Haida Gwaii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family,

Well, transfer calls have come and gone, and so now it's confirmed that my last area is going to be the beautiful islands of Haida Gwaii. I'm super excited about that, because there's just so much going on and the people here are just like family at this point, I love serving in small places, because it's so easy to get very close with the people here. And I have spent a lot of time in the tiny places in the far Northern reaches of the mission! The Terrace district conference is going to be at the end of May, and I realized that of the 4 possible district conferences for me to be in attendance of in Terrace, I will have gone to 3 of them! I missed one district conference because I was in Vernon, but other than that, I've been at every district conference in Terrace. You just gotta love the North.

So. Anyways. Miracles. I talked about Alma Rose a little bit last week. She's great. She lives inside of what looks like is a motel (because it was a motel, but some guy bought it and turned it into an apartment complex) that we felt like we should try to talk to everybody inside of anyways. It's on the busiest stretch of the biggest town in the islands, so kind of right under the missionaries' noses. Anyways. We were teaching her, and she had said joking that what drives her life is "coffee", and she told us she drinks 2-3 12 cup pots of coffee a day. So we were pretty concerned about teaching her the Word of Wisdom. In the lesson, we were kind of cautious and were prepared to make a plan to help her quit over a period of time, but she just dwarfed our faith and committed to live it on the spot. We left that lesson with bags of coffee and tea containers. Lessons like that are the best. In any case, we moved her baptismal date forward to May 10th. People like her are just solid. We just taught her tithing, and even though she's in a tight financial situation, she had no problem committing to live it. Some people just have the strongest faith!

In any case, we're really excited about Alma-Rose. She's also really into genealogy and held a genealogy workshop yesterday, and so she's all about that. We were allowed to go to it, and when we went she was showing some of the online genealogy sites. When she went to familysearch.org, it was just awesome. I was feeling some church pride. That has negative connotations... maybe church patriotism is a better way to put it. :) What an awesome resource that is! Our church is really cool. It does really cool stuff. Also, Mother/Grandma/whomever else has done a lot of work on it, thanks for doing so much work on genealogy! I brought the fan chart that I have that goes back to the 128 great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents that I have, and people were really impressed by it. And then the "Spirit of Elijah" just started stirring in people's hearts and they wanted to do their genealogies, too. A lot of people then started asking questions about the church, too, at first apologetically because it was supposed to be a workshop about genealogy, but we had the chance to talk to a lot of people about what our church is about. It was awesome.

Anyways, the work is going well! We're finding lots of people to talk to. At this point we're finding in a lot of the same places that we've already found in, but every time we revisit a place, we find new people to teach. We plan to revisit areas at different times to talk to different groups of people, and between that and people's hearts softening, we manage to teach lots of new people each week. We spend a lot of time pounding the pavement (or rather, mud, moss, and muddy moss, etc) but we're certainly blessed for the time that we do. :)

The people here are so awesome, too. Sid, the chief, gave us these super nice carved wooden paddles, and Val is going to help us paint them at some point. No idea how I'm going to get that bad boy home. Val has given us some of her super awesome art, and some jewelry. And a super cool poster. People are just very generous. And people are very willing to feed us. It's a good thing that we have a treadmill now... ha ha. Last night we were just lamenting the fact that this recipe we were trying (halibut cooked in the oven at 3:50 covered in coconut milk and this asiago artichoke dip stuff. All of which was given to us by a recent convert named Ruth) wasn't finished cooking in time before we had to leave for our consecrated finding time. (We just turned the oven down to 250 and left it in there. Surprisingly, when we got back it was cooked perfectly. Miracle.) So we're out and finding, and Sid and Cindy tell us they want us to come over. And then as we're talking, they give us all this scallop fettucine. It was fantastic. And just over the course of me writing this, we got a text from Ruth telling us she has food for us. I repeat, it's a good thing we have a treadmill now.

Well! We're out here working hard. It's a beautiful place. On the occasional sunny day, the scenery is just striking. It's just a message of "God loves you". And even the liquid sunshine isn't all that bad, either. It keeps everything green. They have a saying up here, "no rain, no rainbows"! I hope that you all have an amazing week and that everything is going well! Congratulations to Jacey for scoring a goal the other day in soccer, and to Jed for doing cool stuff on the motorcycle. You'll have to show me some cool stuff. And Ness, hope stats is just going greaaaat.

Elder Blotter

Help...

Ha ha, good work in the facebook stalking. That's crazy that there is another Josh Blotter! I kind of thought that there might be because when I searched my name one time before my mission it said something about playing Hyrum Smith in some play or something like that. And... I never did that. That's pretty weird!

Oh no way?? That's awesome. I'm super excited to be able to go to that! When are they reporting back?

Elder Blotter

Help...

OK, I just FIGURED out the mysterious cousin e-mail thanks to facebook stalking at it's best. There is a Jessica Knight serving a mission in California. She does indeed have a cousin named Josh Blotter who left on a mission in January to Mexico. You would think if they were first cousins she would have known where he is serving. I looked up Joshua Blotter on facebook and found this kid and saw he had a mutual friend with me. It was Christine Johnson's daughter who married a Knight. It all came together! So just e-mail her back and say that you are not her cousin Josh Blotter, but another Josh Blotter.   :)   And that her cousin is in Mexico.   Ha Ha  Gotta love facebook.   
      And can I just tell you a little secret? I just got airline tickets for you and I to go to Arizona in July to hear the Tillemans report their mission.  :o    They said there would be a little reunion after their welcome home and I asked Dad and he said we could go. He said he'd better stay home with the kids.  :)  The drive was 14 hours one way so......

Help...

Dear Josh.  I am not aware of any cousins named Jessica Knight. I consulted Facebook and found 2 Jessica Knights in Cache Valley that don't seem like they could be cousins. Did this "Jessica Knight" say how she is a cousin?  Jorgy side, Blotter side? Where does she live? How does she know that she is a cousin exactly?

Help...

Did you get the email I tried to forward to you or did I awkwardly just send it to the girl who says she's my cousin? Are there 2 Josh Blotters? Also, do you wear earrings?

Help...

Hey josh!

so I am the worst cousin ever and i had no idea you were even on a mission. it makes sense because of your age and your awesomeness but anyways how the heck are you? and where are you? hopefully you have time to reply ill keep in short. MY MISSION IS GREAT. the end

lemme know how you are doing and stuff

-Sister Knight

I have no idea who this it!

Help...

Mommmmmmmmmmm...

Can you help me out? I got an email from someone named Jessica Knight who says she is my cousin. Do I have a cousin by the name of Jessica Knight?

Thank you dearly,

Elder Blotter

Hello!

Family,

Well, it's been a great week up here on Haida Gwaii. If I look to my left, I see a clear sky with the sun shining on calm ocean, with a bunch of ducks swimming closer to the beach, and some pine tree covered hills on an island across the channel. It's just gorgeous. We've started to have some really nice days up here! It usually will still rain off and on throughout the day, and it's still not all too warm up here, but for Northern BC, we'll take it! 

Easter was great! We were indeed invited to a dinner. For the past year or so in the mission, we've emphasized consecrated finding time- we're out finding when people are home, finding from 5 to 7 pm. We also only have dinner appointments when there's a less active member, recent convert, or a nonmember there. So dinner appointments are usually few and far between kind of intentionally. But, we're fed all the time on the islands here because there are lots of people that aren't members that want to feed us, and lots and lots are recent converts. We probably have like 50,000 calories of leftovers in our fridge. And hopefully those last, because the missionary funds card still has yet to be sent here, and Elder Rose is out, and so we can't get groceries until that arrives! Oh! But miracle! In the fight against the the paradoxical forces of gaining weight in an area where food is the most expensive and you have half the funds you usually do, we have obtained a treadmill that one of the members here, Wendy, isn't using! We've had it since Monday, and it's been prime. Awesome tender mercy.

The members here in general are just awesome. Wendy and Val are sisters, and they've been longtime members, but Wendy has only been active since the church has been back (kind of hard to be active when there's no church to be active in) and Val doesn't really remember being baptized and "isn't really into the whole church thing" (...yet). But they're both funny. Val is an artist, and so we help her sometimes work on different projects. They have aprons and pillows, etc. that have skulls and crossbones, and things like that because they were skaters and hippies and whatever else back in the day, but for when we come over they've made a bunch of fabric that has phrases like "Praise Jesus" on it and they safety pin the fabric over whatever it is that would otherwise be "offensive". They're funny. I can't remember if I've already told you about them or not. They invited a bunch of their friends over for Easter dinner, and we had the chance to meet them, so we were well taken care of.

The work has just been great! We were in a lesson with one of our new investigators, Alma Rose, and I was reflecting on the counsel the prophet in Preach My Gospel to invite people to be baptized on a specific day by the 2nd lesson, and it was our second lesson, and even though it wasn't clear how it was going to go, the prompting came really powerfully that we needed to invite her to be baptized. And you know, the lesson just kind of moved in that direction all on its own, and when she was invited to be baptized, she just said "yes" and has been working towards being baptized since! It was an awesome experience. Alma is awesome because 1) she has the name of a Book of Mormon prophet 2) she's facing a lot of opposition from some of her family on the other side of Canada and she just doesn't mind it at all. Very faithful.

Things have been going just great though. We've continued our quest of knocking every single door on the islands here, even those that aren't clustered in the little villages, and that has taken us through the boonies of Graham island, There's a town of a few hundred people, mostly loggers and the socially disinclined, called Port Clements halfway in between Skidegate and Masset. And around there, there are a bunch of roads that take you into the wilderness, but they have power lines that lead you to obscure little clusters of houses. We've found a lot of people to talk to, because as one couple told us, "you two are the first other people that we've seen at our house in.... (they look at each other...) months!" And they are very willing to talk to us because of that. So that's great! We'll keep on looking under ever rock. And then the rocks that are easy to get to, we'll look under a few times. And then a few times more. :)

Well, we're certainly blessed here on Haida Gwaii. And we love it. Transfer calls for my last transfer are this Monday, but since our p-day is on Tuesday, I'll know what's going on. We're both expecting to stay put.

It's good to hear that you all had a good Easter! We celebrate and reflect on the resurrection every week when we partake of the Sacrament, and hopefully more frequently than that, but it's awesome to have a holiday to celebrate it. He lives!

Love you all. And hope you have a great week!

Elder Blotter

Dear Josh. I just came out of the temple and I'm sitting here reading your email. I just love you to pieces. Thank you for sharing your testimony. I love this season of Easter. We are so lucky to have the Gospel and the knowledge of a Savior. I loved hearing about interesting people you met this week especially the guy who wanted to fight with homemade swords. Though I am sure that you and Elder Rose could have taken them.  BAHAHA.  Did I tell you that Griffin Dubanowich has decided for sure to come to Utah State? I have a feeling you just may have the chance to do a little more missionary work when you get home.    :)  They have been working pretty closely with the missionaries in Ohio. It's awesome. Well, have an awesome week. Love mom

Hello from Haida Gwaii

Family,

 

Well, what an amazing week it's been! We've seen lots of miracles and had lots of unique experiences in the past few days. But first off, here is a monumental thank you to all of those involved in making the fall schedule happen! It sounds like it was a headache and a half. It sounds like my dreams of spending the first day waking up early and then going on a run quite out of sight and sound of a companion and then sleeping will be replaced by chemistry. Great. It looks like it all fits just great! If ever I get slightly trunky, I'll just have to remember that there is physics, calculus, organic chemistry, and others all waiting to ambush at the same time, and then tracting in the rain will seem just perfect. But thanks to Dad, Ness, and Mom (who stayed up til' 1...)!

 

So! In the past weeks, we've been working with Eric. Awesome kid, we love him to death. He's all over going running and playing basketball, and was very keen on getting baptized, and very excited to meet President Tilleman, who was a stellar basketball player. But, in the past weeks, people have just been working away on him and telling him he wouldn't be able to live the standards, and he kind of lost faith in himself and has been slipping. It's always hard to see. So, we've been praying about how to help him, and we had also been praying a lot about who it was that we're here to baptize. There are a lot of people in the teaching pool, but a lot of them are slow movers, who like to think about everything they do, or people who have a lot of changes that they still need to make. And we are all about planting seeds, don't get me wrong, but we're here to harvest! The field is already white! We're here to baptize! We've found a lot of cool people this week, however, and so we're excited to see what happens. 

 

 Some of our prayers as to who we're supposed to be working with were answered in the past week, when a legal miracle happened. One of the awesome recent converts on the island here has been involved in a custody battle with her 2 children, both of them are about 10 years old. The other party that was seeking for custody was mostly fueled by the kids' grandparents, who are prominent members of another faith that didn't want them involved with us. For legal reasons, we've had to steer clear of the kids. In the past week, even though the legal proceedings were supposed to be delayed for a lot longer and a lot more complicated, Leslie got full custody of her children, including giving the kids the freedom to choose whatever religion they would like to! So, now they have the chance to be taught, (and possibly could be able to be baptized). Miracle! 

 

The rest of the work has been great, too! Being on the islands is just great. BC is kind of famous in Canada as being the province famous for laid back people who like lots of vacation time and just aren't too rushed about anything. Haida Gwaii sort of amplifies that culture, and then on top of that, when you add Mormon standard timing into the mix, church that is supposed to start at 11... doesn't start at 11. So, in the time while we're waiting for people to show up, we'll walk along the beach that the building we use for church is built on. I found a sand dollar before church this week. Up in Masset, the building that is supposed to have been renovated (the renovations still haven't started yet, other than the heat being shut off) is pretty cold, and so we held church inside of the small kitchen inside of the building and turned the ovens on for heat. Nice and cozy.

 

Some of the flavorful people we talked to this week...

-Clint the Born Again from Oklahoma- He said God moved him to come up the Haida Gwaii and start a youth group on the islands. Currently, 12 kids have been born again! He had the Bible belt accent and everything.

-Natania the wood mason- We talked to a lady who has spent the last 25 years pioneering wood masonry, where you take chunks of wood and glass bottles and things like that and make houses and walls and sheds and things like that with mortar. Yep. Still hasn't really caught on.

-We talked to this one guy in Tow Hill that didn't want to hear about the gospel, but wanted to compel us to fight him and his son with homemade swords. It was weird.

 

In general though, we've absolutely been blessed, and the work has been moving forward. Yesterday we were let inside by this man who didn't really look twice at us before inviting us inside to talk with him and his family. We were almost on edge just because it's never "that easy", but we ended up having a great discussion about Easter and the role of Jesus Christ, and explaining the role of Him as our Savior. It was a really powerful discussion, and even though it wasn't some massive display of a miracle, it was just one of those simple experiences that make up a mission. They invited us back, and so we'll see them later this week.

 

In closing, as it's getting closer to the season that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I would love to bear my testimony of the same. Jesus Christ lives! He was resurrected, and because of that, each one of us will live again as well if we come unto Him through living His doctrine. What a beautiful message to be sharing!

 

I hope that you all have a great week!

 

Elder Blotter

April Report from Haida Gwaii

Family,

Well, unfortunately the Masons are gone, and so we're still back to emailing at the library where we don't have a lot of time to write, especially since I had to think about school and stuff like that. So... sorry if this week is short as well!

The past week has been a blessed one! Conference was of course just amazing! We still haven't seen the some of the Saturday stuff, because we had the opportunity to help Sid work on a cabin of his on that Saturday. We ended up taking out a bunch of flooring in a more remote cabin of his, and then put in some new flooring. When we were finished, we watched the Priesthood session with him and his wife at their home because there's no church to watch at here. It was an awesome opportunity to just talk with him as we were working, though!

Life has been great, though! Yesterday we were finding in some of the most beautiful places on the island. I have no idea how they afford to keep going, but there are some cattle ranchers in the middle of the big island that we're usually on, and we were finding people to teach in that area. Not exactly the same feel as Grandpa's ranch, but... there were still cows. We were exposed to some sort of supplementary 3rd ordinance of the gospel: baptism by immersion by the falling of rain. Just like the rest of the Canada Vancouver Mission, it "never rains", but there has been plenty of liquid sunshine.

Unfortunately, our baptism for later in the week is being postponed. We're fighting a case of the "well, I'm young now, so why don't I keep doing what I'm doing, and repent when I settle down?" But, Eric still wants to meet with us, and he really is a great kid, and so we're going to keep on keeping on.

And, well, I'm already out of time to email, but I want to take a second to bear testimony that what we heard at conference was true! They were the words of living prophets. And I hope that you all have an amazing week! Love you lots!

Elder Blotter

Schedule...

Allllllrighty....

I really wish that it was known where my 4 year plan was. That would be really great. I remember it took a lot of time to get all the classes crammed in there in a convenient 4 years. It's got to be on paper somewhere at home. I just have no idea where.

So, this would probably require calling and getting permission from people in the chemistry department at Utah State, but is it possible to take the 1215 and 1225 chemistry labs at the same time? O Chem and the lab, those 2 chemistry labs, Calc 3, and Econ 3400 are all great. I really, would love to not take an honors depth creative arts class until I can go home and find out how I can never take an honors depth creative arts class. I think for the 4 year plan the unfortunate reality was that it was the first physics class and the lab or whatever it was for it. That might be a bit too much to bite off.

The end goal in mind is a dual major in Chemistry with whatever emphasis it was called that made it environmental chemistry and economics. There's a prestigious program, don't remember what it was called, further down the road for people going into environmental related fields. As far as school goes, we're probably going to be shooting for law school and going into alternative energy law and going into that field, because from working with Randy, I have learned that 1) alternative energy is super interesting and 2) they're just throwing money around for that stuff nowadays. Chemistry may be a kind of brutal way of going about it, but it's probably good stuff to know! But that's what the plan in mind is, for now!

Elder Blotter