Dec 16...transfer trains

So a lot of this week was saying goodbyes for sister Meservy.... It is really so hard to leave an area, you really come to love the members and investigators you are working with. But unfortunately that is the life of a missionary, to come and go and slip away and hopefully make a difference somewhere down the line. I think the hardest part of goodbyes on the mission are you aren't sure when or if you will ever get to see these people again, Some people like elder Mcritchie are from edmonton and dont live that far while others are from england and washington and traveling back becomes more difficult but i swear everywhere i serve will always have a place in my heart! 

but alas, when the good byes were over we started a two and a half hour drive to head down to

Regina to spend almost three days. It was fun. It feels really weird being out of your area but it was really good to go on exchanges with sister elkins and sister haner. plus it kept me teaching and my mind off the fact that a new companion was on their way from winnipeg to be arriving and living with me for probably the next twelve weeks. So we spent wednesday night to friday night in regina and that was fun! 

On friday i met my new companion sister davis. She is incredible and is so prepared to do this work, its amazing how ready they are coming out! I am really excited for the transfer we have ahead of us. We were able to teach R***twice and that was good... he is still moving forward towards his baptism and things are going good. We were able to talk about revelation this week and i learned some things for myself which was nice. Now we are just teaching, caroling occasionally to help spread the christmas spirit, loving life, and doing gods will.... its great to be a missionary. Im really excited for christmas and zone conference and hope to tell fun stories about those! Love you all.... 

 

Dec 9...I ain't frozen yet!

So its kind of cold outside.... like just a little.... -40 degrees outside is apparently slightly balmy for winters here and im pretty sure my knees were going to freeze. In fact we got a text message that morning saying stay inside unless you have appointments or can do stop by. So we got to stay inside, NOT! our day was full of appointments and it was really great! We found three new investigators... its really nice to know that the cold doesn't harden peoples hearts. But the rule of thumb is if its -40 you stay inside unless you have appointments and you can only go out if you have a car. So ya... but apparently cold is not an issue for the lords work, we still move forward. Church even happened because it was only in the -30s. In fact there are a bunch of people moving in this cold. Sister Meservy is being transfered to Regina and we get to make a three day trip there this week....  It should be fun... and i get to stay and just cover one ward and I am training again... Im super excited. 

     We had an early christmas with sister D*** because of sister Meservy leaving. We got sweaters... Mine is black and white stripes with a green zipper on the back... super cute! Sister D*** is a fun member missionary... she literally drags her roommates to church... i guess thats one way to do it! We also had the Wildwood christmas party... we helped set up, clean up and serve food... we are called to serve but this week we were literally serving. 

     ZTM was this week and it was really fun! Our zone leaders are incredible, elder Mohlman and elder Judkins are great! We learned about how to better work with members and love our companions my favorite was the training video called phone call.... .dad did you ever have to watch that?.... but pretty much its a video about getting the courage to call a girl out to a date... it was very applicable and very funny.... Then we went to fudd ruckers and of course the elders wanted to do pound burgers... disgusting... but i shared one instead... apparently i'm a wimp, but i could do it, i just choose not to. 

     We went and saw a less active this week and her new husband said he wanted to find two more mormon girls to marry. We were hoping he was joking and he wouldnt realize that he just had two mormon girls walk through his front door.... luckily he didnt and we got out of there fairly quickly... We also went and saw our recent convert L***....she made us the best meal, it was chicken and pineapple... thats it... super healthy and super yummy.... Then we had a vent session with M***  one of our members...it was a fun vent session, and it really helped her a lot. We also met with one of our recent converts, L***... she reminds me of my roommate Emily, whom i miss, and she is super cute... she asks a lot of culture questions and im afraid im going to answer her wrong... you know because america and Canada are SOOO different. We also had a pizza party with the elders at a members house... I love being able to eat dairy again! SO GREAT!!!! While we were teaching R***and R***,our part member family, their son J*** totally punched me in the face. He's two and a lot stronger then he seems. Their dogs and cats were having world war 6 too so the dog unfortunately had to go. But r*** was thinking about getting baptized on janurary 14 so pray for him and that date. We also met three new investigators they were referrals from a family in Red Deer and we are now teaching three of them as investigators, they are going to be so good!

    But remember that FAMILY TIME IS SACRED TIME! and even though we arent together for Christmas I hold all of our good memories as sacred, and im excited to go and make more memories soon. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

     

Dec 2...oh christmas tree!

So its been a week where things didnt quite go as planned but ive kind of accepted that thats how every week goes as a missionary. And an old russian guy doesnt like my parking job... he keeps yelling at me because im on the line..... THERE IS SNOW EVERYWHERE how can you even see the blasted line.... christlike love, christlike love.... im learning so much from random people. But you know rocking out to some mulan and lion king fixes everything. Disney fixes a bad day, music fixes a bad day!

    We got to do cooking as a service and it was super fun. We had to distract a crazy two year old and try not to destroy the star cookies and all worked out great! We made a cookie christmas tree.... and it tasted good too. yummy!

    There are so many family connections in the church its absolutely insane. This week we met someone who was the sister of a lady in our ward, we will call her susan. So we met susan's sister and then later that week we met susan's daughter and all and all we met three susan connections in a week.... it was weird... and we didnt even see them coming. 

    A*** is one of the investigators we are working with. She has decided that she is going to come to church for a year before deciding if she is going to join the church. Shes been for a month already only eleven more to go! She got us christmas presents too.... she is super sweet! and even though she cant read she just soaks everything up and loves everyone and just really tries hard to understand what God wants her to do. 

    As a district we did a road trip out to Warmen this week... its like thirty minutes away.... none of us really have the kilometers to get there so a member comes and drives down their suburban and picks us all up and drives us to their house so we can eat then brings us back into saskatoon. It was a lot of fun. and a half an hour in a car gets some good conversations going. 

    Me and my companion have a shift at the family history center and i have been doing it and loving it! I have found so many names and started cleaning things up and even added a whole line that was blank... unfortunately that just caused more clean up but it gives me something to do each week while i help out the family history center.... its been fun... and the boys can probably do the names too so just keep checking for updates. 

    We went to go stop by this formers house and got buzzed in without being talked to... weird thing number uno.... Weird thing number two we knocked on the door and heard a come in the doors unlocked.... ive never been a huge fan of walking into random houses and that hasnt changed on my mission but reluctantly we opened the door. Let me just describe to you the first thing we saw. A completely bare appartment that isnt in the best of shape with a lady sitting on the floor sitting cross legged rocking back and forth winding up a telephone cord. Both me and my companion thought we had entered a haunted house but all weirdness aside we asked if we could share a message and were able to share one on gratitude and invite her to the ward christmas party. We found out she was moving out of our area hence the blank apartment and she was just packing up her phone it was the last thing to go. We werent sure if we would ever see her again but thats where the miracle came in. She showed up to the christmas concert!!!!! and she set up an appointment with the sisters in her area.... God works in mysterious and kind of weird circumstances. 

    Every week we have a service opportunity at the food bank where we sort toys and clothes that are donated to be sold for super cheap for those who need it really bad. This week we found some treasures we decided to bring home with us. One of them was a rough rider foam finger... it is saskatoons football team that just won the grey cup which is apparently really big. Its like the super bowl but college age and canadian rules.... So that was fun to get as a souvenir. Also we found some minions to add to my collection. I wasnt going to take them but one of the ladies who volunteers heard why i love minions so much and INSISTED i took them. But I love minions because they remind me of the happy times at home... now i have four more great reminders of the amazing family i have!  

    We got american thanksgiving. It was so delicious. There is this young family in one of our wards that i have just fallen in love with and when she heard i was american she got so excited. She said she signed up to feed the elders on thanksgiving and found out one of the companionships were both Canadian and got so disappointed so she begged us to come. We already had a dinner appointment and she called them and invited them too... They had to cancel so it all worked out for the best and we had a really yummy thanksgiving! 

    Thanksgiving night we had another cottage party which is pretty much just a party at a members house where investigators can meet members in a more casual setting. We played would you rather and there were some crazy ones. My favorite was would you rather sleep on a bed of peanut butter or with a humidifier full of vomit.... nasty right... but so funny. It was a good night!

   We got to call bingo again... o 66 is my favorite. Apparently you are suppose to say clackity clack when you read it out.... its the best! We also had a meal appointment where a member made us sing for our dinner. That has never happened to me before but im sure its pleasent sometimes.... good thing we can sing... haha. She also is a cat person and makes sure to tell her cats not to cross the street when she lets them out because she doesnt want them to get hit by cars. and apparently all but one listened.... :( poor cat maybe it didnt speak english. 

    We taught one of our investigators the ten commandments this week and we taught them the way sister smith and sister harrison taught Summer... that is the most effective way i have found so far to teach that. It really makes it stick to your brain when you draw pictures that remind you of the commandment. 

    Okay but here is the craziest experience that happened to us all week. We were helping an investigator clean because she was moving and we had us and four elders over there working hard and as we are cleaning we found an elder sign wall... apparently in every apartment you live in you find something to sign and they decided the wall.. it was elders who served in the 1996 time period with phone numbers and address and pictures... IN AN INVESTIGATORS HOUSE!!!! it was the neatest thing ever! 

    L***, our recent convert, made us ornaments.... they are the best... she made me an american flag one... everyone likes to point out the fact that im not canadian but its okay, i love home no matter where it is. 

      Our ward christmas party happened this week and it was fun. They cooked seven turkeys, so many potatoes and had more pie than ANYONE could handle.... it was delicious and then santa came and so did the nativity scene. it was great!

    Well.... now that i have said soooo much (dont expect this every week but im trying to be better) i wanted to end with a quote from Sheri Dew we got in RS!

"No one can have the influence you have been prepared to have on all who come within your sphere of influence. Without question, no one can fulfill your foreordained mission. no one can do what you were sent here to do. no one."

How true that is... We are all here to do something special that only we can do... we are important and powerful and we cannot fail if we have the lord on our side.... Love you all... and remember the reason for the season!!!!