Week 23

heyyy everyone! i hope you all had a great week. it was reallllyyyy weird when i realized that it was Thanksgiving and we were gonna have turkey dinner a whole month early. But it was awesome and I am so grateful to be here in Canada, even if its just a tad chilly!

this week was a bit of a tough one but there was a lot of miracles for sure! there always is :) we found 2 new investigators! Ones name is Keita and he is from Accra, Ghana. Haha ya I about died when he said he was Ghana if you couldnt picture that! He is really awesome and sooo prepared. I met him at the bus stop and I got to talking to him and made him miss his bus (oops). Hes been reading the Book of Mormon and he has no doubt that it is the word of God with the Bible. It was really cool because he started talking about a scripture in John that talks about how Christ is our shephard and the next verse is when Christ is talking about how he would visit the people in the Americas (John 10:16) and how there are other "sheep" he needs to bring to him and then we flipped to the Book of Mormon reference (3 Nephi 15:21) when Christ is talking to the people in the Americas about how they are the ones he was talking about when he said there are other sheep. All the light bulbs turned on for him and it was really neat. He is on date for baptism for the 4th of November!! We are going over to his house to eat fufu so that is gonna be legit. Our other investigator is so awesome and prepared too. He came to church with us this week and he saw all kinds of his old friends there so that was perfect. I am so grateful for technology and that this mission has it. He has a very bad stutter and cant get his words out too clear and we are able to have a lesson over Facebook messenger. Im so thankful for technology!! like these scenarios are exactly what Heavenly Father wants to get done with this technology. its SO COOL. In the MTC we were told the only reason we have airplanes is to get the apostles and leaders from the church out to every part of the world and that all of us just benefit from it hahaha

okay one funny story before i wrap up. we went to a baptism and this girl is awesome. she is so spunky and hilarious. she was baptized then she goes "can i go under again!" so that was already funny. but then she literally goes down in the water and starts swimming in the font. sacred place in the church and time, yes... but no one could hold back the laughter. it was so funny. the elders that taught her about died. 

Thanksgiving was great and we had to give talks in sacrament. It went well and then we went to one of the bishopric counselors house and we had supper there. It felt just like home with the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and it was so fun. Im so grateful for the amazing people that take care of us out here. This morning was soooo much fun. Sister Hall and I wanted to change things up a bit so we woke up a bit earlier and went and did our studies by the River Valley. It was so gorgeous and peaceful! Heavenly Father is so amazing. As hard as a mission or life can be, sometimes it takes just a quiet sit down in peace to look at all the blessings he has given me, my family, the people here, and just everyone. he is so good to us. 

I was reading this scripture this morning and its from 1 Nephi 17: 13:

And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led.

I hope you all have a great and safe week!! Stay warm!! :)) i love you guys.

Sister Rivera
Canada Edmonton Mission💌🗺️

1) official 5 month picture with the view of our balcony

2) we got to see the temple :)

3,4) love my companion <3 <3 and we have matching jackets because they were just too good of a deal for both of us not to get it haha

5,6) the river valley studies :)) we were at a spot thats called the "end of the world". we couldnt go down there to look more at it because it was trespassing but the view we got was still sooo pretty.