Family!

It is great to hear that all is well at home! The trip to Israel sounds like it is very exciting. I've just finished Jesus the Christ and I think it would be awesome to see that very historic area first hand. I am envious, even though Alma 5 says that I should be stripped of envy. I will have to re-read the chapter in Preach My Gospel on Christlike attributes. Are you planning on doing Lotoja next year, Dad? Or is it still coaching soccer and things like that? And it is certainly true that a mail strike for 6 months is worse than missing an email for a week!

Well, Burns Lake is beginning to change colors! About a week and a half ago a bunch of yellow appeared in all the trees overnight, and it just seems to be getting closer and closer to a full blown fall It has been surprisingly warm though for the past 2 weeks. Apparently it hasn't been normal. Usually it drops below freezing at night and in the mornings, but the afternoons are still pretty warm. Aside from that though, there are a lot of trees here, and so it is very beautiful with the changing colors.

When I left Utah, I passed a lot of fires in the mountains on the way to the airport. It is Northern BC's turn to be on fire now! Apparently there is very large fire in Tweedsmuir National Park, which is fairly close to Burns Lake. Yesterday we spent the evening tracting houses in Decker Lake, a small area that is a few minutes from Burns Lake. Slowly, a massive smoke cloud rose over the mountains and eclipsed the Sun. It looked scarlet red. It was pretty awesome at first, but then it got really hazy. We're told that the fires are quite a ways away and there is no real danger, but we figure that if there was an evacuation, and we don't have radio or TV, people might forget to let the missionaries know. :)

The past week has just been a week of miracles. We have found four new investigators. One of them we are going to be baptizing at the end of this month! Her name is Vanessa, and me and Elder Garner, the district leader, found her about 2 months ago when tracting out a little apartment complex. We had been trying to schedule an appointment with her ever since, but usually she cancel the appointments for some reason. When we finally got a lesson in with her, she accepted the gospel so readily. I can't count the number of times I tried to schedule something with her. I had her number memorized weeks ago. You have to come to church at least 3 times before baptism, and she came this week, she is going to be coming to Stake Conference in Prince George this Sunday, and so she can be baptized after church on September 30th. I feel like I learned so much from the experience. Elder Neher and I really did not expect to find success with her, but we didn't give up on her and we continued to try and share our message with her. She told one of the members last Sunday that she was so touched that I kept trying to work with her, after realizing exactly what blessings the Gospel is going to bring to her life. Being enthusiastic matters! She said it was one of the reasons that she said yes. I also learned how little missionaries do in the conversion process! We didn't convince her at all. She just heard the first lesson, and accepted it as truth very readily. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson and did... everything! Vanessa is a single mom with a 2 year old daughter, and we can just see the positive influence the church is going to have on her life. What a miracle this week has been! What a blessing it is to do missionary work and to see miracles happen first hand!

Just before emailing we had a lesson in a park with Dr. George Magee. His daughter is LDS, and a member in Burns Lake (who passed away years ago) gave him a Book of Mormon many years ago and wrote her testimony in it. When we first came in contact with him, we knocked on their door, and his wife answered and said they weren't interested and began to close the door, but he briefly mentioned he might like to meet and gave us his number. We called him, and though he wouldn't meet with us in his home, he would meet with us in a park. So... that's what he did. He takes a very scientific approach to spirituality, and he mentioned a lot of books and concepts that I was very familiar with. In particular, he discussed the idea of memes and how all religions could just be memes. I had written a 10 page long paper on memes last transfer at USU in my English class, and I was able to completely address that concern. There's another reason I'm in Burns Lake! He invited us to speak at a Rotary club that he is a member of. We'll have to see if I'll be in Burns Lake to be able to do that!

I also learned that you should... not be racist. Basically. We were out tracting little 2 or 3 house reserves on Southside, and we dropped of a Restoration pamphlet at a trailer to a young man that we would assume had never stepped foot inside a public school. The trailer smelled like smoke and beer. He seemed very quiet and listened to us, but didn't really give us any indication that he understood what we were saying. We dropped by a week later, and he invited us inside. We sort of talked to him like he had very little understanding what we were there for, and then he just cut in and told us exactly what the Restoration pamphlet said and that he wanted a Book of Mormon. He could understand the complicated language of the scriptures and could tell us exactly what things like Moroni 10:3-5 meant. Wow. That is far and away more than what other investigators who even have been to college can do. He has probably never been in a school, and probably taught himself how to read. If he was in my place, he would probably have cured cancer or something like that. We are excited to work with him.

I don't want to leave Burns Lake! I could be leaving here by September... 25th or something like that. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Elder Blotter

*He totally might come see" Dr. Blotter" as a patient. He is moving back down to Idaho and has a sinus problem or something.

PS- I was in Unit 3 for AP Government. I'm guessing it was supposed to be that and not AP History? Is Ethan doing AP Gov? I think him and Rigby would really click.

PPS- Elder Neher wonders if you have a really easy gravy recipe. He tried to make moose gravy today and it was literally miraculous how flavorless it was.