First Real Transfer

Sister Hill is officially being transferred to Grand Prairie. It's way
sad that she's leaving, but she'll rock it up north. We have very
little time today since we have to get her all packed by tomorrow
morning, so short letter coming your way haha

It's been a good week! I mean it was Christmas. How could it not have
been? We got to spend time with Roni, and call home, and spend lots of
time with members. We caroled lots too om Christmas Eve simce not many
people would be too excited about two random girls in skirts popping
by in the middle of Christmas Eve, but everyone loves carolers.

We're still workin hard and loving it. We see as many people as we can
and try by a million others. I hope you all had an awesome Christmas
and have a happy new year! Set some good goals for yourself to be
better!

Peace and Blessings ✌🏻️
Sister Hepworth

P.S. We went and saw Roni yesterday so Sister Hill could say goodbye.
We were talking and Roni coughed a bit then was really quiet with her
hand over her face for a while. Sister Hill had been saying how she
was going to miss Roni went she went all quiet and she asked, "Roni
are you crying?" To which Roni replied, "NO! I almost threw up!" Oh
Roni.

You better believe I'm on my third red dot day.

We moved our mattresses into the living room so we could sleep by the tree on Christmas Eve. It was like having a sleepover 

Our last district meeting before transfers. (Notice my hair eh?)

We went and visited our car remains on Christmas 😂

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Frosted Hair

So we've been without a car all week since they're putting a new bumper on it. Which means we walk. And walk. And walk. And walk. The other night it was -30 windchill. It's good exercise though haha Sister Hill's eyelashes and eyebrows had frozen water droplets on them and the ends of my hair were frosted. It's a good time haha

Roni is FANTASTIC. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and another Saturday and she's "Sharpied" (Roni-code for officially agreed to and finalized) January 16th for her baptism! She's seriously already asking the people she wants to speak and the likes! We're way pumped. One of us won't be here for it though. We have transfers on the 30th which means one of us will be leaving Tofield. We don't find out until the 28th who it will be, but it will probably be Sister Hill since she's been here for 6 months already.

Exchanges were this Friday and Saturday, so Sister Hill went in to the city and I stayed here in Tofield with Sister Platter. She was impressed that I knew my way around Tofield so well, but it's so small there's not much to know haha She was here with the -30 windchill so she was thankful to get back in her nice warm car on Saturday.

Snow Angel

It was a good Sunday! We had 2 new investigators come (plus Roni because she comes literally every week haha) and a less-active we've been trying to get to come for a long time. We taught the lesson in Gospel Principles and talked about all the scriptures in the Book of Mormon that prophesy of Christ coming. It turned into a great discussion about the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was cool to hear so many people bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and how important it is. It strengthened my own.

Weirdly enough, we went over to those investigators house yesterday to talk to them about church and how they liked it and they ended up dropping us. They talked about how they felt good at church, and loved the organization, and the people, and felt like the lessons were exactly what they needed to hear, but they didn't want to join our church. What?? Why on earth not?? They also said that when they prayed about the Book of Mormon, they picked it up and then dropped it so they decided it was a sign from God that it wasn't true. What?? They still love our guts though and said that we're like family to them now and to come over any time. Sometimes it takes people years to join the church. Iss ok. Someday they'll read the Book of Mormon and realize that it's so good.

Well I'll end with MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY. 3 days left to do last minute shopping and wrapping, but make sure you take a minute to think about why we do all the things we do at Christmas. Also make sure to take a minute to serve people this Christmas. For some people it's the most wonderful time of the year, but for lots of other people it's the most miserable. Do something nice for somebody. If you see a missionary on the street, give a handshake and a Merry Christmas: it's sad to not be with out families, but we know what we're doing is the GREATEST. Sometimes we just need a little lovin'.

I love you!

God loves you more.

Peace and blessings ✌🏻️

Sister Hepworth

P.S. A member in our branch has this weird water that he shoots with electrodes or something and it's supposed to kill all bacteria. Or something. It's literally just water in a spray bottle. We can't even remember what it's really called and don't think it really does anything, but we use it for EVERYTHANG. Have a zit? Spray some magic water. Have a stomach ache? Swig some magic water. Teeth need whitening? Swish some magic water. Toe hurts? Dip it in magic water. #magicwatertakescanada

P.P.S. Surprise!

Christmas Music Out the Wahzoo

We still haven't had a dump of snow yet, but it snows a little bit almost everyday. There's just enough of a layer of snow everywhere that I officially feel like I'm in Canada and it's winter time haha We
listen to Christmas music exclusively. No exceptions. We bought a Michael Buble Christmas album and we have to skip half the songs, but WORTH IT.

Compared to previous weeks, this week has been a little slow. We haven't taught as many lessons as we usually do, and people don't let us in as often as they usually do, but we're still tryin.

Roni is so great. We had a lesson with her where we went over the Articles of Faith with her and she would say "check" to every one that she agreed with. By the time we'd read them all to her, she had said "check" to all of them. We started getting way excited, but she felt like she'd been too distracted with the phone ringing a couple of times and wouldn't believe us that she'd checked them all. So we went over them all again and she checked them all again! She just has to hear back from one more son to know if the 9th is official yet, but being baptized is definitely official. SO HAPPY

Yes, we're matching.
No it wasn't on purpose.
We're just that in-sync.

We had a branch Christmas party on Saturday and have been inviting people since like mid-November. One of our investigators came!! When we talked to him the morning of, he made a bunch of excuses and said he wasn't coming, but he surprised us and came anyways! It was so good to see him there! It was a cute little party with songs and games, and of course we got a picture with Santa so double awesome.

We made these cute little invitations that we were handing out to people for the Christmas party and the night before we still had about 12 left that we hadn't handed out. We decided to spend the last few hours of our night stopping by everyone that we could think of and inviting them. We stopped by a bunch of people we try by all the timer that aren't usually home and they were ALL HOME. Craziness. None of them came, but it was cool to be working so hard to see people and finally see all of them.

President and Sister Manion 

after the Christmas Conference 😌

We had a Mission Christmas Conference yesterday. Only half the mission came because there are so many missionaries in this mission (about 300) that they have to have another one next week haha It was awesome. President Manion is always a rockstar and there were a bunch if musical numbers. Sister Hill and I and the sister in our district got to sing a song called Mary's Lullaby. Christmas songs are the best.

Have a wonderful week everybody! Christmas is close and make sure you think about why we even have Christmas while you're feeling stressed about buying the "just right" present.

Peace and blessings ✌ 🏻️
Sister Hepworth

P.S. I bought a t-shirt with a giant maple leaf and "Eh." on it. Not necessarily funny, but definitely awesome.

The Whole Enchilada

First story is last Tuesday night!! We went out to a less actives house that we usually have to text first to be able to meet with her, but we just went over. When she opened the door, she was crying and said "Did God send you?" She'd been having a really rough night and was about to ask us to come over anyways. We got to have a really cool lesson with her.

Later that night, everyone we had planned to see fell through and we still had about an hour and half of the night, so we decided to tract for a while. Literally the FIRST HOUSE that we knocked on, she let us in, we had the BEST lesson we've ever taught as a companionship, she understood everything we taught and then gave us a plate of cookies when we left. BEST TRACTING EVER. Possibly in the history of tracting. 

That's where the whole enchilada came from. We asked her why it would be important that we had the fullness of Christ's gospel and she said, "Well, it means you have, like, the original God. Ya know, it's the whole enchilada." Good. Answer. We seriously loved "the whole enchilada" we probably said it 10 more times before we left cause it really does perfectly explain why this church is so important: we have the whole enchilada. 

Our lesson with Roni this week was AWESOME. She was understanding everything we were teaching and Sister Hill straight out asked her to be baptized. We talk about baptism to Roni all the time, but it's always in a kind of round about way so she responds in a kind of round about way. When Sister Hill directly asked her to be baptized though, she sat for second and then said "Yes." A straight yes. That's literally never happened before. She still doesn't have a for sure day cause she wants her family there, but we told her that we have January 9th written in dry erase marker and that she had the week to call her family so that when we saw her again this week we could write it in Sharpie. 

We also finally met a bunch of less-actives that no one's seen in over 5 months. AND we finally met 3 potential investigators we've been trying to meet for over 5 months yesterday. We had lessons with them and they all in invited us back and said they wanted to keep learning more! 3 new investigators in one day is pretty crazy for us. That doesn't happen. We usually get about 1 a week.  

Since I don't have any other pictures
here's the picture we showed to the family
of temple square

We also went to another potential's house yesterday that we met a while ago while he was putting up his Christmas lights. We told him about Temple Square at Christmas time and he said we could come back and show him pictures. We walked over to show him the pictures and his whole family was home, but they all were so nice! They fed us pizza, gave us a bunch of cookies, and offered to take us to the Legislature building in the city to show us the lights there. We're still trying to figure out how we could do that haha, but they were seriously the nicest people. 

Guys THIS IS THE WHOLE ENCHILADA. This is usefulness of the gospel and the perfect plan that Heavenly Father has for us to find peace and happiness. I promise. And so do the prophets and apostles and a bunch of missionaries and millions of members of the church. We all promise. 

Peace and Blessings

Sister Hepworth

We had to wait 6 hours in the city for our
car to be fixed,  so we had a little
spare time for some selfies.
And I didn't take any other pictures this week,
so enjoy

P.S. Sister Hill and I had been driving around for like 10 minutes trying to find someone's house and I'd noticed the same unmarked van several times while we were driving. When we finally pulled up to the house, the unmarked van pulled up right across the street from us and the driver was looking right us. I didn't want to freak Sister Hill out too much so I just said, "Let's go somewhere new," with just a hint of urgency in my voice. She started laughing cause I was being so weird, and was facing me trying to put the car in park. When she turned back around to see what I was looking at, the driver of the van had gotten out his van and was walking towards our car. She saw him and screamed her little heart out. Even though the windows were rolled up, I guarantee he heard it or he at least noticed her look of sheer panic because he stopped in his tracks and looked really confused. He then held up the package neither of us had noticed he was holding and said, pointing the house behind us, "Do you live here?" Sister Hill was still in a state of panic and couldn't respond and I was laughing too hard to give a real answer, so I had to just kind of wave him on hoping that he'd understand from my wave that "No we don't live here. That's not our package. You scared us half to death and we are now in no state to try and communicate with you in real words."

UPDATE:

30 more minutes of P Day means one more round of pictures that we just barely took cause we just barely bought CANADIAN UMBRELLA HATS. 

I'm Gonna Shovel Some Stuff!

Our theme this week has been "When faith is exercised, faith increases." We have a lot of people that feel spiritually stuck. They either don't know what to do next, or know what they need to do but
are afraid to do it. It seriously explains itself: when faith is exercised, faith increases.

Roni is getting SO close. She's seriously come so far from when she first started meeting with missionaries. And she just loves our guts. Anytime we go over she has hot chocolate waiting for us and we told her we wanted frozen burritos and she tried to find them for us at the grocery store. (Weird random fact: Canada is apparently a frozen burrito free zone, we can't find them anywhere). We seriously love her so much too though. Almost everyday, we'll be studying for someone else we have planned to teach and we'll go "Ooh! This would be good for Roni!"

Another of our investigators, Rob, we just don't know what to do with half the time. He's a devout 7th day adventist, knows the bible like the back of his hand, sets return appointments with US, thanks us for following-up with him, reads everything we tell him to, leaves US with commitments, and has incredible faith in Christ and God. But he always says things like, "I hope we're all benefiting from these lessons" and "You know, God wants one church, and someday we'll all see what that one truth is." He just puts off the vibe sometimes that he's trying to convert us instead of the other way around. You're right Rob, God does want one church, and we look forward to the day that you realize this is it.

We had interviews with President Manion yesterday. He's so great and he just loves all of us missionaries so dang much. Sister Hill and I had read the day before that we could show our investigators a copy of the teaching record (it lists everything we have to teach them before they're baptized) then yesterday we asked him for advice for one of our investigators and he told us to show her a copy of the teaching record. WHAT. When Heavenly Father wants us to do something, he'll make sure we know haha It also strengthened my testimony so much that President Manion is exactly who needs to be mission president for the Canada Edmonton Mission.

Last night, we got back from the interviews with only about an hour of time left to go and proselyte. We tried to see several people, but no one was home when finally our relief society president accidentally called us trying to change her ringtone and ended up inviting us over. Sister Hill and I had both felt like we needed to go see her, but hadn't said anything to each other, then she called and told us to come over. When Heavenly Father wants us to do something, he'll make sure we know haha

HELLO CHRISTMAS SEASON HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED. There's a new Christmas video out called "A Savior is Born" which you should all now stop reading and go look up. Then watch the Christmas video put out last year called "He is the Gift. Then you'll guaranteed be in the real CHRISTmas spirit.

Just trust Heavenly Father guys. If you feel like you need to smile at a stranger, do it. Heavenly Father's telling you to. If you feel like you need to read scriptures, do it. Heavenly Father's telling you to. If you feel like you need to call someone, do it. Heavenly Father's telling you to.

Peace and Blessings ✌
Sister Hepworth

P.S. Sister Hill and I went to a thrift store and got some new sweaters and the like. Sister Hill was particularly fond of one of her sweaters and put it on right when she got home and went around the apartment the rest of the night saying "I'm so cute!" She eventually transitioned into asking me "Who's the cutest?" Of which I was supposed to reply "You." Literally all night. We made videos of me asking her who the cutest was and her responding "Me" for quite a while hahaha We just think we're so funny all the time haha

	We have an American in the branch who fed us American Thanksgiving 😄 and let Sister Hill and I break the wish bone!
	And I won!
	I shoveled snow off a driveway for the first time!
	I'm diggin' the view, Canada! I'm diggin' it.

"If I know nothin else, I know that it is snowin."

Happy Red Dot Day to me 😀
2 months already gone (WEIRD)

IT SNOWED PEOPLE. For real this time. I mean it's kind of snowed  before, but it never really stuck. We've got about 6 inches of snow out there.  It only just snowed last night and I've already had to get out and push our car out of a pile of soft snow we parked in haha Our car is actually out of commission for a while. We were on our way to a supper appointment and the driveway is actually a 30 foot hill. When we tried to turn onto it, the car decided not to turn and we ended up in some trees. We're both totally fine and the car is drive-able, but it lost the bumper so we're just gonna be walking until it's fixed. Iss all good

We really were blessed. We weren't hurt at ALL. And of all the places to crash a car, at the driveway of a member's house is the best place ever. We were out in the outskirts of Tofield where it's just a bunch of farms. We had planned on visiting a bunch of people that live out in the outskirts since we were out there anyways, but every time we'd tried to see them before, they wouldn't answer the door. We seriously
would have just been stuck if we'd crashed at anyone else's house. The
members were great though. They helped us move it out of the trees a ways, helped us get a tow truck, still fed us supper, and let us in on their family tradition of making Santa cookies while we waited. ❤️

The family that helped us with our car and the Santa cookies!
We decorated probably about 100 cookies. 🙈🎅

We have a new investigator as of Wednesday! She has three little boys and after we finished the first lesson the youngest son asked us, "can you come back tomorrow and read the Book of Mormon with us?" If that's not the cutest way to set up a return appointment then I don't know what is.

We had a lesson with another of our investigators all about Joseph Smith and prophets and I loved it. I know Joseph Smith was called of God to restore this church. I just know it. Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet today. I just know it. The more I study and search these things out, the more I just...know.

We got to watch the broadcast of the Montreal temple rededication on Sunday. It was so nice to feel the Spirit of the temple. We're too far away to get to go to the Edmonton temple, but Ioved being a part of it again, even if it was just by extension. I love the temple ❤️

We went to a funeral on Saturday for a man in our branch. He'd been suffering health-wise for a long time, so it was a happy/sad kind of thing. A lot of what was said about him was so inspiring though. Even though he had so many health problems, he always came to church. He'd been wheelchair bound for years and had muscle spasms all through church that looked like he was ceasing, but he knew he needed church, so to church he came. It kind of makes all other excuses to skip church look pretty lame. I was asked to conduct the music, so it was way cool to be a part of his memorial.

Peace and blessings ✌
Sister Hepworth

P.S. A temple recommend was required to watch the rededication, so our investigator Roni who comes to church every week, had to miss out last Sunday. We decided to have a little mini church service with her so we went and sang hymns, had prayers, and gave talks. She had tried to make a cake the day before and had accidentally set the oven to broil instead of bake and had burnt the whole cake. She said she hadn't thrown it out yet so we could go old-school and have a burnt offering since we couldn't have the sacrament. 😂😂 It was SO. FUNNY. Maybe a little sac-religious, but so funny

Lame-man and Lemuel

The best (only) district I've ever been a part of ;)

So I thought I came to Canada, but we still don't have any snow on the ground. It's snowed a few times, but it all melts pretty quick. So we have the cold without the bonus of pretty snow everywhere haha

Brent was confirmed this week!! It was so cute to look back and see him and his kids and his wife sitting singing the hymns together. The Plan of Salvation is a family plan. If we just do what Heavenly Father asks, he promises that we'll live with our family forever. Pretty sweet deal. Last Tuesday, we had supper at Brent's house and we were talking about church and he brought up the Liahona and talked about how Laman and Lemuel are so dumb and then he said, "it's even in there name! Laman and Lemuel: Lame-Man and Lemuel." It's so cool to see that he's reading the Book of Mormon and praying and coming to church and is planning on going to the temple in a year with his family.

The gospel is so good.

On Thursday, we had an awesome lesson with an investigator who we've been trying to figure out whether or not to keeping teaching her because she's been struggling to progress in the gospel, but we talked about baptism with her and she said that that's totally what she wants. She just knows that she has to make changes in her life before she can do that. She agreed to keep working with us to help her be ready and to read her scriptures and come to church. Basically the epitome of progressing haha What was double awesome about her lesson though is that she brought a less-active member with her to the lesson. AND we had planned to see that less-active as a back-up plan in case the lesson with our investigator fell through. It was awesome. We ended up basically having two lessons. One for our investigator and one for our less active. Our investigator was so involved in the second lesson too, she was practically leading the discussion. So. Cool.

Tender mercy time: We've been trying to meet with an investigator in the other city we cover (Vegreville) and have literally tried by her house every time we're in Veg for the past month (we go twice a week even). Wednesday was Remembrance Day in Canada so just about everyone had work off and we tried by her house, and she was home!! We had an awesome lesson with her, she's already built an awesome relationship with God, and even said she'd be willing to be baptized!

So we have an investigator Roni. I'm sure I've talked about her before but just to recap, she's been investigating the church for about a year, she's been taught every lesson probably three times, comes to church faithfully every week, reads scriptures all the time, listened to all of general conference, but has always been resistant to baptism. She felt like she wasn't sure about Joseph Smith, so she's always said she doesn't want to agree to a church while being unsure about the foundations of it. She agreed to have a blessing since she's trying to decide whether or not to be baptized and blessings are perfect for helping in making tough decisions. It was an awesome blessing and when we were talking to her about it later, Sister Hill asked her if she wants to believe in Joseph Smith. Roni thought about it for a while and then said, "Well, when I think about it, it makes me feel good." HOLY CATS. That's all ya need people! The Holy Ghost confirms truth and one of the ways he does that is through FEELINGS. All good things come from God. Moroni 7: 12, 13. Heavenly Father wouldn't have had Roni feel good about the gospel if it weren't true. We shared all that with Roni and long story short, she has finally agreed to be baptized!!! SO. HAPPY.

Sometimes it seems like spiritual confirmations and impressions need to be like someone shouting in your ear or hitting you on the head, but more often than not, they won't be. They're probably going to be more like that "feeling" right or wrong. We'll be walking up to a house and Sister Hill will say something like, "Nope. Not here. It doesn't feel right." "FEEL." And it's not just general feelings. Galatians 5 says we can know when we feel the Spirit through, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

It's so important to try and be aware of and follow the Spirit. That's Heavenly Father's way of communicating to us. It's how we know what he wants us to do.

Peace and Blessings

Sister Hepworth

P.S. Remember Apollo? The crazy dog that tried to kill us every time we went near the house? We've been praying that we could find a way to be able to talk to Chris (Apollo's owner and our investigator we haven't seen in a month because Apollo won't let us get to the door). Well we noticed a couple days ago that Apollo wasn't outside, so we took advantage of the rare opportunity and knocked on his door. When we'd knocked on the door previously when Apollo was inside, Apollo would dart out the door, and they'd have to chase him down all over town. So when we knocked and they opened the door Sister Hill immediately said, "Don't let Apollo get out!" To which they responded, "Apollo died today." Oh. Oh my. We killed Apollo. We prayed to be able to talk to Chris and apparently our prayers were answered. Apollo was pretty old so they'd been expecting it for a while. Still sad. And just ever so slightly funny. The Lord works in mysterious ways. (Look up 1 Nephi 4:13 and replace "man" for dog)

Vegreville has a bunch of Ukranians living their and apparently Ukranians have a thing with fancy eggs so there's a giant rotating egg in town. It's seriously probably 15 feet tall.

Another town that our branch covers (Mundare) has a famous meat-processing plant and the town decided to commemorate it with a GIANT sausage-link.

We Are All Enlisted to Kill Zombies

Brent's Baptism

First off, BRENT WAS BAPTIZED!!! So flipping awesome!!! Sister Hill and I got up nice and early to go start filling the font and a few hours later we were staining watching someone "enter the waters of baptism." It was so cool. When he was being immersed, my mind started racing. "Holy cow. He's really doing it. He's really being baptized. I'm really a missionary who's teaching real people living real lives." I've said real 5 times now, but it seriously felt so real. He really was washed completely clean and committed his life to follow Christ and can go to the celestial kingdom now.

Missionary work is a big deal peoples.

2 Nephi 2:

6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. 7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered. 8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

Brent was baptized Saturday morning, then Saturday evening, we went to the adult session of stake conference. It was all about how we can improve teaching. At one point, they showed a video about it and then invited Sister Hill and I and some other members of our branch to go up and talk about it. A little stressful, but way cool.

At the end of stake conference, they announced that all the full-time missionaries would go up and sing Called to Serve. Sister Hill and I looked and each other and both agreed that "Cool. Everyone knows Called to Serve and they just impromptu decided to have the missionaries go up and sing it. No big deal." Well, they called the missionaries up, and as we were lining up to sing, the director commented "Oh. We have more this time." That should have been our first indicator something was off. The pianist started her intro and the director turned to the Elders and brought them in for the first verse. I thought to myself, "Oh woops. They probably practiced this before. That's ok. I've been in choir and I know how to follow the director. I'll come in when she says." The Elders finished their verse of Called to Serve and the director turned to the sisters for what Sister Hill and I assumed would be the second verse of Called to Serve. To our utter horror, the other sisters started singing We Are All Enlisted. Not even the first verse. I could have sung the first verse. They sang the third verse. NO ONE KNOWS THE THIRD VERSE. Sister Hill and I spent the entire verse trying to mouth whatever words the director was mouthing to us while trying not to laugh hysterically. I had a sister in the branch comment later that she appreciated how I "sang with a smile the whole time." To top it all off, Sister Hill and I were standing right in the front and center, so the whole stake had a perfect view of our attempt to sing We Are All Enlisted. It eventually got to the chorus and then we all sang the second verse of Called to Serve together. After the closing prayer, Sister Hill and I made sure to sheepishly shuffle away from the center before we laughed to our hearts' content. 🙈

I had to have a sick day yesterday cause I have a cough that's kickin my butt, but lots of napping yesterday has definitely helped haha

Keep prayin hard. Keep lovin your neighbors. Keep the faith. God's smarter than we could even imagine and he knows perfectly what's up.

Peace and blessings ✌❤️

Sister Hepworth

P.S. We inherited a phone because our old one kept shorting out and randomly calling people. The phone isn't "new" but new to us, and we inherited some jammin recordings made by previous Elders. The one we enjoy the most is entitled "Killing Zombies" Here's just a llittle sampler of it's lyrics:

*insert attempt to beatbox/guitar riff* "We're off to preach the gospel. Pass out Book of Mormons and pass-along cards. We're doin' all the work that we must do. Oh yeah. Uh huh. And then, we're killin' zomibies. *insert another attempt to beatbox/guitar riff*

Two and a half minutes of awesomeness.

Our Christmas Corner

SNOW!!!

My "one month" picture. haha

It snowed!! Sister Hill and I were in the middle of studying and I saw​ ​snowflakes out the window so​ ​we ran outside as quick as we could! We​ ​danced, caught snowflakes on our tongues, had hot chocolate, it was​ ​great​! ​Sister Hill a​t ​one point said "This is gonna be the​ ​next...forever." But​ ​at this point I don't even mind ​if it snows forever it​ was so​ ​beautiful!​ It melted pretty quick so I'll send pictures of snow when it sticks around for a while haha​

This week's been a roller coaster of a week; really high highs and​ ​really low lows.

On Wednesday we had a special sister's conference where we got to see​ ​all the sisters in the mission and listen to talks from President and​ ​Sister Manion. We focused a lot on the talk "A Plea to My Sisters" by​ ​President Nelson from general conference. I also go to be part of a​ ​musical number at the conference. Sister Hill and I along with the​ ​other sisters in our district sang Lord, I Would Follow Thee.

​Sis​ter Hill and I made the goal to share 140 Book of Mormons with people by the end of December and we've been extending the challenge to members of the branch as well. We already have people reporting back to us that they're sharing the gospel. Missionary works works so much better with members' involvement. Furreal. Their support and testimonies are powerful.

HOLY CATS we have a baptism this Saturday!! He was interviewed on Friday and we have the whole thing worked out! We're gonna come three hours early to start filling the font. It was funny to realize that it doesn't magically fill itself haha someone's gotta go do it. We also got a new branch mission leader who's way pumped about getting more member involvement; it's gonna be awesome. We went out to his acreage on Halloween cause we weren't allowed to be out as missionaries that night with so many people being extra crazy everywhere.

We visited one of our less-actives on Thursday and tried to teach her​ ​about keeping the sabbath day holy and how important church is, but​ ​she definitely did not ​want to hear it. Sister Hill was​ ​bearing a powerful testimony and ​she​ just got up and​ ​walked out. It was pretty hard to walk out of her house and keep​ ​working. We love her so dang much so it was disheartening to have her​ ​so abruptly send us on our way.

The Lord knows us though. He knows when we're sad and knows when we're​ ​happy and loves us​ So.​ ​M​uch.

We couldn't figure out what to do after we left but we ultimately​ ​decided to knock on some doors. There were lots of no answers and "no​ ​thank you"s but we kept goin. The last door we knocked on, a lady​ ​answered and was so receptive to everything we said. She was so eager​ ​to talk to us and learn about the church. Heavenly Father puts​ people in our path and directs our path to find them. We're gonna meet with her again tomorrow​ ​night. That night was probably the highest and lowest of the lows and highs.

The rest of ​the week was lots of appointments fallen through and people not home. Last night in​ ​particular we had spent ​the whole day trying to find someone to​ ​teach and we finally found a new​ ​investigator right before we were about to call​ ​it a nigh​t again​. After being rejected for so long, it was​ ​almost a shock that she was​ ​so willing to talk to us and learn and read the Book of Mormon.​ A really good shock though :)

Heavenly Father was smart a guy (literally the smartest) when he said that ​we need to have​ "opposition in all things." Having all the kinda sucky​ ​experiences made the good ones infinitely more sweet.

Potographic evidence that I​ had my first donair!
It's basically a Canadian pita haha
Th​ose are​ all the missionaries in my district:)

​I love all of you so much! And Heavenly Father loves you more than you can even comprehend.

​Peace and blessings.​

Sister Hepworth

P.S. We went to a potential named Nathaniel's house to try and meet with him. A man answered the door and explained when we asked for Nathaniel that he'd moved out a couple years ago. We asked the man at the door how long he'd lived there and he said, "Oh I've lived here a long itme. I'm Nathaniel's mom and he moved back to the city." Didya catch that? He said he was Nathaniel's mom. And then introduced himself as "Kristina with a 'K.'" Sister Hill and I didn't even flinch. 100% divine intervention right there. We were both totally normal and in my head I was so, just, flabbergasted. As we walked back to the car, we were both in shock hahahaha

WINTER IS COMING

Walking to the church the other day, it was -5 degrees. -5.  And this is only the beginning. I bought boots for -40 the other day. And for you Fahrenheit people thinking that's not too bad,  Celsius and Fahrenheit meet at -40. Don't believe me? Google it. Now that you've googled it and believe me, we can shed tears together. Mine will just freeze to my face hahaha


But the cold can't keep me and Sister Hill from spreadin the gospel! We're still out tryin to find and teach anyone who will listen! Oh man. We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator the other day. We were teaching him about prophets and he re-explained them to us better than we explained them to him haha sometimes people are just so ready to hear the gospel that no matter what we sat they're gonna soak it up.

My red dot day surprise
celebratory sticky note note.

By the way, HAPPY RED DOT DAY TO ME!! Red dot day is the month anniversary to entering the MTC, so it was actually on the 23rd haha Sister Hill made red dot day up cause on the first day of the MTC new missionaries have to wear a red dot on their name tag. So every month for the next 18 months the 23rd is a day of celebration!

I went on my first exchanges this week! For exchanges, we "exchange" with another set of sister missionaries and one of us goes to their area and the other stays in Tofield with the other sister. I went into the city with Sister Platter! The Edmonton skyline is so pretty!

Sister Hill and I
with the Sisters
we went on exchanges with

We went contacting on the light rail train that's in the city and the next day we set up a booth in front of one of our church buildings and passed out mormon.org cards, Book of Mormons, and free cookies 


SPEAKING OF COOKIES. Our investigator that's on date to be baptized on November 7th is a doing a week long stop smoking program the church has, and to support him we're giving up sweets for a week. He's doing great and is so ready to be baptized. So Sister Hill and I have a double batch of cookie dough and a big bag of chocolate almonds waiting for us at the end of the week haha

We had a sacrament service in Veg this week. There are some old ladies that can't travel an hour both ways to get to church every week, so every last Sunday of the month, we have a service in Veg. It's inspiring to see people so devoted to the gospel. Even though they physically can't come to Tofield for church, they don't lose their faith in those weeks without it and diligently attend in Vegreville. 
That's how important this gospel is guys. It's worth every effort to make it something that's important in our OWN lives. The happiest happiness we can have comes by following Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I promise.

The cookie picture!
 Sister Roughley is the one on the left;
she's the branch relief society president
and came with us to the lesson

Love you tons! Peace and Blessings!

Sister Hepworth

P.S. Our investigator that understood prophets so well took our picture after the lesson haha He likes to draw and wanted to draw our picture, but made us retake it a bunch of times, trying to get good lighting, or have our arms positioned the right away. We couldn't get our arms to his liking so finally he just made us hold up cookies hahaha

One of our potential investigators
has a bear. A bear. In his house.
As a rug. A bear. So obviously we
had to take pictures with it haha

He also this giant standing bear. It's head is about 3x the size of mine

Has it Been A Week? Already?

K yeah this was just to show that
Canada is pretty GORGEOUS ;D

It seriously feels like I've been in Canada for a lifetime but that I
 just got here yesterday haha I love it. I love my companion and I love
 the branch and I love the people we're teaching and I love being a
 missionary. Sister Hill and I were saying that sometimes missions seem
 like the hardest thing ever, but they're really the easiest thing you
 could ever do. You just have to spend 18 to 24 months dedicated to
 Heavenly Father. You don't have to worry about bills, or school, or
 work. It's just whatever Heavenly Father wants. It's a pretty sweet
 deal.

 I have to say it right now before I forget again!!!

 I SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. MULTIPLE TIMES. THEY'RE AS AMAZING AS YOU
 THINK THEY ARE. Seriously. So. Cool. The first night I come out to

Smarties are called Rockets in Canada!
And they have a candy called Smarties
 but they're like off-brand m&ms!
I was gonna send them back home
 but I took a picture and ate them instead
 eheh

 Tofield they were so bright and green and moving and just flipping
 awesome!! We've seen them a couple times since, but never as good as
 that first night. I had to leave the shutter open for 16 seconds to
 get a picture and I tried to hold really still, but it's still a
 little blurry and not NEARLY as cool as in person, but still sooooo
 cool. I forgot my little camera so I'll send the picture next time. It
 hasn't snowed yet, but it should be coming any day now.

 Sister Hill and I are teaching 15 investigators, but we only meet with
 about 7 regularly, but part of the 15 were 2 new ones that we found in
 the last week so hopefully they'll become regular ones too! :D We see
 lots of less active families as well. Our purpose is to help "people"
 come closer to Christ. Active member or not, investigator or random
 person on the street, we're trying to help everyone find happiness and
 peace that only comes from Jesus Christ and his gospel.

 Sister Hill really wanted some cookie dough the other day so I made a
 batch at lunch and we ate it all in about 4 days. Cookie dough is the
 only recipe I have memorized, and I've only ever made it at home
 before. When I made it the other day though, it still felt like I was
 making it at home. Being on a mission feels like home. I feel like I'm
 exactly where I'm supposed to be and I know I am.

 So one of our investigators committed to be baptized which is great!
 But we're worried he doesn't really fully understand what he  haha
 We've been trying to get back to his house to teach him again, but his
 dog will NOT have it. In the last it's always been super friendly
 whenever we came over, but the past 3 times we tried to go over, it
 literally tried to kill us.   If he weren't tied down he would have
 tackled us  pans eaten our faces. The last time we went over he ran so
 hard to trend get us that the big wooden picnic table he's tied to
 literally flipped over. We'll just have to figure out how to get our
 investigator to come out of his house and wrestle his dog so we can
 teach him again haha

This is the Kastendieck family.
They're the bomb and took us on a walk
 out by this lake last P Day.

 So Sister Hill and I go to Veggreville twice a week because it's in
 the Tofield branch boundaries. On our way home Saturday night, we
 received some pretty amazing divine intervention. We were going about
 110 km/her down the highway when all of the sudden four deer showed up
 in our headlights while they were trying to cross the road. We both
 started screaming and Sister Hill slammed on the brakes and we should
 have hit the deer. We both could see right where the deer were
 standing when we skidded past them, but we didn't hit a single one. We
 seriously only could have not hit them unless we were being protected
 by Heavenly Father. And I know we were.

 I'm still not an ace at teaching, but I think I'm getting better. I'm
 definitely trying and praying real hard haha Sister Hill is seriously
 AWESOME. We've literally only known each other for 14 days and it's
 like we've known each other for years. Heavenly Father has definitely
 blessed me in the companion department. We're both crazy so we're
 gut-laughing about 80% of the time we talk to each other.

 We had a really cool experience this week when we taught an
 investigator about the Atonement and how personal it is. He has some
 struggles that he knows he shouldn't be doing but can't find the
 desire or strength to stop. Sister Hill testified of how powerful the
 Atomement is and how perfectly Christ knows how each one of us feel.
 And because of that, how perfectly Christ knows how to help and
 strengthen us. The Spirit was so strong no he just kept saying "Ok.
 You got to me." It was powerful.

 K this is the longest letter ever but guys it's true. Christ knows and
 loves us PERFECTLY. He paid for our sins and felt everything we've

We were walking and sat down to figure out who to see next.
Obviously I had to whip out the selfie cam.

 ever felt to "know how to succour his people." We just have to let
 him.

 PEACE AND BLESSINGS

 Sister Hepworth

 P.S. We met with this 85 year old man and his wife and he kept showing
 off how agile and active he was haha he was literally doing lifts and
 jumping jacks and made us feel his muscles. SO. FUNNY.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday was Candaian Thanksgiving! My companion and I were fed THREE Thanksgiving dinners!! Holy. Turkey.

MY COMPANION!! Her name is Sister Hill and I love her So. Dang. Much. She's from Logan, UT and is da best. We're almost constantly laughing cause we have the same ridiculous humor haha She's a dang hard worker and I couldn't have asked for a better trainer. She teaches so well and loves everyone so much and everyone loves her so much! It's great!

It's been a week! A whole week here in Canada! I'm about 40 minutes East of Edmonton in a town called Tofield. It's a lot like Gridley with farms all over the place. There are only about 2,000 people though so it's a little smaller than Gridley. We go to a town about 30 minutes away called Vegreville twice a week. There's a little branch here in Tofield with lots of investigators and less active members that we're meeting with. There are even more people in Vegreville population and less-active member-wise, but there's no branch or ward out there. We're workin on it ;D

We're teaching a lot of people and have three investigators right now who are on date to be baptized in November!! Holy cow though, yesterday we tracted for four and a half hours. We found 10 new potential investigators so it was totally worth it. We set a goal to pass out 140 Book or Mormons by the end of the transfer (5 more weeks) and we got five yesterday so we're doin good haha I gave out my first Book of Mormon!!! It was amazing!!

The branch is great! The picture of me with a guy with pie all over his face is the branch president haha There was a fall festival on Friday and I got to smoosh a pie in his face. I'm just so good at making first impressions;) I was wearing a black skirt that night so they stuck a witch hat on my head so I had a costume" haha The members love us though and are so supportive of us and the people we teach.

I'm running out of time, but this is the greatest you guys. I'm legitimately loving being a missionary and teaching people about how to find more happiness by coming closer to Christ. He's the only way to find true happiness. I promise.

Peace and Blessings

Pray ALWAYS

Sister Hepworth

P.S. Sister Hill and I were driving and saw a sign that said "G Sale." I said it probably meant that they're only selling things that start with the letter G and she said "Gizzards! And groupie selfies!" We almost had to pull over we were laughing so hard hahahaha