The Baddest in Town

Due to popular demand I'm now going to tell you about Bobby Brown the baddest in town. So one day when we were walking around trying to talk to people we get this guy who comes out of our house and starts yelling at us "Hey I need you to answer me something What's the deal with the God guy?!?" We were confused about this but we were like what can go wrong? So we get over there and he starts to tell us that Science rules God like Science was a guy. We looked at each other after it happened and said to each other "was he talking about science like he was a guy?" But he started telling us that science ruled God and how because he was raised in the hood and because he was poor he can prove it. He then said at this point "you guys are going around preaching and stuff(censored) and now I'm preaching to you" He also said that we as humans were the supreme creature on the earth and how there's "ants and spiders and stuff(censored)" and how we were better than them so science is better than God. Halfway through the conversation we asked him his name and he got all serious and said "my names Bobby Brown the baddest in town, you can ask anybody you can ask the neighbors across the street and ask them about Bobby Brown and they'll say yeah I know Bobby Brown he's the baddest in town" and after that he said "but I like you guys I got your back you don't need to worry" He then started telling us that we shouldn't take this stuff so seriously going from house to house and stuff(censored) that we should just get online and get 10 people over to our house and give them a bowl of soup cause they're hungry just get like 10 followers. It was uplifting to talk to him because at the end he started telling us to not get down about this stuff and that we're good guys. Also during this whole thing he was asking us if we thought he was crazy and saying stuff like "be honest with me am I crazy I hope I don't sound crazy" Also when we first got there his drinking buddy started yelling and screaming at us to stop especially when we mentioned God. It was scary but after a while he just came and slammed the door shut. Overall I rate this experience a 5 out of 5 it was truly a masterpiece :)

This week though we found out that our calculations on how many ks (kilometers on our car) we had left was wrong. So we successfully did not put a single k on our car for two days this last week. But, in doing so we walked quite the distance in 4 hours. From North Battleford to Battleford. For those of you not familiar with the geography of Saskatchewan There is a river between these two cities. In all it's about 7.5 kilometers from our apartment to the church. It was quite a walk for someone like me who hasn't hiked in ages. It did make me want to get into shape for when I get back and actually can go on hikes in real mountains :) But, from that I think I strained my left hamstring and both of our feet were rekt from that walk. I think the scariest part about all of it is that the only place that there is a sidewalk on this road from North town to south town was on the bridge. On our way back up there was this car that came rocketing down the hill from North Battleford and came busting right past us. It was crazy. We could hear it from way across the river valley. 

So I was also wanting to talk about what we learned at Zone conference from last week. In essence we talked about drawing down the powers of heaven and how to do that. One of the things that really stuck out to me was differentiating Faith as a principle of action and as a principle of power. Another thing that we've been doing was training our thoughts because we learned that thoughts are the beginning of desires. So over the past week we've been asking each other and the meadow lake elders where are thoughts were to try and help us learn how to control our thoughts. It's come up with some interesting things but overall it's been helping :) It was such a good experience and I felt like the entire thing was geared towards helping me. It was so good :) 

I think that's all I have time for but I love you all and next week I'm going to be finding out transfer calls. It's crazy that it's so soon even though it's a 7 week transfer. Love you all. Potatoes gonna potate ;) I hope you all had a wondrous Easter

 

*from my email*

 

(I asked him what ways they use to find people.)

 

Right now the main things we do to find people to teach are go around street contacting and getting referrals. It's worked fairly decently but this last week has been slow for that. We did the most finding we've done for ages but we didn't do so well or something because we really didn't talk to many people. 

This has been a pretty good Easter. The videos that the church put out, mainly the #Hallelujah and the virtual Hallelujah Chorus really hit me at this time. I love the message that it brings about how those people who passed away we can see again and they will be resurrected. The Hallelujah Chorus really helped me feel the worship of Jesus as our Lord and Savior and that he will one day come again and reign over us. I absolutely loved it.

 

Some Wildwood stories

Just so y'all know I'm making a pun out of the name of a ward in S'toon.

I've got some pretty fun stories for this week so lets get into it :)

So the beginning of the crazy stuff that happened the day before Zone conference we got a call at 7:00 telling us we had to be in Saskatoon that day instead of the next day. So we had to change a lot of plans to work with this plot twist. It was well worth it though because there was a ton of crazy things that happened there. 

On the way there I was sitting in the passenger seat of our car and the Meadow Lake Elders Tippets and Peck sitting in the back and Stevens piloting the vehicle. This is important for two reasons the first is I fell asleep and had my head resting practically on my chest for most of the time until we passed a train (we have a lot of those in canada) and Elder Peck behind me stuck his arm out the window to get it to honk. It was so much fun to wake up to a train honking its horn :) 

The next reason was we were driving in the city and we came to this corner that had a little island between the turn and the normal intersection. If you can imagine a triangle stuck right between the two roads. Anyway there was this wasted guy walking off of that triangle towards us waiting for an opening. So this guy proceeded to walk right towards our car and Elder Tippets started yelling "HE'S GONNA HIT US" and right as he said that the guy stopped right next to our car and looked so surprised that there was a car right there. It was hilarious :) After that we drove away and we were pretty sure we drove over his foot. 

That evening we decided to go to a mcdonalds to get some food and we found this guy trying to sell something to get some food. So Elder Stevens was like "I won't buy your stuff but I'll get you a mcdouble. So long story short we taught this guy for about an hour and gave him a book of mormon. We also met a preacher there and exchanged cards. It was crazy stuff. :) 

That night we were billeting at the meadow green ward elders place and there was some interesting things that happened there. But, when we were going to sleep Elder Tippets was praying and fell asleep on his knees. Elder Peck and Stevens were making fun of him to see if he was really asleep and that went on for about 30 minutes. It was crazy :) After a while he groaned and sat on me. We all started busting up because he had no idea what happened :D 

That's all I got time for but hopefully I'll be able to talk about what we learned at Zone Conference because it was great :) Love y'all. Potatoes gonna potate

*from Garth's email*

Hey, before I forget again I've got a confession. When I get home I want to eat some stuffed mushrooms with you. The mission changes you in a lot of ways but I never expected to start liking mushrooms... :D I don't think there is a single food that I've tried that I won't eat now. Thanks for raising me right.

I'm really enjoying the metric system a lot. It's been fairly easy to adjust since we have the temperature whenever we get in the car. We also talk about the weather all the time so I'm actually going to have a difficult time getting back into the "normal" way of doing it.

ZTM

So you know you're in a good mission when the general authority that was going to visit decided not to anymore because we're now the highest baptizing mission in Canada. So yeah our trip to Saskatoon this week got a little bit less interesting but I'm sure it'll be really good still. It's kindof a happy and a sad moment because we're the highest baptizing mission in Canada now but we're not getting a general authority coming anymore... It was funny when they announced that because they said there are probably a lot of you who didn't believe that this could happen and when they said that a few people raised their hands and pointed at themselves. It was the most fun I've had at a Zone Training Meeting. I was also able to see one of the missionaries from my first couple of transfers there which was fun. :) 

Another great thing that happened from this ZTM was we got the Easter cards for the Easter initiative this year. There are some great videos that have gone out again for this found at followhim.mormon.org To top it off Elder Tippets and Peck challenged us to a competition for that. It'll be a lot of fun :) 

A miracle for this week is we've had beautiful weather :) It's been above zero for almost a week now and almost all of the snow is melted. I've even been able to get out without a jacket. So all y'all down in Utah it's happening up here in Canada as well :) 

So I forgot about this but, this last week we were also able to make a trip out to a members restaurant about thirty minutes away. He's originally from Korea and came to canada a while back. But he made us some good burgers and wings. He also sent us home with a pizza. It was a good trip :) I'll be sending pictures of the water tower from the town he was in.

 

 

So this just shows how dumb I am when it comes to hunting. A couple weeks ago Elder Tippets and Peck were talking about wanting to go shed hunting on a p-day and this was the first dumb mistake I made :D I asked if they were going to be using a rifle or a bow to go shed hunting (mainly because it's against the rules to use a gun) and they started laughing at me... They then told me you don't go shed hunting with a gun it's looking for sheds. My second dumb mistake was not realizing that sheds were the antlers off of deer when they shed them in the winter. I didn't realize that until this week when they were talking about it again. So I have attached a picture of elder Stevens holding a "shed" to make fun of me :) 

 

 

 

Meadow Lake

So this last week I felt the second closest thing to freedom in this mission. The first being serving in the USofA. The second is being in the furthest area away from the mission office. Meadow Lake is about 11 hours away from Winnipeg and if that isn't a long road trip I don't know what is :) But, anyways that happened this last week and it was good :) For one there is actually hills and stuff on the way to Meadow Lake from the Battlefords. For two there are actually forests up there instead of random patches of trees. Plus it's always a good time with the two elders up there. They've been together for about three and a half months and they're getting way too used to each other :)

Another great thing that happened this last week was I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Tippets our district leader who's up in Meadow Lake. While on exchanges we found an Elvis impersonator who seemed very interested in our message. He has gigs these next couple weeks but we should be meeting with him soon. The funny story about that was when we called the other two Elder Peck, who came out with me and was trained by Elder Cox, said "this proves that there are no normal people in the Battlefords" which is for the most part true. There are quite a few interesting people here in the Battlefords. 

I think that's all that I got for now. I'm going to be making a trip out to the Stoon this week for ZTM so I'm sure there will be some interesting things happen from that :) Love you all. Potatoes gonna potate