Sister Sariah E Robertson: Week 19: New Year, New Blessings.

Little chickens,

Life is so good here in Surrey. Heavenly Father is literally just pouring out blessings one after the other and I am so grateful to be here for my 4th month now. Man time flies by. I am never leaving. Transfer News comes this weekend and I'm getting a little nervous I might actually have to leave. Sister Ricks is so amazing, and I feel like everything is just getting started here in Surrey and I do not want to say good bye.

The Rafols gave us a Subway gift card for Chirstmas so hollar

This is Sister Cano. She has my entire heart. She is incredible and one of the most humble people I have ever met. So thankful to have members who come out to lessons with us!

This is Thang and Van. They are our Vietnamese couple. Stay tuned.

We were in a tri for the day. Here is Sister Ricks and Hubert.

Just another pick of us on our exchange as a tri :-)

I know I haven't written in eons, so here is all the super cool, crazy, bittersweet things happening here in Surrey.

We've been working with Faith and Will- Will has been a less active member for quite some time now, and his wife has never been interested in the gospel. Recently she just realized that she hasn't been happy for quite some time now. That even though she has a really good job, one that she literally worked her butt off to get, and has a beautiful husband and daughter, that she felt little to no purpose. Well Will's family members are super active, and long story short, she finally decided to start reading the Book of Mormon. And she felt happy. For the first time in years. So she asked for the missionaries to come teach her and that's where we come in. Well, like I said I think 2 weeks ago, Faith is literally so prepared, and she just soaks up everything we teach her. She reads the Book of Mormon every single night and pretty soon she is going to be ahead of where I am at right now. Well with the new year our congregations meeting time changed from 11 to 9 am, and so due to that and some other things Faith and Will were considering attending Delta Ward, which is now meeting in the 11 time slot. That doesn't seem like a big deal, but that means that we wouldn't be able to teach her anymore. So we were way sad. Sister Ricks and I were praying for a miracle all week long, and we were blessed with a beautiful opportunity, Fast Sunday. So we fasted for Faith and Will to somehow stay in our Ward. Fasting is when we obstain from food and water for 2 meals or more, basically we give up physical strength to receive extra spiritual strength. I've been fasting my whole life, but I've never truly experienced the blessing from fasting until on my mission. Well mostly because back home I was just starving myself, I wasn't actually fasting with a purpose in mind and asking the Lord for help. So literally the coolest thing of my life happened. We were praying right before going into a lesson, and prayed again that somehow things would work out with Faith and Will and that they could come to our ward, and that we would be able to teach them and right after we closed the prayer we got the most amazing text.

G O D I S S O G O O D. Faith and Will are now coming to our Ward, and they are doing so good! Will has been opening up a lot more, and might even prepare himself to be worthy to baptize his wife.

Another sweet family I've been working with since literally the beginning of time is Sima and Michael.

They are a fijian couple that Sister Wright and I found while out knocking. They are amazing, and I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father led us to them. These past 3 1/2 months have been a crazy hot mess working with them with A LOT of ups and downs. Even these past two weeks there has been so much progress and then setback and then progress and just I can't even explain it all. Sima has really been doing so so good. She started reading the Book of Mormon for really the first time 2 weeks ago and it has changed her life. She is so happy.

SIMAAAAA and her sweet baby boy Shyan-

(Anna Aurora, I found Aashiyana a husband❤)

The best part about being able to be a missionary is being able to watch the change that happens in others lives as they accept God and Jesus Christ. Sima is going to be baptized this upcoming Sunday, and I can not wait to watch her start this new beginning. Then there is Michael. To sum him up he has been drinking and smoking since he was like 15. Mostly for fun back then, but now he uses them as a coping mechanism. And how hard it has been to watch him battle back and forth in trying to break that habit. It has literally broken my heart to watch him and his wife struggle. They have experienced a lot of hard ship these past two months, and Michael has lost 5 different jobs due to his addictions. The amazing thing is that he knows God sent us to him and his family, and he knows he needs to change, he just wasn't doing it. And yeah, sometimes he would try. But things would just get hard, as life always does, and it would kick him in the butt again. The thing is that this life is always going to be hard, that's part of Heavenly Fathers plan for us, to be tried and tested so that we can learn and grow and by experience understand what brings true happiness. And it's really through God and the gospel of Jesus Christ that we can experience joy even in times of trial, and have the strength to face life's challenges with a spirit of peace. But to have that, we must actually live the gospel. Well, the best thing happened 3 days ago. MICHAEL ACTUALLY DECIDED TO ACT IN FAITH AND START LIVING IT. He read the Book of Mormon, and he talked to the Bishop, and he e v e n dumped out all of his alcohol in front of us and threw out all of his cigarettes. Now things won't be rainbows and butterflies all of a sudden, but he is finally starting, and he has felt happier now, than he ever has in his entire life.

Goodbye to Alcohol (-: (-: (-: (-: (-:

The biggest blessing about serving a mission is that you think that you are coming out to serve others, but really you end up serving yourself. Being able to watch God change others literally just deepens my testimony of this gospel. It works. Heavenly Father loves us so so much, and we just need to each learn to see ourselves as Heavenly Father sees us. I have been able to feel Heavenly Fathers love for so many people throughout my life, especially on my mission. And if he has that much love for those children, I can't even imagine the kind of love he has for me as well.

Big things are happening here in Surrey, and Heavenly Father just continues to bless us. I love you all so so much, and I pray that you will take advantage of the blessings that Heavenly Father has given you.

Love always,

Sister Robertson