Reasons why you shouldn't smoke or have cats

This week, we did some service for a lady who has cats and smokes. Which is fine, but it says in her lease 

that she can't do either of those things. And she did both... Anyways. She has a cleaning inspection today 

because she's renting, and I guess we'll hear how it goes and I hope it went well because that was a lot of work. 

Bless her heart, this lady is sweet as can be and has a lot of health issues from a car accident in 2008 that

 basically ended her career as a musician. But I just thought I'd share this with you to maybe discourage

 you from having cats and smoking. I just don't like cats, sorry, guys. 

Although that was only part of our week, I wanted to make it my title because it's about as clever as I could

 get. I'm really falling behind with my clever email titles, I think I'm going to start hiring someone to do that 

for me. Haha jokes. 

Tuesday: We had district meeting and I made cookies! #WifeMeWhenIGetHome. We had lunch with the

 sisters in our zone and got to know each other better, it was pretty fun. We did a heart attack for a girl

 in our ward, contacted a potential who never seems to be home, and dropped some cookies to a less-active

 member who is swamped with school and work. As we were leaving, I said, "We'll check in every now and 

then to see how you're doing!" Trying to show my genuine love for this girl and hope to make sure she

 doesn't suffocate beneath the huge pile she has on her plate. She texted us about two minutes after us

 leaving saying we really didn't need to stop by anymore. Haha, we didn't acknowledge that part of the 

text and said, "We're glad you liked the cookies! Love you!" Haha, best way to deal with rejection: Pretend

 like you didn't hear it(;

Wednesday: We spent a good 2 1/2 hours helping that lady clean. It helped me build some character :D

 We then had a lesson with J.R. about prophets and it was so cool. We had a lesson about prophets last 

week with someone and they blew up, they really didn't like that concept at all. But J.R. thinks it's awesome

 that we have a modern day prophet. I do, too. If the scriptures are true and God really is unchanging,

 then we should have prophets today like we did in Moses, Abraham, Noah's time. It just makes sense. K,

 rant over. So, that lesson went well. We had supper with a member and she made amazing fajitas, and 

then we headed to a lesson with less-active. We were teaching him about family history, and at the end,

 I said, "Do you have any questions?" He gets this mischievous look on his face and asks me flat out a

 question concerning the Law of Chastity. Keep in mind, we were talking about family history two seconds

 prior. That kid. Little twerp. He pulls moves like that all the time, so my companion and I didn't blink and

 just told him to ask the bishop, but the member we brought about died. I thought his eyeballs were

 going to fall out of his head, he was so shocked hahaha. It was pretty funny. 

Thursday: Was weekly planning, and we had a lesson with a returning less-active on prophets and 

keeping the Sabbath day holy. Pretty neat to talk about the blessings of both of those principals.

 I just love the gospel. It's so cool. We had a couple of other lessons that day and then Brendan told 

me I need to let my eyebrows grow in because I pluck them too much. So that's a new thing I'm working

 on. Hardest thing of my life, guys. Hardest. 

Friday: We helped that lady clean some more, and even got the Mandarin elders to come help us.

 Bunch of hard workers, those two are, thank goodness. We had a lesson with a less-active, tried to 

contact some people who weren't home, and resorted to getting hot cocoa. Tim Horton's here has

 the best white hot cocoa ever. It's ridiculously hot so you have to wait, like half an hour before you

 can actually drink it without burning your tongue out of your mouth, but it's soooo so good. On our

 way to supper, this lady had stopped traffic to help this mommy duck and her babies cross the road.

 Cutest thing ever. We had supper at the Heinzlemeir's and then visited with Ivette for a bit. 

Saturday: We did some more yard work at the gardens and then I really had to use the washroom.

 So we drove to Brendan's because I was not about to use a port-a-potty. And it took him forever to

 come to the door. Meanwhile, I'm doing the potty dance and he's taking his sweet time.

 Shout out, Brendan, I hope you're reading this. Anywho. He eventually answered the door and 

all was well. Sister Sears received some news about her dad's health this week. He's doing okay now,

 but the last few days were hard, so if ya'll could keep her and her family in your prayers, that'd be awesome(: 

Crowining jewel of this week, we got J.R. on date. I know, we did that once already, but he had 

some things he didn't feel like he was ready about, so we pushed it back to a date that hadn't

 been determined yet. So on Saturday, we taught about Sabbath day observance, and when we 

got to the sacrament, the Spirit was like, "It's time. Put him back on date." Up to this point, Sister

 Sears and I knew June 25th felt right, but we would go to talk to him about it during our lessons

 and it just didn't feel right. This happened for like a month. Until Saturday, it felt so right. And we 

put him on date for June 25th and he choked up and the Spirit was so strong and he said yes and

 it was amazing amazing amazing!!! Ah, so cool. 

And that was our week!

I'd just like to invite everyone to actually, literally count your blessings. I dare you. It's kind of hard,

 there's so many you don't know where to start or stop. We all have trials and it sucks and it's hard

 and that's just part of this mortal experience. But the Lord blesses us SO MUCH! So so much. We 

shouldn't compare ourselves to others, but when we see others and their trials, we realize how

 blessed we are. The Lord loves us. He's in charge. He knows what's best for us and He has our every 

need in mind. Mosiah 4:9 says that "...man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can 

comprehend." So when things are hard, just remember the Lord has a plan. He loves you. He'll make

 it all make sense in the end. 

Love you all! 

<3 Sister Pipkin

1) Spock cookie jar we found at a member's house. Shout out to my mom

2) Brendan made us cookies! 

3) Someone (we're pretty sure it was the zone leaders because that's definitely dude handwriting) heart attacked us! Aww!

4 Us with Alicia, one of our favs (: 

My other dress is a Tardis

This week seemed to be filled with Dr. Who references. Pretty comical if you ask me,
 considering I know only as much about Dr. Who as what my sister has shared with me,
 and it's not much. But it was pretty cool, the different things we saw.

A few weeks back, I saw a license plate at the institute building that said "4th dr.". Now,
 I know enough about Dr. Who to know that's a reference. So I thought that was funny.
Then we went to visit one of the girls in our ward and found out that that was her car
with the license plate. She then showed us this awesome dress she made for another
 girl in our ward to wear to ComiCon, and it was a Tardis dress! So cool! So we got a
 photo of Rebecca, the model, in her dress next to Aleena's license plate with the Dr. Who
 reference. So cute. And then while driving the other day, the car in front of me had a license
 plate border that said, "My other car is a Tardis." People are super clever. Love it. 

Tuesday: We had zone training meeting and President and Sister Miles joined us. For an
object lesson, Elder Jewkes did a bit of a magic trick with some cards. I was blown away.
 Apparently everyone knows how that trick is done. Except me. So they all laughed.
 Including President. Go, Sister Pipkin(: We had a lesson with J.R. about the Word of
 Wisdom. At first, he was like, uh, what? But then he was okay with it. During the lesson,
 he was telling us about vodka, and he looks at me and says, "Sister Pipkin, the look on
 your face makes it look like you're judging me." I said, "J.R., that's just my face."
 And he says, "Oh, R.B.F?"

(For those of you who don't know, R.B.F. stands for Resting Brat Face. Except they normally
 say a different word than Brat. So that was funny)

So that was quite hilarious, my investigator basically calling me a "brat" hahaha oh what a guy.
We sure do love him(:

We were visiting a guy in our ward who is really into ComiCon and CosPlay and other things
 like that and he showed us his costume for CosPlay coming up. I can't remember what
he said his character's name was, because it's something Japanese, but he made these
 sword things himself! 

Wednesday: We went to ESL in the morning with the Mandarin elders and the small group
I had were so cute. One is from the Philippines, one from Algeria, and the other from China.
They all asked me about my mission, and the one from the Philippines is actually taking the
 lessons with some of the elders in our zone! So cool. 

We visited a girl in our ward and helped her with some service. She made this really cool
 squirrel out of... something. I'm not sure exactly what haha but it's pretty neat. She made
 that Tardis dress, too(: 

A member gave us money for supper so we grabbed some Indian food at this take-out
 place and it was super good. Mmm. I love butter chicken. We had a lesson about the
 Law of Chastity. Woo hoo!(; And then went to institute. The lesson was awesome, and
 introduction to the Parables of Christ, and very well done. I love learning more about Jesus(:

Thursday: Brendan had us and the STLs, Sister Trimble and Sister Blaser, over for lunch
 in celebration of Cince de Mayo. So that was fun. During our weekly planning, one of the
 guys from our ward brought us some of his homemade cheesecake in exchange for a
 Book of Mormon. Best cheesecake of my life. I'm really liking this whole people bringing
 us dessert thing they've got going on. Last week, brownies, this week, cheesecake.
 I wonder what the coming week will bring... :D 

We had supper with Alita and her mom made more yummy Mexican food, in celebration of
 Cinco de Mayo. Guys, I love Cinco de Mayo. Any excuse to eat Mexican food, even though
 it's mostly Tex-Mex. I'm also probably spelling Cinco de Mayo incorrectly. Oh well. 

After supper, we heart attacked a girl for her birthday. We were sitting in our car making
 the hearts when she pulled up haha so awkward. I don't think she noticed, though, so
 that was good! We then met the STL's for exchanges.

Friday: Sister Blaser and I went to the Mission Office. The zone leaders normally go,
but they called us and asked us to go because they were out of gas and couldn't find
 their gas card anywhere, thinking they'd accidentally sent it into the mission office with
 the gas receipts they turned in last week. So we went, and they didn't have to beg too
 hard. Any excuse to go to the mission office is a great excuse. We just love the couples
in there. There's this thing that started with some Spanish elders, they took a cheesy photo
 of themselves and framed it and gave it to the mission office, and every time missionaries
 go there, they take photos with themselves holding the eldrers' photo. So we got in on it,
 and Sister Smartt joined our photo. So fun. 

We did some contacting and some service and it was all good fun. Gave some Mother's
 Day cards to the bishopric wives and then exchanged back!

Saturday:  We had a few lessons. One with our investigator, Robert, where we mostly
taught his mom. And by that, I mean, she basically yelled at us for an hour about what
we were saying because she didn't agree. But she provided delicious gourmet hot chocolate,
 so it wasn't all bad. :D We visited a girl from our ward and talked with her for a bit, inviting
 her to join the family history challenge our ward is doing. We went to Aleena's and saw the
 Tardis dress, and it was a hit! So cool. We also jumped on her trampoline lol. 

At supper, we were told by the member who served in the same mission as the District 1 was
 filmed, that one of the elders in the show was super disobedient, and that the sisters' area
 was dead, so their goals must have been a joke between the two of them. So that was funny.
For those of you who've seen District 1, it's a bit unreal. I like District 2 better. 

Sunday: And as most of you know, yesterday was Mother's Day, and per tradition amongst
 missionaries, we got to Skype our families. That was really neat. Thank goodness for technology!
 I always love seeing my family and being able to hear their voices. They're crazy and loud as ever,
 but I sure do love them. Jake, my brother, won a competition this last week and will be opening
 for Alex Boye tomorrow at the Colonial in Idaho Falls. For those of you nearby, totally go in proxy
 for me. I'm related to someone who's famous(: 

So yeah! It was a great week! Love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support, you're
 all amazing and I love you and Jesus loves you(: 

<3 Sister Pipkin 

1) Sister Blaser, Sister Smartt, and I with the photos of the mission office trend

2) Brendan and us for lunch!

3) Mandarin elders and us for ESL

4&5) The Tardis dress and its creator

6) Sister Blaser and I

7) The cheesecake

8) more Dr. Who references

9) Daniel and his CosPlay costume

10, 11, 12, 13) I can't remember the order I attached them all in, but there's Sears and I with
the swords Daniel made, Aleena with the squirrel she made, us with Janessa, cuz we like her,
and the beautiful Calgary temple. Ah (: