Sister Adrianna Wilson: Week 4: Merry Christmas from Canada!

Greetings from the North Pole!

I just want to start off by saying, my mission is literally the North Pole, and it's cold. It's also very white here. I am in Okotoks, Canada. It's a smaller town and a super cute place! But yeah... it's cold. As a child, this is where I imagined Santa would live.

We come outside in the mornings and look outside our apartment and all over our lawn is deer poop! Ha. The deer here aren't afraid of people. They chill in the town with us but no one approaches them because they are mean. Also, there are lots of all white bunnies! They blend in really well with the snow so we have almost ran over a few. They just run around in the streets and in the town. I tried to get a picture with one but that was a fail. Ha ha. I hope that gives u a little picture of how it is up here at the North Pole.

My first week in the mission has been great. I don't have time to tell you everything I want to, so I will tell you as much as I can...

I arrived Wednesday and my flight was great. After the longest day of my life, we finally made it to the Mission Home at about 7:00pm and had interviews with my Mission President, President Keung. He and his wife are from New Zealand and have the coolest accents! They LOVE culture, so all the new missionaries are learning Maori hymns. It's pretty awesome. We are a singing mission and literally sing all the time. Ha ha.

The next day I got my companion/trainer. Her name is Sister Neild. She is from Missouri and she's super sweet. She's awesome and we get along great.

Thursday was my first day proselyting. That was so scary! We had a dinner appointment at 5:30pm so we tracted for an hour before that. To tract, we went to the neighborhood where we had our dinner appointment, so we were close. Sister Neild was like "Ok Sister Wilson... I'm gonna start off. I'm going to do the first door and then you will do the next and we will just switch on and off." So, I was pumped to teach some people and I'm feeling like, "Ok-ok lets do this!" So Sister Nield does the first door and they just nicely decline by saying "Oh - not interested. S-ooo-rr-ee!" (That's how Canadians say "sorry." It's funny). So my turn is next and I knock on the door... they open and before I can get a word out, they see my name tag and slam the door right in my face! I got THREE doors slammed in my face right in a row. I was so sad ! As a missionary I knew I was going to get rejected, but I wasn't prepared for that. I let it get to me and I was down in the dumps and sad that no one would even give me a chance to open my mouth and say something good about Jesus Christ and share a Christmas message.

Sister Neild helped me along the way and pushed me through the very long hour. I'm learning to make tracting fun, so it's going better! President says all the time, "We love "No's". They are stepping stones to yes!". I'll try to remember that.

We have two families we are teaching right now and they are Filipinos! Calgary has sooooo much diversity - so many Filipinos! We have a couple Tagalog speaking Elders in the area. We are still able to teach those we run into because they speak enough English, but seriously they are the most humble and sweet people I have met here in Canada. They always open their home to us, and even though they are the poorest people here they offer us such sweet things and just making sure we are doing good. They call us "Women of God". Ha ha. We invited them to a Tagalog Sacrament Meeting we are having next week. We are having a big lunch afterwards with Filipino food and will roast a big pig, which is called "lechon" or something like that. I hope the people we invited will come.

So, I'm getting the best of both missions! Braden, I have a piece of you here in Canada. :) I told this lady that you are serving in the Philippines and she said "Oh...you write him and say 'I love you' (except she said it in Tagalog) and I replied, "Yeah, you know it Jewel!". Ha ha. We started laughing and she was saying some other stuff after that but I couldn't understand because she spoke in very broken English. Anyway, it was funny and she's hilarious now she teases me about that!

Oh, we also teach English classes to a couple families from Vietnam. It's really hard but pretty cool.

Christmas was so fun here! We spent the day with members and visited a senior care center and visited the people who didn't have family. We sang songs to them and the spirit was so strong! The members here are amazing! They LOVE the missionaries and there were five families who gave me and my companion Christmas gifts to open with their families. It was just so nice and I was so grateful. It felt at home.

I was able to Skype my family for about 40 minutes on Christmas and it was so great! After that, we had dinner and then went to the Osberg's house to play games to finish off the night. I love the Osberg family so much! They are my family away from family. They are so hilarious and tease each other (and us) like crazy and I fit right in. They take us to do so many fun things. The mom, Sister Osberg, is like our mom too. She got us the cutest pajamas yesterday and always makes sure we are fed and are doing well. She's the best! My first night here she made me potato soup just like you always do Mom. It wasn't as good as yours... but it was still good and I was grateful. :)

On Monday and last Thursday we ran the Calgary Nativity, which is hosted by the church. It was AMAZING. It's a play about the birth of Jesus Christ and it's a huge event. Everyone in Calgary comes! Sister Neild and I were in charge of the photo booth and were also tasked with herding the sheep. Ha ha. It was FREEZING and by the end of the night, I was sure that my toes were gone. It hurt to walk on them (no joke) but it was still so fun to be apart of that.

Today is BOXING DAY! It's pretty much like Black Friday here, except Canadians do it the day after Christmas. I thought Americans went hard on Black Friday... but I think the Canadians have us beat, eh?! They are so hyped about it and it's a party here. It's also our P-day today so we are going to go to Costco and get some good deals on poutine. 😉 Also, I tried the ketchup chips and they are actually really good, so don't talk down on them until you've tried them! ha ha. I think I'm a true Canadian now! Also we get to watch a MOVIE today! Like, an actual movie...and were all so excited! I don't know what movie we are watching yet, but I'm good with whatever. It is going to be fun!

I have to go now, but I'm loving my mission so much! Despite the cold, Canada-land is the place for me! I'm still learning so much. I love serving the Lord and love being a missionary!

I hope everyone is doing great and had a awesome Christmas with friends and family! I love you all so much and I'll get back to you next Wednesday!

Love,

Sister Wilson