Have an Attitude of Gratitude

Hello!  I am in Ajax now (otherwise known as "Jam'Ajax" because of the Jamaicans) and I love it so much! Ajax is only a 20-30 minute drive west from Whitby and Oshawa, which was my last area. I am with Sister Poettcker. We both knew of each other since we were in the MTC together and have played sports on preparation days with each other last transfer.  She is from Alberta, Canada and is the youngest of 10 kids! Crazy! She loves sports just like me and plays rugby and basketball. She is very shy is what I have learned, so that has been interesting, but she has a sweet heart.  I am in another car area so that is nice, but to be honest I miss being in a bus area!  I feel like the cars tend to distance you sometimes from the people within your area. That's why I told Sister Poettcker that we are going to buy bus ticket stubs this week and go bus contacting during rush hour one day!  She doesn't like the idea of that and is scared of lots of people, but I told her, “we need to teach more people!”  We will also try singing while we contact this week.  It should be fun and I hope to have some fun, rewarding stories next week to share. J

‪When I arrived in Ajax they only had 2 investigators. That night when I got here, one called and dropped us. The other one hasn't met with the sisters in 4 weeks so we dropped him.  So….we had no investigators when I got to Ajax!  It's soooo hard to build up an area when that happens!  I told Sister Poettcker that we won't ever again have zero investigators.  It should be an escalator effect and we should always be trying to move the work forward and not an elevator effect where it drastically goes up and goes drastically down.  So there is a lot of work that needs to be done in Ajax but I am up to the challenge and we ARE going to change things J  She doesn't know everyone on the ward list so we are making it a fun 'challenge' to see how fast we can get to know the ward members.  She thought I was crazy to call people we didn't know to come teaching with us, but hey, we saw many miracles come from calling them. Anyone that has a testimony is a missionary J So, I told her that Ajax needs some fixing up and we will build up this area!  She says that I am soooo optimistic and I told her, "Attitude is everything!"  Which I now know to be so true! 

‪We started out this transfer on a good note!  This past week we found 2 new investigators whose names are Sean and Roberto.  We found them on my first day here in Ajax while walking down Kingston and Maple Street. 

We contacted Sean on the street and he told us that he has met with sister missionaries in the past!  It's been almost two years now and we went and taught him yesterday! He really believes in what we believe essentially.  We answered a lot of his questions about the Book of Mormon and started off things on a good note with him. 

‪We met Roberto while we were tracting Maple Street. When we met him, he said he was from Mexico!  I spoke to him in Spanish and said, "I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and he got excited and started speaking rapid Spanish at me.  I told him that I don't know very much Spanish and we laughed and talked more about the church.  He said that he had seen Elders in Mexico where he lived and he had talked to them but nothing really came from it.  We invited him to listen to what we have to say and that we would answer his questions and…..he accepted since I tried speaking Spanish to him J We went over to his house a couple of days ago and answered a lot of his questions about the church and the Book of Mormon.  He said everything makes more sense now! We will be teaching him soon hopefully, it just depends on our schedule. 

‪We met with a less active couple named Loui and Faye, and they got married only a couple months ago.  It was a miracle that we were able to meet with them because she works three jobs and he works as well!  We went over the Restoration with them and he was really touched about the fact that families are so important and they can be together forever.  Loui then shared that he converted Faye to the gospel and she was baptized only a year ago.  I felt prompted to talk about the temple and saw so many miracles come from it!  Loui explained that Faye has never been to the temple and that he has only been once and loved doing baptisms for the dead.  He then pulled out two family names that he has and said he would like to do the work for them! AH! It was perfect! So we will be trying our very hardest to work with them to go to the temple! Faye is just so busy that may be a problem. We will figure it out and pray for them.

‪Overall, I love Ajax! I just have a feeling that there is someone that I need to find, someone who is prepared to hear the gospel.  I just need to find them!  I love the cute small ward that is here and we will try our very hardest to bring less-actives back to church and build up this area. We will bring the gospel to Ajax!

‪With it being Thanksgiving this week, I thought of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk "Grateful in Any Circumstances".  He said, "Our loving Heavenly Father knows that choosing to develop a spirit of gratitude will bring us true joy and great happiness." Let us be grateful for what we have! I am so grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel and having the opportunity to share the gospel with others.  I am grateful for family and all those that support me in this effort.  I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, for providing me the Atonement so I can come closer to Heavenly Father daily.  I am so grateful for a living prophet to lead and guide us.  I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon to strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ.  I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and his prayer that brought fourth the restoration of the gospel.  I am so grateful that we have temples, where we can do sacred ordinances and be sealed together as a family.  I am so grateful for SO many things.  I feel like whenever I give thanks to my Heavenly Father, He gives me more in return.  I love the gospel with all of my heart.  I encourage you all to pray to Heavenly Father and give him a prayer of gratitude and pour your heart to Him.  Always have an “attitude of gratitude'!

‪Remember what you are thankful for and more importantly, express it! J

‪There will be much more next time!

‪Until next time...

‪Sister Robb