Finally- an email from Canada!

So, first off, I apologize for not emailing you sooner.  We missed our last P-Day due to the fact that we were traveling from  I wrote a lot of letters to a bunch of people but I didn't have any Canadian stamps, so I'll be mailing those off today.  Just for your information, all mail needs to be sent to the mission office address that you already have.  Make sure that you put "Elder Braden Wake" on it so they know who to give it to.  Mail is supposedly very slow here and my area doesn't help that (I'll explain later), so please be patient, it could be a long time before I get and respond to any letters.  Also, in case any of you were thinking of sending me packages, *hint, hint*, please PLEASE use only USPS, NOT UPS or FedEx.  Duty charges on simple things can be as high as $20 and USPS is the most reliable at making sure that cost is included in what you pay.  If it isn't paid by you it is taken out automatically from my monthly food allotment and I would really like to eat ;)

Well, that's all for this week, talk to y'all next time!!!


HA, fooled ya!!!  Okay, so I flew in on Tuesday as you know and landed around 2:30.  From the air, Calgary was beautiful.  I fell in love with it instantly.  The airport was basically abandoned from what I could see, but still nice.  Customs was interesting.  The lady was not really rude, but not nice either. Oh, and anyone that went to her desk was given a 24 month visa, not the 26 month we are supposed to get....   Soooo, I have to be out of the country by July 15, 2005 in case that changes any sort of summer vacation plans you may be planning.  President Nicholas said that it was okay that I got the 24 month, but not ideal.

On the topic of President Nicholas, he is awesome!!  He has a fantastic southern accent and is kinda gruff looking at first but is actually really nice.  Three Elders from my MTC district, one other random Elder and myself got to ride in his car on the way to the church.  We talked a lot, and then all of us in the back seat zonked out. Sister Nicholas woke us up at the chapel where we met the "staff" of the mission.  There were forms to fill out and things taught.  Then we went into the chapel, where President had all us "greenies" give our testimonies.  It was nice and the spirit could be felt.  After that we had a cool little thing where we turned in a guess of where we think that our first area is going to be, then we opened an envelope that had where we were actually going and who our trainer is.  Before I continue, I should let you know that there is a weird but kinda cool tradition here and it goes like this:  When you first arrive you are "born".  Your trainer is your "dad" and you are his "son".  So when they read the names of the trainers, if that "dad" was in the room, he would stand up and yell something along the lines of "I have a son!!".  And then people would talk about your grandfathers and great-grandfathers and so on.  When you leave the mission, you die.  So someone told me that my great-great-grandfather was awesome, but he died some time ago.  Okay, so to continue.  My guess was the Cranbrook Stake, which is in British Columbia.  Where I actually got sent was (drum roll please) Lethbridge West Zone!!

Lethbridge is a town way down south of the mission.  In fact, one of the Lethbridge areas goes into Montana a little.  My companion is Elder Henderson, but he wasn't at that meeting because he was still in Lethbridge   After a good nights rest we awoke and had more meetings until 10:00, at which time all of us going south loaded up into vans and departed.  My MTC companion is actually in my zone, another Elder in my MTC district is in the Lethbridge Zone and another is in the Lethbridge East Zone.  So that's cool.

So Elder Henderson, what can I say.  He is from Kent, England and has a pretty sweet English accent.  He is also an excellent teacher and has helped me learn and grow as an actual missionary in the field.  He knows the area pretty well considering he's been here for 7 of the 10 months he's been out.  However, it can be a struggle. At the MTC, we had the whole district to talk to and learn with, here it is just him.  I don't really like one on one situations anyway, and we don't have very similar personalities. I'm learning to be patient and tolerant.

Our area is HUGE!!!  We have two wards, 12th ward and Park Lake Ward.  So that's twice as many members, twice as many leaders and, since they are in different stakes, twice as many stake leaders!!  But it's cool.  Park Lake is very spread out, like it takes 20 minutes to get to the second closest town.  We don't have near enough kilometers to do enough work out there which is sad, but we do what we can.  12th ward is the opposite. It is probably about a mile or less in diameter and has a lot of members.  As such, our primary job is no longer to seek out new investigators, but to reactivate less actives and teach new member discussions.  And there are a lot of less actives in both wards.  Park Lake is a majority of less actives.  Here's something interesting, tracting is a no go now.  That's right, the days of going door to door to share the gospel are over, in at least our area.  In fact, finding in this area isn't a priority either any more.  Not that it would matter, almost everyone is on holidays or doesn't want to talk to us.  We've gone to the two referrals we've gotten and both said they didn't want to meet.  Then a lot of less actives have canceled their appointments with us or won't answer the door to set up an appointment.  We do have one ray of sunshine in the area, a family of less actives/recent converts.  Last night we taught them and the wife, Brooke, had an amazing experience.  She started crying when we taught her about the enabling power of the Atonement and how we are never truly alone in any trials we have.  I felt the spirit so strongly I was too afraid to speak at first.  I didn't want to ruin her experience.  But I did speak up and said my piece, bore my testimony and nothing was ruined, so that was good.

Okay, so I'm pretty sure I get more time, but the computer says I only have 8 minutes left and I don't want it to cut out and I still need to email my mission president.  If I do have more time I'll send a second email.  But just in case I don't, well, I love you all and miss you but I'm having a great experience.

Love,

Elder Wake

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So, I do actually have more time, I just had to renew my computer reservation.

I just found these interesting mission statistics so I thought I'd share them with you:

Mission Totals – July 14
5 Investigators baptized 
5 Investigators confirmed 
24 Investigators with a baptismal date 
60 Investigators who attended sacrament meeting 
127 Lessons taught with a member present 
87 Other lessons taught 
55 Progressing investigators 
44 Referrals received 
36 Referrals contacted 
38 New investigators 
326 Lessons taught to recent converts and less-active members 

I don't really know just how good or bad these numbers are but now have have a baseline where I can try to help the mission go up.

I guess I said almost everything I wanted to in the last email.  The work is going good and I still love it.  I feel like there is so much more I need to tell you but I can't really think of anything.  I guess I could do some FAQ:

Yes, Canadians have the stereotypical accent and it is awesome!!

Yes, many do say "eh" very frequently, though not at the end of every sentence.

They do use the metric system which is kinda confusing right now.

The speed limits are annoying because the sign will say 110 on the highway, which is only like 60 mph.  And there are school zones plus park zones (which are all day everyday) and the maximum is 30 (so like 15mph)

There are photo cops EVERYWHERE.  Since January, our mission has accumulated over $4000 dollars in moving violations.  This is partly due to the fact that missionaries are crazy, partly because of all the park zones, and partly because we have the largest fleet of cars out of all the missions (250 by the end fo the year)

Please feel free to ask any other questions about Canada and I'll answer them as quickly as possible.

I'm really sorry to hear about Hayden and I hope he is alright.  Let him know he's in my prayers. Dylan too, have him send some pictures of his post surgery chipmunk cheeks :)

Oh! and tell Sheridyn congratulations!!!  I'm sorry I won't be there for the wedding, but hopefully she'll understand ;)

Oh, I forgot to explain why mail takes forever.  So, mail is collected once a week.  But since I'm a 4 hour round trip from the mission office, we can't get it once a week.  They just keep it all until someone makes a trip either to Calgary or someone makes a trip down here.  Luckily President is coming down Thursday, so maybe I'll get some mail then.  That means that there could be at most a month between times I can get the mail.  Oh well. I say this because I don't want to offend anyone by not thanking them for letters.  I haven't received any yet, but if you did sent letters, thank you, I look forward to reading them. 

Tell Ethan something for me.  Although I haven't been to Montana yet, and I don't think I'm allowed to go anyway, but since my Zone has a piece of Montana in it, I owe him brownies when I get back.  That should make him happy, especially since it was my first area.  

Once again, I love you all and miss you dearly.  Hopefully something awesome happens in the next week so that I can have an awesome report.  I'll talk to y'all soon!!

Love,

Elder Wake