July 26 2023: Welcome to the Weekly Season 6 Ep. 2 I hear WEEEEEEDDDDING BEEEEELLLLLS 🔔, God's Playing a Great Game Checkers

 Hello! Hello!

OH MY LANTA! WE ARE PLANNING A WHOLE WEDDING!

Our friends Andre and Kiera are getting baptized on Saturday! But before that, they have to be married. And the ward is coming all together to make this happen! The relief society is bringing pot luck dishes for a reception afterwards. One of our members is doing up little bouquets and decorations. Everything is working and it's a whirlwind for everyone but it's just so so good! On top of this wedding/bap combo we have another baptism on Friday and zone conference on Thursday! We are go go go this week and it's just actually insane! But God is a God of miracles, and he hasn't ceased to provide!

This is the Lord's work, I'm just a little part of it. And I'll thank God every day that I get to be a part of it because while I am just a little part of His great work, His great work is a huge part of me. The Lord's hand has changed me in unimaginable ways. This morning I was rereading through the past Weekly emails and it was so cool to see record of the growth I've experienced in the 8 months I've been on my mission. Additionally, I was reminded that the Lord's hand had always been in the work I am doing as a representative of Jesus Christ.

This past month has been an extension to that. For every single friend we are working with right now that is progressing, we were quite literally plopped in the middle of their journey. Our friend, Andre has been meeting with missionaries for a year, and now him and his soon to be wife are ready to be baptized. Our friend, Noel came to church with his member friend Roger. Sammi, was invited to church a year ago, ignored the invitation and then walked in randomly 3 weeks ago and is getting baptized this Friday!

 The Lord looked at Mississauga and said "it is time" and promptly scooped sister Waldron and I up from wherever we were and plopped us down in the middle of it all, and has been playing checkers with us ever since. You know when the pieces all line up perfectly and you can jump three checkers in a row? That is the point of the game that God has brought us in for. I think for a long time the pieces have been sitting stagnant waiting for that one perfect move to be made at the right time. And now that it has been made the game is fast paced and exciting. There is no other explanation as to how we have been going as fast as we have been other than that the lord has been carrying us and all His other children in His hand all along.

Focusing on Jesus Christ is the secret to success. Because miraculously, somehow, everything fits into place when my head is constantly lifted up to Him. I've heard a lot lately in the scriptures, in conference talks, preach my gospel, podcasts, church meetings, quite literally everywhere, over and over again to lift your head and be of good cheer, awake and arise, cast your eyes up, etc. Pretty much anyway you can think of to be invited to focus on the Savior, I've read, written or listened to in the last week or so. 

It has been the thing that I think God wants me to remember the most right now. God knows my mind is going really fast, He knows I'm always thinking about the things that need to get done, and He knows that much of the time I need subtle reminders that I mustn't look beyond the mark (the mark being Jesus Christ), but rather lift my eyes and stare directly at it. And I'm so grateful for those reminders. Because when I receive those reminders and breathe, look up, arise and awake and focus on Christ I am reminded that He is truly all around.

 He's with me in the car driving to lessons, He's with me leaving that lesson that we got bashed at, He's with me while I'm talking to God's children that I've never met, he's with me when I'm trying to remember who to text as I write names on sticky notes, He's with me when I'm calling people previously found that we're trying to teach, He's with me when I'm caught up in my head overanalyzing that one interaction I had in the street with that one person that I could've said something different to. He's in every single little thing. His grace lifts me, awakens me, and helps me arise higher than I could ever lift my self.

So yall, this week I invite you to awake and arise, lift your head and eyes, and focus in Jesus Christ, and watch everything else fit into place. I love yall many bunches, go give them Heaven!

Love,

Sister Court

Weekly Fridge Phrases!!!

♡Jesus is not lost! He's alive! -Sister Glena Anderson

♡God picks the Imperfect person for the perfect task -our really cool friend Jonathan 

♡be confident in the JOY you have! -sister Waldron

July 19 - Welcome to the Weekly Season 6 Ep. 1: Flashback! Breath and Commit to the Moment

Hello! Hello!

It's been a good, but long week. The Mandarin sisters are gone & suddenly we have so many more people to teach that we've never met and are trying to get ahold of. Which is so exciting! But we don't speak mandarin, not even a little. So this is a fun little spelunking trip. (Because we're exploring something we've never done before, and it feels like it's fun, but also maybe a little crazy at the same time. Anywho....)

We have 4 friends preparing to be baptized and we are so excited for them to make that first promise with God! Kiera and Andre are well on their way! Our friend Noel scooters to church because he wants to find his own way there. And our friend Sammi, well he is just fantastic! He comes to every lesson with a specific question he wants answered. And his story is just miraculous. God can do his own work, he has shown that time and time again.

I see God and Jesus Christ everyday. I see their arms in the lives of the people we are teaching everyday. I feel their love for the people we are teaching everyday. And it makes me want our friends to have that everyday, down to the second. God & Jesus Christ are in the details of the details of their lives. 

But you know what?

 Sometimes I think, as a missionary I forget that God and Jesus Christ are in the details of the details of our own lives. I know that this week I did. 

This list making sister has been a little scattered the last week. I fell back into living by the list and less by the Lord. And I have felt the difference. I am focused too much on finding time to do all the things for all the friends, & forgetting that God's got it. He knows we can't do it ourselves. That's why He's there. 

In my studies this week I read an article titled Balancing What Does Matter Most (linked below) And was reminded that true balance is made possible when 100% of our focus is on our relationship with Jesus Christ. This means we need to spend intentional time with Him & our Father in Heaven, and need to commit to each moment. 

I then pondered how I can commit to the moment, and read the talk Focus on Jesus Christ as well as studied the word sincerity. I read Eph 6:24 & that talk, & came to the conclusion that we need to leave space for God's grace in our every moment. We can commit to the moment by trusting in God's grace, which is Jesus Christ. This means ALWAYS trying to learn & ALWAYS moving forward with sincere & intentional focus on Jesus Christ. 

As I've studied for the people we are teaching, I've learned more for myself than I have for them. From the talk The Imperfect Harvest, which I studied for our friend Andre, I was reminded that "our best is good enough & the grace of a loving savior will make up the difference in ways we can't imagine." That is the covenant we make with God when we are baptized, to ALWAYS remember Him so that we can ALWAYS have his spirit to be with us, and if he didn't keep that promise, He wouldn't be God.

So if I may, i'll flashback to season 2 ep 2 of this adventure.... we need to breath. Breath and be intentional, breath and trust, breath and focus of Christ, breath and let it go into God's hands. 

I want to invite all yall beautiful people to focus on Jesus Christ! I know that he is he answer to everything. Focus on Christ and go give them Heaven!

Love,

Sister Court 

Here are the Weekly fridge phrases!!

♡"compare myself more to Jesus Christ than I do to others" -a good friend 

♡what you know is less important than what you do with what you know. 

♡"rely on God to get me ------------------------------------------------------->there" -elder Ackerman 

♡"the Lord's work will only work if we all do it together" -Bryan from sauga ward

The things I studies this week! 10/10 recommend!

Balancing What Does Matter Most

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ya-weekly/2023/05/balancing-what-does-matter-most?lang=eng

Focus on Jesus Christ

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/32camargo?lang=eng

The Imperfect Harvest

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2023/04/54stanfill?lang=eng

July 13- Welcome to the Weekly Season 5 Ep. 6 Six More in the Saug, True Friends, and Big Loves 💗

Hello! Hello!

It's transfer week! This sister is staying in Mississauga with sister Waldron to finish training her! Big happy face😊. But sadly, the mandarin sisters we live with, sister Bailey and Crews, are both leaving. And no other mandarin sisters are coming in. Big sad face 😞. Sister Bailey finishes her mission and goes home, and sister crews will be training a new missionary! It has been a blessing to live with these sisters the last 4 weeks! Sister Bailey and I have actually served around eachother my whole mission except for 6 weeks. I love her so much! She has been a constant for me, someone so humble and meek. 

Friend update! Noel is still excited for his baptism! We had a really great lesson with him and a Spanish member from our ward. Such a blessing because Noel doesn't speak a lot of English. After a long week of ups and downs with their 1 year old daughters health, Andre and Kiera are doing good! Pray for them tho because Satan is working so hard on that beautiful family!

We did so much teaching this past week! And finding, and dropping. It was kind of like a factory cycle. Except this factory produces unique & beautiful & individual human beings who have each been gifted with the light of Christ. And oh what a joy it is to meet them and talk to them! 

In my studies this past week I've been learning how we can become friends, true friends to people we meet that we know and understand very little about. I read a really amazing talk from Elder Eyring titled True Friends. He said that for us to be a friend to someone, "all it takes is to feel something of what they feel, and something of what the Savior feels for them." I really love that! Our experiences will rarely parallel theirs. We will never understand them to a perfect capacity. BUT Jesus Christ is the PERFECT friend and he is prepared to help us be a friend who understands even the people we have just met. 

We all have the light of Christ, that's what connects us all together. That's the piece that when shared, helps us understand one another, helps us truly love one another, and helps us see each other as brothers and sisters. That's charity! I have such a strong testimony of charity! That's the message that i am sharing! The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the biggest message of love that has come to this Earth with the exception of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Restoration is for ALL!

 This message that brings back the fullness of truth, that affirms and testifies of God's love for His children, is world wide and universal. It applies to all who lived in Joseph Smith's time, all who lived in darkness before his time, and all who lived and will live after his time. This is the message that helps us understand one another because its a message that professes Gods love for each of His children. When we understand that universal and undeniable truth, I believe with my whole soul that we can begin to understand eachother!

I want to invite all ya'll, my wonderful friends to be a true friend to one person every day. Take a minute to try and understand something of what they feel. Take a minute to see them as a brother or sister, a child of God. People need love, people need Jesus, and people need you!

Hope yall have a great week! Go give em Heaven!

Love,

Sister Court

The Weekly fridge phrases!!

♡"the key element in my life is Jesus Christ, not me." -Sister Bailey

♡"I'm not just a creation. I'm not just a human, I'm a daughter of God." -sister Bailey 

♡"the gospel of Jesus Christ is the train that gets us from where we are to where we can be!" -sister Bailey 

(I'm really going to miss Sister Bailey!)

July 5- Welcome to the Weekly Season 5 Ep. 5 Hiking Up Mt. Rowe, and a Line Up at the Watering Hole

 Hello! Hello!

While I was in KW my mission president said a lot that we as a mission were hesitating to invite friends to be baptized. And we needed to invite sooner. And I remember feeling that that was true, and feeling like we needed to invite more people to be baptized, but frustrated at the same time because we didn't have people to invite to be baptized. And I really wanted to find the people to invite because I have such a strong desire to help my brothers and sisters live in the celestial kingdom.

 My prayers were focused on that! I prayed everyday to have opportunities to act on my mission president's council and to help me know what we needed to do and where we needed to go. Well the answer to all of those prayers was to be transferred to Mississauga. We have so many friends, we find so many lovely humans! And I'm sorry to say that the first 1.5 weeks I was a tad timid about bringing up baptism, our lessons weren't going any where. So this last week Sis Waldron and I looked at all our friends and set a goal to be lovingly bold, and invite 4 tp be baptized and accept the love and blessings that come from being closer to Jesus Christ into their lives.

 And would you believe it! We invited our friend Ally to be baptized, our friend Ime accepted the invitation for November, after she has recovered from her upcoming surgery, and our friends Andre and Kiera accepted the invitation for July 29 all on the same day, and then just yesterday we had an amazing lesson with our friend Noel who we found through a recent covert and he accepted a baptism date for August 5! 

It's almost like if you invite someone to do something they have the option to do it, crazy. But all joshing aside, The spirit that accompanies any invitation when it's extended with love is the kind of spirit that propels the individual forward. The spirit propels me forward and makes me feel like I have the energy climb 15 mountains. And oh my lanta how beautiful those spiritual mountaintops are! 

In my studies this week I studied the power of the spirit in conversion. And it occurred to me that there are multiple switch backs that have to be taken to help our friends get to the waters of baptism and continue to have their own mountain top moments. (Picture below) 

Sister Waldron and I taught an instruction about this to some other missionaries we serve around and used Mt Rowe, a mountain in Waterton, as our analogy. 

We can't stand at the top and call our friends to meet us there at the waters edge, (or whatever your invitation is) we have to go to them! Walk the switchbacks with them, show them that Christ is walking with them too. Sometimes you may have to repeat the switchbacks but the beautiful thing is that as long as they are taking a switch back they are progressing upwards even if it doesn't seem like it. When we walk with them we can help them see their progress and in turn, our testimonies and conversions are also strengthened. It's a spiritual win win win all around! 

I invite you all to invite the people you love to do something that will benefit their life! Maybe that's inviting them to pray, read the Bible or book of Mormon, come to church, or maybe it's an invite to implement a new habit. But when you extend that invitation, help them accomplish it! Walk the journey with them. I promise you it's a blessing to them and to you, watch the hand of the Lord in their life and watch it more in your's!

I love you all many bunches! Go give all the beautiful souls heaven!

Love, 

Sister Court 

Weekly fridge phrases! These are gooders!

♡don't get lulled into carnal security -2 Nephi 28:21

♡lift up your heads -literally everywhere in the bom

♡live less by the list and more by the Lord 

♡Jesus Christ is the infinity and beyond