Pretty Slow week...but still happy!

Hey ya'll! My 19th month mark is coming up pretty fast and I am super excited. The mission is going so fast and it is hard to answer someone sometimes when they ask what we did on a certain day. Sometimes it is a bit awkward when members see us forget some things we did. The members of this ward are very chill for missionaries and are very willing to help. But here is the problem with that: The ward that we cover is pretty small compared to the rest of the stake here and the people they want to share the gospel with are outside their area and when they report that they did for missionary work, it is usually outside our area and the it benifits other missionaries. I am not saying that it is bad that other missionaries get the results for member missionary work, but it doesn't give us the investigators that the members are working with. However, me and Elder Bienz feel great when we extend a commitment to someone for missionary work and they get really excited for it and follow through with it. I don't expect to have too many investigators to work with here in this area. There are plenty of less actives and members to gain trust from and plenty of them do already. 

We tried to work with Seline and Jordan this week, but they kept pushing back the appointments from day to day. We are not sure why exactly. Elder Bienz told me that this is not normal for them to do. Seline was going up to Calgary to take care of her mother who just had surgery for her brain tumour and she will be gone for about a month I believe. So it will be mostly Jordan for quite a bit. But we plan to skype Seline in when we get approved for Skype or a member brings a device so that is possible so that we can teach the the Law of Chastity. They haven't learned it quite yet and that needs to be discussed before they get baptised. It seems that they are very comfortable with the ward and don't want to leave. They just wanna find an answer for themselves so that they know exactly what they are doing. 

 My companion and I are getting along super well. We always have something to say to each other and it is like there is no silence between us. We love everything the other persons love. We have tons of laughs and it is awesome. He could possibly be my favourite companion. I may get two transfers with him which I will be happy to do so. 

As for my working out progress, it is going great! Every other day I do P90X in the morning and do basketball every morning with the Zone Leaders and the APs. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the APs are in our zone. Anywho, guess how much I loss this week? ;). 5 pounds! Whoooo! I am 265 pounds and if this continues I will be pretty fit when I come home. My companion is a good motivator for that and so is the rest of the zone. Because we share a car, we walk a lot more than I have previously so that will help my work out routine. I am pretty pumped about it!

Alright Question time:

Question 1: Did Kade, the boy in your last area, get baptized?

As far as I know, I believe so. I will ask people in my last area/zone. 

 Question #2, do they do do Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time there in Canada so you have to go through clock time changes twice a year as well?

As far as I know, we do all except in Creston. I am not quite sure about the other times, but I am guessing that yes they do the same.

Question #3, how long has Elder Bienz been serving in the area?

This is his 2nd transfer here so about 2 months.

Question #4, how do you "work with the unmarried" to get them married before they can be baptised?

What we usually do is teach them lessons 1-3 and if they bring up that they want to be baptised, we suggest ways to prepare for that. Sometimes the next step is planning the wedding or to move out and get baptised then. It all depends on the person and what the situation is like. Lesson 4-5 discuss a bit about the Law of Chasity.

Well, I think that is all for this week! Hopefully appointments will not fall through as much this week as they did last week. Love you guys and see you next week!

Back Home...in Canada

So Transfers just happened last Thursday and I did explain the process of it last time because it changed. SoWednesday I got a call that I was going south of the mission which is like Lethbridge and anything south of that basically. So Thursday morning I packed up and headed out. I was not very happy that I was leaving that ward, not just because I got close to that ward when I was there, but, again, I wasn't able to witness another baptism that I was able to help out with! This happens every single time which frustrates me. I am still mad about that a bit, but not much. However, I do love the south of the mission more than the north of the mission. The members are more willing to do missionary work and the people are a lot nicer which I love. So at transfers when they announced it, they announced the zones that I thought I was not going to be at last. One by one, the zones I thought I was going to be at kept leaving and being taken. Fraser, who drove down with me and was my previous zone leader, were very confused on where we were going to go. Then it got to the last zone which was Lethbridge West which if you remember was about my second area. I got put with Elder Bienz who is a sweet kid and I was now in the Copperwood Ward which is RIGHT NEXT to where I previously served and lived! I was freaking out because I could visit the members I have previously served around and say hi to them and see how they are doing. Copperwood is a family ward, but it is a whole bunch of Newly Weds. That is pretty sweet I think because young people when they try to teach the gospel to others they do it more simply other than most old people who teach deep doctrine to people. But that is why we are there I guess. 

My new companion is Elder Bienz as I have explained before. He is from around Mesa, Arizona and, guess what, HE LOVES SONIC AND NINTENDO STUFF LIKE I DO! I am starting to see a trend here. Whenever I am in Lethbridge I have nerdy companions. Except this one is not as annoying as Elder Smith was. He is pretty chill and let me tell you, he is a great teacher. When he stays on topic of the lesson he is an amazing teacher and he is not even year yet. Plus he and I totally agree how to do work here. We are no longer in leadership. Just regular missionaries and that is just how I like it :). 

The weather is very different down here than in Calgary. IF you remember, it is very very very very very windy! And plus it is still in the winter so the snow comes often and it comes with force! That is why we do Hot Chocolate stand on Friday. We did that this past Friday and I had a great time doing it. We went crazy giving people Hot Chocolate to people. They kept asking what it was about, and we just responded that we wanted to warm their souls and that Jesus loves them. People are really happy down here than Calgary. It was so much fun to do it with other missionaries who know what they are doing as well.

We have two main investigators right now. They are on date somewhere in April, but we feel that we are probably going to push it back because they have to be married to be baptized. They still haven't had an answer for themselves quite yet, but we are working with them. I only remember one of their names and that is Jordan. We will give you guys an update on them later on in the transfer. :)

We do have a scale here to that I can measure my weight over time when I lose wieght. My current weight is 270. I will update you guys weekly on that.

Alright, question time!

Question #1: During transfers, do you travel to you new areas with other missionaries who might be going to the same zone, district, etc.?

All the missionaries that go to the south of the mission go on a bus or the vans that APs drive. There are times however where missionaries drive cars down there that need to be down there and sometimes I ride with them. That is what me and Fraser did.

Question #2, how would you rank the areas you have served in as far as affluence and humbleness?

Hmmm, well that depends on members because some are different than others. But if I had to rate from 1 - 5 with 1 being the worse and 5 being the best.

Creston - 3

Westbridge - 4

Parkland - 1

Pincher Creek - 5

Bow Valley - 2

Copperwood with what I have seen - 4

Well, that is all for this week. I will see you guys next week! Love you all!

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!