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.