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!

And the snow came a tumbling down...

Holy Snow fall!!! Tons of snow just came out of no where and it has gotten freezing cold since last week! It has been said that is will reach -29 degrees this week! I don't think I am ready for this since my first winter was in Creston. Also, I lost my heavy coat last transfers and I will have to probably buy a new one soon depending on whether the storm gets even worse! I will use my thermals and my thermal garments as much as I can for this one. It did sort of help when I wore them in Creston. Hard to believe by this time it was around transfers in my last year. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I have been out for this long.

This week has been pretty tough. Lots of dropped appointments and try to visit a lot of people hear and there, but a lot of them didn't answer or said they didn't want us to come back. This wards less-active work is kinda coming to a hold and the ward is trying to use us whenever they can to teach their friends. I think I talked about this last time, but the ward's main focus for us this far is that we just do teaching. Sure we can do service here and there, but they really want us to teach a lot in this area. And I am fine with that. The problem is the finding part. You can see however that our members are trying pretty hard to find people for us to teach and if they don't find us to be a trustworthy missionary, we teach them a 10 minute lesson for the dinner message so that we can gain their trust. This kinda paid off this week because right before our Ward Council, a member of the Stake Presidency came in and told us that three of his friends wanted the missionary discussions and wanted to be baptized. We haven't quite met them yet and they said for us to meet them today, but they haven't called quite yet and today is our P-day. So, we will see all that goes on I guess.

As for Richard and Billie Jean, not much has happened. First off, whenever we want to meet with Billie Jean, she is not home or does not answer the door. Richard we have met quite a bit, but he doesn't seem to be progressing the way we want or maybe even progressing at all. He seems just to want free stuff from our Church. Sounds familiar doesn't it? I don't think we are going to meet with them as much anymore because we can read him very easily. We are going to focus on our other refferalls for now.

We went downtown again this week and I find myself to have more courage this time to go. I believe the Lord has sent me to this area now because before then, I couldn't talk to people this easily. I still went with Elder Fekete for downtown. He is not my facorite person to go with, but I do what I can I guess.

I don't help with training new missionaries really. That is their own companion. Speaking of my Christmas package, I need a lot more pants and socks. They seem to be disapearing. Plus, I need some P-day shirts. Like excersise shirts. That is all I can think of for the package. As for your package that I sent you, I don't know why it hasn't got there. I left before he came back to report to me or something like that. I will try to contat him and see what the report is. I love you all and take care! Love you!

Thank you for the Birthday wishes! and a break down of Missionary work in my Opinion

Thank you all for all the birthday wishes that you guys send for me! It was awesome how many I got! And thank you so much for the surprise of the pizza. It was funny! The zone leaders told us that they wanted to have lunch with them. We were kinda skeptical at first because we thought that the zone leaders would ask us weird questions for the excuse for lunch. But the pizza was great! The Elders that did eat with us thought it was delicious and were so full when we were all done. I wonder how you guys got to do that and exactly where you knew where to deliver it.

We tried to visit Billie Jean again, but she didn't answer which is no surprise haha. I tend to get used to appointments getting dropped a lot. But what can you do right? Richard called us and told us that he couldn't come to church because his apartment was getting inspected that Sunday and he was busy. It kinda bummed us out, but again, what can you do right? You tend to get used to it as a missionary. We still have an appointment with him this Wednesday and we will have to see how he is going to react to like his 3rd time with the missionaries. We still get most of our referrals from other missionaries and we contact them as much as we can right?

The ward actually has been trying to help us with missionary work by saying that they should do most of the finding. I agree for most the part of it. Like to be honest, missionaries can only go so far as to find here. Areas have been tracted out plenty of times here and usually nothing comes at it when you go tracting again. That is where the members bring in their friends to help us to teach them, or they invite them to an activity. Now don't get me wrong, missionaries still do some finding out here as I told you before. We go downtown and all that jazz. But again, out of all the finding stuff, that usually is the last resort and it doesn't really work to well. There is usually a process to get members to trust that and that is teaching in their home or letting them see us while we go out to work. Without member trust, you can't really do much in your ward because they won't tell you much. Most missionaries think they can change an entire area by themselves and by themselves alone! That is pretty much the stupidest thing I have ever heard. We are supposed to come together with the members and work together to help bring souls to Christ. If you remember, I believe in the Hastening the Work of Salvation video, a stake president said that there isn't a missionary church and a ecclesiastical church over somewhere else. Now, sometimes it isn't the missionaries that is the problem, but the members sometimes need help too. Which is kinda what I think my purpose has been out here. Like I have said before, I have helped prepared areas to do missionary work as a ward and help missionaries to do so as well, and right when it starts happening, I get transferred. I find this a little annoying, but also pretty sweet as well.

That is my personal opinion on a little piece of missionary work so far in my mission. I still got a little more to learn, but I do what I can to learn. Plus some weird things have been happening in our mission. Lots of people are starting look like they look to President Nicholas that knows everything. I do believe you should go to the Lord first, and if nothing comes up, then contact our President. But oh well. The Flu Shot didn't cost anything and we were there right before the rush came for it. Thank goodness right?! We went with Rocky View Elders since they live pretty close to us. Our Zone is freakin awesome and as far as I know, our Elders are pretty normal.

Well, I think that is all I have to say this week. Again thank you so much for all birthday wishes and thank you Grandma for your present to me and happy birthday on the 8th! I probably need some socks for my Christmas package too. Thank you! Talk to you next week!

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!