Week 4: Picture This!

Sis. Willis along with 21 other missionaries arrive from the Provo MTC to the Canada Calgary Mission.

You're a totally normal citizen of Calgary, CA, waiting at a bus stop or train station when all of a sudden, a red-faced, sweaty-haired gremlin swamp monster comes up to you and asks if you're interested in watching a one-minute video about church & community. You guessed it! The red-faced, sweaty-haired gremlin swamp monster is me! After biking a couple of miles in 25-degree weather (which is 80ish? Fahrenheit degrees)! I made myself memorize the Standard of Truth and D&C 4 while doing planks and wall sits so I was already sore and tired by the time we had to bike around and I only got like 7/8 of the way to crying while we went uphill. It's fine. I'll be swole soon enough.

Sis. Willis with Pres. and Sis. Keung

I feel I am WELL on my way to being a Real Missionary! I am unlocking MANY achievements as I have now: street contacted in downtown Calgary, taught a lesson, been to a baptism with someone we're teaching, pulled weeds out of a lady's garden, tracted, been backed away from on the street, gone to zone council, eaten at a member's house, been asked to speak next Sunday, and ridden a bike in a skirt when it was 14° (like 50° Fahrenheit) and raining! It's nicer now but last week it was COLD! In July! I used to think I liked the cold but now I'm not sure that I'm spiritually, emotionally, physically or intellectually prepared for winter. In September.

Sis. Willis and Sis. Bangura

My trainer's name is Sister Bangura! She's from England but her parents are originally from Sierra Leone which means she has the second-best accent in the world behind President & Sister Keung, who are Maori and say awesome stuff like "Heavenly Fahthah" and "The Savya" and "The Book of Moh-min". I could listen to them talk ALL DAY. They also taught us Whakaria Mai, which is How Great Thou Art in Maori and when we sing it I feel like I'm in Moana. AND we're learning this traditional Maori dance to perform as part of a cultural exchange we're doing with one of the First Nations tribes as we help clean up the reservation. Do I have the best mission in the entire world? I believe so.

I'm currently serving in the Brentwood YSA ward in the Northwest of Calgary, but because it's YSA our area stretches all the way west to Banff. We get to go to Banff once a year and Waterton, in the south, once a year, and so you'd better believe I'll be sending some pics.

Sometimes being a missionary means getting injured for the sake of the Work. For example, my right foot is all messed up because on Monday morning I dropped a shampoo bottle on my toe in the shower and it was bleeding all over for a good 15 minutes and THEN I pulled something in the top of my foot playing cäpture the fläg in church clothes for Family Home Evening. What can I say? I was performing valiant service. 

In Canada, they really do say cäpture the fläg, where you take the jerseys out of the bäg and have to go to jail if you get tägged. They also say "graj" for garage and they don't have Reese's, they have Reese. It's almost like a foreign country or something. You also get money for plastic bottles so you bet we're going to the bottle depot today.

Pres. Keung, Sis. Bangura, Sis. Willis, Sis. Keung

The original title of this email was Planes, Trains & Automobiles because this week I've taken the UVX, Frontrunner, TRAX, a plane, the mission president's car, the mission van, our mission car, the Calgary transit, and a bike! We are for SURE going places. AND your very own Sister Willis is the Designated Driver because her companion doesn't have a driver's license. This is Very Stressful because we drive on average around 50 kilometers a day and I am just now starting to get a feel for the area. And sometimes U-turns are illegal even when there's no no-U-turn sign?! It's madness.

All of our lessons but one fell through this week, which meant that we got to go finding instead! Finding is a great exercise in my companion telling me that I get to talk to the next person and me working up all my courage and then not doing it. It's SO much scarier than I thought it would be. And there are lots of Muslims in Calgary who are SUPER willing to talk about Jesus Christ, as long as you just want to talk about how He was a great prophet who paved the way for Muhammed. Unfortunately that is NOT our message and so it sometimes gets a little dicey. What can you do.

Contacting downtown the first day was hard because I used to be a totally normal and nice person who people would talk to on the street and once you add one (1) name badge people back away slowly and tell you to move on and wave you away from them. However, we also did some stop-bys and when this cute lady saw us and our badges she was SO excited and grateful that we'd come to see her grandson and we stayed and talked with them for like 40 minutes. There is definitely a message there but I haven't had enough shower time to figure it out yet, so stay tuned.

Action shot!

I tracted for the first time on Sunday and NOBODY wanted to talk to us during family dinner (surprise surprise) and so it was mostly just me walking door to door, trying not to cry and whispering "find them that will receive you" over and over again, but I quickly realized that this was NOT about me because nobody here KNOWS me. It was in that moment that I learned that I would NOT have what it took to be an early Christian because they were all super psyched to be persecuted for Christ's sake and there I was, casually hoping that people would just ... not see the badge. Luckily it was a learning experience and I repented and remembered this scripture in 2 Timothy that says "Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." So there we go! We're right back on track and we tracted yesterday and I even talked to some people. That's called character development.

Last night was p-day eve which meant I got to clean the bathroom and I wondered why it smelled like pee but it turned out I had been spraying AMMONIA GLASS CLEANER on everything. Luckily I Febrezed it over so now it just smells like "Hawaiian Breeze" (ou Brise Exotique 😉) instead. We're gonna say it's fine.

I'm trying to even remember what happened in the MTC. I know your girl (& her wonderful MTC comp!) taught relief society on her last Sunday and we had the most beautiful and moving topic of all time: dispensations, apostasy, and restoration. It ended up being okay because we stole the idea where you stack the gospel principle cups to represent the Church and then pull out the foundation to illustrate how the Great Apostasy happened. We found a bunch of things that were lost & restored and scriptures to go with them and after the tower fell we gave everyone a cup and our discussion took all of class! And no leaders yelled at us! Hooray! 

Last MTC photo. An Elder Willis and a Sister Willis!
(and two other missionaries to make the picture legal!)

I was going over my journal entries from my last three days in the MTC to find something fun and funky to tell you all about, but literally every other paragraph has "and I cried" in it (which honestly? should not surprise anyone I've EVER met). To be fair, they did sing Savior, Redeemer of My Soul at departure devotional, so I feel that one was warranted.

I love you all! Sorry for sending the longest email of all time!

Sister Willis