~D&C 68:6~‏

Hey fam bam!

Well this week has been pretty hard for me I must admit. I have really missed Sister Rousseau. We got really close and I definitely consider her one of my best friends! She truly taught me loads. Sister Shead is a great missionary. I love her accent haha She already has taught me a lot. It'll be fun to work with her. So I've been tested a lot this past week but I got through it so its all good! Saw many miracles and many of my prayers were answered so I'm grateful to know Christ has been by my side this past week as well as throughout my mission.

On Tuesday, we went around the island to say bye to everyone. We also went to see the Callanish Stones since we've never seen them so that was way fun. It was very cool! Wednesday was a loooong day! Sis Rousseau and I woke up at 5:30 to be on the ferry by 7. We took the ferry to Ullapool and arrived at 9 45. Then I dropped her off and picked up Sis Shead and then had to get back onto the ferry to go back to Storny! So pretty much I was on the ferry for 6 straight hours. I slept the whole time haha and I didn't get sick so that was a blessing. It was p-day on Wednesday so we were out by 6 til 9. We worked really hard that night. It was weird leading out the area but it was kinda fun. WE MET A MAN FROM AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!! haha he's from Rhode Island. He's lived in Aberdeen for 6 years now and is just up in Stornoway for a placement thing to teach Gaelic. We stopped him on the street so it was cool talking to another American especially in Stornoway of all places. haha

HUGH: We saw Hugh on Tuesday. He was sad to see Sister Rousseau leave but he was happy for her. We went over the restoration a bit more. He was having a bad week last week with some family issues and he explained to us how he decided to pray everyday for himself to feel better and to give his problems to the Lord. He said that it worked and he feels a lot better. He never ceases to build me up or to help me realize what is important. He is such a great example to me and I learn something from him every time i see him. My testimony sure has grown since I've met him. He's great and has grown so much since the first time we met him. Love that man!
BELLA: We saw her on Friday. She REALLY opened up this time. It was really good. We taught all about temples and talked about forgiveness. She is scared to be alone when Donald passes away and so she's scared to get baptized. Its a long story but hopefully we will get her progressing again.
FIONA: We saw her on Tuesday as well. She always has the deepest questions but I love it because I learn from her questions and love to study about them. She had asked the question "will the people who chose to follow Satan in the premortal life get a second chance?" So I decided to study Alma 42 when Alma explains to his son Corianton about the mercy and justice of God. I noticed that in that chapter, Alma introduces the plan in four different ways.....

1.plan of redemption

2.plan of happiness

3.plan of salvation

4.plan of mercy

I've read that chapter probably 3 times now and that time, I learned more than I ever have about it. Gotta love the scriptures!!

COLLEEN: We saw her on Wednesday night. She is so cute. She told us that she's been reading the Book of Mormon and that she really finds it interesting. We decided to give her a Restoration pamphlet to help her know more about where the BOM came from. We are going back this Wednesday. She also said that she wants to come to our scripture study on Thursday so that was good!
DUNCAN: Oh man this lesson was....interesting. We took a member with us and were planning on teaching him the plan of salvation. Well, right as we got in there, the member just took the lead. It was so bad haha sister Shead and I were looking at each other like we didn't know what to do. So it was a bad lesson ha but he texted us on Sunday and told us that he is free on Wednesday so that was good! He's doing great though!!

So this past week has been a mixture of emotions for me. It was a hard week but a testimony building week. I definitely was stretched to my limits but trials make you stronger right? On Saturday, I was studying in the Doctrine and Covenants and I flipped to a scripture which totally answered my prayers and helped me loads. It was D&C 68:6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come. Its such a great scripture! Definitely one of my favorites!! I also studied about the Temple yesterday and wow do I miss the temple!! Its amazing! Well, fam I love you! thanks for everything!! have a great week!! xoxoxo :)

love,
Sister Firth :)

Golfing and moves call!!! :)‏

Hey there family!!!
 

Well, it was moves call last night and guess what.....IM STAYING IN STORNY!!!!!!!! YAY!!! Sister Rousseau is moving to Aberdeen...I'm so sad to see her go. Wow, I cant even express how much I love her! She has taught me so much....how to work hard, be exactly obedient, never give up, teach people not lessons, have a good attitude and how to love missionary work! She is truly one of my best friends and I will forever be grateful for her! Love her to death!!!
 

This past week has been a wee bit stressful but its been good! Its crazy that we've only got to spend 2 real weeks in our area this past transfer but its all good! We had loads of appointments set up this past week but with our luck, some of them got canceled. Sally, who was going to be a new investigator, canceled on us the morning of so that was a downer. But we did see many miracles....
 

1-we got 2 new investigators!

2-Margaret who is less active goes to Martins Memorial and when she started going to that church, they made her burn her BOM. So we gave her a new one and decorated the front of it! She actually read it!!! :):) She is a good lady. She has met with Andrew (our former investigator) a couple of times and we thought that she was going to invite him to Martin's Memorial with her but she actually has been telling him about Mormon's. So its been good because she's been realizing how important the Mormon church is. So its a blessing for her and him that she's helping him.

3-Bella told us this week that she thinks the BOM is true. Now she just needs to KNOW it is true!

4-we chapped Bridge Cottages and taught 3 lessons and got 2 potential investigators so that was great. That never happens haha

5-we also got another potential on Saturday night.

So as you can tell, loads of miracles this week. It was great! Best week eva!!! k update on investigators!

FIONA: We were supposed to meet with her on Tuesday but her grandson got sick and so she had to cancel as well. We are seeing her tomorrow though so that should be good! She's so great! I just love her to death! I can definitely see her getting baptized in the future!

BELLA: We saw her on Friday...we had a good chat. We talked about the after life and baptism. We are seeing her this friday and might commit her to baptism for real. Lets hope all goes well! :)

DUNCAN: He's a new investigator!! :) We met him about two weeks ago on the street. We were actually really down that night and we were walking home. We saw him on the street and was walking towards us. He was going to be passing us on my side so that would mean that i would have to stop him. I wasnt planning on stopping him at all. I wasnt in the mood. haha i know, bad missionary moment for me, but then i instantly had the feeling that i needed to stop him so i pulled out a Mormon.org card and used that to start a conversation. We talked for about 15 mintues and he is Roman Catholic. He's from Barra which is an island south of us but he's up here for University. We got talking about the gospel and his beliefs. We told him about how we have a prophet like Moses, on the earth today and his eyes got really big. So that interested him so we asked if we could meet with him. We met with him on Friday night and taught him the whole restoration. It was brilliant!! He had told his friends that he met us and they definitley told him some false things about our church but thats nothing new! haha It was a great lesson and he loved it! We are meeting with him this thursday again so lets hope it goes great again!

HUGH: He is struggling right now with family issues so he's been really down this past month. But we had a really good lesson with him on Tuesday about trials, family, and how the BOM truly can help us. He's a great man. He has such a good heart and is so humble and has a ton of faith. I have really learned a lot from him.

We also met with a couple of less actives this week. It was really good. We went to Joan Chisms house last wednesday. She fed us and we showed her and her son the BOM dvd with Elder Hollands testimony on it. It was great and we invited her to church but didnt show up. We'll keep working on her!! She actually lives on the isle of harris so its a long drive for her but it shouldnt keep her from church! Another less active we met with was Al. His son is a member of the church and he took us golfing!! So now i can say that i've golfed in Scotland!! It was a blast!! Dad, davis, rog, and dev, you should be jealous!!! ;) haha i sucked but it was hilarious! so fun!!
 

So this past week has been good! In church yesterday, we talked all about Christ's life in Relief Society. It definitley strenghtened my testimony. Then in Sacrament, i had to give a talk and gave it on Christlike attributes so it was a good Sunday! In District meeting on Tuesday, we talked about Christlike attributes and talked about Faith, hope and charity. Well, for Christmas, i got a quote book and in it it had a quote that said....
"Faith, hope and charity are ACTIVE principles, not passive ones. If we do not DO them, we dont HAVE them. Its that simple." Boy did it teach me a lot. I've been working on charity and asking God to help me hav it more. We cant have it if we dont ask for it.

Well family thanks for everything!!! i love you all!! Dad, i got your letter today. I do know Elder Eastham. He was in my last zone. I only met him once though. Thats funny he's in Scott Westra's ward! Small world eh? Well, I love love love Stornoway and i love being a missionary! Im reading the BOM for the 2nd time and wow, i see it so clearly this time through.  Love this gospel. Im truly grateful to be a missionary. miss you guys!!! see you in 4 months!! haha :) xoxoxo
 

Love,
Sister Firth :)

7 months already???!!‏

Yo fam!!! :)

Can you believe I've been out 7 months today?? Crazy!!! Time sure does fly!! I've still got a long way to go but we'll get there! :) So moves call is on Sunday and so that means that YOU NEED TO SEND ALL LETTERS TO THE MISSION HOME!!!! haha :)

 So the past week and a half was great! We went on exchanges with the STL's two weekends ago and is was soo fun!! I got to be with cute Sister Ricks! Oh wow do I love that girl!! We had so much fun! I hope I serve with her one day! :) She's great! and I learned loads from her!

So this past week, we went over to Catriona and Allistars house because their daughter was home from Uni for the holidays! Her name is Lauren, she's 18, she goes to Uni on the mainland but is sadly inactive! Her, Sis. Rousseau, Catriona and I definitely had girl talk though! Oh man I missed having girl talk! haha Soo fun!! Then Lauren pulled out her guitar and played songs for us and then played songs and sang on the piano!! Funnest night of my life!!! so that was great!!

FIONA: we saw her on Thursday! She really opened up to us about her life. It was soo good. We talked about strengths and weaknesses (Ether 12:27). It was so good to talk to her. So she is great!!

BELLA: She's good. We are seeing her for the first time this week in over a month. So we'll see how that goes!

HUGH: Oh man he's a gem! He's solid as ever and is doing great!! We are teaching him tomorrow!!

So it has been a good week!! We had many less active appointments and have more this week! We also got a new investigator named Sally so we'll see how that goes!! I'm way nervous for moves call. We both hope we stay so say loads of prayers!!

Oh scary/cool story for the day.....last Friday, we were walking to a less actives house to go see her new grand baby. We were on this street called Goathill Road. A former potential investigator lives on that street so we decided to stop by! We walked past his house to get to his driveway so we could go to his door. Well, we took 3 steps onto his driveway and both immediately stopped. I got the sickest feeling inside and I turned to Sis Rousseau to tell her that I didn't feel like we should go but she beat me to the punch. We both got the same feeling. It was a little scary because I had the thought of what could've happened if we didn't listen to the spirit. Makes me grateful for promptings and definitely increases my testimony of how much Heavenly Father truly watches out for us.

Well, thanks for everything fam bam!!! I'm doing great!! Still loving it out here! Truly, I am. The gospel is amazing!!! love it!! :) I love you all!!!! have a great week!!!

love,
Sista Firth :)

p.s. We dyed a less actives hair this week...haha tell Keelee I'm pro now! ;)

Happy New year!!!!!! :)‏

With the crazy holiday schedules, we actually heard from Callie this morning.  It seems like forever since she has sent a weekly email (actually 2 weeks )!  She was "stranded" in Aberdeen, Scotland for x-mas due to bad weather and the cancellation of their ferry.  THANK YOU to everyone who sent gifts and emails/letters to her.  She was very grateful!!  Cort and I appreciate all your love and support for Callie!

 

Hey there fam!!

Wow can you believe it's already 2014??!!!!! Crazy how fast time flies!! It was almost a year ago that I got my mission call and now I've been out for almost 7 months! Surreal. Oh before I forget....dad, I got your x-mas package!!! THANK YOU!!! Love ute clothes!!! :) And family, THANK YOU for the Christmas presents!!! wow, I am blessed! mom, good job on those shirts....soo cute!! I love you guys!!!

So the past two weeks have been soo hectic but exciting!! Spending the week in Aberdeen with Sis Powell was great! She is an amazing missionary and I loved serving with her for the week. Once the concert week was over, Sis Rousseau and I were supposed to catch the ferry on the 23rd, well, with my luck, it got canceled! ha So we ended up spending Christmas in Aberdeen! It was actually lots of fun! We got to go to a Rugby game on Boxing Day which was so amusing! I loved it! We ended up getting back on the island on Friday night and guess who got baptized on Saturday....HUGH!!!! :) Here are the details....

HUGH: Well his baptism was great!! Satan sure was involved because the water was ice cold! But it didn't stop Hugh from getting baptized. He asked Sis Rousseau and I to speak at his baptism we spoke on baptism and the holy ghost! It was a great night! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time! Hugh is such an example to me! I truly look up to him. He has so much faith and he didn't let anything stop him. He was so prepared and I'm so happy and proud of him. He then got confirmed the next day (Sunday) and it was so spiritual. It was brilliant!!

BELLA: She's doing good! We actually haven't seen her for about 3 weeks because we've been away. We were planning on seeing her on Monday but she canceled because she had to go to Inverness. Sad news....so her father-in-law who is a VERY strong member of our branch just found out he has lung cancer. Bella has been handling it well but I just feel so bad. She loves him so much. Just makes me grateful for the plan of happiness :)

FIONA: We are seeing her next Tuesday! Cant wait!!!

So this week has been good! Lots of stress, excitement, and celebrating! Its been fun! Oh and today, we are flying to Glasgow to go to our Zone meeting. We are coming back on Saturday! Should be fun!

Well family, I love you!! Skyping was GREAT!!! You all haven't changed a bit! haha I miss you all! have a great week!!! xoxoxo

love,

Sister Firth :):)

p.s. pics!! on the bus in Aberdeen with sis rousseau and sis powell, hugh's baptism and the utes jersey dad sent me!!! :) GO UTES!!!!!