Christmas week

augh no man i have no words for this week. NO WORDS... but ill try and explain some things that have happened :)

last monday we made treats for the ward at the bishops home :) looooots of cookies. sister gardner and i were just leaning against the wall in the hallway talking to everyone and then we both realized at the same time that there was mistletoe just hangin there.. HAHAHAHA we both were like BAHA runaway. just kidding i took a picture under the mistle toe and everyone laughed.

we went to the store to get flowers for a lady and its was like -500 degrees outside cause the wind and i was complaining and i get out the car and sister gardner is talking to this guy in his car parked next to us.. so i walk over and this guy just has the biggest smile on his face and this is the first thing i hear him say "HERE I AM SITTING HERE FOR 45 MINUTES JUST THINKING ABOUT MY LIFE.. AND THINKING ABOUT GOD.. and asking him to show me the way.. because i just dont know what is true anymore.. and then two angels show up and give me their religious card (haha a "religious card is what he kept calling our christmas "he is the gift" card) and now i know what to do!" we proceeded to talk to him about joseph smith and the restoration and he was SO HAPPY! EXCEPT I COULD HARDLY TALK MY TEETH WERE CHATTERING SO HARD ha..... sooooo we gave him the elders number and went on our merry way and i will tell you what happened to him next week when we find out... but it was super cool :)

tuesday oh tuesday was awesome :)
we had a lesson with esther and sister konietz came with... both of them are from germany :) OH MAH GOSH. esther is so golden.. we get there and she's like.. so i have some questions for you.. and starts asking us all about the book of mormon.. she has read like the first two books of nephi already and she got it a WEEK ago... anyways she had the CRAZIEST experience reading a verse from the book of mormon and wanted to know the context and stuff and then we taught her all about the restoration and at the part where we teach her about the first vision my companion took it away and it was soooo good... bahhhhh!! i loved it :) and esther was just like "..... wooooow...." and she said she would pray about baptism.
IM EXCITED.

then for lunch on tuesday i went to lunch with andre and israel. no big deal.
just kidding yes it is a big deal! i was so excited and happy to see them :) we went to a dim dum beijing blah blah blah chinese place i cant say but it was WAY GOOD BUT WAY WEIRD.. and i SAW real chicken feet.. hahah.. good thing i already know what those taste like ;)

then we went to a lesson with kristy and sorted out her baptism stuff.... thats a long story in itself but she will be baptised one day :)

wednesday the elders stole our car for transfer meeting and then FORGOT to give us the bus passes so we walked 1000 miles all over the place and got like nothing done.. it was very frustrating... we handed out alot of cards :P

thursday we met with pama nd roopa came with.. they are both from guyana so that was perfect as well :) waha... and i love pam. whenever she talks she calls us her honey loves or her sweeties hahaha oh pam :)

then we went to another lesson with esther and sister koneitz came again.. man i sure love sister konietz.. her conversion story is so boss and she is a rock star at teaching  and brought the spirit in more and more every time she opened her mouth.. sister gardner and i would just kinda guide the conversation and then sister konietz would teach and esther would ask questions... al;kdfj;alksdfjkl;j asdfj SO GOOD :)

we delivered a bunch of books of mormon to members for the challenge starting next week :) then we went carolling at the hospital and called ourselves the really bad carollers.. cause we are hahah but we sure laugh and smile alot and who doesnt like that

friday was christmas conference and (sorry im writing a novel with everything i just have to tell you everything cause it was the best. and just accept it :) )

christmas conference was good :) and i got my letters from you :) aww gee thank you i love you so so much my family :)

we had time to write in our journal and i was just thinking about how i felt just plain happy. but no different from any other time of the year when im happy. i know christmas is special but heck everyday is and can be special if we make it ya know?? so i got to thinking about the concept of "special" of "worth" and of "important". in matters of finance or supply and demand the world would tell you that because there are so many of us( people) we dont MATTER we are insignificant, and no one is really important unless you do something psycho crazy cool or something... but God does not veiw us this way.. it doesnt matter how many people have blue eyes or green eyes or brown or whatever.. he still thinks we are beautiful, it doesnt matter if we can speak 500 languages or cant speak but god still communicates with us as individuals because he loves us as that, AN INDIVIDUAL.. and he loves us for US... even IF we arent unique or "special" or "important" in the worlds eyes.. we are to Him. and my mind and heart are starting to get that.. even thought i cant explain it.. im starting to love that way and see that way.... thats what i learned at christmas conference. we should all just be ourselves... and be content to just improve a little bit everyday and just LET GOD LOVE US :)

then the rest of friday we weekly planned. gaaaaaaaaaaaag me. exchanges are annoying to plan but fun to go on.
saturday came and went.. what did we do saturday??? uuuum oh we had a few lessons and delivered more books andthen went carolling again.
sunday was good :) church is the best.. we have been giving out the he is the gift cards to every BREATHING CREATURE outside... and i love getting out my comfort zone to talk to people with head phones in.. pull over on the side of the road to talk to people or almost be attacked by awful stupid dogs just to talk to their owners.. ha :)

life is so good :)
i love love love being a missionary.. i kinda feel like this is what i have been doing my whole life.. and my old life is just a dream.. or something i read in a book once. weird.
i love you :) i will see you to soon :)
love sister doulgas

Progress

Waiting for the bus -39

THERE has been alot of progression happening this week :)

carol went to ARP to stop smoking

kristy was engaged.. not engaged but still comitted to baptism

marcus came to church and went to mutual and is going to a youth dance..he is 16 and all the youth love him.. the young women too haha  nothin like flirting to convert.. hahaha (i told the young women in the ward that they should DEFINITELY invite him hahaha)

ASHELY and ashaya are doing the book of mormon challenge.. finish the book by the end of april... (by the way this is a challenge our bishop gave us up here and its to read the whole book of mormon from january to the end of april highlighting and annotating the paper back copy we give them and then when they are done.. give it to someone :) you should do it.. its like right as I come home so you should try it )

pam came to church for the first time.. she isnt really interested in JOINING but she has been reading the book of mormon and she really felt the spirit during testimony meeting.. man there are some solid rocks in this ward.. like alot of the testimonies made me cry... welll.. im really weepy cause of all the sugar hahah but still it was GOOD
and esther came to church.. she is our newest investigator from germany, and we have a family from germany in our ward GOLDEN!!
WERE gonna have a lot of baptisms next transfer its really exciting. so much is happening here.. im so grateful.. i feel like Heavenly Father sent the best work for my last area to keep me focused and working so so hard...

i worked so hard in every area but now i feel like such a tangible thing to work on.. if that makes sense.. sometimes i felt like in other areas we just knocked s to knock doors... which was MY FAULT. but we also didnt have too many people to teach and here they are comin out our ears :)

sacrament meeting really touched me this week.. so many people.. so many broken people experiencing healing and peace. the gospel in NO WAY makes us perfect now.. heck that would defeat the purpose of LIFE but the gospel brings us PERFECT PEACE. and one day we will be perfect because of Christ. how cool is that :)

I saw the Cousin krugers this week! that was so SWEET!! :)

we had our ward christmas party.. also awesome :)

exchanges and MLC and getting lost in the city and all of that made for an exciting crazy week.

i just know the church is true! it so is. it really really is. and the Book of Mormon ROCKS :) I LOVE IT :) IT IS TRUE. and truth makes a difference.
i love you all :)
love Sister Douglas

Sister missionaries sang as they walked and walked and walked and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAALKED.

Let me just be candid with you guys for a second.... THIS WEEK SUCKED. but it also was miraculous and i really can not complain... but i think we walked over 40 miles. in -17.. wind chill -25.... no exaggeration.. ok maybe a little on the distance.. but on the cold. no. it. was. disgusting.

but the rewards were sweet and worth it.

soooo im trying to sort through this crazy head of mine and think what i need to tell you first.

blah ok

last monday we walked 500 miles everywhere and i thought i was gonna die and its HILLARIOUS trying to talk to people when your all bundled up cause you cant actually rotate your head to look at people.. you have to rotate your whole body.. so i feel like a big awkward lego marshmellow sister talking to people ha. also if your face itches or your arm or something you just have to endure it cause theres no WAY im takin my mittens of for anything... except to write a number on a card. thats it.

i saw the martins. :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) oh the martins. i love them.. they are crazy people like me and i love it and those crazy people are GOING BACK TO ENGLAND... crazies... so i got to say good bye and hug em all one last time :) love them... so hopefully i see them in june?? ya?? :) yes :)

we had FHE with anna... she is Ugandan..she was baptized 4 years ago and she is rock solid :)i love it. we watched the testaments with her and she was cryign when christ visits the people and she was like "he REALLY will come AGAIN." in her darling accent. i love these people.
and she's right. HE REALLY WILL COME AGAIN. SOON.

tuesday.

we met with ashley... SHE IS ON DATE FOR BAPTISM PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! IM SO EXCITED :)

my FIRST EXCHANGE...
dun dun dunnnnnnnn

its was great :) i went with sister wilson.. she is just about finished with her training so it was cool to just talk with her about that... we found a sweet new investigator for them when we were on exchanges.. AND got their investigator to commit to baptism... it was awesome :) miracles!

wednesday exchange back... went to service.. we play bean bag baseball with really old folks.. i love them.. and they are hillarious.
this was another day of walking around forever and feeling like we were dying. but were still alive so obviously we were fine

thursday district meeting... training on asking inspired questions... im bad at that cause i just respond to quickly to people.. i talk and ask questions that just come instead of pausing and thinking about it.. so thats what im working on this week.
thursday was the worst ever for WALKING. we walked and walked and walked... and so many people were not home and that really annoyed me. we found two potentials for other missionaries.. one Filipino lady and a YSA guy. solid.

friday. we call it fat friday cause we get to stay inside and plan for a few hours.. and munch on food...but healthy food ;)

gave cheryl (investigator) a church tour and when we were in the relief society room looking at the baptismal font we invited her to be baptized next month and she ACCEPTED. so that was crazy awesome to :) this area is HAPPENING!

saturday helped a lady in the ward move, met the duponts.. awesome family who has nerf wars all the time.. yes i played in a long wool skirt.. miracles.
met a few more of our investigators walked all over the city... got on the wrong bus.. we were super ticked cause then we had to walk FURTHER...... BUUUUUUT it was a miracle cause then we met crystal who was a former investigator from lethbridge who knew missionaries and we walked like 2 miles with her just talking and she was so excited to see us and wants us to teach her daughter :) so that was neat.  i did want to cry that day i was so tired though and my feet hurt and we literally walked all day. like i think we sat down for 2 hours that whole day including supper and one lesson. the rest was trying to contact people.
sunday was amazing. ammmmmmmmmmmmmmazing.

ashley came with all her kids all by herself

cheryl came

and like 5 less active families we are working with came :) it was PACKED. then we had a linger longer so EVERYONE was happy :) especially me :) and we have the car now so im especially happy :)

were going to dye hair today and go shopping so i must go.. still lots of people to write back!!!! :):)

i love you all i love love love you :)

love sister douglas

Leaves, Moose and the Northern Lights

hello hello hello OH MY HECK I CANT WAIT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. its insanity i tell you. pure craziness. but its good.

i THOUGHT i was busy when i was in the city last time... but this is crazy!!!

ok.. but from the begining.

so when i was still in drayton valley at the beggining of this week i might have forgotten to tell you that we saw FIVE MOOSE aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the NORTHERN LIGHTS. my life is officially complete. jk im still on a mission for the lord. not completed yet.. but it was pure joy i tell you. seeing the world in perfection. i cried in joy :) ha

ok so its been kind of a blur but its been a good TIRING blur.

so monday tuesday packing and cleaning and saying goodbye to my friends :( that was hard. but its good. wednesday transfer meeting. it was HUGE transfer and those are always fun seeing old friends and stuff.
my new companion ROCKS :):) her name is sister Gardner from crescent valley NEVADA. she rocks. seriously. and she rocks style too.

i have NO TIME TO DO ANYTHING. ever. we plan bucket load of things alllll the time. its a HUGE ward, and we had to plan plan plan and planning exchanges takes forever cause you have to line up your schedule with 5 other companionships and we only have the car HALF OF THE TIME.... so ya thats an adventure for sure. i love the sisters im over tho...
ok so for those of you who asked a sister training leader is like.. the girl version of a zone leader but only over sisters... btu their not in your zone really cause there are not as many sisters and they are kinda spread out and we just make sure they are doing good and help counsel them on some things they cant really talk to the elders about. so not really qualified to do that but i do my best. havent actually done it yet.. first exchange is tomorrow. im excited :)

this ward rocks. i love them already. its very big ward tho. thats weird to me haha.

we have alot of investigators to work with. i literally couldnt be sent to a more happening area.. i need to stay on top of things its a loooooot to think about and plan for and make sure goes well... the first three days i felt like my head was about to explode i had been thinking so long and so hard but my heart and emotions were tooootally calm and felt so peaceful about everything. and i sleep like a rock every night. its so crazy. i dont wake up till 5:30.. cause i think my body is used to daylight savings or something. but i can go back to sleep till 6:15. then i get up :P thats PROBABLY the hardest part of my whole mission. MORNINGs. ha.

we go running in the mornings tho :) i LOVE it :) i loooove it.

it snowed this week

like 5 inches
and its -15

hello edmonton. i see you.

we bussed yesterday and talked to a lot of people :) good and bad. there are sometimes alot of crazy people on the bus. hahaha

i really dont know what else to tell you...just send me questions and ill reply accordingly next week

DERYCK I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PROUD OF YOU AND HAPPY FOR YOU AND YOU ARE THE CUTEST 8 YEAR OLD BROTHER I EVER SAW!!!!!!!!!!!

i love you all so so much :)
love sister douglas

Amber and Sister Boyd

Bales

Crazy leap

Boss

Giddeys

Gord Bamford, country singer, acccepting a Book of Mormon

Judy and Ernie, the ones with the gorgeous farm

MMOOSE!!!

Palsky's

Zemp

Hello again!

can't resist

New companion

New District

Back to the big city

HELLO i love you :)

ok ok ok so first off TRANSFERS!!!

i have been called to be a sister training leader and i will be serving in the lakewood area and with sister gardner

a sister training leader is KIND OF like a girl version of a zone leader. kind of. we dont take stewardship calls but we go on a bunch of exchanges and we do lots of trainings at big meetings and stuff.

lakewood is literally the next door to ellerslie.. i think i live in the same apartment as ellerslie now hahaha

and sister gardner was one of the millwoods ysa sisters that i got really close with so I GUESS I COULD SAY IM EXCITED! :)

SO yes. change. big change.

this week was the hardest week of my life probably. in every way most unexplainable.

missionary work is painful and loving people is painful.

i got a blessing last night from brother palsky that was perfect and beautiful and just what i needed and i actually slept through the night last night, so THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER and for everyone that prays for me :) thank you.

we are getting white washed so there is a million and 1 things that we have to do and get organized. im sending you a package full of clothing and something that i need you to give to meri for her bday, and i just realized now that derycks bday present is going to be late to cause thats not in the package. so GREAT no one gets bday presents from me on time but thats just fine :D ha

i really have like no time to write.. im trying to think what happened this week

just lots of goodbyes... some tearful some not.

church was the best in the world yesterday. best ever. but it was hard.

amber bore her testimony. i cried. her mom was there too :) it was neat :)

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sister boyd is going to be home in 2 days.. thats weird to me. 

we have to go do laundry and shop and pack and clean and say good bye right now, so please tell everyone im sorry for not writing back its just getting really crazy really fast and i dont know when i will have time to write back really anyone!!!!!

coreen is progressing slowly

peggy and charlie dont really want to learn like at all

candice is investigating just in time for us to leave :) 

thats about all the investigators we taught

we found 2 new investigators for the new sisters through sing tracting :) it was cool :)

i love tracting. itll be fun to tract in the city again :) WINTER IN THE CITY. :P
all in all im doing alot better than i was last week. and the begining of ths week. im happpy and i feel more fresh and crisp than i did. more ready.

im nervous for my new calling but i know its from the lord. 

i really dont know what to tell you all sorry its so boring. i feel a LITTLE bit robotic this morning cause we spent like half the night talking and sister boyd poor sister boyd had like melt down and so has paul kruger eyes this morning... so im drained but ready to go.. but i need to run have too much to do!!! 

i love you so so sooooo much :)

love sister douglas :)

its 2 degrees right now..

we had the branch halloween party that we went to :) we dressed up as "baby sisters" in our onsie pjs :) i thought we were cute :) P and C came with S so that was soooo good :)

its 2 degrees right now.. i want all of you to just let that soak in right now

DEAR EVERYONE

i love you all so so much i could hug you all right now i miss you!

ok so this week

the suckiest i have ever had for "numbers" (as in reporting lessons and such)

for one reason or another this area has just come to a standstill it seems!! its like we ran out of people to teach but just a few weeks ago we couldnt handle all the work we were doing.. sooo thats annoying... but

"no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing...the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent."

i got the flu shot on tuesday. almost passed out i was so scared but i did it and was obedient to the council of President manion :)

we walked like 1200 miles on tuesday hoping to street contact, but it was to cold and we talked to 2 uninterested people.

I DONT KNOW WHY PEOPLE ARENT INTERESTED IN THE TRUE CHURCH. IN THE THING TAHT WOULD CHANGE THEM FOREVER. INT HE THING THAT IS CONSTANT IN ALL OF THE CHAOS. I DONT KNOW WHY PEOPLE CLOSE THEIR HEARTS. I DONT GET IT.

wednesday we went to lunch with sister bals and the elders investigator, L. it was an awkward but yummy lunch haha

we taught T (the referal from C who initially hated us) with sister giddey and it was alright. she doesnt want to INVESTIGATE but she says she'll check out church one of these days and she took a book of mormon. she is VERY QUICK to jump to negative conclusions and i just hope she'll "not cast the seed away by unbelief."

saw the palskys for supper and they always make me feel better. i love them. on sunday i saw sister warr and robin was there and we all hugged each other and jumped around like we were back in highschool or something haha :)

thursday it seemed that NOTHING happened EXCEPT MAHONRI came out to see us!!! it was so nice to visit with him at lunch :) we went to boston Pizza and it was GLORIOUS im not even gonna tell you how many pieces of pizza i ate but it was divino

we had the branch halloween party that we went to :) we dressed up as "baby sisters" in our onsie pjs :) i thought we were cute :) P and C came with S so that was soooo good :)

we had supper with C, a potential investigator and her 2 darling children. she is prolly one of the nicest people i have ever met and i love love love her kids.. she is engaged to a south african! who knew i would meet so many africans!!

she asked us to come back the next day and when we came back we met her fiance, jan (pronounced yan) and he is like legit africaans his accents is tooootally different than from what im used to but he was super nice and friendly, and then her MOM showed up who ASKED for a book of mormon cause she had missionaries in her home ages ago and loooove s them. we were so excited. candice and her family are suuuuper involved in another church right now tho and so were a lil anxious to inviting her to INVESTIGATE but we'll continue to soften her up and talk alot about the book of mormon.

we had a gong show lesson with C with sister bals. we drove all the way out there and C had forgotten we were coming and then when we finally got into the lesson she kept bringing things up that we thought we had already resolved with her and then she just disagreed with everything and sister bals was being snippety back at her and it was just a night mare, i was really down hearted about it because we were so hopeful for C.

we had stake conference which was nice :) lots of spiritual insights. i cant WAIT to be able to go to the temple more regularly. please take advantage of that sacred place :)

all in all i think sister boyd and i walked 52000000 miles this week and i am learning deeper and more heartbreaking lessons than i ever have experience with life and agency and the power to choose. In heaven i fought for that blessing of agency and i need to fight to sustain it.

i love you all.

i love you so so so much

the gospel is real and glorious and tangible. TASTE IT

love sister douglas

Jesus is the Christ and His atonement covers us. USE IT.

Dearest everyone that i love so much!!!!!!!!!!

blah blah blah

blah blah blah

blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAH. that was my week. haha :)

just kidding it was way better than a blah but i just dont really feel all that wordy today cause my head feels like a balloon about to pop ha. thank HEAVENS for the meds mom sent me. I LOVE YOU.

carrie had work off all week.. so we went over there as much as possible and can i just say THAT LADY IS AMAZING.. she was like worst of the worst druggies a year ago.. like on every kind of drug you can imagine and now she is like... she is like king lamoni or something. and she is so converted and sends us to her friends all the time and teaches so powerfully and moves me to tears everytime she talks about the gospel. we have been working with her kids A and L and  Lis preparing to become a deacon (which weirds me out that seth is older than L cause i feel like seth is still only 10 in my eyes.. he's my little brother.. dont grow up ever seth) but so we have been doign scripture challenges with him and i love it :)

G moved up to high prairie this week.. WAY UP HIGH NORTH

H one of my favorite people up here is so crazy and tries to do to much stuff and was overwhelmed and on top of that was trying to cover like 4 people at work and didnt have time to make her family suppers.. so we went during our lunch our and i made some LOVELY turkey soup... mom you would be so proud.. it was GOOD.

we went and visited H and her two darling children.. she is a member but the kids arent.. they both want to be baptised so bad and i know they will be soon. they are elect kids i tell you. so noble. their little eyes shine so bright :)

we had a do or die lesson with C... she is so stubborn that lady and she told us she doesnt want to learn the gospel unless she learns it from US. so i said then she really must not want to learn the gospel cause thats not what its about. its not MY work. its the LORDS and he will send whomever he wants to where ever he wants and its for the BEST. and she said... fine. so slowly but surely she will be converted. She sent us to a lady nameT this week. she told us a little bit about her life and sparing you the details.. it hasnt been a nice life... and she is looking for a church.. but she didnt know we knew that and when we knocked on her door she was rude and couldnt wait to shut the door.. the the spirit wouldnt let us leave so basically putting my foot in the door i just kept asking her questions about herself and what she was looking for and she kept shooting us down cause she had all these misconceptions about "mormons" and FINALLY she let us in enought for us to straighten out some of her false ideas and long story short she invited us back to drink "ice water" not tea or cofee haha.. and she then texted us the next morning about what time our church starts!!!! so that was cool :) i love people

G and M had their baby!!! they named him hyrum and he is so gorgeous... i could just kiss his little head but im not allowed to hold him :P rude.

we went to the P's little baby's bday party and met a bunch of philipinos and a german guy and had cool conversations with all of them.. but they all had closed hearts to change. :( its really frustrating to me cause all i want to do is change for the better.. and i feel like im not changing all that much and then people that i know can change and should change and would be SO MUCH HAPPIER if they would just TRY are closed to it.

i can only imagine the tears our father in heaven sheds for us if i cry this much for people i hardly know.

i love this gospel and i love these people so much. i love them so much i would die for them but i donthave to because someone way cooler than me and capable already did. all i need to do is testify of him.

Jesus is the Christ. and his atonement covers us. USE IT.

 i love you all

love sister douglas