This grumpy guy and too many Thanksgiving dinners

So there's this guy in the other ward's bishopric whose dad lives in
our ward boundaries. Anyways. The old guy's name is Fred. He's not a
member, but his son wants him to be. Go figure, right? Fred's wife is
in a long-term care center and he just moved into our boundaries, so
he needs some help. We set up a time to go over with the elders and
help him out with whatever he needed, which happened to be house
cleaning. And it wasn't really that bad, he's just old and can't do it
himself. Anywho. He was pretty nice. Until we asked him if we could
share a message with him before we go. Haha, that was quite the time.
Basically, Elder Pugh (like a gun noise, pew pew) taught him about the
Book of Mormon and we shared 2 Nephi 32:9 about prayer with an object
lesson. He took it pretty ok, except for that it came out of the Book
of Mormon. And then we invited him to pray and he said no. Haha oh
geez. But he said we could come back next week to help him clean some
more! And share another message, although he doesn't quite know that
that's what he agreed to(;

So we volunteer at the Airdrie Food Bank and oh my it is so fun.
There's this lady who works there, Lynn, and her daughter, Becca.
Jake, she's in the same grade as you and you'd love her! You need to
get sent here on your mission and convert her and then marry her, k?
Anyways. We love the people that volunteer there. Mostly because they
give us food that's expired but still safe to eat. And also because
they're fun and crazy and just plain awesome. It's also a great
opportunity for the community to see that missionaries are normal
people, we just really love our church!

The other day, we were trying to decide which part of our area to
visit people in and I just felt like we needed to visit the Reunion
neighborhood. So we did. And all the less-active and former
investigators in that area weren't home or didn't want to see us.
#LifeOfAMissionary. But then! We knocked on this one less-active
family's door and the girl who answered was SO SHY. But really sweet.
She just turned twelve, so we talked to her a little about Young
Women's and gave her our card and then said bye. NOT EVEN TWO MINUTES
LATER her mom called us and we were so freaking out, we thought we
were about to get the wrath! She started saying, "You know we haven't
been active for years, right?" which we responded with, "Oh, actually,
we're both new to the area!" AND THEN she asked for more information
on Young Women's because her daughter really wants to go! HALLELUJAH!
PRAISE THE LORD! So we got more info about YW and they're doing a
super fun activity this week that we hope she goes to and we're just
so excited!

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. And this weekend leading up to
Thanksgiving has been full of people inviting us over for
pre-Thanksgiving dinner, AND our zone decided to have a missionary
Thanksgiving dinner, so we are getting SO FAT! But that's ok,
because... well... Turkey. And rolls. Which they call buns here. It's
worth it. I love Thanksgiving. And there's enough people here from the
States that we'll most likely get fed on American Thanksgiving too.
HOLLA!

You guys, I finished the Book of Mormon again this morning, and let me
just tell you HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!!! Like, what a blessing is it to
have another testament of Jesus Christ? To see how much so many people
went through to preserve these records that we can have them today!
Gosh, it's just so cool how much the Lord loves us! I love that book.
I love this church! And I love you all so much!( :Take care and enjoy
Halloween!

-Sister Pipkin

1) This cat really wanted to let us in. His owner did not. Lol.

2) You guys, it gets so dark here, SO EARLY. It's terrifying

3)Lol

4) (and 5) Just look at those gorgeous sunrise/sunset!











6) the zone at our Missionary Thangksiving Dinner that turned out ok

Sister Pipkin

A new area with familiar faces

Transfer updates!
So I am now in Airdrie. Which is about as north as you can get in the
Calgary Mission, except for Drumheller, but no one cares about them(;
Just kidding. I'm sure they're nice people.
My companion is Sister Durrant, and I just love her! She's awesome.
Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of us together yet, but it will
happen! I promise!
Our apartment is literally so nice, we don't know how to use half of
the stuff. Like the oven. Or the dishwasher.... What a rough life we
live(;  But we have a BEAUTIFUL view from our back porch (which is
actually our front porch because we live in a basement suite, but
whatever).

As excited as I am for this new area with tons of potential, it was so
hard to leave Lethbridge! I didn't cry (amazing, I know) but everyone
else did and it was just so sad. But I will be back, my lovely Park
Meadows inhabitants! I have to, I left a lot of stuff with some of
you(;  I love you all so much!

Speaking of my Park Meadows inhabitants that I love so very much.
Remember the Harpers? That family with eight kids that moved to
Calgary? Well guess whose stake I'm in. THE HARPERS! I saw them at the
General Women's Broadcast on Saturday, there were appetizers at the
stake center before the broadcast (so of course we went) and I saw
them and it was just a glorious reunion. I love that family(:



This area has tons of potential and we are so excited for all that we
can do here. We cover two wards and they're both just so sweet to us.
They loved the sisters before us, so we have some big shoes to fill!
But we're excited to make them love us just as much. Mwahahaha.
We had the neat opportunity of helping out with the mission prep class
last night. It was so neat so see that fire these pre-missionaries
have to get out into the field and work. It was also neat to see the
comparison of how much we change in a few short months on the mission!
Our teaching styles, how we talk, how it just seems to come more
naturally, it just is so neat. Missions are awesome, you guys. Go on
one.
And that's kind of it for this week. It's been so crazy busy that
nothing really cool has happened. Except for saying goodbye to those
awesome families that I just love so much. The Leavitt's fed us all
lunch on transfer day and that was so sad. There were tears. And
photos that I will send next week(: And saying goodbye to the Feenstra
family was hard. There were photos there, too, some of which I have
right now! Yay! And that adorable Kimmie and her family, man I miss
them. And also that really awesome chick, Cassie. We made her cry. I
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. THANKS FOR ALL YOU DID!!
Also, just a reminder that this weekend is General Conference. WATCH
IT!!! We're supposed to be getting three new apostles. Yay!
I love you all! Keep being awesome! Take care!

-Sister Pipkin

My crush on President Uchtdorf

So, I'm in love with President Uchtdorf. But like, can you blame me?
He's the best. My companion and I joke that they shouldn't have put
him first for general conference, because he's such an amazing speaker
that he sets an unrealistically high expectation that no one can meet.
I mean, he's got the accent and the humor and everything. I think
he'll be the next prophet. Speaking of which, did anyone else just
about bawl their eyes out when President Monson spoke? HE'S GETTING SO
OLD! I legitimately thought he was going to have a stroke at the
pulpit. Ah! I just love him so much! Pray for him, you guys.

Also this week, we decided that we'd had enough of people being rude
to us and shutting the door in our face, so we took up sidewalk chalk
art. And we drew the Plan of Salvation! We even gave a Book of Mormon
to a lady who was walking her dog and stopped to talk to us about it.
She lives in another city, so we couldn't really teach her, but we
gave her our information anyway. Planting seeds!

This area is so nice, you guys. So I'll attach some photos of like,
the scenery and stuff. But I accidentally have the sizes too large on
my camera and I need to have one of the elders figure it out for me,
so I have to send photos one. At. A. Time. It's the worst. But you'll
get them eventually!(:

Unfortuantely, I left my planner at home, which is like, my brain here
on the mission. SO I can't remember anything we did this week. So sad.
But just know that I'm doing well and I'm lovin' the mission life even
though it's starting to get FREEZING COLD here.

Hope you all watched conference! If you didn't, repent. And then go
watch it on lds.org because I promise you will find comfort to things
that have been on your mind! No matter what the situation is! Becasue
the Lord is mindful of us and He wants what's best for us, and He
works through His messengers, the prophet and apostles! It's so
awesome. How lucky are we to have that blessing here on this earth(:

I love you all so much! Have a good, safe week!

-Sister Pipkin