As well as being true, the church is also cold in Vernon.

Family!

 

Well, it's been another whirlwind week in Vernon. It's actually 4 degrees outside, which is really warm (dealing in Celsius here), but we were on exchanges in Kamloops earlier this week, and it was windy and -15, and there's lots of snow there, and it was cold. The elders there went on an unauthorized exchange, and somebody trying to merge into their lane and wasn't looking where they were going, and crashed into their car. It's been in the shop for 2 months, so they've been having to use bikes in the snow and the cold. So... yeah. We won't complain.

 

Anyways! We're seeing a lot of miracles in Vernon. The teaching pool is just amazing. Except... there are some people that really, really, really, need to be baptized. There are 4 people, Toni, Kelly, Vicki, and Melissa. They all really, really, really, really, need to be baptized. Well, everybody does, but they do in particular. Everyone that we've been working with has made so much progress. When we first met with Toni, she had no Christian background, and she is just an unbaptized Mormon now. We've been working with Toni for a really long time, and just recently she has committed to be baptized on December 7th, the same day that Kelly is preparing for. As far as the work in Canada goes, that's a day of pentecost. Melissa already calls herself Mormon. She's from a part-member family that we've been working with. And Vicki! Oh my goodness. Vicki. we've been working with for forever, but she just hasn't been able to kick an addiction to smoking. Still. We're praying and working for a "white" Christmas.

 

Okay. So... Elder Baker and I have realized that I have this supernatural power of jinxing things. It started when a few weeks ago, I would say things like "I feel like I haven't ever worked with somebody who was struggling with [insert concern here]" and without fail, within a week we would find out that one of our investigators would have that concern. I would say something like "You know what? We just haven't faced any opposition from people at doors this week at all" and then we'd hit some. So finally, we realize that I am saying the wrong sort of things. So, I start by saying "You know, I just have never taught somebody who just has no concerns with any commandments and then just gets baptized 3 weeks later" and boom. We find Kelly, who has had no issues with any commandments and has come to church twice and loves it. She's totally ready to go and has loved church for the past 2 weeks. Anyways. I wish I could remember all the crazy things that I jinxed. Anyways. Before church yesterday, I said "I wish that somebody would just walk off the street and sit down next to us at church today like Patrick did." Boom. Sacrament Meeting. We're sitting at the back because we were making sure that Vicki, Kelly, Melissa, and Toni, and Steven were all accounted for resulted in us only having time to plop down at the back of the chapel. Sure enough, half way through the service, this massive man walked in halfway through the service and just knelt down next to our bench. We scooted over and gestured for him to come and sit down next to us, and he smelled like cigarettes and coffee. Man. Turns out he was a less active who was baptized in Vancouver a few years ago, and he is currently living from a truck camper in a small town near Vernon. We're working with him now. Still. Miracles have not ceased.

 

Our zone had an amazing week as well. Our mission has been improving a lot over the past few years. The work has been hastening. A long time ago, the standards of excellence for the mission were set for 3 member-present lessons and 2 new investigators. That was it. This week, we started a zone challenge of having each area teach 3 member present lessons, find 3 new investigators, and set one baptismal date in 3 days. And we followed up with each area as the week went on. The power of setting goals with faith and doing everything that you can to accomplish them is crazy. When as a zone we broke it down day by day and did absolutely everything that we could each day, the zone did amazing. Man. I love missionary work.

 

Sorry this email is a short one! And... family, I hope that you all have a great week! Happy Birthday, Dad and Ness! (I most certainly did not forget, Sister Dear.)

 

Much love,

 

Elder Blotter

Joe Day....

Look who's home!

The Week

Elder Blotter

Well it sounds like and eventful week.  Investigators, indian food, and death in Kitimat!  I'm sure that Elder Atwood will never forget Kitimat.  I hope that little branch is thriving or at least surviving.  And I will say, you will likely never find better Indian Food than that little gas station known as the Indian Oven.  It won best of state for Indian Restaurants in the State of Utah for 2013.  We went there last week as a matter of fact.  I have never found better, including a world famous Indian Restaurant in Cairo of all places. The Indian Oven was still better.

Well, we are all doing well, without major issues at the Blotter home.  Today was the primary program and Jed was naughty on the stand.  I was not there, but the report was not great.  I was drilling a hole in a person's skull to drain a massive abscess infection that was pushing on his brain from his frontal sinus.  The patient did great but another sacrament meeting bites the dust. 

Otherwise, it is typical November in the lower 48.  Too cold to do anything outside, and getting dark at 5:00, and not enough snow to ski.  Work is busy, which is a good thing, because I need to save money as American medicine as we have all known it, is in a death spiral.  I have studied Rome extensively and I find the similarities to the United States striking.  The Roman Empire was not done in by battle.  The empire faltered due to high taxes, an unsustainable welfare state, printing money with currency devaluation, intoxication with sport and diversion, corruption, and sin.  Essentially, the Obama administration.  

My Roman studies have been an offshoot of learning more about the world at the time of Christ, who lived his entire life under Roman rule.  Some very interesting stuff.  At the judgment day, I would still rather be Pontius Pilate or even Caesar Augustus than Caiaphus.  Better an evil pagan than an evil Jewish priest when it comes to harming the creator of the universe in my opinion.

Well, we are all doing pretty well here.  Busy times for all.  Claudia has joined the ranks of frisby football at Sky View.  We are hoping this provides a good group of friends for her, as I'm sure that it will.  Jed and Jacey are starting to try to do a little last minute behavior improvement to entice Santa to come.  Jenessa is studying a lot, but also dating this Tyler L. fellow quite a bit.  I'm not sure how thrilled I am about that.  (the dating, not the studying).  Well, I hope that all is well with you and have a great week.

Love

Dad

Vernon

Family,

 

Oh man. Where to even begin this email? I know. This is what Elder Atwood sent me this week. (He only just barely got transferred out of Kitimat) Our apartment in Kitimat was just awesome.

 

Elder Blotter,

Remember that guy that would always throw up during personal study?? Well, as it turns out it wasn't Shawn (the native guy who we thought it was) it was the bro that lived bellow us. Well, recently our apartment complex started smelling really nasty (like for 3 days) and we called and told Mira Dugga (dang JW..) and let her know that there was something that was most likely dead in the complex and she laughed it off as nothing. Well, yesterday night the RCMP was there because the guy that lived below us was dead. Can you believe that?? There was legitly a dead guy living (or not) in our complex. He had been dead for about a week. We had officer Kelly in our apartment asking if we knew the guy. Needless to say, we didn't. That's the crazy story. We were living with a dead guy, breathing the same air that he wasn't.

Gods' Speed Elder.

Elder Atwood

 

Anyways, not on that note, this week was literally one of the best weeks of my mission! Last weekly planning, Elder Baker and I looked at the goals that we had set, and we decided that they were good goals, but we decided that those would not be our goals if this was the last week of our missions. So we went through our plans, and decided to treat the entire week like it was the last week of our missions. For example, there's no way on the last week of your mission you'd spend until 6:00 not doing missionary work, so we ended our P day a few hours early. You wouldn't sit around your apartment eating (John 4:34), you wouldn't walk from door to door, etc. So we made a lot of little tiny sacrifices here and there, but we were given major blessings from Heavenly Father. We did find more new investigators and teach more lessons than either of us had previously, but we just saw miracles upon miracles this week. I couldn't even try to write all of them down with the time that we have. Our planners just filled up with lessons to teach and whenever we went finding we found people to teach. It was a great week.

 

So, some of the cool experiences from the week!

 

First, I had the amazing opportunity to ordain Steven a Priest. I had never conferred the Priesthood to anybody before, but it was a very sacred experience. We've got Steven all ready to go on a temple trip so he'll be able to help some of his ancestors receive saving ordinances this weekend. To see how much he has changed from not that much longer than 5 or 6 weeks ago when he was a heavy alcoholic and a heavy smoker is just amazing. One of our new investigators that we found this week, Kelly, came to church for the first time this week, and we hadn't had the chance to teach her about the Word of Wisdom yet, but Steven in the Gospel Principles lesson just started talking about it in one of his comments, and it touched Kelly so much that after she came up to us and whispered "No Coffee!?" We were kind of worried about what her response would be, but after we briefly explained the Word of Wisdom she said that she would stop drinking it. It was a miracle.

 

We taught an FLDS lady this week! Literally, a convert to the FLDS church of a few years. The member that we took with us was just fascinated and couldn't stop asking questions. She was an evangelical Born Again, and her husband used to be Catholic, and they did some research and somehow decided that being FLDS was right for them. Fortunately,they're on team Winston Blackmore instead of team Warren Jeffs, but the husband is currently "courting" an FLDS lady from Kamloops who is 40. The wife is excited about it because it will balance out their ages (he's 50 and she's 30). I'll just stop describing the situation lest I sound judgmental (the husband won't meet with us because he thinks that all "mainstream" Mormons are judgemental). Anyways, teaching her was fascinating because she only has a rudimentary understanding of everything. She had heard of the Book of Mormon, but she had never read it. She had heard of Doctrine and Covenants, but didn't really know what it was. Since she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet, she sincerely wants to learn more about him, and so she wants to come to church and meet with us to learn about what's going on. So that will be really cool.

 

Oh yeah! I turned 21 this week. That was weird. In keeping with tradition, we ate a bazillion plates of food at "The Curry Pot", an East Indian buffet that isn't quite as good as the Indian Oven. I still haven't found Indian food that is as good as the Indian Oven, except for possibly at the Sikh temple. I might be biased. For a heavenly birthday present, we found like 5 people to teach that day and we set a baptismal date with this lady named Jodi Snow. She has severe memory loss because she got hit by a truck after pushing her 3 year old son out of the way, so we're hoping that she still remembers that she has a baptismal date, but she's a very special lady with a lot of real intent. We were jogging down a street and in between houses there was this driveway, and we decided to jog down it and there was a whole complex back there behind all the houses, and every other door had somebody inside that was interested in hearing about the gospel.

 

Well, every day we witness the Lord hastening His work! And we're doing everything that we can to hasten it. We're not going to let the mouthes of prophets fail by not doing everything that we can to help more of Heavenly Father's children have every opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. I wish that each one of you could come on a "mini-mission" like Adam did up in Vernon and see how true the Church is. We knocked on somebody's door, and they were super rude, and then we forgot that we had already knocked on that door, and they opened up again, and so... we asked them if they had changed their minds. And they totally invited us back later this week. Turns out, people do want to hear the gospel, we just need to show some faith and try to share it.

 

Well! Love you all! Hope that you have a great week!

 

Elder Blotter

To Jed

Dear Jed,

 

I hope that your movie was a great success and that the good guys won. Did they win?

 

Elder Baker and I are trying to be healthy and usually eat oatmeal in the morning, and sandwiches with nothing but tomatoes and spinach and lots of peas and corn from the freezer. Which isn't that expensive, so we can usually afford to eat at a buffet on P-day that undoes being healthy.

 

We do not get a bike in Vernon! We drive a car! A Chevy Cruze. It's pretty fancy.

 

Crossfit for kids sounds pretty intense. I hope it keeps you nice and strong. Is football lots of fun?

 

Elder Blotter

 

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FIRSTBORN!

21 years ago today you made me a mom. You were the cutest, happiest and fattest baby ever. You have been a joy to me since that day. Hope you are having a special day and that someone there has remembered your birthday and you are happy. You know that little mini scripture calendar that I keep by the phone and turn the page each day? I turned it to November 14th today and it says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God". I thought that was a fitting scripture for your birthday. Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to you. We are thinking of you and LOVE you so much.    Mom

Happy Remembrance Day!

Hello family!

It's Canada's more-emphasized version of Veteran's Day today! Well, I don't know about more-emphasized, but it's a big deal up in Canada. Shopping took a while because of "moments of silence" where they came over the loudspeakers and told everybody to quiet down. It was neat. Everybody, even missionaries, wears these fake poppies pinned to their clothes for a few weeks before Remembrance Day. It's pretty intense. For the first and probably only time (I missed the first Canada Day in the MTC, and most of the Kitimat branch wasn't Canadian so we didn't sing it then either) of my life, I sang O Canada in a Sacrament Meeting. Tears were certainly shed.

Well, this week has been a spiritual feast, as far as weeks go. This week was mission conference and mission council, and so our whole zone made the 6 hour bus ride down to the lower mainland to hear from President Tilleman and Elder Paul V. Johnson of the 70. We received so much guidance. It was kind of like getting a drink from a fire hose. I loved it. A lot of missionaries were expecting some form of technology to be introduced at this mission conference, but no iPads for the Canada Vancouver mission yet. We were taught how to continue to hasten the work, though: by talking with everyone! By working with members! "Hastening the work" means working harder and following the counsel of our priesthood leaders, not getting iPads.

One of the most amazing trainings that I've received yet on my mission was in mission council with Elder Johnson. His training pretty much was just one inspired question: "What have you learned about leadership from President and Sister Tilleman?" And that question was all that it took. We just filled the rest of the time. President Tilleman literally had tears in his eyes and as he shook my hand as he was going around the room, he said "that was the hardest thing I have had to do in my life". Humble giant. I know that everybody says that their mission is the best mission in the world. But really. We think our mission is the best mission in the world. :) We were reflecting on the influence that our mission president has had on our lives, and President Tilleman really is a fantastic mission president. He really shows that the best leaders are the best followers. He just makes you want to follow the prophet.

We've seen a lot of very awesome miracles over the past week! We had a lot of experiences over the past week that really emphasized how "every moment counts" on your mission. We found several new investigators over the past week from choosing to go and work hard instead of sitting around. Yesterday, we were going to pick up a member for a lesson, and we had about 10 minutes early. We could have made calls or something. The calls probably would have been a good use of time. But, we ran outside and on the 2nd door we knocked on, we were able to teach a (admittedly quick) first lesson. We found several new investigators in that period where it's about 15 or 20 minutes until curfew, it's been dark for hours, it's cold, rainy, and people seem more irritated when you knock on their doors. It really is when you put in a little extra effort that you see miracles. Over the past transfer, we've constantly been trying to find ways to hasten the work, and I've been working harder than I ever have previously on my mission. We just run everywhere and are always going and going. Learning how to push out the natural man that wants us to stay in our warm and dry car.

Oh man. I love the work in Vernon. Latisha, Steven's landlord who is a former investigator, just called us to tattle on Tim and Chris, Steven's other roommates who are also investigators. She feels like they are just not giving her enough respect, and so she expects us to straighten them out. She is a funny lady. I love the people that you get to meet on your mission. I sometimes think as I'm sitting in people's houses, "there is no other conceivable reason on earth that I would be sitting in this persons house right now".

Anyways! Family, I sure do love you all. Thanks for the happy birthday wishes. It's crazy that I am turning 21. 21 feels like twice as weird as 20. 21 sounds... older. Weird weird! Anyways, sorry, email time is a little short this week! Hope that everyone has a good week, though!

Elder Blotter

Happy Birthday on Thursday!!

Dear Elder Josh,

    We will sure be thinking of you on your big 21st this week. I have no one in Vernon to ask to make your fave Peaches and Cream Cake. I'll just have to make it for you when you get home, I guess. Would Elder Baker have those kind of baking skills?  :)  One time this week Claudia says, "You really like Josh, don't you?" Dad and I were talking about what a FUN baby you were or something. We laughed and said, "YES, and so would you if you met him."  :D

    So two things. First, your debit card. I looked into that and found out it expired in August. They said one should have been sent here sometime before that but I never saw it. So they have cancelled that card. I have a new one for you that I put in the mail on Friday. When you get it you are suppose to let me know it made it and tell me what you want the PIN to be and they will reset it and it will then work. So what do you want the PIN to be?

     And the second thing is about a trip to Whales. Like, Whales.....like next to England, Whales? Dad thought you meant Prince of Whales Island. But I am guessing you are talking about Whales, Whales. Is this guy from there or something? It sounds like a dream trip, for sure. We think that it sounds like a neat opportunity. Just one thing. We have planned and paid for a family trip where we would be leaving on July 28th for a week. As long as you could be home in time for that, it sounds great to us. It sounds like you would if you are leaving 3 weeks after arriving home.

     Are you able to read Amelia's e-mails? I check up on her blog and read them to Grandma J, along with yours every week. They are GREAT. Last week it sounds like was the best of her mission and finally things are looking up and she is learning the language and training. Happy for her. And I am so happy our birthday package arrived SO fast. I was sure I had waited too long and it would be late. It must be faster not having to go so far North. It's almost time to send a Christmas package. Any requests or needs?

      I thoroughly LOVED hearing about Steven and his conversion. It would be so great to meet him some day. What is his last name? Your weekly e-mail continues to be a highlight of the week for us. Jenessa is studying hard and doing well at school. She is currently dating 3 people from her student ward. One is Daniel L's older brother, Tyler and another is his best friend, Jared B. She tried to tell Jared tonight that she was going to date Tyler. Jared's dad is the bishop of the 2nd ward and the whole family could be translated at any time without notice. I think she feels he is too good for her. They are both just off missions. Jared asked if she would wait and pray about it for a week or two. He really likes her.  ??  And then there is another kid that really likes her but is going to Weber in January.  Weird. And she is writing McKay and they have set a date 2 months after he gets home.....    ?  

       We are very sad. Ella the kitty has disappeared. She is the sister of Root Beer. Root Beer wanders off all the time and always comes back. Ella has never left the garage for more than a few minutes. She had surgery on Wednesday (spayed) and disappeared on Thursday. The animal Control guy says a cougar was spotted 200 yards from our house and 2 dogs and many cats are missing.  :o.   So I hope it's allowed that on Friday I put "Ella" on the pray roll at the temple.....

       Well, you sure made me the happiest and proudest mom ever 21 years ago. Tell Elder Baker to be especially nice and to sing Happy Birthday to you on Thursday.   :)    Love you to pieces.    Mom

Snow...

Mother Dearest,

Oh! And I got the birthday package. Thanks so much! The tie was really nice! It must not take as long to send packages to Vernon.

Elder Baker says that it was the Backstreet Boys singing.

Love,

Elder Blotter

Life is A1 in the Okanagan

Family,

Well, this week has just been a highlight week of the mission, and therefore of life. We just got off exchanges with Elder Epperson, who President Tilleman (randomly) decided to make one of his assistants mid-transfer.  It's been good to work with him again. He's going home in December already! That is totally crazy. Steven got baptized yesterday! He was so ready. It was also Stake Conference this week, and we've just seen a lot of miracles over the past week.

First off though, it snowed in Cache Valley?? It hasn't even snowed in Vernon yet. We were on exchanges in Merritt, and it was snowing there and the roads were just terrible on the way back, but we are still snow-free. And we're in Canada. I love Vernon. It's like a less dry version of Cache Valley with scenic lakes and lots of tasty produce. Just with fewer Mormons and no temple. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

So! At the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference, because President Tilleman couldn't attend, Elder Baker and I were asked to pick one of us to speak in his place. We "cast lots" as they say, and Elder Baker was the speaker. Elder Blotter was just cruising along, thinking he was in the clear, when the following day at Stake Conference, when President Tilleman was speaking, in front of the entire Stake, he says "I understand that yesterday Elder Baker had the opportunity to speak for me. I just keep on think that that is just not fair for only one person in that companionship to have the opportunity to speak."

Oh. No.

Yeah. My stomach dropped somewhere in between the only surviving pair of Hush Puppies that I came out with. Fortunately, in the end, I was only called upon to recite the 1st Vision (no pressure, you just have to be on-the-spot perfect, because what missionary doesn't have the 1st Vision memorized, right?) and to bear brief testimony about it. But still. My mind was totally blank as I was walking up to the podium and I don't remember what I did say, so hopefully I got it all right.

Anyways, after that, it was Steven's baptismal service. What a beautiful service! The spirit was so strong. I'm sure our investigators that were there felt that. Elder Baker hadn't had the chance to perform the ordinance of baptism before, but he did great. Or at least, I'm confident that he did great. Steven brought Tim, who... wasn't sober. And so Elder Epperson and I missed the ordinance because we were separating Tim from this poor girl from the YSA ward he was harassing. Bishop escorted him home during the service. What a nightmare. But, he brought another 19 year old friend, Chris, and after the service, we gave him a church tour and set a baptismal date with him for November 30th. Miracles have not ceased! When Steven was bearing his testimony, he talked about how he was asked recently about what his hobbies are, and he had no idea what to say because he's had to completely redefine his life since committing to live the Saviour's commandments. He's literally a new person, because he can not and does not want to do the things that he used to do to waste his life away. What an exciting time for Steven! For him, baptism is completely an opportunity to "walk in the newness of life" (Romans 6:4). He's literally had so much faith, and it's been a blessing to have the chance to work with him. He is the kind of person that you are on your mission to find.

Other than that, life's been good! It was Halloween this week, and that makes it the 2nd to last time on my mission that I'll have to stay inside for an evening. We didn't get any trick or treaters this year, but the JW's found us (thanks to Bishop Whibley, who told them that he has a basement suite as a joke) and have been sticking pamphlets in our door.  We had a planning session, but finished, and in the end, we played real life fruit ninja with a knife and all the apples that this Sikh couple across the street gave us that we couldn't eat fast enough before they started to go bad.

Well, it's been a good week! It was good to hear from all of you. The work in the Vernon zone is going well. We're finding, teaching, baptizing. The church is true. We don't even appreciate what we have! We have a prophet on the earth, giving us direction and guidance from God. How awesome is that? 

Elder Blotter

November

Greetings from the Lower 48,

Hopefully the work is progressing in the great white north.  I hope that Vernon is a buzz with missionary work.  It sounds like things are busy and going well, which is a great thing.  Being very busy and lost in the work is missionary happiness.   Getting there requires work; however, you were forged in the fiery furnace of Burns Lake  which has you prepared for anything, in missionary work and life.  We enjoy your letters and stories.  I think many blessings come to our family through your faithful missionary service.  I was telling Claudia as much recently.

Here at home we had a great Halloween.  Jed was Captain America and Jacey was the cutest little cowgirl you have ever seen.  I sent a few pics.  Claudia found Halloween a little strange, and really thinks the pumpkin thing this time of year is odd.  She had never seen a pumpkin before, and now she looks at them, carves them, eats them, and pretty much everything else.  It is fun to see our country from the eyes of a new person.  

In other news Grandpa Blotter almost cut the tip of his left ring finger off at the ranch, and I am changing daily dressings and preparing for skin grafting.  Medical school might prove to be a good investment for him after all, at this rate.  

We attended a regional conference today at USU at the Spectrum.  It was so good.  We heard for the President of the Seventy, Elder Tad Callister.  He gave a great talk of scripture study and parenting.  Too late for you and Ness, our work there is pretty much done, but very timely for the other ones.   The meeting was presided over by Elder L Tom Perry.  In his talk he mentioned that Alma the Younger was perhaps the greatest missionary of all time.  I didn't think Jed was listening, but he turned to me and said "I'll bet that Josh is second best".  So there is a little pressure for you!  Elder Perry gave a fine talk, largely based on Missionary work.  I think that church has realized, okay, we have 80,000 missionaries, Now What?  Members need to invite.  The story of one of your members offering a sick neighbor a blessing was a perfect example.  Anyway, we were lucky to be in the presence of an Apostle.  The spirit was strong.  There was no evil present in the spectrum this morning.  It could not coexist with the light that comes from a true Apostle of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Well, that is pretty much a rap.  Hope you have a great week.

Love

Dad