Aaaaahhhhh I love the Calgary temple. It's seriously so so so so pretty!!
This
week, for zone conference, we got to attend the temple with our mission
president and his wife and a bunch of other missionaries. Best thing
ever. But I'll talk more about it in a second.
Monday: We
ran around doing a bunch of stuff before zone conference, mainly
cleaning our car because we had car inspections during our conference.
So that took forever. But dang, our car looked sooooo good after! I
found out, however, that I'd been putting RV plumbing intifreeze in our
car instead of the correct coolant. Awkward. Luckily, it's all good. No
damage done. That we know of. We did not, however, win the cleaning
inspections. Even though we left them fresh homemade cookies for them in
the front seat. I think it was a rigged inspection, but that's just my
opinion(; 
Tuesday: Was
our zone conference. Ohhhhh my goodness it was so amazing. Like,
there's nothing better than doing a temple session with a ton of
missionaries and your mission president and his wife. Like, it was the
coolest thing ever. The Spirit was SO strong. Over the past few months,
President and Sister Miles have had us read a booklet full of talks by
apostles and the prophet about the Atonement. As part of our conference,
we talked about our thoughts from those talks and how it's helped us
increase our understanding of the Atonement. You guys, the Atonement is
so stinkin' cool. If you don't understand it, study it. You'll probably
never fully understand it, because it's just not really possible, but we
should always strive to learn more about Christ and His atoning
sacrifice. He truly is our Saviour and Redeemer and loves us.
So,
we also gave President and Sister Miles some cookies we made to try and
bribe the car inspectors. It worked on the Miles'. (:
We also took a ton of photos in front of the temple, and yeah, it was awesome. 
Wednesday: We
went to ESL again and had sandwiches. We also helped out with an
activity at the retirement center for this cute little carnival thing
they were putting on, so we got to wear these cute hats(: It was a ton
of fun. I was in charge of the bean bag toss and some of those elderly
folks get pretty competitive. They were trying to convince me to let
them have a second turn and most of the time it worked on me haha. It
was a fun activity. They even had deep fried Oreos, so that made it
amazing. We had a lesson with a less-active and were talking about
becoming temple worthy again. He told us about when he went through the
Calgary temple for the open house, he felt the Spirit so strong. And we
were like, "Do you want to take the steps to being able to go to the
temple again?" After thinking for a bit and what we felt like was truly
pondering, he said no. So that was that haha we're trying to decide if
we should continue to meet with him, seeing as he has no desire to
change or repent haha what a guy.
Thursday: We
had District Meeting. Normally, it's on Tuesdays, but we had zone
conference, so it was moved to Thursday. Elder Schenk, our District
Leader made us chocolate chip cookies. Aaaaah. So good. We did a ton of
weekly planning, and then had a lesson with J.R. We'd planned to teach
the Law of Chastity, but then he sat and talked for a straight hour. We
literally didn't say a word. But it was what he needed. He had a lot of
stuff to tell us about the changes he's trying to make in his life. Ah,
J.R. What a guy. Has such a desire to make these changes and follow
Christ. I just love him.
After our lesson, we were talking to
a member who asked if we had a supper appointment. We didn't. So he
offered to take us out for supper and it was super sweet of him. We got
greek food! Opa! (that wasn't a pun, that's actually what it's called
haha). Then we went to ESL and it was just super fun. I LOVE ESL!!!
Friday: We
had a meeting with all the sisters in the zone about finding ideas and
then we had lunch with them. Sister Sears and I brought basically all
the leftovers in our fridge and we made guacamole. It was a feast! We
went on exchanges after that, I went to the Bow Valley area with Sister
Trimble and we just had a blast and a half. I just love her. It's so
weird to be with someone who's been out as long as I have, we basically
talked about our plans for after the mission (which I have none) and all
the fun things we plan to do together. It's so crazy how fast things
go. After our supper appointment, we were walking to the car and this
guy was walking behind us and Sister Trimble said, "Talk to him." So I
whipped around really fast and he was RIGHT THERE and it was awkward and
then I made it even more awkward, but it ended good because he said he
wanted to learn more! It was SO COOL! We're meeting with him on Saturday
and I'm stoked out of my mind! Woo hoo! We were at the stoplight and
this Asian guy was walking across the crosswalk in front of us and it
was raining and Sister Trimble goes, "What are the odds you give him a
passalong card." And so I rolled down my window and screamed, "HEY! HEY
YOU! COME HERE!!" He looks at me like, "who, me?" And I said, "Yeah you!
Come here! Hurry! Before the light turns green!" He runs up to the car
and I give him the card and screamed, "There's a video about Jesus!
Watch it!" He gets this look on his face like, "Are you freaking kidding
me. I ran over here in the rain for this? Yeah right." And walked away.
Hahahahaha it was the greatest thing ever. I'll never forget that look
on his face.
Saturday: We
did a ton of service and it was cold and rainy and that was basically
it. And Sister Sears gave out her first Book of Mormon(: My lil' baby
girl! So proud. We tried to do a finding activity with our ward mission.
We had planned to watch Meet the Mormons in the gym at the institute
building and invite a TON of people and have food and stuff. But the
video didn't work. So we had a bunch of people there, eating and
socializing and no movie. But it turned out great. They all had fun and
ended up doing some other stuff after we left. It was great(:
Sunday: Was
a good day at church. J.R. was there again, our awesome guy. After
church, we had lunch with the Cuckows. Their daughter is on a mission,
she just left two weeks ago, and their son is in our ward. Brother
Cuckow is a family history nut and so we did some family history with
them after and I found like 5 names that needed all their ordinances
done!!!! Two were a couple that need to be sealed to their daughter, two
were men, and another was a female I'm keeping for myself to do next
transfer when I can go to the temple again. The other ones, I gave to
our family history consultant for their ward family history relay, so
they'll be done by the end of this week. I've been bit by the family
history bug, I want to do more!!!!! So fun. We went to ESL and Elder
Chen made me a necklace! A bit of a back story on this necklace. I was
the oldest sister on the mission in the district when Elder Chen first
came into the mission, making me his "mom." So he made me this necklace
with the chinese character for "Ma". But It's Ma squared, with the
little 2 up top, so it's ma-ma! SO CUTE I LOVE IT. 
Probably
the coolest thing about this week was the amount of reflecting I was
able to do while on exchanges with Sister Trimble. We were companions in
the MTC, so we can both see how we've changed so much from our missions
thus far and were able to share with each other what we've noticed. It
was really neat to see how we've both been able to apply the Atonement
in our lives and change for the better, trying to become more like
Christ. He truly is our Saviour, and He has led a perfect example for us
to follow. What an amazing gift our Heavenly Father has given us(:
I
love you all so much! Hope you have a great week(: Hope your weather is
warmer than ours, it snowed a few inches yesterday and it's been cold
and rainy all week! Yay! Love you! (:
<3 Sister Pipkin
1&2) Sister Sears and I in front of the Calgary temple
3&4) the sisters in our zone
5) ESL
6) Sister Sears, Sister Trimble and I
7) Sister Sears and I at the retirement center activity
8) the necklace Elder Chen made me
9) Sister Trimble and I
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