Negative Weather, Positive Attitude :)

Real quick, I just have to say thanks to everyone who has reached out to me! I'm not really allowed to respond to people on social media, though... So if you've messaged me on Facebook and all I've done is react with a thumbs-up or a heart, that's because it's all I can do. I reapply appreciate when you guys send me stuff, and I apologize for not being able to message you back. Also, if you've emailed and I haven't responded to it, I'm sorry. It probably got lost in the pile somewhere. 

Welp, here's a summary then!

1- Crazy P-Day! Ultimate Frisbee in the snow!

2- Ugh, curfew... -_- Someone got mad at us for having a curfew...

3- Mustard Seed and lessons falling through again. :l

4- Wednesday of meetings

5- Fun lesson with the Friesens! (We played with flashlights. XD)

6- A bit more snow Thursday morning

7- Torture by turkey at the Mustard Seed. XD

8- Combined District Council--except we're the only District in our Zone so it was like a second District Council

9- A few member lessons 

10- Exchange Day!

11- Literal coldest day of my life to date!

12- Light the World! (If you don't know what this is, please look it up! Light the World 2021, or Light the World with Love. It's an awesome initiative that the church does to help us serve one another and become more connected this holiday season!)

1- P-Day was pretty fun! Aside from the chaos of trying to get all the groceries and clean the car. We went to the same park as before. Some Elders brought Spikeball and a Frisbee. I didn't participate in spikeball, but I joined in ultimate Frisbee! I didn't get hit in the face this time! There was also a cool dude just parachuting off the steep hill behind us. We got to see him glide down half a dozen times or so and we'd applaud when he landed. 

2- Monday evening was a trainwreck. We got a call from someone who was moving in and she wanted help. At first, we were told 6:00. We called her, then she said about 7:30. So... we canceled some stuff to open up our evening and help. At 7:30, we called again. The lady told us it would take her about half an hour to reach her new address, so she said about 8-8:30. We drove to her place around 8:00, then walked around. It was really cold and icy, so we jumped back in the car and just sat killing time--not a good thing for missionaries to do. :l  But we couldn't exactly do anything productive that couldn't be stopped quickly because we needed to be ready to help the lady move her stuff. We finally called again at 8:30, and she said she hadn't even left yet! :0  We had to tell her about our 9:00 curfew and she got kind of upset... But we didn't want to break the rules, and the neighborhood was honestly kind of sketchy. So we just went home and honestly didn't get much done after 7:30. Oof. Maybe driving out there was just God testing us to see if we were willing to help someone, kind of like how He commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac just to see if he was willing. *shrug*

3- Tuesday was pretty good! We had some lessons fall through, but I enjoyed myself at the Mustard Seed. There was tasty cinnamon rice, chicken, and mixed vegetables. I scooped the rice. It smelled so good, and we had tons of leftovers, so the staff let us take some! I had it for dinner that night. The rice was cooked with some cinnamon, bay leaves, and basil. It was slightly sweet with a nice herbal aftertaste. Pretty interesting! Not a ton more happened on Tuesday, though. I just remember the Mustard Seed and a few people canceling on us. :l

4- Wednesday was just full of meetings! We did some of weekly planning that morning to ease the drag of Thursday. Then, we had a wonderful District Council. Later that night, our district leader Elder Pitts called us to see how we were doing. :)  We did get to meet with some members too, so it was pretty great!

5- The Friesens are so awesome! We went over to invite them to participate in Light the World! (If you're not participating yet, then I invite you to do so! It's amazing!) We started out by setting up an obstacle course for the kiddos, then turning off the lights. Jacob and Lucas stumbled around in the dark for a bit until I turned on a flashlight. I asked if they could see better, and they agreed. Then, I turned on my phone flashlight to lend more brightness. 

5- I next handed my flashlight to Lucas. That was the most helpful, because apthough it was nice for me to spotlight the room, when he had the flashlight, he could aim the light where he needed to see. We sat down and talked about how we need light to see, and how when one person has light, they can help others. It's most helpful to share our light with people so that they can find their own paths!

5- We read 3 Nephi 18:24, which reads: Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. 

5- Those words were spoken by Jesus Christ Himself when He came to the Nephites in the Americas after His resurrection. He was teaching the people how to pray, and also telling them to hold up their lights and be good examples to the world. Every time we follow Christ's good example, we are sharing our light--and by extension, His light--with other people. 

6- It snowed again Thursday morning. We woke up to a mini blizzard. Big, fluffy, cottonball flakes were swirling around in the pre-dawn light. Sister Marsmaker and I watched the snow in silence for a while, fearing that our car would be grounded again. Luckily, the storm broke as the sun rose, and the snow was so dry that it didn't melt and refreeze on the roads. We were so grateful that we could drive, because it was cold that day! 

7- We were helping to prep turkey dinners for the Mustard Seed. The staff brought out huge boxes with frozen slabs of turkey breasts. The turkey had been "thawing" for a couple of days, but it was still pretty much frozen solid. We got blunt butter knives and worked on chiseling chunks of turkey from the frozen blocks. It reminded me of frozen mackerel and blocks of krill at SeaQuest, except we couldn't run it under warm water to help the thawing process. Our fingers were all frozen. We kind of gave up trying to separate the turkey breasts evenly and just hacked at the frozen blocks and pried off what we could. I was about ready to just chuck the blocks of turkey at the wall to see if they would break. We weren't able to finish prying them apart by the time we had to leave. I wish we could have stayed longer to help, but we had stuff Thursday evening. :l

8- We did something neat on Friday! It was a Combined District Council, except since we're the only District in our Zone, it was just our District. We sat down and had a testimony meeting. There were lots of tears--mostly from Sisters--and lots of jokes--mostly from Elders. It was so awesome to hear the testimonies of my fellow missionaries! It really helped to reignite my fire after a few kind of disappointing days. I bore my testimony too, but I don't remember too much of what I said because the Spirit really guided me in the moment. 

9- We got to have a few more member lessons! A couple in-person ones, like the Dominguez family. They were awesome! We also did some calls and video calls with a couple people. Some more stuff fell through, but that's nothing new. I got to share a few scriptures that I enjoyed, though, and we invited several families to participate in Light the World. :)

10- We had exchanges on Saturday! Sister Smith, my Sister Training Leader, came to our apartment. She's in a trio right now. She and Sister Cannon stayed with me for the day and Sister Marsmaker spent the day in Clareview with Sister Gonzalo. It was a great day!

10- We didn't have much planned at the beginning of the day. We ended up doing a ton of studies, then lots of contacting. We cold-called a few people and got a couple things set up for the evening. We had five member lessons total, which is close to my record! I was so thrilled! Since nothing was in-person, though, we spent just about the entire day inside. Sisters Cannon and Smith got a little cabin fever, but I was honestly happy to have a more physically relaxing day. A pro to not having to drive everywhere is that we weren't late! It was a little grating doing Facebook and calling people all day, but I'd prefer that to rushing around and running behind.

10- We did go outside briefly for a walk. I'm still taking daily walks. Not sure if they're helping my sleep schedule too much, but I'll keep doing it until Sister Cowley tells me otherwise, I suppose. Sisters Smith and Cannon were grateful to go outside for a bit, although neither of them packed the warmest clothes. They were both a little frozen when we got back from the walk. XD

11- Okay, we woke up Sunday morning and it was -19 degrees Celsius. That's -2 degrees Fahrenheit! Until Sunday, the coldest I'd ever experienced was about 8-9 degrees Fahrenheit. We ran down to plug in the car at about 8:30 so it would be just warm enough to start by the time we left for church. I underestimated how brutally cold it would be.

11- It was absolutely frigid. Glacial. Bone-chilling. Hypothermia-enducing. I stepped outside and inhaled, then my lungs physically rejected the frozen air. I doubled over coughing for a bit. The air was so cold and dry that my body was like, NOPE! NOT TODAY! Who needs to breathe? I recovered after a couple seconds, then dashed to the car to plug it in. My face was stinging and my hands wanted to fall off. There was a hint of a breeze and it felt like it was blowing glass shards into my skin. The cord for the car was so cold that it hurt my fingers. I plugged it in, then ran back inside. The air in the apartment was much warmer, and again my lungs seized up for a second and were like, What are you doing to me?! 

11- We did have some great lessons and stuff on Sunday! We got invited to the Simmons for dinner. It was delicious, and they were super kind! Every time we went inside or outside, Sister Marsmaker and I would do the gasp-choke-cough thing while our lungs tried to figure out the temperature difference in the air. I wonder if it'll be like this all winter... :l 

12- And to finish up, Light the World! Just like I said in the little bullet point above, it's a neat thing that the church is doing. It's a little advent calendar where you can do acts of service for others daily until Christmas! I'd like to invite everyone to participate. It's wonderful, and it's such a rewarding experience to serve others! :D 

Welp, that's about it. I didn't take a ton of pictures this week, but I did finish drawing Margaret's cat. :D  I'm pretty proud of it.

Oh, Sister Marsmaker and I also got to try some 'Tim Biebs'. XD  There's a cool place here called Tim Hortons that makes lots of donuts and hot chocolate. It's a bit like Ihop, I think. But they produce tasty donut bites/donut holes called 'Tim Bits'. Justin Bieber apparently helped to design some new flavors, and all of Alberta is freaking out and trying to get 'Tim Biebs'. Personally, I think 'Beiber Bits' would have been a better name. XD Or Justin Bits or something. I just about laugh every time I say 'Tim Biebs'. 

And then I just took a picture of a garbage can because it looked ridiculous. Apparently people here have to place their trash in very specific spots or else it doesn't get cleaned up! I think that's overcomplicated rubbish! XD (Pun intended)

But anyway, hope everyone is doing well! Remember to keep a positive attitude, as I'm trying to do. :) 

Love, Sister Howard