"Winter is Coming"
So first off, I hope someone get's that reference. I know that Colton will. But seriously, winter is coming on fast. The first sign that our ward mission leader told me is basically how seasons work around here. Basically it is summer. Then it gets super windy. Then it is a long cold, snowy winter. Then it gets super windy. Then it's summer again. Today the forecast is 80 km/hr winds sooo.... yeah. Plus the high for at least most of this week is 18C, which is like 60F. That with the wind chill is kinda cold, at least for me. Soon, I'll tell the tale of Wednesday which is the final confirmation of the approaching winter. But first, I need to switch computers so I'll be right back.
So, I guess some updates on my investigators are needed. B & K's mom now has to work and go to school. Her ex moved to California and stopped paying child support, so she is often not home until 1:00 am. As such we haven't been able to meet with them. We have an appointment with them on Tuesday though, so that's good. They are reading and praying and still want to be baptized but for reasons I can't say, the baptism may be in the quite distant future. But we are obviously going to still work with them and help them be completely ready for whenever they get baptized.
As for Randy, the other investigator, Elder Henderson met with him while on exchanges. His problem, as he puts it, is that when he's out trucking he feels he can't be baptized. But anytime the missionaries talk to him or are even around him he feels like he should. I have some very bold yet loving, words that I want to say to him the next time we meet that will hopefully give him a spiritual slap in the right direction. He is so close to being a good solid investigator and I just want to "nudge" him onto the right track. But we'll see. He's now gone for another 7 days, so hopefully we'll meet him next week sometime. We will be texting him a lot though :)
Now, let's see. Last Monday was a great P-Day. We played dodgeball and aside from the fact that I was sore for the next two days it was great. Dinner was very irritating though. It was with a part member family where the husband is the non-member. He just, ugh. I just wanted to yell at him and scream and forcefully baptize him because he knows how important it is and just won't commit. For example, he said that the Terrestrial Kingdom would be just fine. We asked, don't you want to be with your wife? To which he replied, "She can visit me". AHHHH!!! The whole conversation didn't seem to go anywhere. There was some good though, because the wife opened up more than she ever has before (and he has been taught a lot before). Plus, for the first time he opened up in front of his kids, so some little bits of progress may have been made.
Tuesday was kinda uneventful, just normal stop-by's and a lot of cancellations.
Which brings us to Wednesday. Oh Wednesday. Imagine, if you will, a rainy day. All day, nonstop rain. Then imagine it being windy too. Finally imagine that the warmest it got was 5 degrees Celsius. You have what Wednesday was like for us. I had to pull out my sweater and thermals and my coat to keep warm. Man, it was crazy!! Since we decided to drive, we pretty much finished everything we had planned in an hour and a half, so we struggled to find stuff to do. Dinner was nice, but crazy. It was with an active family with a less active husband. So we ate, and then he got distracted by a lot of things. So he is a super crazy and awesome dude. He has like the highest gun and explosives license possible pretty much. So he has body armor and guns galore and tones of explosive stuff, like det cord and such. Now, he's NOT a terrorist or anything, he does firework shows, like intense firework shows. He covered one of the 5 firework stations during the Calgary stampede so he needs all the stuff he has. So, back to dinner. First he shows us a video of his station at the Stampede which was awesome. Then he goes out to his driveway and blows up something. Then he spends 15 minutes looking for the connector thing that you use to fill up car tires from an air compressor. Then he says he needs to go, so we couldn't share a lesson. So Wednesday kinda sucked.
Thursday we met with a couple of families and taught them some cool stuff. I'll share one thing at the end of this email. The first was apprehensive because of something called the 7-day challenge that was mission policy a year ago. Suffice it to say it was the worst idea and most members didn't want missionaries to come into their homes for the longest period of time. But at the end they said that they really appreciated us coming over and told me to tell everyone that she thought we were very good missionaries. So that's the bragging I'm going to do for myself. But I guess you could say mission accomplished.
Friday was exchanges and just a normal day and Saturday was full of Stake Conference, two sessions of it. It was the best Stake Conference I've been to, and that includes the Sunday session. Sunday we had a nice dinner, did lots of service, mainly cleaning a less active's house. The less active family was going through a hard time and just needed some help. His daughter, from a previous marriage, had a grand mal seizure and actually had to be resuscitated. So he was in Calgary all weekend. She's okay now, but they are struggling financially and spiritually. So we helped clean and then shared a message later in the evening. I really think that they got a lot out of the message and seemed more hopeful. The message was on prayer and how to pray effectively.
And that was my week. I just want to thank everyone for emails and letters. I got a letter from Allisyn so tell her that I really liked that. Plus a package and letter from Dad. And I got a ton more emails this week! Thanks to President Lauck, Hayden, Dallin, and Katie!!! I love hearing from you and everyone, even (and I would say especially) when it's just little things from life back home. I love you all and hope you are doing well. Have a great week and remember to make good choices and stuff. Oh and a special shout out to Dylan Christie for getting his mission call to South Africa, even if he didn't share any details in his email.... I'm super excited for him and hope that someone punches him for not sharing details!!
Finally, a quick thought. In the lesson I mentioned above with the member family we talked about the atonement. I'd say that for the most part we think of the atonement as a something we use to repent. We also think of it, though a lot less so, as something to lean on when you go through hard times. I think that I would like to float this idea that I kinda thought of by all of you and hope that it isn't sacrilegious. I think that the atonement is simply about change. Change from sin to righteousness, from sad to happy, from anger to love, from pain to healing. These are common I'd say but it doesn't stop there. It can also be used to change from good to better. From love to true love, from magnifying your calling to magnifying it more. It can also be used to change from good to equally good. When we make any sort of change, like moving, new classes, a new job, etc. we can lean on the atonement of Christ to help us. I think that it is something that we forget sometimes. Not matter what we are going through no matter what change we want to make, whether from bad to good, good to good, or good to better, Christ has been through it and will help and lift us up. Try to use it a little more and it will draw us closer to Christ and help us in all aspects of your life.
I love all y'all and look forward to next week.
Love,
Elder Wake
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