Read Alma 5 - a Man on a Mission

January 23, 2018

So, I've discovered that WiFi is something that is hard to come by in this area. So if a post doesn't come through one week, sorry!

In other news, we had a cool experience today. We were waiting for a bus with our groceries for a super long time. After looking at the transit app, we discovered that the bus had disappeared into the Aether. So we decided to walk to a different bus station.

On our way there, we saw the bus we were just waiting for stop at the station we were just at; then it drove away as we stared into the sun with tears in our eyes.

So, after waiting for the next bus at a different station for a while, we decided to walk to a different one because the transit app told us to. As we were across the street from the station, the bus showed up, then left. But we choked back our tears and waited there anyway. When, to my surprise, another bus appeared!!!

So we got on and situated ourselves. I was standing there, grateful for warm air, and I was thinking about how weird it was that the buses would be that wonky today, when I felt an impression that we were put on this bus for a reason.

Elder S then noticed a former investigator that was sitting right next to where we were standing.

Miracles happen all the time. Sometimes we just don't realize, but I guess that's why we're told to count our many blessings??

February 6, 2018

Man! It's been a really short year! I don't even know what to say about it, haha. So much has happened just this last week even!

Though the craziest thing that happened had to be when we got a car!!! Nothing in this world is more beautiful than having a car with seat warmers in -30°C.

In other news, there is a lady who is coming back to church after being inactive for a while, and it just so happens that her kids are of age to be baptized! So we've been teaching her kids, John and Leah (pronounced Lia?? (looking at you Lia 😉)) for a while now. They will probably have a baptismal date soon!

And now for something completely different! I have a lot of things to look back on this last year, from having the best trainer ever, to the steak challenge, to the pancake surprise with Elder A, losing my shoes in a river, almost dying on the way to Red Deer with Elder Greer (never forget!), learning how bad English really is with Elder S, teaching the gospel through Dungeons and Dragons (also Elder S (Heavenly Father is the DM of our lives (think about it))), hearing about D from Leduc who got baptized!, learning how not to bash, haha, meeting some of the coolest people in the world (too many to name), tearing up Fort Saskatchewan with Elder A, getting super buff (like Batman), walking through the snow with Elder S, and many, many more things!

It doesn't look like a lot when it's condensed into paragraph form, but it's still a pretty nice list of things if I do say so myself.

It's been a year of change, too. I feel like a completely different person from before I came here, and I hope I've changed even more when I get back.

The Day the Car Stood Still; Merry Boxing Day!

December 19, 2017

So a few interesting things happened that should keep y'all occupied for the duration of this post.
First, I got a speeding ticket! Yay! I thought I was on a different road... and our tiwi didn't tell me... so I ended up going 70 in a 50 zone and the scary Canadian speed radar took my picture.

On a different note, though, we were having lunch with a member yesterday and he was showing us some of his collections. He had a katana, some canes that turn into swords, pictures, and watches that he was showing us. Me, being the weirdo that I am, brought out my watch and started bragging about my $20 Walmart watch. Also Elder A made a joke that I could trade my watch for one of his, so the member I guess took pity on me or something and gave me one of his watches! Elder A and I both refused, but he was persistent and pretty serious. So now I have like an $850 watch!!! Kinda blew both our brains pretty permanently. So uh, Merry Christmas, I guess!

And finally, Christmas is gonna be a happening! Which means that I'm gonna be calling home that day. Kind of excited for that.

December 26, 2017

I want to wish you all a very merry Boxing Day today! (Think black Friday, but more Canada.)
Also Christmas happened! It's crazy to think that the last time I saw my family they were sitting in the exact same spot as when we first Skyped. It's like they haven't moved for 8 months! Crazy.

Though not much else happened. We ate a bunch of food, sang a bunch of songs, and did some altogether merry celebrating. 10/10

January 9, 20018

I'm in Bearspaw! Which is in Edmonton! Which is the city! Which is crazy!
I never really thought I would ever go to the city, but I guess this is where I'm supposed to be.

My new companion's name is Elder S, he's like 6' 6", and this is his third transfer!
Yeah... He kinda towers over me, haha.

Bearspaw is awesome. We don't have a car, but we share bus passes with some other elders, which means that we get to ride the trains! Every day! ????????
It's been awesome so far.

One thing I feel I don't do enough in these posts is share my testimony. So I'm going to do that now.

I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I also know that I was sent to Bearspaw for a very specific reason (maybe a few reasons). I've also already figured out what one of those reasons is.

One thing people in the mission here say a lot is "there is no growth in the comfort zone, and there is no comfort in the growth zone." I testify that that statement is mostly true. There is no growth in the comfort zone. But through prayer and through the Spirit, we can always have comfort.

When we go on the trains we are expected to talk to people. Its our main source of finding here. I've only ever really done tracting, so it was a few fields outside of my comfort zone. And so, being out of the comfort zone, I "grew" I guess you could say. I realized after a couple of days of not talking to people on the train, that if I was going to do this, I would need help from God.

I got that help. But only because I asked for it. And it was awesome! And so I testify to you that prayer works. I don't know what I'd do without it. I've now talked to quite a few people, and this is probably the most fun I've had finding people on my mission!

And I'll end with a funny story (Or at least I thought it was funny).

We were scraping ice off this guy's driveway, and when we finished he gave us three chocolate banana muffins!

We both ate one waiting for the bus. Then when we got to the bus station, Elder S said I could have the other muffin. We still had the box for the muffins and didn't want to carry it around, so I obliged and we threw the container away. Not one minute later, our bus arrived.

That was a problem. We can't eat on the bus and I'd only taken one bite!

So we made our way towards the bus and I was trying to elegantly cram the muffin into my face (I have better manners now, Mom!), and I realized that I didn't have enough time before we entered the bus. I don't know how or why I did this, but right before I entered the bus, my panicked gut reaction was to shove the rest of it in my pocket! Which I instantly regretted. Nice pants + banana chocolate chunk muffin = ??

Don't know why I thought it was funny. But I thought it was. Thanks for letting me waste your time!

I may or may not be getting fat, and, Attack of the Santa Clones! *true story*

November 28, 2017

We got to go to the temple today (??)! Also we had a lesson with T that went pretty good.
And last but not least, we made food on Thanksgiving! (It was actually the day after, but, whatever). I made a salad, and Elder A did the rest.

December 5, 2017

So I don't really think I'm getting fat, I mean it's never happened before, but I have never been given so many unhealthy sugary foods!!! If there was ever a time to get fat, it would be here.

On another note, it's been a busy week. We pretty much just did service for people all week! It was pretty crazy. Although, this week is a little calmer so we should have some time to do some hardcore tracting!!! We've been dropping a lot of people recently, so we've got to find some more people to teach.

We also watched the Christmas devotional with T! I thought it was awesome! Especially President Uchtdorf's talk. I'm not sure how T felt about it, though. It's hard for her to open up, it seems.

December 12, 2017

Quite a bit happened this week, actually. We did a bunch of tracting, found a bunch of awesome potentials, dropped a bunch of people, got attacked by Santa Clones, and just had an all around great week! Also it's like 8°C today! I'm not sure what that is Fahrenheit, but it's much warmer than it has been!

We found one guy who was really awesome and his name was M. We shared the Christmas video with him and talked about service, then he gave us some water bottles and (Arabian) chocolate wafers! So, he totally lit our world yesterday.

We've been meeting with a bunch of people recently, but all we've really done is service because of how their health is. We even baked some bread for one lady. Though I'm afraid that T pretty much dropped us. We're gonna try talking to her one more time to see what's up today, probably.

And now for the Santa Clones! (Save it till the end so you gotta read the whole thing to find it.)
So, we were tracting at the end of the day, one time, and there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. We were at the last house, standing there, waiting for someone to answer, when suddenly a bunch of blow up Santa people started growing from the snow! One was riding a motorcycle, another had a surf board, and all of them were glowing! One of them was even hiding on the porch right behind us! They were playing creepy Christmas tunes and jiggling around like the creepy Santa Clones they are! Nobody answered the door, so we promptly escaped from the nightmare.

Attack of "The Narwhal!" and Promised Blessings

November 13, 2017

We have a mission tour with an area seventy tomorrow.

So, I figured out how to spell my companion's name, he is Elder A. He is like another brother, haha. We have too much fun together.

But we've also been getting some fun work done here. when I first got here we got a referral for a lady named T! She's been our main focus. We had one lesson with her on Friday and she was looking for a lot of peace and comfort in her life, so we had a good lesson with her. We went through a little bit of the Plan of Salvation, and it seems her only concern is that her beliefs don't quite match up with ours. We're going to have another lesson with her tonight, and we have some really good fellowshipping being done!

Also, for those of you that know her, Sister D is in our area! For those who don't know her, she is the housing coordinator for the mission, and she's awesome! Though, if there was ever a time in my life that I would get fat, it's here... people are feeding us like crazy! We didn't even need to go shopping today because of the amount of food we still have left!

I almost forgot to explain the subject line haha. Pretty much we were playing basket ball with some members here and I had a hockey stick. The basket ball game turned into dodge ball in the dark (my fault) which then turned into hide and seek (not my fault.) And the hockey stick at some point was dubbed "The Narwhal". Weirdest. P-day. Ever!

November 21, 2017

Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy was here on Tuesday, and I learned some pretty cool stuff. There was a lot talked about, but what stuck out to me the most was repentance. More specifically: true repentance is conversion. It's been pretty cool to see people in the scriptures who have gone through this principal and have done some amazing things--Jonah and the big ol' fish thing for example. After the trial of his faith, he received a witness and repented. He then went on to do some really cool stuff! If he wouldn't have had that conversion experience, it makes me wonder if he would have had as much success in the vineyard.

On another note, we had a lesson with T! And what a lesson it was.

We were going to go through the restoration with her a bit, but the lesson turned into us talking about faith and beliefs, mainly on how if we exercise our faith, then we will be able to turn our beliefs into knowledge.

Also, at one point during the lesson I felt super strongly that I should promise her a blessing that she would find the help she needs as she reads the Book of Mormon. Which was a huge surprise for me! I was super nervous, but the feeling was so strong that I did eventually do it.

It's amazing what the Holy Ghost does to our lessons. We were just gonna talk about priesthood and stuff, but nope! This really is The Lord's work, and he's not just going to watch us from afar in his cozy lawn chair under his umbrella. It's like what it says in Jacob chapter 5:16--"And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard, and also the servant, went down into the vineyard to labor."
And labor we did!

The lesson with Tammy went really well. Also, for those who've inquired, Elder A is from Toronto! But before that, he was in the Philippines for a while, so he likes to make us Filipino food. It's nice to have someone in the house who can cook again!

Adventure in the Great White North: Preaching love and peace with other well dressed guys

October 24, 2017

We had some pretty fun stuff happen this week!

First of all, we went tracting in the most unpredictable town in our area (Bowden (it's south!)) and we met a guy named J. J is a self proclaimed all mighty healer and a prophet! he was a pretty chill guy, so we talked with him for a bit, apparently he can just go around touching people and healing them like Jesus did, but he decides to just chill at home all day instead of actually doing that... in Bowden... in a trailer park... so, yeah...

We also met another guy in Innisfail who was pretty excitable. He kept spouting off false doctrine and contradicting himself. We didn't even really need to say anything, though. I think he noticed the inconsistencies after a few minutes and stopped talking, so we shook his hand and left him to think about it. That was a fun experience.

On a different note, a member had us over for dinner right on the edge of Pine Lake, which is where his house is even! When we got there he told us that dinner wasn't ready yet and that we could take some fishing poles into the backyard for a bit and go fishing till dinner was ready! So we did that! Didn't catch anything, but we had a lot of fun pulling seaweed out of the lake!

On a more spiritual note, We had the traveling Elders here again recently, and the main thing we focused on was helping members do missionary work, so we practiced teaching each other before actually going to a lesson with a member family. When we were practicing, though, we had to make up situations that could possibly be something that a member would say, and the crazy part is that the members actually were in those exact situations! The exact situation we practiced was the exact situation the members were in!!! It's crazy how accurate the practice was! It just goes to show how much this is Heavenly Father's work as well. He gave us the inspiration to help the members find ways to share the gospel with their friends in Texas that they're meeting with in Costa Rica in a few weeks!!!

The gospel is true, folks. I'm super happy to be here in a place where I can focus on helping people receive the restored gospel. I mean, who wouldn't want to be able to see miracles like this on a regular basis (granted they're not always this extreme.)

November 7, 2017

This last week was super interesting! We helped out with a food drive, it snowed, my eyelashes were iced over, and we had a double feature on exchanges with the Three Hills elders.

So yeah... it snowed! And it's pretty cold. (Jaden, if you're reading this then it's raining boiling water every day and I love it.)

On the subject of exchanges! I was in Three Hills for 2 days, and Elder B was in Innisfail. The Three Hills elders just switched between us two during the experience. The first day (Thursday afternoon - Friday afternoon) I was with Elder S in Three Hills, and it was cold! It was fun, though; we pretty much just froze to death for a while, but we did get some work done as we walked around the unplowed streets of Three Hills. The second day (Friday afternoon - Saturday afternoon),  Elder W and I also froze to death, but we also locked ourselves out of the house for a bit. We found some nice neighbors who let us in until the landlord came to open the door. So, I guess it's a good finding opportunity to get stuck outside in the snow when it's super dark outside! Noted!

Also transfers are a happenin'! And I'm getting booted out of Innisfail! And I'm going to a place called Fort Saskatchewan with an elder who has a name I don't know how to spell! But it'll be fun! I have a good track record for having awesome areas.
Lastly, this next transfer is going to be 8 weeks instead of 6 because of Christmas stuff, I guess.

I'm gonna miss Innisfail, but I'm looking forward to continue being outlying!

General Conference! WOO! Push Along to Zone Conference!

October 3, 2017

Snow is here!!! It's not bad yet, and it's probably going to melt before the week is over, but it's here, and it's cold (Jaden if you're reading, it's not cold, summer is here for the second time in a row, and I most certainly did not buy new gloves today.(Mom if you're reading, I did buy new gloves today, just thought I'd let you know.))

But the most exciting part was most definitely General Conference!!!
It was pretty awesome. I used to not care that much, but since I came on my mission I've been super hyped to watch it, and I can't wait for them to put it on Gospel Library so I can read what I missed. Though C wasn't able to make it, we will still probably show it to her sometime, maybe print some talks out for her or something. I wish we would've had some investigators with us, but to no avail. One of these days we're going to have an investigator at church.
I did have a question coming into conference--I should write down the answer, haha.

The other exciting part is Elder B! He's awesome. His family lives in Southern Utah somewhere, but he was actually living in South Jordan a little bit before his mission. He's been a member for almost 3 years now, and he is super diligent. It's been fun to be around a guy who has English as a first language, haha. We haven't been doing a lot of teaching recently, but we should be able to teach together effectively. He is super hard working; he got in the apartment and we instantly started on a deep clean of the place. so our apartment looks really awesome now, haha.

October 10, 2017

It's been a pretty solid week of straight up tracting! And we've just about tracted all of Innisfail, haha. We did have a few lessons with some random pastors we found, but the best lesson we had was probably with C--she's doing awesome! Though it seems like every time church is coming up she literally can't come, but she's been doing all she can to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, so it's just a matter of time!

On the subject of the weather! Its actually been pretty warm in the afternoons recently, though it sounds like we're gonna to get a bunch of snow soon. They call this place the "Snow Belt"--apparently they get more snow here than they do in Calgary or Red Deer (which is a little bit north of us) and everyone seems to have some snow horror stories, haha. I'm excited for winter for some reason.

October 17, 2017

We had Zone Conference! We talked a lot about member missionary work and how we can help members to do it. It made me think a little bit about how much missionary work I did back home... so about nothing... which I think isn't that uncommon; but if it was more common, then we would definitely have more success with investigators. 

 

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel.

So we've been tracting a lot, and not much has come of it... but with this I think we could easily help strengthen members and help people learn about the gospel--two birds with one stone, you could say. 

Also, every member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a missionary! Just because not all of you are in the field doesn't mean that you can't still feel the same joy of sharing the Gospel. I'd like to invite all of you to think of ways you can be more involved in sharing the happiness we all enjoy with others. 

Proud Supporter of Crime

September 19, 2017

We had the chili cook off and C came! We've been working with C a lot recently and she is progressing soooo much! She asked for a priesthood blessing for something that she felt only God could fix, and lo and behold her faith made her whole! She is awesome to work with; she said she's gonna come to church this next week and then she's probably gonna be baptized! She already has an awesome testimony and is super excited to continue to learn. 

On the subject of other investigators:

We dropped pretty much everyone else 🤷🏼‍♂️

We're going to try again with N and A in a month or so, and everyone else just kinda fell off the face of the planet. But! We found an awesome family in Springbrook who are now investigators! The mother and the daughter have some awesome potential; we taught them the restoration and the daughter was super excited. Apparently their family had been going to a bunch of different churches because their oldest daughter has a lot of questions and nobody seems to know the answers, so she asked us how she can know if God exists, so we said she should ask God if He exists. She paused for a second then looked at her Mom and was like "I've been wondering that for SO long!" So yeah, we're excited about them.

It's been super awesome here. Next week is transfers and we're thinking Elder S is gonna be booted out to Yellowknife or something. Though if its me that's being transferred, then it will probably be outlying again, unless they want me to be able to do street contacting, haha.

September 26, 2017

It's been a pretty average week, I suppose; we went tracting, stopped by some people, taught some lessons, almost got eaten by spiders, etc...

Though C didn't come to church last time because she was busy, she is most definitely going to be at the church for General Conference!!! Both days!!! Also she said that she feels God is pulling her towards baptism, so she's just doing super great.

Also transfer calls happened, and Elder S is going to Edmonton! And I'm staying here 😁 which is awesome. My new companion will be Elder B; he's also from Utah, and I met him up in Edmonton before. I don't know a ton about him, but he's a hard worker from what I've seen and heard, so it should be awesome. I'm just really happy I get to stay here for a bit longer; I'm not done with these people, haha.

I can't think of anything else super interesting, but since conference is coming up, I'd like to invite y'all to go into it with a question you want answered. It's a great time to receive the answers to questions, and it works awesomely, so do it.

I can't wait for winter to come destroy all the spiders 😁

P.S. I probably should explain the subject line, and maybe even the spider thing... so I'm gonna do that.

On the windows of some houses there are stickers that say different stuff like "security"or something, but we have found a lot recently that say "Proud supporter of CRIME" on them. It's like a neighborhood watch program or something, but the word choice makes my day every time.

Also spiders are in season this time of year, it seems. We tracted one house that had somewhat of a spider issue on the outside, and I didn't realize it until it was almost too late. So Elder S stopped at the steps and watched me walk straight into the scene from Harry Potter 2 with all the spiders surrounding me, slowly coming down to eat me. I don't think I've ever felt more uncomfortable in my life. 🕸🕸🕷😨🕷🕸🕸

Missed the Eclipse; 😆😃😊☺🙂😐😑😮😫😱 - Life Without Electricity

August 22, 2017

On the subject of the eclipse... I missed it. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I'm pretty sure we were doing language study or lunch or something at the time and totally missed it, haha. But hey, it sounds like y'all had fun, and there are some awesome pictures of the temple during it going around.

Also I haven't really used Facebook as much as I thought I would, we only have one guy who uses it and it's the guy who likes to bash with us soooo yeah... but we will probably find someone else soon.

Speaking of people, we have some investigators who are really progressing! It's exciting.

A and C have both changed so much from when I first met them.

Innisfail is cool, the church is true, and I'm better at soccer than I thought I was. 😁

August 29, 2017

Today was probably the most boring p-day ever. We had things scheduled to do, but they all fell through. So we just stayed at our place and mentally died while studying.
But! We had some cool stuff happen. We went on exchanges with the district leader and his greenie in Three Hills. I was with Elder W (The great green one) and we had an awesome day! Though it's super weird to work with people who have less time here than I do, it's crazy! I almost feel old. But seriously, I just have to do what I just did 3 more times and my mission is over! That's too fast!

In other news, we have been meeting with C twice a week studying the Book of Mormon with her and helping her understand it, and she is making huge progress! Though she still doesn't feel comfortable coming to church yet, but hey, I'm totally cool with the pace that she's going at.

We haven't been able to meet with A at all since the last time, but he does seem like he really wants to meet, so we're gonna figure it out.

We've been dropping a ton of people in the area book after stopping by them. But we're also getting a lot of people to call or visit, so I'm happy.

September 12, 2017

So I had this idea in my head that I would never go a week without emailing people, but destiny had other plans. Last week was crazy! In a good way. We had to get the car fixed from when some other missionaries ran it into a snow man, so we got to do a lot more biking😁 and also the power went out a few times. 😁

But after all that crazy stuff we got to have the traveling elders over here for a day! Elders K and P. We learned more stuff from them about Facebook and the digital area book that we're now using to do some awesome stuff. 

On the subject of investigators, we haven't seen many of them recently due to jobs, sickness, and gravity issues. But we do have a lot of people that we've been finding that seem to have quite a bit of potential. One if them we found on Sunday night said he really wanted to meet with us and asked us for our phone number! Usually it's the other way around! We're also starting to almost teach people entirely through Facebook! We won't even need to go to their house or anything! It's weird, but it will let us have more contact with people and have more time to do stuff.

One of the people we found is actually an administrator at the high school in Innisfail. His name is N. He said he had some questions about the Book of Mormon, so we met with him recently and explained it more. He said we can come back and also that he would read it and pray about it, so I'm excited. 

And finally we have the chili cook off this Saturday! We have invited so many people to it it's not even funny, so hopefully we'll have a good turnout. Also the people in this ward make really good chili, so there's that to be excited for as well. 

Shout out to my bro back home who is now officially an adult 😲 which is weird.

💣It's fine don't worry about it: Dance like the rising sun

July 25, 2017

Last time I didn't explain what I meant about the "Fire". Well what it was kinda metaphorical, but I guess also literal with all the forest fires we've been hearing about over in British Colombia.

Also, it's funny, our last dinner appointment last night told us to find a pioneer story for the after dinner thing that was happening. So I looked at my family history for probably the first time seriously, and found some pioneer stories to share, but I also found a Hannah Dustin or Duston, it has both. She was captured by some natives and brought to a certain island, then during the night she took one of their hatches and slew 10 of them escaping with some other prisoners! I was like ?? family history is cool?!?! So yeah, they later named the island Dustin Island, and I think they do tours and such. But it was kinda cool to see family history in a different light. It is a great source to learn from other people's actions and the consequences of them.

August 1, 2017

This last week was pretty normal, we had some lessons and found a lady who really wants to come to church! So that's exciting, but I think the biggest surprise here is what's going to be happening this next week.

We have interviews with President Pattison tonight at 8, so we get to take a 2 hour drive up to Edmonton, then the next day we will have zone conference, and the next day we will have a training on how to use the new smartphones and Facebook stuff for missionary things, and to end it off we get to have another 2 hour drive back to Innisfail! What a week! I still think the concept of me using Facebook is weird, pretty much everyone back home encouraged me to not get Facebook ?? so what happens? I go on a mission and get Facebook! Weirds me out.

In other news, gravity still works. I have dedicated part of my knee to this scientific display of pain. We were riding around on bikes, and I tried to make a corner way too sharp, so now I have the battle scar of a champion (or just a guy who fell off his bike, but champions are cooler.)

Oh, also, I forgot to mention that we are going to be staying with the Spanish elders up in Belmead for most of the week, so that will be fun. Everyone will know Spanish but me!??
I'll just practice my gibberish or something.

I know that this church is true; I know that Heavenly Father is helping us to have His work progress in every way He can, and I know that there is nothing else I should be doing right now.

August 8, 2017

First of all, we have Facebook. Or to be more specific, I personally have Facebook. And it's weird. To establish some rules first, I can be friends with family members and actual friends back home, and people can follow me around on it, but it is still recommended that the social interaction between me and anyone back home is limited to emailing on p-day as usual.

The purpose of using Facebook is so that we can teach people who don't have a lot of time to meet, or they live far away, etc. It is also used to interact with members and get referrals and fellowshippers for investigators in a more organized manner.

For those that don't know, I have never used Facebook before, so I have no idea what I am doing most of the time??. But it has already helped a lot of people (in other areas) to meet with missionaries and such, so it is a good tool. The problem is, none of our investigators have Facebook, and the one who does is the guy that likes to bash with us ??????? so not a lot of success with it yet, but we are still trying.

In other news, we still haven't had any investigators at church, and everyone is on holiday so we can't meet with them. So naturally we have been tracting our hearts out! Yay! Tracting is such an interesting activity. Something weird happens every time, and it can be both awesome and dreadful, depends on the day, I guess. But now that the holiday is over, we should start teaching people again.

Going back to zone conference and training and such, Elder S and I were in Edmonton for 2 days and 2 nights staying with the Spanish North/Belmead tri-pan, and it was pretty fun. We decided that since there wasn't enough beds for everyone, we needed to build a fort out of the mattresses, blankets, sheets, and pillows that we did have. So yeah, that happened.

I didn't learn any Spanish though (Sorry, Lia). Elder S is trying to not use Spanish at all, and I pretty much just told them that "I am a pineapple" in French if they were talking in Spanish all together. So, yeah.

On a more spiritual note, in sacrament meeting, I feel that most of the people's testimonies were directed to me and the questions I had and the things I had prayed for. It was an amazing experience. I saw a quote somewhere that really sums up what I feel about prayer and it says "When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don't, they don't."- someone probably. I've seen this a lot in my life, and before my mission I saw a lot of miracles and treated them like coincidences. I had a "It was probably what was going to happen anyways, and it wasn't even that spectacular" attitude, but now I see that I pray for something, and it happens! Even if it was going to happen anyways it still answers the prayer. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

About the subject line above: We usually just listen to "Motab" or Christian rock music, and one of the songs has the lyrics saying that they would "dance like the rising sun!" And I was trying to picture what that would look like, and I'd recommend y'all to do it too, it's a pretty funny picture.

Also I've been getting a lot of comments about my bike accident, it wasn't that bad, don't worry I'm fine, it's pretty much healed now, and I don't have to use a wheelchair anymore. 😁

So to summarize: Its fine, don't worry about it. 😁

Argentina, maple syrup, lessons, and fire: plant the plants, fight the good fight

July 11, 2017

Innisfail is awesome. Me and Elder S have been having a ton of fun working together. Also I spelled his name wrong last week, sorry.

We have had the opportunity to teach a bunch of people this week too. And also the last missionary that was here went home on Sunday night after bringing his family to church here in Innisfail. So meeting him was pretty fun.

I don't have a ton of time, but just know, I'm doing awesome, and we are seeing miracles!

July 25, 2017

Innisfail is awesome; we are teaching a lot of people, and we're having a blast doing it. Elder S reminds me a lot of my brother (Shout out to ya bro!) So we've been getting along fine. He is learning English still, but he is pretty much fluent. Also to give some background on him: he's from Argentina, he speaks Spanish sometimes, he loves the gospel, and he isn't a fan of Chileans, sorry sis😂. Though he is probably one of my favorite companions, definitely one of the top 3.

Area wise, we have a lot of people to teach. Some of the main ones that we're meeting with are: A and L, A is the son of L, and we have been teaching them or at least trying, haha. L is kinda an eternigator (eternal investigator), but technically pretty much their whole family is progressing, or at least they are reading the bible and praying about the Book of Mormon (we're working on getting them to read the Book of Mormon and then pray about it.) But they are on holiday right now, so we can't really teach them yet.

We also have C, she is progressing great, or at least she was until she told us about her ability to heal people with the energy behind her shoulders... We're working on it. 

We also have some less actives that we've been teaching a bit. R is one of them, we are having a tough time getting fellowshippers for her, but she comes to church on a semi-regular basis, so it's a weird situation.

One weird thing that happens here in Innisfail is when we go to R's house every other p-day to play dungeons and dragons with a nonmember, a potential, a former investigator, a less active, and one of R's home teachers. It's crazy! But pretty fun. And we get to sneak in some teaching while we do it, and we have a fellowshipper for all of them! 

We also have bikes! Well we do now, we kind of have a limit on how many kilometers we're supposed to use in a month, and when they brought the car up to Edmonton for transfers and when I brought it back with Elder G (never forget) we kinda destroyed our klicks for the month🤷🏼‍♂️ so some members are letting us use some old bikes of theirs! It's been awesome to ride a bike on my misssion! You always hear the stories of missionaries on their bikes doing awesome stuff, and I was kinda bummed that we didn't have bikes before when I was in Leduc, but now we have bikes! And it's awesome, I feel majestic.