Monday, January 2, 2017 - Feliz Ano Nuevo

Happy New Year!

Well first of all I would like to apologize for the fact that I am terrible at writing emails! One of my New Years resolutions is to write better weekly emails so hopefully we are off to a good start haha merry late Christmas and happy late New Years from Calgary! This holiday season has been absolutely incredible as a missionary. It is a unique experience to be away from family and serving the lord during this time of year because it's sad and happy at the same time. Of course I miss my family and all my friends back home but there is nowhere else I would rather be and nothing else I would rather be doing. During the week of Christmas we were able to do a lot of service. So many people were receptive to our message about the savior and his birth and we had so many great opportunities to share the gospel with all sorts of people. One of my favorite parts of the week was being able to attend a live nativity that the church put on for free in this major park. There were shows every 20 minutes every night for the whole week and tons of people came to watch! I've never seen Mary or Joseph with so many layers on but it was great! There were missionaries all over the place talking to everyone who came. It was so great! On Christmas Day, we opened our presents at 5:30 am because we were all so dang excited!!! Shout out to everyone who sent me cards or gifts! I felt so loved Christmas morning so thank you so much! Then we had church and then spent the rest of the day with a family in branch. They are seriously the best and had all 6 missionaries over for the whole day. We all called/FaceTimed our families which was the highlight of my Christmas! I loved being able to talk to and see my family for the first time in what feels like forever haha can't wait until Mother's Day when I can talk to them again! This past week has been great too. Kinda slow as far as lessons go because everyone is out of town or with family so our schedule was out of the ordinary. For p day on Monday we went sledding with the other Spanish elders which was tons of fun!! We were out there for hours in -15 C running up this giant hill and sledding down. I haven't had that much fun in a while but I couldn't feel my fingers by the end. We also said goodbye to Elder McLaren, another missionary in the branch, before he flew home on Wednesday. Tuesday was a crazy day because I had a really bad allergic reaction. I'm super allergic to down (feathers in coats) and basically I wore a jacket that I hadn't worn in a while and I guess it had either been touching a down jacket or something because I was covered in hives and red and itchy all over. My face got pretty swollen too haha I was on Benadryl all day Wednesday and had to sleep a ton because I was so drowsy. It was rough but I survived! The rest of the week was pretty slow but we visited with Mama Lola and I swear that lady never ceases to make me laugh! I've never met such a lively 96 year old! On Saturday we helped a family in the branch move which was super fun. It was also snowing pretty hard while we were carrying things in and out which led to some pretty funny slips and falls. We moved the entire house in 4 hours though which was pretty impressive! Gotta love the missionaries! A never ending supply of free labor haha The best part of the week by far was the opportunity to teach the sister of a family in the branch. She's visiting from Mexico and is going through some really hard things back home so she came to visit her sister for a few weeks. The family in the branch asked us to come over and teach her about the gospel and it was incredible. I've never felt the spirit so strongly in a lesson! She just cried when we told her how much Heavenly Father loves her and that Christ knows exactly what she is going through and is there to help her. She has been so receptive to learning more about the gospel and we hope that she will be able to continue the lessons back in Mexico! Well that's about it for this week but I'm so excited for this next year and the fact that I will be in Canada the whole entire year!! Don't forget to make lots of New Years resolutions and be better every single day!

Lots of love from Calgary!

-Hermana Thorstenson

 

Bring it on!

 

 

Beautiful Canadian Sunset

 

 

Me and Hermana Call

If you would like to email or write to me, my contact information is below:

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Hermana Rachel Thorstenson

Canada Calgary Mission

7044 Farrell Rd. SE

Calgary AB T@H OT2

Canada

Email Address

rachel.thorstenson@myldsmail.net