Baptism!

Dear Mom,

The triathalon pictures either didn't attach, or they aren't showing up on this super old computer I'm on. It sounds pretty awesome though, and I like the "feats of strength" comparison. Did you get to have an airing of grievances too? :P

That sounds like a fantastic science fair project! Chloe WOULD start on science fair like eight months in advance. That's practically enough time to have a baby. (Speaking of which, if any of our extended family is planning on expanding their family, they should try to time it so I can come home to a new baby. Just sayin'.) Anyways, yeah, gathering data for science can be super tedious. Tell her to get used to it ;)

"Grandma Camp" sounds like a lot of fun :) I think you should do Camp Kenara partly just because I like the name. High river cleanup sounds pretty gross. Did you guys see the picture of Marissa and Ross on mormon newsroom? It's picture #10 in this article. 

I also like the beehive cake.

That fireside sounds really great. It's like everything I always want to tell people ever. There's a lot of anti-mormon stuff out here and a lot of members have fallen away because of that. It's not even somewhat credible anti stuff half the time; it's just completely ridiculous. The good thing is, there are also people who can see it for what it really is. Sister Leavey's a convert and she says that when she was taking the discussions people kept telling her all kinds of weird stuff and she was just like, well, I prayed about it and I know it's true. I like serving with her because she's the perfect example of how missionaries totally CAN find a golden investigator who stays faithful :)

Speaking of golden investigators, MOSTAFA GOT BAPTIZED!!! IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!! I can still hardly believe it. I'll quickly summarize the story for anyone who doesn't remember: So a few months ago, when I was like a brand-new missionary, I met Mostafa at MUN, the university. We had a conversation in French, I handed him a restoration pamphlet and a pass-along card with the church address, and got his phone number, but no other contact information. And then I may or may not have been a bad missionary and procrastinated calling him, because I still felt like I had no idea what I was doing, but Sister Judd couldn't really call him because she hadn't met him. And then a month or so later, he just SHOWED UP TO CHURCH. That felt like a miracle in and of itself, because it had just been the worst Sunday ever for all of our companionships - NOBODY came to church. We were all so disappointed. And then he just CAME. WHO DOES THAT??? So the East sisters started teaching him, since he's in their area, and he's just been totally golden. He hasn't missed a single Sunday - or even a single activity, for that matter - and he's just totally accepted EVERY. SINGLE. THING. So obviously, the East sisters put him on date, but then they found out that since he's from Iran, he might not be allowed to get baptized, and then there was about a month where it was totally in limbo and nobody knew if they were even allowed to teach him, and everyone was stressing out. Finally, President Leavitt talked to him a few times, found out he plans to stay in Canada, and gave permission for him to be baptized! The whole thing just seems like a total miracle. And I know any missionary could have given him the church address, and a better missionary probably would have actually set up an appointment or something, but I just feel really happy that in some small way, I managed to help him get here :)

As for the rest of the week, it was actually pretty busy. On Monday, Sister Leavey felt sick and so we stayed home and I worked on the area book and stuff. Then on Tuesday we had district meeting, as usual, and then we went to teach Christine the Law of Chastity. It was INTENSE. I don't think I've ever felt the Spirit guiding my words as completely as it did during that lesson. And the whole time she kept saying in this tone of amazement, "I totally buy that!" It was pretty cool. After that, we met with Jay, who is on date for August 3! He's the boyfriend of a girl in the branch, and he used to be the Elders' investigator, but then they moved out to CBS, so we get to teach him now. He was in Ottawa for a while, and nobody was really sure where he'd be spiritually when he came back, but he had totally progressed from before his trip and is still solid for August, which is awesome! Then that evening, we drove out to Holeyrood for exchanges. I went with Sister Nelson, the STL, to Bay Roberts.

Bay Roberts is a cute little town on the other side of the bay. It's where you find the most genuine Newfies, with their accent and all that. It's great. In the morning, we did some service by weeding their neighbour's lawn, and then for lunch we made peanut butter sandwiches really quick and then we went to Reitmans, since Sister Keeler doesn't like shopping, so Sister Nelson had to take her chance. Haha. After that, we visited a potential who became a new investigator! I had this total blanking moment on teaching prophets/dispensations, though, since we've been trying to teach with the pamphlets more, but I hadn't actually taught that part with the pamphlets yet. It was pretty great. She seemed to follow the lesson anyways, despite my epic fail, so that was good. After that, basically a lot of stuff fell through, and we visited some members before we exchanged back.

On Thursday, Sister Leavey and I got a new investigator! She's a former nun, and she really knows her Bible and her history, which was super cool. We had a great time teaching her. She's more the kind of person who's "open to hearing about anything," and she still doesn't believe the Catholic church lost the priesthood authority, so we'll see where it goes. Then we went and taught Christine again, because she wasn't convinced about certain details of the Law of Chastity. She kept trying to disagree with us for the entire lesson, but then during the closing prayer she basically said," "Okay, I know you're telling me this, and I don't like it, but I'll do it." It was surprising, but definitely something that made us happy. It's nice to have the Spirit to fill in all the gaps in our teaching :) Then we taught the Bible Study class we hold at MUN, with the Sermon on the Mount, and we went to see Jaxcine, a less-active. After that, we came back to the church for Sports Night. We played chair soccer, and it was actually really fun.

Friday was district correlation, weekly planning, AND our call day, which took up a lot of time, so nothing much happened that day other than a lot of talking. Then on Saturday we went on "exchanges" with the Elders, where the four of us work together, and even though we'd planned to work in their area, they ended up getting US two new investigators! One of them was being taught in Halifax and just moved here, and the other one is the sister of a member. So, that was awesome! Then we tried to go knocking, but it was like 30 degrees out AND nobody was home, so it wasn't exactly the most enjoyable experience, haha. So we went our separate ways, and Sister Leavey and I went to a dinner appointment with a less-active. We finally managed to unearth a lot of her concerns, but she's clinging pretty stubbornly to them, so we didn't really manage to resolve it. She just had a spirit of contention that wasn't really letting anything we said past it. Then we went to the church for the BAPTISM!!!!!!!!, as I already talked about above. It was so great. He kept saying, "I just feel perfect!" After the baptism, we taught Lisa a lesson, and we also fixed her drapes, which her son had pulled down. I successfully operated a screwdriver. Just thought I'd mention that.

Church was pretty normal, except I've had a sore throat and I was REALLY tired, so I kept falling asleep in testimony meeting. Fortunately, it was somewhat discreet (hopefully). Sister Leavey thought it was pretty funny. After church, we practiced for the musical fireside and had branch correlation, but we had to leave early since we had a lesson. Sister Leavey and Sister Keeler met her at MUN on exchanges, and even though she's technically in East's area, we decided that it would be best if we taught her the first lesson since she knows us, and then we'd hand her over to East if she wanted to learn more. So we did, and it was a GREAT lesson! She's a biochemistry student, so I ended up explaining apostasy and restoration using a quantum mechanics metaphor, which was really fun. She was pretty excited to read the Book of Mormon, which was great! Then we went around trying to contact people all day, but NOBODY was home. I guess it's one of the only warm weekends all year, so everyone was making the most of it. Overall though, it was a pretty fantastic week.

Love,
Sister Jaclyn Olson