A Classy Time in Canada

Hey family!

So it was such a fun week! We did so much service. Literally soooooooooooooo much service! I loved it. Its a great way to meet people and get to know them better.

Last week for P-day we got to go to Waterton and it was so beautiful! I just love being back in the mountains. We saw tons and tons of mountain goats, I was hoping to see a bear but sadly no luck. Maybe next time! Since Waterton is in our zone I want to go as much as possible! Every Monday night we do FHE with the YSA branch and last Monday night we had a bonfire and roasted marshmellows. Can I please just tell you how awkward I am now since I'm a missionary. SO AWKWARD. I didn't even know how to act at FHE with all these people my age hahaha by the end I was fine but I was just thinking that covering a YSA branch is good for me to help me adjust hahaha oh boy.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then went and did service for TerryLyn. That was so fun! TerryLyn was someone I worked with up in Calgary a year ago and now she's in Carston and I'm in Cardston! So fun! She's doing so good. It was so rewarding to see the difference in her from last year to now. We did a ton of yard work with our whole district and it was awesome. Then we walked all over Cardston.....literally this town is tiny. We met some really awesome less-active people and tried to go contact a referral. Sadly the referral wasn't home but we did meet a lady who we started talking to and she mentioned how she wants to speak better English.....the cool thing about that is we do a ESL class every Tuesday night and told her she should come! In our ESL class we have a couple of people from Croatia (I have no idea how Croatians make it to Cardston but good for them!) and a couple of people from South America. Then we went to institute that night which was also super fun. Since we're covering a whole stake we try and go to as many things as possible to meet as many people as possible and I love it because then I get to learn cool new things at institute as well!

Wednesday was the best day everrrrrr. Guess what we got to go do? Our whole district was invited out to go and help with branding! Yup branding cows. Me and Sister Estrada were in charge of vaccinating them, I got to vaccinated 150 cows. The Elders helped tackle the calves down and we went and shot the needle into their armpit and the poor little guys got castrated as well. What an interesting thing to watch. ewww. Anyways I loved just being out of town with all these horses and cows it was the best. I also ate a rocky mountain oyster. Don't judge....just accept the fact that I ate one and all the little boys who were helping with the roping thought I was the coolest sister missionary ever. Sister Gonzalez was getting way into it as well, she was helping with cutting the ears and I was so proud of her! She's from Montreal and is such a city girl and just turned into a little cowgirl it was awesome!

On Thursday again the Elders called us and told us that they had some service for us to do. Yay! After that we had a lesson set up with a family and I was so excited because I really really really want to find new investigators and sadly they weren't home :( I JUST WANT TO TEACH PEOPLE OKAY. Ha there is my little vent. I need to be patient I know I know. Things will pick up soon I can just feel it :) We did talk to this man though who was selling vacuums and then he asked us what missionaries do and we started telling him and had a really cool experience. He told us that 30 years ago when his parents and him moved to Edmonton that they had missionaries coming to their house and he can remember that from being a little boy! He said he remembers that they were great young men who their family got really close to but for some reason they stopped coming. He then told us that we're the first missionaries that he's run into since then and that he feels the same happiness around us as he did the Elders. SO COOL. First off it made me realize that I can impact someone's life for a very long time and I might never realize it. Secondly Heavenly Father has a plan for all His children. The guy is from Calgary so we got his info and hopefully he'll be able to meet with the missionaries! He was a super open person and took a Book of Mormon and was excited to start reading it. So even though I probably won't be able to see him again I'm hoping we helped him draw one step closer to Christ. We had dinner that night with the members we live with and they are just the cutest little old couple ever! They are the best. We were late for dinner because we were talking to the Vacuum guy and had to literally run across town..... which doesn't sound bad but Cardston is built on hills. Just picture me and Sister Estrada running up a hill for dinner because we're 15 minutes late. #awkwardsistermissionaryproblems Good thing the Terry's were okay with us being late. Ever since coming on my mission I hate hate hate being late to things.

On Friday we drove to Glenwood to do some service for a non-member that moved in. We helped her paint the walls in her house and she was so so grateful. It was a good contact. She opened up to us about her dad passing away recently and that's why she moved to make a new start. I told her that as missionaries we teach people how they can be with their families forever and asked her if we could teach her that and she said that when she gets the inside of her house done that we could! I was very grateful for that. We ate dinner at a cute little place called Cobblestone for dinner and I actually sent you a postcard of the place so you should be getting that soon :)

On Saturday we got a text from a recent convert of a couple of weeks telling us that she's not going to be Mormon anymore.....what the heck??! That was a shock and it was hard for me and Sister Estrada because we're both new and don't know her very well. But we set up an appointment and had a really good lesson with her. She's just been having a lot of challenges and thought it would be easiest to just quit. We asked her to remember all the blessings she's seen that's come from the gospel and reminder that Heavenly Father loves her and is aware of her. She said she wouldn't give up just yet and ended up coming church on Sunday :) Also we met this awesome Native lady who's been inactive and helped her with her dishes since she just broke her wrist. We also helped her with her driveway but then we had to leave so we wouldn't be late for dinner. I was really hoping we could of had a lesson with her but then we had to leave. At dinner I realized I had left my watch at her house and so after dinner we stopped by so I could grab it and then asked if we could share a message with her and she just started crying. She said she was so happy when we were over at her house helping earlier and that we reminded her of the spirit that she had always felt when she served a mission, She said she just wanted us to come back and when she saw my watch she was so happy in knowing we had to come back we had a really good lesson on missionary work and she said she has goals of coming back to church. It was such a spiritual lesson.

Sunday was good as well! We went to 4 wards again and we got to speak out in Hillspring. I think my talk went well and the people out in Hillspring are such good people. We also went to mission prep that night and a lot of the kids preparing for their missions asked us a bunch of questions and told us what their concerns and fears are. All I have to say is we're going to have some really awesome missionaries out in the field. Heavenly Father has been preparing His children for a long time and we are so blessed to live at this time. It made me think of how special my little brother Sam is. He's going to be such a good missionary.

We are very blessed to have this gospel!

I love you all!

Love

Sister M.