Merry Christmas Week

Well.... I didn't really manage my time too well this morning and thus I don't have much time to write so.... I will do my best to get all of the details out. :)

First things first, I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas! I know that my Christmas was great! Especially since I was able to Skpe with my family. :) Christmas morning started out at the Stake Center doing the scripture Read-a-thon. After that we headed to the Clifton's to do our Skyping.  That really was THE best Christmas present ever. So great to see my family.... but then so sad to have to say bye to the for another 5 months until Mothers Day roles around.  I am just super grateful for the time we did have to talk. We had dinner with the Clifton's that night with was a lot of fun. I like seeing the different traditions that different families have and I am looking forward to incorporating into my life at some point. :)

We had dinner with the Skogstad's on Boxing Day which was fun! Brother Skogstad found out that I had a blog and this is the conversation we had at church yesterday...

Brother Skogstad: "So.... I found your blog.... and then I read it."

Me: "Perfect! I will give you a shout out tomorrow."

So.... Here is my shout out to my newest blog follower, Brother Skogstad and his wonderful family. :)

The week really was good and pretty busy. Janet and Norm both came to church yesterday which was really great. (I think I have talked about them before?? haha) Janet loves everything about church and is really looking forward to getting baptized. :)

I know I am forgetting a million things to say but I just have no time... sorry. :( I will prioritize better next week... but... hopefully some of these pictures make up for it.

Christmas Day Read-a-thon

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year... we will be doing more of the Scripture Read- a- thon and then back to the regular mission grind at the first of the year. Well... talk to all of you next year! (that is the lamest joke in the book but... I felt I should use it. haha)

OH!!! Remember how I wrote once that I am REALLY good at getting dinner appointments... well... I have a classic example of this. :) Yesterday we went to church with a completely empty dinner calendar and within one hour of it being passed around the combined RS/Priesthood meeting (which we taught by the way) we went from 0 dinner appointments to about 20 dinner appointments... we are getting fed everyday this week but Saturday. haha Sister Colvin thinks I am a mooch... which I probably am... :) But I promise I am a classy, mooch. :)

Christmas Eve Morning with Anne

Sister Griffin and I

Merry Christmas from a couple of kids from Morgan, UT

At the Read-a-thon - very fake glasses of one of the Elders

One of my favorite Christmas presents - Duck Dynasty flash light.. to go along with my Duck Dynasty shirt

I survived the Ice Storm "Ontario 2013"

So this week went form being not too exciting, to quite exciting thanks to the Ice Storm that hit Ontario Saturday night into Sunday! People had told us that a storm was coming but we didn't really know what to expect or didn't know if it would be as bad as they said it was going to be.

The mission had us park our cars Saturday night and then just work around our homes to keep us safe. It wasn't so bad when we went to bed and we had arranged rides to get people to church and we had also been called and asked to teach Gospel Principles AND Relief Society the next day.

So... we woke up in the morning, started getting ready, it didn't look too bad outside and then we got the news that church would be canceled (I was bummed yet also a little relieved considering the 11 hours that had passed since being told we needed to teach in church hadn't given us much time to prepare. haha) And then the power went out.... and then the tree next to our house spit into 3.... and.... it just went on and on from there. I will let the pictures tell the story. haha

We survived, though. The power came back on later at night and the apartment warmed up nicely! I feel like I need to make a tshirt... something along the lines of "I survived the Ice Storm" "Ontario 2013" haha



This street was closed with all of these trees down


It honestly feels like such a weird week without going to church. I live for Sundays because I feel like they give me the boost to get me through the week. I guess I will just have to wait until next week for my boost! :)

So it is Christmas and that is a little crazy to think about! The mission is doing a scripture read-a-thon so Christmas Eve we will be reading the scriptures from 12-9 and Christmas day we will read from 9-1. (and we will also be doing that on New Years Eve and New Year's Day) Not sure how I am going to stay awake for that many hours but... it should be a lot of fun, and a cool experience to be able to get an overview of the scriptures like that. We will be reading the Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

Our Christmas Card

Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas! It is weird to be away from my family and friends, but I am grateful that I get to be here with such wonderful people! I am also excited, of course, to be able to Skype with my family Christmas day! It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was Skyping them on Mother's day.. and now here we are... 7 months later!

Staying in Kitchener Waterloo for Christmas

Our District BEFORE transfers

Transfer calls were last night and Sister Colvin and I will be staying in Kitchener Waterloo again, in spite of the fact that basically everyone else in our District got whitewashed. haha We have a lot of good things happening with this ward, though, so we are happy to be staying. :)

It finally snowed a decent amount this week and it has been super cold. It has been nice, though. The snow is pretty and makes me happy so I am ok with it. At least it looks like Christmas!

I sang in sacrament meeting again yesterday.... yes, I don't know what has come over me. haha Sister Colvin, Brother Olsen (our ward mission leader), Brother Shulske (who is actually from Idaho and taught Sister Colvin primary), Amanda, Sue and I sang the song "Virgin's Lullaby" by Katherine Nelson and Jason Deere... Click on the video below and you will be able to listen to it. It is super pretty and everyone said it went really well. There were lots of people in the congregation crying... that is when you know you have done well. :)

Janet came to church again and is still loving everything! We have set a baptismal date for February 16th, but we will keep working with her and I am sure she will move it up. We weren't in Relief Society because we were helping the Bishop out with his sharing time in Primary, but apparently Janet announced to all the Sisters that she is getting baptized. She is such a wonderful Spirit!

Starting to get excited for Christmas (even though it still feels weird that it is next week...) It will be nice to be here with all of these ward members that we already know for the Holidays! They are wonderful and it will be a lot of fun!

I hope everyone has a great week preparing for the Holidays! And remember..... we celebrate Christmas because of CHRIST.... not because of all the parties, food and gifts.. So everyone take a step back and think about what the Savior has done for you and focus a little more on that and a little less on the things that aren't exactly that important in the eternal perspective of things. :)

Haha , Cat's paws remind me of mittens and that is

why this is even remotely funny

Christmas Came Early

Christmas came early this year in the form of the best week ever!! SO many great things happened... I will number them off so I don't forget to tell everything! :)
 

1. Wednesday we got a text saying that on Saturday Elder Hallstrom of The Presidency of the Seventy would be visiting the mission and we would be lucky enough to attend the meeting!! I was pumped! And then of course I got a bit more pumped when I realized that I would be able to see Sister Tebbs, Elder Palmer, Elder Healey, and Elder Ikeda. haha

Sister Tebbs and Karly

Saturday came and we rode to Etobicoke with two of the other Sisters who serve near us. We got there quite early because they told us multiple times that if we were going to be late, then we just shouldn't come.  And there was no way I was missing this opportunity. :) I got to see everyone before the meeting started, and then Elder Hallstrom and President and Sister Scott came. They started the meeting with us going up and shaking their hands, and then, just before it was my turn, President stopped us and he went to the back of the chapel and brought a man up with him who had just walked in. This man turned out to be Elder Homer who was called to be a member of the Seventy a few months ago. (He used to be the Stake President of the Hamilton Stake.) So then I was able to shake the hands of both a member of the Seventy and a member of the Presidency of the Seventy.... I don't know about you, but I think this is pretty awesome. :) Elder Hallstrom is with the Prophet and the Twelve Apostles daily, so shaking his hand was almost like shaking the Prophets hand. :)

             Elder Homer                     Elder Hallstrom                                            
Both Elder Homer and Elder Hallstrom spoke with us and I was mostly blown away. They both talked a lot about how special the time on our missions is, and that we shouldn't waste a minute of it. Elder Hallstrom also talked a lot about how he sees us not as missionaries, but as future husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, Bishops, and Relief Society Presidents, and that our time on our missions is the best time to build a foundation in our lives that we can build on, so that we can be successful in our futures. And if we are not doing all we can now to be obedient and fulfill our purpose, we need to repent now and do better. It was pretty awesome and I think the Spirit was teaching all of us the things that we need to work on, and his message was definitely an answer to my prayers.

It was also pretty amazing to be in the same room as a man such as that, as he bore to us his Solemn Witness of Jesus Christ and of the message of the Restoration, and the reality of a living Prophet and Apostles today... I am telling you, I could have sat in that room for forever just because of how strong the Spirit was. That really will be an experience I will always remember. It was very special!

2. I found out this week that the woman that Sister Tebbs and I taught 8 months ago, Shelmith, decided to be baptized and was baptized yesterday!!! I was SO excited to hear this. Shelmith was prepared the day we met her, it just needed to be the right timing. I really do now see the importance of "planting the seeds" that can be "harvested" by other missionaries later.

 Shelmith with Brother McMullen who is SO awesome. He is the ward mission leader in the Heart Lake ward, and the sister missionaries serving there also.

3. Speaking of the Harvest... we got our Christmas present from the Mission at Zone Conference on Tuesday and this was also something that I was very excited about. Elder Dewey's dad... (ya know.. the Artist Simon Dewey. :) haha) had made this picture of the Savior and the Toronto skyline and they put it on temple recommend holders for all of us.

4. Now... I can talk about Janet. :) She was found by missionaries in another area and the story of how they found her is pretty amazing. Janet had heard of Mormons years and years ago, but had never really had the opportunity to look into it. She had researched many churches and a couple of months ago had even been baptized into a church, but she said that there was still something missing and that she was looking for more. One day she was praying that she would be led to the Mormon Church and... that very day she was sitting at a bus stop that she normally wouldn't go to at a time that she normally wouldn't be there and guess who walks up?..... Sister Mitchell and Sister Griffin. She immediately tells them,"You are not going to believe this... I have been praying that I would find you." So.... they taught her! And then she moved into our area, and it took us about a month to meet with her and when we did she said that she was loving everything that she had learned so far, and that she knows Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.  She was just waiting for an "a-ha" moment to know that she should be baptized.

Which brings us to this weekend! Saturday night Janet came to the Christmas party and loved it, and then she also came to church on Sunday and the Spirit was really working on her. After the blessing of the Sacrament she said, "Wow... there is some power behind that prayer.. I can just FEEL it." (Sidenote: it is my favorite thing when investigators are describing the Spirit and how He works with them.) So the rest of the day went great, and after church Janet was SO excited. She told us that at the Christmas party she thought she "felt" something and she went home happy, but then told herself that she might have just been making that feeling up. Then she said that when she woke up that feeling was gone and that she wanted it back. She said the second  she walked into church on Sunday, she got the feeling again and she knew that this is what she had been missing at all the other churches. Before church that day she didn't know about being baptized, but Janet got her "a-ha" moment during the meeting and she couldn't have been more excited. :) We will be working with her toward baptism which will hopefully happen soon.  So incredible to be a part of her experience in coming to find the WHOLE truth. :)

Well now that you are all probably extremely bored with reading, I guess I can wrap things up! This coming week some pretty exciting things will be happening, as in Wednesday it will have been one year since I received my mission call. Can't believe it has been one whole year! It feels like just yesterday. And also Friday will be my 10 month mark since going into the MTC!

Transfer calls are also this weekend, so I will update all of you with that news on Monday.  I really have no feeling this time as to what will happen. I would like to stay, but in the end God knows where I need to be so I will go wherever! He hasn't let me down so far! :)

Thanksgiving and a Morgan Connection

So it is December, and this week it hit me that I have been in Canada the better part of 2013 and that is SOOO weird to think about. Really, only a month and a half of this year was spent in Utah... can't even believe it!

Sister Colvin and Karly

This week was good! I hope everyone had a Happy "American" Thanksgiving! We had fun here. We went to a members house and had dinner with them and all of the other American members in the ward. There were SO many of us there between all of the couples and all of their kids. It was a lot of fun. We ate a ton of good food, and decorated gingerbread houses (credit given to my family and that tradition we have) :). It is so great to have a nice ward family to spend holidays with. I know all the members feel that way too because a lot of them are up here without their families.

The Mitchell's

Their little one Eli is missing in this picture. They are THE BEST.  Brother Mitchell is the one who dressed up like Duck Dynasty. And notice how their gingerbread house has a moose in the yard, and a man in a chair with a shot gun. haha  They are so great.

We have still been just working and living the mission life. We have a few people that we are teaching that I think have a lot of potential. I will keep you all updated on any exciting things there.

Oh this week something pretty random happened. The ward had asked us to go and help with a new program they are doing with the food delivery for the welfare system. Anyway a couple from another ward was there because they had done this program before so they were helping our members. So we worked for about an hour and then the man, Brother Jacob, asked where home was for me. I told him Utah, he cracked the joke that everyone cracks about all missionaries being from Utah and then we moved on. :) But then he made some comment about how his daughter is coming up in a few weeks from Utah and I just said, "You made fun of me being from Utah when you have a daughter living there?" and he just laughed and said "yeah, she is in Morgan, Utah." To which of course I was like. "Woah woah woah, wait a minute... I am from Morgan, UT!!" To which he says, "get out! do you know Grant Leishman?" And I said yes, and then everything connected and I remember that Grant had married a girl from Canada. So.... anyway, the world is small!! Grant and Erin were in our ward in Peterson when I was there and I can remember them at church. So that is pretty crazy. The Jacob's live in Barrie.. hopefully I will get to serve there at some point! That would be cool.

They shared this new Mormon message twice at church yesterday and I thought it was SO GOOD. So... watch this and feel free to share it on your facebooks and such! It is a good way to share the Christmas Spirit!

I hope everyone has a great week! Our Zone Conference is tomorrow which I am really excited about. And the ward Christmas party is also this week, a lot of fun things to get us excited for Christmas!

Baptism !

What a long and crazy week full of A LOT of different things!

First things first.... We had a baptism... SURPRISE!! I hadn't really talked much about this because it was kind of an interesting situation and I didn't want to "jinx" anything.  I figured I would wait to talk about it AFTER the baptism and confirmation were over. :)

So the story goes like this... Frank is the father of Pedro, and years and years ago he left the church and has been working to come back. Pedro was never baptized but his father really wanted him to be a member of the Church. So at the beginning of 2013 Pedro started meeting with the missionaries and Frank was working on getting re-baptized. Fast forward to this month... Frank got permission to be re-baptized and therefore things worked out for Pedro to get baptized so this week we planned a baptism and then had the baptism on Saturday and the Confirmation on Sunday.

It was a really special thing. They had their family there and it was a really good experience for them. My favorite part of the baptism was probably when Frank's daughter was giving a talk on baptism and at the end of the talk she sang a song about baptism in Portuguese. It was a beautiful song and even though I couldn't understand any of the words the Spirit was so strong and it was just a really cool moment. The Baptism went well as did the Confirmation. The Holy Ghost has been on my mind A LOT this week and it was a really special moment to see someone who once had the Gift of the Holy Ghost, who then lost it for a time, get it again. You could really see the difference in him and I know that is the moment that he has been looking forward to for a long time.

The sacrament meeting was also the Primary Program so it was really special to see Pedro get confirmed and then to participate in the Primary Program. I was so proud and I am grateful that I was able to be a small part of this process for Pedro. The Primary Program was awesome to say the least. Those little ones had the chapel packed with all of the grandparents and teachers and friends they had invited. And at one point I am pretty sure half of the congregation was in tears while they sang "Families Can be Together Forever." All I know is the future of the Church is in good hands with all of these powerful spirits.

My birthday was good! We had cupcakes and that was basically it, but it was fun. haha Celebrating a Birthday on a mission is a weird thing, but it was also a "once in a lifetime" thing, so I was grateful for the experience.

It has started to get super super cold and has started to snow a bit. An area just an hour from here got 2 1/2 feet of snow this weekend. We only saw an inch. But with that inch the roads were super bad. The morning of the baptism someone took out one of the bushes in front of the church. Fortunately everyone was safe.... except for the bush. :)

This week we get to celebrate American Thanksgiving and I am pumped for that. There are SO many Americans in this ward and they are all getting together and they invited us over for dinner. My hope is that Brother Mitchell makes his sweet potatoes again like he did for Canadian Thanksgiving. haha

Time is still flying by so fast. This is now week 4 of this transfer. So that means I am halfway through transfer #7 of  #12... I am practically out of here when you look at it like that, and considering it will be December when I email again just really blows my mind!!

Things are going just great here! Still learning so much every single day! I hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Karly Palooza :)

Well..... Karly Palooza (or Sister Prescott Palooza as I had to refer to it this week) was.... less than spectacular. haha  Don't get me wrong, it was a good week... but we really did nothing too out of the ordinary, and I don't even have any exciting pictures to post soooooooooo I am kind of a failure. (actually Karly was able to get some pics when her zone met together at the church - see pics below) It was a good week though! And now I just have something to look forward to next year... making it the best Karly Palooza to ever be paloozed!

Hermana Sandall got me a HappyBirthday necklace and pin that says birthday girl...She is wearing one of those things catchers wear when they play baseball.. haha we found it in the gym

Elder Washburn and Elder So'o got me stickers and candy!
And they are making me a cake for my birthday. They are the best!

The Zone on Karly Palooza P-day 

So I have another cool service story this week that kind of goes along with the story from last week. Saturday morning we went to drop by someone that we had met the other day. They were not home and so I decided that we should walk down a different road that we hadn't been on before. We talked to a man who has family members in St. George who are members and then we kept walking and down the street and I saw a woman raking her leaves. So.... we went to this lady and asked her if we could help her and her face lit up and she said, "would you really help me? that would be so nice." So... we grabbed some rakes and went to town. After we had raked for about 15 minutes she stopped and looked at us with tears in her eyes and said, "I am going to tell my son that two angels were sent to me." And then she told us that her son was supposed to help her but that he threw out his back and that he had all of these bad things happening. She knew that she shouldn't have gone out to rake the leaves herself, but she figured she would try and that is when we showed up. She was so so grateful for our help. And I was so so grateful that I could be an answer to someone's prayers. The whole time I was just thinking about how God really is so aware of us. This woman needed some help and luckily we were able to go and help her. It was really cool... and people are loving to call us Angels these days. :)

We spoke in sacrament yesterday and it went really really well. I seriously LOVE LOVE speaking in Sacrament. This is the first time that I got up there with just a list of bullet points and not everything written word for word and it went a lot better than I thought. 

I wish I had more time and energy to write more this week but..... We are going to go and play volleyball (see pics above) in honor of my birthday so I don't have much time!

I hope everyone had a great week and I will write more and try to have more pictures next week!

#theycallmesister

*saw this on a journal (minus the hashtagging) and laughed out loud... so... I will use this phrase now. :)

So this is the card that Shawn (my brother) sent me for my birthday. The day I got it I wore my Duck Dynasty shirt to bed that night in honor of the card.  Anyway... we were doing follow up calls with Elder So'o and I was telling him how I had gotten a Duck Dynasty card from my brother and I also told him about my Duck Dynasty shirt... He said that he had seen the show enough to know what it was about and then just laughed and said, "I find it odd that someone would bring a Duck Dynasty shirt on their mission" and I just said, "Oh I didn't bring this on my mission, I bought it after I got here."
To which he laughed again and said, "I think that is even worse." haha
So.... let's give it up for being red neck. #proudtobe :)

You two must be angels !

And..... there goes another week here in mission land! And good news everyone... KARLY PALOOZA begins today!! For those of you who are not aware of "Karly Palooza" I will fill you in on the details... Basically it is a week long celebration up until my birthday on the 19th. So everyday I will try to do something fun to celebrate and I invite everyone else to do fun things for this week and you can go ahead and use the excuse that it is Karly Palooza! So go ahead... go crazy! :)

 Me, Elder Ikeda, Elder Healey and Sister Colvin before the Elders moved last Monday. The Elder in front is Elder So'o... he is my new district leader. I will have to get a better picture of him at some point. haha

This week we had a pretty cool service opportunity. We were walking to an appointment and were just planning on doing some finding up until the time of the appointment. As we were walking I looked across the street and I see this old couple and in front of them a HUGE pile of chopped wood that had just been dumped in their drive way... We kept walking for a bit but then I just felt that we REALLY needed to go help them. We went over and started talking to them and asked if we could help. They were a little hesitant but eventually let us.

They were the sweetest couple. Both of them are 90 years old and they were just planning on moving that big pile of wood!   I was not about to let that happen so we stayed and helped them for an hour. The cute lady after a few minutes said, "You two must be angels!" I just had to laugh... we are not exactly angels, but we are probably the closest thing to that at this point as missionaries. The woman also said that she has seen Elders from our church but they never offered to help with anything. I told her that is probably because she didn't have a huge pile of wood in the middle of her driveway. :) She insisted on feeding us lunch, but we had to leave so we will be going back soon to take her up on that. She said that they always enjoyed talking with the missionaries so hopefully we will have the opportunity to share the Gospel with them. It is amazing how many incredible people are out there and yet we miss their stories because we don't talk to them. I love being a missionary and being able to walk up to anyone and find out about them!

Elder Kopischke

This weekend was Stake Conference in the Kitchener Stake and they reorganized the Stake Presidency so we had a General Authority here which was sweet. Elder Kopischke of the Seventy came and led a discussion on Saturday night and then spoke Sunday. He is a really good speaker. Sunday he talked about "Remembering" in honor of Remembrance Day that was Monday. He basically said that if we are not remembering to live the Gospel or remembering our testimonies then we are forgetting so we always have to remember. Before the session on Sunday he was walking around shaking peoples hands and we just so happened to be sitting in a place to get a handshake and he said, "Missionaries!" So... I am practically famous? haha I have met SO many great people here in this mission life. That is now 2 General Authorities... that is 2 more than I ever met while living in Utah. haha

Well it snowed and actually stuck so that is lovely. It is also freezing. We are also getting a lot more dinner appointments lately... I seem to have that effect on people. :) That, or I am the biggest mooch in town. haha either way.. I love dinner appointments. :)

Well I think that is all for this week! Oh, well except for tomorrow it will be my 9 month mark... 9 whole months since I left home!!!!! This also marks the week that I got home from Ecuador and started my mission papers so... that is crazy. Time really is flying faster and faster everyday! Seems crazy to look back on where I was a year ago and where I am now and all of the amazing experiences that I have had in between. It will be fun to see what can happen in the next year!!!

Have a great week!

 I got to see Sister P at Zone Training and then at stake conference

 Our oven was broken so we told the landlord and they just came and took the old one out to the street and gave us a different one

Attitude is Everything !

Well it is a beautiful, cold Monday morning here in Canada! Transfer calls were last night... we didn't get a call so Sister Colvin and I will be staying here in Kitchener Waterloo for at least another 6 weeks. The big change came in the fact that the Elders are leaving the ward, so now Sister Colvin and I have the whole ward to ourselves. That will be different, but it will be nice because our area is now double what it has been and more importantly.... the whole ward can feed us now... not just the people in our area. :) Oh and the other great news is that Elder Prochnow is going to be my Zone Leader again. I am obviously so pumped about that! The Morgan, UT team has been reunited!

Our District for this transfer

      Me, Hermana Reid, Sister Colvin, Hermana Sandall, 

Elder Healey, Elder Ikeda, Elder Williams, Elder Mangum, and Elder Howell

This week was good! Monday night we had dinner with a Sister in the ward who served a mission with her husband in Nigeria in the 80's. She showed us slides and told us more about her experience there and it was pretty incredible. The people there live such humble lives and are so willing to learn about the Gospel. She said that it was a hard experience, but that it really put things into perspective for her. We really are so blessed to live where we live and have the blessings that we do. It would have been tough to serve in an area like that, I couldn't even believe most of the stuff she was telling us because it is just so foreign to me. She is a pretty amazing lady and I learned a lot of her and her experiences. 

Halloween also took place this week.... it was pretty lame if I'm being honest. haha We just had to go in early and do our weekly planning, I didn't even see anyone in costumes so..... that was great. :)

We have some people that we are teaching now. They are a couple that the Sisters in the other ward were teaching, but then they moved into our area so now we will be teaching them! So that is exciting. Also.. we should have a baptism this month of a 12 year old boy whose family members are members, but he just hasn't been baptized yet. So that will be good for them. :)

We did exchanges this week and I was with Sister Tofa. It is always a blast with her. She is awesome. She is the Sister Training Leader that I have done the most exchanges with. It just seems like she follows me around! haha

Sister Tofa and I making waffles at Sue's for dinner

Sister Tofa and I. During our exchange and she accidentally brought the phone from her area into my area, so we were joking that we were the Assistants to the President because they are the only companionship in the mission where both missionaries have a cell phone so.... AP Prescott and AP Tofa

Sue fed us ribs... I was in Heaven. #iheartribs

Yesterday Sister Colvin and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting on the 17th and the topic is tithing. So what I would love is if you wonderful people who read my blog would send me either some experiences about tithing or talks on tithing that I could incorporate into my talk and share with the ward. It has to be 15 minutes long so... we better start preparing asap. :) 

I was REALLY loving Canada this day

It is crazy that it is November. Next week is Remembrance Day so Pday will be on Tuesday. (There are SO many holidays on Monday's here in Canada... it feels a little excessive) 

FYI... my birthday is not too far away.. the 19th to be exact. :) So... feel free to send me Happy Birthday emails. haha I will be the big 23... I am getting OLD. 

Well... I think that is all for this week! 

Things I have learned this week... attitude is everything! If you want to have a crappy day... you will have a crappy day... so..... tell yourself that you will have a good day everyday and things will work out.  Even when it is tough. :)

Love you all!! (even though I am not exactly sure who reads this every week... I probably love you anyway.. ;)

Random Pic - The dog is huge!

Where did October go?

Well.... where did October go? I cannot believe it is the end of the month.

This week was the ward Halloween party and it was a lot of fun. They had so many cute games and activities for the kids and there were so many great costumes.

Halloween Party

Spider Race

This is brother Mitchell... and.... I think all the boys need to go to Walmart and get this get up and dress like this on Halloween. I WOULD DIE. haha So really they should do it. They wouldn't even need to wear the fake beards. just borrow some cammo from someone. haha

The same day as the Halloween party we had what they call a "mini mission" So for that Saturday morning Sister Colvin and I had two youth with us and we were able to take them out and do some missionary work.

Mini Mission 

The girls that were with us were so cute and they were more brave about sharing the Gospel than I was even in the first 6 weeks of my mission. I was really so impressed by them. We visited a few different members and tried to have as many appointments as possible because it was snowing that morning. It was a good day for me because it helped me to remember why I am here doing missionary work. Sometimes all days just seem to be the same and so we can get in a rut, but this bit of a change really helped me to see what a special spirit there is that surrounds us when we are doing missionary work.

On Sunday was our big singing moment in Sacrament. I was nervous but we had practiced a ton and it turned out really well. Sister Colvin has helped me practice with my singing and I was actually pretty confident to get up there. We sang the song "Army of Helaman" and I think the ward liked it. So that was a highlight of my week! Singing in sacrament meeting was something that I wanted to do while I was on my mission so I can now cross that off the bucket list. :)

It got cold this week and I had to bust out my winter coat. Not really looking forward to the freezing cold weather and it getting dark early, but I guess that is all part of the process. It couldn't be summer  forever! :)

I should have never taken the advice of not wearing the fur thing last winter because... this has been saving the day! haha

This week marks Week 6 of this transfer which is the last week. Transfer calls will come on Sunday and I don't have any sort of feeling as to what will happen. So with that I will be ending my 6th transfer which means half way! So... this Sunday will be "hump day" (If i come home in 12 transfers, which would be in time to make it back to school, which is what I am planning on.) So... feel free to celebrate hump day with me!

Sewing at Sue's

Turns out I miss sewing!

 Will have to get back into that when I get home

This is funny because Ephraim is the tribe that I am from...
haha Mormon jokes!