Snowballin'

May 23, 2017

There have been a lot of things happening recently. Like, a lot...

First of all, we have a new investigator! Woo! He is awesome. We've taught him twice-ish now and we've set up a time to have a lesson every Thursday with him. He's been progressing quite well and I can't wait to see how far he'll come with us.

We also met a guy who's not really interested in taking the missionary lessons, but he is super interested in the missionary program. When we first found him, he talked to us for about an hour, asking us questions, and he even had us over for dinner once! He also has a screen printing for T-shirts company that we've stopped by before. He showed us around and even offered to help us make some shirts on our P-day (today), so we'll see how that goes.

Also, shout out to my Mom who just had a birthday! 😗💨🎂

We have another guy who we've been "teaching" and he doesn't speak hardly any English. So, we've been Skyping with the Spanish Sisters in the city to teach him. He seems to be doing well, but then I have no idea. It's all in Spanish. 😀

We have consistently been teaching A. which is a miracle! We've recently talked about the Plan of Salvation and he's committed to read the Book of Mormon every day (at least when we remind him).

I really liked what Lia said about being brave. Something that I've experienced recently is that talking to random people is hard, especially on the phone (I just have trouble talking on the phone for some reason).

But, there are two things that can really help. One of them is just to "DO IT" and the more that you do it, the easier it is to do it again. The other thing, (which is even more important) is that we can ask Heavenly Father to help. It reminds me of an experience that I had once on a camp out. We were going down a river in boats and such. I was in a 2-person kayak and behind me was one of the leaders. Whenever we came to some rapids, we (me being a weakling) had to paddle as hard as we could to get through the rapids. If we stopped mid-way, we would have tipped over and would have had an amazing time dragging ourselves to shore. Looking back, If I didn't have help from someone stronger than me, I would have gone face first in the water several times. "Isn't that a metaphor for life?" It really is. Sometimes, we are too weak to paddle ourselves through the rapids. But there is someone behind us who can paddle us through anything, and all we have to do is ask.

1 Nephi 3:7 -- God will never give us a commandment that we can't achieve, even if we need help to achieve it.

Brief After Mother's Day Call

May 16, 2017

Hey y'all! I hope your week was great, I know mine was.

To start off: We have a new investigator! Woo! He is really awesome. We've had one lesson with him so far, and he's shown a lot of potential. When we first knocked on his door, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and explained that it was a record of the people who came from Jerusalem before it was destroyed and were led by God to the Americas. After we had talked about it a bit, he said something around the lines of "Yeah, that sounds like something I might believe." Woo!

Other than that, even though it's been kind of rainy, we've been doing a lot of cleaning.

On the subject of food, I do have to "cook" for every lunch but it's usually just like a grilled cheese sandwich or something just as easy. We get fed almost every night by a member so we never really have to worry about that. Elder S. "cooks" too, but we both only really make single person portions... though I am planning on using some of those dessert recipes in my cookbook soon. 😋 Also, I would love to try my mom's lasagna again. Sorry I've been such a picky eater before now.

I came, I conquered, I waddled home.

May 9, 2017

Our new apartment is pretty great. In-suite laundry, dishwasher, they've got it all. Though we don't have WiFi...

As the subject suggests, the Steak Challenge happened when we blinked. And let me tell you, I have never felt so proud of myself. I know that sounds weird. But after defeating such a foe as the 39.3 oz. Steak that was put before me, along with a full plate of mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, and also 1/4 of a Key Lime pie, I feel like a winner. A fat winner, but a winner nonetheless.

In other news, we had zone conference on Thursday! And it was also coincidentally Elder J.'s birthday! We also did a highway clean up with our ward on Saturday, which was interesting. We found some pretty fun stuff on the side of the highway: a cat skeleton, "weed"-infused cotton candy, part of an electric fence, and there were also some cows that followed us for a bit. Canada is fun eh? 😉

Elder S. says that his favorite ice cream is a Butterfinger shake with caramel from Dairy Queen. So, I'm assuming he's not lactose intolerant. I have had some Canadian Butter Tarts, but only once. Walmart has them and some members brought some for a ward party that happened. They were definitely bigger than the ones my dad made, but they tasted about the same. One interesting thing is that there is a lot of maple flavored stuff here. Candy bars, butter, soda probably. It's kinda fun.

When I think of "something I'd only see in Canada" I think of the hockey here. The Edmonton Oilers are getting really far into the season this year, and people are freaking out! When a game is on, we can't even go tracting because people are too busy watching it. We see the Oilers flag 30 times more than the Canadian flag!

On the subject of spiritual thoughts: I heard a talk recently and it confirmed what I was already thinking of, that miracles don't change us and make us want to follow Heavenly Father's plan. When we read the Book of Mormon, we see how Nephi's older brothers' hearts were still hardened after seeing angels, hearing the voice of God, and being shocked by the power of God through Nephi. It is only through the repentance process that we can change to align our will with God's.

"What a Fine Life"

May 2, 2017

So we did it, we conquered winter! Hopefully. It snowed a bit (a lot) earlier in the week, but it's been nicer the last 4-5 days. I don't want to say that spring is around the corner though, because "mother nature" will hear it and will curse the land with an eternal winter. Though, let me tell you guys, it's really warm here. Elder S. was even wearing a short-sleeved white shirt recently! I didn't even think I'd need any of those.

Also Elder S. and I are getting to know each other a little better; we have both been trying to scare each other in our free time. We have some fun videos from it.

It's been a pretty interesting week, too. Most of the week we were either tracting or cleaning, but we did finally have a lesson with A.! We just kind of talked to him and tried to get to know him a bit so we could teach to his needs. But the lesson went well and we're scheduled to come back on Wednesday! We also had a lesson with M. "the heathen" & B. who are former investigators that we tracted into on accident. We knocked on their door and they let us right in, saying something like "There you are, come on in." We were a bit confused, but we weren't complaining. And after about an hour and a half of them telling us all about their other experiences with missionaries (which is quite extensive) and telling us what they thought about our religion, we went on our way. They were really fun, but they didn't seem too interested in hearing the lessons.

Recently we've been spending a ton of time packing, cleaning, and unpacking. We did actually successfully move out of our old apartment and into the new one! It took up our entire day yesterday, but we did it! Now all we've got to do is unpack everything and do a deeper clean of our old apartment before the end of the month. In some cases (at least our case) the place that they send us to is a place where missionaries have lived for like 4-5 years. Just think of how much junk that many missionaries could leave behind (and there is a lot)! We had a crossbow, about 7 coats, a lot of boots, scented cubes(?), 5 lamps, a wolf blanket, a bucket of (recent) Halloween candy, and a questionable box of stuff (and by stuff I mean things that we didn't even know existed).

Someone who is preparing for a mission should go to LDS.org and watch some of the videos on there--Mormon Messages especially. One that we've been using a lot with our dinner appointments is "The Will of God" in the Gospel Library app (at least I think that's what it's called). Or, just explore the Gospel Library app some. There are some really cool things in there.

Burning Rubber

This last week has been fairly slow on the teaching point if view, but that doesn't mean I don't have a story for you.

We had a dinner with a family in our ward, and the Brother is a huge fan of spicy stuff. And, as some of you guys know, I am really bad at spicy stuff. He brought out a bottle of hot sauce called "Possible Side Effects." He then gave us each a toothpick and we got just a tiny bit of it on the said toothpick. We then had to put it in our mouths and endure. And endure we did! At least I think I did pretty good. I may have said some stuff like "This was a bad idea!" or "My tongue is melting!" But all in all I think I took it quite well. I think next week he's gonna bring out the even hotter sauce for us to try, because their kids seemed to enjoy it a lot more than we did.

Also! I left out some details from transfers that are kind of important (to me at least): We can no longer attend zone sports since our area switched zones, and the place where it would be held is too far away for us to drive. They also took away our Rav 4, which was a really nice car, and they gave us a smaller/not as good car from a different area. So, that has been fun to drive with in the snow. Did I mention we're kind of in an outlying area, technically, so we need to drive a lot?

I can't believe it's almost Mothers' Day! I'm pretty excited, though I don't know exactly how that will work. I think we just use Skype on our devices. We did have a member family invite us over for Mother's day so that we can use their Wi-Fi (because we don't have Wi-Fi at our apartment, though we are going to try to get some in our next place). Also, sorry I don't have any more pictures of us together yet. It's getting harder to use Google Drive to send pictures, just because we can't go to zone sports anymore.

Also, those pictures of us in the hats were at the retirement home that we do service at every Wednesday. One of the new staff members was a Church member and took our pictures. I didn't think anything of it until she asked what Mom's phone number was, and by then it was too late.

And now for the weather report from Elder Hill: "Well, it's been an interesting April for Canada this year, as you can see from this chart *points to chart with a pointer thingy*. We've had some warm spring days in the beginning of the month, but *moves pointer to the other side of "chart"* they have been ultimately dwarfed by the amount of snowy, wet, winter days."
The weather is a bit strange... It's still snowing, almost every day, but it should be gone before Mothers' Day, at least.

Although, it hasn't really been that bad, at least, not as bad as it had been.

Also, we're moving apartments on May 1^st. So, next week you'll probably hear all about our adventures with stairs... lots and lots of stairs...

We actually don't have any new contacts. A. is super busy all the time, J. pretty much told us to wait a month or two, and everyone else has dropped us. So, it's been a ton of us going out and knocking on people's doors for the last few weeks, which hasn't brought in many potentials. We have, however, been going through a list of "formers" recently and we're hoping to get someone to teach from some of those, but it's been super slow.

We have been able to clean our apartment more, though.

On the subject of food: We get fed by members almost every day, and it's usually really good, too. I am also very pleased to say that my picky eating is not really a problem anymore. The first day I got here and we had a member meal, they fed us spaghetti with a very chunky sauce with a lot of things in it that you know I wouldn't usually eat. And I looked at it, and knew that I had to deal with it sometime, so I ate it like a fairly normal human being. and ever since then, I haven't had a problem trying new things or eating things that I know that I don't like.

There is one thing here that I would rather not try. It's called "Balut". Balut is a fertilized duck egg that has been partially developed and also fermented... apparently it's a thing for the missionaries to try it at least once before they leave, and it's actually kinda popular. Although I'd rather not eat a fermented baby duck any time soon.

I don't really know a lot about Elder S., but he's pretty fun. He's a little reserved, but has a very subtle humor that goes unnoticed by most people we talk to. It's been fun to have someone to laugh with. He's been here for about 6-ish months (don't quote me on that). He also spent some time with a lot of Chinese-speaking Elders and has some fun stories from those experiences. Oh, yeah, he also likes fly fishing and baseball. I don't know much else, but he is fun to be silly with.

Love ya! Talk to ya next week!

Missionary Commission

I am called of God.

My authority is above that of kings of the earth.

By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him–to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.

My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts.

My doctrine is His doctrine.

My Commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of His great and marvelous latter-day work.

How great is my calling! 

-Elder Bruce R. McConkie

Hey y'all! It's been pretty slow up here. We're just trying to find people to teach for now, though Elder S.is a pretty fun guy. He has the most subtle humor I've ever seen and doesn't show a ton of emotion, but we've been getting along great. He is also from Utah. From Centerville I believe.

The above quote is one of the things they have us memorize while we're out here. It has really spoken to me while I've been here. I kind of wanted all of you to read it and to know that I am not the only missionary out here. We, as a mission, at least, have been really focusing on member missionary work. I just want all of you to know that, though not all of you are currently called to be a missionary, that doesn't mean that you can't help bring our lost brothers and sisters back to our eternal family to come.

Spring Cleaning

Happy Easter!!! If you haven't seen the new Church Easter video, you really need to.
This week was super interesting. Transfers are here. I'm staying in Leduc, but Elder J. is leaving to go train another guy in a tri-panionship. My new companion's name is Elder S., I have no idea who he is yet, but it's going to be fun! So, that's going to happen tomorrow, and we get to clean out our apartment to move out at the end of the month! So, yeah, I'll keep you updated on that.

It's great to hear that Utah is also still under the cold iron fist of winter for a bit, though ours stays longer and snows more, I think.

About driving, we do have some maps in our tablets. The fun part was trying to figure out where Elder L. was directing me. I also do have my driver's license (a temporary one waiting for the real one) and the funny part about that was that, when we went to go get them, they had us do a vision test. And of course, that was the one day that I didn't wear glasses or contacts. But I took it anyway, and I passed!!! Somehow, barely, so I may not actually need glasses to drive legally in Alberta, Canada! (But I will, because I'm super blind.)

We haven't played Extreme Croquet yet, nor have I been subject to a S.T.E.A.K. yet. Though that'll probably happen as soon as we're all able.

I also love showing people the Easter Video. My district at the MTC got to see it early when we had a guy who was over the development of it come and give a talk on a Tuesday devotional, so it's super awesome to be able to show it to the members.

One of the coolest things I’ve learned in General Conference is that "we're called to the work, not to the place." It's great that I get to be in Canada and do the work, but I know that if I were anywhere else, I'd still be learning and growing spiritually and helping bring God's children back to Him.
Something that I learned just this last week is "Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies." So even though it's rough here right now, I know that if I don't lean on my own understanding, and if I let God help us, we will be doing everything we need to have the work progress.

We had a guy come to Church and the Priesthood session of General Conference. He also has read the Book of Mormon all the way through, has read every pamphlet that the church owns, and has marked them up till you can't see the words anymore (which is pretty amazing.) And we didn't even ask him to. In fact, we were just barely able to have a lesson with him on Sunday! Aaaannnddd we kinda dropped him. We knew going in that it was going to be a difficult lesson from talking to him before about how he doesn't listen to his feelings at all, so he didn't like how the Holy Ghost testifies, I guess. But we found out in the first few moments of the lesson that he has also been reading a big ol' book of anti-Mormonism... To put it shortly, he was a Bible basher. The whole time, he was telling us what was wrong with the Church and he expected us to pull out historical evidence of pretty much everything that we believed (not knowing that we didn't study for years on how to ARGUE our religion into people's lives.) The only thing that we could do was testify and hope that someday he'll soften his heart to the Gospel. He was really nice, though, and he gave us cookies (because, Canada.)

I know that my life has been changed, and for the better. We, as greenies, have this thing that we do called a “greenie read”. the greenie read is basically us reading through a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon and highlighting every time it talks about Heavenly Father, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost. It's been a HUGE benefit for me to see the ways the Godhead influences the lives of those in the Book of Mormon and in our lives in the latter days. If you haven't done a "greenie read" type of thing, I'd strongly recommend it.

And I guess that's about it. I love y'all, and I'll talk to ya next week!