Better Late than Never...

Well!

Hello, family! Sorry about this email being sent on a Thursday instead of Monday. This Monday, Elder Smith woke up with the flu, and he was pretty much in bed for 2 days. Kind of put a damper on the whole "missionary work" thing, but he's up and running now, so we're back in business! We have been so busy for the past couple days that we didn't have time to email until this morning. But, here we are! Better late than never. Sorry to keep you worrying, Mother. I am alive. Although I did have to travel through East Hastings (apparently, it's the AIDS capital of the world) yesterday to visit a hotel to remind Lee Reynard about the law of chastity. But we'll get to that later. The weather here is great! In fahrenheit it's usually around 40 degrees. It rains about... a third of the time, so not too bad. All in all, Vancouver is a great place to be in the winter.

It has been a pretty crazy past week and a half. We are finding a lot of people to teach, which is really great. We're teaching Norma, this first nations lady (who talks just like she walked off the LBN Reserve in Burns Lake) who apparently had a baptismal date years ago, but had to move away. We talked to her outside of a bus stop and now we're teaching her again and hopefully she'll be baptized in February! Our February is looking pretty busy. Today we have another appointment with Maria and 8 year old son, Gabriel. They are Filipino, but speak English pretty well. She has had a really rough life and is suffering from depression, so it is really a blessing that she works with a former bishop of the Spanish ward here, because he was able to refer her to us. We're also teaching this East Indian woman, Priscilla, who is looking for spiritual fulfillment. The list goes on, but I think the only actual Canadian person we're teaching is Frank, this old guy in his 70s who isn't keeping his commitments very well. We have definitely been blessed with amazing people to teach over the past few weeks. Elder Smith is annoyed that the work is picking up right as he is probably about to leave. (Transfer calls are this Monday already!) People seem to be coming out of the woodwork. We really do see miracles all the time. This church is so true.

Anyways, about Lee Reynard. It's a LaFawnduh situation. I don't know how else to describe it. The Sunday 2 weeks ago, he met a woman playing some online game. (He described it as one where all your friends and family can play and buy each other as "pets". Whatever that means.) And... now they're getting married this Saturday (...or they were). Her name is Pricilla, (he still always accidentally calls her Patricia). She is African, and probably weighs about 250 pounds, and is from Sasketoon, Saskatchewan. He bought her ring from Wal Mart for $38 (plus tax). We finally met her yesterday because he brought her to district meeting. It was very uncomfortable. And... they still are arguing about everything, like which city they are going to live in, but they claim that they are in love and that this is the right thing for them to do. We got a call this morning from Lee and found out that apparently he was married at some point in England, and he never got around to filing the paperwork for a divorce, and so now he can't legally be married in Canada. So the wedding for this Saturday had to be canceled. After Priscilla took a leave of absence from school (she's become a nurse or something) to come down for a honeymoon that they will no longer be able to take. The whole situation is very awkward. We will leave it at that.

And well, Mother, to answer your question on if we're "fed by the members", here is a case study: yesterday for lunch, a member took us to Burger King and made us eat 2 whopper combos. And then a different member took us out that evening for Ethiopian food (which is really good, but I think mine had raw ground beef in it. I haven't died yet, either way) and deep fried mars bars. So...
1) The members feed us.
2) I need to start dieting, or something.

Quite honestly, as far as the life of Elder Blotter, I am feeling quite spoiled. Really. That is what it is. The work is going well. I'm getting along with my companion. We're finding people to teach and many are progressing. The member work is going really well, and we're actually finding a lot of people to teach from referrals and things. Other missionaries call us all the time with potential investigators. We're working hard and the results are immediate, not delayed like it has been at previous times in my mission. In short, I'm thinking that there is going to be a change this week as far as transfers go, and something challenging is going to happen. Not sure exactly what, but I'm thinking this might be a calm before a storm. We'll find out Monday!

Well, I've got to write to President Tilleman. I hope that everybody has a great week! Love you all lots.

Elder Blotter