"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