Well hello!
Well,
it sounds like so far the trip to the holy land has gone well! I think
it would be fascinating to see the Vatican and to explore all of it. The
more you look at the Catholic church, the more bizarre it seems that so
many people think it is the same church that Jesus established on the
earth. It has none of the same ordinances or organization. They call
their leader "the Pope", which comes from Papa, or Father, when Jesus
specifically taught to call no man your Father save it be your Father in
Heaven. Everything just seems a little off with that religion. It is a
blessing to have the gift of the Spirit telling us what truth is, so
that we can know when something is what God would want us to do! I wrote
Jed a letter finally, and the post office was closed last time I tried
to send something for her birthday, but I sent Jacey a package for her
birthday. Hopefully they do not think that I have forgotten about them!
General Conference
was amazing. You get a lot more out of it the more spiritually in tune
you are. They say up here that General Conference is the missionaries'
Super Bowl, but it's even better than that! Everybody up here loved
President Monson's shout out to the Canada Vancouver mission. President
Tilleman says that President Monson really loves "his Canadian
missions". And I'm guessing that tens of thousands of life plans changed
with the announcement that missionaries can leave on their missions at
younger ages. It's certainly inspired. It will be awesome to have the
increase in missionaries. More and more areas can open up inside of
British Columbia, and so that will be a blessing in this mission. Now I
will have an excuse when after 6 months the flow of letters starts to
stop. "All the girls that would be writing me are on their own
missions!" Ha ha. I figured that Amelia would immediately call her
bishop after the announcement. It will be exciting to see where that
takes her.
Well, the work in
Burns Lake is going fantastic! We taught more lessons than Elder
Epperson has on his entire mission, and he's been in areas like Victoria
with hundreds of thousands of people in his area. The Lord has really
blessed us. Vanessa is still going strong. She has been living the Word
of Wisdom like a champion and is going to be baptized on October 20th! I
hope that the white clothes that I brought will fit me! I should
probably double check before the day of.
There were a
couple experiences this week that really touched me. At the end of one
of the really long, destitute roads on Southside, there is a clump of
houses that we call the Morris reserve because all the people there have
the last name of Morris. We taught one of the investigators there, and
then we felt like we should visit one of the houses on the other side of
the Reserve, even though me and Elder Neher had taught him and he
hadn't been interested. We knock on the door, and the man yells for us
to come inside. He's sitting on the couch with a Book of Mormon, and
tells us that it is the "biggest joke he has ever read." Apparently, in
the morning, his car wouldn't start and so he couldn't go anywhere, and
so he just started reading the Book of Mormon we left with him weeks
ago. He had read all day at his slow pace, and was in Word of Mormon
when we knocked on the door. He thought that Joseph Smith had written
the book as a story or something, and was about to burn it. We were able
to explain to him what the Book of Mormon actually was, teach him about
Priesthood authority, and he calmed down and is now investigating the
gospel. He just needed a bit of guidance and direction right at the time
we were able to be at his door, and it was miraculous that we were able
to talk to him before he hardened his heart. If we were an hour or so
later, he wouldn't have talked to us.
The other was an
experience with a man named Jonathan Alec. We were knocking on doors
looking for the apartment where an investigator moved to, and one man
said that he had never heard of the person we were looking for. He asked
us why on earth we were walking around in nice clothes in "the middle
of the night" (it was like... 8:30) and we told him we were
missionaries. He let us inside, and as we taught him part of the message
of the Restoration. He said he would like to meet with us, but he was
going into treatment to get him off of illegal drugs on the 7th of
November. The Spirit told me to promise him he could quit using and be
baptized on November 3rd, and he felt the Spirit witnessing it was
true and agreed to be baptized. It was amazing. The Spirit literally put
words in my mouth. We're meeting with him again today and we are very
excited.
Well, life is
going well here! That is about all I have time to write, but many
miracles are happening here. I've got to try and upload pictures now, so
hopefully that works out. I love and miss you all and hope everything
is great at home and in... Egypt now?
Elder Blotter
PS- I found a charger for the camera!
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