Shaylee made it through her first week on her mission.  She was assigned to a trio and is in the sherwood park area. (Glen Allen)  She is in a very nice house with two living rooms, two bathrooms a big kitchen, and 3 bedrooms.  She is getting used to having a trio, wood forks, the different way to read the weather, the colder weather, and having to be in the same room as cats when they teach. She is doing well though. Here is her update for the week.

Shaylee Monson

Mon, Jul 28, 8:38 AM

CHAPTER 3: Glen Allen 

WEATHER UPDATE: my weather ranged from 20-15°C this week. Which is 68-59°F. It literally rained every single day ive been here. And some days its also really windy which makes it colder. Our mission presidents told us to expect frost in about 2 weeks or so. Ive already pulled out my winter bags

IM OFFICALLY IN CANADA!!!! This week has been so crazy! I arrived in Canada on Tuesday and we slept at a hotel Tuesday night. The next day we got introduced to our companions. Our mission president had like a whole game show set up. Each new missionary would stand in the center of the room and than he announced where you were serving and who your companion was going to be, than your companion would run in and give you a hug or cool handshake! Or in my case companions! IM IN A TRIO! I'm in a trio with sister Ballard and sister Hinds! Everyone says that sister hinds last name needs to be sister Nelson and than we would have the dream team. They are both super sweet and kind and ive loved serving with them so far. 

It was sister Ballards birthday this week and so we got acai bowels to celebrate. We also went to a members house and they made her a cute cake as well. They made us all wear "birthday hats" for sister Ballards birthday and so that was fun. 

In my area we do service at a old folks home with people who have some more special needs. It's actually so fun and we go over there twice a week and do an activity with them and than sing with them. Another young guy who also has some more special needs comes and puts on a concert for the older people. I accidently yawned during one of this songs and he called me out for it and asked how the church of jesus christ of latter day Saints would feel about me not listening to his song 

Okay guys i don't even know how I started this email without telling you the most important thing I did this week. Here it is: i touched a cat. Not only did i touch a cat, I set for a whole entire 30 minute lesson while the cat roamed around me. It was so close to me. I probably said about 5 prayers that lesson. I'm not sure i was really paying attention to the lesson but by the time we got done I didn't even care i was just proud I got through! Lowkey one of my proudest moments since being a missionary

Oh also I put someone on date for baptism. It's whatever  his name is Saul and he is honestly one of the sweetest people ive ever met. I wish every person we teach would be more like Saul. He has such a strong testimony and the spirit was so strong in that meeting. So mark you'r dates for August 9 because Saul is getting baptized!! 

Weird things in canada:

○ Stop lights 

○ All of their candy

○ The word wash room

○ Wood forks 

○ Celsius 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: 

The other day me and my comps were driving down a road to go knock some doors. Sister Ballard swerved over to the side and told me and sister Hinds to go chase down a dude that was walking. He was walking really fast and at this point he was a decent amount ahead of us but i got out and did as I was told anyway. I looked at sister hinds and said "he kinda looks scary" and she replied "sometimes that's just how it is" "hes still a child of god though" So we start running after this dude and eventually just yell at him because we couldn't keep up. He stopped and waited and and we gave him our spill and he said that he's already met with missionaries before and that he would love to have more lessons. So we got his number and he shook our hand and we have a lesson with him this week. I learned two things that were really valuable after that. 1. God puts people in our paths all the time. He's always trying to help us gather his lost children. As we look outward we can find those he puts in our paths and help them feel of their savoris love 2. Never judge someone off of their outward appearance. Sister hinds response to my statement was such a great reminder to me that everyone is a child of god. No matter how someone may seem on the outside we are all children of God. He loves each and everyone one of us. And as his disciples we should be emulating that love day after day to those around us. 

Okay sorry for the extra long email this week! I love and miss you all and hope everyone is doing good!! Thanks for all the support and cute messages throughout my week!!