Why, hello! How are you all doing? I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! I know I certainly did. This Christmas will go down in my memory as one of the very best, even if I was far away from home. The love and light of those around me made me feel the Christmas spirit anyway, and talking and SKYPING the night away with my family posed serenely in front of a beautiful fireplace made the Christmas spirit bright! Ahhhh... I wish I could go back and replay it over and over again. Oh well! I'll be home for Christmas... next year! This Christmas was special though, and we saw a lot of miracles all week. The biggest miracle of all being that I have turned into a Canadian, eh? Ask my parents. Apparently I emphasize words like mOOOOse and sOooory and little too strongly there. Oh boy.
So let me tell you about my holiday cheer! On the eve of Christmas we spent our afternoon with our lovely eternigator Lucie. She is such a doll, as always. This woman is 85 but has the Christmas spirit of a wee child. She kept telling us she didn't have the Christmas spirit all afternoon, but it was hard to come to terms with that seeing as she was blasting Christmas records from the 30s and forcing horrendous fruit cake down our throats. Ha ha still, it was such a pleasant day, and I so enjoyed her company. It's hard for people her age to be alone on Christmas, so I was glad we could pass some time with her, even if I did eat ten pounds of $30 fruitcake.
In the evening we went to our Relief Society President's house, and I was in HEAVEN! Ahhhh. It was just so magical. They invited a Belgian family that just moved into our ward, and there were sweet little darlings of all wee ages running around in Christmas raptures. It made me miss my little Lil to pieces, but I still had a sweet time. We *secretly* shhhh.... danced to creole Christmas music with their fabulous little daughters, which was the highlight of my mission. Surprise! I forgot how to dance. So embarrassing. I felt like a fourteen year old at her first Stake New Year's Eve dance. Uhhh... awkward. Can't shake my booty! Ha ha. Still, so fun! We did a live Nativity, with costumes to boot. I will definitely be sending pictures. I was one of the wise women... ugh... men. Whatever. It was totally groovy. Sister Guevara and I agreed that it was by far one of the best Christmas Eves we've ever had.
Then came..... CHRISTMAS! Hallelujah! We were still required to study that morning.... so... after I studied how to make bacon and sausage and pancakes and orange juice and eggs... we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas! Seriously, a Christmas classic. I love that movie, but it makes me weep like a baby every single time. Sister Guevara and I were just sitting there sobbing all morning, thinking of our sweet Lucie who, like Mr. Krueger, was alone on Christmas. In the evening we went to the Worner household, aka the sweetest fam ever. We ate Brazilian food for Christmas and chatted the night away. I would have to say that talking to my family was the very best. MISS YOU GUYS AND LOVE YOU GUYYYYYYYZZZZ.. Aaaah! With all of my heart! The 26th was the darkest day of my life... haha. Trunky does not even begin to describe how I felt.
The rest of the week we just frolicked about and did A LOT of service! It was a good week. We helped a family move, and I got a free sports bra out of it. And some couscous. YES! However, now I'm covered in cat hair and feeling rather sick. Still, serving is FUN! Ha ha.
Before I forget.... BIG BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT to my one and only BIG BROTHER!!!!!! Aaaaah! 24! 24! I cannot BELIEB it! I love you, booo! I hope you have the most amazing, rocking birthday/New Year's Day EVER! You are simply the best brother in the entire world. No brother even compares. Sorry to all of you out there who have brothers. Mine is BY FAR the best! I hope all of your birthday dreams come true. Go get yourself a birthday/New Year's kiss and a birthday wife! Actually, no wife. Blagues. Je t'aime, bichey! See you soon, you old hooligan!
That's about all I have for you! I have some Christmas miracles to share, but they'll have to wait till next week. We're going to try to go to Old Quebec with les elders today so I don't have too much time to write. Transfer calls are this week! Chances are I will be leaving beautiful Quebec City... pray for me as I proceed to bawl my eyes out for the next few days. I hope you all had a FAB NOEL! I miss and love you all TERRIBLY! GROS BISOU! HUGS!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
Monday, December 30, 2013
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Oh the Weather outside is Frightful
Hello familia and friends! How is everyone doing on this week of Christmas? I'm literally counting down the minutes to my phone call home. Can. Not. WAIT! It's going to be such a fun week, filled with fiestas and bouche de Noel. I'm going to become a bouche de Noel by the end of all of this, probably. Meh. Go big or go home big, eh? Anyway, I'm wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a fabbbbbulous New Year! Dear single friends: rack up some New Year's kisses in my honor, okay? I'll be expecting stories. I've got some mistletoe in my apartment but so far no luck... ;)
To start things off, I would just like to dedicate some time to my favorite sister bear on the planet.... LILY! Happy Birthday, my sweet! I love you forever and ever! I can't believe you are now EIGHT years old! It feels like you've always been here.... ha ha. Sister Guevara and I yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LILY!!!! super loud inside our apartment on Saturday morning, but you probably couldn't hear us. At least our neighbor did! Anyway, I hope your day was special and filled with bon bons and plenty of attention. Save me some Bombay House! If you leave it in the back of the fridge I'll come home to claim it in about 7 months. Lily, I love you and I hope you know that I think you are the cat's meow. HAPPY B-DAY, beautiful!
In other news.... we had a baptism this Saturday! In honor of Lily's 8th birthday. :) Our ami Guy was FINALLY able to get baptized! I do not think I have seen a happier man in all my life. He was practically a member of the ward to begin with. Pretty sure he's like assistant to the bishopric or something.... ;) Really though, it was such an incredible day. He had to get baptized THREE times, but hey, he'd been waiting for so long that he deserved at least three baptisms. Guy's the man! I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. In French. And I totally ROCKED IT! Ha ha even though my French is terrible.... Still! The spirit always wins out in the end. His baptism was the most attended baptism in the history of convert baptisms in the Quebec ward. I was so touched to see so many members come out and give him support. It was a very happy winter solstice, and a bright spot on the darkest day of the year.
Earlier that afternoon our mission president thought it would be fun to take our whole zone out caroling. Can you imagine a group of like twenty something missionaries standing outside your door singing Christmas songs? HEAVEN! Well.... we got a door slammed in our face. Ha ha. President looked a little surprised. And all of us Quebec missionaries were like.... Welcome to life in Quebec! Ha ha. Still, it was super fun to be congregated with a bunch of missionaries, and there were at least three people who radiated with joy as we sang to them. I'd say it was a very successful day!
We also had a soup dinner with the Relief Society, and miracle of miracles.... my favorite Haitian member was there! We've been working and praying so hard to get her to come back to the church, if only just to be with the sisters and receive love, support, and fellowship again. I was so happy! And she was a complete riot. We were all discussing dinner calendar issues for the missionaries, and someone asked if it was alright to have the elders over if you were a single woman. She is super outspoken, which I love, so she just says, "I have my elders over all the time. But when they come to MY house, they need a chaperon... because they're afraid the cougar will POUNCE!" Ha ha ha ha. I just loved that. That's going to be me in another fifteen years. CAN'T WAIT!
So that's the week that was! It was just such an amazing week, filled with miracles and Christmas joy and happiness. I survived a massive snowstorm yesterday, BTW. Church was completely cancelled, but missionary work wasn't. I think I had five near death experiences in my car.... please pray for me! Or pray that my leaders soften their hearts and let me stay inside when it's a blizzardin. I love you all! I hope you all have a very, very, very, very MERRY CHRISTMAS! I do so wish I could be there. I will be in spirit, anyway. Lots of love and HUUUUUUUUUUGE hugs! Bisou bisou! Ho ho ho!
Love,
Sista Claus
To start things off, I would just like to dedicate some time to my favorite sister bear on the planet.... LILY! Happy Birthday, my sweet! I love you forever and ever! I can't believe you are now EIGHT years old! It feels like you've always been here.... ha ha. Sister Guevara and I yelled HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LILY!!!! super loud inside our apartment on Saturday morning, but you probably couldn't hear us. At least our neighbor did! Anyway, I hope your day was special and filled with bon bons and plenty of attention. Save me some Bombay House! If you leave it in the back of the fridge I'll come home to claim it in about 7 months. Lily, I love you and I hope you know that I think you are the cat's meow. HAPPY B-DAY, beautiful!
In other news.... we had a baptism this Saturday! In honor of Lily's 8th birthday. :) Our ami Guy was FINALLY able to get baptized! I do not think I have seen a happier man in all my life. He was practically a member of the ward to begin with. Pretty sure he's like assistant to the bishopric or something.... ;) Really though, it was such an incredible day. He had to get baptized THREE times, but hey, he'd been waiting for so long that he deserved at least three baptisms. Guy's the man! I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. In French. And I totally ROCKED IT! Ha ha even though my French is terrible.... Still! The spirit always wins out in the end. His baptism was the most attended baptism in the history of convert baptisms in the Quebec ward. I was so touched to see so many members come out and give him support. It was a very happy winter solstice, and a bright spot on the darkest day of the year.
Earlier that afternoon our mission president thought it would be fun to take our whole zone out caroling. Can you imagine a group of like twenty something missionaries standing outside your door singing Christmas songs? HEAVEN! Well.... we got a door slammed in our face. Ha ha. President looked a little surprised. And all of us Quebec missionaries were like.... Welcome to life in Quebec! Ha ha. Still, it was super fun to be congregated with a bunch of missionaries, and there were at least three people who radiated with joy as we sang to them. I'd say it was a very successful day!
We also had a soup dinner with the Relief Society, and miracle of miracles.... my favorite Haitian member was there! We've been working and praying so hard to get her to come back to the church, if only just to be with the sisters and receive love, support, and fellowship again. I was so happy! And she was a complete riot. We were all discussing dinner calendar issues for the missionaries, and someone asked if it was alright to have the elders over if you were a single woman. She is super outspoken, which I love, so she just says, "I have my elders over all the time. But when they come to MY house, they need a chaperon... because they're afraid the cougar will POUNCE!" Ha ha ha ha. I just loved that. That's going to be me in another fifteen years. CAN'T WAIT!
So that's the week that was! It was just such an amazing week, filled with miracles and Christmas joy and happiness. I survived a massive snowstorm yesterday, BTW. Church was completely cancelled, but missionary work wasn't. I think I had five near death experiences in my car.... please pray for me! Or pray that my leaders soften their hearts and let me stay inside when it's a blizzardin. I love you all! I hope you all have a very, very, very, very MERRY CHRISTMAS! I do so wish I could be there. I will be in spirit, anyway. Lots of love and HUUUUUUUUUUGE hugs! Bisou bisou! Ho ho ho!
Love,
Sista Claus
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Ohhhh Canada! (TUNDRA)
Hello my angels! How are you all doing? Are you cold? If you said yes, I would like to just let you all know that you are NOT cold. Not at all. Yes, maybe you were cold last week. But right now I am indoors and I am SHIVERING uncontrollably. Why? Because it's -15 degrees and the doors of our chapel are covered in two feet of snow. So yeah, you could say that I'm cold. But let's not dwell on that. Anyway! How was everyone's week? I'm sure you're all as geeked for Christmas as I am! 9 more days! GET EXCITED!
Okay, so first things first. Last week for the first time in my life I ate pupusas! You would think after having two companions from El Salvador it would have been much sooner.... In any case, they were SO delish, and what was even better is that we ate them with my favorite Salvadorian members. Afterward we went and had a family home evening with the elders from Ste Foy and the senior couple in the Ste Foy branch with our boy Pierre. It was waaay too much fun! I love FHE. I wish I had a family to have FHE with, but c'est la vie right now. It was nice to get together with my favorite elder..s and be one big happy family.
This week I slept in a bed other than the one I own in Quebec for the first time in six months! That's right! I went on SPLIIIITS! And I got to visit the lovely little town of Shawinigan. It was so pleasant, and SO nice not to be in charge of my own area for the day. We ate dinner with the cutest family. And they have 10 children!!! My oh my, it was such a party. Since I'm not from a big family I always get overwhelmed when I visit families with lots of kids. What a ruckus! And what a delight. I think I'll have five kids and five cats though, just to balance it out. Anyway, the whole entire day the heater in my beautiful red car stopped working. It was nightmarish. The next morning when we were getting in the car to leave, I noticed that my nostrils were frozen shut. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED. We turned on the car. I looked to the dash. NEGATIVE 28 degreeeeees! Hell has officially frozen over. Ha ha ha never ever ever have I been so cold in my LIFE! So please pray for me, my loves.
On Tuesday night we went over to my favorite member's house for dinner, with my favorite vegan ami and my favorite returnigator, aka my boy Pierre. I think I gained ten pounds in one sitting, but it was a super fun Christmas dinner that we all shared together. Gosh, I cannot tell you how much I love that kind of missionary work. Members, missionaries, investigators, all wrapped up into one spiritual evening of great company and great food. I think this is the future of missionary work, eh? GET ON IT!
This afternoon my little compy and I had a Christmas photo shoot in all of the fabulous snow we just got up here! (Chins... have...frrrrozen... offfff....) SOOO cold! I think I've lot a toe or two. Haven't checked yet. My boots are frozen to my legs. But it was so fun! And en plus, I got my eyebrows done AGAIN, so I'm looking more babelicious and less cavewomanish. Pictures are coming! We look good. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful finals week. Please don't die and don't cry. Remember that I LOVE you all and I pray for you every single day! Joyous seasons! Peace and blessings! Loving and missing you all to the moon and back!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
Okay, so first things first. Last week for the first time in my life I ate pupusas! You would think after having two companions from El Salvador it would have been much sooner.... In any case, they were SO delish, and what was even better is that we ate them with my favorite Salvadorian members. Afterward we went and had a family home evening with the elders from Ste Foy and the senior couple in the Ste Foy branch with our boy Pierre. It was waaay too much fun! I love FHE. I wish I had a family to have FHE with, but c'est la vie right now. It was nice to get together with my favorite elder..s and be one big happy family.
This week I slept in a bed other than the one I own in Quebec for the first time in six months! That's right! I went on SPLIIIITS! And I got to visit the lovely little town of Shawinigan. It was so pleasant, and SO nice not to be in charge of my own area for the day. We ate dinner with the cutest family. And they have 10 children!!! My oh my, it was such a party. Since I'm not from a big family I always get overwhelmed when I visit families with lots of kids. What a ruckus! And what a delight. I think I'll have five kids and five cats though, just to balance it out. Anyway, the whole entire day the heater in my beautiful red car stopped working. It was nightmarish. The next morning when we were getting in the car to leave, I noticed that my nostrils were frozen shut. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED. We turned on the car. I looked to the dash. NEGATIVE 28 degreeeeees! Hell has officially frozen over. Ha ha ha never ever ever have I been so cold in my LIFE! So please pray for me, my loves.
On Tuesday night we went over to my favorite member's house for dinner, with my favorite vegan ami and my favorite returnigator, aka my boy Pierre. I think I gained ten pounds in one sitting, but it was a super fun Christmas dinner that we all shared together. Gosh, I cannot tell you how much I love that kind of missionary work. Members, missionaries, investigators, all wrapped up into one spiritual evening of great company and great food. I think this is the future of missionary work, eh? GET ON IT!
This afternoon my little compy and I had a Christmas photo shoot in all of the fabulous snow we just got up here! (Chins... have...frrrrozen... offfff....) SOOO cold! I think I've lot a toe or two. Haven't checked yet. My boots are frozen to my legs. But it was so fun! And en plus, I got my eyebrows done AGAIN, so I'm looking more babelicious and less cavewomanish. Pictures are coming! We look good. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful finals week. Please don't die and don't cry. Remember that I LOVE you all and I pray for you every single day! Joyous seasons! Peace and blessings! Loving and missing you all to the moon and back!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Road Trip!
Hey, ho, the mistletoe.... I'm gonna get to know ya better.... this Christmas... Ha ha. Does anyone else think that Christmas song is totally creepy? It's the song of the week this week at ye olde soeur missionnaire apartment. Well now. How the heck is everyone?! Apparently you all suffered way more than me last week in terms of winter cold. BUT. As we speak I am currently in the middle of a big, fat snowstorm, so no, I'm not giving any of you sympathy. However, I am offering my condolences to all of you who are in the middle of finals and end of semester mayhem, and for that I truly am sorry. Bonne chance, bon courage! Je vous aime.
So this week was quite possibly one of the most fun weeks of my mission! Thank you Christmas for bringing so much happiness and light to mission life. Where do I even begin? On Tuesday Sister Guevara and I got to take a ROAD TRIP (ROAD TRIP!!!!!!) down to Montreal for a meeting for trainers. Oh. My. Gracious. I was in heaven! I remember very little about the actually training... BUT! I got to see my main boo Sister Orozco! As well as ALL THREE of my favorite Chinese elders! It was insanity. The minute the training ended I ran into Sister Orozco's arms, and THEN I looked over my shoulder to see all of my Chinese elders swarming me! Every good feeling in my heart compelled me to give them each a big old bear hug, but President was totally watching me and I totally would have gotten sent home. SO! Instead I gave them each a firm handshake, and they were just beaming and so happy to see me. How could they not be? Oh yeah, and I was happy to see them too. ;) Surprise, surprise, there are some elders on the mission that aren't morbidly afraid of me! Mainly those three.... Needless to say, it was such an incredibly sweet reunion. Afterward Sister Orozco and I took a gaggle of soeurs missionnaires to the most delicious Thai food restaurant Montreal has to offer. (Spicy Thai is still the best in my mind.) So good! It was probably the best sisters outing I've ever been on. Everyone was just in the best of spirits and there was so much to catch up on, and hardly any self-righteousness to go around. I couldn't have asked for a better day!
On Friday night we were able to go over to our ami Pascal's house and help his mom Tamar decorate their Christmas tree. Gosh. Was I weepy or what? Christmas is making me trunkier than a redwood forest! Still, we had tons of fun decorating and spending time with them. They are Premiere Nation, or as you would say in les Etats-Unis, Native American. I love Native Americans sooooo much. You have no idea. Maybe another reason why Quebec is the perfect mission for me? Anyway, they're just the most loving family and I love spending time with them. I love spending time with everyone here, which is another reason the holidays are so grand. It's nice to be invited to people's houses and feel like I belong to a family, when in reality I'm orphaned and alone this Christmas in a foreign land. ;)
THEN the week got even better! We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday, which was double fun because we combined with the branch in Ste Foy, which meant that I was able to love and hug all of my old peeps from the Riv Sud! Ohhhh my. Christmas miracles all around! There was a Christmas dance that night, and lo and behold, SOMEONE started playing "King for a Day" by the Thompson Twins. Obviously I lost complete control of my brain and started singing and moving as much as possible without making it look like I was dancing. REBEL! My district leader saw me, of course, and I was totally scolded, but I SO did not care. That is my JAM! It was just the perfect way to end the perfect night.
Yesterday we went to the church to watch the #ChristmasDevo. The party consisted of all the missionaries, one family, and our stalwart rockstar investigator, Guy. Ha ha he's the man! One of the elders had the idea that we should go watch the X-mas Devo in English, so all six of us went into the tiny geneology room to stream it from the computer. Hmm... cozy. ;) My very favorite zone leader was all worked up and in a tizzy and said, "Uhhh... I think this is the most apostate thing I've ever done..." to which my favorite elder Elder Flitton replied, "Besides that one time you went to bed at 10:31?" Ha ha! Lolzzz. Missionary jokes. I laughed so much. He totally deserved that burn. Since when is it apostate to watch the Christmas Devotional with sister missionaries? Elders.... grrrr. Gotta love em.
So that was the week that was! And a very fun one at that. This week we're going to try to have less fun and go knock some doors or something. Meh. Same old same old. I'll try to make myself equally miserable this week as you are all in finals. Deal? And then the fun can start again when Christmas rolls around! Anyway, I hope you all have an AMAZING week this week! Remember, I love and miss you all more than you could possibly know. Love and hugs! Bisous!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Beach Boys
HAPPY DECEMBER to all! Let the ABC Family and Lifetime and Hallmark Channel Christmas specials begin! Aaah... I do SO wish I could be there fighting back the coupon-loving mobs of JCPenney this holiday season. Christmas just won't be the same this year without forty-hour work weeks selling Levi pats to middle-aged men whilst juggling finals and big fat essays at the same time. How will I go o?! Hmm. Somehow, I think I'll manage. Anyway, I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving and a bodacious Black Friday! Do me a favor... give your local retail worker a big hug this Christmas season, eh? Their Christmas is probably not going to be as merry as yours. ;) I hope you all had a nice little Thanksgiving breaking, even though you missed me terribly.
So, onto the week that was! This year I did not find myself in a tin hut in Guatemala for Thanksgiving like Dad predicted. My ward mission leader and his wife (who is about fifty times cooler than him) invited us over for dinner! A Thanksgiving miracle! They're around the same age as me, so it was pretty much like hanging out with friends back home. They didn't know it was our Thanksgiving, but they DID serve us mashed potatoes made with mayonnaise, so I had a little Thanksgiving joy! Last Sunday as we were waiting for our investigator to get out of his baptismal interview, I spent half an hour manipulating my ward mission leader to sign my dinner calendar. And it WORKED! My manipulation skills have been getting better and better throughout my mission. Those poor little RMs are going to be buying me frozen yogurt and Cafe Rio left and right! I cannot WAIT!
This week we also went to our hipster tea salon with our boy Pierre. I got a brew called Rouge Twilight. Delish! Fortunately I didn't leave the car running for two hours this time around, but it was snowing like CRAY! I almost died like ten times this week. Quebec got its first big sow storm this winter, and let me tell ya... Utah roads are a DREAM! A DREAM! Don't complain about them ever again! I'm thinking about asking my mission president for permission to ice skate to all of my appointments from now on. Walking and driving anywhere has suddenly become a near death experience every time I leave the house. PRAY for me this winter!
Other than hazardous weather conditions, this week was just biazarro and crazy. The highlight would have had to have been when we went to my favorite Haitian member's house and helped her set up an LDSSingles account. I've secretly always wanted to make one, but obviously that was a WAY embarrassing confession that I just made, so it was fun to experience LDSSingles bi proxy. Pray that she finds an eternal hunkasaurus! That would be LOVELY!
We had some pretty great adventures in all of this crazy weather as well. The other day we were out knocking doors in -17 weather around 8:30. We were on a cheery street with duplexes covered in Christmas lights, but they had anything BUT the Christmas spirit. We knocked on one of the doors ad o one answered. Just as we were about to move on to the next one, we heard footsteps crunching through the snow. This drunk Quebecois man (totally NOT a hunkasaurus) swaggered toward us. He says, "Ehhhh... vous êtes belles, les filles..." and I was just like, "Uh, thanks, but we're here to share a message about the gospel." SURPRISE! He wasn't interested. DOUBLE surprise! ...We suddenly realized that he was walking around in a SPEEDO! Bhaaaah! In -17 degree weather! My oh my. I prayed that my eyelids would freeze shut! I just don't understand some people... We continued knocking but then another drunk guy started eyeing us, so we went to our car as swiftly as possible and home to thaw. It was just a crazy, crazy week, I'm afraid.
Funny elder moment of the week. We have this joke with the elders because one day in our correlation meeting my ward mission leader touched my arm. It was just the most awkward moment of my life, and both of us wished we could have burned our limbs off. Lol. Anyway, the other day we were in a meeting with the elders and Elder Flitton kept accidentally playing footsies with me. "Accidentally..." We all know the elders are in love with me. So finally after the fifth time I just looked right at him and said, "Elder Flitton, footsies is over." Jokingly he reached out to PRETEND to touch my arm like my ward mission leader did, even though he was still Book of Mormon distance apart. His trainer (one of the most obedient missionaries I've ever beheld) in the middle of his spiritual thought that he was sharing with all of his, looks over and practically dives out of his chair. I have never seen someones eyes go so wide in my life! Ha ha ha he seriously practically dove in front of his companion as if protecting him from a bullet. ELDERS! The best. The very best. One day they'll all thank me for flirting with them on their missions. And their wives will too. They just don't realize it yet.
Anyway, that was the week that was! I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! I really did miss you all terribly. I hope everyone is doing well and that the prospect of finals week doesn't become too much of a drag on your Christmas spirit. I love you and miss you all SOOOOOOO very, very much. Peace and blessings! Joyeux Noël! Big Santa smooch and a jolly old bear hug!
Love,
Soeur Perfect
So, onto the week that was! This year I did not find myself in a tin hut in Guatemala for Thanksgiving like Dad predicted. My ward mission leader and his wife (who is about fifty times cooler than him) invited us over for dinner! A Thanksgiving miracle! They're around the same age as me, so it was pretty much like hanging out with friends back home. They didn't know it was our Thanksgiving, but they DID serve us mashed potatoes made with mayonnaise, so I had a little Thanksgiving joy! Last Sunday as we were waiting for our investigator to get out of his baptismal interview, I spent half an hour manipulating my ward mission leader to sign my dinner calendar. And it WORKED! My manipulation skills have been getting better and better throughout my mission. Those poor little RMs are going to be buying me frozen yogurt and Cafe Rio left and right! I cannot WAIT!
This week we also went to our hipster tea salon with our boy Pierre. I got a brew called Rouge Twilight. Delish! Fortunately I didn't leave the car running for two hours this time around, but it was snowing like CRAY! I almost died like ten times this week. Quebec got its first big sow storm this winter, and let me tell ya... Utah roads are a DREAM! A DREAM! Don't complain about them ever again! I'm thinking about asking my mission president for permission to ice skate to all of my appointments from now on. Walking and driving anywhere has suddenly become a near death experience every time I leave the house. PRAY for me this winter!
Other than hazardous weather conditions, this week was just biazarro and crazy. The highlight would have had to have been when we went to my favorite Haitian member's house and helped her set up an LDSSingles account. I've secretly always wanted to make one, but obviously that was a WAY embarrassing confession that I just made, so it was fun to experience LDSSingles bi proxy. Pray that she finds an eternal hunkasaurus! That would be LOVELY!
We had some pretty great adventures in all of this crazy weather as well. The other day we were out knocking doors in -17 weather around 8:30. We were on a cheery street with duplexes covered in Christmas lights, but they had anything BUT the Christmas spirit. We knocked on one of the doors ad o one answered. Just as we were about to move on to the next one, we heard footsteps crunching through the snow. This drunk Quebecois man (totally NOT a hunkasaurus) swaggered toward us. He says, "Ehhhh... vous êtes belles, les filles..." and I was just like, "Uh, thanks, but we're here to share a message about the gospel." SURPRISE! He wasn't interested. DOUBLE surprise! ...We suddenly realized that he was walking around in a SPEEDO! Bhaaaah! In -17 degree weather! My oh my. I prayed that my eyelids would freeze shut! I just don't understand some people... We continued knocking but then another drunk guy started eyeing us, so we went to our car as swiftly as possible and home to thaw. It was just a crazy, crazy week, I'm afraid.
Funny elder moment of the week. We have this joke with the elders because one day in our correlation meeting my ward mission leader touched my arm. It was just the most awkward moment of my life, and both of us wished we could have burned our limbs off. Lol. Anyway, the other day we were in a meeting with the elders and Elder Flitton kept accidentally playing footsies with me. "Accidentally..." We all know the elders are in love with me. So finally after the fifth time I just looked right at him and said, "Elder Flitton, footsies is over." Jokingly he reached out to PRETEND to touch my arm like my ward mission leader did, even though he was still Book of Mormon distance apart. His trainer (one of the most obedient missionaries I've ever beheld) in the middle of his spiritual thought that he was sharing with all of his, looks over and practically dives out of his chair. I have never seen someones eyes go so wide in my life! Ha ha ha he seriously practically dove in front of his companion as if protecting him from a bullet. ELDERS! The best. The very best. One day they'll all thank me for flirting with them on their missions. And their wives will too. They just don't realize it yet.
Anyway, that was the week that was! I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! I really did miss you all terribly. I hope everyone is doing well and that the prospect of finals week doesn't become too much of a drag on your Christmas spirit. I love you and miss you all SOOOOOOO very, very much. Peace and blessings! Joyeux Noël! Big Santa smooch and a jolly old bear hug!
Love,
Soeur Perfect
Friday, November 29, 2013
Catching Ice
Brrrrrrringing....sexy....bbbbback...in my winter gear! I do so wish I was Catching Fire, but it's the opposite, I'm afraid. My goodness. I cannot even begin to describe how cold it is up here. As the Quebecois would say, "Il fait FRETT!!!" Translation: It is so cold that I want to throw myself into a pile of burning firewood and never come out. So apparently the cold that I am experiencing right now is nothing. That's what the locals tell me. I cannot even begin to tell you how much that warms my heart. Wish me luck! I would tell you all how sorry I feel for you that you are also experiencing a cold winter right now, but... well, how do I put this? Not to brag or anything, but my winter is definitely colder than your winter. End of discussion.
This week was wonderful, even if I felt like the Ice Queen in the flesh the majority of the time. Last Monday we were able to go to Vieux Quebec and see some Christmas cheer! I don't think the Christmas spirit is in full throttle yet, but it was nice to see some lights and walk around my favorite parts of the city. I really will NEVER get tired of saying how much I love Quebec City. And good news! Transfer calls were this week... and I'll be staying here for Christmas! With my sweet little Sister Guevara. That will make seven months in Quebec City by the end of this transfer, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way! I am beyond thrilled. Christmas with my favorite people in my favorite area. It doesn't get better than that!
I would also just like to point out that my call was made a year ago. Looking back to that moment that I opened my mission call a year ago on Thanksgiving, I seriously cannot believe everything that has happened to me since that time. I've changed so much, I've learned so much, I've grown so much (even if it be only horizontally), and yet that moment feels like yesterday. Ahh! What a trip! I remember being at Grandma Cutler's on Thanksgiving, about three hours before I opened my call. And Dad said something like, "This time next year you could be spending your Thanksgiving in a grass hut with bugs or rats in some far away land." Joy of joys. Well, here I am, a year later, in Quebec City (thank goodness)! Not celebrating Thanksgiving... but that's okay! Make some Frog Eye Salad in my honor, eh? I'll be home to eat all the bottled beet preserves next year.
In other news, this week was quite lovely. We spent a fair amount of time visiting less-active women, which is my absolute favorite thing in the world to do. We also had a Zone Meeting, which, let me tell ya. I always make a fool out of myself at those things. The elders think I'm frightening enough, but when I go to those shindigs something ridiculous always comes out of my mouth and I embarrass myself to death. This month's zone meeting comment was golden. So I wasn't paying much attention the whole meeting, because everyone was just being hard on themselves and talking about what failures they are. And I was just feeling so sad that everyone was being so self-critical. So at the end of the meeting one of our zone leaders was asking a few people what they learned at zone meeting that day. And the comments were, again, pretty self-critical. I had already jabbered enough at the meeting, so I didn't think he would pick on me. Then he says, "Sister Cutler, what did you learn at zone meeting today?" And it was in that moment that I commenced a very high-charged, out of this world sobbing fit. And I just exclaimed in my most tempestuous voice, "Today I learned that you are all freaking AMAZING. Every last one of you. And your best is good enough. So stop thinking otherwise." Ha ha let me tell ya. It was sooooo awkward in there. It's like the third time they've all seen me break out into tears. Then my ZL says, "You're amazing, Sister Cutler." Just to break the awkward silence. And I was like, "Duh, I know." Still crying. Ahhhh! So ridiculous! I'm turning into such a ninny. When I get back I'm going to be like a BYU YSA Ward testimony meeting on steroids. Get your tissues ready!
Anyway, that was the week that was. Much of it was spent with good company, favorite members (shout outs to Sister Levesque...cough cough), and a favorite companion. And way too much pillow talk. I'm so exhausted! Ha ha I should probably take a nap today. Well, I hope you are all doing exceptionally well! I miss and love every single last one of you! Please let me know that you're alive and well. Have a Happy, Happy Thanksgiving! Peace and blessings. Bisou bisou!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
This week was wonderful, even if I felt like the Ice Queen in the flesh the majority of the time. Last Monday we were able to go to Vieux Quebec and see some Christmas cheer! I don't think the Christmas spirit is in full throttle yet, but it was nice to see some lights and walk around my favorite parts of the city. I really will NEVER get tired of saying how much I love Quebec City. And good news! Transfer calls were this week... and I'll be staying here for Christmas! With my sweet little Sister Guevara. That will make seven months in Quebec City by the end of this transfer, and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way! I am beyond thrilled. Christmas with my favorite people in my favorite area. It doesn't get better than that!
I would also just like to point out that my call was made a year ago. Looking back to that moment that I opened my mission call a year ago on Thanksgiving, I seriously cannot believe everything that has happened to me since that time. I've changed so much, I've learned so much, I've grown so much (even if it be only horizontally), and yet that moment feels like yesterday. Ahh! What a trip! I remember being at Grandma Cutler's on Thanksgiving, about three hours before I opened my call. And Dad said something like, "This time next year you could be spending your Thanksgiving in a grass hut with bugs or rats in some far away land." Joy of joys. Well, here I am, a year later, in Quebec City (thank goodness)! Not celebrating Thanksgiving... but that's okay! Make some Frog Eye Salad in my honor, eh? I'll be home to eat all the bottled beet preserves next year.
In other news, this week was quite lovely. We spent a fair amount of time visiting less-active women, which is my absolute favorite thing in the world to do. We also had a Zone Meeting, which, let me tell ya. I always make a fool out of myself at those things. The elders think I'm frightening enough, but when I go to those shindigs something ridiculous always comes out of my mouth and I embarrass myself to death. This month's zone meeting comment was golden. So I wasn't paying much attention the whole meeting, because everyone was just being hard on themselves and talking about what failures they are. And I was just feeling so sad that everyone was being so self-critical. So at the end of the meeting one of our zone leaders was asking a few people what they learned at zone meeting that day. And the comments were, again, pretty self-critical. I had already jabbered enough at the meeting, so I didn't think he would pick on me. Then he says, "Sister Cutler, what did you learn at zone meeting today?" And it was in that moment that I commenced a very high-charged, out of this world sobbing fit. And I just exclaimed in my most tempestuous voice, "Today I learned that you are all freaking AMAZING. Every last one of you. And your best is good enough. So stop thinking otherwise." Ha ha let me tell ya. It was sooooo awkward in there. It's like the third time they've all seen me break out into tears. Then my ZL says, "You're amazing, Sister Cutler." Just to break the awkward silence. And I was like, "Duh, I know." Still crying. Ahhhh! So ridiculous! I'm turning into such a ninny. When I get back I'm going to be like a BYU YSA Ward testimony meeting on steroids. Get your tissues ready!
Anyway, that was the week that was. Much of it was spent with good company, favorite members (shout outs to Sister Levesque...cough cough), and a favorite companion. And way too much pillow talk. I'm so exhausted! Ha ha I should probably take a nap today. Well, I hope you are all doing exceptionally well! I miss and love every single last one of you! Please let me know that you're alive and well. Have a Happy, Happy Thanksgiving! Peace and blessings. Bisou bisou!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Hot and Dangerous
Hello again! Well, another week has rolled by, and I find myself completely thrashed and in need of some hot stone therapy. But! It was a wonderful week full of miracles and blessings, so I'm not going to complain. How is everyone doing? Are you all gearing up for Thanksgiving? I'm JEALOUS! Thanksgiving was soooooo last October out here, so I will be doing my missionary thang like any other day. Anyway, I hope you are all doing just fabulous and that winter isn't treating you too terribly.
Well, where to begin? This week was so darn stressful that I don't even want to remember what happened. It was full of so many wonderful moments though, so I'll focus on those. On Wednesday night we started our splits with the Sister Training Leaders, which is ALWAYS a party, whether they think it should be or not. Meh. My area, my rules. My favorite Haitian member Flore invited us over for dinner, so I delighted in delicious Haitian food and Haitian honey and blueberry tisane while my companion spent the night finding people to help and love and serve on a bitter Quebec night. Ha ha am I the world's rudest companion or what? ;) The next day I was cruising around in our beautiful red car named Scarlet when SUDDENLY I look into my rearview mirror and I see flashing lights! BUSTED! I have never been so panicked in my life! The other sister and I were both freaking out because we had no idea what I did. We were going the speed limit, following traffic rules, everything. So bizarre. Anyway, this fine, young officer comes up to the window and is all like, "How you doinnnn?" And of course all of my French left me completely. He took my driver's license but wouldn't tell me what was going on! We were sitting there forever in a panic, and I kept asking him what I did and he wouldn't tell me! Apparently it's completely acceptable here for policemen to do that. So he comes back an eternity later and just says, "Have a nice day!" And I was like, "Could you please tell me why you pulled me over!" And he's just all, "Meh, c'est beau!" And I'm just like, "Whaterrrrrr." So strange! Basically I got pulled over for no reason, other than the fact that the police officer was bored and wanted to chat me up. As if! Ohhhhhhh Canada. I guess it's a crime to be sexy here? My bad.
Alright, onto miracles and more spiritual things. Saturday was out of this world, fantastic, possibly one of the best days of my mission. Our ami Guy has been in and out of the hospital the whole time I've been here teaching him, which has made it impossible for him to get baptized. But he's amazing enough to be a Bishop already, and he hasn't even been baptized yet. Well, last week he had a miraculous recovery from his final surgery and left the hospital way sooner than anticipated. So we were sooooo ready to pounce and give him a baptismal date. Everyone kept telling us to make it as soon as possible, because the ward wants to give him a calling. Last week Sister Guevara and I were looking through our calendar trying to decide on a date. I flipped open to December and saw Lily's birthday, December 21st. I said jokingly, "We should totally give him a baptismal date for the 21st of December to make me less sad that I'm missing my little sister's 8th birthday and baptism." But strangely enough, when we prayed for his baptismal date, I felt the strongest feeling that we should plan for the 21st, even though everyone kept saying it should be sooner. I thought, "Maybe I just want this because I want him to be baptized on my little sister's birthday...." The more I thought about it though, and the more Sister Guevara thought about it, it just felt right. So we stuck with that. Well, fast-forward to Saturday. We had been too busy to meet with Guy all week, but we were determined to see him Saturday morning before the baptism of one of the elders' amazing, amazing investigators. His fellowshipper usually isn't available Saturday mornings, but by some miracle her husband let her go and all was settled to meet with Guy. When we got there I was planning to talk about baptism, but I was feeling all nervous and afraid, and I had no idea why. We started with our usual chat, but the whole time I was thinking about changing the lesson to something else because I was afraid. No idea why! Well, I decided to just go for it. I opened up to D&C 20:37, which if you don't know talks about the qualifications for baptism. Guy opened his scriptures and just gave me the biggest smile. So we read it, discussed it, all was well. The Guy said, "I was going to call you this morning and tell you that I wanted to talk about baptism today, but for some reason I didn't. I'm glad that you were following the spirit, because I'm ready to choose my baptismal date." He gets out his calendar. I get out my calendar. He says, "Okay, so... it's in December." And my heart starts racing. And our fellowshipper Sister Vallerand says, "The 14th?" And he says, "No, later." And my heart starts racing even faster. He turns the calendar around and shows me. "I want to be baptized on December 21st. Sister Guevara and I almost fell to the floor! I opened my calendar and showed him the circled date, December 21st. I said, "Guy, we prayed about when you should be baptized, and we recieved the same date." EVERYONE was crying. I have NEVER seen this man cry. The spirit was so remarkable strong. It might have been one of the most powerful experiences of my mission. He was so touched. He said, "If you recieved the 21st, and I recieved the 21st, we know without a doubt that this is what Heavenly Father wants." I'm sorry, but this story is Ensign worthy. Anyway, long story short, Guy finally has a baptismal date! On Lily's birthday! And the Winter Solstice. I think it's absolutely perfect. :)
The rest of the week was great! We were pretty much dead by the end haha. Last night we had a wonderful night with our vegan ami, my favorite member Sister Duchemin, and our boy Pierre. We watched the talk that Elder Holland gave this last G-Con. SO GOOD! Then we sat and laughed about Rob Ford and how awesome Canada is. I really do love this place, and the people here. Why are missions so dang awesome?! Well, I better get going! We're going to try to go to Old Quebec today with the Ste Foy sisters for Soeur Foniciello's birthday. I hope everyone is having a FANTASTIC WEEK! Please remember how much I love, love, love you all! For real, I do. More than I should. It hurts sometimes! Or rather, all the time. Ha ha peace and blessings to you all! Much love. Big hugs.
Love,
Syl
Santa's Little Helper
Well, HEY! How are you, my lovelies? Did you miss me yesterday? Did anyone even notice that I didn't write home? Hmm? Am I just becoming a dim memory to you all? Good riddance! I'm coming home sooner than you think. You best be ready when this little slice of Canadian sugar pie rolls back into town. Ha ha. Anyway. I hope you all had the BEST week! What's the 411? What is everyone up to? What's the hottt gossip? Are you all as freezing as I am? Don't answer that question. I know that is 100% impossible. The Ice Queen of Provo is turning into a literal ice queen now. What do you think of that? I need some Justin Timberlake to warm my soul. In due time, I suppose.
So.... anyone want the big news of the week? Soeur Cutler is HALF.WAY.DONE! Yes indeed. I am officially on the downward spiral... say WHAT?! I can't even believe it. Nine months ago I was ruling the MTC, and now in that same amount of time I'll be back in the real world of dating and celestial marriage and BABIES! Can't handle it! I don't think I would come home if it weren't for the fact that I miss you all TERRIBLY! But still. I'd prefer not to get back into the BYU scene. Dates at the Creamery on 9th. Hiking the Y. FHE. Bowling. Squaw Peak... whaaa...? I din't just say that... In all honesty though, the first nine months of my mission have been a dream. I've been more blessed than I thought was humanly possible, and I've met just about the hippest, craziest, most wonderful people in the Great White North. To say I'll be sad to leave at the end of this is, well, a bit of an understatement. For my nine month mark we went out and got sushi and Tim Horton's with our boy Pierre. We had a groovy time, sang a hymn, took some awesome selfies. Honestly, I can't complain.
In other news, this week was just about as fabulous as ever! Last week we went to visit our dear, sweet, wonderful eternigator Lucie, as per usual. Well, Lucie was bragging to me about how skinny she was back in the days of yore, and to prove it she had her ever-so-patient brother-in-law go and fetch her old corsets from the attic. Those things were TINY! Well. I had an idea. I HAD to see if they fit me. So I tried one on over my clothes. I might have broken a rib or two, but it FIT! Poutine ain't got NOTHIN on me! Ha ha. It was the most joyous day of my life. So guess who walked away that night with two "vintage" corsets from the 1950s. THIS GIRL! I love them to bits. I wore one on Sunday and my clothes suddenly started to fit again. I'm telling you, there can be miracles when you believe. I would send a pic but... riskay riskay, I say. I also made another AWESOME buy for the winter. Spandex. With galaxies all over them. I call them my space pants, and MY GOODNESS, yoga in the mornings just got a WHOLE lot better! Were it allowed, I would run around all day teaching the Plan of Salvation in them. Alas, they are not sister missionary appropriate. Although... I DID wear them under my longest polygamist skirt during my interview with the mission president... Shhh! Don't tell anyone. I lifted my skirts mid-calf (gasp!) so that my boy Elder Hernandez could see them, and I think I might have frightened him. Ahhhh... Elders. I know they all secretly love me. Anyway, I'll be sending pics. I took some awesome selfies. Has MySpace made a comeback yet? If so, they would be up there in a heartbeat.
This week we also had the chance to have dinner with one of my FAVE members of all time, Sister Duchemin, with our vegan ami. The best, as always. We discussed my webbed toes and my double jointed elbows, yes, but we also had an amazing lesson. I just love those days on the mission. Members, missionaries, investigators, all wrapped up into one fabulous evening. It just doesn't get better than that! Later in the week the same vegan ami invited us over to try some of his ..wheat grass. He grew it all by himself! It was so good. It went really great with our new vegan kick that we're on. He said that you can live forever if you drink like six ounces a day. Something like that. Being healthy ROCKS! We went home and counteracted the wheat grass juice immediately after with some Rolo Ice Cream. GO US!
Yesterday P-Day was cancelled because.... MISSION CONFERENCE came to town! It was super, super, super uplifting. Like, words cannot describe. I feel like a new person. We had Elder Pieper from the 70 come to speak to us, and he was just absolutely fantastic. I said the closing prayer at the end, and I was crying like a baby. Super embarrassing. But the spirit was definitely there and I learned a lot of important truths. I love that part about being on a mission. You are blessed with so many uplifting spiritual experiences throughout the week. Sometimes it's almost too much to handle!
Well, I hope you are all doing super great. I don't see why you wouldn't be in that non-humid desert wasteland. Please pray for me to stay warm! That is all I ask. ALL I ask. Pray for me to have a car until winter is over. And then pray for me to be walking for the last three months of my mission. I've gotta figure out a way to get rid of this Canadian tire! Corsets and galaxy pants are only going to go so far. But until then, send me some waaaarm vibes! I'm sending oodles of love in return! I love you all and miss you terribly. Holla at your girl when you feel up to it. Which should be ALL the time. Peace and blessings, my angels! I'm out!
Love,
Soeur Ice Queen
So.... anyone want the big news of the week? Soeur Cutler is HALF.WAY.DONE! Yes indeed. I am officially on the downward spiral... say WHAT?! I can't even believe it. Nine months ago I was ruling the MTC, and now in that same amount of time I'll be back in the real world of dating and celestial marriage and BABIES! Can't handle it! I don't think I would come home if it weren't for the fact that I miss you all TERRIBLY! But still. I'd prefer not to get back into the BYU scene. Dates at the Creamery on 9th. Hiking the Y. FHE. Bowling. Squaw Peak... whaaa...? I din't just say that... In all honesty though, the first nine months of my mission have been a dream. I've been more blessed than I thought was humanly possible, and I've met just about the hippest, craziest, most wonderful people in the Great White North. To say I'll be sad to leave at the end of this is, well, a bit of an understatement. For my nine month mark we went out and got sushi and Tim Horton's with our boy Pierre. We had a groovy time, sang a hymn, took some awesome selfies. Honestly, I can't complain.
In other news, this week was just about as fabulous as ever! Last week we went to visit our dear, sweet, wonderful eternigator Lucie, as per usual. Well, Lucie was bragging to me about how skinny she was back in the days of yore, and to prove it she had her ever-so-patient brother-in-law go and fetch her old corsets from the attic. Those things were TINY! Well. I had an idea. I HAD to see if they fit me. So I tried one on over my clothes. I might have broken a rib or two, but it FIT! Poutine ain't got NOTHIN on me! Ha ha. It was the most joyous day of my life. So guess who walked away that night with two "vintage" corsets from the 1950s. THIS GIRL! I love them to bits. I wore one on Sunday and my clothes suddenly started to fit again. I'm telling you, there can be miracles when you believe. I would send a pic but... riskay riskay, I say. I also made another AWESOME buy for the winter. Spandex. With galaxies all over them. I call them my space pants, and MY GOODNESS, yoga in the mornings just got a WHOLE lot better! Were it allowed, I would run around all day teaching the Plan of Salvation in them. Alas, they are not sister missionary appropriate. Although... I DID wear them under my longest polygamist skirt during my interview with the mission president... Shhh! Don't tell anyone. I lifted my skirts mid-calf (gasp!) so that my boy Elder Hernandez could see them, and I think I might have frightened him. Ahhhh... Elders. I know they all secretly love me. Anyway, I'll be sending pics. I took some awesome selfies. Has MySpace made a comeback yet? If so, they would be up there in a heartbeat.
This week we also had the chance to have dinner with one of my FAVE members of all time, Sister Duchemin, with our vegan ami. The best, as always. We discussed my webbed toes and my double jointed elbows, yes, but we also had an amazing lesson. I just love those days on the mission. Members, missionaries, investigators, all wrapped up into one fabulous evening. It just doesn't get better than that! Later in the week the same vegan ami invited us over to try some of his ..wheat grass. He grew it all by himself! It was so good. It went really great with our new vegan kick that we're on. He said that you can live forever if you drink like six ounces a day. Something like that. Being healthy ROCKS! We went home and counteracted the wheat grass juice immediately after with some Rolo Ice Cream. GO US!
Yesterday P-Day was cancelled because.... MISSION CONFERENCE came to town! It was super, super, super uplifting. Like, words cannot describe. I feel like a new person. We had Elder Pieper from the 70 come to speak to us, and he was just absolutely fantastic. I said the closing prayer at the end, and I was crying like a baby. Super embarrassing. But the spirit was definitely there and I learned a lot of important truths. I love that part about being on a mission. You are blessed with so many uplifting spiritual experiences throughout the week. Sometimes it's almost too much to handle!
Well, I hope you are all doing super great. I don't see why you wouldn't be in that non-humid desert wasteland. Please pray for me to stay warm! That is all I ask. ALL I ask. Pray for me to have a car until winter is over. And then pray for me to be walking for the last three months of my mission. I've gotta figure out a way to get rid of this Canadian tire! Corsets and galaxy pants are only going to go so far. But until then, send me some waaaarm vibes! I'm sending oodles of love in return! I love you all and miss you terribly. Holla at your girl when you feel up to it. Which should be ALL the time. Peace and blessings, my angels! I'm out!
Love,
Soeur Ice Queen
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Fondue and a Celtic November Kick-off
My BABES! Aaaah! My goodness! How the heck is everyone doing? How was Halloween? Where are my Halloween pics? I KNOW you all dressed up. Just because I'm a sister missionary does NOT mean you can't send me updates on all of your witchcraft and hoopla! I hope everyone had a magical Halloween week. It sounds like you all went ahead and had plenty of fun without me, which I know I will have a hard time forgiving. Good riddance, I say. We spent our Halloween eating our very last Chocolats Favoris chocolate-dipped ice cream cones, and then we got our ami Guy started on his genealogy. Looking up dead people for Halloween? Pretty sure it doesn't get better than that!
So this week was a week full of miracles and rainbows and smiles. Also, vicious Quebec winds and mildly cold nights. I say mildly cold because I know I'll have absolutely no way to describe the weather when it gets COLD cold. And when I say mildly cold I mean I was freezing my booty off, chattering my teeth away, and screaming my lungs out because of the pain. And it was only -3 or -4 Celsius! What a treat. We had a horribly frightening rain and wind storm also, but my compy was throwing up that day, so fortunately I watched it from my window as I contemplated whether or not I was about to end up in Oz like Dorothy. Ohhhhh Canada! Time to bust out my tuque and cook up some moose! Which I ate in a lasagna last week. It was DE-LICIOUS.
Alright, so enough about moose and snow and how miserable the weather is making me. This week really was such a treat! We spent a lot of time with our ami Guy because he is going in for surgery this week. On Sunday night he invited us over for dinner with our favorite family, famille Fallardeau, which was pretty much the biggest party ever. We made him a birthday cake (red velvet, my favorite) and had fondue! Mmmmmmm.... so heavenly. When I walked into the house, I suddenly overheard the ethereal sounds of my one true love Loreena Mckennitt playing softly in the background. It turns out Guy is ALMOST as much of a Loreena fan as I am! Almost. I spent the evening in a Celtic reverie, The Lady of Shalott soothing my soul and warm fondue and delicious red velvet cake fattening my corps physique. HEAVEN ON EARTH! Missions are full of so many tenderrrr mercies. We gave the leftover red velvet cake to the elders this morning, with a note that read: "Dear Elders, We made you a cake built out of rainbows and smiles, so that you can all eat it and be happy." (Mean Girls reference, for those of you who are behind the times.) And those little punks didn't even say thank you! MEN! Ha ha elders are the worst. Don't feed them.
The other highlight of my week was visiting a fancy tea shop in downtown Quebec City with our boy Pierre (world's coolest "returnigator" as he calls himself). My companion and I thought we could have died of happiness. It was pretty much this hipster palace full of tizane and tea and good vibes all around. I don't know how many missionaries teach the laws and ordinances lessons while sipping back a nicely brewed tizane, so go me for my zen and overall coolness. Ha ha well, it was actually Pierre's coolness that introduced us to such a sweet hangout, but my GOODNESS was it a fun time! At the end of the lesson I was having the hardest time finding the keys to our shiny red car. We spent a long time searching, when suddenly something whispered, "Go check outside." I was like, "Oh boy. I probably left them in the ignition." Well, I did. And not only that, the car was RUNNING! And the doors were ALL unlocked! For two hours in downtown Quebec City we left our car running, and would you believe it? Not ONE person thought to steal it! Ha ha. Why are people so darn trustworthy? Peace and blessings were upon me, that's all I've got to say. Not having that car stolen was just about the biggest miracle of my LIFE!
Anyway, that's the week that was. I honestly can't complain. It could have been a little bit warmer, but there's not much I can do about that. Send me the warmest vibes possible! I'm going to have frost bite on every square inch of me by the end of this winter. I hope everyone is doing just FABULOUS, and that November is treating you nicely thus far. You are all LOVED! And greatly missed! By the foxiest sister missionary in the Great White North! (That's me, if you were wondering.) Loves and hugs! Bisou bisou!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
So this week was a week full of miracles and rainbows and smiles. Also, vicious Quebec winds and mildly cold nights. I say mildly cold because I know I'll have absolutely no way to describe the weather when it gets COLD cold. And when I say mildly cold I mean I was freezing my booty off, chattering my teeth away, and screaming my lungs out because of the pain. And it was only -3 or -4 Celsius! What a treat. We had a horribly frightening rain and wind storm also, but my compy was throwing up that day, so fortunately I watched it from my window as I contemplated whether or not I was about to end up in Oz like Dorothy. Ohhhhh Canada! Time to bust out my tuque and cook up some moose! Which I ate in a lasagna last week. It was DE-LICIOUS.
Alright, so enough about moose and snow and how miserable the weather is making me. This week really was such a treat! We spent a lot of time with our ami Guy because he is going in for surgery this week. On Sunday night he invited us over for dinner with our favorite family, famille Fallardeau, which was pretty much the biggest party ever. We made him a birthday cake (red velvet, my favorite) and had fondue! Mmmmmmm.... so heavenly. When I walked into the house, I suddenly overheard the ethereal sounds of my one true love Loreena Mckennitt playing softly in the background. It turns out Guy is ALMOST as much of a Loreena fan as I am! Almost. I spent the evening in a Celtic reverie, The Lady of Shalott soothing my soul and warm fondue and delicious red velvet cake fattening my corps physique. HEAVEN ON EARTH! Missions are full of so many tenderrrr mercies. We gave the leftover red velvet cake to the elders this morning, with a note that read: "Dear Elders, We made you a cake built out of rainbows and smiles, so that you can all eat it and be happy." (Mean Girls reference, for those of you who are behind the times.) And those little punks didn't even say thank you! MEN! Ha ha elders are the worst. Don't feed them.
The other highlight of my week was visiting a fancy tea shop in downtown Quebec City with our boy Pierre (world's coolest "returnigator" as he calls himself). My companion and I thought we could have died of happiness. It was pretty much this hipster palace full of tizane and tea and good vibes all around. I don't know how many missionaries teach the laws and ordinances lessons while sipping back a nicely brewed tizane, so go me for my zen and overall coolness. Ha ha well, it was actually Pierre's coolness that introduced us to such a sweet hangout, but my GOODNESS was it a fun time! At the end of the lesson I was having the hardest time finding the keys to our shiny red car. We spent a long time searching, when suddenly something whispered, "Go check outside." I was like, "Oh boy. I probably left them in the ignition." Well, I did. And not only that, the car was RUNNING! And the doors were ALL unlocked! For two hours in downtown Quebec City we left our car running, and would you believe it? Not ONE person thought to steal it! Ha ha. Why are people so darn trustworthy? Peace and blessings were upon me, that's all I've got to say. Not having that car stolen was just about the biggest miracle of my LIFE!
Anyway, that's the week that was. I honestly can't complain. It could have been a little bit warmer, but there's not much I can do about that. Send me the warmest vibes possible! I'm going to have frost bite on every square inch of me by the end of this winter. I hope everyone is doing just FABULOUS, and that November is treating you nicely thus far. You are all LOVED! And greatly missed! By the foxiest sister missionary in the Great White North! (That's me, if you were wondering.) Loves and hugs! Bisou bisou!
Love,
Soeur Cutler
Friday, November 1, 2013
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Bonjour, bonjour! How are my lovelies doing? Aaaah! I wish I could just give you all a big old squeeze right now! I'm missing everyone quite terribly, but what else is new? Halloween is in the air. Today I heard Thriller playing while snacking on sushi in Jardin Mobile (my newest hipster hang out), and I just wanted to CRY! My goodness. I hope you all have the BEST Halloween! Halloween is my favorite holiday next to Christmas. Hands down. Alas, no candies or borderline inappropriate costumes for me this year. Sad day! I hope you all revel it up without me! Carve pumpkins and eat candieeees in my honor! No candies for me this year. I am on a very strict lentil and sweet potato diet. Anyway, I hope you are all having a great week and are getting ready to send me pictures of your oh-so-swanky Halloween costumes. Notice I said swanky, not what you thought I said.
Well, this morning I awoke to the first snow. I was busy in the kitchen whipping up P-Day pancakes, listening to the soft sounds of my Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, when suddenly I turned around and saw what I have been dreading... SNOW! Quebec winter is HERE! At least, I think so. It's actually very sunny and pleasant now, but this morning we got a good dose of la neige. My cutie companion and I were definitely in the Christmas spirit all morning, so we sang "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" for our companionship studies. Very festive, but then I realized that Christmas is still two months away... BOO! Meh. Deck the halls, I say!
This week was very slow in terms of me doing crazy things. Nevertheless, it was pleasant, as always. On Friday we had a fabulous vegan dinner with our fabulous vegan investigator, which has brought me to a major life decision... I am soooo going vegan! Ha ha okay, probably not. I like ice cream WAAAAY too much. But I did experiment with making some vegan dinners this week. Delish! Alas, my companion prefers tacos, so we'll stick with the basics. Anyway, it was a fun night. We arrived after a night of knocking doors and having seemingly festive people with festive Halloween decorations slam their doors in our faces. Niiiice! We had a very lengthy gospel discussion, very great insights shared all around. I love moments like that on the mission. It's what keeps me going! There is nothing better than people loving and accepting the gospel, even the smallest part of it.
Another fun thing we did this week was "Heart-Attacking." Ha ha! The best! Why have I never been more loving or creative? My companion is full of all sorts of fun ideas, so I thought we'd give it a try. We went and covered our ami's door with hearts to cheer him up. Pictures to follow! I thought I was going to die of anxiety though. It reminded me of all those times I was asking boys to dances, usually ending up making my friends do the door-bell ditching for me because I am waaaaay to big of a scaredy cat. I also thought of all of those great times every January when we would go forking a certain someone's lawn. Ha ha! Good times. Again, I would stand far away, way sheepishly, and let everyone else do all the work. Surprises cause me waaay to much anxiety!
Well, that was my week more or less! It was definitely a good one. Pretty busy, pretty fast-paced, so I can't really recall what I did. Nothing that would interest you all anyway. I hope everyone has a festive, fabulous, flirtatious Halloween! Please do, for my sake. If only the flirtatious part. ;) I love you all more than words can even describe, and I miss you to the heavens and back! Have a great one! Mucho love!
Love,
Everyone's favorite soeur
Well, this morning I awoke to the first snow. I was busy in the kitchen whipping up P-Day pancakes, listening to the soft sounds of my Pride and Prejudice soundtrack, when suddenly I turned around and saw what I have been dreading... SNOW! Quebec winter is HERE! At least, I think so. It's actually very sunny and pleasant now, but this morning we got a good dose of la neige. My cutie companion and I were definitely in the Christmas spirit all morning, so we sang "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" for our companionship studies. Very festive, but then I realized that Christmas is still two months away... BOO! Meh. Deck the halls, I say!
This week was very slow in terms of me doing crazy things. Nevertheless, it was pleasant, as always. On Friday we had a fabulous vegan dinner with our fabulous vegan investigator, which has brought me to a major life decision... I am soooo going vegan! Ha ha okay, probably not. I like ice cream WAAAAY too much. But I did experiment with making some vegan dinners this week. Delish! Alas, my companion prefers tacos, so we'll stick with the basics. Anyway, it was a fun night. We arrived after a night of knocking doors and having seemingly festive people with festive Halloween decorations slam their doors in our faces. Niiiice! We had a very lengthy gospel discussion, very great insights shared all around. I love moments like that on the mission. It's what keeps me going! There is nothing better than people loving and accepting the gospel, even the smallest part of it.
Another fun thing we did this week was "Heart-Attacking." Ha ha! The best! Why have I never been more loving or creative? My companion is full of all sorts of fun ideas, so I thought we'd give it a try. We went and covered our ami's door with hearts to cheer him up. Pictures to follow! I thought I was going to die of anxiety though. It reminded me of all those times I was asking boys to dances, usually ending up making my friends do the door-bell ditching for me because I am waaaaay to big of a scaredy cat. I also thought of all of those great times every January when we would go forking a certain someone's lawn. Ha ha! Good times. Again, I would stand far away, way sheepishly, and let everyone else do all the work. Surprises cause me waaay to much anxiety!
Well, that was my week more or less! It was definitely a good one. Pretty busy, pretty fast-paced, so I can't really recall what I did. Nothing that would interest you all anyway. I hope everyone has a festive, fabulous, flirtatious Halloween! Please do, for my sake. If only the flirtatious part. ;) I love you all more than words can even describe, and I miss you to the heavens and back! Have a great one! Mucho love!
Love,
Everyone's favorite soeur
Monday, October 21, 2013
Oooommmmmm...
Namaste. I hope you are all enjoying the sharp mountain air flowing through your paths and continually rejuvenating the life force that is within you. Feed your essence. Let your thoughts lift and soar like tiny, jagged ice shards in the winter winds... Ooommmmmm... Well. HELLO! If you can't tell, I've become a yoga master this past week. Thank you Mama Bear for sending me Shiva Rea's finest! I am totally finding my inner zen. Seriously, I'm as cool as a cucumber this week. Yoga is changing my life! It will change yours also. So will the gospel. More importantly, the gospel will change your life. Stick to that. But some yoga wouldn't hurt either!
This week was seriously a blur! So many good things on the horizon. :) I'll start with transfer day. My oh my. WHAT a day! Transfers are the worst and best days of the mission. The worst because you have to say goodbye to your other half, the BEST because you get to give big old fat hugs and loves to all of your other old halves! Aaah! I got to see my baby Sister Orozco, which was like HEAVEN on earth! She is training too this transfer, so I stuck to her side every minute of the day. Saying goodbye to Sister Rios was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. We had three months together, so to say I was attached is a bit of an understatement. But like all babies, sooner or later they need to leave the nest, even if Mama Cutler's nest is better than the rest. And it is, for the record. Anyway. Basically, transfers was just one hot mess of me running around hugging everyone I knew. In fact, I hugged so many sisters that when I was saying goodbye to one of my favorite elders, I NEARLY threw him a big old bear hug! Uhhh... can you say AWKWARD? Something saved me at the last minute, thank goodness.
So.... drumroll... my new greenie.... is... Hermana Guevara! Aaaah yeah! My Latina request came true! She is just about the sweetest, bubbliest, panda-loving, tree-hugging hippie I know! The cutest cutie pie in the world. I am BLESSED, I tell you! Super blessed. We're chillin like villains out here. I can tell there are good things to come. She's from LA, but no worries, she's not a regular at the clubs or anything. ;) Just the world's sweetest missionary to ever walk the face of the earth! We've had crazy adventures already. To start...
One day we were trying to track down a referral that the Ste Foy sisters had given us. The woman had enthusiastically set up an appointment with the other sisters, so we were surprised when we showed up and she wasn't there! Smurfed, as we would say in the CMM. Hate that word, but that's what we say when someone bomb and ditches us and hides in their apartment when we show up for a lesson. Anyway, we bopped around and waited around her hood to see if she would come back later. Knocked some doors. Did our missionary thing. So I have this fear of contacting people when they are sitting in their cars, and I was like, "Okay. Today's the day we're going to get over that fear." The whole time we were knockin and boppin around, this fancy looking man was just chilling in his car watching us for like half an hour. Jokingly I said to my companion, "I bet you anything he's an undercover cop, and he's about to arrest us for disturbing the peace." We had a good laugh, then continued doing our stalker/missionary thing. Finally, somehow, I got up the courage to just go talk to him. And ohhhh my, I am so glad I did! He was hilarious! We chatted him up for a good twenty minutes. He knew about the church, but wasn't interested. Then I asked him what he was doing. Turns out... He's a private investigator! Ha ha we were so right. And I totally blew his cover. I told him that we suspected he was up to something like that. So he's going to improve his stalker game! He really should take missionary advice. We're like the world's biggest stalkers, and my goodness, we're good at it. We climbin in yo windows, snatchin yo people up. Tryin to convert them! And we do! Sometimes. Anyway, that was a cool experience. I left him some reading material entitled, "Le Retablissement." Good stuff. We'll see what happens!
So the next day, we're boppin around, looking for that woman AGAIN. Still, nowhere to be found! Later in the evening we had our sweet member Catherine come with us to teach one of our amis, and low and behold, the dude wasn't there. Surprise! So I'm thinking, "Man. I'm tired of all of our appointments falling through." But I was on the Lord's errand, you know? So we moved to our back-up plan, which was to track down that woman one last time. We got to her house, and the note we had left her was STILL there! After more than 24 hours. We were getting nervous. I honestly thought she had died in her apartment. No joke. So we knocked the door across from us to ask her neighbor if he thought she might be dead. When he came out, I was trying to explain to him in my crappy French that I thought his neighbor might be dead, yada yada, when he's like, "I speak English, eh?" FIRST miracle! Turns out he knew about our church. And I was like, "You should totally come to church with us tomorrow!" And he's like, "Well, does your church need a keyboard player?" And I was like, "What the what?" And he's like, "I play the keyboards, eh? Fairly well there." I have NO idea what possessed me, but suddenly I'm just like, "Will you play some tunes for us?" Ha ha this guy had NOOOOO idea what was going on, but he TOTALLY let us in! Stalker move number one. Success! I was seriously having WAAAAY too much fun! The guy plays everything by ear! He serenaded us for twenty minutes with some Elton John and some John Lennon. I requested that he play "Daniel," and I wept silently to myself remembering that I have a brother back home. Anyway, after the poor man had worked up a good sweat playing keyboards for us, he somehow miraculously opened up and told us that he's been searching for a church. The Catholic church had really disappointed him in his life, but he was really touched that three strange girls would show up at his door and listen to him play the keyboard. Ha ha! The gospel is true! He frantically wrote down all of his contact info for us. I'll let you know how it goes! He's just the absolute sweetest. We honestly could not believe how the whole thing went down. Seriously though, I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father puts these people in our paths if we have the courage to be loving and share with those around us.
Well, that was my week! It was incredibly, to say the least. Plenty of great adventures for my greenie! I'm excited for her. Quebec City is the perfect place to be a missionary, especially if you're just starting out. I hope everyone is doing just fabulous! I miss you all terribly and hope you all realize that on a daily basis. Because it is 100 percent true, even if I act like I don't have time for anyone out there on the home front. My prayers are always with you! I love and miss you all to the fullest moon and back! Peace and blessings! Namaste.
Love,
Your Favorite Soeur
This week was seriously a blur! So many good things on the horizon. :) I'll start with transfer day. My oh my. WHAT a day! Transfers are the worst and best days of the mission. The worst because you have to say goodbye to your other half, the BEST because you get to give big old fat hugs and loves to all of your other old halves! Aaah! I got to see my baby Sister Orozco, which was like HEAVEN on earth! She is training too this transfer, so I stuck to her side every minute of the day. Saying goodbye to Sister Rios was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. We had three months together, so to say I was attached is a bit of an understatement. But like all babies, sooner or later they need to leave the nest, even if Mama Cutler's nest is better than the rest. And it is, for the record. Anyway. Basically, transfers was just one hot mess of me running around hugging everyone I knew. In fact, I hugged so many sisters that when I was saying goodbye to one of my favorite elders, I NEARLY threw him a big old bear hug! Uhhh... can you say AWKWARD? Something saved me at the last minute, thank goodness.
So.... drumroll... my new greenie.... is... Hermana Guevara! Aaaah yeah! My Latina request came true! She is just about the sweetest, bubbliest, panda-loving, tree-hugging hippie I know! The cutest cutie pie in the world. I am BLESSED, I tell you! Super blessed. We're chillin like villains out here. I can tell there are good things to come. She's from LA, but no worries, she's not a regular at the clubs or anything. ;) Just the world's sweetest missionary to ever walk the face of the earth! We've had crazy adventures already. To start...
One day we were trying to track down a referral that the Ste Foy sisters had given us. The woman had enthusiastically set up an appointment with the other sisters, so we were surprised when we showed up and she wasn't there! Smurfed, as we would say in the CMM. Hate that word, but that's what we say when someone bomb and ditches us and hides in their apartment when we show up for a lesson. Anyway, we bopped around and waited around her hood to see if she would come back later. Knocked some doors. Did our missionary thing. So I have this fear of contacting people when they are sitting in their cars, and I was like, "Okay. Today's the day we're going to get over that fear." The whole time we were knockin and boppin around, this fancy looking man was just chilling in his car watching us for like half an hour. Jokingly I said to my companion, "I bet you anything he's an undercover cop, and he's about to arrest us for disturbing the peace." We had a good laugh, then continued doing our stalker/missionary thing. Finally, somehow, I got up the courage to just go talk to him. And ohhhh my, I am so glad I did! He was hilarious! We chatted him up for a good twenty minutes. He knew about the church, but wasn't interested. Then I asked him what he was doing. Turns out... He's a private investigator! Ha ha we were so right. And I totally blew his cover. I told him that we suspected he was up to something like that. So he's going to improve his stalker game! He really should take missionary advice. We're like the world's biggest stalkers, and my goodness, we're good at it. We climbin in yo windows, snatchin yo people up. Tryin to convert them! And we do! Sometimes. Anyway, that was a cool experience. I left him some reading material entitled, "Le Retablissement." Good stuff. We'll see what happens!
So the next day, we're boppin around, looking for that woman AGAIN. Still, nowhere to be found! Later in the evening we had our sweet member Catherine come with us to teach one of our amis, and low and behold, the dude wasn't there. Surprise! So I'm thinking, "Man. I'm tired of all of our appointments falling through." But I was on the Lord's errand, you know? So we moved to our back-up plan, which was to track down that woman one last time. We got to her house, and the note we had left her was STILL there! After more than 24 hours. We were getting nervous. I honestly thought she had died in her apartment. No joke. So we knocked the door across from us to ask her neighbor if he thought she might be dead. When he came out, I was trying to explain to him in my crappy French that I thought his neighbor might be dead, yada yada, when he's like, "I speak English, eh?" FIRST miracle! Turns out he knew about our church. And I was like, "You should totally come to church with us tomorrow!" And he's like, "Well, does your church need a keyboard player?" And I was like, "What the what?" And he's like, "I play the keyboards, eh? Fairly well there." I have NO idea what possessed me, but suddenly I'm just like, "Will you play some tunes for us?" Ha ha this guy had NOOOOO idea what was going on, but he TOTALLY let us in! Stalker move number one. Success! I was seriously having WAAAAY too much fun! The guy plays everything by ear! He serenaded us for twenty minutes with some Elton John and some John Lennon. I requested that he play "Daniel," and I wept silently to myself remembering that I have a brother back home. Anyway, after the poor man had worked up a good sweat playing keyboards for us, he somehow miraculously opened up and told us that he's been searching for a church. The Catholic church had really disappointed him in his life, but he was really touched that three strange girls would show up at his door and listen to him play the keyboard. Ha ha! The gospel is true! He frantically wrote down all of his contact info for us. I'll let you know how it goes! He's just the absolute sweetest. We honestly could not believe how the whole thing went down. Seriously though, I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father puts these people in our paths if we have the courage to be loving and share with those around us.
Well, that was my week! It was incredibly, to say the least. Plenty of great adventures for my greenie! I'm excited for her. Quebec City is the perfect place to be a missionary, especially if you're just starting out. I hope everyone is doing just fabulous! I miss you all terribly and hope you all realize that on a daily basis. Because it is 100 percent true, even if I act like I don't have time for anyone out there on the home front. My prayers are always with you! I love and miss you all to the fullest moon and back! Peace and blessings! Namaste.
Love,
Your Favorite Soeur
Monday, October 14, 2013
BABIES BABIES BABIES!
Hello, hello! How on earth is
everybody doing? Enjoying your fall weather. I certainly am NOT! It's getting
waaaay too cold out here for my liking. But I'll manage! It's going to be a
long winter ha ha. In any case, I hope you are all finding ways to keep warm..
and enjoying the beautiful, cold, rainy season. What are you all going to be
for Halloween? I expect pics! Send them my way, you little cuties.
This
week was just OUT OF CONTROL! Well, most of the week was incredibly slow. On
Thursdaywe were visiting our favorite family from Cote d'Ivoire. Our
investigators mom had her cute little baby! So we were sitting there just
gazing at that little piece of perfection, when suddenly the mom turns to me
and asks if I wanted to hold her. I had to do my best to explain our mission
rule that we can't hold babies, even precious, adorable, perfect little
newborns. Then she says, "Well, you didn't say anything about catching
them!" And this woman practically threw her baby into my arms! So out of
love I HAD to "catch" the baby and hold that glorious little angel
for a time... Sigh.... so tender. I miss holding babies. It reminds me of the
time I was interning in the Newborn ICU and Labor and Delivery. New life is
seriously so precious.
Alright,
now onto the drama. Eveything was going smooth and uneventful when... BAM!
Transfer call night hit! We had already decided that I would be leaving for
Ottawa and that Sister Rios would stay in Quebec City. OR that we would be
staying together for yet another transfer. Oh, contraire, mon frere. Oh,
contraire! The biggest shock of our lives came to us. Sister Rios is leaving!
:( And Sister Cutler.... drum roll.... is... receiving her FIFTH baby!!! Yes,
you heard correctly. I'm training. Again. There are only four new sisters
coming in, the lowest yet, and yours truly is going to continue doing what she does
best... ha ha. My old district leader thinks that might be a new record. I just
say, "Welcome!" to all the little ones they want to send my way. My
goodness. You would think I've corrupted enough sister missionaries at this
point! I'm excited to be training and staying in Quebec City (aka the best ward
and best area and best everything in this entire mission), but I wasn't
expecting to leave my Sister Rios. Transfers are always incredibly bittersweet.
After
we received the news, we spent the rest of the week binging. In case you
clueless Americans didn't know, it's Thanksgiving here in the Great White
North! Which means that I have eaten more than I care to admit. On Sunday we
went to TWO Thanksgiving dinners. One with our awesome vegan investigator, where
I ate vegan delights, and the other with a slew of missionaries from our
district and the Ste Foy district. The best! With my favorite family, the
Blouins. It was seriously just one party after the other yesterday, and I'm
getting fat, fat, fat! As usual. This morning we had Thanksgiving waffles at
our Relief Society President's house (delicious), this afternoon we got
pedicures from my favorite Haitian princess Flore, and now we're gearing up for
another TWO Thanksgiving dinners tonight! One as a combined Thanksgiving with
the Worner family and the Torres family as a farewell to Sister Rios, and then
another Thanksgiving with our dear old friend Lucie. It's going to be insane!
Pray for my new greenie to be a health freak. I need to fit into my coat this
winter!
Well,
that's the run-down on my week! I will let you all know how the transfer goes.
I hope everyone is doing just fabulous and that all is well in the states!
Happy action de grace everybody! Keep on keeping it real. Also. SHOUT OUT....
of ALLLLLL SHOUT OUTS... to my one and only ELLIE PARKER!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my
sweet! I hope my foxiest mama of P-town had a FABULOUS day! Big birthday loves
and hugs coming all the way to you! I love you, baby girl! You deserved nothing
but a magical birthday! Well, I hope you are all well! I've got to get going!
Love you all and miss you terribly!!!
Love,
Soeur
Cutler
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Over the River and Through the Woods
Mi babies!!! How the heck are you all doing? My goodness. How
was everyone's conference weekend? Mine was just too good to be true! Not many
missionaries get to have a baptism of two adorable adolescents and watch
General Conference on the same day. I was in missionary heaven! So really, I
don't think this soeur can complain. ;) I hope everyone is avoiding the
flu and all of the nasty viruses going around. My comp got hit pretty hard this
week, but she was a trooper. So go dose yourself with an Orange Julius and a
little vitamin C, eh?
So this week, if you can't already guess, went exceptionally
well. I'm just boppin around, rolling around with my spare Canadian tire,
meeting the cutest little Quebecers and having a jolly old time. This week our
Sister Training Leaders came and stayed with us and I fed them all of my Double
Stuff'd Oreos. I'm starting to look more and more like a Double Stuff'd Oreo
each day, so I was feeling charitable. I rigaled them with stories about the
Swedes, doing my Swedish accents and talking about all of the craaaaay dating
experiences I've had. Yeah. I'm pretty sure we're the favorite sisters in the
mission. It's always a party with the Quebec sistas! During our exchanges we
ran into a Catholic Priest and his roommate.. while knocking doors. He said
he'd heard of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. So guess what us sneaky sisters
did... we invited him to G-Con! And they actually showed up! Ha ha good stuff.
It was the last session when the choir did sing that much. Still, I deserve
some serious cred for getting a Catholic priest from QUEBEC CITY, no less, into
a Mormon church.
We had adventure after adventure the entire week, from one day
to the next! Our baptism was so precious. This brother and sister are quite
possibly the cutest people I have ever met. The whole family is precious,
really. I was able to bear my testimony at the baptism, which was super special
because exactly a year ago that day I found out I could serve a mission. And
there I was, a year later, bearing my testimony at the baptism of the sweetest
family I have ever met. Gosh, I am sooooo incredibly blessed to be out here at
this time! I wouldn't have it any other way. I could stay on the mission
forever, but then I remember that I miss you all terribly and I want to exploit
RMs and get free frozen yogurt, so I know the day will come that I'll have to
lay aside my missionary badge. But for now, I'll keep enjoying these beautiful
leaves and these beautiful people and miss you all from afar! And don't worry,
I still think about everyone often and I miss you all terribly.
For the Saturday morning session of conference we went
and watched on our good friend Lucie's pirated American television... is that a
sin? Meh. She enjoyed it! She loves BYUtv and the prophet and everything about
the church, but she doesn't want to get baptized. ONE DAY! I'll get her in that
font if it's the last thing I do... echoing the voices of 20 years of other
missionaries. But really, she is just the world's biggest gem! We baked a
frozen pizza sprinkled with fresh basil from the garden, and pigged out on
Doritos while watching conference in our slippers. I cannot tell you how much I
enjoyed that! I almost felt like I was home. :) I would have to say that of all
of the conferences, the first two sessions were the best. But really, you know
you're a missionary when you think more about the talks in terms of how they
can help your investigators than yourself. Ha ha no lies. The talks were good
for everyone though, including me. I think Elder Holland's was my fave, but I
also loved Uchtdorfs... can't decide. The elders all know I'm a feminist so
they were grilling me a lot this conference, but I kept a lot of opinions to
myself. Sister Rios and I are going to go watch the Priesthood Session for
studies tomorrow. I heard it was super amazing, as always!
Well, that's about it for this week! I had a lot happen but this
letter would go on for hours if I documented all of the fun things we did.
Today we're going to go play Quilles, which is like "mini" bowling.
Something bizarre. Only in Quebec! I just wanted to let you all know that I
love you to PIECES and that I think about you more than is good for me. Also,
SHOUT OUT of all SHOUT OUTS to Tara, Vanessa, and Karenna for the BEST birthday
package a girl could ask for! I was laughing my chins off allllll night! And I
added to the chins by eating all of the junk that you gave me. Not helpful, but
I FEEL THE LOVE! You girls are the best. I am sooooo incredibly lucky! Thank
you, thank you, thank you. Also, SHOUT OUT to Grandma Nelson for all of the
birthday candies you sent me! I don't think I'll be starving anytime soon. :)
Gotta get my winter coat started! Lolz. Well, I love you all to Jupiter and
back! Have an exceptional week! Smooches and loves! Missing you all.
Love,
Baby Syl
Baby Syl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)