Very tough week

As the subject says, it was a very tough week. Not because of the work, but this entire week I was super sick. Well, I have been sick for the past 3 weeks, but this week just a wave of sickness to both me and the entire zone! It is terrible. The worst was when last night. I couldn't sleep like at all. Luckily I finally found my medicine pack and took quite a bit of medicine so that it would reduce so I could finally rest. I am still not 100%, but I am definitely better than I was before.

We have been getting a wave of referrals actually from both HQ and from other missionaries. We have been trying to contact all these referrals, but most of them have fallen through except two. We meet with them this week sometime and if my body seems to cooperate, then it should go well. One is named Richard, and he does seem...pretty promising. He is looking all around for churches and wondering which one is right for him. He has been taught before and is really scared on baptism and does not want us to push it on him. It seems like the last missionaries were too forceful or too on his case for that subject. The second one that seems more promising is this woman named Billie Jean. She is looking for a religion too. She was raised Catholic, but doesn't believe in any of it. We set up an appointment this week to meet with her. Hopefully, this will follow through. Lots of lessons get dropped a ton out here. I hear people in other missions that get lot of promising lessons and perfect investigators. Here, that is different. Well, I don't know. I haven't had any golden investigator. But just because you don't have any investigators doesn't mean that you are a failure. I have had a ton of reactivations on my mission and I count that as big as a baptism here, but people out here don't seem to agree which kinda bugs me. But what can you do right?

Oh I forgot to tell you. You remember Taylor Shumway? Well, he is in my district as well with someone who lived very close to me. That means like half of our district is from the American Fork area. It is freakin awesome! We get along as a district very well and I love my zone as well. This is a pretty sweet place!

Now it is question time!

Question #1: What is the name of the ex stake president that had you all for dinner?

His name is Brother Pitcher.

Question #2: Anyone else in you ward that is helpful to the missionaries? 

Our ward is trying to help us by finding people who we can teach. They really want us to use our time to teach and so they are willing to help us to do so, or so it seems. We will see what comes in this area.

Question #3, how long has Elder Olsen been in your area?  

 He has only been hear for 5 weeks since last transfer was a 5 week transfer. We are still trying to get used to the area together.

Question #4, what area of American Fork is Elder Olsen from?

Well, technically he is from Highland, but very close to American Fork so around there.

Question #5, Is it dry like Utah there in Calgary or is there some humidity like non-desert places in the US?  

It is sort of dry. You can feel the dryness. But it feels like Utah, but not at the same time. Calgary overall is just a city place.

Question #6, How many other missionaries do you live with?

I have already answered this a million times. But the only places where two sets of missionaries live together is in Cranbrook BC and in Okatokes Calgary.

Question #7 Are you guys teaching any lessons in church on Sunday or do the members take care of that?

Again, I already answered this question. We mainly teach gospel principles when needed.

Question #8 Did your last area get closed down or were there other missionaries put there so they can continue on with the investigators you were working with?

Yes, there are two new missionaries there. Elder Tesimale and Elder Poulter. I trust they will work with our investigators that we left them with. They will probably love the Ludwigs a ton as well. I am so jealous of them right now. Haha! I wonder how they are doing. Ha!

Well that is all this week. Hopefully there will be more next week.

For Christmas, pants and socks first comes to mind. I will let you know what else comes in mind when I do think of stuff.

This...zone...is...fetchin...AWESOME!!!

Hello one and all!

Sorry for the late email. The internet was down in all the library on Monday so we couldn't email that entire day. Sorry about that, but we had an awesome P-day! We played some flag football and scatterball! Our zone is totally in it all! I love it! Plus I know most of the missionaries in our zone! We have so much fun and we eat a lot with each other since a member told us we could come over whenever we want for food. I love members like that!

As you all know, I got a new companion named Elder Olsen. He is also from American Fork, and yes, I knew him from High School. This is my second companion from American Fork. Soon I will probably hit 3 haha. Nah that's kinda pushing it. But me and Elder Olsen get along very well. We get to be together in this 7 week transfer! That means till around December 6th I believe. This will probably be my Christmas area.

I went downtown for the first time today. It was super scary because I am not really a big city person. So many people and so much craziness! But I handled it alright. All my other experiences with talking with people made it not really crazy. I am still not a big people lover when it comes to talking to random people, but I do whatever I can to help. :) I placed my first Book of Mormon in a while. Last time I did that was probably...Creston. Haha! That is for a while. Lol! But it felt good to do that since in forever! I am still sad about leaving my last area, but I will be sure after my mission I will go visit that area first!

We did this little orientation the first few days here in this zone. We talk to the member that feeds us a lot. He used to be in the Stake Presidency and he has a lot of deep thoughts. He gave us this flash drive that has all this deep doctrine stuff and it blows your mind and it is awesome! I haven't looked up a lot of stuff, but everything you see and read of his is just...wow! Its awesome!

Now it is time for questions! Here we go:

 Question #1: Are you assigned one ward or are you serving in various wards?

I am only assigned to one ward and that is Bow Valley ward, the area I cover is freakin huge!

Question #2: Will you be able to go to the temple now?
I always been able to go to the temple. But we can only go to it every once in a while. But we shall see when we want to go.

Question #3:Is it cold up there?

It is getting colder up here, but not cold to me. But I think it will get really cold soon!

Question #4: Are you near the mountains?

Nope!

 Question #5: How many missionaries are in your area?

Um, I think you meant zone but I think around 18.

Question #6: How long has Elder Olson been out in the mission field? 

About a year.

Question #7

is West Calgary very close to where you previously served in Calgary?

Kinda, not really no.

Question #8, is my area a bike, car, or walking area?

All three!

Question (#9), how do you and your companion do companion study? 

We pick a subject we want to study about and study it together...

Question #10, do you stop to write down what you learn as a companionship or only as individuals?

Only when it's something I find very interesting. Usually I can remember stuff pretty easily like that.

Sorry for the short letter-ish. We didn't have much time this week to email as you can tell. I promise my next email will be a lot longer! Love you all and take care!

Transfer-not happy

Well, things have change in the mission which is a bit odd. Transfers will now be on Thursday instead of Wednesday so that gives us an extra day to say goodbye to people. It is weird that our President is changing the mission so much since my year mark. But we just go along with it.

As you can see from the subject of this email is that I am not happy about my transfer notice. I am going north. It just that it really upsets me when things go so well here and we are about to end well with several investigators, I get freakin transferred. I don't ever witness what goes on with our investigators after or even the members and I hate that. It has happened with me in every area and I just hate it! Plus, I don't like the north. The members aren't very helpful and the work there is just not good. But, I guess I will go whether I like it or not and see what I can do.

Lots of great things happened this last week. We have gotten a lot of referrals from members which are promising and pick up a new golden investigator. But I won't be here for those people. We talked with Nick and read the Book of Mormon with him and he really liked it. He just has a hard time understanding what the Book of Mormon is about and what is going on. It was cool how he related himself to Nephi. That is awesome!

Thanksgiving was great. Most of our district came over to the Ludwigs house and ate there. I didn't have to do any dishes because it was paper plates and cups. But we had a blast! We laughed a ton and the Ludwigs really enjoyed us. The food was delicious as well! But I am prepared for a week of Thanksgiving leftovers for dinners. Oh, boy! :/ I am surely going to miss the Ludwigs a lot when I leave and probably going to cry when we say goodbye. 

My exchange with Robbi was awesome! We had so much fun and reflected on the days we had when we were companions. 

After exchanges with Robbi, I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Call this time and we also had a fun time. We quoted a lot of movies that we have seen and all that jazz. 

Now Question time

1. Did I get the package?

Yes, I got it and I opened it because transfers was coming up. Thank you so much!

Well, got a lot of stuff to do this P-day and people to say goodbye to. Sorry this letter is short. See ya!

This was a sick week (both literally and the definition when something is awesome)

Well Hello there!

I am doing pretty good. This week as we can tell from the subject of my email was a pretty exciting one, but also a pretty hard one. First, let us start in the beginning:

After our P-day, I went on exchanges with Elder Allredge who came out with me. He serves in Clareshome. We had a pretty fun time talking a lot and hearing our views on what the mission is like. For exchanges, he had to get his teeth fixed because Elder Konietz threw a basketball at him while Elder Allredge was holding a pipe up to his face and chipped his tooth. He got it fixed though and he is happy about that. After, we were going to help to service for this one lady, but she canceled it due to the weather of so much rain. So, me and Elder Allredge went to a town in their area called Vulcan. Yep you heard right. Vulcan! Like Star Trek. They have a museum there that is Star Trek related and I took some pictures there so you can see it. It is a pretty sweet place! We had a fun time on exchanges. Today I am going on exchanges with Elder Robinson who was my former companion so that is going to be a blast.

After district meeting on Wednesday, we were driving back to our area and I was feeling super weak and was coughing and hacking. We still had basketball to play that night with our non members, and I wasn't my full self. I was coughing all over the place. The Ludwigs gave me a lot of medicine for it and it helped a bit. I wasn't really feeling weak anymore, but I still coughed a ton and today I still do. I wonder what I have. I can't keep myself from coughing. I hope I get better sooner or later.

We met with Nick our investigator this Thursday and we kinda figured out a concern for him. He doesn't fully agree with all the doctrine our church and has a difficult time understanding the Book of Mormon. We are going to read with him weekly now from the Book of Mormon to help him understand it. He's been investigating the church for a long time!

Conference was super sweet! I really like this one. In fact, I think it was my most favorite overall. It was pretty cool because we brought a potential investigator and Nick to the last session and what Elder Bednar spoke of what just exactly what we thought Nick needed to hear and he also really enjoyed Bednars talk. 

Let's answer some questions:

Question #1, what talk or talks caused you to be taught most by the Holy Ghost? Which of all the wonderful message was your favorite?

I really liked D. Todd Christoffersen's talk. That is what really got me thinking. Out here, missionaries think they can change an investigator, their companion, etc. But the only person that can change who they are is themselves. I can't make my investigator believe things. I can't make my companion do things to my liking. They have to understand it for themselves. 

Question #2 How many other investigators do you currently have and where they are as far as receiving the missionary lessons?

The same as it has been before. Adam, Jen, and Nick.

Question #3, Do you use family history and temple work to help with investigators and the members on your mission? 

We can if they are interested in that. That can be one of the finding activities. Problem is, we don't have one here in Pincher creek. Plus, we don't really teach about temple work or family history till the 5th lesson and many investigators drop by that point.

Question #4 is where you watched General Conference?

A couple of sessions we watched it at our church here. One we watched at the Ludwigs.

Question #5 is if your mission has you go to see the dentist during your mission?

We don't do yearly checkups with any medical stuff as far as I know on this mission.

Question #6 Have you met anyone who know Dawna Baugh family (the Folsoms?)

I keep on forgetting. I am sorry. :/ I will be sure to remember this next time. 

Qustion #7 Is it freezing cold up there?  Or is it cold one day warm the other?

It did snow randomly this week. The weather up here is pretty crazy so you don't know what to expect at all. But is is all good ^_^

Well, that is all I got for this week. This week is board week meaning where President decides who gets transferred or not. Till then, see ya!