Another good report from Haida Gwaii

Family,

Well, what a great week it's been! Definitely a highlight week of the mission so far. We just carried on the work in Haida Gwaii, then flew down on Friday for the conference with Elder Christofferson, and then less than 24 hours later we were back and going on the islands. President Tilleman says that after the conference with Elder Christofferson, he asked him how he would describe his experience with the mission, and he said "I feel, just too sacred for me to put into words". And it was! It was such a powerful experience.

The last week went great! We found a lot of people to talk to, taught lessons, and got people to church. All the missionary meat n' potatoes. There are a lot of less active members here that have been less actives more or less all their lives because they moved here when young and there's no church here, or because they joined the church when they were a part of the placement program. There are some world famous Haida artists that I heard about/saw murals they'd painted in Vancouver that are on our ward list up here. Probably the world's most active inactive member (We visit with her, her husband, and her sister, Wendy, all the time. They're great) Val Malesku, is a member. I don't know if you can learn too much about her or her art online, but she's a pretty big deal. To serve them sometimes we help her work on projects or jewelry or whatever else that she's working on, and she'll ask us questions while we're working on stuff. We spent our dinnertime yesterday eating rice crispies and I became a master at burnishing earrings. Life skills you learn on your mission. Jewelry burnishing. Whenever we ask her to come to church or anything along those lines, she gives us a business card with her name and contact information on it, and it just says "Not Gonna Happen, Don't Even Go There". They're funny.

The weather in Haida Gwaii is pretty bipolar, and even though Queen Charlotte is about 10 minutes from Skidegate, it was blizzarding in Skidegate and there were clear skies in Charlotte, and it always seems that in our planning sessions we somehow manage to make plans that put us in the middle of the blizzard. So we'll coat up, grab a scarf and everything, drive out and work, then when we come back for lunch it's sunny. But it's so beautiful here! The snow covering the trees looks majestic, and so it's hard to complain about it.

But anyways, the experience with Elder Christofferson was amazing. We had a meeting at 5:00 in the mission office on Friday to take a mission picture and have some time to be trained by President Tilleman, but our flight didn't land until 5:15. (We walked in just as everybody was walking away from the stage where they took the mission picture, literally just seconds too late to be involved. They're going to photoshop us in. I told the guy I wouldn't complain about not being in the picture, as long as they photoshopped me slightly more muscular and taller.) As a mission we fasted that day, just to prepare to meet with an apostle the next day, and it was such a powerful experience.

That night we stayed with the Surrey 3rd elders, who just so happen to be Elder Atwood and Elder Holtby. Yep, they're companions. And they're pretty much doing how you'd expect them to be doing. :)

The next morning, we were asked to be in our seats by 8, and the meeting was supposed to start at 9, but we woke up at 5 to get there as early as possible, and we probably got there at an average time. We were so excited. Even before the meeting started, the spirit was so strong. I think I half expected some crazy new missionary techniques or some out of the box ideas to be revealed to the mission, but the things that were emphasized were just principles from the doctrine of Christ and principles from Preach my Gospel. Some things are probably too sacred to share, but he left some very cool blessings on the mission, and he bore a very powerful testimony of Jesus Christ "as somebody who knows that He lives". Among other things, he testified that Jesus Christ actively guides and directs the Church. "He doesn't just check in every once in a while." It was very powerful.

He also said some really cool things about our mission. He says it's an example of a mission where the work has hastened, and he had some very cool things to say about President Tilleman. He told us that "they don't have a better mission president" than President Tilleman, and he exhorted us to learn as much from watching him as we could with the time that he has left on his mission. We're blessed in the Canada Vancouver mission, that's for sure.

Well, in closing, I'd like to bear a brief testimony, from someone who recently heard it from the mouth of a special witness, that Jesus Christ lives. He's our Savior! As it's stylized here in Canada, He is our Saviour. What a blessing it is to know that and to have His influence in our lives. I hope that you all have a great week this week.

Elder Blotter