Week 12: Keep On... Keeping On!

This week has been pretty good! 

It's warming up a little (not much) but hopefully soon I will start hearing the birds sing.

Thursday: we went on splits for a little while because Sister Larson's companion hurt her back.  So I went with Sister Larson and helped her do service.  After that, Sister Nield and I had a lesson with Isaac and Maddie. Isaac is a less active (Maddie's boyfriend) and taking the lessons again. He wants to come back to church. He's awesome and is super solid.

Friday: Weekly planning since a lot of things popped up on Thursday.  So  glad we got to do that for a little while.

Saturday: Had a lesson with Par and Jenny. They texted us and asked to come over and we were so excited! They have been potentials for awhile. So we got there and honestly the only time the spirit was there was when I recited the first vision. They are Born Again Christians and they spent two hours talking about how they have visions and pass out and they shoot up to heaven. Super weird and they were trying to bible bash. They only let us teach a couple parts of the Restoration, so we left them with our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and His restored gospel, but they weren't open to taking a Book of Mormon. That's okay though. 

Sunday: Just a normal Sunday.  It was good! A investigator came to church so that was SWEET ! We were so excited! He was ignoring us but then just showed up at church, so we weren't expecting it.

Monday: We had District Council, which is always awesome. We stopped by some potentials but they weren't home though. So we did some Area Book stop-bys  and tracted.  Just normal mission stuff.  Then we had dinner with the Price family. 

Tuesday: Companion Exchanges! It was successful. I lead out in my area with Sister Larson and Sister Nield went with Sister Somerville. Sis Somerville and Sister Larson don't always get along, so we tried our best to help them in any way we could.  We gave them advice and just talked everything out. So that was really refreshing for both of them I think. It was great! Sister Larson and I didn't have a dinner appointment, so we went to British Chippy and had tea and crumpets and fish and chips.  It was so good! Sister Somerville is from England so were learning a lot of English things.

Today is P-Day and were going to play Pickleball with the Fish Creek Zone, so that should be really fun! 

We had some people we tracted into this week that said they wanted us to come back. So we are so excited about that! We were able to give away a couple Book of Mormons as well, so that was really great. We're excited for this week and I will update you on how the people we tracted into goes.

Love you all and hope that you have an awesome week.

Love, 

Sister Wilson

Hometown Hockey came to the Okotoks this week and everyone was so excited!  I don't think I saw one person not wearing Calgary Flames hockey jersey.  Canadians sure love their hockey. ha ha!

The British Chipper (dinner)

A "Toonie" (2 dollars). Just thought I'd show you in case you don't know what Loonies or Toonies are. :)

Marble Slab with the Cimmeron Sisters. 

Week 11: Miracles

Heyo! Another week down in cold Canada.

This week was good ! We spent a lot of time trying to find new people to teach, but its still been -30 degrees so its hard to tract.  People don't even like to answer the door when we knock cause its too cold!

Wednesday: Regular P-day.  We played games with my zone and that was fun.

Thursday: Went to the dentist in Calgary for my comp. She was having problems with a tooth that was giving her headaches and stuff so we had to go get that checked out.  Then weekly planned for a couple hours and tracted and all that good stuff !

Friday: Miracle happened.  Last week we had a member appointment and we asked for a referral and they were hesitant because they said the last time they did that, they referred a lady who wasn't a member but her husband was, just a less active. Anyways some elders taught her a long time ago and she was about to be baptized but I guess an elder offended her and she called off the baptism and she's been anti-religious ever since. The member we met with said we should call that lady's daughter and ask her about us stopping by. So we did and she said she would talk to her parents to see if they were up to meeting with us. So she called them and they offered to take us out for supper!  Kelly (the daughter) was so shocked. So Friday they took us out to eat and it went really well.  I was so stressed the day before on what the dinner message was gonna be because I felt it had to be perfect. Me and my comp prayed hard all day to know what to share with her, and while I was in my personal study Friday morning I just felt calm about it and got the impression I just needed to love her. So dinner came around and we had a great time and got to know each other and they said they wanted to have us over to their home and at the end they took a selfie with us to send to their granddaughter who is on her mission right now in England (Kelly's daughter).  I left them with my testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave them one. It was a straight miracle! 

Saturday: Made some Valentines cookies for our potentials that are ignoring us right now. Ha ha.  It was sick! Then stopped by a girl we tracted into that said we could come back but she wasn't home so we were bummed about that!

Sunday: The best Sunday.  Our first ward was our friend Rachel's mission farewell. A lot of people were there and non-members that we got to meet.  During sacrament we sat next to Kelly (daughter of the grandparents we went to dinner with) and she was there for Rachel's farewell. Rachel was done speaking and then the Laurels sang the missionary medley and it was so spiritual. Kelly was sitting one person away from me, but I noticed her crying and was just pure tears cause I know she misses her daughter that is on her mission so much. After sacrament was over she was talking to us about her parents and how dinner went. I really felt like i needed to give her a hug, but I started over thinking it and thinking what if she doesn't want a hug?!  What if shes not a huger??  What if is awkward if i just ask if I can hug her?? ... I was over thinking it, but when she turned around and was grabbing her things I walked back up to her and said, "Kelly, can I give you a hug?" and I just hugged her and she held me so tight! She started bawling and said "Thank you so much! That felt like a hug from my daughter."  She was just a mess but she thanked me and told us that she has had a rough time while her daughter has been away because her husband isn't very active and her son isn't as well.  I got the vibe that she and her husband are having issues and don't get a long. But anyway,  she was going on about how she wants to take us shopping one P-Day and she wanted us over for supper when we don't have a dinner appointment. It was a really good day and I was so happy that I followed the promoting to give her a hug!

Monday: Had another dentist app cause Sister Neild had to get a root canal.  She's okay and she's feeling a lot better now but we had to take it easy that day.  We stopped by Brandy's but she was busy with her little kids and they were sitting down for supper when we came so we couldn't have a lesson. But she gave us her number so next time we come over we don't have to hope she will be free we can just text and ask her when its good for us to come by.  She is super sweet and I just want to teach her so bad. 

Tuesday: We had Zone Conference in Calgary all day.  It was fun.  Sitting for that long is hard for me but I love to hear President talk and just enlighten us! We had interviews with him after and he pulled me in and said, "Sister Wilson, I'm not big on having people who just finished training train a new missionary... but you are doing excellent and I feel it is appropriate to ask how you would feel to train? " I told him I was up for it and I'd try my very best! So I might be training this next transfer in a couple weeks.  We will see.... I'll keep you updated.

Also, another miracle I forgot to mention... we texted Kelly on Friday and we told her we didn't have a supper for Wednesday (today) and tomorrow. She said she would love to have us over both nights, and so we agreed! She seemed so excited and said her husband was impressed with us so this is the first time he is ever letting missionaries come over!  Sister Neild and I are really excited and were gonna bring the spirit with us HARD CORE!

The Lord is blessing us left and right, and even though its -30's here, we are out working hard and trying our very best everyday with gratitude in our hearts. I know the Lord labors with us as we labor in his vineyard. He sees our consecrated efforts and walks with us each step we take. I love serving him and his children!  It brings happiness like nothing else.  

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and my companion has never done ANYTHING for it before and she's 20 years old!  Ha ha.  So I'm going to do something fun for her. Mum, I miss our traditional Valentine's Day dinner with all us girls. I hope this year is a blast if you guys still decide to do it without me ! Love you SO much!  Kelly said that she will text you pictures of me when she has us for supper.  

Love you all and I can't wait to talk to you next week.

Love, 

Sister Wilson 

What tracting in -30 degrees looks like.  Notice the frozen hair and eyelashes...

Emily and me.  (Emmy I told her I had a sister named Emily and so she insisted we took a picture together to show you. She's the best! Also her dog is famous and that's all she talks about and it's hilarious. Every time we are over for supper she makes us watch tapes for like 45 mins of her dog when he was in his prime. I love it - it's the best!  Look him up -  his name is "Chimo"!

Rachel's Missionary Open House

More deer! They don't give a rip and will go on your doorstep.

Week 10: You Can't Come Over Here Anymore. Okay? I'm Sorry...

This week has been actually freezing, that's all I have to say.  Ha ha.  It's been -30 degrees all week, and it physically hurts to step outside. After about 5 seconds of being outside your nose hairs freeze.  No joke. It's hilarious but it actually kind of hurts.  The sun shines sometimes.....but the wind chill is awful and even though its -30 is makes it feel like -40's. It's upsetting.

Yesterday Elder Schmidt was telling us that when they were tracting, a lady let them in and he almost passed out because he went from below freezing to normal temperatures in like 30 seconds and he almost fainted. So we have to be careful ! And if we are out too long we will get frost bite so we have been doing a lot more Facebook contacting this week.

Anyhow, this week was good.  It was a little harder cause a lot of our potential and investigators dropped us, so that was sad!

I'm not gonna write each day out, because it was just meeting with people from our new ward we moved into so I'll just tell the main stuff...

Yesterday was MLC.(Missionary Leadership Council). Sister Nield is the Sister Trainer Leader in this area so we had to go and it was in Lethbridge a little over 2 hours away.  So we Road tripped and we were there all day and didn't get back until it was time for bed. But it was awesome!  We learned some good stuff and saw the missionaries from our last zone and that was fun!

Thursday and Friday: We tracted in our new area - De Winton. It took forever cause its a really wealthy area and there's not even neighborhoods because everyone lives on acres. So it look like 10 mins of walking to each door step and they didn't want anything to do with us because they were kinda snobby and not up for change at all cause they think they have everything.  So we will be finding ways to soften their hearts 😉

Saturday we met with "Avocado" (won't put her real name). We stopped by her house a couple times before but she was never home so this was my first time meeting her when we were finally able to catch her.  Sister Neild and her previous companion tracted into her and she took a Book of Mormon and reading it and was texting us and wanting to learn more they just were never able to meet. Anyways we stopped by Saturday afternoon and she was home. We were so excited ! She let us in, and we were talking for a little just saying hi. And then her mom came upstairs and just threw a dagger in our hearts.  She was going on about how they didn't want us to come over and how "Avocado" didn't want to be taught and that they have their own church and all this stuff, it was awful! It felt like she was talking forever and I was just dying to get it over with. So we left and we were so sad. We had high hopes for her so we were crushed. 

We watched some vidoes after to lift our spirits. 

And Sunday our potential "Tomato" texted us and said "You guys can't come over anymore.  Okay?  I'm sorry..."   His roommates made fun of him from learning more about Jesus Christ.

And all of our potentials canceled the appointments because some stuff, so it was hard.  So this week was a struggle, but it's ok.  I read a really great talk during personal study this week that I really loved.  After reading it I realized it was a good thing we were so sad that we got dumped so many times this week, because it's easy to see others with so much potential and we want nothing more than to show them the road back to our Father in Heaven.

The scriptures reveal that the more we love God and His children, the happier we become. The love Jesus spoke about, however, isn’t a gift-card, throwaway, move-on-to-other-things love. It isn’t a love that is spoken of and then forgotten. It is not a “let me know if there is anything I can do” sort of love.

The love God speaks of is the kind that enters our hearts when we awake in the morning, stays with us throughout the day, and swells in our hearts as we give voice to our prayers of gratitude at evening’s end.

This is the inexpressible love Heavenly Father has for us.

It is this endless compassion that allows us to more clearly see others for who they are. Through the lens of pure love, we see immortal beings of infinite potential and worth and beloved sons and daughters of Almighty God.

Once we see through that lens, we cannot discount, disregard, or discriminate against anyone."

Love that! The lord requires hard things of us, and missions are hard. But remember that" men are that they might have joy"(2 Nephi 2:25) we CAN and SHOULD find joy when we face hard things. Which is why I'm so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ because he overcame all, so when we do hard things we can always turn to him!💪

Love you guys! Hope to hear from you and update me on how you are doing as well! Have a great week and hope it's not too cold at home.

Love, 
Sister Wilson

This morning shopping (realized I didn't have any pictures from this week so I stopped and snapped one!😘) 

2 weeks ago before transfers

2 weeks ago before transfers

2 weeks ago before transfers