Burns Lake

Family!

There was definitely an earthquake up here, but at the time, we were on the ferry, so we didn't feel anything. We only heard about it when the assistants to the president called us to ask us if we were okay. Apparently it shook quite a bit for about a minute, particularly members who live in trailer parks and things like that. Burns Lake was pretty unaffected as far as damage goes, but Haida Gwaii had an evacuation order because they were pretty worried about a tsunami. Winter does seem to be in full swing, though! It's snowing right now and there's somewhere between eighteen inches and 2 feet already. (I'm not sure exactly because everybody tells us the height in centimeters) It's supposed to get warmer in a couple days, and so it might melt, but... whew. It's not even Halloween yet! Since we have a house in Burns Lake, we bought a bunch of packets of skittles and taped them to pass-along cards. We aren't allowed to leave the house past 6:00 on Halloween, so we are just going to do our weekly planning and let people tract into us, for once. :)

Elder Epperson thought he had a bad sinus infection because he felt congested and was getting pretty bad headaches, and so we went to a walk-in clinic because he wanted antibiotics. The doctor walked through his symptoms and told him that he didn't have an infection, they were probably just tension headaches. Elder Epperson was not happy about that. He really just wanted some antibiotics. He went to a pharmacy and got some Neilmed sinus rinse stuff and he uses it 4 times a day now. I imagine that when patients think they have sinus infections, it's kind of a pain to convince them that they don't. It's probably a pretty busy time in medicine. It's good to hear that the trip was awesome and that you got back in one piece! Some of those pictures looked very cool. I got a postcard in the mail today that came when you were at the Vatican, I think!

The mission is really revving up to get ready for all of the new missionaries! It is a super exciting time to be in the field. I might sent part of President Tilleman's email that talks about all of it. It sounds like they are going to be shortening the amount of time missionaries are spending in the MTC, and putting missionaries all over the place up here. Next transfer we are already putting another set of missionaries one area away in Vanderhoof, and they are opening an area called "100 Mile House", and that's only in the Prince George Zone, and this is before the wave of missionaries from the announcement has started to pour in.

The work in Burns Lake is doing awesome! I feel like I might be leaving next week, which honestly is a little heart wrenching. This branch is filled with a bunch of characters, and I love them all. When I first got here the members really weren't very excited about missionary work, and now they give us almost too much time in PEC and branch council to talk about the work, and President Lambert now always talks about missionary work when he bears his testimony every fast Sunday (because in a branch this size... almost everybody bears their testimony every time) and always thank us. When the members find out things that we need, like that we don't have winter tires on, they always figure it out for us. about I think some summer I am going to have to come back and "portage," which is like backpacking, but you carry a canoe on your shoulders and canoe whenever you hit a lake or river. They all complain about doing it, but since I've been here, they've gone on 3 portage excursions, so it can't be all that bad!

Vanessa is doing well! This Sunday she was called as a Primary teacher. That will be really good for her! When on exchanges, me and the new missionary in Smithers, Elder Marshall, tracted into a new investigator, which is a miracle because Smithers rolled their truck, and so without a vehicle, they have had to knock nothing but the streets in walking distance many many times over the past couple weeks. The guy said that the last time the missionaries came to his door he cussed them out and kicked them off his porch. He got in a crazy car accident a couple days earlier, however, and that in combination with us coming to his door, he took to be a sign as God reaching out to him. It is amazing how people's hearts change. Tracting is never a waste of time. Many miracles happen up here in the North! It is such a blessing to be here serving the Lord.

Elder Blotter


PS - A 17 year old member from the branch, Jace, left with some program to go teach English in China about a month ago, and I heard that he ended up in the same group that Justine Larsen is in! Justine passed some inside joke through him to a member in the branch to me, but I have no idea what she was talking about. How crazy is that?