Called to Serve

Well, it has been quite the bitter-sweet week here for me and Sister Allard!

So for our area, we cover two different wards that are next to each other - 17th ward, and Bow Valley ward. But the Bow Valley ward is a really big area that makes it really hard for us to do much around there on the weeks we don't have a car. So President Miles called us Tuesday night at 10:26pm --so basically when we were about to say our prayers and go to bed-- and he told us that next week we would officially only cover 17th ward, and our sister training leaders are going to move down to Bow Valley instead of covering the Banff area! (Banff is the place in the mountains that everyone told me was gorgeous before I came out. They go all the way to Lake Louise) So now there will be a set of senior missionaries that cover that area... Which is a huge bummer because that means I will never get to go there while I'm on my mission (President doesn't allow us to go there on Pdays).

So that is going to be a HUGE adjustment! Most of the people we have been working with are in Bow Valley, so that's really disappointing, but I know they will be in good hands with Sister Trimble and Sister Blaser.

Also! No one has said anything yet, but I am guessing that we are also going to lose the car entirely now! The sisters we share the car with have a much bigger area than us, and the STL's always get a car, so I think they are just going to make 17th a full-time bus area... And I'm honestly hoping that doesn't happen, but it seems like the logical thing to do.

Anywho!!

Also on Tuesday I officially experienced the 2-dinners-in-1-night that every missionary I know has told me about! And let me tell you... I would never recommend that experience to anyone! Holy Cow! We went to our dinner appointment with our ward mission leader, and after that we went to our teaching appointment with a less active member that we had tracked into the other day, and when we showed up, he had us sit at the table, and fed us a whole second meal!! I had been complaining about how full I was to sister Allard before we even got to his house, so you can only imagine how I felt by the time we had finished with him.

I'm also very sad to say I don't think there is any plausible way I am going to be able to come home from my mission not weighing 20 pounds more... The members here feed us SO much, and they give us dessert every single night! And when you try to say no thank you to seconds, or dessert they become even more determined to make you eat more, and take some home with you. It's a much bigger problem than you would think... And there's just not enough time or equipment to be able to exercise enough to counter the effects!

But as far as investigators go, this week was kind of a bust! It was Spring Break for everyone, and then they also get an Easter Break that is today and tomorrow, so seriously everybody fled the country! Turns out whenever Canadians get the chance, they leave Canada... at least that's the case here in Calgary! It's pretty funny, but lame at the same time because we couldn't meet with any of our investigators!

Yesterday the stake here rebroadcast the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's performane of the Messiah, and we had several people commit to coming and then either bailed at the last second, or just didn't show up... so that was a little extra dash of disappointment...

But all is well! I know things will pick up again this week once everyone is back and working, and can't use the holiday as an excuse to ditch us;)

Easter was pretty anticlimatic too actually... I don't know, something about not waking up to a trail of candy from my room to the family room like I have every other year of my life... haha just kidding! But I really missed our family get togethers, and big Easter dinner! We had dinner with a family from South America who made some of their countries traditional food that was super different, and it was super rushed too! So it didn't really feel like Easter at all.

Shout out to Brit and her amazing Easter eggs too! I was craving those all day!!

So that's it for this week really! Sorry, not a whole lot of interesting things happened! So that makes for a pretty lame e-mail.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!
I love you all, and will hopefully have some better stories for you next week!
-Sister Dobyns

We made cookies last monday for our bishops and less-actives!

Just to give you an idea of what my area looks like... we're losing the whole bottom area!

You can see on the white board on the floor our list of less-active members in our area! Blue is 17th ward, and green is Bow Valley! So now we were only working with the people in blue!