Hello Everyone!

Edmonton has finally fully melted and it's fabulous! People definitely are happier and more willing to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ when the sun is shinning! :D well i hope everyone had a spiritual easter and i want to thank all those who sent me cards and letters for one of my favourite holidays ever! you know who you are, and you will receive of course my response in the mail soon :D i learned so much about the ressurection of jesus christ this year it's crazy! what a blessing to know we can be perfect and return with heavenly father again.

Well this last week has been really exciting and full of miracles! On wednesday we dropped off sister Burgi at transfer meetings where she went back to the mission home for her last night as a missioanry to be released and sent home! So crazy to think she's already finished her mission and is back on facebook lol Me and sister wilcox were called to stay in the kingsway ysa ward covering all of northern edmonton and sister hayes has joined us! Sister Hayes is from Charleston, South Carolina and has been out on the mission for just over a year. I love her! she's so much fun and we loves the work. This week we hit the ground running and filled our time with lessons and finding activities. We have seen miracles happen since the first hour we started tracting together! So far we've been doing a combination of looking up potentials that other missionaries have tracted into or taught in the past and then just taken the opportunity to speak to anyone we meet! We've been able to set up so many appointments this way and i know that it's a miracle that people are put in our path as we plan ahead where we will be. This work is God's work and as his instruments we are so lucky to be apart of other people's spiritual journeys.

We currently have 8 investigators that we are working with on a daily bases and it's great because it's keeping us busy!! Michelle is our investigator who is working towards a baptism date in may and Hao our new investigator from China is amazing and working towards baptism for june 25th :D Something that i've learned this week is how powerful the spirit is. i always believed that the spirit could change people i mean it changed me and has brought me to my understanding of the gospel and book of mormon but recently i've seen litterally a physical and spiritual change in our investigators from one appointment to the next just because they've opened their heart to the spirit while they've read the book of mormon. One of these is Renee and she is amazing! she has such a sincere desire to learn the truth and i know that it's when we are sincere even if we doubt it that the holy ghost will direct usto truth! i love being a missionary!

Of course doing our missionary thing puts us in lots of awkward or weird situations such as talking to people who's minds are distracted with other substances but that just shows ya that we really are talking to everyone we see. i love that in this church we don't push people or force them to join or even to learn about the gospel of jesus christ! even in the book of mormon the prophets of old have invited us to know for ourselves. how amazing! i know that God loves each of his children because i feel of that love as i serve and meet each person here in the edmonton area. we are so blessed. please pray for missionary opportunities to come to you, everyone is being prepared to receive more happiness in their lives!

i'm sending a request for all those who are reading this blog to write me about how your life is going and any thing else you'd like to share! i want to hear from you and apparnetly you're interested in reading about me! :D

i also would like to request any church music or music that invites the spirit suggestions! we are so desperate since we spend so much time in the car!

i love you all,

sister kara wotherspoon

Bonjour Ma Famille! :D

So today was the busiest week of my mission by far!!!

Tuesday and Wednesday i got to go to a training with my trainer Sister Wilcox because i'm the greenie! sister burgi didn't want to go since it's her last week of the mission anyways so she went out with some other sister missionaries. i got to see the edmonton temple for the first time!!! we mett at the riverbend stake center which is litterally right upagainst the temple. and boy is that temple small! way smaller then ours. but it's beautiful! i got a picture of me and sister wilcox in front of it so i'll add it to the email. are you getting my pictures by the way?

so it was a fabulous training with all the district and zone leaders. i was among the noble and great ones of the mission haha. we did a lot of practices with teaching and teaching with an elder is definitely different! we learned a lot about how to begin teaching and how to explain to investigators what we do and what we expect as missionaries from them such as committments and blessings and the challenges they will face but that god will help them. we also then learn their expectations from the start which clears up the air that's for sure. better at the beginning then three weeks in!

so it has been beautiful weather! it got up to fourteen degrees and as you can see in the picture no snow and sunny and then thursday..... a snow storm! it snowed all day and we got something like 12 cm? it was brutal. it's still cold but the snow is melting slowly again :D no flowers or life at all.... but i did see a huge bunnie the other day! seriously they are the largest rabbits i've ever seen in my life and they are wild! they go white in the winters and brown in the summers and remind me a lot of chucky :D

Because it's sister burgi's last week we have had tons of dinner appointments which is so fun!!! except.... man do i get full super easy and you feel bad not eating desserts so i'm going to have to up my excersize that's for sure! haha

i called the president and asked about getting a french preach my gospel for the three french speaking investigators we have and he told me that i'm not allowed to teach in french at all because it's not my call. only native speakers. so we have to give our invstigators to the two elders from quebec and i'm not going to lie i was very upset... i thought it would be a chance to use my talents but they won't change my call so i have to move on!

we had a lesson with emmanuel and his mother joined in which was amazing! they are both from the congo and speak french and english so i teach them in english and then just correct anything they don't understand in french.... i don't know if that's cheating or not guess it's just hard to let go!

so many miracles happening... and i know it's because you guys have all been praying for me! as of last week we had zero investigators and now we have like eight? it's awesome!!!! we went to a dinner appointment on friday and the girl's brother brought his non member girlfriend and when we were about to share the short spiritual message he was like sisters can you teach the first lesson? we're like ok..... awkward! the girlfriend rene was very surprised but even though she's fiesty she made another appointment, is reading the book of mormon and came to church on sunday!!!

another miracle.... friday is our weekly planning from 10am to 5pm.... very long.... well the castle down elders called us with a potential and an appointment so we went and mett umu! she's from siera lyon (africa) and speaks excellent english! she's super funny and outgoing and is 24years old so she's a new investigator! we have another apponitment with her on tuesday so excited!

Danmar... the weird storey of the week! so this funny guy calls up the temple and asks to be baptized because of what he saw on mormon.org... so we get him as a potential arrange an appointment with him and meet him in his home. he's acting kind of funny though and shaking we just figured he was very nervous. he's 25 and phillipino :P well we teach him and he's super excited to go to church and then asks us how he should tell his actively catholic family, we tell him to pray! haha what else can we say? so he calls us back two days latter and sad day he wants to return the book of mormon. he seemed so awesome but i guess sometimes people just arn't ready for the change to effect their relationships witht heir family. it's understandable. we still pray for him :D

So here's the big news..... we got our transfer call from President Campbell today and..... I'm staying in Kingsway ysa!!!!!! :D:D:D:D i'm so happy i really didn't want to move! i finally know people and so much is happening! also great news is that sister wilcox is staying with me for her last transfer! so fun! i love sister wilcox!!!!!! the only sketchy thing is this.... we are going to be the only tri-companionship again in the mission with sister hayes comming over to be with us. she's currently in innisfail which is east of red dear out in the middle of no where haha. she's been out on her mission for 13 months and has served with sister wilcox in the past for 4months....so cool! she's from south carolina and has never served in a ysa ward yet! i'm excited to meet her and will pick her up on wednesday. i hope this tri-companionship will go better.

so on the mission you "kill" off your companion if you are with them on their last transfer so so far i will have killed sister burgi and then sister wilcox....haha it's silly but then if sister hayes stays with me till the end of her mission which would be five months and is super likely then i will have killed off ALL of my companions haha so weird! we have two new sisters comming in to the mission on wednesday i hope they are cool :D

well i love you all and it sounds like hockey is goingi awesome. our memeber trevor glover is keeping me updated with hockey kind of. i guess they won their two games against the blackhawks? dad where's the update!!!!!! mom that's so great about your meeting in the temples... i laughed how you have to practiced folding towels, so funny! are you the youngest one who works there? well i love you all and am really loving my mission!!!!!!!! i'm learning so much and can't believe i have less then 16 months left haha. i sent a card to dad in the mail for his birthday i hope it was awesome! :D

love you love you love you and miss you guys tons!!!

sister kara wotherspoon

p.s. here are some pictures o and sorry if my emails are too long i can shorten them if ya want :D

picture :

1: me with my second family the freemans! brother freeman is in the bishopric in the kingsway ward and they've had us over three times now since i've been here! they are so awesome and the kids are amazing (french immersion of course! )

2: me and sister burgi with some of the ysa people! they had us over for lunch on sunday and one of the guys is chris harker(the guy hugging the other guy lol) who actually was in my ward at byu when we lived at king henry, do you recognize him sam and kyle?

3. me with laurenne and sister dougherty, laurenne is in our ward and sister dougherty is her mom and she's from scotland! i love her accent and funny missionary stories from when she served in california.

Hello from Edmonton, the snow is melting!!!‏

Hello Everyone,

This week in Edmonton has been a lot of fun to say the least and my prayers have finally been answered yes... the snow is melting! i saw grass for the first time this week, ok it was dead, but still! it's a miracle! the lawns are still covered with three feet of snow but all the side walks and road are pretty much clear! hallelujah! Along with that the weather is fabulous.... i noticed the sun as we were standing at someone's door waiting for them to answer as the sun warmed the back of my calves, it was glorious! i'm so jealous to hear that the family has been in pheonix and am really thinking of moving there after finishing school, i was not made for the cold! haha

Anywho, some fun things that happened this week...

So i told you all about our investigator Tim... we knocked on his door looking for someone else but he ended up taking the lessons too! He cancelled our second appointment and when we went back for our rescheduled appointment he was stoned... so that was awkward and i am totally at a loss of what to do! i feel super uncomfortable to be at his place but apparently the other sisters say teaching people on drugs is normal? bizarre! i'll just keep praying...

Everything ysa ward wise has been fun we were called in to go down to the institute campus this week and run "waffle wednesday" where the missionaries make and serve waffles for whoever wants them from 11am to 1pm and it was super fun. i mett a lot of cool people but dang having five waffle makers going at once is hectic! definitely something i will never forget :P

This week we had a dinner appointment which is greatly appreciated for all of you who don't have the missionaries over very often it is so hard to not have dinner appointments regularly, money wise and time wise! so we went over to lanny and tara's place and they were such a sweet young newly married couple. lanny has recently joined the church and sister burgi was apart of his teaching process! we've been teaching the memebers this week the importance and blessings of prophets and how without prophets we would not have the church of jesus christ of latter day saints today! The Book of Mormon and Bible testify that it's through prophets the Lord and God do his work on earth and i know that our church has the living prophet on the earth today President Thomas S. Monson!!!

District Meeting this thursday was fun, i made my home made eatmore bars for Elder Nichols (from bay area california) 20th Birthday! They loved them and were gone in seconds! we went to tony romas after for lunch which seems to be the elder's favourite haha it's just so nice to socialize for a bit and talk about randomness!

My favourite part of this week however was... GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! It was amazing to say the least. this year i decided to go with a question in mind and prayed everyday that i would be prepared to hear the voice of the prophets seers and revelators. My question was based on how i could help others and myself gain a stronger testimony. It's something that we all need right that personal testimony but how do i as a missionary develop it and help others to develop that personal witness? I LOVED the talks from Elder Bednar about how revelation comes like light from a light switch or sometimes as the sun rise, gradual! i also loved the talk from a member of the seventy talking about BECOMING a saint rather than doing things that saints would do. To be honest i really felt like all the talks were for me but i know they can apply to everyone on the earth too hehehe. I encourage you if you missed any of the sessions to go on to lds.org and watch them, you will never be the same, the spirit is so powerful!

So other than that i'm loving spring... looking forward to easter! i only have i think 16 more days till transfers and my companion sister burgi will be leaving us. because i'm so new i'll proabably be staying in the ysa ward which is good news for me because i'm finding out that change for me is really stressful! haha well stay strong everyone and let us be like christ and invite all around us to hear his message at church! thanks for being so supportive and i've received many letters and emails of love! i just found out that anyone can email me but i'll have to write those who arn't family members which works out. keep updating the blog and let me know if you get my letters and pictures! :D

love you all!

love sister wotherspoon

Hello Everyone from the still frozen land of Edmonton!!

This week has been intense and busy which is great of course because it keeps me out of trouble ! :P Well this week we had zone conference, my first one on the mission! All the missionaries from the Edmonton North Zone gathered at the church building and heard from our Mission President, President Campbell and his wife, also from our Assistants to the President and Zone Leaders. They were all magnificant and really inspirational! They talked a lot about the importance of using the atonement daily! It's only through the atonement that we are able to be humble and see others and ourselves as children of God and then through the holy ghost be worthy of guidence to know of what we need to do to help others or ourselves progress in this life. I know this is true! Lucky for me i really enjoy talking to people ont he street, at the door, in the grocery store or where-ever!! but sometimes i get down on myself for not being knowledgable enough or creative enough or have enough energy to do all the things that are on our daily list! I know that if i'm doing all the i can and pushing myself that the savior can makeup for my weaknesses and boy is that a relief! the atonement is there for everyone! use it!!!

We also learned about the importance of including the members in the missionary work and teaching them short lessons and asking for referals. I never really liked when the missionaries did this to me but wow being a missioanry puts it into a different light! Our mission president has promised all of us that each member of the church knows someone who God is preparing to ACCEPT the gospel of jesus christ because we are his hands! That really gave me a lot of courage to start asking the members for their help. We asked 11 members this week and no referals yet but i keep praying that the members will have faith in themselves to just invite their friends to activities and to church. Remember what i learned last week in stake conference? The success in missionary work comes in extending invitations! so i encourage all of you to invite others to receive to gospel, the good news of christ! :D Sister Campbel spoke about getting proper relaxation time and sleep, she suggested doing the yoga pose where you just lie on your bed or the floor and relax every muscel in your body as if you were dead and picture yourself on the beach.... haha it works!!!! i've never had a hard time sleeping untill on the mission, it's either from all the stress or sleeping with someone else in the room, either way i'm sleeping a lot better!

Now that you know i'm sleeping... haha a great miracle we saw this week was that 8 of our 10 less actives we've been meeting with came to church yesterday for the first time in months if not years! These are all young single adults remember and are generally 18 to 29 years old so a lot of them have either been struggling with being a new convert or wish they knew more people in the ward and get really nervous. It truely was a big thing for many of them to come back afraid of the attention but every one of them really felt the spirit in our meetings and were reunited with good friends or mett people in the wards. I am so greatful for the miracles of strength to these people that i've seen on my mission. They are so wonderful and i know the ward benefits greatly from their testimonies and special spirits they bring to the meetings! We need everyone in our church, everyone is equal that's for sure.

My last thought is from the movie we watched last night with members and it's from the new Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. The movie was showing on temple square down in Salt Lake for years and is now finally on dvd! this movie is amazing and truely shows joseph smith for the remarkable prophet he was and is! We put the movie on for others to gain excitement in sharing the gospel but to be honest it renewed my sense of desire to be on the mission so much! I know joseph smith was a prophet there is no way this church would exist and still grow with members, missionaries and temples if it wasn't! I love the ending phrase in the movie " should we not go on in such great a cause?!" such a great question to really get you thinking.... if you havn't seen the movie please do it will change your life :D

Well everything else here in edmonton is doing great, the mission is moving forward and we are working really hard, thank you for all your letters, emails and prayers of support they give me so much strength and i'm deeply thankful! I pray everyday that we will come accross those who are ready to accept the gospel and.... that the snow will melt! haha Nana your email about the flowers being out made me really appreciate british columbia springs! no flowers here yet, apparently they don't come till may so i'll have to wait till then. im going to go and print off some pictures today at walmart so i'll send them home today ! hope you are getting my mail :D

miss you and love you all so much!

love sister wotherspoon