A Special Phone Call

A Special Phone Call

On May 20, 2015, around 10:30 P.M., Todd received a call on his cell phone from Calgary.  For a second, the thought crossed our minds that something could be wrong.  After all, it was pretty late. The voice on the other end introduced himself as Bishop Drew Galbarith.  He said he had just said good-bye to Elder Condie as he would be transferred in the morning, and felt he “just had to call” us and tell us how much our son would be missed in that area.  Todd put him on speakerphone and I began taking notes of the things he was saying so we could always remember.  Here are the things he said:

Your son is unique, on the good side.

All the missionaries respect him.

He is a great trainer.  His companion, Elder Hopoi has been very well trained by him!

If I were the mission president, I would have Elder Condie training the whole mission, because I feel that’s the most important position.

He is mature.

He spoke in sacrament meeting and gave an OUTSTANDING talk!  I don’t know how he was before his mission, but he is a great speaker now!

 He is confident and well versed in the scriptures.

He is smart.

Calgary is worldly.  There is a lot of wealth here and the people are not very humble, so there are not a lot of baptisms in this mission. But Elder Condie has been well received in this area.

He has a twinkle in his eye.

He is OBEDIENT! Yet fun. I don’t know how to describe it.

I can tell he has been well brought up.  I assume he was a joy to raise.

He has made remarkable progress for only being out 10 months.

Not that it matters, but he has all the leadership skills to be AP (assistant to the president). 

I can’t say enough good about him.

He will be GREATLY missed!

We expressed our thanks to this good bishop for taking the time to call us and told him we hope to visit the mission as a family after Jaden returns.  He told us when that time comes, we will be welcome to stay in his cabin in Waterton.  

Bishop Galbraith and his wife

May 19 2915

Well it’s that time of year again. Transfers are here and I'm going! I'm being transferred. All I know is that I'm staying north. I did not want to be transferred because I love this area and I love this ward. It is such a great place to be. I really liked what President said in his weekly letter.

 "This week many of you will be receiving your notice of transfer.  Know that each of you receiving a transfer notice or a change of assignment has received such notice because the Lord wants you to provide you with some new opportunities for growth as a missionary.  Each of your assignments was prayed about and confirmation received from the Spirit of the Holy Ghost that you are going where the Lord wants you to go. 

There are any number of reasons behind a reason for a transfer notice, but I encourage each of you to seek personal revelation on why you are assigned to a specific area or assignment.  As you seek diligently, ask humbly, and then act (knock), the Lord will provide you with the answers you need to become effective as quickly as possible. 

Don’t delay in getting started in your new areas.  Hit the ground running in your new assignment.  Begin Thursday afternoon to work effectively in meeting the ward / branch leaders in your area and getting acquainted with all that you encounter.  Expect miracles and be obedient so the Lord can provide them for you."   

So wherever I go it’s where I'm supposed to go. 

This week was a good one, I'm done taking the antibiotics. I took them until empty. We had a lot of rain last week. It rained for 2 days! It was so nice. I love the rain and the smell of it. We had lots of service last week to. Lots of moves. I will have pictures next week with members and areas. I want to take a lot so I remember this area. 

If Tanner has not done his Spanish assignment, here are some cultural norms that I hope can help:

In Canada: 

The alphabet is X,Y,Zed When ever anyone says "Z" its "Zed"

The traffic lights are sideways 

 Everything has French on it. French was the original language. On all foods and everything, French is under English.

Couch is "chesterfield". 

We are KMH not MPH. The dashboard in cars a different because of that.

Lots of photocops 

Gas is SUPER cheap  right now it’s 97 cents (a liter) 

The oil market pretty much controls the economy.

Our money is plastic, smells like maple, and looks like monopoly money.

No more pennies 

No $1.00 dollar bills. Only $1 and $2 dollar coins called Loonies and Toonies 

The Smarties candy is called Rockets 

In the winter prepare for super cold weather -40 

Prepare for HUGE weather changes. There could be snow in the morning and -30. In 20 minutes the snow will be gone and the temperature will be 13. because of the  chinook (warm wind). 

And that’s about all I can think of. I hope this helps Tanner. 

Below are pictures of our money, lights and ect 

    

I hope this week goes good for all of you. 

In response to a letter Mom sent:

Thats awesome! That’s good to hear that the Laurel Conference went great! I know Kylie! Kylie Carlson (I think that’s her last name 99% sure). She’s awesome. 

In answer to the question: I do think that the mission has helped me with anger management. I know I kinda struggled in my childhood years with anger, and I’m sorry for all the heart ache that gave all of you. The mission really has helped I would say. 

In answer to the other question: Yes.  I am writing to some girls.

That is so cool that Caleb and Callie helped catch the duck out of the pond. I think that duck is from Anaheim, California. Calgary Flames lost to them in hockey so I think that was from them! ahhahaa:) I have something that I can send for FHE I think everyone would like it. 

In response to a letter Dad sent:

It’s really sad that there are a lot of people that are lost.  Satan is really working hard.  I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help those that are lost. The gospel will bring hope, faith, love, and happiness into anyone’s lives.

Congrats on your 20 years! (in S& I). That’s really cool and an honorable accomplishment.  In my opinion, you’re the best one out there.  There is an institute teacher in my ward that I serve in right now.  I will get a picture with him and send I to you.

Thanks for the email Dad. Love ya too

May 11 2015

This was a really good week. The best part of last week was being able to skype home. It was so nice to see and talk to all of you guys. I hope it was a really good Mothers Day for you Mom. I sure hope the kids did something really nice. What did they do? I forgot to ask yesterday. 

Last week we did lots of finding, just like the last 10 weeks. We have been dropping lots of BoMs. If I cant teach anyone in this area then all I can do is find people for the next missionaries that come. 

I think that success has finely come up about it, because last week at this door we knocked on, the guy said that we can come back tomorrow at around 6;00.  We came back that day but we were running a little behind. We still knocked on the door and the guy said come back any day at 6;00 so we have yet to go back. Maybe when we go back we can start teaching him. 

Next week is transfers. Maybe I might be transferred. I don't know but we will see.  

May 4, 2015

Pretty much the only thing we did this week was service. Lots and lots of it. All moving. One of the days we had planned service for some one in a different district, but we get a text from the zone leaders saying that the assistants have asked that if any one is available to help do some service in a different zone, because they were doing Zone Training Meeting for that zone. So we decided to go there instead. It was fun to travel out of the zone. There were a lot of really nice houses and cars on the way there. When we get there we helped some people move. We were told that there were more missionaries coming but that was false! We were the only missionaries there, so I’m glad that we went there instead of our other service appointment. 

Another person we helped move was someone in our ward. He works for Vivint, so he was getting ready to sell in Regina. There are a lot of Vivint guys in our ward. My last area too. Camron knows some of the guys in Aridrie.

Saturday was the day where we did most of the service. We did 8.5 hours of service back-to-back with different service appointments. That was just so crazy! We were so dead! 

Tuesday we had our Zone Training Meeting along with car inspections. I cleaned our car so well! Better then anyone (besides you dad!;)) 

With car inspections I planned a head of time. We had breakfast with the Trims in our ward, Kail Trim’s dad is the fleet coordinator for all the cars. Before we left their daughters drew us a picture. So when our car was inspected we made sure that picture was in the car. 

No one in the zone got first place but two companionship's took 2^nd US!:) And someone in our zone. (because they made some muffins. So we got some public recognition and bragging rights! haha 

At that Zone Conference there were a lot of missionaries that I knew and served around! All of them I served around in BC. It was a BC reunion. I got a lot of pictures; I will have to send them next week. 

Our WML has a hollowed out bull horn. It is tradition that missionaries drink out of it. In the past it was Dr. Pepper, but this time we got to drink Mio. Mio is a water flavorer.. There are lots of different flavors. I got pictures of me drinking out of the bull horn. And lots of videos. Videos are too big to send, so you will have to wait until I get home. :) 

That’s all that went down last week. Love you all.