You've got to be kitten me.

Happy Tuesday!

We had the opportunity to do a session at the Langley Temple this morning so our p-day was switched to today! So no, I didn't ignore your emails so get your panties out of a bunch. I'm lacking on time due to the short p-day so I'll make it brief! Ha...

Few interesting events:

• A grenade went off on the street where the West Elders live.. SWAT showed up. Surrey is GHETTO.
• I watched some Asians cut their grass with scissors.. get a life
• A homeless man (I think i'm drawn to them) said that if anyone gave me trouble that I should come find him. He was also born in prison and shot at age 6. Definitely needs the gospel.
• Ironically someone did give me trouble but my new friend was nowhere to be found. As we were talking with this lady a felt something wet drop onto my shoulder. I thought it was bird poop until Sis C informed me that someone had just hucked a giant loogie from an upper staircase. That blessed woman had a tissue that I used to clean myself up.. but it didn't remove the scare I now have from how disgusting it all was. Can't wait to see that dude n the spirit world.
• On a brighter and cleaner note... we went to transfer training in Richmond and got to shake President Tillemans hand one last time. What a man. He will go down in my book as one of my heroes...along with my super stud of a father. His testimony brings the spirit so strong and you can truly feel his love for this work and us individually when you look into his tear-filled eyes.

Guys...I've had some pretty bizarre and nasty experiences out on a mission...but it makes for good stories to tell my great-grand children and it worth it when something does go right. If being spit on is what it takes in order feel a sliver of what the Savior felt...I want it to happen everyday until I die. The sacrifice He made for us not only physically but spiritually is something that I continue to try to wrap my heart around. Even within the walls of the temple I can hardly understand His love for me, my family, and all those I come in contact with. It's only through our Savior and older brother that we can return to live in our Father presence. As a representative of Christ I promise you that He lives.

Hope you all have a solid week! As my thuper cool friend Elder Jason Cook always says, Party like it's hot!

love always,

Sister Annie Holm

kittens!

Sister Brittany Larsen bought us friendship necklaces :)

Engagements! jk...just cute comp pics

Cartoon that one of the sisters drew of me...
how embarrassing that that actually happened.

Ridin round town in the Big Ol Rangee

That song has been stuck in my head all week and I honestly couldn't come up with a better subject line. It does fit in with the fact that I witnessed a car accident and had to call 911.  After checking on everybody we continued to be exactly obedient missionaries and went on sharing the gospel with those looking at the accident.  And no, a Range Rover wasn't involved...just a Honda.  Not sure how this is possible but lots of people drive super expensive cars around here.  I don't know.  But shout-out to mom's side for making me obsessed with cars.

We had a phenomenal day at church yesterday! Five of our friends showed up! 

• Jonathan - met at Surrey Central, sang a BOM play song to us, and dressed up like a pirate for church. He knew all the answers in sunday school!
• Connie and Noah (our [14-year-old answer to] J [Joseph] Smith) - he walked in with a note pad and took notes the entire time but seemed to enjoy it overall.
• Wing - a chinese girl who shows up every Sunday but doesn't have time to actually meet and learn. So... what the heck.
• Robyn - A MIRACLE! She is the sister of a less active who we've been working with. We met her on Friday and set a baptismal date for June 28.  Saturday she came to a baptism, and Sunday showed up at church for all 3 hours.  She is so prepared and willing to live everything we teach.  What a blessing.  Side note - we had dinner with them last night and taught the POS [plan of salvation]. She adored the cut-outs #sistermissionarygimmicks.

Even with all these miracles, missions are still rough. But through all the tears, frustration, and relentless personal chastening, it is worth it.  We truly do have to apply the atonement if we are going to make it through this life.  I love the video that the church put out around Easter:

http://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

I get chills every time that I watch this. What a privilege it is to wear His name.  It reminds me of why I am here and how important it is that I show my Saviour how much I love Him.

ESPN HIGHLIGHTS

• Got a tom-tom GPS for $10 at a less-active's yard sale.
• Have a delightful stalker who just doesn't understand why I won't take a chance on him. But his relentless voicemails and texts finally drove me to yelling at him and making it clear that just because he knows who Christ is doesn't mean we can still go on a date. Woof.
• Hit 7 months and 9 days. Woot Woot.
• Sister Christensen and I are staying together another transfer here in Surrey.
• Our lullaby at night is sirens and the neighbors fighting. Here is the mediocre rap I made up about it:

The Surrey sirens wailing and screamin,

just as I am tryin to start dreamin.

The neighbors fight, the baby cries.

Lord I just want to rest my eyes!

I haven't finished it yet...but because of the crow outside of our window I am sure I'll have time to finish it one of these nights.

God bless and love always,

Sister Annie Holm

xoxo

Oh Joy.

Frequent view.

Another transfer with this fool.

Surviving The Ghetto

Well Hi,

I'm short on time due to the Elders taking up most of the time here in the employment centers, but i'll give the quick ESPN Highlights version (with some needed details) of my slightly disturbing week:

- A drunk homeless lady called me over while I was out talking to God's children. She had me open her smokes and then told me to take a seat. So...being the nice missionary that I am, I did.  She then sang me a song about how Jesus loves her... but it wasn't a quiet peaceful one.  She literally belted it in front of all of Surrey Central (which is a massive bus/skytrain station plus a mall and university).  So ya...I was mortified.  BUT to make it worse...she then touched my face and began belting out "YOU. ARE. SO. BEAUTIFUL!.. to me."   Yeah...I hated my life at that moment.  Kill-me-now sort of a thing.  Everyone was staring and I was trying not to laugh.  She sang all the verses and hacked up a lung about halfway through.  Sis Christensen just watched from afar as I tried to become invisible. 

- We were tracting on the extremely ghetto side of town (unknown to us at the time) and we approached this man with a cute dog.  He then got weird and asked us about having children and marriage.  Uhh...ew.  IT GETS WORSE.  He then asked if her were HOOKERS. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?  I was mortified.  We are wearing long skirts and tags with Jesus Christ on them...for real.  So if that wasn't bad enough he started talking about his "law of chastity" habits and how it only costs him $40...if you catch my drift.  Yeah...we were speechless.  Sis Christensen said something like "We don't agree with that" because all I could say is "okay".  One of the weirdest experiences thus far in Surrey.  I never thought I'd be mistaken for a hooker while serving the Lord. 

The silver lining on these experiences is that while on that same street with the hooker man we found a girl who was prepared to be baptized at the end of this month.  As we prayed, the spirit became so strong and at the end our new friend was crying.  What a blessing.  I know that these LOL-worthy but pretty sketchy experiences are only a sliver of what Christ went through.

Our afflictions will be but a small moment. "He died for me. I live for Him."

God bless us, everyone!

love always,

Sister Annie Holm

Picked up a stair-stepper off the side of the road.

Finally bought a yoga mat.

Oh Canada!

Another One Bites The Dust

Another month of my mission gone by and....

 

LIBBY IS GRADUATING! WOOT WOOT!

Congrats my pequeño hermana!

Welcome to the real world! 

 (Woods Cross colors of course!)

 

Back to life here in beautiful British Columbia! It's been a week of many miracles. I feel like I say that every week... but really. 

We were blessed with many more baptismal dates, investigators at church, and new friends. But the peak of this mountain of miracles was a voicemail from a young friend trying to find the truth. When we first listened to the voicemal, we couldn't quite understand what was being said and we were 94% sure it was a girl.  So we called the number back and low and behold it was someone who wanted to learn more about our church.  We started talking and found out it was a guy named Noah. We set up a time to meet and asked if we could meet at his place....he said he had to go ask his mom. Uh... what the?   We then found out that he was 14. 14!  What fourteen-year-old wants to find out more about religion?? (with the exeption of Joseph Smith).  So we talked to Noah's mom and figured everything out.  Apparently he's been curious about many religions and have been going around asking to learn more about them. So we went to the appointment and he had already checked out a Book of Mormon from his catholic school's library (ya.. weird library) and was in 2 Nephi. And on top of that he had 40 quiestions all written out that he needed answered about our beliefs.. MIND BLOWN. Needless to say, he is stellar.  He believes the Book of Mormon is true and that "it totally makes sense!"  Now just soak all of that in while I tell you more about this past week.

 

We are also teaching a variety of people. Basically a circus. A recovering crack addict/gang member/biker/, a muslim, a vietnamese mother, and a woman who holds the 2008 or 2009 Guiness Book of World Records record for the most tattoo's (they call her the painted lady). These are just a few of the many interesting kinds of people we teach. Vancouver clearly is a tatted-up melting pot.

 

Another grand week here in Surrey Currey (also many punjabis (East Indians)).  Can't wait to see what the next episode holds.

 

On a somewhat spiritual note... "He died for me. I live for Him."

 

Love always,

sister annie holm

Yes, it rains here in British Columbia

Sikh temple in Delta, BC with the sisters in our zone

With our 'mini missionary' (from our stake; she stayed with us for the weekend)

P-Day chillin' - that outta class feelin.