🎶I BLESS THE RAIN DOWN IN AAALLLLBERTAA🎶

June 25, 2018

We cover two areas up here. Slave Lake is one and Athabasca is the other. So, last Friday, we drove for a couple hours and did some work in Athabasca for a few days! We stayed at a member's house around there and it was awesome. 

It rained a bit, but that made it easier to talk to people. Because most people are super nice here.

It was super good. We took a lot of pictures, drank a lot of cream soda, and talked to a lot of really cool people.  Also, Elder W got to go all farmer on us when he found out the members we were staying with lived on a farm, so we took a bunch of farm pictures, mostly.

We also have zone conference this week. We're driving into Edmonton tomorrow and will be there for three days. Also, we are having a mission-wide 5K run right after zone conference on Wednesday, so it's going to be a crazy busy week.😬 Bring it on.

July 3, 2018

We had zone conference! The theme of the conference was "our purpose". We were talking about, well, our purpose, I guess. We also talked a lot about Preach My Gospel, and how they updated it! They made a new version of Preach My Gospel that's on gospel library that we've been reading like crazy. One of the things changed is that it says: 

Preach My Gospel is as much for Church members as it is for the full-time missionaries of the Church. The principles and doctrine taught in this guide are applicable to all members as they seek to build the Lord’s kingdom. Frequent study of this manual will help members better answer gospel questions, learn and teach the doctrine of Christ’s gospel, fulfill their responsibilities as member missionaries, and foster unity with the full-time missionaries.

Read it! It changed my perception of the gospel super fast. It's important.

Zone conference was super weird, though. The Sisters that came out the same time I did are going home at the end of the transfer! That means I've only got like 6-7 months left! That's crazy! We got to hear their departing testimonies at zone conference, and it made me feel super old.

We also had the 5K run/walk afterwards... I'm still alive (reference the "walk" part). 

And now we are in Peace River for a few days on exchanges with our district leader! Yay! 

Oh yeah, also, Canada day was supposed to happen, but the citizens of Slave Lake did not want to celebrate in the rain... so we just wore our most patriotic socks and ties and went tracting with Elder R (my weird nephew) and Elder K ("The bald one").

July 10, 2018

I thought that I've already been through the craziest that Canada has to offer, but my eyes were opened this last week.

We were in Peace River with Elder A (district leader) and Elder C (awesome dude) from Monday night until Thursday afternoon on exchanges. And, since it's a far drive, we all five of us were in one apartment! That was crazy enough, but Peace River is a weird place, so there is more.

We only had 4 beds, but Elder A had a hammock set up somehow, so we switched off who got to use it every night.

The first night was mostly normal, but the second night... the ninja cat arrived.

The hammock needs two things to support it, like two trees or something. But we didn't have any trees in the apartment, so we had one end tied to a door, and the other tied to a post out the window...☺

When I woke up the second morning there was a cat right in front of my face staring at me! Scared the snot out of me. Apparently it had just crawled in and out all night. Didn't really do much, but it was pretty funny.

Also! I am now allergic to cats ever since I went to Innisfail. Not sure if I've mentioned that before...  The third night is what really killed me, though. When the cat came the first time I was in the hammock, so it didn't bother me much, but the third night I was on the ground! When I woke up the next morning I was dying! And the cat was climbing all over me! It was hilarious.

Anyway, we were able to do some awesome things in Peace River while we were there. We did a lot of tracting, did a lot of teaching, and had lots of success! It was awesome!  At the end of it all, Elder A and I were having an exchange review outside the church building. The other Elders were off doing service, I think. 

As we were discussing the last few days, we saw a deer on the hillside right next to us. We thought that was pretty cool, but deer are everywhere, so we didn't pay any mind to it.

Then right when we were finishing up, we saw a younger deer sprinting across the same hillside. We were like "huh, it's probably looking for it's mom or something... I wonder what spooked them this way." At that exact moment, we heard some rustling in the bushes near the deer.
Then we saw a BIG BEAR! AND IT WAS COMING IN OUR DIRECTION!!! 

We got away, but it was an experience I will never forget.

🎶I BLESS THE RAAAAIN DOWN IN SLAAAVE LAAAAKE🎶

June 5, 2018

I'm leaving Leduc! Again... not surprising I guess, but President was saying I could stay there for another 2 or 3 transfers.

My next area is Slave Lake, which is about two and a half hours north of Edmonton! 

My companions are going to be Elder W and Elder R! That's right, another tri-pan! I've been around Elder W a bit, but I don't know much about Elder R. I'm excited, though!

I'm really glad I was able to come back to Leduc. It's been a great experiences to see how things and people have changed, but also how some things stay the same. I've noticed that everything that changed was changed for the better! 

June 12, 2018

So, like, I'm in the best companionship in the mission. Elder W is one of my favorite people. He's from a small town in Idaho called Burley. He is a farmer dude with a bunch of cow stories. He enjoys long walks on the beach, farming, writing poetry, and potatoes (Idaho potatoes). He is also super obedient while having fun, so it's been a great time with him.

He goes home halfway through next transfer, though, so I'll probably "kill him off".

Elder R is also a pretty interesting guy. He's half Canadian, half USA-ian. He's from Ontario, like long walks on the beach, football, driving, and being alone... (his words, not mine, except for the beach part, that was me.)

We're helping him to be the best he can be. 

We don't have anyone we're working with yet, so it's just a bunch of finding for now, but we will find someone this week for y'all.

Also as the subject suggests, it's been raining for three days straight and the town might flood today, so I thought it would be applicable. 

We also got to hear the prophet! It was after transfers, so I wasn't able to see him in person, but he went more in detail about what he said in the youth devotional. It was awesome.

June 19, 2018

Awesome week this week!

So Slave Lake itself didn't flood, but a bunch of roads around it did, so we've been a little stranded, but no heavy damage it seems.

We had a great idea on Thursday. We got some watermelon and some proselytizing supplies and had a watermelon stand! It worked great, too! We talked to a bunch of people and gave away a bunch of stuff. It was awesome.

Don't have a lot more time, but I should say that we do have like three awesome investigators now! 😁 told you we'd find some.

Brainwashed?!?!

May 15, 2018

So Mothers Day happened, and I was just thinking. We have a family in our ward called the Days, and since there is a mother in the family would she be called Mother Day? Would one of her children be called Mother's Day? Hurts my head a bit.

In other news, Skyping was awesome! I only have one more of those before I'm back... Weird.

We have two new investigators as of yesterday! S is one. She is from Quebec and has an awesome French accent. We kind of had a lesson with her yesterday about scriptures, and she seems to want to meet several times a week! She promised to make us cupcakes next time if Elder L made her some real Chinese food.

And we also found K! We tracted into her yesterday and she said that she has some cousins who are Mormon or something. So we taught her about the Restoration and the spirit was super strong. she looked pretty stupefied by the end of it and said we could come back!

Oh yeah, also the Prophet is coming next month. So that's exciting!

May 29, 2018

Last week, Elder L got into a fight with the ground and lost, we went to the temple (awesome, awesome experience), and did a merriment of Tracting!

But this week was actually a pretty weird week. I mean, as a missionary every week is weird, but this one was a special kind of weird.

We decided yesterday to go biking in the park to see if we could find people to talk to there. So we got on our bikes and went around the park.

As we were riding, we were stopped by a drunk lady who wanted to talk/flirt with us. She had a big guy with her who was pretty scary looking, but he was really trying to help us get away from her. It was weird.

Also, we went tracting and knocked on the house of a pastor from another church! That hasn't happened since Innisfail, so I was pretty out of practice dealing with them. It wasn't anything new, he just kept going on and on about how much of a cult we are and that we're all brainwashed. We tried to get away on more than a few occasions, but he was determined to teach us the "truth" according to what he found on the internet.

He said something along the lines of, "I know everything there is to know about your church! I know more about it than you do!" (Not exaggerated.) So we said "Oh so you've read the Book of Mormon?" and he was like "Why would I read such a demonic book?! I haven't any reason to! You poor young men!" 

Let me just tell you guys, anyone who does not read the Book of Mormon has no idea about what we believe. That's a fact. So that means that if WE don't read the Book of Mormon, we have no idea what we believe. As we prayerfully study the scriptures, we will find truth.

Missionaries are recyclable?

May 1, 2018

So I made it back to Leduc, and guess what? Nothing changed! Okay, that's not entirely true, but pretty much! It was awesome to find some stuff that I accidentally left here when I went to Innisfail, some of which haven't moved an inch! 

It's been a good time so far with my two companions Elder L and Elder Z. "Tripans" are awesome.

Elder L is from Taiwan and has great English and has been out on his mission for like 20 months. He says he is also a cat whisperer.

Elder Z is also from Taiwan, but the south part, and he hasn't been out very long at all. He Is Hilarious!

Elder Z was already here, but his other companion was replaced by Elder L and I, and since his English is a work in progress, it's almost like we're "whitewashing" (starting from scratch). So we didn't really have anyone to work with when we first got here, so we went tracting, and seriously, I have never set up this many appointments with people in my entire mission! I mean, only a couple of them have actually happened, but we scheduled an average of about 2 a day! 💥

Crazy stuff folks. Crazy, crazy stuff.

Also, shout-out to my sister and her betrothed who are getting married this Saturday. 🎉

p.s. here are some awesome quotes from members so far:

"So the mission is recycling missionaries now? Good to know the Church is going green." 

- Brother F

(After recovering from a bad car crash this last summer)

"As you can see I can walk again! I'm going to move on to levitation next!"
(In an amazing British accent.)

- Brother T

May 8, 2018

So does anyone remember last year when I helped out with a highway cleanup? Probably not since it was overshadowed by the steak challenge, but I got to do it again this year! We pretty much walked from Calmar to Leduc, then back again. Last year we found a cat skull, but this year we found an entire coyote skeleton! Fun time.

Also! We have the most amazing investigator here. Her name is S, and she is from Korea. She's actually been meeting with missionaries for about 10 years! She is pretty much a member, but she can't be baptized without her husband's approval, and he lives in Korea, so it's hard to talk to him about it.  She has the most faith out of any other person I've ever seen here!

We also got to have dinner with the Ts last week! I missed them a bunch. It's good to be back and hear some of Brother T's "Pearls of Wisdom."

And to top it all off, we were in Edmonton for a day because my companions had a weird meeting they had to go to. So, I was with another companionship for the day. We had a ton of fun. I had Five-Guys (yes it's in Canada!), and we found a lot of weird people, and I destroyed them at chess when we got home! Goood day.

P.s. My sister got married!

Here Comes the Sun, and the Chauffeur of Time!

April 17, 2018

Canada has decided to tease us the past couple of weeks. We get about 1 or 2 days of super nice sunny weather, then we get buckets of snow until you can't even remember what spring felt like. Though seriously, I've never been so ready for summer in my entire life!⛄🔥

On a different note, J and L won't be able to be baptized for a while; it's kind of a complicated situation, but pretty much we have to wait about a month, maybe more, before they can be baptized.

Also E! I guess I didn't really explain too much about him, but pretty much he's from Tanzania, and he's getting his PhD in Mathematics. The assistants were teaching him for a while, and then they discovered he's actually in our area, so we've been teaching him! 

He's awesome, but he hasn't been able to commit to be baptized. But this last lesson we had a plan. We and our Ward mission leader surprised him by taking him to the temple instead of having a normal lesson, and he absolutely loved it! He kept talking about the peace he felt there and the blessings he received just by being on the outside, then started talking about how he wanted to feel the blessings that come from being on the inside! 

We think he will be baptized soon 😁

April 24, 2018

Crazy transfer call a few minutes ago. Apparently I'm going back to LEDUC!

I know right?! What kinda crazy!? 

Seriously though, I'm pretty stoked. I love Leduc and can't wait to see it again.

Also I'm going to have 2 companions, and they are both Mandarin Elders! And also they can't drive! It's going to be amazing!

Also! I had an awesome experience on Wednesday. 

We went to a bible study that was being hosted by an investigator family, and some interesting things happened. 

The "pastor"? (Not sure what he's called) was talking about some things that I personally knew weren't true doctrinally, and I wasn't super happy about that. On one of the occasions that the false doctrine was really bad I decided I couldn't take it anymore, so I said a prayer. In my prayer I asked God what I should do. I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what. I told God that I would do anything he asked, he just needed to tell me what he wanted.

I didn't get an answer until the "teacher"? Dude started talking again, and then I heard the spirit say, "stand up." I was like 😰 what? The spirit said again "stand up, you said you would do anything, so stand up." As you could imagine, I was not super keen on doing that in a large group of people that would probably not appreciate my doctrinal advice. 

In the end I didn't stand up, and the feeling I had was awful. Probably the worst I've felt in my life. I had an opportunity to change someone's life, heck I even prayed for it! But I didn't take it when I came, and I even lied to the God I love. As you could imagine, this was not a good time for me.

But as I was writing this experiences down in my journal, we got a group message from our zone leaders telling us how awesome we all are. I won't get into the details, but what they randomly wrote to us that night was exactly what I needed to hear. And also I had a dream and stuff that I also won't get into for lack of time, but I want to bear my testimony to y'all that there is no such thing as coincidence. Maybe the zone leaders were just feeling creative and wanted to do something fun that they've never done before, but I don't buy that. I did something I would consider horrible, but my Heavenly Father still reached out to me in love. And I will never forget it.

I love you guys! Talk to ya in Leduc!!!

Take off! To the Great White North! Take off! It's a beauty way to go!

March 20, 2018

So Elder R just finished being trained in St. Paul, which is out in the boonies up north somewhere. So I've been able to teach him how to city! It's been great so far; he has an awesome spirit with him. He's from Boise Idaho, he likes to take long walks on the beach, he likes sunsets and slow music, and he actually likes snowboarding, paintballing, and airsoft guns. 

On a different note, we had an awesome experience this last week! The night that Elder R got here we decided to stop by someone Elder S and I found a couple weeks before. When we first found them it was a lady named S who answered the door. She didn't seem super interested, but she said we could come back another time. Then Elder R and I stopped by, and the husband opened the door (don't remember his name). We told him we talked to S a couple weeks before and she said we could come back, then he invited us inside and promptly fed us dinner and dessert! It was crazy! We figured out that they have 7 kids and that they are super religious. They had a lot of questions about what we believe and missionary life, and we actually had the chance to teach them the Plan of Salvation! They even invited us back for tomorrow!!! 

March 27, 2018

Crazy week: houses were knocked on, doors were slammed, and messages were shared. But the best part was probably our lesson with E! He is someone that the Assistants have been teaching for a while, but they recently discovered that he's actually in our area, so we got to work with them this last Saturday! Elder R got to go with one of them to actually teach him, and then I went with an elder who was a past zone leader of mine to go street contacting! It was a ton of fun.

Well, I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to say that I know that my Redeemer lives! He is constantly working to help us, so please be in a place in your lives where you can receive that help.

April 3, 2018

Crazy week! We had the Traveling Elders in our area for about 3 days starting on Thursday, and miracles always happen with those guys around. 

But the coolest part was most definitely General Conference! 

E came with us to a members house (the M's for those who know them) for general conference, and he seemed to really enjoy it! 

I also had an awesome experience with the solemn assembly. 

Right as I was standing up as an elder, I realized that I really didn't know if President Nelson was actually prophet. So I said a super quick prayer and received a strong witness from the spirit that he is! It's crazy how useful prayer is, hey?!

Anyways, I gotta go. Happy Easter!🐇🥚🎉

All Creatures of our God and King

February 20, 2018

Sorry the last few weeks didn't happen as well as I thought they would. I even wrote up a draft for last week before p-day, but it ended up disappearing into the ether or something. So I'll try to make up for it today with an awesome email.

So Elder S and I made friends with a coyote recently. He's the one who has a lair near the church. There's a huge field that we walk through sometimes, and the coyote just kinda tagged a long. I decided to name him Alfonzo. 

We also met an owl on the way back home one night. I think I'll name him Jeremiah after my uncle.

We also had another lesson with J and L! We were teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and decided to try a fun experiment. We had a cup of water and some food coloring. When we were talking about repentance and baptism we put a few drops of food coloring into the water so symbolize sin. And since nobody wants to be the color of fruit punch koolaid, we need repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost to get rid of it. So we then poured some bleach into the cup and watched the sin go away!

It was a fun lesson 😁

March 13, 2018

So... transfers is tomorrow, and I'm staying! But Elder S is not. He is going to Strathcona in Edmonton. And I'm getting a new companion named Elder R.

As an update of what the area is looking like: 

We have had some lessons with the J and L and they are totally ready for baptism! All they need is the baptismal interview and they're on their way! Or at least that's how it should happen. Their father says he wants to do the baptism, but the mom is worried that he's not actually able to do it (due to him being inactive). But we're gonna keep on teaching them until something happens. So expect a baptism soon! 😁

But yeah, that's all that's happened. We've been texting a bunch of old former investigators recently, and it's been kinda humorous, but no appointments out of it.

One thing that President said during interviews was to just not worry about not having lessons. All that needs to be done is doing the work, that's it. If lessons come and people get baptized, then great! But all I have to worry about is getting myself to the next door without slipping on ice. (He didn't actually say all that, but this is my interpretation of what he did say.)

Oh yeah and Pi day is tomorrow! Eat pie. It's one of the only excuses we get to do it.