Transfers Again!

Wow, this transfer crept up on me! Since I didn't add the news at the bottom of my email, here it is: I'm staying in Camrose with Sister Curry. :D

1- Branch FHE

2- Drive to Edmonton

3- Lesson with our Lutheran friends. :)

4- Lesson with another friend

5- Book of Mormon flashcards! >:D

6- Lunch and District Council

7- Filming project with Social Media Sisters

8- Dinner with Hetchlers

9- Acting out 1 Nephi 3-5!

10- Branch coordination

11- Weekly planning

12- Dinner with Sister Harrison

13- New friend! :D

14- Fall-through Friday. -_-

15- The Ramsays!

16- Call from the APs. :O  (Assistants to the President)

17- Sister Dylke scaring us to death! XD

18- Dinner with Hampsons and our friend!

19- Shoveling on Saturday

20- Another Book of Mormon read!

21- Crazy cold calls. XD

22- Stormy Sunday

1- Branch FHE on Monday night was at the MacLeods. I made sure to bring a treat for their dog so she didn't try to bite me again, haha. The message shared was good, I just can't remember it. XD  We had strawberries and blackberries with cream for dessert! Super tasty! :D  The MacLeods have a Alexa that was acting up in a slightly funny but also creepy way, so we shared sketchy AI stories. XD

2- On Tuesday, we had to drive to the mission office in Edmonton to drop off some paperwork and stuff. It was a long drive, but I enjoyed it. :)  We listened to lots of Hank Smith talks, Youth Album songs, and a few others. Sister Curry has some Lauren Daigle and Mercy Me! >:D  It reminded me a bit of long car rides on the way to or from grandparents' houses and camping trips. I honestly miss those car rides with family! (Especially because I could read to you, dad! XD)

3- We had another lesson with our Lutheran friends. Since one of them is going to Sherwood Park for a couple of weeks, we didn't want to start the next missionary discussion. We knew it would take a while to explain the Plan of Salvation to the two of them, especially with the amazing questions they ask. So, we just asked what questions they had for us! They asked what our experiences had been talking to people of different faiths and denominations. 

3- Honestly, I hadn't met too many people of different faiths before the mission--partly because I wasn't looking. XD  But a lot of the people that I have met while serving that believe different things haven't been too friendly. :l  Our Lutheran friends were pretty sad to hear that some people have treated Sister Curry and I rather rudely. We thanked them for being open with their beliefs and for not trying to start arguments with us. XD  They also asked about stereotypes, so I mentioned a few. Apparently, neither of them or Sister Curry had ever heard the 'Mormons have horns' one before, so I got them all laughing. They had heard about drinking non-alcoholic cider or hot chocolate instead of alcoholic drinks and coffee, though. Also, substitute curses. XD  I suppose I'm a step beyond most members of the church, though. Typical Utah 'curses' are often 'heck' and 'dang it' and stuff. And then there's me yelling, "What the wolf spiders?" and "Shooting stars!" and "Chirping crickets!" all the time. XD

4- Tuesday evening we also met with another one of our friends. Her aunt's been going through some health struggles, so we've been praying a lot for her. We got Sister Harrison to join her lesson and we read the first chapter in 1 Nephi together. We're trying to help our friend to understand the importance of the Book of Mormon so that she can feel the Spirit when she reads it, and not just when she meets with us.

5- Wednesday morning, Sister Curry was in a meeting. I decided to make use of some flashcards I've had sitting around for a while. In the evening, we were going to meet with the Hetchler family for dinner and a lesson. The kiddos had expressed interest in acting out a scripture story, so Sister Curry and I decided on 1 Nephi, specifically when Nephi and his brothers go back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates from Laban. On the flashcards, I wrote down the names of Lehi's family (Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi) and also the names of some others who appear in this record. King Laban and his servant, Zoram. I also added a card for a guard and an angel. :)

5- I had fun coloring and decorating the cards with different things. Some of them were easy; I did weapons and armor on the guard's card, and a few things for Nephi: a sword, a boat, a quiver of arrows. A few of the people were a bit harder to come up with symbols or decorations, though, but I managed. XD  On the back of each flashcard, I wrote down some verses that pertained to each role. :)

6- We had lunch with our Lutheran friends again before one of them has to head back to Sherwood Park for a bit. We came to CLBI. I might have called it Camrose Lutheran Bible Institute before, and if so, I apologize. It's actually the Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute. But anyway, we went and they let us in. I thought it would be a lot bigger; I was picturing a college campus! Really, it was three small dorm rooms, a little courtyard, and a sort of pavilion in one corner. The bottom floor of one dorm room was a cafeteria, which is where we ate.

6- It felt like I was a new kid coming in on my first day of High School. XD  We walked in and there were a couple hundred young adults and teens staring at us. Some of them waved, a couple actually clapped or cheered, and all of them were smiling super huge. They were, "Ooh, let's convert them!" smiles. XD  

6- Sister Curry and I were rather amused. We think our Lutheran friends are really trying to persuade us to 'jump ship', so to speak. However, we know our destination and we have firm testimonies that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's restored church on the earth today. No matter how many functions, meals, or activities we're invited to, we're not going to resign as missionaries and join a different faith. It was fun to meet some of the other people there, though. We got the chance to talk a bit about what we do as missionaries.

6- District Council was pretty good! I don't remember too much of it, haha, because I was pretty tired XD  Our District Leader had us practice some hypothetical scenarios for teaching people.

7- Okay, Wednesday was probably the busiest day this week! :O  A little while after District Council, Sister Poulin and Sister Bateman came to Camrose to do some filming. They'd asked permission from the Hetchlers to interview their kiddos for a church video about Easter. They asked us to help and we gladly did so! 

7- The Sisters had the kids sit on a table by a painting of Jesus and asked them questions one by one. Questions such as, "Who is Jesus?" "Why do we celebrate Easter?" "What has Jesus done for you?" "What's your favorite part of Easter?" and a few other ones. Some of the kiddos gave hilarious answers, others were really spiritual and sweet. The filming took a couple of hours, and afterward the Social Media Sisters joined us for dinner at the Hetchlers.

8- We had hamburgers with the Hetchlers. The kiddos were telling their parents about the filming and they were all so excited. Each of them was given a little picture of Jesus and they were proudly showing them off. :)  After the food, I had each of the kids, then the parents, and the other Sisters (because they stayed for the lesson, haha) draw a card out of a bag. Then, we acted out Nephi getting the plates from Laban. It was so fun and cute! I wish I could have filmed it! XD

9- It would be confusing for me to say everyone's names and what role they played, so I can just summarize what happened in the scriptures. :)  Lehi was a prophet that lived in Jerusalem in 600 BC. He saw God in a vision and was told to tell the people of Jerusalem to repent, or they would be destroyed. Of course, the people didn't listen, and they cast Lehi out.

9- Lehi was told that he and his family needed to leave the city before it was destroyed. They left all of their possessions behind--much to his eldest sons' dismay--and basically camped in the wilderness for a while. Then, Lehi was told that his sons needed to return to Jerusalem to get a set of brass plates from King Laban. The plates had scriptures written on them, and the genealogy of Lehi's fathers.

9- Lehi's sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi (oldest to youngest) went back to the city. Laman and Lemuel didn't want to; they didn't believe that Lehi had seen God in a vision. Nephi said that he would obey his father, because he knew that God wouldn't give them a commandment without preparing a way for them to fulfil it. When they got back to Jerusalem, they cast lots--kind of like modern rock, paper, scissors, where it's a game of chance to see who's 'it'.

9- The lot fell on Laman, meaning that he was the one who would try to get the plates first. He went into the city and asked King Laban for the plates. Laban said no, of course, and chased Laman out. Laman told his brothers what had happened and they wanted to go back to their parents. Nephi told them to try again. He and his siblings went back to their house in Jerusalem and gathered up some of their valuables to try bribing Laban. When they went back, Laban was impressed by their treasure, but he still wouldn't give up the plates. So, he commanded his guards to chase the brothers away. King Laban actually told the guards to kill Nephi and his brothers if they caught them. 

9- Nephi, Laman, Lemuel, and Sam ran out of the city and hid. Laman and Lemuel got pretty ticked; they blamed Nephi and Sam for losing all their possessions. They actually started beating poor Sam and Nephi with sticks. :l  Really following the commandment 'love one another', right? 

9- All of a sudden, and angel appeared and was like, "Why are you hitting your brothers?" to Laman and Lemuel. (Once again, I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what the angel said. XD) Laman and Lemuel were like  :O . Sam and Nephi were grateful that the angel stopped their brothers. The angel told them to go back to Jerusalem and try again to get the plates. Then, he left.

9- As soon as the angel was gone, Laman and Lemuel were like, "How are we supposed to get the plates? Laban has all those guards and he could kill us!" (Paraphrasing) Nephi couldn't believe them. He reminded them that an actual ANGEL had come down to tell them to get the plates, so it must be important. So, Nephi wrangled his brothers and went back to Jerusalem.

9- By then, it was night. Nephi decided he would go in alone, so he told his brothers to wait for him. Then, he sneaked into Jerusalem. One of my favorite verses is 1 Nephi 4:6. It reads, "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." Nephi had no idea how to get the plates on his own, but he trusted that God would provide a way.

9- He saw a drunk guy lying in the street. Upon closer inspection, Nephi figured out it was King Laban himself. Laban had a nice sword that Nephi was really impressed with. All of a sudden, Nephi was commanded by the voice of the Lord to kill Laban. He didn't want to; he'd never killed anyone before and knew it was bad. The Lord told him that Laban was really evil, and that it was better for one evil man to die than for him to lead away an entire nation. So, Nephi killed Laban with his own sword.

9- Nephi dressed in Laban's armor and went to Laban's house to get the plates. Laban's servant Zoram thought that Nephi was Laban, because he was decked out in Laban's armor. So, he fetched the plates for Nephi. Nephi told Zoram to follow him outside the city, and Zoram did.

9- When Nephi exited the city, his brothers saw him and thought he was actual King Laban. They freaked out and started to run. They thought Nephi was dead and that Laban was coming to kill them. Nephi called out and told them it was him, and that they didn't have to be scared. Then, Zoram realized Nephi wasn't Laban and he was like, "Oh snap!" Zoram tried to run, and Nephi tackled him. Nephi knew that if Zoram got back into the city and raised the alarm, he and his brothers would be hunted down by King Laban's guards.

9- Nephi swore that if Zoram followed them, that he would come to no harm. Zoram swore that if Nephi let him go, he would come with them. Back then, when people made oaths, they'd stick to them. Nephi and Zoram knew they could trust each other then, so they basically became best friends from that moment on. :)  Nephi, his brothers, and Zoram went back to their parents, Lehi and Sariah.

9- Meanwhile, Sariah was doubting Lehi. She called him a visionary man as an insult. Lehi was like, "Yeah, I am a visionary man!" XD Sariah thought her boys were all dead and she was super sad and upset. Lehi had faith that they would come back, though. When Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel returned with Zoram in tow, Sariah was overjoyed. Seeing her boys safe boosted her testimony. She forgave Lehi and told him that she knew of a surety that he was a true prophet. Then, the family offered sacrifices to God as thanks for preserving them and for allowing them to get the plates.

9- Whew! That was long! If any of you made it this far, congratulations! I'd like to invite you all to read 1 Nephi chapters 3-5 and look for what you can learn. There are instances of miracles, faith, and blessings from following God's commandments. :) I know that when we read the scriptures and apply them to our own lives, we can be blessed and become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ.

10- Only two representatives were able to make it to Branch Coordination. :(  It was very short. But we were able to get ideas for possible fellowshippers to help with the people we're teaching right now. I was happy about that! :D

11- Weekly planning wasn't too long this week, honestly. Most of our friends haven't had major updates, and because one of our Lutheran friends is in Sherwood Park for a couple weeks, we can't meet with him. He doesn't like to do Zoom, sad day... We plan to give him scriptures and stuff to read while he's gone so that he still has missionary contact, though, and we'll resume lessons when he's back. 

12- Sister Harrison invited us over for dinner. She made curry in honor of Sister Curry, which wasn't my favorite but I ate it. XD We had tasty ice cream for dessert, though. Her gray tabby, 'Catmandoo' (I have no idea if I'm spelling that right) seemed to remember me. During the prayer, he jumped on his cat tower and rubbed his face all over my shoulders and neck. XD He also realized I only needed one hand to hold my fork and eat, so he commandeered my other hand and enjoyed all the pets I could give him. XD

13- We have a new friend that we've been meeting with. I can't remember if I've mentioned him yet. He's pretty cool; very interested in meeting with us and learning how to come closer to God. He says he feels directionless and down a lot of the time. We've only been able to have short lessons with him so far because he's exhausted all the time, poor guy. We want to share the importance of prayer, scripture study, and church attendance with him, though. Because when we pray, we talk to God. When we read the scriptures, we learn more about him and can find answers to some of life's greatest questions. And when we go to church, we get to learn with and socialize with those of similar beliefs. :)

14- Oof, pretty sure nothing went according to plan on Friday. XD  We had so many lessons and appointments fall through... member and non-member. It was just an off day. I don't think we even had a successful cold-call either. So... we did a lot of Facebook work. We were able to meet with the Ramsays and Sister Dylke, though, so that was nice!

15- When we went to the Ramsays, they had some new quilts to show us. Glenna is super talented at making them! Brother Ramsay liked the scripture we shared. Before we left, he had us stand up and sing a hymn with him too. It was kind of sweet but I also felt horribly awkward because I was off-key the whole time. XD We sang three verses of 'Nearer, my God, to Thee'.

16- So... we went to Sister Dylke's later in the afternoon. She wasn't home. :(  We knocked on her door, and while we were waiting, we got an unexpected call from President Cowley's assistants. :l  They started off by being like, "Sisters, we just wanted to call to say you're doing an amazing job! Thanks for everything you do!" Sister Curry and I were like, "Awe, thanks!"  

16- Then, the APs said, "Okay, we have something we need you to do. And you need to commit to it before we tell you what it is."  I had little alarm bells going off in my head. I recalled a scene from Harry Potter where Harry and Hermione agreed to help Hagrid with something, and he was like, "I want you to help teach Grawp English!" (Long story short, Hagrid was afraid that evil Professor Umbridge was going to sack him, and he didn't want his haf-brother giant, Grawp, to be lonely.) Harry was like, "Oh great... we agreed before he told us what the task was."  I was kind of hesitant to agree before the APs told us what they wanted, haha...

16- Any guesses? The APs told us we had to find someone--meaning we had to teach them a principle of the Gospel and get them to agree to meet again--and put their name in the mission Facebook chat. :l  I was like, "Uh..." and Sister Curry told them, "Of course!" The APs thanked us and hung up. By then, it was a little after 4:00. We had dinner with the Hampsons at 6:00, a little later than normal, and it's close to a half hour drive to get to their place sometimes. 

16- We figured it wouldn't be worth it to go back to our apartment, so we just sat in our car across the street from Sister Dylke's house and tried to Facebook find. :l  It was a long hour or so that we sat there... 

17- Turns out, Sister Dylke had gone shopping and been held up by some craziness in the lines. She saw us parked across the street, so she came over and knocked on our car window. I jumped out of my skin! XD She apologized for being late and let us come in to share a message. Then, she gave us some chips as a snack. :)

18- We drove to the Hampsons for dinner with our friend. It was pretty good! Homemade hamburgers on rye bread with cheese, pastrami, and other toppings. I'd never had pastrami before (hope I'm spelling it right) and it was decent. Sister Hampson also made baked potatoes that they'd picked from their own garden! I hadn't had a baked potato in so long... It was delicious! After I was completely stuffed, they brought out dessert, of course. Homemade yogurt with homemade cherry syrup. (They cook a lot of their own food, if you can't tell!) It was delicious yogurt so I ate every bite, but I thought my stomach was going to explode afterward! XD

19- We had sort-of interviews with the Cowleys over the phone, and that ate up most of the morning. Then, we went to visit Sister McPherson and decided to wait at the church until our Book of Mormon read with a friend. We had some things fall through, so we were going to just do Facebook stuff. :l  On the way inside the church, I saw a grass spider though! :D I saw my first living spider this year a week or so ago, actually. But seeing as how it was inside the church building and if I'd called attention to it, someone would have killed it, I feel like this spider counts as my first!

19- I took off my nametag, coaxed the spider onto it, and got a fun picture! :D  Sister Curry called me gross. XD  Then, when we went into the church, we saw a lady across the street that was chipping at some ice. We grabbed the church ice chipper and a couple shovels, then headed over. I felt some crazy deja vu, because it was the same alley where the guy had gotten stuck in the snow and we'd spent forty minutes trying to get him out! The lady was kind of ticked because apparently the city never comes and clears the alley where everyone's driveways are.

19- We helped to scrape away the top layer of ice and slush with the chipper, then shoveled it away. There were some deep divots in the ice and water was rushing through the channels. It was a few degrees above freezing, so everything was melting. We cleared off what we could, but there was still a good amount of ice. The lady thanked us and also helped fix a broken shovel handle. She was sweet! ^v^

20- We had another Book of Mormon read with a friend! He called Helaman 5 a 'beefy chapter' and made me laugh. XD  We read Helaman 4 and 5, and everyone there shared some great insights. Brother Ramsay, one of the fellowshippers, quoted something almost word-for-word that Sister Cowley had told me this morning. I was kind of shook. :o

21- Since just about everything fell through on Saturday as well, we did a bunch of cold calls that night. We called the Proskows, and Brother Proskow is the most confusing, funny guy ever! XD  I was kind of hesitantly laughing a lot, because I wasn't sure if the things he said were jokes or if that was just the way he talked. 

21- He was like, "When did you crawl out of the monkey barrel?" and I told him I didn't know what that meant. He replied, "You will soon enough."  :l  *Visible confusion, nervous laughter* What the whale sharks does that mean? He also started kind of cursing at us with farmer language and that made me distinctly uncomfortable. Then Sister Proskow took a turn and told us they had a carsick puppy that had thrown up on them a bunch. XDDD "We just opened up a can of gut soup, and we are talkin' chunky!" (Kudos if you get the quote! XD)

22- All of this week it's been just above freezing, so things have been melting, birds have been singing, bugs and spiders have been appearing, and everyone's been saying spring's around the corner! Then Sunday morning there was another cold snap and we got buckets of snow. I think it got up to about six inches. It was crazy windy, and just warm enough that the snow was wet and sticky. It made the roads super slick and awful. We saw a couple people almost skid off the road. :l

22- When we got to church, all the members we'd planned to visit that day except the Wolseys canceled on us. They told us they didn't want us driving out to visit them because the roads were so dangerous. We were sad, but we agreed; we didn't want to drive any more than we had to! 

22- The most notable thing on Sunday was lunch with the Wolseys. We had rice and meatballs with peas. It was pretty tasty! Afterward, I tried to teach the kids to make paper airplanes to help them remember the five principles of the gospel: Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The boys weren't too impressed with my five-step, two-bit airplanes. XD  They made their own after the lesson and flew them all over the place. XD

Well, that's about it! Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all! :D

Sister Howard

Pictures: The spider buddy I got to crawl on my tag, as well as a water beetle! Some hoarfrost on a spruce tree, Sister Curry and I next to a mound of snow as tall as we were, a river in a park that's not frozen anymore, and a cool picture of a kid making his toy chest into Noah's Ark that I'd never seen before!

Also, the Book of Mormon flashcards need some explaining. XD  

Lehi's has the Liahona, a tent (because of the famous verse, 'My father dwelt in a tent' XD), and the Tree of Life! 

Sariah's, I tried to do a night sky with silhouettes of camels, sheep, and donkeys, but I didn't have any references, so forgive my anatomy errors. XD 

For Nephi's, he has the Sword of Laban, a boat, a quiver of arrows (I couldn't draw a bow, oof), and the gold plates! 

Sam threw me for a loop... I settled on using the colors red, blue, and yellow to decorate his card because I just thought, "Sam's a super brother to Nephi," and my mind went to Superman. So... SuperSam! XD

Laman and Lemuel were pretty easy; the river of Laman and the valley of Lemuel, with red colors to indicate that they're bad. XD

For the Angel, just some clouds and a halo. :) Simple and self-explanatory.

The Guard was one of my favorite cards to do because the G ended up with a helmet. XD  I also did a spear, a sword (less cool than the Sword of Laban, obviously), and a shield. :)

King Laban's card was fun too. I did some gold on a chain, a jeweled chalice (fancy cup), some gold and jewels at the bottom, and sort of tried to copy the fancy scroll-case thing that Laban steals from Nephi and his brothers in the Book of Mormon videos. Once again, I didn't have references so I was working from memory. XD

And last but not least, Zoram! I wasn't sure what to do for him for the longest time. I'm not super fond of the lettering, so I may redo his card at some point. But I just kept thinking, "He made the right choice to follow Nephi and his family," and my mind turned to the parable of the wise man and the foolish man. So, I drew a house on a rock and a house on the sand of the seashore. :)

Hope that all makes sense! I just had so much fun making these flashcards! :D