Called to Serve

What a week!

We had a lot of really fun, great experiences this week! :D

On Tuesday we had our Zone Training Meeting at the chapel next to the temple, so we could all be near it and dream about being able to go inside:)

On Wednesday we went to a Retirement home and gave a little devotional for a dozen or so people, and that was really neat! There were a few LDS people there, but everyone was really involved and having fun! Sister Blake and I sang a song for them, and at the end everyone sang amazing grace! It was the cutest thing ever! :)

On Friday it was CANADA DAY! So that was really fun! Strangely enough Canada Day isn't nearly as big of a deal in Canada as the 4th of July is in the States, so it was interesting trying to fill our days as missionaries.
It's a big enough deal that everyone leaves, and no one is home or wants to have an appointment with you, but it' s not big enough that there are parades or parties going on everywhere where we could do some contacting. All the fun stuff that happens is strictly all downtown, which is not in our zone, so we couldn't go.

Our oh so creative solution to the problem, was to have a lemonade stand! You heard me, a lemonade stand! Apparently Sister Blake has done a couple of them in her mission already, so she was the leader of it all.

Basically we made a TON of lemonade and wrote 'Mormon.org' on all of the cups and had pass along cards, pamphlets, and books of Mormon sitting on our table. We set up by the McMahon Stadium where they were about to have a game so we were able to talk to a lot of people! It was really cool! Except for the part where a large group of people wouldn't take the lemonade because they thought we had spiked it.... Explaining that we are missionaries and don't even drink didn't seem to make anyone feel better about taking some haha.

But as you can tell from all the pictures we were all decked out in our Canadian colors, and having a great time:) hopefully some of the people we talked to, and saw will be a little more willing to listen to the missionaries when they come knocking on their doors someday:)

Because of the holiday President Miles asked us to go straight home after our dinner appointments. Oddly enough we've only had 2 dinner appointments this week, so we just grabbed some food and went home. It was a really weird feeling just sitting home for several extra hours than normal at night. But it was great to be able to write some letters, and make some plans for our upcoming week:)

On Saturday we went to a member's house in our Zone Leaders ward to help out with some service. All we knew going into it was we were helping them with their green house. Once we got there we realized how much bigger of a task it was than we thought. Almost our whole zone was there helping out for several hours! And it was pretty hard work! lots of shoveling and raking dirt endlessly. I even got a pretty impressive sunburn on my neck/back! Haha:) But thankfully it's not so bad that it hurts much.

But yeah! it's been a really fun week! We've had some really great lessons with our ward members, and are really trying to get them more involved in the work!

We love it here!

I can't believe this transfer is already half way through!

I'm crazy thankful for Sister Blake! She makes me laugh so hard every single day! It's pretty unbelievable to think we've only known each other for 3 weeks!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering... The postal system has gone on strike up here, so no mail for a while :P they have no idea how long it will last, so that's really fun! But life goes on i guess, haha Just part of the Canadian experience I'm told. :)

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful 4th of July, and great week overall! :D I hope you all can find little ways to serve the people around you everyday. Remember, we are here to become more like our Father and Savior, and the only way to become something is by working at it and practicing every day!

Love,

Sister Dobyns

PS Shout out to my un-biological, newly married brother! I love you Grant and hope you and Julie have the most amazing lives together!:D <3<3<3