FAMMMMMMMM!

So great to hear from you this week! Let’s start off by saying that I FINALLY got your package this week! haha It was SOOOOOOOOOO good!!!! I love the jerkey and have missed it so much! I ate a bag within like an hour of opening it. It makes for good food to have in the center console while we’re driving around doing missionary work. I also was very appreciative of the info on Jess and the preps magazine and everything. I really enjoyed reading the article on her and Lauren. I also love the skittles and starbursts! You know me too well! They’re almost gone as well…I’m not very good at rationing things:) but i’m working on it! Thankyou SO SO SO SO much for the package though! It meant a lot!

So we had Zone Conference this week and it was AMAZING! It’s super long (9-4) but it’s always so good. Often I’m taught by nothing that’s directly said but more by what the Spirit wants to teach me. I was able to receive a lot of revelation for myself and for the area. It has been really warm this week…about an average of -4 degrees C…. so about 24 degrees F. But yeah, it’s been really good for missionary work! The members are great in this area! Some are really nice and good to the missionaries but don’t have a desire to do missionary work and then there are members that are great to us and they are trying to do missionary work!!! I just wish that there were more of the latter sometimes! haha But the members in Canada are amazing and so good to us so don’t worry mom:)

We taught Paul again this week and he wants to continue meeting with us. We invited him to be baptized and he needs some time to continue learning…and permission from his mom….but things are going well with him. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and I know that it’s supposed to be for the investigators benefit but I still get so much out of it every time that we watch it and it always lifts my spirits. A lot of whether or not he’ll continue with us depends on if his mom lets him because he hasn’t told her that he’s been meeting with us. Oh yeah, he’s 45.

We met with a less active couple in which the girlfriend isn’t a member. We just met with them at church after the gospel principles class which was on Eternal Marriage….So we meet with them tonight and we’ll see what they think of it all since they’re living common law and all. But the fact that they’re continuing to come to church is encouraging!

Haha I just realized the titles of your emails that had pictures in them! Your too funny mom…OK, no more…ok a few more. haha

We met with one of the Bishop’s last night in the missionary minded ward….which ironically has zero missionary work coming to pass in it right now but yeah we met with him and went through the ward list and have a better direction of how we can be the best help to the ward possible. So that’s exciting! I love being a help to the wards that I serve in and being able to strengthen the members within them.

Oh yeah! It was Thanksgiving! And on Monday we got fed a traditional Thanksgiving meal that was UNREAL. And then on the actual Thanksgiving we had…..ANOTHER PIG ROAST!!!!!!hahaha It was really good and we ate it at the Vakas again. The AP’s and President were in town so they came to it too….pretty fun!!!ha But yeah, it was a great Thanksgiving week!

It sounds like Thanksgiving was great with the family! I love the Christmas decorations by the way. The cowboy Christmas tree was always my favorite! Some people from the ward went down to Black Friday last week and it reminded me of us standing outside Khole’s I think? And how we were just there for cowboy christmas decorations that NO ONE else would’ve been there for! haha It’s just funny that my first experience with Black Friday was to get those items and I wanted them SO bad!!! haha I also love the pictures of the fam and the new car! They all look so good! Everyone is growing up so much!….well Jess and Connor but Trav looks the same and you and dad look like you’re 25….I don’t know how you two get younger in every picture!

Jessie and Connor sounds like they’re still doing great in sports and I hope that Conman can rack up some more points! I can definitely see Jessie’s volleyball tournament taking forever haha

I love all of you so much and for your testimonies and prayers! I am happy, healthy and all that jazz that everyone says in letters and such!

Hi my mom!

I’m sorry that you lost your first letter to me. I would have been furious! But then again, you are much better than me mom and obiously have more patience:)

So! News from this week is pretty good in my opinion. It has been pretty dang cold on some days but it isn’t too bad. It was about -38 degrees C with the windchill on Sunday and was really interesting. When you walk outside and breath in your boogers freeze immediately!haha and then you cough a little at first from the cold air hitting your lungs. It’s pretty cool! We did get a good amount of snow as well and there are some really pretty views!

The work is FINALLY picking up! We taught a lesson to a man that let us in his door last night and had a good experience. He is that middle eastern type of indian and he dodged an appointment we had with him the other day. He was saying that he wasn’t interested when we stopped by, so I decided to just bare testimony to him of a living prophet and loving Heavenly Father and when I was done he said we could come in and talk. We found out that he missed our appointment because his psychiatrist told him not to meet with us because us mormons force people into joining our religion and pressure people into converting. Why does he meet with a psychiatrist you ask?…He’s schyzophrenic…He doesn’t hear voices or see things but is super paranoid. We cleared up what he was told about us and I explained how we teach what we know to be true and invite people to make steps in their lives to come closer to Jesus Christ. He really likes us and wants us to talk to him more because his mental illness prevents him from reaching out to others and making friends. He could never handle church because of all the people but is going to read Alma 32 before Saturday. He’s totally on our side now and I’m in the process of finding out if he needs to be baptized or if he’s covered by the atonement. I’m sure that he wouldn’t need to but we’ll see!

We also stopped by a less active family with a 8 and 10 year old who want to be baptized. The parents just kind of pushed it to the side while we were there and I think that’s because they realized that they would have to become more active. But I’m excited to work with them and see if there can be a reactivation and some baptisms! I was able to build up a better relationship by connecting with the mom and talking about Coraline and Nightmare before Christmas. I knew I was needed in Canada!haha
There’s also a part member family that’s less active and the non member wife has been going to the wrong ward and going to gospel essentials class and participating! So we need to contact them and possibly have a reactivation and baptism.

AND it’s transfer week and my companion is leaving! It’s been a long transfer but has flown by at the same time. I’m excited to see who I get and how that goes!

Oh yeah, we stopped by a media referal and it was an african lady who was SUPER pregnant and is due at any time. She said that she has a friend that is mormon and she’d like to meet with us but at a different time because she wasn’t feeling well…becuase she was once again..SUPER pregnant. But I’m excited to see where that goes!

Pretty exciting to hear about the stuff at home! Aust and Kels sound great and I hope that everything works out with his decision. I continue to get pictures of Aspyn and she is ADORABLE! Also, the house looks UNREAL!!!! It honestly looks amazing! I can’t get over it. It’s a complete transformation and I am so proud to call it our home now!haha

Also, the story about Jessie made me super mad to hear about but then super happy to hear how it was dealt with.haha We’ve always joked about being protective and doing something redneck like that but now that it has actually happened I am beaming! I hope that he wises up and realizes that she has 3 older brothers that won’t stand for that stuff. I can’t do anything now but I can do a lot when I take the badge off and am home.

Oh yeah, had another pig roast on Saturday because it was my companion’s birthday. Chalk it up for 4 pig roasts in Canada! and I’m sure there will be more! ha

Thanks so much for the money mom. I really am very appreciative of it and try to spend it wisely…mainly on food.

I’m also excited to hear if Timpview wins! That would be sweet! I had no idea that they were doing so well this year. Who’s the coach?

I love you all! Have a great week!

What a week!

So, I’m out of money…sorry. I was able to get some snow boots though but then I had some other random expenses that I had to pay for and wasn’t expecting. Like my feet recently have gotten a bunch of these little holes in the bottom of them? I’m not sure what it is….It’s painful when I’ve been walking around in wet shoes for a while and I’ve been putting on some stuff that I bought that treats athletes foot and it doesn’t look like it has been getting any better…any ideas? anyways, It would be swell if I could get a tad bit more money in my account for little emergency things like that. I’m all outfitted for winter I think so that’s good! I got some cheap 30 dollar boots from walmart because everything else was SUPER expensive. They’re cute and remind me of your moon boots mom:) They say they’re good for temperatures as low as -20 degrees C……so I guess we’ll see!ha I don’t think we proselyte when it gets to -40 so I think I’ll be good! It’s been pretty warm this last week though, those warm winds are real! But the negative to that is…THE WIND!! But it is good for flying kites ha

So as for the fishing last week….pretty intense… The member who took us was a very fast pace person. He was seriously just talking and moving 110 miles per hour the whole day! It was great but it also was kind of stressful ha It was an hour drive out to the place that we went and we had to get permission from President to leave the area. 40 minutes of the drive was on a paved road which was kind of scary with how fast our member was going but it was manageable. Then 20 minutes of the ride was on a dirt road with new gravel put down…lots of gravel. So the road was really loose and he still didn’t slow down at all! He was just drifting back and forth on the road the whole time and I thought we were gonna drive. To put this in perspective, If you ever thought you were scared when Uncle Mauricio was driving then you have no idea what it means to be scared. The driver would look over at the member who was sitting in the passenger seat and take his eyes off the road and then when we were about to go off the road he would look back and correct quickly. Sometimes he would take both hands off the wheel to show the size of fish that we could be catching that day and everyone would tense up! haha But we made it there and back in one piece so it all worked out.:) The fishing aspect of the day was fun! It has been so long! We just casted out and would wait for some bites and just got to relax. It was a nice day but the fish were biting quick enough in the amount of time that we had to fish!haha I had one on the line and was reeling him in and I could tell that it was at least the size of a small school bus!!!!……and then he got the line wrapped around something so we had to break the line….haha But there was one rainbow trout caught that day and it was by the member that took us. He gave it to us and we cooked it on Tuesday when we didn’t have a meal. It was pretty good!

Yesterday was fast Sunday and I was fasting that we could find someone that was prepared to be taught. We went to church and got to talk to the Primary kids and then got to teach a class of 14 to 17 year olds…they were really obnoxious but the lesson ended up turning out well. Anyways, in our second ward that we went to there was someone there that had a nonmember friend with them! He was around 12 or 13 I think but I’m excited to see if we can teach him in the near future! We are going to stop by the member that he came with today and see what the story is there. But yeah, I took it as an answer to my fast and hope that it goes somewhere!

I did get the pictures of you guys carving pumpkins!!! and no mom, I’m pretty sure that it’s not against the rules. It was the bishop’s wife in Medicine Hat that was always texting you pictures before and they would obey the rules:) Anyways, it looked like so much fun! Also, it was a tongan family that we were eating with and they said that Mahina means “moon”. So that’s what you should call Devin now. ha

I am so jealous of that Halloween party!!! I love fog machines!!!! I bet that it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to join in Halloween activities again someday:)
That’s a bummer for Connor!!! Tell him to keep his head up and tear it up in basketball!
That’s also a heart breaker to hear about Jessie’s team!! It sounds so similar to last year but totally ended the opposite! But I’m glad that they made it so far and I’m sure that she’ll be getting some offers soon:) I wish I could have been there!

I’m excited to see more pictures of the house! I love you mom! And the rest of the family!