Happy Thanksgiving (for real, this time)!

This week has been pretty good all around. I'm glad to hear that everything went so well for Thanksgiving back home, sorry to hear that “rocking-awesome-superstar mega-cool-Dad” is still having trouble with his lungs. But I'm sure he'll recover soon enough (He's just too cool not to!). ;)

To answer your questions as quickly as possible:

Yes, we did ask C if A could get baptized. [Score: Missionaries 1, C and S 0] She objected that he had already been baptized.[Score: Missionaries 1, C and S 1] We used her objection to teach the Restoration [Score: Missionaries 2, C and S 1] and proceeded to drop the ball because it was getting late and we had to get back to our apartment [Score: Missionaries 1, C and S 1] We did however commit them (C and S) to read the Book of Mormon as a family and set up a return appointment [Score: Missionaries 2, Cand S 1]... Which they missed, [Score: Missionaries 2, C and S 2] but we popped by and set up another appointment for this coming Wednesday. [Score: Missionaries 3, C and S 2] and that's where we're at now. So it'll be interesting to see how things play out from here.

Vitamins have been happening off and on (sadly with greater regularity than me wearing my retainer. A bad habit I got into in the MTC I'm afraid.) And so far I’ve been able to stay pretty healthy.  Elder A has made a full recovery from his illness, although he is currently suffering from an infected burn on his hand, and the whole Relief Society basically ganged up on him and yelled at him for not taking care of it (although in my professional opinion it was doing so badly because he was tasking TOO good of care of it. He was keeping it covered with a bandage and not letting it dry out and air enough.) But we went over to the S's house for dinner last night and Sister S got his hand all doctored up and he seems to be on the mend now.

I however am suffering from a resurgence of whatever eye ailment was afflicting me in the MTC. My best theory is that it is an allergy to something and my best guess for the culprit is the Suave Shampoo and Gel that I used. Since I’ve been here I bought some good old Head & Shoulders and some AXE hair goop, so I haven't used the Suave stuff in a while but I got a haircut the other day, (graciously provided by the barbarian savage formally known as Elder A. See pictures... hopefully.) And while I was in the shower I was thinking to myself "Oh! I still have some Suave Shampoo and Gel left! I'll just use that again until it’s gone."... Bad idea! My eyes are really sad, but they don't feel too bad they just look awful. :(

Thank you for ordering the Mormon Helping Hands Shirts. I'm sure Elder A and Elder A will be excited to hear that they are on the way. I'll tell them that all the payment you want is a really sweet letter. ;) Also, the CD's you sent are awesome!

As for mailing the Christmas packages, you did the right thing. Mailing packages to the Mission Home is the best way to make sure I actually get the package... eventually. As for the Flat-Rate Envelope, I haven't seen a sign of it, and I haven't gotten any mail since I've been at the new address. :( But it'll probably be getting here any day. :)

I love you all tons and tons! I am trying to send a few pictures right now. :)

These are Perogies!!! Yum. It’s like a Pot Sticker, but filled with mashed potato, bacon, and cheese! You can fry them but I was feeling impatient / hungry and they are good just boiled as well.

 

 Elder A and I being awesome!

 

We made four pies! Three pumpkin (I don’t know if we just had small pie tins or if mom makes really big pies, but we had  more than enough pie filling for three pumpkin pies) and we had an extra pie crust so we put a bunch of sugar in with some frozen berries and poured that soupy mess into the fourth crust. It actually tasted pretty good aside from being really runny.

 

This is Elder A caught in the act of eating not-all-the-way-cooled-pie on Tuesday (also known as NOT Thanksgiving) there was also a point at which I was sitting on the floor of the kitchen eating pie out of the tin and apparently I looked super pathetic so Elder A was going to get a picture (he never wants to take a picture when I'm being awesome) but he couldn't find the camera so there is not actually a picture of that, but what you're imagining is probably better anyways. ;)

 

Tuesday we were going to meet with C and S but they missed the appointment (see answer to moms question involving C and S above). Tuesday night we drove and stayed the night where we would have our District Meeting the next day.

Wednesday we had District meeting with the Elders there. Then I was on an exchange with Elder N, we did some pretty cool stuff, tracted a bit, stopped by some people, we also had a lesson with a guy who is the less-active brother of a guy who is in the Branch Presidency. They don't look at all alike, but you can tell that they are brothers. In the evening a member of the Branch had given us $200 dollars to buy dinner and then meet him with the food so that they could have dinner together. So we had bought Dinner, but he never showed up so we had a bunch of food and only four missionaries. We almost ate all of it. After dinner we stopped by a few more people and went to bed.

 

Wednesday we got our car inspected (first picture) and drove back to Prince Rupert it was snowy and the roads were a little slick (see second picture). But we made it back safe.

 

 

Then we had a Thanksgiving Lunch with I and S and got stuffed with delicious food. After that we helped Brother L move a hospital bed back to the hospital for a sick girl who had been using it. And in the evening we had dinner with Sister M and her Granddaughter, and her granddaughter’s friend, but we didn't have a male to go with us to dinner, so what did we do? We called a random former investigator who we had talked to a few days earlier and took an awesome, huge dreadlocks wearing, guy to our dinner appointment at this sweet old grandmothers house. :D I wish I had a picture for that one!

Thursday was also our appointment with A and S, we did take them a pie, we did teach them the Plan of Salvation, we did commit the both to come to church, and be Baptized on December 16. They are both really, really solid. S has to put in two weeks in advance to get Sundays off of work, so we are really hoping that he can get that date off, but I'm pretty sure that they will both get Baptized sooner or later!

Friday we Power Washed the L’s driveway because Sister L slipped on all the moss and junk that was growing on it, so it had to be done. Brother L bought us lunch and went with us to talk to Sister M again. In the evening the D’s were out of town so we had to take care of their dog/house for them, but we got bacon out of the deal. Picture: Elder A power washing like a boss.

 

Elder A sheared me Friday night and did a pretty bad job if I do say so myself. ;P but I’m used to a professional.  :  )

My hair before it got cut.                                                    

 

My hair (if you can call it that) after it was cut.

 

Saturday we met with S (Dreadlock guy) again and answered some more of his questions and concerns about the church and origins of the Book of Mormon. He's a really nice guy. That evening we were at the L's for their daughter’s birthday party (the L's LOVE the missionaries) and we got to hang out with their foreign exchange student some more.

Christmas…..I don't know how I'm supposed to get you guys anything while I'm way up here, I’d love to send a package but I don't really have the time or resources to do that feasibly. I am however sending this thing (the one on the bottom, the whales are Elder A’s), and whatever else I can fit in the tube. I also want to send my IPod home, but I don’t know if I trust that to the Canadian postal service. Maybe I’ll just try. It'll do somebody back home more good than its going to do me living in my sock drawer for two years and tempting me. ; P   Tell me what you think.

 

Love ya! :D

Elder Thomson

So Much Candy!

Thanks so much Mom & Dad! You guys really are the best! :D Thanks again for the weather report, it is more helpful than you know. And thank you also for the update on politics. It’s been killing me the last few days.

We just got back from the store actually. I was able to get the evaporated milk and pie crust and cool whip so that we can make a pie sometime before Thursday. The directions you sent seemed to say that it would make two pies, so I was thinking if they turn out we might give the other pie to our investigators, since we have a lesson with them that day and they are like pure golden (as far as investigators go ;P ). So if we are still craving pie I just might have to take you up on the offer to buy one at the bakery. :D

I don’t think I've told you about our new investigators yet; A is a former Investigator who Elder A and Elder S taught before I got here. She was super golden then, she knew a little bit about the church (her mom was a member), but she grew up in a different religion (in a foster home), and in recent years has sort of lost touch with God. So she was meeting with the missionaries to kind of rekindle that faith that she felt was missing in her life, and everything was going great, she was hearing the lessons and feeling the spirit and then her dad died and she sort of fell off the map. The missionaries had the hardest time getting a hold of her and when they did she said that it wasn't a good time and she didn't ever meet with them so she kinda got put on the back burner.

But then a couple of weeks ago we were in Overwaitea (a Canadian version of a Safeway, except not quite as classy) looking at cheese (because you know I'm addicted! ;P ) and this employee comes over and asks us if he can help us with anything (All of the employees are weirdly friendly at Overwaitea. It’s almost a little bit creepy. Like, one time, we were looking at milk and this one guy comes up to us and is like, "Oh hey guys! Getting some milk today?" And we were like, "... yeah?" And then he was like, "Oh, we just got a truck in with some fresh stuff today, would you like some of that?" And we were like, "Sure,why not?" And he went into the back and brought us out two gallons of milk, and the expiration date was only a few days further out. It didn't make any sense, but it was still really nice of him. Too bad we haven't been to Overwaitea since Wal-Mart opened. :/ You just don't beat Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices. ;P) Anyway, back to the story! He asks us if we need help with anything and we're like "No, we're okay; I just suffer from a severe addiction to cheese based dairy products." (Or something to that effect) And somehow the topic got around to "S? You're S!? A's brother!!" We kinda freaked out and I think it kinda freaked him out, but apparently not too bad because a few days later we got a text from A (Miracle!) saying that she AND S wanted to meet with us. :D We had a really good lesson with them Friday, and like I said we're going back Thursday for a second lesson, so needless to say we're pretty jazzed about that! :D

We also (finally) got to meet with C and S this week (if you don’t remember [or I haven’t told you] C is A's mom, and S is her [C's] significant other. If you don't know who A is, I don't know how to help you there... it’s a long story. Okay, so A is a young boy that's ready to get baptized but he needs permission from his parents. His step mom is a member, and his dad is cool with it, so we just need to get permission from his mom) We have been trying to meet with them for what seems like forever (forever in missionary time is about two weeks. if you have a life and hobbies outside of missionary work it’s really not that long.), but we finally had a lesson with them and pretty much straight up asked if she would be cool with A getting Baptized.  She said that he had already been baptized in another Church, and we used that as an excuse to teach the Restoration (Score: 1 Missionaries!). We left a Book of Mormon and invited them to read as a family, they said that they would and we have an appointment for Tuesday next week. (Right before we head out of town!)

In other news: Elder A was sick for three days last week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), he was just super achy and stuff, luckily I haven’t got any of it yet. And so I had a bit of time to work on some stuff while he was pretty much passed out the whole time. There’s not a lot you can do while your companion is sick, but I was able to make it through most of Genesis, all of Matthew and Mark and a few large swaths of the Book of Mormon. We watched all of the District 1 and 2, and I was able to get some hand written letters done. I'm sorry to say that I did spend the most time on Zach's letter and sort of neglected some other people. Specifically Dad, I’m sorry that I didn’t get your letter that I told you about in the airport finished yet, but I’m still working on it. I promise. And Mom, you didn’t get a huge letter either, but you know I still love you, right? :) Zach's letter was kind of the prize for working out the creepy owl drawing, and he can sort of share, I guess. I hope you guys get a kick out of it; it took up a TON of my letter writing time because it required so much planning and research. ;) I should probably make a copy of it before I send it because I'm going to be heartbroken if it gets lost in the mail. :/

I went and blew $10 on postage today. I only got 6 stamps and a bubble envelope to send the SD card home in. So don't expect a ton of hand written letters. Their expensive! I’ll try to get those in the mail tomorrow, and I still haven't ordered a magnet tag yet. I still need to do that for you guys.

Oh! One more thing! Elder A (one of the Zone Leaders) and Elder A are both coveting my Mormon Helping Hands t-shirt. They wanted to know if it'd be possible to get some more of those in my next package. They even gave me their shirt sizes (L and XL) and said they'd pay the cost of the shirts if they cost you guys anything. Of course I'd just pocket the cash if they gave it to me, ;) but I told them I’d ask and see if you could score them some. :D

Why do you send me so much candy!?!?!?!?! We ate this all in like a week! We tried to make ourselves feel better because we some other Elders came over and they ate some of it, but we really ate most of it ourselves. It was really, really gross. Thank you. :D Next time I’m going to ration it out by week and only eat the candy for that week in that week. Also, the Costco steak strips were the best!

 

Elder A and my candy combined!!!!! *puke*

 

A member of the Branch gave us Taquitos!!

 

Elder A burnt his hand on the stove burner. He tried to make the lame excuse that our kitchen is really small, but really he's just a klutz. :  )

 

Sorry I don't have any pictures of myself, but I really just don't have any to send. It’s hard to take a picture of yourself.  :(

Hey, I’m outta time and I gotta run. But I just wanted to let everybody at home know that I love you all greatly and I'm thinking about you.

 Elder Thomson

Miracles

How’s life? How’s the new job Dad? Or is it all super top secret? Been brushing up on your nuclear engineering? ;) I bet you'll know a lot more about how stuff works here in the near future.

Election?!?! Come on!! I need to know! I had a dream about a week and a half ago, and in my dream I was talking to dad and he was telling me how Mitt had won by a hair. No such luck it seems. How did everyone take it? I bet Election Day was a mess at home. Was there yelling and screaming? ;)

How about Oregon? Did Art Robinson win? Some people were telling us how they had legalized Marijuana in Colorado and Washington, (I don't know if that's true or not, but Elder Ais still pretty upset because he's from Colorado) I know it was on the ballot for Oregon, what really happened?

How’s everybody doing on school work? I appreciated the school work that everyone sent me, and keep hoping that I’m going to get some time to write everyone back but there really isn't all that much time on P-day, what with everything else we need to get done. I do however have a research assignment(s) for somebody adventurous. There is even a prize!

These are the assignments:

1.     What is the history and meaning behind Veterans Day in the U.S., Remembrance Day in Canada, and Armistice Day... wherever it is that they celibate Armistice Day?

2.     For Remembrance Day, what is the meaning of the Poppies? Is there a poem or something? What is the poem?

3.     Why don't we have domesticated buffalo farms??? Buffaloes are huge and delicious. It would just make sense. (This question isn't as serious as the other two, but I'd still like to know.)

     Bonus question: What is a word that starts with "M" that means "Recently"? (I don't know if one exists, but if you can find one then I will be able to create an acronym the will be used all over the Canada Vancouver mission... maybe even the world?)

That's about it for questions. Again I'm sorry that I don't have time to respond to each of your letters, I had aspirations of writing you guys while I was on the plane last week (I was doing the math, I've flown 7 times in the last 3 months) but I got distracted on the way to Vancouver... and sort of fell asleep on the way back. We got to stay with the new Assistants to the President, and they had to wake up extra early so that they could drop us off at the mission office at like 6:30 and go get the new Greenies from the hotel at 7:00. So I was pretty beat. 

Other than that life is pretty good. I'm still here with Elder A for at least 6 more weeks, but I'll probably have a new companion after that (Elder A has been here for more than a quarter of his mission already and this has been his only area, he won’t be here very much longer.). I'm psyched to not be the greenest of the green anymore! ;) It was fun, to be sure, but it’s kinda cool to feel like I know what’s going on as well. ;)

We saw a couple of miracles this week, one was just today. The woman who was at the checkout at Wal-Mart, while she was scanning all of our cans of tuna, commented that we had saved her life once (not us specifically, but other missionaries) and that we had given her our number, but that she had never called. We asked if she would still like to meet with us and she said that she would, and gave us her number. 

I know that may not seem super big, but it was a miracle to us, especially since it was P-Day, in a grocery store. Were always on the lookout for people to teach, but places of business are tough because you can’t really "proselyte" the best you can do is mention the gospel or missionary work in passing, so to have one of the employees practically ask to meet with us, that was pretty cool. :D

The thing I've learned about miracles on my mission is that they always get ruined by our expectations. We expect that just because we've seen a miracle that everything is going to be sunshine and lollypops for the rest of our lives. That's not the way this works. We witness miracles every day, sometimes we're just not humble enough to recognize them, but more often we just take them for granted. Sometimes, things just work out, things we can’t explain, and things we often don't even understand our part in. These things are miracles, regardless of whether they bless us or others. Seldom are we privileged to see all the workings of the Lord in our lives, or the lives of those we come in contact with, but as we follow the promptings of the spirit, we will witness these miracles. Maybe it’s something as simple as being in the right place at the right time, to lend a hand when someone is in need. Or maybe it’s someone being there for us when we need it most. Or maybe it’s something even more wondrous than we know. But however the miracle is brought to pass, by the hand of the Lord or by the hand of his servants, who are ready and willing to follow those sacred impressions, it is the same. All we can do is our own best each and every day to stand ready to serve, to be where the Lord needs us to be, and to do what the Lord needs us to do, and we will witness miracle, no matter how small. 

Remember those miracles, keep them close to your heart, and you will always know how much you Father which is in Heaven loves you. 

All my love and best hopes as well,

Elder Thomson

Crazy Busy!

Hey! Wow! This week has been crazy busy for me!

We did have to move out of our Furnished apartment, which we weren't too worried about at the beginning of the week because our landlord... and lady, said that the person who was staying in the apartment we were supposed to move into was taking a while moving out so that it might not be ready in time. But when we got back from doing missionary work Tuesday evening they came over and talked to us and said that the other tenants had moved out and that we could start moving in right away. So we dropped everything and did. Luckily we didn't have any appointments that night so were able to get a lot of the stuff over, enough of it that we were able to sleep in the new apartment that night, although we had to steal the shower curtain out of the old apartment so that we would be able to get ready the next day (Wednesday), because apparently unfurnished apartments don't have shower curtains. Who knew!

My new mattress is super comfy, (it’s a Sealy mattress with a matching box spring, I have no idea how we scored that one. The mission office even sent up one of these metal bed frames on wheels, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth, so I just put the box spring on the floor. Saves my toes too cause I'm not cutting them off on that metal frame.) Elder A's sleeping arrangements look a little less plush, he is on a twin sized mattress so the sheets he brought fit (unlike me, I just use the two flat sheets turned sideways and tucked WAY under) but he didn't get a box spring and the mattress itself is essentially garbage. I tried to call dibs on it, but Elder A said that he had dibs since he was here first. (I don't know if he really wanted it because his sheets fit, or if he was just trying to be nice.) I don't have my camera with me, so no pictures of the new apartment yet, but I'll try to get some of them out in an email next week.

Wednesday we were about to run to Wal-Mart to buy our own shower curtain when found out that our landlords needed us out of our old apartment by noon so they could get in there and clean up for the next people who were moving in. We sort of panicked and frantically ran around for a while, but in the end we were able to get everything out of our old apartment and into the new one before noon. We even had some time to clean up the old apartment a bit (sweep, mop, vacuum, wipe down counters and stove, etc.) But alas, the new apartment was trashed. In our haste to get everything moved we kinda threw everything everywhere, and it took us the rest of Wednesday (which was okay because it was Halloween, and we weren't supposed to be out after 6 anyways) and some of Thursday to finish getting everything put to rights. The new apartment is pretty nice, I like the layout a lot better; it feels bigger.

The rest of the week kind of flew by. We spent a lot of time working on cleaning up the branch list (that thing is a train wreck) and dropping by potentials and former investigators. We’re just trying to get some people to teach. We haven't found a new investigator for three weeks now and that's... not good. Despite doing a TON of personal finding (tracting/street contacting) we haven't been able to find anyone who is really solidly interested in the gospel. So we thought we’d take another look at the people who have shown some interest in the past.

We also did some more tracting, which was REALLY fun yesterday. ;D The wind was super strong and even though it wasn't raining that hard (unlike Saturday, when we got DRENCHED!) the rain drops were moving fast enough that they would sting when they hit you. I actually lost my magnetic name tag because it blew of while we were walking and when I went back for it, it was nowhere to be found. I should probably order another one.

Oh! One more thing! I also saw the ferry almost crash. We had gone out to see one of our investigators and he wasn't home, but his parents were and they invited us in for a bit, and while we were there the ferry was coming in and you could see it from the big windows in their front room, and you could see the ferry dock, and the wind was still super strong, and the ferry was coming, and the wind was blowing, and the ferry flipped around, and the captain threw it in reverse, and you could tell he was giving it all it'd got, but it still was moving the wrong way (toward shore), and it was like that for what seemed like the longest time just drifting closer and closer to shore, finally the captain just gunned  forward and they were able to get out of there but it was pretty intense from where we were watching.

As you know, this week is transfers. We haven't heard anything yet but we expect to sometime today. I don’t expect that either of us will be going anywhere, but I could be wrong.

And just FYI... I'd really love a waterproof bag. I don't know what the best option is, because really haven't (and wont) had the chance to shop around. but when I was on my exchange with Elder N I was super jealous of his messenger bag because it made it really easy to pass out pamphlets or copies of the Book of Mormon without having to take your backpack off (which just so you know is super awkward). I have destroyed more than a couple copies of the Book of Mormon already by carrying them in my soggy backpack. I dunno, if you could keep an eye out for something that'd be nice. :) Ideally I would just have a black waterproof version of my Lands’ End Canvas messenger bag that you guys have back home. Hey! Maybe Dad could go to the Rain Shed and score me some super tough waterproof fabric, and then Mom and Belle could sew a bag modeled after the LE one, and Zach and Nate could make a metal bobble to go on it or something. There, Christmas present from everyone! ;)

I love you all, and look forward to hearing back from you. :D

Elder Thomson