Well! Here I am. Vancouver. Happy New Years Eve!

Well, hello!

Sounds like it was a pretty good Christmas in Cache Valley, and pretty good skiing at the Beav! It was good to see the pictures of everybody and everything. I hope that Jed has continued to perfect his harmonica skills. He was already pretty good by the time that I talked with him.

It has been a great week in Vancouver! Whew. The days go by so fast down here. It has been a crazy! I swear, over the past week I have had more food from Phillipines than most missionaries actually serving there. There are so many people on the streets of so many different cultures and races and who knows what else. It has been awesome. It's quite a bit warmer here, too, which is nice! To get to the library from Burns Lake, we would jump in the truck and drive for like 30 seconds across town to the library. Here, we walk from our home to the Nanaimo skytrain station, ride that to Commercial-Broadway, catch a bus for a couple blocks, and walk to one of the only libraries here that is open on Monday. It's pretty intense here! Stuff is always happening. For example, in the past half hour or so we got a mormon.org referral (that comes in the form of a text on our phone) that somebody wants us to stop by and give them a Dutch Book of Mormon. Hopefully we will be able to communicate with them somehow. Just a minute ago, while we were waiting for a computer, this black teenager and this old white guy had an argument over some dumb thing about using of a public computer that sounds like it is now going to result in a civil law suit.

Anyways, the work in Vancouver is awesome! In an average day, we usually just take public transit somewhere to visit a member or a less active, and then knock some of the doors around their home and street contact in the area that they live. We have had a ton of dinner appointments over the past few days, because of the Holiday season, and so we've been eating way too much. We talk to hundreds of people. When we get back into our apartment, we have lots of other missionaries from other parts of Vancouver or that speak other languages or from areas in BC that have investigators move to Vancouver call us and give us potential investigators or referrals. It's a really busy just trying to get in contact with some of the people that are around. We have a lot of really solid people that we are teaching. One guy, Conrad, just approached us when we were sitting on the bus because he had heard some bad things about our church and he wanted to hear "our side of things", and now he's a really solid investigator. One of our baptismal dates, Cheryll, just kind of decided by herself that she wants to "be Mormon" after reading a book by Marie Osmond or someone like that. There are some people that have committed to be baptized just after we or some other missionaries talked to them on the street for a little while. There is this OCD recent convert named Lee who met missionaries because he was in the emergency room because he thought the end of a Q tip was in his ear, and he randomly asked one of the missionaries (who were there because one of them had an allergic reaction) who they were, and he got baptized a few weeks later. But he is obsessed with the church. Literally obsessed. He's unemployed right now, and all he wants to do is come with missionaries to appointments and tract and all that sort of stuff, which is awesome, because we need to have males with us to come to appointments. We carry pass along cards in Korean and Vietnamese and Mandarin. It's definitely different than Burns Lake here, but I am loving it.

My companion, Elder Smith, had previously served with Elder Epperson. Ha ha... actually, it's pretty funny. I spent 3 months hearing horror stories about Elder Smith. They did not get along at all. So, when I heard that I was going to serve with him, I just sort of committed to myself that I was going to love him and get along with him no matter what. And... so it's going to be a great transfer. Elder Smith is awesome. I will definitely be able to learn a lot from the transfer. When transfer calls came, it was pretty crazy.

This new area will be awesome, too. The East side is supposed to be the "sketchy" side, but it hasn't seemed too bad! There are lots of places to go and see on Preparation day. We're going to Chinatown today because we weren't able to last week. There are a lot of areas where we aren't allowed to be after 7:00 PM. Apparently there was a gang fight and a burnt corpse outside of the missionary's apartment in the morning a while ago, (we've moved since then), but that's probably just a missionary rumor. Ha ha. There are a lot of awesome restaurants that I want to try here. This East Indian style Chinese food place has caught my eye.

Well. Serving here so far has really made me appreciate how blessed we are as members of the church. There are literally millions of people here that don't have access to saving ordinances. We are so blessed! What a privilege it is to share the gospel with these people. I can truly see the Lord preparing people here, as well. So many people approach us and ask us questions. So many people want to hear our message. This truly is the Lord's work, and it is incredible blessing to be working in the vineyard!

Well. I'm out of time on this library computer. Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Blotter

Merry Christmas to us.

                         Presents from Elder Blotter in Canada!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2012

We LOVE Canada!

Re: Van City...

YES!!  That will be perfect. I am also pretty sure that will be 11:00 our time. We will talk to you then!!!   You white handbook missionary, you.  :)  Love, Mom

Van City...

Okay! So. I'm going to send this before writing an email, hoping to get a confirmation that this time will work for the fam. So, how President Tilleman told us it is going to work is we give you our cell phone numbers and tell you a set time to call us. I'm not sure why we're doing it that way, but it should work out fine! So... would it work for you to call at 10:00 AM (In Canada/Mountain West/whatever time zone I am in time)? That would be most convenient for us because it would be right after studies, and we wouldn't have to ride the transit home in the day to make the calls. I would google search and convert it into whatever time that would be for you guys, but I'm not allowed to use google, so that won't work. I'm guessing that would be like 11:00 or something for your time, but I'm not sure. The White Handbook says that calls should be "short (preferably no longer than 30 or 40 minutes)" and we're a white handbook following mission. So... no skyping. Ha ha. President Tilleman says that if calls go much longer than an hour, then you're no longer keeping them "short". Elder Smith's family will call him at 11:30 AM our time.

Anyways, our number is 1-604-644-2108. Hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Blotter

Burns Lake

Well!

It's been a great week up here in the North! Not too cold, either. Sounds like it was a pretty great week in Cache Valley too. The MoTab concert sounds like it was pretty great! Sounds like Jacey got to see a really good one for her first round with the choir! Sounds like you got to meet the Manwarings. Sister Manwaring was an awesome member missionary. I'm really glad that you were able to have them over. I'll bet that was great. It's not too far from Christmas, either! I don't know how it will work out for sure yet, since I don't know if I'm getting transferred or not, but I should hopefully be able to let you know next week how it is all going to work out. I probably won't need a calling card or anything, we'll probably just call from a member's home.

This whole week has felt pretty bittersweet! As (maybe...) my last week in Burns Lake, it has felt pretty weird. The Branch up here is just like big family, and so in a lot of ways, leaving this place will feel like leaving home again! The members up here are awesome and have spoiled us with all these Christmas gifts like Canada pajama pants and legit maple syrup and some "Burns Lake Branch" ties and things like that. Pretty awesome. Yesterday we spent quite a bit of time sharing messages with members and talking with them about people they can share the gospel with. As far as transfers go, transfer calls will come this evening, and then we'll know if anybody is leaving or not! In a couple hours we'll probably be on edge.

The work this week was really solid. We were able to teach a lot of lessons. Brooklyn really wants to be baptized, but her parents aren't being the most supportive, so it might have to be pushed into January, which is really too bad. She'll get in the water though. It has been awesome to teach her all of the lessons and help her get ready. One of our baptismal dates, Heather, was hung over and couldn't come to church Sunday morning (she committed to live the Word of Wisdom Saturday evening), and that's kind of heartbreaking, but we had a miracle to make up for it! At the display of nativities a couple weeks ago, we talked to a woman named Margaret who lives about an hour from the church. Us and a member invited her to church, and she didn't come that Sunday, and we kind of forgot about her. But lo and behold, this week she pulls up in the church parking lot with a bunch of cash that she had saved all week for the "collections plate". Margaret is this awesome widowed lady who has a broken heart and a contrite spirit and feels really lonely. The gospel will be so good for her. She's totally going to be baptized in a couple weeks. She's going to need some help quitting smoking, but the church will be there for her. We're still teaching the Filipino family, quite a few native families, and a handful of other Canadians. Canadians are usually about as hard hearted as Americans, but up in the North, they're so polite that they'll still invite you in. It will be quite a different story if I move to a city area this week!

I feel really blessed to be able to be serving the Lord at this time. Right now, in the Canada Vancouver mission, there are 118 missionaries. By July or August of next year, there will be about 250 missionaries. The Lord is really hastening His work, and we're seeing a lot of miracles as a result. Every day we have powerful spiritual experiences. The Lord's children up in Canada are certainly loved by Him. The church is true! Say woo woo!

Well, we have to go get our truck's bumper fixed because a first nations guy backed into our truck when we were teaching a lesson, so this email might be a bit short! I love you all and I'll talk to you in a week!

Elder Blotter

Re: December 17

Mother!

Happy Birthday yesterday! Your firstborn thought of you quite often on that day! I hope that it was the best one yet.

Elder Blotter

December 17

     Good Morning!  Well, I have to say Sis. Manwaring and I have bonded. What a sweet and lovely lady! I loved her accent and just loved her. It was so fun seeing pictures of Burns Lake and the surrounding BEAUTIFUL areas. Bro. Manwaring showed up pics of bears, foxes, sunsets, lakes, mountains, etc. She told me what Vanessa had told her when you first knocked on her door with your huge smile and how you seemed to glow and how thankful she was to you for never giving up on her. They told us how happy you are and when anyone asks how you are, you smile and say..."excellent!!!". They wondered if that is how you've always been.  :)  We told them that is just how you came. It made our year to have that visit on Friday night and to hear about how much you are loved by the members in Burns Lake. And she also said that Elder Epperson is a very special missionary. We are thankful that you've had the opportunity to serve with him. That was like an early birthday present for me!

     Wait a minute....is TODAY the day you find out if you are transferred this week? I was thinking it was next Monday, but it's got to be today! What an exciting and wonderful time for you! Merry, merry Christmas!!!!  If you and Elder Epperson will be separated this transfer will you tell him THANK YOU for being such a good companion and that we want to meet him after his mission. And can I secretly tell you what a blessing it has been to me to have Sis. Lambert as a friend. I think the church should adopt a program where a member in each area could be a "missionary mom friend".  :)  You wouldn't even have to know. But it has made the first 6 months of your mission much better for ME. Hee hee.

      So will we just hear from you next p-day, which is Christmas Eve, about how and when we will get to talk to you? And do we call you or you call us? Will you need a calling card?  Maybe you should call my cell phone. We are down to one home phone. Anyway, it will be so amazing to actually be able to talk to you! Do you want us to invite Amelia to stop by so you can talk to her for a minute? We can or don't have to. That reminds me...did you get Grandma Blotter's package in the mail? She is worried you didn't get it or she thinks you won't know it's from her. It cost her more than it does to send Jacob a package and she's afraid you didn't get it. If you did, will you let her know.  :)  

     That was so interesting hearing about the family from the Phillipines. Can you imagine serving where everyone was so kind and receptive to the gospel? How is it going with them? Are they letting you teach them? And the cute little 9 year old that will be baptized this month? The kids got your letters and loved them. Jed came and gave me a big hug as instructed and Jacey wants to start to reading her scriptures every day like that girl. And Jenessa has a letter to send back but we are waiting for transfer day to make sure we sent it to the right place. We enjoyed the Mormon Tab's Christmas concert, but we missed Josh. Jacey felt like she was big stuff though. It was one of the best concerts in a long time. It's been a hard week for the US of A with the heartbreaking events in Connecticut. It was less than an hour from the Elwoods. A sweet little beautiful girl that died had moved from Utah not long ago. And I heard another student had just barely moved from Canada. It's hard to imagine such a thing. I know that the children are OK and with Heavenly Father but such heartache for those left behind. If only they all knew about the Plan of Salvation and had that comfort.

    Well, good luck with this week! Possibly big changes are in store. But you never know, I guess. We love you and our thoughts will be with you this week.  Love you to pieces.  Mom

Jacey made it to the Mormon Tabs concert this year!

Buuuuuuurns Lake

Well!

Just like that it's been another week! It's good to hear that there's finally a little bit of white sticking around Logan. Up here there's plenty of snow still, but the temperature has been really bipolar. One day it will be around 0, then the next day it will be -15, then the next day it will be 0, and so on. Winter seems a lot less scary than it did at first, too. We're getting used to it! -10 is just sweater weather now. It sounds like a lot of calls were given! Roger Mann will make an awesome bishop. That seems like a calling perfect for him. And I can just picture Amielyn Evans speaking Spanish in a southern accent. Exciting times!

Christmas season is in full swing up here. In the "mall" (which has like a bank and a dollar store connected to a grocery store) in Burns Lake, the branch puts on a "display of nativities" every year, and we spent quite a bit of time talking to people there this week. It was set up in this little room, and they had 171 different nativities on display. We counted them. We would go and stand in the hall and do our best to usher people inside and then give them Books of Mormon and pass along cards and things. On Friday, they had the primary kids act out a live nativity presentation, and they had a little musical program to go along with it. One of the members that was supposed to come and sing two solos was sick and couldn't come, and the missionaries are kind of the "go to" people in those situations, and so me and Elder Epperson both had to sing a solo that we had never rehearsed before in front of an actually respectable sized group of people. It wasn't too bad though, because they also had the community choir perform a couple of songs, and they went before us and attempted to sing "And He Shall Purify" from the Messiah, so the bar was set pretty low as it was.

Well, the work in Burns Lake is still moving forward. It's crazy how many investigators we are still finding even though every door has been knocked on a couple times. I guess miracles happen when you're trying to work hard. We found some really awesome people that we are excited about. We got a taste of what serving in the Philippines would be like. We tracted into this Filipino family, and without finding out who we were, the guy just tells us to come inside and runs into the house. We sit on the porch for another couple seconds, and he sticks his head back around, and asks us why we haven't come in yet. He sits us down, and then asks who we are. Filipino people are the best. They moved to Canada a couple weeks ago, and we're excited to be teaching them. We randomly have a Book of Mormon in Tagalog, so everything worked out nicely. We also found an older couple that live a ways East of town that we're teaching. The guy, Cliff, is a Freemason, which is pretty interesting. There's another less active guy who's about 30 who hasn't come to church since he was a deacon, and he's had a change of heart and we're going to be teaching him the lessons again. We're still seeing a lot of pretty awesome miracles.

There is so much potential in this area, because over the past few months we've hit the pavement (or... snow) really hard. We've filled up our area book with a lot of investigator records. We're teaching a lot of lessons. But for the life of us, we can't get these people to church. It's the worst. We had like 6 people committed to come to church, and from sick kids to health issues to just going AWOL, none of them made it. Again. Gah. We reminded them the day before, where possible, called them/knocked on their door in the morning, had members set up to give each of them rides, and pretty much everything else that's physically possible for missionaries to do without using weapons or kidnapping their children as a ransom to come to church. So... that's pretty lame. In short, we must just need to do some more studying from chapter 11 in Preach My Gospel or something, because the people that we're teaching are really struggling to keep commitments. I guess we just have to accept that these things happen in the Lord's time.

The members here are really awesome though. With their faith alone I remember when I first got here, they were really sluggish and disheartened about missionary work, but now they're all working with somebody, and they help us out a ton. It's awesome. They're really involved and they all make sure to try and console us when nobody comes to church. We haven't had to buy milk or eggs or meat or anything like that because the members always give us plenty from their hobby farms and things. And after 6 months, little old Burns Lake starts to feel like home. It will be really weird to leave this place, and transfer calls are in like a week! That's really weird.

Well, Merry Christmas!The timer on the computer says I'm about out of time! Hope that everybody has a really awesome week!

Elder Blotter

Send the warm spell up here please...

Well!

There isn't too much warm air up here! If you could find some way to package it up and send it up here, I wouldn't complain about a little global warming, ha ha. It's pretty consistently -12ish Celsius now, and it feels a lot worse because of the wind. We're just kind of figuring out that surviving up here in the winter is all about wearing lots of layers and breaking up tracting as much as possible with teaching appointments. Snow kind of comes and goes, but there is about a foot or more of snow on the ground still. I think that the ski resort in Smithers is already open, but I'm not totally sure. It is the worst how short the days are up here! The culture is that 8:00 feels the same as about 10:00, and so when we are knocking doors at 8:30, everybody seems put off by how late it is. Oh well! We'll be blessed by being obedient to the schedule. A truth-seeker won't care what time we knock.

And transfers are... on December 20th, I think. So I'll probably be leaving right before Christmas. It's pretty weird to think about actually, because this has been my whole mission experience so far. I can't imagine not being here! The branch up here is just really awesome and so Burns Lake has kind of become a home away from home. I can't imagine serving in a ward. Or having more than 4 or 5 people in Elder's Quorum. Or being in an area where you can street contact. It will be weird to see what happens on transfers! And on Christmas, I'll go to a members home or something like that to call. I'll probably have somewhere around an hour to talk, and I'll probably be able to tell you about what time the call will come in email the week before or something. I'm not exactly sure exactly how it will work out, since I probably won't even be in Burns Lake on Christmas, but it should be great!

Is it Governor Herbert that Ethan has to be nominated by? Just have Ethan bring that picture in to the interview. He'll get the nomination by relation to me, I'm pretty sure. That would be awesome possum if Ethan got called to Vancouver. But I predict South Africa. Ha ha. As far as the election goes, members are talking about how there are a few more people that have moved up here to join their family in BC after President Obama got re-elected, and renounced their American citizenship. Making a stand is great and everything, but if high taxes and socialized medicine isn't your cup of tea, Canada is not the place to go.

Well, we had a lot of miracles and a lot of setbacks in Burns Lake this week. You really love the people that you are working with, and so when they are progressing, you're doing awesome, and when they don't keep commitments, you're devastated. A lot of highs and lows. We're really coming to realize the miracle that Vanessa was. She is going to be instrumental in getting more people in Burns Lake to come unto Christ. We met with a former investigator, Heather Tom, who knows Vanessa, and had a very powerful first lesson and set a baptismal date for December 29th with her. Earlier that day she had committed to herself that she was going to quit drinking, and she was looking for something to help her do that, so she had a really soft heart. How the lesson worked out was a miracle. We set a return appointment and we were super excited about it. We had a member coming into town all the way from Southside to come with us, when Heather cancelled last minute. We still had the member, Dallin (who is 17 and leaving on a mission probably when Ethan is) coming, and so we frantically tried to figure out what we could do. We said a prayer, and I just started calling tons of potential investigators to figure something out. We called this other native lady, Lillian, who has been a potential investigator for months, but we haven't had a member for an appointment, and it's really hard to schedule appointments with members on the reserve because sometimes the people can be a bit flaky. But we called her, and she said she would love it if we dropped by in half an hour (probably because we had shoveled her walk a couple times before Ammon-like service is super important with missionary work). As soon as we called her, I felt really calm, like everything was going to be okay. And then Vanessa called, and asked randomly if there was anything she could do to help us, so we invited her to the lesson as well. Turns out that Lillian was pretty good friends with Vanessa, and Vanessa just bore her testimony really strong about what the church has done for her, and we had a really powerful lesson. Now Lillian wants to get baptized too. Whew. it was really hectic, but it was all orchestrated by Heavenly Father. It was awesome. Nights like that happen all the time. But... then the next day, even though we had 6 people committed to come to church, none of them came. Lillian had health reasons, and the others, we're just not sure about, but... gah. It is so stressful sitting by the doors to the church the 15 minutes before church starts. Seriously. Ups and downs. Ray didn't come, but Brooklyn is still progressing a lot. It is so fun to teach a 9 year old. Her date is for December 29th.

In other news, I have officially tracted everywhere in the area at least once, surrounding areas included! Hutter Road in Decker Lake was the very last one. Except for Topley, a little not-even-one-horse-town that might be in our area but might be in Smithers' area. Still. Awesome. We're putting in a lot of time knocking on doors! We're going to find somebody else to baptize this week, and we're excited about it. Tracting has become second nature now. A day doesn't feel complete if we haven't done it for a couple hours. And it's still productive! That still blows me away. We found like 4 new investigators this week. At this rate all of Burns Lake will be a potential or former investigator at some point!

Well, I hope that everybody has a great week! Keep Burns Lake in your prayers! I got the Christmas package the other day. Thanks a bunch!

Elder Blotter

Happy December 3rd.

Hi there, Elder Blotter!

     Are you still having a bit of a warm spell in Burns Lake? I hope you are staying warm! Am I right in guessing transfers will be in 2 weeks? Does that make you sad that you could leave Burns Lake just a week before Christmas and be in a new place where you don't know anyone? I imagine the members in Burns Lake are going to have a hard time if you are transferred! You have been there SO long and I know how much they have come to love you. Maybe someday you could take us on a tour of British Columbia and we can meet some of these friends from Burns Lake. I just think if they are opening 7 new areas there is a good chance you might be transferred. Or could you get a greenie and stay there?  I guess you never know.  :)

    How is Ray Johnson coming along? Did he make it to church yesterday? It sounds like you've got some things going and I am never ceased to be amazed at the miracles that happen every week in the life of a missionary. Make the very most of your last remaining time there. Oh, Nate Day received his mission call to Dallas Texas Mission. Joe's mom will have two sons out for almost a year. Did you get your Christmas package yet? You better save it until Christmas so you have something to open that day. And I'm sorry....when I went to mail it, it weighed 4 ounces too much so I took the candy out and it was just right. So no candy in that one. I think Grandma said she send one with lots of candy so save some of that for Christmas Day.  :) DO I REALLY GET TO TALK TO YOU ON CHRISTMAS?!!!! I can't believe that. That will be all I want for Christmas. How does that work? Do you give us a number to call you on?

    Dad and Jenessa had a great birthday this week. Grandma made their favorite White Mountain frosting cake and they went to ifly. They brought a video back and it looked SO fun. I think I must try it. So little Jenessa is 18 years old. It's very weird for me. Ethan is now trying to get in to the Air Force Academy and has to be nominated by .......oh, what's his name that you have a picture with where you are doing the Japenese tourist face? Him. He has an interview with him this week. As you will see in a photo I'll send, Supe needs a haircut terribly. And I was able to download this personalized video from Santa to Jed. It is so funny and he is going to love it. I don't know how much longer Jacey and Jed will believe in Santa so I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

   We had to start Grandpa Jorgy on hospice this week. They are coming to help him quite a bit. He fell and broke a rib last week and is having dementia. Someone comes 3 times a week to bathe him and shave him. He is at the end of his journey here, I know. Bless his heart. He has been such a good dad for me. I just love him.

    Well, can't wait to hear all about your week! It is surely the highlight for our family. You know I've been the YW President for 3 and 1/2 years. Bp. Holt met with me yesterday and asked if I have another year in me.  :) I do.  Love you so much. Good Luck with your last remaining weeks in beautiful Burns Lake.   Love, Mom

Happy Birthday!