Cold to Serve: April 2013

We're back to catching up on this blog. March was a very busy month for us. We had our Relief Society Birthday dinner on March 8th and I did the decorations and program. We had nine sisters come, which was a good turn out for here. Most everything we've had so far we had we've only had four or five come. There are only about 15 active sisters.

Decorations for the Relief Society Birthday Dinner

Sisters at Relief Society Birthday Celebration

March Bulletin Board

Birthday Cake

Sis. Milnes read statements from modern day Prophets pertaining to Book of Mormon. She also had of picture of each prophet.

Book of Mormon Reading chart with our handout.

Handout for birthday celebration.

I saw an idea on Relief Society Sugardoodle about "Chicken Soup for the Soul". I decided to do
"Book of Mormon for the Soul." We decorated in mostly red because we couldn't find any white table cloths here. We put cans of chicken soup in the middle of the table for the decorations because there is not much room for anything else and we played a game with them. I typed up questions pertaining to the BOM and taped them to the bottom of each can. If you answered your question you got to keep the can of soup. If you couldn't answer then someone else could answer and take your soup. I tried to make the questions really simple. It was a lot of fun and we found out that Melanie Wozencroft, the single girl in our branch, knew all the answers! She was the winner with the most cans of soup. We also had quotes pertaining to the BOM from several prophets and showed pictures of them. The food was great and the whole night was very enjoyable. Elder Garrett came in at one point and told us he hasn't heard that much laughter in this building since we have been here!!

We flew to Edmonton on March 11th. The stake president wanted us to come for Stake Conference on the 16th and 17th. The original plan was to fly down on Friday but the mission president wanted us to come down earlier so we could attend Missionary Zone Conference on the 13th since we don't get that opportunity. Bro. Gorbohn (our High Councilor over Yellowknife) loaned us a car for the week. President Campbell (mission president) wanted us to stay in the mission home. On Monday evening we met with Bro. Gorbohn to make plans for Yellowknife Branch. On Tuesday we had the day to ourselves so did a little shopping for things we needed that would be much cheaper in Edmonton. I got my hair cut there for $20.00 compared to the cheapest place in Yellowknife that was $45.00!! On Wednesday we were at Zone Conference all day. On Thursday we went to the West Edmonton Mall. We were told that we only saw about one fourth of the mall. It is really amazing. There is an indoor water park, indoor amusement park, indoor skating rink, bowling alley, two miniature golf courses, an Imax 3D theatre plus other theaters, skateboard park, haunted fun house, rock "n" wall, 3 food courts, souvenir shops and arcades. This is not all, you can go to the website and see all the amazing places that are in the mall. Of course there are all kinds of shops, the big stores included a Sears store and Target and a couple more that are Canadian stores that we were not familiar with. We will post some pictures of the places we saw.

Canada Edmonton Zone Conference March 13, 2013

Replica of Santa Maria inside West Edmonton Mall

Seal show

Santa Maria

One of the Food Courts in the Mall

On Thursday night Pres. Garside (stake president), his wife and three other couples took us to dinner. It was an enjoyable evening. (We forgot to take pictures!!) All the stake people are so nice and so helpful to us here in the Yellowknife Branch.!! It is so much fun to be a part of this great church and the Edmonton North Stake!!

On Friday we went to the Edmonton Temple. It was snowing pretty hard that day. Oh, forgot to tell you, we woke up to snow on Tuesday morning. Everyone was so mad because it had started to warm up and the snow was melting. It snowed every day we were there and finally stopped on Sunday afternoon! We didn't take our boots but we saw others that didn't wear any either. I even saw a lady that had on sandals with the back out at stake conference. They are definitely more adapted to this weather than we are!! Anyway, the Edmonton Temple is like the Memphis Temple except it was renovated a few years ago and has a bigger entrance with a cloak room on both sides of the front entry. The waiting room was different with a separate room for the Temple workers. It was beautiful covered with snow and yes, we forgot to take our camera!!

On Friday night we went to dinner with the people that work in the mission office. We met them all when we came in October and went to dinner with them then. They live in Edmonton or close by and are serving three years in the mission office.

Elder and Sister Garrett at La Rounde Restaurant. This is the restaurant we went to with the Edmonton Mission office staff. It is at the top of one of the hotels and spins around with fantastic views of Edmonton.

This is Bro. & Sister Woodruff at dinner. Sis. Woodruff helped us to get everything together in October before coming to Yellowknife. He is a descendant of Wilford Woodruff. Great people!!

Brother & Sister MaFadzean work in the mission office and live about an hour out of Edmonton. They stay with their daughter during the week.

This is Brother & Sister Higgins. They are church service missionaries assigned to young singles. They are from Idaho and got to the mission just before we did. We had dinner with them when we were in Edmonton in October. So much fun to hang out with these missionaries!!

View of Edmonton from LaRounde Restaurant

Sun starting to set.

After Dark

Downtown Edmonton at night.

Canada Edmonton Mission Home

Canada Edmonton Mission President Campbell and Sister Campbell

President & Sister Campbell and Elder & Sister Garrett. In case you're wondering what happened to Elder Garrett it wasn't me!! He opened the car door on his head and split it open.

We had an enjoyable stake conference. Elder Garrett was asked to speak in the Sunday morning session. We loved every minute of being there with saints. Love this missionary work!!

Coming home. This is the baggage pick-up area at Yellowknife Airport.

Office in Yellowknife Branch Church Building. We came home from Edmonton to this. This used to be an attorneys office and was rented again. The people wanted to move in on April 1st. Chris Johnston who takes care of the building could not find anyone to paint it on such a short notice. Guess who spent most of the week painting? Mr. Fix-it is not afraid of anything. He spent a day and a half just filling and patching holes. He does great work though!!!! Got new carpet and is almost done!

Elder Garrett does neat work. He removed all the old carpet, rolled it up and put it on the porch for the carpet people to remove.

Ice Palace in Yellowknife. Every year one of the men that lives in one of boat houses builds a snow house. He starts in November and has it ready to tour the month of March. We did not have time to tour it before it closed. We did get there and took some pictures. Hopefully we will make it next year.