Report from Burns Lake

Familyyyy...

It sounds like everyone is doing good, other than some of the usual stresses of life! It's good to hear that everybody, minus Jed's digestive system, is doing well. I hope Jenessa does well with soccer and that Jacey gets all of the pet shops that her heart desires. :) Also, before I forget, since packages take about 2 weeks, and I might be leaving in 2 weeks, (although I rather doubt it,) hold off on sending packages to Burn's Lake from this point on. The package on the 27th should be good though!

I had the craziest dream the other night, and I say craziest because I actually remembered it. Usually, I have really intense dreams and I wake up feeling some emotion or the other, but I forget what happened in a couple minutes. This one, I remember almost perfectly. So, in my dream, we got to go home for a couple days after the MTC. No idea why, but they flew me to Sky View High School in a little airplane like the one I flew here in, and then I got out, and Ethan was waiting for me to be my companion while I was home. We walked home along the canal. It was a great welcoming, let me tell you. Anyways, I got home, and at first in the dream I was really excited to do all of the things that I did before I left again, but then I remembered that I couldn't do any of it because I was set apart as a missionary. So Mom had me cutting strawberries for a couple hours. I woke up realizing that in the mission field is where I am supposed to be, and even though I miss all of you oh so dearly, I am where I am for a reason.

Anywho...

The week was great! As I believe I mentioned last week, Elder Neher took a tumble mountain biking, and so he's been limping, but he's back to about normal now. We went to Smithers for a companion exchange/district meeting, and so that was exciting. We also did a lot of service, and so I did quite a bit of painting and electrical work for this community service project. By electrical work, I mean army crawling with wires underneath a building with dead rats, broken glass, and cigarette butts. It was quite the experience, ha ha. We also had a tire pop out at the very end of Cheslatta Road on Southside, which is pretty much the end of the Earth, as far as civilization is concerned. We knocked on the door of the one house at the end and this elderly guy talked to us about string theory explaining everything and we talked to him about God being the answer. Neither one of us was too convinced, but he helped us get the tools we needed to change our tire, so we were grateful! We taught some lessons, found some investigators, and had this native, when we knocked on his door, come out and grab us and say this really long prayer. It... was another week!

The members here are asked to do quite a bit more as far as missionary work goes than in Cache Valley. We're really struggling to get them to have the faith that their efforts will result in baptisms and blessings. Fast fact: investigators found by missionaries have a 2-3% chance of being baptized, while member referrals that result in investigators have a 20%-30% chance of being baptized. They just need to do the work. We recieved revelation that the way we need to do it is by having them have Family Home Evenings and otherwise studying the basic doctrines and missionary principles in Preach My Gospel and the scriptures. With an eternal perspective, trying to share the gospel isn't embarrassing or awkward, it's giving the person eternal happiness and doing what Heavenly Father expects us to do! Chapter 3 in PMG explains the first lessons so simply, and chapters 11 and 13 talk about what members can do. We think it can inspire them.

The missionary work in Burn's is slowly but surely progressing! Although... our most progressed investigator is spending the rest of the month fishing, and one is moving at the end of the month for as long as a year. That's a minor setback. We're still looking for truth seekers and working with the investigators that we have. Many have had trials and hardships in their lives. The Natives here have all had hard lives, usually as a result of broken families and drug problems. The gospel can definitely bless them, and it has been inspiring to see the changes in those that we have been working with. We have to move very slowly though the lessons because many of them have a hard time reading and understanding, which is probably a good teaching style for me to be learning right in the beginning.

Most of our investigators are from the reserves, but we have some solid potential investigators right now that are living along the roads East of town, so that may change soon. The reserves are interesting places, as are the gas stations around here. If you're going to be a Native American, Canada is the place to be. They have bands here, not tribes, and the bands are heavily funded and provide housing, and if desired, access to schools for natives. The natives also have status cards that allow them to hunt and fish whenever and whatever they would like, and they don't pay any taxes, so gas stations have two prices, "status, and non-status". I think that if they tried to introduce that in the States, it wouldn't go over well, but hey, it seems to work fine for the Canadians!

Our house is definitely not in that condition! Sometimes the table that we study on gets disorganized during planning on study sessions, but that's about it. We're pretty clean. No holes in the walls yet! We have an inspection on Wednesday though, so we'll have to see if we pass that! It is cold in our house though. It's usually below 60 degrees. Which is nippy. Summer here is only "hot" for about 3 weeks, and that was apparently my first 3 weeks here. The people were complaining about it being hot, but it was probably only about 80 degrees at it's worst. I thought it was nice!

Well, until next week!

Elder Blotter

PS- Next time you do send a package, send up the rest of the ties that I have at home. All the Elders here have like 50 ties and trade them all the time. I keep on forgetting to ask that. Also, for my birthday this year, here's the desire of my heart: some computer savvy family member should download Preach My Gospel as a pdf file online and put it on a flash drive. Then go down to Kinko's or wherever, and ask them to print it out at 60%, spiral bind it, and laminate the cover. The result is a PMG that will fit in a scripture case. Which would be nice. But that also would be a bit of a pain, so I know that it might not happen! Anyways, you guys are great!

PPS- My house number is actually #236 on 4th Avenue. I don't know what I was thinking earlier.

PPPS- Did I bring my retainer, or is that at home? I'll look harder for it.

The Week....from Dad.

Elder Jooooosh Blotter

Well yesterday was the extended Blotter family reunion.  Last year you and I launched the boat, and then we snuck in a wake board run before pulling unknown cousin kids around on the water weenie.  You then followed up the evening by going to the Famous Preston Night Rodeo with the Mann family.  I'm sure you remember that day.  This year was not much different except for Jenessa was the assistant boat launcher.  No rodeo.  Tons of kids I don't know riding the water weenie all day long.  Grandpa stressing out over every little thing.  Pretty much the same stuff.  

Not too much exciting.  I will try to get Jenessa to burn you copies of my Mo Tab collection, which is rather extensive.  I also have the 100 masterpieces of classical music, that would be appropriate for Sacrament Meeting.

How is Elder Neher?  Oh the joys of mission companions.  You can learn a lot from them.  This whole mission thing is in large part a marriage preparation course.  How to get along with someone that you are stuck with 24/7.  I have some mission companions that are great friends and you will too.  Remember Elder Benesch?  We saw him eating lunch at the Beav that one day.  He had the cute daughter with him (Carly) that gave you a rather big smile.  Well, he and I began our friendship as missionary companions, in Posadas Argentina circa 1988.  Maybe in 25 years you will meet up with Elder Neher in a ski lodge, and his teenage daughter will give your teenage son (James Wallentine Blotter Jr) a great big smile.  

Not too much in the world.  The Olympics are in full swing.  Not too many Canadians in the Summer Games eh.  Mostly winter games and hot sports like curling.  I went curling one day when I was in Terrace.  A wacko freaked out in a movie theater in Colorado a week ago during a showing of 'The Dark Knight" and killed 12 people and wounded 58.  Gay marriage is in the news more and more as the world becomes a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.  Speaking of evil, Obama and the press continue a successful bid to expedite the second coming.  I have been studying macroeconomics and the US is heading into another recession.  Despite this epic failure, he still has a strong chance of winning.  There is a huge drought in the US right now.  

On a lighter note, the olympics are fun, Jed's life is still centered around food, and Amelia can whip up a great shaved ice at 'Pinks".  Mom is my new cycling buddy.  We rode out to the Martin Harris grave on the 24th on the tandem.  

Not too much in the friend circle that I know about to update you on.  Basically, Jade Burt is pretty much the last man standing.  He is a blessed and lucky individual in many ways, but that mission start date is quite unfortunate.  Eric Holt will leave in December, and he is going to BYU, which came as a surprise to me.  We saw Heidi Fillmore and the Halling girl at the Hyde Park 24th celebration.  They seemed good. 

Well, I hope that everything goes well up in the land where the days are long but the  months will fly by.  

Dad. 

Greetings from Burns Lake, eh?

Fammillyyy...

The missionaries in Terrace told me about a heli-skiing resort that is owned by a part member family. I can't remember their names, but where did you go again, Dad? That would be kind of neat if it was the same place. I definitely am going to have to pay another visit to BC when I'm off the mission to do some of the fishing and skiing that they have up here! We tried to go mountain biking at Boer Mountain yesterday, but we only made it about 20 minutes before Elder Neher took a tumble and we had to pay a visit to the hospital for him to get some stitches, although he ended up being fine. C'est la vie! It was beautiful while we were biking though! A bit different from the biking we did in Moab and Canyonlands. Instead of large rocks being the main obstacles, you were swerving between pine trees and roots. And it was interesting to see socialized health care in action! He walked in, a nurse swabbed the gash on his knee, told him the doctor could see him in a couple hours, and so we just sort of left and came back! It was kind of weird.

Oh! That will be great for Jordan. It's weird to think that Elder Nelson is still in the MTC, too... since I've already been here for almost 3 weeks. One advantage of going English speaking, for sure! You'll have to keep me posted on where other people go, even though most of my friends have pretty much gotten their calls.

It's good to hear a little bit about the outside world! I heard about the shooting in Colorado because an investigator had their TV on, and I figure that as long as people can afford to drive cars, no global catastrophe has occurred... yet. And when the smoke up here cleared up, I assumed that the fires hopefully didn't burn our house down. But that's about as far as I go in terms of knowing what's going on!

Apparently, President Tilleman only sends missionaries that he can trust up in the North, because of how far away it is and how little oversight he has over the area, but I figure that because he has absolutely no experience with me, I'm definitely an exception to that. I guess I can prove myself while I'm here, though! As far as how transfers in the mission go in this area, in the past, he has sent a greenie here with a trainer, then moved the trainer out after a transfer, so that the greenie is the one who knows the area and has to participate more. But, the zone leaders say that you never know with President Tilleman. They say that many Elders in the North qualify for living common law because of how long they're there, and sometimes you're only up for a transfer. I expect that I'll be in Burn's Lake for at least another transfer, but Elder Neher, who was in this area last transfer as well, might be shipped out. I know that however it is organized, it's the way that the Lord wants it, however, because President Tilleman is very in tune with the Spirit and I have full faith that how he organizes it, it is supposed to be. Have I told his story in emails yet? I don't think I have. I'll do that next week or when there's time, because it's definitely inspiring. President Tilleman is awesome.

Me and Elder Neher definitely have our differences, but we still get along great! Pretty much, we both want to be good missionaries, he just feels like that is accomplished through planning extensively, and I like to stick to the time guidelines that are in the white handbook and in PMG. I've just sort of figured that it is probably better to do things his way and have a good relationship, than to become frustrated and create a rift between us. It's definitely hard to constantly be doing your best to be working hard, but when you do manage to do so, you feel so much more satisfied. I'm by no means a perfect missionary no matter how you slice, but I'm doing what I can.

The work here is starting to progress! When me and a zone leader, Elder Reynolds, were on splits, we found 16 potential investigators in one day, and for an area where tracting and street contacting aren't very effective, that was awesome! I have a very strong testimony that the Lord puts people who are prepared for the message in your path. It is amazing to being to see the changes that the gospel brings in people's lives. We have 3 different baptismal dates set, and we are planning on committing about 3 more to be baptized. We have faith that we'll be able to have a baptism in August, and hopefully one per month, even though our Ward Mission Leader is insistent that 1 baptism every five to ten years is acceptable. We're trying to infect him with how awesome missionary work is. :) There is a lot of potential here, and we are going to make stuff happen. I've definitely been humbled, however. The Lord is the one who does missionary work, I'm just here to get the ball rolling.

Well, talk to next week!

Elder Blotter

PS- Thanks for the package, mother!

PPS- With emails, I can only email direct family and grandparents. You can forward me stuff they say and forward what I say, but that's about it. Also, in this mission, we can only listen to music that would be appropriate to play in Sacrament Meeting. So thanks for the music you sent! Next time, send some MoTab! It's fantastic stuff. I'll be good for a while, because Elder Neher has a bunch.

From Jed...

FROM JED....

  Dear Josh,   The cat has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and even bigger. And I have grown bigger too. Today and had terrible constipation. I could only go to Sacrament meeting. Then I had to have an enema. It finally worked! Then I threw up and Dad is not happy I just ate a piece of asparagus. He thinks I might throw it up. Please write a letter to me. And also....we went to Lagoon last week. Jenessa has her Kid's Camp tomorrow. I will be in the afternoon session. What is it like in Burns Lake, British Columbia, Canada? Are people nice to you?

     I sometimes sleep in your bed and it is SO comfortable. Is your bed comfy now? I see a bottle of Fresca under the blue couch.....I am holding it right now.  Good Bye Josh, I love you. Love, Jed.

Jooosh...

Josh, mom said you were sad that Batman Returns was coming out when you are on your mission so I am here to inform you that you didn't miss much.  Dad and Kurtis liked it but Mom and I didn't.  Maybe it is a boy show i don't know. Everyone just punched each other in the face and batman got beat up and was weak and didn't do anything cool. LAME. Iron man is my favorite marvel character by far, he is the only cool one.   Has anyone let you in to teach them yet? Have you had to eat anything weird yet? Are you adding "ay" to the end of all your sentences yet? Hope you are having  fun on your mish, love Ness.

HELLO!

Hello everyone!

Sorry about being unable to email on Monday! The public library is closed on our p-day, and the white handbook pretty much eliminates the other... four or so computers in existence at Burn's Lake because we're not allowed to use member's computers. So, we are trying to change our p-day, but in the mean time, we have permission to set an hour apart from a normal day to write President Tilleman and use email. Either way, we don't have too much time as of now, but if we can work that out I should have more time in the future! And on the subject of mail, we only check mail on Mondays, but it wasn't there when we looked. Elder Neher thinks that it will take about 2 weeks for snail mail to get up here.

Dad went heli-skiing in Terrace??? That is pretty neat. Now I wish that I had gone with him! It would have been weird to have seen part of my first zone as a normal person. They call the area around Burn's Lake "3,000 miles of fishing" and so I can totally see them visiting here on a fishing trip. A good chunk of the members here are retired dentists/doctors/whoever else that live up here now to fish.

Our house is on 4th avenue. I forget which number... it's like #463 or something like that. There's a tree or two in the front yard, and it has a little deck in the back. It's on the right hand side if you are facing the dead-end part of the road. That's pretty cool that you can see my area though!

Being a missionary is fantastic! I feel like it is such a blessing to be here. I've learned and grown so much over the past 2 weeks I feel like, so come 23 months from now, I have no idea where I'll be. But it will be good. Ha ha. So far, I've definitely faced a bunch of challenges. Elder Neher's style of planning is a bit more... extensive than I would otherwise plan (IE... our weekly planning session takes an entire day, even though Preach My Gospel says it should take 2-3 hours), and so we've had to overcome some different styles, which has been difficult but we've made it work without any conflict, which is nice. I've learned a bunch from him for sure. I feel like I've already been blessed with more patience and sanity here, as well. I have a strong testimony that whom the Lord calls, he qualifies, although I definitely have a lot further to go before I feel qualified to be here, ha ha. I feel like I could/should be doing so much more!

The work here has been pretty successful over the past couple days! We've found 3 new investigators this week. Most of our investigators are on the reserves for Natives here. It really does feel like I'm in a country a lot further than Canada.

Elder Neher says that we're leaving in ten minutes, and I still need to write President Tilleman, so I guess that's all that I can say for now! I'll write back sometime next week!

Elder Blotter

PS: I haven't tried my debit card again yet, but I might need to pretty soon. And... I'm not starving. We don't get too many dinner appointments, but when we do, they give us lots of food from their gardens and/or animals. Today, some less actives gave us a bunch of halibut. That should be tasty. Anyways, I digress. I don't think I need anything! It's been great. I sent Jed and Jacey a letter last Monday, so you'll have to tell me how long it took for that to arrive.

PPS: Tell Jed and Jenessa congrats for their respective successes! T-ball is cool and AP History is hard. And give Jacey a hug for me.

Forget something?

Hello there.....have we forgotten something this week?  All day Monday I checked my e-mail, then all day Tuesday. Now it is Wednesday and I'm beginning to think YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN YOUR MOTHER. Did the ferry sink? Run down by eskimo's maybe? I need to hear from you STAT.