February 22, 2016

Hey family!! So, I don't know about you but I'm totally freaking out!!! Like, I'm coming home in two days and I get to see/talk to you all then! AHHHHH!! I still just can't even believe it. The last few days have just been so weird. I've been packing and saying bye to everyone and I had my departing interview with President Clayton yesterday! I totally have mixed feelings. There were lessons that we have this week that were so powerful and when I was walking out, I was just so sad that those experiences are coming to an end. I was totally sad when I thought about how I would be released as a full time missionary so soon. BUT then I would think about all of you!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL!! :) Then I would feel so excited and ready to go home! My emotions have just been up and down all week. It's been... fun. Ha. 

DEPARTING INTERVIEW: So yeah, that happened yesterday and it was fabulous!!! I have so much love for the Claytons and will totally cry when I say bye to them!! It was nice being able to spend like 30 mins with President Clayton by myself. I felt so special! :) I brought "My Plan" and we talked about the future. It was a super spiritual and motivating conversation! I'm grateful that I did "My Plan" - I feel like I have more direction now so I'll be more prepared to go home! President just helped me to understand that I will always be a missionary. My purpose never changes! I will always be inviting other people to come closer to Christ! I'll invite my future husband, and kids, and ward members, and friends, and neighbors ALL to come closer to Christ! And I get to do that for the rest of my life! YAHOO! Well he said a closing prayer at the end of the interview and I totally lost it. Ha. I think I had mascara on my face because when President opened his eyes he started laughing. HAHAHA Cool! 

I'll just write a couple things!

-It has been freezing here! Like it hit -38 degrees Celsius with windchill. My nose hairs froze. Not cool.
-I biffed it SO hard on ice. Super cool! It was actually hilarious because we got home and I was bringing in lots of stuff from the car. So one foot slipped but then I tried to catch it with the next foot but that slipped to... I was kind of dancing the jerk on ice... Then I was in mid air for a sec before I landed hard on my bum! BAHAHA then I couldn't get up and everything was everywhere... And I was laughing so hard I couldn't function... Yeah. It was super happy! :) I love falls! 

-We did service this last week at a food bank and we gave everyone we helped a mormon.org card. Well one guy we talked to was from Guyana and was baptized there like 10 years ago!! :) So we talked to him for a little bit and invited him to church! HE CAME YESTERDAY! For all 3 hours and stayed for munch and mingle. AND he came to the fireside that President and Sister Clayton were speaking at! SO HAPPY!!! 

-A couple that we've been working with this whole transfer FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH! When they walked in I was SO happy and couldn't stop smiling! 

-We hosted an FHE and it turned out so well! We have a potential investigator there, and like 5 less active members then lots of members. We played 2 truths and a lie and it was HILARIOUS!! Most of the people are way old so they would get a little confused sometimes, but man - we all had a blast! One of the truths from a member was that he had 100 chinchillas living in his basement! BAHAHAHAHA. I was praying that it was a lie but unfortunately it was a truth. I couldn't stop laughing. Even writing this I'm laughing. The good news is I recorded him telling the whole story! It's hard to hear because my laugh is so darn loud but whatever. 

-We found 5 new investigators this week! I think I was scared to go home so we worked extra hard. HA! All of them are super solid and super prepared so next transfer Richmond Hill will have like 10 baptisms! NBD :) 

-We're going to an aquarium downtown today! :) And I get to go to the temple tomorrow! BLESSINGS! :)

-Elder Womack, one of my zone leaders, gave me a blessing after district meeting. I was just feeling a little overwhelmed and wow - it brought me so much peace. He gave such a beautiful blessing!! I'll just write about a couple of things that really stood out to me. He blessed me with the gift of remembrance. That I'll be able to remember the feelings and experiences that I've had on my mission. He also blessed me that I would continue to understand my purpose when I got home. I so needed to hear that! It was just a great blessing and my testimony of Heavenly Fathers love for me increased more! He knows us so well and he cares so much about us! :) I am so grateful that the priesthood has been restored and I'm grateful for the men in my life that live worthy of that!! 

Well, I was going to write a short last email... My bad! Ha. But I love you all so much and I'm so excited to see you!! 

Thank you for all your examples you've been for me and the support you've given me while I've been out. I couldn't have done it without all of you. :) My mission has changed my life but I know I'm able to continue to change and progress when I go home! #membermissionaryforlife. :)

Love,

Sister Dayton 

February 16, 2016

HELLO!! This last week was super awesome! Like all weeks here in the CTM. I have been so blessed to have such an amazing mission! Seriously, I don't know how I got put with the best companions, in the best wards, with the BEST President and wife. I'VE BEEN SO BLESSED! I totally have mixed feelings about going home. It is definitely coming up. The good news is so many cool things are happening in our area I get distracted and never really think about home. But then people ask, "So how long have you been on your mission." "Uh... Like, 18 months." 

MAKING MISSIONARY WORK FUN: Sister Davis and I had been tracting for a while and we had been rejected multiple times in a row... We were feeling a little down so it was time for a challenge. It was super snowy and we passed a cool park. I challenged her to run up the slide and if she made it to the top I would buy her hot chocolate. So she did it. Well the slide was super slippery! She took like two steps and her foot flew up and she landed on her back so hard! BAHAHAHA! Τhe good news is she's OK. The REALLY good news is that I have that on video!!! 

ZOLTON: So he has a super cool name. And he's cooler than his name! He's from Hungary and is 94!!! BAHAHA Our lessons are hilarious because we are yelling the whole time. And every time we show up for our appointments he goes, "I wasn't expecting you today." Ha. Uh... We called yesterday to confirm. He's very active in the Catholic church but is very curious about the Restoration and has been reading out of the Book of Mormon lots! 

PART MEMBER FAMILIES: So many of our investigators right now are referrals from members!! We are teaching returning members husband! And a returning members son! And an active members daughter! I love it because they have so much support and encouragement! And as missionaries we're able to kill 2 birds with one stone! We help people become active and help people work towards baptism at the same time! YAHOO! 

FHE: We put together a family home evening for our investigators, new converts, returning members and active members who don't have family around and it was such a blast! We shared a brief message then we played mafia! Everyone was so confused at how to play and I couldn't stop laughing. We had a narrator that was like, "Ok mafia open your eyes... Now close your eyes." I was like, "UH... the mafia needs to pick someone to kill!" BAHAHA. We had some older people there. And some people that don't speak English super well. It was so fun though! 

EXCHANGES: I went on an exchange with Sister Chelson!! I trained her like, 6 transfers ago. She's so AMAZING! And we had a blast. She is serving in the Toronto downtown area so I was there for a day! AHHH - it was so fun to be there again. I love the city so much! We would get on a bus and literally talk to every single person on the bus! It was awesome. We accidentally stayed up past 1 AM just talking. We had to catch up. It had been so long!! 

CREEPER OF THE WEEK: On exchanges we had talked to lots of people on the buses, right? And I smile and I'm friendly and I think some people just take it the wrong way... Sister Chelson read the text and just started laughing so hard then asked if I wanted to hear a funny text. I'll just type up the text because it is the FUNNIEST. "Hi, Dayton. This morning I met you in the bus, I like you, you are soft & nice woman, your behavior is decent, I love Jesus Christ. Pleas reply. Islam." BAHAHAHA. Oh by the way he was like 50... Cool.

GEORGIA: She's our new investigator and she's amazing! We had the first lesson with her and was so receptive! She talks a ton and had questions and comments about everything. Cool! We like participation! She also gave us apples and caramel and guess what the caramel had 0 calories!? WHAT? 

NINO: He's still doing awesome! We meet with him like 2-3 times a week and he's getting through the Book of Mormon! He is working towards being baptised at the end of March!! The ward has done such a great job at fellowshipping him in! We have one member specifically who is awesome and just being such a great friend to Nino! They talk and meet up without us. Cool! 

SPIRITUAL: I seriously love being a missionary so much! I love talking to strangers everyday about the beautiful message of the Restoration! I'm so excited to come home and continue to be a missionary and to continue to strengthen my testimony and knowledge of the Gospel!! I know that this is Christ's true Church on earth!! We are so blessed to be a part of it! I'm totally obsessed with the Book of Mormon. It's my favorite book! I know it's true! There is so much power in it! I also know that prayer is real. I love praying. I pray all the time, and it's the best! I always say my night prayers on my knees but even after I end them I just pray in my bed until I fall asleep! And I know he's listening! It's the best! I also know that I have the best family in the world! HAHA. You guys are amazing and I can't wait to see you!! It's came up so fast, I can't even believe it. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Sister Dayton 

Happy Valentines Day!! Ha... A little late. 

 I still love jumping pictures. 

Bunz for dayz. 

February 8, 2016

Well this is weird that I only have a few more of these... But everything is going so well!! I'm so glad I'm in Richmond Hill for my last transfer with Sister Davis! So many great things are happening here! 

3 GENERATION LESSON: We've been teaching Nino for a while now and he's doing great! His less-active parents are there at every lesson which is perfect. They've totally been progressing too! And this last week his two YSA kids joined the lesson! It was so awesome. We were teaching all 5 of them and we had a super solid member that was with us. It was cool sharing how the Gospel has blessed my family and promising that it can do the same for them! :) Nino is coming to church next Sunday for the first time! We're SO EXCITED! And he's been reading and praying like a champ! 

EXCHANGES: It was so fun to go on exchanges again! A little different not being the STL but still so awesome! I went with Sister Jenson and I seriously learned so much from her! We dropped by a referral and knocked on the door. She was totally home but wasn't answering the door. BOO. I hate that. But we worked in the area and met Georgia who is so cool!! She's such a strong Christian and invited us in right away! We talked to her for about 15 mins and set up a return appointment. Just the whole situation helped me to understand that sometimes we get a referral because we need to meet someone in that area! God is truly preparing his people all over! I'm excited to meet with her again this week! 

ZONE COUNCIL: Well, it was my last one of my mission so that was sad. I LOVE MISSIONARY MEETINGS SO MUCH! Our zone leaders are awesome and we all had great discussions and learned a lot from one another. We talked about teaching people and not lessons and how important that is! :) We also discussed what the culture of our mission has been and what we want it to be. These are what they are that we are working towards!

In the Canada Toronto Mission we

1. are consecrated disciples of Jesus Christ.

2. are a Preach My Gospel mission.

3. teach repentance and baptize converts. 

YAY! THE CTM IS THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD. 

FOOD: HA. I'm embarrassed that I have a section about food, but oh well. This last week we had food from Chile, El Salvador, Guyana, Laos, and China. Cool, right? I love how diverse this ward is! Hey, David, Chris and Kevin there are lots of people from Russia and I'm trying to learn a couple of phrases but it's SO HARD! I'll keep practicing and you can correct me when I get home. 

TEA: So I have a confession... I've never had tea before. Like, herbal tea that's allowed... Well one member from Wales really wanted to make some for us so we let her. She gave it to us and it was SO HOTT!! I was freezing and really wanted to drink some but I couldn't because it was so hot. I was blowing on it then I started moving my hand in circular motion to move the tea a little bit... Well that was a mistake. I totally spilled on my hand AND IT WAS SO HOTT! Totally hurt. And when it hit my hand I reacted to it and turned my hand the other way which was bad because my cup tipped over and I got tea all over my shirt and counter and floor...BAHAHA It was actually hilarious! When it finally cooled down I had what was left and it wasn't even good. Like, it was gross. So yeah, I don't like tea and I don't think I'll ever have it again. 

AMAZING STORY: We were with an amazing active couple from our ward and they told some cool stories. Well one of them made me cry so I want to write about it! Sister Hernandez got baptized in Guatemala a while ago! She LOVED her missionaries and kept of picture of them up in her house for decades. Because social media wasn't quite the same then, they lost touch. Well a few years ago there was a missionary that came into the Richmond Hill ward that had the same last name of one of her missionaries. She went up to him and asked if he by chance was related to her missionary. AND HE WAS!! That was her missionaries son!! Sister Hernandez started bawling and told this boy how much she loved him and how much her life has changed because of him. When she asked how he was doing the missionary told her that he had passed away a few years before in an accident!! AHH - that's when I started crying... But he was so grateful that he met one of his dad's converts from his mission!! OH MY GOSH, isn't that the coolest!? So not going to lie, I've wished that something like that would happen my whole mission! Becky was amazing and gave me a sheet with names of people that Dad had worked with. I've carried it around and asked members and missionaries if they've known anyone on there but sadly no one has... But it was weird when I heard that story I was so happy for that missionary that he had that experience and I wasn't sad for me anymore... We can totally meet all his converts in the next life, right? So it's OK. But I really am so glad I've been able to serve in his mission!! I know he's with me, that's for sure! :)

Well, I love you all a lot and I'm way glad I have the coolest family in the world! Stay strong! And I'll see you in a few!

Sister Dayton 

February 1, 2016

Hello Family!! I hope you're all having a super awesome day! :) During studies I turned the Calendar to the February page and I just starred at the pictures for like 10 mins! HA. You are all so cute and amazing!! I LOVE YOU ALL LIKE CRAZY! And I seriously can't believe I'll be able to see/talk to you in like 3 weeks... WHAT? But don't worry, I'm totally not trunky! This area is keeping us busy! :) 

BLESSINGS: Richmond Hill is booming!! This week we saw so many miracles and my testimony was strengthened so much of how God is preparing people EVERYWHERE to learn and accept the Gospel! There are no bad areas in any mission! :) We were so blessed to find so many new investigators and to see a lot of them keeping commitments and progress!! This area reached Standards for the first time in a while!! Such a blessing!! 

MIRACLE 1: We have a recent convert who when we got to the area was a "do not contact" but we accidentally found that out after we texted her. Ha. Blessing in disguise! When we texted her we told her that a missionary that I came out with was so excited when she found out I was coming to this area because of her! Well the recent convert was way excited that I knew one of her missionaries so she allowed us to come! When we started the lesson there was a lot of tension. She was pretty closed off and said she wasn't learning anything from going to church and the Book of Mormon was too hard to understand so she just gave up. We both shared experiences that we've had that has strengthened our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit was there so strong! Well at the end of the lesson she said that she'll give it all a second change! :) She committed to read the chapter that we left her and she also allowed us to set a return appointment! 

MIRACLE 2: His name is Gordon. And he's so prepared!! We were walking towards the bus stop and running a little late when we saw a man get out of the car. Honestly, because we were running late I wasn't going to stop and talk to him but then the spirit told me I needed to. So we did! It was a fast contact. I was like, "Hey! We're your local missionaries in the area and share beautiful messages about Jesus Christ. Could we come back next week sometime?" AND HE SAID YES! BAHAHA. Cool. So we set up an appointment and taught him a few days ago! Oh man, he's totally the Joseph Smith of the day! He's so confused about all the churches and he's been going to all the different churches to find out which on is true. He loved learning about Joseph Smith because he is totally able to relate to him! So yeah, he's amazing and he came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday!! AHHH Miracle. He's from Hong Kong and our ward mission leader who is from Hong Kong totally fellowshipped him the whole time! It was a blessing because we gave talks in sacrament meeting then had to last min teach a Sunday school class so we were go grateful for members for taking care of our investigators! :) 

MIRACLE 3: Nino! We invited him to start reading from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and when we followed up at the beginning of the lesson he said he was in 1 Nephi 18!!! AHHH Yahoo! His parents are less-active members but it's been amazing because they sit in on all our lessons with Nino and we've been able to strengthen all of them! Part member family work is amazing! We brought a member in the ward who is the most perfect fellowshipper for him! They totally hit it off and I think they'll be BFF's for life. Well we invited him to be baptized and he said yes! And guess what he's working towards Feb. 20th!! The last Sunday I'm here!! We pray for him everyday that he can be prepared for that date. But he's awesome!! 

MIRACLE 4: We had an awesome Scottish Night party and we wanted to bring lots of investigators so we sent out a mass text to all our former's that were in the phone. HA. We got some rude replies but whatever! RICHARD CAME! And he totally brought a friend! So we had these to potential investigators at our ward Scottish Night party! We introduced them to lots of members and at the end of the party we gave them a chapel tour and talked about church and how it's a blessing in our lives! We had a member come with us on that chapel tour and the spirit was there! And guess what? Richard came to church the next day! So cool, right? 

MIRACLE 5: The ward is amazing and we got fed huge meals like 10 times this week! HA. No joke. Lunch and dinner 3 days in a row! And so many of them gave us leftovers! Wow - members here are so generous and amazing! And I want to be like them when I go home! We ate food from Sir Lanka, Venezuela, Portugal, Scotland, and Nigeria! So fun! Except the Nigerian rice was the most spicy thing I have ever had. I tried to be a champ but totally failed. I was saying, "No, I really do like it. It's just a little spicy." But I was totally crying and had like 3 cups of water! BAHAHA. And we tried this popular "haggis" from Scotland. And it was awful. Don't ever eat haggis. OK? 

MIRACLE 6: Church was just fabulous! I love Sundays! And we were able to give talks on missionary work! I honestly was so excited! I studying it throughout the week and focused on 3 things members can do to be missionaries (live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bear testimony, and extend simple invitations). I had really cool stories for each of those ideas and it ended up going really well! Lots of the members were so nice and said they loved it. One lady was like, "girl, you were on fire up there." BAHAHA. That made me laugh! Sister Davis gave an awesome talk on the Atonement and how we are able to rely on Jesus Christ as we are becoming better missionaries! She nailed it! :) After sacrament meeting we were walking to our Gospel Principles class and a member said that a teacher didn't show up. We gladly volunteered to teach the 10 year old class and it was so fun!! We talked about the Godhead! We first asked all the kiddos who there favorite celebrity was. They were naming soccer players, singers, scientists and all! Ha. Then we talked about how it would be kind of hard to get a hold of them! Then we told them that God is the best athlete, he's the best musician, he's the best scientist! And we can communicate to him ALL DAY, EVERYDAY!! Then we talked about all the things that make us happy in life and explained to them that all of those things are gifts from God! He gives them to you to be happy! We then talked about prayer and how we are able to express our thanks to him for all of it! We talked about Christ and how we close in his name because it's through him that everything is possible! Then we talked about the Holy Ghost and how he can lead us and answer our questions that we have. All the kids participated the whole time and were so cute! It was way fun! 

So yes, it was an amazing week!! :) Now I'll write about a couple of creepers! HA. 

CREEPER 1: Not sure of his name. But we hand out Mormon.org cards everyday while we are on the buses. We got a text a few days ago that said, "Dayton I am very interested on you. Do you have boyfriend?" I think he might have been Asain? Anyways... We told him what our purpose was and he never replied again. Cool! 

CREEPER 2: OH MAN! We went downtown last Monday and it was so much fun!! We went to China town and this man was offering free hugs... So we just politely said, "no thinks." And he got way offended. Well he started following us and then hugged me from behind and tried to kiss my face. NO JOKE! It was kind of scary! Like, I felt like I was being attacked or something. Anyways, I'm sure it looked way funny. Both Sister Davis and I pushed him off but he was just laughing and he kept following us. At this point we hadn't met up with Elders yet so we were just alone and started getting a little nervous. But eventually he stopped, so that's good. Ha. 

RANDOM: This week I had people think I was European, Spanish and from California. Cool! That's better than people saying, "let me guess. You're from the factory?" "Ha. Yep. You got it." Did you guys know that members call Utah the factory? Ha. 

Sorry this is a little on the long side! HA. But I love you all lots! :) 

Sister Dayton

 On the streetcar with Sister Davis. 

 My favorite place!! DOWNTOWN!! 

 Fred... Best member missionary ever. To our waiter. "Have you ever heard of the phenomenal, free Book of Mormon?" HAHA

With the mandarin sisters!

January 25, 2016

HELLO EVERYONE!!! So it's been another awesome week and today I'm actually going downtown so this might be a little shorter... Sorry! 

MISSIONARY BROADCAST: AHHHH it was amazing!! Something that I really liked that Bishop Waddell talked about was the importance of being bold in teaching. It really shows our confidence and our faith in what we're teaching. I think at the beginning of my mission I was scared to offend people so I was a little casual with commitments but I've gotten better at that. One time I read this talk about being a consecrated missionary where it said, "missionaries are often too scared to offend people and in the process they forget to save them." Ah - I didn't want to do that. Anyways, I'm pretty bold these days because I know more than ever that it's all true!!!

Another part that I loved from the broadcast was when Elder Anderson was talking about keeping Christ on our lips. “Wherever you are—in a bus, on the street, in a teaching situation, or in a home with a member, if you are ever unsure of what to say, speak of the Savior. Testify of Him. Speak of His doctrine, of faith in Him and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This is your purpose. This is your charge.” I love it. It's so simple. The whole meeting was amazing! And I've loved reading my notes from it. I totally received revelation for what I need to work on - it was great!

SKILLS AND INTERVIEWS: I get more obsessed with President and Sister Clayton every time I see them. I'm pretty sure I got called to the CTM because of them. So at Skills and Interviews we gather together as a zone and are instructed by our zone leaders. One by one we leave the meeting and first meet with Sister Clayton. She was telling me how sad she was that my time was almost up but then she promised that we would stay in touch. That was way comforting to hear! I always feel so comfortable around her and I feel her love for me so strong! She's such an amazing example to me of supporting a husband in his calling. Wow - they are just the best team ever! We were supposed to share something we learned from PMG the previous week but we got distracted talking about other things. HA. My interview with President was AMAZING! Well, it was a little awkward when I started crying when I said how much I love him and Sister Clayton, but whatever! He gave me some great advice for things I can do to end strong! And then he said some really nice things to me! Ah man. It made me feel so good. They're amazing. Something interesting... President said something like you can tell a good mission president by his missionaries grand kids righteousness. Cool, right? I committed to him to raise a righteous family!  When I was leaving President he was like, "Can't wait to hug you in 2017 Sister." Ha. I promised him that I would be at their homecoming, so all is well! Sister Davis thinks it's hilarious how obsessed I am with them. I talk about them all the time. And I have their picture hung above my desk. HA.

NINO: Member referrals are seriously the best. We've been meeting with an older couple in the ward who are awesome!! They both have strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon but due to heath issues they are unable to come to church. BUT their son is living with them and he isn't a member. We were at their house and I invited him to join in on our lesson. We were so surprised and happy when he said yes! The lesson went so well and he had such great questions about how Mormons are different from Catholics. We taught the Restoration and he committed to begin reading the Book of Mormon!! The Elders went over last night to take the Sacrament to the couple and said that Nino had been reading the Book of Mormon!! YAHOO. Investigators who keep commitments are totally preparing to make covenants! We'll invite him to be baptized this week! YAY! 

SERVICE: We did some service the other day at a food drive and it was actually way fun!! We worked with a bunch of older people who love doing service! So touching. They talked about how much joy they felt from serving others. None of them were mormons but it made me think about how many good people their are in the world. Well we definitely talked about the Gospel and invited them to learn more and they weren't interested but that's OK we tried. One day they'll be baptized! :)

FAITH IS NOT BY CHANCE, BUT BY CHOICE: It's a talk by Elder Anderson and it's so good! He shares a story about a family who died in an accident and left behind 3 kids. One of the kids was on a mission and Elder Anderson called him to tell him the sad news. The missionary had so much faith and stayed so strong throughout the whole situation. While I was reading the talk I totally started crying. I realize more and more every day how much I love my family!! OH MY GOODNESS! I'm so grateful that the priesthood has been restored and that our family is sealed together by that power. WE ARE SO BLESSED!!! Anyways, I love you all and I'm so grateful that you've all stayed safe and righteous while I've been gone! Thanks for being so amazing! 

REFERRALS: Sister Davis and I LOVE asking for referrals and the ward members are so good to give them to us! :) At the end of last week we contacted 10 referrals and we have 8 more received that we need to contact! YAHOO! OH - this next Sunday I get to give a 10 min talk about missionary work! I can't wait, I'm so excited! I think I'm going to share powerful experiences that I've had in my mission where members and missionaries have partnered together to see miracles! Hopefully they will feel the joy of missionary work and be more motivated to be more involved! :)

OK, I love you all so much! And I can't wait to see you soon. In like 1 month! W-what!? Thanks for being so great! Stay strong! 

Sister Dayton  

January 18, 2016

OH MAN! Family, this week has been great!! 

PINK-WASHING: So I guess if Sisters are replacing Elders is called a pink-wash. Well that's what happened.

Tuesday afternoon was quite the shock...

We wanted to make calls to everyone in the ward council but we didn't have a list of that anywhere so we just started calling people from the ward directory. One of the first people we called said that she had requested to have her name removed from the record.... So I was way overwhelmed and stressed but when she said that I totally started crying!!! I was so sad for her!! So that was awkward. 

But don't worry that week got better!!! :)

We met with the Relief Society President, who is amazing!! She had us over for dinner and found out that we had no food so sent us home with a lot of stuff. So sweet! We talked to her for a while about the Relief Society ladies and she gave us a lot of less active referrals! We were so excited to have something to do! YAHOO. The Bishop is also amazing and gave us some referrals! We worked hard and prayed hard and God has blessed us!!! 

We were able to contact 9 less active referrals! Most of them were super nice and we were able to set up 5 return appointments! :) and we have 7 new referrals that we can contact this week! 

We were able to find 2 new investigators who are pretty awesome! And about 30 potentials! There are seriously so many people in this area who are prepared!!

The biggest miracle of the week happened on Sunday!! So when we left our apartment we said a prayer pleading to God to help us find a new investigator who is prepared and willing to keep commitments. We went to ward correlation, then ward council then when we were walking into the sacrament meeting room the YW President came up to us and told us that there was a girl who just walked into the building for church!! WHAT!!!! So we went up and introduced ourselves and got to know her! Her name is Elizabeth and she's from El Salvador (holla to Tia and Ryan). She moved here by herself a little less than a year ago and has a boyfriend here. She was very religious back home but hasn't been to church here until Sunday! She lives near the church and just came in!! She loved sacrament meeting but had to leave after. But the good news is she met a lot of the Spanish sisters in the ward and we have an appointment with her on Thursday! Yahoo. We are bringing one of the Spanish sisters to that lesson! Member Present lessons are always the best! We're so excited about her! GOD HEARS AND ANSWERS PRAYERS! 

Some bad news... There are creepers here in Richmond Hill. We found a cool potential investigator on the street and texted him to invite him to church. This was his response. "Hey... look i'm going to be totally honest. I'm actually not interested in joining any church. I stopped to talk and gave my number because I just thought Sister Dayton was really cute. LOL." BOOOOOO

Some other good news: We walk a lot. The other day we walked over 10K. YAHOO! I love not having a car. But bad news. It's already so cold and it will just get worse. It was -18 and I thought I was going to die then I remembered last February it got down to -40. Cool. HA. get it?

A scripture that's really helped me this week is Isiah 41:10 10 "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." So this is embarrassing but I didn't know that verse of "How Firm A Foundation" was quoting Isaiah. But I've always loved that verse so much. And when I read that scripture Wed morning I just felt so at peace. I know that it's true. I know that we aren't alone in this work!! 

Love you all so much!!! And hope you all have a fab week! :)

Sister Dayton 

January 11, 2016

WOW! I have so much to write about! Crazy things happened but I guess I'll start with the transfer news!!!

TRANSFERS: So I was guessing that I would finish my mission in Brantford and Sister Arnold would be released as a STL and train her last transfer. BUT President called and said we were both being released!! So, that means that Brantford is being whitewashed which is super stressful! We're a little nervous for the sisters because they have 20 sisters and lots of investigators, new converts, and returning members and a crazy schedule this week!! We've been leaving crazy notes all over the area book and the apartment so hopefully that will be good enough!! I'm so sad to leave Brantford. Like, I've been way grumpy all morning!!! Saying bye to everyone today is going to be death. But ANYWAYS.... I'm whitewashing into Richmond Hills!! Which is in the GTA! YAHOO!! Dying in Toronto!! And I'll be serving with Sister Davis! :) Sister Arnold is going to Sarnia and will be with Sister McDermont! We were so shocked when we found out!! But wanna hear something super weird? That was my last one... My next transfer will be to Provo... AH. 

HIGHLIGHT: I could not have had a better week to end my time in Brantford! NIKKI WAS BAPTIZED!!! Oh my goodness! It was such a blessing! We've been meeting with her for about 3 months but the last 3 weeks she's been progressing like crazy! She came to church 8 times straight and she quit smoking a couple weeks ago and is going strong! She's an amazing example to me! Well the baptismal service went so great!! She invited lots of friends so we had a lot of potential investigators there! It was on Saturday night but there were so many members who came out to support! The talks were so short and powerful and get this - Sister Arnold and I did a musical number with her and guess who joined us!? THE CLAYTONS!!! President and Sister Clayton both have amazing voices! And when we saw them last week they said they were coming to Nikki's baptism so we texted Sister Clayton on Friday to ask if they could join us in our musical number! They said yes, and it was the happiest! I recorded it! :) We sand "Beautiful Savior" and it actually sounded pretty good! The spirit was there and Nikki loved it!! She was baptized by our ward mission leader and then we had lots of food afterwards! Everything worked out and the service was so perfect! BLESSINGS! We called her last night to tell her we were both leaving and she's so devastated. When we say bye to her tonight we'll all have a crying fest. Cool. Good thing we have email and facebook and skype and stuff!!

OTHER HAPPY NEWS: Remember Densel? My recent convert in Weston! He's doing so good! He's planning on getting his endowments out soon and hopefully I'll be able to go! I almost cried when I found out!! It's so happy to hear people that I've met with in the past are still progressing!!! 

MLC: This last one was by far my favorite. I'm going to miss going to those meetings!! Well it started and there was kind of a heated discussion about our mission culture. Our numbers have gone done a little bit and some missionaries were being kind of negative about it all. Well President Clayton took over and took us all to the Chapel. We talked about what changes have taken place while we've been in chapels and how the Gospel has helped us. Well it turned into a powerful testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong. Pretty much everyone was crying!! It was amazing to see how fast the spirit of the meeting changed! President Clayton is so in tune with the spirit and was able to receive revelation for what we needed. The whole agenda of the meeting was changed but we were able to go back into the gym and have powerful, faith building discussions! I'll never forget it. AHHH

EXCHANGE WITH SISTER LIAO: I went to Kitchener Mandarin! I was totally a Chinese sister missionary for the day! :) It was so fun! First of all, Sister Liao is from Taiwan and is the cutest thing! We contacted by a university with lots of Asian students and miracles happened!! We found 2 new solid investigators and lots of other potentials! We also had a super awesome lesson. It was with an investigator who spoke as much English and I do Mandarin - so the lesson was in Mandarin! But you know what? I felt the spirit so strong still! It was amazing! The only bad news of that day was that I ate pizza for lunch and dinner. I think I had like 7 pieces all together. Something else kinda crazy. They just got a new car! And I was able to drive it. It's 2016 and had less than 200 K's on it so that was cool. 

ZONE COUNCIL: We also had a zone council meeting on Friday which was awesome! Sister Arnold and I gave an instruction that we planned from 10:40PM-11:20PM the night before in bed. We had no other time. Ha. But it was awesome! We talking about how we can more fulfill our purpose by applying the mission vision in the CTM! Missionaries really participated and it went really well! I'll miss instructing next transfer. 

AWKWARD STORY: I drove the new, nice car when I was on exchanges with Sister Liao then the next day Sister Arnold and I drove to the zone council meeting. Well we got there early then an Elder was on the phone and came up to me and asked if I still had the keys to the sisters car. OH MY GOSH! I totally did! They were just chillin in my bag. So some missionaries had to drive like 10  mins to take the keys to them! Such a rookie mistake. 

Shoot I wrote down so many other things to write about but I gotta go!

Sister Carney just came to the church to say bye to us!! SO HARD! I love her so much but the good news is she's coming to Utah this year! 

OH 1 more thing. I ate chicken heart this week. BOOO. 

Love you all! 

Sister Dayton 

 Nikki got baptized!