Big Transfer And A Big Bear!

Hey everyone! Before I start with the summary, I'd like to make an announcement.

I'm going to be experiencing a rather special transfer next month. I'm going to transfer to a service mission. :)

I understand that not everyone knows what that is. Personally, I didn't know squat about service missions until a few months ago. I'll go ahead and explain a bit about what I now know. Service missions are different than proselyting (teaching) missions. A service missionary typically lives at home, serves in the community, and serves their family.

I was asked to consider a service mission a little while ago. I prayed, fasted, spoke with my family, read my Patriarchal Blessing, and spoke with my Mission President. I've received many impressions from various sources throughout the past month or so, and they're all pointing in the same direction. Talks in General Conference, my favorite hymns, scripture verses that I keep running into, and so many people saying specific phrases. I can't list or describe all the answers I've received, but they're varied and irrefutable. 

Therefore, I've decided to transfer to a service mission. I'm still going to be a missionary and still going to be doing what the Lord wants me to do. This isn't a back-up plan, a demotion, stepping down from a proselyting mission, or anything like that. I'm simply transferring to a new area and gaining new responsibilities. No one is pressuring or forcing me to make this choice. I know that it's the right choice because of what the Holy Ghost has been telling me. :)

I don't regret the time that I've spent in Canada, nor do I wish that I'd begun my service as a service missionary. I firmly believe that if I hadn't come out here and left everything I'm familiar with, I wouldn't have started up the necessary habits of daily prayer and scripture study. I've been able to see immense blessings from reading the scriptures every single day, and I will continue to do so. :)  Now, instead of gathering the Lord's lost sheep, I will feed them and care for them.

I understand this is a huge development. I hope I've explained sufficiently. I'm going to continue writing weekly emails for those of you who are interested. :)  Thanks for all your love and support, and I hope this email isn't too long! XD  If anyone does have additional questions for me, feel free to email me--though I can't guarantee a timely reply! XD  And if you have questions about service missions in general, feel free to look on the church website. There's a lot of useful info there!

Welp, here's a summary of my crazy week! 

1- Hair cuts!

2- Running FHE

3- Sister McDevitt

4- Zone Conference

5- Visiting the Ramsays

6- Video call with a friend

7- Sister Harrison

8- The most exhausting lunch EVER. :l 

9- Sisters Stevens and Roy

10- Dinner with the Hetchlers

11- Sister Ramberg

12- Weekly Planning

13- Activity Days!

14- Visiting the Lyons Jr.

15- Cancellations galore!

16- Dinner with the Hampsons

17- Book of Mormon read

18- Sister Carter

19- The Elliots and the Halls

20- Dinner with the Gillises... and getting sick, haha...

21- Watching church on Easter. :)

22- Dinner courtesy of the Hetchlers! :D

23- Book of Mormon read again!

1- Last P-Day, we got haircuts courtesy of Sister MacLeod! It was really nice. She washed, blow-dried, and straightened my hair too. :)  After that, we did the regular shopping, cleaning, car maintenance, etc., and talked with family. The rest of the day was kind of a happy, exhausting blur for me.

2- We ran the Branch FHE (family home evening) this week. It was at Sister Harrison's, so we drove over. Sister Curry and I shared excerpts of a talk by Elder Holland called 'The Laborers in the Vineyard', given in 2012, I'm pretty sure. He discusses the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, as the title indicates. He talks about how no injustice occured and how each of the laborers was treated fairly. It's a pretty neat talk. :)  We had cake and brownies for dessert. Sister Harrison's cat, 'Catmandoo', tried to drink my punch! XD

3- We visited Sister McDevitt on Tuesday morning. We showed her a short video produced by the church titled, The Prince of Peace: Find Lasting Peace through Jesus Christ, I think. (Long title!) It's an awesome video. The music is so powerful and emotionally provocative! It goes through some of Jesus Christ's titles and talks about how all of us will be resurrected one day because of His sacrifice. I would totally recommend it! :)

4- Zone Conference was in the afternoon instead of the morning, which was odd for me. We drove for about an hour to get to Edmonton, and I saw a BEAR on the side of the road! :O (I'll attach a picture at the bottom!) Zone Conference was pretty good; it was just our Zone, so a lot smaller than I'm used to. I think maybe only 30 or so people there? Sister Curry and I are the only Sisters in the entire Zone. All of the Elders acted kind of awkward and shy around us. XD  We were the first ones to sit down and the seats around us were the last ones to get filled. There were some good messages shared, and I took lots of notes. 

4- My biggest takeaway is the importance and value of finding your own most meaningful scriptures. I can tell everyone about how much I love Alma 40, or John 14:18, but those scriptures might not mean anything to another person. We need to find verses, chapters, or specific passages that are meaningful to us. In order to do that, we need to actually study the scriptures!

5- We visited the Ramsays Tuesday evening after we got back from Zone Conference. We shared the Prince of Peace video with them and Brother Ramsay showed us this amazing prodigy artist that painted Jesus at 8 years old! I can't remember her name, but her painting was titled Prince of Peace, which is why Brother Ramsay thought of it. The story behind her painting is amazing! (I just won't share it because I might garble facts and this email is long enough, haha. So if you're curious, look it up!)

6- We had a late video call with our friend who's reading 1 Nephi. She had some sad family news, so she wasn't in the best mood. :(  We talked about Easter and how important Jesus Christ's sacrifice is for us. We're trying to set up another time to call her, but this week has been tough for her. 

7- We went to visit Sister Harrison Wednesday morning. We shared the Easter video with her as well and had a nice chat. Catman jumped up by Sister Curry and kept trying to lean on her. She's not too fond of cats, so I thought it was funny. XD 

8- Okay, on Wednesday a couple of members invited us to lunch. I don't know if I'll actually share their names... *nervous laughter*  I'm trying to forget the whole experience. XD  We'll call them Sister Pine and Sister Arctic. (First words that popped into my head that start with the first letters of their last names)

8- So... Sister Arctic's been hard to get ahold of. Sister Pine has been hard to meet with in person. She invited us to lunch and said that she'd ask Sister Arctic to come too, so we were excited at the chance to meet them! They told us to meet at this place called the Norseman. We got there a bit early and these two sisters got there a bit late, haha. They called us when they got there, so we followed them in.

8- The Norseman was this big, fancy-ish restaurant. We got led into a room called the Odin Room and were given some menus. Everything was expensive, so I tried to choose something on the cheaper side, haha... I was ready to order almost right away, but Sister Pine kept shooing the waitress away and telling her no one had decided yet. :l  Sister Pine and Sister Arctic launched into a very political talk. They just kept going, and Sister Curry and I didn't know what to do. We couldn't join in and any time we tried to redirect them or stop them, they just spoke right over us. :l  They also said some things about other branch members that were not true and it made me feel really bad...

8- While the waitress was in the act of filling our drinks, Sister Arctic asked if it was tap water. Then, she loudly announced that tap water at this time of year is awful and told us not to drink it. She told us that it would be filthy because of mineral buildup in the pipes and that sometimes it would come out of her tap brown. Then, Sister Pine and Sister Arctic tried to push me into getting the all-you-can-eat Ukrainian buffet. I'd decided to get a breakfast thingy because nine times out of ten I like breakfast food at restaurants. Sister Arctic kept being like, "But it's not breakfast time, it's lunch time!" Both of the sisters said I was too skinny and that I needed to eat more. Kind of funny for a second, but they kept loudly going on about it to a point where I got self-conscious.

8- When they finally let me order, they started asking Sister Curry and I what we wanted to do after our missions. I mentioned SeaQuest and how I want to go back to working there, or possibly another animal facility. I also mentioned that I like to write fiction stories. Sister Pine asked me about a couple of them, then proceeded to tell me that all of my ideas had already been made into books or movies so I shouldn't even bother. -_-  That really got under my skin...  

8- But then things got a little funny because Sister Arctic kept asking me for details on my 100% FICTIONAL alien story. She was telling me that it was pure truth. XDDD She kept going on and on about secret space missions where scientists and astronauts are apparently colonizing other planets full of life and waging war with the aliens there. I was trying so hard not to laugh because she was dead serious. 

8- The conversation became political again. :l  Sister Arctic mostly talked to Sister Curry while Sister Pine grilled me. I just kind of nodded and 'mm-hmm'ed a bunch. (Why does everyone try to talk politics with us?!) It was double awkward because both of them were talking louder than typical inside conversation, and talking over each other. :l  Other people in the restaurant kept glancing up at us. When Sister Curry and I finally escaped, we both agreed that it was the most exhausting meal we'd ever had. Mentally and socially exhausting, mainly.

9- Later in the day, we visited Sister Stevens and Sister Roy. We shared the Prince of Peace video with both of them. It was nice to talk to them in person, because we hadn't seen either of them in a couple of weeks.

10- Dinner with the Hetchlers was definitely the highlight of the day! We came over in the evening. Sister Hetchler made pasta with some sort of chicken sauce, salad, and garlic bread. It was so tasty! We also had koolaid to drink, and the kiddos were obsessed with it! XD  We shared a more kid-friendly Easter video with the family. Next week, we plan to act out 'Daniel and the Lions' Den' from the Old Testament with them! I finally finished the cue cards for it. Took me longer than expected, haha.

11- On Thursday, we had a video call with Sister Ramberg. We shared some of my favorite verses from Mosiah 16 with her. Mosiah 16:6-8. This is the prophet Abinadi speaking to evil King Noah and his priests. Hence the 'speaking of things to come as though they had already come', because at this point in time, Jesus Christ hadn't been born yet, and hadn't performed his Atonement.

"6 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.

7 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.

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

11- I just love those verses! Very straightforward. If Jesus Christ hadn't come, we couldn't be redeemed. If He hadn't died and been resurrected for us, none of us would live again. But He did, so all of us will be resurrected one day! 

12- Weekly planning was pretty good. Brief, but thorough. We discussed all of our people and which ones are progressing. Our Lutheran friends have been a bit dodgy, so we may have to drop them. Sad day... I hope they'll eventually have both the time and desire to continue learning more.

13- We got to help with Activity Days again. This week, the teachers asked the kids to draw what Easter means to them. A lot of them were really cute! They would draw different pictures of Jesus, but then add Easter eggs and rabbits. It was a good mixture of spiritual and fun. Some of the kids also drew their families. :) Sister Curry and I drew some pictures as well. I may attach mine at the bottom. I kind of drew in a scribbly style because they just had crayons, not colored pencils. (Oh, people here call them 'pencil crayons' and it just weirds me out. XD)

14- We got to visit the Lyons Jr. on Friday. The kiddos were so cute! I can't remember their names. :l  We showed them a cute video and asked them about Easter. :)  They also showed us a funny card game called Sleeping Queens. 

15- SO many people canceled on us on Friday... We just did a bunch of Facebook. We had in-person, online, and phone calls cancel. Some people told us beforehand, others didn't so we just tried calling them and got no answer.

16- We had dinner with the Hampsons Friday evening. Our friend was sick, so it was just the two of us and the Hampsons. We had super tasty roast, mashed potatoes, and gingerbread cake for dessert. It was really tasty! We watched the Prince of Peace video with them and asked them about Easter. :)

17- To finish up Friday, we had a Book of Mormon read with our friend. To be entirely honest, I don't remember much of it because we had another Book of Mormon read with her last night. XD

18- On Saturday, we called Sister Carter to read the Book of Mormon with her. We were reading in 3 Nephi, 3 Nephi 15-16, I believe. I love reading chapters in the middle of 3 Nephi because that's where Jesus comes to visit the Nephites after He's resurrected. It was the perfect spot to read right before Easter! :D

19- We also got to visit the Elliots. They have a big husky-German Shepherd mix with heterochromia--two different-colored eyes. His name was Bowser. XD  We watched the Easter video with the kids and had fun talking about Easter. :)  Later, we drove to Daysland and visited the Halls. They were so excited to see us because we haven't been able to visit them since they moved. Their schedules have been settling a bit though, so we were able to come! They invited us back next week too. :D

20- We had dinner with the Gillises and Sister Varty on Saturday. Really tasty spaghetti and fantastic homemade bread, courtesy of Brother Gillis. :) We watched the Prince of Peace video with them too. And then, right when we were about to leave, my stomach had other plans. :l  I've been feeling kind of off all week, and things came to a head Saturday night. Sadly, I didn't get to enjoy dinner for too long. XD  It wasn't nearly as good the second time around. 

20- So... after I 'inspected the toilet', to use one of my favorite Hank Smith phrases, I sat on the couch for a while and tried not to die. XD  Brother Gillis offered to give me  blessing, and Sister Varty gave me some anti-nausea medicine. After I felt a bit better, we drove home. It was a long drive... Sister Curry started feeling kind of queasy too. We got some soup and ginger ale from the store, then the two of us huddled up sipping the ginger ale and trying not to throw up. XD

21- We watched church online Sunday morning. We didn't want to get anyone else sick. :(  Church was pretty good, though. The two of us felt sick off and on during the day, then got a little better in the afternoon. We did lots of Facebook because all of our in-person lessons canceled.

22- President Hetchler invited us over to pick up some Easter dinner. We were so grateful! :D  It was turkey, gravy, homemade rolls (everyone calls them buns), and some macaroni salad. Sister Curry and I felt a lot less nauseous by dinnertime, so we ate a bunch. XD Probably a bit too much, but luckily none of it came up this time!

23- A final Book of Mormon read with our friend who's in 1 Nephi. We read from 1 Nephi 17 to the end! (I think 1 Nephi 22) She just kept going! We also read the first chapter of 2 Nephi. We read with her for nearly two hours! I was a bit exhausted, but it was also really cool! She made a neat connection to Easter. In 1 Nephi 18, Nephi gets tied up by his brothers. He's tied up for several days, and the ship that they're on almost sinks. When his brothers finally let him go, Nephi prays for the storm to be calmed. Stefanie said it reminded her about Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. After Jesus died, His Apostles were lost and confused. But after He was resurrected, they had their hope restored. :)  I thought it was a super cool connection for her to make!

Welp, that's all! If you reached the end of my weekly novella, enjoy the pictures!

The bear I saw! XDDD  A couple pictures of Sister Curry and I, some of the many double-yolked eggs we cracked, and Tiwi going into 'Celestial Mode'! (Tiwi, the AI in our car, turns all white and doesn't record any violations. XD She turned back to normal right after I snapped the picture, though.)