Kitimat

Well hello,

It's been another really great week up in Northern BC! It's kind of weird, but in another transfer or two I will have spent a year up in the Terrace Zone. I just count myself lucky to be considered a "North missionary". It's awesome up here. Elder Atwood and I survived transfers and will be going on round 3. President Tilleman told us that he knew we had some "unfinished business" with some of our investigators here and so he left us together. Which, we did certainly!

Well, the work in Kitimat is moving forward. Daniel Boyson finally talked to his mom about how he wants to be baptized, and she's going to be supportive if it's what he wants. So... although it's been delayed for a while, we've set a baptismal date for this Saturday. We've been meeting with them almost daily for a long time to help them get to this point. But... it's worth it to be able to see them accept saving ordinances! There have definitely been miracles helping out the Boyson family. It's definitely been good; because we're over there quite frequently, Brother Boyson trusts us enough to open up about his concerns about his family in the church. He's been less active for a while because of some issues with family back in Alberta, and he's been starting to change as well and forgive and move on. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and it really does help people heal. It's a blessing to be able to see it.

God certainly does have a hand in missionary work, though. One recent convert from another small BC town (Merrit) recently moved to Kitimat, and it turns out that she is related to Samantha and knows her. Having friends or family that can help support somebody to make the sometimes difficult changes that are required to join the church is crucial, and so it's very cool to see the Lord provide that kind of support. Another one of our investigators, Sean (who is Irish) has a member friend from Scotland that is going to be in Kitimat for a month, and so we can meet with them together as well. Small world.

Other than that, the week has pretty much consisted of just pounding the pavement to find new investigators, rain or shine. (You get a lot of both, in Kitimat) The people in Kitimat talk up how well designed the city is (we still think it's ridiculously goofy compared to a grid system, but... hey. Canadians) because it was a "planned city" created by Clarence Stein, who also apparently designed 7 other twin cities in the United States. The layout might be nice for Joe Shmo, but the way it's designed makes it so it's harder to find people to teach. There isn't a busy street to try street contacting, because all of the stores are clumped together in a mall-type thing, and there aren't any parks or open places to talk to people at, because Kitimat has a ton of parks just kind of scattered around in green areas behind the houses and so because there are so many, it feels like there aren't any people at any of them. So, to keep finding people, you kind of have to keep thinking creatively. One weekday morning we knocked on half of an entire street without a single person coming to the door. We thought to ourselves "Man... We could be painting our toenails as far as how effective our time is being spent right now." And so we ended up mowing the lawns of a Sikh lady, a grandma, and one of our former investigators. Planting seeds!

But at the end of the day, it's a small town, but we're still finding new faces to teach. The other day, we talked to a young woman, Heather, who wasn't raised religious, but wants to experiment with faith, and was curious about what we believed. Today, we'll probably find somebody else! God keeps on preparing people, and we keep bumping into them somehow. The church is true!

Well, I hope everybody has a great week! I keep you all in my prayers and I hope that you keep Kitimat in your prayers as well. Looks like you're having a good summer and I hope it stays that way!

Love,

Elder Blotter