Hello Everyone,

My first week in Edmonton is almost over and boy has it been a wirlwind!! I arrived on wednesday morning at the Edmonton Airport and was picked up by my Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Campbell. They are amazing, so sweet and loving! They are from Ogdon Utah and still have their youngest daughter Courtney living with them. President owns a software company which is still being operated while he's away which is pretty sweet. Arriving in Edmonton was not easy, we had to leave the mtc at 3am, travel in a snowstorm to the salt lake city air port and had one connection in denver colorado making the possible three hour trip more than eight hours long. We had a lot of delays with snow and ice but! drum roll please.... i gave out my first pass along card at the airport! i was so nervous but had a made a goal and prayed for an opportunity to give out one passalong card during my trip in the very anticipated new world! the lucky man to serve me my bagel with creamcheese asked about my name tag and i told him all about the church! he's from ethiopia and was very interested and asked if he called the number if he and his wife would have missionaries come over, i said yes and he accepted the card! it was great and really gave me a boost which was greatly needed to overcome my fatigue.

Once in edmonton we stayed the night at the President's house or the mission home as we call it. They were very hospitable and we had dinner, a fireside, some training for the President's assistants and went to bed as soon as possible. I travelled with a sister from South Korea Sister Heo, she's such a sweet heart. The next morning we went to transfer meetings and i opened up my call, yes another call! haha and am now in Edmonton North Kingsway YSA branch and area. It's a HUGE area but i'm loving it!!! I'm in a three some again like i was in the mtc and they are fabulous sisters i've been so lucky so far! Sister Wilcox is from Pheonix Arizona and has been out just over a year and two months. Sister Burgi is from Spanish Fork area in Utah and this is her last transfer (sad ! ). I was really excited to meet with them but unfortunately that morning i woke up with a really bad cold and the really cold weather didn't help. The next couple days the sisters just dragged me along to all their appointments and really threw me right into missionary work! we have been busy every minute of the day i swear! we havn't even had time to unpack my suitcase untill this morning, monday which is my pday now fyi!

I have been very ill with no time to rest but the Lord has granted me so many tender mercies that litterally i would not be here a live without them! Friday and Saturday we were able to do my first real tracting experience and finding people to teach and we knocked on some doors and approached people on the streets. We talk to everyone but because we are in a ysa ward we can only keep the investigators that fit that profile so we tend to talk to more younger people BUT out of the five doors we've contacted 3 of them have been french speaking people. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES! One was from Quebec, another was a couple from an island in the indian ocean and another from the republic of congo. We don't know yet if they are going to take lessons but they all seemed interested and i just feel so blessed that Heavenly Father really knows our hearts and knows what is special to us. When we do all that we can, to the point where we can't even keep our eyes open we are so tired, he will grant us blessings to show us that he's still there. Yesterday was my first day in the ysa ward and everyone was super friendly and nice to me. I am enjoying so much working with people my age who have been so prepared to accept the gospel it's awesome!!

We have one investigator right now who is being baptized on saturday and i'm so excited. Her name is Monique and she grew up speaking french in the home so we connected right away when i told her about reading the book of mromon in french. She's a great girl and i'm so excited to see my first baptism on the mission. I havn't been a part of her conversion but i feel of her spirit and it makes me excited to know there are people like her out there.

Well i'm not sure what else to write right now except to remind everyone that i have never been so cold in my life! it's freezing here!! litterally.... snow a foot taller then me in every direction, minus numbers in the degrees that i have never seen or felt before and it's unbelieveable. i was definitley not prepared for this haha but i'm looking forward to the spring and hopefully my blood thickens before then. The members have been great and we've had 3 dinner appointments this week to get to know them and have warm home made meals. Take care everyone, i would love to hear from you! my mail is to be sent to themission home at 8925 51st ave ste. #305, edmonton, alberta, T6E EJ3, Canada! I get mail once a week and will write you back asap! those who havn't written me yet, you know who you are, i'm waiting to hear from you!!!! o and you can still write on DearElder.com and the mail will get to me in edmonton if that's easier for you. Love all and check out mormon.org the profiles of members are amazing and inspiring.

Last thought, read the book of mormon and pray, i promise all your questions will be answered, such a simple truth and yet so hard for most.

Love Sister Wotherspoon

Hello from the MTC!

Hi Everyone!!

I´ve officially been at the mtc and in missionary mode now for two full weeks and boy i tell ya it feels like two months! Our days our long, starting at 6:30am and we go to bed ontime at 10:30pm if we write in our journals pretty fast. I'm pretty proud of myself being able to keep a daily record so far, it's been a challange to remember what i've done that day so i know if i don't write it down that night the next day would be tragic! Anyways me and my companions are having a blast, probably too much fun! We work together and they are super considerate of helping me out if im running late or have forgotten something back at the rooms and need to go back. It's still weird having to stick together to do EVERYTHING, well everything but the bathroom of course. I hinds sight though it really makes me more considerate of others and helps us organize our day so we arn't running back and forth to the same buildings all the time.

My teaching experiences this week at the mtc have been AMAZING! We have two opportunities to teach a week volunteers from utah who come and act as investigators for our church. They, like us, listen to the spirit and ask us questions in character. We have been teaching a mom of 6 named Kris and an older woman from Nevada named Sue. They are both wonderful and i just love teaching them. Through our lessons our companionship have been able to practice teaching with unity and that has come through discussing needing to follow the spirit. We tend to babble and get off topic so.... what we do now is listen to when the spirit prompts us to speak or share a scripture or testify of our companions words. As we've done this the spirit has been so strong and thoughts and stories and scriptures have come to me from my seminary days and times in my youth that i really have thought of since! Our investigator kris after our last teaching discussion had to break character at the end and just started to cry. She thanked us and said that she has been a memeber her whole life and that our insights on the Book of Mormon (as we read through the introduction to her) were so powerful that she learned things she's never seen before and felt the spirit so strongly! It was so rewarding to know that we fulfilled our purpose there.... to bring others unto christ whether that's investigators or members of the church we are all constantly learning and growing and i feel so blessed to be apart of that!

Our days our busy and we've been ble to hear from some amazing speakers one of them being the Missionary Department manageing director who gaves the insight that we should trust in the Lord with everything we have! that the waves and turbulance in our lives may be unknown and difficult but as the savior guides our lives through the spirit he may be protecting us from the rocks on the sea floor that would destroy us! A lovely thought that really touched me! For devotional Elder Edgley First counselor in the Presiding Bishopric spoke to us yesterday night and his message was that as missionaries we represent the Lord and are all equal in that calling no matter where we have come from! Everyone deserves to hear his message and we should feel no intimidation when sharring that to others. I feel that applies to all memebers of the church! we need to share! we have taken on us the name of the Lord, and he will open their hearts and bring the spirit the convince, we need not convince!

Anyways enough of my preaching, i hope you see past the words and notice my desire and love for missionary work! nothing too exciting i'm sure to the outside world at the mtc but everyday i feel as if i've grown to a new level i never knew i could reach. I'm so excited to get to edmonton on tuesday (even though i leave at 3am!!!) and thank you everyone for you support, love, letters and packages. They make my day!!!! Love you all and keep in touch! :)

Sister Wotherspoon