I also think I've already used this email title, but it's fine.
I guess you never realise how much it rains when you're not a missionary walking around in it haha.
And also, this may be inappropriate, but I swear, every time either my companion or I were wearing a white shirt, or a white skirt, or white at all, it started raining while we were walking. Like... what? Why?
Anywho.
Monday: We went into Lethbridge and went grocery shopping. Last weekend was a holiday so all the shops in Raymond were closed, so we got to go into Lethbridge. Which means going into actual civilization, haha. It was kind of overwhelming, actually having to pay attention to stoplights and such.
We had supper with the Andrews. As we got there, they were packing things up and we're thinking, "What's happening? You're still feeding us, right?" Yes, they were, but they had a surprise for us! They took us in their camper out to the park and we had a picnic. Sister Brignone and I sat on the couch in their camper, and it had a seat belt, so that was pretty cool.
We had a lesson that night with a man in our ward who has been less active for the past 25 years, but has just recently been coming to church every Sunday. We visited with him and his wife and he told us his story, how he'd had some crazy health problems and decided he needed to get it together and start coming back to church. He's also almost been a whole year without smoking. Come to find out, he's on our list of Prospective Elders, so we're excited to work with him and get him back on the right track. He always gives us Werther's butterscotch candies on Sundays(:
Tuesday: We had Zone Training Meeting in Cardston, and we talked a lot about relying on the Spirit and recognizing/following through with His promptings. That was really neat because I always feel like it's hard to recognize if it's the Spirit or not. But there's this talk by Elder Bednar and he says that if it's a good thought and we're doing what we're supposed to, then we don't have to worry if it's the Spirit or not. We just need to do it.
After our meeting, we had lunch at this place called Dave's Drive-In. Shout out to Cami. Sister Taylor and I took a photo under the sign, just for you. We were going to get a shirt, too, but $12 is too much. Anywho. It was really good food. And they give missionaries free meals once a month, so that was cool, too.
We headed back in to Raymond and had a lesson with Kendra. We read from the temple prep pamphlet and talked about what we read and discussed getting her into temple prep, which would be so so good for her. Kendra is awesome. She just rocks.
We went to contact some people that the other missionaries in Raymond has passed off to us when the ward boundaries changed, but with it being summer, everyone is out of town or getting ready to go out of town.
And then it started raining.
Someone told me that the more raindrops you get on your name tag, the more attractive your husband will be.
I'm holding on to that.
We had supper with Cathy and invited her to do a family mission plan. She's like my surrogate Nana out here. One of them. She always has pie for us(:
Cathy drove us to Amanda's and we helped Amanda paint her kitchen while talking about our assignment for her to read Preach My Gospel ch. 2. We hadn't seen Amanda in a while because she's been away, but walking into her house was like coming home. So that was kind of weird. Seeing as I'll be doing that shortly.
Anyways! #NotTrunkyNotTrunkyNotTrunky
Wednesday: It was pouring again.
We had a lesson with a lady who has breast cancer, and we talked about trials in our lives and how they teach us and bless us later on. She's a really neat lady.
We then started walking to another appointment, and a member in one of our wards picked us up. Thank you, Heavenly Father! She pulled up to her house and her husband came out with an umbrella for us to borrow for the rest of the day. This was pretty sweet because Sister Brignone and I thought this family hated us. Guess not! (:
We had her drop us off at a member's house and we helped her sort through baby clothes that she was getting rid of. Talk about making me baby hungry. Babies have some stinkin' cute clothes. And they're so little!
We had lunch and correlation with our stake mission leader, Brother Bridge, and talked about the craziness in the stake after the ward boundary change. The craziness meaning it's been a month since the switch up and we still don't have ward mission leaders in two of our wards. So we're trying to figure out how to work around that and how to get ward mission leaders without being obnoxiously naggy. I didn't even know what a ward mission leader was before my mission, and now I'm like, "Hi, we can't function without one. Help?"
We stopped by a potential investigator and this was a pretty neat experience. She looked a little off, so I asked her if everything was okay and she just started crying. She said that her dad is paranoid (we think he has Dimensia) and she's trying to place him in a home, but it's really hard. As soon as he's placed, she said she'd need someone to go to and she's hoping the Church would be able to help. Of course it is. That's why we have Relief Society presidents and Compassionate Service Coordinators. Boo ya. And then she let me hug her and it was sweet. So that will hopefully be an opportunity soon.
We had supper with the 1st counsellor in the 1st ward's bishopric and his family, and then stopped by the Collie's, our investigator family. Her aunt was visiting, and turns out her aunt is a member and lives in Airdrie where I used to serve, so that was neat. We shared a quick object lesson with them on the Book of Mormon and re-emphasized the importance of reading it. It was neat for her aunt to be there because she was able to testify and to hear it from a family member probably meant more to her.
Thursday: We had a lesson with our rogue investigator, Priscilla. I say rogue because we can never ever get a hold of her haha she's always gone. So that was neat to be able to sit down with her and see where things are. She's trying to find a place to live right now, so we're hoping to find her something in Raymond to keep her close by(:
We then visited Linda at Good Sam's and talked about gifts of the Spirit. She's such a neat, strong lady. She's been through many difficult things in her life, yet stays strong to her tesimony.
We had supper with the Hardy family. Their little boy is getting baptized next year, but is scared of water, so we shared an object lesson on that. Then he kept saying silly things like, "Have you ever heard of crap dinner?" His dad told him he could marry a sister missionary, but only if he stopped saying words like crap dinner. So that was funny.
For Scriptures with Friends, we did King Benjamin's address from Mosiah. The kids build tents out of blankets and desks, so that was really cute.
We had correlation with our Ward mission leader in 1st ward, and his daughter was walking around listening to Panic At the Disco. I told her to look up my brother singing a song by them opening for an Alex Boye concert, and about 5 minutes later, I hear my brother's voice coming from her headphones. She totally Googled him haha I'm setting them up.
Friday: We visited Sister Kindt and talked about taking steps to go back to the temple. Cute lady, she was so excited. And then when we saw her on Sunday, she said that she'd finished reading the temple prep pamphlet we gave her and was determined to do the things we invited her to do to prepare to take temple prep and stuff. Attend all three meetings of church weekly, especially Gospel Principles, read her scriptures every day, etc.
We had lunch with the other sisters and then helped paint at the Nickle's. We also helped set up for a wedding for our bishop's less active son and his common-law girlfriend. We've been teaching their son, who is a recent convert, and also 9. So it was neat to be able to actually meat the parents and help them with their wedding. Also, really neat, our potential, Jan, was at the set up, so we were able to talk to her and see where she's at. Blessings from service!
Then, our ward mission leader in 1st ward, Brother Lacey, had banana bread for us. His daughter, the one that Googled my brother, had made our loaf, and I jokingly said, "Tell Chloe I accept her dowry."
And then, we had the greatest lesson ever with the Collie's. Except, we didn't even really teach anything. That's the power of the Spirit and members.
Tracy had asked for a blessing, and so Brother and Sister Nickle came over to do that, and it was probably the neatest thing ever. Very long blessing, but so neat. He even talked about baptism, and then we read Mosiah 18:8-11 with her and talked about how she is ready to be baptized. She wants to get baptized with her two girls, and they have to work things out with their dad, so that's our goal right now. Trinity and Trenyse received blessings as well, and it was just really neat to feel the Spirit so. Strongly. In their home. Sister Nickle was impressed to promise the girls that if they fast this Sunday, that any obstacles in them getting baptized will be removed. That. Was so awesome.
Saturday: We helped with a triathalon. Basically, they dropped us off in the middle of nowhere with some water and campchairs to tell the runners that this was their midway point and they needed to turnaround for the rest of the race. And pick up their water cups that they throw on the ground after pouring it on themselves. I don't blame them. It's a feat for me to run a lap around the track in the morning. Lol. Anyway.
They also gave us a traffic sign to stop cars coming and tell them about the race so they could watch out for the runners. I got put in charge of that because no one else wanted to tell angry drivers what to do.
Also, it was really cold, hence the hoodie and blanket. Note that this was on August 6th. AUGUST. 6TH.
We also went to the hospital. Because Sister Brignone had this nasty bug bite on her leg and she was having weird symptoms, so I made her go. She's fine. I just didn't want to have a companion die on me.
Then I realized that the next day is Fast Sunday and I hadn't had nearly enough water, so I got a 1.5L bottle of water and downed it in, like, 45 minutes. Bad idea. We basically ran to the nearest member's house so I could use their washroom. A couple different times.
And then it started raining. Woo hoo! (:
Sunday: Our investigator, T'Kaiya came to church! We haven't seen her since the first day I got here, so that was really really neat.
We also fasted for the Collie's and it was a really great thing to think of them the whole day. (Also, if any of you are fasting anytime soon, fast for them(:)
We met with a couple different members and invited them to do family mission plans as well. They all fed us some sort of fruity, ultra sugary dessert. I love it here.
You guys, the Spirit was so strong this week in so many different situations. It's really hard to not think about home because it's so close, but I've recognized that when I'm thinking about home, I'm thinking about myself. I'm not thinking about those we're teaching. I'm not thinking about what to do best for them. And that's when I can't feel the Spirit. So I just want to testify that this. Is. The Lord's work. This is His time. He is in charge, and when we devote it all to Him, that's when we see miracles. When we lose ourselves, that's when we're the happiest. I know that because I feel it every day.
I love you all so much!
<3 Sister Pipkin
p.s. if you have the chance to go to either Emily or Cami's wedding, do it for me and take lots of photos. Plz. (:
1) us with the Andrew's for our picnic
2) Sister Taylor as we're taking the photo, "Why are you so short?"
3) us being poured on
4) our kids at Scriptures with Friends and their 'tents'
5) these glasses I found and then gave to our Ward Mission Leader
6&7) our service for the weekend at the triathalon
8) yes, I drank that whole thing
9) Sister Brignone and I do this thing called P-day Eve. We celebrate that's almost P-day on Sunday evening after we've planned. So we had popcorn and watched The Testaments like we did back home, minus the orange juice because we didn't have any #poormissionaryprobs
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