Sister Shelby Peterson: Week 76: Culture Shock

This week has been an emotional roller coaster! Leaving Kelowna was pretty much the hardest thing EVER!!

I left my <3 in Kelowna

Monday I went and said goodbye to people and cried!!! Uh...it's the worst! We met with Sandra M. briefly! At the end of our little chat we were leaving and I felt really prompted to give her an Articles of Faith card that has a picture on it that really helped me through this last week in Kelowna. It's called Security Blanket. I just found it in the supplies one day and I love it! Anyway so Sandra is going through some really hard things right now and I just felt like she could use it. I really loved it so I wrote down the name in hopes that I would find that picture again. She really liked it and put it on display in her entry way next to all her Las Vegas pictures hahaha Tuesday we left for the airport at 5:50am.....SUPER EARLY!! We dropped Sister Hoffman off for her flight and then we went to go get my stuff to check me in..."where's my purse???" Oh my goodness...I left my purse
on the seat of our car which was back at the chapel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 20 min drive both ways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE ONLY DONE THIS ONCE IN MY LIFE WITH CAMBRIA AND IT WAS SO STRESSFUL!!! SO WE GOT IN THE CAR SUPER FAST AND DROVE OVER THE MOUNTAINS AND THROUGH THE HILLS....FINALLY GOT THE PURSE....AND WE MADE IT BACK TO THE

AIRPORT WITH 50 MIN TILL MY FLIGHT. So I go to check in....the kiosk isn't working....so I had to wait in line and by that time...I missed the 45 min deadline and I couldn't check in...so I MISSED MY FLIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told the lady what happened and she ended up giving me another flight for free!!!! IT WAS A MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I ended up waiting in the airport for 3 hours until my flight left!!! I read SO MUCH of the Book of Mormon it was quite wonderful! I talked to some cool people too!! Anyway when I got to Vancouver Sister Tripp and Sister Pitts picked me up and we rocked out to "The Circle of Life" MoTab version on the way to the mission office. Those sisters are crazy!! hahaha They were blasting it with the windows down.. Everyone was like...THESE GIRLS MUST BE BONKERS!!! I met my new companion, Sister Amat, at the mission office and we got to Port Moody later that day!!! IT IS SO BUSY HERE!!!! driving a different car through the streets of Vancouver and the lower mainland was not my favorite part of the day! It's so different here! So many cultures! Especially Chinese and Korean people! It snowed so everyone is driving like crazy because they aren't used to it! Anyway we stopped at DQ for some lunch and I look out the window and behold ....IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY HEART WAS SO FULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHH I WAS SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The rest of the week was good! We don't have a ton of people to teach right now,

so we are doing a lot of finding!!! We taught one investigator this week though Rose and she has been baptized 3 times before in different churches so convincing her of why she needs to baptized again was kind of difficult. She finally said, "Are you saying the ones who baptized me are not qualified???" YES!!!!!!! Your baptisms were great acts of faith and spiritual moments in your life but we need the proper priesthood authority!!!!! IT WAS A GREAT BREAKTHROUGH!! She said that she will pray and ask God if she needs to be baptized for the 4th time!! Thursday we met with a returning less active Sister Chen and her husband is taking the lessons! They just had a baby and she is SO CUTE!!!! Then we had coordination! This ward just got a new ward mission leader and he is AWESOME!!! So on top of things and he has a degree similar to mine, so he always ties everything that happens in the ward back to social work, family structures, or psychology...IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!! HAHAHAH We all had to go around and introduce ourselves which was awkward because the Elders were there.We try not to tell the Elders things about our lives...it's kind of like

a secret. So it was really awkward, but I learned that one of the Elders that's new to the ward is a Japanese rock star and was on the front of the Japanese Rolling Stones magazine!!!!!!! hahahha I learned that Sister Amat was an accountant back in Malaysia. And I learned that the rest of the people there like basketball hahah Friday was good! IT RAINED ALL DAY!!!!! CRAZY!!! I learned about a condition here called "SAD". It's seasonal depression and a lot of people get it here because it's so gloomy. I'm taking some Vitamin D as soon as I can!!! Basically this is all so new to me...so different! I'm having a hard time understanding people. I thought this young man said he couldn't speak English, so I continued to make a fool of myself trying to communicate, but he actually asked if we knew each other....he then ran away from us....FAIL. Sister Amat is great though! She is helping me out so much! She's teaching me her Malaysian ways. I've learned how to call a chicken and a pig if you want to feed them. I've learned how to speak some Malay, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and all sorts of stuff! Sister Amat cracks me up! She is still learning English and sometimes she'll mix up words and says the funniest things!!!

Example: "Today I'm going to teach people to pray in the dark" hahahhahaha

"Wait I mean how to pray when we're on the street!!" hahahahhaha

Sunday was good! The ward is interesting! They love to take care of missionaries!! I'm so surprised at how much I'm remembering about the area! The Spirit has quickened my mind and I am remembering people's names, addresses, areas, all sorts of stuff! It's really a blessing!! Yesterday was family day and it was so fun! IT WAS SO SUNNY!!!!!!!! SO WARM!!!!!!!!! We talked to so many people about the church, and I felt so successful!!! Today we are going to go to Metro Town which is in Vancouver!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!! Also we were told this week that WE ARE GOING TO THE TEMPLE NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVEN'T BEEN SINCE I WAS IN THE MTC SO I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all your prayers and continuously praying...I need a lot of help hahahah