Oh Canada! Week One.

This week has been so crazy and great all at the same time! So let me start off with the end of my stay at the MTC! On Monday, Sister Mendoza left and I was so sad to see her go! I am so glad that she was my companion. I had to be at the travel office at 3:30 in the morning and it was so crazy trying to fit everything in my bags! The night before I got like two hours of sleep! I left this bag that I had with my passport and wallet in it in the room and I realized this like right as we were going to get on the bus so I booked it back to the living hall, which was pretty close, and lucky sister Nambukara remembered too so she was at the top of the stairs right as I walked in! After that, we got on the bus and headed to the airport.

Sister Teddy in our new home in Canada!

My first night in Canada

Canada! SO snowy!

 Sister Jewel was the one I was flying with. The flight was good, it was basically JUST missionaries so I was able to sleep. They were playing the movie "In Time" so when I would wake up I would see the movie playing, so if you could watch it and tell me what it's about that would be great! ;) We arrived safe and sound in Canada and President Patrick picked us up with the AP's (Assistant to the President). They all helped us with our bags, which was great because mine were so heavy! We had dinner at the mission home and that was pretty good! We had some Canadian ice cream that was amazing! They took us to this awesome look out point in Montreal and we took some pictures, it was really cool and SO cold! We saw all of these missionaries at the Mission Office and we met the ones that were going to be trainers. When I met one of them I was like, "she is going to be my companion", and she is! Her name is Sister Rios and she is from Texas and El Salvador! At first, she reminded me of Allison, but later on she reminded me of Romina! Then I found out that her birthday is May 25th! I was like, "Gemini! No wonder she reminds me of them!" :)

My companion, Sister Rios

We are in Corn nuggets! Hahaha no it's called Cornwall but that's what Sister Rios calls it! It is English speaking, which is good I guess. Sister Rios and I try to only speak French and Spanish but it's hard, so we end up speaking all three to each other, haha! The area has been good so far! Sister Rios takes her exercise time seriously so we always work out, which is good! We are in a car mission which is also good! Its been kind of cold, it's mainly the wind that sucks, though! We went knocking my second day here and it was freezing, raining, and snowing all at the same time! Haha, but nobody wanted to hear about the gospel, which was kind of sad because you feel this great love for them and know that the Lord loves them and that they would be so happy if they would just let you in.

President & Sister Patrick, Sister Rios, and me

We don't have a ton of investigators, but we visit a lot of 'less actives'. The ward has like 250 members but only 60 show up! We teach them a lot! We have this one investigator, Loretta, used to be a member of the church, and she is now receiving the lessons so we went to her house to do some service and share the plan of salvation with her. Her house smelled like cigarettes and she has this friend, Kelly(boy), who was there just smoking this e cigarette! It was so hard to feel the spirit in there and I just wanted to cry! I am realizing more and more how much Utah is a bubble, like so different form the rest of the world, and how its a huge blessing to have lived there! Kelly asked us to bring him a Bible, though, and he seems interested so hopefully we could get both of them baptized! Yesterday was full of miracles! I have been having a hard time with culture shock, I didn't think it would happen but it did. Yesterday we visited Chantel, who was a member, and goes to the Catholic church now. We had such a great lesson with her and she really opened up to us! She stared to cry and said, "Yes, I need to go back to church" and so now we have a new investigator! Then we went knocking at these apartments and this lady, Sophie, let us in! We shared a short message about Christ, but her husband didn't seem interested so nothing happened there. We left a pamphlet and our card so at least the seed was planted! Yesterday was just the best! Sister Rios likes to write down one miracle a day so we can remember the great things that happen! I couldn't have asked for a better trainer and she really takes her responsibilities seriously! I am so blessed to be here and even though it is so different from Utah I know that I am here for a reason and that there are people that need to hear the gospel and are ready to receive it!

P.S. I am going to have a Tim Hortans donut today and I am going to have my first Poutine in March because we are going on exchanges in Montreal! I think that is everything, I'm especially missing Roku, though, because so many people have dogs like him that I see them and miss him!

Goodbye MTC, Hello Canada!

Today Allissa left the MTC for Canada! We got to speak to her over the phone for a beautiful five minutes; it was so GREAT! This is a snippet from her last letter sent from the MTC!

I've realized that bad or hard days really help us appreciate the good ones even more. After Tuesday, which you all know was hard for me and my companion, Wednesday ended up being just so great! I love our teachers so much; Sister Andersen is just so amazing and she really helped me and sister Mendoza on Tuesday. Since she is a sister we get to hug her and she gives us great hugs and we just feel so loved, it is great! Brother Rellaford is so funny and dorky but he is such a great teacher and he speaks French, so we are going to practice French today during class because everything is in English. It was so funny, the other day, Sister Mendoza and I couldn't find our way back to the MTC from the Temple so when we saw some Elders we asked them if we could follow them back. They were like, sure, but the funny part is that they asked where I was from and I was like,"oh, this is so embarrassing. I am form Utah!" They all had a good laugh and later when we saw them in the dining hall, they were like,"did you get lost again?" It was pretty funny. I was thinking the other day, when my companion did something that bothered me, that most companionships aren't ruined because of big things but because of little things that we LET get big. I really do love Sister Mendoza, though, and I am going to miss her so much!  I am going to do sister Mendoza's laundry with mine because we had a talk on Sunday about how we need to serve our companions. Also, I am the one here who brought the most stuff! I am just so thankful that I have you as my family, and I love you lots. The workouts Mom gave me are killer!! My companion can barely do them and I'm like,"you are so skinny, you should be able to do these better than me because you have less weight to be lifting!" I am really liking the MTC  and I am kind of sad that I have to leave but also so excited! Happy Valentines day! Give each other hugs and kisses on my behalf! I love you! The Lord truly loves his missionaries and I can feel it every day! I am so glad for all the things that brought me here, and I can see why the Lord wanted me to come at this time so I could have my sweet companion, my awesome district, and hear all these messages that feel like they were made just for me! 

(Here are some of the photos Allissa has sent us so far. Most of them are with her companion and their friends! As you can see, she is looking SO beautiful!)

This is Sister Teddy. Our mom got it for Allissa to be her companion throughout her mission!

This is her companion, Sister Mendoza

This is the latest email we received from Sister Gonzalez. She has now landed safe and sound in Montreal!

I am here in Canada! The flight was great. I tried to call in Atlanta but the phone wasn't working so I wasted $6 on trying to call. I heard dad and Allexis' voice and I was kind of frustrated, so I almost cried but I calmed down because I was able to call in SLC. I love you all so much! One of the Elders who was with us has a brother who was serving in Atlanta, so he escorted us around the airport, which was good because it is huge! I am so happy to be here and I will email on Monday! Also, there was a sister who was crying on phone who gave me a hug after I cried on the phone, which was really nice, especially since she looked like one of my friends. It made me feel a lot better! 

I love you all so much, 

Sister Gonzalez 

She's Off...

Getting set apart as Sister Gonzalez

On Wednesday morning we all helped Sister Gonzalez get her things all packed up in the car and ready

to go. She was absolutely radiant with happiness and excitement!

Before officially sending her off at the MTC we stopped by our favorite bubble tea shop to have one last smoothie with her!

It was a teary goodbye on our end, but she was absolutely shining with joy and excitement.
We've never seen her look more beautiful! The Spirit of the Lord was definitely with her!

She had an army of missionaries present to greet her and show her around!
It was so incredible to see all of the missionaries! It was definitely an impressive sight to see!

We got our first email from Allissa a couple of days ago. She sounds safe and happy! Here is an excerpt from her letters. 

"Dad, you were right about the missionaries telling tall tails! One of the Elders was going on and on about Kangaroos, but it was pretty funny and all I could think was, Dad was right! I have been talking to the other missionaries a lot which is good practice to talk to strangers! Everyone is so nice here I love it! Do you know how you guys tell me I am a gringa? Well, being here with my district that is international has made me feel too white washed! #utah #Idontlikeit ;) The food is 19 year old boy food so it gets old fast! They have dessert here every meal, it so hard not to eat it, but I have been good so far. It helps that my companion doesn't eat a lot so since I don't want to look like a little piggy I don't eat too much either, which is good! We have a great zone, most of the international missionaries are converts, or their parents are, so they have so much faith! One Elder Williams form Ghana is a recent convert and he knows so much about the gospel and has such a strong testimony it's amazing. Oh, I accidentally made one of my undershirts green because I put it in with the colors and I thought it would be ok, but it wasn't. I am so scared to fall off the beds here since they are tiny! Luckily I sleep on the bottom bunck so if I did fall it wouldn't hurt so much!

I love you guys and I realize more and more how blessed I am to have you guys and to have grown up in the church and that Dad served a mission.

I Love you so very much! 

Love, Sister Gonzalez 

P.S. its crazy how quickly you get used to being called sister"