Hiking and almost dying but not quite....!

I say this because the reason I didn't email yesterday was because we went hiking at Waterton Parks. Which is beautiful. Google it. And we hiked Bear's Hump, which was beautiful! But, let's be honest here. The crunches and push-ups I do in the morning did NOT prepare me for that. So yeah, I almost died on that hike. BUT I DIDN'T!!! And it was beautiful! And I have the sunburn to show for it! Our ward mission leader and his wife, the Forsyths, took us and the Spanish elders, McLaren and Gill, as well. They prepared a picnic lunch for us and we hiked and went to a gift shop and ate ice cream and took photos and it was so much fun! Canada is beautiful, you guys. I'm so coming back here for more after my mission. 

So the Chans. They are a couple in our ward who left on their mission yesterday to serve in the Hong Kong Temple Mission! They're so awesome. He teaches our Gospel Principles class and she is just the sweetest little thing. He is the one who drew us those photos of the Cardston temple. We went to visit them on Sunday before they were set apart and Bro. Chan gave us each a poster of the Christus that he had drawn a few years back. Holy beautiful! And he said he'd draw one of the Kansas City Temple for me because it's my favorite and I can't wait! They're such a neat family. 

We've done tons and tons of service this week and it's been such a blessing to see how the missionaries really do impact others. I love serving! It's the best! We've also had a lot of less active work, and it is so amazing you guys! These people know what's right, and we're just helping remind them how to continue doing it! So I encourage each of you this week to reach out and find someone who may be less active in the gospel or maybe just needs a friend in the church to sit next to, and make them feel loved! It's so important!

Sister Layton and I wrote two songs this week about missionary work. One is a parody of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson. The other is an original, called What He Would Have Us Do. As soon as we record them, you will know! We plan to use them as a finding project. We borrowed a ukulele from a member and we plan to go around and sing for people! It'll be great(: 

So these photos are some that we took at Waterton. As well as our little friend Lizzy. Lizzy's family pretty much adopts the missionaries and she is obsessed with going on a mission, which is great, but she's four and extremely sassy hahaha. Every time we're at their house, she begs to wear Sister Layton's tag and we call her Sister Layton and she says, "Sister Pickin, when are we leaving to go teach?" And she's just adorable. So we pretend that she's my new companion every week lol. And this other photo is my zone today at zone training meeting. They're a bunch of goof balls but we love them. 

This week I have somehow ended up studying a lot about eternal families. Along with my scripture reading, I was reading in Our Search For Happiness by Elder Ballard and I love that book so much! You all need to read it. But he talks about how eternal families are eternal. Duh, right? But I had to take a moment to realize what eternal really means. That's literally forever, not until just the end of this life. And it hit me how extremely grateful I am for my eternal family and that my parents have raised me in the gospel and taught me what's right and what's wrong. Because I don't know where I'd be without them. 

I love you all so much and I'm sorry this email is so short, but I'm grateful for all your love and support!

sister Pipkin

That one time that the Elders had to rescue the Sisters

So, we sisters did something silly this last week. 

That silly thing was leaving our keys to our apartment... in the locked apartment. Which is on the top floor.

Normally, we would just as the cute little old lady on the bottom floor to let us in the complex, but our apartment door was locked too, and no one could really help us with that. 

But then. 

I remembered that our back door was unlocked. But Sister Layton and I are both wearing skirts, and are both relatively short, so how did we solve our problem, you might ask? 

We called the elders. 

Which kind of hurt my pride a little bit, but I was tired enough that I decided to let it go. 

So Elder Gill decided he would climb the balcony. 

And then we remembered that the neighbor below us hates us and we could see him in his living room and we knew that if he saw some weird guy wearing a white shirt and a tie climbing our balcony, he would probably call the police or shoot us or both or whatever. 

Our next best idea was to get a latter and have Gill climb the latter up the wall to our back door. 

Except... we didn't have a latter... obviously. 

But a lady in our ward did! 

So we called her, and we went and got it, and Elder Gill climbed the wall. And then the neighbor that hates us came out and was acting all nice and he wasn't wearing a shirt and we were just all really confused at this point. 

But we made it, and that was all that mattered. 

The moral of this story is to ALWAYS double, triple, and quadruple check to make sure you have your dang keys because this is literally the second time we've locked ourselves out. :D 

We also met a guy from the south side that told us he had been going to church with some elders from the south side, but that he hadn't heard from them in a while. So we got his information and told him we'd take care of it, but the whole time he's like stroking my hand and telling us we're pretty and just being suuuper creepy. Oh, and he was totally high as a kite. So that was fun. We went to supper with a member right after that and told her about the story and she said, "Oh that's why you kind of smell like drugs." Yes, that would be why. Lol. 

We received a referral from the other sisters in our zone, a 16 year-old boy. They gave us his number and address, but when we stopped by the address, it was his grandparents' house. So we called the number and the voicemail box was for a lady. You can imagine our confusion. The lady texted us and we were all super confused, trying to figure it out, and she said, "No sorry, this isn't (insert 16-year old boy's name here) this is my  number. You ladies have a great day!" So naturally, being missionaries, we texted her back saying, "Well we were going to share with him a message about Jesus Christ. Would that be something you would be interested in?" About five minutes later, the lady texts us back saying, "LOL you girls are such good missionaries, this is the bishop's wife!" 

So that was fun. The other sisters must have given us the wrong number, but at least the members in the area know we're dong our job(:

I had my first and last interview with President Nicholas on Thursday. He and his wife are finished with their calling as mission president at the end of this month. It was kind of sad, they're super awesome people and I've really learned to love them in the few short months I've been here. Which, by the way, I turned two months old last week. Yay me(:

It's been a good week, full of craziness and happiness and just overall goodness. I'm glad to be here serving the people of Lethbridge. I love it here and I'm so grateful for all the love and support you all are sending my way. I have such an army behind me supporting me on this mission and I thank Heavenly Father for you all every day. Continue to do the things you know to be true and to stand firm in your faith. I can promise you that you will be blessed for doing it. Love you!

Signing out, 

Sister Pipkin