Baptism ~ Staying Put ~ Chinese New Year

So this week was pretty sweet to say the least.... remember Max who I told you about last week? Well... he got baptized yesterday and it was really great! Here is a brief rundown of the whole story again... 

Max's baptism

"Well when they say, "Expect Miracles" I now know that is 100% true because this week we saw a serious miracle... and his name is Max. :) Max is from Nigeria and 3 weeks ago after driving by our Stake Center multiple times he felt prompted that he needed to call the church. So he went home, looked up the address online, and called the number. They asked if he was a "single adult," he said yes.. so they told him to go to the Young Single Adult Branch. So he did, the Elders started teaching him, and then the next Saturday I met Max. I started talking to him, asked how long ago he came to Canada, he said 7 years ago, and then I asked how old he was when he came here.. he said 30.. So that makes Max 37... definitely not able to attend YSA! haha So... he went to church at the YSA branch the next day and then we did a hand off lesson this past week. He already had a baptismal date for Feb 2nd, but we met with him and we all felt he would be ready for January 26th. So... we taught him everything and he was baptized yesterday! It was SO.COOL." 

So many of the ward members stayed to the baptism that we had right after church and it was really great that everyone was there to show him that support. I think he was a bit surprised to have everyone there. haha It was really special and everything went so well. My favorite thing was during the actual baptism seeing all of the little kids up surrounding the glass watching the baptism. It was just really neat and I am grateful that I was able to be a part of it. We are really excited for Max, and I am grateful we will be sticking around for another 6 weeks so that we will be able to get to know him more. 

Oh and there is the other thing... We didn't get transferred. The ward had us all but packed up and moved. haha Everyone was saying bye and getting pictures  (see below) and fully planning that at least one of us would leave but... here we are. They were all pretty shocked and I'm not going to lie, so were we. We though FOR SURE something would have to happen. We have been here forever. But... I guess God has other plans and there are still things here that we need to do.

With Brother and Sister Ince

With Janet and Norm

With part of the Mitchell Family
This was before we knew we weren't getting transferred. we had to take pictures just in case!

This is Katelyn Rowden, she is a senior in high school and is a member of this ward. She was sad to think that we might have been leaving and she wrote us the nicest letters. needless to say she is happy that we are staying

Well... random fact. A member told me that Keith Urban was having a concert in London, Ontario either this past weekend or this weekend so.... that is just a kick in the face for this country music deprived Sister! Oh and The Band Perry had a concert at this place that is practically next door to us. Oh well... I have made it this long without Keith Urban.. I guess I can make it a bit more :)

This week at District meeting everyone decided to play the "What year were you born game?!" Now this is not my most favorite game and you will see why... A few missionaries say they were born in 1992 (which is fine), a lot of them say they were born in 1993 (like Elder Prochnow... who after saying that goes, "Sister Prescott, weren't you born in like 1989 or something?" and then he just laughed) And then there are the two Elders that say they were born in 1995..... 1995!! I was 5 years old when they were born! haha They are babies! It is so weird! So they like to make me feel like the old grandma. haha They are all a lot of fun, but it blows my mind how at 23 I can feel so old!

Celebrating the Chinese New Year

We also celebrated Chinese New Year. The Mandarin speaking Sister put together a big party and it was great! All of our investigators enjoyed it and a lot of people came. It is now the Year of the Horse, which is actually what I am. These are some of the characteristics of people who are "horses".   I think they are pretty fitting if I do say so myself :)  

This week was a lot of fun and I finally took some pictures so enjoy!

Things are coming together

Officially starting the last week of this transfer today! This has been a really fast transfer and I can't believe that it is coming to an end. It feels like I have been in Kitchener for a long time, but it makes me sad to think that I could be getting transferred next week. I don't know that I am ready to leave yet.. I guess we will just have to see! :)

This week was busy... really, really busy.

We started Monday evening off right and found a new investigator! It was a great way to start the week and then it seemed like everything just kind of fit together after that. 

We met with Janet and Norm and they are continuing to do so well. They were able to see the Baptism of a man in another ward this weekend and they loved it. They are really wanting to be baptized and working towards it. They will hopefully be able to be baptized in the next few months. As for now they basically consider themselves part of the ward, just with out the baptism side yet. They went to the baptism, a Stake Talent Show, and to a Cottage Meeting last night.  Janet's motto, "If it's Mormon, I've got time!"  They are really embracing everything and it really goes to show what happens when people give the Book of Mormon a chance and just read it.

Saturday we were also able to find another new investigator among all of our appointments.  And then Saturday night at the Stake Talent Show we saw another little miracle.  The YSA (Young Single Adult) Elders had brought a guy with them that they had been teaching for about a week. His name is Max.  His story is that he always drives by the church and he was wondering what it was all about so he looked up the number and called. They asked if he was a "single adult" and he said yes so they told him what time to go to church on Sunday and what building.  He went to church on Sunday, met the Elders and they starting teaching him. Now Max is from Nigeria and looks like he is 24 so... the Elders didn't even bother asking his age . But when I was talking to him Saturday I asked him when he came to Canada, he said 7 years ago.  Then I asked him how old he was when he came to Canada and he said, 30. I just looked at Elder Lasley (the YSA Elder) and then looked back to Max, and Elder Lasley goes, "wait... how old are you??" So... basically Max can't go to the YSA ward. We told him he has to go to the family ward and he was totally ok with it.  So that was a serious blessing. This guy is very prepared and will be baptized either this week or the next.  It is amazing how there are people who are so prepared and I am grateful that we will be able to teach him. 

Things really did just come together again this week. We were able to hit the Standards of Excellence for the 2nd week in a row and are really seeing so many great things happening. Hoping we can keep it up for this coming week as well. 

Unfortunately... I have absolutely no pictures from this week... which I realize is SO boring. haha  Oh well.... I will do better this week!  Hope everyone has a great week!

11 whole months !

Does anybody know what today is??? Nope? Well... I will tell you... today marks 11 months since my cute parents dropped me off at the MTC... 11 whole months!! It is a strange strange thing, and pretty exciting to look back on what has happened in the past 11 months.. I have met so many new people and have done things I never thought I could do and have learned so much! 

The day that the thermometer said -21 and it was apparently -40 with the wind chill... and also they said if your skin was exposed to it for more than 5 minutes you could get frost bite... and then... it rained Friday. Go figure!

 This week was good. The weather got crazy cold Tuesday and Wednesday. Everyone said it was -40*C with the wind chill so... that is pretty darn cold. Thankfully we had quite a few appointments so we tried to stay in a house or in a car most of the day. On that Tuesday we got a funny phone call from Elder Prochnow and Elder Parker (the Zone Leaders)... It started out with a," Hey Sisters..... ummm..... do you think that you could come and jump our car??" Their battery was going bad and even in their underground parking the car was way too cold and was not starting. So... we went and helped them with that... This is now twice I have had to jump a car on my mission.. Heavenly Father really was preparing me for this when my car would die ALL THE TIME back at home. Glad that it wasn't all for nothing. :)

My outfit on a freezing cold P-day

So after we made it through the freezing weather things were good. We had a Zone Training Wednesday and then we did exchanges that night. Sister Tofa came here with me and it was a lot of fun.. She leaves at the end of this transfer and it will be sad to see her go. She will go back to Australia and I am going to have to convince her to move to the states at some point so that this isn't the last time that I see her ever. 

Ice cream cake that Elder So'o had made for
Sister Willouhby's birthday

All of the sisters with the cake

We had some good lessons this week. Janet and Norm are progressing SO well. Norm has really started getting in to the Book of Mormon and I cannot believe how fast he is reading through it. Norm even committed to baptism which is pretty amazing. Three months ago you would have never even seen him wanting to sit down to talk with missionaries. It really is a testimony to me of how much power is in the Book of Mormon. He really has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and you can see it working in his life. We are really excited for them! 

We had a really great week! We hit "standards" which I haven't done since the first transfer of my mission. So this means that we have 2 progressing investigators, 2 investigators with baptismal dates, 2 investigators at church, 4 lessons taught with members present and 2 new investigators. It was pretty great to see our work paying off and also seeing the tender mercies. We were quite blessed this week!

Transfers will be coming up soon and... I really have no feeling as to what will happen but... If I do leave I already know that I will be so sad about it. I really love this ward SO much. Since we have had a lot of dinner appointments lately I feel like I have gotten to know the members more and more and it makes me sad that I will have to leave! It is a great thing about missions that you get to meet so many new people but it is a sad thing that you have to leave and that some people you may never see again. Oh well... I guess it is all a part of it!

Brother Mitchell (the vet) brought this cute thing home from work the other day.. She had broken her jaw and the farmer didn't want to pay the money to fix it so Brother Mitchell said that she would take her and then he just did the surgery and now they have her so... if at any moment you want to buy a mini horse that would be GREAT. :) 

Oh and yesterday the new Stake Presidency came here for ward conference. They spoke and taught all of the classes and it was really cool. The Stakes theme is, "Feed the Spirit, Nourish the Soul" and they talked a lot about how important it is for all of us to be continually "feeding" our Spirits. So... if you haven't read your scriptures lately... try that. :) If you haven't said a prayer lately... go do that. :) There are so many things we can do to feed our Spirits and it really does help! 

Well... I hope this was a bit more of a "substantial" email then some of my others have been. I hope everyone has a great week! :)

Have a ever mentioned that there are squirrels EVERYWHERE here??

We play this game where we see how long it takes to see a squirrel when we leave the house and it usually only takes about 10 seconds... Case in point.. looked out the window... squirrel sitting on the emergency exit stairs outside our apartment

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Sister Tofa and Karly at the New Years Day Read-a-thon

Glow in the dark glasses

The weather is probably the biggest news this week. Lots and lots of cold... lots and lots of snow and then lots and lots of more cold to come in the next few days! I guess Canada has decided that I really need the Canadian experience.  This is the worst winter they have had in years and years everyone keeps telling us.

This was after we had cleaned our car off at 9:00 last night

Thank goodness for boots, coats, and mitts

Janet and Norm came to church on Sunday and again loved everything about it. Norm has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and really loves it. He had basically written off religion because of bad experiences that he has had in the past, but his experiences with the Book of Mormon and with church are really changing his mind, and he is starting to make some big changes in his life!

Well.... I really can't think of much to say and... I don't really have time to say it. The internet is down at the libraries so the other missionaries are here so I have to get off, but.... once again here are some pictures... hopefully that helps.  And... next week I
will write the blog email first so it can be a good one. :)

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 :)