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! :)