A Week of Rain and Blessings! (Aug 25)

 This week just flew by! We had our zone conference on Thursday and part of our conference included a session in the temple!! Best part of my week by far. :) I love the temple so much! It was so cool so see a room just full of missionaries. I met Sister Waller there. She's from my ward back at home! She was new to the ward and left on her mission so I hadn't met her until conference. So cool meeting someone from back home. :)

     We got another investigator this week! We went to go see Deedree, a woman we met last week that invited us back to teach her more. Well her husband answered the door and said his wife was asleep so we ended up teaching the husband, Denny, right there on the door step! We gave him a book of Mormon and I bore my testimony of the truthfulness of the book and he seemed so grateful to have that book. So we are meeting with him and his wife next Tuesday!!

    While we were working at the temple visitor's center we had two non-members come in who seemed really interested in the church and wanted to know about temples. I was prompted to give them a Book of Mormon each and got to bear my testimony again!! Then yesterday we saw this guy walking down the street and we stop and talk to him and find out he isn't a member and he is just visiting from Calgary. After talking for a bit we give him a Book of Mormon and he wants us to send the missionaries in Calgary to him! So in total this week we gave out for Book of Mormons! I've never done that before!! Such a cool experience being to bear my testimony of this amazing book of our Savior Jesus Christ. The happiness you feel after sharing your testimony to someone and knowing that you are sharing with someone something that is going to change their lives, there is seriously no better feeling than this.

    A few times a week we have a district finding activity (DFA) and one of those activities we just street contacted for an hour. It's been raining this past week so we were walking in the rain and of course there was like no one outside. They're the smart ones here! haha but the first person we saw we just went up to them and talked to them. As soon as we did that and showed the Lord that we were willing to open our mouths then we just had a ton of people come walking around and ended getting to talk to lot's of people! It was so neat because we would be walking behind someone and were having a hard time catching up so we would say okay Heavenly Father if we are meant to talk to them, slow them down and have them turn around and see us! haha and without fail that would happen! They would drop something which would make them stop running and turn around and look at us and then we could talk to them. This experience just showed me that Heavenly Father is truly aware of our situation and we just have to have the faith and show Him we are willing to act and He will bless us.

    I love this gospel so much and I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to share it with the people here in Canada! I hope you all are being member missionaries with everyone you meet. Everyone needs the gospel! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Dell

Sister O'Dell showing off the visitor's center.

Sister Waller from Sister O'Dell's homeward in Arizona. 

Sister O'Dell and Sister Gonzalez!!!

Sister O'Dell with Sister Conner and Sister Eugbert.

Sister O'Dell and Sister Murphy walking in the rain!

Showing the rainy weather!

Lots of rain in Canada!!

The Work is Hastening (Aug 18)

 Last week we got a phone call letting us know that we are being moved from where we are living (which is out of town) into town! Sad that we aren't living with the Zemps (the members we lived with) anymore but glad to be in town and in walking distance of everything! So this week has been fun unpacking and what not. hahah

    We got a new investigator! Her name is Joanna and she's Chinese! She has two little boys and speaks Chinese, Spanish, and a little bit of English....lol So our lessons with her have been...interesting! We brought a member with us, Michelle who speaks Spanish so she translates for us thank goodness!! The other day we went knocking on some doors while we had a few minutes in between appointments and ran into a non-member family and they are letting us meet with them next week and teach them!! We also have another guy, Dennis, who is interested in learning more. :) The work is hastening! So grateful for this Walk and Talk August Challenge because we are truly seeing miracles as we talk to everyone!

    Last night we got to meet with a less-active, Jolaine, who I just absolutely love! I love how honest she is and how open she is with us so that we can help her the best that we can. She told us that she wants to quit smoking and wants us to help her do that!

    On Saturday we got to go to a baptism in the other stake for Lish Olsen. I got to teach her a few times before I got put back into the west. Lish even had me speak at the baptism! So grateful that I got to meet her and her husband Craig and see them progress and just be a part of her special day. I love this gospel with all my heart!!!!

     Love you all! Have a super fantastic week. :)

Love,

Sister O'Dell

Sister O'Dell is the best!!!

With Sister Zemp!

Brother and Sister Zemp

Sister O'Dell showing off her new apartment! Sister O'Dell said, "Yes it's an odd number...not sure how I sleep at night." 

Chuck wagon derby! The women's name is Alicia!

Sister O'Dell likes to be creative with her pictures!

Pancakes, Floats, and Missionary Work! (Aug 11)

This week was probably the most tiring week of my mission so far. With this new challenge from our mission president to talk to a million people this month we have been walking EVERYWHERE ALL DAY and talking to literally EVERYONE! It's been fun getting to know so many people and sharing my testimony! Sister Murphy and I talked to 467 people this week :) Our zone is in the lead with talking to over 2,000 people!!! As a whole mission we talked to 17,307. The work is hastening!!!

    In Cardston this week was Heritage days so they had a free pancake breakfast Wednesday through Saturday and us missionaries were at every breakfast because the whole town was pretty much there!! I never thought it was possible to be sick of pancakes, but it definitely is hahah Friday night the RCMP came and do a musical ride for Cardston. Apparently they travel all over Canada performing and they have performed for the Queen before! Pretty cool to watch. Then Saturday morning was their annual Heritage parade. It was so much fun! Us missionaries got our own float! hahah we had this truck we decorated with signs and had some missionaries sitting in the back of the truck throwing candy and then the rest of us handed out LDS quotes with our numbers on the back to the crowd. It was so fun to hear everyone cheer for us! Only in Cardston would the whole town be happy to see missionaries!! hahah Other floats they had was a Native American one for the Kainia branch, a tarzan float (they just did the play of that), a monster truck, Mario and luigi, frozen, and so many more!

    One day this week Sister Murphy and I decided to do some street contacting down on mainstreet. As we did this we ran into this guy, Gordon Moutainhorse (yes he's a native lol) and we talked a little bit about religion but then he started flirting with us and asked me if he could marry me and that he will support me and serve the Lord with me...! haha let's just say I try and avoid him now. :) hahah The weirdest things always seem to happen on mainstreet....!

   I am loving this "Walk and Talk August" because we are getting so many referrals and I am excited to contact these people and hopefully start teaching them soon! I definitely love missionary work. :) I hope you all are being missionaries to everyone you meet. Have a great week! Love you all :)

Love,

Sister O'Dell

Sister O'Dell and Sister Armstrong

Sister O'Dell saw a deer outside her window!

Sister O'Dell and Sister Murphy accidentally coordinated outfits! 

Sister O'Dell and Elder Pauli

Sister O'Dell and Elder Gordan

The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounty Police)

Float for the parade!

Share the Gospel (Aug 9)

Well I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Murphy and she is from North Carolina. It's been nice only having one companion! hahah After transfer station we went home to drop off her suitcases and came back out and saw our tire was flat!!!! Is this a sign of how our transfer is going to be?! lol just kidding :) But thankfully the elders came to our rescue and we were able to make it to our dinner :)

     It's been a bit crazy trying to focus just on the West stake and getting everything running again after being over both the East and West but its going good :) Our mission president has started this new thing for August called "Walk and Talk August" where as a whole mission we are aiming to reach a goal of talking to a million people! Sounds intense but we are all pumped! I never really realized how much I love going up to random people and talking to them. It's day 4 of this and it's been great! The hard part of this though is that we have hardly any kilometers given to us this month to drive because he obviously wants us walking EVERYWHERE. I hope the weather is good this month! haha

     I had the coolest experience last night. On Sundays we are pretty much at church from 8 am till 430 pm which means we have no time to study in the mornings. So because of that we would go home a bit early and study that night. As we were driving home to study I had this womans name keep popping up in my head (she was a referral we had got the other night) and the thought wouldn't go away. But I was tired and wanting to go home so I kept driving. But as I got to the driveway I decided we needed to go see her. Her name is Jolanne and she is a less-active and this was our first time meeting her and she just opened up to us and told us how grateful she was that we came by. I just felt so connected to her and as she cried about how she felt like she could never be forgiven for her sins because she has made too many I ended up crying with her! Just meeting her once I love her already and can just feel the love that the Savior has for her. She invited us to come back and even wants to feed us dinner! I have been praying to be more in tune with the spirit and to recognize those promptings and I am so grateful I listened!!!

    I am excited for this new transfer! I love being a missionary and being able to share the gospel. There is nothing better than that! I challenge you all to share the gospel with at least one person this week :) Have a great week!

Love,

Sister O'Dell

Not sure which way to go!

Flat tire!

Sister O'Dell and Sister Murphy