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!

Sang at Zone Conference & Herring Run

March 19
I sang at Zone Conference this week again. Last time it was a super fancy version of If you could Hie to Kolob (because Elder Lee was crazy awesome at playing the piano, but he is not in this zone this transfer) so this transfer we did an A Capella version of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief. It was pretty cool!

So, last Monday was a Zone P-day. It was a blast! After we drove down to Nanaimo we did a Nerf war in the stake centre. That was crazy awesome. Sister Bawden and I lasted a long time in both of the team games that we did. After that, we went Bowling! That was pretty fun, too. A couple of the Elders were crazy good at it. One said that if you got three strikes in a row in the bowling alley where he's from they would get a special prize- except that the special prize was some alcoholic drink so that they wouldn't be able to do it again, haha. But he didn't drink so they would give him something else. But he kept scoring really well. All of us Sisters took some pictures with each other, too!





There's a marina in Comox that people always come to whenever it is sunny. (Thus, great contacting grounds) But! The Herring Run happened this week, so there were sea lions and eagles all over the place! We saw and heard quite a few. It was amazing! Apparently the Orcas will come soon as well to eat the sea lions. We haven't seen any of those yet, though!

Thursday night was the Relief Society's birthday. We did a service auction/ Fiesta! It was sooo much fun and the food was delicious. As Sister missionaries we offered to teach one family home evening lesson (The full deal- treats and everything) as our service. I won a necklace and earrings in a mystery bag that I had bid over. I had to ask them if the contents of the bag were Sister missionary appropriate, first. They weren't sure! Haha, they had to ask a few more people to make sure that it was okay for me to get that. But they finally asked a Sister who had actually served a mission, and she said of course! So I bid on it.

Sister Bawden got some free soaps! The woman who offered it was just visiting her mom- She actually lives in Edmonton and sells soaps as a side business. It's called Beanstalk and it's really really really good soap. We had dinner at her mom's place the other day, and she made some soap right in front of us!

But! Miracles! So, the ward has been doing a 40-day fast right now, and Friday was our day to do it. Right as we were leaving the marina to go to a dinner appointment and break out fast, we got a call. A guy had found a Plan of Salvation pamphlet on the ground with our number on the back. (We had handed some of those to some high school girls on the way into the marina) He read the things inside and was curious- he wants to learn more! Absolute miracle!

Another miracle! This Sunday, we came into church and one of the Sisters in our ward hightailed over to us- a man came to church yesterday, and he's not a member, but he's interested in learning about the the church! We sat down nearby- the ward was already doing a wonderful job of welcoming him. When we got to know him better, we learned that he came today because his ex-girlfriend, who isn't a member, told him to. Haha, it's just as crazy as it sounds! He stuck around for our gospel principles class, and we focused on the creation. With spectacular timing, a lady in the ward who is a convert walked in halfway through the lesson. She talked abut how, before she was introduced into the church, she had never even thought about the beauty of God's creations and how it is another reflection of God's love for us. It was super cool! And, like I said, an absolute miracle.

Boring week - no dogs, Stake Conference

March 12
This week was a lot more boring for me than last week, haha. No dogs threatening us or anything. We got to do exchanges with our Sister training leaders on Friday and Saturday, then we had interviews with President Wong in Nanaimo Saturday afternoon, and then we drove to Courtenay to watch the broadcast of the adult session of stake conference with a couple of investigators.

Oh! While I was in Nanaimo, I saw Sister Thomassen. She was (I think) a stake Young Women's leader while I was in Young Women's. She lives in Nanaimo now. We only got to say hi and bye really quickly because I saw her on my way into my interview with President Wong. She spoke at stake conference on Sunday. It was super cool to see a familiar face from ages ago!

Yesterday was pretty awesome. We had more time to get ready in the morning because we didn't have any meetings to attend AND the Sunday morning broadcast started half an hour after church normally starts here, so we did all of our planning and studying before church. But, after church, our plans flew out the window! One of the Bishop's sons found a wallet in the bushes by the church, so we went with him to return it. (Hoping to get a new investigator along the way, haha) She didn't answer that time. We went our separate ways, but a few hours later, we came back on our own. The woman who answered wasn't the owner of the wallet, but she became a new investigator! Then, after dinner, we had two appointments. Both were extremely awesome, aaaand one of them is going to be baptised on March 24, the day that you'll be at the special oympics meet! :D So that was pretty awesome all on it's own.

First Dog Story

March 5
Jeanette has found a companion as jubilant as she is! "Sister Bawden and I have so much fun together, even in some of the smaller things. We're both very enthusiastic and have fun working together! "

And they had a dog story together. 

(Mom, you're probably gonna freak out for this one. Sit down first lol)
On Tuesday, after the sun had gone down, we went to try and visit a part-member family. There are two roads that have the same name (a common thing in Courtenay) and we could only find the one. Except it was after dark, so we could barely read the house numbers! We finally read enough to realize that the house we were looking for was not on that side of the road. On out way out from the road, we drove by a part that looked out over the harbour. It was so pretty! The moon was very bright, and it reflected all over the water. And you could see the lights from Comox across the harbour as well! And those lights were also reflected in the water. We stopped for a little bit to take in the view. I tried to take pictures, but it wasn't bright enough to capture anything. There is one picture that I uploaded that has the lights from the other side of the harbour, but you can't really see much. :(  But!  Then

We got back in the car and tried to find the other half of the road. The only side of it that we could find had big DO NOT ENTER signs all over it. Sooo we were good missionaries and followed the laws of the land, haha. We drove around and parked in a nearby complex, then asked around for instructions (mixed with normal missionary finding. Asking for directions is a pretty easy way to start a conversation ;P ) and we FINALLY found the other half of the road. We walked down it, struggling to read the numbers on the houses. There were no street lights, so it was very dark. But we finally found it! I was the very last house (obviously, with our luck hahaha) but that house had huge NO TRESPASSING signs and other signs with the general message of not waning people on their property. It also looked like they had cameras and motion sensors all around the house!  Sister Bawden and I both stopped at the gates, and decided that we should come back another time. We went to turn around to head back to the car, and Sister Bawden SCREAMED SO LOUDLY! Which spooked me pretty badly as well. I turned to try to see was she was looking at, but she was right in front of me, so I couldn't see! Except that suddenly she wasn't in front of me. She was running away, going behind me! And I saw, right ahead on the path, a big, dark, shadow. In the direction that we needed to go in order to get back to the path. There was this big, new loud noise, and-

...oh. It's a dog.

...a very big dog, coming towards us.

...oohhhh, I should probably do something.

(Mom, your story of a dog walking past you to bite at your companion came to mind at this time. Hope you know I've been thinking of you.)

The dog barked again, but it stopped running in order to do that. So, I jumped into action and ran TOWARDS IT, (smart, I know.) making lots of noise and flapping my arms. It worked! The dog ran away, back into the bushes. Sister Bawden had seen me run at the dog, so she turned around and ran back to me. I grabbed her hand and we BOOKED IT down the road to get out of there! One of the people that we had asked for directions earlier was still in the parking lot, and asked if we had found it. We both tried to answer, but we were both too out of breath to get anything coherent out. Then, while we were standing outside of our car trying to catch our breaths, (and I had started to laugh at how stupid the whole situation was) a lady came out of the complex. Sister Bawden tried to do our normal finding investigators spiel, but she was still out of whack from it all, and that only made me laugh harder. So I was laughing too hard to even try to talk to the poor lady, and I couldn't help Sister Bawden, either. So we sat back in the car and took a few minutes to calm down and figure out where we should go now, since this family we had tried to visit WAS our backup plan. After we did, we drove out of the complex's parking lot. The road out of the lot intersects with the road that we had just ran off of. At that intersection were two men and a big dog. Probably the same one. We tried to be as inconspicuous as possible, lol. So, obviously, that meant the Sister Bawden stomped on the gas on the way out of there! And then we were gone.

Sister Bawden is laughing at me now because I was laughing so hard trying to type out this whole story. Literally for the past half an hour. Straight. I'm not typing this out again!

New Companion: Sister Bawden

February 26
Jeanette knew she was getting a new companion because her trainer was done her 18 month mission and was heading home.

Jeanette did not get to go to Vancouver, and therefore not another ferry ride. She stayed and worked in Victoria for the day!

After emailing family last Monday [Jeanette's birthday], Sister Eyanson packed up and said goodbye to the people in Courtenay, then drove to Nanaimo for the night. Tuesday they drove down to Victoria to met up with the STLs there. One of them left with Sister Eyanson for Vancouver because she was also going home. Jeanette spent the day with the other STL, Sister Robison. They did phone work and then contacting on the streets of Victoria. Wednesday she did some work finding people and then met her next companion.

Her new companion is Sister Bawden, from Sterling, Utah. After having lunch they headed back to Courtenay, but the GPS they had been using was her companion's who just went home. So they needed some help to get home.

Jeanette was able to tell Sister Bawden all about the wonderful people in Courtenay as they drove home. She remembered everything she needed to tell her with the help of the Spirit. Sister Bawden was excited because she could tell how much Jeanette loved the people of the area.

She and her new companion had a great fun week together. They did some service work visiting and helping a lady move boxes. While visiting they put tutus on their heads and danced around, told stories and came up with strange uses for various children's and dog toys to entertain a lady.

Happy Birthday Jeanette

February 19th, 2018

Jeanette's companion surprised her by decorating their apartment and her desk for her birthday!

It was also her p-day so she enjoyed her day playing and relaxing a little bit til supper time.

She and her companion sang in church on Sunday. They sang Did You Think To Pray. It sounds great.

The ward there is wonderful. They feed them dinner lots!! They are very sweet.

Zone Conference in Victoria

February 13
Jeanette had zone conference in Victoria which means they had some driving. She got to spend more time with the STLs.

A little boy they taught gave her a little torn piece of paper to give to us [her family]. So very sweet.

She had a sunny day this week. I understand that Courtenay isn't always this wet but she has had many days straight of rain or clouds.

Letters came on Tuesday because it was Family Day in BC. The weekend before it is Family Day in Alberta.

Blitzes with the Sister Training Leaders [STLs]

February 5
We did blitzes with the STLs on Saturday in Qualicum Beach and Parksville. I got to go with Sister Liao this time! She's awesome, and suuuper super nice. 

We went to visit someone who is a referral from President Wong himself! She's a 90-ish year old lady who was a teacher and employer of President Wong's when he was going to University. We got to meet with her and she showed us her room full of pictures! She was a very lovely lady and she had some pretty awesome stories to tell.

Some photos from the Zone hike to Nanaimo last week. STLs in the photos.

One Month

On Wednesday I realized that I have been gone for over a month! It's weird how time flies like that. I've been super busy so that makes it all the better. We also had a district meeting that morning. It was cool, because we taught a new investigator that afternoon and I totally got to use some of the stuff we learned that morning in our lesson!

Sister Eyanson is still teaching me sooo much. I finish the most days being mentally exhausted, but she still goes my pace and it's cool how much I am able to learn! She made me prepare a lesson all by myself yesterday. Well, mostly by myself. I was looking for a specific scripture and she gave me the reference. And she also asked a couple of guiding questions when I was stuck. But stll, it was super cool!

We also had a ward games night that evening. I got to play a board game invented by a couple of the members. I took a picture of the family playing risk, and I told them the story behind why I called it "The Missionary Game". They thought that that was super funny.

Our church  on Sunday was a broadcast for the Northwestern parts of North America. Did you guys get to see it too? I really wish one of our investigators had come to church. It would have actually answered a lot of his questions and concerns. 

Tsunami Warning on Vancouver Island

Soooo Tuesday morning we got a call at 4:15 AM from the APs. They told us about the earthquake in Alaska and that there was a tsunami warning for the island. They had to ask us about where we were on the island, how close we are to the ocean, (they didn't even look at a map  before calling us!) where the backup plan/ tsunami gathering place is, etc.

Then President Wong called us and told us to ask our bishop for the info that we didn't know! At 4:20 Am, by that point. We felt really bad because he has a baby who is only a few months old, but he did, at least, sound awake when we called. It was a messy morning. We had to make our plans taking into account how close we are to the ocean, even though we are on the west side of the island and the ocean that we can see is mostly a harbor.

And THEN, during personal study, the power went out!!! Luckily, it was light outside by then, so we just opened the windows. The first power outage was only for about 20 minutes. BUT it went out AGAIN a little bit later, and that one took forever to come back on! That was mostly just our neighborhood, though. Not the whole city. Our morning was full of unanswered doors, but as we continued on it got better. We found out later that a couple of our elders serving on the west coast did have to evacuate to Nanaimo, but they were back home by the end of the day.

PDay to Nanaimo