Eight Below And Lots Of Snow

Heh heh, I'm a sucker for rhymes.

As the title of this email suggests, it's gotten pretty cold. Down to -16 Celsius, which is 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit. :l  I miss the fall...

As per my usual style, take some bullet points as a brief summary:

1- Snowball fight and absolutely terrifying snowman

2- The most well-meaning Bible Bashers ever. XD  They were literally tearing up at the end.

3- Mustard Seed

4- Everything fell through Tuesday evening :l

5- Great District Council! We did some practice roleplays and I felt the spirit so strong! :')

6- Got a blessing, it was very comforting 

7- Dinner at the Fortins! (For-tans) Their cat doesn't like me very much. XD

8- Lesson with the Friesens! (I can say their names because they're less-active/returning members)

9- Freezing rain... We almost didn't get to the Mustard Seed on time... :l   But it all worked out!

10- LoNg WeEkLy PlAnNiNg 

11- Some stop-bys and calls

12- Some Elders referred a lady to us who needs help shoveling snow. She was smoking something RANCID. *insert vomit sounds*

13- Hanging out in the car for an hour. XD

14- Moving boxes of books for a service! (I tried to 'lift with my legs' with painful, amusing results. XD)

15- Lots of Facebook and stuff

16- Successful calls!

17- Basically a long day of finding

18- RIP to meals on Sunday...

1- P-Day was pretty fun! We went to a park and shuffled around in the snow for a bit, trying to decide what to do. I don't remember who threw the first snowball, but that started a war. It was Sisters versus Elders for a while, which was unfair because although we only have four Elders in the district, their aim was much better than us seven Sisters. XD 

1- I ran behind some trees for cover, because I can't throw a snowball accurately to save my life. The Elders flushed me out, so I climbed on some playground equipment. I got a good vantage point and just watched for a while, then everyone closed in and started throwing snow at me! Elder Pitts climbed up with me, we hastily negotiated a truce, and the two of us tried to defend the playground. 

1- Sister Miller kept sneaking behind us to get sniper shots. The other Sisters and Elders kind of stood in an uneven half-circle and took turns lobbing snow at us. Elder Pitts and I took chunks of half-frozen slush off the platform we were on and flung them all over. He was able to score a few hits. I think I hit two people, but I don't remember who.

1- After a while, Elder Pitts betrayed me. I fled to the trees again. XD  I watched everyone else battle it out for a while, then they all took a break. Someone suggested building a snowman, so we began rolling the snow under the trees into clumps. The Elders made some massive snow-boulders that they heaved around. Then, we stacked them into a snowman. 

1- I think Elder Robinson stuck his tag on the snowman first. Then, everyone started to. Sister Smith gave it arms, Elder Pitts carved a face, and the rest of us tried to smooth out the snow to make it look good. We got some pictures with the snowman after Elder Robinson gave it a weird clump of snow as a hat. XD  Then, someone threw another snowball and started a mini fight.

1- Somewhere in in chaos, a second smaller snowman was created. Elder Russel tackled the big  snowman, then everyone jumped on it, broke it into pieces, and started throwing the chunks at each other. The second snowman was destroyed and distributed as ammunition as well. Sister Walbeck and I retreated what we thought was a safe distance to watch another battle ensue. Once the rest of the district saw we were unscathed, they turned on us again!

1- Sister Walbeck and I both got hit a few times. I avoided snowballs to the face, but my comrade wasn't so lucky. We finally took shelter around the side of a building--and behind some bushes and trees. Poor Sister Smith got soaked because she and Elder Pitts just kept flinging handfuls of powder at each other and it melted in their hair. Elder Robinson and Elder Miller nailed each other a few times with large chunks of the snowmen. Everyone else was just running around lobbing snowballs and trying to avoid getting hit.

1- Eventually, everyone got tired again and the snowball fight ceased. I was glad. It was getting colder and some snow had seeped into my boots, so my socks were damp and cold. When we got home, I stuck my blow dryer in my boots alternately until they were both dry again.

2- Okay, anyone remember the lady Sister Christmas and I spoke to when we went whiteboarding at the mall? She wanted to meet with us again. We thought she was interested, but apparently not. :(

2- She met us at the mall again, but this time she brought a friend. Sister Marsmaker and I were really excited, then the friend just started tearing into us with what was obviously a prepared lecture. Just like anyone trained in enduring a Bible Bash, we sat in silence and just listened. Apparently we do have a lot of similar beliefs, but this lady and her friend just have some... interesting opinions.

2- I won't go into a ton of detail. It was a long, mostly one-sided conversation. But she would be like, "Jesus lives everyone!" And Sister Marsmaker and I would agree. Then she would say, "And the Bible is complete!" and we would stay silent. That ticked her off when we wouldn't say anything back. 

2- I find it funny that the verses everyone quotes saying the Bible is complete and shouldn't be messed with were made long before some books in the Bible. Revelation is at the end of the Bible, but the Bible isn't chronological. After Revelations was written, more scripture and revelation was given, adding to the Bible. Also, lots of books got taken out of the Bible, and/or changed over time because of translations and unauthorized edits. If people would do their research, they would know that the Bible isn't nearly as complete as they believe...

2- But anyway, we dropped that lady. She wasn't interested in comparing shared beliefs, only trying to convert us. She and her friend meant well; they got really emotional. They were like, "God loves you, He knows you!"  and we were like, "I'm glad we can agree on something! God does love everyone!"  But then they'd say we were distracted and following the wrong path, and get into a bunch of whack stuff. Pretty sure they misinterpreted the Word of Wisdom and thought we were on drugs or something. XD  But needless to say, we're not going to waste our time beating a dead horse. Those two are dead-set in their beliefs and not interested in anything we have to say.

3- Honestly, I don't remember much about the Mustard Seed. It was fun, as always. We traded jokes and helped to clean, but I can't remember what food we made. I was just tired all Tuesday...

4- Pretty much everything we had planned fell through. Some people got sick, others forgot about scheduled Zoom calls or meetings, and some people straight-up ghosted us. :l  That's missionary life, though! No one said it would be easy. We just did a ton of Facebook work trying to find people online to make up for missing so many teaching opportunities throughout the day.

5- I loved District Council! We all discussed finding techniques and how to help some of our most interested people. Then, we had a roleplay about assessing people's needs. We took turns being missionaries and pretending to be ourselves without knowledge of Jesus Christ, the restored gospel, or pretty much any of the truths we've grown up with in our lives.  

5- Sister Walbeck was my partner. She was able to jump straight to the root of my problem--which was actually quite personal, so I won't share it. But she read a scripture that I loved: Moroni 7:33. "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."  It makes me think of one of my dad's favorite quotes: "When you have the Lord on your side, you can forget about the odds."

6- I asked for a blessing after District Council. Elder Pitts and Elder Robinson gave me a blessing of comfort. I felt a lot better after that. :)  Again, it was a bit personal, so I won't go into detail. However, I do want to say that there is absolutely no shame in asking for a Priesthood blessing when you need it. God will never think you are selfish when you ask for help.

7- The Fortins invited us over for dinner! It was pretty good. We had spaghetti and French bread. Their cat, Hastings, came up and let me pet him. I pet him for a second too long, though. XD  There was no warning. No hiss, his ears didn't flatten, his tail and the fur on his back weren't bristling. Hastings just swiveled around, reared up on his hind legs, and battered me! He mostly got my scarf, but he did scratch one of my hands. I've gotten way worse off of animals at SeaQuest though, haha. I've had my arms clawed open by iguanas! Much more worrying than a little cat scratch. XD

8- Okay, I've talked about the Friesens before, but most likely not by name because of Canada's privacy laws. Cher is is returning member, Sean is less-active. They have two little boys, Lucas and Jacob. Lukas is five and Jacob just turned nine or ten, I forgot. XD  They have a massive Great Dane named Molly and a fluffy cat named Kittywhiskers McGruff. Usually, they just call him Kitty, Whiskers, or Gruff. XD 

8- We've been going to the Freisens weekly as often as occasion permits. I love doing interactive lessons to get the kiddos to participate. :)  We decided to do the Cupstoration this week, where we use cups to represent the creation of Christ's church while He was on the Earth; its fall when He was crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven; and the restoration of the Church through the modern Prophet Joseph Smith. We stack up cups that are labeled Jesus Christ, Prophets, apostles, the Priesthood, and Revelation on the bottom tier. Then faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, and the gift of the Holy Ghost for the second tier. The third has church, scriptures, and prayer. The next tier has missionary work work service, and a single cup labeled Temples is the top! 

8- We teach about how when Jesus Christ left the Earth and his apostles were killed, the Priesthood authority--or the power of God--was taken away. To visually demonstrate, we knocked the Jesus and Priesthood cups off the bottom tier, which caused all the cups in the pyramid to tumble down. Little Lucas cried, "No!" when all the cups fell. I was like, "Yes, it was sad when the apostles and prophets were killed."

(Going to split this up for dialogue again because it looks better and it's easier for me to read. XD)

Lucas and Jacob gathered the cups and said, "We need to build it up again!"

"That's what everyone wanted at the time," we told them. "They wanted to continue doing the things Jesus taught. However, since the Priesthood was gone, they didn't have all the pieces." I held the Priesthood cup and showed the boys.

Then, as if Jacob and Lucas knew exactly what we wanted, they started fighting over the cups. They tried to build their own cup towers with different pieces of the gospel. Cher even took a few cups and stacked them.

"This represents how many different churches were formed after Jesus Christ and the apostles were gone," Sister Marsmaker and I explained. "Everyone remembered bits and pieces of Jesus's teachings, but none of them had all the truth."

"Then how do we get it back?" Lucas asked. He tried to take the Priesthood cup from me. XD

Sister Marsmaker and I went on to explain how Joseph Smith had a question, went to the woods, and prayed. We explained the First Vision, in which he was told none of the current churches were correct because none of them had all the pieces. Then, we taught about how the Priesthood was restored to the Earth through Joseph Smith. We finally gave Lucas back the Priesthood cup, then he and Jacob built the 'church' back up. :) After the kiddos lost interest, we continued to have a great conversation with Cher.

9- Thursday morning we were told not to drive because there had been freezing rain and the roads were treacherous. What is normally a five-minute drive by car would have taken us forty minutes by bus! We would have been super late to the Mustard Seed... :(  We prayed and called the vehicle coordinators and got permission to go to the Mustard Seed by car. We drove slowly and carefully, so we were on time!

10- Weekly planning was long, as always, but also productive. We planned out a lot of visits for people and we decided to stop meeting with a few others who aren't too interested. :l  It's always sad, but I just have to remind myself that they're not ready yet.

11- We stopped by a couple people and were able to finally meet them! We also were able to call a few people that have been hard to get ahold of. They're still interested, so we hope to be able to meet again!

12- Okay, we got a service referral from the Elders and went to the lady's house. She wants help shoveling snow. She invited us in and her house just smelled horrible! Sister Marsmaker and I didn't want to stay. We kept trying to get up and leave, but she was rambling like it was nobody's business! It was the most acrid, throat-burning, eye-watering, melodious stench I've ever had the misfortune to smell... We finally got out of there, but our clothes stunk. When we got home, we immediately changed and flung our clothes in the washer. I hopped in the shower because even my hair smelled like whatever horrible stuff it was. Blech! I don't want to go back in that lady's house. We'll help her shovel snow, but that nastiness can't be healthy to breathe in. :l

13- We had an interesting day on Friday. A couple more things fell through when we tried to visit someone far away from the apartment. Our next appointment wasn't for an hour and a half, and the family lived closer to where we were than our apartment. So, we just decided to hang out in the car and do phone work. We did some Facebook stuff, called people, and a few other technology things for about an hour. It was interesting, but I was kind of sore from sitting in a car seat for so long. XD

14- We went to the Richardsons for service! They also made us dinner! :D  They had a ton of boxes full of books in their basement. We moved them to the main floor, then sorted through them. Sister Richardson decided where the books would go, then we moved them to the appropriate floors. Brother Richardson was telling me to lift with my legs, not my back. I crouched to grab a box and misjudged how heavy it was when I picked it up. XD I tried to stand back up, then I promptly fell over on my back. Some of the big books tumbled out and hit me in the face. Luckily, everyone else had moved out of the room, so they just heard a big thud and my alarmed yelping. I scrambled out from under the box and put the books back in before everyone came back. I told them it was a heavy box. No need to let anyone know that I fell and the books hit me in the face. XD  It kind of hurt, but I'm okay. No bruises or nosebleeds. The only thing really wounded was my pride, haha... I'm just so glad no one saw! XD

15- We've been doing a ton more Facebook things. Our mission is having a competition to see who can do the most Facebook work. I think the points system is a little rigged, but eh... I'm trying to to worry about it. We've been trying to friend a specific number of people. That's the easy part! Once we friend them, we contact them--usually over messenger--and try to spark a conversation about the gospel. That's the tricky part, because it involves other people's agency. They can choose to answer or not answer. Sometimes they ghost us. :l

16- We had some more calls that were really great! Lots of lessons are set up for this coming week, so I hope we'll be able to get to them all. But with our current track record, half the people we're going to meet with are probably going to get sick, cancel, or want to reschedule. *shrug* That's missionary life.

17- Saturday was a day full of finding. We barely had any meetings or lessons set up because everyone was busy! We did tons more Facebook stuff and randomly called a lot of people who were previously taught to see if they're still interested. We also tried street-contacting, but there aren't many people out in the cold. It's been hovering around freezing for most of the week, and there's still a lot of snow that hasn't melted.

18- I scheduled Sunday very poorly... Usually, we eat lunch right after church, but I forgot about that. We scheduled some lessons with members directly after church, so we only had a few minutes to eat. XD We also moved dinner around because we were meeting with more people that afternoon. So... not a very regular day, as far as eating went. We were kinda running out of food anyway, so not much to eat. But we got a lot of good things when we shopped today, so it all worked out! :D

I hope everyone's doing well! Thanks for reading, if you get this far. XD This week has a long email! Mostly the snowball fight and the cupstoration.

A couple drawings I'm working on, our freaky snowman, and a cute cat at the Richardson's house! I'll try to take more pictures next week. :D

Love,

Sister Howard