Week 19: I lose a companion:(

Sis. Fetters, Sis. Murray, Sis. Willis

After waiting in Calgary for 3 and a half months, Sister Murray finally got her visa to the states and is now preaching the gospel on temple square! Our companionship now fits much better on doorsteps and we moved the mattress out between our two beds, so now everything feels a little empty in a depressing way! And our musical duet that we were planning on for sacrament meeting is now a solo with piano accompaniment. Sad day.

Elder S. Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy (who is also the president of the North America Central Area and works in Church Mission Headquarters, which, if you don't speak church, means he is Fancy and Important) came to visit our mission last week, so we spent Halloween in a big meeting with all of the missionaries in Calgary, Elder Nielsen and his wife, and our mission president and his wife. We talked about lots of good stuff, but Elder Nielsen also came to our stake conference (a big meeting with lots of congregations!) on Saturday and Sunday, so it all kind of just ... blends together. The most important thing to know about him is that he is 6'5 and was a quarterback for both the BYU Cougars and the Houston Oilers. Our mission president didn't even reach his shoulder, and Elder Nielsen kept putting his arm on President Keung's head and saying "I love this little guy!" It was a grand ol' time. The most important thing he taught us was that our motivation for ministering to others has to come out of the two great commandments, which are to love God and love your neighbor! But you already know that! 

When we were sitting at lunch with a counselor in our stake presidency and his wife, they were asking us where we're from and I said that I'm from Maryland, just north of D.C., and he said "DC! You guys won the World Series last night!" According to my companions, I "freaked out", but I think "loudly exclaimed" would be more accurate. Apparently Elder Nielsen, who is from Houston, was less excited about the Nationals' victory. It's okay, because my mission president, who lived in DC before coming to Calgary, got out his Nationals hat at breakfast the next day. Go Nats! I love my DC sports team!  

Halloween!

Those of you who have been following the bedbug saga know that we have been living in the mission home since the beginning of the transfer (going on four weeks now!). We moved in with some other sister missionaries from Monday night to Thursday night because Elder and Sister Nielsen were going to be staying there, which is, ya know, fair. We moved back in on Friday because Elder and Sister Nielsen were planning on staying in a hotel for their last two nights, and when we got home, the Keungs' daughter Crystal asked us to go downstairs and strip the sheets on their bed. When we went into their room, a whole bunch of their stuff (including his whole suit and her laptop) was still in the room, but we took the sheets off anyway and brought them up to Crystal, whose parents had just texted her to tell her that Elder and Sister Nielsen would be there to pick up the rest of their stuff in five minutes! We hurriedly tried to make it look like we hadn't just been messing with their bed, went into our room (which is RIGHT across from their room) and shut the door! A few seconds later, Crystal knocked on our door, telling us to go up and take pictures with the general authority! And we were half ready for bed! One of my companions was in her pajamas! We took 15 seconds to get back dressed and try to look presentable and went upstairs to shake hands and take pictures. It took about 44 seconds for Elder Nielsen to find out we're staying in the mission home because we have bed bugs at our apartment! We love it!

The fumigators were supposed to come to our apartment to kill the hatched bed bugs on Sunday between 12 and 4. When we got out of our church meeting on Sunday at 11, we had missed calls and texts from the fumigator, who had scheduled us incorrectly and showed up at 9 instead! We called to tell them what had happened, and they said they didn't have any open spots until SATURDAY! So we're crashing at the mission home for 5 out of the 6 weeks this transfer! Which is just ,,, grand!

On Friday, the women in the wards that we cover had a craft night, and lots of people brought friends not of our faith, so we got to go! A bunch of people brought different kinds of soup, so I ate SO many bowls of good soup! I felt like I could die, but it was worth it. The highlight of the night was when I was making a cinnamon candle and all of a sudden my face started to burn! I went to put my candle in the fridge while my companion waited in the gym (which is a no-no), and I saw one of the members that we know pretty well, so she said "Sister Willis! How are you doing!" and I told her that the left side of my face was kind of burning and she said that it was bright red! Which NOBODY could have been bothered to tell me earlier! We pretty quickly decided it was the cinnamon oil, so she grabbed me an allergy pill while I put cold water on my face, which was a BAD IDEA! I took chemistry, so I don't know why I didn't remember that oil is nonpolar and doesn't dissolve in water, but I just spread it up my forehead and down my cheek! My companions finally decided to see if I was okay, and by the time they came in I was rubbing dish soap all over the side of my face, which was significantly more effective at stopping the burning but also made me look pretty dumb! Ever since then, they've been doing their best to keep me away from cinnamon, even though I keep telling them that I HAVE eaten cinnamon before and been fine, I just can't rub concentrated cinnamon oil on my skin! But what's a relief society craft night without a good story. And it smells really good!

We showed up a couple of minutes early to one of our appointments this week, so we decided to call people who might be interested in learning more about the gospel, including one man who had called Sister Murray and her previous companion and scheduled an appointment that he didn't show up to. He told us that we could come over right after we were done teaching our friend Wayne, and we were SO excited! We couldn't believe that someone was willing to make time for us right away! We found his house and he told us his name was Martin and he was from South Africa. That was about where the conversation stopped being fun. He spent the whole lesson making fun of us for not knowing the Bible as well as he does, made up a fake god that he told us he believed in to prove a point, and told us we were going to hell before we made up an appointment we had to go to and got out of there! It was NOT a good time and he was NOT a good guy! The strangest thing is that he found our number online just to do some weird Biblical jiu-jitsu on some 20 year old kids! It was... not the appointment we expected. But at least we learned the medical definition for brain death.

We had some good appointments with our friends David and Wayne! It's so good to see and help people who want to change their lives and come closer to Christ! Missionary work is fun because you get to learn to love people super quickly. And there's nowhere I'd rather be! Even though it was -15 degrees this morning and we've had about 5 near-death experiences from our brakes locking in the last 24 hours! I can literally feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins every time we drive! If anyone has any tips about surviving the snow, send them this way!

District Farewell party for Sis. Murray!

Movie review! I think I'm getting a little more acclimated to old Nephi? I do love his wife and babies! So cute! But the water and clouds looked... a little fake. I guess the Church couldn't pay to ACTUALLY film on the water, which probably means that they're spending our tithing on, like, helping people, which is nice. Other than that, it was a good time. I like when Laman says "Look at me, I'm Nephi, I'm so righteous!" Because I feel like that's an accurate portrayal of sibling relationships and probably just didn't make it into the plates.

Mosiah 7:19 says, "Therefore, lift up your heads, and rejoice, and put your trust in God, in that God who was the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; and also, that God who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and caused that they should walk through the Red Sea on dry ground, and fed them with manna that they might not perish in the wilderness; and many more things did he do for them." I love that Limhi teaches the people to have faith in God by showing the ways that He has blessed those who trust Him! I think that leaning on our past experiences or those of other people when our own faith may be weak is super important! It's awesome to have congregations where we can take turns strengthening and reminding each other who we are and Who we trust! And it's awesome that we all get to be on both sides of that strengthening!

I'm so grateful for all of you! Your friendship and your examples have made me who I am today! Have a GREAT week and start getting PUMPED for Christmas!

Love,

Sister Willis