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    

Nov. 9, 2015

This was a crazy week! It was so so busy once again. We had one of those missionary meetings that we have once a month with all of the leadership of the mission. That went well but it was long and I sat in a very hard chair for a long time. It was still a good meeting. 

We got this referral a couple of weeks ago from some sisters in the zone for this guy named Alphonse. He speaks French, his English is really bad, so it was hard to communicate with him over the phone. We had dinner with a member in the family ward who speaks French, so after dinner we called up Alphonse and talked with him at first but we gave the phone to the member and he took over and had a good conversation with him in French. The member sent Alphonse his number and address so hopefully we will be able to meet with him some time.   

We got a new investigator! One of the goals we set as a mission was to have one new investigator a week, and I guess we are right on track. We also have a goal to have 75 investigators with a baptismal date because right now we have like 61 investigators on date. 

Last week we met with Valentine our new investigator. He’s from Africa, which makes it hard because they believe that all religions are true and sometimes it’s hard to understand him.

On Friday night I interviewed 3 investigators in the Sunrigde ward for their baptism the following day. Saturday there were 5 baptisms in the zone that we had to attend. They were all wonderful and the spirit was there. There were 4 convert baptisms and one child-of-record baptism. One funny story that happened at the baptism: we were told to leave the plug in the font because there was one more investigator being baptized about an hour later. So we told Elder Hopoi about that, to make sure that the plug stays in, and if it comes unplugged then someone is going to have to go in and put the plug back in. In that ward, the father of the family was baptizing his wife, his son, and his daughter. His daughter was baptized first, my guess is she does not like water because she was baptized twice because her leg came up or foot. So the second time she was baptized she pulled the plug some how. Her father did not notice it because he was so filled with joy. So Elder Hopoi was standing at the top of the steps and jumps in with his whole suit on and plugs in back in.

A lot of people thought that was funny and that will always be a baptism to remember. Especially when he baptized his wife. That was really special to see. That family is now complete and they are on their way to be sealed as a family together forever! 

Yesterday was a great experience for me. In priesthood Ben was ordained to the office of a Priest and he received the Aaronic Priesthood. That was so cool. He his really progressing in the Church, and he will be coming to FHE tonight. So this was a good week...

Ben's was ordained a Priest!

Nov. 2 2015

This is Ben. We taught him all of last month, and he is solid! He was baptized on Oct. 31 at 14:00. The following day he was confirmed!  I’m so happy for this experience and to witness Ben being baptized. His baptismal service will be one to remember. The spirit was there. It was a miracle to have the number of people there that we did. We set the date, we called and texted lots of people because we wanted a good turn out and lots of support. We had a good amount of people show up, and some of them we asked to give talks. Everything went as planned.

Happy Halloween! 

I hope your Halloween was just as good as mine, but I highly doubt that! Some of you may have knocked on doors and they would have gladly accepted you and given you lots of candy. I wish it was the same for us. I would love it if we knocked on doors and people would be more than happy to talk to us or even give us candy. Unfortunately it is a different story for us. 

This  Halloween at 14:00 we had a baptism! It could not have been any better. The water was warm, which was a concern or a worry for Ben that the water would be cold. I remember that was one of my worries when I was 8, that the water would be too cold. haha. We had to be inside by 6:00. I remember last year they had us do the same. That was back in my first area in British Columbia. I remember filling out the baptismal record form. Once it was all filled out and signed it felt like I had like a million bucks in my hand. It definitely was more than that because it was eternal life I was holding. 

We taught Ben a bunch, mainly the last lessons like temples and priesthood, and there were no concerns there. In fact yesterday our Bishop met with Ben and talked with him about the priesthood and that is a goal that has been set once  they get his membership. 

On November 28, the Montreal, Canada Temple will be re-dedicated. That is something that I am looking forward too, and Ben will be able to go if they get his records in time, I really think that he will enjoy it, along with doing baptisms at the temple. 

On November 1, Ben was confirmed. After church we had a potluck. That was the best thing that could ever happen. I thought I was going to pass out because I was so hungry! Ben was really looking forward to this potluck. He has been asked lots of questions about it. Ben is going to culinary school and he wants to be a chef. He brought lots of food to the potluck that was so good and all made by his restaurant that he works at. After the potluck, Ben told us that he wanted to take us out for lunch some time. That is really nice of him. 

We did some service this last week on top of a roof of a less active. We cleaned out his rain gutters and washed them out. It was really fun, I like doing service. 

The temperature has dropped! They have predicted this winter to not be very severe, or have a lot of snow. That can change in minutes though. I really want a cold winter because this is my last winter in Canada and I am looking forward to -40 so I can say that I have been in -40 weather and how Utah winters can be nothing compared to Canadian winters. It is actually snowing right now. The first snowfall of the winter! 

Oct. 26 2015

Calgary 

This last week was a really nervous one because it was board week, and transfers are this Thursday! Christensen wanted to stay and so did I. The good news that we found out today was that we are both staying, This is a 7 week transfer coming up. 

This was also a very successful week I think. Two weeks ago we had interviews with President. He told us that he wanted us to have appointments with people; members, less actives, and ask for referrals. Most of the appointments fell through (No surprise. That happens every now and then) but we were very, very blessed this last week. The Lord blessed us in different ways. We got 6 referrals last week. They came from media referrals, lessons with less active members, members who called us and told us that they had a referral for us, and other missionaries. Even though we did not have a lesson every single night we were still really busy, and we were blessed to be able to receive 6 referrals! We contacted some of them. 

I always look forward to interviews with President. He is so full of love, and he cares so much about every missionary. He told us of how good of a job we are doing. 

These last weeks we have been so, so busy! There were some days where we had to end lunch early because we had an appointment. Some days its really hard and tiring, but I think I have been blessed with extra energy. 

I’m starting to really like the East. I was not all too excited to come here, but there is a lot, a lot of work. It has been fun to be in this area. 

We taught Ben three times last week. He is the most solid investigator I have ever had. It has been really fun to teach him! He is on date for baptism this Saturday at 2:00. He has been coming to church and he likes it, and he is participating in it too. On Nov. 1st we will be having a potluck. That will be fun! We have one more lesson with Ben. We taught him about everything, and he has accepted it all. I’m really excited for this baptism on Saturday! 

Its crazy to think that Halloween is this Saturday! I remember last year I was still in Trail. I was only out 3 months! 

The temperature has dropped. It is suppose to snow today. 

We met with Rodel again. He is still smoking, and I’m not sure about his real intent, but we are continuing to work with him. 

Also I’m required to get an International Drivers License. There was an accident somewhere in BC, and the Church is getting charged, because the missionary was not Canadian. It will be really easy to get.  It’s $25.00. The mission will pay for it, but we will need to reimburse the office.    

Dallin! That is so amazing that you are this close to your Eagle! Good job! Having your Eagle Scout award will help you out so much in life! I miss being in scouts it was alot of fun!