If I told you I got to clean the Celestial Room would you be jealous?

Well, I hope you're jealous, because guess what.

I got to clean the celestial room. 

But for real, though, it was the coolest thing ever. 

The temple was closed for two weeks for cleaning and they always get the missionaries to come and help. So we get there, expecting to be wiping down lockers or something (which we did, don't worry, we did actually work) but instead, they took us up to the celestial room, handed us some rags and special cleaning spray, and left us to our own devices. Let's just say, the celestial room isn't dirty at all. Ever. They just clean it periodically to keep it from getting dirty. Regardless, we spent like an hour wiping down the same spots because we didn't want to leave. It was seriously such a neat experience to be able to do that. When we told the other missionaries we got to do that, they got jealous because they were assigned the bathrooms. Hahaha. Although, I bet those were the cleanest bathrooms they'd ever done. 

Anywho. On to the rest of my week. 

Monday: We learned about Chinese culture in FHE. One of the members in our ward lived in China for a few years for his dad's work, and so his mom came in and taught us some cool stuff. She taught us how to make ginger tea (which I'm not a fan of, but that's ok) and she showed us a bunch of photos and shared experiences from living there. The Mandarin elders also told us how to say some phrases that I don't remember at all, but it was pretty cool. I also bought a new shirt with elephants on it. Sickest find of the thrift shop we went to. 

Tuesday: We cleaned the temple. For more information, refer to the beginning of this email and prepare to be jealous all over again. We also did some other stuff that I can't really remember because I left my planner at home again. You'd think I'd learn from my mistakes about the 6th or 7th time, but no.... 

Wednesday: We did Waffle Wednesday. I don't know if I've already talked about this, but my companion and I go to the institute building and make waffles for the students from like 1-2 in hopes that people will come eat free waffles and maybe bring their non-member friends and then catch an institute class. It's a lot of fun and I'm a bomb waffle maker, just saying. Also, during Waffle Wednesday, I saw a familiar face from Lethbridge! I was standing in the kitchen and I hear this voice behind me go, "Pipkin?" and then I saw Carly! Yeah, I squealed, but I totally wasn't expecting to see her. Like, ever. I forgot she goes to U of C which is like, across the street from the institute building. Her sister, was in my first area, and it was really sweet to see her again. 

We had a lesson with our investigators, Brent and Tim. We were there for literally 2 1/2 hours while Brent talked about faith vs. works. This is the theology major, remember. I straight up almost fell asleep like 4298347203984 times. Sister Dean had to keep kicking me under the table, which I felt bad about, but honestly, he has the most monotone voice ever AND he didn't really let us talk. So... we haven't set up a return appointment yet. 

We also had an appointment with our investigator, Scott, and we prepared him for the baptismal interview questions. The members we had come were so awesome, answering questions we didn't know the answers to, and bearing testimony where needed. You guys, I can't even stress how awesome it is to have the members involved in the work. It's seriously the best way to do missionary work. Also, Scott's solid. We're seriously so stoked for him to be baptized next week. 

Thursday: I cut my hair. Sorry, dad. 

Friday: We went to Friday Forum, which is a thing the institute does. They have a guest speaker and lunch, this time it was chili and a guy who is a professional boxer/RM. He talked about the similarities between the gospel and boxing and it was actually really cool, the importance of wearing protective gear in the ring and the importance of wearing the full armour of God in everyday combat against Satan. The importance of getting back up after you've been hit, physically and spiritually. We also had cleaning inspections and got a perfect score. Whoot whoot. 

We had a lesson with our other investigator, Kelsey, who is also getting baptized on the 27th. She's pretty solid, too, and we went over the baptismal questions with her. She's just glowing with excitement, she's so ready for this next step in her life!

Saturday: We got mail! And I got some pretty sweet packages from my family and friends for Valentine's Day. So sweet, I felt so loved(: We also did some street contacting at the train station by the university. I had this epiphany to give out our Mormon.org cards with chocolate kisses that my mom had sent me for Valentine's Day. Our excuse to give people our card was, "Hey, we're sister missionaries blah blah blah and we're giving out these chocolate kisses for Valentine's Day blah blah blah." The elders were jealous they hadn't thought of that. What can I say, sister missionaries just have a way(; 

So, yeah, this week has been pretty sweet. I love seeing how the gospel changes people's lives and how it blesses their families. It's so awesome to see how the Lord loves us all so individually. I love you all so much! Thanks for your love and support(: