Transfer Week #13

This is now the beginning of the transfer week. But for some odd reason things have changed on how transfers will go this week. You noticed that this week I am emailing you on Monday which is supposed to be on Tuesday. However, they changed that because of the different schedule for transfer week. We now email on Monday and that is our P-day. Then on Tuesday it is our regular day where district meetings are held and regular proselyting hours are in play. Then on Wednesday, we wait around the afternoon time and we wait for a call from the Zone Leaders to see whether or not we get transferred. I do not like this new way because it doesn't give us enough time to say goodbye to everyone we want to in our ward. It is very short notice and it is something I am not used to.  

Anywho, this transfer is the transfer where my mission dad is going home. Pretty happy day for him I would say. He has been talking about it every time I see him when he comes to visit. For his coming home Present, I bought him some movies for him to watch when he gets home that he hasn't seen. I think he will really enjoy those when he gets home. I love my mission dad and I am happy to say that I am the missionary I am because of how he trained me and how he was around me. He was a very chill missionary who knew the emotional struggles of missionary work and knew how to deal with it. I would have probably gone home if he did not train me right which I believe he trained me right. He is awesome!

This week was the same old week as it was last time. More service and some lessons with Kade. Our lesson with Kade went pretty dang well...until the ending again. Not because people had a problem with the end point which was enduring to the end, but they started talking about other things that were not related to the lesson at all and it got so off track that they forgot what we were talking about at all. I believe Kade got the best of it though and he got what we were talking about, but the others not so much. We have a lesson with Kade again today and it is going to be on lesson 4 which is the commandments and the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. This is the lesson we  fear is going to conflict the others in believing. We hope that Kade's family will not have a problem with this point and be able to continue in the lessons. He does want to be baptized on the 7th of March and it seems like he is ready so far. I am a bit sad that I might not have the chance of seeing the baptism or be able to witness it. This happens every single time in my area and it really frustrates me that I can't be able to see the next step of the people I worked with and got so close to. I am sick and tired of it and I don't want it to happen now. This will make me super mad if I do get transferred this transfer and I won't be able to see Kades baptism.

This last week as well, we went on exchanges with eh AP's. Elder Kelly, who is English, came with us and we did our normal work as usual. Elder Kelly is a sweet kid and he has only been out for about a year. But he is old age wise. He is a convert and he knows much about the church. We met a couple lost sheep people and visited the people that Elder Kelly wanted to go see that he knew. It was a good exchange and me and Elder Wiser liked it very much.

We have also been teaching this member family who the mother of the family expressed that her faith was fading and she wanted to gain that testimony that she had back. So we have been teaching the missionary discussions with her and we believe we nailed down her concern. She doesn't understand the necessity or how to use the atonement. We gave her an invitation to read and pray about that certain subject. We just gave her the basic steps to know what the atonement is and how to gain access to it.

Also, two random individuals came to our church this Sunday just because they said that they were curious about our church. We showed them around and took them to Sunday school and the last hour classes. They told us that they were really happy throughout the meeting and liked it a lot. So much that they invited us to their church this Friday. So...we do plan on going, but we weren't planning on that invitation. But also, one of the individuals that showed up asked me what I was going to do after my mission. I told him I wanted to go into music or if that doesn't work computer stuff. The problem that I told him is that I don't know what the next step into music that I should take. He told me that he would email me a video that explains what I can do or classes I can take to get more into music. I gladly accepted this advice and hoping that this video that he shares will help me figure out what I want to do after my mission.

That exercising plan sounds great. Only one problem, I don't know exactly what my weight it now since I don't have a scale. But I will gladly accept that challenge and I will let you know what my weight is and what it will be in the future. Love you all and take care!

That Golden Week/Lessons every missionary thinks of before their mission

Hello one and all! Sorry for not emailing you on Monday. Apparently here in Canada it was a long weekend because of Family Day which is why the Libraries were closed so that is why we couldn't email. But I am here now and so now I can email you freely.

Oh boy, oh boy! Where do I begin with this week? Well remember last time I emailed you and I told you that more and more investigators are coming in. Well, that didn't stop! We got even more now and it is so much that sometimes I forget who we have for investigators. Isn't that crazy? Now I will tell you of the lessons that we had this week as well for we had plenty of them. Some very good, some bad.

First off, Kade. President Stephans finally came back from his trip and we could finally begin to teach Kade. We began teaching him actually on Sunday. We taught him basically around 2 which is like right after church. We taught at his grandmas house and all of Kades family came as promised. His Grandparents, his mom, and his stepdad. They are came to the lesson because they wanted to make sure Kade knew what he was doing and they could see what we were all about. The thing is that this first lesson was just...perfect. The spirit was super strong and everyone understood what we were talking about. The Spirit was also very strong when we recited the first vision. We invited all of the family that was there to start reading the Book of Mormon and pray while they read to see if it is true. All agreed surprisingly! And they set up another lesson with us on Monday which was yesterday. We taught about the Plan of Salvation then and it went pretty good until the end where people were questioning the different degrees of glory. We gave our back up for up and asked them to study for themselves of the plan of salvation and the pamphlet that we gave them. They agreed and so they have a little task for themselves before we come back this Saturday where we will teach the 3rd lesson. I for sure hope that they do this so that they can understand more of what we will teach next time.

We also had a lesson with a women named Saxon. Well...it wasn't really a lesson. It was more of a bible bash session that got us no where. She wants us to come back, but I don't want to come back because there is no point to. It would just be another bible bash session. We are hoping if we do meet her again, that she will agree with the lesson order and we can teach her those.

The members are getting better and better at missionary work! We don't have to do the inviting usually. It is them who do it and it turns out great! I love it! We were helping move this family out of our ward and they were giving stuff to another person who was not a member. When we did move everything in to her home, the member that was with us extended the invitation for us to start teaching this woman and she accepted! That is amazing! Missionary work is not hard! Members just make it hard on their selves to do it so that they believe they can't do it and they complain to ward leaders and missionaries. To those kind of members I say to them 
to grow up and trust in the Lord more.

Now there being a DLB in the mission, I have many opportunities to see leaders of the mission like Zone Leaders and APs. However, I can see a bit of corruption in our leadership as a mission. Every Zone Leader doesn't give there honest opinion. When they do say something, they say whatever pleases President hoping that President will like them to be and AP. They are all power hungry and it is just terrible! I don't like it when leaders do this and it doesn't help me to trust them.

Well, I got to get going you guys. Got to start this 6 months of exercise so that I can be fit when I get home! Bye you guys! Love you!

Hello Ya'll! Almost 3/4 done with mission!

This week was mostly a service week and boy was there a lot of it. We did a lot of driving. Plus we were working with a lot of our investigators like Frank and Annie and Edward. Cade did get permission and we are going to start teaching him this Thursday. He seems very golden and he is ready to be baptized from the looks of it. Things are doing super well. The members are starting to trust us a lot and love us as missionaries which I think is very crucial to missionary work. If the members don't support you or don't like you, the transfer is going to be terrible. Good thing that the members can see that we have investigators. This sort of bothers me because I don't think member trust should just come when a investigators comes. I believe members should always help missionaries no matter what the missionaries have to teach. It will make the missionaries life so much easier and put them in a good mood to stay out on their mission. Lots of members thing it is just the missionary that influences himself to go home, but there are different factors that fit in there.

I do believe a mission is not for everyone. But still when people don't go on their missions or when they come home early, their families start freaking out. It is not the end of the world if someone doesn't go on a mission. I have seen what a blessing it is to go on a mission and yes that could be used to encourage people to go on missions, but let us not use shame or disappointment to motivate people to go on missions. Then they are going out for the wrong reasons.

This Valentines day is my 18th mission birthday. When it hits that means I have only 6 more months left on my mission. Things are going pretty dang fast and I am loving it. I will be home before you know it.

The reason I want to go to UVU is because of the friends I will have there and it just feels right. I don't want to live at home so I hope to find a place to live.

The Book of Mormon studying is going great! I love it! I am now remembering what happens at certain parts in the Book of Mormon. And when I re-read the Book of Mormon, I can just read my side notes and remember what I just read. It has helped me a lot!

Sorry for such a short letter this week. I promise for a longer one next week. More exciting things will happen next week and I will have plenty to talk about. Love you all!

Dinner with the missionaries

And they just keep coming...

Jeez! Can this area get any more investigators and work for less-actives? They seem to be coming in a snowball effect. More and more just keep coming and it is great in some ways, but in others it isn't because we just don't have time for all of them in one day. We got a guy name Edward from the Mandarian missionaries and from what Elder Wiser could tell me is that he is not too promising, but he still wants to learn. We did splits with the Mandarian missionaries so that is why Wiser knows more about it than I do. I went with Elder Olson to the Foot Hills Stake to help him interview this investigator down there with President because she did a couple of serious things that have to be brought up with President. I played with this little kid while they were interviewing this lady and we had fun playing a bit of soccer. I have kinda came to some conclusion. I am really good with relating to kids and gaining their trust. This is one of my strengths that I have realized. Once you gain the kids trust, the parents can see that their kids like the missionaries and like to get to know us too.

Anywho, this week was mostly less-active work and lost sheep. We are almost done with the list that the ward has given us. But the work won't stop there because the ward council keeps giving us names to go visit and get to know. I like it because every time we did this with other ward council, they didn't really give us any names and we had to do like a whole week of like tracting and finding and you guys already know my feelings on tracting and the such. If the ward and the missionaries work together, it work! But it takes trust so that is the price of that.

Frank and Annie are still progressing and we are meeting with them weekly still. Cade wants to wait till President Stephans comes back to start teaching him. We heard President Stephans will come back around the end of this week. We are waiting to hear from him to begin setting up plans to teach Cade.

Something I have been doing this past week is pretty interesting to me on how much it works. It has been a while since I have been reading the Book of Mormon because of my love of Christian books and that book that you guys sent at Christmas time for me. But I decided to try reading the Book of Mormon again, but I have a tough time remembering certain things that I read and what is on the page I just read. So what I did is get a new Book of Mormon for myself and what I have been doing is writing down by verses that stick out to me what kinda happens and what I learned from it. Now when I look back through the Book of Mormon, I know what I am reading and the background of it. It is also a good source for dinner messages. Call it notes on the side, but I call it my own commentary of the verses I highlight. I love doing it on my spare time.

We don't really keep tract of our proselyting hours. We just focus on how we can help the ward and what works best. I don't really like to keep tract. I mean sure, I can keep tract and I do write down our key indicators, but I don't like to base my work on numbers.

That is pretty cool that BYU Idaho school starts then. But I was kinda thinking I wanted to go to UVU. It just been on my mind.

Well, that is all I got to say for this week. Around next week it will be close to my 18th month mark. Love you all and take care!

Holy Member Missionary Work!

These week members have been helping us so much and I love it so much! We have been giving them the challenge to write their tesitmony in the Book of Mormon we give them and then give it to someone that they know whether they be active or not active or they can give it back to us so that when we give out Book of Mormons, they have a testimony of how the Book of mormon has changed their lives. The members have been taking it well and they been doing it. This Sunday we had 3 people come up to us and ask for Book of Mormons to do just that because people announced in church that they did that and it got people excited.

We met with Frank and Annie this week for a lesson. We taught about enduring to the end. But we also learned something during our visit. It is Annie's divorce that we are waiting for. After it is done, Frank can marry Annie and then Frank can get baptized. We also asked Frank if he had any concerns about what has been taught to him, but he has none and he is totally gong hough on getting baptized as soon as he gets married. So we are still waiting for that. Big waiting game!

We also asked Cade about his permission with his father. He just got permission to recieve the lessons! Yay, we can start teaching him! Problem is that the person that wants to teach him at his house is on vacation in India and won't be back in 3 weeks. So, we are probably going to teach him somewhere else like at young mens or at another persons house. Cade is really mature about it so we believe he is understanding all of this gospel talk. He is still good for the baptismal date for March 14 and hopefully we will be to if we teach him everything. But if everything falls into place, we should have no problem with it.

This ward I believe is what I thought every ward was going to be like when I got in the mission. The ideal golden ward. However, the same thing can not be said for the other wards in the stake we are in. We had a meeting as a zone with a person from the high council I believe. He kinda oversees the missionary work here in the stake. But here is the thing. It was just mainly him complaining for members that missionary work is too hard and that the missionaries don't know who their missionaries are. He was saying that ALL members go to bed at 12 and wake up at 5 so they have it hard. I kinda have a hard time believing that all members go by that schedule. And if they don't want to meet with us, that is fine. There is nothing else we can do than just to invite them to here us. But when they complain to this high council guy, that is kinda taking it too far. When member missionary work works, it is amazing! When it doesn't, then the work is brutal for the missionaries. If members don't help the missionaries in the ward, then the transfer is going to be a long while. And it is almost like it is torture for the missionaries.

The members have been giving us a lot of names to see and I am so grateful for them doing that. That way we don't waste our time just tracting 24/7 which I don't believe in at all. It is all about meeting with members and helping them understand what is being asked of them. As a missionary, it is not all about obedience. It is all about love. If you love the Lord and the people you are serving with, then the rest of the attributes that a missionary should have will fall into place. 

Jeez it has only been the first week of this transfer. That was a long week! I hope it doesn't be like this the rest of the week this transfer. Well, that is all I have to report on. But guess what?! 24 more weeks left! ;) Love you all!

Transfers come with surprises and the Sunday even came with more surprises

 This was an exausting week! Getting ready for transfers was a tiredsome event. Olsen wanted to say goodbye to a couple of people. Plus he had to pack and he was nervous of who he was going to get as well. Like I said last time, transfers is a nerve racking kind of time. We didn't know what was going to happen. The ward was pretty sad that Elder Olsen had to go. They were grateful for his service to this ward and helping them in the missionary work. He will be missed I guess.

So now the moment you have been waiting for. Transfers and the results for them. Now Elder Olsen got to go to the North Calgary Stake with a no so popular missionary. Actually, he is quite hated for some reasons. I hope he will do well with him. We heard that the area was good so that is alright. Elder Carlton got Elder Behm who I like very much even though he hasn't been out for quite sometime. He is cool. Then there is me. I didn't get a companion who was still north. I got one who was coming from the South which was good because I wasn't a fan of the missionaries I saw from the north. So I went to transfers a bit later with the Zone Leaders to get my companion. And my companion is Elder Wiser who is a cool kid.  He has been our for 13 months now and he is from Logan, Utah. Surprise was through was when he was called to be my companion, they also said he was a district leader. Now we had no idea this was coming. We just knew the Spanish Elders who were district leaders left our zone and so we thought they were going to divide out the sisters into the remaining districts. But nope, Elder Wiser is so the district leader over the 17th wards sisters and the Arbor Lake Sisters. You know what that makes me? The DLB again!!! YAY!!!!! But we can't really go on exchanges with the sisters, but we can go with the zone leaders.

Elder Wiser is sweet! He likes soccer and likes music just like I do. He doesn't play music, but he loves to listen to it. He looks super young and many people think he has only been out for a couple of months. Haha! I will probably send you a picture sometime.

This week has been mostly finishing up the Lost Sheep work. We either get no one is home oe people just send us away. We weren't really expecting anything else. The ward was hoping that we get imformation about them.

However, our members are so much in the missionary mind. They have been giving us refferalls and also bringing their friends to church. It is pretty dang awesome. The Jones family brought that chinese woman again named Grace. She really wants to study our beliefs to think of a decision. We have been trying to set up an appointment with her. Hopefully that follows through.

Plus I have news on Cade our "investigator". The reason I put it as quotes because we haven't taught him quite yet, but he wants to learn more. He just needs to get his dads permission still. But good progress is being made because his dad bought him a full quad set of scriptures. Plus Cade has chosen his baptismal date already. March 14! We were freaking out when we heard this news! It is awesome! We just have to start teaching him however!

Question time:

1. How is the eczema?

Still getting better. Still have quite a bit on the legs, but everywhere else is fine.

 2. how old were the boys?

Around 15ish. The boy was nativeish that stole the stuff. The others wre just watching. They didn't steal anything else.

Question #3, could you tell as missionaries that the person was getting confused or just overwhelmed?

Usually I can tell when that happens. I think most missionaries can tell, but we don't want to get in the way too much when the members wanna teach.

Well, got to resume our P-day. Love you guys! Take care!

Eczema is getting better, and a very interesting week!

Well, things are getting better here this week. My eczema is getting a lot better since I got the medication. Most of it on my arms has gone away and on my face and back. There is still quite a bit on it on the back of my leg. But I think if I just apply it as I have been instructed then it will not get as bad. So that is great that that is getting better. :)

The work here is progressing better and better now. Our ward is getting more missionary minded. One family brought a family to church which is great. Only one thing I wasn't really happy about when that happened, the family in gospel principles attacked the person with our beliefs. The just stuffed doctrine down the families throat so we missionaries had to take over and start from the beginning with an organized lesson and taught them the first discussion in gospel principles. They seemed to understand it. But we learned later from the Mandarin Elders that she couldn't think that the first vision was possible and no one could know that. Maybe she missed a point in our lesson or she just couldn't accept it to be true. I thought it was a pretty good lesson, but there is just so much you can do I guess.

Funny story though: So we were at the Zone Leaders Pad which is Brother Pitchers home discussing what we are going to do for our P-day. While we were talking about it, Elder Carlton saw some boys going through the Zone Leaders car. We took after them telling them to get lost. Elder Carlton tackled one of them and got back what they stolen from the car which was coins and sunglasses. It was a pretty hyped up day for us! We learned then to lock our cars wherever we go. :/

As you know, Transfers are this week and yes we got a notice that Elder Olsen is going to get transferred. He is staying north however so he won't be going far. I don't know if my companion is coming from the south or from the north. Either or I am nervous who my new companion is going to be. :/ I do believe you guys know my feelings on transfers. It is so nerve racking! You just don't know if you are going to get a companion who will ruin your life for the next transfer or they will make your next transfer the best.

There are 2 other elder companionships that are getting affected this transfer. Elder Shumway and Elder Heuer are getting transferred. That means the American Fork group is now going to only two people in our district. It won't be the 1-801 district anymore. Haha! Oh well man.

Now time for questions:

 #1 - Did you have anything besides hot chocolate to draw peoples' attention to a group of missionaries?

We do a couple of surveys here and there. But usually hot chocolate is the thing to go. They give us a lot of ideas that we can do, but we haven't quite tried them yet.

#2 - How did you keep the hot chocolate warm and "advertise" to people that you had hot chocolate to share?

We had a cooler to hold the hot chocolate, but it wasn't that big so we ran out pretty fast. We just went to the people and offered hot chocolate and a Mormon.org.

#3 - Did you have to get permission from the city or somebody else to do what you did?

Not that we know of. We just do it and no one says anything. I think it is only when we are selling something that we have get permission or something.

 #4 - What are your district meetings and zone conferences like? How often do you do them?

We do district meetings every Tuesday at 10:30 unless transfer week where we do them on Monday. For Zone Conference that is every other transfer. So about 3 months. District meetings are usually the same pattern. Opening stuff, reporting, training, closing stuff. Zone conference is pretty much the same, but expanded out more where there are a lot trainings from different people.

Well that is all that happened this week. Here are a couple of pictures of our district. Love you all! I will tell you who my new companion is next week. Bye!

Eczema is getting worse....and worse

First thing is first. That picture I sent last week was not a recent one. That was when I was 10 months out so around June. It was just some glasses from a gas station that I decided I wanted to try on. I didn't have eczema then. Speaking of that, as you can see from the subject title of this email, my eczema is getting horrible. I have to itch a lot and it is spreading like crazy. The nurse for our mission told me to go to a doctor, but they are not open until today. So hopefully I can get an appointment and get something to help it. My face has gotten worst, my right arm is terrible and it is spreading to my side. It is not a good picture. I am doing all I can do to try to sustain it or get it better. It just sucks. New years has happened and you know what that means? New time for Church. Our church time has rescheduled to 9:00 in the morning, the earliest one I have been to so far on my mission and probably will stay that way. So far, none of our investigators have come to the new church time. Maybe they don't know or their fellow shippers didn't tell them or something. You guys remember Richard? Ya, he contacted us and said he was having a hard time believing in God. Our WML proposed we give him the movie, God's Not Dead. So we went and bought it at Wal-Mart and gave it to Richard to watch. He really likes movies and hopefully this solves his concern or something. We'll see. As you all know, this week was new years. We had to be in a members home or at our own apartment. We went to the Pitchers and played risk with other missionaries while the new years night was going on. The Pitchers showed us the ball drop at the New York plays which brought back good memories. We had fun. This week was pretty slow for missionary work as people were still busy or gone. We did as much member work, but that didn't do too much. So we focused on the last bunch on the lost sheep and so we are done with that list. Now we are mainly just waiting for good referrals from the ward. Also on Friday, our District went downtown to do a hot chocolate stand. It went...alright. It was cold as fetch. I think we took more Hot Chocolate than giving out to people. It was that cold. I wasn't in the best dress anyway so I kinda have to blame myself for that one. Alright Question Time! 1. What kind of goals do you set each week?  Or month?  Or day? Realistic goals for our area. As personal ones, mine so far is just having a good attitude and have an effective study. 2.Dallin sent in his mission papers and is now waiting for his call.  Wouldn't it be awesome if he got called to Canada?!!!   Fetch yes that would be awesome! This mission is pretty sweet and I think he would like that here! Sorry for only the brief explanation this week. Like I said, nothing too exciting happened this week. This week is board week and so maybe one of us will get a training call. I haven't trained before so I don't know what is going to happen. We still think Olsen is leaving. I don't like transfers because it is so nerve racking. One companion can turn your area and life terrible. That is what I am afraid of. Love you all!

First 4 days were a blast, the last 3 days were the worst!

This week started great! All the Christmas dinners and caroling with members and just the Spirit of Christmas was everywhere. Even as missionaries we celebrated together by playing boardgames, eating together at the Pitchers. It was just great! P-day was fun as well. We went ice skating! It has been a while since I have done that, but I didn't forget how to do it. I was pretty good. We had a lot of fun as a zone and also as a district! I just love the Christmas season wherever I go. It just that happiness and that excitment when it comes to Christmas! Plus thank you for the Christmas package and the cards I got from you guys. It lets me know how much you guys care about  me and what I am doing out here. Thank you for thinking about me.

The Skype call was nice, or Hangout. Whatever we used...It was great! It was pretty dang exciting to talk to you guys and tell you most of what is going on in the mission face to face. I wonder what we will talk about the next time we Hangout/Skype call. Probably plans on coming home or stuff like that. For Christmas morning we got up and opened our Christmas packages to see what we got. Elder Olsen got a lot of neat stuff and a lot of money. Lucky him! His family also got me a sweater and I must say it is a snazzy sweater. I like it! I love the book that you guys got me. I read it most of the Sunday meetings. It helps clear up somethings that I had troubles thinking about. Also thank you so much for that piano guys cd as well. I really like those guys and most missionaries don't for some reason. Meh, oh well. After opening presents we had this big brunch at the members we were skyping. We were so full after drinking so many egg nog, and lots and lots of waffles. Sooooooooooooo good!

After Skyping, we went to the Philippino's home and ate with them. Because of the Brunch we didn't eat much so ya. Still it was a great dinner that we had. But after dinner we had to be in by 6 so we went back home and enjoyed playing Risk for the rest of the night.

The next three days were just...terrible. Not only because there was no one who would set up appointments with us, but because everything wasn't going our way. Olsen lost his wallet and had to get ANOTHER money card so that didn't help the situation. Plus we went shopping for our hygiene stuff, but for some reason, the store we went to was closed so we couldn't smell nice for like 2 days. It was a hard 3 days. There were many times where we just wanted to go home and not do anything. Plus, Olsen got sick on Saturday so that didn't help either. It was meh.

But now we are doing better. Things are going back to what they should be going back to so that is a good thing. But we will see what this new year will bring us. I hope it will be better than the last one. The last one started great with two great companions, but started spiraling down the two companions after that. Eugh! That sucked so bad. But now I know how to deal with certain companions so I am good now. Another thing that is pretty cool is that our district wants to make shirts and one of our things that we are going to put on our shirt is 1-801 because the one is for the British Elder in our district and the 801 is for us Utah Elders. I will try to get a picture of it for you guys when they are all done. Well, thank you so much for your support this year and love you all for doing so. I wish you all a happy new year and hope that this will be great one!

Caroling Galore

NON-STOP CAROLING! We have been singing a ton this week for the Christmas season and I am not sick of the Christmas Carols yet. It was pretty dang cool how many people were so receptive to us singing to them. Not only did we carol as a district again, but some members yesterday took us caroling as well to a whole bunch of less actives. We had a lot to eat as well. They usually feed us like some mexican alad which is a big deal here because mexican food up hear is very expensive. We usually love members who serve us mexican food.

We couldn't really see our investigators this week because of two things: 1. They were gone for the Christmas season. and 2. Some of them had the flu and couldn't meet up. Frank and Annie were gone for this week it seemed so we couldn't meet up with them. Cade got super sick this week and we couldn't communicate with him. However, one of the members of the Stake Presidency told us that he basically told his dad that he and his entire family is going to be baptized. They even prepared for it by buying new suits and scriptures. The situation there is pretty complicated. Cade lives with his mom and stepdad, but wants to get permission from his real dad for the lessons. That is what we are waiting for. Come to think of it, both of our investigators are waiting games. All we can do it wait till they get permission or till someone finalizes his divorce. :/

Question time:

1. How does this time of year affect your teaching of your investigators and work with less active members?
Meh, it kinda makes a difference, but not by much. Christmas is usually time where investigators are gone and less-actives are always home. I don't think I told you this, but our mission is mainly less-active work and it probably always will be.

2. How did you know how many times the word atone or atonement are in the scriptures?

I have this book called "The Continous Atonement" by Brad Wilcox. I am a big fan of Brad Wilcox and his talks because not only are they interesting, but they are so simple, but complex at the same time. Missionaries out here like to talk about deep stuff which I am fine with. I have no objection to it, but sometimes you have to use hard words or wierd thoughts to do that. Brad doesn't do that. He keeps it simple and I love that.

3. Do you correspond much with other full time missionaries that were friends or fellow ward members before your mission?

A bit yeah. Sometimes it comes up about memories coming home, sometimes it doesn't.

Sorry for the short letter, but we are going to talk on Thursday so you can tell me whatever you want there. I believe the rule still stands as long as we are not a inconvenience or bothering the member, we can talk however long we want. But I guess its your call. We can use Google Hangout or Skype. I will set up both accounts just in case one doesn't work. By the way, a member invited us over at 10:30 and said we can use her laptops. We can begin at 11:30 or sooner or later. Just let me know as soon as possible. Love you all and see you on Thursday!

Surprise after Surprise after Surprise!

Well hello everyone! This week was just...great! Lot's of good tidings of great joy that happened here! First off, we had ZTMs this time instead of DDMs. Our entire zone got together and had a little training. This training was on how do we as missionaries fit in the restoration. It was a pretty good training. It was just on how we as missionaries can tie everything back to the Restoration of the Gospel! It is nothing I already heard before, but it is a good reminder to learn about these things.

Now Wednesday was great because it was our Mission party. All the missionaries from the north went to this gathering and it was just like last year at Christmas. President bought us pizza and you can probably guess that I went crazy on it! You know I like pizza! Anywho, after eating, President Nicholas shared his family tradition of Christmas. It was mainly telling the story of the birth of Jesus Christ of what happened in the America's. We sang a lot of songs together as a mission and you could definately feel the Spirit of Christmas there. Now, I told you that this party was like last years party with President, but there was one quirk. Previously, President told us that they were playing "Meet the Mormons" in a movie theater in South Calgary. He told us we couldn't go to it or proselyte near it. However, he said he got permission from Salt Lake to show us the movie, and he pulled out the dvd! We were screaming and cheering because we were so happy to see this movie that has come out! I have to say I really liked it. *SPOILERS* The beginning was hilarious with all the rumors that were said about us. And...I have to admit, BUT I WASN'T ALONE, the ending was really emotional with the missionary mom. Most of the missionaries in the party were sniffing and crying a bit when that was playing.There are only two church videos I get emotional on now. "Meet the Mormons" and the Tyler Haws Mormon Message. But other than that I am good!

I also had interviews with President on Thursday and it was actually very good. We looked back on how I had progressed as a missionary. He could see it as well and could tell I was changing for the good. I also asked him about Google Hangout. He said I was allowed to use it. I have never used it before so I guess this is new to me. However, you can have more than one tablets or people on Skype as well.

We also went caroling as a district thie Saturday! It was pretty fun. We took a portable piano with us so that we could plug it into peoples houses when they came to hear us sing to them. I was the Piano player and Elder Shumway was the guitar player. The singers were Elder Olsen, Elder Olson, Elder Heuer, and Elder Carlton. It went pretty well! We sometimes changed the beat up for songs so they could be a bit catchy. We may go to a C-Train station and perform there. We sing and then we hand out the He is the Gift Christmas Cards that we got from the mission. That is another thing that the mission is focusing on is the He Is the Gift video.

There was a carol festival as well this Sunday that we went to. It was held at our Stake Center, but there were choirs of all sorts all around Calgary that were there. It was beautiful and I loved it! I would love to see it again.

Now it is question time!

 Question #1, do you guys ever shovel snow for service?

Yes we can do that, but like I said last week, it was mostly sunny so all our zone was gone.

Question #2, is there any more information on when your mission might begin using tablets?

We don't know too much. We just keep hearing they will come soon...:/

Well, we still need to establish a time for Skype so let me know as soon as possible when is the best time.

Also, without looking it up or searching it, how many times is the word Atone or atonement in the new testament? the book of mormon? Love you all!

The mission just keeps on changing

As you know, last week was transfers and everyone in our zone, except Olsen and I, was effective in the transfer meaning either their companion got transferred or they did. So our entire zone changed! Crazy! I have never seen that before in my mission. It wasn't like it was a big transfer, just I think our zone got the most change. Also, President announced a few things at transfers that were pretty odd since I have come out a bit ago. First, they way it has usually been for leadership here in the mission (ex. District and Zone Leaders) is that in order to become a zone leader you need to be district leader first and it goes up the chain and so on and so forth. President says now this has been disbanded so anyone could be called to anything. The best example of this was that our new AP (Assistant to President) is now an elder who has only been out 6 months. Isn't that crazy? It may be crazy to me because of how young he is. But this is wierd news because now I could be randomly called to be a zone leader next transfer if that's what President thinks I can do. Another thing that he announced was that training calls are the biggest calling a missionary can have in the mission. There is a lot of trust when a missionary is called to train another missionary. I am still wanting to train, but usually those who want something out here don't get it.

That was basically all that happened at transfers. Things happening to change a lot. I think it is because our President has only 7 months left here and he wants to make sure that this mission is the best it can be when he leaves.

This week wasn't all bad. Weather was definately better than it was last time. It was mostly sunny this entire week and I do believe it is going to continue to be sunny this week which is good. Although sometimes when the forecast says it is going to be sunny, it means it gets colder here because of all the wind chills.

Things have gone well for our investigators though. Frank and Annie actually came to all 3 hours of church this time! YAY! They also signed up to feed us tomorrow so that is a very good sign that they are progressing and like us! We were teaching gospel principles and the lesson topic was on Praying to Our Heavenly Father. While we were doing small group discussion, we read out part in the book and asked what Frank and Annie thought about prayer. Annie was crying and said prayer was a big part in her life and Frank agreed with her. I believe they both know this church is true and we can't really figure out any major concerns for them. We just have to wait for Frank to finalize his divorce.

We also have this very golden potential investigator. You remember that refferall I told you that one of the Stake Presidencys gave to us. If I remember correctly his name is Cane. You remember I told you we just have to wait for his dads permission. He is taking care of that this week, but we also found out that not only did he want to take the discussions, but his mother, grandma, and sister also want in with the discussions. Isn't that amazing? Things are doing super well in our ward and I keep telling you guys, it is because of the member missionary work here! I love it! Our ward is really starting to trust us. :)

We also got almost taken advantage of again by an excommunicated member. She was moving and we told her that we couldn't help her at the proper time she wanted because we commited to another move. She starting texting us non-stop saying we didn't follow with our commitment with her even though we didn't ever commit and she said the Elders Quorum president had no authority. It was just a really confusing day. But we settled it all and everything is good now.

Family Search training is doing alright. The Elders Quorum has kinda taken care of it by doing a lesson of it this last Sunday. Now most of the Elders know what they are doing. We are still there to help when people need us though. :)

We have a mission Christmas party this Wednesday! We are going to be with all the north missionaries up here in Calgary and have a great time. Also interviews are this Thursday so I get to talk to President personally again. It is always nerve racking at first, but then when you start talking to President it is not all that bad. President Nicholas understands a lot of things we go through as missionaries which is great!

The other thing that is super cool that transfers effected is now we got another elder in our district who is from the same area as where we live. Now all of our district except one are from the same area! How crazy is that!! We can just say all these memories that we had. The thing is, two is from lone peak and they kinda rub stuff in our face about sports...but all of that is behind us!! This district is so cool!

Now it is question time!

Question #1: Do you have warm enough boots?

I don't have boots and I haven't had boots my entire mission. I don't think I need them on this mission. I do need new service shoes however. My green basketball shoes have been torn up on the sides so when we do service, snow gets in them.

Question #2:

Were you able to listen to the first presidency Christmas devotional?

Yes, we were able to listen to the Christmas devotional. It was pretty good. I like D. Todd Christoferson the most. He is probably my favorite apostle just because I like the topic he picks in his talks.

Question #3:Are the people in your area religious? Are they Catholic, protestant, muslim. What do you find they are. Have you run into any Jehovahs witnesses or 7th day Adventist? Or do you find people are too busy for religion?

Ha, I have met many different people on my mission! Spegatti Monster believers, Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Muslim, JW, 7th day Adventist. There are a ton of different people here in Calgary with many different religious backgrounds. I believe most of the people here are religious. The problem about people not letting us in is not the religion. It is how rich the community is. The west part of Calgary has very rich houses and people don't think they need anything other than what they have. That is the big thing that really stands in our way.

Question #4:  Would you be able to do Google Hangouts vs Skype for the Christmas call?
I do not know the answer to that question. I don't know what Google Hangout is either. But according to how you described it, sounds pretty cool. I will ask President Nicholas on interviews this Thursday and see what he has to say. Speaking of which, we should probably discuss a time where we should Skype so that we can tell familes when we would like to.

Question #5:

 Does/has your mission have ever had a "White Christmas" goal like my mission did where we focused on getting as many people read to be dressed in white for baptism and baptized on or before Christmas Day?

Um, I don't think we have and I didn't think we did last year either. We usually let people decide when they like to be baptized rather than just us choosing.

Well, that is all the week has given me. Quite a bit actually! I guess Christmas time is the best time of the year. Love you all! A little fact before I leave: I am going to talk to you a little something about prayer. Fold your arms right now. Now what shape does your arms make? Isn't it a infinity sign? Isn't it interesting that when we pray we are talking to an Infinite Being who knows all? Sweet eh!? Love you! Bye

Transfer week and HOLY FETCH SNOW STORM!!!

You will not believe how crazy the weather was this Friday. It was Black Friday here and of course people are going to go shopping that day and the streets were extremely busy. But there was a also a big snow storm that just slowed everything down! You couldn't see anything. Like 10 feet at max! We almost got in a lot of crashes because people kept on spinning out. This was only in the morning! Later in the day it got -39 degrees C and we couldn't really go out unless we got schedule appointments which we didn't really so we mainly just stayed inside and tried to call people to set appointments. Other than that, we just read our gospel books and played board games. Pretty fun black Friday right?

We had our Ward Christmas party last Saturday and it was set on a theme of Bethlehem. It was like going through a time portal from the chapel to the cultural hall. It was cool because I was playing prelude Christmas music in the chapel whenever people were waiting for the event to start. I was surprised to know so many Christmas songs by just ear and some I just tried to play on the spot and I did very well. Elder Olsen played a part as well in this so don't worry haha. He dressed up like a Roman Soldier and lead people through the "Bethlehem". We have a picture of us both that members took. We are just waiting for them to send it to us so I can send it to you guys. Usually that is how I share my piano talents. I just go up and play some prelude music or I start playing piano and members walk in and discover I have this talent. They really like it and so do missionaries. I play a lot of songs that missionaries know and it is cool to see them relax or sing along when I play that certain song.

Our investigators are....alright. We still got Frank and Annie. Still waiting on Franks divorce, but he is progressing well. Richard is still dropped but likes to contact us. The ward really wants to focus on the lost sheep I told you about before which we are doing incredible at. Again, couldn't ask for a better ward than this in missionary work. We are still pretty sick, but not terrible, but I guess that is what you get when you go in and out all day and are in contact with people as well. But we take as much medicine as possible when it comes to it.

My companion is not as trunky as he was before. I guess we are always trunky, but we can control how much it shows. Also, as you know it is transfer week and we get to know if either one of us are going to get transferred. Good news is that none of us are getting transferred. We get to spend another transfer together! That means we get to spend Christmas together! Woooo!!! I am excited that we both didn't get transferred!

I am coming on my 16 month mark which means I will be almost 2/3 done with my mission. Awesome! Crazy how fast things go!

Quick Question time:

Question #1: was the Spanish missionary finishing his mission and gave the coat to you?

He leaves in February so he is leaving soon. But he had multiple coats so he just gave one to me. I do have plenty of winter equipment. Plenty of thermals and warm stuff. It is usually the wind chill that we have to look out for.

Before I sign off, I want to hear your opinion on something next week. Why did David pick up 5 stones when it only took one to kill Goliath? Love you all! Take care!

Missionary work is becoming slower and slower...

You guys should already know my stance on the best way to do missionary work in any mission is. It is basically through members. Now here is the thing. If you remember, President Monson in General conference asked the members to work with missionaries and to do member missionary work. That was quite a bit ago. However, members up here still don't know what is being asked of them. Most of my ward doesn't have this problem thank goodness! However, there are a few members out there who don't know how to do missionary work, or don't understand how to help missionaries. For instance, we have told our stake hundreds of times that the BEST way for us to teach people or to find people to teach is through members. Most of the Stake Presidency knows thatm thank goodness! However, there is a bit of people that think we should do something else. The evidence is there that most or even all of the people who get baptized in multiple stakes is through member REFFERALS. Some people want us to track all in their area and knock on their door after and ask them to pray for us. They might be getting somewhere for praying for us, but not for tracting. I have been reading, "The Power of Everyday MIssionaries" by Chrisiansen and it shows a lot of ways that members can help missionaries and what is better for missionaries to do than other things. What our ward has been doing is trying to get members to read this book and it has made a big impact. I think that is the best way members can figure out what missionaries do, not by what they did alone on thier mission, because missionary work has changed.

Anywho, the summary is that I think our ward is great at missionary work because of what the bishop and the stake president is asking them. Not only are they helping us, but they are helping everyone by being an example.

This week was a bit slow, but as soon as our car got fixed, things were getting better. However, our investigator count is down because we either found out that these investigators were inactive members or that they weren't progressing at all. This was the case with Richard. Every time we are about to meet with him, he calls with some odd excuse like he needs to sleep more to get ready for his job during his...retirement. So we just dropped him, but he keeps calling and we don't really answer. Frank and Annie are still progressing. We are still waiting for his divorce to finalize so that he can take his next step to get baptized. So there is only so much we can do there. The refferall that you remember I told you about that we got from the stake presidency is still getting worked on. The son needs to get his fathers permission for us to teach him so we are leaving it to the stake presidency for now. When he get's permisssion from his dad, then we can teach him.

We had something called Zone Finding in our are this week. That is when every one in our zone comes to our area and we tell them where to find people. We instead gave them a list of people who we call "Lost Sheep" which is basically members who we have no idea about where they live or what is going on with them. It went well, but we were kinda hoping for more imformation about it, but that is alright.

This week was wierd because I got wierd feelings about the mission. It wasn't trunkyness or homesickness, just...I got bored or sick of serving a mission. It was like that thought where I just wake up and do the same thing over and over again. It wasn't too bad like I wanted to go home or anything. But I am sure this feeling should pass sooner or later.

My companion and I are getting along fine, but he is getting the Trunkyness feeling. It is probably because he hit his month mark not too long ago and is just thinking on how much he has left. It is pretty cool to think I knew him before my mission so I know what he is probably missing.

Now it is question time:

Question #1:  Did you get a coat?

Yes, a Spanish missionary gave it to me and it is not bad. 
 

Question #2: Did you see Meet the Mormons?

No, I haven't because it hasn't come out for us yet in Canada. It is this week playing in the theater, but we can't see it because our mission president says...so...no.

Queston #3: Where do you teach these new investigators since the ward members were the finders?

Sometimes we teach them at thier place and sometimes the members houses.

I guess that is all the questions that I have to answer. This next week is board week. This is where people get nervous. We have heard that 17 Elders are coming out this transfer so there can be a possibility of people training here. Love you all and hope you have a happy thanksgiving!

The snow is still here....and a broken car doesn't help :/

This week was kinda wierd because our car broke down through halfway the week and the appointments that we set up were pretty far and the travel distance would not help us to make every appointment. Plus half the time we were trying to talk to our fleet coordinator to fix our car, but he isn't answering and when he does he gave us these reasons that it isn't working where we know why it isn't working. We hope that he can fix it today since he told us that he will.

Other than that, the ward is spectacular here, work wise. The members as far as I know are not too cool as others I have met. But the work here is great! The bishop is really focusing and encouraging members here to do the finding for us to teach people. And also for service opportunities. And plus we met with this stake member and we told him the most effective way to find people is through members and for some reason he wasn't happy about it. I think he was just waiting us to say that we could find tracting which is not effective finding at all! Like none! But I totally believe that this ward has the correct mind set because of what they are doing, they have found 5 new investigators for us to teach and they all want to be baptized!

I am still sick and so is my companion though. We've been both sick since I got here and it totally sucks, but it is better than it used to be. We just have really bad stuffy nose and cough a ton. We have been trying to take a ton of medicine and it hasn't doesn't much, but maybe it will soon.

This Saturday we went to the temple as a zone. It was a great day actually! We started that day off with that meeting with the stake guy. Then we all went to Costa Vida here and a member paid for the entire zone which was amazing! Then after lunch we went to the temple. I should let you know that I took a family name to the temple as well. Lyman Spear was the one I took. It was awesome to go as a zone to the temple. After the temple, we went out to dinner with another set of Elders and a member paid for us there as well and it made our day! We really felt blessed because of that day. It was like because we were going to the temple we were getting constantly blessed! It was sweet!

Speaking of family history, the ward wants us to start teaching the members to do family history work so my companion and I started learning how to do certain family history. It has changed a bit since last time I was on it. A new kind of view to see your line, but it was awesome! We are continually learning more about history so that we can help everyone with troubles they are having.

Now it is question time:

Question #1: Do you see some of the above points (i.e. feel the Spirit, Love the people, Obey with exactness) happening regularly as you serve?

Hmmmm, sometimes. Some of them I see more than others like developing Christlike attributes. Not only am I doing that for myself, but helping others that we teach to develop those attributes as well. As for the "Warn people of the consequences of sin. Invite them to make and keep commitments", we have a saying in this mission. It is, "Be bold, but not overbearing." Meaning you want people to see why you are leaving commitments, but don't be in their face about it, because that to me is not loving.

Question #2 Can you share one or two spiritual experiences you have had this month that really touched you and maybe others?

I have been noticing a lot lately that my Heavenly Father has shown His love to me everyday, whether it me helping me feel better, helping me talk to people without making it awkward, or even the littlest thing I want comes to be. When that happens, it makes me feel great that someone is watching for me and caring for me out here. Someone who sees me and helps me progress so that I can become better than who I was.

Question 3 has 3 parts to it:

What amount of money do I get per month for food, gas, and other in my mission?:

We get $180.00 US dollars which converts to around $200.00 in Canadian per month. We only pay for food and emergency stuff for our money. There is a separate card for gas money. We also use our money for transit money to go on trains.

There are certain number of miles each companionship can use with their car each month. What is that in your mission?:

It really depends on which area you are in. In Creston I had 3000 kilometers. Here we have 1800 kilometers.

There are guidelines on teach members of the opposite gender when the opposite gender is by themselves with the two missionaries. What are the guidelines in your mission?:

Um, that we can't be alone with the opposite sex without a person who is 12 or older is there. That is usually when we have members comes with us. If they can't, we can teach a very short lesson to them, but we can't stay long. But you use your best judgement for that situation.

Question #4 Do you know that we here at home love you very much and constantly pray for your success and growth?:

Yes, I have been told that frequently actually and that really does help. I have seen people who don't get much encouaragement from home or out here and they feel down and depress. For instance, my companion yesterday was feeling very homesick and missed his previous life. Most of his friends don't support him to come out on a mission. He wished people could support him more.

Well, that is it for this week. I hope that we can get our car fixed today. Love you all and take care!