Kitchener Waterloo - a new experience

Old Area - The Julians

They usually fed us twice a week and it was THE BEST food.

Michelle, Brett, Darren, and Natalie

Natalie and I with the Happy Sad Day Cake.
We were so sad :(

Well I made it to my new area! I am in Kitchener Waterloo and things are pretty good.

Monday night we had a sleep over with Sister Taylor and Sister Bradshaw, and then Tuesday morning Sister Taylor and I woke up at 4:30 and drove to Brampton for transfers. I got to see some people there which is always nice. I saw Sister Tebbs for a second, and then we loaded everything up into the transfer van and headed for Kitchener where I met up with Sister Colvin and got to see Sister Tuia and Elder Dewey. And then Sister Colvin and I headed for the Kitchener Waterloo East area.

Transfers

Elder Dewey was my first District Leader.
He was the Zone Leader over the zone I am in now last transfer,  but then he got moved. We were both bummed. It would have been fun to serve near him again

Elder Skirvin and I
We served in the same ward when I was in Brampton. He is awesome.
He was getting transferred to Timmons which is like an 8 hour drive north

I got to see Sister Tebbs for like 3 seconds,
and yes - that Elder did kind of ruin the photo 

My Trainer - Sister Tuia and I
She  goes home after this transfer.
I am glad I got to see her one more time

We had a lot of appointments that first day which was good. I was SO exhausted by the end of the day, however. It was nice to finally go to bed.

The ward is good. There are a lot of families from Utah that live here which is kind of funny. It is just hard to learn all of the names and figure out who people are. After being in an area for 4 months and knowing everyone and everything it is a big adjustment to know no one and nothing. Oh well. I guess that is what being a missionary is all about.  We have a few people that we are teaching, but the sisters hadn't been seeing them progress in awhile so we are going to have to figure out what to do with that.

This is a shared car area which basically means we walk all the time. haha We have the car half of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday until 7 so... we walk every other day. I don't hate walking,  but it is also not the most effective use of time. We haven't used a bus yet since I have been here. We are going to have to figure that out soon so we can get places, and I am going to have to find some new shoes soon because this much walking is killing them. 

Saturday was the General Relief Society Broadcast and it was really cool. President Monson spoke and it was wonderful!! It got me so pumped for General Conference this weekend. I really can't wait for that!

Things are going good. Everything is just new here and hard to get used to, but I am figuring it out. Just trying to get to know people and figure out how we are going to find some new investigators, it is a very residential and a small area, so we are going to have to get creative.

Hopefully now that I am getting more settled I will be able to provide a more detailed email for next week!  I can't believe that tomorrow is October! I know I say it all the time but... time really is flying by so quickly!  I hope you enjoy the pictures! They will hopefully provide a nice outline of my week!  

Sister Norells' dad - Brother Goddard 
I called him Grandpa. He is the sweetest man

Good News !!

Well hello family and friends! Looks like we all made it through another week! :) I have some good news! The mission policy for emails has changed... we can now email friends! #raisedaroof So..... go crazy, kids and send me some emails! karly.prescott@myldsmail.net :) I want to hear about what's going on! The only bad thing with this being I will probably never have time to reply especially in this area. The mission president does give us permission to spend more time on the computers but the libraries here only allow you to have an hour a day so..... just send some emails and I will respond if I can or write letters back. I finally got some letters this week! They were written and sent around the same time I left the MTC, though, so it really does take about a month to get mail here. I also sent some letters home so it will be interesting to see how long that takes.

 This week was better than last week, I hope that pattern continues. Everything gets a little bit easier as I get more and more experience with it.The only thing that is not getting easier is dealing with this weather. I freeze ALL. THE. TIME. I can bundle up and and wear a million layers and this cold still finds a way to cut through and leave me miserable. (OK maybe that is a little dramatic, but it is cold) Last night we walked about 2 miles in the cold until we were able to find a bus. Bus systems are different at night so we though we were going to have to walk the whole way. I guess it could have been worse, but it still was pretty bad.

 This week I did my first exchange with the other set of sisters in this area. It was fun to see how another missionary works and the different things they do in their teaching and finding. More and more I am being able to pull ideas of the kind of missionary I want to be and the way that I want to teach and do things.

 At District Meeting this week President Scott came. It was a little intimidating because I had to give a thought and then role play with him, but it was good. He is such a great guy and I am so grateful to have him as my mission President. He really is so loving and cares about us individually and that really is good to know. Talking with him makes me feel like a million bucks. He really needs to come around more often. haha

We did a ton of finding this week and still didn't have much success. We need to find people before we can teach people and the finding part is proving to be hard. Some people will want to listen but a lot of people open their doors, say something that is usually not very nice :), and then quickly close the door. Oh well, we'll just keep going and eventually we'll find those people who are really prepared. I promise cool and great things happen during the week but I just cannot seem to remember them right now...... I guess this email will be short then. :) But here are a few random things!

 1. St. Patrick's Day was like a serious thing here.... I am fairly confident that the college students (did I mention Guelph is a serious college town?) were all drinking from Saturday night all through Sunday. Which meant we got to see a lot of people make complete fools of themselves all day long. Also they don't just use the holiday as an excuse to drink, they also went crazy with the wearing of green. And not just a green shirt here or there, they were wearing green mini skirts and huge bows and wigs and it really was out of control. I have never seen anything like that.

2. So my District leader, Elder Dewey, is the son of a famous artist.. Simon Dewey? I didn't know who he was, but I guess his dad does a lot of the famous LDS paintings. I am sure a lot of you will know who he is.

 Sorry that was so short.... I will try and do better next week. :) Missionary work really is amazing. Everyday I learn so much and my testimony is strengthened. This week I really have seen the importance of a testimony. People will argue doctrine or not want to talk with you but a testimony is something short and simple yet so powerful that you can leave it with everyone. It is hard for people to dispute something you KNOW to be true. There is no arguing with that. :) So I challenge all of you to constantly strengthen your testimonies, in whatever it may be, because that is the most powerful thing we have when it comes to sharing the Gospel with others. Have a great week!