A little snow and a little service brings opportunities

Katelyn is doing well in Canada but she is growing a little tired of the short days and long nights.  Luckily the Winter Solstice has passed and the days are slowly getting longer instead of shorter.  But the weather has still been very cold and snowy.  Katelyn sent us a few pictures recently of all of the snow.  Some of the snow banks are taller than the trucks that are parked next to them.

In fact, the Edmonton area gets so much snow that snow plows alone don't really cut it.  The snow banks pile up so high that they literally have to truck the snow away.  Check this out.

If you can't quite tell what is going on in this picture, there is a very large snow blower mounted to the front of a tractor which is blowing the snow into the back of a semi-trailer.  Somewhere outside of town there must be a very large pile of snow where it gets dumped.

With this much snow you would think that just shoveling your driveway would be a large task.  Well it is. But for the missionaries it is also a big opportunity.  Katelyn told us a story about going out to help some of their neighbors shovel their walks as a service project.  On one occasion as Katelyn and her companion were going to borrow a snow shovel from a church member, they came across a lady and her kids out shoveling their driveway.  So Katelyn and her companion took that as an opportunity to stop and help out.  While they were all clearing the snow off of the driveway, they took the chance to talk a little bit about the church and found out that this lady and her family were very interested in knowing more.  So from a little hard work and a bit of service, a little more missionary work was done.

Katelyn and her companion have also been doing a lot of visiting with some of the less active members in the area.  Some of their experiences have been good and some not so good.  I won't go into detail about the visits here but I can say that in some of there visits, aliens and outhouses seemed to be prime topics of conversation.  But never the less, Katelyn was still able to share a few scriptures and thoughts and sometimes that is all that can be done.  At least for now.

It is transfer time again so as soon as Katelyn had a chance to email home to tell us about it, she did. But when we got her email, she started it out with "We got transfer calls this morning... and...", and that was all that the email said.  Oh great, she is going to leave us hanging.  Then she followed up with another email that said that she would be staying in Panoka but her companion was being transferred back to Edmonton.  I asked Katelyn what was going on with her and companions.  This is the third companion she has had since moving to Panoka.  Is she just working them so hard that they are getting worn out or what.  No, actually her companion was being transferred to Edmonton because she had been called as a Sister Training Leader.  This meant that Katelyn needed to stay in Panoka to train another companion on the area.  So Katelyn told us a little about her new companion and that they are getting along really well.  Katelyn has really been blessed with great companions and she has been able to do some great missionary work with them all.

Katelyn told us a story about how they were having dinner at one of the member's houses and the member asked if the sisters had gotten their flu shots yet.  Apparently the availability of flu shots is a bit scares in their area so they would have to travel to a clinic in Red Deer to find the shots.  This member was going to go the early the next morning so that they could get a good place in line at the clinic.  Katelyn and her companion cleared the flu shot trip with their mission president and the next morning they were on their way.  When they got to the clinic, Katelyn told us that it was like Black Friday before Christmas.  People were lined up around the block waiting their turn to get a flu shot.  Being early in the morning, the sky was still dark and the temperatures were still extremely cold.  Like -25 degrees cold.  So they got in line and waited outside in the cold for about 35 minutes.  Katelyn said that by the time they got in to the clinic, they were all frozen.  Katelyn doesn't really do well with needles and getting a flu shot was no exception.  So after all of the little kids had already gotten their shots and were doing great, it was Katelyn's turn.  The little kids rallied around Katelyn and told her to think about unicorns and puppies and that everything would be fine.  Well she got through the trauma of a flu shot and they even gave her a juice box to make her feel better.  Here they are standing outside of the clinic waiting to get their shots.

   
  Katelyn included a little poem that she likes so I will include it here.

"Faith to be faith must be centered around something that is not known.  Faith to be faith must go beyond that which there is confirming evidence.  Faith to be faith must go into the unknown.  Faith to be faith must walk to the edge of the light and then a few steps into the darkness.  Strive to gain greater faith this week by taking a few steps into the darkness.  The Lord is with us, he loves us and will not let us fail."

Christmas time in Canada

It's Christmas and guess what that means?  Well besides the obvious which is what Christmas is all about, it also means that we get a call from our missionary daughter.  This is actually the fifth Christmas in a row that we have received a call from one of our missionary children and this year it is Katelyn's turn to call home.  But rather than just calling home on the phone like her brothers did, we got to skype with her on Christmas which meant that we were able to see her as well as talk to her.

As I mentioned, this is the fifth Christmas in a row that we have received a call from one of our missionary children.  This also means that we haven't had our entire family physically together for Christmas in five years either.  But, through the miracle of the Internet and skype, we were all able to be together virtually.  This year for Christmas two of Katelyn's brothers were here at home, her other brother was in St. George and of course Katelyn was in Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.  When Katelyn finally skyped home on Christmas afternoon, we conferenced in her brother from St. George which allowed us to all be together for Christmas.  Well, at least on the computer screen.  Katelyn is doing very well and was just as excited to call home as we were to hear from her.  She told us all about some of the people that she and her companion are currently teaching.  She talked about how cold it is at this time of the year and how little sun light they get everyday.  Here in Utah during the winter we average about 9 1/2 hours of sun light.  But since Katelyn is much further north, the sun goes down at about 3:30 pm and they average about 7 1/2 hours of sun each day.  That makes the days short and the nights long and cold.  Also during the call, we told Katelyn all about some of the things that have been going on at home and laughed and joked just like we were all sitting around the dinner table.  It was a wonderful Christmas present for all of us and a great time to be together as a family.

Transfers came and went a couple of weeks ago.  Katelyn was sure that she and her companion would stay together for another transfer but to their surprise, her companion was asked to move to Edmonton.  This meant that Katelyn would be staying in Ponoka and would be getting a new companion.  Not long after that, Katelyn's new companion arrived and they immediately hit it off.  Katelyn told us that they are so similar that it seems strange some times.  Katelyn told us that they have some new ideas for moving the missionary work forward in their area.  But unfortunately on her companion's first night in Ponoka, they had a bit of an unpleasant experience with some of the people that they had just started teaching.  I won't go into the details here, but it was kind of an uncomfortable way for Katelyn's companion to be introduced to a new area.  Well, so goes missionary work.  You never really know what experiences you are going to gain each day.  But fortunately after that experience, things were all uphill from there.  Katelyn told us about some great lessons that they taught to a family that they had met not too long ago.  She was so excited about the progress that they had made and the changes that they were making in their lives. 

Just before Christmas, Katelyn and her companion got the opportunity to travel up to Edmonton for a few days.  Katelyn said that they stayed with some of the Sisters that were assigned to the Ellerslie area.  This is the same area where Katelyn's MTC companion was serving so Katelyn was able to talk to her and catch up on some of the experiences that she has had since the time that they both arrived in Canada together.  They also attended a Zone Conference while they were in Edmonton and got the opportunity to go to the temple as well.  Because their day was so full, they didn't actually get through until about 8:30 pm which didn't really give them enough time to drive back to Ponoka.  So instead, Katelyn and her companion ended up staying in the mission home with several other Sisters who were also assigned to areas outside of Edmonton.  Katelyn said that it was a lot of fun to be around some of the other Sisters in the Edmonton mission.  Since she and her companion are the only two Sisters serving in Ponoka, they don't have a lot of opportunities to interact with some of the other Sister missionaries.

Overall, Katelyn had a great Christmas.  Obviously it was a very different Christmas in a very different area of the world and very different experiences and circumstances as well.  But that is what makes life and missions interesting.  Katelyn's Mom sent a few packages containing Christmas presents for Katelyn to open on Christmas.  And in addition to that, the member of the Church in the Ponoka and Lancomb area were very good to Katelyn and her companion as well.  Katelyn sent us a picture of their tiny Christmas tree in their apartment with all of the present beneath it.  Many, if not most of the presents that they received this Christmas were from the kind people in their Ward.  Thank you all for taking care of our daughter and making sure that her first mission Christmas is one to remember.

Katelyn's little Christmas tree in the corner of her apartment.

With the help of her Mom and the Church members in the area, this is what Katelyn and her companion's Christmas tree looked like on Christmas day.

 

Take a look at the temperature.  -37c is actually about -35 F.  This is cold, but very useful when it comes to baking cookies.  See below...

Katelyn explained to us how they bake cookies in Canada.  12 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees.  Then chill for 30 seconds in the snow at -35 degrees.  Mmm... perfect!

Here is Katelyn at the Lancomb library emailing home.  What would a library be without a library cat?  Apparently this cat just wanders around the library and greets the patrons all day.

Katelyn and her companion building gingerbread houses at the community center.  This has been a Christmas tradition since Katelyn was a little girl. 

Wild adventures in the Canadian wilderness

It is Christmas time here in Utah which usually means that winter has arrived and everybody is hoping for a white Christmas.  But in Ponoka Canada where Katelyn is serving, winter arrived about six weeks ago and there is no sign of it letting up anytime soon.  Katelyn has sent us several pictures of all of the snow and cold weather that they are getting now.  So just to give you an idea of what a short fall and a long winter is like in Canada, take a look at these pictures.  Also, in one of Katelyn's most recent letters home, she told us a great story about a car, a snow packed road and a couple of moose that you aren't going to want to miss.   But I'll get back to that a little later.

 

Every week Katelyn writes home and tells us all about how crazy her week has been.  She and her companion have been visiting people in the hospital, working with some of the less active members of the church in the area, helping out with service projects and teaching lessons to people that they have met.  Katelyn told us about a recent experience that they had in Edmonton a few weeks ago. 

Recently they got a call from the Sister missionaries in Edmonton who had been teaching a lady from Korea.  This lady had only moved to Canada a few weeks before and must have been struggling a bit with having to learn English.  Since Katelyn's companion is also from Korea, the Edmonton Sisters wanted Katelyn's companion to help teach this lady just to make sure that she was understanding everything correctly.  So Katelyn and her companion traveled to Edmonton to go on splits with the Edmonton Sisters.  While Katelyn's companion went with one of the Edmonton Sisters to teach in Korean, Katelyn and the other Edmonton Sister went to a dinner appointment with a member family nearby who had invited some of their friends to listen to the missionaries.  After teaching a great lesson to this new family, they went on some other visits and then ended up doing a little tracting just to finish up the evening.  Katelyn and her companion ended up staying in Edmonton that night and then going on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders the next day.  It turned out that the Ward where the Sister Training Leaders were assigned is also the same Ward as one of Katelyn's friends from Ecuador.  So this gave Katelyn an opportunity to stop by and catch up with one of the girls that Katelyn served with in the orphanages of Cuenca just last year.  Katelyn told us just how much fun it was to see her friend again and to catch up on some memories of their time in Ecuador.

A few weeks ago, Katelyn and her companion spent the day in Lacombe which is a few miles south of Ponoka.  They spent most of the day visiting with some of the elderly sisters in the area which Katelyn said was super fun.  While they were in Lacombe, the young women leaders in the Ward asked if they would stay and help with a young women's activity that they were having.  Apparently this activity was a blind make up/spa night.  I'm not exactly sure what that means but when you see the pictures that Katelyn sent home, they might lead you to believe that maybe it had something to do with doing your makeup with your eyes shut or something like that.  Take a look.

 

Katelyn's Raggety-Anne look.

Now I said previously that this was a young women's activity yet none of the women in these pictures look like they are part of the young women organization.  Well, since some of the young women didn't have their Mom's there, they invited a few others to help fill in. 

In addition to everything that they have been doing in Ponoka and Lacombe, Katelyn and her companion were also suppose to go back to Red Deer for Stake Conference over the weekend.  This is where the snow comes back into the picture again.  The day that they were supposed to go to Red Deer, it had been snowing so much that the Mission President told them to stay in Ponoka.  Then the next day (Sunday), they were going to try again to make it for the Sunday meetings.  But again there was too much snow.  So they ended up just going to the chapel in Lacombe to see if they could listen to the broadcast there.  Unfortunately, the audio was so bad that after about 30 minutes the Bishop there in Lacombe turned it off and decided to just hold a testimony meeting instead.  Apparently fast and testimony meeting had been cancelled just a couple of weeks earlier due to the snow, so this gave the Ward an opportunity to make up for that.

OK, here is the story that you have all been waiting to hear.  This is the story that I mentioned at the beginning about a car, a snow packed road and a couple of moose.  So this last week Katelyn wrote home and told us about a little adventure that she and her companion had.  It all started out when they drove down to Lacombe for a dinner appointment.  They got to Lacombe a little early so they decided to go and visit a few of the less active members of the Church there.  No one was available at that time of the day so they next decided to drive out to a smaller community called Morningside just to see what was there and maybe do a little tracting.  One their way to Morningside they turned off of the highway where their were a few homes.  They drove past the homes to see if there was anything else.  That was their first mistake.  As it turned out, there really wasn't anything else beyond the few houses that they saw and by this time they were really out in the middle of no where.  So they decided to turn around and go back, but when they did, they made their second mistake.  They underestimated just how soft the snow was on the side of the road and ended up driving their car right in to a ditch.  Obviously with the roads being as bad as they are in those little rural areas, they were really stuck good and not getting out anytime soon.  But the two Sister Missionaries pulled their little red shovel out of the trunk and tried to dig themselves out anyway. 

Since nothing was working and they were still stuck, they decided to call the Elders for help.  Right about then Katelyn looked over her shoulder and saw two big moose.  That is when Katelyn freaked out and made her next mistake.  She had heard that moose can be extremely aggressive and so rather than just getting back in the car for protection, Katelyn started running the other way and shouting back to her companion, RUN!! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!  Katelyn's companion just froze right there but at least she had enough sense to try to get back in the car.  Meanwhile Katelyn is still running down the road yelling back at her companion to run.  Right about that time a truck comes driving down the road and it just happens to be one of the members of the Ward in Lacombe.  They didn't have a rope that was heavy enough to pull the car out and the rope they did have just kept breaking each time they tried.  Not too far down the road there were some men working on a gas line working, so they finally drove down and asked them if they could borrow a chain or something to pull the car out of the ditch.  Well, before too much longer, all of the gas workers were there helping to pull the car out as well.  So after all was said and done, this little dinner appointment in Lacombe turned out to be an adventure that involved two young Sister Missionaries, a stuck car in a ditch in the middle of no where, a couple of huge ferocious moose and a group of gas workers donating their time to help out the two stranded missionaries.  If that doesn't make your day, who knows what will!  Check it out.

Big changes and new adventures

 It has been just a few weeks since I last wrote on this blog and in that time there has been some big changes for Katelyn.  The first big change was a transfer.  Katelyn told us that the first tip off that a transfer was coming was when the housing coordinators called and wanted to drop by to see their apartment.  That rarely ever happens unannounced.  Then the assistants to the President called and were asking questions about their car.  From all of that Katelyn and her companion figured that a change was about to happen.  As it turned out, both Katelyn and her companion were transferred to different areas.  Katelyn was transferred a little north to a town called Ponoka.  Her companion was also transferred to another town called Meadow.  Along with the transfer also came a new companion.  Katelyn told us that she has already spent some time getting to know her new companion and is very excited about the change.

 As you can see, the weather is another big change.  Being as far north as Edmonton is, winter comes a little earlier than she is used to.  Katelyn told us that it started snowing a couple of weeks ago and from that point it has been "welcome to winter in Canada".  But just before winter came roaring in, they were able to help out a few more people by raking the leaves in their yards.  One of the last few times that they raked, their whole zone got together to help out.  As they were raking the leaves at one nearby house, the lady came out with her two young sons to help also.  Of course the two little boy just wanted to run and jump in the leaves and Katelyn told us that they just had the best time playing.  Then the lady told Katelyn and her companion that just a few days earlier she had prayed for help because she felt like she just couldn't keep doing everything on her own... then the missionaries showed up.  Isn't it great how the Lord listens to the prayers of those in need?

Ponoka is a small town in between Red Deer which has Katelyn last area and Edmonton.  The Ward that Katelyn and her companion attend isn't actually in Ponoka.  It is several miles away in a different town called Lacomb.  In fact Ponoka was just opened up for missionary work about three months ago.  When Katelyn and her companion arrived in Ponoka, the members there told them just how grateful they are to have missionaries.  Katelyn said that all of the members there have been so nice since they arrived.  With this transfer to Ponoka came another big change for Katelyn.  That change is going from a small Young Single Adult branch to a regular family Ward.  Katelyn told us that there were so few members attending the YSA branch that each week Katelyn and her companion had to take on multiple roles teaching, speaking, etc... just to get through the three hour block.  But now that they are in a regular family Ward, they really appreciate the fact that there is a full Relief Society presidency, Ward missionaries, a mission leader and many other dedicated members of the Ward.

So here are a couple of funny stories that have happened to Katelyn over the past few weeks.  One thing that Katelyn does very well that her brothers needed to work on a little more while they were on their missions, is that Katelyn sends us pictures every week.  Over the past few weeks she has commented on the food they eat and the way they eat it.  Fortunately, the members of the church where they live have been kind enough to invite the missionaries for dinner almost every night.  But for breakfast and lunch Katelyn and her companion are on their own.  So here are a few pictures of their mealtime situations.

Would you call this "eating on the go", "eat and run", "dine and dash", who knows.  But Katelyn said that they end up eating lunch in their car quite often.  They have really gotten good and whipping up a good meal in the front seat of their missionary mobile.  After church on a Sunday, on their way to an appointment, whatever or wherever they happen to be when lunch time comes around, it really doesn't matter.  They are ready for anything.

Now here is a new one.  Eating lunch on a couch in their front yard.  Actually, there is a story behind this picture.  A few weeks back their mission president decided that missionaries should do not need to have a couch in their apartments.  There are actually some very good reasons for that, but that isn't part of the story.  So, being the obedient missionaries that they are, they moved their couch out of the apartment so that they could give it away.  But rather than just throwing the thing out like an old piece of garbage, they decided that they needed to give it a final send off.  So they fixed lunch and ate it on the couch.  Sounds like a great idea to me.  Eating alfresco!

Then there are the zucchini pancakes for breakfast.  This looks almost as good and the portobello mushroom burgers that they made a few months ago for lunch.  And you think that the Elders eat some weird things.  Well I know that you are all just dying for the recipe so here it is.  According to Katelyn you just mix up some zucchini slices with flour, water, salt and onions in a bowl and then fry it.  Katelyn said it was delicious and tastes like pot stickers.  I'm thinking that the jury is still out on that one.

Then there is are changes were thing just don't go so well some days.  Katelyn told us a sad story about some people that she knew.  There was a family back in Red Deer that had a tragic event happen to them.  Katelyn wanted so bad to be there to help comfort the family but since Red Deer was now out of her area, she was unable to go.  Then Katelyn and her companion were driving an older sister home when Katelyn was pulled over for a speeding ticket.  On top of that just a few hours later, she was pulled over again for not wearing a seat belt when she actually was.  But as every missionary knows, with the bad comes the good again.  Not too much longer after that, they were able to help some other people find something that they had lost and also do a little service by helping to clean a house.  Then there was Halloween.  Katelyn and her companion got dressed up and went to one of the nearby member's house to help greet the kids and pass out candy.  Katelyn said that seeing all of the kids and passing out candy was a ton of fun.

So I mentioned earlier that winter has come to Ponoka.  Katelyn told us that it started snowing last Saturday around noon and didn't stop until sometime on Sunday.  In fact it snowed so hard that on Sunday morning one of the members called them and said that church had been cancelled.  According to Katelyn, by the time the storm had passed, it left about two and a half feet of snow.  Just to give you a little idea of what the storm left, here is what it looked like over a 24 hour period.

Here is Katelyn when it first started snowing on Saturday.

That night they had to drive home in the snow from Lacomb.

Here she is the next day trudging through the snow on the way to an appointment.

And finally, here is the little present that the snow plow left behind.

It is funny just how much things can change in just a short time.  Last year at this time Katelyn was in Ecuador where the sun shines for twelve hours everyday and the temperatures are in the 70's.  This year the sun shines for about nine hours a day and the temperatures are headed towards ZERO!

Oh, this doesn't really have anything to do with changes or new adventures, but I just had to share these pictures with you.  I decided to use a third one as the header picture for the blog. They are so clever that I think you will enjoy them.

Great stories of great success from a great mission

It has been almost two weeks since General Conference and Katelyn has written us a couple of times since then.  In her first email home after conference, she told us just how much she loved it.  She had the most amazing week that week.  She told us about some of the lessons that they taught, interviews that they had with the mission president and his wife and of course GENERAL CONFERENCE. 

A few days before general conference weekend, Katelyn's mission president and his wife traveled down to Red Deer to hold interviews with the missionaries in that area.  Katelyn said that he was running about two hours late on interviews but that was OK with her.  The reason why was because it gave Katelyn and her companion more time to spend with the mission president's wife.  They all passed the time just baking cookies and talking.  Katelyn also said that she really likes her mission president.  She said that he is just hilarious and such a teddy bear.  Her mission president reminds her of her grandpa John.  Then on that Saturday and Sunday, which of course was conference weekend, they spent their time with the other missionaries just taking in everything that the general authorities and Prophet had to say.  There was one point during conference when the Tabernacle Choir sang "Called to Serve".  At that moment I told Katelyn's Mom to just imagine Katelyn standing in the chapel with a bunch of other missionaries singing along just as loud as they could.  I told Katelyn what I had said when I wrote to her the next day.  She responded and told me that it was exactly how I described it.  I told her that knowing exactly what she was doing at that moment made us feel like we were right there with her.

So here is a bit of a funny story that you will get when you see the pictures below.  A few weeks ago Katelyn's Mom put together a package and sent it to Katelyn.  Well, she finally received it right around the same time as conference weekend.  The package included a letter from a friend of her's and also some souvenirs which he had brought back from a recent trip to Bolivia.  One of the souvenirs was an indian head band which Katelyn is so beautifully sporting in the following picture.  In the next picture of the headband, there is a scripture which I think comes from the lost manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon, or maybe not.  You decide:

Click on the picture to enlarge it if you are unable to read the scripture

Actually, it was Katelyn's clever companion that wrote the scripture.  I had  you going there didn't I.  You really thought that she had found the missing manuscript pages.  ;-)

So it turns out that Canada, being a different country and all, celebrates Thanksgiving just like we do in the United States.  The only difference is that the Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October.  So this last Monday was Thanksgiving and Katelyn said that some members of the church in her area invited her and her companion to their house for Thanksgiving dinner.  In fact this family loved having the missionaries over for dinner so much that they invited them for two nights in a row.  Katelyn told us that it felt a little strange celebrating Thanksgiving in October rather than November like we do in the U.S.  But nevertheless, the food is always good and you can never get enough pumpkin pie.

Katelyn told us that because of the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada, they had a very hard time filling their appointment book.  Actually, they weren't very successful at teaching any lessons at all that week.  So with time on their hands, they took a page out of Katelyn's older brother's missionary book and raked leaves for the neighbors.  They had a really good time raking leaves.  Katelyn said that the people were so grateful but they really couldn't believe that these two young missionaries were raking leaves for free.  At one house, the owner actually came out to help them rake leaves.  The whole time that they were working, the owner kept saying, "You guys really don't mind doing this?  You really aren't charging anything?".  They told him that they were just out doing service and there was no charge.  The owner still couldn't quite wrap is head around that idea.

This past week Katelyn and her companion were working on some new ways to find people to teach.  So one of the ideas that they decided to do was to set up a booth at the college in Red Deer with the LDSSA (Latter-day Saints School Association).  Then they had some of the college students that attend the Branch sit with them in the booth as they handed out balloons, mormon.org cards with candy taped to them and played mormon messages in the background.  Katelyn said that they really had a lot of fun and really had a lot of success as well.  They gave away a lot of Books of Mormon and had some really great gospel conversations with some of the college students that came by.  In fact, they were so successful that they decided that they would set up this booth every week.

This past week in Church both Katelyn and her companion were asked to teach the Sunday School lesson as well as the Relief Society lesson.  On the way to church that day, knowing that they would be teaching during two hours of the three hour block, they joked with each other that maybe the Sacrament Meeting speaker wouldn't show up and they would be asked to speak in that meeting as well.  Fortunately for them, the speaker did show up but someone forgot to bring the sacrament bread.  So Katelyn and her companion went to the freezer in the kitchen and all they could find were some frozen blueberry waffles.  So guess what the congregation had for the sacrament that week?  You got it, they had probably one of the tastiest sacrament services ever.  I guess the moral of this story is that when you are in a bind, blueberry waffles will do.  :)

OK, Katelyn's email home this week was just filled with little gems like the following story.  But rather than retell it to you, I will just let you read it yourself.

"So on Wednesday night at 1 in the morning I hear this chirp chirp.. chirp chirp chirp chirp.. and I am thinking, what in the world is that noise?? So I walk out to our front hall area and it is coming from these boots that my companion had bought recently at Value Village (which is a thrift store). So I'm thinking, oh my.. there are birds living in the shoes she bought! I am freaking out! So I kick the boots and it stops! Then I go back and lay down in bed and not even a couple minutes later I hear it again... I go back and start moving the shoes and the noise continues so it's not in the boots and I am freaking out.  I go in and wake up my companion to come out and help me find this creature that is in our apartment and she comes out and we start tearing apart the front hall area where there is a bunch of random things.  There was an old pair of boots that someone had left in the apartment so my companion grabs the boot by the very top fur part and carefully takes it to the back deck and shuts the door... But nope the chirping remains. So we are going through everything and then all of a sudden a little cricket starts hopping around!! It was a cricket! So my companion grabs the broom and starts jabbing the cricket and it keeps hopping around and I am freaking out.  Then BAM..., she killed it. It was ridiculous."

There you have it.  The perfect missionary story.  What a great couple of weeks!

Here are a few more great pictures from Canada.  Enjoy!

Instead of a snow angel, Katelyn made a leaf angel.

Taking a break after a hard day of service.

Working hard and being guided by the spirit

Katelyn is still working with the Young Single Adult Branch in Red Deer.  The problem that the Branch is having now is that most of the young singles have gone back to school.  That means that there are very few members of the Branch still left in Red Deer.  Katelyn said a few weeks ago that there were only about 18-20 people at church on Sunday which makes it very hard to get much done. Katelyn said that she doesn't know if they can continue to meet as a Branch for much longer because it is so small.  They have no Relief Society presidency, no Sunday School presidency and no Elder's Quorum presidency.  Everybody in the Branch has 3-4 callings and just doing the best that they can.  In fact in Katelyn's letter a week or so ago, she told us about how she and her companion had to teach Elders Quorum.  She said that it was definitely a first and probably a last as well.  Katelyn said that the lesson went great but at the same time it also felt a little strange teaching the guys in Elders Quorum.

Katelyn is also having another problem as well.  But this one is a little different.  Katelyn told us about how nice all of the members are in the other Ward and how they just love to feed the missionaries.  She told us a story about how they went to dinner at one of the member family's home and the Elders were there also.  The family feed them all really well and of course when it came to just how much everybody could eat, the Elders always win.  But that didn't stop Katelyn and her companion from trying.  The Elders would give the Sisters such a hard time about not eating enough that Katelyn just wanted to prove them wrong (Katelyn has that competitive spirit just like her brothers).  But in the end, the Elders won and Katelyn said that she doesn't ever want to see Chinese food again.

Katelyn and her companion have been teaching a lot of lessons.  Some of the lessons are to new investigators and some of them are to members who have been less active.  She tells us over and over again just how much she loves teaching and talking to the people there.  In addition to teaching, they are also doing a lot of service as well.  They have helped decorate and work in the kitchen at a wedding reception.  Helped organize food items and other things for a member that gathers donated items and takes them to people in need. They even helped another Lady who needed help painting her kitchen.  Katelyn said that she really enjoyed painting.  She must get that from her mother.

Katelyn told us a really neat story about one of the members in Red Deer.  Katelyn and her companion were supposed to meet with one of their investigators for a lesson that night but for some reason the investigator didn't show up.  But as Katelyn put it, the Lord really knows what is going on and where they needed to be.  They ended up going with the Elders to the house of a member who was going through some tough things.  This member has had some really rough times over the years and is struggling with the Gospel a bit.  As I have mentioned before, Katelyn spent some time last year serving as a volunteer in Ecuador and it just so happened that this member also has a tie to Ecuador.  Right there Katelyn had something in common and started talking about how she learned so much about the Atonement in Ecuador and what it can do for people who are struggling.  One of the Elders then gave this member a beautiful blessing.  Katelyn said that she knew that she was supposed to be there that evening to share her experiences with this person and that it is times like that that makes everything a mission is about, worth it.

So here is a bit of a funny story.  So Katelyn likes banana's but one day one of the Elders who is from the Congo decided that he needed Katelyn's banana, so he took it and said he would pay her back.  For some reason this Elder gave Katelyn the nick name of "Big Money Nicholes" and it seems to have stuck.  So a few days later Katelyn and her companion were sitting in their car eating some food after church when the Elders texted them and told them to check the fridge in the church kitchen.  So they went to the kitchen and found a white bag that had written on it, "Sister Nicholes (Big Money)".  Inside the bag was a banana and written on the banana as well was "Big Money Nicholes".

 

Katelyn has been playing the piano again which has really made her Mom happy.  Katelyn took piano lessons for several years when she was little but hasn't played much since then.  But just like her Mom always said, there will be a time when you really need that talent and apparently the time has come.  Katelyn and her companion organized a talent show for the YSA Branch.  Since there really aren't that many members of the Branch, they weren't really sure how well it was going to work out.  But Katelyn told us that it actually went better than she thought it would.  During the talent show Katelyn played "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" and "Praise To The Man".  She said that somebody had taken a video of it and was going to send it to us but we haven't seen it yet.  I'm sure that she did a really good job.

 

So here is another little tidbit.  Apparently one of the members of the Branch is part of a battle group.  This is a group that meets one a month or so and each member of the group dresses up like a medieval warrior or something like that.  So here is a picture of Katelyn and her companion after they had borrowed some of the swords and shields from the battle group.

 Things have been going great for Katelyn in Red Deer.  She is loving what she is doing and every week she tells us great stories about the members of the Ward and Branch.  She has also told us some great stories about some of the people that they have met while they have been out tracting.  Stories about how the Lord guides them to a specific neighborhoods and how there is always one house where someone is just waiting for them to come.  Katelyn has only been out for a couple of months now but she has already had some great experiences and I'm sure that she will have many more in the months to come.
 

Mission experiences are pouring in

Katelyn finally made it to Canada.  Her flight took her through Minnesota which is kind of a round about way of getting there.  Especially, given the fact that Edmonton, Canada is almost due north of Salt Lake City.  We received a letter from her mission President a few weeks later just telling us how grateful they are to have Katelyn in their mission and how well she is doing.  The mission President also included a picture of Katelyn with he and his wife.

Katelyn told us in her first email home that it was weird to think that she is in a different country. Other than the fact that there are no mountains and the people really do say "eh" a lot, things aren't really that much different.  She arrived in the mission on a Tuesday and the next day was mission transfers.  Katelyn has been assigned to serve in Red Deer which is a couple of hours south of Edmonton.  She and her companion will be working with the Young Single Adults in the area.  From what Katelyn told us, they will be spending most of their time working with the less active and other members of the Branch.  She told us that working with the YSA Branch is great for a lot of reasons.  One of those reasons is that they have 3-4 dinner appointments per week as well as the opportunity to attend and help out with the YSA activities.  Of course the others reasons include all of the great people in the Branch that she is serving with.

Over and over again Katelyn has told us just how much she loves being a missionary.  She is still trying to get used to teaching and tracting and everything else that goes on in the mission field, but she loves it. She has wasted no time in getting right into the work.  Katelyn has told us about meeting with the Branch President, teaching lessons to some of the less active members of the Branch, sharing the gospel while tracting and even having to give her first Sacrament meeting talk as a missionary.  She said that giving a talk in Sacrament meeting was not quite what she was used to.  Since there are only about 30-40 members of the Branch, looking out at the audience was more like teaching a Gospel Doctrine class than it was speaking in a Sacrament meeting.  Tracting has been a little rough though.  Katelyn said that they get rejected a lot as well as running into some rude people who think it is appropriate to yell at the missionaries.

Not too long ago Katelyn was on an exchange with a sister missionary that was serving in a nearby city.  One of their investigators canceled on them at the last minute so they both decided to go tracting.  While tracting, they ran into a lot of houses where nobody was home and others that really weren't interested.  Then they ran into one man who told them that he already knew about the Mormons and what they believed.  So out of curiosity, Katelyn and her companion asked him to explain what he knew.  He proceeded to tell them all about how Mormons worship Joseph Smith, how all of the men have multiple wives and even about members of the church digging up the bodies of dead people so that they could baptize the bones.  Of course none of that is true.  So they left the man with some truthful information and told him that if he really wanted to know more, they would be willing to teach him.  We'll see if anything comes of that.

Then Katelyn told us about the hardest day that she has had so far.  They met a another man who was sitting on his porch and began talking with him.  He immediately told the sisters that he was an atheist and wanted nothing to do with religion.  As the conversation went on, Katelyn said that everything just felt terrible.  Finally, the man's wife came out and told them to leave along with some other choice words.  As Katelyn and her companion left and started walking back to their car, Katelyn just felt overwhelmed by the worst feeling.  This man believed that there was nothing to this life.  We live, we die and that's it.  Katelyn just kept thinking about all of the little children that she served in the Ecuadorian orphanages and the trials that they had in their little lives.  She just knew that the Lord loved these little kids and that there would be purpose to their life.  All would be made right for them through the atonement.  She just felt bad for this man because she wanted him to understand this concept and knew that he didn't want to accept it.  So before they went any further, both Katelyn and her companion walked across the street to a park and said a prayer.  Of course this is just the first of probably many experiences both good and bad that Katelyn will have on her mission.  The great thing about a mission is that when it is all over and the missionary returns home, they will remember all of the great experiences and forget about the bad ones.

Speaking of great experiences, Katelyn latest email home was filled with wonderful stories.  She told us all about how she and her companion were able to travel to Edmonton for a conference with a General Authority of the church.  She said that the General Authority gave a wonderful talk that was filled with inspirational stories.  Then they were able to go through an endowment session in the temple in Edmonton and just how wonderful it was to be in the temple again.

Then after returning to Red Deer, the experiences didn't stop.  Katelyn and her companion went out tracting again and Katelyn said that it was pretty rough.  They were rejected over and over again and were about to give up for the night.  When they got back to their car, Katelyn said that she just felt like they weren't done for the night.  There was still someone around there that they needed to meet.  She decided that they would drive through some of the neighborhoods until they felt prompted to stop.  So they drove around for about fifteen minutes when Katelyn felt that it was time to stop and try again.  No luck.  House after house, no one was home.  It was getting close to nine o'clock at night so again, they felt like they needed to head home.  As they walked back to their car, they noticed that there was a light on at the house across the street from where they parked.  Katelyn and her companion saw the light and decided to try just one more house.  When they knocked on the door, a lady answered and began talking with them.  They talked for about twenty minutes about the gospel and how it is centered around the family.  When they had finished talking, they left the lady with some pamphlets and an appointment to return.  At this point Katelyn was just amazed that even though it was literally the last door that they knocked on, the Lord knew where they needed to go and lead them right to the house.

Katelyn sent home a few pictures of her and some of the companions that she has been serving with.

As Katelyn explained it to us, this is one of their great meals that they fixed for themselves one night.  Basically, it is a portebello mushroom burger.   No meat, just mushroom.  Katelyn said that it tasted a lot better than it looked.  In fact it tasted really good.

This is a picture of Katelyn and one of the other sisters that she served with during exchanges.

If you weren't aware of this already, most of the bananas that we consume in the U.S. are from the country of Ecuador.  I'm sure that this banana that Katelyn is holding was from Ecuador also.  It probably just made her think about her time serving in the orphanages there.  The fact that the banana is a bit over ripened, probably just reminded her about just how far away Ecuador is from Canada.

More mission companions.  It is great to serve with such wonderful sisters.