January 24, 2011.

BBRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Let me just start by explaining my cold night of finding last night. Yesterday, we woke up to a bright, sunny, COLD morning of -20 degrees C, with a windchill of -37 C!!!! As we started to warm up the car for church, I went to scrape the window and found that I couldn't because the ice was on the INSIDE of the car! I never thought I'd be scraping the inside of the windshield. Only on a mission...:D. After church, we went home to layer up for the night. Below you will find a picture of all of the layers I wore as we contacted.

Okay, so here is a summary of my layers: 1 baselayer of underclothing and 1 layer thermals (both not pictured), wool tights, black thermal leggings, sweat pants (good thing I have a big skirt!), a slip, a skirt, thermal top, green sweater (when it's this cold outside, you don't care about matching!), scarf #1, black fuzzy hoodie, knitted scarf #2, winter coat with hood, wool socks, 2 pair gloves, mittens, and my huge boots. Fun, eh?

It was -18 degrees C (-3.9 F) with a -33 degree C windchill. This means that outside, it felt as if it was -27.4 degrees F! I have never even stepped into weather this cold in my life. I think my eyeballs were about to freeze.

There was hardly anyone outside, but the last contact of the night made it all worth it. We contacted a man at a bus stop (he may or may not have been intoxicated). He talked with us for a minute and when his bus came, he grabbed us to hug us at the same time and tried to kiss our cheeks. All I have to say is that I am so grateful I had three hats/hoods on so his face got nowhere near mine. We laughed the whole way home.

Okay, now I must wrap my whole week up into a few minutes. Hmm...where to start...Well, I am training!
I met Sister Brack on Monday at the mission home. We had dinner and a testimony meeting. We slept at our Brampton apartment and headed back to the mission home for training meetings the rest of the morning. We all ate lunch at the Mandarin (huge, delicious, gourmet buffet). Sister Brack is from a small town in England called Haltwhistle, right next to the Scotland border. I feel like she came out of the movies! She says the funniest things and we have different names for almost everything. We have had some great laughs already. We met a boy named Robin who we are teaching right now. He is from India. He is willing to read the Book of Mormon, pray, come to church, and be baptized. The catch is that he won't do anything that doesn't make logical sense. He doesn't believe in faith or that we have spirits. He wants to see the evidence. He is willing to read, pray, and attend church for now. As long as he does those things with a sincere heart and with real intent, he will develop the faith he needs to have the witness from the Holy Ghost. It's a promise from the Lord. We will meet with him again tomorrow.

I got to see Neniker and Sandra!!!!! I showed up to Neniker's house for the appointment the Elders had set with him and he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw us. He was so happy. I was so happy to see him as well. He is doing SO well. He has been to the temple to do baptisms, he passes the sacrament, he has a calling, and he is continuing to learn! Sandra is doing extremely well too. She testified to Robin and I felt like I should just give her my missionary tag. The Holy Ghost speaks through her and she has so much knowledge already. She is still teaching the french Gospel Principles class! I'm so proud of them both. Well, my time is about up, but I pray that you all have a wonderful week! Be grateful for the warmth that you have haha. I am so grateful to be here. I know that our Savior lives. He is real. Heavenly Father LOVES us! I love Him.

Love,

Sister Barton :)