Sidewalk Chalk

May 7
There was a street that, during planning that morning, we had both said the name of at the same time. So we decided to knock there. (And let me tell you, knocking is very ineffective and quite hard in Courtenay. Nearly everyone assumes that we are the JWs coming by for the second time that month and many of those people slam the door in our face before we can get a word in) We both agreed that that was the place to go finding, despite knocking being the least successful way of finding that we've found here. Not only that, but I was not feeling very good so it was really tempting to do something less taxing. But we did it anyways. Annnd we found 3 more investigators in the space of 20 minutes. Seriously. There have been multiple weeks where we only found 3 in the whole week! And 7 is the most that I've ever found in a single week before, too! So that was awesome! 

Speaking of finding, we tried out a new way of finding this week, too! One of our STLs suggested it. We bought some sidewalk chalk, then we went to a big park that normally has lots of people. We then wrote "What makes you happy?" in big letters on the ground. Then we split up and invited the people around us to write down something that makes them happy. We would discuss that with them as they wrote and after, and then connected those things to the gospel! It was really cool. I took some pictures of all of the things people wrote down. Also, we talked to upwards of 50 people in the hour or so that we were there, which was especially awesome.

Honestly, going to Powell River is always a very crazy visit. Lots to do.

We also have a big Cinco de Mayo ward activity on Saturday. It was super fun, and we gave a church tour to some of the new people that came! It was super awesome and went really well. Also, we got free taco salad.

We got to do our weekly planning outside, too! It was quite fun. There are wasps that keep building nests right outside our apartment door (the count got up to 11 nests on Saturday) but that spot was quite free of them I did end up hanging my umbrella up for some shade, though. It worked really well! There's a picture of that somewhere in the several hundred that I'm uploading this week.

I love you!!!! Talk to you on Sunday!! 

Zone P Day

April 30

Okay, to start off, on Monday right after we finished emailing we drove down to Nanaimo for a Zone P Day! We took a tiny little ferry to an island right along the coast in Nanaimo. There was some hike/ scavenger hunt to a place on the island where some member, decades ago, had buried a set of "gold" plates. Apparently it's been a fun activity/ tradition for the members there to do again and again for a long time. We planned on taking the ferry right after them, but instead of being half an hour apart, we had to wait a full hour after them to get over there. (it was the boat drivers' lunch break.) Sooo we waited at a nearby playground while the Elders did the hike. However, we found out later that the plates weren't even there! Someone took them out and never returned them. :( However, we did play games like ultimate frisbee and whatnot together afterwards. It was tons of fun! 

On Wednesday, we joined the young womens/ young mens/ faith in God activity, where we went on a hike in Seal Bay Nature park. It was so pretty, and the tide was waaay out when we got there. We got to hold baby crabs and they gave a lesson on being a light to their friends. Then we lit Chinese lanterns! The one that helped send off was purple. :) So it was quite awesome!!

Yesterday we had exchanges!! It was super fun. Not much success numbers-wise, but it was good to change things up a little. We also met some super interesting people!

 


















But now, today, we had our Sisters P Day together! We went on the same hike as Wednesday with them, and took tons of pictures and whatnot. Both Sister Bloomfield and Sister Yraguen got to hold the little baby carbs, too! We also went to the Goose Spit, which is pretty much the "beach" part along the coast here in Courtenay. We climbed up a HUGE and looooooooong set of stairs and then went walking along the beach. We found tons of shells and whatnot and just overall had fun together! 

Miracles

April 23
Jeanette has seen miracle after miracle. She says she has to come up with a new subject line for her emails because Miracles would work each week. They are in the right place at the right time or someone arrives when they need to or a phone rings to wake someone up so they answer the door.

Spent another day in Powell River with members and contacting. They were asked to visit a couple who moved out from Eastern Canada and the visit went well.They also met a friend of the couple who lives in Comox so they will visit her when back in Courtenay.

"There was pollen EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING and I am forever grateful that I do not have seasonal allergies because that would be like DEATH in Courtenay. Seriously, we'd come back from an hour lesson and our windshield would have solid, dark yellow streaks on it from the pollen. Tuesday was the worst with it. I kept having to wipe my name tag off because it no longer looked black. We've spent a LOT of time outside this week, too (no sunburns!!!!) :D 

  and I am very grateful for the wonderful weather here."

She got her new phone.

Saw Victoria Arnott from Red Deer stake who now lives in Courtenay. She went to Red Deer YSA for awhile.

Elder Bednar

April 16
Went to Richmond to hear Elder Bednar speak to the missionaries. Elder Bednar and the other general authorities shook hands with all the missionaries.

Elder David A Bednar is an Apostle. A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“We read in the Bible that the ancient Apostles held the keys of the kingdom. The role of an Apostle today is the same as it was anciently,” he said. “An Apostle is a missionary, bearing testimony of the reality and divinity of Jesus Christ in all the world.”

To see the Prophet, the First Presidency and all the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

https://www.lds.org/church/leaders?lang=eng

Powell River

She and her companion now also cover the Powell River ward. She and Sister Bawden take a ferry from Comox over to Powell River. The area has not had missionaries for about a year but many people still recognize us as LDS missionaries. They stayed over night at a sister's home.

She had a hard day when several people didn't want to be taught any more. It is a sad day, but later in the week they spent the day "finding" at the marina. Near the end of the day they found someone to teach!

They volunteer each week at different places and homes.

Volunteered at Retirement Home and Teaching

April 3
On Tuesday, we had exchanges with the Sisters in Nanaimo. It was tons of fun! Sister Huckabee and I volunteered at a super fancy retirement home and decorated Easter eggs with them.

We did all sorts of fun things and tried some new things out as well, like store contacting at Superstore. When we were done we decided we had to buy SOMETHING so we bought one of those superstore $10 bags of mini pizza pops and had some of those for supper as a treat. 

We decided to do one more loop around a building instead of heading to the next place, and we ended up getting a return appointment with a woman that we talked to there.
On Wednesday we had our last district meeting as a district.. Photo on left.

We had an appointment with a girl we had met, but we got a little lost getting to the place and we were a little late getting up there and when we got there she wasn't there! We actually found a couple friends of hers, who called her at let her know that we had come. And she came back! We ended up having her lesson outside because it was a beautiful sunny day. And that lesson was so, so spiritual. She already has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ. 

We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ as our first lesson, and committed her to be baptised!  She is SO EXCITED and SO prepared by God! She was so excited that we had found her- she loves to talk about Christ and do her best to be like HIM but nobody ever actually wanted to talk to her about that before we came. Also, she later came to General conference and we had another lesson with her yesterday, in which she video called her parents so that we could meet!

 

Baptism

March 26
So! We had a baptized!! AYYYYY!! It's so exciting!! We are supposed to have daily contact with our investigators, especially in the week leading up to their baptism, but that was extremely hard because she works all day and often doesn't get home until after we are supposed to be home. So we did fun little things to change things up (as in, not just a "Hi, how are you" text every day) and one of those things was a fruit basket! We just got a small assortment of fruits and a little cheap Easter basket and a card and dropped it off on her doorstep at the end of the day! She loved it. Her neighbours told her that they saw us do it, and thought it quite funny that two teenagers would do such kind acts for her. I uploaded a couple of pictures of it!

The baptism itself went without a hitch! Her sister was visiting from New Brunswick and her son came as well! It was SUPER AWESOME and she's so happy! Not only that, another lady who I got to be there for her baptism, is very good friends with her. I pointed out that their first temple trip will be at the same time (the ward has planned one for everyone, so they can carpool and whatnot), and they both got so excited and gave each other a huge hug! Those two are amazing.

They'll both ADORE the temple, and it's amazing that they get to experience it for the first time together! It's so exciting!! I am so blessed to be able to be here for both of their baptisms. I can't even take any of the credit! God prepared them, they both opened up their hearts and were willing to learn, and the spirit testified to both of them. All we really do as missionaries is invite the spirit, teach the basic doctrine, and figure out all of the tiny details leading up to the ordinance itself. It's really cool to see how we are just messengers that are here to help God's work moving forward.


Sister Bawden have been trying out different and creative ways to find people to teach, and it's been lots of fun! We roleplay each new idea a few times before we do it, and it's really easy to figure out small mistakes and kinks in the method with her because she is very supportive and we both take criticism well.

We have figured out how to both work hard and have fun at the same time, and it makes everything a little bit easier, a little more fun, and a little bit brighter!