I hope that you've been having an awesome week! I sure have had quite the adventures!
Here's my week: So Tuesday, I packed....a lot! Turns out I've accumulated a bunch of stuff in the 4 1/2 month I was in Cherry Grove. It was kind of crazy to pack! But I did it, and in pretty good time! Then we stopped by the Relief Society BBQ and we got a tour of the Douglas' crazy cool yard. It's a children's paradise, or my kind of paradise, for real! We got to do all sorts of crazy fun things there!
There were some tough goodbyes though. The Relief Society president has just been the coolest, for real! She loves the ward! Anyways, then I put one of my name tags on the Hatch's fridge. They've seriously become my adopted grandparents! And said goodbye to Ann. Then we went to the Wille's to say goodbye. They've been so so good to us! Then we went to Jamie's moms and had fondue. Fondue is oil, that we cooked a ton of moose in. We actually had a contest, to see how much we could eat. And Shania and I were in the finals, so to say. I ate about 4 moose steaks total, I think! So, I was full but happy! I got some pictures with the Bambers and said goodbye to them. That was sad. And that was my day!
Wednesday was TRANSFERS! So we drove forever and ever through construction and then we picked up Sister Schatmeier and said goodbye to Sister Christensen. Crazy that I'm leaving her and Cold Lake behind! Then we drove to the Riverbend stake centre where we transferred! And I get to stay right here! In the Rutherford and Greenfield wards in Edmonton! The temple is literally in my area! With Sister Bischoff! Who is so cute and came out with Sister Gambler and I really was hoping to be her companion at some point! So woo! I got to give up the Rogue, which I basically drove 1800+ kms into it singlehandedly since we got it brand new. So that was sad to give it up. Back in a Cruze though, which is still pretty sweet! Anyways, Sister Van Vleet is replacing me in Cold Lake, and I love her and she's fantastic so that'll be awesome!
Sister Bischoff and I talked so much! We stopped by a bunch of people and I got to meet some of them. We had dinner with an awesome member and she took us to a service project making reusable women's hygiene projects for girls in third world countries. It was fun! I even worked a sewing machine.
Thursday was district meeting. It'll be strange to have it on a weekly basis again. The city is weird! Haha! We have the hugest district ever! There's 10 missionaries because the zones combined! So there was a ton of people, and we did a role play about effective study, based off of the StudioC skit, "shoulder angel" or something like that. Anyways, one person was a missionary, one person was a shoulder angel whispering into his ear, and one was a shoulder devil, whispering into his other ear. I got to be a devil.... go me! Haha! But it was super cool and funny and got the point across. We need to make studies a priority and not give into Satan and his deceiving distrations. Afterwards, we went to a member's home to help clean up her front lawn and to move stuff around, After dinner we had some Mormon.org time and we checked out the new mentalhealth.lds.org site and watched some of the people's stories, so that was cool. The Atonement helps us get through anything. Check out the new Mormon Message on mental health.
LIKE A BROKEN VESSEL
On Friday, we did weekly planning and we found out we are very good at getting distracted together. So we took a while to get it done! Afterwards we met with the Greenfield Elders, because there are Elders in both the wards we serve in too, which is strange but ok. So we discussed the ward a bit, then it rained a bit. We went to the Shin's, this Korean family's for dinner and it was super good! They're all so smart and fun! Then we went to this less active family's and before we left their older boy and I were talking about Thomas the Tank Engine. When his dad asked him which his favourite engine was, his response was "Ryan Gosling" .....me too little man, me too! Haha! It was super funny! In the evening we stopped by a less active member and she has a 3 year old daughter. She asked her daughter where we were from and she said "Heaven". Then she kept calling us "Ladies from Heaven" it was the cutest thing ever I think! It was just such a good day!
Saturday was busy! In the morning we helped the Elders in Rutherford help a lady to move in. She had a lot of stuff! And everything had to go to the basement! Sister Bischoff and I were in skirts, as per the elders suggestion, and we got to manhandle a full couch up an awkward L shaped stairs because that was the one thing actually staying upstairs! It was crazy! Then we had a Pass-along from the Elders for another lady. They've been giving us a lot of referrals and pass-alongs lately. It's super nice! We were walking down the street trying to invite everyone we knew to the mission president's farewell fireside so we could go when a sister in the ward saw us and invited us to go to the park to
watch her daughter and some friends put on a little song and dance show. We weren't doing anything better at the time so we went and it was super awesome! Those kids were so cute! And we were talking to one of the moms, Jackie, because she said that she'd tried tons of churches and has never found one she had liked. So we told her about ours and about the fireside that night and that the Relief Society sisters were so so great!
We went to a ward BBQ at a members and I actually got to meet some people in the ward, so that was cool! Then we went to the fireside, hoping someone showed up... No one came, but we were already there so we listened to the talks and there were some real good conversion stories. Sister Manion's talk was going super great too when all of a sudden we see Jackie and her ENTIRE family walk in through the front door!!! So we look at each other, then jump up and briskly walked out to the hall to invite them in. They all listen intently, despite the kids being a little ancy, to the rest of Sister Manion's talk and all of President Manion's. They seemed to have enjoyed it and the definitely felt the Spirit. It was sort of awkward after that though because they thought there would be a real campfire (jeez Mormon lingo!) and games for the kids and stuff. They didn't think it was a sermon kind of deal so they were sort of embarrassed and left right away! But the sister will continue to work with them and I'm sure we'll see them again soon! When they left we got to say goodbye to President and Sister Manion and we got some pictures. Sister Bischoff is super convincing and got President to take a sassy picture with his hand on his hip. So, enjoy! Haha!
Sunday was crazy! We are in two wards, so including meetings we were literally at church for 8 hours total. It was nuts! But it was such a cool experience to sit through sacrament twice; to experience the peace and forgiveness of Christ's sacrifice for us. The wards here are great! As the new guy, I said enough prayers to get the hottest husband in the world, I'm sure! We were pretty tired after all that church, but we worked hard talking to some referrals from the Elders and set up some return appointments. We also ran into the Elders trying to help a family move a giant cabinet into a house with only two people, so we helped them to avert any disasters. Lots of moving for us...we're going to be super buff by the end of this transfer!
Speaking of moving, that's exactly what we helped the Elders with yesterday. It was a nice move where everything was packed neatly and it all fit nicely. They even fed us pizza afterwards! Nothing too exciting happened yesterday, except for in the morning I was blow drying my hair and I didn't notice Sister Bischoff's closet door wide open, so I flipped my head back and walked into nicely right on the door, then slammed into the wall in front of me. It was ridiculous! Minor concussion here I come! Haha, but it was super funny! I also whacked my head on the wall behind me at the move. So yesterday was just a clutzy day all around!
We talked about sacrifice and obedience in 1 Nephi at an FHE yesterday too. We are promised so many blessings for small sacrifices like the Word of Wisdom. Like Nephi, we can understand and trust commandments and prophets by talking to God about it, by praying about it!
In the words of Sister Manion, "every single day is an adventure" and we missionaries are going to miss every single day without them, but we know that we'll come to love and appreciate our new President and Sister Pattison just as much, in time. :)
Hope you have a wonderful week! I love and miss you all, always!
Sister Baker
