Trek to Portage

December 3, 2018

Well this week was pretty quick and I guess you could say pretty good as well.
Started off with getting packed and everything ready to go by Wednesday, stopped by a few people to say goodbye and all that good stuff. When we stopped by bros place we found him down stairs cussin out his pellet stove cause the pipes had got clogged, so he wasn't in the best mood when we first got there, but after a few minutes he was doing better. With him we spent most the time trying to help him figure out if he won the lottery in Newfoundland or not (he didn't) but let me tell you what, he was sure getting excited when he thought he could be the next guy in line if this other guy didn't pick up his winnings soon. He was telling us the whole time was where helping him that if he won he was gonna leave this whole place behind just as it is, and jump in his truck and drive to Winnipeg to get on a plane to Newfoundland, leave his keys is his truck at the airport and buy himself a nice boat and live on that the rest of his life and just sail Newfoundland.
When bro found out that we were driving down to Winnipeg the next morning at about 10 he decided that he was coming with us so he could do some hunting, he said before you guys go come this way and grab me, I'm coming with! At this point we weren't 100% sure he was serious but we could see him following us down just cause that's how bro is.

Wednesday morning, we came by his place before we left, and sure enough there he was sitting in his truck ready to go!
He followed us for about 2hrs that day until he decided he couldn't go any further because he didn't fill his truck up in Thompson cause he thought he could fill it up in a small town 45min outta Thompson, but that cardlock had just stolen 300$ out of this one guys card as we pulled up, so he decided against that place. Then the other place he was gonna try had burned down so I guess it just wasn't meant to be. He turned around, gave us 20$ each and wished us the best, and that’s the end of bro.
Most the drive I slept, till we got 4hrs out of Winnipeg and the roads got bad cause it had gotten a little warmer that day and now they were all ice. I finally had to tell Allen to take the car off cruse when he’s driving in this stuff cause he about put us in the side of a few cars driving how he was. I was sure glad to make it into Winnipeg when we did at 7 that night!

Thursday morning was spent in the Nissan dealership waiting for the car to get fixed and for a ride from one of the elders in the city to take us to where we were doing transfers. Once that finally happened we stood around the church for a good 2 maybe 3 hrs waiting for everyone else to show and for meeting to be done for the trainees. By the time we got out of Winnipeg it was 3.00, so we didn't get to portage till about 4.
First night in portage was spent doing potential stop bys and language study so I'd say that was alright.
Elder Trickler is from Mendon Utah, he's 19, just finished training and loves hunting, trucks, and his girls, but mostly hunting. I'm already tired of those 3 topics and it's only been 4ish days...

Friday was spent moving a LA member out of the judges (a members) home. Got to meet some of the members in the branch while doing that, bro Stewart, bro Borczuch (Borchuck), and bro judge. When you get those 3 together it's like having the 3 stooges together, if you didn’t know them you'd think they all hated each other just from how they go after each other, but they are a really good guys and like to have fun together.
When we got done with the moving we did our weekly planning and studies for the day, did a couple stop bys to see if we could get some investigators out to the branch movie night where they were watching trek. We did get a few yeses from some people so we gave pres. Hitchcock a call to see if we were alright to go and he gave us the okay! Trek was a little different but it was a funny show and I think everyone that was there liked it so that was good!

Saturday was spent doing stop bys out in some small towns around portage and doing some tracting as well. Didn't get to find anyone new, but we did find some potentials so that was nice!

Sunday we had church in our little building, not sure what it was before it became the church but it does what we need so that's all that matters. The branch is a little different with testimony meeting but hey that's alright makes for some entertaining stuff. One of the ladies in the branch got up and told us how she wasn't too sure if she could stay with her husband to much longer basically and that they might just have another divorce... She wasn’t to sad about it far as we could tell, she said it's cause she's not the caring type and she loves her husband and all he does for her but she just can't give him the love back or something like that. It was definitely different I'll tell ya that much.
After church elder and sister Jensen came over to our place for a little visit, they are the senior couple that are over this area but are also working as vehicle coordinator and apartments in the mission office during the week.
Once they left we had a dinner appointment out at the Palmers about a 30min drive away so we finished off the night out there with them, visiting, and teaching their kids to obey their parents cause they are the Samuel the Lamanites of the home, or in other words ones that know what's best for them.

So far I'd say I’m liking Portage, the members are good, the areas nice, and the apartment is pretty good too so I'm excited to see what happens this next bit.

Well that was pretty well the week, love ya all, talk to you next week!

Ps. I got asked out on the rez coming down from Thompson if I had a treaty number. I gotta be the whitest native ever if they are askin me for that! Shoulda told them I had one lol  

 

Thompson to Portage

November 26,2018

Well I'm outta Thompson and on to Portage as district leader with elder Trickler! Should be alright. 

It officially got cold here this week....it was - 37 on Wednesday, 5 more degrees and we woulda been stuck inside all day.

Monday night we got a hr and a half of tracting in which to our surprise wasn't too bad once you got past the first 10 minutes of - 31. Had a couple fun experiences while tracting that night, one was with a girl about 17 or 18 yrs. old who happened to be behind the door that I was to knock. I go up knock on the door and this blond girl answers and she's fairly cute, but anyway I go into my little thing of who we are and what we are there to do and the whole time I'm doing this she’s looking at me kinda starry eyed and like she's not even hearing a word I was sayin ha-ha when I asked her if her and her family would be interested in hearing about these things there was a short awkward pause, and then she finally came back to earth and stumbling over her words she eventually told me that they we alright and that her family didn't have much religion in their life anymore but that they used to go to church. As we walked down the steps she wished us a good night and once the door was closed the teasing started ha-ha Allen bugged me the rest of the night about this girl and how I had taken her breath away, and how she musta liked me cause she couldn't hardly talk to me. I'm just glad that for once I wasn't the one that had a hard time talking at the door when someone attractive answers. 

Ran into a lady that plays in the Catholic church band and she was nice enough to let us in for a bit and talk. She had quite a few questions for us actually once we got talking, she asked how our services went and who did what and if we have music or hymns, also asked about how long we serve as missionary’s and why we came to Thompson of all places or even Canada in general ha-ha in the end we got her to let us come back some time and visit with her some more about this stuff so that was good!

Tuesday, we had not a lot going on but we kept our self's busy with district council and fhe at night with the branch. Only the Basallo family showed, along with Dillon, Rebecca, and Dillon's little brother and sister Dom and Payton. Even though we had a small turnout it was still pretty good! Me and Allen did the lesson for fhe on showing/having love for those we serve as we do the lords work, we watched the church video of the kid getting assigned to invite Steve to church and how he was stuck in Sunday until he learned what was needed in order to get Steve to church. After the little lesson we played some games with all the crazy kids and that was a gong show and a half as we tried to do some of the games ha-ha but they had fun so that's good. 

Wednesday was kinda all over the place with what we were doing, nothing really went as planned other than the morning with studies. We did some more work on the ministry list and talked with pres. for about an hr about it and what he wanted done with it again and who was to do what and all that good stuff. He talked to us a bit about what he wanted us to do for the fireside on Friday for the youth and teaching them how to write talks, so we did some thinking about that. 

Got our car back at 4.00 Wednesday, that was nice! It's not fixed or anything but they said it was alright to drive until they could get it in. 

Went and saw bro later that night to see how he was doing and what he'd been up to lately since we haven't seen him in a while. Said he's been out deer hunting but once he got where he was going he realized he had to have a hunter safety card before he could actually shoot anything... So, he wasn't too happy about that cause he drove 4hrs one way for nothing. Says "I have a FAC and everything else like that so why the heck do I need a hunter safety!? It just doesn’t make since young fellers." today's subject with him was mostly music and what was good and what was crap, so it was a good topic cause I knew more about music then I did about futuristic stuff like he usually talks about, talked a bit about hunting too like usual. Not too much new with bro, still working on his basement trying to get it done and all that good stuff. 

Thursday felt like it was summer time!

-8 -10 feels like +10 after a few days of 

-35 so that was a nice brake! 

went out to Nelson house and did a few stops by and some tracking of lost people around there which was successful, cause we found most everyone we were looking for. Sadly, again we didn't get to teach anyone cause they were busy at the moment but we got to talk a little with them so that was good! Got a few coming to church on Sunday so that'll be good.

Friday was a crazy blown apart day for us along with Saturday. Spent most of Friday at the church doing weekly planning and studies, then after that we had to get the little fireside put together for the youth that night so we spent basically all day doing that stuff making sure it was good for them to be able to understand. I don't remember if I said what the fireside was on or not already but it was about how to give talks in church. We had 4 kids show up (which is a lot for here) and it actually went pretty good! We got some ideas for talks put down for them and they seemed to do alright with what we presented to them as a draft of how to write it out.

Saturday, we did some clearing of the walk ways for the hinds and Wendy like usual. Got stuck at Wendy's house for a bit after doing her walk, which was right cause we hadn’t talked to her in a little while. By the time we got done with her it was time for our lesson with the gang.

Today for our lesson with the gang we had them get talks ready for Sunday which they weren't super excited about but we got them to write some decent talks! 

Sunday was good we finally got church to happen in Nelson house! Was only 45 min but hey it was something for them.

Everyone in Nelson house knows that Allen went into the ditch ha-ha the little security guys that regulate who goes in and with what at the start of Nelson house stopped us and were like hey no more going in the ditch! Ha-ha I got a good laugh outta it but not so much with Allen.

Finished off the night with dinner at the Basallos which as usual is good! And yeah that was our week out here!

Well love ya all, talk to ya next week!

Sistrict

November 19, 2018

This week was alright we spent most of the time driving to and back from Winnipeg, and doing exchanges with the zone leaders. Exchanges were pretty good but it took a while for us to get interview done so we only got a couple hours of actual exchanges done in the evening.
District council was interesting in person and being the only 2 guys in the same room with 4 girls (we're the sistrict). Had a good time though and learned a few good things I guess!
After DC we had some interviews before president had a brake so we all hung around with sister Hitchcock talking, and I broke out my guitar a little later for sister Irwin to play. A few days before we came down to Winnipeg we were taking to them on the phone and Allen mentioned that I play guitar and the way sister Irwin answered to that gave me the idea that she played so I figured I'd bring it down for her to have a little fun on while we waited around, plus elder Jensen wanted me to bring it so I could play him burning house, so it all worked out.
Got my butt handed to me in a game of chess against a LA named clayton. I ain't much for chess and elder Carr found that out after he signed me up to play against clayton by being like oh hey elder Nelson here has been talking about how good he is at chess and thinks he can beat you! That was it for me, challenge excepted, and I died miserably ha-ha. It was fun though.
We did teach clayton after I lost which was good. We just read some scriptures with him and answered questions he had as we went along.
On the way into the apartment that night at the zls with elder Carr there was a bunch of older folks sitting in the lobbyish area talking and they saw me carrying my guitar in and they had me stop and play them a couple songs for them. I played them stairway to heaven🤘they loved it ha-ha

Wednesday we got up and packed the car and headed out shortly after 12. Had to make a few stops like at the mission office for some supplies and to show off the fact that Thompson Elders were still alive and hadn’t froze in the great white north. Then we drove and drove and drove.... And drove.... Got home about 8 I think it was? Long day of drivin I'll tell yeah that, especially when you got the same 20 songs playing on repeat.

Thursday, we got to test out the tow ropes! We went out to Nelson house like usual about 3.30 so we got there around 4.30, almost. So, we are driving along and the roads out there are pretty rough to start with but then you add snow and ice to them and they are just bad all together. So, we have at this point about 5 min left of the drive and we are coming up on a slight curve in the road and I start to realize we aren't turning... I thought we were just slipping across the road, but then I notice Allen wasn't doing much over in his seat, in fact he wasn't even watching the road he was watching the other side of the road probably day dreaming again! By the time I noticed that he wasn't paying attention it was too late for me to even warm him, so off we went! We were only goin 60 so it wasn't too bad and the snow was pretty fresh other than right at the start of the ditch. Allen finally noticed he was done for about 2 seconds before we hit the ditch and I think he though we were dead! When we hit the ditch, snow flew over the vehicle making us almost invisible for a few seconds and then about 25yrds later we came to a slow stop. To be honest I was kinda sad about the whole ordeal, I didn't even get an adrenaline rush!! My heart didn't even pick up any, it was like we hadn’t even gone off the road! Allen on the other hand I think thought his heart was about to come outta him ha-ha I asked him later how it was and he said he thought we were gonna die!
So there we are sitting in the ditch and about 10 seconds after we stop Beth (our little friend in the windshield that tells on us) goes "aggressive driving" telling Allen he needs to be nicer to the vehicle haha it was pretty funny. I jump out after that and he follows and it must a been our lucky day cause we had a vehicle right there pulling over to see if we were okay!
We told them we were good but we might need a pull, so they gave a couple guys a call to see if they could help us out. After they got a truck in its way we set to digging out around the car and seeing what was smashed, got lucky again cause nothing bad that we could see then was wrecked. An hr, and 2 tow ropes later we were out! Had to bring in the big guns and get the Ford off our back and let the chev pull us out which was a quite the show! Even got the cops out there so they could keep an eye on traffic for us while we got hauled out, it was quite the scene we had there.
By the time we got the car out it was 5.30 ish so we had a quick minute to run and see some people before we had to leave and go home. Didn't get to teach anyone around that time of night but we caught most everyone home so that was good.
The way home Allen was much more aware of things so that was good. That was his first time ever being stuck so it was fun! Well at least I thought it was fun ha-ha

The rest of the week wasn't too special, but a lot unusual went on. We did weekly planning, games with the gang, shoveled some walks, did our clerk stuff we are now in charge of and trained on so we're the real deal now!
Got no car since Saturday at 4 so we've been walking the last few days. We got
- 30 Sunday night!! Wasn't as bad as it sounds but it was still freezing. Passed a native lady while waking to president’s place for dinner and she's like "it’s COLD ain't its boys!" I don't know just the way she said it make me laugh. I love the native people here ha-ha they are pretty nice. Had a drunk native lady in our apartment the other day coming into her place the same time we were leaving and we stopped to let them up the stairs and I asked how she was doing ha-ha she said "I'm doing great! And boy you look great!!" ha-ha got another good laugh from her when she said that.
Well that's about all for this week here in Thompsons!
Love ya all talk to ya next week! 

Chapel Doors

November 12, 2018

So real quick we are going down to Winnipeg today so pday for us is gonna be moved to someday here at the end of the week, we don't know when we wanna do it yet but if I don't get back to you today it's cause we didn't have time to do a quick email to everyone. 

This week started out pretty good. We did fhe on Monday with the Basallos, Able, and Dillan (dill pickle) all the basallo kids call Dillan that ha-ha poor guy. The fhe lesson was short and sweet, took a whole 5 min and then we played the game life for close to 3hrs! 

Tuesday it was stupid cold out, only - 20 with the wind chill but that's pretty cold right now. 

Had DC (district council) in the morning with the sisters. When we got to the church we noticed someone had closed the doors to the chapel, as we got closer and tried to open them our fears were confirmed, they were locked... All our stuff we needed for DC was in there like the computer and the tv and yeah so it wasn't off to a good start. On the panic scale of 1-10 I was about a 2, Allen on the other hand was about an 8. He wasn't sayin anything but you could see it ha-ha

Me I pulled out my subway gift card that I keep in my coat as a window scraper and stuck it down in between the door and the frame and went to work but about 5 seconds in I decided I was gonna need a more heavy-duty tool to do this one, so I went to the kitchen and got a butter knife! By the time Allen figured out what I was doing the door was open! He was like "what... How did you do that! Like what...!? If I ever need to break into a place I know who I'm going to!" it was pretty funny.

After DC and all that we cleared some snow for the hinds and Wendy since they are old and they like to visit with us after we're done (and feed us). 

Spent the rest of the evening tryin to find ways we could be productive without freezing to death, didn’t do super well with not freezing but we did alright!

Wednesday, we spent some time doing service and visiting with bro. He had lots to talk about this week on the topic of the future and how we won't have to even wait in lines anymore when we go to the stores, we can just puck up what we want and walk out and it'll take what we got off our cards. Talked about how we will soon be able to go from one end of the world to the other in just a few short hrs through an air tight tube under the oceans water level. Also brought up how soon robots are gonna take over all our jobs and all we are gonna have left to do is fix them. 

When he wasn’t takin about how the future is gonna be he was talking about recycling tires and making diesel out of them or vehicles run by a wood burning stove in the back. 

Thursday was spent cleaning out the back room again which we finished by the way!! Friday pres. basallo came and helped us load the old computers to the dump so that finalized the cleaning of the back room!

After we got studies and a few stop bys done we headed out to Nelson house to see some people out there. Sadly, the people we went to see weren't around, but we did find a new potential! His name is Grant, he's the little brother of our investigator Timothy that I still haven't met yet, but grant he said he had to kick Timothy out of the house cause he was wrecking things so now we gotta go on a man hunt to find Timothy and Evarea.

Friday, we did our weekly planning and dump run with pres. basallo. Wendy the older lady we do service for had us come shopping with her in the morning, she gave us 50 (so 25 each) and basically said run wild and get what you want while I do my shopping then I can get some good air miles! So, we did!

Volleyball night over at the school ended up not happening so that was kinda sad, but it was good in the end cause it got us out tracting. Found a few potentials in the last hr of the night! 

One old guy we knocked into is named Terry. Terry almost ran us off his step the first 5 seconds of us being there but somehow, we ended up there for 15 minutes listening to all his crazy stories. Turns out Terry is a x navy seal who uses his time served to his advantage. He has a number that is used for the navy 7734, says it was used for him and his wife when he got called out because I'd you turn it upside down it spells hell. 

Terry lost his wife 6 weeks ago to cancer, they were married 53yrs and he's pretty lonely from what we could tell and he misses her quite a bit. All his stories were about her and all the crazy stuff they’d do together. 

He told us what RCMP actually stands for. He told us that one day at McDonalds there was a cop getting mad at a drunk and treating him bad, so Terry he walked up there and yelled allowed "RCMP! You know what that stands for!? Royal Canadian Manitoba punk! (he used a different work for punk when he told the story) I usually would say punk but my wife's not here so I used the other word today!" he said the cop had no idea what to do cause he was all embarrassed, so he left ha-ha

Also told how he was taking to a cop at McDonalds with his wife and he noticed the gun on his belt wasn't strapped in, so he whipped it out and pulled the stock off and set it before him on the table before the guy even knew what was going on and said "you best be strapping that gun in there, some kid might shoot your foot off if you don't!" he also said that guy walked out kinda in a huff, but came back with his constable and told him the whole story tryin to get him in trouble but the constable said "he's right" (Terry) and let him off the hook ha-ha Judy his wife as they were waking out said "hey Terry what's that you got in your hand?!" (Terry had the firing pin in his hand) he laughed cause she knew darn well what he had in his hand but the cop hand the realized it was missing so he finally gave it back to him. 

He told us many other crazy stories like those but I'll save those for when I get home cause those would make this a long email, he was super fun to talk to though. 

Saturday, we had the usual with the boys, games and a lesson in the afternoon. We helped Able and Dillan get their seminary homework done which was just reading the 3 and 8 witnesses and then bearing testimony of a gospel principle, went pretty decent actually! Usually it's kinda hard to get them to do things like a testimony but this time was good.

In the morning we went to the insurance place here and got Allen a new licence since his temporary one expires tomorrow and his actual one hasn't come in yet. 

Went and visited the hinds and gave them their Thompson branch conversion story book after we shoveled their driveways and walk, which they were happy for. 

Spent the evening with pres. basallo doing the branch ministry list trying to figure out who's good for who and all that fun stuff the branch clerks and leadership get to help with. Found out that most everyone in the branch that we don't know has a phone number that isn't in service so that was funny to watch pres. as he called all the people and got the same answer to almost all of them "we're sorry the number you have dialed in not in service."

"Sorry! Sorry! Not n service!" he'd say every time he'd get that answer in his philpino accent ha-ha it was pretty good. 

Sunday was busy, being clerk and a missionary at the same time is pretty wild on Sundays. Once church was done we spent from 12 - 12.30 in a meeting for ministering and then right after that we were doing tithing till 1.45. Then we drove down to Nelson house for church but ended up not having anyone coming once we found them. When we do church in Nelson house we can't call people cause they don't have a phone and so when we get to Nelson house we have to find them. We usually we find that they have moved or something like that from the place they were in last week so it makes finding them super fun, usually end up knocking 3 or 4 doors in the area they told us they might be in order to find them. 

But yeah, we didn't have anyone at church there so we drove home, did some more clerk stuff with pres. till 6.30, did indicators, and then finished off the night at the Basallos place for dinner! And that about finishes up our week here in Thompson!

Well love ya all talk to you next week! 

Trust in the Lord

November 5, 2018

This week was a pretty good week, other than it was - 20 some days and snowed most the week. Didn't get to do a whole lot of finding sadly due to the fact it was Halloween, but we did get a few potentials as we did Halloween parties and what not.

Tuesday was our branches primary Halloween party for anyone in Thompson area to come to so that was crazy! We had 6 non-member family's turn up there!

We filled up our little building with all sorts a crazy kids, from halo soldiers to pumpkin princesses and then just the plain crazy ones! It was nuts in there from 5.30 to 7.30, we had kids running around with pizza half in their mouth, hands the punch bowls, and pumpkin guts all over the tables from carving. It was a super fun party though, all the kids seemed to love it and the parents were glad they brought their kids to it so that's all that matters. Got a few FBs and or phone numbers before the parents left so we succeeded in our goal while at the party!

Wednesday was spent at bros place (the guy with one leg) from 1.30 to 5 helping him with stuff he needed moved around, like gun cases, tires from the back of his truck, putting new tires on his other truck, then wondering around Canadian tire with him for a bit since his load of whatever he was needing us to help him with wasn’t there yet. Bro he's as funny guy, he calls all the older guys young fellers even ha-ha and he loves to flirt with this one girl that works there, guess they had a lunch date one day that he didn't make it out to... It was kinda awed to see an investigator flirting cause usually us as missionaries don't see that side of them but it was fun. 

Told everyone he saw that we were his newly adopted sons, then he'd slap our shoulders and give us that proud dad shake that dad's all seem to do. Haha

Halloween around here is pretty sad, not too many kids out trick or treating that we saw walking around but that also could be partly because we were stuck in our apartment for most the night. It was a good day though, we had some fun. 

Thursday, we had a mini ZC since we won't have an actual one this transfer, that was only a couple hrs in the afternoon. Learned more about goals and studies and how we can he better at them.

After we got out of the skype call with everyone we drove down to Nelson house to visit/ teach some people. We got in with one of our members out there and we read some scriptures with them and talked about the atonement and how we can better use it in our life. Shared the story about the teacher that had the toughest kid in class do 10 push ups for 35 kids. The teacher went around the class and asked if they wanted a donut and whether they wanted it or not the kid had to do 10 push ups for them. By the time the kid hit 260 push ups the other kids were telling kids walking in to class to stay out cause they didn't want this kid to do anymore. When this kid finished all 300 something push ups for everyone in the class he just lay there on the floor, and that's when teacher then related this experience to Christ and how he paid for our sins and whatever else we go through whether we wanted it or not. The donut represented the atonement and the gift that we are all given and how we just need to realize this incredible gift we have been given and, in their case, eat it! Use it for what it was meant to do! 

Christ suffered for each of us, and for you as an individual. He knows your heart aches, he knows every little thing you are going through right now and he has experienced that all so that he could help you in your times of need. Use his atonement, let him into your life to help you through things you are struggling with. We don't have to go through hard things in our life alone when we let Christ into our hearts. Your heavenly father and Jesus Christ love you and want you to overcome challenges. They will be at your side, helping you in times of need and weakness, and if you demonstrate a sincere desire and act accordingly, they will make “weak things become strong.”

I know that to be true, I have seen that principle at work in my life and in the lives of others as I’ve been out here. Trust in the lord and Christ’s atonement and he will help you.

So, Friday was an Interesting day for us. We didn't get hardly anything done that we wanted to due to us trying to be good people and going to serve bro by unloading his 35 bags of wood pellets from his truck to downstairs.

We were driving around doing some stop byes in the early afternoon about like 1 and we drove by bros place and saw he had a bunch of stuff in the back of his truck so we figured well let's go stop by a few more people and then we'll go see if we can help him. Once we did those few more stop bys and caught no one home we headed over there and knocked on his door, and as usual he was glad to see us! We asked him if he wanted a hand unloading his truck and he of course said yes, but that we should come on in and see his downstairs first. We went in and saw his downstairs, took a whole 2 min to see it all but it is gonna be super nice when he gets it all done, says he's been working on this part of his place for the last 20yrs.... I don't know if I believe that cause he looks to only be 35ish but maybe!? But yeah, he's put it all together himself down there and for him just watching YouTube to do it all it looks really good, has like and nice old cabin kinda look. We ended up down there for about 30 min talking about hunting and the work he's gotta do down there to finish it up, then we finally got to help pack that stuff in for him! Then after that he sucked us back into his basement and we were there for another 2hrs... Didn't help that while sitting there talking my heel on my boot fell off (the rubber piece) all I did was adjust my foot on the stools supports and off she came! I picked it up and quietly showed Allen what had happened as bro kept on talking then after a little he noticed our little conversation aside from his and asked what was the matter. Allen told him my heel feel off my boot and that they were my grandpas’ old boots, as soon as bro hear grandpas boots he in his words said "I'm takin the gloves off for this, dem der are your grandfathers boot my boy we gotta get dem fixed!" (keep in mind he's a Newfie) so he has me take my boot off and he rigs together a little cobbler stand right there on his kitchen table, grads a hammer and piece of wood and goes to town on my boots pullin the nails out. Once he got the nails out he ended up having to grind the old nails down a bit so that they wouldn't go into my foot and then he pounded them back in as best he could the whole time sayin "I’m no cobbler, but my boy we gotta fix these here boots of your grandfather, what a shame!"

By the end of this whole ordeal I had 5 nails back in my boot (in new holes of course) and 2 screws!... Haha that's right he put a drill to my boots so that they weren't ever gonna fall apart again. He then put a screw in my other heel just to be safe. Gotta love bro!!

Saturday I honestly can remember a whole lot of it other than we did games and a lesson with kids (able, Dillan, Rebeca, and one of their friends) it was a pretty good time, little bit of a gong show with all them for the lesson but it went alright.

Also went to Boston Pizza for dinner with the Basallos for Aldrey’s birthday celebration along with most the branch. 

Sunday was the big multi stake conf as most of you know. Lots a good stuff said there, may or may not have fallen asleep during parts of it... Jk

Had dinner over at the Basallos again after church and a bit of work so it was a good day!  Oh and we got to start doing our branch clerk jobs today with tithing so that was new and interesting since pres and Bro Hinds can't hardly run computers and me and Allen don't know what we are doing haha but we got'er done! 

Well Love ya all talk to you next week! 

Seventh Floor Balcony

October 29, 2018

So, when I told you last week how I figured I'd have some stories for you like I did back in Flin Flon, I didn't think I'd have story's like I have for you this week especially in the first week...

We started off this week with some FHE at the Basallos place, I taught the lesson. We did the little video on dare to stand alone and then we talked a little about it, after which we played a couple games with them, Able and Dillan our RCs were there to since they had just got done seminary with Pres. Basallos daughter so that was good.
Once we got done with FHE and games we did a few stop bys and tract before 9. Me in my boots I didn't wanna tie them up while doing stop bys cause I didn't wanna untie them again and all that so I just walked with my laces tucked in to the first door. We didn't get in so I decided to tie them, and as I was doing my boots up bro (Brody) saw us from his places standing there in the street and yelled out his window to us "what ya doin out there young fellas?!" we told him we were doing some stop bys and so he said "well come on in!" bro he wasn't on our stop by list that night but that didn't matter all too much to us, he wanted us to come by so we figured that would be a good use of our time.
We talked with Bro for about his day and what he'd been up to since we last saw him, and then slowly the conversation turned into religion. He asked us what his purpose was here on earth and if God is really there then why did he take his leg in a mining accident and leave him like he is today. We talked with him for a little about how we don't know sometimes why things happen to us when we think we are doing good and living how we are supposed to be, and then I had the thought of Payden's story and what happened to her this summer come into my mind so I told him about Payden. By the time I finished her story he was almost in tears, I related her story to him and how she was doing good things and all that and then this happens to her and how it probably changed her idea of the future quite a bit, but how her losing her leg didn’t seem to stop her much. I told him how she was searching for things she could still do with her new mortification and how it was still hard for her but she just took it all in and rolled with it and made the best of her situation.
It seemed to help him far as we could tell and it was good cause he could relate to what Payden went through.
Did a little bit of tracting this week but not a whole lot. The people here are a bit more closed minded then I remember but we still found a couple potentials from our bit of tracting.

Wednesday we had a lesson set for 2 with this native guy named Freddie who elder Jensen and Larson had taught this summer but since Allen got here him and Jensen haven’t been able to meet with Freddie. So, we had a lesson set but when the time came around Freddie wasn't there at his place so we messaged him seein where he was, he told us he wasn't home and after a bit of going back and forth he told us to meet him at his places again at 8pm, so later that day we got to sneak into the south towers again. I don't think any missionary likes going in there, it's were most the crazy people live in Thompson and the halls in the apartment building are strewn with garbage and each floor has its own smell of a different drug, but we went back anyway. 8.00 we met back at Freddie’s place up on the 7th floor and we knock, Freddie opens the door and he looks at us like we are some 3 month old thing of bread that he just found in the back of his fridge. Elder Allen says hi and goes to shake his hand, and Freddie he just looks at Allen’s hand and then backs away. We told him we were the guys he was talking with earlier to come meet with him and that's when he finally lets us in, keep in mind he hasn't said a word to us yet, he just waves us around to where he wants us. So we go in and take are boots off and then he takes us into his kitchen and stops, turns around and harshly whispers "who are you, and why are you here!" we told him again who we were and he seems to be holding back from wanting to freak out on us and wanting to cry, he rubs his face and says "I was expecting someone else" (both me and Allen haven't met Freddie before) we told him that Jensen was gone and all that and he seemed to understand but he was still frustrated with us. He then took us into his living room sayin come look here, so we did and there were 2 big native guys passed out on his floor. He told us that was his family and that that was why he couldn't meet earlier today, because they tempted him and made him drink again. By the way Freddie was pretty drunk during all this. Freddie led us out to his balcony (7th floor, with a crazy native guy who doesn't seem to like us so far) and me Allen kinda look at each other like is he gonna toss us over... But we figured hey we should be okay 2 on 1, so we go out. 1 minute out there and Freddie asked us out of the blue "are you scared of this hight?" we told him no, but if we were to be falling yes. Haha he then said "I think I'm gonna jump, will you jump with me?" as he started to climb up on the rail. We of course said no, but every so often he'd ask us again if we'd jump with him.
We talked with Freddie for a hr and a bit out there about the moon and what we thought of it, about his life and how he feels trapped. He also thought for a good while that I was the devil, then he turned on Allen and said he thought he was the devil. This was our conversation for most of that hr out there and it just kept all going in circles.
About 45 min into our little visit out there Phil one of the passed-out guys got up and went to the bathroom, and once he got done in there he decided to come try to scare us by sneaking up behind us and yelling. When we all turned around to see who was yelling Phil stopped and took a better looked at all of us. He recognized Allen but then he turned to me and said "I don't know you" and he lunged at me and grabbed my lower leg and my shoulders then lifted me up over the rail! I locked my hand to the rail and held onto Phil, meanwhile Fred and Allen tried to get in front of Phil and me. The only thing that truly stopped me from going completely over was my hand holding the rail and even that didn't stop me till just below my waist...so from the belt up I was over the rail.
When we got everything situated again and Phil was gone Freddie leaned over to me and said "I don't know if he was joking or not... He might have put you over if we didn't stop him..." so yeah I just about got tossed over the balcony of a 7-story building. Shortly after the event it was 9 so we had to head out of there and yeah, it was a crazy night.

The rest of our week wasn't near as crazy and exciting as the start but it was still pretty good. One night we spent building an arbour (not sure if that's how it's actually spelled) but it's the round outdoor arena that the natives do some of their pow wows at. It was an open service opportunity for everyone so we decided that would be a good place to go, good thing we went cause it was just us and the guy that put the poster up for help. It was super nice to get to work on some stuff like that again! Also realized how weak I am from the mission since we don't do much other then walk around, I'm still pretty good but nowhere near what I used to be lol. Love the smell of my coat right now to cause it smells like all my work coats do when we've been building fence.

Went out to Nelson house this week a few times. Did some work out there the one day, then the next two days we went out we were with Pres. Basallo picking up and dropping off members for our branch conf. this Sunday so that was good!

Me and elder Allen got called to be the assistant branch clerks this Sunday...! So that was interesting, now we get to do all the money and organizing stuff and making sure pres stays on top of everything. Looks like I might be a clerk till I die out here. Should be fun though!

Not too much else from this week can I remember going on but I guess this’ll give you a rough idea of how the new area has been this week! It's gonna be a crazy last few months I bet ya!

Love ya all talk to you next week! 

Long Transfer to Thompson

October 22, 2018

A 19hr drive later and transfers is finally over!!
This week we didn't get a whole lot of actual work in due to transfer, packing, sayin bye, and driving. Monday night we did get to go and see a LA family with bro Prete and have dinner there. The fletchers are super nice and they love the missionaries and the help they give them but they just don't have the drive to do church stuff anymore it seems. We visited with them for a good bit or more like bro Prete visited with them while we listened but all in all it was a good thing we think for them just to even have us out and see who we are.

Tuesday we did the usual service at Salvation Army and DC (district council) at salvation army they gave me a nasty brown painting with all their names on it and little messages as a parting gift and told me I couldn't toss it out! Sad news is that it was too big to fit in my suit case so I had to cut it out of the frame, but hey I didn't toss it out!
After service at salvation army we went over to help bro prete dig up his potatoes so he could be done with those before he had to leave Wednesday so we were there pretty well the rest of the day doing that.

Wednesday morning was spent packing all the crap I got which wasn’t very much this time surprisingly, it was easier this time then last I think for packing. 3.00 we headed out the door and drove into Saskatoon to meet the train at 5.30. Took some pictures and signed some journals and then we were off to Regina! Didn't get to Regina till about 8.45. We met the missionaries there and got everyone situated for the night and that was that for the day.

Thursday morning we got up at 5 and met at the church at 6 and got everything loaded and everyone ready to go by 6.30 then we were off again going to Brandon Mb about 4hrs away. Once we got there we dropped off a few people and picked up a few others and then we were off again! Winnipeg was only another 3ish hr drive from Brandon so we got there about 2 and unloaded everyone and loaded everyone else's back into the trailer going to Regina and Saskatoon area then visited for a few minutes with everyone. I saw way too many people there at transfers that I'd only seen on FB or on the transfers lists so I got to finally meet a few of those people and get to know them.
Everyone at transfers never seems to know where you’re going to unless your Flin flon or Thompson, everyone at transfers would be like hey you’re going to Thompson aren't you!? And we'd say yeah and they’d (sisters) freak out and think that was the coolest thing ever and then ask when we we're driving back. We'd tell them tonight and that would get them going pretty good once we told them it was 8hrs from here haha lots of attention when you’re out that far from everyone.
3.00 we left Winnipeg and started out long drive out to Thompson... I think the drive wouldn't have been so bad had I not been in a car all that day and the day before but this drive felt like it was 12hr before we got to Thompson! Me and elder Allen got to know each other pretty good though on that drive I'd say. Allen’s from Oregon, has 6 siblings, he's number 2 of the 7.
We got to Thompson about 10.30, unpacked some things and went right to bed.

Friday we did W.P. (weekly planning) which took most the day. Did some language study and companion study, stopped by a few people that night and got to know some of them.
Was - 15 and snowing all Friday pretty well so that was nice!

Saturday we had a games day with some of our recent converts, Dillan, Able, and Rebecca (she's an investigator). Dillan and able are a couple native kids that were found 8 months ish ago and they are doing pretty good with keepin strong, they are 14 and Able was actually the reason Dillan got baptized in the first place. Able is Dillan friend and he invited him to come to games day and then he ended up coming to church and taking the lessons and yeah so games days is a good thing since we have Dillan’s cousin Rebecca coming along now too, she's 12.
Game day starts off with a walk to the church, then a lesson, and then we play a game or two together and then we walk with them back home.
Did a few stop bys Saturday night and got to see some members and more potentials and investigators.

Sunday turns out that it was stake conference but no one told us up here in Thompson! Ha-ha so we had regular church thinking it was a normal day. Wouldn't a worked anyway up here for conference cause our WIFI was out so the broadcast wouldn’t have worked anyhow but it’s still sad.
Went out to Nelson house with pres basallo to do church out there but when we stopped by the people that usually come they said they couldn't come today so we drove an hr there for pretty well nothing but it was good anyway for me to see some of the places we visit.
Pres Basallo he's a great guy. 3 weeks ago, he lost his 3 foster kids to the foster people and has been taking care of his family, the branch, us, and driving around to Nelson house so we can do church there so he's been under a lot of pressure and stuff this last while, also doesn't sound like they are getting them back... But on the way back from Nelson house we told him sorry for driving us out there and not being able to do church and he said "it's okay elders, we are showing to them that they are important." and we drove home. I don't know but to me that was pretty amazing to hear after driving an hr one way so we could do church and then not have it happen.
Did some language study once we got back, changed out of our suits and then we headed over to the basallos place for dinner. They feed us most every Sunday and then we also do FHE for them most every week too so we spend a lot of time with them and their kids. Iris their little girl she came us to me and was like "elder Nelson do you know the secret hand shake?" I told her "no I don't think so" so she whispered "it's only for elders." so she showed me the secret elder hand shake and now she does it with me every time I see her.
So far, I'm liking it up here in Thompson again so I'm excited to see what good stories this week brings. Maybe I'll have some stories like I did when I was in Flin flon for you guys.
Love ya all talk to you next week!