The Boys of Summer Have Gone

Hello everyone! My goodness, you have no IDEA how much I miss every single one of you rascals! Fuh real. How is everyone doing? How is back-to-school going? Guess what. I don't have to go! Ha! Sooo weird. This is the first time since kindergarten that I haven't had to go back to school in the fall. Gosh... what is life right now? What is life?! I secretly wish I could be going back, secretly not. My little compy had to give a ten minute talk last Sunday, and I was up for three hours past my bedtime busily translating it from English to French. Nightmare! It reminded me of school a little bit though, and how I used to be busy into the night finishing homework I had procrastinated... kind of missed the feeling a little. But then I realized how tired I was the next morning, so I think I can wait another year before putting myself through the joys of school again. 

So this week was INSANE! Some of the best days of my mission! So many adventures. I hardly know where to begin! Let's start with Quebec City's first elder/sister P-day last week... SO GREAT! Elders didn't know what to do with themselves. Everyone was fighting for Soeur Cutler's attention. And I mean, full on FIST FIGHTS, brawls, you name it! Ha ha blagues. No such tom foolery. BUT! I did have quite the embarrassing moment. I'd be surprised if elders and sisters will ever be allowed to play on P-day again after the stunt I pulled. Okay, so get this. We're walking through some very Euro-fabulous streets in Old Quebec, everyone just chatting and having a great time. I had an elder on each arm, and the rest were just clamoring behind me, vying for my attention right and left. Suddenly one of those delightful Quebec City winds came gusting through the street, and guess who decided to wear her most vibrant, light-weight skirt to go traipsing through Old Quebec? This one. Sooo... up goes my skirt! You could hear a pin drop the elders were so silent. I want to say I looked just like Marilyn Monroe in this moment, but that would be the world's biggest lie. Ha ha I'm sure you can only imagine. Anyway, I ran away with my comp. And we laughed our guts out. And the elders to this day have not been able to look at me the same. Sooooooo embarrassing! Ha ha I seriously wanted to die. Hopefully they all get over it, because I definitely want to have another elder/sister P-day again. We walked all through Old Quebec and got the world's most delicious gelato. I'd say it was a success!

Thursday might have been the best day of my mission. Can't decide. Sister Rios and I have a Spanish speaking investigator on the Riv Sud, which is about 100 clicks out of our way. We used to not care, but then I realized how low my click limit was, so we thought we'd be smart and take public transportation over there. That includes three bus changes and a ferry ride. And then another bus and walking for about a mile. Well, we ended up spending the ENTIRE day on public transportation, all for ONE lesson. Which went super well! And I taught more in Spanish, so it was worth it. But, the trouble was... we missed the ferry back. By ONE minute! Which meant we had to wait another hour. So by 9 o'clock we were back on the ferry, the city lights and the glow of the Chateau Frontenac looking more glorious than ever before. We were able to walk through Old Quebec at night, a light rain drizzling around us an a cool autumn breeze dangerously fluttering my skirt around (no flashing this time, thank goodness). Suddenly there was a HUGE crash of thunder, and the world's most torrential downpour of rain came cascading through the skies. We were SOAKED to the bone! But I seriously enjoyed every minute of it. On the way back home I contacted a man on the bus. Who spoke English! Miracle of miracles! There's something you don't see everyday! He was seriously awesome. He was like a professional dungeons and dragons player. He asked for my digits. OF COURSE I gave them to him. Then he remembered that I was a missionary and it got super awkward. But I know he was in love. Ha ha in all honesty though, it was just such a great way to end my day. He was super sweet. I feel like even though we were out WAAAY past our curfew, Heavenly Father had me in the right place at the right time. We ended up crawling into the house at about 11 o'clock at night. Pretty sure my companion wanted to kill me, but I couldn't even get over how fun that day was. Definitely one of the highlights of my mission.

In other news, good things happening here in the Quebec ward! We have been working pretty extensively with a man named Pierre who was baptized into the church in 2005, but quickly fell away after that. Well, one night in June after he was wasted out of his mind, he decided he needed to make some changes in his life. That's where Sister Cutler, Sister Orozco, and later Sister Rios stepped in. We've been helping him get his life back on track, and you'll never guess what happened this Sunday... he got the priesthood! One of the happiest days of my mission! I even snuck into Elder's Quorum to watch his ordination. It was seriously such a great experience. Those are the moments I treasure the most on my mission. I just love seeing people make these changes in their lives. It warms my soul!

One other funny story of me being a coug.... So yesterday at church I was just boppin around, when suddenly two of les jeunes filles (young women) accost me in the hallway. They're all trippin, "SISTER CUTLER!!!! SISTER CUTLER!!!" And I'm all like, "Wuhhh?" So get this. They met this uber babe from Nova Scotia or something like that at their youth conference last week. And they found him on facebook this week. So they were stalking his profile pics, (something I would have done at their age) checking to see if he has a honey. Well guess what. He does. There was a picture of him with a girl on Temple Square, and would you believe it, HE WAS KISSING HER! On the cheek! And they're all, "Man, who is that hottie? Why was he all dancing it up with us at Youth Conference if he already has this hot mama?" Then they look closer... and they're like... wait a second... THAT'S SOEUR CUTLER!!!! Ha ha ha cougin it up and stealing their honeys!!! Turns out it's my fave Canadian friend that I met months back. Small world, eh? Needless to say, the whole ward was a buzz about my cougish ways. Soooo funny. Seriously, I wanted to die. I'm so proud of myself. But now all of the laurels be jealous... but I can't help it that I'm popular... even with the 16 year olds... ha ha. 

So that was my week! A pretty good one, I might add. I hope everyone is doing sooooo soooo great! Tomorrow Sister Rios and I get to go down to Montreal for some training, which means I'm going to see a bunch of my peeeeps! Sooo pumped! This morning when we found out we were going, we blasted Sandstorm and danced around the house like a bunch of zoobies! I tried to throw out some break dance moves that I learned back in high school but... my core turned to pot. Sad day. Life goes on! Anyway, I'll let you know how our road trip goes. I love you all ooodles and ooodles and I hope everyone is just enjoying life as much as I am right now! I want to know what everyone is up to! Summer adventures! Forbidden romances! I want to hear it all! Ha ha sending a bunch of smooches your way from the Great White North to the Great White Bellies. Ha ha ha I crack myself up! But seriously, that's a good one. Long live the land of super sizing! Well, I love you all and miss you terribly! Peace and blessings!

Love,

Soeur Cutler

The Boys Are Back!

Heyyy! How are all my sweet peas doing? I hope you're all enjoying the final days of summer and soaking up those last rays of sunlight. You wouldn't believe what I had to do this week. Middle of August, and I had to bust out my winter coat! Ohhh Canada. I seriously wanted to cry. But no worries, today I'm sweating like a pig again, so hopefully summer is here to stay for just a while longer.

This week... was awesome! We had our first zone conference with the new mission president, and I seriously love him! His perspective on missionary work is definitely my style, so I'm seeing good things on the horizon. Also... drumroll please... the P-Day rule has been lifted! My season of no flirting has finally come to an end! Sisters and elders can plaaaaay! It's seriously a Christmas MIRACLE! Last night when Elder McMurrin called us and made this historic announcement, I thought my heart would soar out of my body! So, if my email is a tad short today it's because we're having a PARTAY with the elders in Old Quebec! So jazzed! Imma be COUGIN it up like there's no tomorrow! Ha ha I'm only just a *little* excited about this if you can't tell.

In other news, this week was just ohhhh so good. On Saturday night we were invited to ``do some less active work`` at an Epluchette de blé d`Inde. Translation... corn party? Ha ha. It's a Quebecois tradish! Basically you get together and eat corn and have a good time. So there's a less active family that lives an hour outside of the city, and they invite the VIP members of the ward to their corn party at the end of every summer. Frère Rodhain was nice enough to drive us out there. I was in HEAVEN! We drove through miles of farmland and forest and rivers, all while listening to the Rodhain's finest selection of classical music. It was soooo fun to party with my fave families in the ward, but I'm not lying when I say I gained ten pounds at that little shindig. But hey! There was world-renowned, Neufchatel corn there. What else was I supposed to do?! Really though, it was just what we needed after a stressful week. Being at a barbeque on a beautiful sumemr night reminded me so much of being back home with family and friends. NBD, this time next year I'm bringing the Epluchette de blé d'inde back to my possee in Utah. Get excited!

My fave story of the week. We were on our way to an investigator's house when we were suddenly swarmed by a gaggle of neighborhood kids. This adorable little girl comes up to me and says, ''Vous êtes siiiii belle!'' Translation... I be looking GOOD! Ah! I wished I could pick her up in my arms and take her home. THEN she puts her hands on my stomach and says, ''Êtes vous enceinte?'' Translation... Are you pregnant? AAAAAAH! I wanted to DIE! It's a good thing I had read a scripture in the New T that day about being nice to children, cause that little punk was asking for it! My comp was just laughing her buns off and mocking me to no end, when suddenly the little girl goes up to HER stomach and says the same thing! Ha ha! We rigolé'd beaucoup beaucoup, but we are DEFINITELY doing more sit-ups this week! Bratty as they were, those little hoodlums were adorable. I taught them how to say ''I love Justin Bieber'' in English. Little cutesos. When we told them we had to go they got super mad and started hurling rocks at us. Only took me seven months to get stoned as a missionary, attacked by little punks, no less! Still, it brought joy to my soul. Lol.

Well, I hope y'all are having a fab week! I miss everyone so much. Good luck with all the back to school shopping! SO glad I'm not working at JCPenney right now haha. ANyway, take care, my loves! See you on the flipside! Missing and loving you all to infinity and beyond! Bisou!

Love,

Sister Cougar

Summer Days Drifting Away

Hello to everyone that I love to pieces back in the states! How are you all doing? My goodness, I'm missing everyone terribly! I may or may not be the world's trunkiest sister missionary. But I keep it to myself... until glorious, glorious P-Day when I get to plant myself at the computer and remember that I have a huge gang of people back home that love me! Ahhh. So good to hear from everyone. How has everyone been? I hope you're all enjoying your final days of summer! Make it count! The leaves are starting to change up here already. Anytime I mention this to the locals though they FLIP at me, so I'll just mention it to you all. But really, I can't complain. This summer was glorious. I'm excited to see Quebec in the fall (it's going to be gorgeous, by the way)! So, good things ahead before that brutal Canadian winter sets in. 

This week was pretty low key. No perverts, which isn't a good thing or a bad thing, necessarily. I do enjoy feeling creeped out from time to time, so my week was lacking there. But! We did have some fun little moments along the way, so I'm not feeling too cheated. This week we discovered the homestead/neighborhood of a zillion Nepalese immigrants. New FAVE ethnicity! They are literally the sweetest people on the planet. They have no idea what we're saying, so they just invite us in and let us sit there awkwardly on their couch until we can't bear the awkwardness anymore and leave. But they just smile at you the whole time! So great. This week we found the cutest Nepalese boy who spoke French well enough to express his interest in learning more. We suspect maybe he was just interested in the two cute sister missionaries at his doorstep, but he let us in and we prayed with him and his mom, who was NOT as interested in the sister missionaries as her son. Still! It was a sweet experience.

We also ran into a lady from the Congo! And she didn't speak a WORD of French either. Ha ha so she called up her daughters to come home and translate for her. And we're just like... no, it's okay. You don't need to invite us in. But she was INSISTENT! Well, it turns out this woman was already a member of the church! And she had been looking for our meetinghouse, but she only speaks Swaheli so she was having a hard time. So many miracles this week! It was a cool experience. I had my French translated into Swaheli by a ten year old for the better part of an hour. One of the coolest things I've experienced on my mission. I seriously LOVE it out here. I meet people from so many countries. I need some serious gift of tongues going right now so that I can speak Nepalese, Swaheli, Spanish, and this really weird dialect of French called Quebecois. 

Speaking of the gift of tongues, I prayed in Spanish! Ha ha and Sister Rios taught the rest of the lesson... but I'm learnding! We are teaching the most amazing family from Honduras right now, but their French is no bueno. So I just sit back and let my little greenie do all the talking. It's super nice. They live forever away from our area though, which means we are burning clicks like there is no tomorrow. The first time we visited them this week I got SUPER lost on my way home. I ended up driving us through Old Quebec at 10 o'clock at night, THEN somehow to the other side of Quebec City to Montmorency Falls, and then home... at a very unreasonable hour. Ha ha my comp was dying. But I'm still alive! Yesterday night after our lesson with them we had a similar problem. A member tried to give us a "shortcut" home so that I wouldn't get lost again, but I ended up taking the wrong freeway entrance and taking us to the North Pole practically. Adventures all around when you're with Sister Cutler and her impeccable sense of direction! My companion is learning that patience is a virtue. 

This week was great! We worked hard and had tons of fun. On Friday we celebrated our eternigator's 85th birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lucie. This woman is seriously AMAZING! I love sitting with her at her kitchen table for hours on end, and I MEAN hours on end... and listening to her stories. My bum is super sore by the end, but it's like stepping into a little piece of history. I'm going to be visiting EVERY elderly person I know when I get back. Gosh, I'm such an ungrateful punk! :)

Well, I hope you are all doing amazing and having a stellar week! Pray for me to have a better sense of direction, on the road and in life in general haha. Also, SHOUT OUT this week to my fave childhood sweetheart (not trying to sound creepy) MAUDIE for getting married this week! I'm sending all of my love and best wishes your way! It was a delightful surprise getting the wedding invitation in the mail, and you best believe that adorable couple is hanging up on my fridge for eternity. Could've waited for me to get back before the wedding of the century, but I'll survive. ;) Anyway, I hope everyone has a fabulous week! Keep my spirit alive in P-town! Gros bisou to you all!

Love,

Sister Tradition 

Rooooooxanne!

Was playing this week as I was walking the streets of Quebec. That's my jam! It reminded me of my old self. So weird. Anyway, how the heck is everyone doing? Summer is just trailing along here and making me miss everyone. We've had a very chilly past couple of days. I'm feeling an early winter here in the QC. Bring it on, I say! Bleh. Not. Winter here was atrocious... three... months ago. Ha ha never ending misery. But, I shouldn't complain. Summer was pleasant and my inner nature goddess continues to thrive at the moment, so I'll enjoy it while I still can. 

So to start this letter off, I need to give the BIGGEST BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT in the WORLD to my beloved Daddy Bear! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yesterday) from your favorite child (me)! I hope you were given all of the blueberry buckle in the world and plenty of love. I've been channeling good energies down to you all week, so hopefully they reached you on time! (Whereas your birthday card probably did not, and for that I'm sorry.) But I love you soooo much! The world's most intelligent, witty, wise, and sensational human being I know! Big smooches and hugs from Poutineville! Next year your birthday gift will probably come in the form of tall, blonde, and super beautiful stepping out of the airplane. Soooo get excited! :)

This week was incredibly difficult if I'm being perfectly honest. Some people are just RUDE! Ha ha my poor greenie had her baptism by fire into the wonderful area of Quebec City. We learned the importance of charity in the face of incredible adversity. Still love these people though! For every difficult moment there is always a blessing. This week my faaave investigator and her super groovy husband/boyfriend/lover of 15 years invited us over for fajitas and a bonfire, so all was not lost. They seriously are the coolest couple in Quebec City! We sat around the fire in their backyard and pondered a gospel message under a beautiful, starry, summer sky. These are the moments on my mission that make every door slam worth it. 

I also discovered this week that my new little greenie is an even bigger scared-y cat than I am. Our 85 year old eternigator decided it would be a good idea to sit us down this week and tell us every ghost story she could think of in her 85 years of life. I was creeped out to be sure, but for the rest of the week my sweet little companion has INSISTED on showering with the bathroom door open, keeping every single light on until we go to bed, and even THEN we have to have a night light on. LOL. I've been telling her scary stories the rest of the week. (SO MEAN!) But I can't help it! She's scared of everything. 

Interesting story about one of our investigators. Last Friday we spent an entire hour testifying to our investigator (investidater, pervigator, whatever) Eric how many blessings he's going to receive if he follows the Word of Wisdom. And he just sat there nodding, and saying with incredible vehemence, "EXACTEMENT! EXACTEMENT!" By the end of the lesson we were confident he was going to quit smoking. So afterward Sister Rios and I leave the lesson to go get some iron supplements for her anemia, thinking that Eric is finally going to change his ways. On our way out we see that little pill sneaking all stealthily out of the Jean Coutu, toting his cigs in hand. BAAAAH! I had to exercise all of my self control not to chase him down and dispose of them myself. Soooo frustrating! But, miracle of miracles, our CRAZY ward mission leader got him out of bedSunday morning and got him to church! So there's progress there. But if his gaze wanders one more time during a lesson he's gonna get DROPPED.

ANYWAY. That's basically the story of my week! Not nearly as eventful as last week when I saw Sir Paul (still recovering from the Beatlemania, btw), but there were good times to be had. I hope everyone is having a pleasant summer without me. Looking forward to all of the letters that should be flooding my mailbox in the next week ... hint hint. ;) Just kidding! Carry on with your lives! I'm really doing so great out here and loving my mission just as much as ever. Have a great week! Missing everyone so much! Bisou bisou! :* *:

Love,

Soeur Cutler