Can You Say a Prayer for Me?

 Schools done up here so I’d assume it’s done back home now too.  Kids are all over the place wanting to play with us now! Yesterday me and Lewis went after church for a little and played a game of baseball with about 10 of them, all under the age of 13, and mostly girls, so it wasn’t all that intense of a game but it was fun!
So there’s this girl that we only know over the phone and is supposedly in Flin Flon, and wants to meet with us and come to church. Her name is Waverly, she’s 18-19 yrs. old and has had a lot to do with the missionary's in Africa, weird I know, makes you wonder how she ended up here.  Anyway she isn’t baptized.  Somehow got our number here and called us a week or so ago and told us all this stuff.  We hadn’t heard from her in a while, and she didn’t show to church like she said she was going to.  She called us late one night the beginning of the week, well late like 10:00 late ha-ha and she told elder Lewis how she’s like "dying" and has some crazy sickness, kind of like I have.  So we talked to her for a bit then she said she was going to go to bed and we ended the call.   3min later she calls again, wanted to talk about something else, then she said she needed to get to bed, ended the call.  5min later she called again, and Lewis is like I’m not talking to her again! So he tosses me the phone.... I’ve never talked to her before only listened in on the conversations, so that was interesting.  She thought like everyone else does that I was from Texas.  Anyway she’s like can you say a prayer for me? I was like yeah I guess I could do that, I wasn’t going to say no ha-ha so I said a prayer for her over the phone right there sitting in my desk.  As awed as it was at the time, if I was not out on a mission I probably would have never got to have that experience.  Having someone who I had never met call and ask for me to say a prayer for them, knowing that they could feel comfortable enough to call on the elders to give them a little extra help and support in what they were going through at that time. After that she said good night and that was all we heard from her that night. 
The next day the ZLs came up for exchanges.  I went with Magelby and Lewis went with Bingham. Me and Magelby spent the night walking around contacting potentials.  One place we went to stop at was more in the sketch part of town.  As we were walking that way we could hear cop cars coming our way but didn’t think nothing of it.  Turns out the place right next to where we were going to knock had a bit of a problem and 3 cop cars pulled up and they rushed in.... So we stood by watching this, Magelby thought this was awesome because in Brandon it’s boring I guess.  So we watched them haul a guy out cuffed and all, tell him his rights n what not, then stick him in the car, and the whole time this is going in the guy is yelling from this kid we were talking to get his honey for him, but the kid we were sure was hiding stuff from the cops so he didn’t help him.  About the time the guy goes in the car is "honey" shows up yelling for him and screaming at the cops! Finally they take the guy away and things kind of start to calm down.  Me and Magleby stood by for a bit longer to see if we might have a chance to talk to who we came to talk to, but it didn’t happen.  Standing there though we got 3 potentials! Ha-ha
The next day with them we did service out at bro Angell Sr's place hauling and cutting wood with his new splitter.  Eventually it started pouring rain on us but we didn’t stop.  We had things set to a science by the time we were done there.  Magleby hauled the wood to me I stuck it up on the splitter and Angell cut it then Lewis chucked it to Bingham and he stacked it.  We were working at a pretty fast pace too I guess cause it only took 1 1/2hrs to do what shoulda taken 2-3hrs.
The next day as was expected Lewis was sick and I was for an hour or so too, so we spent most the day in the Apt.  I read 6 chapters on the Jesus the Christ and 10 chapters of the b of m sitting around that day, so that way good. Lewis slept all day.  After lunch it was raining but we went out anyway and did a little work.  Turned out that’s what we were supposed to do.  We were walking down the road and two guys pulled over and stopped us.  Keith and Evan Hinckley the dads from Calgary (member) and the son lives in the Flon (non-member)  they were looking for when church starts so we told them and we talked for a bit, then they were gone. 
The next day we went out that night to go see some people and Lewis was like we not driving?  I told him no, so we walked out on the board walk and lo and behold there they were again! So we talked and Keith set up a lesson with us that night to come teach him and his son the Plan of Salvation. So later we went and taught them part of the plan, we didn’t get to finish it that night because it was 10:00....but they said we would see us at church the next day. They came to church and it was really good lessons for Evan cause it talked out finding faith and staying strong through hard times. After church Keith was like hey you want to come for lunch, have a BBQ? So we said yes!!! After lunch we finished our lesson with him.  Man the spirit that was there when Keith told his son that we were sent there at this time to help Evan and be his friend was so amazing and then he told Evan how much he loves him and how he will NEVER give up on him until his is saved, it was just awesome.  Words can describe what was felt there. 
 Keith left for home yesterday and left it up to us to keep his son on track!
That was pretty well our week! 

Talk to you next week and love you all!

 A gift from the kids in the branch!  They are on our fridge now! Not the kids, the pictures ha-ha

 

What Think Ye of Christ?

Well another week come and gone!  Hit my 4th month mark the other day!  Can’t believe I’ve been out that long, sure doesn’t feel like 4 months. This week we had ZC in Brandon so we made the long drive along with the Thompson elders down there on Wednesday and got back Saturday.  On the way down we had dinner with Dallin’s grandparents the Fawns’ as usual!  Too bad they are leaving us in July, then we won’t have anyone to stop by on the way down to ZC's.  We even stayed the night there on the way home from ZC.  On the way up to ZC we pass through a place called riding mountain park and there is always bears and moose that we can get pics of.  Elder Lewis he got up on top of the car to get a pic of one bear that we saw... Not sure why but he did. We had 6 elders in the ZL's Apt it was Flin Flon, AP's, and the ZL's.  We sent Thompson over to the Spanish elders place.  Anyway we all were sitting around doing nothing, so elder Bingham he gets a bottle of homemade Kombucha from one of their Investigators, and if you don’t know what Kombucha is you’ll have to look it up because I can’t explain it very well.  But you’re only supposed to drink an ounce of it or it’ll wreck you I guess so we tried to get the Ap's to drink it but they wouldn’t unless we all got in there and had some of it with them.  Don’t worry we didn’t have anymore then an ounce, we only have one bathroom, so we didn’t want to deal with that.  I think elder Wright even got it on Video of us all up there drinking it together.  Wasn’t bad actually!  Later that night we all got ready for bed and elder Francis knelt down to say his prayers before most of us were even in our beds, that was at 10:30.   He didn’t get up till 11:30... But we all know he wasn’t praying that long, cause he had his hands down by his knees and his face was down in the couch ha-ha he won’t admit he fell asleep though.

The topic of ZC was "What think ye of Christ?"  That was by far one of the hardest things we’ve had to write a talk on, well for me anyway.  But man when we were all sitting there sharing out thoughts on Christ, I thought he was going to pop right up there in front of us all! The spirit was so strong, and I’ll give you a little idea of how strong it was.  I was almost tearing up.... So I can only imagine how everyone else felt.  Then to have Pres Craig recite The Living Christ by memory to us, that topped it all off.  So now I and elder Lewis are inspired you could say and we are attempting to do the same.  I got the half the first section down!

Alright now for the spiritual thought of the day...
I have never really thought too much what I think of Christ, so this talk for me was hard at first for me to write.  But the more I thought of it the more things came to my mind. Christ is everything to me.  I don’t want to think of were id in life be if it weren't for him.  Coming out here on a mission has really opened my eyes to all the things he has blessed me with before and after my mission.  The blessings I’ve received are countless. Christ is the Perfect example.  There is one thing I’ve always loved to hear said and it is "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness."   Christ tried to show everyone the way that they could follow him, but many of them didn’t like him trying to show them that path.  He continued anyway, taking anyone who would open their door to him and listen.  All the while having people put him down.  This was the people he was trying to save and they hated him for that, enough to put him on a cross and have him done away with.   But in the end Christ still loved those people that had done wrong to him.  Remember his last words on the cross “Father forgive them, for they know not what they have done." I have never had to endure what he did in his life here on earth, but out here I feel I’m getting a small feeling of how he must have felt, trying to bring those he loves closer to him so they can have a better life.   I love the people here in Flin Flon, but many of them see it too hard to repent of the things they have done.  They feel they are too far gone or to old.   Seeing them say that to me and my companion saying "I’m too far gone, he won’t accept me anymore..."  It breaks our hearts to see them say that.  Because we know that no matter what we have done, we can be forgiven because of Christs Atonement.  But that is our part as missionary's, to help them see what we see.  To help them know they can be forgiven. It’s hard to get up every morning knowing that today you’ll probably have 1 or 2 people try and tell you that what you’re preaching is wrong and that we don’t know god.  But all we can do is shrug it off and keep our testimony close to our hearts and remember that there is a God and he loves each and every one of us, no matter what.  I know heavenly father watches out for his children, I have been guided to too many doors to believe anything different.  I love this gospel, and I love sharing it with those I come in contact with.  A mission really is the best thing for anyone.
I want you all to think through out the week what you think of Christ, maybe write down a few of your thoughts.  As you do this I know you will start to see all the things he’s blessed you with and you will grow to love him even more than before.

Love you all, and I’ll talk to you next week!

Pres Craig said he is going to try to make the lord keep me in the Flon for a while longer haha I’m alright with that!!

 

                               Taken on the way to zone conference

Elder Nelson in Nelson House

  Well not a whole lot has been going down up here in the Flon lately, we have been gone for 2-3 days a week for the last bit so that’s been kind of crappy.  But we have a game plan that we think will bring us all the "Gold".  We spent most of one day going through our area book and looking for less actives and former investigators we should go stop by and then we put everyone into a few binders that we have in the car now, and so far we are doing decent with the people we have stopped by.  We figure that the people who have been exposed to the gospel already might be easier to get to then those who have had their door knocked on by us before from tracting.  We will still do tracting, so don’t worry I’ll still have some good tracting stories!

This week we had exchanges in Thompson, and right now they are doing some work on a Rez called Nelson House so they thought it would be cool to have Elder Nelson in Nelson House.  So that’s were I spent most the exchange at and it was definitely and interesting place.  Lots of people to talk to, just wish they weren’t all drunk ha-ha.  One guy I street contacted into I was like "hey how are ya!?" and this guy Told me to bug off which led me to laughing at him while I walked away.  He didn’t like that though, so he tried to get me to stop laughing at him by telling me off again but I just kept on laughing.  Got to love people like that.  Elder Darley thought me and that guy were going to throw down!  I was ready ha-ha I’m in need of a good fight!

Elder Lewis he has this thing he likes to do all the time, and that’s tease drunks... Hey I think it’s the best thing ever cause they don’t get any of his little cracks at them, but it makes me laugh and I can’t hold it back so I’m just waiting for us to get into a fight one of these times.  Here’s an example of what he does.  So there’s theses 2 guys both drunk outta their mind and we talked to them for a bit about nothing all that important, and as we start to walk away one calls out to us " hey ARE YOU Mormon?" and elder Lewis turns around and is like "No we aren’t Mormon, he died a long time ago!"  And I just couldn’t hold back.

 

 Another time there was a guy sitting on the ground and he stopped us and wanted some money.  But not elder Lewis’s 15 cents.  So we went and did our thing we came to do and we had to walk past him again to get to the car and he stops us again and is says "PLEASE JUST HELP ME OUT" So Elder Lewis he reaches over to this tree and takes to leafs off it, then says "here I’ll tell you what I can do for ya, I'll give you one leaf....Naw let’s make it two then sets down the other one with is ha-ha I was like man he’s going to kill you, and me cause I’m laughing but he didn’t so we are still alive.  But that’s what elder Lewis likes to do and I told him by the end of our time together we will have probably gotten in a fight with some drunk.  He agreed...
Did some cleaning in our Apt this week when we got home at night.  We went into our Narnia closet and we found all sorts of stuff.  Everything from Grandma Greys Banana rain coat to a pretty nice key board!! We were both pretty excited about that!  So we set it up and now we have a piano at our place!
Oh and on exchanges elder Bennett and I got a parking ticket..... I hate parking in Thompson.  The ticket  was 177$ but if we paid it by a certain time we got 50% off! So we ran to the town office and paid it!  So it wasn’t too bad but it still sucked.  That’s the last time I listen to Elder Bennett on where to park ha-ha

  Well that’s pretty well the week for ya!

 I’ll talk to you next week!

Love ya all.
 

Happy 19th Birthday!!!

Well this week hasn’t been too adventurous, been sick most of the week:/ did a lot of driving to get tippets off for home and to pick up elder Lewis!

  

After tippets left I was with the ZLs all day waiting for the transfer train to come back to Brandon with all the other elders and elder Lewis.  So we did some service at the soup kitchen for a while, then we took the new Spanish elder to a lady’s house and we did a prank on him.  The plan was to have her answer the door and start to yell at us to leave and that she had told us not to come back and that she was meeting with the JWs then slam the door, and we are going to walk on in and try to change her mind.  So we get there all that happens and the whole time the new elder was like I am not going in there I’ll stay out here!  But we eventually got him in and then he wouldn’t take his shoes off till Elder Bingham was like come on its okay take them off ha-ha.  We all got a pretty good laugh, and after he thought it was pretty funny too.
That night we drove to dauphin to stay with the Fawns for the night.  We drove the rest of the way home in the morning.  9hrs later.....we made it!
Finished my bull whip just before tippets left so now I’m starting a little 4' one today with the left over cord.

Got a lesson with Adele just before tippets left to.  She is awesome! Lot a work to do but I think she might be the one to be baptized, we hope!
Elder Lewis is from Monticello Utah, he’s 20 and has till October and he’s done out here, loves to farm and be out doors.  Reminds me a lot of Morgan berry with some of the things he says n does. 
Yesterday after church the branch sang happy birthday to me.... man I hate that.  Then the Angell’s jr. gave me a cake, chocolate, and a fidget toy.  Pretty sweet.

 NickyJ and I, yes that’s his name, he’s 8and he wanted to see who was faster, so me and him raced to elder Lewis.  So we raced and man is he fast! Ha-ha jk but I didn’t want to be mean and kill his little 8yr old dreams.  He thought that was pretty awesome!
then we played soccer down in Aspen Grove with a bunch of little Indian kids, elder Lewis made one of them cry ha-ha not on purpose he was just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. The kids were like he’s fine! He’ll cry for a little and be good don’t worry!  So we kept playing.  We "lost". 

 That’s pretty well the week for ya!

Love you all, talk to you next week!