White-Washing Whitby!

October 14, 2014

Before I tell you about my new area, I wanted to tell you about my new companion, Sister Duran. Sister Duran is from the Philippines, she is 21 years old, and is hilarious! She is so bold with everything that she does and has such a strong testimony of the church.  Her parents were converts to the church and she is the first in her family to serve a mission! I just love her to death! J  I knew Sister Duran from my first area in London because we were once in the same district funny enough. I am so grateful that we both white-washed into Whitby together. We make the best companionship and I know we are going to kill it here in Whitby!

Oh blessed Whitby! I LOVE IT HERE! The population of Whitby is 125,000 and Oshawa is 157,000. It is so cute here! We are right along a lake and it is really quite chilly here. I am living in the basement of a Muslim's family's home. They are really nice and let us come up once a week at night and do our laundry. After we dropped off our luggage, we went straight to work.

The first thing we did was visit a less active lady named Cavell Clarke. When we first went and visited her, she was a bit cranky ha. She kept saying, "There is nothing you can do to get me to church! I am not going back." We talked with her, made her laugh, and even sang for her! In the end she finally said, "Okay I'll make you a deal..." and, drum roll…... She came to church on Sunday!  She loves us so much and is just the funniest, old, cranky lady I have ever met. Yes she's stubborn but we make her laugh and smile and we are getting her back in the gospel! We will do whatever it takes J even if we put on mustaches and take pictures, ha-ha!

My new companion, Sister Duran and Sister Nethercott....
The sweetest old lady ever!!

The next day we went and visited an elderly woman named Sister Nethercott. She is originally from England and she showed us pictures and told us that she was one of the first converts in her area and helped create a ward!  How cool is that.  She is 90 years old and is just the sweetest, quiet old lady. Ah, I love her!  We went back on Saturday and did yard work for her and will do it every week for her. When it snows (which is probably soon) we'll shovel her driveway.

Since Sister Duran and I white-washed, we  knew we needed to meet our investigators asap! The one I would love to talk about is Johan Muntz, he is 32 years old and has always lived in Canada. He got contacted by missionaries when he went to Toronto and knew he needed to talk to missionaries. He has been getting taught for the past 3 weeks and so far loves the gospel. He smokes unfortunately, but hopefully we have that taken care of that! We taught him the Quit Smoking Program and he committed to a quit date for October 25th! The spirit was so strong when we bore our testimonies to him. He is amazing and loves us! I am so excited to keep teaching Johan! I just love him!

Sister Duran and I had zone council last Friday and we did a musical number in front of 20-30 missionaries! We sang, I Know That my Redeemer Lives. It was an incredible, spiritual experience, it was awesome!

On Saturday we had A Day in the Life of a Missionary! What it means is that members follow us all day and take pictures of us doing missionary things and put it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Our whole mission did this because of the Book of Mormon play that was going on in Toronto. We wanted the public to know exactly what missionaries do every day. We did the service for Sister Nethercott, tracted lots of areas, went and visited Cavell, taught a HUGE Jamaican part member family in the ward, and got so many referrals and visited them! It was truly a day of miracles and I saw the Lord's hand in everything.

One thing that I have been able to experience here is culture. YES. The closer I get to Toronto, the more diversity and culture I see and hear.  It's amazing!  I love it so much! Heavenly Father sent me to Canada speaking English, but I am so excited to learn many ways to speak to people from across the world. I understand the Patua Jamaican language! It was hilarious! This older Jamaican lady, from the part member family talked in Patua super-fast and I understood it!  Everyone freaked out and was giving me high fives. AH. I love Jamaicans! We ate dinner with the Kalala family (from Congo, Africa) in our ward for Thanksgiving yesterday and they are French! Now how many people can say that they had a French Thanksgiving?! It was so fun to pull out the French I learned in high school years ago and be able to laugh, talk, and listen to it! I am trying to learn how to introduce myself in Chinese, Japanese, Patua, French, Arabic, German, and more! I LOVE CANADA.

Yesterday (Monday) was Thanksgiving in Canada! I reread Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk from last general conference 'Grateful in Any Circumstances'.  I have really learned to be truly grateful on my mission. I have been through so many experiences on my mission so far, that I often take a moment to pray and thank my Heavenly Father for all that he has given me. What I have learned is that "instead of being thankful for things, we [need to] focus on being thankful in our circumstances, whatever they may be." I know that is true. We are truly SO blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel in our lives and how much comfort and peace we gain from it! I have seen that every day in my live since I have been a missionary. When I talk to people and share the gospel with them, I feel what others feel. It's incredible to see how Heavenly Father sees each of his precious children through my eyes. Oh how blessed we are to be members for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I know that when we develop a spirit of gratitude, it will bring us true joy and so much happiness. I love what President Uchtdorf said: "Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges." BE GRATEFUL! Have an attitude of gratitude J

I am super excited to serve here in Whitby.  Many miracles are going to come and I am so excited! I love Whitby and Oshawa so much. The members and people are amazing here. I am so grateful Sister Duran and I white-washed into this area. I am so excited to keep pressing the work forward as His servant. The church is true!  I have never relied on the Savior more in my life then now. As I have prayed countless times each day, read from my scriptures daily, and fasted... I am coming closer and closer to Christ every day.  I invite each of you to write down one thing you are grateful for each day. Pray about it. Tell Heavenly Father what you are grateful for daily. He is our Father and he wants to hear from us often because he loves us more than we can imagine.

I will be forever grateful for……

This opportunity to serve the Lord!

The inspired leaders I’ve learned from.

The atonement of our Savior and Redeemer.

The Book of Mormon; that book is incredible J

Becoming a missionary rather than just serving a mission!

Until next time...

Sister Robb