Mar 24...the first exchange

So sorry but this week is going to be shorter than last week....

so we have been doing a lot of online proselyting which is fun! If you ever see a post or something that you like please share it, comment on it, and help me be able to do this right so we can use this time most effectively... Its weird to see things from everyones page but I know that this is going to make a HUGE difference!

Then we went to Prince Albert that was super fun!!!! We went up there for exchanges and on our way we saw a bear... just chillin on the side of the road... yep it was weird.... then we did some touristy stuff which probably isn't the best but it was super fun! then i spent a day with sister Du Plessis... she is from africa... but she's white... and came from Germany.... we got lost a lot but it was super fun and at their service opportunity they have something called the diabetes treasure chest... free candy and gatorade for missionaries.... LOVE IT!

But i think our miracle this week was S*** and her family.... they were a media referral and we are now teaching their family.... their little boy  said he wanted to get in time out all the time so he can read the book of mormon so cute! 

On saturday our primary did primary olympics which was fabulous... such a good idea... got some good ideas for fhe in the future... LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Mar 17...It's a # week

Okay so this week was full of so much more stuff than last week! It was fun... a little crazy but fun!!!! and me and sister Mcphee found hash tags and quotes that helped us explain our week, with some background stories to it too of course! 

Monday:

#whencompanionsbecomefamiliy#itsgenetic.... we got a phone call friday night telling us that one of sister Mcphees old companions is getting married... to another companions brother... so literally companions are becoming family... sister in laws to be more precise and its really fun! So we decided we are going to pull this cousin thing as far as we can... even though we are so far back it doesn't even make a difference in anything it makes a difference in our hearts... so we are family and that wont change... but that also means when anything goes wrong we can blame it on genetics. which means its genetics comes up frequently because nothing ever goes as planned as a missionary!

Tuesday:#B

We had district meeting and it was seriously one of the greatest district meetings ever! I swear they just get better and better each time. My new district leaders name is Elder Bee... when they told me that i thought the B was to stand short for something like Barton or something but no its Elder Bee... like a bumble bee... and this was his first district meeting... it was on patience and feeling the spirit which ended up being exactly what me and sister mcphee needed for the week... i love how in tune people are sometimes. So we talked a lot about district goals and then me and sister mcphee made some personal goals... Some of the district goals we made were to have seven lessons a week (our area seems to be a little different then the provo mission), baptise two people as a district this transfer, and study 15 min of the book of mormon as a companionship... the hardest one so far has been the fifteen minutes since it usually finds itself at the end of each day around 10:15 but we are gonna keep at it for sure. And then i made a personal goal to finish the book of mormon this transfer... I am in the middle of alma and think i can do it... i hope i can do it.... :P but my favorite part about districts is the fact that we are held accountable for our goals so this transfer we are going to "BEE" accountable to each other... get it.... bee... haha.... Then we went to basketball night and that is always a blast... and I couldn't even believe how ineffectively i was using that night... im really glad sister mcphee is helping me get better at that to really improve my missionary work at things like basketball night. 

Wednesday:#defectivedependentdelinquint

This day was a little slower than most... but I think my favorite part of wednesday was our family history center shift... I love finding stories and documents to help people get excited about family history work and the things that can happen there... this week i found a document for John Cunningham... not sure where he is on the line but he is there... and it put him in the Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent classes.... So THATS where that comes from! haha jk... that one definitely isnt genetic it just happened by chance!

Thursday:#T

We called Thursday T for tornado day...... and it seriously felt like everything exploded all at once it was fun! We had an entire morning of service which ended in me swimming to my car almost literally (where was a camera when you needed it, oh wait it was in the car) The water was so deep and i wasn't wearing my boots so i had to take of my shoes and wade in icy water to get to the car..... only in saskatoon does negative to positive so fast make it feel like you are noah in the ark.... but its okay we made it and we just kept swimming from there. We were able to go thirty minutes out to a small town called Warmen for dinner with a member and that was a blast. then we made it back into town in just enough time to find out the wildwood sisters got in a car accident.... 

-okay i think i need a side note to explain STL for a little bit.... a sister training leader is a lot like a zone leader... we are in charge of certain sisters in the mission and we do exchanges and stuff and we get phone calls for emotional needs so elders don't have to deal with that stuff..... So i am one of the saskatoon STLs which means i cover three different sets of sisters... wildwood and meadow green are in the city and prince albert is about two hours away and we love it when they call and stuff.... 

So we were able to meet them at the church and make sure everyone was okay... sister hutchinson wanted lots of hugs.... the best part was their story that came with the accident... apparently this HUGE truck totally crashed into them but did that stop the guys in the truck from asking them out to dinner.... NOPE.... so they had to turn down a free dinner and call the office to tell them that they no longer had a car...talk about a bummer night... 

Friday:

#21.1.22 We had an emergency MLC (mission leadership council) to talk about facebook... MLC has a lot of people invited now... and we do it by skype, which means we got to see newpawl, moosejaw, regina, thompson, winnipeg, kenora, and us.... talk about covering all the corners possible haha. and yes i now officially have facebook! But the meeting lasted about three hours maybe a little more and it was all about the guidelines with facebook.... but the best part of the meeting was the fact that the saskatoon zone finished hymns before anyone else in the mission... apparently we just like a better tempo up here in saskatoon. Then we just kept going from there.. i set up my account... we tried a couple of things... it was really nice when we got to see the meadow green sisters... we picked them up from their service opportunity and took them home (they are walking) it was funny because we have a ghetto area that both us and meadow green sisters work in so while we were waiting for them at the soup kitchen we started hearing people scream and shout... i was like oh man can we be jumped here... sister mcphee responded its okay thats why i locked the door.... we really arent in any danger but its nice to know that my companion has my back. its sad because we got to see the meadow green sisters again that night, and not for a fun visit this time either... one of our sisters moms died and it was really sad but she was doing so good about it and the dozen donuts we brought im sure helped.....it was nice to be able to physically be there for them even if we didnt do much. This is the first time thats been possible for the sisters. 

Saturday:

It seemed to be full of dangerous adventures again... we were walking down the street... and here in canada the people plug in their cars... it was dark... and we saw a lighted up plug and sister mcphee found a perfect hash tag.... #isthatabomb.... of course it wasnt and there was no way it could be but you can tell youre a missionary when its late and youre tired and a lighted up plug in looks like a bomb... we also had another you can tell when..... you can tell your old when facebook and online proselyting is scary... I did my first hour of online proselyting on friday and it wasnt as easy as i thought it would be... Facebook has changed a lot in a year and i still feel like im breaking rules even though i have been given the approval for it because i have been out for so long and it wasnt allowed for even longer than that... it will just take some getting use to thats for sure. 

Sunday: #love

 I learned how to say i love you in tagalog... that was fun... We also were able to go to choir practice (i love the music we are singing but theres so many high notes... they are hard to hit) Then we spent the evening with the meadow green sisters... she showed us pictures of her mom and talked about her family and i was so honored to be there with her. She said "I dont know what I did in heaven to deserve my family" it was so incredible to see such a powerful woman take such a great turn on a tragic event.... and it really made me reflect on how much i love my famliy! 

It was SUCH A GOOD WEEK!!!! im excited for the adventures of this next week!

                                          Jessalyn's new companion and distant cousin, Sister Mcphee

                                         Sister Hutchinson "back in the same city" reunion

                                          baking with sister McPhee

Mar 10...transfers

Okay so this week was full of changes but it is going to be such an exciting transfer! Me and Sister McPhee are so excited for everything!!!!! but we are going to start with a excerpt from lovely Sister T Hutchinson!

 

 

What is up? So this is the best and the weirdest thing ever. I am back within range of the excellent J Harrison, and that makes my life so so good. Transfers were this week. Sister H got a new companion, one of our trainers old companions SIster Mcphee. She is the absolute BEST!! I also left the states where I was doing time and finally got to be heeeere! SOccer night was a success, Sunday was hectic for all parties involved, and P-day is the best day. :) Ok. Back to Sister H...

 

 

 This week was transfer week and it was crazy but im so happy to be in this area around the people i love so so much...

Because everyone was leaving we had a lot of goodbyes to say which are hard if you are the one staying... then i got put with a temporary comp Sister Smith... who is fabulous... and we had so much fun... a member made us a cake because we were sad and we thought it would just be a normal cake but no... it was an intense cake with the best filling ever... so nice... then we finally got our companions... sister mcphee is fabulous.... we are relatives.. and i already love her to death... its going to be such a great transfer... sorry we will look for stories as the week goes on... im awful at writing but know that i love you!

Mar 3... trial by baptism

Okay.... 

So this week was so much fun and full of craziness I really hope I can do it justice. 

We will start with monday... Monday we went over to the cook families house and Jay was in so much pain we didnt know what we (as sisters) could do to help him.... but luckily the elders are a phone call away. So they are super helpful especially when they come over and give Jay a blessing. The priesthood is seriously one of the most powerful things!!!! If anything my mission has taught me how to righteously rely on the priesthood and trust more fully in the genuine council from god! 

Then tuesday came and it was a fabulous district meeting where we got to learn more about christlike attributes... Elder Wiltse is seriously a fantastic missionary and district leader and the spirit was so strong.... we did it where he called on people to give portions on christlike attributes they think they are good at. Of course he decided to pick on me and honestly i don't feel like i'm very good at any of them but i choose to do it on the one god has taught me the most on my mission... and that is patience.... i hope i'm getting better at it... i learned a lot about it by studying it. Then we went to go see a less-active and she told us the craziest story.... Her daughter died of cancer and her last wish was not to meet an apostle... no her last wish was to meet an apostles wife... so of course they helped her wish come true. She got to go and meet sister monson (this was like years ago) and that is super special! But it gets even better. After meeting sister Monson they decided to let her meet President monson so this less active sister got to meet president Monson and a lot of the twelve. It was the greatest story ever! Then we went to go see Jay and Sheila and we got a phone call to meet them at the mall instead... which is weird... but we did and they proceeded to tell us that their gas line was leaking and it wasn't safe for them to be at their house.... yep the things that happen before your baptism. So we met them at the mall and had a lesson in the food court. It's funny how the spirit can work in the weirdest of places. Then we got to play basketball that night.... I LOVE BASKETBALL!!!!! and this week i got to be on the dream team... we played so much i was sore the next day... its fun to find unique ways like that to do missionary work. 

On Wednesday we went to our Iranian friends house. We found out some fun information about their family and then were able to have a very serious question about prophets.... its so hard to tell someone about prophets and the importance of them and what you believe when they don't believe there is a God. Then we again stopped by the Cook family (you will figure out we saw them every day this week, i would TOTALLY suggest it on the week of baptisms... something ALWAYS happens) The gas pipe was still leaking... jay passed out because of it... and we spent that time getting Sheila calm and helping bring the spirit into their gas filled home. It was fun and we got to spend that time getting to know them better as people not just as investigators.... they are seriously an INCREDIBLE family. 

On thursday we had the food bank in the morning... the friendship inn (a soup kitchen) again in the afternoon, and transfer calls...... so drum roll.... I get to STAY!!!! i'm so excited but it always comes with a catch... Sister Mcphee will be my new companion (so excited for that. i have wanted to serve with her my entire mission) and we will be sister training leaders for two zones of sisters... so i get to do exchanges and other fun official stuff..... hence the catch haha. Then back to Jay and Sheila... we had dinner at their place and it was fabulous... i swear they always give us like a feast! it was good we talked about enduring to the end then had arm wrestling wars... ya we have learned how to relate anything to the gospel... 

then friday....  friday we did bingo and moved...all day... old people get way to intense with bingo and moving.... i need to work out more... but it was a good day. 

Then saturday came and the best day ever!!!!! it was -55 degrees that morning and what are we doing.... ya we are moving jay and sheila... they moved the day of their baptism.... so 12 of the elders in the city... so all the elders in the city came and helped us move that family... we got it done in an hour and no frost bite... then jay and sheilas baptism.... it was the best day ever... they got baptized... ITS INSANE!!!! then we had another baptism... then they drained the font and forgot about the third baptism.... so we filled it up in fourty five minutes.... it was such a good day and a good week.... LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!