Hermana Rachel Dean's 18 month adventure in Canada, Calgary: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

8/31/15 Group Email

HELLO familiy and friends, man this week was a good one :) The solid points of the week....

~We were walking around and this lady drives by, rolls down her window and yells "Sisters need a ride?!" We waved her off and said we're good... Well in an entirely different neighborhood, she comes driving by, gets out and says "I cannot get over this prompting that I need to give you a ride... So where do you need to go?!" We're like... ummm okay, we can't really argue with that. So long story short, we end up at her house getting some water while her dad looks up our address. We get to talking about how we're spanish blah blah stuff like that, and he says "oh the family who lives right next door speak spanish and they're not members." UM WHAT! GOLD! We haven't been able to get ahold of them because they're usually not home... but ohhhh man we will find that family and contact them! All because the girl had a prompting to give us a ride, so cool! ~We were walking around knocking on doors... the good stuff... and we come up to this house. This old man, probably 60 or so, answers the door and just instantly starts asking us about Jesucristo. I could completely tell that he was a member.. he was trying SO hard to keep in his laughter, so I was trying so hard to keep in my laughter. Long story short, he invites us in and brings over his wife. they tried to keep up the "oh who are you missionaries??" Story, but it wasn't working since they had the temple picture right behind his head haha. We shared a message with them, in spanish because they asked, which was really really neat. I asked if they knew anyone who spoke spanish and she says "actually yeah... I've had this family in mind for quite awhile to give to the missionaries" OKAY GOLD AGAIN and so hopefully we can find them and contact them too! But seriously, all because Padre Celestial led us to the right door! SO COOL ~WE GOT A NEW INVESTIGATOR THIS WEEK and it was amazing. She is the sweetest lady and runs a day care.. a day care!!! She had seven or so little tiny, probably 2 year olds, running around and they spoke spanish and it was sooooo cute. So ojala (hopefully) she wants to continue learning more! This week really has been amazing! I love this work and I love Canada. Canadians are SO NICE I can't even get over it! And it's so beautiful I could die, so many green trees and the sunsets... oh my the sunsets! Thank you for all your support and letters and everything! I appreciate it so much! You are all the best :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dean

8/31/15 Pictures

The sunsets are TO DIE FOR

My cute companion

She turns six and I turn TWO tomorrow! Woot woot, Mission Bdays

I got FOUR letters this week... blessed :)

Monday, August 24, 2015

8/24/15 Group Email

What's up mi familia y amigos! This week has been great! Canada is stunning... literally! THEIR SUNSETS ARE TO DIE FOR. Ohhh my gosh, we were driving home the other night on the bus and half of the sky was bright pink with one giant wispy cloud, then the middle had all these dark little fluffy clouds, then the right side was bright orange!!! It was incredible. I didn't have my camera.. lo siento.. but wow I just sat and stared at the window because it was to die for. I love it here!! This week we got to go downtown woooot woooot. It was a good time! There are soooo many people from all over the world down there. It's pretty cool! We went down there to have lunch with a recent convert, who lives in one of the big buildings. Oh.my.gosh. Oh my gosh the funniest thing of my life happened... so it's this little tiny old lady who lives by herself. After we had eaten, Hermana Allphin y yo decided that we were going to sing with her before we started our lesson. We decided to sing I Stand All Amazed, because it's my fav song ever. So we started singing this hymn in Spanish and holy cow... this little old Spanish lady.... Couldn't sing the right tune, for the life of her. I was soooo confused, because I had her tune, which was who knows where, in one ear, and then Hermana Allphins tune, which was the correct tune in the other. I didn't know who to follow, so I tried to follow along with the little old lady, but it wasn't working! We were all so confused.. and then, I GOT THE GIGGLES. Hard core giggles. I tried and tried and tried to hold it in,, but I couldn't. I finally burst, and then my companion burst too, because she'd been holding it in, and then the old lady burst! It was sooo funny. So so so funny, and we tried to get through all four verses, but it was such a struggle! We left her house and once we were outside on the street, just died laughing! It was definitely a memory I'll never forget! The other night we were sitting on the bus and we spoke in complete Spanish the entire bus ride.. we didn't say a single English word. Half way through our ride, a lady in front of us turned around and started talking to us in Spanish and asked if Spanish was our native language!!!! hahahahah NO but she was super impressed!! so we talked to her about the gospel for like forty five minutes and it was sweet and we're going to try and contact her later this week. She was my first person I gave a book of Mormon to.. it was so cool!! It snowed on Thursday... yep, SNOWED. Not the snow that sticks, but it was definitely snowing. Gotta love Canada, ojala winter doesn't start in the next few weeks... ah! I spoke yesterday in sacrament.. sobre arrepentimiento. Killed it, except I was just lost by the end and I said "in the name of jesus Christ, our savior and brother, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." hahah.. embarrassed. But oh well, I felt like I did dece throughout the rest of it! But yep, it's been going just great out here! Love all these cute Spanish people I teach, they're from all over the world, and love this beautiful Spanish language! Definitely frustrating at times, but then other times I feel the gift of tongues like crazy! Thanks for all the prayers and letters, you guys are lo major :)

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Dean

8/24/15 Pictures

El centro es mi favorita. The Calgary Tower IS BEAUTIFUL I want to go up to the top sooo bad!

These Brown buildings behind us is our apartment.. kinda super ghetto on the outside, but they're good in the inside!

Calgary Foothills Zone

Monday, August 17, 2015

8/17/15 Group Email

Hola Familia!!! Wow I'm here! In Canada! It's been awesome! As I flew in over the city, I saw all the buildings and the cars and it got sooo real and made me so excited. Calgary is my HOME! These past few days have been craaaazy.. meeting so so so many new people, moving into our apartment, getting to know the area.. so much goes on with missionary work, it's insane! I love love my companion! She is so darling. We get along super well and we have been working so hard! I look up to her sooo much. So once we were settled in our apartment, we live with the STL's (sister training leaders) who are HILARIOUS human beings. Oh man, one of them has an Australian accent and reminds me of fat Amy (not saying she's fat, but the accent and how she acts is the same haha) we have tons of fun together. Canada is beautiful oh my. I'm not in the mountainy area, but there are so.many.trees. so many! they are everywhere and they are soooo green and dense and wow they are beautiful. The weather this week: HOT, pouring rain, overcast, pouring rain, HOT. hahaha it's not like Utah hot.. but it's hot when we're out walking around and everything! Then the rain.. man I love the rain. it cools down everything and the clouds are so beautiful. The clouds here! Are amazing. I dont' know what it is, but the sky is beautiful. So yep, my area is amazing. Pretty much every night we go to dinner at a members house. I understood a lot of our first cena! It was good! And holy cow... the food! Hispanics know how to cook!!!! Oh the food is amazing. I love where I am because I've met soooo many people from all around the world. Colombians, Peruvians, Mexicans, Venezelans, etc. So all of our meals are so different. It's super fun talking Spanish, it's hard to understand.. especially at church yesterday, wow it was rough.. haha but my companion and I talk well together! Mejor y major cada dia. So, yesterday we were walking around trying to find this lady's house named Rosa. We had her on the list and were going to find her. We get there, knock on the door, and this lady opens up. My companion automatically says "Hola Rosa como esta!" and this lady gives us the weeeeirdest look and says "ummmm I dont' speak Spanish and my name isn't Rosa.." hahah I'm trying to hold back my laughter because it was so awkward. So then we say "oh okay we're missionaries...." and she says "yeah I know... I'm a member" haha we were soo confused and she was super sweet about the mis understanding! We left the house and just died laughing. Things on the mission.. I'm tellin ya, they are a lot funnier than they would normally be! Haha but we have had some good laughing moments already and I'm sure they're going to keep coming! But yeah, my week has been good! A lot of figuring the ropes out and learning the area. Hispanic people are hands down the sweetest people I know I'll ever meet. they are INCREDIBLE and I already feel like I'm at home when I walk through their door. I'm super excited to continue to teach them! Well thank you for all the prayers and messages and support. It's incredible! This work is incredible!

Con mucho amor,

Your now official Canadian - Hermana Dean

8/17/15 Pictures

My companion throughout the flight...we were stuck in immigration, all 27 of us missionaries, for FOUR HOURS, four hours. It was looong! But they had a Canadian flag in the tiny room.

The 27 new missionaries with President and Sister Miles.

My mission president and his wife are the sweetest!!

The other 3 Hermanas in the entire mission. Lots of work out there for only four of us!!

Canada has the prettiest sunsets EVER... These photos don't capture anything close to how amazing they are!

We drive across this bridge and beneath us is just thousands and thousands of pine trees. Its like a big dense population of all these trees! We're going to explore through them sometime soon!

RAIN, rain, rain, rain

Monday, August 10, 2015

8/10/15 MTC Pictures

Last day playing volleyball :( Muy Triste

Branch President and wife... President and Sister Doman

The greatest people!

Last temple walk

Elder Zaugg y Elder Karren

Brother and Sister Williams members of Branch Presidency

Elder Karren y Semu

The Hermanas in our zone

Elder Day- Friend from Olympus Highschool

Pretty Montanas

Elder Thompson (know him through friends)

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

8/5/15 Group Email

HOLA! Oh my goodness, President Russell M Nelson came last night and spoke to us and it was amazingggg!!! Beyond amazing. The instant he walked in and we all stood - boom, instant tears because the spirit was SO FUERTE! It was so cool and wow just such an incredible spiritual rejuvenation.. perfect to head off into the field! Ah I'm still loving it here, more than anything! This week was so good, it flew by and now I'm having my last pday in the mtc.. ah what! So many mixed emotions, so excited to get out and see Canada and meet the people and start speaking Spanish, but I'm not ready to leave mis amigos here and to start over.. ah! It'll all work out and I'm super excited for my next adventure! I finished el Libro de Mormon yesterday.. July 4th to August 4th, which is twenty-ish pages a day. Now if I can read 20 + pages sometimes in a different language.. you all can read one chapter a day! It was such an amazing experience and I learned so much it's insane! I got my travel plans this week and I'm heading out on Tuesday morning at 5:30! It's only a two hour flight, which I'm thankful. Some of mis amigos aquí have to fly for days! So the two hour flight is perfect time! I'm so excited! I'm ready to go out and meet real life people and go outside of these mtc gates. It'll be so cool!! I'm super excited of where I'm going because I'll get to know so many different Hispanic cultures! If I were going to one place in South America, I'd only get that culture.. but because I'll be teaching immigrants, I'll be teaching from all over the world! My teacher told me that the other day and it got me pumped! Nothing much different to report on.. sand volleyball cada día con mi distrito.. classroom for 98% of the day. Killer meetings, devotionals, testimony meetings, lessons. It's all so great and I love this work so so much. I can't wait to report back to you while I'm in CANADA!!!

Con todo mí amor,

Hermana Dean

Oh ps my companion woke up the other night and said that I was sleep talking.. IN SPANISH. I've officially made it to "that point", where I think and dream in Spanish sometimes, loco!