Gretchen Becomes an Official Islander!

We talked with Gretchen on Mother's Day and she sounded wonderful! (Missionaries can call home twice a year: Mother's Day and Christmas) We all laughed very hard as she tried to describe how she and her companion did exercises every morning from 6:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. We told her going up and down two short flights of stairs once or twice didn't count as an exercise regime.

Here are some excerpts from her letters and some pictures she sent as well!

"As usual, time is short so I might not get around to all of the stories I was planning on telling. Sister Weber and I are running off to a lunch appointment and then we're going to see the Wax Museum, which I am inordinately excited about. But it was so much fun to talk to you last night--I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time."

"We had a cool experience last week with a girl named Katy. She's taking some college classes at UVIC and living with her family. Her parents are not church-goers, but she recently started attending a Christian church downtown. We gave her a church tour and also taught her the first lesson. When we taught the Restoration, the spirit was so strong and she described it as being "really intense." We're meeting with her later this week."

"So today is Victoria Day and I'm assuming it's to commemorate Queen Victoria or something. On big holidays, EVERYTHING closes down (except for the staples like grocery stores--thank heavens--and gas stations) and we really needed to get our oil changed, so that'll just have to happen somehow next week."

"Last week we did end up going to the Royal London Wax Museum, which was an absolute hoot. We got some awesome pictures with some famous people (including Brigham Young, "the founder of Mormonism"--ha) and then once that was over, we walked down by the waterfront. We also stopped in to the Church of Christ Cathedral and ate at the Beacon Drive In for dinner. Best butterscotch sundae EVER. That was one of the best P-days I've had so far. Today, however, isn't quite that interesting. We did take a walk down by Elk Lake and then after that, we came home and ate organic cereal with organic soy milk and I'm pretty sure that those two things make us official Islanders."

"After knocking on many doors the other night, it was time to go home and we started back to our car when a girl yelled out to us from in front of her townhome, "Hey, can I talk to you?!" Sister Weber and I basically looked at each other, like, "You really want to talk to us? Nobody EVER wants to talk to us!" She told us that even though her mom turned us down, that she heard us talking to her neighbor. So she waited for us at the bottom of her stairs because she wanted to "talk to some of the girl missionaries, because I only ever see boys." We answered a few of her questions and set up an appointment for this Wednesday. So we're really looking forward to that."