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!
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.
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