Shoveling Away

Merry early Christmas to everyone!

1- P-Day hangout in the mall because it was way too stinking cold outside!

2- Shoveling snow for service! :D 

3- Mustard Seed

4- L O T S  of Facebook 

5- District Council!

6- A bunch of contacting and cold calls 

7- New coldest day of my life! (I'll probably be saying that a lot, haha...)

8- Mustard Seed again!

9- Weekly Planning (:

10- Okay, actually new coldest day of my life. XD 

11- Snow removal in the parking lot

12- "Tell me you're in Canada without saying you're in Canada." XD

13- Shoveling for a new friend! He was sweet and got us Starbucks! :)

14- Visiting a new member! 

15- Successful calls!

16- Chilly day at church

1- As I said above, it was incredibly cold on P-Day. We didn’t dare wash the car--even though it's getting pretty dirty with all the snow. The last time we washed the car, some of the water froze, and it was much colder this Monday. We were a bit late to district sports, so everyone was cold and tired when we showed up. We were going to do mafia and stuff, but everyone wanted to warm up. We eventually decided to go to a mall! We hung out in the food court and just talked and shared stories. XD   Turns out, Elder Russel has a pet rat and Elder Robinson is scared of rodents!

2- Remember that one lady a couple weeks ago who was smoking something awful? She gave us a call and asked us to shovel some snow. We went over, and we honestly did forget our masks in the car, so we couldn't come inside. She tried to usher us in, but we said we would be fine to just shovel.

2- She was really sweet and was like, "You sure you don't want to just step in and warm up a bit? It's way too cold outside!"  You know  it's cold when a Canadian tells you it's too cold out! We could literally see heatwaves pouring out her door! We told her we'd be okay to stay outside, though, so she gave us a shovel and a broom.

2- At first I was like, Why the wolf spiders did she hand us a broom to shovel snow? Then I stuck the shovel in the snow and figured out why. This snow is so weird! It's just clumpy powder! It's like fine sand or something. Honestly, the broom worked pretty good. We swept off her porch, then cleared her walkway. The shovel was more useful to clear off the sheet of ice that had formed on the cement. I was laughing about using the broom, then we saw half a dozen people using LEAFBLOWERS to clear their porches! This snow just doesn't stick to itself! It's frozen powdered sugar! It doesn't melt, either. It's been below freezing for over a week, so the snow just keeps building up. People really don't exaggerate Canadian snowstorms! It accumulates! 

3- We went to the Mustard Seed on Tuesday, as usual. We were scooping beef and broccoli with with side of rice! It reminded me of my favorite meal to get at Panda Express! It was torture just to smell and handle the food... I wanted to eat it so bad! We made a ton of meals, though, because there was a lot of beef! 

4- I have been doing a ton of Facebook stuff! Friending people, trying to message them, trying not to feel a bit deflated when they don't message back, doing Light the World stuff, etc. I decided to try posting in an art group this week. I was hesitant, because the last time I did so, I got kicked out of the group because my drawing had a scripture reference in the description. XD

4- So... I posted the cat I drew for Margaret on an art group, didn't mention anything to do with the gospel, and said, "Constructive criticism welcome!"  And by the stars, I got ROASTED! SO many people commented, and almost all of the comments were just grilling me over not having a definite light source. XDDD  They were like, "The eyes are great, but put a little white spot (highlight) to make it look realistic."  Or, "The colors are nice, but have you heard of shading?"   "Cool cat, looks flat. Maybe try shading it? That means have one side in the light and one side in the dark."   "Love the eyes, except no highlight. Also no light source. Give it a light source."  

4- I have struggled with shading and lighting in art literally my whole life! I kind of understand shading when I work with black and white sketches, but shading with colored pencil is a whole different ballpark! So... having people tear into my biggest art insecurity was kind of an oof. But hey, it started a couple conversations! A lady even sent me, like... maybe 50 voice messages. She talked about everything from traditional art (pencil, paper, and other physical tools) to photoshop and digital art (any sort of art done on electronics). And then she said she looked at my profile and thought I was a nun. XD  It made me laugh so hard!

5- District Council was pretty good! Sister Marsmaker and I didn't have much to discuss because we're not actively teaching anyone new... :l   But we had a good time about how to start conversations and how to naturally shift into gospel conversations. So, instead of being like, "Hey, that's a nice sweater! Do you wanna hear about Jesus?"  Being more like, "How was your weekend? (Wait for them to reply) I had a good weekend! I went to church. Are you religious?"   

5- I definitely need work on that... I thought I was really great at starting conversations before the mission. Haha... nope. I could babble about animals all day when I worked at SeaQuest. I could talk about art till the sun went down with all my art buddies on Instagram. But talking to strangers, especially when I can't find anything in common with them, is pretty tricky. Also, segwaying the conversation to gospel topics can be like dancing on eggshells sometimes...

6- Wednesday we did a lot of contacting. Not many people replied. I think we called half a dozen members and only got ahold of one. But she really needed to talk and appreciated our call! We also texted a lot of people--over phone and over Facebook. So many people left us on read. Oof. But that's okay. Not everyone is ready yet. :)

7- So... Thursday was the coldest day of my life. Until today. (It's Friday for me right now; I'm trying to work on this email throughout the week so I don't waste a bunch of time on P-Day.)  It was so cold that my snot froze. Like, I've joked about it before, but it actually happened. I breathed in, and then when I exhaled it felt like I had stuck a bandaid up my nose for whatever reason. It hurt! Every time I breathed in, my snot froze, then exhaling made it thaw just enough to tug on my nosehairs. XD

7- Okay, I cannot do the cold justice. I exhale, then a layer of frost builds on my scarf, my headband to keep my ears warm, and even on my hair itself! I inhale, and my lungs seize up because the air is more than a hundred degrees colder than my internal body heat. It's so cold that my hands, feet, and face go numb, then they only hurt once I start to warm up again. So I'll feel fine while we're walking, then we hop in the car or go inside, and the most obnoxious pins and needles sensation starts in my extremities. 

8- Anyway, enough about the cold! We went to the Mustard Seed again on Thursday. We helped cook carrots and rub spice onto chicken. We also did a lot of dishes. My hands were pretty numb after the chicken... it was frozen. Also, I figured out that the freezer runs at about -20 Celsius. So... it was colder outside than it was in the freezer! :0

9- Weekly Planning wasn't half bad this week. One plus side about not teaching many people is that you don't have a lot to plan for! *sad laughter* :')  We just set a lot of finding goals and discussed how we're going to reach out to new people this week. We have time to do all the different types of finding! Street-contacting, although only the criminally insane are out in this weather. XD   Formers, which are people who have had contact with missionaries before. Part-member families, which we meet with regularly. And asking everyone if they know anyone who would like to meet with us! 

10- Friday was incredibly cold. We borrowed snow shovels from the church in the morning, and Bishop Johnston commended our bravery for shoveling in such low temperatures. You know the weather is bad when Canadians say it's too cold! We shoveled snow for a lady that needed some help. Her dogs were barking at us and jumping at the window the whole time. XD

10- Crazy thing about shoveling in the snow... When I do it for a few minutes, I start to overheat! Sweating is dangerous in the cold because it makes one colder in the long run. So, after I started to get too hot, I put my nice, thick winter jacket in the car, then went back to shoveling. I just had a shirt, a sweater, and leggings under my pants. It was about -24 Celsius. My face and fingers were numb, and so were my toes, but the rest of me was just fine! Also, my breath froze all over my scarf and hair, so I looked like some crazy, mythical ice lion. XD 

11- We had to clear out of the parking lot early on Friday morning. They had a yellow tractor-type vehicle with a shovel on the front that was scraping some snow out of the lot. We went to the church, did our studies and things there, then shoveled snow for a couple people. We had to reschedule a few things because of the weather and because we couldn't go back to our apartment for a while.

12- Since we had to rush out that morning, we weren't able to pack lunches. We decided to stop by a Dairy Queen because I had a gift card from the wonderful Polishcuk family! We also went to Tim Hortons the other day--again, with a gift card. :D   While we were waiting in line at the Dairy Queen, we heard on the store's radio that there was a frostbite warning. :0  Sister Marsmaker was like, "There's a frostbite warning and we're getting Dairy Queen blizzards. Canada!"  We went back to eat at the church because it was warm. XD   Both of us were laughing about how we were eating ice cream while it was -24ish Celsius outside.

13- Friday night we went to a nice guy's house to help with shoveling. We borrowed the church snow shovels again. He also let me use a nifty scraper thing he made. It was like a beastly, square shovel that he'd sharpened and attached to a sturdy handle. He told me to watch my toes. Sister Marsmaker shoveled the top layer of snow off his sidewalk and I followed to scrape up the icy, packed layer. I did accidentally whack myself in the shin once, but luckily it was with the blunt end of the ice scraper. XD  

13- Once again, I kind of overheated. If you want to warm yourself up in subzero temperatures, just scrape at packed snow for a half hour! It'll warm you right up! I draped my big coat over his porch railing and just kept going. Once again, my breath froze all over my scarf, headband, and hair. But my torso was nice and warm! After we did what we could--he has a big property, so we'll come back layer to finish up--he asked us who we were.

13- The guy was like, "Why are you out doing this? No one just shovels snow for free! This is crazy-person work!" 

13- Sister Marsmaker and I said we were members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was like, "Oh, that explains it." Then he told us how he was meeting with missionaries before Covid, but lost contact with them when they got sent home suddenly. He said he'd been going through some hard times. And, to use his words, he was 'thinking of coming back to the fold.' 

13- He asked what we did on Sunday,  and we told him we went to church. He said he wanted to learn more. Sister Marsmaker gave him a Restoration pamphlet and we promised to come back. We said we'd finish the snow job before we talked to him about religion. He asked if we could pray with him, and we did so. Sister Marsmaker gave a really sweet, touching prayer. 

13- Then, just when we were about to leave, someone pulled up to drop off Starbucks! The guy paid the delivery person, then handed us the Starbucks bags. He said that if we couldn't accept payment, he would feed us. XD  So sweet of him! We thanked him profusely, then went to the car to enjoy our hot chocolate. My chin and lips had gone numb, so my words were kind of slurred, and I had a hard time drinking the hot chocolate. XD  We put away the shovels, then went home and properly warmed up. We're so excited to go back to help out our new friend again!

14- Saturday was a day of stop-bys and cold calls. (If I haven't explained, cold calls are just random, unplanned calls. Sometimes when people are hard to meet with if we set a hard and fast time, we just call them out of the blue. It's pretty hit-and-miss.) But we stopped by Christy Van Bruggen! She was super sweet and going through some hard times, so she was grateful for the visit. She also let us cuddle her adorable guinea pig, so that was fun! :)

15- We had a couple successful cold calls and a scheduled video call with some members who have been hard to reach. We were really excited! Sister Brenda Richardson showed us some neat owl decorations that she had. One was was trio of little owls to represent the saying, "See, hear, and speak no evil." One owl covered its eyes with its wings, one covered its beak, and the other covered the sides of its head. I thought it was a cute decoration!

16- Not much happened Saturday evening, except some more canceled lessons. Sister Marsmaker and I exchanged funny family and work stories while we searched for people on Facebook. Then, we went to church on Sunday. It was pretty cold, but only about -10 Celsius, so not as bad as the rest of the week. XD   I also finally got to give Margaret the cat I drew for her! I'm working on a couple other drawings that I hope to give to friends soon. :)

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!

A few pictures of us after shoveling snow, Sister Van Bruggen's guinea pig, Starbucks, and all the snow!