Mother!
Happy Birthday yesterday! Your firstborn thought of you quite often on that day! I hope that it was the best one yet.
Elder Blotter
Monday, December 17, 2012
December 17
Good Morning! Well, I have to say Sis. Manwaring and I have bonded.
What a sweet and lovely lady! I loved her accent and just loved her. It
was so fun seeing pictures of Burns Lake and the surrounding BEAUTIFUL
areas. Bro. Manwaring showed up pics of bears, foxes, sunsets, lakes,
mountains, etc. She told me what Vanessa had told her when you first
knocked on her door with your huge smile and how you seemed to glow and
how thankful she was to you for never giving up on her. They told us how
happy you are and when anyone asks how you are, you smile and
say..."excellent!!!". They wondered if that is how you've always been.
:) We told them that is just how you came. It made our year to have
that visit on Friday night and to hear about how much you are loved by
the members in Burns Lake. And
she also said that Elder Epperson is a very special missionary. We are
thankful that you've had the opportunity to serve with him. That was
like an early birthday present for me!
Wait a minute....is TODAY the day you find out if you are transferred
this week? I was thinking it was next Monday, but it's got to be today!
What an exciting and wonderful time for you! Merry, merry Christmas!!!!
If you and Elder Epperson will be separated this transfer will you tell
him THANK YOU for being such a good companion and that we want to meet
him after his mission. And can I secretly tell you what a blessing it
has been to me to have Sis. Lambert as a friend. I think the church
should adopt a program where a member in each area could be a
"missionary mom friend". :) You wouldn't even have to know. But it has
made the first 6 months of your mission much better for ME. Hee hee.
So will we just hear from you next p-day, which is Christmas Eve, about
how and when we will get to talk to you? And do we call you or you call
us? Will you need a calling card? Maybe you should call my cell phone.
We are down to one home phone. Anyway, it will be so amazing to
actually be able to talk to you! Do you want us to invite Amelia to stop
by so you can talk to her for a minute? We can or don't have to. That
reminds me...did you get Grandma Blotter's package in the mail? She is
worried you didn't get it or she thinks you won't know it's from her. It
cost her more than it does to send Jacob a package and she's afraid you
didn't get it. If you did, will you let her know. :)
That was so interesting hearing about the family from the Phillipines.
Can you imagine serving where everyone was so kind and receptive to the
gospel? How is it going with them? Are they letting you teach them? And
the cute little 9 year old that will be baptized this month? The kids
got your letters and loved them. Jed came and gave me a big hug as
instructed and Jacey wants to start to reading her scriptures every day
like that girl. And Jenessa has a letter to send back but we are waiting
for transfer day to make sure we sent it to the right place. We enjoyed
the Mormon Tab's Christmas concert, but we missed Josh. Jacey felt like
she was big stuff though. It was one of the best concerts in a long
time. It's been a hard week for the US of A with the heartbreaking
events in Connecticut. It was less than an hour from the Elwoods. A
sweet little beautiful girl that died had
moved from Utah not long ago. And I heard another student had just
barely moved from Canada. It's hard to imagine such a thing. I know that
the children are OK and with Heavenly Father but such heartache for
those left behind. If only they all knew about the Plan of Salvation and
had that comfort.
Well, good luck with this week! Possibly big changes are in store. But
you never know, I guess. We love you and our thoughts will be with you
this week. Love you to pieces. Mom
 |
| Jacey made it to the Mormon Tabs concert this year! |
Monday, December 10, 2012
Buuuuuuurns Lake
Well!
Just like that it's been another week! It's good to hear that there's finally a little bit of white sticking around Logan. Up here there's plenty of snow still, but the temperature has been really bipolar. One day it will be around 0, then the next day it will be -15, then the next day it will be 0, and so on. Winter seems a lot less scary than it did at first, too. We're getting used to it! -10 is just sweater weather now. It sounds like a lot of calls were given! Roger Mann will make an awesome bishop. That seems like a calling perfect for him. And I can just picture Amielyn Evans speaking Spanish in a southern accent. Exciting times!
Christmas season is in full swing up here. In the "mall" (which has like a bank and a dollar store connected to a grocery store) in Burns Lake, the branch puts on a "display of nativities" every year, and we spent quite a bit of time talking to people there this week. It was set up in this little room, and they had 171 different nativities on display. We counted them. We would go and stand in the hall and do our best to usher people inside and then give them Books of Mormon and pass along cards and things. On Friday, they had the primary kids act out a live nativity presentation, and they had a little musical program to go along with it. One of the members that was supposed to come and sing two solos was sick and couldn't come, and the missionaries are kind of the "go to" people in those situations, and so me and Elder Epperson both had to sing a solo that we had never rehearsed before in front of an actually respectable sized group of people. It wasn't too bad though, because they also had the community choir perform a couple of songs, and they went before us and attempted to sing "And He Shall Purify" from the Messiah, so the bar was set pretty low as it was.
Well, the work in Burns Lake is still moving forward. It's crazy how many investigators we are still finding even though every door has been knocked on a couple times. I guess miracles happen when you're trying to work hard. We found some really awesome people that we are excited about. We got a taste of what serving in the Philippines would be like. We tracted into this Filipino family, and without finding out who we were, the guy just tells us to come inside and runs into the house. We sit on the porch for another couple seconds, and he sticks his head back around, and asks us why we haven't come in yet. He sits us down, and then asks who we are. Filipino people are the best. They moved to Canada a couple weeks ago, and we're excited to be teaching them. We randomly have a Book of Mormon in Tagalog, so everything worked out nicely. We also found an older couple that live a ways East of town that we're teaching. The guy, Cliff, is a Freemason, which is pretty interesting. There's another less active guy who's about 30 who hasn't come to church since he was a deacon, and he's had a change of heart and we're going to be teaching him the lessons again. We're still seeing a lot of pretty awesome miracles.
There is so much potential in this area, because over the past few months we've hit the pavement (or... snow) really hard. We've filled up our area book with a lot of investigator records. We're teaching a lot of lessons. But for the life of us, we can't get these people to church. It's the worst. We had like 6 people committed to come to church, and from sick kids to health issues to just going AWOL, none of them made it. Again. Gah. We reminded them the day before, where possible, called them/knocked on their door in the morning, had members set up to give each of them rides, and pretty much everything else that's physically possible for missionaries to do without using weapons or kidnapping their children as a ransom to come to church. So... that's pretty lame. In short, we must just need to do some more studying from chapter 11 in Preach My Gospel or something, because the people that we're teaching are really struggling to keep commitments. I guess we just have to accept that these things happen in the Lord's time.
The members here are really awesome though. With their faith alone I remember when I first got here, they were really sluggish and disheartened about missionary work, but now they're all working with somebody, and they help us out a ton. It's awesome. They're really involved and they all make sure to try and console us when nobody comes to church. We haven't had to buy milk or eggs or meat or anything like that because the members always give us plenty from their hobby farms and things. And after 6 months, little old Burns Lake starts to feel like home. It will be really weird to leave this place, and transfer calls are in like a week! That's really weird.
Well, Merry Christmas!The timer on the computer says I'm about out of time! Hope that everybody has a really awesome week!
Elder Blotter
Just like that it's been another week! It's good to hear that there's finally a little bit of white sticking around Logan. Up here there's plenty of snow still, but the temperature has been really bipolar. One day it will be around 0, then the next day it will be -15, then the next day it will be 0, and so on. Winter seems a lot less scary than it did at first, too. We're getting used to it! -10 is just sweater weather now. It sounds like a lot of calls were given! Roger Mann will make an awesome bishop. That seems like a calling perfect for him. And I can just picture Amielyn Evans speaking Spanish in a southern accent. Exciting times!
Christmas season is in full swing up here. In the "mall" (which has like a bank and a dollar store connected to a grocery store) in Burns Lake, the branch puts on a "display of nativities" every year, and we spent quite a bit of time talking to people there this week. It was set up in this little room, and they had 171 different nativities on display. We counted them. We would go and stand in the hall and do our best to usher people inside and then give them Books of Mormon and pass along cards and things. On Friday, they had the primary kids act out a live nativity presentation, and they had a little musical program to go along with it. One of the members that was supposed to come and sing two solos was sick and couldn't come, and the missionaries are kind of the "go to" people in those situations, and so me and Elder Epperson both had to sing a solo that we had never rehearsed before in front of an actually respectable sized group of people. It wasn't too bad though, because they also had the community choir perform a couple of songs, and they went before us and attempted to sing "And He Shall Purify" from the Messiah, so the bar was set pretty low as it was.
Well, the work in Burns Lake is still moving forward. It's crazy how many investigators we are still finding even though every door has been knocked on a couple times. I guess miracles happen when you're trying to work hard. We found some really awesome people that we are excited about. We got a taste of what serving in the Philippines would be like. We tracted into this Filipino family, and without finding out who we were, the guy just tells us to come inside and runs into the house. We sit on the porch for another couple seconds, and he sticks his head back around, and asks us why we haven't come in yet. He sits us down, and then asks who we are. Filipino people are the best. They moved to Canada a couple weeks ago, and we're excited to be teaching them. We randomly have a Book of Mormon in Tagalog, so everything worked out nicely. We also found an older couple that live a ways East of town that we're teaching. The guy, Cliff, is a Freemason, which is pretty interesting. There's another less active guy who's about 30 who hasn't come to church since he was a deacon, and he's had a change of heart and we're going to be teaching him the lessons again. We're still seeing a lot of pretty awesome miracles.
There is so much potential in this area, because over the past few months we've hit the pavement (or... snow) really hard. We've filled up our area book with a lot of investigator records. We're teaching a lot of lessons. But for the life of us, we can't get these people to church. It's the worst. We had like 6 people committed to come to church, and from sick kids to health issues to just going AWOL, none of them made it. Again. Gah. We reminded them the day before, where possible, called them/knocked on their door in the morning, had members set up to give each of them rides, and pretty much everything else that's physically possible for missionaries to do without using weapons or kidnapping their children as a ransom to come to church. So... that's pretty lame. In short, we must just need to do some more studying from chapter 11 in Preach My Gospel or something, because the people that we're teaching are really struggling to keep commitments. I guess we just have to accept that these things happen in the Lord's time.
The members here are really awesome though. With their faith alone I remember when I first got here, they were really sluggish and disheartened about missionary work, but now they're all working with somebody, and they help us out a ton. It's awesome. They're really involved and they all make sure to try and console us when nobody comes to church. We haven't had to buy milk or eggs or meat or anything like that because the members always give us plenty from their hobby farms and things. And after 6 months, little old Burns Lake starts to feel like home. It will be really weird to leave this place, and transfer calls are in like a week! That's really weird.
Well, Merry Christmas!The timer on the computer says I'm about out of time! Hope that everybody has a really awesome week!
Elder Blotter
Monday, December 3, 2012
Send the warm spell up here please...
Well!
There isn't too much warm air up here! If you could find some way to package it up and send it up here, I wouldn't complain about a little global warming, ha ha. It's pretty consistently -12ish Celsius now, and it feels a lot worse because of the wind. We're just kind of figuring out that surviving up here in the winter is all about wearing lots of layers and breaking up tracting as much as possible with teaching appointments. Snow kind of comes and goes, but there is about a foot or more of snow on the ground still. I think that the ski resort in Smithers is already open, but I'm not totally sure. It is the worst how short the days are up here! The culture is that 8:00 feels the same as about 10:00, and so when we are knocking doors at 8:30, everybody seems put off by how late it is. Oh well! We'll be blessed by being obedient to the schedule. A truth-seeker won't care what time we knock.
And transfers are... on December 20th, I think. So I'll probably be leaving right before Christmas. It's pretty weird to think about actually, because this has been my whole mission experience so far. I can't imagine not being here! The branch up here is just really awesome and so Burns Lake has kind of become a home away from home. I can't imagine serving in a ward. Or having more than 4 or 5 people in Elder's Quorum. Or being in an area where you can street contact. It will be weird to see what happens on transfers! And on Christmas, I'll go to a members home or something like that to call. I'll probably have somewhere around an hour to talk, and I'll probably be able to tell you about what time the call will come in email the week before or something. I'm not exactly sure exactly how it will work out, since I probably won't even be in Burns Lake on Christmas, but it should be great!
Is it Governor Herbert that Ethan has to be nominated by? Just have Ethan bring that picture in to the interview. He'll get the nomination by relation to me, I'm pretty sure. That would be awesome possum if Ethan got called to Vancouver. But I predict South Africa. Ha ha. As far as the election goes, members are talking about how there are a few more people that have moved up here to join their family in BC after President Obama got re-elected, and renounced their American citizenship. Making a stand is great and everything, but if high taxes and socialized medicine isn't your cup of tea, Canada is not the place to go.
Well, we had a lot of miracles and a lot of setbacks in Burns Lake this week. You really love the people that you are working with, and so when they are progressing, you're doing awesome, and when they don't keep commitments, you're devastated. A lot of highs and lows. We're really coming to realize the miracle that Vanessa was. She is going to be instrumental in getting more people in Burns Lake to come unto Christ. We met with a former investigator, Heather Tom, who knows Vanessa, and had a very powerful first lesson and set a baptismal date for December 29th with her. Earlier that day she had committed to herself that she was going to quit drinking, and she was looking for something to help her do that, so she had a really soft heart. How the lesson worked out was a miracle. We set a return appointment and we were super excited about it. We had a member coming into town all the way from Southside to come with us, when Heather cancelled last minute. We still had the member, Dallin (who is 17 and leaving on a mission probably when Ethan is) coming, and so we frantically tried to figure out what we could do. We said a prayer, and I just started calling tons of potential investigators to figure something out. We called this other native lady, Lillian, who has been a potential investigator for months, but we haven't had a member for an appointment, and it's really hard to schedule appointments with members on the reserve because sometimes the people can be a bit flaky. But we called her, and she said she would love it if we dropped by in half an hour (probably because we had shoveled her walk a couple times before Ammon-like service is super important with missionary work). As soon as we called her, I felt really calm, like everything was going to be okay. And then Vanessa called, and asked randomly if there was anything she could do to help us, so we invited her to the lesson as well. Turns out that Lillian was pretty good friends with Vanessa, and Vanessa just bore her testimony really strong about what the church has done for her, and we had a really powerful lesson. Now Lillian wants to get baptized too. Whew. it was really hectic, but it was all orchestrated by Heavenly Father. It was awesome. Nights like that happen all the time. But... then the next day, even though we had 6 people committed to come to church, none of them came. Lillian had health reasons, and the others, we're just not sure about, but... gah. It is so stressful sitting by the doors to the church the 15 minutes before church starts. Seriously. Ups and downs. Ray didn't come, but Brooklyn is still progressing a lot. It is so fun to teach a 9 year old. Her date is for December 29th.
In other news, I have officially tracted everywhere in the area at least once, surrounding areas included! Hutter Road in Decker Lake was the very last one. Except for Topley, a little not-even-one-horse-town that might be in our area but might be in Smithers' area. Still. Awesome. We're putting in a lot of time knocking on doors! We're going to find somebody else to baptize this week, and we're excited about it. Tracting has become second nature now. A day doesn't feel complete if we haven't done it for a couple hours. And it's still productive! That still blows me away. We found like 4 new investigators this week. At this rate all of Burns Lake will be a potential or former investigator at some point!
Well, I hope that everybody has a great week! Keep Burns Lake in your prayers! I got the Christmas package the other day. Thanks a bunch!
Elder Blotter
There isn't too much warm air up here! If you could find some way to package it up and send it up here, I wouldn't complain about a little global warming, ha ha. It's pretty consistently -12ish Celsius now, and it feels a lot worse because of the wind. We're just kind of figuring out that surviving up here in the winter is all about wearing lots of layers and breaking up tracting as much as possible with teaching appointments. Snow kind of comes and goes, but there is about a foot or more of snow on the ground still. I think that the ski resort in Smithers is already open, but I'm not totally sure. It is the worst how short the days are up here! The culture is that 8:00 feels the same as about 10:00, and so when we are knocking doors at 8:30, everybody seems put off by how late it is. Oh well! We'll be blessed by being obedient to the schedule. A truth-seeker won't care what time we knock.
And transfers are... on December 20th, I think. So I'll probably be leaving right before Christmas. It's pretty weird to think about actually, because this has been my whole mission experience so far. I can't imagine not being here! The branch up here is just really awesome and so Burns Lake has kind of become a home away from home. I can't imagine serving in a ward. Or having more than 4 or 5 people in Elder's Quorum. Or being in an area where you can street contact. It will be weird to see what happens on transfers! And on Christmas, I'll go to a members home or something like that to call. I'll probably have somewhere around an hour to talk, and I'll probably be able to tell you about what time the call will come in email the week before or something. I'm not exactly sure exactly how it will work out, since I probably won't even be in Burns Lake on Christmas, but it should be great!
Is it Governor Herbert that Ethan has to be nominated by? Just have Ethan bring that picture in to the interview. He'll get the nomination by relation to me, I'm pretty sure. That would be awesome possum if Ethan got called to Vancouver. But I predict South Africa. Ha ha. As far as the election goes, members are talking about how there are a few more people that have moved up here to join their family in BC after President Obama got re-elected, and renounced their American citizenship. Making a stand is great and everything, but if high taxes and socialized medicine isn't your cup of tea, Canada is not the place to go.
Well, we had a lot of miracles and a lot of setbacks in Burns Lake this week. You really love the people that you are working with, and so when they are progressing, you're doing awesome, and when they don't keep commitments, you're devastated. A lot of highs and lows. We're really coming to realize the miracle that Vanessa was. She is going to be instrumental in getting more people in Burns Lake to come unto Christ. We met with a former investigator, Heather Tom, who knows Vanessa, and had a very powerful first lesson and set a baptismal date for December 29th with her. Earlier that day she had committed to herself that she was going to quit drinking, and she was looking for something to help her do that, so she had a really soft heart. How the lesson worked out was a miracle. We set a return appointment and we were super excited about it. We had a member coming into town all the way from Southside to come with us, when Heather cancelled last minute. We still had the member, Dallin (who is 17 and leaving on a mission probably when Ethan is) coming, and so we frantically tried to figure out what we could do. We said a prayer, and I just started calling tons of potential investigators to figure something out. We called this other native lady, Lillian, who has been a potential investigator for months, but we haven't had a member for an appointment, and it's really hard to schedule appointments with members on the reserve because sometimes the people can be a bit flaky. But we called her, and she said she would love it if we dropped by in half an hour (probably because we had shoveled her walk a couple times before Ammon-like service is super important with missionary work). As soon as we called her, I felt really calm, like everything was going to be okay. And then Vanessa called, and asked randomly if there was anything she could do to help us, so we invited her to the lesson as well. Turns out that Lillian was pretty good friends with Vanessa, and Vanessa just bore her testimony really strong about what the church has done for her, and we had a really powerful lesson. Now Lillian wants to get baptized too. Whew. it was really hectic, but it was all orchestrated by Heavenly Father. It was awesome. Nights like that happen all the time. But... then the next day, even though we had 6 people committed to come to church, none of them came. Lillian had health reasons, and the others, we're just not sure about, but... gah. It is so stressful sitting by the doors to the church the 15 minutes before church starts. Seriously. Ups and downs. Ray didn't come, but Brooklyn is still progressing a lot. It is so fun to teach a 9 year old. Her date is for December 29th.
In other news, I have officially tracted everywhere in the area at least once, surrounding areas included! Hutter Road in Decker Lake was the very last one. Except for Topley, a little not-even-one-horse-town that might be in our area but might be in Smithers' area. Still. Awesome. We're putting in a lot of time knocking on doors! We're going to find somebody else to baptize this week, and we're excited about it. Tracting has become second nature now. A day doesn't feel complete if we haven't done it for a couple hours. And it's still productive! That still blows me away. We found like 4 new investigators this week. At this rate all of Burns Lake will be a potential or former investigator at some point!
Well, I hope that everybody has a great week! Keep Burns Lake in your prayers! I got the Christmas package the other day. Thanks a bunch!
Elder Blotter
Happy December 3rd.
Hi there, Elder Blotter!
Are you still having a bit of a warm spell in Burns Lake? I hope you
are staying warm! Am I right in guessing transfers will be in 2 weeks?
Does that make you sad that you could leave Burns Lake just a week
before Christmas and be in a new place where you don't know anyone? I
imagine the members in Burns Lake are going to have a hard time if you
are transferred! You have been there SO long and I know how much they
have come to love you. Maybe someday you could take us on a tour of
British Columbia and we can meet some of these friends from Burns Lake. I
just think if they are opening 7 new areas there is a good chance you
might be transferred. Or could you get a greenie and stay there? I
guess you never know. :)
How is Ray Johnson
coming along? Did he make it to church yesterday? It sounds like you've
got some things going and I am never ceased to be amazed at the
miracles that happen every week in the life of a missionary. Make the
very most of your last remaining time there. Oh, Nate Day received his
mission call to Dallas Texas Mission. Joe's mom will have two sons out
for almost a year. Did you get your Christmas package yet? You better
save it until Christmas so you have something to open that day. And I'm
sorry....when I went to mail it, it weighed 4 ounces too much so I took
the candy out and it was just right. So no candy in that one. I think
Grandma said she send one with lots of candy so save some of that for
Christmas Day. :) DO I REALLY GET TO TALK TO YOU ON CHRISTMAS?!!!! I
can't believe that. That will be all I want for Christmas. How does that
work? Do you give us a number to call you on?
Dad and Jenessa had a great birthday this
week. Grandma made their favorite White Mountain frosting cake and they
went to ifly. They brought a video back and it looked SO fun. I think I
must try it. So little Jenessa is 18 years old. It's very weird for me.
Ethan is now trying to get in to the Air Force Academy and has to be
nominated by .......oh, what's his name that you have a picture with
where you are doing the Japenese tourist face? Him. He has an interview
with him this week. As you will see in a photo I'll send, Supe needs a
haircut terribly. And I was able to download this personalized video
from Santa to Jed. It is so funny and he is going to love it. I don't
know how much longer Jacey and Jed will believe in Santa so I'll enjoy
it while it lasts.
We had to start Grandpa Jorgy on hospice this week. They are coming to
help him quite a bit. He fell and broke a rib last week and is having
dementia. Someone comes 3 times a week to bathe him and shave him. He is
at the end of his journey here, I know. Bless his heart. He has been
such a good dad for me. I just love him.
Well, can't wait to hear all about your week! It is surely the
highlight for our family. You know I've been the YW President for 3 and
1/2 years. Bp. Holt met with me yesterday and asked if I have another
year in me. :) I do. Love you so much. Good Luck with your last
remaining weeks in beautiful Burns Lake. Love, Mom
 |
| Happy Birthday! |
Monday, November 26, 2012
Burns Lake Report
Family,
It actually hasn't felt quite as cold in Burns Lake, either. A lot of people seem to be complaining about global warming. We're not complaining, though, because now that we've kind of adjusted to the temperatures up here -6 degrees actually feels kind of warm. There's still quite a bit of snow, but that just makes it feel like a legit winter. We're thinking about making an "I'm a Mormon" snowman on our front lawn, but we're not sure how our landlord would feel about that.
The second round of Thanksgiving was awesome! We had two dinner appointments with less actives right in a row. Whew. It was some really delicious food, though. I'm not sure why America hasn't found out about perogies yet. They are actually pretty good. Except that the "healthy" families don't fry them, and so I'm pretty sure that if we were Canadians, and so knowing Mom, we would only boil them and not fry them. One of the families we ate with had their neighbor Walt over. Walt is kind of like the Bensens. It's frustrating that they don't just find eternal happiness through accepting saving ordinances and being baptized! Walt has the Doctrine and Covenants pretty much memorized and he just goes off about comparing the stuff in there with the prophecies of Ezekiel. Investigators that know it's true but don't get baptized. Whaddya gonna do?
Sounds like there is some pretty interesting stuff happening back home. A lot of mission calls! It's really exciting to hear where people are going. 7 new areas are going to be opened this upcoming transfer alone in our mission. I'll bet that Jed and Jacey are great skiiers at this point! Tell Jed and Jacey thank you for the pictures in with the package. I always love them a lot. I especially appreciate it when Jed makes sure that I know that he did the monster drawing all by himself. (Ha ha) I think I read the book version of that zombie movie. Another week of birthdays are coming up, too! Happy birthday on the 29th, Jenessa and Dad! That is weird to think that Jenessa will be a legal adult in a couple days. I'll have to send some more Canadian candy sometime. iFly is pretty cool. I remember doing that. I think it would be cool if you got an iFly the size of a gym and then you could play Quidditch in it. Oh well. Back to missionary work!
At this point, the work in Burns Lake is centered on getting Ray Johnson baptized, so that their family can become an eternal family. It's hard to work with him because even though we feel like he knows that it's true, he's addicted to smoking and scared to death of his Catholic mother, but we're really working with him. He came to church this Sunday, and so we're hoping that he keeps progressing. Brooklyn will be baptized at the end of December (what parent could say no to a 9 year old girl who just wants to be baptized for Christmas?) The Corliss family, who we've been working with for a couple weeks now, is becoming more active again, which we are excited about. We can already feel a difference in their home. If we can get them to get over the initial embarrassment that comes from starting to come back to church and get them to chuck the coffee machine that the slightly bipolar wife uses, they'll be golden. One member, Sister Scheel, is pretty much fully active again, despite her nonmember husband, which has awesome to see happen. We've been working with a lot of less actives and we've been promised that baptisms will come as a result of activating people. So hopefully we'll see some miracles soon!
Vanessa is pretty much living proof that Helaman 15 is correct: when Lamanites get converted, they get converted. She has such a solid testimony. It's awesome. She says that her therapist broke down and started crying during one of her counseling sessions because of how much she's changed and how there just seems to be a light around her now. She's pretty awesome. Now we just have to find somebody else. We have been tracting SO MUCH. At least four or five hours a day. Often more. We just want to find somebody that we can help into the waters of baptism!
Oh, and mother, you'd be so proud. While the primary is using the chapel for primary presentation practice, Priesthood meeting is held in the primary room, where they don't have recorded music for the hymns. So they have me play the piano for them. Right hand only. But still.
Well, hope everybody has a great week!
Elder Blotter
It actually hasn't felt quite as cold in Burns Lake, either. A lot of people seem to be complaining about global warming. We're not complaining, though, because now that we've kind of adjusted to the temperatures up here -6 degrees actually feels kind of warm. There's still quite a bit of snow, but that just makes it feel like a legit winter. We're thinking about making an "I'm a Mormon" snowman on our front lawn, but we're not sure how our landlord would feel about that.
The second round of Thanksgiving was awesome! We had two dinner appointments with less actives right in a row. Whew. It was some really delicious food, though. I'm not sure why America hasn't found out about perogies yet. They are actually pretty good. Except that the "healthy" families don't fry them, and so I'm pretty sure that if we were Canadians, and so knowing Mom, we would only boil them and not fry them. One of the families we ate with had their neighbor Walt over. Walt is kind of like the Bensens. It's frustrating that they don't just find eternal happiness through accepting saving ordinances and being baptized! Walt has the Doctrine and Covenants pretty much memorized and he just goes off about comparing the stuff in there with the prophecies of Ezekiel. Investigators that know it's true but don't get baptized. Whaddya gonna do?
Sounds like there is some pretty interesting stuff happening back home. A lot of mission calls! It's really exciting to hear where people are going. 7 new areas are going to be opened this upcoming transfer alone in our mission. I'll bet that Jed and Jacey are great skiiers at this point! Tell Jed and Jacey thank you for the pictures in with the package. I always love them a lot. I especially appreciate it when Jed makes sure that I know that he did the monster drawing all by himself. (Ha ha) I think I read the book version of that zombie movie. Another week of birthdays are coming up, too! Happy birthday on the 29th, Jenessa and Dad! That is weird to think that Jenessa will be a legal adult in a couple days. I'll have to send some more Canadian candy sometime. iFly is pretty cool. I remember doing that. I think it would be cool if you got an iFly the size of a gym and then you could play Quidditch in it. Oh well. Back to missionary work!
At this point, the work in Burns Lake is centered on getting Ray Johnson baptized, so that their family can become an eternal family. It's hard to work with him because even though we feel like he knows that it's true, he's addicted to smoking and scared to death of his Catholic mother, but we're really working with him. He came to church this Sunday, and so we're hoping that he keeps progressing. Brooklyn will be baptized at the end of December (what parent could say no to a 9 year old girl who just wants to be baptized for Christmas?) The Corliss family, who we've been working with for a couple weeks now, is becoming more active again, which we are excited about. We can already feel a difference in their home. If we can get them to get over the initial embarrassment that comes from starting to come back to church and get them to chuck the coffee machine that the slightly bipolar wife uses, they'll be golden. One member, Sister Scheel, is pretty much fully active again, despite her nonmember husband, which has awesome to see happen. We've been working with a lot of less actives and we've been promised that baptisms will come as a result of activating people. So hopefully we'll see some miracles soon!
Vanessa is pretty much living proof that Helaman 15 is correct: when Lamanites get converted, they get converted. She has such a solid testimony. It's awesome. She says that her therapist broke down and started crying during one of her counseling sessions because of how much she's changed and how there just seems to be a light around her now. She's pretty awesome. Now we just have to find somebody else. We have been tracting SO MUCH. At least four or five hours a day. Often more. We just want to find somebody that we can help into the waters of baptism!
Oh, and mother, you'd be so proud. While the primary is using the chapel for primary presentation practice, Priesthood meeting is held in the primary room, where they don't have recorded music for the hymns. So they have me play the piano for them. Right hand only. But still.
Well, hope everybody has a great week!
Re: Burns Lake Report
I just love you and am very proud that you played the piano, even if it's
only the right hand! I hope you'll tell Vanessa that I would like to
meet her one day. What an amazing person she must be. Have a wonderful
week, Love Mom
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