Cute Kiddos :D

Ya'll know the drill by now. Bullet points, then longer explanation. (Kind of out of order this week because I wrote it really haphazardly...)

- Edmonton River Valley :D

- Mustard Seed

- Lots of canceled lessons :l

- Awesome spiritual guy

- Helping out the dude with his trailer (two times)

- Facebook stuff at a park

- In-person district counsel! :)

- Another awesome spiritual guy

- New member and cute kiddo :D

- Met the spiritual guy and gave him a Book or Mormon

- Mustard Seed on Thursday

- Power nap XD

- A few member lessons

- Two inactive/part member families with absolutely adorable kids

- Got to be present for a child's first prayer! :'D

- Lots of lessons in a day (:

- People ghosting us :l

Last P-Day we went to the Edmonton River Valley for district sports! It was fun. We ran up a bunch of stairs (Well, I walked, haha), then everyone made a bunch of Kung-fu Panda jokes. XD  Sister Christmas and I went down a steep trail with the Elders, but the other Sisters went back down the stairs. We all just started running down the trail because we thought it would level out eventually. It didn't, and we were all just going faster and screaming that we couldn't stop. XD

Sister Christmas didn't want to fall face-first, so she leaned back and fell. She slid for a while because the leaves were slick. I turned myself sideways so I was moving with one leg half-tucked and the other extended. I slowed myself to a stop after maybe fifty feet or so. Then Sister Christmas yelled at me from below that she lost her phone I the fall. The Elders and I started pawing through the leaves and looking. Our District Leader, Elder Torres, called her phone and we found it because we heard the ring tone! We all ran down the rest of the hill and it eventually leveled out. :)

We went for a walk through the river valley next. There were lots of adorable birds called nuthatches. They're barely bigger than hummingbirds! We also got chattered at by some angry squirrels, and I saw a little chipmunk scurry across the path!

On Tuesday at the Mustard Seed, we helped season chicken, cook carrots, and cook rice. I ended up stirring two huge vats of frozen carrots until they were cooked through. My arms were a bit dead after that. Then, the lead chef was like, "You're so excellent at stirring! Could you stir the rice too, please?" XD  So I went and stirred pans of rice for another fifteen minutes or so. It was fun, though. We had some great talks about everything from food to music to what our parents almost named us. (Thanks for vetoing Spitzi as my name, Dad! XD)

We didn't get to have many lessons that day because a lot of people canceled. Some members had crazy stuff happen, and then some people on Facebook just didn't show. -_-

We did meet a very spiritual dude from Africa. He was super excited about religion. We had a phone call lesson with him, then he asked for a Book of Mormon, so we stopped by his house. It was a bit chilly that night, but it was great to be able to meet him. 

We were also out rather late, but I finally found the big dipper in the sky! My dad's taught me how to find the north star from the big dipper. It was closer to being overhead than normal, but that makes sense because I've never been this far north before. I was able to orient myself with the moon and stars, which I really appreciated. :)  So hard to tell directions when the sun is too low in the sky and when there are lots of buildings that a look the same instead of a reliable line of mountains to the east. I miss mountains.

We helped the dude with his trailer some more. We unrolled and measured strips of aluminum, then helped to cut it into sizeable sheets. We held it in place on the side of his trailer while he screwed it in. Definitely an interesting service! I accidentally brought home a pocket full of drill bits the first time, so I brought them back the second time. XD 

We went to a little park by the apartment for a change of pace. It was brisk and chilly, but there are still some fall leaves hanging on. I loved being outdoors.

We were able to meet in person for district counsel! It was great! We went over all the people we were teaching and exchanged advice with each other.

We called a really spiritual kid (late teens) that said he was Catholic at one point. He wasn't satisfied with the answers they taught about life, so he asked us the big three: Where did we come from, why are we here, and where are we going? *Smug smile* Well, sir, we have just the thing for you! We layed out the Plan of Salvation for him and he was SO receptive! He was particularly fascinated by the premarital life and the three kingdoms of heaven.

We got to go to the house of a new member named Christiana (forgot her last name, haha...). She has a cute son nicknamed OJ (didn't catch his full name). Sister Christmas talked to Christiana about setting up an appointment at the temple to do baptisms for the dead. OJ kept bringing me toy cars to play with. I hid my rings in my fists and had him guess which hand they were in. Then, he started doodling on a piece of cardboard with a pen. I drew a couple animals for him. He started bringing me a bunch of toy animals to draw. :D  It was so fun. I can't wait to go over there again, but Christiana and OJ are sick right now, so we'll have to wait a bit.

We went to the Mustard Seed again. It was a blur; we packaged some food, then I mopped. The chef was very impressed with me because I cleaned the mop properly, hung it up in the correct spot, and not only emptied but rinsed out the mop bucket the way he liked. It was one of my biggest pet-peeves at SeaQuest when someone put away mops and buckets improperly, or didn't fully clean them. I had a reputation at SeaQuest for being the stickler that always cleaned mops and mop buckets very thoroughly. XD  The chef was so happy that he gave me a brownie. :D 

I was feeling kind of under the weather on Thursday afternoon, so Sister Christmas insisted I take a nap. I grudgingly did so, but then I felt loads better afterward. Twenty minutes of sleep makes a huge difference! 

We had some more member lessons throughout the week. Most of them were video calls, but we got to do some in person! I love the in-person lessons!

We've been teaching a couple inactive and part-member families. One family is the Friesons and the other is the Nielsons. (I can say member names, I checked.) The Friesons have two adorable kids named Jacob and Lucas. They remind me SO much of Jack and Benton! Similar ages and similar personalities. :D  The Nielsons have a cute baby (can't remember exactly how old he is, but he's just starting to walk). He reminds me of when Benton was little.

The Nielsons were very friendly. Eric is inactive and his wife is a nonmember, but she was very curious. We showed her some videos and shared some scriptures explaining about God. Little PJ (Phoenix Jasper) was speed-crawling all over. He kept making the most adorable faces at me. He'd wiggle his eyebrows and stick out his tongue, and then I'd do it back and he'd laugh. I love kids so much! He also stole my nametag and tried to eat it. XD He took my companions tag as well, haha. PJ is just big enough to climb on the coffee table, but not big enough to get himself down. XD  He was so cute. 

The first time we went to the Friesons, we did the Plan of Salvation. Sean is inactive and Cher is returning. She wants her kids to learn about the gospel, so she asked us to come. Sean was a bit hesitant at first, but we can tell that even if he denies it, he feels the spirit when we're over and he likes it. :)  We've gone over three times so far. It's always chaotic and fun.

They have a massive great Dane that was super scared of us the first visit, but she's warming up. They also have a super playful Maine coon with the prettiest green eyes! Sister Christmas loves the dog and I love the cat. XD

The second time we went over, we did the 'Jump for Jesus' lesson to have the kids participate. Lucas has the attention span of a goldfish--unless we get him talking about Minecraft XD--but he liked jumping on the steps. Jacob had a lot of questions, so we had a good discussion. 

We set a picture of Jesus across the room and had the boys try to make it to him in one leap. They couldn't, so we laid out the steps. Faith, Repentance, Baptism by Immersion, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. Then, when Cher said the closing prayer, Lucas started repeating her. :')  I felt the spirit SO strong! 

Last night, we went over again. :D  We thought that the kids wouldn't remember much because they're a bit scatterbrained, but Jacob remembered a couple steps and showed us the papers we'd written on that he'd saved. It was so heart-warming and encouraging! 

Lucas had some questions about souls and bodies, so I used the glove analogy for him. Then, we blindfolded the two of them, arranged the furniture, and had them follow our voices to give them an example of what it's like to hear the Holy Ghost. Lucas wanted to lead me, so we swapped roles. I put on the blindfold, then he tried to lead me around the room. I got rather confused because he didn't know his left and right compared to mine, so I kept going the wrong direction. XD  Sister Christmas sneakily filmed me, then everyone started yelling different instructions and I got WAY confused.

I turned it into a good analogy for life, though. Sometimes we're super confused about where to go because there are so many voices to follow and it's hard to hear the Holy Ghost. Then, we simplified the story of Nephi and how he followed the Spirit to get the plates. Lucas was like, "I bet he pulled out a gun and shot the bad guy! Bang bang!" We told him that Nephi actually used Laban's own sword to kill him and Lucas was like :0 .  

Once again, when Cher said the closing prayer, her kids copied her. They knelt down, folded their arms, closed their eyes, and grew still as little statues. They repeated the things Cher said during the closing prayer and I felt so touched by the Spirit. It was VERY strong. The whole lesson, the cat and dog were romping around, chasing toys, and being chaotic, but even they grew still and silent while we prayed.

Well, that's pretty much my week. Lots of chaos and fun. :)  Hope everyone else is doing well!

Not a lot of pictures this week... Sister Christmas with Molly, the Friesons' great Dane, distant Edmonton skyscrapers over a river, my comp and I in a park, and then Sister Christmas 'unicorning' another missionary's car. XD (She pushed in the side mirrors and stuck the wipers up)