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| 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
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
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