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

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!

Canadian Thanksgiving, Victoria Park, Fun times on the Bus

Well I made it a week and a half without a pday! :) Didn't think I could do it, but here I am!

Sister Colvin and Karly

Canadian Thanksgiving was great! We planned our day out because we knew not a lot of people would be around.. We did some service for a single sister in the ward, had pie with a recent convert, and then later in the evening we had dinner with a family that is actually from Utah! Now, for some more details about the day.... 

We took the bus to go have pie and on the way we ran into a man that we had contacted the other day. Now we found out this man is from Germany and he was in Kitchener for Oktoberfest. (From what I understand Oktoberfest must happen in Germany and then they do it here too because this city actually used to be called Berlin. From what I saw of Oktoberfest it basically just looks like 2 weekends that give everyone an excuse to drink excessively and wear German hats.... oh well.. who am I to judge? haha)

So back to this man... he sat near us on the bus and he was looking at us and he saw me yawn and he goes, "you must be tired, you look tired" (this was not the last time that I would be told I looked tired that day... looks like I need to get more sleep) And then he for some reason pulls out his camera and takes a picture of me! I was just like, "uh....???" Anyway... he says that he takes a lot of pictures so he doesn't forget what he did that day. haha And then he told us that he would be heading back to Germany the next day... So.... now aren't we all grateful that a picture of me is with some random man in Hindenburg, Germany?
 

 

Pie was next and it was so wonderful!

Then for dinner we ate with some members that are from Utah. They live out in the Country in this HUGE farm house that they rent. It is so pretty. Dinner was really good and I felt like I was home! We had ham (which is my absolute favorite) and THE best sweet potatoes I have had in my entire life. I am going to need to get the recipe. It was fun to have Thanksgiving at a different time of the year and I am grateful we had such wonderful people to spend the day with.

Oh and here is just another random, pointless story.... The other day we rode the bus down to the terminal so that we could meet the Elders and get the car. They were a little behind schedule so we sat in Victoria Park for a bit waiting for them.

Victoria Park

More in Victoria Park

 And as we waited this man came up to us.. he said his name is Hector and that he is from Honduras and he even said that he was a member of the church. Anyway... I think Hector must have been taking advantage of the drinking part of Oktoberfest, because he then proceeded to tell us how beautiful we were and at one point he told me I was, and I quote, "one hot pepper." Needless to say we were outta there real quickly. I am telling you... never a dull moment around here. Especially when you are on the buses. haha 

On a more serious note... we are still working on finding people to teach. It can be hard.. but we just keep working at it, the blessings will come eventually!  Oh and here is a video that we shared with a member this week and I LOVED it so I wanted to share it with all of you! 

I wish I could think of more things that happened this week, but... I am at a loss. I cannot believe that it is already week 4 of this transfer. It is going to be over so so soon. It is starting to get colder, which is ok, but can kind of be a pain when we are walking around in it for hours. 

Anyway.. I think that is about it for today. Now that it is already Wednesday it will seem like Monday is going to come around SO fast.

OH... I almost forget to mention that the Bishopric asked us to sing in sacrament meeting next week... I guess no one told them that I don't sing... oh well... guess I will be able to check singing in sacrament meeting off my bucket list! I will let you all know how it goes. :)

This is the last covered bridge left in Ontario. It is called the "Kissing Bridge" it is out in Mennonite Country. (that is something interesting about this area.. there are a lot of Mennonites) 

Loving Tim Horton's