Wild Weather

1- P-Day

2- FHE

3- Restore

4- The Ramsays

5- Cue cards for Daniel. :D

6- L O T S of Facebook

7- Video call with a friend and Sister Gillis. :)

8- Permission to talk. XD

9- Sisters McDevitt, Stockdale, and Roy

10- Dinner with the Hills

11- Another lesson with our friend. :)

12- Weekly planning :)

13- Sister Ramberg and Sister Price

14- Dinner with the MacMillans

15- Sister Dylke

16- Video call with Sister Pickett

17- Dinner with the Hampsons :D

18- CRAZY wind

19- Sister Hunter and Sister Erebete

20- Random miracle! :D

21- Talking in church

22- Book of Mormon reads

1- Nothing too notable happened on P-Day, except it got up to roughly 55 Fahrenheit! :D  It almost felt warm for me! I was fine going outside without a jacket. It's crazy! 

2- On Monday evening, we had Branch FHE at the MacMillans. Sister Harrison came, as well as the Halls Sr. (I hadn't met them before, so it was nice to get to know them!) and the Hills Sr. (Anyone confused yet? XD) We talked about our favorite takeaways and talks from Conference. Everyone loved President Nelson's addresses, especially his closing remarks on the Sunday evening session, it seems. Elder Uchtdorf's talk was quoted a lot, and Elder Holland's. And also a few that we forgot the speakers but loved the messages. :)

3- We went to the Restore on Tuesday after a bunch of contacts and stuff in the morning. We're working on setting up more member visits this week. We worried for a while that Sister Curry's phone was 'eating' texts because her phone sometimes doesn't agree with SIM cards, so we switched the area SIM to my phone. But... no texts came through. So people just aren't answering us back. XD

3- But anyway, the Restore! The head of Restore is back from vacation. :)  Things ran a bit smoother because there weren't half a dozen workers and volunteers trying to do things their own way. We did another repricing run where we went around and gave things 20% or more discounts if they hadn't sold in a couple of weeks. Some stuff hadn't been priced since last year! :l  I ran a pricing gun out of the little price tags, and then it jammed up and wouldn't accept a new reel. :l  I felt kind of bad about that. *Nervous laughter* I was assured it wasn't my fault, though; the price guns just get old after a while.

4- After the Restore, we went to visit the Ramsays. Brother Ramsay was just bursting with Conference takeaways. He was so excited that Elder Eyring had mentioned Helaman 5:12, because that was the verse that we'd been sharing with members in the week leading up to Conference. He said he'd loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk too. XD  

5- On Tuesday, I had a bit of spare time at dinner, so I started working on a little project. The Hetchlers are busy this week, so we won't be able to visit them for our usual Wednesday appointment. When we were over there to watch the Sunday afternoon session of Conference, though Elsbeth asked if we could act out another scripture story next time we come over. I told her Sister Curry and I would think of a fun one. :)

5- We thought for a bit and decided that since Come, Follow Me is focusing on the Old Testament this year, we'd choose an Old Testament hero. When I was little, sometimes my family would act out scripture stories, and I'd always been fond of Daniel and the Lion's Den. I asked Sister Curry if she thought the kids would like that, and she said they probably would. I started making little cards with different roles on them for the kids to play. Daniel, King Darius, the evil Princes that tried to kill Daniel, an angel, and a couple of lions, of course. XD  I'm excited to finish them and visit the Hetchlers next week.

6- We had some things fall through on Tuesday evening, so we did a bunch of Facebook stuff. It's always kind of funny when I go to message someone only to find out they've unfriended me. It's honestly pretty frustrating when we do Facebook work for so long that my phone gets laggy and starts freezing up. -_-  

7- To finish up Tuesday, we had a late video call with one of our friends. Sister Gillis was able to join! :D  We talked about the next step of Jesus Christ's gospel (or teachings) with her. Last week, we went over faith, and this Tuesday we talked about repentance. We shared one of my favorite verses about repentance, which is Isaiah 1:18. 

7- Isaiah talks about how if we have a sin that is scarlet--a fresh, vivid red--it can be made white like snow. And if we have sins that are crimson--an older, duller red--they can be made white like wool. A new snowfall makes everything white and clean, and can do so rather quickly. Sheep's wool gets really matted and dirty with time, so it's an extensive process to clean wool and make it white. The wool needs to be brushed to get the big stuff out, then washed a lot until it's clean again. When we make mistakes, if we repent quickly, we can move on quickly. But if we have old sins or mistakes, that doesn't mean all hope is lost. It just means we have to work a little harder.

8- After our lesson, we called Brother Gillis to see if I would be able to give a talk on Sunday. He told me I could if I kept it short--five to ten minutes. Me being me, I'm worried I might go long, haha. It's rare for someone to volunteer to give a talk in church, I know. XD  We were told a little while ago in a District Council that asking to speak in church makes it easier to invite our friends to come. :)  So now hopefully the people we're teaching will have some incentive! I'm going to work on preparing my talk this week.

9- On Wednesday, we visited Sister McDevitt. Her friendly siamese was chittering at the birds; there were a lot flying outside. We talked about Conference with her and set up a time to come back. She's so sweet! We also called Sister Stockdale and went to visit Sister Roy. She had the TV blaring on some sort of show that's definitely not for missionaries. *Nervous laughter* We hunted around for her remote for a few minutes; it had fallen under her chair. But then we were able to share a good scripture: Mosiah 2:17. It talks about how when we're serving other people, we're serving God. :)

10- We had dinner with the Hills on Wednesday night. We drove out and Brother Hills Jr. actually followed us! He was coming to borrow some things and check on plants, from what I heard. Dinner was good; hamburgers with lots of toppings. I just had cheese and lettuce on mine. XD  We also shared Mosiah 2:17 with the Hills and invited them to serve someone this week.

11- Our friend that's been reading 1 Nephi messaged us Wednesday night and asked if we could read some more with her. We were ecstatic! So we grabbed our Books of Mormon and got ready to continue. She was in 1 Nephi 13. I used to find this chapter odd and confusing when I was younger, but I find it fascinating now! Nephi has a vision of the future and is shown many things. The colonization of the Americas, Christopher Columbus, pilgrims seeking religious freedom, the Revolutionary war and Great Britain, and even the eventual restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith! I might have gone a tiny bit overboard sharing all the history stuff with our friend, but she still wants to meet with us, so I guess I didn't scare her off! XD

12- Weekly planning was a bit fragmented this week. Sister Ramberg asked to do a video call in the middle of the block of time that we normally set aside for planning. We did about half of planning, had a video call with her, then stopped by Tim Hortons for a change of scenery. Sister Curry convinced me to try a chocolate chill. It's kind of like a Wendy's frosty, but more... liquidy. XD  Basically a chocolate milkshake, I guess. I also got an apple fritter and she got a Boston cream donut. We finished up planning there.

13- We had a video call wth Sister Ramberg, like I said. She was so excited about Conference! Later, we visited Sister Price and had a good chat with her. She's friends with some people of other faiths and was telling us about their beliefs. We were a little confused and kind of sad, honestly. :l  Some people just don't know that they can have a close connection with God, or that there is a life after death.

14- We had dinner with the MacMillans. It was pretty good! Hamburger soup with tasty rolls. Everyone here calls them buns, even when it says 'dinner rolls' on the package! XD We also had brownies and ice cream for dessert. I couldn't quite finish mine, so I brought some home. Then we went around the table telling jokes. Brother MacMillan told a long one that I can't remember, sadly. :(  But Sister Curry told one that made me die. XD  What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo? A pouch potato! XDDDD

15- We went to visit Sister Dylke after the MacMillans. Her husband was there too! I'd only ever met him in passing before, so it was nice to get to talk a bit. We had a good lesson, talked about takeaways from Conference, and told a few jokes as well. We also set up a time to come help Sister Dylke clean; her grandson had a birthday party and Sister Dylke's been super busy with work. So had Brother Dylke. We're coming over again on Saturday because Sister Dylke is off, though. :)

16- We had a video call with Sister Pickett on Friday. She asked us to come help out with Activity Days again. Apparently the kiddos love us and are requesting us. ^v^ That made my day to hear that! :D  Hopefully we'll be able to go help out again next week.

17- The only other highlight of Friday was visiting the Hampsons for dinner. I can say with confidence that this Friday was the warmest day of the year for me so far! It got up to about 75 Fahrenheit! :O  It felt like 90 to me. We went on a walk and I ended up feeling too hot! When we came back, I ditched my wool leggings and we laid on the floor with a giant fan pointed at us for an hour. XD  

17- After we'd done some Facebook and sufficiently recovered from melting on our walk, we went to the Hampsons with our friend. :)  They made pork steak with mashed potatoes and carrots. It was so tasty! I was very full, so I requested a 'tiny bit' of dessert. Brother Hampson shot me a dubious look and gave me a little less yogurt than everyone else. It was super tasty because we drizzled cherry syrup on it again. I felt like I was going to explode afterward! XD  We talked about what everyone liked from Conference, then shared Mosiah 2:17.

18- Because this is Canada, it dropped about 40 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. We woke up to shrieking winds and 33-34 Fahrenheit on Saturday. (1 Celsius)  The wind was howling all day. Sometimes it sounded like a person screaming in the distance. :l   We had a bunch of stuff cancel, so we pretty much did Facebook and contacting formerly-taught people all day. I messaged this lady that turned out to be a pastor of some obscure church that I'd never heard of. She was rather condescending but funny. XD  

19- We were able to call Sister Hunter and Sister Erebete, then we saw both of them in church the next day! It was great. They both missed most of Conference, but we invited them to go back and read or listen to some talks. (They're posted on Gospel Library now! I'm so excited! :D)

20- A few minutes before 9:00 on Saturday, we got a call from a random number. The guy was like, "Hello, is this the missionaries?" He went on to tell us that he'd been meeting with missionaries a couple of years ago, then lost contact with them during Covid stuff. He asked if we could meet with him and what days we're available. We were stunned and gladly agreed to meet. He doesn't live right in Camrose, but he's still in our geographic area. :) We told him we were glad that he'd been able to contact us--although we don't know how the harp seals he got our number! He said he was glad too! We're so excited to meet our new friend next week! :D

21- I gave my talk in church this Sunday. The wind was still screeching like angry wildcats, so we spent as little time outside as possible. XD  Not too many people were at church, which made it sightly less nerve-wracking to give a talk. I thought I was going to be the second speaker, but then President Hetchler got up to preside over the meeting and was like, "We'll hear from Sister Howard first!"  XD

21- I spent a bit of time throughout the week writing up my talk. Then, Saturday morning, I felt inspired to write something different down, so I scrapped my original. XD  I talked about some experiences I've had and some scriptures that I love. This email's long enough, so I won't ramble about my talk. XD

22- After church, we had lunch with the Wolseys, then another Book of Mormon read with our friend who's in 3 Nephi right now. We read the first few chapters with him. Lots of corruption, war, and the Gadianton robbers. Some of those chapters creep me out when it talks about their secret oaths and stuff... :l  But the moral is that the righteous prevailed because they asked for the Lord's help!

22- We also had another Book of Mormon read Sunday night with our friend who's in 1 Nephi. We read 1 Nephi 14 with her and invited her to continue with chapter 15. :) I had fun explaining some old English terms once again. Turns out I honestly really like trying to explain grammar and sentence structure to people. XD  

Not many pictures, sorry. XD They're all about my hair. Sister Curry braided my hair the other day and it was wildly curly when I let it out. Then, we got haircuts today! I just got a trim but I love it. :)