Shout out from Vernon!

Family,

What a beautiful week it's been and what a great blessing it was to hear all of your lovely voices. Just from the pictures I can tell that there was a pretty good haul at the Blotter home! I have no idea why Santa gave Jed anything with 2 wheels and a motor, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Christmas week was great! We had the chance to do some finding in a time that people had (relatively) softer hearts and more time to listen, and we had the chance to work with all of our awesome investigators here in Vernon. It's weird that you only get 2 Christmases as a missionary!

The work in Vernon is going extremely well. We've been realizing how blessed we have been after we've looked at our area boundaries. It's a really blessed place to be. Our area is actually a pretty tiny thing in the world right now (We found out that Vernon has 35,000 people, 70,000 if you include outlying areas, of the which we have none in our area except a little town called Oyama, and there really isn't anything in Oyama) and there are currently 4 sets of missionaries in Vernon. We live more up in the foothills of the little valley we live in, and when you look out the window of our apartment, absolutely none of the buildings in view are in our area, it's just the stuff kind of tucked away in a corner. But, we have a lot of people to teach, and a lot of people just so close to baptism.

Yesterday, for example, we were pretty much living with the Kruger family. Not really, actually, but we've been working with them for a few weeks now, and they are just doing so great. Sister Kruger was excommunicated when she was younger, and Brother Kruger isn't a member. They have 3 kids, and they're all awesome little goobers. Anyways, they've been working on quitting smoking, and they committed to quit smoking on January 1st, but Sister Kruger decided that their quit date was going to be yesterday instead, and so we dropped by a few times to share scriptures and interrupt almost-smoking breaks. The Kruger family is great. Over the course of us being there, either one of their kids will have a diaper/pull-up failure on the furniture next to us, or their crazy dog will jump on us and turn us into dog fur carpets or something along those lines, but they're pretty much our favorite family to go and visit.

And the rest of our teaching pool are doing well, too! Toni is still out of town for the Christmas season. She's down in Victoria. But she's going to be baptized. Sooonnnn. April is doing well, but was also out of town. We did see some Christmas miracles though! Everybody's favorite thing to say on the day after Christmas was that they were in the middle of eating dinner, regardless of what time it was. So we started asking if we could come in and eat with them. And you know what? We had some takers. We ended up having some pretty cool lessons and finding some neat people to teach. Also, we got our fair share of turkey. 2 birds with one stone.

Okay... Mother... here is an Elder Fitzner stories. I asked him how he would describe himself in one sentence and he said "beachwalker, songwriter, poet". In Weekly Planning this week, I opened a 100g bag of chocolate covered almonds and put them on our desks. Elder Fitzner proceed to dump the entire thing in his mouth. And... they couldn't fit in his mouth. But he still tried. They apparently lodged in his throat and he started to choke, and I am laughing and don't know what's going on. He stands up, walks to the middle of the room, and pukes. Ha ha... But seriously, he's a good missionary and we've seen a lot of miracles.

Well, the church is true! The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. Being a missionary is more on the front lines and we get to see it's influence help people change every day. There's no better way to spend your time than as a missionary. It's amazing. Thanks so much for all of your support! Talk to you next week!

Elder Blotter

:)

Dear Elder Blotter,

      I only have a minute to write but I want to tell you that I loved being able to talk to you on Christmas and feel of your spirit and love. I want you to know that I love the Savior and am so thankful for His atoning sacrifice and His love for us. I don't know why I was born into a family with the Gospel in Lewiston, Utah but I want to do everything I can in my life to repay that blessing and for the knowledge I have of the plan of salvation. I love the Gospel. I love my Father in Heaven and I recognize the blessings in my life. Thank you for serving a mission and helping others to come to Him. 

     We are off to take the Hevia family to Hardware Ranch right now. This has been the craziest, busiest holiday season ever. Dad's work has been so busy. Griffin coming the week before Christmas and the Hevia's the 10 days after. I will breath a sigh of relief in January. But life is good and we are blessed. I hope you have such a wonderful week and know we are thinking and praying for you. What is Elder Fitzner like? You haven't told us anything much about him. I love you to pieces.   Love, Mom

New Year.

Elder Blotter of the Okanagon,

Well, we did enjoy our 60.00 minutes of conversation with our young stripling warrior up north.  It sounds like things are continuing to go well and you are actively engaged in the harvest.  A well known movie producer made a 4 DVD series entitled "The Bible".  It is quite well done, and interesting.  It is pretty accurate, with a little Hollywood bling thrown in.  You will like it. We have it on Blue Ray.  (yes, even the Blotters have gone Blue Ray.)   Anyway, it really surprises me how much things change, and even more how much things stay the same.  A covenant people begin in a promised land, and flourish under the blessings of the Lord.  Prosperity leads to excess and wickedness with pride and arrogance.  The wickedness increases and  societal norms begin to break down.  Good becomes evil, and evil good.  The few faithful are considered extreme, weird, and foolish.  The Lord sends disciples, teachers, and prophets as a voice of warning.  They are rejected, and the people  are destroyed.  This happened from the creation right on down to the present time, and on both continents.  We are in the same cycle now, and you are basically a modern Jeremiah, or Abinidai for that matter.

Well, the news of the week for us, is the visit of the Hevia family from Asturias, Spain.  Wow.  We have Juan, Begona, and Paula, with Claudia already in place.  They said that they wanted a 'ski holiday' and who better to provide that than one James W. Blotter.  Well, I took them right to Snowbird with visions of riding the tram and busting down the Upper Cirque.  Well, we got to the top and I realized that they really don't ski, and they don't have real mountains in Spain, and I have no concept of skiing difficulty.   A little crisis then unfolded as altitude sickness set in, panic seized them, and things melted down.  This was followed quickly by a 300 yard, sliding, yard sale of a crash with papa.  The tears were flowing and the whole mountain mobilized to save our Spaniards, from, well, me I guess.  Needless to say, they are done skiing, and now we have to find some way to entertain for 10 days.  

Aside from the above, we love the Hevias.  They are fun, and witty, and very much like us despite being a world and culture apart.  Juan and I are both 46, worry about our childrren, love our good looking wives, and hate taxes and big government. 

The timing is a little rough, because I am on the tail end of of my busiest month of my last 4 years.  Wow.  I have performed a mind boggling number of complicated surgeries this month.  Christmas was a blip on the screen for me in a life consumed by blood, sutures, wound, scopes and lasers.  While most families gathered around singing carols sipping cocoa I was using a Xomed high speed drill to drill a hole into the skull of a 79 year old Grandma to let this foul pus out of her head because it eroded it's way into her eye.   The only thing more complicated in my life is Jacey's soccer team!  I feel blessed, in that the Lord helps me with difficult trials.  I am an instrument in his hands to answer prayers and play a sacred role in their lives.  I alter the bodies created for them by the Great Jehovah himself.  That why l listen to the Book of Mormon on the way to work. 

Well, I hope it is a good one.  The Lord is counting on you to be that instrument in his hands!

Love

Dad

Christmas Morning...

Merry Christmas!

Family,

Merry Christmas! What an exciting time of the year. Actually, it just feels extremely weird that it's already Christmas. I can't believe that I'll be chatting all of you on the 25th. It's strange that it's already been a year since I was being dragged around with my jaw on the floor trying to adjust to Vancouver after being in Burns Lake for 6 months! One of the good things about being in Vernon as opposed to Vancouver is that this year, it's a "white" Christmas. Christmas just doesn't jive with moss and grass and flowers and lots of rain. (Plus, it's a balmy +3 degrees outside, so we get the best of both worlds in the Okanagan. It really isn't that much colder here than Cache Valley)

The past week has been a great one. Since Elder Baker was gone, and Elder Fitzner didn't arrive until Friday. And with transfers and Christmas calls and the monthly meeting with the Stake President, and a bunch of not-that-exciting administrative stuff, combined with working with the teaching pools of two different areas, it was just a really busy week. And when you're a missionary, being as busy as possible is a good thing. Because I was the only zone leader left holding up the fort, there were a whole bunch of decisions that were made kind of... one sided. For example, they put some sister missionaries in our ward (Our area was super small. And now is super smaller. They probably just put in another set here instead of a place with more wiggle room because the work is going well in the Vernon 1st Ward. But still! 4 sets of missionaries in Vernon! The work is hastening!) It kind of felt like cheating to pick which areas to keep in our area and which parts to give to the new sister missionaries, but we gave them a good chunk of Vernon and the promised land of Armstrong, so they should be all right.

Among other things, we had the biggest polygamy throwdown since Wilford Woodruff and Warren Jeff's great-great-grandpa. We've been working for a few weeks with April, our polygamist investigator, and we finally just had to lay out everything about polygamy and how she would need to find out if Thomas S. Monson was a prophet of God and commit to leave that lifestyle behind if she wanted to be baptized. It went very well, and her concern now is mostly that she doesn't want to get divorced if her husband wants to stay on the path that he's currently traveling down. Just in talking with April, it's helped me realize that we're very blessed to have a prophet on the earth today to give us guidance from our loving Heavenly Father. What a confusing world it would be if we were left to try and pick and choose and guess at what our purpose in life was meant to be. We have a path directly back to our Heavenly Father laid out for us, and we've been given the agency to choose to follow it for ourselves and see the blessings that follow in our lives. I can't think of better Christmas presents! 

Toni, the eternal investigator who we just love to death, is totally going to get baptized when she gets back from Christmas break. We've been working with her ever since I came to Vernon. It's almost been like a funnel with her. We've slowly been working through her concerns, and she's just made so many awesome changes in her life.

Family, I want each of you to know how grateful each one of you! Thanks for all the support that you've given me over the past months. And I'm grateful for this beautiful Christmas season when we can reflect on the Savior and ultimate gift that he's given each of us. I hope that you all have the merriest of Merry Christmases!

Well, talk to you soon! I'm going to try to send off that Christmas package home sometime today. The Canada Post probably takes 6 months off for the Holiday season, so I might not be able to send it until next preparation day. But... Merry Christmas!

Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter's Testimony read in Sacrament Meeting, December 22nd, 2013

ELDER JOSH BLOTTER-

          I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World. I know that He knows each of us. I know that He is our Advocate, Redeemer, Brother and Friend. I know that when we act in love, we serve him, and when we sacrifice, He sees it, and He blesses us so much more than whatever we gave up. He is our example, and when we follow with an eye single, we are filled with light and happiness.

     Our Heavenly Father is a perfect, loving God. A God of Mercy and a God of Justice. For him to be able to create this beautiful plan of Redemption and become more like Him, there would have to be one willing to literally go through the darkest of dark, experience the most bitter of pain, bleed from every pore, and pay the ultimate price for us. And he did that, so that we can have the opportunity to return to live with our Father. He suffered for each of us. He knew every rebellious mistake that we would make, and he still chose to extend the ultimate gift, the greatest gift of all time, because he has a perfect love for us.

           It is because of Him that we can change. I know that the only way, literally the only path that leads to happiness and light and love, is through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth of the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord and becoming as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father".

            The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is just that. I know that. And I know that as a missionary, I am doing his work, and what He would do. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Feliz Navidad

Elder Blotter, of Vancouver Fame,

Well it sounds like things are happening in Vernon BC.  Which is a good thing.  The sad thing about those good companions, like Elder Baker, is that it is like poof and they are gone.  The difficult ones, like Elder Holtby, put a new meaning to the word time and all eternity.  It is the difficult ones though, that teach you the most and give you the  most life skills.  Hopefully your new arrival will be a great Elder, with an eye single to the Glory of God.  

I have been a little surprised at how much success you seem to be having.  It is a great thing.

We had a great Christmas program today.  One for the ages.  As you know, Chris Corcoran gathered up the testimonies from the missionaries in the ward, and had their Mom's read them.  Yours was a great one, and it was a good experience.  Your mother was a bit of a wreck, but she powered through.  She was crying before she even got up to read the  testimony.  It was a fun thing to do.  I hope you had a great ward program up in good old Vernon.  I never was homesick at Christmas time, due in a large part to the opposite seasons.  It was just weird in Argentina where they celebrate Christmas in the heat of the summer, with fireworks and drunken debauchery.  

When Landon's mom got up I thought, Holy Cow, Landon will be home in just over a month!!  I am quite proud of Landon.  I did not know if he would make it, and he had a tough start with a jerk of a companion who made fun of him and belittled him.  But make it he has, and it will set his life on a great trajectory.  David Nielson is also doing well.  His dad says he is a distict leader and likely keeping at least most of the mission rules.

As for us, we are all doing well.  The Beav opens tomorrow and the fam is headed up.  I have to work, but that is okay.  Someone needs to fund the expedition, and I have learned that funding things is my primary role in life.  Griffin Dubanowich is visiting this week.  He will be attending USU next fall, so that will be fun.  He is a good kid.  Those Dubanowich boys love Utah.  My theory is that deep down it may have something to do with the abundance of lovely, wholesome, LDS girls of European descent.  Like your sister. 

Well, I am off to sleep, because the office has been really rough these days, but I am grateful to be busy and have a lot of work.  Looking forward to Christmas and a little authorized chit chat with out favorite missionary.

Dad. 

Re: We're just devastated up in Vernon

He's just the cutest! I laughed at his joyful reunion with his wallet.

We're just devastated up in Vernon.

Family!

 

Elder Baker is getting transferred! Isn't that the worst?! We only had 2 short transfers together, and he's gone. Transfer calls come on Monday, but his came on Saturday because I'm 99.9% sure that he is going to be an Assistant. (We should have just been less obedient so that he could stick around... just kidding. But still. :)) Right now, I'm sitting an emailing with a missionary from the Vernon 2nd Ward, and our next companions will come later on Friday. So that's the transfer news. We were just not happy about that at all. And we probably have 1,000,000 cookies in our apartment because everybody that we visited for Elder Baker to say goodbye to seemed to have a plate of cookies on hand. And crazy! It's Christmas time again already. And we're just going to keep findingteachingbaptizing. Mission life. It's the best.

 

For me and Elder Baker's last supper, we went to a sushi place that we've driven past a million times on the way to our apartment, but never eaten at because it has a sign that says "No swimsuits allowed. Thanks, management." Because of that... we've always figured that... eating there might be a mistake. But then, we decided that we would just have to, just because we always drive by it. Long story short, the waitress didn't speak English very well, and she mistook our order for a much larger one that would have cost about $50. Even with BC prices, that's a lot of sushi. Over the course of negotiating what amount we would pay (they ended up only charging us $30) the waitress noticed our name tags, and she has a friend in Japan that is a member. We were able to talk to her about the gospel as well! We'll hopefully start teaching her soon. We're sushi'd out, but it was worth it.

 

This week was a good week, but a busy one. We were on exchanges in different places for most of the week. Our first exchange was in Kamloops, and the second was in Salmon Arm, and in both of those exchanges I served with missionaries that I had previously worked with either in Vancouver or Kitimat. It's fun to see how missionaries grow and change and improve over time. Elder Baker says that I look totally different than I do in the pictures from before I was leaving, (It's probably just because my face is... slightly more... round. Ha ha) but it's interesting to reflect on the changes that I have made over the past 18 months. And fortunately there's still plenty of time to grow. I'm really excited for the next 6 months!

 

This week, we also had an awesome zone meeting. We talked about Jacob and Esau in Genesis 25 and not selling your mission "birthrights" for the "natural man". Meetings like that are kind of intense, because you go into them thinking, "Hm. Our whole zone is here, and expecting 2 hours of spiritual feasting and enlightened guidance... what are we talking about again?" But... it works out, and you usually don't even have time to talk about everything that you planned to talk about. I don't know if that equals "spiritual feasting and enlightened guidance", but our zone is awesome, and they put up with us.

 

This week we were very blessed. It was P-day, then we were out of our area for exchanges and zone meeting until Wednesday evening, then Thursday is Weekly Planning day, and we left after the planning session for an exchange until the ward Christmas party on Friday evening. And then Elder Baker to pack and everything, so we really just weren't in our area a lot.  But the Lord knew that we were doing everything that we could for the week, so we were still very blessed in our efforts. On Wednesday, we had to schedule a lot of lessons so that we could still be helping our investigators progress, but when we did have time to go out and find, the first person that came to the door was interested, and his roommate was a foster child who was raised in an LDS home and really loved it there, and so we're teaching that family. When we went to an appointment on Friday, the investigator had to cancel, but as we were walking back to our car, we talked to this lady who was walking somewhere with her daughter, and invited her to the ward Christmas party, and we ended up teaching her, too. Missionary work really isn't "our" work, we are just very blessed with miracles every day that help the work move forward.

 

Well, the church is true! Merry Christmas, everyone! And happy birthday, Mother Dearest! I have a Christmas package that I am going to send down with a bunch of Canadian candy and other miscellaneous stuff. I haven't been able to send it because I was temporarily separated from my wallet, but I fortunately had a joyful reunion with it and so I have the funds to send it home now. It won't make it by Christmas, but... It's the thought that counts! Love you all!

 

Elder Blotter

December

Elder Blotter of the Vancouver Mission

Well, I hope that life is going well up in BC.  It sounds like you might just be hastening the work with your efforts.  I get the sense that you have hit that point in the mission that you know how to get things done and keep a busy schedule.  That is where true happiness comes.  I was studying the Book of Mormon this week and came upon the scripture in Mosiah 12, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that  bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.  That can be you and your companion in the same way it was Abinadi.  Old Abinadi did not have an easy go of things, for sure, but he sure did quite the convert through his efforts. 

We went to the MoTab Christmas Concert, and it was fabulous as always.  I think Claudia liked it quite a bit.  We are trying to get The Spirit to work inside of our secular little progressive European student.  Society unfortunately is starting to embrace evil on a large scale, and this is leading to the disintegration of families.   I'm not sure how the Motab paragraph ended up with the disintegration of the family, but keep fighting the fight as the family is the fundamental unit of eternity. 

Your mother's turns the big 45 tomorrow, Dec 16th.  Big day for her.  I'm glad that somehow 23.5 years ago I managed to convince her that I was the one.  In doing so, I set myself on a course for true happiness.  I hope she feels the same. 

Jed and Jacey are doing great,  we measured Jacey today, and she grew 1/2 inch in 2 months.  She is changing quickly right now, and I hope that she can stay as sweet as she has always been.  She is learning the piano very quickly, and likes it, and she is a great little singer.   This may come as a shock, but she is musical, yes there is a musical member of this family after all.  Jed, well, he is doing well also.  He says the funniest things.  He is a funny and fun kid. 

Jenessa finished finals and did well.  You are sure to hear about it as she got a 4.0.  She was the highest ranked student Chemistry overall.  Only missed one question on the final exam, and went into it with a 98% average.  I take credit for giving good chemistry genes.  Maybe they come from Grandpa Blotter.  This is good for her,  she has put in the effort, but been rocking as a college student.  She is one of those kids who blooms more in college than some more difficult high school days. 

She went on a date with Joe Day. 

Well, with that bombshell, I'm off to bed.  This holiday season is killer for me from a work standpoint, but I am greatful to have work, and opportunities. 

Love

Dad

The Spirit of God....is Burnin' in Vernon.

Family,

Well, just like that it's been another week. Man, it's weird how quickly time goes by. It's been a great week! Time is certainly not going slowly. There were a lot of spiritual outpourings this week. We were down in Richmond for mission council earlier this week, and it was an amazing experience. For the year 2014, the mission set a goal for 2014 convert baptisms, which is probably 5 times the number of baptisms that we'll have this year. The work is hastening! The faith of the missionaries in the council was just awesome. In the Canada Vancouver mission, we've started to find more new investigators in a one year period than there are members in the province.

This weekend, Kelly got baptized! (Toni's is now for December 15th) It was a beautiful baptismal service. Kelly really was a miracle. The highlight of the service was her testimony at the end. She stood up and bore a brief testimony of the Book of Mormon and the spiritual power that she can find in the pages, and then she talked about how her entire life she has been searching for the truth, and has explored tons of different churches, but "3 weeks ago the missionaries knocked on my door, came back the next day, and I've known that I have found the truth ever since". She's such an awesome convert. It really has been a blessing to have taught her.

Okay. I wish I had all the time in the world to write down all of the crazy spiritual experiences that we have every week. One of them... so, President Tilleman promised us that if we do everything that we can every day, we will be able to find at least one new investigator every day. One day we went all day without finding anyone in between our teaching appointments, and we just kept on thinking of that promise and we were questioning if we had done "everything" that we could have that day. We ended up finding our new investigator that day at 8:56 as I was backing up Elder Baker (fun missionary safety rule) so we could pull out of our parking spot and drive to the apartment for the evening. This guy walked by the vehicle, and so I stopped him, and Elder Baker got out of the vehicle and we ended up teaching him a lesson right on the spot there.

Last night, we had our FLDS investigator to the Christmas Devotional. She loved it. It's amazing to realize that we have a living prophet on the earth today, who can give us messages directly from Heavenly Father. What a blessing that would be for the whole world, if they would just listen to the message that we share. It's made me reflect on the blessings that the gospel brings to those who actually apply it in their lives. Every day we're on the streets and getting glimpses into people's homes. And guess what? People need the gospel! In conference, Elder Ballard committed the whole church to "reach out to just one" with love as a gift to the Saviour. I hope that everybody remembers to do so! It won't go unnoticed by those watching from Heaven.

Well, Merry Christmas, everybody! Happy birthday next week, Mother! I guess next P-day will be the 16th so there will be another email then, but still! Sorry, this email might be short! We have a baptismal interview that we have to conduct that we need to get to! Love you all lots!

Elder Blotter

PS- 

One of the pictures is us and Kelly. 

In the other one, Steven Rasmussen (who is doing great over in Ontario and still going strong since his baptism,) is in between me and Elder Baker. Drunk Tim (still a work in progress) is on the end.

Grandparents Day.

Grandparents Day in December.

December

Elder Blotter of the Vernon Zone:

Hoping that all finds you well in Vernon.  Mission councils are a big thing it sounds like, with a fair amount of travel involved.  I guess it is an opportunity to take in the beautiful countryside of BC.  It sounds as if the work is hastening in British Columbia.  I think that it is hastening world wide.  The signs of the times are being fullfilled.  That Isaiah, he seems to be right every time. 

I just finished a great historical book about the geopolitical events at the time of Christ.  Wickedness abounds; however, I don't think we have surpassed the Sanhedrin at the time of Christ.  I would not want to be Joseph Caiaphus right now, I will say that, or Herod Antipas or Herod the Great for that matter.    But most of all, I would not want to be Caiaphus, the Chief High Priest.  I have decided that I want to take my family to Israel and need to work out the timing.  Having been there is so helpful to gain a true perspective of the events.   I had quit an experience at the Garden Tomb and Golgotha.  I needed no guide to tell me what happened there.

Probably the biggest family event would be the arrival of Ethan to the Republic of Korea.  He made it safe and sound, and rumor is that he has a good first companion.   He lost 20 lbs in the MTC, which is strange, probably muscle mass.  It is a rather sedentary place by nature.  I'm sure that he is learning a lot, lessons that only a mission can teach, and lessons that can be challenging.  In the MTC he wrote us that his district was working so hard that 'the devil cringes when they wake up for the day'.  Only Ethan. 

Jed continues to be Jed.  No calls from the principal or the bus driver, which has been nice.  He says funny things.  Jed, Jacey, and I went skiing to Snowbasin yesterday.  It was C-O-L-D.  8 degrees and blowing snow.  They are tough little skiers and we just forged on.  A little hot chocolate goes a long way.  They were devastated though, that there were no tots.

Jacey Lou is just fun.  Couldn't ask for a better 10 year old.

Jenessa is studying for finals like her life depended on it.  The kid works very hard, and I doubt there are many freshman putting in more effort.  She is looking to nail down a 4.0 this semester, which is pretty darn good in my opinion.

Well, hope the week is a great one.

Love

Dad

Buster the Elf

Man. I love this.

Love ya Mom!

Elder Blotter

What's Happen'n in Vernon.

Family,

What a great week it's been in the Canada Vancouver mission! The church is just way too true up in Vernon. And this is totally the best place to be in the winter. It's been above freezing pretty much all the time here. It's snowed a few times, but nothing has stuck yet. It's got nothing on Burns Lake, and it's not rainy at all like Vancouver is. 

It's weird to think that it was Thanksgiving down in the States this week. Elder Baker is Canadian, and even after 19 years of being an American I never really got around to figuring out what day Thanksgiving is supposed to be on (last Thursday or 4th Thursday or something like that?), so we didn't even think about it except for maybe day of. So, no turkey this Thanksgiving! I think the last time that I had a dinner appointment was Canadian Thanksgiving, and that's probably one of the maybe 2 I've had in Burnaby and Vernon. We don't really eat in members homes. From 5 to 7 is "prime proselyting time" and we don't eat meals in that time frame, because that's when everybody is home. 7-9 is consecrated member time and we're asked to visit 2 members a night, but we're supposed to look for "teaching opportunities, not eating opportunities". It's kind of weird to think about, but we literally find 10 times the number of new investigators than the mission did 3 or 4 years ago and we teach 6 times as many lessons with a member present. Our mission president is inspired. 

Well, this week has brought in some changes. Steven Rasmussen has left for a month to go visit his family in Ontario. We told him he's going to find a wife in the YSA over there. We're still working with his roommate, Chris. It's been really cool to work with him, because Chris is this 19 year old kid who has been in prison for drug use (he used to say stuff like "I like rap when it's real. I like 50 Cent and all, but he's never been shot in the jaw." ...but then he found out that we don't think saying stuff like that is cool. So he stopped.) who never would be interested in meeting with missionaries if we knocked on his door, but he's seen the effect that it's had on Steven, and he stuck around for a few lessons, and so now he's totally willing to meet with us and experiment with praying and building a relationship with God. His first few prayers have been awesome, because of how sincere he is about it. He'll keep on wanting to start over or ask questions in the middle of the prayer just because he wants them to be perfect. We set a baptismal date with him for the end of December.

We're also working with a lot of miracle people! The Lord really does prepare people and put them in our path. A part-member family moved into the ward from one of those obscure BC villages in the middle of nowhere, and they're really humble and want to change. They're the kind of family that has a "Family Home Evening" board with pegs on it, but instead of hanging names or stuff on it, they use it as a storage device to hang aprons and bags and stuff like that on it. So they're pretty cool. They have a bunch of little kids that make teaching really hard, but they're cute, so it's good. Our mission president has promised us that if we do everything that we can, we should be finding one new investigator every day. Man. That is so true. One day we had gone all day without finding our new investigator for that day, and it was about 8:55, and I was standing behind the car backing Elder Baker before we went home for the night, when this guy walked past the car. So we stop him, and start teaching him right outside of the complex that we in and he became a new investigator. The church is true!

Kelly and Toni are both going to be baptized this weekend! Kelly has just loved everything that we've taught her. When we taught her the Plan of Salvation, she just described it as being "perfect". When you find somebody that's elect, you just think back, "what if we had gone to a different area that day? What if we had knocked on her door when she wasn't home?" Things just work out. Heavenly Father just kind of orchestrates everything the way that it needs to happen. We found out that they are probably putting sisters in our ward next transfer, and the vast majority of our progressing investigators are female, and so it's good motivation to baptize them all before we hand all of our female investigators off to the sisters that will be put in.

One thing that we've been focusing on is how we should be talking with everyone all the time as we go throughout our day, even if it's on P-day and we're shopping, or whatever else. After traveling back from exchanges recently, went to eat at this all-you-can-eat sushi place, and where we were sitting, we were sitting right next to this couple that was eating. So we starting talking to them, and tell them a little bit about what they do and just had a little gospel conversation with them. Turns out that the man had roots in Raymond, which is where Elder Baker is from. And when we got up to pay, they said that they had paid for our food! Maybe that was our Thanksgiving miracle.

Anyways, the church is true! We're about to drive to Kelowna to get on a bus and head down to Richmond for mission council, which will be a spiritual feast. But hey. We'll talk to you all next week. Thanks for the emails!

Elder Blotter

DECEMBER is here.

Hello there!   How was your week? Did you get to eat Thanksgiving dinner with a nice family? I hope you got a 2nd dose of Turkey on Thursday. We had dinner here with the Jorgy's. Today Ethan leaves the MTC and flies for 14 hours to Korea. I guess he's been hungry since he arrived at the MTC and is very excited about the food at the airport. Alison sent a picture of him and a Korean companion at the MTC. The Korean came to his waist.  Ha ha

     Well, Jed is so excited about Buster the Elf. (He named him).  He can hardly wait to wake up and find out where he will be and what he did in the night. I sent you a picture of what he did this morning. It is so fun to have J and J little enough to still believe in the magic of Christmas. Claudia has had fun helping to decorate the house for Christmas and listening to Christmas songs and helping me address Christmas cards. And I know she is very excited for her family to come the day after Christmas. 

        

       So, has it snowed yet in Vernon? Today and the last few days have been sunny and pretty warm. They say tomorrow the wind and cold and snow is coming. I took G and G Jorgy to church yesterday. They hadn't been since Easter when I took them last. It is quite the thing to get them ready. It takes a while to get them ready! I have to do everything for both of them. Put on my Dad's shoes and socks, shave him, wash his face and brush his teeth, comb his hair, clothes, tie, belt. And then to start with my mom!  But I put him in that wheelchair and got him there. It was exhausting but I could tell they both loved it. I am at an interesting stage. The cycle of life. They once changed my diapers and now I change my dad's. But I love them so much and am so thankful for them both.

     All is well at home. We are blessed in many ways. Life is not perfect, but it is good and we are happy.  :)  Can't wait to hear from you today and see how you are. We pray for those sweet souls you are teaching. They sound awesome.     Love you so much,  Mom

As well as being true, the church is also cold in Vernon.

Family!

 

Well, it's been another whirlwind week in Vernon. It's actually 4 degrees outside, which is really warm (dealing in Celsius here), but we were on exchanges in Kamloops earlier this week, and it was windy and -15, and there's lots of snow there, and it was cold. The elders there went on an unauthorized exchange, and somebody trying to merge into their lane and wasn't looking where they were going, and crashed into their car. It's been in the shop for 2 months, so they've been having to use bikes in the snow and the cold. So... yeah. We won't complain.

 

Anyways! We're seeing a lot of miracles in Vernon. The teaching pool is just amazing. Except... there are some people that really, really, really, need to be baptized. There are 4 people, Toni, Kelly, Vicki, and Melissa. They all really, really, really, really, need to be baptized. Well, everybody does, but they do in particular. Everyone that we've been working with has made so much progress. When we first met with Toni, she had no Christian background, and she is just an unbaptized Mormon now. We've been working with Toni for a really long time, and just recently she has committed to be baptized on December 7th, the same day that Kelly is preparing for. As far as the work in Canada goes, that's a day of pentecost. Melissa already calls herself Mormon. She's from a part-member family that we've been working with. And Vicki! Oh my goodness. Vicki. we've been working with for forever, but she just hasn't been able to kick an addiction to smoking. Still. We're praying and working for a "white" Christmas.

 

Okay. So... Elder Baker and I have realized that I have this supernatural power of jinxing things. It started when a few weeks ago, I would say things like "I feel like I haven't ever worked with somebody who was struggling with [insert concern here]" and without fail, within a week we would find out that one of our investigators would have that concern. I would say something like "You know what? We just haven't faced any opposition from people at doors this week at all" and then we'd hit some. So finally, we realize that I am saying the wrong sort of things. So, I start by saying "You know, I just have never taught somebody who just has no concerns with any commandments and then just gets baptized 3 weeks later" and boom. We find Kelly, who has had no issues with any commandments and has come to church twice and loves it. She's totally ready to go and has loved church for the past 2 weeks. Anyways. I wish I could remember all the crazy things that I jinxed. Anyways. Before church yesterday, I said "I wish that somebody would just walk off the street and sit down next to us at church today like Patrick did." Boom. Sacrament Meeting. We're sitting at the back because we were making sure that Vicki, Kelly, Melissa, and Toni, and Steven were all accounted for resulted in us only having time to plop down at the back of the chapel. Sure enough, half way through the service, this massive man walked in halfway through the service and just knelt down next to our bench. We scooted over and gestured for him to come and sit down next to us, and he smelled like cigarettes and coffee. Man. Turns out he was a less active who was baptized in Vancouver a few years ago, and he is currently living from a truck camper in a small town near Vernon. We're working with him now. Still. Miracles have not ceased.

 

Our zone had an amazing week as well. Our mission has been improving a lot over the past few years. The work has been hastening. A long time ago, the standards of excellence for the mission were set for 3 member-present lessons and 2 new investigators. That was it. This week, we started a zone challenge of having each area teach 3 member present lessons, find 3 new investigators, and set one baptismal date in 3 days. And we followed up with each area as the week went on. The power of setting goals with faith and doing everything that you can to accomplish them is crazy. When as a zone we broke it down day by day and did absolutely everything that we could each day, the zone did amazing. Man. I love missionary work.

 

Sorry this email is a short one! And... family, I hope that you all have a great week! Happy Birthday, Dad and Ness! (I most certainly did not forget, Sister Dear.)

 

Much love,

 

Elder Blotter

Joe Day....

Look who's home!

The Week

Elder Blotter

Well it sounds like and eventful week.  Investigators, indian food, and death in Kitimat!  I'm sure that Elder Atwood will never forget Kitimat.  I hope that little branch is thriving or at least surviving.  And I will say, you will likely never find better Indian Food than that little gas station known as the Indian Oven.  It won best of state for Indian Restaurants in the State of Utah for 2013.  We went there last week as a matter of fact.  I have never found better, including a world famous Indian Restaurant in Cairo of all places. The Indian Oven was still better.

Well, we are all doing well, without major issues at the Blotter home.  Today was the primary program and Jed was naughty on the stand.  I was not there, but the report was not great.  I was drilling a hole in a person's skull to drain a massive abscess infection that was pushing on his brain from his frontal sinus.  The patient did great but another sacrament meeting bites the dust. 

Otherwise, it is typical November in the lower 48.  Too cold to do anything outside, and getting dark at 5:00, and not enough snow to ski.  Work is busy, which is a good thing, because I need to save money as American medicine as we have all known it, is in a death spiral.  I have studied Rome extensively and I find the similarities to the United States striking.  The Roman Empire was not done in by battle.  The empire faltered due to high taxes, an unsustainable welfare state, printing money with currency devaluation, intoxication with sport and diversion, corruption, and sin.  Essentially, the Obama administration.  

My Roman studies have been an offshoot of learning more about the world at the time of Christ, who lived his entire life under Roman rule.  Some very interesting stuff.  At the judgment day, I would still rather be Pontius Pilate or even Caesar Augustus than Caiaphus.  Better an evil pagan than an evil Jewish priest when it comes to harming the creator of the universe in my opinion.

Well, we are all doing pretty well here.  Busy times for all.  Claudia has joined the ranks of frisby football at Sky View.  We are hoping this provides a good group of friends for her, as I'm sure that it will.  Jed and Jacey are starting to try to do a little last minute behavior improvement to entice Santa to come.  Jenessa is studying a lot, but also dating this Tyler L. fellow quite a bit.  I'm not sure how thrilled I am about that.  (the dating, not the studying).  Well, I hope that all is well with you and have a great week.

Love

Dad

Vernon

Family,

 

Oh man. Where to even begin this email? I know. This is what Elder Atwood sent me this week. (He only just barely got transferred out of Kitimat) Our apartment in Kitimat was just awesome.

 

Elder Blotter,

Remember that guy that would always throw up during personal study?? Well, as it turns out it wasn't Shawn (the native guy who we thought it was) it was the bro that lived bellow us. Well, recently our apartment complex started smelling really nasty (like for 3 days) and we called and told Mira Dugga (dang JW..) and let her know that there was something that was most likely dead in the complex and she laughed it off as nothing. Well, yesterday night the RCMP was there because the guy that lived below us was dead. Can you believe that?? There was legitly a dead guy living (or not) in our complex. He had been dead for about a week. We had officer Kelly in our apartment asking if we knew the guy. Needless to say, we didn't. That's the crazy story. We were living with a dead guy, breathing the same air that he wasn't.

Gods' Speed Elder.

Elder Atwood

 

Anyways, not on that note, this week was literally one of the best weeks of my mission! Last weekly planning, Elder Baker and I looked at the goals that we had set, and we decided that they were good goals, but we decided that those would not be our goals if this was the last week of our missions. So we went through our plans, and decided to treat the entire week like it was the last week of our missions. For example, there's no way on the last week of your mission you'd spend until 6:00 not doing missionary work, so we ended our P day a few hours early. You wouldn't sit around your apartment eating (John 4:34), you wouldn't walk from door to door, etc. So we made a lot of little tiny sacrifices here and there, but we were given major blessings from Heavenly Father. We did find more new investigators and teach more lessons than either of us had previously, but we just saw miracles upon miracles this week. I couldn't even try to write all of them down with the time that we have. Our planners just filled up with lessons to teach and whenever we went finding we found people to teach. It was a great week.

 

So, some of the cool experiences from the week!

 

First, I had the amazing opportunity to ordain Steven a Priest. I had never conferred the Priesthood to anybody before, but it was a very sacred experience. We've got Steven all ready to go on a temple trip so he'll be able to help some of his ancestors receive saving ordinances this weekend. To see how much he has changed from not that much longer than 5 or 6 weeks ago when he was a heavy alcoholic and a heavy smoker is just amazing. One of our new investigators that we found this week, Kelly, came to church for the first time this week, and we hadn't had the chance to teach her about the Word of Wisdom yet, but Steven in the Gospel Principles lesson just started talking about it in one of his comments, and it touched Kelly so much that after she came up to us and whispered "No Coffee!?" We were kind of worried about what her response would be, but after we briefly explained the Word of Wisdom she said that she would stop drinking it. It was a miracle.

 

We taught an FLDS lady this week! Literally, a convert to the FLDS church of a few years. The member that we took with us was just fascinated and couldn't stop asking questions. She was an evangelical Born Again, and her husband used to be Catholic, and they did some research and somehow decided that being FLDS was right for them. Fortunately,they're on team Winston Blackmore instead of team Warren Jeffs, but the husband is currently "courting" an FLDS lady from Kamloops who is 40. The wife is excited about it because it will balance out their ages (he's 50 and she's 30). I'll just stop describing the situation lest I sound judgmental (the husband won't meet with us because he thinks that all "mainstream" Mormons are judgemental). Anyways, teaching her was fascinating because she only has a rudimentary understanding of everything. She had heard of the Book of Mormon, but she had never read it. She had heard of Doctrine and Covenants, but didn't really know what it was. Since she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, she sincerely wants to learn more about him, and so she wants to come to church and meet with us to learn about what's going on. So that will be really cool.

 

Oh yeah! I turned 21 this week. That was weird. In keeping with tradition, we ate a bazillion plates of food at "The Curry Pot", an East Indian buffet that isn't quite as good as the Indian Oven. I still haven't found Indian food that is as good as the Indian Oven, except for possibly at the Sikh temple. I might be biased. For a heavenly birthday present, we found like 5 people to teach that day and we set a baptismal date with this lady named Jodi Snow. She has severe memory loss because she got hit by a truck after pushing her 3 year old son out of the way, so we're hoping that she still remembers that she has a baptismal date, but she's a very special lady with a lot of real intent. We were jogging down a street and in between houses there was this driveway, and we decided to jog down it and there was a whole complex back there behind all the houses, and every other door had somebody inside that was interested in hearing about the gospel.

 

Well, every day we witness the Lord hastening His work! And we're doing everything that we can to hasten it. We're not going to let the mouthes of prophets fail by not doing everything that we can to help more of Heavenly Father's children have every opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. I wish that each one of you could come on a "mini-mission" like Adam did up in Vernon and see how true the Church is. We knocked on somebody's door, and they were super rude, and then we forgot that we had already knocked on that door, and they opened up again, and so... we asked them if they had changed their minds. And they totally invited us back later this week. Turns out, people do want to hear the gospel, we just need to show some faith and try to share it.

 

Well! Love you all! Hope that you have a great week!

 

Elder Blotter

To Jed

Dear Jed,

 

I hope that your movie was a great success and that the good guys won. Did they win?

 

Elder Baker and I are trying to be healthy and usually eat oatmeal in the morning, and sandwiches with nothing but tomatoes and spinach and lots of peas and corn from the freezer. Which isn't that expensive, so we can usually afford to eat at a buffet on P-day that undoes being healthy.

 

We do not get a bike in Vernon! We drive a car! A Chevy Cruze. It's pretty fancy.

 

Crossfit for kids sounds pretty intense. I hope it keeps you nice and strong. Is football lots of fun?

 

Elder Blotter

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRSTBORN!

21 years ago today you made me a mom. You were the cutest, happiest and fattest baby ever. You have been a joy to me since that day. Hope you are having a special day and that someone there has remembered your birthday and you are happy. You know that little mini scripture calendar that I keep by the phone and turn the page each day? I turned it to November 14th today and it says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". I thought that was a fitting scripture for your birthday. Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to you. We are thinking of you and LOVE you so much.    Mom

Happy Remembrance Day!

Hello family!

It's Canada's more-emphasized version of Veteran's Day today! Well, I don't know about more-emphasized, but it's a big deal up in Canada. Shopping took a while because of "moments of silence" where they came over the loudspeakers and told everybody to quiet down. It was neat. Everybody, even missionaries, wears these fake poppies pinned to their clothes for a few weeks before Remembrance Day. It's pretty intense. For the first and probably only time (I missed the first Canada Day in the MTC, and most of the Kitimat branch wasn't Canadian so we didn't sing it then either) of my life, I sang O Canada in a Sacrament Meeting. Tears were certainly shed.

Well, this week has been a spiritual feast, as far as weeks go. This week was mission conference and mission council, and so our whole zone made the 6 hour bus ride down to the lower mainland to hear from President Tilleman and Elder Paul V. Johnson of the 70. We received so much guidance. It was kind of like getting a drink from a fire hose. I loved it. A lot of missionaries were expecting some form of technology to be introduced at this mission conference, but no iPads for the Canada Vancouver mission yet. We were taught how to continue to hasten the work, though: by talking with everyone! By working with members! "Hastening the work" means working harder and following the counsel of our priesthood leaders, not getting iPads.

One of the most amazing trainings that I've received yet on my mission was in mission council with Elder Johnson. His training pretty much was just one inspired question: "What have you learned about leadership from President and Sister Tilleman?" And that question was all that it took. We just filled the rest of the time. President Tilleman literally had tears in his eyes and as he shook my hand as he was going around the room, he said "that was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life". Humble giant. I know that everybody says that their mission is the best mission in the world. But really. We think our mission is the best mission in the world. :) We were reflecting on the influence that our mission president has had on our lives, and President Tilleman really is a fantastic mission president. He really shows that the best leaders are the best followers. He just makes you want to follow the prophet.

We've seen a lot of very awesome miracles over the past week! We had a lot of experiences over the past week that really emphasized how "every moment counts" on your mission. We found several new investigators over the past week from choosing to go and work hard instead of sitting around. Yesterday, we were going to pick up a member for a lesson, and we had about 10 minutes early. We could have made calls or something. The calls probably would have been a good use of time. But, we ran outside and on the 2nd door we knocked on, we were able to teach a (admittedly quick) first lesson. We found several new investigators in that period where it's about 15 or 20 minutes until curfew, it's been dark for hours, it's cold, rainy, and people seem more irritated when you knock on their doors. It really is when you put in a little extra effort that you see miracles. Over the past transfer, we've constantly been trying to find ways to hasten the work, and I've been working harder than I ever have previously on my mission. We just run everywhere and are always going and going. Learning how to push out the natural man that wants us to stay in our warm and dry car.

Oh man. I love the work in Vernon. Latisha, Steven's landlord who is a former investigator, just called us to tattle on Tim and Chris, Steven's other roommates who are also investigators. She feels like they are just not giving her enough respect, and so she expects us to straighten them out. She is a funny lady. I love the people that you get to meet on your mission. I sometimes think as I'm sitting in people's houses, "there is no other conceivable reason on earth that I would be sitting in this persons house right now".

Anyways! Family, I sure do love you all. Thanks for the happy birthday wishes. It's crazy that I am turning 21. 21 feels like twice as weird as 20. 21 sounds... older. Weird weird! Anyways, sorry, email time is a little short this week! Hope that everyone has a good week, though!

Elder Blotter

Happy Birthday on Thursday!!

Dear Elder Josh,

    We will sure be thinking of you on your big 21st this week. I have no one in Vernon to ask to make your fave Peaches and Cream Cake. I'll just have to make it for you when you get home, I guess. Would Elder Baker have those kind of baking skills?  :)  One time this week Claudia says, "You really like Josh, don't you?" Dad and I were talking about what a FUN baby you were or something. We laughed and said, "YES, and so would you if you met him."  :D

    So two things. First, your debit card. I looked into that and found out it expired in August. They said one should have been sent here sometime before that but I never saw it. So they have cancelled that card. I have a new one for you that I put in the mail on Friday. When you get it you are suppose to let me know it made it and tell me what you want the PIN to be and they will reset it and it will then work. So what do you want the PIN to be?

     And the second thing is about a trip to Whales. Like, Whales.....like next to England, Whales? Dad thought you meant Prince of Whales Island. But I am guessing you are talking about Whales, Whales. Is this guy from there or something? It sounds like a dream trip, for sure. We think that it sounds like a neat opportunity. Just one thing. We have planned and paid for a family trip where we would be leaving on July 28th for a week. As long as you could be home in time for that, it sounds great to us. It sounds like you would if you are leaving 3 weeks after arriving home.

     Are you able to read Amelia's e-mails? I check up on her blog and read them to Grandma J, along with yours every week. They are GREAT. Last week it sounds like was the best of her mission and finally things are looking up and she is learning the language and training. Happy for her. And I am so happy our birthday package arrived SO fast. I was sure I had waited too long and it would be late. It must be faster not having to go so far North. It's almost time to send a Christmas package. Any requests or needs?

      I thoroughly LOVED hearing about Steven and his conversion. It would be so great to meet him some day. What is his last name? Your weekly e-mail continues to be a highlight of the week for us. Jenessa is studying hard and doing well at school. She is currently dating 3 people from her student ward. One is Daniel L's older brother, Tyler and another is his best friend, Jared B. She tried to tell Jared tonight that she was going to date Tyler. Jared's dad is the bishop of the 2nd ward and the whole family could be translated at any time without notice. I think she feels he is too good for her. They are both just off missions. Jared asked if she would wait and pray about it for a week or two. He really likes her.  ??  And then there is another kid that really likes her but is going to Weber in January.  Weird. And she is writing McKay and they have set a date 2 months after he gets home.....    ?  

       We are very sad. Ella the kitty has disappeared. She is the sister of Root Beer. Root Beer wanders off all the time and always comes back. Ella has never left the garage for more than a few minutes. She had surgery on Wednesday (spayed) and disappeared on Thursday. The animal Control guy says a cougar was spotted 200 yards from our house and 2 dogs and many cats are missing.  :o.   So I hope it's allowed that on Friday I put "Ella" on the pray roll at the temple.....

       Well, you sure made me the happiest and proudest mom ever 21 years ago. Tell Elder Baker to be especially nice and to sing Happy Birthday to you on Thursday.   :)    Love you to pieces.    Mom

Snow...

Mother Dearest,

Oh! And I got the birthday package. Thanks so much! The tie was really nice! It must not take as long to send packages to Vernon.

Elder Baker says that it was the Backstreet Boys singing.

Love,

Elder Blotter

Life is A1 in the Okanagan

Family,

Well, this week has just been a highlight week of the mission, and therefore of life. We just got off exchanges with Elder Epperson, who President Tilleman (randomly) decided to make one of his assistants mid-transfer.  It's been good to work with him again. He's going home in December already! That is totally crazy. Steven got baptized yesterday! He was so ready. It was also Stake Conference this week, and we've just seen a lot of miracles over the past week.

First off though, it snowed in Cache Valley?? It hasn't even snowed in Vernon yet. We were on exchanges in Merritt, and it was snowing there and the roads were just terrible on the way back, but we are still snow-free. And we're in Canada. I love Vernon. It's like a less dry version of Cache Valley with scenic lakes and lots of tasty produce. Just with fewer Mormons and no temple. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

So! At the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference, because President Tilleman couldn't attend, Elder Baker and I were asked to pick one of us to speak in his place. We "cast lots" as they say, and Elder Baker was the speaker. Elder Blotter was just cruising along, thinking he was in the clear, when the following day at Stake Conference, when President Tilleman was speaking, in front of the entire Stake, he says "I understand that yesterday Elder Baker had the opportunity to speak for me. I just keep on think that that is just not fair for only one person in that companionship to have the opportunity to speak."

Oh. No.

Yeah. My stomach dropped somewhere in between the only surviving pair of Hush Puppies that I came out with. Fortunately, in the end, I was only called upon to recite the 1st Vision (no pressure, you just have to be on-the-spot perfect, because what missionary doesn't have the 1st Vision memorized, right?) and to bear brief testimony about it. But still. My mind was totally blank as I was walking up to the podium and I don't remember what I did say, so hopefully I got it all right.

Anyways, after that, it was Steven's baptismal service. What a beautiful service! The spirit was so strong. I'm sure our investigators that were there felt that. Elder Baker hadn't had the chance to perform the ordinance of baptism before, but he did great. Or at least, I'm confident that he did great. Steven brought Tim, who... wasn't sober. And so Elder Epperson and I missed the ordinance because we were separating Tim from this poor girl from the YSA ward he was harassing. Bishop escorted him home during the service. What a nightmare. But, he brought another 19 year old friend, Chris, and after the service, we gave him a church tour and set a baptismal date with him for November 30th. Miracles have not ceased! When Steven was bearing his testimony, he talked about how he was asked recently about what his hobbies are, and he had no idea what to say because he's had to completely redefine his life since committing to live the Saviour's commandments. He's literally a new person, because he can not and does not want to do the things that he used to do to waste his life away. What an exciting time for Steven! For him, baptism is completely an opportunity to "walk in the newness of life" (Romans 6:4). He's literally had so much faith, and it's been a blessing to have the chance to work with him. He is the kind of person that you are on your mission to find.

Other than that, life's been good! It was Halloween this week, and that makes it the 2nd to last time on my mission that I'll have to stay inside for an evening. We didn't get any trick or treaters this year, but the JW's found us (thanks to Bishop Whibley, who told them that he has a basement suite as a joke) and have been sticking pamphlets in our door.  We had a planning session, but finished, and in the end, we played real life fruit ninja with a knife and all the apples that this Sikh couple across the street gave us that we couldn't eat fast enough before they started to go bad.

Well, it's been a good week! It was good to hear from all of you. The work in the Vernon zone is going well. We're finding, teaching, baptizing. The church is true. We don't even appreciate what we have! We have a prophet on the earth, giving us direction and guidance from God. How awesome is that? 

Elder Blotter