Wotherspoon

Hey!

Hello my friends!

It's another beautiful day in Edmonton! The sun is shinning, people are out riding bikes and going for walks with family and the best part is there's no snow in sight! haha well it's been an exciting time here in the Kingsway YSA ward!! The missionary work has been so busy! we are working with many people who are really investigating the church and we do everything we can to teach, support them and answer their questions! We currently have six people who have set a date for baptism in the next two months and we are so excited for them to receive those blessings in their life!

On the other hand we have also lost some good friends. Something i've really learned this week is how much i love people even if they arn't open to learning about our church! There are so many wonderful people in this world because they are all God's children and i really feel like everyone goes at their own pace and yet Heavenly Father never gives up on us! so awesome.... i just love serving people and getting to know them for who they really are. i can't help but think sometime though that people just see the missionary tag but that's ok! if that's what it takes :P haha just kidding!

Happy Mothers Day to everyone! it was my favourite mothers day ever and i bett you can guess why.... sunday i got to skype with my family including my nana and grandpa harvey! it was amazing! it feels like i've been out on the mission for years yet like no time has passed at all! the family is doing good and parker is sure growing! so much has changed back home but i think that's great because i'm sure changing too ... i've learned so much! i would say the biggest lesson so far is just to be humble! to know of your role as the instrument of god and letting him direct you through the spirit instead of just doing everything by logic... it's amazing the miracles that have happened because of that decision to be humble, me and my companions are so insync*! haha when we are all choosing to be humble.

well i've heard so much has been going on in the world with the royal wedding and tornados and everything it's so weird to really have no idea what is happening in the world!

Some fun random things:

i ate moose! for the first time every this week thanks to the Stonehawkers for that crazy experience. it's always been a goal of mine in life to see a moose..... and i guess i have now, it was just dead and bbq'd with bbq sauce haha o my.... only in cananda eh? thanks to my talents of persuasion i have acheived my goal and officially have a supper appointment for every night in the month of may. it's sounds crazy but i just love meeting with members of the church! i really feel that it's through meeting and eating with the members that we get to know them and gain their trust to teach their friends and give us referals. dinner apointments are definitely some of the most fun times on the mission :D

it's hard to think of crazy fun stories off the top of my head but just so you know we are seeing miracles galore! we had an investigator the other day who had dropped us weeks ago call us back and set up an apointment and come to church... he's been reading the book of mormon and loves it! our investigator who is heading to china for a month let us know, through texting!, that he's still reading the book of mormon and loves it too! i know can you believe it, we have texting now, 2500 texts a month! it's crazy, and yes i'm even more excited that our investigator is still reading the Bof M i know it brings so much peace into our lives.

here's a fun joke that i heard on sunday.... well i think it's funny anyways!

"Laman and Lemuel walk into a bar..... Nephi ducks" haha, it definitely took me a minute to get it but i hope you all enjoy it!

well the mission is doing fantastic, i love my companions so much we get along so great and are having the time of our lives. we got to go to the edmonton temple today and it was fabulous! it feels like forever since i've been and it just gives me such strength and eternal prospective everytime i go! me and the sisters then went to china town and walked around looking at all the cool shops and ate some chinese food of course for lunch! it was amazingly delicious but i probably won't be eating dinner if you know what i mean! crazy enough we've been running every morning now which is so fun! the sun rises before 6am now and sets at 10pm so it's so nice out when we go running at 6:15am. we are up to 3.6 km and hope to run 5k by the end of the transfer! love it! sister wilcox only has 3 more weeks left on the mission and becuase she's been my companion this whole time i keep thinking that i'm going home too hahaha but no.... i'm almost three months in it's crazy!

I hope everyone is doing well and please feel free to write me anytime! i respond very quickly and love to hear the exciting things that are going on in your lives, to all those who are writing me your letter is in the mail ;)

love to all!

sister wotherspoon