Snowflakes And Human Flakes XD

What a crazy week it has been!

Brief summary:

1- AWESOME P-Day! We went to a botanical garden!

2- Mini snowball fight. XD

3- Tuesday of chaos... :l

4- Grounded (couldn't drive because of heavy snow)

5- Packing the car for Wednesday

6- Okay, Alberta roads are awful. Not maintained at all! 

7- Sister Marsmaker! My new comp! :D

8- Another slow, draggy day of weekly planning. (:

9- More things falling through. *shrug* I guess that's missionary life!

10- Margaret's baptism! :D 

11- Member dinners two nights in a row!

12- Stop-By Sunday

1- P-Day this week was easily one of my favorite days as a missionary! Our fleet was going to be grounded later in the day (we weren't allowed to drive because of snow). Sister Christmas and I got the apartment clean early, then went to shop and clean the car. We met up with the district at the Muttart Botanical Garden. (I think that's what it was called?)

There were four pyramids inside that were basically greenhouses. One was closed, but we were able to go to the other three. The first one was full of tropical plants. I got to see some plants that I've never seen before! Everything from nerve plants to bleeding-heart flowers and a dozen kinds of orchids.

The pitcher plants were probably my favorite. They're carnivorous plants, like Venus flytraps! Pitcher plants are greenish, jug-shaped plants the size or my thumb with a little leaf that acts as a lid. Their rim is lined with nectar to attract bugs, but it's slippery. When an insect lands on the plant, it fall inside into a vat of digestive juices. There are little spikes that point inward, so it's almost impossible for insects to climb back out once they're stuck. The digestive fluid clogs their wings so they can't fly. They're slowly dissolved and absorbed by the plant. Imagine if pitcher plants were big enough for us to fall into! >:D

There was another pyramid greenhouse full of arid plants. It had the BIGGEST cacti and aloe I've ever seen! There were hundreds of cute little succulents and tiny cacti that could fit in the palm of my hand. Quite a few pretty desert flowers too. Most of the district got bored and was like, "Eh, all these cacti are the same," so we didn't spend much time in the desert pyramid.

The third was the temperate pyramid. It had lots of flowering plants, trees like cedar, and a bunch of things like clover and ferns that grew all over the ground. I recognized a lot of North-American plants and it honestly made me just a tiny bit homesick. All the plants--except for conifer trees--are dead in Canada right now. XD  I miss seeing patches of clover or little flowering ground plants. There were also a bunch of shrubs in that room too.

We went back to the jungle pyramid because it was the warmest. Everyone just kind of spread out and explored. I looked closer at some of the smaller plants that were hidden. Lots of vines and plants like bromeliads grew on the trees. There was a whole corner devoted to orchids. I also went to get some pictures of some cool ferns and little jumping spider landed on my arm. I wanted to show it to the other missionaries, but it jumped away before most of them saw it.

I'll be sure to attach lots of pictures of all the cool plants! Some of them had the most fascinating names! I especially loved the crocodile fern, the gold-dust trees, the orchids, and a little magnolia tree. Unfortunately, it wasn't in bloom. Magnolias are one of my all-time favorite flowers!

2- On the way out of the garden, a minor snowball fight occurred. Elder Torres and Elder Robinson nailed me. XD  Elder Robinson's snowball hit me in the back of the head. I got them both back--Elder Robinson at pretty close range, haha--but then a truce was called for pictures. I skirted away from the group right after the pictures so I didn't get hit with another snowball. XD

3- Tuesday was pretty chaotic... We got grounded Monday night because a huge snowstorm started Monday evening and continued for most of Tuesday. Sister Christmas needed to get a flu shot, so we needed to take the bus. We were bussing off and on for about three hours. We bussed to the Mustard Seed, then missed a bus and had to wait a long time for another. By the time we got back home, it was pretty late. We had just enough time to grab our stuff, then we sprinted to another bus. We ran about half a mile through the snow and I was dying. I was all hot in my coat, but my feet and face were frozen. Sister Christmas called it the Canadian Paradox. XD  Anyway, we couldn't find the bus stop although Google Maps claimed it was right there. Turns out, the stop had closed, but Google Maps hadn't updated. -_-  We found a sign stapled to a telephone pole saying the stop was closed. So, we ran another quarter mile or so to catch another bus.

3- I don't know if any of you have ever run through snow before, but it's difficult! Especially powdery Alberta snow! In the semidarkness, we couldn't see all the ridges and drifts of snow. Sometimes it was a couple inches, other times the wind had sculpted it into piles a couple feet deep! We would alternate between a sudden shallow, icy patch to a deep drift of powder almost up to our knees. It took a while, but we finally got to the bus stop and caught a ride. It was long, and we had to do some searching for the shot clinic. It was in a confusingly laid-out mall. After Sister Christmas got her shot, we had another long bus ride home with a couple cold stops to switch busses. We were both dead-tired by the end of the night.

4- As I mentioned, we were grounded because of the heavy storm. It was cold, windy, and very snowy. Our parking lot was practically buried and the roads were covered in about a foot of white powder. The snow looked pretty on the trees, but it really threw a wrench in all our travel plans.

5- Wednesday was tranfer day. Sister Christmas was a tornado of motion all morning getting all her stuff packed up and in order. We took several trips down to put everything in the car. We also drove to a couple members in between luggage loading. Sister Christmas was able to say goodbye to a few more families before we drove for transfers.

6- I thought winter driving in Utah was bad! Here it's so much worse! They barely plow the highways (which are honestly more like United States freeways), and city roads aren't even plowed! They don't salt the roads either because salt is corrosive on cars, apparently. So... they just let the snow be, then throw out some 'sand' the next day. I would call it gravel; the grains are pretty big. We've seen quite a few fender-benders and cars stuck in smowdrifts already. Driving in multi-lane roads is especially freaky because the snow covers the lines and everyone just kind of drives all over. It makes me think of Paden's stories about crazy Brazil driving, but with snow!

7- Sister Marsmaker is awesome! She's from Arizona and served in the Ventura, California mission for a while before coming here. She's the designated driver, which is a relief for me. We get along pretty good. We've already had quite a few laughs, which I appreciate. The two of us bond over things like Canadian spelling and being confused by the metric system. XD  

8-  Thursdays always draggy... I feel bad because I took forever to work the chart we use for weekly planning. Poor Sister Marsmaker was kind of bored because I was the one working on the chart and she doesn't really know anyone in the area yet. We were able to get it done, but the rest of planning kind of ate up the remainder of our day. Honestly, I don't remember much more about Thursday because I was just so tired! 

9- More things falling through. *shrug* I guess that's missionary life! We had a bunch of appointments cancel, people ghosted us, and we called some people only to find out they aren't actually interested. We're not currently teaching or meeting with many people.... :l

10- Margaret's baptism was definitely the highlight of the week! Now that she's a member, I can actually use her name in emails! She's the amazingly spiritual lady that we've been consistently meeting with who accepted things like the Word of Wisdom and Tithing right off the bat! I'm so excited for her!

10- On Friday night, Brother Hansen, the ward mission leader, called me and was like, "Who's giving the talk on the Holy Ghost?"  I was like, :0  We forgot to ask someone to do that! I volunteered,  since I felt responsible. XD  So I prepared a talk Saturday morning, then practiced it before the baptism. And of course, when I gave the talk, the Spirit said, "Okay, I like what you've written about me, but say this instead!" So the talk I gave was nothing like the one I had actually written. XD 

10- Margaret chose good hyms for her baptism. We passed out hymn books at the start, and I used Spanish hymn books to prop up my phone for Zoom. I sent out the link late, so only the Cowleys joined. Oof. XD  Also, we passed out all the English hymn books, so I was stuck with a Spanish one, haha. I didn't know enough Spanish to sing along. XD  I just tried to sing from memory. 

10- Also, I got to see Sister Christmas again! She and her dad stayed for Margaret's baptism and flew home on Sunday. She's done with her mission. :)  I'm going to miss her like crazy, but I also appreciate the opportunity to get to know new companions. 

11- We got invited to a couple members houses for dinner! I'm so glad that we can eat at people's houses again! One was pretty calm; we had a fun lesson with the kiddos. The other was pretty... chaotic. I just have to say, I'm so glad my parents taught my siblings and I good etiquette and table manners. *nervous laughter*

12- On Sunday, we stopped by the houses of a few people we hadn't been able to contact any other way. A couple of them were interested, but most weren't, sadly... We have one of the smallest teaching pools ever, and we're probably going to stop meeting with even more people this week because they've ghosted us us weeks on social media. Welp, that means we have more opportunities to find and teach people!

Hope everyone is doing well! I'll attach some of my favorites pics from the Muttart and throughout the week. :)