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

Attitude is Everything !

Well it is a beautiful, cold Monday morning here in Canada! Transfer calls were last night... we didn't get a call so Sister Colvin and I will be staying here in Kitchener Waterloo for at least another 6 weeks. The big change came in the fact that the Elders are leaving the ward, so now Sister Colvin and I have the whole ward to ourselves. That will be different, but it will be nice because our area is now double what it has been and more importantly.... the whole ward can feed us now... not just the people in our area. :) Oh and the other great news is that Elder Prochnow is going to be my Zone Leader again. I am obviously so pumped about that! The Morgan, UT team has been reunited!

Our District for this transfer

      Me, Hermana Reid, Sister Colvin, Hermana Sandall, 

Elder Healey, Elder Ikeda, Elder Williams, Elder Mangum, and Elder Howell

This week was good! Monday night we had dinner with a Sister in the ward who served a mission with her husband in Nigeria in the 80's. She showed us slides and told us more about her experience there and it was pretty incredible. The people there live such humble lives and are so willing to learn about the Gospel. She said that it was a hard experience, but that it really put things into perspective for her. We really are so blessed to live where we live and have the blessings that we do. It would have been tough to serve in an area like that, I couldn't even believe most of the stuff she was telling us because it is just so foreign to me. She is a pretty amazing lady and I learned a lot of her and her experiences. 

Halloween also took place this week.... it was pretty lame if I'm being honest. haha We just had to go in early and do our weekly planning, I didn't even see anyone in costumes so..... that was great. :)

We have some people that we are teaching now. They are a couple that the Sisters in the other ward were teaching, but then they moved into our area so now we will be teaching them! So that is exciting. Also.. we should have a baptism this month of a 12 year old boy whose family members are members, but he just hasn't been baptized yet. So that will be good for them. :)

We did exchanges this week and I was with Sister Tofa. It is always a blast with her. She is awesome. She is the Sister Training Leader that I have done the most exchanges with. It just seems like she follows me around! haha

Sister Tofa and I making waffles at Sue's for dinner

Sister Tofa and I. During our exchange and she accidentally brought the phone from her area into my area, so we were joking that we were the Assistants to the President because they are the only companionship in the mission where both missionaries have a cell phone so.... AP Prescott and AP Tofa

Sue fed us ribs... I was in Heaven. #iheartribs

Yesterday Sister Colvin and I were asked to speak in sacrament meeting on the 17th and the topic is tithing. So what I would love is if you wonderful people who read my blog would send me either some experiences about tithing or talks on tithing that I could incorporate into my talk and share with the ward. It has to be 15 minutes long so... we better start preparing asap. :) 

I was REALLY loving Canada this day

It is crazy that it is November. Next week is Remembrance Day so Pday will be on Tuesday. (There are SO many holidays on Monday's here in Canada... it feels a little excessive) 

FYI... my birthday is not too far away.. the 19th to be exact. :) So... feel free to send me Happy Birthday emails. haha I will be the big 23... I am getting OLD. 

Well... I think that is all for this week! 

Things I have learned this week... attitude is everything! If you want to have a crappy day... you will have a crappy day... so..... tell yourself that you will have a good day everyday and things will work out.  Even when it is tough. :)

Love you all!! (even though I am not exactly sure who reads this every week... I probably love you anyway.. ;)

Random Pic - The dog is huge!

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!

New Companion, New Area, New Car !

First week in the new area and things went pretty well. It has been an adjustment for both Sister Tebbs and I to not be able to hide behind our trainers anymore but it has been a great learning experience and we are sure that things will get better and better as the weeks go by! :)

Sister Tebbs and Sister Prescott

 So kind of a funny story about the transfer. We all met at the Brampton Stake Center and that is where I said bye to Sister Tuia and Sister DeRuvo and met up with Sister Tebbs. From there we went and got our apartment info from the Zone Leader, Elder Prochnow, and he gave us the keys to our car. Now this is where the funny part comes in. Elder Prochnow hands me the keys and says, "It's a brand new car, that doesn't have a Tiwi (the thing that tracks our speed and tells us to slow down) in it yet so.... be careful." So just like that I now get to drive a 2013 Chevy Cruz and could potentially go as fast as a wanted to! haha No of course I wouldn't do that, but honestly I don't really like the pressure of driving a brand new car! If anything happens it is 100% my fault and that's scary. haha I am thankful to have a car, though. I never thought I would say this but I do miss the buses! The buses were such a great way to meet people so now we are going to have to come up with new ways to find people. I won't complain about having the car, though because it really is a blessing and I will be grateful for it every day! :)

The ward here is SO awesome! Like SO awesome  The ward mission leader met with us a few hours after getting here, we have already met a ton of the families and they are so nice. There is a sister in the ward who coordinates all of our meal appointments so we will get dinner probably 5 times a week. There is a family in the ward who feeds us every week and brings us bags of treats on Sundays. Everyone is just really so great here! I can already tell I will be sad to leave! Hopefully President just keeps me here for months and months and months. :) The members are also just really excited to have Sisters in the ward again and that is probably why they are all so friendly! haha Everyone is excited to have us here. Makes us feel welcomed which is really nice.

Our apartment is really great as well. We live in the basement of some members. (the dad is the Bishop of the Spanish Ward) It is a lot bigger than my last apartment and has a washer and dryer in the apartment which is SO nice. Thankfully the Elders didn't leave it TOO dirty either. They were only there for a transfer so they didn't have time to make it too bad. ;) haha

"I decorated our new apartment"

Our Kitchen

"Looking good !"

The really rough part about this week has not been having food! (don't freak out mom, we have been eating, just cereal and yogurt! haha) When we got here Tuesday we just did shopping for the "basics" and let me tell you those $70 worth of "basics" didn't last too long! So we are pretty pumped to do some grocery shopping today! Oh, and the other good news about being in Brampton is that I can get mail every week! So... send me mail! :) And now that I get it more often I will have more time to write back! :)

"Beautiful day here, and so nice to have the temple where we can see it everyday"

The weather is gradually starting to get better... it snowed Thursday which was a real bummer, but today is super nice. Everyone here says it is never like this and that it should hopefully be warming up soon. Well I am sure I neglected to tell you all a million great things, but I will save them for next week if I remember them! :) Sister Tebbs and I are going to keep hitting it hard here in Brampton and hope to see some success soon! :)