More missionaries in the family!

August 18, 2014
Dear Mom & Everyone,
It sounds like you have had a great week full of lots and lots of crazy fun things. there really aren't many lakes in England I don't think, at least, the only lakes that I've heard of in my mission is "The Lake District" which everyone goes to for holiday, and it is out of my mission boundaries.
    Spencer, Spencer, Spencer. What a gem. I miss that individual [in reference to Sis. L's cousin].

    It is  crazy that Jared didn't recognize Ashy, I don't feel like time has continued for anyone else but me, but, I guess it does!

Samara asked for this picture ages ago.
(She made these toothpick
dolls for Sis. Lybbert)

District photo!

    This week has been pretty exhausting, but good. I decided that I was actually going to try and put effort into morning exercise (instead of just exercising my eyelids whilst stretching...) so that might have had something to do with it, plus we have been endlessly knocking on doors for this transfer. Sister Seely and I have really been trying to be as obedient as we can, as effective as we can, and as positive and grateful as we can be because we just have not been teaching anybody who wants the gospel bad enough to work for it, and that's sad.
     Well, the Lord heard our prayers and helped us to both feel that we are adequate, and hard-working and that He is mindful of us. It is so hard on a mission to differentiate between feeling like you are doing your best and the Lord is just testing diligence and patience, or if you are doing something wrong in your finding techniques, or obedience, or you're not 'skilled' enough at street contacting, etc.
     The last two days, were the first times in ages that we've found somebody that told us we could come back and share more. We have return appointments with both, and members to accompany us. I could not be more grateful.
     The weather has become cold; it feels like it is Autumn. Last summer was so long, and hot, but yesterday we had cold winds and I felt like I was back in Southern Alberta. Haha.

Pistachio Pudding!

     I really have  felt my testimony of the gospel increase this week though as I've been studying on how to become more Christlike, and how to put my heart in this work even more. I love Sacrament meeting too, it has become one of the best highlights of my week.
     Also, thanks for replying to Sarah C, she really appreciates it. She's the sweetest.
Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Lybbert :)



August 26, 2014
Dear Family,
It is so exciting that we have yet another missionary in the family! Jayson will love it. I wish I could have been there for his talk, but I guess being a fellow missionary cousin with him is something only Gilbert and I got to do, which is way cooler. ahem. ;)
     Congratulations to Ashy for doing so well in the Highland games! You are phenomenal, girl!
     This week has been pretty great. We have been experiencing cold weather though, which isn't ideal, but we've been able to find a few potential investigators, one of which we are meeting with tonight, and I'm pretty happy about it.
     It's crazy because after a while of being here and experiencing missionary work, I haven't really come up with much to tell you that is new. I love Harrogate still, and Sister Seely is wonderful and I finally got the bathroom floor clean. (I thought the dirt was permanent, but now that we've mopped it a lot of times, it seems to be a bit better...I'm still wearing my slippers around the house though.).

Sister Seely's depiction of our nationalities

     And Grandma Lybbert will be pleased to know that I used her tactic for getting rid of fruit flies and it worked tremendously well. At first, Sister Seely wasn't quite sure about it, but when she saw the success, she was very pleased. We made three jars with funnels in them and fruit at the bottom, and then we'd put them in the freezer when they'd get a decent amount of flies. It was a food feeling to rid the house of something else that's gross.
     I have had some incredible personal studies this week.  This morning I was reading through The Gospel of Jesus Christ in Preach My Gospel and that led me to reading about happiness, and prayer, and sacrifice. I love how God really does know what experiences we need to help us grow. Some of the things that I've experienced on the mission have been perfect for that time. Just as we missionaries plan spiritual experiences for the people we teach, Heavenly Father has done that for us and he has backup plans too. That is also the beauty of agency. I love that this is all so simple, but so very intricate.
     I'm happy, the sun is shining, the work is doing well, and today we have a lunch appointment at the Peirce's, which is always extremely and absolutely delightful!

I love you all,
Sister Lybbert :)

It feels like September

August 11, 2014
Dear Mum and Everyone,

This week has been pretty wet and rainy and cold. I feel like it is September! Sister K. H. is from Stoke-on-Trent [we have a soccer coach from there staying with us this week].
I love Waterton. Whenever I tell people where I'm from, I always mention it. People are so intrigued with the landscape in Canada. They love it!
 It has been such an odd week. Bob and Sally are going away for a month, so we wont' be able to see them. We've been doing a lot of knocking doors. We can usually get good conversations with people but yesterday we were just facing overall grouchiness from people. We have been doing some fun service activities recently. We helped an elderly lady from the ward with her garden. It started absolutely chuckin' it down when we were, so we got really wet and muddy. Here, people can't really wait for the ground to dry before doing their gardens like we do back home. It was really nice and relaxing to be able to do some gardening (and to wear trousers!) :D I felt so free.
    We also helped another member of the ward this week. She's a young mom of two, and she's suffering from morning sickness. Her husband has been on a work trip for the past eight weeks so we've been going by to help her clean her house every week. I felt so bad for her. Her kids are super energetic, I don't know how she copes with it all on her own, but her husband is back as of yesterday, so that's nice.
We have been praying really hard that we can find more people to teach. Like I said, our teaching pool is more like a small puddle, but we will continue to march North! (in the words of President Pilkington.)
     I love the gospel. I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for the time I get to spend as a full-time servant of the Lord. :)
Love,
Sister Lybbert

South Shields Sisters at Mission Tour

Grandpa and Grandma in the MTC

a cool bridge at Harewood House. They are a
lot further apart than they look. I found out
from personal experience.

Dear Family and Everyone,
I can't believe that Grandpa and Grandma leave this next week! That is brilliant and they will love the MTC. Provo is a bit different than Preston I've heard, but they will love it.

my disgusting tan line

     Ashy is going to EFY? How exciting! EFY is brilliant for so many reasons. Is she rooming with somebody that she already knows?
This week has been a good one. Bob and Sally are kind of slowly progressing-ish. Bob is very confused. We had that huge miracle with him a couple of weeks ago, but now he's come up with some other ideas that are a lot less than true doctrine. He believes that God gave His priesthood authority to three churches. our lessons have not been very good with him because he talks in circles, and beats around the bush. He agrees with everything we say, but ha also disagrees. Oh my oh my! It doesn't sound that he's really worth working with, but we will continue whilst being directed by the Spirit to continue going. There's a family that just moved in the ward, the W's and brother W served his mission in Africa so hopefully he'll know how to teach people of that culture and from the Apostolic Church better.
    We have been fasting as a district that we might be able to find people to teach that actually desire to progress in the gospel. I do see potential and I see the need to be teaching the people that we are, but we definitely need some new faces.

with Sister S

     On Saturday we were knocking a street, and we knocked on this lady's door that had hedgehog decorations everywhere, so we asked if she had a pet one. I have been dying to see one this whole time. It turns out that this lady actually rescues hedgehogs and she has 31! I got to hold a baby one. :)
I can't really think of what else to say, except you are great and I love you.
XX Sister Lybbert