Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked

AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDD WALKED

My mom used to sing that primary song to us as kids all the time. I'm not sure why, but she did. And that's what we did this week. All week. And I have a killer tan line on my feet from my shoes because of it, so that's pretty exciting. Also, I definitely sing while we walk. Very loudly. Because there's no one around in Raymond to here me burst into Frozen. :D 

So, here in Raymond, Sister Black and I cover three wards, so we're kept pretty busy, which is awesome. It's a cute little town, I'm lovin' it! (Ba da ba ba ba!) It's so funny to me that there's three sets of missionaries in this tiny town, but then again, there's 9 wards and rumour has it they're making a tenth. Like, that's just comical. I love it. 

Anywho.

Tuesday: We had district meeting in Magrath and got lunch at this cute little burger shop that took forever. While we were waiting, I lost What-Are-the-Odds and had to eat at on of salt. Yay, me. 

We had a lesson with a returning less-active who's preparing to go to the temple! Yay! 

We walked clear to the other side of town (which is, like, 5 blocks) to the retirement center because someone told us this lady wanted us to teach her the lessons. So we get there and she says she'd changed her mind. It was so stinkin' windy that day and we'd walked and I was like, uhm, no, lady. We're gonna share a message anyway. And we did. And she liked it. So there's that. 

We visited this other lady who's just lonely. And then we had supper at a member's who brought their granddaughter who is getting ready for baptism. But she's scared of the water. So we did a cute little object lesson with her about baptism and explained why we are baptized. After, I said, "Are you scared of baptism still?" Luckily, she said no. I don't know what I would've said if she's said yes haha. 

Wednesday: We visited a lady who neither Sister Black or I had met before, so we assumed she was the lady we were looking for. We go to say the closing prayer, and Sister Black says, "Please bless the Walkies." After the prayer, the lady says, "Honey, I'm Sister Garner." LOL AWKWARD. Haha poor Sister Black, she was mortified haha. 

We had a couple of stop-by lessons and then as we were walking to another appointment, this lady pulls over and asks if I'm Sister Pipkin. Obviously, I said yes. Turns out, her son is on a mission serving with my friend Graham Lowe, and they live in the same apartment! Somehow, he found out I'm here and told his mom to find me and say hi for Graham. So that was really neat. 

We had some amazing Mexican food for supper at a member's house and during the object lesson, the granddaughter snuggled right up under my arm. When we went to leave, she tried to come with me haha. 

Thursday: We did weekly planning and I made guacamole. Mmm. We went to the retirement center and helped with watercolour painting. There's this one resident, Eddie, who's hilarious. He literally only says whatever, and he says it after everything you say to him haha it's hilarious. We had a lesson set up with some girls who can't get baptized until they're 18 and we were going to do Personal Progress with them, but they didn't show up. So we did Personal Progress with the member we had come to our lesson. That was neat to be able to remember some of the value projects. 

We had supper with a family of 5 kids, all their names start with H. 

Then we went to the seminary building for Scriptures with Friends. That's a neat idea Sister Black had, where we invite the youth to come and we read and act out a story from the children's' picture Book of Mormon. We only had three kids show up, but we did the First Vision with them and it was so fun. Plus, the treats that were provided were so stinkin' good.

Friday: We visited a few people and had some lessons with less-actives. We went to the retirement center again to help with some father's day activities and serve treats afterwards. Had another lesson, and then headed to supper, which was way in the middle of nowhere. But we got there and they have this castle playhouse thing in their backyard! And puppies(: We had breakfast for supper and it was soooo good. They're having us over again for supper on Tuesday for Sister Black's "greenie meal." Stay tuned for next week's email to explain what that is(; 

We had a lesson with our investigator, Tracy. We're teaching her and her two daughters and we taught the Word of Wisdom. She's so amazing, I just love her. She committed to living the Word of Wisdom and so far, she's only had a cup and a half of coffee since our lesson on Friday! Woo hoo! 

We then stopped by a lady in our ward who is super young and has four little little kids and not much else. Those little kids were stuck like glue to Sister Black and I. Kind of broke my heart. We shared a little object lesson with them and offered service of any kind. It was really humbling to be in their home and see the little material things they had, but realise the love this single mom had for her little kids. Ah.  So strong. 

Saturday: We helped a lady bake for her kids' birthday party most of the morning. I also ate a lot of raw cookie and brownie dough. And didn't read the instructions for the brownies I was making so I did them wrong.. but we went back yesterday and ate them and they still tasted pretty dang good(; 

We helped the bishop and his wife in 2nd ward, the members we live with, stain the wood for their new porch and then we took pictures for  Father's day cards wanted to make. And then we made the cards. And then we made cookies to go with the cards. And then we delivered the cookies and cards. And then it was time for supper. So that went by super fast haha. We had correlation with our ward mission leader in 1st ward and he and his wife are just so missionary minded, it's sweet. They're so willing to do whatever is needed to help with the missionary work. 

Sunday: Was exhausting. We cover three wards, right? Which means three ward councils. Luckily, they overlap a ton, so we don't go to all three meetings of all three wards. It still turns out to be nine hours of church, though. Which, I did in Airdrie, but that was a long time ago, so this is going to take some getting used to. 

We delivered leftover baked goods to families who could use love from the baking spree we did the day before, and then we had to put air in our tire because it was super super low. But we didn't have a loonie (dollar coin) so we had to go into the gas station and exchange four American quarters for a loonie. As we were leaving, our ward mission leader pulled up and gave us heck for it haha.

We had steak and potatoes for Father's Day supper with the Steeds, the members we live with, and then went to correlation for 5th ward. Also a super missionary minded couple. Love it. We then dropped cookies off at some less-active fathers that we wanted to feel loved, and then visited a family. We challenged them to read the Book of Mormon this past week, and they didn't think we would actually follow-up, so they didn't do it. So when we showed up and followed up, they were super surprised haha. So we did another object lesson on the Book of Mormon and re-invited them to read it. The object lesson we did was the one with a can of corn or something, and you press your finger firmly in the Book and then smash your finger with the can and it dents the can. You have to do it right, though, or it will really hurt. Trust me, I know. I did wrong the other night and had to pretend it "didn't even hurt." Anywho. They freaked out with that one. It was pretty funny their reaction. And then they made me go get their 13 year-old kid and do it again for him. Needless to say, they committed to actually read this week(:

So, this week, I've been having a freak-out in my brain just about every single day when I have a moment to myself to think. Mostly because I have just over three months left on my mission and that's scary. So I just want to bare testimony super fast that I love this gospel. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to share it with others. Some days I wonder if I'm even doing anything or having an impact on anyone while I'm out here. Some days we just walk and no one's home and all of our appointments fall through and it's tough and I wonder what I'm needed here for. And then I remember that the Lord works in mysterious ways. And there's no way of ever knowing why He does all that He does. But we can trust in Him and know that all that He does is because He loves us. Sometimes we get offended, and sometimes we get tired of fulfilling our callings and coming to church. Sometimes, life is really hard and we can't figure out why God would let things happen to us. But we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves us. He's provided a way to be happy through it all. What He asks of us is to keep His commandments. And sometimes it's super duper hard, but I promise, it'll be super duper worth it. 

I love you all! Thanks for all you do. 

<3 Sister Pipkin