I LOVE WISCONSIN! :D

So i dont have much time but i got my visa! ill be arriving in the wisconsin milwaukee mission on monday! so thats very exciting! heavenly father definately has a sense odf humour since i got all unpacked and then my visa came haha. but im ever so grateful. its very bittersweet though. i thought i would be overjoyed to get my visa but ill be leaving a piece of my heart here in the canada toronto mission. im really excited to serve the Lord and the saints in wisconsin though! watch out america! here comes sister mansfield! im really going to miss all of the missioanies and memers here and especially president and sister clayton! their just wonderful! i love you all! remember to always look to christ for all things and dont fear the future is as bright as your faith in him! :D <3 im so grateful for the experiences that ive had here in the ctm :)

MIRACLES HAPPEN :D

friday wsa skills and interviews. i love the claytons so much. they are so inspired! i feel the spirit whenever they speak! they are so loving to each other too its adorable! in the canada toronto mission we teach repentance and baptize converts, we are a pmg mission and we are converted disciples of Jesus Christ. president just reminded me that we always have to stay on our foundation which is our testimony of Christ and all the spiritual experiences that weve ever had.

Well i dont have much time but here goes folks! on saturday before lunch we had planned to go contact a la referral named d. we were having trouble finding his appartment complex because it was b. we went around the back of the building and we started walking towards some other complexes that looked like a and maybe b. there was a black truck pulling in as we were walking over to the other buldings and i joked that it was d. well when the man got out of the car he asked us if we were lds and we said yes. we asked him if he was d and he said yes. we told him we were looking for him. he informed us that he didnt live there anymore and that he was just in the area visiting friends. we were able to get his phone number and address and setup a lesson with him. right time. right place. coincidence? nope! tender mercies ofcourse!

we got to go to our recent converts patriarchal blessing on sunday which was an amazing experience! the spirit was so strong and it was such a beautiful blessing. it really stregnthened my testimony. Heavenly Father really knows us all personally and by name. he has special blessings just waiting for us but we have to keep his commandments are always progress and become more christlike. we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father with divine potential. never forget that ever!

I love my Saviour Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for the love that he has for me and each of his children. I'm grateful for his atonement that gives me the oppourtunity to improve each day.

I love you all! :D 

-Sister Mansfield <3

This picture is of the mighty hamster zone (hamilton zone) at skill and interviews! enjoy!

Hamilton Harvest :)

monday- we decided to go grocery shopping at walmart at 7 am. that was fun! we went to eat lunch the  pen centre with our recent convert emily. i love her! were doing a bunch of challenges in our zone to raise the bar and its called raise your hammers. their really fun! we went to visit our investigator jennifer. shes having a hard time giving up her coffee. we gave her the book of mormon stories so that it would be easier for her to understand. we had tacos with the burtons for dinner. they are wonderful! on the way to the burtons we found a new investigator named katerina. she actually works at the womens shelter that we volunteer at on wednesdays. its wonderful to see that Heavenly father really puts prepared people in our paths we just have to talk to them! we went to visit sister capuyan and she was skyping her family from the Philippines. her family even stayed on skype while we shared a message about the sabbath even though there not members which was really nice.

tuesday-  we went to visit a less active member named brother c. he lives far away! he owns and antique business so his house is filled with beautiful stuff. his wife is not a member but she sat in on the visit as we talked about his mission with him. we caught the tail end of helping with the bishop storehouse. their was so much food. it really streghtened my testimony of fast offerings to help those in need. hayat one of the members were working with is in the hospital so we went to visit her. we dropped her off a card. we were able to visit our recent convert jesse whos really hard to meet with. he goes to a really old boarding school so he gave us a mini tour after the lesson which was cool. 

wednesday- we helped with the cleaning at the womens shelter. chuck who were helping get the priesthood is smoking so much less now. he cut down ten cigarettes a day. we know heavenly father is helping him because hes doing his part and coming to church again. what a 360 hes done since i first met him. hes great! we completed a raise your hammer challenge by knocking 50 doors and we found some sweet potentials. 

thursday- we had district meeting! its awesome being with a group of missionaries. district meeting focused on commitments and teaching the Lord's way. we all wne to A & W for lunch after. we met with our investigator kristin and her daughter sierra. kristen actually stumbled into meet the mormons on netflix and watched and loved it. heavenly father is awesome! we taught her the plan of salvation and commited her to be baptized this month and she accepted! :) 

friday- we went to joey holtbys grandparents house for dinner. they are the sweetest!

saturday-  I had to soap box preach for one of the raise your hammer challenges! i dan jones it up! it was fun. their werent too many people downtown but we got a group coming from a cheer competition. it was sweet! we went with chuck who is now down 12 cigarettes a day! we sid alot of tracting and oyming downtown today. a lady nmaed wendy let us in because she loves family history. she was telling us that she was catholic but was really excited when we gave her a book of morn and then we were able to get her number. sister kwak i had korean food for dinner! a brother in our ward served in korea so he made us all food from his mission. yummy!

sunday- church was awesome today! brother stockwell sang opera and it was beautiful. brother macjanet gave a  great presentation on the sbabath day in fifth hour. im going to start prepping for the sabbath all week. you all should do the same! :) chuck stayed for all three hours of church and even th4e munch and mingle. life is good. god answers prayers. the spirit is everything! all my love! :D <3

A Day of Miracles Indeed!

monday- we went to niagara falls as a district again. it was so cold outside! and the mist fom the falls wasnt helping! but it is a really beautiful place and when im not here i know ill appreciate living this close to one of the seven wonders of the world:). we went to he macjanets for dinner. i love them! their hilarious! their house is so huge and nice too! sister macjanets cooking is heavenly!

tuesday- a day of miracles indeed! we taught a returning member sister h about prayer. she ahs a strong testomony of prayer but has limited understanding of the rest of the gospel so were working with her on that. we went to visit a less active family the a family. they dont make it to church often because they attend their kids sporting activities. it makes me sad when people dont make church a priority. our recent convert j actually answered us today. he seems to feel uncomfortable with sister missionaries so he usually ignores us. but this week he responded and it was indeed a tender mercy. a potential named kristin who we were supposed to have a lesson with had to go to work so she left us a note of her door. it was so nice of her to do that. so we wrote her back  a note with our next appointment time. we taught some ysa potentials named avi and davis. they had so many questions that we basically taught them every lesson in one sitting. it was really fun! we even got avi who is jewish to sya the closing prayer! our recent convert emily treated us to some delicious cashew chicken and some raspberry cupcakes for dinner. we love her! i found out that s one of our returning members speaks french so i can practice yay! a day of tender mercies indeed! 

Wednesday- today was the worldwide missionary broadcast. it was so good! elder bednar, oaks and anderson talked. what really stuck out to me was that we are to be vessels of the spirit so that the holy ghost can teach people and touch their hearts through us. 

thursday- we met and taught kristin and her daughter sierra and they just accepted everything witout any problems. she said that we can come back and visit them whenever we want. 

friday- we had district meeting and went over what we learned during the broadcast. it was in hamilton. then we went to a mall in hamilton and ate some lunch together. its so nice being around other missionaries!  we went on exchanged with the stls! sister cook and i went to hamilton mountain east with sister price! shes a ginger yay! i love it! 

saturday- we met with george whos getiing baptized next week in hamiltona ndhes such a quiet hmbke guy and hes so excited!

sunday- the sabbath day is so great! i got alot of questions answered during the meetings.president clayton called us and gave us counsle on how we can plan our lessongs around commitments to help those we teach with their concerns. oh and chuck our returning member came to church after two months of working with him wooohooo! life is good! i love it! and i love al lof you! :D <3 

sister mansfield

So I Met Donnie Osmond Sunday

well its been an awesome week here in st. cats! we went

monday - zone sports for the last day of the transfer woohoo! our recent convert em came with us and loved it! sister bell spoiled sister cook and i wish some subways. yumyum! we always do fhe on tranfer mondays with the rigbys and the currys. we played mafia and i actually won! reminded me off all those werewolf games in ysa! goodtimes! 

tuesday- we drove to bodacious brampton zone for transfers. it felt nice to be in my old stomping grounds. sister monnie is so fun! shes actually bestfriends with the ap in the wisonsin milwaukee mission elder larsen. i actually met him during the twenty four hours that i spent in that mission. i love Heavenly Father's sense of humour! small world! sister monnie is from a town called greschan in oregon. sister cook was sliding all over the place getting used to driving in canadian snow haha. we lived though! 

wednesday-we went to the womens shelter that we volunteer at in the kitchen. we had dinner with the drowmeys who are an older couple from england and their so cute! 

thursday- we finally were able to visit with our investigator jen. shes progressing really slowly but she is progressing! we went to visit the burtons and brother burton showed us some of his old band stuff from the 80s. it was cool to see him and brother lipiec back in the day. their so cool! 

friday- district meeting was too legit to quit! we focused on teaching in the lords way. President Clayton received inspiration that we should teach shorter lessons so that the spirit can be there the whole time. weve really seen lots of blessings as weve applied his counsel. hes so inspired! i love him! we watched the first video of the twelve step program with our retunrning member chuck. and he promised us that hed be at church this sunday! and he never makes promises he wont keep. norma the lady who is in charge of the kitchen at the womens shelter invited us over for dinner. she asked alot of awesome questions about missions and stuff. hopefully she becomes a new investigator! and her families awesome too! we want them all to join us! 

saturday- we found three new investigators today after tracting near referrals. one actually lived where a member used to live again. we really do see miracels as we hearken and apply the counsel that president Clayton gives us. another miracle! a ls member named jesse actually let us visit him. hes super hard to reach because he does shift work. and usually doenst answer calls or the door but he invited us right in when we dropped by!

sunday- so donnie osmand and his friend jerry williams were at church today. that was both awesome and random! apparently he did a show in niagara falls or something! i aint complaining! we went over and chatted with him a bit. i was a little stractruck i cant lie. he was super sweet though. he snuck out after sacrament but a couple people still got pictures. we were relieve that jen accepted the wow without any issues! repentance is the best. i would like to challenge everyone yto take a question into every church meeting. i promise you church will become a revelatory experience! and it will help you pay attention! the book or mormon and humility are the keys to being a successful missionary. i love you all! :D <3

EXPECT THE MIRACLE

This week was a week full of miracles! I will be staying in St. Catharines with Sister Cook and Sister Monee will be joining us! sister bell will be heading off to Mississauga north to be a sister training leader! i cant believe that my twelve weeks of training is over! looks like i have to grow up now! president clayton said that my visa is at the top of the priority list so hopefully next transfer ill be in wisonsin where i hear its freezing. so keep those visa prayers coming please! we were visiting a less active family who was a referral from the ward. the member didnt live in that house anymore but the lasy who did live there let us use her washroom. we chatted with s and she warmed up to us and let us setup a return appointment. we tuahgt her the restoration when we came back and the spirit was so strong she cried the whole time. when we asked her to come back she said no but that she would come to church. she did! after she felt the spirit at church she let us setup a return appointment. the miracles happenyou just have to expect them! its so much easier to see the lords hand in all things and to recognize his spirit as we forget ourselves and focus on others. i love you all! xoxo :D

Happy New Years!

Monday-We went to visit the Holtby's today. It was really funny being at Joey's house without him there. You can tell him i got to see all his baby picture. Just kidding! Our returning member chuck is going to get a priesthood blessing to help him quit smoking. it came to my mind that we should ask him if he had ever gotten one and he hadn't. so hes going to get one yay!

Tuesday- today was pday because it was a holiday for most people. elder cragun the district leader gave me and sister cook whos also finishing up with her training some really good counsel. he told us to ponder how to be more united as a companionship during personal study. president Clayton said that as we do that we will be more unified when we teach. 

Wednesday- sister bells funny quotes of the week: 1) i cant wait to sing i the choir of angels! 2) be as exactly obedient as sister Mansfield hair!/ she so funny! we went into a restaurant to schedule a lesson with a potential named Dee. it was sad because she was drinking but we still managed to set something up. my companions and i are going to fast with our returning member Paula so that she can quit smoking this fast Sunday. our investigator Corinne dropped us. she said that shes happy being roman catholic and that she doesn't want to join any other church. that was sad because we thought she was golden! sister stedneck is a new returning member. she needs to be sealed to her husband. we found out that she hasn't been paying her tithing in three years so were working with her on that. we are also over Welland because they took missionaries out for this transfer.

Thursday- we helped a family that we didn't know move today. they called us and asked for service so we got a few members together and helped. Chuck got his blessings today so i hope he lets it help him. our returning members Paula and Marlene made us bagel bites, cheese sticks, meatballs and eclair then we all pigged out together! :) 

Friday- i always forget about holidays on a mission. district meeting focused on using the book or Mormon to help people with their concerns. i really love the book of Mormon. it feels really good to actually kind of know some scriptures now and some context. yay me! then i had exchanges with sister droge from Germany! sister droge and i stayed in st. catharines so i was left to my own devices to try to figure out the area! We visited some members the Dewitts. their daughter is so cute! brother Dewitt actually baptized his wife on his misson. cute eh! sister isaac, a returning member gave us some sweet book of Mormon reading charts. the sauls took us to Swiss chalet for dinner and it was so good! a less active member sister hayat had strong incense in her home when we came to visit and sister droge was coughing! it was hard to breathe! our returning member Shea met us in her laundry room. we made sister droge prayy in German. so cool! and they sang a German folk song together. it was sweet! 

Saturday- we went to meet with the sagers in the Welland ward. it was nice! elder cragun gave me a blessing because i was stressed but all is well now! the priesthood is the best! :) the kings had us over for a new years dinner with their friends and family. 

Sunday- fast and testimony Sunday is such a treat! our lesson with our returning member sister Bradley went super well. we read in the book of Mormon with her and talked about the spirit world, temples and family history. we invited her to prepare for the temple in may to do the work for her mom and she accepted! thats a big step for her! we really got her thinking which is splendid! our recent convert em made us supper! it was so good shes the sweetest! 

love you all! :D<3

The True Meaning of Christmas :)

Christmas week was a good week. The Lord really hastens his work during the holiday. A family in the ward had us deliver a christmas meal to another family in the ward because they wanted to remain anonymous. That family is so charitable. Our investigator Jen was so much happier this week. I know its because she had been consistently reading from the book or mormon and praying daily. Going to church, praying and reading the scriptures (CPR) are the keys to happiness in life! Brother Wright bought us this big box of fish and chips from a restaurant in St. Davids and it was so delicious! We had dinner at the Burtons house another night and Brother Burton was pet sitting skinnypigs! Look them up! A return missionary who served here is living with a Sister in the ward and they had us over for lunch. They made us some Peruvian potato pie i think its called. that was cool! Brother Jewer even gifted us three cartons of egg nog! We helped sister Stockwells neighbour in St. Davids hand out some Niagara Times papers before district meeting. It was really fun! For Christmas eve dinner the Jones family has us over for homemade perogies and turkey. It was so delicious! Bishop and sister jones are hilarious and their kids are adorable! Skyping my family on Christmas was amazing! It was so nice to see everyones faces! We had pancakes, fruit and ltos of bacon for breakfast with Loretta. Yummy! We had dinner with the Curry's! I just really love eating! Then Brother Wright took us to Niagara falls to see the falls lit up at night at the christmas lights. the members all spoiled us this christmas with gifts! I felt both super loved and blessed. As much as i think the members love us. its what we stand for, give up and share with people that they love. it was ncie to have a quiet christmas focused on the saviours birth and how we can help other people discover the true joy of his gospel. i love you all! :D <3

Niagara Falls!

Monday - Some of our zone went to Niagara Falls on preparation day. It was us plus the Stoneycreek elders (Beddes and Ditty), the China elders (Jenkins and Lau), the St. David elders (Cragun and Vargas) and the zone leaders from Hamilton (Butler and Smith). We walked on the boardwalk of the falls and walked around the little town. Its like a little theme park! It was so cool and fun. After we took some pictures near the falls we went to Smokes Poutinerie which is Elder Vargas fave! Everyone on the mish here loves Smokes! It wasnt as ogod as home but the bacon cheeseburger was still pretty good! We were finally able to meet with our new convert for the first time since ive been here. Lets just call her Pa. Shes super sweet! She loves the Book of Mormon and shes coming to do baptisms in the temple with us on January 9th. Im so excited! Her daughter Ny also loves coming to church!

Tues - We met with one of our I's named Cor. Shes still struggling with understanding how the Book of Mormon and Bible are diferrent but go together. But we brought our den momma Melissa with us and she testified about how the Book of Mormon can help us each individually with our own personal struggles in life. Ive really seen that to be true especially on the mission when theres always so many things to improve. I really love the book of mormon! We visited with a member named Stella whos in her 90s and she have us some souvenirs spoons to remember our time in St Cats. Shes sweet! We went to dinner at the burtons. Brother Burton used to be in a band in the 80s and she showed us the flashy coat that he used to wear. Theres also another brother in the ward who was in the band with him and so theyve been friends for like 50s years. They both had some really inspiring conversion stories to tel.

Wed - We went to teach jen about faith. She does not have much of a religious background so we felt like we had to start from the beginning with her and do one principle at a time. As missionaries we are to help people increase their faith in the Saviour and so thats what were trying to do with her!

Thurs - We went to visit with a less active member named C at a members home. Weve taught him everything but he cant seem to find the motivation to come to church and to stop smoking. I felt inspired to do the twelve step program with him. Its the only thing that we havent tried so far. The first step is honesty and he finished that next week. Bro C said that it really helped him realize that he had an addiciton and that most of all he needed to be honest with himself. 

Fri - Exchanges! Sister Droge came here and Sister Bell went to Hamilton with sister Reeves. So me and sister Cook had to attempt to figure out the area for ourselves! We taught eight lessons and it was great! One of our less actives Hay referred her friend to us at the end of her lesson. She actually came with us to her neighbours house and she let us in and we taught her the restoration. Exchange miracles! Sister Droge is froem Germany random fact. 

Sat - We were able to contact a member who moved her from the canada montreal mission and set up a lesson with her im so pumped! 

Sun - We met with Brother j and he always feeds us delicious baked goods! We met with a returning member named paula who is so awesome! she hasnt been smoking for like a week and has no cravings because she told heavenly father that if he takes the cravings away shell quit. 

I love being a missionary! And i love you all! p.s. please pray for visa! :D <3

sister bell has short hair and shes from ogden! sister cook is from logan! love them!

Raise the Hammer!

monday-we had dinner with the stockwells. they are so cute! poor brother stockwell wasnt feeling well so i gave him some suggestions on what he could take. keep him in your prayers please!

tuesday-we met with our investigator d at the library. he accepted to be baptized on january 8th and were so pumped! we had dinner with joey holtbys grandparents so that was a fun experience! i see his parents every sunday too and i signed his christmas card haha he will have no idea! 

wed- zone conference was the best! president and sister clayton had us sing the twelve days of christmas and had us all make up an action to go with it. then we sang hymns and president takes his conducting very seriously! i love the claytons! as missionaries we dont have much to give during christmas time in terms of material things. but what we can give christ is our will. we must turn it over to him and develop his attributes. we had a great coordination meeting! our ward mission leader read a letter to my neighbour and was really inspired to make some great changes in the ward to help with the work. yay! 

thurs-today was a good day! lots of good lessons! sister saul gave us lots of cookies and ice cream. im gonna roll out of this are when i leave :).

fri- we met with two of our investigators jen and cor. jen has commited to be batized january 9th. cor has a great desire to really come to know that the book of mormon is true. she loves studying it and has many questions yay! 

sat- we met with d. hes been reading the book of mormon yay!and he came out to church and stayed all three hours!

sun-the sabbath is a delight! i gave a talk about the atonement and the gospel of jesus christ. i was pretty calm when giving the talk so prayer works! we went to the bishops for supper and it was full of laughs!

i love you all :D <3

St Catharines Ontario! :D <3

monday- my last pday with the bodacious brampton zone so sad! we went to eat at the mandarin buffet which was so fun and yummy ofcourse! then sister chelson and i had dinner at the shermans to bid them farewell. its funny because they were the first members that we met with when we opened the area so it was bittersweet.  then we dropped by the sousa family and sister h to say our goodbyes. brampton its been a great run!

tuesday- hello st catharines! so guess what!? im a tripanionship! so fun! its like a slumber party all the time! my companions are sister bell who is my sister on the mission and sister cook who is my niece. weird fmaily dynamic lol. sister cook and i are both finishing up training. so first we met with a retuning member sister p and taught the law of chastity. that went well. shes so straightforward its fun! then we met with a recent convert named sister e. shes adorable! and has desired to serve a mission! yay! then we street contacted downtown with the christmas initiative. check out the video on www.christmas.mormon.org its so good! then we prepared a misison prep lesson for the young women. then there was a relief society christmas dinner so i got to know some of the sisters. they put on a play about the women in christs life. it was nice. i met ericas friend rachel! small world! 

wed- we volunteerd in a womens shelter making them meals for a couple of hours. it felt good. i realized that its really hard to cut a cabbage! exercise! the women there are really kindred spirits. we actually ate lunch with them after and found a new investigator there! her name is c. she wants to discover why a saviour was born yay! then we spent some more time downtown contacting people. the kings had us over for dinner and we had some fietas yum! then we role played the restoration with the young women. some of them were super into it! i see some future sister missionaries! 

thurs- we taught an invesigator named d at the library. we taught him the restoration and he took everything super well. he really wants to find a good church with nice people because hes joined many previously. then we met with a returning member sister c. shes wonderful! she reads and prays often but just cant seem to make it to church because she has some anxiety issues so were working with her. we taught her about the plan of salvation. she needed that because she was thinking of and missing her parents during this christmas season. im so grateful for the plan of salvation. then we met with the investigator that we found in the womens shelter c. we shared the christmas video with her and she loved it! now shes anxious to learn more about our church! the we went to the chungs house and had the children learn of the restoration with us. sister chung made us some delicious loaf! 

fri- we met our district today! its alot smaller than my last one but there a fun bunch! we learned about how to better use the christmas initiative so that was fun! then we had some lessons with members and an investigator named j. shes super cute! we read enos 1 with her and talked about it with her! she has a baptismal date for december 19th! :) sowe went offroading by accident in the countyr on the way to the mencias house oops! :)

sat- we met with a returning member named c at the drowmeys house. we shared the christmas video and talked about the atonement. we went to visit sister p a returning memebr snd she shared her conversion story with us. 

sun- stake conference! elder schwitzer of the seventy talked about the book of mormon mixed with history and it was really awesome! the toronto temple presidency also talked about eternal marriage yay!  then we had lunch with loretta and her family and shared the christmas video. such a sweet spirit comes with that video! we also brought a referral a book of mormon in the hospital that felt good. then we had dinner with the macjanets, they live in a mansion! but yeah it was nice to get to know them and watch the a saviopur is born video with them.congrats marci and di on your calls thats so exciting! i love you all and discover why #asaviourisborn on www.christmas.mormon.org ! :D <3