Bowling With Bludgers

Brief Summary (not a ton happened this week, so it's shorter than usual)

- Bowling for P-Day (Canadian bowling is so WEIRD) 

- Rough day at the Mustard Seed :l 

- Finally started a conversation with someone on the bus! :D

- In-person district council! :)

- Raking leaves with friendly cats

- Another day at the Mustard Seed (slightly better)

- Super busy day of teaching!

- Service for the SWEETEST lady EVER! 

- Stake Conference 

- Lots of lessons on Sunday

- Drew a couple wolves for Sister Christmas! :D 

Longer version:

Okay, I knew things would be different in Canada, but BOWLING? Totally unexpected! We booked a few lanes at a bowling alley for P-Day district sports. Sister Christmas and I were the first ones there. We signed in, then waited for everyone else to get there.

The first thing I noticed was that there were only five pins at the end of each lane. I was confused. Then, I saw the 'bowling balls'. They were the size of grapefruits! I picked one up and I was like, "What the wolf spiders is this?"   

Sister Christmas gave me a confused look. "That's a bowling ball," she told me.

"No," I protested, "bowling balls are the size of someone's head! This isn't a bowling ball, it's a bludger!" (Evil, magical sports ball from Harry Potter)

This Tuesday, everyone was stressed at the Mustard Seed. :l  The head chef pulled a tendon in his arm and had to take things slow. There was also a box shortage. And the containers they usually use were discontinued. It was a pretty tense day. The new containers were so bad... they wouldn't close properly, they took up too much space, and they didn't stack well. That night, Sister Christmas and I prayed that the Mustard Seed would get better containers for meals.

Oh, I also got the biggest, most painful splinter. I was mopping and slid my hand down the mop handle. A splinter sank into my middle finger. I only got about half the splinter out, and my finger was bleeding. I cleaned and bandaged it, but didn't have time to pull out the rest of the splinter. When we finally got home, Sister Christmas helped me get the splinter out. Several long minutes, some blood, a few of my alliteration curses, and  bunch of Hydrogen peroxide later, I was all good. I really hate splinters. :l

I finally managed to start a conversation on the bus! Whoohoo! She was a super nice lady from India. We talked about how cold it was here, how other places are greener, and even got to talking about religion a bit! Meanwhile, Sister Christmas talked to the bus driver, who was an avid, dead-serious Bigfoot hunter. XD 

We had another in-person district council! It was great. We talked about several people and how best to help them. I live being able to get advice from other missionaries.

A guy I met in my first week here, I think, asked us to come back to help with leaves again. He has three friendly, gorgeous cats that are very curious and love to play with leaves. They were all over us while we raked! Sister Christmas also let me talk about some of my stories. I rambled a lot, but it was fun. XD  

On Thursday, we went back to the Mustard Seed. It was a bit better. We got rid of the bad containers and there was a shipment of new ones. We chopped up turkey sausage and cooked it with veggies in a sauce to make jambalaya. It smelled pretty good!

On Friday, I felt inspired to fast for the people in the area that I'm most concerned about. I did so, and it was great. :)  We had a long, busy day of teaching, but they were all good lessons! Dinner also tasted especially good that night. Food is always better at the end of a fast. XD

Okay, this Saturday we went over to this lady's house to help her with sorting paperwork. She was the sweetest, funniest, kindest person! She took us in and offered us tea, which we politely declined. Then she heated up milk and made super creamy hot chocolate for us. She insisted that we just stay and chat that day, as she felt it would be rude to 'put us to work', even though that's why we had come. We talked and enjoyed the hot chocolate, and some tasty bread. She said we could come back to help with the paperwork another day, so we will.

Sunday was packed full of lessons! We had a bunch of people cancel on us earlier in the week, so we were working hard to reschedule to meet with everyone. Sister Christmas is starting to have last lessons with everyone. :'(  She's leaving soon, but I don't want to think about that.

Also, I started drawing a pair of wolves for Sister Christmas! They're her favorite animals. I'm going to finish them before she heads home. They're one of the first things I've colored in a long time. I've missed colored pencils so much!

Hope everyone has been having a wonderful week! Make sure you take time to slow down and see all the blessings around you. Little miracles happen on a daily basis. One only has to look for them. 

Sister Howard

A few pictures: 

Canadian "bowling balls", Sister Christmas with a cat, a couple wolves I drew for her, and her first time eating Arby's curly fries!