HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most FABULOUS, FOXIEST, FIFTIEST
mama around! Happy 50th Birthday to the person I love more than anyone
else in the entire world! Birthday shout-out to the most incredible,
most brilliant, most beautiful, most hilarious, sensational woman on the
entire planet! I love you to the moon and BEYOND, mother dearest! Make
sure you ALL wish my madre a HAPPY 50th this Wednesday.
It's not every day you turn 50 yet don't look a day over 40! I sooooo
wish I could be there for this special day. Sending ooodles of love from
afar! I love you!
Now, as for this week. So much CRAZINESS! So our
week started off normal for the most part. We went on a fun exchange,
drank caramel apple spice at Starbucks for our interview, lived the good
life. Then on Wednesday
Sister Sherwood and I gave a training on stress management, which, as
you know, I can talk your ear off about yet not actually apply it in my
own life. We did a progressive relaxation exercise (thank you, Shiva Rea
from my yoga DVD!) and I brought everyone into a meditative trance with
my smooth, velvety, yogan voice. It was magical. So we got everyone to
relax, but then later it backfired because the sisters realized that
they were STRESSED! We had a few red-level emergencies this week
(red-level meaning to seek help immediately) so we got to go about
caring and de-stressing others. We went went and got MORE Starbucks
(this time I got some delish hot chocolate) and some amazing, beautiful,
colorful macarons in Downtown Montreal to eat our feelings and discuss
stress coping mechanisms. MISSIONS ARE STRESSFUL! Please pray for my
sweet sisters and all the missionaries who are stressed. :)
On Friday
we had a miracle! One of our less actives has been progressing at a
rapid rate, yet she had a hard time with the idea of paying tithing.
That last step is the bane of my existence. I honestly think it's the
hardest commandment for most people to swallow haha. WELL. We had a
lesson with our ward mission leader and he bore the most powerful
tithing testimony I have ever heard. Two days later we were spending
some time with our sweet less active sister and she dramatically pulled a
SEALED tithing envelope from her bag. SOOOOOOO much happiness! Now she
can get a temple recommend and her patriarchal blessing! She decided
that she couldn't afford NOT to pay tithing after the amazing lesson we
had. There can be miracles when you believe! Super exciting!
Saturday
night... oh my heavens. So, after a crazy, long week of exchanges and
trainings, Sister Sherwood and I were stressed. We had a million tender
mercies that day though. We were about to go through a stress breakdown
and decided to list the foods that we wish we could eat, because after a
week of chips and ramen and hot chocolate and macarons we just wanted
to eat real food. I declared how desperately I wanted to eat curry, and
Sister Sherwood said that all she has wanted is to eat fish. Obviously
we have no time to eat though, so those foods are out of the question.
Well, that night we went to a member's home, and what did she feed us?
CURRY!!!! And FISH!!!! Blessings all around. I love when that happens!
After we left, disaster struck. So we were driving to our last lesson of
the night and I was distracting Sister Sherwood with a hilarious story
about how I stalked this one guy at BYU, but I'm not going to go into
detail because that was my old life and I'm so embarrassed. Anyway. She
was laughing her head off so she missed the street of the less active we
were supposed to visit. We ended up completely lost in the sketchiest
part of Montreal I have ever seen. Trying not to panic, she drove around
and tried to orient herself the best she could. Well. We ended up
getting ridiculously lost in an even MORE sketchy part of the city.
Suddenly we found ourselves on a road called Rue Bridge that led into a
death tunnel. We soon discovered that the death tunnel was NOTHING
compared to what was on the other end. The world's SCARIEST bridge. Not
even joking. Go look this thing up on Google Maps. The road on the
bridge is constructed of METAL, like what you would see over a sewer.
And there we are, in strong winds and freezing cold temperatures,
driving over METAL for like five billion miles! I could literally look
out my window and see the water beneath our car! We were
hyperventilating and practically vomiting out of fear. WORST NIGHT OF MY
LIFE! We ended up waaaay out of our area, but no worries, we made it
home alive.
Due to the stress of this situation, I obviously had
a night terror that night. And my companions can tell you how awful my
night terrors are. Well, Sister Sherwood was so stressed that SHE had a
night terror because of my night terror. I won't go into detail, but we
were simultaneously experiencing the same night terror, in the same spot
in our room. All of this before 1 in the morning. So we turned on the
lights and stayed up for about five hours calming ourselves down and
shaking like leaves. It was HORRIBLE! Needless to say, I'm exhausted and
will now be sleeping with the lights on the rest of my mission. The
elders came and blessed our house this morning, so we should be good to
go! Seriously though. Worst night of my life.
Haha anyway, I'll end on a happy note? It really was
a fun week! We spent a lot of time serving our sisters and had an
excellent day at church on Sunday.
Missions are so fun! I can't believe how blessed I've been out here.
Anyway, I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you all so very,
very much and wish desperately that we could all be together. HAPPY
BIRTHDAY, Mom! Love you soooo much! Smooches and hugs to all!
Love,
Sister Syl
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