Happy Week :)

Well.... there goes another week already!  Tomorrow is April and today the weather actually feels a bit like Spring! Unfortunately I think it is supposed to get cold again for the rest of the week but... we are going to enjoy this good weather while we can. :)

Snow and it's almost April.... :(‏

This week was another good one, as usual! :) 

Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the Temple. We had to wake up super early and drive there, but it was totally worth it! :) It has been a year since I have been able to go so it was really nice to be back there again. It makes me realize how grateful that I should be to have so many temples around me in Utah. Growing up with it, it seems like the normal thing, but then to be here and see that most people have to travel an hour or so to get to the temple I realize how truly blessed I am to have so many temples so close. And then not being able to go for a year also helps me to see that I need to go often when I get home. I think a lot of people know the temple is there and know that they can go at any time so they put off going.  It is always important to remember to go... even if we feel like we are busy or don't have time. That is one thing that I have learned not being able to go to the temple. :) 

Outside the Temple

     Elder Healey and I‏

           Elder Prochnow and I

Sister Puruganan and I 

We have also been talking A LOT about Family History work in this ward and the ward is getting really excited about finding family names and taking them to the temple so that they can perform those ordinances for their ancestors. Family History work is something that seems to be a big focus of the Church lately... so.... go do some family history, kids! You won't regret it! :)

In front of our Chapel 

Sister Fragapane and I even did the sharing time in Primary yesterday and taught the kids about Family History... It really is for everyone to do, and I think that is pretty exciting.

Saturday night was the General Women's Meeting and we got together with some of the Sisters in the ward and watched it at the chapel.  The meeting was really good... I would suggest watching it if you haven't already. There are some really good musical numbers in it and it is super powerful. The main message that I got out of it is that as sisters in the Gospel... young and old,  we  need to be united in our purpose. They also talked a lot about how age isn't a barrier, and I think I have really come to learn that on my mission. I sit in church here on Sundays and look around and see all of the friends I have made and realize they all are different ages. I feel like I am as good as friends with Sister Young who is in her 80's as I am with Audrey who is 4 years old, as well as all of the other sisters in between. And I love it... I have met so many amazing people who have influenced my life and they are all of different ages and have different stories.  Anyway.. I just thought that was a pretty cool thing that I learned and.... now I am just super pumped for General Conference this weekend. :)

So crazy to think that I was in this area 6 months ago when General Conference came around and now I am here again! :) For what will be the last General Conference that I will have on my mission! Pretty excited for it... after listening to Elder Bednar two weekends ago, the Temple and Women's meeting this past weekend, I am good to go for General Conference which I still claim to think that for missionaries General Conference is like the Super Bowl. haha 

Bishop Pockett shared this quote From Elder Holland with us yesterday at church that he got from the LDS.ORG website....

" If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.” —Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

And I know that is something that is so true... So... everyone watch General Conference this weekend and listen for those things that will be answers to your specific questions. Conference really is such a great opportunity to learn the things that we need in our lives. :)

Things are great here! Amanda, Janet's daughter, should be getting baptized April 13th and Janet's other daughter Treena was baptized yesterday in another ward. Pretty incredible, and I am so thankful that I am able to be a part of it. :)

I hope that everyone has a great week!   (More pics below )

On our way to Brother and Sister Sellar's house.... Sister Fragapane's first experience with the Mennonites, she was pretty excited. She tried to get a picture of the horse and buggy but she ended up just getting the horse.. still a pretty cool picture

We went to visit Anne with Sara and we thought it would be a good idea to walk through this puddle because we were all wearing rainboots.. well turns out both Sister Fragapane and I have holes in our boots... 

Anne is like 78 I think, and getting an Ipad, so look at the book that she has started to read.. I told her she has to get a Facebook now so that we can keep in touch easier after I get home

At P-day last week

Elder Parker, Sister Mak, Sister Hsuing, Me, Sister Fragapane, Elder Koceja, 
Elder De Wall and Elder Prochnow

We wanted to plan some sort of party and it is happening!
We are going to have an Easter Brunch on Good Friday. We were at the Olsen's making the poster and the invitations and stuff to advertise for it. 

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

Transfers........and I'm moving !

Well... I knew I couldn't stay in Hamilton forever.... but I sure wished I could..... Either way... Transfer calls were last night and I will be going to Kitchener Waterloo and my companion is Sister Colvin, she is the sister that I served with in the MTC so that is pretty crazy! It should be fun! It will be nice to see a new area but I am sure going to miss this area... A LOT!

This week was good, it is cooling off, 

one day it rained the ENTIRE day. 

Ummm... I can't really focus because of transfers on the brain but.... I will write more next week when things have gone back to normal. Hope everyone has a great week!

District Meeting
Elder Lasley, Elder Kenning, Elder Wihongi, and Elder Palmer
Sister Bradshaw, Sister Taylor, Sister Puruganan, Sister Prescott

Sister Bradshaw and I wore the same outfit to District Meeting - Awkward !

Busy Week !

I never really know how to start these things so...... I guess I will just get right into it!

This week went from super hot to super cold in a matter of one day. Tuesday was the really hot day. We walked around for hours talking with people.

So..... Tuesday we chose to walk instead of use the car. Big mistake considering it was 35*C (that is a little over 100*F I believe) and SO humid. We seriously spent about 5 hours contacting and tracting... Sister Puruganan could have killed me!! (hence the look on her face) haha It was funny! We talked to a lot of people, though, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself (hence the look on my face). haha 

One funny story from that... we were walking down a street and we said hello to an Italian family who were sitting on their porch and before we knew it they had called us over.  We talked to them for a minute, and they offered us some espresso... we politely declined. haha
They asked if we wanted to sit down, and then they gave us some ginger ale and we just sat and talked for about 20 minutes about religion and their families. It was a couple and the husband's sister. They were 88, and 80, but honestly looked like they were 60. They told us why they moved to Canada and talked about how they have family in Italy who are priests and nuns. They were interested to hear what we had to say, but basically said they were Catholic and were always going to be Catholic. They were just really nice and so generous. The man even gave us some tomatoes before we left! Oh and he also told me that I had the most beautiful eyes! haha He said they look like Dolores Hart's eyes (not sure who she is but they told me she was in a movie with Elvis and then she became a nun) I just really love being able to talk with everyone, especially when they turn our to be such lovely people like that! After my mission I already know that I am going to miss being able to walk up to strangers and getting to know them like that.

For lunch this week we ate with one of the sisters in the ward who is from El Salvador. She made Pupusas and they were SO good. She even taught me how to make them... I will probably just have to make them post mission, considering I have no time to cook these days. She is an incredible woman who told us so many great stories about her life. I am really learning SO much from everyone I meet here. We have been able to do a little bit of teaching but for the most part we are still finding! It can be hard and discouraging at times, but we can't control people's agency so we just have to do our part.

At church yesterday both talks were on Faith, and then the lesson in Gospel Principles was about Faith. It is the first Principle of the Gospel and it seems like we talk about it all the time but it is still really nice to get a reminder. I felt like the things that were taught were a big answer to my doubts or concerns I have had. I love when answers to prayers come through other people. It is pretty incredible.

After church we actually had a pretty interesting experience. We were walking out to get into our car and a guy pulls up and asks us what we do in our church and what you have to do to become a Mormon. He asked us what we do as missionaries and what "Our Gospel" is. Anyway we took him inside and had a really great discussion with him. He said that he used to not be religious until one day he was "saved" and he has been different ever since. It was a really great discussion, but I think his purpose in going out that day was to spread his gospel with people. He was a very good guy with such good intentions, he was just a little confused on some of his doctrine. It was nice to be able to sit there and bear testimony and know that the things we were sharing with him are true. The promise really is true that we will "not be confounded before men" He was so nice and I know he wants to do what is right, he is just getting a little confused along the way. I really think our discussion made him think and who knows, maybe he really will read the Book of Mormon that we gave him and hopefully he will give us a call. From that experience it just really shows me that the Gospel is simple, and that is how it is supposed to be. If we have Faith, Repent, are Baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and endure to the end we will be saved. It takes grace, yes, but we also have to do our part. He felt he had just been "saved" and didn't think he had to do anything. Hopefully he will one day come to understand.

Was I called to the Canada Toronto Mission or to a mission in the Philippines? Hard to tell by the looks of this photo. ;) #minority  We ate Pancit (noodles and vegetables), crab, and Purple Yum cake. SO good! No wonder Sister Puruganan misses the food from the Philippines. 

Dinner last night was a lot of fun! It was with a family from our ward and a family from the Burlington Ward. They are both Filipino and are so wonderful! The food we ate was delicious and Sister Puruganan got to speak Tagalog which I am sure she was happy about! All I know, is I need to visit the Philippines at some point in my life because the food is great and the people are even better!

Well... I passed my 7th month mark on Friday and time doesn't seem to be slowing down. Transfer calls are Sunday, so on Monday I will be able to let you all know if I will be moving or not! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

The middle of nowhere - makes me feel like I am home !

Well I still can't believe it is actually Monday again!! Monday's come around quite quickly! This week has been good!

We did an exchange and this time I went to Brampton with Sister Tofa. It was fun, the feel of Brampton is completely different from Hamilton, and it was nice to get out for a bit. That is the apartment and area that Colton Kilmer served in for awhile while he was here so it was cool to see his name on some of the teaching records from when he was here.

Yesterday the family from Colombia that we are teaching came to church and they loved it! They are looking forward to coming back next week.We have been able to teach them about once or twice a week and the ward has been getting to know them, and things are going well and we are excited. They are wonderful people!

Yesterday we went out to Cayuga to have dinner and visit some of the members  It is about a 45 minute drive, but it is totally worth it. I love getting out to the middle of nowhere, it makes me feel like I am home! The members even lit a nice bonfire outside, and made me really feel at home.

I also am just so in love with the members here, and I am pretty sure they quite like me too.. :) I am going to have a hard time when I leave this area! I have really come to love these people!

Everyday I think about what my life would be like if I would have never met these people, and I must say, it would have been a pretty sad life!! 

Okay, I know more things happened this week but........I can't think of anything right now.... So.... oops. :) I am still alive, life is good, members feed us nice food every.single.day. (Hence why I have a chubby face in all my pictures. :) haha it's fine. #livingthedream

My Companion is da best! She is starting to crack jokes and it is THE funniest thing ever! She is learning from the best... aka me. :)

I am going to do my best to keep better track of this week so I have more to write next Monday... but let's be honest, weeks flow together and honestly everything feels like one long day to me!!

Have a wonderful, wonderful week! For those in my family who are saying bye to Parker this week... keep your heads up, don't cry too much :), because missions are the best and the two of us are going to be home before you know it! :)

No changes !

Beautiful Sunset with Sister Puruganan

Well I didn't get transferred AND for the first time in my mission life I am keeping the same companion for more than 6 weeks. Looks like there is a first for everything! I am really happy about that, I wasn't ready to leave Hamilton! There are still things that I know we can get done here to help out this area.

It seems like is was a pretty quiet week. We had to drop a lot of our investigators but we can already see how Heavenly Father is blessing us in our faith for letting some of the people go who were not progressing.

This week I feel like I learned a lot about the importance of prayer. In one of our lessons the father of the family was hesitant to set a baptismal date, so we had all of us kneel down and he offered one of the best prayers! The Spirit was really strong and I think it was just the moment that this family needed. After the prayer he said that he would set a baptismal date and then he wanted to know when we were coming back and when they could go to church. The Spirit will really work on people and point them in the direction they need to go!

We are also seeing this ward progress, and it is so good to see! Little things are happening and I think it is going to make a big impact on the missionary work in this ward.

Oh and a sidenote.... our dinner calendar has been packed, which you think would be good, but I am getting SO sick of food. haha  I should be grateful, at least I am not starving. This week we ate some more curry goat and some Filipino food. As in I just ate a fried fish..... eyeballs and everything! (ok, I didn't eat the eyeball, but I almost did. :)  

Really looking forward to this next transfer in this area! Oh and tomorrow I will have officially been gone 6 months! It is unreal! I still feel like a new missionary!

Shout out to my favorite lil cousin Parker who is giving his farewell talk this Sunday! Can't wait to have a family member in the mission field!

Favorite quote from this week that came from Sister Norell, 

"This work will move forward with our without us so we need to choose to be a part of it and take part in the blessings." 

I thought that was really great!

Have a great week!

Busy......Hot.....Storms......Faith

This week was a pretty busy week, if feels like a lot has happened. Monday we got together with the zone to play some games at the church. If you want to see something funny all you have to do is get about 12 companionship's of Elders and Sisters together to play chair soccer. Actually, none of you would probably think it is funny but... I think it is pretty funny. :)

Elder Palmer and Karly
P-Day with the Zone

We had our Skills and Interviews with President Scott. That was really nice. It is always nice to be able to talk to him and Sister Scott. They really know how to make you feel like a million bucks.

It has been wicked hot. I don't think I have ever drank so much water in my life. Tracting is not the most fun thing in the heat but, we do it anyway. haha  We had a sisters exchange on Friday and it went really, really well. Sister Tofa came to Hamilton with me and we spent the entire day finding. We had set a goal to find 3 new investigators and what did we do?.... well we found 3 new investigators! We talked to a bunch of awesome people and 3 were really interested. We were able to get return appointments and Sister Puruganan and I will go back this week and teach them. One of the guys was really grateful. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and he said that he has been through a lot and he is willing to try anything if he thinks it will bring him happiness. He gave Sister Tofa and I pins of Jesus Christ. It was super nice. He was a really great guy.

The day was extremely hot and then out of nowhere a storm rolled in. We got a call from the Zone Leaders saying that we all needed to go inside because there had been some tornado warnings. So we went inside and the storm hit. There was a ton of lightening and rain. The storm let up so we decided that we would be ok to drive to Oakville to exchange with the Sisters again. That was probably not the best idea because just as we were getting on the highway is started raining so much. I could barely see and cars were pulling over.

It was pretty scary. Thankfully it let up. But.... after the exchange when we were driving towards Hamilton there was a ton of lightening. I don't think I have ever seen lightening like that before. It got really dark, started to rain, and once again there I was driving down the highway and couldn't see a thing. Thankfully we made it home safe. The power was out and I am fairly convinced we almost got struck by lightening but, all in all a successful day! Thankfully it has started cooling off. Hopefully this will be an easier week because it won't be so hot!

And on a more serious note...... This week I have been thinking a lot about Faith. My faith, the faith of my investigators, the faith of the members around me. This whole mission experience just feels like one big trial of my faith. It is rough! It would be a whole lot easier if Heavenly Father didn't love us so much that He gives us trials to make us better, stronger people. This week I have read this talk multiple times and would encourage everyone to watch it. When I heard this during conference I feel like it was a big changing point in my mission. It helped me a lot and continues to help me to this day. Because let's face it, sometimes our faith is shaken. But what I do know is that the Church is true and that all the other little trials that come my way won't get me down if I hold on to what I do know to be true. Of course Elder Holland says it much better than I can, so watch the talk and if anyone is struggling with their faith (or maybe I am the only one.. :) think about what he says. I know that it really helps me!   Have a great week!

I have killed at least 10 of these nasty critters since living here. If anyone could identify the make and model of this stupid thing that would be great. THEY ARE GROSS!

5 months - already?

Well I guess this has been a pretty exciting week! I have been gone 5 months as of last Saturday, I finished another journal and... I got a cold to top things off! :) Being sick as a missionary is really no fun at all because we have no time to rest and get better. Oh well, I think I am on the up and up. I shouldn't complain either considering this is the first time I have gotten sick in those 5 months.

I am feeling lazy about writing this today so I am just going to number off some different things that happened this week.

1. I ate squid.... yup, it was gross. Sister Puruganan has been having a hard time adjusting to the food we eat here and so a member took us out to some Filipino place. And when I saw what the food looks like that Sister Puruganan has been missing I about died! Because let's be honest.... a big ole pile of black squid does not look appetizing to this sister! But... she ate it, loved it, and I tried some just for the experience of course. :)

Squid  - SO GROSS

2. We taught a lesson to two of our investigators and before we started one of the girls said, "When I read The Book of Mormon and pray about it I get this piercing feeling in my heart. I don't know how to describe it, but it is a good feeling." Uh... can you say best day ever?? I know I have shared experiences like this before but it never gets old when someone tells you that they have felt the Spirit and they are coming to know that the things we are sharing with them are true. Once again my favorite thing is to testify with the Spirit and know that the people we are teaching are feeling it!

3. We went to visit some members and the husband asked me if I "Did my hair with a blender this morning??" Ha I guess that is what I get for wearing my curly hair on top of my head. It is just too hot and humid to do it any other way! :)

The day I "did my hair with a blender" :)

4. Apparently there was some serious flooding in Toronto.... I can't look it up and read more about it but all of you can so that may be interesting to check out.

5. Everyone has been going to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and I am SO jealous. It is so close to us, yet so far away!

6. We went out to some members in Cayuga, Ontario last night and it was the best! They are in our ward but are about a 45 minute drive and they live out in a place that reminds me of home! I should have taken some pictures because it was so beautiful.

Hopefully this coming week is a bit more exciting! We have got some good plans so it should be good. Have a good week! Oh and shout out to my girl Katelyn Nicholes who goes into the MTC Wednesday. She is going to be the best missionary Edmonton has ever seen! :)

Staying in Hamilton - as a Trainer !

Well for the first time in my mission I didn't have to pack up and move at transfers! I am staying in Hamilton and I am training a new Sister! Her name is Sister Puruganan and she is from the Philippines. (and I don't even know how to attempt to tell you all how to say her last name, I am having a hard time remembering it. haha Hopefully I get it in a few days!)

Sister Puruganan and Karly

Transfer calls came Sunday night at about 10 pm. They start making the calls at 8:45,  so Sister Taylor and I thought that we would both be staying so we started getting ready for bed and then the phone rang. Usually it is a call from the Assistants, but this time the phone said President Scott! And when President calls it only means one thing..... that someone is training! So I was pretty pumped!

Monday was Canada Day so the whole weekend, there were fireworks that we could see from our apartment. Sister Taylor packed Monday, and then we went to visit our investigators and members so she could say bye to them. It is always hard to say bye, so I am thankful that this time it wasn't me saying the goodbyes. She moved to an area that is about an hour from here, so Monday night we drove and switched companions with another set of sisters that was in our District.  Sister Taylor is now serving with Sister Colvin (my MTC companion) and then Sister Wester was my companion for Monday night before we went to the trainer's meeting on Tuesday morning bright and early!

Sister Wester and Karly - one day together

The new missionaries and trainers

We went to the Brampton Stake Center Tuesday morning.  We had to be there at 8am,  and then the meeting started at 9. (I always love transfers and being able to see a bunch of other missionaries!) The meeting was really good, but it kind of made me nervous because I started to realize that being a trainer can be a lot of pressure! It was stressing me out, but after that meeting we got to meet our companions and things were all good from there. I relaxed and started to realize that it won't be too bad. I know how to be a missionary, so I just have to do my thing and show someone else how!

I am loving Sister Puruganan so much already! I am really excited for this transfer. I think it will go really well and I know that I am going to learn SO much! I spoke in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and it went really well, at least I think it did. :) I don't know why I wasted so much of my life not knowing that I liked speaking in Sacrament Meeting. I should have gotten over that fear a long time ago!

Oh! Here is another good story... on Friday night, last week, the fire alarm went off at 2:15 in the morning so we had to evacuate the building. Someone had just pulled the fire alarm so at least there wasn't a real fire, but it was really hard to sleep after that whole adventure.

Things are good, being a missionary is great. And now I must go help my companion find some clothes and good food to buy! They eat way better in the Philippines than they do in North America so... no chance that I will get fat this transfer! haha  I'll email on Monday! Have a good couple of days! :)