Transfers

Well the big thing that happened this week of course was getting a new companion. Unlike pretty much every other mission in the world because of our transfers we were not able to watch the broadcast right away. So as for now I get to be on the same old schedule as missionaries have been on for years.

So first of all it was a bit weird for me to be watching Elder Shaw leave his first area. It reminded me quite a lot about leaving Yorkton almost a full year ago. I can't even believe I've been out for 17 months now. I try not to think about it but anymore I've just been around other missionaries from my group so oh well ;) Anyways he got to say goodbye to all the first people he met on his mission and it was good. The Judge kissed him on the cheek when I was taking their picture. That was hilarious :D I'm so glad I got it on picture as well :) 

Secondly I'm now officially with Elder Dagenais. It's been a good few days with him in spite of him being under the weather a bit. I'm probably going to leave this transfer with the knowledge of how to explain a bunch of random words to people. For example while out on the rez we were walking along and he asked me what a tree house in english was called. I told him it was called a tree house and he told me in French it was something like "caban" similar to cabin I guess. It's been a good time. He was also able to connect quite well with a family that I had no idea was completely bilingual. So I was sitting there like "what in the world are they even talking about" There were a few things I could pick up but nothing like my Spanish discerning. 

Other than that there's really not too much that happened. Oh I guess I could mention that our church is now going to be at 1 and go for three hours instead of 2. #firsttime So that should be quite a fun change. Hopefully it will help with getting people to church :) 

Anywho I hope youz all have a great week. Before we know it V-Day will be upon us.

*from my email*

It's been an interesting week. Elder Shaw leaving his first area was a good reminder for when I left Yorkton. A lot of the time was spent going to all of the members and saying goodbyes/taking pictures. Then the next half of the week Elder Dagenais and I started out strong but, he's been sick and I think it's getting to me so we took a bit of a breather yesterday. Otherwise there were some good things that happened this last week. We "taught" this older couple and set up an appointment for this tuesday to finally share the message of the restoration with them. They were super Jesus people so the conversation we had with them ranged from his wifes conversion of three years ago to spiritual gifts. It was unique. I'm glad that Elder Shaw was able to meet some people of another Faith that wasn't bent on trying to prove us wrong. Otherwise we're still on the find grind ;) I'm glad that one of my weaknesses has become one of my strengths. Elder Dagenais kept on telling me that he was a bit surprised at how much I wanted to go trackting :)

Big News

Well let's just say this last week has had a lot of stuff go down. First of all as many of you are going to see but probably not get into (I'm still figuring google drive out): there was a baptism that happened this week. Because the font was about an hour away there was a lot of stuff that we needed to figure out and about five times it didn't happen. But, Prayers are answered and the building was ready for us the rides were found and everything was peachy. The water was a bit like a public pool in temperature despite the efforts of the Spanish elders in Winnipeg boiling water for us beforehand in 4 giant pots. I've got to say it was a bit of fun pouring boiling water into a baptismal font four times #mycontribution ;)

But, as for the service itself it was a great one for Elder Shaw's and I first. I was able to lead the music which was a lot of fun. For those of you who know about my experience back in the day leading music you know that if you stare at me long enough I start smiling and get embarrassed. Just to let you know, that hasn't changed. Anywho the talks were great. It only took 5 times to dunk Harold (the big guy) and Stephanie ended up getting baptized by Elder Shaw rather than the Judge. So as far as I'm concerned it was a success :D 

Also to go along with that. It's official I'm staying in Portage. And......... I'm getting a frenchie to come serve with me :D His name is Elder Dagenais and he's a great guy :) I've served around him quite a few times and I'm hoping to have a good transfer with him. I'm sure there will be some stories about frenchyness come from this transfer. Plus Winkler is still having a spanish missionary down there so we're probably going to be one of the most culturally diverse districts in the mission. All we need now is the Elder from Sweden to join us. 

Other than that there really hasn't been much that's happened this last week. But, I ain't complaining :) I hope y'all have a great week 

BAPTISM! BAPTISM! BAPTISM! BAPTISM!

So to start off. Game time is coming up soon. We are officially having a baptism this Saturday. It was announced in our Sacrament meeting so it must be legit. The great thing about this is it's both Elder Shaw's and I first baptism so we're just going hard about this. It's just nuts to both of us :) But, one of the craziest things about it was to see the miracles that happened one after another to really make it happen. The first one was Winkler our close friends (like they're literally part of the Portage Branch but because they're an hour and a half away they have their own group) had a baptism this last saturday. It was a Spanish Baptism so that was legit. Pretty much everything except the branch welcome was in Spanish. Even Elder Blommeart, who is not a spanish missionary, did the baptism itself in spanish. He looked terrified :) But, Stephanie was able to get a ride, after much worrying on our part, to it and had a great time. I think that was what helped her have a vision of what she wanted to do. It was so good. Just so good.

Earlier in the week our branch president, you'll be hearing more about him later as well, came over and basically gave her the run down of what she's getting into and what she needs to do to prepare. It was a legit lesson and that was the first of the miracles. She really started doing well after that. 

Another aspect that happened with our trip to Winnipeg for the Spanish baptism was we were all just beat because of it. We traveled a lot of the day and it was just a draining experience. So that happened and then that night Stephanie had the gang of kids that trolls around the coops (the nickname for the apartment complex Stephanie lives in (just think Chicken Coops and you get it)) so that gang of kids decided to stay the night and was just a rumpus all night long. But, in spite of that, when we woke her up the next morning she was dedicated enough to come to church. It was so good. 

Over this time we had been worrying about her desire to be baptized and to read the scriptures so pretty much every prayer that has been sent up to heaven from the Portage apartment has included her in it. And we've seen our prayers answered before our eyes. So good :) She's getting excited, and nervous (she's really shy and the biggest worry she has about the baptism is how many eyes are going to be on her) but, it's working out :) 

So there were four times that I typed out baptism in my subject line but I've only talked about two of them. So I'm sure you're wondering about the other two (if you weren't already I'm sure you are now) So first of all Winkler was having a two week in a row trip out to Winnipeg. Which is soo good for Elder Goodrich because it's his last two weekends in the mission. So we planned it out so that we would have the same baptismal service for both of our investigators. So good :) But, it gets better. So after church in Winkler (our branch president drew a lot (literally it was a green paperclip) and he went down to Winkler) our branch president pulled a guy aside who had been coming to church a lot recently. After he was done talking to them he got everyones attention and was like "I'm pleased to announce that our friend is going to get baptized this saturday" and everyone cheered and was like "WHOOOO!" while that's all going on he goes over to Elder Blommeart and Goodrich and was like "you two better go over every day this week and teach him everything" So now they're doing that. Flippin our branch president is just Fuego right now. He literally just set a baptism up for the Elders down in Winkler in like twenty minutes. It was nuts. 

So now as much of you understand when good things are going to happen there's usually bad things that happen along the way. This has been the theme of this week. I think it's typified of a lesson we had yesterday before we found out Stephanie was doing so well. So this is literally the first time we got into this persons house and we're teaching them and all. She mentions that she goes to the First Baptist church or something (Shout out to Elder Andrus he knows all about the baptists) so we teach her anyways because she's willing to listen. So we get close to the end of the lesson and we just gave her a Book of Mormon. She gets this call (and we can hear the other person on the phone) turns out its a member of her church and she's coming over in (she said) 5 minutes. So we're like Mr. Incredible and we've got time. But, turns out we didn't. So the lady knocks on the door and we're like oh shooooot... The worst part is is the lady we were teaching takes the Book of Mormon in hand to the door. OH shoot... So the lady goes off on whatever she was there for and then suddenly "whatcha reading?" Ahhh nooooo... as soon as she finds out it's the Book of Mormon she just starts railing off anti about us. Meanwhile we're just sitting there like Oh my goodness what is actually going on here. To make matters worse she then tells her we're still here. Dun dun dunnnn... Then with mouth spitting fire she comes in and tells us to plead our case or something (I was going into panic mode) And then *thump chest above heart* mah boi Elder Shaw comes in to save the day. She's claiming that we don't believe in Christ. Elder Shaw defends. She claims they believe in the Bible and not some degenerate copy. Elder Shaw defends. and it all happened in front of the lady we were just teaching. Just like that it's all over. The lady we were teaching then goes on to say something along the lines of "There's always something more to learn and if He (joseph smith) believes in God then its something she's fine with". The lady came back a few minutes later and I'm not sure if she knew we were still here but, she goes on a little bit more about how we believe in multiple gods or something. It was nuts. 

I just fear for the life of the poor lady we were teaching. She is going to be thoroughly antied over when they're done with her. Good times in good old Portage La Prairie. 

So I think this is all the time I got. But, Next week should have plenty of great stories :) Love youz and have a wondrous week

The week of reckoning

Well, I honestly can't remember much about this week other than we flippin gave'r on tracting. For those of you in the Cache Valley area. I congratulate you for surviving the true Snowmeggedon. Shout out to Elder Mikesell Junior for that one. It makes me super happy that y'all can now empathize with me on what cold truly is. Now just imagine tracting for days in that ;) That being said this week I've really also started to develop a very joyful attitude while tracting which is difficult sometimes when your toes hurt from the cold. (don't read that last bit mom) But, I've got to say it makes life a lot better when your happy :) There's been quite a few times when making a concentrated effort to be happy has made rejection almost funny. The way that some people answer their doors is quite hilarious.

OH! I just remembered something that happened this week. I got to hang out with a bunch of spanish speaking people. Now that I'm in the Brandon zone it's where the Spanish District is based. So because of that there were a decent amount of Spanish Elders at our ZedTM. After the meeting we went to a Papusary. For those of you who don't know what papusas are like I did they're basically a glorified pancake made of tortilla and whatever you want to through into it. My favorite was the Loroco one which I had no idea what Loroco was but it's good. Being around them made me want to be a language missionary a little bit until I remember that I couldn't be as much of me as I would've liked for a big part of my mission. It was a good time :) 

Also another funny thing that happened while in ZedTM the Zone Lords decided to mix things up a bit. So because we had a new Inspired Plan set forth in it it reminded them of The Title of Liberty and what not. So I got to be an extra in their acting out what happened. It was a lot of fun to "rend" my suit and throw it at the feet of Zone Lord Wintle who was waving a yard stick with a ripped shirt tied to the end of it. Luckily it got on video so hopefully it gets circulated around a little bit. 

So yeah other than that It's been a great week. I hope y'all have a great week and survive the cold weather :)

2 weeks 2 long

So I've got lots to say but I'm not sure if I have enough time to get through it all. So I'll be listing out the highlights of these last two weeks and hopefully explaining them enough. If there's something you want to hear more about just shoot me a reply and I should be able to catch it next week.

First of all I wanted to relate a point I forgot to mention when we got stuck out on the rez the first time (don't worry about how many times since) So after we had got out of that mess we were driving back up to the road and this massive pave loader drives up past and waves us down. He asks if we were the ones stuck which we replied to the affirmative. He was like ok good thing your out and we parted ways. There's a saying in this mission "if you get stuck on a rez you won't be stuck longer than 15 minutes" This is very true :) If we didn't get out earlier we would've had a 5 ton truck if you can call it a truck at that point come and drag us out :) 

So now for the highlights

1. The branch President got a new truck for Christmas and we got to be a part of the surprise

2. I watched the Book of Mormon Movie at Brother J's house which two things: I'm going to be talking about him quite a lot because he's "Flippin" hilarious and I'm not sure whether or not The Book of Mormon Movie is his favorite movie because it was kindof a joke movie :)

3. We had 8 missionaries stay over at our apartment boxing day eve

4. We then dug ourselves out of 3 foot snow drifts using the Assistants silverado and President Craig's traverse they were borrowing

5. We then played basketball for 5 hours straight in the which we destroyed all competition (including one of the Elders dunking on someone)

6. We attended a funeral

7. We got a nice brand spanking new RAV4 at said funeral

8. We tested out said RAV4 out on the rez and did not get stuck

9. I was finally warm driving around because the RAV4 has heated seats

10. I found out I was giving a talk a day before it happened

11. We had a New Years eve party with the branch

12. I had a further gaining testimony of the soundness of the gospel after doctrinely smashing (for lack of better words)one step up from bashing so it's all good)) a guy inside our church. 

See there was quite a lot that happened over these last two weeks and I definitely do not have enough time to really expound on any of them. So if you want a more detailed story just email me the number and what about it.

Thank you for all of your love and support. I hope y'all have a great new year