how are you doing??? it's getting pretty hot here. canadians talk about the weather all the time because one day it's 25 degrees and the next day it's -5 (celsius) so literally we talk about the weather all the time. it's also a really good conversation starter. "how's the weather up there? speaking of up there, my names is sister paine and i'm a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, do you want to know how you can be with your family forever and enjoy this nice weather?"
anyway yesterday was victoria day, a holiday in canada and i don't know what it's a holiday for, maybe the queen. that's why our pday was moved to today.
last monday on pday (it was cold) we went to the tulip festival! it's a huge deal in ottawa. during WWII the princess from the netherlands (i think) came to canada to find safety, as the rest of the dutch royal family were exiled to somewhere else. while the princess was able to find safety here, she was pregnant and needed to have her baby on dutch soil in order for her baby to also be a princess. so canada made the hospital wing dutch territory so the baby could later be queen of the netherlands. so now the netherlands sends hundreds of thousands of tulips to ottawa to say thank you. it's pretty cool, but you should probably look up the story if you want to know the real facts i don't know if i got them all right.
also, did you know that ottawa is the capital of canada? so all the government stuff is here and a beautiful parliament building! we will go see it in a couple of pdays.
this week was e x h a u s t i n g because it finally decided to be hot and sunny and it's super humid, which honestly i prefer over the dry, but i digress. but we did so much service this week! and by service i mean gardening!!!!... and spring cleaning.... but i couldn't be happier!
we were able to help one of our investigators, eleanor, plant flowers. she had a ton of flowers that had made their way into her lawn that she wanted to get rid of, so she let us pick them, and then sister dexter made tahitian flower crowns for all of us out of the forget me nots, dandelions, and lily of the valleys! they make flower crowns all the time in tahiti it's a tradition! it was a fun afternoon!
later in the week we tried to contact a referral we had received and they weren't there even though we made an appointment with them. as we were walking back to our car, we saw an old lady trying to do gardening. she was just staring at all of her dirt and flowers, so we walked up and asked her if we could help her. she was really surprised, but when we introduced ourselves, she said, "oh wait, are you mormons!?" apparently she had elders come and visit her years before, so she was more than happy to let us help her. we spent probably 2 hours with her weeding and talking. she believes in some sort of spiritual science.... but she said we could come back! so that's great. her name is penny and she's a nice lady. i even mowed her lawn for her! in my skirt! she has one of those old push mowers that is manual and so there i was pushing it across her lawn (which luckily wasn't that big) in my skirt! ha! what a sight i bet we were! mowing and gardening in our skirts and dresses.
things are going really well here in fallowfield. there's a lot of work to do, but good things are happening. i love sister dexter! we have so much fun together and are always busy! there is nothing better than coming home at the end of the day to go to sleep when you are exhausted! i learn so much from her and she goes home in one transfer :( i hope we are together until she goes home. she has been teaching me all these tahitian words and how to make tahitian food. next up is tahitian dance! she's so selfless and always willing to help people. she's teaching me how to really love people. i'm grateful for her.
i want to share a scripture i have been thinking about ALL THE TIME. it's always in my head. sorry for everyone who has already heard it. Romans 8: 31, "If God be forus, who can be
i know this is true! it's such a powerful statement to me. i feel so much love and protection from my Heavenly Father when i think about that verse. God is with us. No one or thing can be against us.
I love you all!!!
love,
sistah paine
pictures:
1.tulips
2. tulips
3. sister dexter and i and tulips
4. sister dexter and i are cold and tulips
5. our investigator eleanor and i with our flower crowns made by sister dexter
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