Why do people live here?

This weekend was seriously so cold, why do people live here. Like, the short walk from our car to people's homes is brutal. Takes our breath away. Literally, I can't breathe it's so cold. But it looks pretty, so that kind of makes up for it. 

We had a pretty sweet week. It felt pretty long, but it was also really awesome. 

Monday: We spent most of our day at Cosco with the elders. They somehow got a membership, so we tagged along and bought what we needed and then ate our hearts out at the cafeteria. Cosco is the best for food. Super cheap and bad for you, but sooooo good. Mmmm. Then we went to the stake center and played basketball and stuff. We had supper with our ward mission leader and his family and then played Uno with them for family home evening. Let's just say, Brother Crook gets pretty intense when it comes to card games. It was a blast. 

Tuesday: Our friend, Sarah, spent the day with us. She's trying to decide if she wants to go on a mission or not or what to do next, so she's been hanging out with us, coming to our appointments, and it's been really awesome. It's sweet to have a member with us to add their testimony and add to the Spirit that's there while we're teaching. We had supper with a family in our ward who has a couple of daughters all around the same age. They're so fun to be around. We were having a birthday supper for her, and her mom made Cost Vida imitation. You guys, I seriously love tacos and burritos and such so much, it's not even funny. It was like it was for my birthday or something. Mmmm. Anywho. We love that family. Their 12 year-old son is such a good missionary. He gave a Book of Mormon to his friend this week at school and he does a TON of family history. What a champ. 

Thursday: We did our weekly planning at Menchie's. It's kind of like Orange Leaf, but not as good. But the music there is good, and the froyo is ok, so we go on Thursdays while we plan the next week. It's pretty relaxing, mostly because no one ever goes there but us so it's super quiet. We went and visited our friend, Fred, and helped him clean his home. His wife is in the hospital because she had a heart attack last week, and it was just the saddest thing. He kept crying and we just felt really bad for him because there's not much we can do for him besides just be his friend. But we've definitely seen his heart soften in the time that we've been here and been serving him. We're pretty confident he'll accept the gospel in the next life. 

Friday: We found a new investigator. He is the ex of a less-active lady that we've been teaching as well. We had supper with them and we'd prepared to teach the Restoration to the less-active lady to help her remember why she originally joined the church. And then her ex started asking a ton of questions and becoming interested in what we were talking about. It was so awesome! We even downloaded the GospelLibrary app on his phone for him and he's going to listen to the Book of Mormon on it. We're so excited! 

Saturday: We went to the hospital in Calgary to visit Fred's wife and another lady we used to visit at the old folk's home here in Airdrie and we brought Sarah with us. It was a good visit. Fred's wife was asleep the whole time we were there, so we sang some hymns really quietly and then left. When we visited our friend from the old folk's home, she hadn't changed a bit. Feisty as ever, that lady. We just love her, though. She had us doing all sorts of tasks for her, including taking her down to the cafeteria and back to her room and finishing a coloring page for her. She's so funny. And then Sister Durrant bumped her tea cup and spilled tea all over the bed. The nurse had to come in and help remake the bed, but it was a really funny situation all around. We went to Sister Clark's with the elders to help move some furniture around in preparation for her son coming home from his mission soon. We found some cool toys, thus the really weird photo of Elder Sondrup and I. You're welcome. 

I am so grateful for my family and the blessing it is to be sealed to them for time and all eternity. Last night, we had a lesson with a less-active family, the two sons aren't baptized because their dad is no longer active and won't let them. They also haven't been sealed, and as we were teaching the Plan of Salvation, the mom got really emotional and sad because they hadn't had that yet. It was such an eye opener for me that my family is so blessed to be able to have that. It's impacted my life so much and I can't even express how grateful I am for it. 

Well. We're headed to Banff for the day with our friend Sarah. It's a national park. Google it. I've heard it's gorgeous. I'll be sure to take lots of photos for those of you who won't actually Google it. 

Hope you all have a blessed week! I love you all so much!!

<3 Sister Pipkin 

1)Sondrup and I with our finds at the Clark's

2)Yes, those are lawn chairs on the frozen canal. Canadians.