Dec 7 2015

Christmas is getting closer and closer! It amazes me how fast this year went by! Next month will be a new year- 2016! 

We had a better week than last week. Last week was not too good. Our numbers were low. We were in Lethbridge for a day. 

We had this investigator named Diana, I have taught her once since I have been here. We kind of dropped her because she was not really progressing and it seemed like the more she meets with us the more involved she was with her church, the Baptist church. She came to this Church once or twice and she has had the baptismal invitation more than once, so she was not progressing. Just this or last month she started texting us saying that she would like to meet up again. So we scheduled an appointment. That one went well.  I asked her why she wanted to all of a sudden meet up with us again. I really liked her answer. She said that she likes the feelings that she feels, and it makes her week better. So that's good. It’s good that she recognizes it! Three days later we met up again. We had a plan to talk about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it. But instead we ended up teaching about the Plan of Salvation. I know that was instruction by the spirit, because during that lesson she had a lot of questions that we answered. I felt the Spirit really strongly as we were teaching about God's Plan of Happiness, the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit put words in my mouth that was not planned beforehand. Always being in tune with the Spirit is so important, as a missionary and at all times. 

As a missionary we learn to always be in tune with the Spirit, especially in lessons, because without the Spirit, the lesson will not get anywhere. The investigator will not get anywhere, and you will not get anywhere. 

This week we had lots of service. They were all moves too, which is kind of ironic I think, because the house just sold. The weather has been awful. It does not even feel like it is December! It’s been too warm. I think we have been in a Schnook this pass week. It’s been nice with the moves that we helped with, but I would like to see some snow, and not the snow that is on the ground already, that's been there for weeks. One of those moves was for a nonmember. Their house smells like marijuana. Walking up those stairs the smell hits you like a ton of bricks! We stopped early because of complications with their other Landlord. As we talked to the guy he starts rolling up a joint. He said that he has a medical card for it because he has a severe back injury. We left before he lit it up. haha

Last week we went on exchanges with the APs. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed them. We got a lot of work done. 

Yesterday we had Stake Conference. All Calgary stakes were there. It was broadcasted via satellite. They rearranged the stake boundaries and they added a stake! That was really cool to witness. A new stake means a new zone, Next week is transfers, I am really interested to see what goes on.      

There was General Authority there, Elder Anderson of the Seventy. He gave a really good talk. He talked about the temples, and the importance of temple sealing. He said "Those who receive the sealing covenant in the temple, they will still be together in the next life." even if they make wrong choices. 

He talked a lot about faith. There are three principles of faith.

1. Believe in Jesus Christ, Have hope. Faith and hope go together. 

2. Set goals that are in line with Gods will. Conform desire with his will. 

3. GET TO WORK! Faith without works is dead. 

I am really excited for Christmas and for the New Year. Good luck with the move. Hope it all goes well.

Love you all

Nov. 30 2015

This was one of those weeks where it was really busy and not a whole lot happened. We went to Lethbridge on Wednesday. We took the truck because we had some sick tires. We drove two other missionaries there as well. We were told that there could be more snow down there and their mini van had a low tire so it was a better idea to take the truck.

We did not have as many lessons as I wanted. Fred was busy all week. He came to church yesterday so that was good, and he came all on his own.  We contacted Kalhed on Saturday. He is not going anywhere. His mom will not let him. They are not interested. They have a different belief. 

It was coming to the end of the week and we really wanted to find a new investigator, because we are on a really good roll. We have this big list of part member families. There are about 112 names on there, and it’s really out of date. We both decided to fast until we get a new investigator, we are contacting this list and we knock on this door, the person who lives there is not the one we are looking for. She has lived there for 8 years, which shows how out of date the list is. We start talking to her about her dogs and about what we do. I have some things in common with them. Both of the dogs birthdays are in February and so is the owner’s. We give her a BoM and she asks for more reading assignments. She said that she would read the assignments and that we can come back on Tuesday. So last week we got a new investigator! Her name is Amy. 

We will be teaching Fred this week and we will try and put him on date.   

Nov. 23 2015

Well it’s this time of year again where the temperature drops and the snow falls, (even though that happens most of the year). But more importantly it’s Thanksgiving! And even more importantly it’s American Thanksgiving. It’s a great time to take some time and give thanks for the things which we are thankful for!

I have a greater appreciation for the Eternal things in life, like Family, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His Church, and the thing which we are all focused on, Eternal Life. I'm also very thankful for all of the love and sacrifices which were made by you in my behalf, and I am happy to be on a mission. Time files, last year at this time I was still in British Columbia. I'm also thankful for everything that I have been given. 

This week will come and it will go just as fast as it came.

Make sure you always remember and never forget the sacrifice, blood, tears, sweat, hard work, foot steps of blood, dedication, passion, and the lives which were given to get to this wonderful country America, and to get the freedom that we have! God Bless America!  

I'm really looking forward to this week. Canada does not shut down like the sates do on Thanksgiving Day. They don't really do it in October either. It’s another day. This Friday is Black Friday. It’s the same day as the states. We are going to a member families’ house for Thanksgiving, the Judd's. They are in the bishopric in the YSA ward. I hope we have turkey, ham, corn, potatoes, and pie. For Canadian Thanksgiving they made the best homemade pecan pie it was so so good! 

I want to talk more about the lesson we had with Fred two weeks ago. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. That was one of the most powerful lessons I have taught. The spirit was there and you could tell that everyone in the room could feel it. Fred came to church that week. He also came this Sunday, but we forgot to tell him that there were no meetings because of the temple dedication. 

The temple dedication was so so good, there were a lot of blessings promised. President Eyring gave a wonderful talk and that is where most of the promises came from. He said don't be too quick to forget the work that you do for the dead, because they will not be too quick to forget you. They will watch over you and help you and keep you safe. I thought that was cool. 

We had Zone Conference last week. One of President Miles counselors was there, President Stephen. He is a wonderful guy. He is so missionary minded, and he has stories for days! President Miles asked him to bear his testimony to our zone and another zone that was with us. President Stephen lives in the NW stake, the same stake as the stake president that came with us to the lesson. President Stephen talked about that stake president (President Steele) and how he went to a lesson with some missionaries to teach his friend, and how he was late for a meeting because he was with his friend and the missionaries. He knew that we were there and we taught him, and President Miles pointed us out, so he knew about this lesson and how great it went. What made me happy was what President Stephen said in his testimony, "That stake president is on fire!" "He is pushing missionary work harder, he’s more missionary minded". That made Elder Christensen and I so happy. I was smiling from ear to ear. We are going to meet with Fred again this week, we want President Steele to come again because they are really good friends and President Steele knows a lot! Then after that lesson we will find some fellowship in the ward, there were a lot of members that introduced themselves to him. 

This week was a miracle. We have a goal every week to find a new investigator. At the end of this week it was not looking too promising. We were both praying really hard. We had a dinner apt. with a LA at 6 but he called and had to postpone it to 7 because dinner would not be ready, so we rearranged our schedule.  We try and go contact this family where we think they live, there are not members and we had helped them move. We knock on this house... no answer, so we walk back to the truck and there is a young man cleaning up leaves and sticks in his yard. So we ask him if he wants help. He says no. We start talking about who we are and what we do. He says that he would be interested and that he is not doing anything on Saturday! He gave us his name and number. He said he is 18 so that’s YSA! So it’s perfect!     He said his name was Khaled.

We also got a referral that we contacted, by phone because he was not at that address at the time. His name is Lloyd. He is interested in Family History and Genealogy, so Grandma because your a professional at that, I’m going to refer him to you! ;)    

So here's a funny story... 

This  last week we were going to get new tires for our truck, so we ordered some tires from Canadian Tire. Of course they did not have any in stock, so they ordered some.  Three days later they called us saying that they were in, so we took the truck in. They said that it would be about an hour and a half from when they got the tires in. So we were like okay, so we called other missionaries to pick us up and take us home so we could weekly plan. 3 or 3 and a half hours later, Canadian Tire called us saying that they only have 3 tires! They do not know where the 4th one is, or if it even came, so they put the old tires back on and we picked up the truck after our dinner appointment. We had to take the other missionaries’ car because dinner was a long drive or a very very very long walk.  So needless to say we still had our old tires on, and Canadian Tire called us back saying that they found the "lost" tire, and our name is on the tires so now we have to some how find time this week to get them on. 

I wanted them to put on some BIG rock crawlers, or some huge mud tires because of the inconvenience, but that probably is not a good idea. haha :)

Nov. 18, 2015

Hello! Thank you for the email. It is always good to hear from the family. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I heard that the rest of the fam is doing their own thing, so there might not be a trip to St. George? What is the plan for Christmas? Who all is coming up? 

WE met with Ben again, we are continuing to teach him the after member lessons. Ben is still progressing really well. Yesterday he got to pass the sacrament. That was so cool to see. He was really nervous but he did a really good job. 

In Canada they do something really neat for Remembrance Day, along with everyone wearing the Poppys. At 11:11am everything stops! Traffic, radio, TV, Calgary Transit, and people. For two minutes they have silence. Two minutes of silence in remembrance of those that gave their life for their country. 

We also had Zone Training Meeting on the 11th. That went really good. President said a lot of stuff at the last MLC, which we repeated in ZTM. This mission has a goal to have 75 on date. We are close to that. Also he gave us a promise in the name of Jesus Christ, saying that if we have faith in the One we serve, then we will find one new investigator per companionship per week, which is also a mission goal. There were some powerful words coming out of the mouth of the mission president that day.  

Thursday we went to the Temple. It was so nice to be able to drop everything and forget about it and spend half the day at the temple. We went with someone in the other ward who is leaving for his mission this week. He was a temple ordinance worker. We did some names with him working. It was really cool to see. I really like the Calgary Temple. It is so nice.       

This was a good week. We got another new investigator! His name is Fred. 

We got a call from a Stake President in the NW stake (who is also president of United Drywall Company). He talked about his friend and worker, and about us teaching him the lessons. Fred works at United Drywall. It is a very good work environment because there are a lot of members who work there. Fred also went to the Calgary Temple open house, so during the past 5 or so years, Fred has been around members a lot, which is wonderful! We met him for the first time mid-week last week and gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon. We explained about it, and went into some detail about the 3 and 8 wittiness, and introduction. The lesson went really well. Only thing is, he has three Chihuahuas and they would not stop barking. They love to bark. But it was not really a distraction. 

Later that week we met with Fred again. The stake president in the NW stake came over to help us teach that lesson. Before the lesson Fred make us all lunch. We had some really good burgers. Then we taught about the plan of salvation, and invited him to church. And he came! He came with President Steele. This week we will not be able to meet with Fred because he will be out in Edmonton for work, but we will catch him next week. Fred said that he will read the Book of Mormon, and the Plan of Salvation pamphlet that we gave him, and that he will come to all three hours of church next week.  One thing that Fred and President Steele made clear is that when Fred says that he will do something, he does it! That is what I like. If you say that you will do something you do it.  

Love you all