Josh Blotter.....I am never going to wait until Monday night to write
your weekly letter again. I am sorry I missed you my dear missionary
son. I got home late last night from Seattle and my 6th annual Sister's
Trip with my dear mom and sisters. I loved Seattle and loved that I
wasn't so far away from you! When it would clear up I could see Canada.
I'll send a couple pics. One of the highlights was going on a bicycle
tour all around Seattle with my 75 year old mom in tow. :)
I am
thrilled you will be about to stay in Burn's Lake! At least one more
time! So you will be the senior companion? Does that mean you won't have
to spend a day planning the week? (Hee hee) Can't wait to hear about
your new companion and where he is from. Jenessa just gave me a letter
to send to you and one for Elder Neher.
Hopefully you can save it for him in case you see him again. Sometimes
it takes so long for you to get a package I want to make sure you get a
little birthday package in time. What (besides pens) do you need or want
for your big day? You will spend your 20th in Burn's Lake. I'll always
have a soft spot for Burn's Lake.
PLEASE just have anyone in your
ward with a camera and computer TAKE YOUR PICTURE. Then in a nice voice
ask if they wouldn't mind forwarding that pic to jillblotter@yahoo.com.
Since June 13th, I've only gotten one picture sent from Pres. Tilleman.
I need more.
PS, I will pay if necessary. :D
Love you to
pieces. And I would have DIED to see a black bear sliced open inside the
house. I guess she was just making a little "bear popcorn".
Monday, September 24, 2012
Mother...
Dear Mom,
I love you lots.
Your firstborn,
Elder Blotter
PS- I really like these pens I got in the MTC, and they are running out of ink. Which is sad. They were called "elescoping pens" or something like that. They were made by Zebra. If you could find some or some refills for them or something and send them, that would be lovely. Thank you!
I love you lots.
Your firstborn,
Elder Blotter
PS- I really like these pens I got in the MTC, and they are running out of ink. Which is sad. They were called "elescoping pens" or something like that. They were made by Zebra. If you could find some or some refills for them or something and send them, that would be lovely. Thank you!
Family!
Well hello!
I don't have too much time to write because I spent too much time of the hour we spend on the computer trying to get my camera to upload pictures to the computers in the Family History Center in the church in Burns Lake. Again, they are running Windows 98 so unfortunately I was not able to succeed. Maybe some other time! Sorry that my email time fell on another Monday!
The past week has been a very hectic one for the Burns Lake elders because we had the Smithers and Terrace elders visit us for companion exchanges, and we finished the week in Prince George for stake conference. Very busy! Burns Lake is in the Prince George Stake, but is in the Terrace zone, so we go to the Terrace and Prince George stake/district conferences. We have been blessed to work with elders in two zones, and to work in a number of different areas. I spent some time tracting in Prince George, and it is quite a different experience than in Burns Lake! It is also weird to be in a town with more than ten streets to tract on. President Tilleman had time to interview everyone at the Prince George zone conference, and so I had the opportunity to spend some time talking to him, which was certainly a blessing. He was also very forthcoming about transfers, and he let me know, even though the call hasn't come yet today, that I am staying in Burns Lake for another transfer, with a new companion named Elder Epperson. I am very excited to stay in Burns Lake, because the work is really starting to show some fruit, and I am excited to meet my new companion sometime over the next few days!
Northern BC is many different colors right now. It is very beautiful. It also has been very strangely warm over the past little while. Even though it's very dark in the mornings, I don't even need a jacket when we go running outside, which I am certainly not complaining about!
I had many memorable experiences this week. On exchanges, me and Elder Garner were working on the Reserve, and we were invited into a house, and just lying on their kitchen floor was this huge gutted black bear. This native lady was scraping the fat out of it, cutting it into little chunks, and frying it. They call it "Indian popcorn". It did have a texture that admittedly was strangely like popcorn. We were able to do a lot of finding and teaching on the Reserve. In just one day we found 4 new investigators. After knocking on every single door in Burns Lake, some multiple times, the Lord still provides us with many people to teach. To me it seems no less miraculous than turning water into wine! We were able to teach many different people, as well. We have been steadily increasing the number of lessons that we have been teaching weekly, and so that has been satisfying to see.
I had two interesting conversations that I would like to mention here while I have time! One of them was with a former patriarch who is now serving as a counselor in the mission presidency, President Whidden. We were talking about patriarchal blessings while he was giving us a ride from Prince George to Vanderhoof, and we asked about different tribes and what they mean. The scriptures don't tell us too much about many tribes, but he says that if you read the scriptures you can kind of learn about the traits of many of them. I asked what being in the tribe of Benjamin meant and he said that people in that tribe tend to be very loyal, and dedicated to things once they commit to them, as well as being very sensitive and caring. I thought that that described Mom very well and so I found that very interesting! Maybe Mom doesn't need to wonder if she's "really" in the tribe of Benjamin. :)
Secondly, on the Canadian $20 bill, there is a side with some lady's face on it, and a side with some native art on it. On the native art side, underneath the 20, there is a little depiction of a bird-like thing standing on what looks like a rock with some pretty creepy people crawling out of it. It is a depiction of the Haida creation story. The Haidas are the Natives who live on Haida Gwaii. They look exactly like natives as far as their features go, except they are pale skinned. They are as white as we are. Their creation story is that a big clam washed up on the shore, and people crawled out of it. (Apparently it was a raven that witnessed it, which explains the bird on the clam) We speculate that one of the many Jaredite barges washed up on Haida Gwaii and they have been there ever since. Pretty interesting. :)
Well! Life is good! Missionary work is very rewarding. I feel very blessed to be serving the Lord.
Elder Blotter
I don't have too much time to write because I spent too much time of the hour we spend on the computer trying to get my camera to upload pictures to the computers in the Family History Center in the church in Burns Lake. Again, they are running Windows 98 so unfortunately I was not able to succeed. Maybe some other time! Sorry that my email time fell on another Monday!
The past week has been a very hectic one for the Burns Lake elders because we had the Smithers and Terrace elders visit us for companion exchanges, and we finished the week in Prince George for stake conference. Very busy! Burns Lake is in the Prince George Stake, but is in the Terrace zone, so we go to the Terrace and Prince George stake/district conferences. We have been blessed to work with elders in two zones, and to work in a number of different areas. I spent some time tracting in Prince George, and it is quite a different experience than in Burns Lake! It is also weird to be in a town with more than ten streets to tract on. President Tilleman had time to interview everyone at the Prince George zone conference, and so I had the opportunity to spend some time talking to him, which was certainly a blessing. He was also very forthcoming about transfers, and he let me know, even though the call hasn't come yet today, that I am staying in Burns Lake for another transfer, with a new companion named Elder Epperson. I am very excited to stay in Burns Lake, because the work is really starting to show some fruit, and I am excited to meet my new companion sometime over the next few days!
Northern BC is many different colors right now. It is very beautiful. It also has been very strangely warm over the past little while. Even though it's very dark in the mornings, I don't even need a jacket when we go running outside, which I am certainly not complaining about!
I had many memorable experiences this week. On exchanges, me and Elder Garner were working on the Reserve, and we were invited into a house, and just lying on their kitchen floor was this huge gutted black bear. This native lady was scraping the fat out of it, cutting it into little chunks, and frying it. They call it "Indian popcorn". It did have a texture that admittedly was strangely like popcorn. We were able to do a lot of finding and teaching on the Reserve. In just one day we found 4 new investigators. After knocking on every single door in Burns Lake, some multiple times, the Lord still provides us with many people to teach. To me it seems no less miraculous than turning water into wine! We were able to teach many different people, as well. We have been steadily increasing the number of lessons that we have been teaching weekly, and so that has been satisfying to see.
I had two interesting conversations that I would like to mention here while I have time! One of them was with a former patriarch who is now serving as a counselor in the mission presidency, President Whidden. We were talking about patriarchal blessings while he was giving us a ride from Prince George to Vanderhoof, and we asked about different tribes and what they mean. The scriptures don't tell us too much about many tribes, but he says that if you read the scriptures you can kind of learn about the traits of many of them. I asked what being in the tribe of Benjamin meant and he said that people in that tribe tend to be very loyal, and dedicated to things once they commit to them, as well as being very sensitive and caring. I thought that that described Mom very well and so I found that very interesting! Maybe Mom doesn't need to wonder if she's "really" in the tribe of Benjamin. :)
Secondly, on the Canadian $20 bill, there is a side with some lady's face on it, and a side with some native art on it. On the native art side, underneath the 20, there is a little depiction of a bird-like thing standing on what looks like a rock with some pretty creepy people crawling out of it. It is a depiction of the Haida creation story. The Haidas are the Natives who live on Haida Gwaii. They look exactly like natives as far as their features go, except they are pale skinned. They are as white as we are. Their creation story is that a big clam washed up on the shore, and people crawled out of it. (Apparently it was a raven that witnessed it, which explains the bird on the clam) We speculate that one of the many Jaredite barges washed up on Haida Gwaii and they have been there ever since. Pretty interesting. :)
Well! Life is good! Missionary work is very rewarding. I feel very blessed to be serving the Lord.
Elder Blotter
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
From Sally
Oh my goodness Jill. My heart
is so full of love and I am so touched by these tender words. Josh is
everything a beautiful human should be- compassionate, helpful,
open-minded. He is truely an instrument of peace and is at exacty the
right place at the right time, as we all are even when we don't feel
sure about it. This letter is a reminder to all of us to continue to
seek out goodness and perform acts of kindness and be willing to share
your findings with others. Your mothering has come full circle, Jill.
That young mother needed your son to help her find a promising
and hope-filled path for her and her daughter. May your day be
overflowing with blessings and love my friend. It's Delaware Fair week..
remember when....? The boys march in the band at the fair today,
weather is fall-like, and very nice. Tom and I are great, but busy.
Hugs to all, Sally
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Hello from Burns Lake
Family!
It is great to hear that all is well at home! The trip to Israel sounds like it is very exciting. I've just finished Jesus the Christ and I think it would be awesome to see that very historic area first hand. I am envious, even though Alma 5 says that I should be stripped of envy. I will have to re-read the chapter in Preach My Gospel on Christlike attributes. Are you planning on doing Lotoja next year, Dad? Or is it still coaching soccer and things like that? And it is certainly true that a mail strike for 6 months is worse than missing an email for a week!
Well, Burns Lake is beginning to change colors! About a week and a half ago a bunch of yellow appeared in all the trees overnight, and it just seems to be getting closer and closer to a full blown fall It has been surprisingly warm though for the past 2 weeks. Apparently it hasn't been normal. Usually it drops below freezing at night and in the mornings, but the afternoons are still pretty warm. Aside from that though, there are a lot of trees here, and so it is very beautiful with the changing colors.
When I left Utah, I passed a lot of fires in the mountains on the way to the airport. It is Northern BC's turn to be on fire now! Apparently there is very large fire in Tweedsmuir National Park, which is fairly close to Burns Lake. Yesterday we spent the evening tracting houses in Decker Lake, a small area that is a few minutes from Burns Lake. Slowly, a massive smoke cloud rose over the mountains and eclipsed the Sun. It looked scarlet red. It was pretty awesome at first, but then it got really hazy. We're told that the fires are quite a ways away and there is no real danger, but we figure that if there was an evacuation, and we don't have radio or TV, people might forget to let the missionaries know. :)
The past week has just been a week of miracles. We have found four new investigators. One of them we are going to be baptizing at the end of this month! Her name is Vanessa, and me and Elder Garner, the district leader, found her about 2 months ago when tracting out a little apartment complex. We had been trying to schedule an appointment with her ever since, but usually she cancel the appointments for some reason. When we finally got a lesson in with her, she accepted the gospel so readily. I can't count the number of times I tried to schedule something with her. I had her number memorized weeks ago. You have to come to church at least 3 times before baptism, and she came this week, she is going to be coming to Stake Conference in Prince George this Sunday, and so she can be baptized after church on September 30th. I feel like I learned so much from the experience. Elder Neher and I really did not expect to find success with her, but we didn't give up on her and we continued to try and share our message with her. She told one of the members last Sunday that she was so touched that I kept trying to work with her, after realizing exactly what blessings the Gospel is going to bring to her life. Being enthusiastic matters! She said it was one of the reasons that she said yes. I also learned how little missionaries do in the conversion process! We didn't convince her at all. She just heard the first lesson, and accepted it as truth very readily. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson and did... everything! Vanessa is a single mom with a 2 year old daughter, and we can just see the positive influence the church is going to have on her life. What a miracle this week has been! What a blessing it is to do missionary work and to see miracles happen first hand!
Just before emailing we had a lesson in a park with Dr. George Magee. His daughter is LDS, and a member in Burns Lake (who passed away years ago) gave him a Book of Mormon many years ago and wrote her testimony in it. When we first came in contact with him, we knocked on their door, and his wife answered and said they weren't interested and began to close the door, but he briefly mentioned he might like to meet and gave us his number. We called him, and though he wouldn't meet with us in his home, he would meet with us in a park. So... that's what he did. He takes a very scientific approach to spirituality, and he mentioned a lot of books and concepts that I was very familiar with. In particular, he discussed the idea of memes and how all religions could just be memes. I had written a 10 page long paper on memes last transfer at USU in my English class, and I was able to completely address that concern. There's another reason I'm in Burns Lake! He invited us to speak at a Rotary club that he is a member of. We'll have to see if I'll be in Burns Lake to be able to do that!
I also learned that you should... not be racist. Basically. We were out tracting little 2 or 3 house reserves on Southside, and we dropped of a Restoration pamphlet at a trailer to a young man that we would assume had never stepped foot inside a public school. The trailer smelled like smoke and beer. He seemed very quiet and listened to us, but didn't really give us any indication that he understood what we were saying. We dropped by a week later, and he invited us inside. We sort of talked to him like he had very little understanding what we were there for, and then he just cut in and told us exactly what the Restoration pamphlet said and that he wanted a Book of Mormon. He could understand the complicated language of the scriptures and could tell us exactly what things like Moroni 10:3-5 meant. Wow. That is far and away more than what other investigators who even have been to college can do. He has probably never been in a school, and probably taught himself how to read. If he was in my place, he would probably have cured cancer or something like that. We are excited to work with him.
I don't want to leave Burns Lake! I could be leaving here by September... 25th or something like that. I really hope that doesn't happen.
Elder Blotter
*He totally might come see" Dr. Blotter" as a patient. He is moving back down to Idaho and has a sinus problem or something.
PS- I was in Unit 3 for AP Government. I'm guessing it was supposed to be that and not AP History? Is Ethan doing AP Gov? I think him and Rigby would really click.
PPS- Elder Neher wonders if you have a really easy gravy recipe. He tried to make moose gravy today and it was literally miraculous how flavorless it was.
It is great to hear that all is well at home! The trip to Israel sounds like it is very exciting. I've just finished Jesus the Christ and I think it would be awesome to see that very historic area first hand. I am envious, even though Alma 5 says that I should be stripped of envy. I will have to re-read the chapter in Preach My Gospel on Christlike attributes. Are you planning on doing Lotoja next year, Dad? Or is it still coaching soccer and things like that? And it is certainly true that a mail strike for 6 months is worse than missing an email for a week!
Well, Burns Lake is beginning to change colors! About a week and a half ago a bunch of yellow appeared in all the trees overnight, and it just seems to be getting closer and closer to a full blown fall It has been surprisingly warm though for the past 2 weeks. Apparently it hasn't been normal. Usually it drops below freezing at night and in the mornings, but the afternoons are still pretty warm. Aside from that though, there are a lot of trees here, and so it is very beautiful with the changing colors.
When I left Utah, I passed a lot of fires in the mountains on the way to the airport. It is Northern BC's turn to be on fire now! Apparently there is very large fire in Tweedsmuir National Park, which is fairly close to Burns Lake. Yesterday we spent the evening tracting houses in Decker Lake, a small area that is a few minutes from Burns Lake. Slowly, a massive smoke cloud rose over the mountains and eclipsed the Sun. It looked scarlet red. It was pretty awesome at first, but then it got really hazy. We're told that the fires are quite a ways away and there is no real danger, but we figure that if there was an evacuation, and we don't have radio or TV, people might forget to let the missionaries know. :)
The past week has just been a week of miracles. We have found four new investigators. One of them we are going to be baptizing at the end of this month! Her name is Vanessa, and me and Elder Garner, the district leader, found her about 2 months ago when tracting out a little apartment complex. We had been trying to schedule an appointment with her ever since, but usually she cancel the appointments for some reason. When we finally got a lesson in with her, she accepted the gospel so readily. I can't count the number of times I tried to schedule something with her. I had her number memorized weeks ago. You have to come to church at least 3 times before baptism, and she came this week, she is going to be coming to Stake Conference in Prince George this Sunday, and so she can be baptized after church on September 30th. I feel like I learned so much from the experience. Elder Neher and I really did not expect to find success with her, but we didn't give up on her and we continued to try and share our message with her. She told one of the members last Sunday that she was so touched that I kept trying to work with her, after realizing exactly what blessings the Gospel is going to bring to her life. Being enthusiastic matters! She said it was one of the reasons that she said yes. I also learned how little missionaries do in the conversion process! We didn't convince her at all. She just heard the first lesson, and accepted it as truth very readily. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson and did... everything! Vanessa is a single mom with a 2 year old daughter, and we can just see the positive influence the church is going to have on her life. What a miracle this week has been! What a blessing it is to do missionary work and to see miracles happen first hand!
Just before emailing we had a lesson in a park with Dr. George Magee. His daughter is LDS, and a member in Burns Lake (who passed away years ago) gave him a Book of Mormon many years ago and wrote her testimony in it. When we first came in contact with him, we knocked on their door, and his wife answered and said they weren't interested and began to close the door, but he briefly mentioned he might like to meet and gave us his number. We called him, and though he wouldn't meet with us in his home, he would meet with us in a park. So... that's what he did. He takes a very scientific approach to spirituality, and he mentioned a lot of books and concepts that I was very familiar with. In particular, he discussed the idea of memes and how all religions could just be memes. I had written a 10 page long paper on memes last transfer at USU in my English class, and I was able to completely address that concern. There's another reason I'm in Burns Lake! He invited us to speak at a Rotary club that he is a member of. We'll have to see if I'll be in Burns Lake to be able to do that!
I also learned that you should... not be racist. Basically. We were out tracting little 2 or 3 house reserves on Southside, and we dropped of a Restoration pamphlet at a trailer to a young man that we would assume had never stepped foot inside a public school. The trailer smelled like smoke and beer. He seemed very quiet and listened to us, but didn't really give us any indication that he understood what we were saying. We dropped by a week later, and he invited us inside. We sort of talked to him like he had very little understanding what we were there for, and then he just cut in and told us exactly what the Restoration pamphlet said and that he wanted a Book of Mormon. He could understand the complicated language of the scriptures and could tell us exactly what things like Moroni 10:3-5 meant. Wow. That is far and away more than what other investigators who even have been to college can do. He has probably never been in a school, and probably taught himself how to read. If he was in my place, he would probably have cured cancer or something like that. We are excited to work with him.
I don't want to leave Burns Lake! I could be leaving here by September... 25th or something like that. I really hope that doesn't happen.
Elder Blotter
*He totally might come see" Dr. Blotter" as a patient. He is moving back down to Idaho and has a sinus problem or something.
PS- I was in Unit 3 for AP Government. I'm guessing it was supposed to be that and not AP History? Is Ethan doing AP Gov? I think him and Rigby would really click.
PPS- Elder Neher wonders if you have a really easy gravy recipe. He tried to make moose gravy today and it was literally miraculous how flavorless it was.
 |
| On the ferry at sunset.... |
Friday, September 14, 2012
3 MONTHS
Dear Elder Josh,
Well, today marks exactly 3 months since we dropped you off at the MTC.
I am so happy to say that I am doing SO much better than I was the
first two months you were gone. I personally didn't see what was so
"wonderful" about having you be gone for so long. But after 3 months I
finally see the light! The highlight of our week is receiving your
e-mail and seeing how the work is progressing. It is such a blessing to
see you as a missionary and see your desire to serve the Lord and find
people who's lives you will change forever. You are planting seeds in
Burn's Lake! I loved hearing about the miracles that took place just
last week. 
And you can't just go and send your e-mail a day early! I just about
DIED when I saw your e-mail and realized no one had written you that
week! As a mother....I was mortified. Please forgive me and know that we
think about you daily and love you to pieces. Grandpa Blotter and his
two brothers and Uncle Scott are in Alaska fishing. Really not too far
from you, I'd bet. Dad couldn't go this time. He is missing too much
time already with our big trip coming up in 22 days, but who's counting?
We are going to "Walk where Jesus walked". I can't believe we are
really doing it and is going to happen. Well, hopefully it will. Our
stop in Egypt may not happen. They stormed our US Embassy in Cairo this
week and there is a bit of unrest. This is our trip. Fly to Rome and
spend 3 days with the Elwoods touring Italy. Get on a ship and go to
Egypt, Israel
(Jerusalem, Sea of Galilee, Mount of Beatitudes, Nazareth, etc. ),
Athens, Greece, Naples, Italy and back to Rome. We get two days each in
Egypt and Israel. So thankful we get to do this trip now and not when
the Alzheimer's has set in.
My friend, Shanna Knowles had the fun experience of having her son,
Riley open his mission call last night. He was called to the Halifax,
Canada mission. It is in Nova Scotia, over by Maine. I hear it's
extremely cold (35 below zero) for 5-7 months of the year. 
Speaking
of that....how cold is it getting for you? Do you think you'll be warm
enough with the coat we got? Is it time to think about boots? Well, I
hope all is well. My dear friend Kathy Holt fell down a
flight of stairs in the temple and tore her rotator cuff. (shoulder)
She is having surgery in the morning. Poor thing.
Speaking
of that....how cold is it getting for you? Do you think you'll be warm
enough with the coat we got? Is it time to think about boots? Well, I
hope all is well. My dear friend Kathy Holt fell down a
flight of stairs in the temple and tore her rotator cuff. (shoulder)
She is having surgery in the morning. Poor thing.
Have a super day, Josh. Love, Mom
Monday, September 10, 2012
The Week
Hi
Well
I guess you learned that most of us are emailing on Monday night!! If
it is any consolation to you there was a mail strike in 1987 in
Argentina, and I did not hear a word from anyone in the United States of
America for 6 months! Hopefully you can survive the week, and maybe
even sneak into the library for a quick fix from home.
Always new and exciting
things. We had friends stay with us the day before Lotoja. They are
all bishops and stake presidents now. I am an outlier as a secretary in
the young men's presidency, but I try to do a bang up job! Who else
can control Tyler Axtell and Zach Balls. We ate dinner with Scott and
Rachel Jacob, parents of Ben Jacob. They are really neat people. Ben
is in Brazil, and been out similar to you.
A
rider died in Lotoja this year. Hit a pothole, slammed into a
guardrail, flipped over the guardrail and fell forty feet off a
bridge into the Snake River, which was very shallow. I wondered if his
driving history included serving a mission in British Columbia?
Good
to know you are almost done with 'training'. Back in the day they just
gave you some copies of the Book of Mormon and said "Son, go and
baptize people!" Ultimately it is not hard. Get up, go out, work, work
some more, and then really work. The harder it gets, the harder you
work. You push back against discouragement and set backs by working
harder. Win the trust of the members without being overbearing, and
find creative ways to get
people involved in the process. Trust in the Lord and recognize that
he has a great design and knows all things and details. Natalie Sam
Fong gave a good talk in church, and stated that we must look for the
good in people. If we look for the good in people, then we will see
them as God sees them. This was profound. Especially, because she has
had some serious hardships, including raising a very very difficult
autistic child.
I
spent 2 hours operating on a man named Clifford's skull today. Why is this
relevant? Well, I have learned a great deal from Clifford. He
showed up
in my office 10 months ago, homeless, stinking, heavy with alcohol and
tobacco use. He had a huge infected tumor the size of a tennis ball
growing out of the side of his head. No insurance, no money (except to
buy alcohol and tobacco), nothing. He had been bounced from office to
office being passed along like a pass along card by people not wanting
to deal with this problem. Meanwhile the cancer had grown, and this is a
potentially fatal cancer. He is mildly handicapped. In a moment I
thought, just try to send this down the road. Make him an appointment
somewhere else even though you know that he cannot get there, and they
will require cash up front, which he does not have. But nonetheless, he
can just move along, and if he smokes cigarretes he is a fool and
deserves what he gets. And then I stopped, and I thought, "Jill
Wallentine Blotter did not raise you to be some spoiled, over paid
doctor in
a hurry, who is unwilling to try to rescue a soul, so get going you
pathetic wretch!" Well, I scheduled him for surgery that week. The
hospital said no, they need money up front, I told them I would never
do another insured patient again if they did not do this case for free.
I spent 9 hours removing cancer from his head and neck surgically. I
got him recovered after a week in the hospital. He needed radiation.
We helped arrange an apartment in Brigham City for him to live. Mom
went shopping and decked him out with a new wardrobe, including a
flannel fleece like I wear, that he has never taken off. I arranged
radiation treatments, the hospital refused, I threatened again. He got
radiation. The radiation killed the rest of the cancer, but it also
killed some skin on his skull, and I have been reconstructing that
gradually ever since. I gave him my last $10 to for gas to get home
after his procedure today.
I
have really never talked to anyone about Clifford, except Mom. The
office staff know him. The reason that I tell you that little story,
is because it is on my mind today, and it has been very very rewarding
for me personally to fight that battle for Clifford. And I have fought
it will every ounce of strength, money, resources, etc that I could
muster, just like he were my brother. I have realized the meaning of
the scripture 'insomuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me' and therefore, it is as if I possibly
tried to reach
out to the Savior himself. In doing so I have have been so richly
blessed that I cannot even comprehend, and the Lord protects and
prospers us as a family in every way imaginable.
You
spend every day on the same errand, and I am proud of you. Just know
that the Lord loves you, and as you reach for people, especially lowly
people, you are only following his example. He will open the windows
of heaven, now and in the future. Keep up the good work!
Love
Dad
A Day Early!
Family,
We had a "mini-Zone conference" in Terrace on Sunday, and we only had time to drive back to Smithers yesterday, so we are having our P-day in Smithers this week! It has been nice because there are lower prices on food and things here, but it also means that we are able to email today! So, this email is a little early.
It is weird how fast time has flown this transfer. It's already halfway over! In just over 2 weeks we will find out if we're being moved or not. I hope I'm in Burns Lake for one more round, but we'll have to see how it goes. There are a lot of people that have one foot in the font and the other on the banana peel, and they just need one more nudge for them to either be baptized or commit to be baptized, and I really feel like there is more for me to do in beautiful Burns Lake. I guess we'll just have to see what happens! They have a new training program for new missionaries called the "12 Week Program" where for the first 12 weeks in the field you spend an extra hour a day studying things in Preach My Gospel. I'm 3 weeks away from being finished with that, and I will no longer technically be a "greenie" when it's over. That's pretty weird!
This week has been an interesting one, because we spent a lot of it in other areas, but it has also been a week of miracles. Every week is week of miracles, of course, but still. :) We left on Friday to spend a day having another district meeting and companion exchange in Smithers, and then drove to Terrace and spent some time up there. When we got to Terrace, there was another companion exchange. It was pretty hectic, but I think everybody learned a lot. When we were in Terrace, I was with a group of missionaries and we went to tract out a trailer park. I was paired with an elder who is leaving after this transfer, and we agreed that whichever group found a new investigator first had to buy the other group milkshakes. At the second trailer that we visited, we saw somebody standing by a window and we got their attention to come to the door. When we looked at the door, there was a piece of paper taped to it that rather impolitely told people who were proselyting to leave the trailer alone. But... the person opened the door, we got in, and we managed to get a lesson and two new investigators from the trailer. One of the investigators committed to be baptized as we were leaving. It was certainly a testimony that even in unexpected places, the Lord is preparing people to hear the message of the Restoration.
Another experience we had when tracting Burns Lake is we ran into a man, named Ridge, who we had street contacted into and tracted into previously, and in both situations he had said no. We were out on a random street, and we knocked on the door of a house, and suddenly Ridge walks up to the door. He was just there to pick up his brother because he was intoxicated, but we had a conversation with him, and he told us he wanted to be a better father for his kids, and we basically taught him the Restoration on the doorstep of that random house. We gave him our number and set up another appointment, and left. We were like 5 minutes away and he called and told us to visit somebody down the street for him, and as soon as we hung up the phone, a car pulled up and rolled down the window to talk to us, and it turns out, it was the guy that Ridge told us to visit. He initially said he wasn't interested, but when we told him Ridge wanted us to see him, he agreed to give us his number and meet with us.
We're working in Burns Lake in a lot of different ways. We're starting to get some of the elderly natives to just come to church. We're not allowed to visit single women without a responsible male adult 17 years or older present, and there are a lot of old women on the reserve, and since there just aren't enough Priesthood holders in Burns Lake to get in the number of appointments we would like to, one way we've been getting people to come unto Christ is by setting up rides for them to come to church and teaching them there on Sundays. We'll have to see if any fruits come that way in the future. We know that we need to be working harder for Burns Lake to blossom, and so we're doing what we can.
The town itself of Burns Lake is small and only has about 1500 people in it. There are other areas in BC with massive wards in them and no missionaries. But there is work to do in Burns Lake, and the experiences and miracles that happen like that every day are just another witness that the Lord has missionaries where they need to be. It is so surprising to see the people that the Lord has prepared, but he has certainly prepared them.
Well, it has been a great week! I love serving the Lord. It is very fulfilling work. I am blessed to serve in a beautiful and uniquely challenging area. I hope all is well at home! All is well in Burns Lake. Oh. I also found out that the name of Queen Charlotte's island is spelled "Haida Gwaii". Just for clarification. :)
Hope to hear from you next week! Have a great one. I've got to write President Tilleman.
Elder Blotter
We had a "mini-Zone conference" in Terrace on Sunday, and we only had time to drive back to Smithers yesterday, so we are having our P-day in Smithers this week! It has been nice because there are lower prices on food and things here, but it also means that we are able to email today! So, this email is a little early.
It is weird how fast time has flown this transfer. It's already halfway over! In just over 2 weeks we will find out if we're being moved or not. I hope I'm in Burns Lake for one more round, but we'll have to see how it goes. There are a lot of people that have one foot in the font and the other on the banana peel, and they just need one more nudge for them to either be baptized or commit to be baptized, and I really feel like there is more for me to do in beautiful Burns Lake. I guess we'll just have to see what happens! They have a new training program for new missionaries called the "12 Week Program" where for the first 12 weeks in the field you spend an extra hour a day studying things in Preach My Gospel. I'm 3 weeks away from being finished with that, and I will no longer technically be a "greenie" when it's over. That's pretty weird!
This week has been an interesting one, because we spent a lot of it in other areas, but it has also been a week of miracles. Every week is week of miracles, of course, but still. :) We left on Friday to spend a day having another district meeting and companion exchange in Smithers, and then drove to Terrace and spent some time up there. When we got to Terrace, there was another companion exchange. It was pretty hectic, but I think everybody learned a lot. When we were in Terrace, I was with a group of missionaries and we went to tract out a trailer park. I was paired with an elder who is leaving after this transfer, and we agreed that whichever group found a new investigator first had to buy the other group milkshakes. At the second trailer that we visited, we saw somebody standing by a window and we got their attention to come to the door. When we looked at the door, there was a piece of paper taped to it that rather impolitely told people who were proselyting to leave the trailer alone. But... the person opened the door, we got in, and we managed to get a lesson and two new investigators from the trailer. One of the investigators committed to be baptized as we were leaving. It was certainly a testimony that even in unexpected places, the Lord is preparing people to hear the message of the Restoration.
Another experience we had when tracting Burns Lake is we ran into a man, named Ridge, who we had street contacted into and tracted into previously, and in both situations he had said no. We were out on a random street, and we knocked on the door of a house, and suddenly Ridge walks up to the door. He was just there to pick up his brother because he was intoxicated, but we had a conversation with him, and he told us he wanted to be a better father for his kids, and we basically taught him the Restoration on the doorstep of that random house. We gave him our number and set up another appointment, and left. We were like 5 minutes away and he called and told us to visit somebody down the street for him, and as soon as we hung up the phone, a car pulled up and rolled down the window to talk to us, and it turns out, it was the guy that Ridge told us to visit. He initially said he wasn't interested, but when we told him Ridge wanted us to see him, he agreed to give us his number and meet with us.
We're working in Burns Lake in a lot of different ways. We're starting to get some of the elderly natives to just come to church. We're not allowed to visit single women without a responsible male adult 17 years or older present, and there are a lot of old women on the reserve, and since there just aren't enough Priesthood holders in Burns Lake to get in the number of appointments we would like to, one way we've been getting people to come unto Christ is by setting up rides for them to come to church and teaching them there on Sundays. We'll have to see if any fruits come that way in the future. We know that we need to be working harder for Burns Lake to blossom, and so we're doing what we can.
The town itself of Burns Lake is small and only has about 1500 people in it. There are other areas in BC with massive wards in them and no missionaries. But there is work to do in Burns Lake, and the experiences and miracles that happen like that every day are just another witness that the Lord has missionaries where they need to be. It is so surprising to see the people that the Lord has prepared, but he has certainly prepared them.
Well, it has been a great week! I love serving the Lord. It is very fulfilling work. I am blessed to serve in a beautiful and uniquely challenging area. I hope all is well at home! All is well in Burns Lake. Oh. I also found out that the name of Queen Charlotte's island is spelled "Haida Gwaii". Just for clarification. :)
Hope to hear from you next week! Have a great one. I've got to write President Tilleman.
Elder Blotter
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Burns Lake Report #.....8 or something like that.
Family!
Burns Lake is beautiful! I'm glad that you're able to at least see some of it through Google Earth! That's something that certainly wouldn't be possible ten years ago. Every time we're driving to the church or Southside, I just look around and see so much evidence of a Creator. It is just so beautiful! Especially now that it is already getting dark a little past 8:00. If we take the 8:30 ferry back to the house, we get to enjoy a moonlit ferry ride on the lake. I feel very blessed to be in the area that I am in. We encountered our 3rd bear while tracting this week! The first one was a cub, and far away, and the second one got chased away by a bunch of dogs that lived in the Reserve we were visiting, but this one was neat because we were in the truck so we could try to take a picture of it. Hopefully I will survive my remaining time here without getting mauled. But we routinely see eagles, foxes, moose, deer, and dogs that we think are rabid (on the Reserves) over the course of missionary work here. It's beautiful! Of course, hiking around Logan is beautiful too, so it's a good thing you were able to do that this week as well.
Wow, it sounds like last week was not a good week to be traveling by car, then! It's good that everybody seemed to be okay. Elder Pierson is still up North, but he's serving... in Kitimat or something like that, not in Smithers, so he was okay. As far as the Elder who served in BC, Queen Charlotte's is now in the Terrace zone. I think that the Terrace zone was recently created, and it all used to be the Prince George Zone, so it would make sense that he might not have served during it. Queen Charlotte's island is the Hidagwy area that I was talking about earlier. BC now refers to it as Hidagwuy or however you spell it as a throwback to the First Nations, because that's what they called it. Kelowna used to have 2 companionships serving there, but last transfer one of them was pulled out. President Tilleman thinks there is a shortage of missionaries in BC. He wants more! I obviously wouldn't tell your patient this, but apparently the mission president before President Nelson, (who was before President Tilleman) allowed a lot of disobedience, and it wasn't as successful at the time. The mission president really sets the pace for a mission, it seems. And yes mother, some week when there is time, I will tell President Tilleman's story. :)
It's good to hear that the missionary work in Hyde Park is going well! I wish the Elders in Hyde Park the best, because street contacting and tracting would be rather ineffective down there, and so they probably have to figure out how to be successful!
In Burns Lake, we have managed to find quite a few new investigators this week! Because it gets dark earlier, the natives get drunk earlier, and for some reason, when people are drunk, they are more willing to give us their numbers and talk to us. Whatever gets our foot in the door as far as teaching them the gospel, we'll take it! We are also working with different member families. We are going to be following up with the Franz's, the family I talked about last letter, this week. The Moore's, the member family, gave them a Book of Mormon with their testimonies in it, and so we'll see how that went! James Witter, one of our investigators, survived his first Fast and Testimony meeting, and he seems to have enjoyed it, so we are excited about that. We are taking him lunch today. (A&W... we ran out of time to make anything else. Otherwise, we would have jumped at the chance to get rid some of that fish.) We know we can get a baptism in September! I do not want to leave Burns Lake until it is better than when I came here. I feel blessed to be able to serve the Lord.
I pray for the family every day! Tell Jed and Jacey that I love them lots. I hope that all is well and that you remember Burns Lake in your prayers as well.
Elder Blotter.
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