April 18, 2016

That is so amazing that Tanner got his mission call this week! Cool thing is, I do not know when he got it, but in the middle of the week I had a thought come into my mind that your mission call came Tanner. It was right before I went to bed. I had a thought that it came. I think it came to me Tuesday night or Friday night, I don’t remember. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. You will love it out there! 

Josh Barfuss President Barfuss's son went to that mission! So get in touch with him and have him tell you all about his mission! 

I think that is going to be different to drop you off at the airport instead of the MTC. But at least you are still in the states so it will be a lot cheaper to send you things than it is to send things to Canada.  You'll have to get used to the city life and flat land. Just don’t become a Steelers fan!  

I'm still in awe. It comes up so fast, Tanner. Keep going to mission prep and studying  your scriptures.  You were a great example to me with that, even though I did not study my scriptures by myself as much as I should have. You'll be more prepared with that. You are a smart kid, so the language will come easy for you.  Your mission would be like mine as far as the Spanish missionaries. Lots of English missionaries but some Spanish, The Spanish missionaries here are awesome. I’m really good friends with them. 4 of them are in leadership positions. You might get some companions that are duds or don’t want to do anything. We call that "Piles" in this mission. Don’t let that happen! 

You don’t always email home, but when you do, email us long detailed letters in English! I have been out for 21 months and I can do better with this most weeks.  haha

August 2 comes up fast. We will only have about 10 days to do stuff and hang out before you head out!  

This week is transfer week! I know that I’m not training, so it’s a waiting game to see who goes. I’m hoping that we both stay. Our choir concert is the same day as transfers, John (choir director) will not be happy if my comp leaves. He made him lead tenor. As for me, he will probably be happy if I go because I cant sing anyway and he told me not to sing very loud. haha 

Last week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went to Cardston with Elder Williams who was my 3rd companion. I enjoyed that because it was lot of fun. I served with him before and it was great to serve together again!

On Saturday all 200 missionaries in the Canada Calgary Mission came up to Calgary to the Foot Hills (one of my old areas) to see Elder Christofferson and Elder Martino. That was a huge event!. That usually never happens. It was nice to see lots of friends and hear an Apostle of the Lord speak.

Elder Christofferson is one of my favorites. When he speaks, he speaks with love and power. I got to shake his hand. I wanted a picture but that did not happen. 

He gave us a chance to ask questions. There were some really good questions that were asked. One of them, Tanner, will help you on your mission, because it will happen. It happened with me. A sister missionary asked the question. The question was: When we go into a lesson and the Spirit is not there, how do we know if its the environment, or our fault? Elder Christofferson said,  “Its always your fault!” (jokingly). He told alot of jokes. He’s really a funny guy! But his answer was: Normally  the environment is the cause of the lack of the Spirit. But when you feel that lack of Spirit in a lesson or at home, then pray. Just give a prayer of thanks to the Lord. Express gratitude for specific blessings.

It was so nice to hear from him.

Grant is doing very good. He has not smoked all week. He has been following step by step the smoking program. He came to church yesterday by himself, which he has done before. 

Reading the Atonement has been a blessing. It’s deepening my knowledge of the Savior’s love for us. Through the Atonement we are made alive. This scripture is referenced alot in the talks:

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 

Thank you telling me where Tanner is going. 

Love you all 

April 11 2016

Whenever there is an inflation it is always followed by a deflation. We have had great weeks in the past, but this last week was slow, and numbers were not as high and we did not meet with a lot of investigators.

One of our investigators who was on date is not any more. We were unable to meet with him. We thought that he was one of those people who drop off the face of the earth when they get ready for baptism, which has happened before. It is hard to keep in contact with him because he does not have a cell phone, or land line. But the cool thing is we saw him yesterday! We were driving home and we saw him on the side of the road about to cross it. We both waved hi. He saw us. He looked like he had seen a ghost but he saw us! 

We are making progress with Grant. He came to church yesterday. We are meeting with him tomorrow. We are going to roll out the stop smoking program. He used to smoke but still struggles with it, this 15 step stop smoking program will help someone get rid of the desire to smoke in 7 days. 

This transfer is almost over! This is the last week until transfers. I could train my last two transfers or not, we do not know anything when it comes to transfers. 

I have been looking forward to this week because on the 16 we are driving down to Calgary. Elder Christofferson and Elder Martino are coming. It will be great to see them and to hear them speak. Maybe they will be rolling out ipads, which will be so helpful to teach and to use in Elder quorum. 

There is this lady, she is not a member, but she comes to church with her young daughter every week. She speaks Romanian, so it’s hard for her to understand us. We gave her a Romanian Book of Mormon and some other things. Maybe she will get baptized but we need someone that can speak the language. 

The next two months as a mission we are studying the Atonement. President gave us a book with lots of talks about the Atonement. Once we read it we are going to the temple as a mission. South part of the mission will go to the Cardston temple; the north part of the mission will go to the Calgary temple.  They did this once before, when I first came out. Reading about the Atonement is so amazing! My understanding of it has grown, and also my love for Christ. 

There are about 20 talks about the Atonement. I have read 3 so far and they are amazing. The Atonement is universal, infinite, a miracle and it’s there for us. We can have new life, live without burdens, and be forgiven. Jesus Christ was the only one that could have done this. He did the will of the Father. 

I’m glad to hear that all of you have taken and continued the challenge that I sent about the Book of Mormon. 

It is really cool to see how much the book testifies of Christ. 

Love you all

To dad 2016

You know, those are the exact same things that are going through my head as well. One thing that President has said during my interview was to "Renew" myself. Pray to the Lord and say that I want to renew myself and continue to work hard.
Keeping all of the rules are very important as well. I have done pretty swell with that. 

I’m the same… nervous and excited for the normal life, school and college. 

One of the things that I want the Lord to say when I’m done with the mission is “Well done my good, and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Just like the parable of the talents. I think that would be cool. 

I’m not Zone Leader and I don’t think that I will be again. President is having lots of young missionaries become Zone Leaders. I would have liked to do one more transfer as a Zone Leader and spend the last two as a normal missionary, but I’m a District Leader right now, and I enjoy it. Not as many executive things to do, and drama and other things that happen in the zone.   

I liked it in the city. I was there for a while. I really like the small town life now, and you see many of the same people everyday. If I remember people’s names that would help. haha

I can kinda see where you’re coming from on 8. And also 9 and 10. 

Time flies, 

Elder Condie

March 27

This week we went to Cardston. There we met the whole zone for the first time. I met my cousin for the first time! Elder Derek Purvis! He is a District Leader in Raymond, and he’s training a missionary. He was happy to find out that we are cousins. He’s a cool guy. I got some pictures of him, and lots more pictures of other things, but I have no way of sending them because I do not have an SD card reader, and I have no place to buy one because there is no Wal-Mart in our area. I think that it will be good, because when I get home I will have lots of pictures to show for family night! A whole slide show! And I will give you a tour of Calgary on Goolge Maps! 

We walked to the Church on Tuesday evening to do something, and then walked back. In Clareshome, when the sun goes down the town goes to bed. Walking home, we saw this guy walking. We talked to him and it turns out that Elder Panter knows him. He lives in the same house with a member and some other people. He knows who we are and what we do. He stayed around and listened to the dinner message when we had dinner at the house. We ended up talking to him for about 15 minutes and we gave him a Book of Mormon and a reading assignment. We had a lesson with him that week. We taught the Restoration. That was a very good lesson. He did read the chapter that we gave him, and he did accept a baptismal invite. He said that he would come to church but did not come. We have another appointment with him this week. His name is Brent, and he’s our new investigator for the week!  

 This week is so busy. We have Zone Conference and car inspections. We are wanting to go to the temple, and interviews are on April 1st. That’s funny.

We cover two wards. President has told us to focus and put most of our attention on one ward: Claresholm Ward. We still make it out to Champion once a month. We make the hour drive on Saturday to meet with Bishop and we went through the ward list, and we met with some less actives. We were able to get in one less active home. It’s hard to plan out there cause it’s too far and people don’t keep appointments. We were also there on Sunday. We gave talks in Sacrament Meeting with a High Councilman, That was good. He picked us up and drove us home. That saved us a lot of Ks! 

  

We had dinner with one of our investigators that we were not able to meet with. We taught the Restoration. His wife was there listening. Usually she wants nothing to do with church, but she sat and listened the whole time. The Spirit was there, she made the comment. Wow did you guys bug our house or something? That there was the spirit. 

I’m now getting over a small cold. Getting over it! 

Love you all