You look like death warmed over

That's what I heard from my companion all week this week. 

So as you can guess, I was sick basically all week. 

But not, like, deathly ill, puking or anything. 

No, no. Just some random stream of a nasty cold that wouldn't go away. Why wouldn't it go away? 

Well, there's this thing called being a missionary. And being a missionary, we're kind of stubborn, even more so than normal. We don't like to budge when people haven't kept commitments or come up with dumb excuses, and we don't like to take more time than is necessary for ourselves. So if we have a simple cold, we're like, "I'm fine, let's go to work." But here's the thing. We're in constant contact with people all day. So while we may not be deathly ill to the point that we can't get out of bed, we definitely shouldn't visit people, which is something hard for missionaries to accept. 

The moral of the story is this. A simple cold was dragged out waaaay too long because I wouldn't just rest and let it recover. My bad. 

But despite being sick all week, we were soooooo super productive. I don't even know how, but I know that it's because of the Lord. "Did you not tell him this is the Lord's work?!?!?!?" (Nacho Libre, but I changed it a bit...)

Monday: We normally get together with other missionaries in the zone, but this week, it was just us Raymond missionaries. So we hung out in the stake center gym for a bit, and ended up having trash can races. That was fun. But terrifying at the same time. We also played baseball with some members from the other sisters' wards and it was a lot of fun. I was also reminded of how uncoordinated I am. 

We were asked to give a devotional at a YSA activity that evening, and we did a little interactive activity. We played the Telephone game, where someone starts with a word, they whisper it to their neighbor, and it has to make its way all around to the last person. Indefinitely, the word gets jumbled up, and so we did that with about 50 YSA and related it to the Restoration, and the importance of prophets and the priesthood authority on the earth today. It was pretty fun. 

Tuesday: Is when the illness started. I woke up with a horrible headache and it just went from there. We had District Meeting in Magrath, and then a lesson with Kendra. About 2 minutes into the lesson, Kendra looks at me and says, "Are you okay? You look really sick." So she sent me home with some herbal tea and I slept for two and a half hours. I laid down thinking, "Oh, I'll take half hour and be fine." Nope. Two and a half hours later, my companion says, "You look like death warmed over." That was only the beginning. I felt fine enough to go to supper, though, so we went and had supper with Bishop Smith and his family, which turned out to be a huge party for their oldest son's birthday. 

We then went to Amanda's and talked with her about better study application, and then she forced us into her car and drove us home because she said I looked awful. How kind. 

Wednesday: We visited an older lady in one of the retirement homes, and shared the message of the Restoration with her. We've been doing that with just about everyone we visited this week, and then asking, "Do you know anyone who would be interested in or benefit from this message we have to share?" 9 times out of 10, they say, "Well, everyone could benefit from this message." We know. 

We headed to a zone conference in Lethbridge, and by this time, I was really congested and my voice was started to get raspy.

The conference was really good, though. We talked a lot about sharing the Restoration with everyone and asking that same question, and also making sure our teaching appointments are a lot shorter. Like, 20-30 minutes max, shorter. And at first, I was thinking, "How the heck am I supposed to get to know people in 20-30 minutes?" But it's proven to be super effective, and it's awesome. 

At the conference, I saw Sister Black and took a photo with her, and right as it took, President Miles jumped in. And hugged me. He freaking hugged me! And photo bombed my photo! Greatest moment of my life. Every missionary in the mission is now jealous. Mwahahaha. 

After our conference, we got frosties at Wendy's on our way back into Raymond because Raymond doesn't have a Wendy's, and frosties are life. 

We had supper with the Navratils, and then had a lesson with Roger and Mavis Stone. We straight up told them we wanted them to come to church. I'm not sure if they're quite ready yet, but they're getting there. Then we visited another lady in 3rd ward who has FibroMyalgia. Very nice, and we shared the message of the Restoration with her. Even though we visit lots of members, it's always so neat to share that message with them and see their testimonies reignite as we recite the First Vision. We all need to be reminded of that truth again and again. 

Thursday: I woke up and my lungs were on fire. Unbeknownst to me, I coughed the whole night. Poor Sister Brignone. 

We had a lot of changes we had to make in the way we do some things, so we spent basically all day planning. If you haven't caught on in the last 16 months, Thursday is weekly planning day. That's basically all we do. Surprise. 

We had a few member lessons, following up on their family mission plans, and we had supper with Dawna Jensen and her family. They are in the process of adopting this little boy and he is darling. He sat next to me at the table and I just wanted to squish his cute little cheeks. We went to Scriptures with Friends and had quite a few kids show up. I think it's so fun to work with the youth, even though they can be a bit rambunctious, they have such strong testimonies when we can get it out of them(;

We were walking by this family's house, the Nalders, and I felt like we should go see them, so we knock, and two of the boys come to the door and in whispers, say, "Malcolm is getting a blessing, come in quietly."  Pretty out of character for little boys. We walk in, and Malcolm is laying on the couch with his leg propped up and this giant cast on. Poor little 6-year-old had broken his leg just hours before and was getting a blessing right as we knocked. So I got to be the first to sign his cast and we shared a message with them and tried to cheer him up. Poor kid, there goes his summer. 

Friday: I sounded like a man, and I couldn't breathe out my nose. I'm telling you, this thing just got worse and worse throughout the week. Woe is me. 

We went and helped with a community event, and ended up just watching and making sure kids didn't fall off and die on these bouncy house things. That was dumb, so we left. Not before grabbing some biscuits from the breakfast they'd had that morning. 

We then met up with one of the coolest people ever from my first area, the amazing Steph Feenstra. She took us to lunch at the Burger Baron and she scolded me for not telling her I was sick so she could bring her essential oils and fix me haha. She's great. 

We had planned to go to Good Sam's for service, but I was pretty sure my germs could kill an old person. And Sister Romney, in the other companionship, was sick, too. So we switched companions. Sister Romney and I stayed home and rested, and Sister Brignone and Sister Taylor went to Good Sam's. They came back, and we'd slept for a solid 2 hours while they were gone, and when they returned, Sister Brignone said, "You look like death warmed over, you're staying here and sleeping longer, we'll go visit Sister Kindt." So they did. And we did. And when they came back, we still felt like we'd been hit by a train, but a much smaller train, and we were getting impatient with how slow our bodies were 'healing', so we went back to work. See? Stubbornness. 

We had supper with the Graves and they shared their family mission plan with us. Basically, they're the coolest. They had all these different ways that their kids could do missionary work at school and with their family and it was just super awesome. 

We visited a couple other families, and then had a lesson with George Kindt and the other sisters. Basically, he should be a missionary because he's just as stubborn. We had the hardest time getting the stinker to commit to pray haha. 

Saturday: Was service out the wahoo, but we still managed to have a bunch of teaching appointments, and have walking time in between appointments. It was pretty much amazing. 

We spent the morning helping a family move into our ward. They had these super good donuts. Mmm. One of the boys helping move was holding the box, and I grabbed a donut, and as I did, I said, "ah, bae." He looks at me and goes, "Me?" "No, the donut. Sorry." Him, "Ah, I thought I was getting a compliment" Hahahahahahahahaa no. No boys, only donuts, please. 

We then helped at a funeral, and I saw a couple of members from when I was serving in Airdrie! That was so neat. 

We helped serve in the kitchen, and we're standing there, and I see this giant pump bottle of dish soap. Sister Kanyo used to be in our ward, and she's a real jokester. So I grab her hand and put it under the pump and dump a ton of soap into her hands and say, "Here you go!" She looks at me and goes, "Oh, thanks, sweetie! Here, you have some, too!" And rubs it all up and down my arm! Hahahaha it was hilarious. 

***AMBER GALBRAITH*** She's the one that is Wayne's cousin(: 

We then had a couple lessons with some less active members, and every time, we shared the Restoration using the pamphlets we have. They have pictures that go with each point we teach, and it was so neat to see people's attention focused on a picture of Christ, or the First Vision.

We visited someone in 10th ward who hasn't been active for a long time. His wife, who isn't a member, answered the door, and said, "we're fine, thank you." But I recognized his last name from my first area and told her I'd like to know if there was any relation. She goes and gets him, and he invites us in! We chatted and they were both very friendly. We then asked if we could share a message, and we shared, you guessed it, the Restoration. You guys, the Spirit was so strong. We knew that his wife is Catholic, so we stressed different points in our teaching that we normally don't do, like how prayer is a two way communication between us and the Lord, and how the Restoration came about because of distortion of basic gospel truths and doctrines. She totally felt the Spirit, we could see it in her eyes, and then we asked if they already had a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said yes, there should be plenty in the library, and I said that we had a copy if they'd like one. He said no, but she said yes. They kind of argued for a second, and she said she wanted her own! So we gave her one, and then when we asked if we could come back and teach them more, they quickly said no, they already let the home teachers in, haha. But it was such a cool experience. Who knows if she'll read it or not, but the Spirit was definitely there and she definitely felt it! 

Sunday: In Relief Society in 10th ward, Tracy, our investigator, spoke up while we were talking about the sacrament. She shared that up to that point, she hadn't felt worthy to take the sacrament, until today, and that was the first time she'd taken it since coming to church. Neither Sister Brignone or I had any idea that had been going on, and it was so neat to hear her share her testimony. In Relief Society!! We really feel like she's coming closer and closer to baptism. So awesome. 

We had supper with the Geddes, and it poured. A ton. 

Then we had a lesson with a less-active, part member family that came into our ward from the elders' ward. We knew nothing about them, so we went in, shared the Restoration, and just as we're leaving, his family shows up. His uncle, and two cousins who are all super active, and we were able to talk to them a bit about their missions and whatnot. So that was a neat coincidence. 

We also found out that one of our investigators, who is 11, but hasn't met with us all summer, is ready to see us again this week! We're so excited(: 

It's been such a great week, despite being sick. I don't know how we ended up being so effective, except for the fact that it's the Lord's work, and He makes things happen all the time. 

I also know that the things President talked about during our zone conference were inspired, that he knows how best to conduct the missionary work in this mission, and he receives that revelation from the Lord directly for us! 

I've kind of hit a point where so much change keeps happening and I'm getting frustrated because I'm like, "I don't want to change anymore! It's so much work!" But I know that change = progression. Without change, we can't progress, and that's basically the definition of damnation. So... I'll change. (: 

Love you all so much! 

<3 Sister Pipkin