FIRST TRANSFER

Hello everyone I hope that you all had a wonderful week full of miracles! 

This week was so great for us! We had amazing lessons with Charlie, our investigator, and he is getting baptized! He is doing so great! He has been 12 days smoke free! He is so sweet we were doing service for him one day and he was like, "You girls you know what you are? You are Charlies Angles!" We felt so happy and so touched that he feels that way. We decorated for Christmas with him and it was so fun! We had an amazing lesson with the Raymond family on Wednesday and it was just such a great lesson! They came to church on Sunday! The whole family! It was so amazing! 

We had so many great things happen to us this week! We were given a referral from the ward and it was a part member family and we visited them and they came to church! They said that they will be coming regularly now! It was so great on Sunday we were surrounded by the people we teach it was amazing! To look around the chapel and see all the wonderful people we teach sitting by us! I had an amazing last Sunday in Cornwall! I am being Transferred. I am going to Riverside Ottawa so I am still in English and I am still in Ontario. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone. But I know that the Lord needs me in Ottawa. 

Love Sister Gonzalez 

NINE investigators!

Doing service with the Young Women

Hello everyone, I hope all is well. This week was just so amazing! We had our transfer calls on Saturday and we are both staying which we both knew was going to happen since sister Rawlings is still being trained. So we are on transfer two or phase two haha! Our district is changing so much though! We are now meeting in an even father location and we had two new teams of missionaries in our district. This week was so great the Lord has been really blessing us and we had 2 new investigators this week! and 9 of our investigators have baptismal dates! The Lord has really prepared His people it is so amazing to see that the field truly is white and ready to harvest! I love being part of the work of salvation and seeing how i truly am just an instrument in the Lords hands! I feel like Ammon when he is boasting about how great the Lord is to His people!

We had some really amazing lessons this week with our investigators and they are all just so great! On Wednesday we went and had a lesson with Charles and we were waiting for our chaperon and we were talking to him outside and he was with a neighbor. And so we go up and talk with them a bit and then our chaperon arrives and we asked his neighbor, Shane if he wanted to join us  and he was like ya what are we doing and we were like we are going to teach a message about Jesus Christ and His Gospel and he was like sure I would love to so we taught them the Restoration and invited both of them to be baptized and they said yes! And when we gave Shane a Book of Mormon his face just lit up! it was such an amazing experience and while we were teaching Shane was like I have always wanted to know more about God I just didnt know where to find it. So what it says in D&C is so true people are only kept form the truth because they know not where to find it. We also helped with young women's and it was the "amazing race" it was really fun and the Raymond girls came out to the activity and their mom stayed and did family history! They are such a great family! On Satruday we did service with the ward and we went to clean up a park and that was really fun but it was sad to see how much people litter. Two of the Raymods came out and helped it was so great to see them there! Then the Raymonds and Charles came out to church so that was so great! I love being a missionary so much! I love helping people and teaching them the Gospel! I hope everyone has a safe and happy week and that they eat lots of candy hahahah!

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez

The Lord's Blessings

Hello everyone, I hope everyone had a great week! I cant believe its Monday already! Anyways this week was so amazing! We have 7 new investigators! We have a whole family the Raymond's and they are just so ready for the Gospel! they were a media referral and when we met them they told us that they had been looking into the church for a year! They went to Palmyra to go watch "meet the Mormons" and they went to the sacred grove and everything! it was so amazing to go and teach them! The Lord truly is preparing His children! And the best part is that they came to Church! We have another Investigator Charlie we met him while on our way to visit someone who lives in his building but they weren't home but we felt that we should go talk to him and we did. we set up an appointment with and we had a great lesson with him and we invited him to church and he said he would come if he could get a ride so we got him a ride and he was there on Sunday and he was in a nice suit and tie and he really enjoyed church and said that he would come back! Also he knew some members of our ward! So we had five investigators at church! It was such a blessing to see all of them come to church and have a spiritual experience!

my new winter coat :)

Our other two investigators are related to Tammy one of the new investigators that we got last week one of them is her daughter and one is her sons girl friend. I didn't meet them because I was on exchanges in Lasalle but Sister Rawlings said that it was a great lesson and that they are also so ready for the Gospel in their lives! We had exchanges on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday it was a really strange exchange but it was so great I learned so much. On Monday we went to Montreal and checked the mission office to see if they had any nice winter coats they didn't so we went to a store and we found some really nice winter coats that I will be buried in because they were so expensive! hahah! But then we split off and I went with Sister Alvarez to go teach a lesson and it was my first Spanish lesson! We slept over at the STLs apartment and we then went to zone training meeting. We had Interviews with President Patrick which went well. Then after Zone training we went and got Poutine!  We went to this Greek place that I had never been to before but some of the other missionaries recommended it and it was the best poutine that I have ever had! It was so great because sister Rios and Sister Heninger were on exchanges together so they came with us so that was fun! Then we split off and Sister Rawlings went back to Cornwall and I went to Lasalle and we had a great exchange! then on Wednesday afternoon we drove back to Cornwall. It was such a great week the Lord has been blessing us so much!

 

Love sister Gonzalez

General Conference

Hello everybody I hope all is going well and that you were all able to watch General Conference! It is truly a blessing we get to gather as a church and hear the word of God. How blessed we are to live in these latter days and that all over the world we can listen or watch in our own language! What did everybody think about some of  the members of the quorum of the seventy speaking in their native languages? I loved it! I think it just showed that it is a world wide church and that God loves all His children. Some of the themes that I picked up on were : The Sacrament is Holy treat it as such, have a testimony of prophets especially the Prophet Joseph Smith, Seek the Savior learn of Him and His character become more like Him. Get out of Babylon and not just say it but do it. I loved Elder Hollands talk about helping the poor and the needy and how we should always give no matter what. I loved Elder Bednars talk about why we share the gospel it was such a great talk! We had a lot of less active members come to conference! It was so great to see them come out to church! One of the less active members we had been teaching for a few weeks said he would come to General Conference and he did! And when we went and talked to him he was like I felt that it was time to come back! Ah what a miracle! It was also so great to see Jennifer there! She is so great she comes out to all the activities and she always comes to conference and she stays for all of the sessions! Jennifer is just such a great example diligence.  This week was pretty good. We had some pretty good lesson and we are just working hard and trying to find people and help them. We had some really great experiences contacting and we have some lessons set up from passing by formers! We are doing pretty well and we are working really hard! I am just so tired all the time but its great because you know you put in your all. Yesterday when we were at home making lunch it was a bit dim but I didnt really notice it was dark until Sister Rawlings turned on the light and I thought that is like the Gospel people dont even really notice that they are sitting in darkness until some one turns on the light and we are just so committed to helping people find the light of the Gospel so they will no longer be in darkness. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

Love Sister Gonzalez 

Funny moment this week: We were street contacting this guy and we were being attacked by lady bugs! Well on the bright side we have a return appointment and we gave him a Book of Mormon! so that was great! Also we were talking with a member and she was telling us how her grandma could cure anything even warts and how her husband had a wart and she told him to go find a white horse and to go to the corner of the field and to say I wish my wart on the back of that white horse and how it worked but it was just so funny how she told this story! 

Double Whammy

So much happened this week! The beginning of the week was a bit sad because sister Heninger was leaving and it is sad to see your companions go but I was super excited to get my new companion! Her name is Sister Rawlings and she is from Rexburg Idaho! She is so sweet and super enthusiastic for the work! And it turns out that she had read my blog before she came so that was really cool! On Wednesday was my first time driving in Montreal! It was so stressful! Then we got to the mission office and we were there super early! Because they told us to be there at 10:50 and we got there at like 10:15 and our meeting didn't start till 12:30! We were waiting forever! President Patrick gave us a training on how to be a trainer and then all the new missionaries came in and there were 29 new missionaries! That is the biggest group that the CMM has ever had! So to be training the new face of the CMM is a huge responsibility! Then we got our new companions and I really wanted to take Sister Rawlings to get her first poutine but we had to show the Elders from Hawkesburry to the freeway so we couldn't go :( but we will soon. I felt so bad for the Elders because they had to follow me and I had no idea where I was going I was just following the GPS so it was an adventure! Then we got back to Cornwall and we had a lesson and then we went and put Sister Rawlings stuff away and that was at the end of the night.

My trainer (on the right), me, and my trainee (on the left)

We had district meeting the next day and so Hawkesburry and Cornwall are going to Ottawa for when Elder Bruce A Carlson of the seventy comes to visit the mission. So Elder Rangel was explaining why we were going there and he said something like they don't want us because we are brown. So when we were introducing ourselves I was like "Hi I am sister Gonzalez and I am from Utah and my parents are form Guatemala and that is why I am brown" and then Elder Echeverria was like " Hi I am Elder Echerverria and my mom is from the states and my dad is Guatemalan that is why I am half brown." it was so funny! and then Elder Rangel was like no I didn't mean anything by my first comment. hahah it was so funny!  We had some really great lessons! Sister Rawlings is already so great at being a missionary! We had a huge miracle this week we were passing by former investigators and we couldnt find this house but we were determined to find it so we go up to some people to contact them and to ask where this house was and someone tells us where it is so we go and we knock on the door and the lady comes out and is like ya you can come back! So that was amazing! We had such a great week! I love being a missionary so much! I love being here in Cornwall with Sister Rawlings! I am so excited to see what else the Lord has in store for us here!

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez 

Yup, that's frost on the ground!

Hello everyone, I hope that all is going well with every one! I hope everyone is preparing for the best time of the year General Conference! How blessed we are that every six months we get to hear from the Lords prophet and apostles. I hope you are all preparing to hear the inspired messages that we will receive this weekend! This week was so busy and so great! Tuesday one of our members took us out to Morrisburg which is part of our area but is pretty far away so we were able to go do some visits there and it was really great! Wednesday was the Zone conference with Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the seventy. It was so great I learned so much! The conference was an all day thing. So we had lunch and we sat by Elder and Sister Carlson and it was so cool! One of his main themes was that our purpose was to establish Zion where ever we are put. He also told us that we are called to teach not to talk. I thought that that was so powerful and he also taught us to plan in specifics and that when we do that we will see more results. 

Sister Carlson also spoke and she talked to us about how we should always be obedient and how we should never think we are above the rules and how the rules are there for our protection and that they keep us safe and grant us blessings.  Then when we were back in the meeting after lunch they were going to pick some missionaries to bear their testimonies and they were looking right at me so I was like ok I guess I will be picked and I was! I went last and it was a bit nerve racking but it was great. Sister Rawlings was like you were glowing up there! So that was really cool. Then Sister Rawlings was picked to be interviewed by Elder Carlson. So that was really cool! I have now been to the Capital of Canada! It was a bit stressful driving because I had never been there before but it was good because I had the GPS so we got there and back safe and sound.

 

Thursday we had a lesson with Jennifer and she is doing so great! and she is so excited to go to the Temple on Saturday after the women's meeting she was like "Sister Gonzalez when do I get to go to the Temple?" it was so amazing to see how excited she is to go to the Temple! It makes me so happy to see how great Jennifer is doing! On Thursday we had a lesson with Raquel and investigator and we had a member with us and it was just such a great lesson. Our member Sister Gaudet is so awesome she really helped Raquel understand the pre- earth life! Having members present at lesson makes a huge difference! We were having two activities at the church a board game night on Friday and the Womens meeting on Saturday so we wanted Raquel to come out to both of them and we had been trying all day to find her a ride for Friday but it wasnt working out and then finally we got some one but then when we showed up to tell her she had a ride she was like I cant tonight but I can come tomorrow night to the other thing and can my friend come? and we were yes she can come and ok so we got her a ride for Saturday! We had a cake decorating activity before the broad cast and that was super fun and they really enjoyed it and then we gave them a quick Chapel tour with sister Merpaw. It was really great. Raquel seemed to really enjoy the broad cast! She was paying attention the whole time and I think she really liked it! We had some really amazing bus contacting experience on  Saturday was well! We meet a lady how has a cousin that is a member and she is interested in some of the church DVDs!  We have been doing so great I love being a missionary and being here in Cornwall! The Lord is really blessing us and we are just working really hard! Each day I am so tired but I feel so happy knowing that I did my best in trying to help others come unto Christ. 

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez 

Transfers and Greenies

Boys and girls wanna hear a true story? Saturday night I was at a real stressful transfer call. There was stress and anxiety over flowing the apartment when the Zone leaders finally called. He said, "a whole lot will change since we called you last." I am staying in Cornwall and I am training!!!!!!!! AHAHAHH!!!!! I am so humbled by this call to be a trainer. At the same time I am so excited to get a new sister! Sister Heninger is leaving and going to the Mission Office so she will be in Montreal. We were both a bit shocked since she has only been here for two transfers but it is all what the Lord wants.

We had a really good week this week. We were both committed to not stress or think about transfer calls so we got busy and got to work. We had some really great lessons with our less active members and recent converts. We were able to visit Loretta twice this week! She is doing so much better! On Thursday when we visited her we had a member with us that she was really close with and after we said the closing prayer she walked us to the door and was like, "thank you for loving me so much." I just felt so happy to know that she does feel our love for her and that we are making a difference in her life. Loretta is making so much progress.

We tried Bison burgers on Monday. We don't like Bison. I don't know what inspired us to buy/try them but we did and it was weird. Then, later on in the week, we made Poutine because most gravies have gluten in them we had to make a gluten free gravy to make our poutine and it tasted legit. So I can make Poutine for you when I get home :) On Saturday we went to kirkland to go to Lasalle to go do service with the stake. We had to wake up at 5:00 to get there on time. It felt like I was working at Life Touch again hahah. But we got to see the beautiful Canadian sunrise. Then we went and collected cans for the food drive; it was really fun and we got to speak French! Sunday we visited so many people so sister Heninger could say bye. It was a really good day. That's basically all that happened this week but it was a really good week! I am grateful that I get to stay in Cornwall for another two transfers! I am so excited for Wednesday to go get my greenie!

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez 

 

Funny moment this week; We went out on two trips to collect food and the second time took longer so everyone was really worried that we were gone for so long so when we came back the Zone leaders were like Hermanas what happened where did you go? Did you go back to Cornwall and take a nap and then come back? hahah it was pretty funny.  Also I was speaking French to this lady and she calls her son and is like "tradusca me mijo por que no le entiendo nada" hahah I felt really bad I was like man my French must be awful! But I was able to speak to her in Spanish which was good.

Succcess!

This week was such a good week! We have a new investigator! His name is Johnny! We had met him at a member's home when we accidentally crashed her Canada Day party! Hahaha! We had been trying to get in contact with him for a month and we finally had a lesson with him and it went so well! He accepted the Book of Mormon and said that he would read it! He also had a 13 year old daughter that he wants involved! So that was so amazing! We were passing by a less active member that we haven't seen for a month and her daughter answered the door and she was having a bible study with the Jehovah's witnesses and we crashed their study hahaha! We stayed and talked to the Jehovahs a bit and then her kids stared to cry and she had a friend over and her kids were crying too so the Jehovahs left. We don't mind crying children, though, so we took the opportunity to stay and talk with them and we might have a potential for her friend!  They also noticed that the Jehovahs didn't pray when they left and that they never pray with them and I thought that that was cool that they were able to see a difference between us and the Jehovahs. We had some really great lessons this week! I gave the training this week in district meeting! We have a new Elder in our district and he is from Guatemala and Texas so that is really cool he is really funny! I love our district it is so awesome!

We had to go to Montreal to go get our car fixed and we had to be there at 8 am on Friday so we had a sleep over with the sister training leaders; that was fun! It was also cool being back at a dealer ;) but that just killed us with our kliks! We had a crazy weekend so we are short on our kliks this month so we were trying to use them wisely and then we are trying to go do service at the less active members house and we cant find it and we get super lost and we waste a ton of kliks and I had left our phone at home and so we go back to get the phone and cancel and I am feeling really sick like my stomach hurts and my head hurts and I just feel really bad so we stay in for a bit so I can take a nap and feel better. So later on that night we catch a bus to go visit a less active member and so we catch her just as she is leaving so we talk to her for a few minutes and then we go back to get on the bus because it will take forever to get back home using the bus. So then we are walking back to the bus stop and this guy form his open window starts talking to us and like hitting on us it was really funny and we just keep on walking. So while we are waiting at the bus stop this lady who is totally drunk asks us if we have a light we tell her no and she leaves and then she come back and asks if she can borrow our phone so we let her make a call and then the person she trying to call doesn't answer. So she asks us if we have an extra bus ticket we tell her we don't so she leaves and then we see our bus so we go get on it and this guy gets on it as well. So this guy comes and sits down next to sister Heninger and he gives her his number and was like you look like someone I could engage in conversation with! Then he got off the bus. So we are going to call him and engage in conversation about Jesus Christ! Sunday was a good day I love going to Church and being with our members!

 

This week was so good! The Lord has been really blessing us here in Cornwall! 

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez 

Arret

I made a full blown homemade Guatemalan meal for my companion and me!

This week was pretty good. We had a great week teaching our recent converts/ less active members so that was great! By the time Monday rolls around I can never remember what I did during the week! Haha! :) We went to the soup kitchen this week and it was great! So many people were asking us questions about who we are and what we do as missionaries; it was so great! On Sunday the Mahafees, a senior couple who severed here in Cornwall, came up for a visit and it was great! We got some people out to church to see them! We have been looking for people to teach and we had some really great things happen. We had lunch with Sister Mcdonell after district meeting and we asked her if she knew anyone we could teach. She was like, "Not off the top of my head". Later in the week at church, though, she told us she thought of someone and that she was going to invite her to the ward picnic! Tthat was a huge miracle!

I thought this chocolate's wrapper was pretty funny!

We went knocking on this street that the Hynes helped us find and we found this guy, Kyle, and he remembered some missionaries from like 5 years ago! Hopefully something good comes out of that! Yesterday was the first time someone ever yelled at us while knocking! Haha, boy, that was an experience. A good lesson in having charity and loving those that despise you. This week I really learned the importance of dating/marrying someone who is a member. While there are great people out there who aren't members, dating/marrying someone who doesn't have the same beliefs as you is just something that hardly works out well and a lot of the time they end up taking you away from the church. This week I really felt that it is in the small and simple things that great things come to pass. Missionary work is just so amazing, it can be hard but it is so worth it.

 

Love, Sister Gonzalez

Baptism

Jennifer got baptized on Saturday! It was so amazing; it was such a beautiful service! SO many of the members came to show their love and support for her! She had to be baptized twice because Bishop Hynes didn't say her complete name! It was so amazing to see her get baptized, though! Sister Heninger and I did a musical number for her baptism! I sang in front of people, aaaaand it wasn't my usual whisper singing either! I actually sang! I was so nervous; I was praying that people would feel the spirit and not pay attention to how I can't sing and just feel the Spirit! They all said we did a good job and I think they were mainly listening to Sister Heninger; she has the voice of an angle:) We sang a melody thay was the music of "come thou fountain of every blessing" but we sang the lyrics to "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and then at the end the song changed to "If you could hie to Kolob". It was really cool.

This week we mainly focused on Jennifer and making sure that she was ready and that there would be no opposition. It was funny, on Friday morning I was thinking "hey this week has gone really smoothly for Jennifer" and then we get a call during weekly planning from her sister and she was like, "Why is Jennifer getting baptized?" We explained to her why Jennifer was getting baptized and that it was her choice, that she was interviewed before hand, and that baptism was free. That seemed to calm her down but I was a bit worried that she would try and convince Jennifer to not get baptized but she didn't so it all worked out well :)

 

On Wednesday, at district study, they had a cake for me! Elder Mena made it for me and it was really good and it was gluten free so that was good. It was super sweet of the Elders to do that for me! We had some really amazing visits with Brother Holland from the stake high council with some of our less active members it was really awesome we always have really good lessons when brother Holland comes down. We did some knocking this week and we found some potentials so we are going to follow up on that this week. We did service at the Agape center at the food bank and the guy that was volunteering with us did not want to talk to us! It was so awkward we would ask him questions and he would like give us one word responses it was bad! That is all that happened this week! We had a great week:) 

 

Love Sister Gonzalez 

 

Funny moments this week: We were visiting this family and the daughter was telling us that she could read minds and it was just so funny i couldn't control myself I started laughing! I felt terrible but it was just to funny.

Whelp, I Turned 20!

 First off, one of our investigators is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so happy that she is getting baptized! When the scriptures say that your heart will be full of joy by bringing someone unto Christ they aren't lying! My heart is so full of joy! She had her interview on Tuesday and she was deemed as worthy and ready for baptism and we set up her program on Saturday!! We are really hoping for a large turn out for her baptism! I really cant wait till Saturday! We had exchanges and the sisters who came to pick up Sister Heninger got stuck in traffic. They got there late so we had a sleep over with them which was super fun! Then we had exchanges and the amazing Sister Cutler bought me tacos for my birthday! It was so sweet of her! Then we slept over at their house and went to zone training meeting on Friday. It was an amazing training, they really focused on how we need to teach by the Spirit and there is this quote from "how to be a Preach my gospel missionary" by Elder Bednar that says that if you aren't teaching by the spirit you are just talking to yourself in front of an investigator. It's super powerful! They also taught about how we need to use the Book of Mormon in our teaching and how essential it is to conversion. 

The Bradys invited us over for the "American rebellion", which is what they call the Fourth of July hahaha!  Now, on to my birthday celebrations! On Saturday we went out with the money Mom and Dad gave me. We went to Schnitzels and had an entire gluten free meal! It was really delicious! I opened my presents in the morning in my pjs and I loved everything I got! Thank you so much for everything! On Sunday everyone in the ward was wishing me a happy birthday and I just felt some much love from the members here in Cornwall! I am so blessed that I got to celebrate my birthday here! I bore my testimony about how back home I would have had an existential crisis on my birthday but since I am on the mission and doing the Lords work I am ok and how much I love being a missionary. At church sister Hynes was like, "Sister, stop by my house after church", so we did. She gave me the flowers that you sent me and I almost cried! I was so happy and it was such an amazing surprise! Then we went and had my birthday dinner at Sister Sheedy's house and she made me lasagna and gluten free chocolate cupcakes! It was so amazing! Her daughter Erin bought my flowers and she picked them because of the colors of clothes I wear! It was super sweet of her! Then tonight the Hynes are having us over to celebrate my birthday! 

I had an amazing birthday and I just felt so loved! I know that there is nothing better than being a missionary and dedicating my entire 20th year of life to being a representative of the Lord is the best thing that I could be doing! I love the Lord and I love serving Him!

Love, Sister Gonzalez