Errybody's gettin Murried

​

​We basically helped with weddings all week, so 

that was a fun reminder that all my friends are

 getting 

married without me. Rude
. #ShoutoutToEmilyandCami

But it was also really cool to see how the
 gospel is so crucial in everyday application.
 I'll explain in a second. 

Monday: Was the 4th and all of the
missionaries in our

 zone, except for three, are from the States.
 So we

 celebrated. One of the ways we did so was
 by blasting

 God Bless the USA basically everywhere we
 drove.

 Idk if that song is mission legit, but I sure
 felt the Spirit. So we had a little bonfire
 with all the sisters in the zone and roasted
 marshmallows and made bread 

twisty things that one of the sisters made
 dough for. Played some games, got to
 know the sisters better while the elders
went golfing. Then we gathered as a zone and 

had a weenie roast and played sand
 volleyball. It was a ton of fun. Surprisingly
 enough, everyone did their part in

 bringing their food assignments, so it was a
 great little picnic we had! We then took a
 zone photo with an American flag, which
 I don't have because it's on one 

of the zone leaders' cameras, but I'll get it next week. 

We had FHE with a family and did an object lesson with

 keeping the Sabbath day holy. We brought individual 

ice cream cups and then put nasty toppings, such as mustard, soy sauce, etc., to symbolize things we shouldn't

 do on Sundays. Then we talked about things that are a good use of our time on Sunday and how we can build

 our testimonies and then gave them their own cups of ice cream without the nasty toppings(: 

On our way home, a member stopped us and gave us a whole tub of raspberries she'd just picked from her back

 yard! We used them all week on our oatmeal. I love members :D

Tuesday: We had district meeting and then lunch with our district. Sister Black was dared to eat 10 powdered 

donuts in under 5 minutes so the elders would sing the Star Spangled Banner for us. She almost died. But it was 

a sacrifice I was willing to make. Haha. We had a lesson with our member getting ready to go through the temple 

and talked about covenants. We got the idea from a girl in our Young Womens to do this cute thing with a KitKat

 to help people remember their baptismal covenants. We did that and tied it in with making new covenants at the

 temple. 

Then we went and visited some people who have lived in Raymond forever to try and get some help with who

 lives in our ward boundaries. That took a while. We tried to visit some of the new bishopric members, they were 

doing bishopric training, a.k.a., leave us alone for a bit, sister missionaries. Haha whoops. 

On our way to an appointment, a member stopped us and asked us if we had supper. We said no, and he invited 

us over. He and his wife were having the other sisters over for supper that night, so they had us join. He then posted on Facebook that we didn't have supper appointments for the rest of the week and within the hour, we had people sign up to feed 

us for the rest of the week. Now, normally, our ward mission leaders do the meal calendar, but since they just redid

 the boundaries, we kind of don't have any ward mission leaders. Except for one, but we thought he'd been

 released so we didn't ask him. We were stoked to hear he was still our WML. Don't worry, guys, we're definitely

 getting fed here :D

Wednesday: We visited a member in the retirement centre and sang some hymns for her. She cried. Guys, I feel

 so bad and awkward when people cry. I never know what to do. Anywho. We then printed off some Book of

 Mormon reading charts to give to some families that we'd extended the invitation to read to. Then we had

 interviews with President. He stressed the importance of being diligent to the end of my mission and not

 slacking on the work just because I'm going home soon. So that was good/scary. The end is nigh. Ah. 

The family that fed us the night before, the VanDuyse's, had done a clothing drive and needed helping moving 

all the bags of clothes, so we helped with that with the elders. They let us borrow their bikes for the summer! I'm

 tellin ya, members rock. 

We had a lesson with a recently baptised kid and we did the same Sabbath day object lesson with him. He 

absolutely loved the ice cream haha. He's nine, so we're hoping that concept will stick with him. 

We had supper with a family in the other sisters' ward and then started walking to an appointment. On our way 

over, we met this Vivint guy. I said to him, "Good luck!" He shouts back, "Do you know how to get to Lethbridge?"

 My companion and I looked at each other and said, "yeah, it's about 30 km that way." "Is there anywhere I can

 get a taxi?" Dude, there's 4000 people in this town and no taxis. Anyways. We started talking to him and found

 out he's an ex-Muslim. He kept asking all these textbook questions that we had the answers to, but he wasn't

 doing too much listening, just talking. So we gave him our card and he said he'd check it out. It was so strange

 to actually talk to someone on the street because everyone here is members, but it was great. Maybe he'll get

 baptized someday. 

Thursday: We did weekly planning basically all day and correlating with the other missionaries in Raymond to 

try and figure out who lives in our boundaries now and whatnot. So that was the majority of our day. After supper,

 we did Scriptures with Friends and acted out Nephi building the ship. The person we had coming to unlock the

 institute building for us so we could do it in there forgot, so we did it outside, but the kids loved it. And the treats 

the elders' WML brought were super good, too. That always helps. We correlated with our WML in 1st ward, the

 only one we have left, and then his wife drove us home. 

Friday: We helped set up for a wedding at the stake centre for a good part of the day. We did service at the 

retirement centre, and then had a lesson with a less active. She's so random. Literally goes off on tangents, but

 we love her. The family that had signed up to feed us supper had a sick kid, so they gave us food and then we

 took it and ate on the Steed's front porch. We used to live with the Steeds and they just redid their porch, but

 they weren't home, so we just sat and ate pizza on it.

We visited Cathy and she fed us Naan bread and we

 helped her pick currents. Then we had a lesson with a

 family 

in our ward on the Holy Ghost. We're starting to have

 every family we visit make their own family mission plan, 

so that was one of the main focuses of our visit with

 them. 

Then we went home and after we planned for the night, 

we made t-shirts for our Friday Night Date Night. :D 

Saturday: We went to a baptism for a little girl in our

 ward and then spent basically the rest of the day helping 

with weddings. The first one we went to, we were helping

 with the food and they only members there were the

 parents. We were only there for the first half hour to help set up the food, but the atmosphere just felt so...

 different. After that, we went to the other wedding, the one we helped set up for the day before. We helped 

set up the desserts, but the feeling from one wedding to the other was so different. Even though it was a wedding,

 you could just feel the Spirit. That's when I realized how important the gospel is in our lives. Not just on Sundays

 or when we're on our missions, but from day to day in our conduct, in how we treat people, in the way we interact

 with our families. It's so important. 

Sunday: Was our first week with all four wards. We only had sacrament meeting because they're still filling callings,

 but it was so. Long. It's going to take a bit to get used to haha.

 Four sacrament meetings. I'll be honest, I totally fel

l asleep in the last one. It's pretty draining. But it was neat to see 

who all is in our wards and who we get to serve

 with. I love people. 

We had supper and then went and visited the Searcy's really fast. 

They're the family we invited to start a family 

mission plan, and they'd already started it! It'd only been two days! 

They rock. We went and helped a member

 pick raspberries. He said that if they didn't pick them, then they

 wouldn't produce next season. So we spent 

about an hour picking raspberries and then he let us keep it all. He

 said it'd be a great idea to give some to our

 investigators! So we're gonna do that(: 

Anywho. Gotta go! We're headed to Writing on Stone, a provincial

 park about Indians? Idk. I'll find out when we 

get there. 

Love you all!

<3 Sister Pipkin