Down to Taber Town!

Howdy yall!

Coming to you live from the town of Taber!!! So, transfers were on Thursday. On Tuesday night they called us to let us know that I would be coming back south! My new area is Taber and I am serving with Sister Taylor.... and it's seriously the best thing in the world! Taber is so cute (ha pretty dang small, definitely not like downtown) it's seriously the cutest. The ward is so cute! We cover the Taber 1st ward (which is a pretty decent sized ward) and the Vauxhall ward (which is literally the smallest thing ever.  I have never seen a smaller chapel, but it's still the cutest) Sister Taylor is from Nashville, Tennessee. And she is literally my favorite person ever. She is going to BYU-- and fun fact, she almost went there to play basketball. Ha we're literally the same person so it's the best thing in the world!!

My new companion, Sister Taylor
(Sorry Mom,  we'll have a better pic next week!)

Anywayyyy, before transfers when I was in Downtown we were continuing to see so many miracles! Before I left we picked up another investigator.  It was a lot harder than I thought saying goodbye to everyone!  Crazy how fast you grow to love people, ha and I already love the people here! Yesterday at church one of the speakers was sick and couldn't speak, ha so they took that as an opportunity to have me go up and speak. Ha yay for being a missionary and getting called up to the front to speak for like 10 minutes with no notice... but it's all good. It went really well!

Elroy Pantherbone-- gave me an authentic dream catcher

Jasmyne

Tammy and the dogs (Junior and Seisel)

Saying bye to Miss Myrna Wood

Kathy and Linda

The work here is a little different. Ha small town is super fun! We have a couple of investigators but I can tell that lots of our time is going to be devoted to finding people.  Ha but such is missionary life so it's all good! We are teaching this adorable family. They are Mennonite so that's pretty cool. The mom would join the church in a second but in the Mennonite culture if she were to join then she would be completely shunned... ha but she doesn't really care. We just have to get her husband on board and then they would all be baptized.  It's pretty fun. We have a couple  more investigators and a few potentials.  Lots of our work is trying to find less actives and work with them, ha which is hard because since it's such a small town some people don't even have an address. The only thing they give us is their mailbox number, ha so just got to go out and find them somehow. 

We called our dinner appointment for Saturday and she gave us directions to her house. It's funny cause when you ask where people live they don't tell you the number (most of them don't even know their house number) they just tell you like "2 miles past the Roberts house, take a left and drive 1 1/2 miles and it'll be the house that's in the trees on your right." HA I love it!!!

Got to see Baby Burnside at transfers!! She is training the next 2 transfers and I am so excited for her! She has a little Taiwanese Sister that doesn't really know English. She's going to be the best trainer though!

Saying bye to Sister Shields

Took a tour of a firetruck with some cute kids in our ward.

People take Christmas decorations very seriously here! There are plenty of houses that look like this. Plus they have had the decorations up for a while cause you never know when you can wake up to like 2 feet of snow.

One other thing that has been really great is the new Christmas initiative that the church came out with.  It is such a good tool in finding people! I would suggest that you all participate in it!  Let's #LighttheWorld!!!

We met Devin Durrant!

But ya, life down here is pretty darn great! I loved the city but just love the South so much!!

Love you all so much! Have a great week, I know that I will :)

Oh and happy late Thanksgiving!!

Quote of the week: "When we come to Him with humble and teachable hearts- even if our hearts are heavy with mistakes, sins and transgressions- He can change us, for He is mighty to save."

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 9:18 They who have endured the crosses of the world... they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

Love you all! Shout out to Abby for everything with basketball. #15

Sister Ashley King

What day is it?... HUMP DAYYYY!

Pulled out the big winter coat this week-- but hey still smiling :)

Well hey there!

I've survived being a missionary for 9 months! Holy smokes it's going by way too quickly! Can't even believe it!

Anywayyy, this week was ridiculously awesome! Seriously can't even relay the miracles that we have been seeing lately!

Ha the first fun thing that we did this week-- we met with a less active, who is Native) and he showed us a bit of his culture. We did a smudge with him... ha it's pretty much where they just burn sage grass and say a prayer, but it was in Black foot and it was real cool. I did leave smelling awful!!! But I got an Indian name so that made up for everything! You can just call me Moakshkinny-- ha that means red hair, real original right?

Miracle of the week however was on Thursday night. We had a lesson with our investigator, Tashina. So we got there and she said that she was say too busy for us to meet... :( but her dad, Gerald was there so we decided that we would ask him if he would be interested in hearing a message from us. HE SAID YES! Ha so we sat down and had a really good lesson and he like completely opened up to us with some crazy stories about how his wife had died and his son committed suicide so we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it! We asked him if he would want to come to church and he said that he wouldn't be quite comfortable yet, so then we decided that we should take him on a church tour. He said that was a great idea!

Calgary Tower with Sister Jones and Sister Longson

So on Saturday morning we took a tour of the church then last minute we decided to take him down to the Family History Center.  He got talking with a consultant and now he's super interested in family history! So we'll hopefully be coming again with him. That was pretty cool because I made a personal goal last week to talk with someone about family history.... ha and it happened!

First actual gingerbread man cookie!

We were able to go on exchanges twice this week, so that was pretty fun. I went up to Airdrie-- which is the most north that our mission goes, so that was pretty fun! It's beautiful up there! 

On Saturday we were able to go to this really cool meeting. Devin Durrant came and talked to our stake about Teaching in the Savior's Way. It was really good! And he is REALLY tall! It was a great meeting and it was really a discussion. He was walking around and the whole audience was participating.  It was just a real good experience. 

Awkward moment of the week: so our ward Christmas party is coming up and the lady that's in charge of it asked me and Sister Shields if we would like to sing in a little group a cute little Christmas song, we of course said yes. We had our first practice yesterday. Turns out it is all the SUPER cute young newly weds in our ward.... and then us. Ha there is literally 5 adorable couple-- all of which like haven't been married for more than 4 months. Then us. Ha but it's all good-- life as a missionary is all about having fun with the awkward moments.

The weather here has definitely started to cool down! Ha oh ya! Had to bring out the big guns this week (my big huge winter coat) but honestly I love it! It makes things exciting. Plus Downtown is so beautiful with the fog and the snow, I just love it here!

Calgary tower, Sister Jones was trying to take a cool pic of us lying down, but I wasn't having it.

The Christmas tree that mom sent us-- it's the best!

So ya, things are happening! We have picked up so many new investigators and we have a ton of potentials! The Lord is blessing us so much right now with people to teach!

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 18:21-- I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and there was a great calm.

Quote of the week: "The grace of God does not merely restore us to our previous innocent state... His aim is much higher; He wants His sons and daughters to become like Him." -Uchtdorf

Another one cause gotta love them general authorities: "In our lives we experience trials, but if we are ambitious for Christ, we can focus and Him and feel joy even in the midst of them." -Elder Yamashita

Love you all! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Sister Ashley King