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

Week 9: With Love, From Canada

Hello.  It's me again!

This week has been really good! It's still snowy and windy.  On Sunday we had a rain storm and the power kept going on and off at church because of the wind.  Then the rain froze overnight and the ground was even MORE slick.

We have transfers this week and a lot of change happening with our zone (group of missionaries in a specific area). I will be staying with sister Neild but we are losing the Young Single Adult (YSA, singles who are 18-30 years old) Ward in Calgary (a "Ward" is a congregation of people who worship together).  We are so sad about that.  We were just getting more work and getting closer with the ward, so we're so upset to be leaving.  But, we are picking up the Dewinton Ward here in Okotoks, and we will keep the Sheep River Ward, so we'll have the two wards in Okotoks now. That will be fun! The sisters that live below us have a change - one is training a new missionary and the other is leaving to a different area, so we are sad to see her go.  We are all close! Every night we get together and talk about our day, so we are super tight. 

Wednesday: Regular P-Day (Preparation Day,  1/2 day off  once a week from missionary service to do laundry, shop, etc). We played games with our zone, which is always the best.

Thursday:  RETRAINERS - It was so fun! This is were all the missionaries that came in together get to meet up at the Mission Home with our Mission President to catch up and talk about what we have learned so far.  It was awesome! 

Friday: had an appointment with Kelsey (the girl who was knitting the scarf on the train) and we taught the Plan of Salvation and it went good.  At the end I was able to give my first invitation to baptism! She said she wasn't ready yet, but it was good to know so we can work towards getting her more prepared and figure out her needs. The Zone leaders are taking over the YSA, so that was our last lesson with her.  We passed her off but I really hope she progresses and gets baptized.  She's really great. 

Saturday: So in previous letter, I've talked about Jewel (the Filipino lady) and her mom who lives with her.  When we go to their house, Jewel is never home so Esther (the mom) lets us in and we talked with her.  She is so hard to understand because she doesn't speak very much English. Long-story short, Esther talked about how her son died at 22 so we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She started crying and the spirit was awesome. I know she felt it and we testified that she will see him again. I don't know if she understood everything we were saying... but she invited us back on Saturday to say goodbye because she's leaving back to the Philippines. She will be gone for 6 months to take care of her sick husband. As a really cool side note... she knows Braden is there on his mission!  She's from Quezon City so I told her to keep her eyes out for a really tall American guy and she said, "okay - I will. If I see missionaries there I hold up the Book of Mormon and say hi"!  We were like, "Yeeees!" ha ha. We're hoping she runs into missionaries in the Philippines who can keep teaching her. So Braden - look for Esther!  Ha ha.  That would be the biggest miracle if you actually ran into her. 😉 

  

Sunday: Last time with the Priddis Valley YSA Ward, but it was good. I fasted and that was so good. I have a testimony of the blessings of fasting!

I have a Native American friend in the same building that the YSA meets in and he's so awesome. He's in his 50's and we have a really weird connection.  I feel like I've known him my whole entire life!  He was so sad to hear that I'm leaving that area, but he made sure we'll keep in touch.  He has a son on his mission right now and he's DYING for me to come back after my mission and meet him. Ha ha.  He said, "I know that is not appropriate right now, but I'd love for you guys to meet when your get home."  He's going to be disappointed when he finds out that I'm reserved.  Love you Braden. ❤

Monday: Last day in Downtown Calgary since we're not with the Calgary YSA anymore. But, we went out hard and were handing out Pass-Along Cards and Book of Mormons left and right!  It was so crazy.  😎  We ran into a funny dude when we were walking back the trains and I will never forget him. I wish I had time to tell you the story - sorry!  Then, the RM's (return missionaries) from the YSA Ward took us out for dinner one last time and that was really fun. After that, the Osberg's took us out for ice cream at Marble Slab. I love them. ❤

Tuesday: We did service at local Food Bank.  After that, we stopped by and tried to meet with Brandy but she wasn't home.  We are going back for sure this weekend.  I'm really excited about that! 

This past week I feel like my heart has been expanded.  The people I'm serving and meeting have made a special place in it. I'm reading a really good book by M Russell Ballard, which is called Our Search for Happiness.  It's amazing and it's helping me look at my mission in a different perspective. I'm so happy! ❤

Hope you all have a wonderful week and of course thanks for the emails.  Love you all!

Love, 

Sister Wilson

p.s.  I found out some family history stuff from my mom last week and told my Mission President about it and he was SO excited! He called us yesterday for transfer calls and he was like, "Sister Wilson, I'm putting you on an Indian Reservation sometime!" and he was going on about how excited excited he was and how he knows I'm here for a reason. I love my President.  He reminds me of the grandma off of the Disney movie Moana!  He's just such a special spirit - no other way to describe it! So yah, I'm going to be serving on a First Nation Reservation sometime!

p.s.s. Today we have zone P-Day and we are all going to some ice caves.  I'm excited!  And later this week its supposed to be in the -30's with more snow ...so not too excited about that.  But, it's going to be another awesome week for sure!

p.s.s.s. Here are the pictures from this week.  Special shoutout to my girl Enya - you said you read my Blogs so when you see... know that I love you and miss you already! Give the Elders a hard time in YSA 😉.  Email me too so we can keep up! ❤ 

Love, 
Sister Wilson

 

Sister Palmer (MTC Companion) and Sister Wilson

Sister Palmer (MTC Companion) and Sister Wilson

Service with Canadian Blood Services with Sister Neild

The Cutest Ivestigator, Esther

Downtown Calgary

Downtown Calgary

Enya and Sister Wilson

Service at the Food Bank with Sister Neild

P-Day at the Ice Caves

P-Day at the Ice Caves

P-Day at the Ice Caves

P-Day at the Ice Caves

Week 8: Blizzards and Pranks

Hello everyone.

Another week down, and its been snowing good ! currently its a blizzard outside hahah. Its been mostly -25 (remember Celsius in Canada) so still very cold. but yeah a snowy week hahah ! buts its been a good one !

thursday: helped good ole RoseAnne again haha ! it was good. regular missionary stuff and weekly planned for a couple hours. And it was snowing all day, so we shoveled a couple drive ways so that was fun ! 

Friday: We had a YSA meeting, All the missionaries covering a YSA ward came to this meeting. And me and sister nield were asked to give a 20 min discussion and we were so terrified hahah. President, The AP's and a bunch of awesome missionaries were there and me and sister neild were gonna throw up we were so nervous ha! but it went fine, and i got to see sister Palmer and we hugged and chatted and were soooo happy to talk and catch up.

Saturday: We walked Addy! Shes the best dog. i Talked about wade and Jackie awhile back i think. But anyways they own Addy and they are older and wade is a trucker and jackie had surgery not too long ago so she has a hard time walking the dog. And on thursday we shoveled her driveway for her and when we got done we saw her walking down the street and we ran over to say hi and she was so thankful to see us, she had just fallen on the ice and hit her head, so we took addy and helped her inside and we made sure she was ok. She was having the worst day, so she was so grateful we shoveled her drievway and helped her with addy, So we walked Addy for her saturday, and afterwards she made us hot coco and we visited with her for a little and we showed her the Because of Him Video and she wasnt too interested in that you could tell. Which makes me sad because i love her so much and we are good friends now and we always check up on her and she makes us soups and treats and just takes care of us! so hopefully she will be open to learning more some day, but we love serving her and being her friend and wade her hubby worries about her when hes gone so hes grateful we watch out for her ! also we went downtown Calgary and that was awesome ! got one person from that !! 

Sunday : Normal sunday churches ! we had "linger longer" after YSa ward (aka break the fast) 

and that was good ! then afterwards we met with Alisha. Shes in the YSA ward and she is awesom!shes lesbian, and she struggles with that everyday. So we meet with her often and share uplifiting messages with her! i love her and hearing about everything she has been through and the things she struggles with has been so humbling to me. Ive been able to come to know her and try to put myself in her shoes to see where shes coming from and its been a life changing experience honestly. she loves the lord and she she fights the natural man everyday and her faith is so inspiring! 

Monday: District council,then lunch with the best zone 😎 and went to a girl named lisas! she was gonna get baptized but flaked the last second, so right now is not her time and shes made that clear but we just serve her now and try to help in any way we can ! so we went over and vacuumed her house and made her and her kids beds cause she was having some guests over that night. so that was good ! and then later that night we had 2 appointments with our investigators but they both werent home ! so we were bummed about that

Tuesday: did service at the food bank, met with alicia again. by the way she sings and plays guitar and its awesome ! she writes about her life and her feelings and shes so good ! ill send a video of it :) then did studies and went to Downtown Calgary again! I love it there hahah its so interesting, its like a mini new york city i feel like ! its huge and theres so much going on !i feel like Stewart little when hes in his red convertible and everything is so big. It can be hard tho cause a lot of people we try to talk to dont even speak english. But its good and its beautiful there!

it was a good week ! but just a little hard cause almost every investigator wasnt able to meet this week. and when people would say that they were interested in hearing a message, we called and texted them and they dont get back to us hahaha! yesterday a set of Sitsers from the Paris France mission called us and reffered us to a guy here in okotoks who really wants to learn more. so he texted  us asking if it was the sisters and if we could meet and we said yes and tried to set up an appointment but he wont get back to us! and a couple more people have done that same thing to us this week as well hahah. so were getting straight pranked haha!! no its ok tho we will keep trying of course ! 

OHHHH ALSO i forgot to mention, earlier this week we met with that girl we met on the train a couple weeks back and we taught the restoration and gave hr a BOM and shes starting to read it and we asked her if she came to know that it was true if she would be baptized and she said yes ! i was so excited ! and she couldn't make it to church this last Sunday but she said shes gonna come this Sunday so ill keep you guys updated on that ! 

so i had an awesome week, and praying that people will get back to us ! im embracing the cold, but not loving it too much 😎😉 haha i love you guys !!! have an awesome week !!!❤ sending pictures in a separate email right now ! 

Love, 
Sister Wilson

p.s. Today marks my two months down! 16 more to go... and loving every bit of it.

Service: Shoveling Driveways

Downtown Calgary

Downtown Calgary

Downtown Calgary

Calgary Flames Hockey Team Pride

Tracting Selfie

Service: Dog Walking Addy

Service: Dog Walking Addy

Week 7: Exciting Work!

Hi everyone. Another awesome week down! 

Thursday: Met with Matti.  He was refereed to us from the AP's (Assistants to the Mission President), and he's so awesome.  He is from Iran, and he is here in Canada going to University. We had our first lesson with him and it went sooooo good! I was so excited afterward.  We taught the Restoration and he is so interested and wants to learn more. But the sad thing is, he doesn't know how much longer he is able to stay in Canada before he gets sent home. And If you convert to another religion in Iran than a) your family kills you, or b) the government finds you and kills you. Tough odds.  So in the first lesson he told us right away that issue. Also, we aren't allowed to baptize Muslims, because of safety concerns for them (whole killing thing!), but we can still teach them and it's so cool! He's great and when we recited the first vision afterward he was like, "Wow!" and that gave me the chills. So me and my companion Sister Neild were hyped about that. Then we finished weekly planning and all that good stuff. 

Friday: Taught Brandy.  She is the young mom I mentioned in last week's email. She is the sweetest thing! We finally were able to catch her when she wasn't so busy and got to know her.  We also taught her about the restoration and she was very interested. She had lots of questions and at one point thought me and Sister Neild were prophets. Ha ha ha.  We had to clear that up quick!  😉   After her lesson she said, "I'm not going to make any huge promises right now, but you guys have definitely sparked my interest".  So she committed to start reading the Book of Mormon.  We're following up with her this week and I'm so excited!

Saturday: Nothing too big. We stopped by some potential investigators but no one was home that day, so that was kinda hard.  We mostly spent the day tracting (knocking on doors) and going through Area Book (record left by previous missionaries) to find more people.  

Sunday: We attended the Family Ward at 9am and then the Young Single Adult (YSA) Ward in Calgary at 12pm. It was fun! Come Follow Me (a scripture study guide) is so AWESOME! It really helps with missionary work, we are able to meet with less active member families and have lessons from it.  It's so good!

Monday: Missionary Exchanges!  We switched our companionship up with the sisters that live downstairs -  Sister Hansen and Sister Larson.  I lead my area with Sister Hansen and Sister Neild (regular companion) went with Sister Larsen in theirs.  I was so nervous at first because I had to plan our day and all that.  Added pressure is that Sister Hansen is the Sister Training Leader, ha ha ha... so I was a little scared.  But she's the sweetest thing ever and we had an awesome day together! 

Tuesday: Exchanges with Sister Larson! She has a concussion so we had to take it easy, but we got sushi for lunch and that was great! Then, we walked downtown Okotoks and tracted for a couple hours.  We had two lessons and then dinner.  After that, we went back home to end our exchanges.  When we were done we all said one thing we learned from each companion, and everyone said that they learned how to be BOLD from me.  That was soo good to hear! Everyday I pray that I can be confident and bold when talking to people and bearing my testimony all the time because I was really nervous about that when I started my mission. In a few short weeks, I've learned that the Lord works through the weak and simple, and that no matter what people say - no one can take away a born witness in your heart. I have a testimony of this restored gospel.  I know that it is given to all who will accept it.  It is for everyone, and we all need it.  I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to share it! 

This week was great and I'm getting a lot better at teaching and all that good stuff.  I'm still as happy as ever! Ha ha.  Every time we have a good lesson, right after we get out of the door... I do a little happy dance on the way back to the car because I get so excited and pumped about teaching others.  I love helping them come closer to Christ!

Love you guys. Thanks for all the prayers and everything you do! Talk soon.

Love,
Sister Wilson

 Sushi with Sister Larsen during a Missionary Exchange

Tracting (knocking on doors) with Sister Larsen during a Missionary Exchange

Another bridge by a pretty river. 

Pretty river - but it's very cold!  

Tracting (knocking on doors) in Okotoks

Beautiful sunrise outside our apartment window.  This is the view from the kitchen table! 

Week 6: A Good Week Despite an Icy Patch

Yo, Yo, Yo! How is everyone?! I'm living it up here! This week was awesome and good stuff happening!

Thursday: weekly planned until 4pm, then we went with the elders to give some kids a blessing.  IF was cool!

Friday: FUNNY/ SCARY DAY 

Normal missionary stuff in the morning and then we went to a nursing home to help a lady move in to her room. To say the least, she is a collector of many things (also known as a hoarder) Ha. Ha.  There was literally 2 inches of space throughout her whole apartment to walk and there was piles of boxes up to the ceiling.  When wee walked in and saw it, our jaws dropped.. But she put us to WORK and I rolled up my sleeves and skirt and got to it. My back was sore the next day!  The other set of sisters that live below us, came the next day and helped us. It was good and she really appreciated it so I was happy!

So after we got done helping Roseanne, it was about 6 pm and it was dark outside already but we went tracting in a sketchy neighborhood.  We were there for about an hour and a half and it was freezing.  It takes us forever to move around because the ice is all over the ground and we are like Bambi on ice. Ha Ha Ha.  We were trying our hardest not to fall. Anyway, we gut done with the apartment complex and we had about 15 mins left to tract.... so I was like, "Ok. Let's go to the neighborhood across the street and do the rest there". So we start walking (side note: Sister Neild and I have a bet that whenever one of us falls on the ice, the person who fell owes the other person Tim Hortons - the best hot coco ever, by the way!)  Anyway, we start walking to the other neighborhood and we are walking down a drive way and the ground is nothing but a sheet of ice.  So... we get about half way and Sister Neild starts to fall for like 5 seconds and her ankles are being broken just doing everything she can to not fall down. Ha! Ha! Ha! So she's falling... and it all happens too fast and she falls and does a 360 and BELLY FLOPS SO HARD on the ice! For real!  It was such a hard fall!  So, I get down and I'm like "OMG! Are you okay?!" and I start laughing.  I'm like, "HAHAHA! YOU OWE ME TIM HORTONS. Yes!" and she's kinda laughing and I'm laughing, and I can't see her face because she's on her stomach, and so she lays her head down on the ice.  I thought she was just chilling before she tried to get back up, so I'm laughing away and blah blah blah.  I'm looking at her laying down and she starts shaking and I thought she was laughing silently, so she starts shaking and I get down and I'm like, "Ha Ha Ha. After this, we're totally going to Timmys!".  But she's not answering.  So like 5 seconds pass, and I just hear this SUPER loud snoring. I'm so confused and I'm like, "what the heck?!".  Ha Ha.  I thought Sister Neild was pranking me and pretending to be alseep. But her face is on the ice and I'm like, "Dude!  Get up. The ice is cold". Ha ha ha. But she doesn't get up and she's snoring soooo loud. So I kinda get worried. I start poking her and then started shaking her and shes just not responding.  So I start shaking her pretty hard and some seconds later,  she wakes up super fast and is like "Where am I? What happened?!" and she looks terrified!! She starts laugh/crying, and then I start laugh/crying and we just sit there.  I  told her what happened - she straight blacked out! We were scared and she was banged up a little, but she didn't hit her head. So I drove us home and we called the Mission Nurse and she checked her out and said she's okay.  Sister Neild had a heart condition when she was little and that made her have a vasovagal response. So she's ok,  Apparently she has passed out a couple times in the past. Afterward we laughed about it and discussed that she is pretty much a fainting goat. I was just dying at the fact that my companion was knocked out cold on the ice... and I'm just standing there laughing saying, "Ha! Ha! Ha!. You ow me Tim Hortons coco!"

I felt bad.  I didn't know , so I ended up buying her Timmy's instead. Ha ha. ❤

Only, I didn't actually buy it because the worker was trying to holler at me, so he gave me my drinks for free and made it a large with a bag of donuts :)  Ha Ha.  W are laughing at that too

Saturday: Found a new investigator ! A cute mom and her baby. She is the sweetest and I'm really excited to meet with her. 

Also another story... This week was crazy. Honestly. We were stopping at a potential investigator's house one night and it was really foggy outside.  We could hardy see and pulled up to the house and said a prayer.  We were getting ready to hop out after our prayer but we heard the back car door open and this lady (wearing all black) just stands there for a second and then starts to get in.  My first instinct was to open the door because I was going to start running.  Ha ha.  I straight thought we were gonna get kidnapped!  I'm such a bad companion!  I was ready to run away and leave Sister Neild behind :( Ha ha.  But the lady looked up and saw us and she was like, "oh. Hmmm... I think I'm in the wrong car." and just gets up and leaves.  We were in shock and just terrified.  But we didn't get kidnapped!  

Sunday: Home Ward, then drove to our Young Single Adult  Ward in Calgary. It was a good day! 

Monday: SWEET day! We street contacted in Calgary!  It was awesome!  It's a little scary just walking up to random people on the street and on trains and talking to them, but I love it honestly!

We spent the day riding the trains and buses contacting everyone. Definitely sketchy though.  We got asked a couple times by druggies for money, but we feel pretty protected as missionaries so it's alright. And also, it's scary going there because there is soooo many people walking around town and hopping from train to train. There was a lot of men staring. The scariest thing was probably when I smiled at a man and asked how he was doing and he said good.  I started talking to him but got really creepy vibes so I ended the conversation and when we walked away he started following us. So we hopped on the train and lost him thankfully!  ha ha. But Sister Neidl stopped and said "Hey Sister Wilson - I don't know if you've noticed... but i think you are too cute because the guys won't stop looking at you like they want to steal you. We can leave if you want..."  Ha ha.  But we decided to keep going and it was ok! But yeah, it's a little scary doing that.  However, we found  4 potential investigators and I was on a roll talking to everybody and their doggies. We stopped at Anderson and Queesnsland Station and walked up and down a big bridge for about an hour, stopping people and talking to everyone and their doggies. It was awesome!

Tuesday: Zone conference! It was sweet! It was really long and lasted from 10am to 5pm, but it was cool and I learned a lot! 

Then after that we stopped by a less active member's house. His name is Elvis and he and his family is from the Philippines. He is a member but his wife and kids aren't. His wife isn't interested, but his little girl is so interested and she is SO sweet and cute! His oldest son just arrived in Canada in November and he has another son back in the Philippines going to university there. 

We had a really awesome lesson and his kids loved it and were asking a bunch of questions! So we are teaching them! We watched a video about faith in a Mormon Message, and afterward the little girl was like "Daddy we should pray and read our scriptures and show the Lord our faith so we can see a miracle and save up enough money to visit our brother in the Philippines!" It was so cute and it made me so happy. So, they are trying to save up to visit the brother back home. We are also teaching an Iranian family as well. They are a little harder to work with and don't speak very good English, but we are working with them and its awesome ! Then to finish the night some of the guys from our YSA Ward took us out to dinner. It was really fun and they told us all of their crazy mission stories and it was the best! 

I've seen lots of miracles this week and I just love the work. I'm coming to understand how important this work is to the Lord and I'm so happy to be apart of it! I studied some really great things this week and it was so good. I'm so happy! I'm excited for this new week and I know that as I put all my faith in the Lord and trust that we can see miracles everyday, that it will happen! 

Sorry for the long email this week!  Love you guys. We'll talk next week! ❤

Love,

Sister Wilson

Drinking Sleepytime herbal tea Aunt J sent (Bonus points if you can spot Braden!)

Sister Neild and I. (Love her!)

Street contacting (Talking to strangers in the street)

Street contacting (talking to strangers in the street)

Street contacting (talking to strangers in the street)

Tracting (knocking on doors)

Dinner with Young Single Adult Ward Members