Portage of the Prairie

See how I translated Portage La Prairie to English. I never thought in my life that I would be surrounded by so much french. But, for the last 16 months that's how it's been :)

So the new area is great. We do so much work out on the Rez so I'm sure I'll be having stories for days about the Rez life. To begin. My second day here we got stuck going on a back road out on the Rez. We're in a small Subaru so it's still decent in winter conditions but the clearance is tiny. So we get stuck and the guys son we were going to visit comes out and starts digging the snow with us. But, that doesn't work and he has to go so we're sitting there wondering what to do. Luckily (unlike how rez's usually are) there was a house nearby and a lady called some friends to help us out. In the meantime these two Natives come out of nowhere and start helping dig and push the car. That still doesn't work but we're starting to make progress. So eventually these guys in a truck come up (the ones the lady called) and we're trying to figure out where we can hook a rope to and they're making jokes about just wrapping it around the car. At that point we figure we have enough people to just push it out (5 of us pushing) so that's what we do. They're all laughing and making jokes about coming out on the rez. After, we get out they're all like: "Make sure you don't do that again, this roads for trucks eh" and "Make sure you stay out on the packed snow" Overall a good time and a great way to meet the Natives. Sidenote we knock on one of the guys's door the next day and he's like "I'm one of those guys who pushed you out" We had a good laugh about that and we were able to get his info to come back. It was a good time :) 

Other than that I don't think I have enough time to say much else other than it's been freezing cold these last few days. My new companion is an example to me which is great. He's been giving'r his entire time here and now we're starting to see the fruits of his labors. There's going to be some good stuff happening in these next 6 weeks. 

Love youz and have a great week. Merry Christmas to all :)

C Z C (Christmas Zone Conference)

Welp. I had my last Christmas Zone Conference in the mission. Unless I go back as a senior missionary. It's crazy beans. But, it was a good one. I realized that because of my experience serving with missionaries that were much older than me I was a bit of an odd man out. Even in a tri-zone conference. For example, There were a group of about 7 sisters that had all served with each other or with a sister that's about to go home. So yeah it's weird being the old missionary now. But, That's going to change a bit now. *Drumroll*........... I'm going to go serve in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba with Elder Shaw. He's been on his mission for just over four months now. By far the youngest companion I've had relative to me. Which I've been out for about 16 months. So yeah weird stuff :)

Anywho back to CZC. To begin we had a crazy snow storm the night before it. We woke up to about a half foot of snow and it was all falling horizontally. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to do that. So we get out to our car and it has a foot of snow on the back part of it and none anywhere else on the car. Then we get to the chapel and we were the first ones there besides the APs and President. So we get to help them carry in all the presents. I was honestly not expecting to get a package and I didn't find one in the mess of presents there so it was all good :) But, Elder Talbots new companion got a BIG garbage bag full of presents so he was just telling me he's going to have a sad Christmas compared to him :) Just joking but it was an insane amount of Christmas presents that he's going to have to drag everywhere. But, then we had a great meeting and learned lots and had lots of fun. One of the highlights was we've been doing a Preach my gospel chase since the beginning of the year with President Craig as the show host and this last zone conference our district destroyed every other district. Even though we had so many more of us we rekt everyone elses lives in it. So yeah basically the best district in the mission ;) Which I'm literally the only one leaving it so :( ... But, it's all good because I'm finally going back to a district with just one other companionship in it and it has mah boi Elder Blommeart in it as well :) 

Finally one of the exciting things we got trained on in this Zone Conference was about family history and convert retention. Which I've basically known since the beginning of my mission. Plus, my mom basically sparked the spirit of Elijah in me so it was so nice to have the mission catch up to me. Which has been a reoccurring experience to be honest.

Anywho I think that's all I have time for but, I love y'all and I hope you have a great week.

Potatoes gonna Potate

Christmas!!

So pretty much the highlight of this week is we handed out a ton of #LIGHTtheWORLD Christmas Cards. Elder Talbot went hard one day and handed out 17 of them in about an hour and a half. He's an example for us all :)

Also because Winnipeg is getting a temple within the next 2 years we had the groundbreaking ceremony this last Saturday. It's crazy to think that it's all happening so quick now. It's been 5 years since they announced it and they finally got land and the necessary preparation to make it happen. I know when I'm coming back to do a mission tour :) 

Another fun thing that happened was we had the Bear Man come back to church with us. The best part was that it was Fast and Testimony meeting so at the end he asked if he could come up and speak. So this guy went into the ministry around thirty years ago and so ever since then he's done his job to let his voice get heard. But, according to him, he's also a rebel and points out things that are wrong with churches, during their meetings. So in his "testimony" he was talking about how all the churches in town hate him and all this stuff and how he's not allowed in their buildings. I'm not sure if that's a good thing to be saying as some of the first things you say from the pulpit but, IDK he does what he wants. So he says that and then he talks about how he studies things out and knows the bible frontward backward and whateverward you want and then he starts saying how it sounds like we do our studying as well which he thought was "interesting" (I was expecting something like complementary or that it was good but whatever I guess he's not sure what to do with a congregation that actually studies and asks the real questions). So yeah it was another good meeting at the F.F. Branch :) 

That's all I got. Heading into the Peg today so having to cut it short today. Love yous 

Love,

The Earth is Flat

So two days ago we talked to this guy on the street and he told us the Earth is flat. And I believe him.. It all makes sense ;) Just kidding I didn't think I would ever run into anyone who would believe that kind of stuff. I guess I did run into a guy who believed the Earth was hollow so I should've realized that there could be worse things that people believe. But, anyways I totally gave him two scriptures that say that the Earth is a globe and he didn't believe me. So yeah that was fun :) It just points to the fact that all the good stories come from exchanges.

Other than that the big thing for this week was the Branch Christmas party. We invited I-falls branch to come over for it and only two families showed up but that's all good :) There is a decent percentage of the Branch who can't cross the border anyways. But, we had one of the best meals I've had on my mission there. Everyone brought the best of what they could make and it was so good. We then played the Couch game after that which I'm going to have to remember for back home because it's a lot of fun. Over all a great day :) 

One more thing I just remembered. Yesterday for church we had this random guy show up at our church which as a missionary is usually a good thing. It was for the most part a good thing it's just that he was mainly advertising his bear zoo thing that's up in emo area. I think if you look up Isaiah Wildlife Sanctuary you'll find the guy. But, it was fun hearing about his experiences I just don't think he'll be coming back sometime soon. Haha it was the first time, however, that I got told that the Sabbath isn't on Sunday in my own church building :) Which because of certain circumstances earlier in my mission I studied that quite a lot so it was almost a jab at me that I haven't escaped that yet. I didn't get into it with him too much because the meeting started right then and I had to be up on the stand so you don't need to worry about me bible bashing in the church :) 

Oh, I totally just forgot another thing. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun down in the states :) One of the highlights of that was I had 4 kids pulling out plastic pokemon from a bag and quizzing me on their names. I'm honestly surprised I remembered as many as I did. #pokemonislife So yeah good times :)

Love yous and have a great week 

Success

So after over 6 weeks of famine we've finally had some success up here in the Fort. But, before I get to that I realized that because my brother is now out on his mission I have to commence one upping him every single week. Just kidding, but, I am still taller than him ;) Anywho, we're finally seeing success up here in the Fort. To begin the week we went out with a member that we've been working with to reactivate to go visit his granddaughter and her boyfriend. We invited them to hear the missionary lessons and they accepted. Basically, that's how missionary work is supposed to happen. We were pretty yoked about that :) We were also working with another member to go visit a less active lady who hadn't solidly had missionaries over for a long time. He (the member) was the one who asked if we could come over and we finally, after a few cancellations because life, were able to go visit her. Her kids were fun and trying to play tag with us. Overall a great visit. And to top it off she came to church because her kids were counting down the days till church and then were up awake and dressed before she even got up :) It was a good thing to hear :) We also were able to finally visit a lady who had been a part of the church thirty years ago when she was twelve. But, because of some things that happened back then (which I totally realized were connected to another person we had been working with) they left the church. We were able to provide the other side of the story to help her realize that it was for good and not what she was thinking it was for but, she's pretty hardhearted so we're hoping that the spirit will work on her. It was fun to realize that things that Elder Talbot and I have been unearthing (and I guess the first to unearth in a long time) are all clicking together and are all with people we've found over the course of us being here. It's nuts. Overall a great week and some crazy events that happened.

So I guess I better write about something fun that happened this week. It's been a fun week. But, while walking down the street with snow shovels in our hands. I totally forgot to mention it snowed this week. The S word came down from the sky and we had about a 20 degree difference from last week into the negative. But, we were walking with these shovels and somebody driving past us shouts "FOUR THIRTY-TWO. SHOVEL IT"  So this guy shouts at us to shovel his walk and in not a very nice way. But, because we had learned in church " And they did smite upon the people of Jesus; but the people of Jesus did not smite again." We decided to go shovel his walk. So we did.

Welp I don't have much more time so I'll have to wrap this one up. I hope yous all have a great thanksgiving and a great week.

*from my email*

I'm doing pretty well. It's gotten cold now so this is the first time of the winter to wear boots emailing. Elder Talbot and I had a good morning with a bit of roughhousing but it's all good. Last week went really well, beyond well. We finally found some new investigators after a long famine. We went out with S. (a member we've been working with to get back to church(fun fact he's Finnish and still speaks it)) and we visited his granddaughter who lives in town and taught them a little and invited them to hear the missionary lessons. It was soooooo good that's what we should be doing as missionaries :) We also finally taught this lady that left the church about 30 years ago. She's pretty hard hearted so I'm not sure where this is going but, we're hoping that the spirit will work on her. We also taught a less active lady who hasn't really had missionaries over for about three years now. Brother G. was honestly the initiator which was so wonderful because again that's how missionary work should be done. It was crazy because the last missionary that was really teaching her also baptized Brother G. To top it off she came to church as well :) Her two kids are fun and I got to play tag with them after church :)  So honestly this last week has been the best week we've had for ages in this area. We've been pretty busy but other than the multiple appointments we had we just went tracting like usual. 

Can't Remember

So I really can't remember all that happened this last week so it must've been a dull one. But, to follow up on what happened on monday last week we did indeed go disc golfing. For those of you who know about our secret combination I did not cleanse myself yet.. I should probably do that but we didn't even use Ultimate frisbees so I feel a bit justified. Anywho, It was a fun time. Probably the highlight of it was my disc fell into a water hazard and we were looking around for it and found another disc. But, when we finally found it the lady we were with decided she was just going to dive in a grab it. Just like it was nothing... She got in up to her knees and reached down for it but she wasn't close enough so she about completely submersed herself. It was kindof hilarious honestly. I did not win just so y'all know.

Oh also another thing that I remembered that would be of worth to talk about. Because of a new area opening up in our district we now have ten members of our mission district. With Elder Romeril leading us all. I've gone from being part of too many two companionship districts to this. It was crazy. Plus it's half and half Elders Sisters so that's a bit weird. But, we've got adult supervision so it's all good. Basically got the Ontario zone in our district. It's fun :) 

So I think that's it. Shout out to Elder Conley for using the two ways to say Beauty. Those were both great beauties :) Anywho Love youz

The Peg

So, I survived Winnipeg. Whenever we go into Winnipeg I'm reminded of a song that Elder Romeril showed us while driving through the city. "I hate Winnipeg" :D

So to begin. We were a bit late because like usual Elder Talbot predicted what would happen and nobody listened to him so Elder Moore had 2 hours to pack and then we had to go. But, because of a side quest that he made for himself and for a family he was working with down in the Falls he got tazed before he left :D The battery wasn't full so it wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be... But, He got tazed. Which made us late so we stopped in Steinbach and stayed the night there. 

The next morning we got into the city and had a pretty good ZTM for being told to make one up a week before. We learned about Family Home Evening which I had been going nuts talking about and teaching about two weeks prior so it was a nice followup :) Something I posed to the zone that I had already done on a small scale in our district was If we're going to be teaching about family home evening but some of us didn't hold regular family home evening how is that going to work? Elder Moore (the giant one) talked to me after I said that and agreed that we should probably teach the missionaries first before we teach our investigators and less actives. Oh Well it'll work out I'm sure :) 

Later that day we got permission to stay for a baptism that Elder Talbot was invited to. It was nice to attend a baptism. It's been a while :) But, Somehow Elder Talbot had affected the girl that was being baptized so he was one of the few other people invited to take part in the confirmation. I'm sure he was innately excited about that :) It's fun to see how many people Elder Talbot influenced in his areas :) 

One random thing that happened in the course of the week. Elder Talbot had an appointment with a doctor down in I-Falls so we were down there for a bit. While I was waiting for him there were some people I didn't expect to see show up. It was actually a great way to pass the time. First of all the family I was telling you about earlier that tazed Elder Moore. They showed up and they're always fun to talk to :) The next thing I knew the sisters from Warroad (2 hours away) showed up as well. So we had a reunion for one of the sisters that served in I-falls and it was just a good time. It was honestly a bit weird how we were all in the same place at the same time. I guess that family needed it :)

So next thing on the list. Elder Talbot and I are now part of the Relief Society. So there we were on Saturday doing our online time in the morning and the Relief society was prepping for a party they were going to have for the District (stake) and they told us if we wanted to come back we could have lunch. So free lunch always sounds good even if there is a bunch of ladies from around Ontario and Minnesota. So we get back and have lunch and on our way out we get stopped and asked if we can nail a few logs together for a craft they were making (pictures later) So we nail the first one and somebody else asks us if we can do theirs. Two hours later we're cleaning up for the event. So I guess we're part of the relief society now :) 

Overall it was a good week. 5 out of 5 would do again :) For all of you who didn't get a reply from me this week. I wish I had time but we've got to be at Hardee's in a bit and then we're frisbee golfing with the I-falls elders and then we're getting the oil replaced for the Equinox so I'm out of time... I'll get back to you next week for sure. I still love y'all. Anywho I hope y'all survive Elections this week. We had a broadcast yesterday that reminded me of the first part of the book of Revelation so if you know the context of that you can see my concern and peace in that :) 

I promise that the rest of the relief society made a lot cuter snowmen and not weird ones like me :)

 

 

 

My destroyed planner. Not sure if I told that story

Giant Walleye. I was half awake because we were coming back from the Peg and I was getting nap time

 

 

 

The Witewash District

 

 

 

Atichoken

So. There really wasn't all that much that happened this last week everyday but, we did have a pretty big event this weekend. Which is why the title is what it is :)

So to begin. Transfer calls were today and.... I'm staying in the Fort with Elder Talbot. I'm pretty happy with this call because I feel like there's more I need to do here. I'm not sure what it is but we'll see what happens :) We're having an addition of a set of sisters in our area as well so that will be different. Finally Elder Moore is the first one to leave out our whitewash district... It came as a surprise because we were thinking he would be here for about 6 months and I would leave before him.

Now to Atikoken (the real spelling(the other is the nickname)) So tossing it back to the beginning of the mission there were rumors going around about why there haven't been missionaries in Atikoken for a while. I'm here to say that those rumors were a falsehood. What is true about Atikoken, however, is that it is the furthest East in the mission that anyone will go, being 50 miles from the next time zone. It used to have a ward sized congregation a while ago and at church there we only had three adult members of the congregation with two children. The rest were sick and/or missing. Since there's nowhere for us to stay there we got to sleep in the church building which was a blast :) We were considering sleeping in the car but it wouldn't have been too fun in the cold. Even with my winter campout training :) It was great to be in that branch even with how few in number they were. We had a fast and testimony meeting and the testimonies were wonderful. We had a 100% ratio of bearing testimonies which is something you can't often say :) I've got to say I really enjoyed being with such a small congregation. You'd think from my 500 member wards that I would miss that but it's honestly very nice not having that many people. It was a good time :)

So today instead of doing Halloween things we were asked to come into Winnipeg for a suprise ZTM so we should have some good stories from that next week. Until then deuces 

The week of birth

So overall there was a lot of things that happened this week but not a lot happened.. Just how it goes sometimes. For the highlights:

  Exchanges 

  BIRTHDAY!

  The Rez

So for exchanges I went back down to I-Falls with Elder Moore so it was just like old times. Messing around in I-Falls just like old times. But, we had some pretty stellar Plan of Salvation lessons that we taught. The first was to the referral that we got from the Branch President those weeks ago. During the lesson he paused for a moment and picked up the restoration pamphlet and was like "So this is why it's called the Restoration" They teach about "Revelation from Prayer" and "Revelation from Church Attendance" for all those missionaries out there but, I don't think they really taught me about Revelation through teaching the lessons. It was a pretty crazy great experience. The other Plan of Salvation lesson we taught was to a part member family who hadn't been progressing for over 5 months and Elder Moore mentioned maybe we need to give them some purpose in life. I'm not sure if we made a difference in their lives but we pretty much doctrinely destroyed them (in a nice way) and said over and over this is why you need to get baptized and this is why you need to get baptized. We felt a bit bad about just dumping doctrine on them but it's good to be bold when teaching sometimes. 

So for my birthday not too much happened. We went tracting for quite a while (this is when we got out to the rez) but didn't find too much success. That being said it was a great birthday. There was so many people wishing me a happy birthday on Facebook for the next few days and it was great :) One thing that did happen was we went to Boston Pizza and got some good pizza. It was a good day. 

So, I forgot to mention now that we're on the other side of the border there is suddenly reserves everywhere. We finally got out onto the rez and it was a good time like always. A few highlights from that. We gave away two Book of Mormons. (we're going back sometime soon to see what actually happened with them) While giving one Book of Mormon away there was some punk kids come up behind us and yelled some not so nice things. We explored pretty much the entire rez. It was a lot bigger than I expected. And we had a guy answer the door and say "Good Morning" at about 4 in the evening. It was a good time :) Also the picture that I sent is something we found out trying to find houses in the bush. 

So yeah overall a bittersweet week :) This next week we've got some good things in line so I'm psyched for that :) Love youz and have a great week

District Conference

So because the Fort Frances district is not a stake we had our district conference this last week. It was my first and possibly only time being part of a district conference so it was quite the experience. It was great to see President Craig and the crew here in the meetings on top of that. Fun fact: because a district is not a stake the mission president acts as the stake president and holds all of the keys for the district.

One of the unique things that happened because of this district conference was we got to billet the Kenora and Dryden Elders at our apartment. It was fun to see them and a bit odd because they're not even in our zone but because of weird boundaries they're part of our district.

Another fun thing that happened was we were able to go into Winnipeg for ZTM and have a party there. We came in a little early so we had to find some things to do in the city before we went in for the night. Elder Talbot having served there before suggested we go and find some of his past investigators and see how they were doing. I think he had direct communication for that because we found everyone home right at the right time and somehow in the dark found all the houses :) It ended up being a great night and we saw some miracles outside of our area. The next day we had ZTM and found out we're having a two transfer Atonement study so I'm psyched for that. The last study we had was for the Book of Mormon and I gained so much more of a testimony of it because of that. So I'm really excited to see where this goes these next few transfers.

Finally going back in time we had Canadian thanksgiving which was a lot of fun. We were able to have it over at a senior missionary couples house with some investigators of ours. It was a memorable night with lots of fun and good experiences. Not bragging or anything but I was the spoons champion of the night as well ;)

I think that's all I've got time for but I love y'all and I hope youz have a great week

*from my email*

Thank you for the good wishes :) We had a pretty good thanksgiving. I think the highlight of that night was Elder Talbot asking the Ms (our investigators) what first helped them realize this was the true church and they talked about how the missionaries talked so much about families and how the Gospel can help their family. It was quite nice to hear the testimony of investigators that are set on joining the church for a change. 

Gonnesiphiherpelaids

So in the course of this week I think I got ebola. Before y'all freak out I was very safe in what I was doing because I'm a bit of a germaphobe so it's all good. BUT, this week was different for sure. It all started when we visited with members that Elder Talbot and I hadn't met yet. They told us about a project that they were thinking they might be doing the next day with a house that needed help three years ago but, finally the owners were finally both in the hospital (big surprise (sarcasm intended and you'll see why)) so they were going to go help clean it out. Now to describe the conditions. First of all Mom: I'm glad that you introduced me to hoarding before the mission because this was what we were looking at except they still had a decent amount of walking space upstairs. But, the real problem was the basement. Like I was saying it's been this way for about three years when they had the first flood. So they have a bunch of food stuff and random crap downstairs and it flooded and never got cleaned out so prime for mold and destruction. Next they had a sewer back up, multiple times, and flood the entire basement over and over again. So not only mold but add sewage to that. Finally the mice problem was intense. There was sooo much mice dung and stuff all over the place, which adds to the plague mentality. So yeah we spent a few days taking stuff out of there and throwing it into two different dumpsters while other people organized and fixed the kitchen above. The second day when we were doing the real dirty job I was able to acquire a heavy duty ventilator so I'm not so worried about that part. But, it was nasty nasty. I think the worst part was the smell of death that came off of the things that we threw and didn't quite make it into the dumpster and busted open. There was also a fridge in the basement that smelled like death (I'm so glad I have my mom's nose and can barely smell) that the two guys with the face ventilators got to clean out. It ended with me screaming and just shoving everything into a garbage bag. The worst part was the watermelon that didn't look like a watermelon anymore that I got the pleasure of taking out :) Overall a good day spent with the boys :) 

Other than that it was a good first sunday with normal church. We have about 7 members who come regularly and then us and the Waltons a senior misisonary couple. So it's a small meeting in a large church. We have the largest church building I've ever served in on my mission so its a good deal :) Elder Talbot and I have been getting along pretty well and I'm excited to serve with him so it's good.

I think that's all I've got time for so I'll be done for now. Love youz and I hope you have a great week

E.T.

I'm sorry to announce that I did not have an experience with E.T. He's still up in space someplace watching Star Wars or something. But, for those of you familiar with mission lingo I did experience an E.T. (Emergency Transfer) It's nothing too bad just a hop skip and jump across the river to Fort Frances. It is sad that I'm no longer on the American side of the river but, I have definitely felt like I'm needed over here. I'm now with Elder Talbot who has been in Fort Frances as long as I was in I-Falls. He's also my youngest companion mission age wise. He came out at the same time as me. So yeah that's pretty much been the week.

A few highlights from the week were that we got to help some solid investigators move to their new home. It was a bit of a surprise in that we knew that they were going to be moving but we didn't know it was that soon. For y'alls information they used to live right above us in the ancient house we're living in. Their son just barely got baptized. They've been investigating solidly for about 7 months now. It's a pretty good deal. 

Another highlight was of course conference. I felt like this one was very missionary oriented in that it was about a lot of things that we teach investigators. Such as the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, Praying, Reading, the importance of Sabbath worship and Most importantly Faith in Christ and his atonement. For the most part basic foundation principles of the Church. By following those and sticking with it any "stumblingblock" will not have power over you. I think it's amazing how teaching foundational doctrine (as a missionary) to people who are already members of the church can impact them so much. The simple stuff is really what it's all about. #wordsofwisdom #dropthemic

 

*from my email*

 

I've already received many promptings it [the E.T.] was what needed to happen so it's all good. I feel like there's something here in Fort Frances that I need to do and I feel like I accomplished what I needed to in I-Falls.

September 26, 2016

So this week there wasn't too much stuff that was out of the ordinary. So I apologize if my weekly isn't as full as it could be. But, There has been some good stuff going on work wise

The first is a part member family that is well on their way to activity and baptism for the two young ones. We were able to commit them to baptism before Halloween. So that's exciting hopefully a good birthday for myself :) But, as part of that lesson because we're teaching two guys ages 8 and 9 we have to keep it entertaining or the younger one will be out bouncing around in the living room. So for our object lesson this time around we did it with balloons. One was filled up with the breath of Elder Moore and the other with water from the tap. The idea is that the one with no substance represents baptism without the gift of the holy ghost and the other with the gift. So the fun part is when the fires of trials (a lighter) come into your life the one with no substance pops. But, when it comes into your life when you've gotten baptized with the proper authority and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. (this is where the audience groans and gets back) The balloon does not pop until after the lesson the kids throw it somewhere outside after getting the dirt bike to run it over :) It was pretty fun :)

We also had an extremely busy day this last week that involved about 5 lessons. Probably the most lessons I've had plus the most that have actually followed through in a row. It was pretty good because we had a member come out with us and we didn't get lunched three times in a row :) It was a good day :) 

We were also privileged to have a member of the district presidency come and talk on sunday and have a potluck after. He gave a great talk about how he as a young convert and branch president came under a lot of fire from his congregation. He was doing the best he could and his wife kept on letting him know that the lord qualifies those he calls. But, because he had only been a convert of a few years and had half of his children in that time period he had a lot to learn. There was a posse of members who came to the Stake President and told him all of the "wrongs" that he was doing and how he needed to do better. The stake president gently told them that he knew all about that because he was in weekly correlation with him and reprimanded them for instead of helping him they were hindering him. This was a shock to him as a young convert and as a branch president and he told us he wondered how he made it through that time but, that the members of the branch did help him out in the end and that now that small branch is close to becoming a ward. It was a good meeting. 

I think that's all I've got. I love y'all and I hope you have a great week. 

I'm Waking Up (to ash and dust)

#radioactive

So this week has been a week of blessings and miracles. A lot of it has come from my triumph over the natural man i.e. waking up right at 6:30 and staying awake. Now you might wonder why such a small thing would yield such large results. I wondered the same thing for a long long time. But, President Craig answered that question of why. 

Doctrine & Covenants 121:45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. 46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

So for some reason this clicked. It just fit into place and because I now "the why" I've been doing a thousands times better. Now, has it actually worked? I would say yes. I've seen so many more blessings this week than I have in a long time. A lot of them have come in the form of my confidence waxing stronger and the Holy Ghost being with me so much more. Other ways have been the blessings of getting a great referral from our Branch President and still having investigators that we thought had disappeared. Overall a great week for blessings and a terrible one for yawning ;) 

So now for a couple fun stories. The Fort Frances Elders had a baptism in their branch and it was great to go to :) Elder Tippets who had taught the family came down and it was fun to catch up with him. It's great for their branch because they regularly have only about 11 people who come each week 4 of which are missionaries. We were also all able to go out to the island which is always a fun time. The Zone Lords showed us a tradition that we missed out on because we all whitewashed the area. That was skipping rocks. So now whenever we go we make sure to skip rocks :D

Which brings me to the next part. This last Saturday we had some service out on the island which was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I've done some good service. The first thing that we ended up doing was tearing this chicken wire out of the ground because they had dog runs on the island. The Sister would breed Huskies at a show level and had a few places to keep them. The chicken wire was in the ground so they wouldn't burrow through. But, because they were in the ground and had lake rocks all over them it was a pain to dig out. Eventually I just got a bit angry with them and started tugging at them which ended up working quite well :) The chicken wire acted as a strainer for the rocks which was great. While we were doing that Elder Romeril was out just chopping down dead trees with a chain saw and making them into small pieces. He got permission from President so it's all good :) After that we had lunch which was great as usual and then Elder Romeril and I got to go spelunking. At least it felt like spelunking. So because the house is on an island it gets to bedrock pretty quickly and Elder Romeril and I were the only ones willing to go under the house. I thought it was a lot of fun honestly but we were tasked with insulating some pipes for the water. I'll send some pictures hopefully if my camera charges quickly enough. Overall it was a good day. 

Finally while Elder Moore and I were mowing a members lawn we found a frog. Same as above sending pictures if I can :) 

Overall I rate this week a 5 out of 5 :) It was a good one. I hope y'all have a great week. Potatoes gonna potate

The Burning

So I finally got to burn a shirt. Finally :) It was a small little gathering but all four of us burned our shirts for the first time. It's a bit unique being with people who came out with me again. I'm so used to nearly dead missionaries :) But, I'll be sending pictures and hopefully some sort of video but, if not it'll come home when I send home my sd card.

Another big thing this last week was finding out about how well my previous areas are doing now. There was another baptism in Yorkton with a lady that I tried setting stuff up with her husband. I couldn't believe that it had happened but the angel said Look, and I looked and beheld that it did happen :) It's crazy how well that area is doing now. It was even in Melville who hasn't seen a baptism in years. It's good. Also in North Battleford. There was a less active lady that Elder Wilson and I tracted into who is now having her two kids baptized. I wish I could say that I taught both of those people but, I did not. That being said I'm absolutely positive that I had a guiding and driving influence that led to both of those. It's amazing to see can happen over time. 

We also went into Winnipeg again this week. That drive is a killer. I thought driving 2 hours every other week was hard. It really doesn't stand against 4 and a half hours though... But, It was a good time. We had a wonderful ZedTM put on by our Zone Lords. It was all on stuff that I've been working on so hats off to the mission for being inspired :) After the ZedTM we went to Mongo's which is a Mongolian grill that was soooooo good. I might've got something weird in my food because I was sick for a couple days after but it was worth it. 

Finally this was an exciting one for me. We were able to, over video calls, go to the open house for the Winnipeg Temple. We were able to see the land architecture for the lot that they're going to have it on. One of the things that I really enjoyed about it was the fact that they had a lot of places to park your bikes so it's a lot more community friendly. It's going to be a little larger than the Regina Temple probably mainly because it's got a basement. But, It's the first of it's generation of temples so it's going to have a unique structure when compared to other temples. It's planned to have Tyndall stone which from what I gathered is a local stone to the area. It'll be good :) Sadly, however, it's going to be completed well over a year after I get home... Oh well Just another excuse to make it back up here :) 

That's all I got for now. Love youz and I hope youz have a great week

Thunderstruck

So first of all a shout out to Brady for asking me how we're able to ride a boat in our area and not be in trouble. So basically there's a member who lives out on an island (another reason why I think I-falls is a bayou town misplaced from Florida) and the only way to get to her is by riding a boat. So some mission president ages ago approved the missionaries out here to ride out to her island. We go out there every Tuesday after district meeting for lunch and it's just a good time. Pretty much all of us have decided that we want an island when we get rich :) We're going to be burning shirts out on the island next time that we go there so next week I'll have some good pictures and videos :)

Now for this week. We have been having crazy thunderstorms all week long. Probably nothing like what Elder Andrus went through out in Florida but it's been crazy. One of the nights we were in the apartment and there was flashes every couple seconds and one of the thunder strikes about made me have a heart attack it scared me so bad. I'm also pretty positive if we had an earthquake our apartment wouldn't stand because of how much it shook with just thunder. 

Another highlight of this week was going on exchanges with Elder Talbot. He came out in my group and it's been fun getting to know him. During the exchange we were teaching someone who was very against some sort of religion. He grew up in the LDS church but he fell away when he was 16 so he was getting really riled up. Elder Talbot was sick of him telling us to give our spiel and then interrupting us when we started talking. So he sassed him pretty hard about that and he finally let us talk :) Long story short the next time we saw him he was a different man somehow. I don't know what happened in the time between visits but he really wanted to talk to us for some reason. It was great :)

Another wild thing that happened because of exchanges was when I was on exchanges with Zone Lord Griffin we visited this older guy and he was really distracted but something we said touched him because again he was a different man when we came back. He told us we made him a believer and that he had been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and really felt the spirit of it. It was wild because of how he was the last time we saw him was completely different than when we went back. 

Overall it's been a good week and guess what we're driving four hours to the Peg again this week! Whoo... So probably more stories with that again :) Love youz and have a great week :)

Zone Conference Ft. Elder Keetch

So the highlight of this week was having Zone conference in the Peg with two other zones. I don't think I've seen so many missionaries in one place before so that was fun :) I also got to witness half of "the Fleet" I wish I got a picture of it but it's quite the sight to see 40 cars and knowing they were all missionary vehicles. 

So some of the highlights of the highlight were this. Elder Keetch has only been a member of the seventy for about a year but he had quite the experience when he got called. So this is throwing it back to his mission but on his mission he served in Germany. In his mission he described it as being similar to our mission in that there's not a lot of people who are interested in the gospel. So long story short he never put the white pants on and got wet. But, he did have one baptism in his companionship. He struggled with feeling like he was successful on his mission. He told us it didn't help that his second son to go on a mission within the first 6 weeks of getting there he had about 10 baptisms. But, when he sat down up on the stand right after being called and sustained Elder Anderson changed his whole perspective. Elder Anderson told a story about a couple who lived in Germany who the husband wanted to go back to his roots after joining the church. So he and his wife along with another couple went back to the Ivory coast and started a sunday school there. Now the Ivory coast has many stakes and is flourishing with the church. All because Elder Keetch and his companion felt prompted to invite him to be baptized. That put his mission into perspective :) 

Finally we were able to have exchanges with the zone lords down in I-Falls. That was a lot of fun :) Elder Tippets back from my time in North Battleford is now one of my zone leaders but, instead of going with him I went with Elder Griffin. That was a lot of fun. Even though it was raining for a decent part of the day we were able to be pretty positive and get a lot of things done.

So because my internet decided to be done I'm going to be done. Hopefully it'll start working again soon so I can tell you more about zone conference but this is all for now 

Thank you for all that y'all do and I hope you have a great week :) Potatoes gonna potate

*later*

One of the things that really spoke to me was when Elder Keetch compared missionary work to having a life boat and cold weather rescue. The life boat one he desctribed it as everyone is in the water trying not to drown and we have a life boat that we're trying to go and pick everyone out of the water. There would be things said like "oh thank you for saving me! thank you so much" Now this analogy just didn't make sense to me because we're out knocking on peoples doors for days and people are like "No thank you I like the water it's comfortable" or "I don't like the designer of your life boat" Stuff like that. So Elder Keetch then gave us the analogy of cold rescue where people are up backpacking an an unexpected storm comes around. So the rescuers have to hike about a day to find these people and by the time that they get to them they're already numb and feel abandoned so they're to the point of not wanting to be rescued. So he told us that in the first thirty minutes of talking to them they have to 1.build trust 2.give them responsibility 3.give them warm nourishment. Now that spoke to me because that's how it feels like when I'm trying to share the gospel with the people up here and honestly probably because -40 degree weather just sucks

Pictures 

I can't remember if I sent this or not but, one of the perks of serving in the Falls area  is being the only missionaries in the mission to ride a private boat :)

Here's the first time all three of us have been together. Elder Lee and his two sons

 

HUMP WEEK RECAP REVOLVED

So honestly other than this being the busiest week in my mission as for lessons per hour it was a pretty dull hump week.. :) But, I'm super psyched that I made it a year and didn't die ;) Sadly I did not get to burn my shirt yet but it's in the works. Pretty much the highlight of my Hump Day was I cooked up a mean steak with some sauteed onions and corn on the cob. It was a most delicious meal :)

I'm sorry that this is going to be so short but a combination of not having time and not doing an overly amount of interesting things this week I'm sad to say that this is it. So to fill in some space and make it like I actually wrote something I'm going to share one of my favorite chapters out of the bible. 

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.  4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up   5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil  6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth  7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.  9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.  11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.  13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13)

For those of you who read through all of that you're obviously great scriptorians so I'll ask you a question that has been consuming me for a bit. Why is it in the story of the Creation in Genesis, Moses, and Abraham that it's written that they have a morning and even and such/ days even before there was the sun moon and stars? I might be overthinking a simple question that a member asked me but I would love thoughts on it

Potatoes gonna potate. Love youz

HUMP DAYYY!!!

So first of all I'm wishing myself a happy Hump day in a few days :) Self, Happy Hump day in a few days. I can't believe it's already been a year. It's been a great one and I'm sure this next year has a lot in store.

So now for the news that everyone has been waiting for (namely my parents (sorry you had to wait till the mass email)) I survived driving for days to my new area. It clocked in in about 13 hours from North Battleford to the Falls. It began with an hour and a half drive to the S'toon and then an eternety to Regina or at least it felt that way. It was probably just 3 hours. Then early the next morning (5:30) we were off to the Peg. We made it to Brandon in about 3 hours where we dropped some people off and picked some people up. Then another 3 hours to Winnepeg. After finding my companion there we waited for the sisters to help us get to our area. Whitewashing is not fun for finding your way around. But, they finally got done moving stuff around and we were off. Before we knew it we were across the border :D WHOOOOO!! I've got some pictures of that :) But, in no time (JK 4 hours) we were in I-Falls Minnesota. I've been here ever since and I am loving being back in America :) I'm going to go shopping after this and I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it even more. 

So I have got to say this. There has been some wild stuff that's happened in this branch. Pretty much none of it is good either. So over my time here there will probably be some things that I would like to say but can't because it's pretty testy out here. The branch pretty much fell into pieces because of it and as the Branch President said they like telling the dish (gossiping). So yeah it's a good one ;) But, honestly I'm pretty excited for it. The Branch was excited to have Elders again because the Branch president was basically blessing and passing the sacrament. So it's all good in the hood :) Also it's a town about the size of the Dirty Ville so I'm pretty psyched for that. It'll be nice being outlying still :) 

Other than that Potatoes gonna potate (forreal in this town) and I hope you all have a great week

Mah Boi from the Battlefords

 A little story as well that I forgot to put in the mass email. So a funny thing that happened with the "missionary hater" in the branch back in the Battlefords was I was giving my last spiritual thought at a members house and she dropped by to give them some veggies. I went and answered the door not knowing it was her and was a bit surprised to see her there. So I got the veggies for them and I invited her to come in for the spiritual thought and she responds by saying "I'm too spiritual for a spiritual thought" and she left. I was seriously debating if that should be the last time I saw her, It would be quite appropriate, but I decided against it. So I went over there and talked with her and her husband for a few minutes and mentioned that I had considered having that as a last memory. Which she said it would be quite appropriate as well :'D but it's not and I had a good goodbye with them :) It all works out in the end

*Who was the "mah boi" in the picture? Can you tell me more about him? The one with the Warriors shirt on.*

That's Miles. He's the Elvis impersonator. The first investigator that I found in the Battlefords. For the transfer with Elder Peterson we never really got around to talking to him because he wasn't progressing all that much. In that time he also moved so that was tough. But, we were tracting and found him again which made me super happy :) He was honestly more of a friend than an investigator but we still taught him a bit of stuff. He's great :) If there was any baptism that I would try and travel across the mission for it would be him. 

TRANSFERS

So the time has come. My stay in the Battlefords is over. I am not breaking any records set by my grandpa (Elder Martens) here. But, I'm pretty psyched to be in my home country again. I'm proud to be a 'Murican :) It's a good time to be going down there so I can root for the US Olympic team :) But, The area I'm moving to is called I-Falls. I'm whitewashing it with Elder B. Moore so that should be fun :) Overall it's sounds like quite the new experience :) 

But, it brings me to a reason why I'm sad I'm leaving. Just this week we moved into a new apartment. It was my dream apartment and I'm leaving it... :'( But, life goes on. But it all happened this last Saturday and the old apartment was left barren. It's honestly kindof odd but this new apartment will serve the Elders well. The only thing that would make it a dream apartment even more is AC and a second washroom. But, if that were the case the APs might as well be living in it ;) 

Another fun thing that happened this week was I got to go on exchanges with Elder Lee. It was so good to catch up with him and just have a most excellent exchange :) To begin it we went and visited a recent convert and taught him and his brother the Plan of Salvation. In the lesson his brother accepted the commitment to be baptized and we set a baptismal date with him. It was great :) For those of you who remember from a few weeks ago this recent convert was actually the guy who came out and visited us in the Battlefords. He is a big indian :) 

The next thing we did was go tracting in the rain :) Whoooo.. A bit of backstory to the area. We were tracting in the Alphabets or avenues with the names of A ave, B ave, down to around U ave. Anyways these are known as the Hood of Saskatoon. So we were talking to this guy and suddenly a tall guy walks up behind us in a polo shirt and starts asking the guy if he knows where someone is. The guy we were talking to was like "he's not living here anymore" Before we knew it the guy whipped out his wallet and displayed a RCMP badge. Elder Lee and I looked at eachother and was like "WHAT?!?" Not a few seconds later the guy was squawking about the place the guy was living with directions and details. It was crazy seeing a police officer in action like that. Overall I rate the exchange a 5 out of 5 it was truly a masterpiece :)

That's all I got for now but by the time I email again I'll be in my home country :) 

Potatoes gonna potate till then
love youz

*more info from my email*

So Now for the big news. As you could guess I'm getting transferred out of the Battlefords :) But, I'm getting transferred to an area that was previously a sister area which means I'm going to be whitewashing it. I'm going there with an Elder Moore but we've got like three Elder Moore's in the area so he's Elder B. Moore. He trained Elder Blommaert so that should be fun to talk to him about my MTC comp :) The area is called I-Falls or International Falls Minnesota. So I am going way south after being in one of the northernmost areas. It's a crazy change but it should be good. 

The week of Crazyness

So I've got to begin this with you've got to be careful for what you wish for... If you'll recall with me what I said last week " I wouldn't mind having to call the cops again or something if I knew it didn't mean something serious had happened" Whoops... Bad wish. I'm also going to pull an excerpt from my moms letter because I enjoyed how the story went in there but we will find that I did not call the cops but I still had a run in with them. 

[To preface this story, I am including an excerpt from my email last week:  "So I should probably let you know about this stuff. I talked to president recently about trying to do better about waking up on time and there was a few things that he was saying I might need to talk to the mission nurse about. One of those being my right ear being clogged up every morning and then recently having me go deaf in it for about thirty minutes. Another thing is I've been getting a bit sick from the mornings that I do stay awake the entire morning. So Sister Gorham directed me to go to a walk in clinic in town to see if I can get blood work done to see if my iron levels are good or something. So wish me luck and guess what? One way or another I'm getting my asthma prescription refilled :D"]

"So I had my first experience realizing how expensive doctor visits are.... Especially if you're not a citizen and have literally no insurance. Definitely going to look into getting a job with good benefits including insurance. So I got my ears washed out and went to go get some blood work. The doctor gave me some antibacterial stuff for my ears so that's fun. The worst part about that specific thing is I got my asthma prescription and that at the same time and they both cost like 40 bucks! One thing is supposed to last me 7 days and the other like a month or so IDK but they're both about the same price.. I have no idea why... Anywho so hopefully the ear stuff gets covered by the mission insurance I don't think the preexisting conditions gets covered by it. Going on to the blood work.

 This one is a real doozy.. I get to the place where the doctor told me to go and they were like "we can't do this for you cause you ain't a Canuck" So they told me to go to the hospital...... I get to the hospital and I walk up to the front desk and was like "Here you go" and handed them the paper. The lady asked me a few things and then asked me if I knew how much it would cost. I was thinking close to 160 $ because thats what the financial secretary told me. But she goes and checks and comes back and told me it would cost 500$ 0_o I had only drew out 200 bucks from my debit card (hopefully I can get some of that back on to it because thats the fund I used for the prescriptions) so I'm like "Yep nope I can't do that" So I call the financial secretary again and she told me that the mission could foot the bill and just call the hospital. So I go back and tell the front desk lady that and I get happily on my way.

 BTW partway through that I left right after they told me that it was going to be 500 bucks so I could go cry on the side of the road and call the financial secretary. On my way out of the parking lot I didn't see this car coming because there were cars blocking my view so I inched a little bit too far out and they stopped and honked the heck out of me right as a Mounty (police) drove by O_O (Thinking to myself "oh shoot...") So I stop for a little bit and then continue driving and sure enough he made a u-turn and flipped on his lights. Now I'm really thinking "Oh Shoot" So I pull over to the side and try to act calm but it obviously wasn't working because he told me right away that I seemed nervous. So he just ran my drivers license and let me on my way :D It was a pleasurable first experience running in with the law but honestly I shouldn't have wished too hard for an experience with the police last week because that is what you get. 

 So I go on and go back to get my blood work done. I'm now just waiting for that to be completed and to go back and see what's up if there is anything up."

[Also, he said in my email this week that there was so much wax in his ears it was insane.]

So that was only the beginning of the week. Halfway through the week we suddenly became a tripan for a few days with this Elder on his way to a mission down in the states. He's waiting for his visa but I'm glad we were able to have a few fun experiences with him :) One of those wasn't so fun because we had a run in with this guy who was vulgar beyond reason. It was sick how vulgar he was and a lot of it was probably because he was wasted. But, we challenged him to go a week with out drinking, smoking and other things and to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon each day so we'll see what happens. It was actually Elder Peterson's idea to challenge him to that so I'm super glad he came along with us those few days :) 

The next night we were able to go to this "Tent Meeting" Put on by The Living Waters Ministry. One of our investigators invited us to it about a month ago so I'm glad that we remembered to go to it. But, from what he was telling us it would be like I was expecting something entirely different. When we got there we just heard this drumming, guitarring and singing and we were like "oh boy it's basically a christian concert. We later found out it was a little bit more than that but there was a decent amount of "worship music". I felt bad for Elder Peterson because he had a pretty intense migraine at the time and Filipinos basically screaming "gospel music" was not good on him. He was glad he got to take part in some interesting stories though :) There was some good conversion stories that were shared there that night as well which was nice to hear. We had a bit of a biased opinion because we do conversion differently than what we were hearing but it was nice. I think the highlight of the night was we got a shout out by the Pastor who was over the whole event which was weird. Especially since the last time he talked to us he attacked what he thought was our belief system so that was fun :) Overall 4 out of 5 would not go again as a missionary.  

I think that's all I got for stories right now but I'll be careful for what I wish for next time :) Potatoes gonna potate. Love youz

Elder Wilson, Elder Petersen, Elder Mikesell