Letters from Canada: When I was a lass, I suvived the blizzard of '13.

It's been a crazy week! -20 degree weather and freezing wind at 20 km/hour, plus the ginormous blizzard that hit early yesterday morning, and the Fredericton missionaries are officially popsicles.

Quote of the week:

Elder Evanson and Elder Wolsey (making a parody) of "You and Me": "It's you and me, converting the people. Like Ammon of old, we add to the fold. It's you and me, converting the people. The white handbook says I can't take my eyes off of you."

After church on Sunday, we and the elders practiced a musical number we're performing for zone conference in Monctontomorrow morning. We worked and worked through the blizzard, and then found our cars buried under about a foot of snow. So the elders went to work shoveling and we went to work scraping, and they found the snow plow and after more than an hour, we were out of the parking lot and into the blizzard on the bad roads. It was quite the day! I'm still frozen from it, and it was all worth it!

December 5 was a special day for me because it marked one year since I knew I was coming to the Canada Halifax Mission. I've been reflecting a lot on the type of person I've become in that year.

It amazes me how much God can change imperfect people into someone so much better. I'm not some incredible person right now, but I feel overwhelmed seeing the changes in me over the last year. I have a testimony of trials because before my mission, I came to the realization that there was nothing left for me to grow from at home at that point in my life. My entire purpose was about to be in Canada, and that was where I'd be able to grow--I would not be able to grow the ways I was supposed to without leaving on my mission. Service was what I needed. And now I've been a missionary for 8 months, and I'll be half-way done at the end of this transfer. I just feel completely blessed that God has been able to change me so much in so short a time. I feel closer than ever to my Saviour and my Redeemer.

We had a really neat experience last night while knocking. One of the first people we talked to was a man who opened his door and was really surprised to see us. He was kind of shocked. We got to know him a little and invited him to learn more, and he said he'd love to, then expressed that he's been going through some really big trials recently that he's asked God for guidance with. He said that he's been searching for a church to join that's right for him. He said, "I honestly think this is a sign from God that you came right now, at this moment." It was really amazing to hear because it had honestly been a really, really slow week and I think we needed the reminder that God's hand is in the work, especially when we're faithfully trying our hardest no matter what. As far as other investigators, we had to drop the French-speaking family we were teaching, but we still have high hopes for them in the future. We're hoping to figure out a way to be able to meet more frequently with investigators because it's been pretty hard recently with the snow and holidays. But we are excited for the opportunities we have in the next few weeks to work a little more closely with the members over the holidays. The work is hastening!

I love and pray for you all.

Love,

Sister Lewis

Snow in our apartment when we got home from church.

Watching it blizzard last night... a car outside our window.

My scarf after we got home from church. It was frozen like this, completely stiff. Notice the chocolate advent calendar :)

Bedroom window after church.

Our car this morning. Almost half-way done!

Sheet of ice underneath all the snow.

Finally made it to the church parking lot this morning and IT. WAS. PLOWED! Haha. The pile of snow in the distance is about twice my height. Also, I just felt my ponytail and it's frozen since it was wet from my shower this morning.