Northern BC...The Promised Land.

Well!

 

It's been another great week up in Kitimat! Lots of good stuff is happening. Everything is green. Isn't raining as much. Really, there's nothing to complain about! When you're transferred up North, you have to pay about $125 to good ol' Air Canada for checking an extra bag and for overweight fees, which is well over half our monthly allotment, so we've been having to make do eating a lot of perogies and pancakes, cause they're cheap. Perogies probably taste pretty close to manna, so we're not complaining. I still don't know why America doesn't have those.

 

Sometimes in missionary work it feels like you're blessed not "because of" but "in spite of" your best efforts. We go out every day and pound the pavement and knock doors and try to shake it up by street contacting in parking lots, because everywhere else is pretty devoid of people to talk to. But... in the end, most of the best people that you spend the most time working with kind of come to you. There was this first nations lady (Samantha) sitting outside of the apartment building neighboring ours the very first day, and we talked to her and got her phone number before we even went into our apartment for the first time. We joked around that she was going to be our first baptism, and we finally met with her this past week. Her boyfriend (Wilfred) was at her apartment when we first arrived, and as he was leaving, I invited him to stay to listen to us share a message about Jesus Christ. He kind of shrugged and sat down with a "oh, what the heck" kind of attitude, and as we shared the message of the Restoration, he just loved it. We set baptismal dates with both of them for June 22nd. We came back the next day and taught them again, and they're awesome. They want to get married and baptized on the same day.

 

Meanwhile, we also set baptismal dates (for the 22nd) with the Boyson kids, and we're totally in the good books with Sister Boyson. Sister Boyson a few months ago was very anti-missionary, but she's warming right up. Quite a quirky bunch, but we love them none the less. BUT... this Sunday, with some sad turns of events, neither of them was able to come to church. Gah! But just as we were in the throes of devastation outside of their apartment, Sister Van Horne, a member who came to pick up Samfred, (our name for Samantha and Wilfred) asked us about "who the Justine lady at the church" was. And... we had no idea. But it turns out, that a young family from Kitimat spent a few months in Alberta to take some kind of a training course for the dad's occupation. While there, they talked to this LDS guy about what we believe, and they loved it. So this woman, Justine, had no idea when church started. So she left her husband, Aaron, with their kids and came to the church every half an hour starting at 8:00, until 10:00, when church starts. And we're meeting with them, now, too. And... she's 20. MY AGE. Quite weird to think that somebody my age could be a parent of 2 children. But that's beside the point. Now there's 3 awesome families in the teaching pool. Lots of awesome miracles in Kitimat! And really... the church is going to have to build a new building. The one that we are currently in is getting a little cramped.

 

It really is miraculous the number of people that we have been able to find and teach in Kitimat so far. The Lord has truly blessed us in the work here. The church is true! There are a lot of fiercely religious people in Kitimat, and we've had the chance to talk to a lot of them. The bottom line is that what we believe is true. It's good. It's from God. It's better. People just don't know what we believe! They don't know how awesome it is! They hear "Book of Mormon" and they don't think "beautiful account of Jesus Christ in America" they think "weird cult book". How awesome it is to be able to share the gospel with people and to be able to open people's eyes to divine truth.

 

And may each of you, in whatever position you're in, have the courage to open your mouthes when the opportunity arises to talk about the gospel! It can make a huge difference. Some random LDS guy talked about it with one of his classmates, and a seed was planted. Who knows what will happen with the von Schleinitzes (yep. That's their name), but what a miracle that that family is now! Even in Mormontown, USA, we're probably placed in situations like that all the time, we just don't notice it.

 

Hopefully you all have a great week! Talk to you then,

 

Love,

Elder Blotter

 

PS- We totally saw a grizzly bear in town the other day when we were out tracting! It was across a ravine from us, but it was big! It was the first one we've seen. We think God protects us, because we hear a lot of stories of grizzly bears "getting" people's pet dogs, but we've never run into any. But this is bear country. Our P-day tradition is to email and then to eat at Subway, and although I haven't seen it, apparently there is a clip online somewhere of a bear going into that very Subway, scaring an employee, and then leaving. Apparently it was on Jay Leno or something like that.

Re: The Church is still true in Kitimat (Kathy Holt)

Thanks for sharing!  We love reading Elder Blotter’s letters.  Niel is wondering where he can get a “hurt feelings card".

Re: The Church is still true in Kitimat

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Josh, I am hiking up in the mountains above our house listening to conference as I walk and I heard an email come in on my phone. So I sat down overlooking the beautiful Cache Valley surrounded by sunflowers and read your letter. Thank you for sending it it made my day. Love you so much, mom

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The Church is still true in Kitimat!

Home Sweet Home in Kitimat.

Family,

Well, it's been a great week in Kitimat! There have been a lot of miracles. Wendy was baptized back in Vancouver East, which is awesome. Her boyfriend from Minnesota flew up to baptize her. Wendy is a really awesome lady. She had a bunch of powerful experiences as she was being taught. At one point, she had an issue with tithing. She didn't think she could afford to give that amount of money to the church and still cover her living expenses. The next day, her employer told her that since she was moving to California, they would give her the amount they had saved for her in a retirement account. Her employer automatically took 10% of her income and saved it in an account that was given to them at their retirement. She had no idea, but she was already living with a tithed income, and she took that as an answer to her prayers. The church is true!

 Meanwhile, in Kitimat, the Boyson family finally came to church! The Boyson family is a part-member family that missionaries have been working with since the dawn of time (or at least since the missionaries in Terrace started working in Kitimat). The whole family is kind of quirky, and on days we teach lessons in their home, we shower in the evening before we go to bed because it's (almost literally) a jungle inside their home. But they're awesome. Brother Boyson feels like he's been wronged by a brother who has a prominent church calling in Alberta, and so he's been less active and none of his family members are members. We started working with them when we arrived in Kitimat, and finally they came to church, and they really enjoyed it, too. It's awesome to work with part member families. We're expecting some miracles with that family.

Other than that, life has been good! We've pretty much knocked every door in Kitimat, and most of Kitamaat Village, the reserve about 15 km out of town. We're preparing for our second pass through. There are some pretty awesome people we're teaching. Some less active JW's, a previous Satanist who is now pentecostal, some natives... life is pretty interesting. Kitimat is a beautiful town. Our apartment is infested with ants and the bathroom always smells like marijuana, but you can look out the window and see the ocean cradled in a little mountain valley, so that makes up for it. The people here are pretty laid back and good to talk to. Canadians.You know doing missionary work can't be too rough in a country where in military basic training you are given a "hurt feelings card" that you can hold up when the drill sargeant is yelling at you, and by law he has to move on to the next soldier. True story. Life is good! It's been good to hear from you all. Keep Kitimat in your prayers.

Elder Blotter

Is it still raining?

Hello there my firstborn!

    I hope you get a little sunshine this week. I am still on a little high from being able to talk to you last Sunday. I will never take for granted being able to pick up the phone and call one of my kids. Although I may want to call some more than others....  :) How was your week?  How was church? Anymore lessons being taught in a parking lot? Can't wait to hear all about it.

    I'm sure by now you've heard from Alison about Ethan's call. It's pretty crazy to think about huge Ethan going to Korea. WHAT will he eat? I hope he will survive. He keeps asking me what you thought about his call. I keep telling him you won't know until Monday. So if you have time, e-mail him back about it. His friend Cory Fowers opened his call just before Ethan and is going to North Carolina. And Eric Holt's farewell is next Sunday. Jenessa's Seminary Graduation was tonight. Crazy. But I sure do like our new Stake President. (Durrant) In fact, we may be going to see him tomorrow with our 2 new kitties. He is a vet. Supe was moving the pipe and Jacey went out to say hi. While there, she heard meowing in the rocks and found 5 tiny kittens. She immediately picked up 2 of them and brought them in the house. (Jed and I were at the library) When she took them back the mother cat had moved the others and would not come back and get these two. So Jenessa goes to buy baby kitten formula and a bottle and was up every 3 hours last night to feed them. My turn tonight. They are only about 4 weeks old but SO cute. We are all in love with them. They are in the Buckeye room until they get a little bigger. Pics coming.

     I went to the Post Office this week to mail your package and guess who was there? Jill Mann sending Micail some things. She is such a neat lady. She told me she misses hearing about you and asked if we could occasionally forward your e-mails. Amelia had been in NYC since Monday and this was Friday and she still hadn't heard a word. Hopefully tomorrow. :)  And yes, I will pay your tithing for you on Fast Sunday. No problem. Jacey had a talent show at school and sang a duet with another little girl. I was shocked that she could sing so well. Many people mentioned it and then a mom in the class is a voice teacher and she went on and on about her voice. This was weird because it's not really like our family. But she told me not to let anyone touch her voice until she was 12. And then to call her.   Ha Ha.  And the day before Jacey ran the North Park Mile and took 2nd place out of the entire 3rd grade girls. Fun week for Jacey lou. And do your remember Lou Madsen from our ward? They are an older couple in our ward? He passed away this week. I REALLY liked him. So that was sad.

 

      Well, I need to go to bed soon, so I'll be able to wake up at 2 am for feeding time. We love you to pieces and are looking forward to hearing about your week. Love, Mom

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It's raining, it's pouring...

Family!

Well. Long time no speak! It was good to hear all of your voices yesterday and to confirm that you are, in fact, still alive. I hope that it was a good Mother's day, Mom. Yesterday during dinner we made a cake for our mothers. We'll eat it in proxy for our moms today. It's kind of hard to do much more than that when you're in another country, but at least we were able to call home!

The work in Kitimat is going really well! We're finding a lot of people to teach and teaching a lot of lessons, which is awesome. No stone is being left unturned. You kind of have to adjust how you handle missionary work based on the area that you are in. Because of my time in Vancouver I've come to like street contacting because of how many people you're able to talk to. And... the only places here where there are enough people to try street contacting are in parking lots. We were teaching a lesson outside the doors of the SuperValu grocery store the other day, when we had to cut it short because the manager wasn't a big fan. She let us say a closing prayer before she broke it up, at least. Hopefully they still let us shop there today, because it's pretty cheap.

There are pretty awesome members in Kitimat. There are four young families that pretty much make up the whole branch: The Van Hornes, the Syphuses, the Kaberrys, and the Streeters. All of them have us over weekly, and so even though there are fewer members here, we still get fed quite frequently. Mother Dearest, Sister Syphus is a food blogger, and so you should make something from iwashyoudry.com for your next internet recipe experiment. It might have been illwashyoudry or something like that, but that's the gist of it. Anyways, because there are so many members, we're learning a lot about member work. We do things like bake a cake, cut out a chunk and make a box out of chocolate bars and put a note inside it with a missionary-related commitment on it. Yeah. Cumorah caked. Member lessons have to keep kids entertained, so we have to think up lots of visuals and activities and things like that. It's been fun.

Well. The church is true! Hope that you all have a great week. Jacey Lou, the locks of love haircut looks just beautiful!

Elder Blotter

Hello from (just about) the North Pole!

Family!

 

Well, it's been a great week! It feels weird that it's already P-day. Time is going by really quickly up here. Good to hear from home! Lots of stuff seems to be going on around springtime. Soccer, graduation, all of that stuff. Sounds pretty exciting!  It's too bad (or good? I'm not sure who I'm supposed to root for here) that the Vancouver Whitecaps lost. We parodied their advertisements on the Sky Train pretty frequently when I was in Vancouver. (Our All. Our Honour...) And Jenessa is graduating already! That's weird. Out of curiosity, what is the Senior Class gift for this year? I remember we brainstormed and submitted a lot of ideas that the principals wouldn't approve. (bobcat shaped drinking fountain, actual bobcat petting zoo, etc) So we finally just planted some trees around the "Sky View" sign in the field in front of the school and put a 2011 plaque in front of it hoping that we could just kind of claim credit for the whole thing. Good times.

 

Well, the work in Kitimat is going great! We're finding lots of people to teach, even though it usually means that we (almost literally) have to look underneath rocks and in nooks and crannies for them. We went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week, and one of them, Elder Morris, thought we were exaggerating about the tendency for people to be "less interested", so I had him take the first couple doors. Ha ha... every area really is very unique. We have a lot of different investigators. There is even a Sikh temple in Kitimat, and we have this Sikh investigator, who told us his name was Bill. Apparently he only gives that name to white people and has another Punjabi name that his Sikh friends know him by. He invited us to come to a lunch thing one day at the temple here, and we went and wandered around, but we couldn't find him because nobody knew who we were talking about. This one Sikh gentleman, turban and robes and all, told us that "he would be baptized, but he likes to party". It was a weird experience. There are a lot of great people in Kitimat though. It's awesome to serve here.

 

We had our first missionary coordination meeting with the branch ward council, which still just consists of us, President Kaberry, and that's pretty much it. They've pulled themselves right together though. They even had Relief Society! Nobody was asked to teach Priesthood, but hey. By next week, I'm sure.

 

One older couple, who were in one of the first doors we knocked on when we got to Kitimat, Roy and Anne, came to church this Sunday. The members were really excited about it. In Vancouver, people can fall between the cracks, but here people take the time to say hello and introduce themselves. The church building that we're currently using is pretty small, and it was branch conference this week, and so there were a few extra people from the district at church. It got a little cozy there in Sacrament meeting. We might have to tell investigators to bring blankets or pillows so they have something to sit on. Our goal is now to make the branch have to get a new church building because the congregation got too big.

 

Well, the church is true. We're having a lot of miraculous experiences. We just get up every morning, and go and go and go.  We got a little shout out in President Tilleman's email for finding new investigators. We hope that we'll just keep on seeing miracles. Serving in Kitimat is a humbling place to be. I think it's the most difficult area that I've served in. It's nearly impossible to get members to appointments because of how busy they are. But! We'll keep on going and hopefully find some people to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with.

 

Hopefully you all have a great week! Talk to you soon!

 

Elder Blotter

 

PS- On mother's day, it's up to us when we call. But, we'd want to call when it was less effective for finding and things. So... I'll probably call at 3:00 PM here. I think that would be around 4:00 in your time. Hopefully that works?