Fall Strikes the North.

Here is Elder Blotter with the Syphus Family. Sis. Syphus has a food blog and is a wonderful cook. She fed the missionaries almost every week. They were from Arizona but working in Kitimat for a year.

Family,

Well, hello, everyone. It's been a cold and wet week up here in Kitimat! Either it's just a cold spell, or somebody upstairs must have flipped the switch, because the last weeks have been hot, and now there's a little nip in the air. The missionaries from Prince Rupert came to Kitimat for exchanges this week, and so me and another elder were on bikes in the pouring rain. Probably a good experience, because missionaries with vehicles probably get a little bit soft. Not exactly the most fun, but it was good in that even if people will close the door on us before we get the chance to say anything, at least they have to acknowledge that we're sincere enough about what we're doing to go and get wet for it.

Anyways! It was a good week this week. We had a pretty intense Canadian service project with some members that I am still sore from. we drove off into the bush/rainforest (Kitimat really is a rainforest based on how much it rains. There are frogs just jumping around on the streets and sidewalks. That's unimaginable in Utah) on sketchy logging roads and chainsawed trees down, chained them and pulled them into clearings, and then cut and split the wood and loaded it into trucks. BC has more trees than it knows what to do with. It's literally a jungle out there. But, since wood is only as expensive as the time it takes you to go and get some, most people have wood stoves in their homes because it's a lot cheaper than a gas furnace.

The work is going well in Kitimat, though! We're working with some interesting people. Heavenly Father has some diverse children. I might have mentioned Cam before. He's interesting because he has read very heavily into this researcher who studies psychology and human reaction. Apparently, if you have people hold out their arm and make a statement while trying to push their arm down, the way that they react indicates if it's true or not. So if you were 30 years old, and somebody had you hold your arm out and said "You are 31" while pushing down on your arm, it would go limp, but if they said your correct age you would naturally keep your arm up and resist the pressure because it's a natural way your body reacts to things that are true or good for your mental health or something like that. And the vast majority of people have that positive reaction when told that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God", and so because of that, he believes that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, because if it wasn't true, it wouldn't have that influence and "resonate" with so many people. And he isn't "this is my excuse to my scientist friends why I'm Christian", this is "I really don't know how it's possible, but apparently Jesus Christ really is the Son of God. How about that?" Which is pretty cool the different ways that the Lord can lead people to finding faith in him, but it's just a stepping stone to developing sincere faith with deeper roots.

 And then we're teaching Ed, this older guy who has very fiery opinions about everything because all he does is watch documentaries. He insists that if he got a few hundred dollars more a month from welfare, he could get back on his feet and start contributing to society. Then we found out from some members that he's also addicted to crack, so... you know.

And then we're teaching people like James. James is this solid individual who has a million questions about everything, and is a little bit slow, but is really hungry to find truth. He'll read the Book of Mormon, and then he'll re-read the same pages a few times just so that he can understand it. It's troopers like that that make you glad to be on a mission. It's interesting to be on a mission, because you just see the inside of people's houses and into people's lives that you just wouldn't otherwise. It's pretty cool.

Well, it's transfers this week again. After 3 transfers, there is definitely going to be a change in Kitimat. The general consensus that will probably be wrong (just because the general consensus is usually wrong) is that I'm going to leave and Elder Atwood is going to stay and train a new missionary. Either way, it should be a pretty exciting week!

Good to hear from you all, and I hope that you have a good week!

Elder Blotter