Many Meals And Miracles!

1- Chapel tour Monday evening with our new friends! :)

2- Crazy miracles: Helping a guy out of the snow!

3- Restore

4- Dinner with the Hills and young Lyons. :D

5- All other lessons on Tuesday fell through... so Facebook!

6- District council

7- Lots of texts and contacts

8- Dinner with the Hetchlers

9- Lesson with the Bohnets

10- Video call with a friend. :)

11- Lunch with our new friends again! :D

12- Crazy schedule with lots of driving

13- Helping out with Activity Days!

14- Mission Zoom Conference on Friday

15- Book of Mormon read with Sister Carter

16- Dinner with the Hampsons

17- Another Book of Mormon read! :D

18- Visiting the Toews (Tays) in Killam

19- Meetings galore on Sunday!

20- Dinner with the MacLeods (Muh-clouds)

21- Monday Miracle! :D

1- Shortly after P-Day hours officially ended, we drove to the church to prepare for a chapel tour with our two friends. We pulled into the parking lot and saw a truck get stuck in the snow. We rushed out and helped to push on the hood while the driver reversed. Luckily, he wasn't too stuck! Little did we know that we'd gotten a small taste of what we would do later that evening...

1- Our friends were able to find the parking lot! That's a big accomplishment when it comes to the Camrose chapel, because the lot is well-hidden. XD  Especially with all the snow! We didn't think much of it, but it turned out to be a small miracle later on.

1- We gave them a tour of the building, told them about some of our beliefs, and listened as they shared some of theirs. We went over the Restoration, and I was privileged to be able to recite Joseph Smith's First Vision again. :)  Our friends had lots of good questions that made us think--including several I've never heard before.

1- During that lesson, Sister Curry and I both felt prompted to turn to different scriptures. We read them and helped to answer some of the questions that our friends had. I was glad that I was in tune enough with the Spirit to be able to find such a specific passage. My knowledge of the scriptures--the Book of Mormon especially--has increased tenfold on the mission! ("Matt, your everything has increased tenfold!" XD  Bonus points if you get the reference!)  Seriously, doing daily scripture study and marking passages that stand out to me has helped exponentially. I'm able to find verses with more speed, ease, and accuracy, and I'm also able to explain the context so the passages I share with people make more sense. :)

2- After our lesson, it was about 7:50. We stepped outside to leave, and saw another guy stuck in the snow close to where the truck had been before. His tires were spinning but he wasn't going anywhere. We ran over to help and tried pushing on the back of his car. To our surprise, our two friends--who had been about to drive away--pulled over, ran up, and pushed alongside us. If they had parked on the opposite side of the church instead of in the well-hidden parking lot, they wouldn't have seen us trying to help the guy stuck in the snow!

2- His car was really stuck. Sister Curry and I ran back to the church and grabbed some snow shovels in the foyer. Another neato miracle: There were five shovels in the entryway and five of us! Sister Curry and I, our two friends, and the driver. Also, I'd had a feeling earlier in the day to put my mittens in the glove box of the car. I'd thought nothing of it at the time, but I was able to grab them so that my hands didn't freeze to the shovel handle! Sister Curry had also felt impressed to wear wool socks instead of her thin socks.

2- We tried digging the car out, but the snow was pretty much packed into ice. It was too smooth for our boots to get a grip, so as soon as we pushed on the car, we'd slide all over the place and the car would stay still. While Sister Curry, the driver, and I tried digging, our two friends called a friend of theirs that happens to have a tow rope.

2- The new guy arrived, but the back of his truck was full of snow. He hopped in, borrowed one of the shovels, and started searching for the tow rope. While we were continuing to try pushing the car out, a lady came out of her house with a bag of dirt. ("I've got a jar of diiiiirrrrt, I've got a jar of diiiirrrrt!" XD)  She started spreading it on the ground and packing it around the tires so the car would hopefully get traction--and so that we would too.

2- Some time after the lady with the dirt, two cars drove right past us without even slowing down. We'd been there for about half an hour already and we kept trying to push the stuck car out. The tow rope was found, but we weren't able to use it. The stuck car was a Jaguar, and apparently they have a solid, one-piece underbody. There was nowhere for the towrope to attach to. :(  

2- A third driver stopped, got out, and ran over to help. My mind couldn't help but flash to the story of the Good Samaritan. The first two cars had driven right by, but here was another stranger ready to help. He suggested using to towtruck as leverage to kick off of, because the icy, packed snow was too slick for our boots. I'm glad he suggested that, because at one point when I was pushing on the car, my legs completely shot out from under me and I barked my nose on the Jaguar's headlight. XD  Luckily it didn't leave a mark, and my face was too numb to feel it by then.

2- Our Good Samaritan driver also suggested putting a lighter person behind the Jaguar's steering wheel. I guessed that I was likely the lightest there, so I almost offered to try reversing the Jaguar. Then, I remembered that as missionaries, we aren't allowed to drive vehicles other than our assigned mission cars. One of our friends that we'd had the lesson with offered to drive the Jaguar instead.

2- He got in the driver's seat and cranked the car into reverse. I stood shoulder to shoulder with Sister Curry, our other friend we'd taught, the guy with the towtruck and rope, the original driver of the Jaguar, the lady with the dirt, and the Good Samaritan driver. Together, we kicked off the towtruck and pushed with all our might. I felt the car start moving, then it just shot back! We all cheered and milled around in the snow for a bit, then people started to disperse. The lady with the dirt went home and the Good Samaritan driver left. Our friends stayed with us to watch the Jaguar driver get to where he needed to go, then they left too after we profusely thanked them. :)

3- The Restore was a bit different this Tuesday. We did a lot of sorting new priced items, and we also took some things back to get priced again. Apparently someone has been going around putting ridiculous prices on things, and the owners of the Restore aren't too happy about it. -_-  We also got to help put the price tags on a few items. :)  

4- The younger Lyons (there are two Lyon couples in the branch, haha) invited us over for dinner, but their house got a ton of snow. Instead, they asked if we could come to the Hills. Leta Lyon is Brother and Sister Hills' daughter, and Richard Lyon is the son of the older Lyons. (Confusing, right? XD)  But anyway, we went to the Hills!

4- When we got there, Viking their dog came charging right at me. I had a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights moment. Even though he's friendly, it's still a bit alarming to see a large, stocky dog come barreling at you. His ears were up, his tongue was out, and his tail was wagging, though, so no aggressive body language. Sister Curry and I gave him a couple treats and he got super excited.

4- We had chicken drumsticks, something called 'koos-koos', I think (Maybe coos-coos?), potatoes, and ham. It was pretty tasty! I loved the drumsticks. Also, the Hills have a cool bird feeder out on their back porch. I saw a male downy woodpecker--first one I've ever seen--and it made my night! There were also half a dozen or more chickadees that kept swooping in to take turns at the feeder. There was only enough room for one bird to perch on it at a time, so they kept knocking each other off. XD

4- We did another 'Jump for Jesus' lesson with the kiddos. I can't remember their names, but they were super cute! A little boy maybe three or four, and a girl that was at least five. They had fun guessing the steps to follow Jesus's example (faith, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end), then jumping on them. :)

5- We did Facebook stuff for the rest of Tuesday night. Not too exciting for me. Other missionaries are always amusingly astonished when I tell them that I've never 'found' someone through Facebook. XD  I'm doing everything that they tell me to do on Facebook, but... other people just don't want to talk. But that's okay. The number of people who want to learn more isn't the mark of a successful missionary--no matter how many people seem to think that.

6- District council was pretty good this week! We talked a lot about friends that we're teaching and everyone getting ghosted by members. XD The Elders quoted some scriptures, and I was able to find the references! I was pretty proud. :)

7- We did L O T S of texting and contacting people after District Council and before dinner. We were working on inviting everyone to a special Fireside that the Cowleys were coming for! President and Sister Cowley decided to visit Camrose this Sunday to talk about how each of us can share the gospel and be a disciple of Jesus Christ. 

8- The Hetchlers invited us over for dinner on Wednesday. We had tacos! The kiddos were all telling us funny stories about school and different things. I shared some SeaQuest stories and showed them pictures of the pythons and macaws. Then we had a fun lesson with them. :)

9- We shared a cute video with the Bohnets. Samuel and the Star. (Can't remember if I've explained it before.) It's a sweet little video about Samuel the Lamanite preaching about the coming of Jesus Christ. He talks about different signs associated with the Savior's birth and death. I love the video because it's kid-friendly and has fun rhymes.

10- We had a video call with one of our friends. She showed us some funny paintings that she has. XD  I feel like it was a pretty great lesson! I could definitely feel the spirit. We invited her to church again, but her aunt got hurt this weekend, so she visited her instead.

11- We had lunch with our Lutheran friends again. This time, we re-explained a few things, answered some more questions, and shared more scriptures. We asked them how they came to know their beliefs were true, then we shared our own conversion stories/testimonies. Each of them talked about how they'd been having hard times a few years ago, then friends had introduced them to the church and to scriptures. 

11- I talked about how a few months ago, I had a very hard, personal question that no one had been able to answer. Friends, companions, church leaders. I'd prayed, read the scriptures, and asked, but received no answer. One day, I said an especially fervent prayer to begin my personal study, then I read a chapter of the Book of Mormon that was able to answer my question. :)  Alma chapter 40 holds a special place in my heart now.

11- In Alma chapter 40, Alma the Younger (named after his father, Alma) is giving advice to his third son, Corianton. Corianton was his 'trouble child'. He honestly wasn't very righteous, so Alma gave him some scolding in the previous chapter. I read chapter 39 and thought something sarcastic along the lines of, Wow, thanks, that totally answers my question. I was discouraged and thought I wouldn't get an answer. But the first verse of chapter 40 reads, "Now my son, here is somewhat more I would say unto thee; for I perceive that thy mind is worried concerning the resurrection of the dead."

11- When I read the scriptures, I like to put my name in the verses to help them become more real to me. So, I read it as, "Now my daughter, here is somewhat more I would say unto thee; for I perceive that thy mind is worried concerning the resurrection of the dead." I was stunned when I read that. I thought to myself, Yes, I really am worried thinking about resurrection. I continued to read and I felt such an overwhelming sense of peace and love. Alma chapter 40 talks about what happens when we die, specifically what happens after our spirits leave this earth and before we get resurrected. 

11- I know that our friends felt the spirit when we were sharing. Sister Curry and I shared some verses in the Bible and the Book of Mormon that talk about how the Holy Ghost testifies of truth. We invited them to pray to know that what we're sharing with them is true, and we plan to meet with them again soon. :)

12- Thursday was hectic! Weekly planning, and we also had a dinner at 5:45, a slightly unconventional time. We had to drop off the church key to Sister Bohnet so that she and Sister Pickett could get into the church and set up for Activity Days at 6:00. We had promised to come and help with the actual activity at 6:30, but then we got invited to dinner too. XD  We ended up doing planning at our apartment, and we drove around doing several other things until dinner with Sister Macmillan at 5:45. We had chili and cheese bread, and she also has a machine that carbonates water and adds soda syrup to it, so that was neat! We managed to leave a little early so that we could make it to the church. I was stressed, but everything worked out!

13- Activity Days was super fun! We helped the kids to dig little stickers out of bins of sand. The kids had told the leaders they wanted to learn about paleontology, so Sister Pickett and Sister Bohnet cut up dinosaur stickers and hid them in sand. The kids used paint brushes to sweep through the sand, then they pieced together a triceratops and a stegosaurus. I was at the table with the triceratops. Once we found all the pieces, the kids and I took turns placing them on the outline of the triceratops. For a snack, Sister Pickett brought blood oranges. I'd never had them before! They tasted like grapefruit to me.

14- On Friday, we had a mission Zoom Conference that lasted... I think two and a half hours. I felt pretty burnt-out by the end of it. Parts of it were good, but the rest was just very repetitive. So... long meeting.

15- We got to visit Sister Carter and do another Book of Mormon read with her! 3 Nephi chapter 4, right in the middle of the chapters about the Gadianton robbers. I got to explain a few verses that she found confusing. The Nephites--who were good at this point in time in the Book of Mormon--managed to defeat the Gadianton robbers. They killed one leader named Giddianhi, and hanged another named Zemnarihah in a tree, then chopped down the tree. 

15- Sister Carter was like, "Why'd they cut down the tree?"  In 3 Nephi 4:29, the Nephites pray that the Lord will cause the wicked who fight them to fall like the tree, so chopping it down was kind of symbolic. There could have been a second reason, however. Sometimes when a person is killed, they can become a martyr. Zemnarihah was bad, but over time, people tend to forget the bad deeds that famous guys do. The remnants of the Gadianton robbers--or less-righteous Nephites--might have ended up using the tree as a rallying point or a memorial for Zemnarihah. Destroying the tree lessened the risk that it would become a memorial and remind people about Zemnarihah's death. It ensured that the people wouldn't use his death as an excuse to commit more wickedness. (Hope that makes sense!)

16- We went over to the Hampsons again for dinner. They had tasty stir-fry over rice. It had water chestnuts--which I learned is different than watercress--baby corn, carrots, and mushrooms. I got seconds and it was super good! We had sorbet for dessert. I was in heaven! :D  We also shared a quick message before we had to head out.

17- One of our awesome friends (once again, wish I could say his name, but I'm scared of privacy law retribution, haha) came to the Hampsons too. We had a Book of Mormon read with him Saturday morning. He's reading through some of the war chapters. We read Alma 58-60 with him. :)  I had fun explaining the war strategies and stuff. Also, I had to explain why Moroni got so angry in chapter 60. 

17- Long story short, there was a coup in the government that Moroni and other soldiers didn't know about. They were in the fringes of the land trying to fight off the Lamanites and they weren't receiving the support they needed. Moroni got ticked off at Pahoran--who was the current chief judge--and basically wrote a long, angry letter saying that he'd kill everyone in charge if they didn't give the armies food, men, and other supplies. 

17- Our friend was confused that Moroni was threatening to kill Pahoran, his friend. So I mentioned that in the next chapter, 61, Pahoran explains his side of the story. He still wants freedom and wants the armies to succeed, but he was dethroned by a group of people who wanted to usurp his authority and take unrighteous control of the city. Since Moroni and his soldiers had little communication with the government, Moroni assumed that Pahoran was turning his back on the armies and refusing to help. Moroni had no idea about the coup. So Pahoran was like, "Hey Moroni, I'm not in charge anymore, haha. Yes, please come kill the people in charge, because they ousted me and they're doing bad stuff. I'm still on your side, I just don't have the power to send you reinforcements and food anymore." (I'm paraphrasing, of course, but that's basically the sentiment Pahoran gave.)

18- We went on a long drive to Killam. We drove past the Killam Cemetery, haha, we just weren't able to get a picture. *Sad dark humor noises*  The Toews (Tays) actually live outside of Killam on kind of a farmland-type place. We drove there and their dogs started running in front of our car and snapping at our tires. We were afraid to hit them. They were pretty nervous of us, actually. XD  As soon as we stepped out of the car, they ran away from us. We had a pretty good lesson with the Toews, though, and invited them to the Fireside on Sunday!

19- SO many meetings on Sunday... Also, daylight savings killed me. -_-  We went to an early Branch Council meeting. There were members of the Stake High Council (I think that's the right term, haha, I'm not too good with organization in the church. XD) that ran the meeting. Mostly, everyone talked about people in the branch that they're meeting with that need some more love and help. 

19- At the end, the guy running the meeting asked if there was any other business. Sister Curry and I had been silent as the grave the whole meeting, because most of it didn't apply to us. We piped up that we had a couple things we wanted to share. We mentioned some of the friends we're teaching and how hard it's been to fellowship them. Some people threw ideas at us, and it was either really outlandish stuff that missionaries can't feasibly do, or things we'd already tried that hadn't worked out. XD  We graciously thanked them for their suggestions anyway. 

19- I feel like it was good to make the Branch aware of our situation, though, because Richard Lyon and Sister Hills told us that we could reach out to them and they could help us find people to fellowship and attend lessons. And some of the members were like, "What? You're teaching people?"   *Visible confusion* Yes, of course we're teaching people! 

19- After the meeting, one guy came up and kind of scolded us in a roundabout way. He was like, "Don't you have weekly coordination with your branch mission leader?"  Meaning, "Save your missionary stuff for the missionary coordination."    Well, yes, we do have coordination meetings, but our Branch Mission Leader is currently on vacation until the end of June, by which time Sister Curry and I may not be here. Also, we ask people to attend Branch coordination so that they're aware of the missionary efforts going on, but almost no one joins, so only two or three people in the branch know what we're doing. -_-  And if you invite missionaries to Branch Council, then deal with the consequences! What's the point of us having to sit quietly through a meeting without contributing something? And if you don't want us to bring up our missionary stuff in Branch Council, then why have us attend?

19- Sorry for the rant. I'm just a bit confused about what the leadership expects of us sometimes. But the rest of church was pretty good. We had a lunch right after, then the fireside. Sadly, not many of our friends were able to come for various reasons, but it's not for lack of trying on our part.

19- The Fireside itself was cool! President and Sister Cowley talked about how everyone can share the gospel. Sister Cowley was saying that although not everyone wears a missionary nametag, we should have the Savior's name on our hearts always. She used a funny visual and said, "Is your nametag this size?", while pointing to her missionary tag. Then, she took it off to reveal a tiny one she'd made underneath. "Or this size?" Then, she reached into her bag and withdrew a plaque-sized tag. "Or is it this size?"  I got a picture of her with her various tags afterward. XD

20- The MacLeods (Muh-clouds) invited us over for dinner. We drove to a place called Bittern Lake, which is about fifteen minutes west of Camrose. (Oh, I think I made a mistake in a previous email. XD  Camrose is southeast of Edmonton central, if I said southwest before.) The MacLeods had a dog that looked like a large, fluffy chihuahua. She tried to bite me. :O  Luckily, it didn't break the skin, haha... She jumped on my lap and I tried to pet her, then she snapped at my hand. I felt her teeth scrape against me, so I jerked my hand back. Then she jumped up and tried to bite my face. :l   I wasn't sure what to do... because no one else saw. Sister Curry was turned talking to the MacLeods, who were in the kitchen. I was sitting on a couch out of their line of sight. But luckily, the dog jumped off me after growling for a minute, and the chairs at the dinner table were high enough that she couldn't jump on my lap again.

20- Anyway, enough about the dog! XD  Dinner was pretty good. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower. There was tasty lemonade too! Brother and Sister MacLeod told us about some crazy missionary stories! Some Elders got locked out of their apartment once, so they had to stay with the MacLeods. Also, they heard about one Elder getting fed up with his companion and pulling a knife on him. :O  He didn't get hurt, but they didn't stay companions, haha...

21- To finish up, a quick miracle! :D  I lost my ring last week and was pretty sad because I thought it was gone forever. I looked all over for it, searched the pockets of all my clothes, and upended my bag. I kind of gave up after a couple of days... but stilled prayed that I'd find it. I kind of forgot about it by this morning. When I was vacuuming the apartment floor, I found it! I saw something shiny on the floor, but I didn't process what it was before I vacuumed over that spot. I heard a clunk, then the vacuum made blender noises! :O  I shut it off and realized I'd sucked up my ring. *facepalm*  I dug through the inside of the vacuum and found my ring! Luckily it's not dented or messed up, and the vacuum still works. :)

Take a few pictures!

Sister Cowley and her giant tag, an 'adult playground', me by the Daysland sign (I'll get a picture at Killam eventually!), Sister Curry with a giant chunk of packed snow, and a misprinted oreo! XD