Trip To The Temple!:D

Hey everyone! This week I'd like to ask you to keep some people in your prayers, please.

Most of my family has Covid and they've been doing pretty rough this week. It sounds like they're on the mend, but I'd appreciate if you could pray for them. My dad, my sister Makady, and my brothers Benton and Jack.

One of our friends has been going through lots of hard things from physical, mental, to emotional trials. Please pray that she will be able to find comfort and relief from her afflictions, and that she will be able to feel of God's love for her.

Okay, summary time!

1- Laid-back P-Day

2- Evening calls falling through

3- Going to the Edmonton temple! :D

4- Interviews with President Cowley... :l

5- Mustard Seed

6- More contacting

7- Combined District Council

8- Called some members to have phone lessons

9- Early-out at the Mustard Seed again

10- Weekly planning

11- Another Bible study with one of our new friends! :)  Also  very spiritual experience for me.

12- Visit with the Fosyths and their friendly cat! :D

13- Lots of contacting

14- More snow shoveling

15- Sketchy service for our friend again

16- Sunday of miracles!

1- P-Day was productive, but slow-paced. I was getting back to my feet after being sick, but I wasn't completely better yet. Sister Marsmaker and I were told not to go to District Sports just in case I was still contagious, so we spent most of the day cleaning and getting our apartment in order. We were able to do lots of deep-cleaning and good organizing, then we knocked out shopping. After that, we basically hung out at the church and called family. I was a bit out of it, but I was able to talk to everyone, including Paden all the way down in Brazil! Technology is such a miracle! :D

2- We were going to have some lessons and stuff on Monday night,after P-Day hours officially ended, but no one answered. RIP. XD  We called some people we've been teaching and we suspect that one of them ran out of internet/wifi at home or something, because we've had zero contact with him for a few days. :(   We just did Facebook stuff instead because we couldn't call anyone.

3- I got invited to participate in an Endowment session at the Edmonton temple on Tuesday! For those of you who don't know what 'endowment' means, I can give a simple explanation. I can't go into too much detail because many of the ordinances performed in temples are very sacred. 

3- The word 'endowment' means 'gift'. When one participates in an endowment session, they make covenants with God, similar to baptism. A covenant is a two-way promise between God and man. (When I say man, I mean all of mankind) We can't make the terms of covenants, but we can choose to accept or reject them. If we keep our end of the covenants that we make during the endowment, God will bless us throughout our lives in many ways. I've been able to see so many blessings from keeping the commandments. :)

3- The Edmonton temple is gorgeous, but also super tiny! To give some scale, the stake center (chapel building used for weekly church services) beside it was bigger! It was all one floor with the endowment rooms and Celestial room in the middle. The changing rooms and sealing rooms were on one side, and I assume the baptismal font and other rooms were on the other side. It was a pretty small temple. 

3- What the temple lacks in size, it makes up for in beauty! I loved all the artwork. There were lots of amazing pictures of Jesus Christ and a few beautiful landscape paintings. There was also a neat one of Lehi holding the Liahona that I'd never seen before. 

3- If anyone is curious about temples and what we're able to do inside of them, I would suggest going to comeuntochrist.org  or  churchofjesuschrist.org . The church websites are sure to have more info, and can probably explain more eloquently than me. Or, you can download the free Gospel Library App (If you don't have it already) and look up 'Temples' or 'Endowment' in the Gospel Topics section. 

4- After the temple, Sister Marsmaker and I drove to the mission office to have interviews with President. It was a little less nerve-wracking than last time. I asking him a question that I haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer to. I've searched the scriptures, prayed, and asked companions, so I decided to ask President Cowley. (The question is rather personal, so I'd rather not go into detail)  When I first asked, his short answer was 'yes', but when I elaborated, he was like, "I don't know. This is all guesswork," and proceeded to give me some potential theories. So... I didn't get a satisfactory answer, but I'll keep looking.

5- The Mustard Seed was great on Tuesday! We did potatoes, lemon pepper chicken, and carrots. I mostly scooped carrots. There was some leftover chicken at the end, so we were able to eat some pieces over the garbage can. XD  We didn't want to drip lemon juice on the floor. It tasted really good! It was a tad spicy, but also really piquant and zingy. I love citrus. XD

6- Most of Tuesday and Wednesday has been contacting. We got lots of new referrals! People have been reaching out to Facebook ads, and we've been calling or texting the ones in our area. There are a few people that may be interested in learning more, so we hope that works out! :)

7- District Council was interesting. We all introduced ourselves at the beginning (and probably took too long, haha) then had a few trainings. Finding people on social media and such. It was interesting, and actually got me kind of hyped about Facebook, which was weird! XD  I want to be more active on Facebook, though, because social media algorithms like people who are active. So I'm going to participate more in local groups and reach out to even more people! >:D

8- Wednesday evening we spent just calling some people and doing Facebook. We managed to get ahold of some members over the phone, including sweet Brother Lawrence, who informally adopted us. ^u^  It made my day! He's always super kind and willing to help fellowship new friends that we're teaching.

9- We went to the Mustard Seed on Thursday morning and helped with labeling lids and packaging some meals. Some other Sisters were there earlier, so things were way ahead of schedule. We ended up leaving early again. It was fun to be there while we were, though! I love the conversations we have in the kitchen. :)

10- Weekly planning wasn't too much of a drag this week. We spaced it out a bit and called some people in between. The Fortins were also super sweet and brought us dinner! It was tasty (but slightly spicy) homemade chili, and mango nectar to drink! I absolutely love mango nectar! It's so tangy and delicious! It made my day. :D

11- We've been having more Bible studies with a friend. Once again, I'd love to share her name, but... *sigh* Canada. She had some questions about what happens and where we go after we die. Sister Marsmaker and I started to go over the Plan of Salvation, or the Plan of Happiness. We want our friend to know that God has a plan for us, and that He wants us to be happy. We wanted her to know where she came from, why she's here, and where she's going.

11- During the lesson, some verses came to mind. I flipped open my Book of Mormon to Mosiah chapter 16. It took a minute of searching, but I'd marked this particular passage in a very specific way so that I'd be able to find it again. I read pieces of verses 6-8. I would have read the entire section, but the wording might have confused my friend without more context, and I felt like the parts I shared were what she needed to hear. 

11- In this chapter, the prophet Abinadi has been captured by the wicked King Noah and his priests. Abinadi prophesied about the coming of Jesus Christ and told the people that they needed to repent. King Noah didn't like that one bit. He and his priests accused Abinadi of teaching false doctrine. Abinadi calls them out for being hypocrites in the earlier chapters, because they teach the Law of Moses and the Ten Commandments, but they don't keep them. Of course, that aggravates the priests and the King even more. 

11- During the verses I chose to share, Abinadi is telling the priests and the King that because of Christ, all of us will be resurrected one day, and that we don't need to fear death. At this point in time, Jesus hasn't been born yet, so Abinadi is foretelling of the Savior. I'll write the verses below. The italicized portions are what I shared with my friend.

"And now if Christ had not come into the world, speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.

And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ."

11- These are some of my favorite verses right now. As I was sharing them, I got a bit choked up. I remembered friends, family, and beloved pets that I have lost--some rather recently. I felt that the scripture was meant for me as much as it was meant for my friend, in that moment. I needed a reminder that death is not a permanent goodbye, and that I will see my loved ones again someday. 

12- Okay, the Forsyths have the absolute friendliest  cat ever! His name is Chester and he's a big, soft, ginger-and-white mackerel tabby with gorgeous green eyes. We came in and he immediately meowed and started winding around our ankles. When we sat on the couch, he purred and rubbed against our legs, then sprang right into my lap. He loved smelling my scarf, mask, and headband. Chester trotted all over Sister Marsmaker and I, purring like a chainsaw the whole time. While we were sharing a scripture with the Forsyths, he also grabbed a toy in his mouth and brought it over to play. I would kill for a cat with his personality! XD

13- We have been doing so much contacting and Facebook work! It gets a little grating and disheartening when we've called the same half-dozen people every day for a week with no answers from any of them. Getting new referrals is awesome, but sometimes it's hard when we can't actually talk to them. I try not to let it dampen my spirits too much.

14- Well... okay, I said shoveling, but really it was chipping ice and scraping up the chunks into a pile. We went to a friend with cats that Sister Christmas knows well. He needed help moving his car from an alley and into his driveway. The problem was that the driveway had at least six inches of uneven ice and crystalized snow powder, and the gate was frozen to the ground. He did have an ice chipper! Basically, a square-headed shovel.

14- If you're looking for a healthy way to take out your anger on something, chip some ice! We were there for a little more than an hour, but it felt like fifteen minutes for me. XD  I took off my coat and scarf because I warmed myself up. I was hacking madly at the ice sheet and then Sister Marsmaker would pile up the chips of ice I left behind. I would just stab at the ice, pry off chunks, and break them up with whacks and jabs. It was tiring, and my back muscles are feeling it now, but I would do it over again.

15- So... the friend that I've been mentioning a lot that I wish I could name needed some help with service again. We drove to her place and had to park down a side street because of all the snow. That meant a bit of a walk. We skidded our way through the slush and ice. Things were kind of melty because it was a few degrees above freezing! This week has actually been warmer than normal. Like, not warm by any means, but I've acclimatized so much that now a faint breeze that's a couple degrees above freezing almost feels warm on my face. It's weird. XD

15- Anyway, we're walking to help our friend and we had to go through some dark, sketchy alleys. There were people staggering around doing who-knows-what that we avoided... *nervous laughter*  I kept finding objects in the snow that made me nervous. Chills that had nothing to do with the weather worked their way down my spine. I saw everything from the ends of cigarettes to human feces. There were used needles, piles of leaves from plants I don't care to identify, patches of oddly-colored snow, and broken bottles everywhere. I was watching my steps very carefully.

15- The building where our friend lives smelled awful again... She'd forgotten we were coming over, and the company who had visited before smoked a lot. She asked if we could sweep her floor and clean her rug. The rug was so clotted with cat hair that I couldn't tell what the original color was supposed to be. We tried fruitlessly sweeping the rug for a few minutes before I asked if our friend had a comb she didn't care about. She handed me a small, spiky brush. I spent a good thirty minutes or more raking as much cat hair and grit out of the rug as I coud. I would have killed for a vacuum! My fingers were black with dirt by the time I finished. There was still some residual cat hair, but much less than before. We had a pile of dust, fur, and cardboard scraps bigger than the cats themselves when we were done! XD

15- Sister Marsmaker did a lot of sweeping while I worked on the rug. Honestly, after cleaning out the aviary mats at SeaQuest, scraping wads of cat hair out of a rug for half an hour is nothing. XD  Stars above, the unholy things I've cleaned out of the SeaQuest mats... Brrrr. Let's just say that I'm not bothered by animal messes very much. XD  I have SeaQuest stories that could turn anyone's stomach--or make you laugh, if you like toilet humor.

15- After sweeping, we also helped to clean the bathroom. Her fluffy, gray Somali--one of my dream cats, they're so gorgeous!--kept jumping in the shower! XD  She wasn't scared of the water at all. She was also extremely playful and loved attacking the brooms and paper towels as we swept and wiped stuff. We said goodbye to our friend, then had another nerve-wracking walk back to the car. Sister Marsmaker just kept telling me to look forward and walk with confidence. I have never wanted to Apparate more! (Harry Potter teleportation, basically. XD) I wanted to get out of there so bad! Our clothes were rancid when we got home, so we washed them. We also showered to get the smoke smell off of us and out of our hair. 

16- Sunday was awesome! We had two of our friends join church over Zoom. One of them actually invited us to watch her church, and we did so. It was very different than what I was used to... Lots of 'hallelujahs' and 'amens' from the congregation. The speakers got incredibly passionate and there were some very talented musicians. I could feel that the speakers really did believe the things they were saying, though. There's a grain of truth in everything.

16- There are a lot of different religions out there. I had a Seminary teacher tell me once that all religions have pieces of the puzzle that is the full truth. Some only have a few pieces, so they do the best with what they have. Some of the pieces are in the wrong spots. Some religions don't know what the puzzle is supposed to look like, so they build it incorrectly based on what they know. Other people are just missing a few pieces. And some religions will try to replace their missing pieces with their own creations. 

16- Although every religion is different, like I said, they do the best with what they have, and every religion has at least one piece of truth. Only the restored church has all of the pieces. But we should never tell anyone else that they're building their puzzle wrong, because no one likes to be told their way is incorrect. Instead, we need to help people to learn for themselves. When someone prays to God and asks, He will help them to find the pieces they are missing.

16- Hope that analogy made sense! :)  One more miracle from Sunday. Christiana came to church and we were finally able to figure out what was wrong with her church account! Now she'll be able to book a temple session! We're so excited that she'll be able to take the next step. :D

Not too many pictures this week. A WIP of a magpie I'm drawing for a friend, frost on the window of the car, and pictures of Sister Marsmaker and I at the Edmonton Temple!