The Adventure!

July 22, 2013

This week has been dubbed "The adventure!" because, of how it went.

Monday last, we found a driving range $2 for a bucket of balls with free clubs we could use. That's exciting. I'm also planning on buying some authentic mocasins today!

Tuesday: There's an older couple we've befriended. They took us out to breakfast on Tuesday, showed us a few things to do around Cobalt. Then, we took the 100 Kilometer drive north to Kirkland Lake. Met our host family. (They lived in their house, but they owned three spare apartments above their store that they let us stay in. This is important later.) Met with a lot of members who struggle to come to church because of the distance. Went home. At home, had a phone call with the District leader, mentioned in passing where we were. He told us that we should probably get that approved.... Crap. We just assumed it would be okay because our first night here we stayed with a member.

Wednesday: visited a lot of other members. Went to visit Ralph in Larder Lake. (Ralph has been investigating the church since January, is getting baptized on Saturday. We figured since the branch has been working with him for so long we'd just let them finish him off) On the way there we stopped in a town called Dobie to visit a member. She wasn't home, so we decided to try to tract the whole town in two hours since we had time to kill. We weren't able to because people stopped us to talk to us. Plus, they want us to come back so they can hear what we're preaching.

On the way home we saw a BLACK BEAR! Running off into the forest! Way cool, still gotta see a moose, but we have some good leads on where to go for that.

Because there was no one in the apartment we were staying in except us, we got it approved so we can go up there basically whenever we want. We are now the only missionaries with two apartments! haha.

Thursday, more member visits. Pretty boring

Friday: Tracted here local. Caught Three birds (the finger not the animal) and two F#$% off's. Bad day.

Saturday: Went to a town called Elk Lake, tracted about 1/3 of it. Massive headache. (Those have been happening a lot since I got here...) Then we went home to visit a less active named Shannon, who is close to coming back. Her non-member brother Matt and his less active friend Darby. They all said they would come. They all didn't.

Sunday, worked in cobalt. Another headache. Went to shannons to borrow some ibu. Didn't mention church. It's easier to catch flies with a cake than a club.

That's my life. Hope all ya'll's is doing well!

Love,

Elder T

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The Convent, or "Get thee to a Nunnery!"

July 15

So, it turns out, we live in what used to be a convent. At least, that's what the members tell us. 

 

I mean, it makes sense. It's right next door to a catholic cathedral. Anyways.

 

This week has been rough, not as bad as it has been in the past, but it feels like there's a weight pulling me back all the time... I miss you all, I miss home, there's so little people and so little to do here that you get a lot of time to just think, it's not good for me... Saturday we walked across a bridge a couple of times and I was very tempted to jump over and into the water. Just to try to escape for a minute. Good thing I have a brain and know that it wouldn't help, and it would just create more problems than I wanted to deal with.

 

So, This next week is "The adventure!" (that's what we're calling our week long road trip to the outskirts.) I'm really hoping that we can get something good out of it, not as much as I'm hoping we don't spend Wednesday night in a car lol. (We won't).

 

So, in Canada, there are a lot of moose. This week, we had quite a bit of moose meat. 

 

That is moose hamburger, we had it with spaghetti.

 

Also, you may recall that we found an awesome yard sale and got all of our furniture for 20$ well. Turns out that the mission ordered our stuff before we even got here. But we didn't know. So, if anyone knows someone who needs a kitchen table or dresser, I got one. Jokes.

 

 

 

Also, we got bunk beds! and three mattresses each. Don't worry, we only use two of them, the first night, I jumped up and hit my face on the bottom of the top bunk, so that ended that.

 

Other than that, not a lot has happened. Here's hoping we have more stories next week, I think we will.

 

Love you all!

 

Love,

Elder T

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Hippie Week

July 29

So, this week was fun. Just kinda one of those, let the stress go and just work weeks.

Had interviews with mission president. Talked about what our next step here is, basically it sounds like missionaries here are going to be like 6 weeks on 6 weeks off. so, we were told not to waste any time. No pressure right?

dad always says that I'm a better worker when it is something that I'm excited about. Well, there's a few towns about 100 k's to the north of here. Really, if I think about it. Next to no missionary work has been done up there. Maybe like 20 days total. So, Elder Jones and I have decided that we are going to start a branch up there.

Step one, is to start what's called a group which is really just a step below a branch. There's around 20 members that already live up there. (including the one that was baptized on Saturday) So, really we just have to get them to come. Once we get that rolling, we can spend a lot more time up there, there's a lot of prepared people, bring them to the group, then they can be baptized. Then the group can become a branch!

The reason this is so exciting for me is because the branch president told us that Elder Ballard prophesied that there would be a stake center here in Temiskaming. No pressure right? So, that put some fire under our feet and we want to get this thing rolling. Maybe, we won't be here for the stake center, but we can definitely do a good job getting this place ready for a second branch. 

Also, we had a baptism on Saturday, not sure I mentioned that, this guy has been being taught since January, his wife was inactive for like 30 years and then just up and decided to come back to church. So he came with her. Elder Jones and I got a freebie. lol.

Really, this week was just kind of getting back into the groove and getting ready for an awesome future. There's a quote in Preach My Gospel that says "nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach" Truth be spoken. So, We're working on finding people to teach and doing a pretty good job at it too.

I love you all and hope you are doing okay!

Love,

Elder Whiting

P.S. This week we realized that the land on the other side of our lake is Quebec. I could literally swim there from here... Or just drive about 20 K's. Love Ya'll.

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Summer Cottages

July 29:

  As far as the announcements, nothing has changed. Waiting for orders from Salt Lake. Getting out of bed is easy. Staying awake during morning prayers can be tricky if I take too long. Usually I'll say a quick one right as I wake up, then say a longer one before studies when I've got some momentum. Smiling is easy with elder Jones. Our personalities match so well, it's scary.

I had a nice chat with president Scott on Friday. I asked him what he thought I needed to do to improve. Basically he said let everything from home go, but family. It's okay and healthy to think about family, just don't dwell outside of that. Something about not having a summer cottage in Babylon. Which is hard because this lake is super smooth and huge and no one is ever out there so it would be perfect for wake-boarding. (so when we all come up to visit here someday, it might be a good idea to bring a boat ;))

There's a talk called "the consecrated missionary" that has been on my mind a lot lately. I want to be better than I am. And I'm using every tool I can find to get there. I also think about President Packer's piece on teaching by the spirit.