Family,
Well,
Mom and Dad, I hope you've enjoyed your romp in (quite literally) my
stomping grounds over the past few days. I'm glad that you had the
chance to witness a Vancouver 1st Ward testimony meeting, meet some of
the cast in Vancouver. Isn't it great up here? Maybe you were able to
figure out how everything keeps getting wet here. We just can't figure
it out, because "it never rains in the Canada Vancouver Mission".
Mother, I did get the package, and thanks for the umbrella.
Unfortunately, I won't be needing it for very long! Transfer calls came,
and I am going to be serving in Vernon, in a more-East region of BC
that is referred to as the Okanagan. My whole mission the Oke has been a
place that I have always known existed, but for the most part it was
just a place of unknown location where if missionaries were called to
serve in I had no idea where were they went I just didn't see them for a
few months. Apparently, it feels like a colder version of Utah, and
there will be plenty of snow. But at least no rain! Northern BC is much
further, but since you fly, travel time isn't as bad; I have a 6 hour
bus ride in my near future. So that's fun.
Speaking of fun, this week really is the definition of fun.
Today was our temple trip day (see attached picture below) and so we got
to go to the temple for (at least for me) the first time since April.
The temple is the House of God. It was a very powerful experience. I am
so glad that I am still going to be in the mission field to see a few of
the converts I've had the chance to work with go through the temple.
Anyways, that was today. Then on Thursday, there is transfer meeting,
Friday is mission council, (which I've never had the opportunity to
attend before but is a monthly meeting with the mission presidency and
the zone leaders), and then Saturday and Sunday is general conference,
the "Missionary Super Bowl". So really, let me tell ya. Life is rough.
Really, really, rough. :)
This past week was quite a humbling learning experience,
though! Seriously. So, get this. We had 11 confirmed, "solid", member
present lessons fall through, and so we didn't teach a single member
present lesson this week (the "standard of excellence" for the mission
is 3). Lots of them cancelled with not enough advance notice to tell the
members or no advance notice and the investigator just didn't show up.
Other than those, not a single scheduled lesson actually took place. Not
a single one. It felt like being buried in cement. To make matters
worse, the weekend was supposed to be a very lesson-packed weekend for a
"mini-mission", where a pre-missionary from another stake came and
stuck with us for 2 days. We originally had 3 different splits set up
where we figured he could pick which appointment he wanted to come with
us, but... every single one fell through. Every single appointment. Yep.
Every one. I was floored. We still managed to teach a few lessons, but
they were all from finding situations where we were talking with someone
on the street and found a quiet place to sit down and have a lesson, or
the visits we had with less actives and recent converts. And, as Mother
and Father dearest can attest, the weather wasn't the best over the
weekend, and our poor mini-missionary didn't have an umbrella. We felt
bad for him. (His last name was Portuguese, Teixeira, which you
pronounce tuh-shay-duh. I feel bad for good ol' Sister Mann sometimes)
He has adequate practice in dealing with multiple dropped appointments,
though. So that's good. If he can handle 2 days of that, he can pull
though 2 years in some balmy mission where you're teaching all the time.
Anyways, moral of
the story. 1) Every teaching appointment that you have is a blessing
from God. The people that you're teaching aren't because you're good at
finding and planning or whatever else, because even sometimes when
you're (frantically) doing everything you can, appointments will still
won't happen. Heavenly Father is the one who is in control, and the work
moves at His pace. 2) If you're doing everything that you can, that's
enough. You can't run faster than you have the strength to. I feel like
I've had to learn that my whole mission. In fact, I still haven't
probably haven't learned that. We probably could have done more. C'est
la vie.
The church is true.
The temple is the house of God. Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Book of
Mormon is a just a big message from God and the teachings contained
inside bless lives. I don't have much more time to write because the
temple trip took up most of our p-day, and we still need to get
groceries and whatnot, and transit takes a while. But, talk to you next
week, and from Vernon!
Love you all,
Elder Blotter
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| Elder Francis and Elder Blotter at the Vancouver Temple |
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