:) / :( / :^D / :^P / :'( / :')

Family,

Well, here we are. I can't even believe it.

Currently, I am sitting at a little computer in a public library in Richmond. We spent probably the last hour or so trying to get to it, because we weren't bold enough turning into the parking lot, which forced us through a tunnel underneath the Fraser river and into Delta somewhere, where we just wandered and wandered until I found a road map in the backseat that got us back over.

Many gospel applications could no doubt be taken from the experience.

So, there we go!

The past couple days have been so. hard. Leaving Haida Gwaii was incredibly difficult. Saying goodbye to so many people that just become your family up there! I am very glad it was my last area and so I can reconnect with all the people up there when I get home. As it worked out, the ferry that we needed to take to get to the airport left right in the middle of Sacrament meeting in Charlotte. We just had time to stand up and each of us bore our testimonies, and then we had to leave. One of the things about being in a little branch like on Haida Gwaii is that there are... formalities that are sometimes overlooked, so in the middle of the testimony meeting, everybody stood up and was crying and we crowded around and said goodbye. Gah. It was hard. Very hard to say goodbye. But, I'm going to come back! I drank water from "St. Mary's Spring", which if you drink from, you're supposed to return to the islands again. It was brown water with a bunch of bugs circling around it, but I haven't died.

And then, we flew down South! We spent all day yesterday just working in Richmond. We felt prompted to tract instead of street contact, which in general is just less effective in the lower mainland because most everybody that comes to the door is Asian and pretends to not speak English, but we went to it and in literally the last door we knocked we found this awesome Peruvian family that is totally going to get baptized. So that was our miracle for yesterday. We stayed with the Assistants, and learned how they manage to stay fueled for the grueling hours of work that they do for President Tilleman (M&M milkshakes for breakfast).

At 3:45 it's my exit interview with President Tilleman, after that we've got the testimony meeting and dinner, then the following day we'll go to the temple and visit some different people in Vancouver and Burnaby. And then you guys know more about Wednesday than I do.

Serving a mission has been the best decision of my life. I've lived and loved and learned so much over the past 2 years. I can't even wrap my head around all the experiences that I've had. I've learned so much about God's love. When you're teaching someone who wants to be baptized, you just love them. When they make a mistake or fall short or break a commandment that they know that they shouldn't have, you're not infuriated, you're just devastated and love them and would do anything to help them fix what's broken. And if I, being a lowly human being in whom the natural man is alive and well, feel that way, then how much love must our Father in Heaven have for us? I can testify in a way that only serving a mission could teach me that God lives and loves us. He wants to bless us and will sometimes literally look for excuses to give you tender mercies. He will put people in your path that will change you forever.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour. His atonement lets us change. When we accept Him into our lives and become disciples by being obedient and living his doctrine, we change. Our hearts change. Things that were once weaknesses that humbled us become strengths. Things that were broken become stronger than they were in the first place. Relationships that are tense and angry become full of love. Addictions become weaker and weaker until they're forgotten. Things that are scarlet become not just white, but as white as snow. As far as understanding the logistics of how on the Earth the atonement was possible, I don't think I'm any closer than when I left. I have no idea how Jesus Christ did what He did. But this I do know: that it's real. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and it can change people and families. It's a process. It's not a verbal declaration and then a flood of warm fuzzies and it's not electric guitars in church and it's not anything less than yielding your heart to God and becoming a disciple, but it's real. When we develop faith in Christ, repent and change, make and keep covenants, we change and we feel peace. It's simple and it's pure. 

And on that topic, I love the Book of Mormon! Today I was reminded again about how the Book of Mormon in 2 verses teaches you how to become perfect and live with God. Moroni 8:25-26. How powerful is that? I know that an intentionally sinful person trying to write a book and found a false church could not in a million years be able to mimick the emotions that are captured in 2 Nephi 4. Thinking of all the random nouns and places and geographies and how easily you can find the doctrine of Christ, there's no way that it isn't inspired of God. There's no way. There's no way that somebody could fake how clearly the Saviour teaches in 3rd Nephi. Joseph Smith was a prophet! And that means that what he taught is true! Our families really will be together forever. God really did send His Authority to the Earth so that we can give blessings and heal and save. He really does speak to us today. We're not blobs of organic matter on a floating rock in outer space. We're God's children.

And you know, the next couple weeks are going to be pretty chaotic. I really have no idea what's going to happen. But I think of one my favorite, if not my favorite, chapters in the New Testament, Romans 8. In it, among lots of other beautiful teachings, there's a promise that everything will work for good for those who love God. One of the biggest things I learned on my mission is that good things keep on coming, and that even though it's incredibly hard to close a chapter of your life sometimes, good things keep on coming.

Well, this computer is about to time out, so I've got to cut short. But love you all, and see all y'all on Wednesday! I'll do my best to smuggle some Timbits through customs. No promises that I won't eat them if the line is too long... It's too bad that Jenessa is in Spain, but I'm sure she wouldn't want any anyway because she's too full of fish and stuff!

Love you all lots!

Elder Blotter

Historic letter

Elder Blotter, of Haida Gwaii,

This letter is historic, because it is the final letter I will send to Elder Blotter of the Vancouver Canada Mission.  The sun is setting on your time there very quickly.  As of your next P-day after reading this letter, you will be traveling to the mission home, for the final chapter.   You will arrive at SLC international airport at 1:11 on June 11.  At 8:30 p.m. that same day President S Mario Durrant of the Hyde Park Stake will meet with you, interview you, and have you remove your name badge.  Then you become Josh once more, awkward and a little lost for a spell. 

The blessings will be eternal, even though the road has certainly been a challenge at times.  You have said many times in your letters that miracles do happen and I agree.  They can seem subtle, but the sum total of them is staggering.  I benefit from them all of the time in my work.   Thursday afternoon I was performing exploratory surgery for a tumour in a patients neck that was causing her great harm.  I could not find it, and she proved to have an anatomic abnormality found in less than 1% of the population.  Well, 4.5 hours into a 1.5 hour surgery, I thought, "Why not say a little prayer?"  So I did, and when I finally remembered that option I knew, and I mean I knew, that I would find it.  About 1 minute later I  reached my index finger down onto the top of her lung and felt a little round thing.  With great care I worked it out, and as fate would have it, she was then cured at that point.  The Lord turned me from a neck surgeon to a lung surgeon for just long enough to solve the problem. 

Last night a 7 year old came in with a bleeding tonsil.  At the beginning of anesthesia he vomited a gallon of blood mixed with stomach acid which was headed right for his lungs and can be fatal.  We scrambled.  I prayed.  Oxygen levels tanked and things looked very very bad for a spell and then suddenly they were okay.  Bleeding was quickly stopped, post op chest X ray showed no blood in the lungs and he is home eating popsicles right now instead of at the morgue.  I am not a spiritual giant.  I have flaws.  But when I petition the Lord, I petition with faith, and I receive miracles in my realm.  A deep part of my inner soul relates this to missionary work, and especially blessings that stem from faithful missionary service.  Even 26 years later.

Many are excited for your return.  We love you and are looking forward to having you back.  Go out there this week and 'leave it all on the field' so to speak, and take a few moments to soak in the final moments of the spiritual blessings of being a full time missionary.

Dad

Last week on Haida Gwaii!

Family,

It just can't have already been another week. It just can't have been. District conference is already over? What in the world! Time is going by so insanely quickly. I just can't even believe it at all.

On Sunday, I will be flying down to Vancouver, and then on Monday and Tuesday I'll have the chance to have my final interview with President Tilleman, go to the temple, have a testimony meeting with the other missionaries returning home, hunt down some converts in the Vancouver and Burnaby area (and should write home on Monday of some sorts), and do all that sort of thing until Tuesday. So, this isn't the last email! I have tons of time left! That's what!

Anyways, the past week has had so many spiritual highlights, that I am not even sure where to begin. District conference was just amazing. I love the Terrace zone. It was just a tender mercy for me to be able to be there for my third district conference. When I entered into the field, there were just 3 branches in the district. And it's grown! Now there are five. The last district conference that I was there for was when the Kitimat branch was organized, and we were there for the first sacrament meetings of the Kitimat branch. That was a year ago, and I was sent up there to train Elder Atwood and advised to find a family to baptize up there so that the branch wouldn't fizzle. The district conference before that, I was in Burns Lake, and they had just sent missionaries to Haida Gwaii, and I had no idea that I would someday be serving there. My heart was just so overwhelmed seeing all of the members and converts and people there. It was all I could do to hold myself together, but all of the hymns that we sang were missionary hymns in the 250ish range of the hymnbook, and during those I couldn't even sing I was so choked up. Northern BC will always be hallowed ground to me.

Daniel and Chelsea Boyson, who were baptized when I was in Kitimat, were there, and they are both doing great. Daniel Boyson is even preparing for a mission, and I had the opportunity to ordain Daniel an elder and confer the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was just so powerful and I was so grateful for the opportunity. I just rejoice to think of the blessing that a mission will be in his life and the experiences that he will have there. I'm so happy for him!

I also had the chance to see Brian, someone who joined the church in Terrace but I had the chance to find, and then teach along the way. He was as excited to see me as I was to see him! He originally allowed us to just carry some garbage outside of his house to a dumpster nearby because he's older and has some health complications, and in between loads he would tell us about how his friends think that we are a cult, etc. Finally, he decided that if we could tell him what Romans 10:9-10 say, then that would mean that we aren't a cult. As fate would have it, I did in fact have Romans 10:9-10 memorized. And so we were able to sit down with him and teach him the pure and simple gospel of Jesus Christ, without any of the dogma or confusing teachings he'd learned in other places and online. Later that day as we were planning and talking, we were worried about him finding "unfavorable materials" when he called to tell us that he was a "Gathering of Israel pundit" and that he believed the Book of Mormon because "this Nephi character is making prophecies that were fulfilled that nobody thought would happen until it did" and stuff like that. It was awesome. Sometimes he would still find concerns and call about them, but he told me on Sunday that "every time he calls to confound the missionaries he gets confounded" and he's doing great. On Saturday morning he called to dispute the identity of Michael the Archangel but by the time that the meeting on Saturday was held he shared with me his opinion that Joseph Smith could be the white horseman in the book of Revelation, so we figure he'd changed his mind! He got his patriarchal blessing this past weekend, and is still just doing great. It was awesome to get the chance to see him again.

We had the chance to see many of the members in Kitimat and some from Burns Lake, too! The Syphuses, the Van Hornes, the Kaberrys, they are all just great.

All said and done, the rest of the trip was just a whirlwind! On Thurday, our ferry left at about 10 pm  in the evening, and we arrived at around 7 in the morning the following day in Prince Rupert. The first night we were up late and up early because sleeping in proselyting clothes on industrial carpet isn't incredibly comfortable, but that was okay because we ended up just spending more time on the deck watching the most beautiful place on earth sail by. Fortunately we're getting to that time of the year where there are just a few hours of darkness at night, and it was light most of the time. And goodness, was it beautiful! They say Prince Rupert is a rainy place, (for perspective it apparently gets about double the centimeters of rainfall that Vancouver has) but every time I've been there it's been sunny. We were at the same ferry dock that the family members that go to Ketchikan use to catch the ferry out there, if that's how they get there! Anyways, that put us in Prince Rupert on Friday morning, and so we spent all Friday on the streets of Prince Rupert finding, and then we rode down with the missionaries there to Terrace for the conference.

The district conference was amazing, too! For the first time in the Terrace district's history, we had a member of the 70, the area authority for our area Elder Paul Christensen, spoke, and shared many cool experiences. He, independent of any organization or charity or anything like that, just packs up and flies somewhere in the middle of Africa, and just follows the spirit to find children that need help, assesses what they need, and then flies back to Canada to pull together supplies. Then he returns and helps. He's done it many times. As he searches, he has a lot of opportunities to teach people the gospel, and see miracles. People will approach him and tell him that they had dreams that he was supposed to come and help them, just like right out of the scriptures.

It was a hybrid conference too, where half of it was in person and the other half was broadcast to all of Canada from Salt Lake City. President Eyring and Elder Holland spoke, and it was powerful. Alma-Rose was able to be there for the conference, and it was just a great experience for her. She claims she had bad allergies in the building in Terrace... but we think that she was tearing up because of the Spirit. :)

When we went back, Wendy managed to score Elder Rose and I a cabin with beds in it, which was very much appreciated because the first night on the ferry was probably more tiring than restful, and the other two nights we were on the floor of the vinyl flooring of a modified 2 car garage that the Terrace missionaries use for an apartment. Elder Rose and everyone else said that it was a stormy and rocky sailing, but I was just out for it.

Well, yesterday we had the chance to be with Pete, Val, and Wendy, and we just love them and the members that are here. It's so hard to even think about leaving these people (the remedy is to just not think about it). So to answer the question,  "how does it feel to be where I am?", the answer would have to be just... hard. I can't imagine not being here with these people. And yet, I just as desperately would just love to be able to be with everyone at home and share all the miracles. So, we just won't think about it! ...Although I guess I have to figure out how to get all the stuff that I've acquired here back home! Canadian customs is going to rip a chunk out of me. You're allowed to take home $800 worth of things without paying anything, but based on what you see if the stores here, that hand-carved and soon to be hand-painted paddle probably will be worth around that alone. It's 6 feet long and probably going to be beastly to get through the airport. But! We'll figure something out! Anyways, love you all! And, until next week, have a great one! As always, thanks for the support and for the emails!

Elder Blotter

Good Gow!

Family,

 

Well, it's been another great week on Haida Gwaii. The sun is shining, the bald eagles are doing their screechy chirping thing, and the ocean is calm and blue. The only thing that is off in the world is that I feel kind of queasy from eating a whole bunch of gow just barely. That's probably not how you spell it, but that's what it sounds like and nobody you ask knows how to spell it either. The native people just love love love love love to eat herring spawn on kelp. They love it. We just helped Bunty and Wendy Green, this awesome Haida couple, carry in their groceries, and somebody had given them just oodles and oodles of it, and they fed  us some. Wendy said that she "would give us a little taste" which translated into a massive plate full of it for each of us. Apparently it was a better year for the herring than it was for the kelp, and so they had a lot of herring spawn not attached to any kelp, and so there were some pretty good sized piles of that too. And we ate it all! Honestly, I actually really did love it. It tasted really good, and the texture definitely isn't... western, but it was really kind of fun to eat. But about 15 minutes after leaving, my stomach notified me that my ancestors quite preferred to eat wheat and chicken and stuff like that. But still, gow is surprisingly tasty! They gave us some to take home and so Elder Mason will probably take some pictures of it, knowing him.

Good Gow!

 

 

Speaking of the Masons, they just got back from a 4 day trip down in Gwaii Haanas, the southern, uninhabited parts of the island. They went on a boat in the open ocean that was about the same that one multiple day white water rafting trip we went on. He probably sent pictures of that too, but they saw whales and ruins and all sorts of awesome stuff. Going down there has got to be on the bucket list. Seeing how there aren't too many people to find teach or baptize down there, it probably won't be on our to-do list, unfortunately!

 

Anyways, the past week has just been great! We've seen a lot of miracles in our finding and teaching in the far reaches of Haida Gwaii. It really doesn't matter how many times a street has been visited, the Lord is constantly preparing ways for us to accomplish what He has commanded us to do, and so we always somehow manage to find people to teach. You know, whether you're commanded to find, teach and baptize, or build barges and cross an ocean, or get brass plates from a powerful and wicked man, the Lord is going to blesses those who are entirely obedient. In this mission we have our consecrated finding time where in between 5 and 7 pm, unless we're in a lesson, we're out finding because that's when people and families are most likely to be home. A lot of people initially resisted. (What if it hurts our relationships with members if we're not having dinner appointments? etc.) But, the mission acted on the revelation that was given to our mission president, and it's just almost unbelievable how much of a difference that it's made. It's been the same with increasing the number of quality conversations we have with people about the gospel. (Elder Ballard told us to have 20 per day, then we're going to move and shake until every missionary companionship is having at least 20 per day!) Between that and some other things that have been implemented, the number of new investigators that the mission has found has just been phenomenal. At the beginning of my mission the mission fasted that we would be able to find 100 new investigators in a week. We now find around 1500 new investigators in a week. And this is in British Columbia, a province that is supposed to be secular and irreligious and whatever else! We just can't believe how much of a difference has been made here as we do our best to focus on the things that the Prophet and Apostles have invited us to do in Preach My Gospel and through the communication that they have with President Tilleman.

 

We hear so much about "hastening the work". It is. It is hastening. It's awesome. But, as we like to say, the Lord is happy, but he's not satisfied! We tend to place too much emphasis on technology or things like that as being the main agents for change in the hastening of the work. Technology is great. It really is. It's a tender mercy and there are things that just couldn't be accomplished otherwise with it, particularly with genealogy and things like that. But speaking from the end that I'm on, I just have something to say. iPads do not hasten the work! Facebook doesn't hasten the work! Facebook will be fantastic way to stay in touch with people after the mission, or I can just imagine how cool it would be in a planning session to have where all your potential, current, or former investigators live plotted out geographically and just be able to figure all that out on some iPad app. Again, amazing tender mercies, and I'm sure that there are just so many ways that things like that can be helpful. And all those things will contribute to hasten the work. BUT. Guess what happens (at least in our little corner of the world) in meetings, when they ask mission presidents to raise their hands if they've had a baptism because of an iPad, in those missions where they have them? Well! iPads don't create baptisms.

 

So, what does hasten the work, then? Unfortunately, we can't just have some missionaries log into Facebook somewhere and expect President Monson to announce that there were 100,000 more convert baptisms in the last year. It means that we are all going to have to hasten right along with the work! For missionaries, it means that we're all going to need to be exactly obedient and work harder than we ever have in the past. To see things that we haven't seen before, we're going to have to do things we haven't done before! From my experiences in the Canada Vancouver Mission, I know that ultimately if we want to see the work hasten, if we want to avoid "letting the mouths of the prophets fail", then we're going to have to apply and be obedient to what we're being told many many times by the leaders of the church in General Conference, church magazines, and from our local leaders and each other in our church meetings on Sunday. When we email each other, we all (quite appropriately) tell other missionaries to be obedient! People back home (again, quite appropriately!) write and tell missionaries to be obedient. Well, we're all missionaries! We all need to be obedient to the things that we've been invited to do to help this work hasten. We're all in this boat together. And what a blessing it is, too! Sharing the gospel brings so much joy. :)

 

Earlier today we taught a lesson to a woman that we have always called by her first and last name with the middle name "No Pipelines" because that's how her (and lots of people here, for that matter!) name reads on her voicemail. We've been trying to set up a visit for a long time, but haven't been successful until today. She said that she had been trying to quit using drugs and alcohol before she met with us, and has been doing well enough to have the confidence to finally sit down with us. She has so much sincere intent and great questions and it was just a fantastic lesson. She loves the things that we taught. As we were just feeling the spirit in the lesson, I was reminded for a second of how much I'll miss being a missionary! There are so many amazing people in this province that I just haven't had the chance to talk to yet.

 

But, the work here is going well. We're still teaching the chief and his wife, Sid and Cindy. He's addicted to Mormon messages right now. Those are just awesome. In Masset, Sarah Hillis, our investigator, was the only one who came to church! She's just faithful. I don't even know what I'm going to do if ever again put in a church building with more than 20 people in it at a time! Although I guess that will be soon. We'll be off for the Terrace District conference in Terrace this next week! That means there are some 8 hour ferry rides to look forward too... fortunately we take the ferry at night so we just sleep on the floor underneath some benches or something because rooms are expensive. That will be exciting though! Alma-Rose is going, so that will just be an awesome experience for her to be able to see that there are more than just a handful of Mormons in the world! At least she'll know there's... 3 or 4 handfuls in the world!

 

Hope that everything is going well back in happy valley! Looks like the Yellowstone trip was a success. Good to hear that Jed was not gored by one of those Buffalo he was intimidating.

 

Love you all lots!

 

Elder Blotter

What a week!

Family,

 

Has it already been another week already? It is just crazy how quickly time is disappearing. We're emailing this week on Monday because of a few factors because of some preparation day changes because of the token 3 day weekend that BC makes sure happens at least every month.  People call it "May Long", but I think it's officially Victoria Day, and we're trying to fit our preparation day around different things, so here we are a day early! The past week has been just a blessed one, though, that is for sure.

 

I think one of the biggest lessons that we've learned this week is the importance of charity and service. The islands have a very small, tight-knit culture. And it's one that just really isn't friendly towards religion, because of negative experiences in the past with other faiths. And so as missionaries trying to spread a message centered on Jesus Christ, there's a really big barrier for people, because everyone has been told terrible things about religions, and if somebody shows interest, then friends and family know about it and start tearing away at the little seed of faith that was planted. Spiritually speaking, it's a challenging environment! The converts that are here really are awesome examples of faith and enduring to the end despite difficulties, because there really is no coasting into the font here (...or ocean). People like Alma-Rose and the other converts are just inspiring as their share their conversion experiences, and really, every single one is a miracle.

 

But, for the church to really take root on the islands, then people need to know what we are all about. What we've noticed is that whenever we serve someone, it always surprises us how many people say "oh, we heard you helped so-and-so", etc. And so we've just started helping people as much as possible, and wearing those bright yellow Mormon helping hands shirts as much as possible. It's been great. It's a slow process, but even if people at least just recognize that we help people. barriers will start to come down between more and more people. Ammon had that figured out pretty well. One of the things that it mentions in my patriarchal blessing is that on my mission I will learn to love the people where I would be serving. I remember reading that and having the thought cross my mind that that probably meant I would be serving in some foreign country with foreign people just because of the way that it's worded. I kind of forgot about that when I was called to Canada, but at times I reflect on that when I'm in little corners of the province like Haida Gwaii learning to love the people here, even though many of them mistake us for something we're not and act that way, too!

 

Otherwise, we're just continuing on the work in Haida Gwaii! We're searching under all the rocks and in all the crevices on these islands for people to teach! We've done quite a bit of finding and have found quite a bit of success in an area that a previous missionary discouraged us from visiting called Tow Hill. It's along the Northern coast of the island, and the houses are pretty isolated (I guess everywhere in this place) but the people have really soft hearts and we've had some solid conversations. (People build the weirdest houses, too. On one house all the siding and the windows and doors were put at a 45 degree angle as if to make it look like it was sliding into the ground, people build houses literally in trees, people build houses out of glass bottles and cement, the list goes on). The last missionaries that went though the area didn't find a lot of success, but the people that they talked with remembered them, and now we've been able to find a lot of people that have had softened hearts and are willing to hear us out. The Lord really does prepare people, and even those little conversations that don't seem to yield fruit can at least give people stuff to think about, so they'll be ready later.

 

You have a lot of crazy experiences on your mission, too. Earlier on, we were driving down a driveway in that area and there was this huge puddle in the middle of it. We had no idea how deep it was, but we figured that since it was in a driveway, it must be passble, right? Not right. We drove in the middle of it, and water was literally washing up onto our windshield. But, we were delivered! I literally have no idea how the truck kept running, but it did! Despite how deep the water was, with quick action and a prayer in our hearts we were able to get ourselves out of the puddle. Miracles have not ceased. Little tender mercies like that remind you that you're being watched over.

 

Alma-Rose was set apart as a primary teacher today! She was very excited about it. The way that the church runs is just inspired. It gives everybody a chance to contribute, and the callings that we have can really make us stretch and grow. I love watching how people react to receiving their first callings. They take them as seriously as we all should take them! Here, the Gospel Doctrines teacher was somebody who was baptized in October. But what better way to have her learn the doctrines of the church than to have her be the gospel doctrines teacher? The lessons are always very sincere and the Spirit is strong. The little church services here are great. I'm going to miss Sacrament meetings where it feels more like we're sitting in a circle than as a congregation, because the congregation isn't much bigger than the people sitting in front.

 

Our teaching pool is still very diverse, too. We're teaching this older French Ba'hai  gentleman, the young man on house arrest, hippies of all sorts, Sarah, who just has to be baptized, and others. And we're still working with the chief, Sid, and his wife Cindy. They'll feed us world class seafood, and we'll just feast, and then Sid will bring up the gospel on his own and ask us what the lesson is going to be on. He's so awesome. There are all those social barriers for them to be baptized, but the seed is planted with them, and it's growing.

 

Well, the church is true! And we're so blessed to be a part of it. I hope that you all have an amazing week!

 

Elder Blotter

We'd purchase the Kingdom Hall for sale here, but the baptismal font is just too small...

 

 

Family,

Well, I talked to you yesterday and will see you all in a month, but I guess that you probably still want an email, mom. So I guess I'll write an email.

The past week has just been a sacred, sacred week! One of the highlights of the mission, for sure. It's not very frequent that your mission president more or less becomes one of your companions for 24 hours and even less frequent that you get out in the ocean as a missionary, but when it happens, goodness, it's amazing. We learned so many lessons from the weekend, too.

As I mentioned in the phone call, the airport that President Tilleman flew into is on Moresby Island, but where most of the visits took place was on Graham Island. After we picked up President Tilleman (and had some quality gospel conversations just in the airport with him) we headed off to the ferry. Since they've recently reduced the ferry schedule for the ferry that runs between the islands, the ferries have gotten a lot more crowded, and with only one car in front of us in line, they cut off our vehicle so we'd have to wait for the next ferry. Since we knew that President Tilleman would only have a brief stay on the island, we just had the day packed with teaching appointments, and so missing that ferry would force us to cancel a lot of appointments, and Alma-Rose's interview was supposed to take place right after we got off the ferry. So just immediately acting on a prompting, we jumped out of the truck and just ran towards the ferry and asked if someone could walk on the ferry, even if they didn't have a vehicle. The ferry worker agreed, even though walk-on boarding is supposed to take place before people drive on. So, President Tilleman was able to run down and get on the ferry, where Sid, the hereditary chief that we've been teaching, happened to also be riding and offered to give President Tilleman a ride to the interview. That was awesome, because that gave President Tilleman and Sid the chance to have a one on one talk. God just orchestrated that one perfectly, and no appointments needed to be cancelled.

We a lot of other miracle visits, including setting a temple date with one of the less active members who's been on the fence about committing to go for a long time. We only had a very short period of time for the visit, and we couldn't meet in their home, and so in just a few minutes on the street outside the little public library in Masset,we just witnessed a miracle take place! It was awesome. We had a lot of other visits, but one of the most powerful ones as well was with Sarah, who we just think is just great. (She said the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting this week, by the way.) We just talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and during the discussion we learned that she does think that the Book of Mormon is true! She's not at the "baptism" part of her journey, but she's doing great. We got out of that lesson rather late and we still needed to travel back to Queen Charlotte for the night, and so we got back late enough for President Tilleman to say that it was the latest that he had ever been out teaching with missionaries. The entire drive home he was just teaching us, and it was awesome. Because we were out later than the schedule usually permits, he taught us about obedience to our priesthood leaders, including respecting the keys that they hold (for example, President Tilleman holds the keys that would let us be out later than 9 or 9:30) Relatively close to the beginning of the drive, he pointed at the clock that read "11:11" and told us that that time should always remind us about obedience from now on. So, there you go. 11:11 means obedience.

The day following was the day of Alma-Rose's baptism, which was just an amazing service. When we arrived we ran along the beach to the water to feel what temperature we were dealing with, and it was just almost an out of body experience it was so beautiful. The faithful little branch came out to support her, along with some other onlookers. Alma-Rose has been very public about her decision to be baptized, and as a result, she's faced a lot of opposition it, and it hasn't phased her at all. In fact, the church (and religion in general) faces a lot of opposition on the islands here, partially because of the direction that the world is going, and partially because of abuses that other religions have done on the island that have left a bad taste in a lot of the native's mouths. She's just a great example of being a disciple in a world that seems to be lacking them.

It seems like from what the themes of general conference are and from how the world is, that we're all going to need to step it up and be disciples. When we're kind of cozy in Utah we kind of get shielded from the way that the world is, but we're all going to need to stand strong when opposition and persecution come! And we all need to work together to help make this world a place by sharing the gospel. Sometimes the islands here feel like a smaller version of the whole world, but here you can see the difference that even one person that develops and has integrity to their testimony can make.

Well, family! The church is true! Heavenly Father is there, and He loves us (The name for the creator in Haida is Salaana, which means "he who powers the lights" as in lights in the sky.) He sent His Son to save each one of us. Not to condemn us, but to save us and to give us every possible opportunity to return to live with God again. And we have a prophet on the earth! We can receive guidance directly from God.

And every time there's a baptism or anything like that, there's usually a big potluck, and the missionaries get sent home with all the leftovers. So it's a good thing that I now have a Lotoja registration to scare me into not eating too much!

Sure love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Blotter

Haida Gwaii

Family,

Well, just like that it's been another week! That's crazy. It's already May! Where did April go? Where did 2013 go, for that matter? It's been a great week, though. Lots of awesome experiences on the islands of Haida Gwaii.

The past... 3 days now have just been sunny and gorgeous! We're hoping that May just kind of stays that way, but people who have access to weather forecasts tell us that's not the case. But still. Faith and Hope are attributes we're supposed to be developing, so there you go. Yesterday we spent most of the day working in Tlell, a little community with a few ranches, lots of hippies, and then people that are called "wuhwoofers" after the "willing workers on organic farms" program, or in other words, people who just kind of threw the towel in on their old lives, and then migrated to Haida Gwaii to work for food on organic farms. In short, we had a lot of unique conversations about the gospel with types of people that you really can only find on Haida Gwaii. But it was just beautiful! The main road (There really is only one paved road on the island, other than roads that have houses on them, and there's only one streetlight by the ferry landing. But hey! They've got one!) overlooks the ocean and forest and rocky beach, and then the  driveways take you through scenic little pastures with ponds and forest and stuff. Beautiful. Unfortunately, the nice weather has also brought out these awesome little black flies that make horseflies seem desirable. They're not as painful, but there's just a ton of them, and they just make it their life's objective to get in your hair and just kind of gnaw on your head. We finally had to bum some bug spray from someone, which worked great for me, but Elder Rose had an allergic reaction to it that caused his lips to swell up... yeah. Well, enough about those little bundles of joy.

Alma Rose is just doing great! We are very much looking forward to her baptism on Saturday. Brother Rasmussen, the only male member of the church on the southern half of the island excluding the missionaries and kids, is going to be baptizing her, and then her confirmation will be the following day, and she asked me to confirm her, which will just be awesome. (I can just tell you all about it later that evening, seeing how it will be Mother's Day). Alma Rose is just solid. The friend group on the island for young single people is just not one that's very supportive of her joining the church, and is one that kind of makes fun of the church and religion in general. She's just taking it all in stride, though, and just doing great. She has a lot of faith and we're excited for the weekend. President Tilleman will be flying up on Thursday for her baptismal interview, and for the length of his stay we'll be in charge of making sure that all of his time is filled with lessons with investigators and interviews and things like that with members, and so that will be pretty intense. That in and of itself will be really exciting, but also... we really hope that everything goes well. :)

We had a lot of very cool teaching opportunities this week. Bro. Rasmussen is a member of the RCMP in Queen Charlotte, (so whenever he's riding with us to a lesson, if we pass by a group of people playing softball, we might saying "oh, that looks fun" while he's saying "oh, those guys are at it again. I'd better swing by and confiscate the alcohol before it comes out", and stuff like that) Anyways, over the course of his day to day work he's had a few conversations with a young man who is on house arrest because he got tied into drug trafficking a while ago. He's totally repentant about it and is just serving out his time patiently,  but he's had a few conversations with Bro. Rasmussen about the church, and we just met with him for the first time. It's interesting because we're about the same age, and we've gone down some pretty different paths, but at this point, (since he probably does have a lot of time to think) he realizes that his life definitely feels like it's missing something. He has a lot of real intent, and in our first lesson the spirit was definitely very strong.

It was a cool experience all on it's own, and it also made me reflect as we were leaving that some way or another, Heavenly Father will work out so that the people that are ready to be taught, we will be able to teach. The young man lives in a separate apartment behind his parent's house right now, and there's just no way that we'd know about it, or have any way of contacting him, if it wasn't for the way that things worked out. This is God's work, and it moves forward!

Well, the church is true! Hope that you all have just the best week, and I'll talk to you on Sunday!

Elder Blotter