Life in The Great White North

The spirit of Oliver

Aunt Cathryn and her amazing view of Okanagan Lake.

Aunt C's boyfriend Robin.

Merry Christmas from the missionards.

Sunrise on the way to Richmond for transfer meetings.

Our MTC district plus trainers.  We're the cutest!

Sis L playing Santa with our packages.

All our packages - Holla Holla!

Sleeping Beauty.

Most excellent Canadian hats.  Thanks Grandmas!

So, uh.  Hi.

It's been a long week.  We had transfer meeting last Thursday down in Richmond.  We left Tuesday night and stayed in Penticton with the sisters there.  We left in the morning, drove to Kelowna and caught the Greyhound from there (I saw my great aunt Cathryn...more to come).  Can I just say...those buses are terrible.  Someone please send an angry email to Greyhound and tell them to not let people who fart a lot on the bus.  It's ridiculous and keeps extremely tired missionaries awake.

We finally got to Langley [BC] and my grandma picked us up.  HOLD UP.  You read right.  My 'mission grandma' meaning Sister Larsen's trainer, Sister Parkinson.  See...she's my grandma!  Although I would be grateful if Grandma Cliffdog came up here for a quick visit.  I'm really missing that cotton-headed ninny muggins this Christmas.  Keep it fresh my cotton ball hair g-ma.  Anyway, transfer meeting was long but I was so grateful to see my MTC district!

The next morning we went to catch the 8:55am bus [ back to Kelowna ].  But that was freaking backed up because everyone and their dog (literally, every Canadian has a dog, refer to last blog post with Sis L and the mean dog) was traveling on Christmas.  We ended up sitting by this odd couple that kept making out but would also talk to us about the gospel and how he is the chief of his tribe.  I don't even know.  It was super weird.  The bus is weird period.  And smells so bad.  People need to control themselves. 

We finally got to our car in Kelowna and started driving to Arby's (this is a monumental deal because there are only four in all of BC and Kelowna has one) so we were pretty psyched.  Oliver has like no food.  There's like a Subway and a pub.  Needless to say we generally don't go to either of them.  So we are on our way to Arby's when the Sister Training Leaders call us and say the roads are too scary back to Oliver so we need to stay the night with them.  So we did...but we were angry.  FYI it snows a lot here.  We don't like being told what to do because we are strong, independent black women!  Clearly that is a lie and I will repent because we have obviously gotten a lot whiter here.  There is virtually no sun. 

Anyway...so we stayed the night in Kelowna (grudgingly).  When we finally got home we were so excited to see our new mattresses!  It was like the journey that never ended.  Seven (7) hours on the bus each way, plus driving in the blizzard, PLUS a giant sleep over with other sisters, wasn't exactly how we wanted to spend our week before Christmas, but...whatever.  It's what the Lord wanted I guess.

Our new mattresses are the bomb.  They are kind of hard, but we'll break them in.  Funny story, one of our members gave us some de-alcohol-ised wine.  As you can see in the picture...it DOES have alcohol...0.3% and 0.5%.  So we dumped it down the drain.  But it's the thought that counts.  On Sunday (yes that [ the trip ] took up our whole week) we had our Christmas sacrament meeting.  Sis L sang beautifully…like a heavenly mermaid.  So majestic.  I did a reading, which was equally majestic. 

We had a killer P-day yesterday.  We got the oil changed.  We didn't have a car during that time so we walked to the grocery store and carried our grocery bags around town like thugs.  We looked stupid.  Sister Martino passed us and yelled out the window "your hair looks ridiculous!"…referring to the YouTube video"can I have your number?"  It was the funniest thing that has happened all week.

Both Sis L's and my grandmas gave us money for Christmas, so we bought some true Canadian hats.  The picture above is also on her blog sunshinesmilesandserendipity.blogspot.com.  You'll love it.

Christmas thought: Mosiah 14:5.  The atonement is the most wonderful gift the Savior has given us.  Keep Him in mind as you celebrate this season.  Merry CHRISTmas to all of you and your families!  Hope you are all safe and warm, thanks for you love and support!

In Tiny Tim's voice, "God bless us, everyone!"

xoxo A