Hey! So it looks like I forgot to write a post last week which is super lame of me, but the craziness of this past week is more than going to make up for it! So let's review the week:

1. Found out on Preparation Day that I didn't get the internship I had interviewed for, but all is well because I still have some leads in, drum-roll please...BOSTON! We'll see how that goes. 
2. Tuesday we had Zone Conference. It was awesome. I may have had to step out of lunch for a few minutes in order to compose myself. The reality of how quickly the best year and a half of my life is wrapping up hit me pretty hard. But things really picked up after a super spiritual experience performing a musical number with two elders in my zone. Elder Gunnell and sang "I Never Stand Alone" from The Hill Cumorah Pageant and Elder Whitney accompanied on piano. I was rather nervous, mostly because I haven't performed anything other than a song sung straight out of the hymnbook in like...forever. We practiced throughout the previous week, so we had had time to work out the little rough spots, but still had some butterflies. Right before we sang, I had been feeling a little down (a lot of "I'm absolutely terrified to go home and not be a missionary and I have no idea how to live a 'normal' life and be a 'normal' person and what am I going to do with my life kind of worries) and had said a prayer for comfort. Then as I came in with my solo at the beginning of the song, the strangest thing happened. As the song starts, the character (Moroni) is talking about how he feels rejected and alone. A few lines in, the lyrics go along the lines of "but I am not the first to be regarded as weak and simple-hearted for choosing to believe that He keeps watch over His own?". But that's not what I sang. Despite the fact that I was staring at the music in front of me and had practiced the lyrics a million times, when I sang I ended up saying "but who am I to be regarded as weak and simple-hearted for choosing to believe that He keeps watch over His own." Aside from the miracle that somehow the words I messed up ended up being able to fit perfectly into the timing of the song and nobody noticed my mistake, the greatest miracle was the peace I felt as I heard and sang those words. I know those words were sent to me by the Spirit. As I sang them, I felt a sense of defiance against the fears that I had. Who am I to be afraid? I am a child of God and He truly does watch over His own. I've known that there are others that have had trials, that wasn't the message I needed to hear. What I needed to know was that my inherent nature is enough reason not to fear. That I can be brave because of who I am. It's a powerful thought. The strongest sense of peace entered my heart and I knew that I didn't need to be scared. That no matter what big changes await me, if I choose to believe and act upon the faith I have in Christ, it'll all work out. It's a lesson I've learned many times over on my mission. It'll all work out.
3. Wednesday we had an AMAZING lesson with Zachary. He accepted a baptismal date and everything. He kept every single commitment we gave him! I was awesome! (Bummer Saturday night update, his parents super oppose him learning about Christianity and, out of respect for them, he dropped us. Saddest day ever. But that doesn't make the lesson we had with him on Wednesday any less AWESOME!)
4. Weekly planning on Thursday along with a great time tracting and an old Chinese guy offering to host me should I ever come to China (I can't describe how often this happens to me. All these old Chinese men and women are always like "I don't want to learn about your church but you speak Chinese and that's cool so if you ever come to China call me and even though I just met you like two minutes ago you can stay at my house and I'll feed you and take you shopping and introduce you to all my Chinese family and friends but no, I don't want to learn the Gospel.") Then we had dinner and a yummy super spicy Chinese restaurant with a member and two formers. That was fun. The formers didn't want to start studying the gospel again, but the food was delish! And then coordination and music practice for...
5. Friday's special mission conference with Craig A. Cardon of the 70! Yay! Two full length conferences in one week! It was super good! He talked a lot about "beginning with the end in mind", making sure that we aren't looking at baptism as an end goal, but simply as a first step towards living with our families forever. He shared a story that Elder Nelson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, shared this summer about a man named Joseph Zhang whom he introduced to the gospel. Coolest part? Joseph Zhang lives in my area! And I know him! More on this topic in a bit. But yeah, he also talked a lot about the importance of prayer in receiving revelation. An altogether great meeting. Sang "More Holiness Give Me" with Elders Gunnell and Pumford (he's from Michigan too!) and Sister Davidson. Once again, Elder Whitney was on the piano. (We had wanted to perform it with the organ, but couldn't find the key. Another elder and I spent a good chunk of time trying to pick the lock, and got pretty dang close too, but we were only able to find one paperclip that was stiff enough and the bobby pins we had had these little bumps on the end that kept getting them stuck in the lock unable to reach back far enough. Oh well.)
6. Saturday was awesome as well :) Our investigator Rona had her baptismal interview and passed! While she was in her interview we had some time to talk with the member we had brought along. I was really hit by the reality of how much my Chinese has improved since I came here to Bayview. Like, I can totally understand people now! I still have an accent, and I'm still learning lots of words, but I can totally communicate! It was a happy moment for me :)  Later in the day after some time spent tracting on Lucifer Rd. (yes, that's it's real name) and meeting some seriously solid potentials, we headed to the YSA family home evening at one of the members houses because another member had gotten in touch with a former of ours who just returned from China and brought her along! So now we are teaching Kavi again! It was awesome! My previous companion S.Leung and I found her six months ago and I'm just so happy to be teaching her again. She's awesome :) That evening we went over to visit our recent convert Rosie and her father who is investigating the church. Rosie has been in China for several months as well, so it was good to see her again. Oh the blessings of serving in the same area for 9 months straight! :)
7. Sunday morning we were surprised by an invite from Pres.Clayton and his wife to accompany them and Elder Cardon and his wife to go and visit Joseph Zhang! We ran to the church to meet them and attended the English Ward's sacrament meeting and then arranged with the elders in our ward to take care of our investigators during our sacrament meeting (which we were going to have to miss) and drove to the Zhang's with our mission president, his wife, a member of the seventy, and his wife following behind me in their car. I have never been so glad that I know my way around Toronto really, really well. President Clayton even complimented me on how easy it is to follow me when driving. It's almost like being told you're a good driver, but not quite. I don't think I'll ever get that compliment haha Unfortunately, Joseph Zhang and his wife (who are both well into their 90s and can't leave the house) didn't answer the door. We figure they were probably taking a nap. Elder Cardon seemed a little bummed, I think he was really looking forward to meeting them. I was both bummed and relieved that I didn't get the chance to teach a lesson with a member of the 70. A lot of pressure, but it would've been really cool. Oh well! After that, we rushed back to church, caught the closing hymn of sacrament meeting and then spent the next bit of time prepping for...Rona's baptism! It was so good! So many members came and gave her some really good fellowshipping. She brought a friend who we got to talk to and after seeing a baptism, wants to learn more! Yay! Oh! And Kavi came to both church and the baptism! Yay! After the baptism we cleaned up, went tracting, and then had a great dinner at the Bishop's house. It was a solidly good day!

And that's the close of perhaps my longest post ever! Told you this week would make up for a lack of a post last week! 
The gospel blesses lives!
Love,Sister Makena Bauss
包爱蕾姐妹

Hey there! This week was AWESOME!  Why might you ask? Because Vicky got baptized! It was such a great week watching her pass her interview, and most of all, getting to hear her bear her wonderful testimony at her baptismal service. A week ago on Sunday, I invited her to bear her testimony at her baptismal service. She's pretty shy, and so she told me she'd have to think about it. She pondered it a lot, and then asked her boyfriend Tony what he thought she should do. He replied by saying that "it's your baptism, you make the decision". And so she continued to ponder it. Later that week, she had been thinking about it a lot and was on the way out of the door to come and meet with us, knowing she'd have to give an answer as to whether or not she was willing to bear her testimony. She was hungry and grabbed one of the fortune cookies that were laying around to eat in the car. As she sat in her car, she opened the cookie to find a slip of paper that said "deep faith eliminates fear". As she read it, she knew that her Heavenly Father was aware of her and was giving her the strength she needed. She thought on the faith that she had developed in the past few weeks, and the blessing it had been to her. She realized it was a blessing and that to keep it to herself would be selfish, that she should share it with others to bless them as well. And so, as she described, the fear instantly left and she determined to bear her testimony at her baptism. As she shared this experience at her baptism, she bore testimony of the reality that no matter who we are, we all can receive answers to prayers. She bore testimony that she was a child of God, not knowing that while she was changing clothes, we had shared a message on that very subject. The Spirit was so strong, and it was so clear that our Heavenly Father was so pleased with her, just as he is pleased each time any of us take steps to get closer to him. I can't describe the happiness that we all felt as we spent that sacred time together. True happiness really is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ!
Love you all!
Sister Makena Bauss
包爱蕾姐妹

Shout out to everyone starting classes today! Hope the semester goes well!
Things are well here in Toronto. First week of the transfer is finished, and even though it was a longer week, it flew by! Can't really remember what happened...but it was fast!

Oh! So we have a new district. It's Elders Ikeda, Woo, Cheng, Moore, Crowell, and Russell. So yeah! It'll be fun. It's a Mandarin/Cantonese district. Chinese party! 

Spent a lot of time outside contacting this week. Finally got tan. Yay! 

Lessons were on the sparser end of the spectrum this week. But, in happy news, we had several lessons with our investigator Vicky who is getting baptized this Sunday! YAY! I made these pretty invitations and then printed them up and gave them to her on Sunday. She's been giving them to her friends and I'm just really happy. So yeah. :) We had a great lesson with her at a members home this week and basically teaching at members homes is the best thing ever. Good lesson (and that's not just because of the wintermelon tea, that was just a side bonus)!

And Guang Yao is officially back from China! We're visiting him tonight and I am pumped! That kid is hilarious :)

A bunch of members went to the temple for the first time this weekend. One of the girls called me late the night before asking if she could borrow one of my skirts since she didn't have one. We had to leave our apartment at 5:20 am in order to get it to her before she left at around 6am. Man, were we tired that day. But it was so worth it because she got to go to the temple! YAY!

We had a surprise meal appointment with the Lee's this week and it was awesome because I discovered I may have a new favorite fruit! Non-seedless purple grapes! They have so much more flavor and are so much juicer! And you can pop the inside "meat" (is that the English word? Plup? I don't speak English anymore, sorry) out and leave behind the skin which makes them so much more fun to eat. So world, if you've been eating seedless grapes, you've been missing out. Make the switch. :)

But yeah, so that was the week!
Rock it out there! And as another missionary said this week, "remember, Jesus loves you"!

Sister Makena Bauss
包爱蕾姐妹