Fall in Calgary!

 Hello Family and Friends! My apologies, I think last week was the first time on my mission I completely forgot to write home!! 15th months in and you would think it would be a habit by now... I will make this email aeSthEtic to make up for it! 

These last few weeks have been incredible! This time last year (and all the years before that) Calgary was covered in frost and snow. Now, for the first time Calgary is actually having a "fall season"! The leaves are turning yellow and falling to the ground, the weather is still warm and people are still out and about. So grateful for this season. 

I didn't take these photos but they were taken recently in Calgary:)

I know that it won't last long but I know Calgarians are loving this record breaking fall.

These last few weeks have been quite the time, we had Snow's Baptism, Zone Conference, World Record Breaking City-Wide Food Drive, Some great member-investigator FHE's, and of course LOTS of ESL work and meetings.

Snow's Baptism

The baptism went great!! The spirit was present the entire 40 minutes. We only had 8 people there but the branch was able to watch on Zoom. I had the privilege of confirming her! I think that was the first time I have ever confirmed somebody a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! The branch is grateful for Snow's faith and testimony, and will continue to welcome her with open arms! Thanks again for all who kept her in your prayers:)

Zone Conference: Cook Books

Of course we all had a wonderful time listening to President Keung tell us he loves us and train us during Zone Conference. We love him and Sister Keung and their amazing leadership in the mission!

During lunch we were able to hand out a donation from Alex Daynes and Bowthorpe and Associates. They teamed up to get every missionary their own "Back to the Basics" cookbook! 

All the missionaries were thrilled! With restrictions on member dinners we need some extra help with making food. The "Back to the Basics" cookbook is the perfect cookbook for people who have no idea what they're doing!

For Example: ME, I can barely make cereal in the mornings; but now, I have eaten my favorite breakfast 3 out of the last 5 days! (German Pancakes)

And, most of the time I eat instant noodles or Mac n Cheese for dinner; but the cookbook walked me through how to make Korean Lettuce Wraps! Love it, and so grateful for my beast older sister.

Food Drive:

The food drive was awesome! I'm not sure about the statistics but I heard we beat the world record for the biggest single day food drive by 33% (but we didn't submit it to Guiness...)
Either way it was cool that our branch and our zone got put at the same station so we were working around a bunch of people we knew! The community was loaded up on food storage they were more than happy to give to those in need. It was awesome to see the amazing amounts of food flowing in!

The End

Thank you for reading my email! I'm forever grateful for this amazing opportunity to serve here in Calgary during these crazy times. We are finding so many new ways to see miracles and help others learn more about Jesus Christ. I love the Lord and I know the Lord loves you!

Have a great time watching General Conference this week!!!

extras:

We had exchanges with the zone leaders after the food bank:) here's a pic of me and Elder Robbins in the car

We went to find a park to play frisbee for district pday and turns out the name of this Old Folks home is "Glenmore Park"... not an actual park...

But we did end up finding the real park near the lake and it was beautiful!

Much Love!

Elder Giles