Hello

Well, hello!

All week the weather reports on the TVs in the SkyTrain stations said that "flurries" were in the forecast, but every day was just wet and cold. We were about to lose faith in seeing any snow, but when we opened the door this morning, we saw that some snow found Vancouver! Hopefully that means that we're in for a good week! What's the weather like in California? Maybe it's not all too different since it's all by the coast. Hopefully Disneyland has been a blast.

We had a really solid week! We saw a lot of interesting things happen on the streets of Vancouver. It really is such a privilege to be able to serve here because of how many opportunities you have to talk to people. They're everywhere. And they all are completely different. We were invited by a messianic Jew on the bus earlier to come to church and a free lunch on "Shabbat", which is when the "real day of worship is". We come across less active members who are just visiting Vancouver quite frequently. We're trying to work with an inactive member who converted to Scientology. When we do go tracting, it's with a mindset that the street that we're on won't be visited by missionaries for quite a while, as opposed to "Oh, they're not home? Well. We'll see them in two or three weeks, then". Also, the subdivisions and cul de sacs of Vancouver are filled with Asian people. I'm not sure where the other Canadians live... (maybe in their basements?). Either way, our days are just filled with traveling from appointment to appointment and just talk to as many people as we can as we go. It's great.

We're privileged to be able to work with investigators that start living commandments before we even teach them. Investigators exercise a lot of faith, and it's a testimony builder to see the blessings that come into their lives. Unfortunately, one of our baptismal dates, Cheryll, fell and hurt her knee and was in the hospital, so she wasn't able to make it to church this week. The Primary had us teach the Plan of Salvation, and there were a few kids that reminded me of Jed and Jacey in there! (Only the good kids, of course...) Later today, we're going to be teaching Family Home Evening at a member's home with a really promising member referral, and we are excited about that. There's a lot of potential in this area! It's weird to think that by the middle of this week I will have been here for a month already. Time is going by very fast up here.

One recent convert, Lee Reynard, who I might have mentioned previously, didn't come to church for the first time this week, because he thought he had a stroke (it turned out that he was just wearing his backpack too tight).   He usually comes to church functions at least an hour early, and wants to just go tract or street contact or teach with missionaries. We certainly won't complain about that, because we need members to come with us to appointments. He prides himself on being "the most active" member in the Vancouver ward and he aspires to be a general authority. He's quite the character. He speaks with a British accent because he lived there for about 20 years. Before that, he claims he was a bounty hunter in Florida. And before that he claims he was an extremely rich child who started and owned a landscaping business. Still not sure about that. Anyways, he said that he had like 40 missed calls from members and from the church at around 9:00, when church starts, and so the members are definitely supportive of the missionary work and the people the missionaries introduce to the church. Working in a ward just isn't the same as working in a branch though. You kind of become a family member in a branch. I'd love it if I got sent North again. I saw one of the young single adults from a family in Burns Lake this week! She's going to school or something down in the Lower Mainland. I told her to tell everyone hi from me.

Well, I know that the Lord looks out for his missionaries! There are some pretty sketchy areas on the East side of Vancouver, but whether it's calming down really agitated homeless people or having the SkyTrain doors close before the "4th Annual Ride the SkyTrain with No Pants" people can board when you're traveling back from church, I've seen it all. I'm grateful for the chance to be serving the Lord here. I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have had to build my testimony. I can appreciate now how valuable a testimony is. The church is true! Say woo woo! Have a great week everybody! I'm excited to hear how everybody's week was, and I hope that everyone had fun in California!

Elder Blotter