Report from Burns Lake

Hello!

Well, first off Mom, you are a gem. Thank you for going to all of that effort! My companion can use the other one, so all of that work into making the little Preach My Gospel was certainly not wasted. You're the best. And isn't that life? Of course they would make a little Preach My Gospel right after you went to all of that effort. It looks good though! The package arrived this Monday, so I think that this one arrived a little bit quicker than the previous one. The Burns Lake Elders had a good haul this Monday, because Elder Neher got a pretty big "Over the Hump Day" package because his 1 year mark was on August 24th. Transfers will be in the beginning of November, about 2 weeks before my birthday, so I might be in Burns, and I might be transferred. We'll have to see! Thanks for everything that was sent! I can certainly use that jacket, because I didn't have one, and Burns Lake doesn't have any form of clothing store, and the thrift store jackets were... not really missionary compatible. In short, thank you!

It sounds like just about everyone in my "generation" has left on their missions, and some from 2 years ago are already getting back! I remember when Todd Partridge was leaving. He's already back? Wow. He was Captain Hook in the Sky View production of Peter Pan! How could I not remember anyone who was involved with Peter Pan? The Peter Pan Pit was the pinnacle of my high school experience! Dad's email of David's living arrangement had the title "David Nelson home" and so I was worried that he had chosen to go home from his mission at first, so it's good that he is still sticking it out. I'll send the pictures of my Burns Lake home eventually, but they will probably be of the pictures of all of the different rooms we had, so that's... a little bit different. Every mission is different, I guess!

This is supposed to be on the down-low, (as in, the zone leaders told us, but the Smithers elders haven't chosen to talk to us about it yet) but over the course of the last week, the elders from Smithers rolled their truck and completely totaled it. They only had minor bruises, which apparently is a miracle if you see what the truck looked like. Apparently, they were going way too fast on dirt roads, and there was a sharp turn, and the truck didn't turn with it. We are very grateful that they were completely okay. Our district was blessed! I feel bad for the driver, because Elder Thornton has only been out a transfer longer than me.

Of course, we did have one driving incident this week... We were tracting on a far-distant road on Southside called Ootsa-Nadina East. It's the norm out in the Canadian boonies to have gates and things blocking off your driveway for some reason. A farmer had a barbed wire gate that I put down and then set back up just in case he had any animals that would get out, and then we went to the house to see if the people living there were interested. He wasn't, and we drove off, and Elder Neher forgot about the gate and drove through it! It was pretty awkward to go and tell him what happened, but he was very nice about it. That was good.

I had quite a few new missionary experiences this week too! Before the accident, we were on companion exchanges in Smithers, and me and Elder Garner had planned on tracting, but nobody was home because there was a parade. So... we went to the parade to do some street contacting, and when we were there, we decided to just walk through the parade! I walked down one side, Elder Garner walked down the other side, and we handed out pass-along cards and pamphlets to anybody that smiled and seemed interested. We were right between a fire truck and a group called "The Indo-Canadian Culture Dancers" or something like that. Marching band must have prepared me for missionary work somehow!

After 2.5 months of effort and encouragement and commitments and brainstorming, we FINALLY got members to invite over potential investigators for a family home evening/dinner appointment. They prayed for 3 weeks for a missionary experience with a family, and then we tracted into them! We helped them move and got to know them, and then worked with the member family until they invited them over. And it was awesome when they finally did! Their friends seem very ready for the gospel. We'll have to see how that goes! My point in saying all of that is that I am sure the missionaries appreciate your efforts to fellowship the people in your area. It helps a lot, and investigators found from member referrals have a 20-30% chance of being baptized, while investigators found from missionary efforts have a 3-5% of being baptized. So good work! :)

Well, I've got to write my mission president! Talk to you next week!

Elder Blotter

To JED

Good work, Jed. I hope that you got her really wet! Thanks for going to the Drapers with Dad, since I can't do that anymore!

Love,
Elder Blotter

From Jed

Jed just woke up and really wants me to send you this picture. Also, he wants me to tell you that he went home teaching with Dad to the Drapers on Sunday.  Love, Jed

Good Morning!

Hi there,

   Jenessa was thrilled with the letter you sent her this week. She stayed up late writing you back. She loved the Canadian money! If I send you, say, a $20, can you take our money and spend it at a restaurant or do you have to go to a bank and exchange it for Canadian money?  And is that a pain?

    How was your week? We thought about you a lot this week. Yesterday the missionaries knocked on our door and I almost gave them each a big hug! We now how missionaries who are serving only in Hyde Park so we will probably get to see more of them. One of them graduated in 2011 and has been out almost 3 months! He even has your color of hair.....I nearly teared right up. They are coming to teach our lesson in YW on Sunday. They said they were also playing a Preach My Gospel Jeopardy with another wards young women for mutual this week. I think they are trying to get to know the youth so if they have friends at school who might be interested they will feel more comfortable asking missionaries they know I little bit.

    Speaking of missionaries, Dad and I went to hear Micail speak on Sunday. WOW.  What an amazing girl. It was fun to see Roger Mann on one side of their bishop and Kevin Fred Blotter on the other. The youth speaker didn't show up so Roger spoke first and it was so good. When Micail spoke you could just tell that she is very prepared to serve and those people will be so blessed to even be in her presence, I think. The Spirit was so strong and she had many friends there. I was extremely impressed by Micail Mann. Amelia and her mom invited us to go to the Civic Center after for dinner but Dad didn't think we should intrude. I think all of Amelia's family, (Grandparents, Aunts, uncles, cousins) were there and I would have loved to meet them. But they looked pretty nice to me.

     We had the unique and awesome experience of going to the Brigham City Temple Open house yesterday. It was the most beautiful temple EVER. Holy Cow. It was gorgeous. We will definitely have to go over to a session when your home. Jacey and Jed loved being able to go inside a temple and were very reverent. They especially loved the baptismal font with all "those buffaloes" holding them up. Jed asked if Buffaloes also held up the pioneers when they were being baptised?" That Jacey and Jed are priceless. I am thoroughly loving them at this age. I know they will grow up soon and not be so innocent and just funny.  :) They start school in two days and are getting pretty excited about that. Jed has Miss Smith, who is suppose to be this awesome teacher everyone wants. Jacey has Mrs. Beck. Not sure much about her, but Devon Holt had her and liked her. Soccer is going pretty good for Ness. Doyle doesn't really like Jenessa for some reason so she hasn't started the first two games. He let Sharron Wood chose who started this last game so Jenessa got to start and she loved that. Still....I will be happy when SV Soccer is in the rear view mirror.

     And happily I survived the planning of and actual 25th reunion of the Sky View High School Class of 1987. It was a great success and it is a relief to have it over. We had a lot of very nice people my year. I was surprised good it was to see people. It felt like seeing family after 25 years! I'll send a pic of the one they took of Dad and I. I think you may have that oportunity of planning a reunion one day and it wasn't too bad. It was worth it in the end. But it was a lot funner doing the 25ht rather than the 5th. People don't change a lot after the 5th, but after 25 years people have mellowed and it's really fun to see what everyone has done with their lives.

    Well, I hope you get the package I sent last Wednesday soon. I'm sure it's getting downright CHILLY in Burn's Lake. Is it getting dark a lot earlier also? Hannah, Justin and Austin are all moving to Logan this week to begin Utah State. We love you so much and wish you a very good week.  Love, Mom

SVHS Class of 1987

Burns Lake Report

Family!

I am going to be in beautiful Burn's Lake for another transfer, at least! I prophesy 2 transfers, but we'll have to see! Other than one of our zone leaders finishing his mission, and going home ("died", in mission lingo), our entire zone is staying the exact same. I have grown to love this little village up in the North, and I've really grown attached to the members here. Plus, me and Elder Neher get to fly down to Richmond tomorrow to go to the "new missionary training", which will be pretty much what I went to when I arrived in the mission field, but I get to go to again! Usually they have all missionaries still in the "12 week training" program go, but it's very unusual to have greenies from the North go down, because of how costly it is to fly us down and drive us around and stuff. I guess they figure that I need some remedial training. :) I am quite excited though, because we are flying out of Prince George this time, and I should be able to see more of the areas in the mission and meet more of the elders serving here. Other than the assistants, most of which who are going home soon, I haven't met any elders out in the boondocks of Burns Lake! It should be exciting.

As far as the Burns Lake area goes, it's about as far out as you can get from the mission home as far as travel times. I think Smithers is a bit more North, but Burns is another 2 hour drive from Smithers. The only area that I know of that is further away is an island called... and I'm going to butcher the spelling here... Hidagwie... Hydagwy... Um... I have no idea how you spell it, but it is pronounced Hi-da-g-why, which is a teeny island about the size of Burn's Lake that is only accessible by a ferry that runs every week or so. Right now, President Tilleman is in the process of closing a lot of areas down and opening up new ones. With so many villages dotting this really big area, and so few missionaries, the mission field is constantly changing.

The weather here during the day is just about perfect. I have no idea what temperature exactly because the small talk about the weather is usually in Celsius, ha ha. It's a little chilly in the mornings during our studies, though! That's good though, because it keeps us awake. It's going to be hard when snow starts falling, though, because we won't be able to go running outside. There's a track a couple blocks from our house and we have permission to run on it in the mornings, so I can still run a 5k every day. That has been a tender mercy. Oh well, I'm off topic. Summer up here, though only about 2 to 3 months long, is the ideal temperature, and the days are really long. When I first got in the area, the Sun didn't start going down until about 11:00 PM, but now it starts getting dark at around 9:00-9:30, which makes it a lot easier to sleep. We no longer have to hang towels over the windows in our bedroom!

Oh, it is great to hear that the kids are doing well and all practiced up for Halloween! I miss them a whole bunch. Has Jed sprouted another 4 inches yet? It's also good to hear that the ward is doing well. I feel quite bad for Wyatt... I can definitely see now that one advantage of an English speaking mission is spending a transfer longer in the field, as opposed to the MTC! The MTC at this point just feels like a blur that was a couple days long, though. Time is really starting to slip by. I'm going to need to start working harder!

Oh, and Dad, I met somebody who served in your mission up here! I remember you saying that RMs are a little weird around women when they first get back from the mission field, and I think that Rosario must be particularly bad. During testimony meeting he said that "he would like to bear his testimony that he was here to see Amanda Boehmer", and then almost proposed at the pulpit. Our branch president kind of coughed and that sort of stopped him, but I laughed when I was talking to him after and he said he served in Rosario.

As far as the work in Burn's Lake goes, it was an interesting week! We helped a less active member haul hay, and that made me think of my relatively brief haying days at the ranch. We tracted into a "little Germany" on Southside, and have been working with some German people, and that has been great. The end of August is going to be really really busy. We're bracing ourselves. Because summer is so short, everybody is really busy or on vacation pretty much for the entire time, and as soon as fall starts rolling around, they have a lot of free time. We have about 20 potential investigators who are solid and seem interested who asked to be called at the end of August/beginning of September, and about 5 actual investigators will be able to start meeting with us again. We're praying for miracles and baptisms in September! I absolutely love it here, and amazing experiences are had every day in one form or the other.

Oh, and me and Elder Neher became smugglers of illicit contraband, this week. One of the natives that we meet with had a freezer full of salmon that he harvested last year and hasn't been able to eat, but wants room in his freezer for this year's fish. So... we told him that we would get some of the members of our branch to take it off his hands. But before we gave it to the members, we wanted to make sure it wasn't disgusting/freezer burnt, and so we asked for a little bit for ourselves, just so we could investigate. He came out with a 40 pound box of salmon. They have their heads and tails chopped out, and (most) of the guts removed, but that's about it. Anyways, as we were leaving he told us not to tell anybody because "he hasn't been in trouble with the law for 20 years" and didn't want to get in more trouble. We think that because natives have different rules, they're not allowed to sell/give non-natives any fish. And... so now, we have a freezer full of illegal fish, and we're not sure what to do with it. We left one massive salmon on our counter all night to thaw, and now the house smells pretty bad now. We put some sliced potatoes where the guts used to be, wrapped it in tin foil, and put it in the oven for about an hour and a half at about 400 degrees. And ate it for lunch. So... before I forget, how do you usually cook that fish that we would eat on Sunday? We have to eat through it all before the Mounties come and turn us in to a Canadian federal prison. I don't know if Canada has a writ of habeas corpus or not.


Love you all, and until next week!
Elder Blotter

PS- I think I've been getting all the emails, but when I try to respond to them sometimes, the computer shuts off before I can send my response! These library computers shut off after exactly an hour before I can hit send sometimes. I recognized the park! Where is the rolly bar slide, though? I couldn't really tell if it was there, and that is what "bent my bone"!

PPS- Um, I still haven't found my retainer. That is all.

Josheeee....

Hello my firstborn,

   I think your last e-mail will be a famous one. We have laughed about it and talked about it all week. Mostly about Roger being "born a Catholic, raised a Catholic and he will die a Catholic" and him being 59 and you hoping his mom doesn't hold out much longer. Oh my. When Dad was reading it that night in the computer room he was laughing out loud. Then we read it at Grandparents day and they laughed out loud. Then I had forwarded it to Josie. She e-mailed me that they had a long drive with Jenna's family. She read it to them and she said your e-mail had them laughing and tearing up both.

    How are you??? I'm holding off sending a package of your ties until we know for sure you'll be staying in Burn's Lake. Dad is certain you will, but just in case I'm going to wait. I was very happy to hear you had a good rating when the inspection lady came. You just feel better and are more able to feel the Spirit when you tidy up.  :)   I'm curious how the weather is now?  Is there any nip to the air? Are you going to need just a good ol' sweat shirt or jacket for your p-day? I don't think we sent anything like that.

    Elder Schenk reported his mission yesterday. He did wonderful. He had 12 very close friends that left at nearly the same time. They all just returned from their missions. They sang...what is it called? "We are as the Army of Helaman, we have been taught in our youth". It was pretty amazing . And Britten sang with them. He hasn't been able to sing yet. His vision is mostly gone and he can't read the words and process them to sing, but he sang every word of that song. I am helping his mom by taking him to Speech Therapy. He is improving so much, but has a long way to go. For some reason when I take him and spend time with him it makes me think of you and I love it. He is a very special young man. He should have died but was saved for a purpose, whatever that may be? His mom and Dad spoke also. It was an amazing Sacrament Meeting. Then we had Grandparents Day. Then Dad and I had to go with Jenessa to be set apart for the Stake Youth Council. It was a good Sunday.

     Jed wanted me to for sure tell you that he dressed up for Halloween on Saturday with the Cowley boys and Jacey and went to 8-10 houses to "practice for Halloween". I thought they were only going to the Cowley's, but found out at church they went to many houses! Jacey and Jed are getting excited to start school. Only a week and a half to go.

Elder Joseph Day
Quintana 447
1846 Adrogue
Buenos Aires, Argentina

        Joe's mom asked for your address to send to Joe. I thought you might want his also. This will be his address for his entire mission. I guess Micail will have her farewell this Sunday. Grandma said she was shopping at Lee's in Smithfield and these two cute girls came running up to meet her. It was Amelia and Micail. Amelia introduced Grandma to Micail. I worry about Amelia with her sister being gone. She will miss her!! And what will Amelia's mom do with Micail gone and Amelia not living at home. That will be weird with one son at home!

      Well, my Josh. We love you to pieces and think about you literally every day. For Family Home we went swimming at the Durstelers. I was standing on the diving board trying to decide what to do. Jed thought I was scared and he said, "It's OK Mom, just do it for Josh!!"  So I did it for you.  Have an awesome week in Burns Lake, BC, CANADA. 

At the Blotter Family Reunion, Bear Lake.  7/12

Missionary report from your Firstborn Son

Elder Blotter and Elder Neher

Well!

The past week has been quite the week, and next week is already the last one in the transfer! Time goes by so fast. Mother, Sister Raasvelt, the woman who did our housing inspection, said that our mothers would be quite proud of our house, so don't worry, we're doing good. She did say that we needed to clean up all the lint in the laundry room though, because we've just been banging the filter on the shelf above the dryer and we forgot to clean that up, so I'll have to report back on the lint situation next week. Ha ha. We've also been eating super well, yeah. We've had to get a bit "inventive" at the end of the month because we ran out of grocery money, but I'm by no means going hungry! Life is good. We just finished doing some service at the food bank in Burn's Lake, and so I definitely appreciate what we have!

Yes, the natives here are "first nations". Macaroni and cheese is called "Kraft Dinner". Beanies are called "toques". Color is spelled colour and fiber is spelled fibre, Etc etc. It's all about the same, but every so often something comes up that makes you scratch your head a little bit. Keeps it exciting.

The work this week was a bit different than in past weeks. Me and Elder Neher had a "purge" of sorts of our investigators. One family that we've been meeting with for a couple weeks now we had to drop just because they're just not progressing or interested in progressing at all. It's kind of hard because we really like them and we have great discussions with them when we go. When the went to Calgary a week ago, they brought back lightsaber bubble wand things for us as souvenirs. Roger, another one of our investigators, we may need to stop meeting with because he doesn't want to come to church or keep committments any more because his mom told him "he was born Catholic, raised Catholic, and will die Catholic" after he came to church with us two weeks ago (Roger is 59, and we're hoping that his mother doesn't hang on for much longer. Is that a terrible thing to hope for?). The natives are very culturally oriented, and whenever one begins to make changes in their lives, sort of like crabs in a bucket the others begin to pull the investigator back down, and it's hard to watch the people you've been teaching being dragged back down.

But, miracles are definitely happening in this area! Apparently, last transfer, Elder Neher and his last companion, Elder Owens, gave the challenge to a family in the branch to pray for a whole month for a missionary opportunity with a specific family in mind. When we were tracting some obscure street east of town, we ran in to them and they want to meet with us! Prayer works. We're planning on meeting with them in the member's home sometime over the next week. There have been some pretty neat experiences up here in finding investigators, that's for certain. Because the town is so small, whenever we find a new investigator, we look through the teaching records in the area book and a surprisingly large amount of the time, they've met with missionaries in the past. It has been neat to see how the Lord prepares people and softens their hearts over time.

Finding investigators here is always an experience, too! On Southside, you have hermits who believe very strongly in "nature", or Mennonites, because the Canadian government apparently colonized Mennonites there many, many years ago because they're industrious and would build an infrastructure). In town, there are natives (who comprise most of our investigators), and (quite unfortunately) a multitute of Born-again Christians. Each one tries to get our first names so that they can pray for our salvations, and tells us to come to their homes when the rapture happens so that we can look though their stuff and find out how to get to Heaven too. I think they rehearsed it as a congregation or something. Ha ha... Born agains. Oh! And there are a bunch of Jay-dubs, how we affectionately refer to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Those guys are brainwashed! They are all entirely convinced that their faith is the only one that believes in Jesus Christ being separate from God, in resurrection, etc, but they won't let us in their houses or take pamphlets or learn anything about our faith. Also, they believe in pretty kooky stuff, too. Being out here in the world, away from Cache Valley, has really led me to appreciate the knowledge that we have. We are so blessed! Being able to serve as a missionary and sharing the gospel is such a blessing, and teaching investigators is awesome. Over the past month I've learned, even further, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord's church, and I know that we can know of that for ourselves by the power of the Holy Ghost when we ask in prayer. The Book of Mormon is awesome. You can entirely tell if an investigator kept their reading committments or not, just by the spirit that is with them when we meet with them again. The church is true! Say woo woo! Also, say prayers for the missionary work in Burn's Lake, right after you say woo woo! You are all the best. And... I've got to write my letter to President Tilleman.

Until next week!
Elder Blotter