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!