Called to Serve

*Okay so first off, I'm really sorry this e-mail didn't get sent... I guess I just forgot to push send somehow? I am still alive, so don't worry:) I realized I forgot to actually send the e-mail about 40 minutes after I signed off, but I wasn't allowed to use a computer for any more time that day, sooo yeah. Sorry again *

Well this is it! It is officially STAMPEDE!
When I first got my call to the Canada Calgary mission, the first thing I read about it online was about "The Stampede." So for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a big, 10-day rodeo festival thing where everyone in the whole city dresses up like cowboys and goes to the Stampede where they have parades, rodeo shows, cowboy themed competitions, and other things like that. It's a really big deal.

And as part of the festivities, the entire city hold these free, community pancake breakfasts every. single. day.

And as missionaries, these large gatherings of people is gold!

While Sister Blake and I have only personally attended 2 pancake breakfasts so far, missionaries throughout the city have been all over them! On Saturday we helped serve the pancakes at one of the community breakfasts for a few hours, and then we went straight to the breakfast being held at our church building for a few more hours! It was a really fun experience except for the fact that I was starving to death and I don't like pancakes or sausage... haha! But somehow I survived;) It was really great being able to be out in the community where people could see our name tags, and then there were actually several non-members that showed up at the church's breakfast as well!

As of right now we have one more breakfast that we are planning on going to, and then I won't have to look at pancakes for a whole year! (hopefully... haha)

Oh! And last week for the fourth of July, we had gotten all together as a zone and again at our stake center. We were hoping to have a fun BBQ at a park near by, but then it was storming like crazy, so those plans got rained out. That's when our Zone Leaders totally surprised all of us with the most amazing thing ever! We walked into the church gym and they had set up a projector looking at the ceiling with a video of fireworks playing! We turned off all the lights and laid on the floor at watched a 10 minute video of fire works. I know, that sounds crazy lame, but i promise it wasn't! The funny thing is, I never really enjoyed watching fireworks at home much, but something about not being in America on it's birthday made the desire increase 10 fold to celebrate it!

This week was also really exciting because we found 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS! Oh man, I am so excited about that, and grateful for Heavenly Father's help in finding them. Sister Blake and I have been praying to be able to find more people to teach because we only had 1 investigator the week before! So now we are teaching an older man names Badhassah - who is from Ethiopia, Nancy - who is from India, and Solomon & his wife Anna - who are also from Ethiopia!

I have to say, I LOVE the diversity that is here in Calgary. I was laughing when I realized that all the people I have been teaching didn't learn English as their first languages! We taught Andy, who spoke Korean; Tyler, who used sign language; Nadia & Jonas, who spoke French; and now Nancy, who speaks Gujarati; Solomon & Anna & Badhassah who all speak Oromo! SO! It's been quite the challenge!

So yeah! Things are looking up!

We have had tons of service opportunities this week! So we've been able to keep really busy!
That's all for today!
It's been a great week, and I'm SO grateful for all the miracles that have been in my life this week! :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer vacation! And know that I love and miss you and pray for you every single day!

Love, Sister Dobyns

I lost my camera this week, and didn't find it until Saturday so I don't have many pictures this week:P