Feb 24...sickness and member splits

So this week we decided to take turns catching the flu.... but getting the flu in a tripan has its perks... We were able to do member splits a lot easier which made getting to know the members on a personal level a lot easier because well you are with them... a lot... by yourself. so that was fun! Me and lousie one of our recent converts got to go to the food bank and found some great treasures there including a necktie for one of our elders made out of turqoise!  And i got to have a phillipino companion (also a recent convert) to be my companion for a phillipino meal... that was good! I really love this area so much... i will be so sad if i have to leave this place.. I love saskatoon! But.......

I think the highlight of my week was jay and sheilas family though! they have progressed so much and we are so excited for their baptisms this weekend... :) they taught us family home evening this week, so cute, and want to have a feast with us before their baptism! i love this family with all my heart! please keep them in your prayers and know that they make a difference! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Feb 17...Valentines and Olympics

So this week was GREAT!

On Tuesday we got a lot done... at least we felt like we did.... We were able to have an appointment with J*** and S*** with the elders and that went really good... we taught about tithing and fasting and J*** pretty much wanted to give up a tenth of his coin collection because he is just so committed, we told him it was just ten percent of his increase after he is baptised. This family is just so committed. The parents passed the baptismal interview this week and the family is getting baptised on March 1.... its so close and time just goes by so fast its insane. Then we met with two less actives, one thinks she is fully okay doing what she is doing because she reads and prays and is just taking a "break" from church... that is always slightly annoying. I don't think i ever realized the importance of church until my mission and it has changed my view forever! Then we met up with the other less active who has decided to believe in the trinity.... concerns like that basically boil down to if Joseph smith was a prophet... Because if Joseph smith was a prophet then he saw Jesus Christ standing on the right hand side of God... two separate, perfect, immortal beings. I am glad that i know for myself that Joseph smith is a prophet... and I'm glad my  mission has solidified that testimony into my heart. That night we had dinner with a young couple from southern Alberta and those appointments are always fun because we talk about Waterton and other things that I know about!!!! plus the young couples in our ward have the CUTEST kids! Then we got to play basketball I LOVE BASKETBALL!!!!!

On Wednesday we got to go to bingo with old people... I think the best part was the CURLING IN THE BACKGROUND!!!!! I am really sad i am missing the Olympics because the winter Olympics are HUGE up here! i feel so torn... i have my american pride but canada is also holding a piece of my heart.... bahhhh... what to do!  Then we went to a dinner appointment with one of the ysa girls in our ward. It was fun.. Sister Ashton-Korn got eaten by a car... she was on the phone when she slipped down and fell underneath a car, she just kind of stayed there and was like HELP... HELP... and we were horrible and just sat there and laughed.. This ysa sister lives in the weirdest looking dorm i have ever seen... and while we were eating our deliciously healthy dinner of brown rice, chicken, and broccoli the fire alarm started going off... me and sister davis scarfed down our last bites, sister ashton-korn just left the chicken she had left and our member calmly put on boots and a coat and we started walking down THIRTEEN flights of stairs... needless to say, Sister Ashton-Korn did not get to finish her chicken, we had to leave before our member got let back in, and we had an adventure on our hands. 

On Thursday we went and helped out at the food bank like we always do and were privileged enough to bag dog and cat food for three hours... we smelt like dog food for the REST OF THE DAY!!!!! Then we helped clean with a member and I've decided that four people cleaning a small room is never a good idea ... so i sat on the bed and watched... i was the cheerleader and i did a dang good job at it. Then we went and taught Lelia and Tori about obedience... we played red light green light... if my mission hasn't helped me come up with creative ways to teach children while doing family home evening then I'm a liar and my mission is pointless... seriously so many creative was to keep kids attention involved in the lesson, have fun, and still learn about Jesus... I LOVE IT! Then we called the ysa aged kids for TWO HOURS to get the word out about a valentines day party that happened on saturday... did it make a difference... no but i will get to that on saturday. 

Friday we had specialized zone training meeting and it was fabulous... Six hours of sitting and listening with a forty min pizza break... totally the life of a CWM missionary. But i think my favorite part of ZTM was Sister Thomas' portion on preparedness... She used chapter 43, 49, and 50 of Alma and talked about how they NEVER stopped preparing and because of that nothing was left to chance. Then she gave us three steps to better prepare ourselves... 1. prepare thoroughly 2. prepare spiritually 3. prepare through prayer. I really just learned a lot from zone training meeting... it was fabulous... and it was great to see president too! oh and happy late valentines EVERBODY!!! love you all... 

The real valentines day celebration happened on saturday... One of my old investigators from when i served in wildwood called and i invited her to the ward party they were having and she agreed to come... then we decided i should probably go because she only knows me and so i got to go back to my old ward for the day.... it was fun... the elders dressed up in boas and took pictures, there was sugar cookie decorating, and lots of little kids that were really excited about the doughnut eating contest. Then we got to participate in a ysa valentines day party and dinner and that was fun! We wish we could get more ysa kids out but unfortunately that is easier said then done. The missionaries that were invited to attend made up half of the crowd that was there... So eleven missionaries attended... and about twelve ysa kids.... we are horrible valentines dates if you ask me... we cant even spend alone time with you.... But it was really fun!

Sunday was church and church is always fabulous....I love the sacrament so much and its my favorite thing of the week to be able to take that... We had five investigators show up to church.... The C** family came and the ward has been so great at picking them up and taking them home and then another one of our other investigators showed up.. that was fun... Then Sunday night we got to sing... right now the missionaries make up the stake choir... hopefully that changes soon because we have HORRIBLE voices. but if all else fails the spirit will bring the real music to all of their hearts... :/ ... we will need the spirit for sure...

Pdays for the rest of the transfers will include the missionary Olympics... we thought since we were going to have to miss the winter Olympics why not make our own... So each district is its own country and we compete for medals and everything... our first competition was tie tying. meadowgreen won that for sure.. but if you ask me they cheated.... Then it was chair soccer and we took gold silver and bronze in that one.... and then we did a nasty food eating contest which consisted of two baby food bottles, a can of vienna sausages, and a can of mustard flavored sardines... unfortunately i was the only one brave enough to attempt the sardines..... but i chowed those down and my other teammates did their part and we won gold there too!!!!!! So all in all the district olympic standings are...

Wanuskewin.... 2 gold, 2 silver and one bronze

Meadowgreen... 1 Gold and 1 Bronze

Wildwood... 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.... 

GO TEAM WANUSKEWIN!!!!!

Feb 10...service and plagues

This week we got to do a lot of service... it was so much fun! We got to go to the clothing depot which we do every week but this week was really disappointing when it comes to the treasures we found... But we were able to score some shoe polish for the elders so that is always good. Then we got to go to the friendship inn which is like a soup kitchen and the guy was really grumpy that I had to stay with my companions. But we got past it. We got to help serve old people, clean up peoples trays, and make friends with those who decided to come and eat. Personally the staff was my favorite because they were all rough first nation people that were SUPER protective of us... it was fun! But I got a really good story out of the trip, its kind of fictional, kind of not. So once upon a time something sketchy happened and i found myself alone in the bathroom with an elder and another guy (remember this story is fake even though there is some truth to parts of it... ill have to tell you the real story in parenthesis)  So how i got into the bathroom was a story all in itself... so i got kidnapped at knife point by a first nation gang member (who is actually a really nice staff member at a food bank who used to be a gang member) and an elder came in to rescue me... (really we were just asked to help clean the bathrooms) As he came in to save me he got stabbed... poor fella... (when really we just got to see a scar from a stabbing) and i tried to stop the bleeding but it was hard to see with the black lights  (which is true, they use black lights so the people cant 'shoot up' because it is extremely hard to find your veins with black lights) in the end that poor elder died (when really he just got stuck backing up the car)  personally i like my version better than the real one but i will let you decide for yourself. 

Mom... its a dream come true for you! im totally getting married off!!! not for real but funny..,. We are working with some investigators who are from Iran and they speak Kurdish and well its all very complicated but the best part of this story is that they have two sons... they are 22 and 20 and their parents are determined we are going to marry their sons... We officially got adopted into the family this week and we have heard arranged marriage talk be whispered in a language we don't understand... we have even been invited to join them on a trip to Iran, they want us to go see their home country.... We were hoping with the whole tripan thing the marriage talk would decrease but every time they go off on a tangent in their own language i swear they are talking about us.... i mean really?! But we put on a smile and get our milky white creamy temptation skin out of there as soon as possible and laugh because of how much we love this family! the language barrier is getting easier the more comfortable they are getting with us.... just afraid of the cost it is coming at... (i hear the wedding bells ringing in the background i better stop talking about this)  But the family is reading the book of mormon... we just have to try to get past the whole jesus is only a prophet nothing else concept.. but we are getting there... and im learning kurdish... im going to fail, but im still learning.

So we are dealing with the plagues of the wanuskewin sisters this transfer.... 

Want to hear what they are?!

1. broken toe- sister akorn it was so funny she tripped over my boot in the hallway, why she didnt just walk around my boot i have no idea but it was the beginning factor of these plagues of doom that haunt our companionship. 

2. nausea- again sister akorn. poor girl didnt feel like she could move her stomach was turning so bad... we still dont know what caused it but we blame it on the fact that petunia (our car) is purple.... it just makes sense. 

3. immobilizing cramps- sister davis. Luckily with some major ADVIL and a heating blanket provided my a loving mother we were able to get those under control in only thirty minutes :)

4. eye infection- poor sister akorn, personally i dont think her eye looked that swollen... but she thinks it was making her eye stick out of her head... i guess one of us is just blind but i swear i put in my contacts that day. 

5. late to district meeting- well we kind of give that one to elder wiltse but it was a really interesting morning. What happened was Sheila called us and asked if we could come over earlier, our member was able to come last minute, and we knew we had to get into that house and so we kind of decided to try to fit a member present in before district meeting... i should have known that it was cutting it too close with timing but we did it anyways and after apologizing profusely to elder wiltse i think he has finally forgiven us. 

6. torn arch on the left side- yep that was me. it hurt so bad to walk, we decided to street contact (meaning one of us wanted to chase down this guy in blue) and i almost puked just trying to keep up... i got a blessing the next day and am feeling so much better. 

7. bonkin the noggin- Sister akorn (we think she is really the cursed one) she hit her head on petunia three times... i thought for sure she was just trying to get petunia back for the nausea but she swears petunia was attacking her... petunia was pretty quiet on the matter so i guess none of us will ever really know. 

8. The fake influenza epidemic turned into brain cancer but really is just a cold- yep and that one is sister akorns too! it was actually more frustrating then funny but luckily she is starting to feel better. 

So... with sister akorn getting sick and us having to stay inside because of her sickness... exchanges with the sister training leaders (I got to see sister fellows again!!! so great) and having to be in three places at once my week was really good... I am happy and excited for the future! Love you all!

Feb 3...a Book of Mormon

So.... This week was full of adventures

We are still trying to get used to the tripan which is a lot more difficult then people give us credit for. But as we are opening up to each other and really getting to know each other things are getting better... 

A lot of our week this week was spent focusing on the Cook family. They are doing so good and progressing so much. Jay has so many experiences that are just like miracles after miracles after miracles. for example... one day him and sheila werent happy with each other so he decided to go for a walk. As he was walking he saw a church (not our church) and decided to go in and pray because he knows prayer makes him feel better... as he was walking in he saw a book on the ground and low and behold you will never guess what book it was... A BOOK OF MORMON!!!!! He opened it up and there were passages that were marked. These passages were exactly what he needed to hear at the time so he started walking home. On his way home he saw a lady crying and when he started talking to her she said she wanted to be closer to God because she was so distant and so HE GAVE HER THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!!! He told her that he felt he was suppose to give this to her and to read the passages marked and then walked home. He has so many incredible experiences like this... make sure to ask me about more when i get home. 

This week was more difficult when it comes to good stories to tell and im sorry about that but know that I KNOW that God lives and that he loves each and every one of us and nothing we say or nothing other people say or do will every change that! 

But im alive healthy and not frozen yet... so all is well in good old saskatoon! Exchanges are coming up this week and then president after that... we are so excited!!!!!!! Love you all!!!!!!

Jan 27...believe it or not

So this week was another great week full of incredible miracles. 

We started off the week with a birthday party for a one year old boy... he wont ever remember our names or the fact that we were over but it was nice to be able to enjoy birthday cake and have fun with balloons. But this week was full of fiestas... Everyone seemed to want to feed us tacos which was completely fine with us because WE LOVE TACOS!!!!! But we really are blessed to have such great members who take care of us and make sure we are well fed. 

We taught the tree of life with one of our recent converts and somehow our picture ended up totally inaccurate. The river and the iron rod both led to the tree but in more of a T direction then in a "oh wait they are suppose to be right next to each other" direction... ooops... its a good thing missionaries aren't suppose to be perfect right. We also read alma 44 with another recent convert of ours and she helped me gain some really good insight on the war chapters... I usually hate the war chapters because everybody fights but if you get rid of all the blood and gore you can see that we are in a war now... we are really in a spiritual war and just like how the nephites have to prepare we have stuff we need to do now to keep us away from evil. It was really fun to gain those insights this week.

Ryan taught us about the priesthood this week which was incredible... we asked him what he knew and the first thing he said was... well i know there are two of them one is aaronic and the other i cant pronounce.... you are exactly right ryan those are the two types of priesthood :) we are so excited for him and the progress that family has made and the fact that he will get the priesthood to bless both his and his familys life. 

But i think the biggest miracle that has come from this week is with J and S and their family... here is a little background incase i havent given it. J*** is the father of the family and he is probably in his thirties and is first nation, and man has that guy been through a lot in his life. But my favorite part is the fact that he has been taught by elders before and he just made fun of them and wasted there time but he wont do that to us because he says we are different and that he believes now. S*** is his wife (she is white)... she was who was referred to us from a lady in red deer alberta and she has been right by jays side as they have made changes. They have five beautiful children. The oldest is t*** and she is 11. She is partial blind but i think the cutest thing i have ever seen is when she asked her primary teacher to explain what was on the board so she could understand better what the teacher was trying to teach. ADORBS!!!! L*** is 8. She is cute and tells us she has read the whole book of mormon.... we arent sure how much she has really read but we know she is reading... its great! C*** is 6 and she is slightly crazy. But she wants to impress us so she is starting to settle down. D*** is four and he has some autism and so we have to be careful with him especially when he gets mad but he is totally cute and loves showing off to us, and A*** is the baby... in fact they usually just call her baby... but ya thats the family. They are probably our number one focus right now due to the fact that the whole family has a baptismal date for march 8 that they want to move up to as soon as possible.... they have really grabbed on and ran with what we have taught. They all came to church this week and this ward is so good they have just engulfed them into love. But the miracle came on tuesday.... we went over to teach and J*** had really hurt his back the night before and was struggling with sitting up and walking and everything... :( it was sad to see. So it was offered to him that he could have a priesthood blessing. We told him it worked according to his faith and gods will and he said he would be willing to try anything (the doctors were trying to decide if he was going to be in a wheelchair the rest of this life or not) and so the elders came and gave him a blessing and then left... we stayed and continued to talk to him and not even ten min later he was holding his back with a shocked look on his face... when we asked him what was wrong he looked at us and said my back doesnt hurt anymore... WHAT?!?!... ya my back doesnt hurt anymore... okay... so he stood up and started walking, but it didnt stop there... he picked up his baby girl (who had been a struggle to lift up to his lap earlier that day) and started carrying her around..... He literally had a take up thy bed and walk experience and now he is commited to everything he says because he knows this church is true... we are so excited for this family and their plans on baptism... they are truly going to be our miracle story for the transfer. 

Oh and now we have a third in our TRIPAN!!! her name is Sister Ashton-Corn and i love her to death! She is going to be my little ginger friend and we are giong to have so much fun! 

Love you all... Pray for miracles, they are real!

Jan 20...serious miracles.

So so much happened this week i cant even fully describe the miracles we have seen but im going to try to explain what happened and how i felt. please bear with my randomness... sometimes i wish i could just video record things it would be easier but here i go!

We got transfer calls this week... and... drum roll please..... me and sister davis are both getting a new companion (when they told us this we thought we were going to be seperated and our hearts dropped) but its the same companion for both of us. We will be gaining Sister Ashton-Corn who has been in Regina and i will be double training them their last six weeks of the training program. We are super excited for the tri pan... apparently she is super powerful so it will be fun to see what God helps us accomplish together. Plus with this being my third tri pan i should really have this down by now.

As for the weather.... it got really warm this week like positive eight but i think that came in because of the wind storm. The wind made it up to 100 km per hour.... that is about 60 mph... and it blew in windows, cars were going crazy, and it was so worth it because it blew in the warm... unfortunately that didnt last long because today it was -20..... again.... i have a feeling winter is going no where real fast.

Now for some random things that have to deal with food.  We went to the YSA fhe this week and that was so much fun! we did minute to win it games and looked ridiculous but i think the best part was the whip cream toss that happened at the end.... and of course when im around tossing things usually turn into full on wars so the whip cream toss turned into the whip cream war and we all were COVERED in whip cream.... like in the hair and everything everywhere. Then at another dinner appointment we were blessed with ketchup sauce on our spagetti and the craziest plum pudding i have EVER tasted.... we knew the spagatti sauce was made out of ketchup because she put it on the table and said we could add more if we wanted.... yep... we are appreciative that members feed us, we are also grateful that God takes care of his missionaries, especially when our stomachs are on the line. Okay one last crazy dinner appointment for this week... we went to a dinner appointment this week where 22 people were present..... half of them were missionaries.... way too many people for my liking. Another random food fact.... i have gone 23 days without caffine... and i plan on never drinking it again.

As for just some randomness.... I was doing some family history work and found a quote by Milo Andrus which i really liked. "my maxim is and has been... to act when I am called upon either to preach or do anything else for the building up of the kingdom of god." i really liked that so i think that's going to be my motto for the rest of my mission. Someone told me i was a nun.... just so the world knows I AM NOT A NUN!!!!!!! We also found some creepy bob the builder puppets at the food bank this week.... oh the things that are found at the food bank. But i think the best service that day was helping this old guy with his groceries. We were going to street contact him and noticed he was crying. So we offered our services and we helped him carry his groceries... we found out that his leg was so swollen and he was in so much pain and its good to know we could make a little difference. Me and sister Davis gave talks in sacrament on obedience... the best part is we were called about it saturday night... twenty min before the baptism... and church is sunday morning at nine.... yep we can plan talks real fast. My trainer Sister Rush is going home.... SOOOO CRAZY.... that means im ancient.... or at least sister Davis reminds me i am weekly. I had a member come up to me and tell me i was going to do great things... which i pretty much am, lets be real.... but he gave me some aptitude tests to take when i get home and was really encouraging... it was weird. Our apartment had an inner war.... the happy castle lost, the christmas tree won... so now its only the christmas tree up in the apartment. Oh and we are going to convert two of our investigators through activites.... every time we talked about what was going on at the church they said... were coming... so that will be exciting. 

now off to the baptism and all the craziness leading up to it..... This week my dear friend Ryan Casper got baptized and im so excited for him and his family... i truly love this family. Ryan shaved.... well he shaved for Raechel and their anniversary but he shaved the day before his baptism and he looked like such a baby face without his facial hair... we kept making fun of him... poor guy... but he did look great, and he even wore the tie we bought him, that elder wiltse had to tie for him because he didnt know how to tie a tie.... urch... So saturday we spent all day at the church... due to the family history center and filling up the font we were there for probably well all day.... and still ryan got to be baptized in cold water but he made it... he even got it right the first time around. Then raechel forgot to give him dry underwear so she had to run to the car and get it... so funny.. Josh their two year old sun laughed after he was baptized and he said awesome... i think he really liked it. but i think the sweetest part was ryans nanna (who is from a different church) said the closing prayer (which we werent really sure if it was a prayer or a talk) but it was so sweet to see his nanna supporting him... Then on sunday he got confirmed and Brother P who confirmed him is probably the only person in the ward who would find a way to put in a sports analogy while giving someone the gift of the holy ghost. Im sure that made the hockey player in ryan really happy... and he is going to be ordained a priest!!!!! I am so proud of this guy!!!!!

okay now i want to tell you about all the amazing prayers that have happened.... one was josh (the two year old of the caspers) and he folded his arms this week when we prayed.... so great! J*** and S*** are a family we are working with... and when we had our lesson with them we invited jay to say the closing prayer... he has had a rough past and was really hesitant but he said the closing prayer and it was such a humble prayer... he begged God to help him, to give him a sign and to take away some of the pain.... later that night he got his sign so him and his family are really looking into the church and his wife and kids came on sunday.. he was going to come too but his back acted up... seeing the girls at church was such a blessing and they were so excited for primary... all of them loved it.. and the little boy  fell asleep in primary, the leaders were impressed that was even possible haha... such a good family and im so glad God answered their prayers. A less active girl we are working with (she is eleven) prayed this week too... i dont know what it is about humble prayers that invites the spirit but it was so great to witness over and over again. We are going through the YW personal progress with her and her sister without letting them know... its fun! Our two new investigators this week were another great example of humble prayer. The fourteen year old girl who prayed was in tears because she was just so happy that strangers would care. it was sweet. But my last little story on prayers. Elder Wiltse (my district leader) has been doing district prayers every saturday night and those are fun... having three sets of missionaries connected by phone get on our knees and pray for those we are working with is an experience i will miss after my mission... I LOVE PRAYERS!!! and i know that god always answers our prayers! this week just rememinded me how true that was. the power of prayer is so real... the only person who tells us we cant pray or we shouldnt pray or we arent worthy to pray is satan... and hes stupid so dont listen to satan.... Pray like it all depends on God then get up off your knees and work like it all depends on you...i can promise you that you will see a difference... love you all!!!!!

Jan 13...let the race begin

So this week has been so great and it went by so fast im not even a hundred percent sure what happened but let me fill you in on the big things....

Ryan is getting baptized on saturday! We are super excited for that.... so much of our week has been spent with them making sure everything is going smoothly and that they are ready for this BIG EXPERIENCE!!!!!! after about two and a half months of working with him we are so excited to be able to witness him making those sacred covenants with the lord... And some of the cutest stuff happens in that house too.... josh (the two year old son) pulled out a book of mormon and started flipping pages with us one night because he wanted to be involved.... CUTIEST THING EVER!!!!! also... he decided to play tug of war with the dog and so he had one end in his mouth and the dog had the other end.... funniest thing to witness EVER! And raechel really helped with ryan this week! It was so powerful to hear a wife tell her husband what she has learned from the gospel. I know its kind of a  short email this week but really Ryan and his family are what are on my mind the most right now.... He almost missed his interview.. i was pacing... he made it... and stayed for church... and is feeling better... and MAN I LOVE THIS FAMILY!!!!!!

Everybody... have a great week.... set goals, make plans, and then MAKE SURE TO DO WORK!!!! 

Love you all!