2013 Is My Missionary Year! All Missionary Work, All The Time!

That’s right! It is a new year.  2013! Pretty hard to believe, eh? Well, I’m excited for it. 2013 is my missionary year. All missionary work, all the time! The first part of 2012 was goofing off, the last bit of 2014 I'll be coming home, but 2013 I have nothing else going on. I’m excited for it. :D

Sounds like things at home are going well, and I'm sorry to hear that Elder Bear wasn’t feeling up to skiing. I sure enjoyed talking to you guys on Christmas. That was pretty fun, (cheesy singing aside, that was just embarrassing... for everyone involved. But it was sweet, and I guess the thought that counts.) And am anxiously awaiting Mother’s Day.

 We've been having some trouble with these computers, so I’m not sure how long todays email will be. :/ I want to try and send some pictures as well. I hope I can work all that out.

I have thus far thoroughly enjoyed my time here and have seen tremendous potential not only for the Branch and the work we are doing here as messengers of the Restored Gospel, but also for the people of this area as a whole. Obviously there is some resistance in most people’s minds to changing their lives to be in closer harmony with the teachings of the Restored Gospel (and we have certainly encountered that), but the majority of people here (whether they realize it or not) are already living their lives according to the teachings of the Savior. Everyone is so kind, friendly and welcoming, even to complete strangers. Most would all gladly give anything you stood in need of, and even though some have expressed pretty strong distressing in the church, we are treated with respect and love. I only hope that we can help these people to see that they are already following the teachings of Jesus Christ in deed, but not in word. All they need is to understand the doctrine, commandments, and ordinances and how they can improve the goodness that they already possess. 

We had the opportunity to teach on several occasions this past week, many of which were not in a lesson setting, and the majority of which involved clearing up misconceptions about the church and replacing them with a more accurate representation of reality. But, we were also able to have several lessons in the company of members of the Branch. The first was with the B Family and their friends the P’s. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with an emphasis on faith and repentance, and how those two steps help us in our lives and prepare us for the next two, being baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We met at the B’s house for dinner, and were unable to set up a time to meet with them again as of yet but we hope to be able to do so this week.

Saturday we were able to get Brother S to come with us to visit a single sister named K, she was a potential found by previous missionaries and she was unable to remember their names due to a brain injury which affects her memory. They provided some service for her, but never taught her any of the lessons as far as we can tell. She seems to be a genuine truth seeker with a love for the scriptures. She currently attends the Seventh Day Adventist Church AND Kingdom Hall, she has attended a number of different churches over the years and has connected with several of the pastors, but as soon as the pastors left she felt that there was no substance to the church or that she didn't really belong. She likes attending the services she currently attends but disagrees with them on some points of doctrine (namely the Godhead). We were able to answer her questions and share with her the message of the Restoration. She committed to reading the Book of Mormon and being baptized if she comes to know of its truthfulness for herself.

We were able to meet with others, but I'm afraid my time is about up, so I will have to keep you up to date at a later date. And hopefully we will be able to resolve the problem with this computer before then. 

Love,  
Elder Thomson

Transferred, the week before Christmas!

Yes, I’ve been transferred and, yeah, being transferred was really a surprise. I did not see that one coming, but I guess the Lord did, and He put everyone where they needed to be. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to see A & S get baptized, (they were so close!) but there are two good missionaries going in there, so I'm sure they will do a good job. Elder A and I were actually replaced by Elder C and his new Greenie Elder T. Elder C actually trained Elder S, my MTC Companion. :D

My new companion is Elder M, he’s super cool. He came out at the same time as Elder A, and was trained by my last Zone Leader, Elder A, in Mission (yes, that's the name of a place here in BC.), which is actually where Elder A got transferred to! So to recap: I'm with Elder M, who Elder A is replacing in Mission, and Elder A (My last Zone Leader AND Elder M's Trainer) is still in my District because he got transferred  here as well to open an Area. Fun!

I don't have a ton of time to answer all of your questions (the computers here are awful, and don't really work so great.), but I will certainly answered as many as I can tomorrow!

As for 10 o'clock it doesn't look like that is going to so much work tomorrow, because we are going to be having breakfast with a member here at 10am, we don't have any plans for lunch but President Tilleman has asked us to spend as much time with members as possible on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (but no more than two hours in a row at any one place) so we want to kind of leave the lunch hour open, but we were thinking that you guys could call at 1:00 pm, and then elder M's family would call at 2:00 pm. How’s that sound? 

I am super excited to talk to you all!!! That's going to be my favorite Christmas present this year as well. :D 

I must confess though, I did already open one of my Christmas presents. But the devil made me do it! See, there was no way I was going to get it to my new location in the box. It’s a really nice waterfroof messenger bag though and I can’t wait till after Christmas to use it!!! :D It’s really going to help me in my missionary work, even though it’s not as wet here. 

I'm working on the 12 days of Christmas that you sent me. It’s so awesome! Thank you all so much! I didn’t even get to open the box until the 22nd, so I’ve had to do some catching up. I should have been taking pictures the whole time, but sadly I haven't taken a single picture since I got here yet. :( Sorry. 

I’m doing okay in temporal matters. There is a TON of food in the apartment. I thought I had more than I would ever eat before I was transferred, which was true, there was still a bunch there when I left (I did smuggle the Nutella with me though. ;P) But Elder M and I probably won’t have to buy anything but eggs and milk for the whole transfer!

The members here are really, really, really nice. The Branch President is President J and when I told them I was from Oregon they got all excited because they are apparently huge fans of Pendleton Wool blankets and had to tell us the story of how they discovered them and why they love them so much. 

Our Branch Mission leader is Brother B, he used to live where I was just transferred from and when I told the members there that I was coming here they got all excited because they knew Brother B and how great he is. We have had the opportunity to spend some time with him and his family (They have the coolest house! Dad, you would be so jealous if you saw where they live! I’ll try and get a picture with them at their house.) They are all really cool, and Brother B is super excited about missionary work here. The whole Branch is! If we could just get our Wards as excited about missionary work as the Branches are out here in the frozen wastes of Canada, the Church would triple in size every year!

I'm pretty much out of time, so I got to run, but I will certainly talk to you tomorrow at 1:00 and answer as many other questions as I can. 

Love you all,

Elder Thomson

Review Of All Ma'h Gear

Yes. This is indeed transfer week. Elder A has been so antsy all day. We'll be getting a call around 7:00 tonight with any news. :D I don't know if I’ll be transferred or not, I'm guessing not because I don't think Elder A is going to stay, but ya never really know. :)  I don't want to get transferred. Not even a little bit.  Everywhere else is colder! ;)

As for the call on Christmas Day... President T just told us all in his weekly letter that we aren't going to be able to call home this year due to the influx of new missionaries.

PSYCH!! ; P

I'm supposed to arrange with you to call me on our Cellphone number (I think we will be emailing you the number Christmas Eve, just so you don't have any time to lose it) and set up a time for you to call and talk. :D   Soooo... what time works for you? :) We get about an hour. The guideline is "short", and President T has said that if it’s much more than an hour it has stopped being anything even close to short. : P

I'm still feeling forgotted. :(  I've only ever gotten one letter at the new apartment, and even that was addressed to the old apartment, it just showed up at the new one by some miracle! :)  Elder A went ahead and had his family just mail all his letters to the office and then he can just pick them up whenever he or the Zone Leaders are down there. Apparently there is also a way to ship packages to the US side of the border and then they can bring them up to the office in a van so that shipping is cheaper, or you don't have to pay customs fees... or something. I don't know if that's true, but it could be worth giving the office a call and asking about? :)

I got my BC license today, they took my Oregon one and said I wouldn't be getting that back.

Elder A and this huge boat thingy!! This pretty much says it all, he doesn't look very happy about being in this picture though.

 Oh, Canada! This is a Canadian Navy Ship in front of the Container Port. Its kinda cool looking.

 Me,,,,that’s it.

 Okay, so this transfer marks 3 months in the field, which means it’s time for a review of all ma'h gear.

      First, the good:

·         Icebreaker Socks are quite possibly the greatest socks ever made. You all need three pairs, Seriously! They are light, conservative in style and SOOOOOOO warm.

·         CTR Socks are also really good, not as warm, but you also don't always want that (unless you're in northern BC).

·         Lands’ End Shirts, awesome, but I just ripped the first one today, (part of the reason I’m writing on this topic) and I’m not even sure how it happened, I just found a hole in it.

·         CTR suits also awesome, they are due to be dry cleaned again, but they are holding up pretty good, I just have one pair of suit pants that are out of commission because I took a tumble in the mud a few weeks back and I haven't been able to get them to the cleaners yet.

·         The two part jacket I got here is holding up good, the liner will eventually get wet inside if its pouring rain and it is also out of commission right now because it was also involved in the mud tumbling fiasco a few weeks back. But as soon as I get a chance to wash it all should be right as rain (ba dum cha!).  In the mean time I've just been wearing the shell witch is actually really warm and I've been doing alright with just that even when it’s cold out, it does even better in snow than it does in rain!

·         My camera is a huge hit, all the other Elders are constantly coveting it (I guess that's not so great) and Elder A is trying to figure out where he can get one.

 

The bad:

·         The CTR slacks however are a complete and utter waste of time. The cuffs have come undone on two of them and a third pair is working on it. I don't think I have the skill to put it back the way it was, and it certainly wouldn't look right either. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, or the shirt that I ripped. :  (   Mommy! I feel so helpless! Why didn't I pay attention more when you were sewing?!? ;)
Any guidance you have there would be awesome too.

 

The ugly:

·         Surprisingly I have not traded a single tie away yet. Weird. I like my ties.

And I’m out of time again. : ( I have to run, we have a dinner appointment tonight, but I will certainly update you next week on what’s happening (or happened) with transfers.

Love ya!

Elder Thomson

I'm not gonna die from Scurvy!

We've had another miracle week!. I don't know where else to start except at the beginning.

Monday was (of course) P-Day; things were going great, getting our temporal affairs in order, when we received a phone call from a Former investigator named J. [Background on J: Elder A had met J while he was on an exchange with Elder T a few months ago and she had been super receptive to the gospel, she had spoken with missionaries before and even begun reading the Book of Mormon. Elder A was able to teach her a few lessons but eventually her boyfriend (the father of her young daughter) returned from the camp where he had been working, and he was less friendly towards the missionaries. Long story short: she was unable to meet with the missionaries any more at that time, and she kind of fell out of focus. Granted, we've seen her walking around town a few times, and have talked a bit, but there has never been a time that she was able to meet.] In her call she said that she had been going through a really rough time in her life, that she was struggling with some personal things. She asked if we could meet sometime that day and we said that we could. We contacted a member of our branch (Brother L) to go with us, and arranged to meet J at the Church building here in town.

We had a nice lesson with her. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and since she started at the beginning she has made it up to 3 Nephi 12, she has prayed about it, and believes it is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She knows she needs to be baptized, but she also knows that she needs to make some significant changes in her life before she will be able to accept that ordinance. She informed us that things were tough in her life right now and we offered her a Priesthood blessing for comfort and strength in this time of hardship, which she welcomed openly.

Tuesday, we were actually able to meet with J again in the morning (thanks again to Brother L, he has been an indispensable aid to missionary work here this past week), and talked to her a bit more about the Plan of Salvation (which we hoped would help give an eternal perspective to her current struggles). She seemed to remember a good deal of it from an earlier lesson with the missionaries, and it did seem to help her feel better. She also thanked us for the priesthood blessing; she said that it had helped her feel better.

That afternoon was filled with our own personal finding, and in the evening we met with an Investigator named J. He is a very nice older man, who lives a simple humble life, but is all the happier for it. He has also read a significant portion of the Book of Mormon in the few month since we met him, but is having a difficult time grasping all of the concepts (specifically the timeline of events) in the Book of Mormon and the history of the church (Ancient and Modern). He is a very visual man, and he focuses a lot on the coming of the Savior to the Americas, so we felt that showing him the film The Testaments could really help him to visualize what that event could have looked like. I think it did help; the spirit was certainly there, especially at the end. J even commented that he felt something at the end.

Wednesday, was our District Meeting in the morning (over the phone this time), in the afternoon was some more personal finding, and in the evening we were able to meet with A (our young investigator) and teach him about the story of Ammon's Mission to the Laminates. He has had all of the lessons (that are appropriate for a child) and we are just waiting on permission from both of his parents for him to get baptized. All we can do for him now is help him develop a solid love for Church, the Book of Mormon, and the stories and lessons found therein.

We also met with the S family and shared a spiritual though with them. At the end of our visit we asked if they knew of anyone that would be interested in talking to the missionaries and they gave us 3 names, one of which we were able to contact so far.

Thursday, we had plans to meet with J again, and we did see her for a few minutes, but we were unable to talk for any great length of time, and did not have a lesson. Later in the day we did our weekly planning, and in the evening we did some personal finding.

Friday we did some personal finding, worked on a list of former investigators (that we developed during weekly planning) with whom we want to get in contact, and had a lesson with A and S. A and S are progressing so well, they have both committed to live the Word of wisdom, A is doing great, has quit drinking coffee and tea and is living the other parts of that commandment as well. S is still working on not smoking, but when we met with him Friday he hadn't smoked at all that day. We taught the law of Chastity and Sabbath day observance. We really felt that they could be ready for baptism by the 16th of December, but they are having some trouble getting their work schedules in order, so they have not yet been to sacrament meeting. But as of when we talked to them last they were planning on being able to attend church with us this coming Sunday (the 16th).

Saturday, we had lunch with a man named G that we met while providing service to the Special Events Society in helping to prepare for Winterfest (A kind of Christmas parade/tree lighting celebration). They live in a little community on an island across the bay. We had a nice discussion with him and his wife about the Book of Mormon and what we do as missionaries, they had some good questions about the church which we were able to answer. Unfortunately we were unable to get a return appointment with them because they don't know when they will be able to meet again. After that we did some personal finding and contacted one of the referrals that we had received from the S Family.

Sunday, we had church in the morning, did personal finding in the afternoon, and worked on going through and getting in contact with all our former investigators some more, and even more finding in the evening.

That's all for this week, until next week…

 All my love for... EVERYONE! :D

Elder Thomson

 P.S. I'm not gonna die from Scurvy!! :D This is great news! I actually bought a package of Mandarin Oranges form Safeway today just in case. ;) Some of them are a bit on the squishy side (imported from China), but the ones that aren’t are super yummy! :D Here's a picture of me... See! Still alive. :D

 

 

What are the Symptoms of Scurvy?

So much has happened in the last week, Monday was a much needed opportunity to take care of some temporal matters. Cleaning, and washing laundry, were perhaps the most needed, although the other activities were helpful as well. We had a lesson in the evening with R and C (a not-so-recent-anymore convert) and talking to them about starting up Family Home Evenings on Monday nights. They both seemed to think it sounded like a good idea, and were excited for the new format. We challenged R to teach next week (tonight), and C to teach the following Monday, and assured them that we could be there for the first few lessons to help them get the hang of things. Unfortunately they are feeling ill tonight, so we'll have to move that teaching scheduled back a week.

Tuesday we had the wonderful opportunity of providing service for the Special Events Society by helping them build their Santa Clause float for the parade. We met a super nice man named G, who works as a volunteer for the Special Events Society, and he invited us out to his home, which (after consulting with our Zone Leaders) turns out is within the boundaries of our area. So we have made plans to take a trip over there next Saturday and meet with G and his wife, and tract out the whole area (apparently there're only about 25 homes). After Helping G we were able to do some personal finding (a fancy way of saying tracting :P ) and, in the evening, we dropped off some invitations to the Branch Christmas party to all different kinds of investigators (Potential Investigators, Progressing Investigators, Former Investigators, etc.).

Wednesday was our exchange with Elder N and Elder O (Elder N's Greenie. That's Right, I'm not the greenest of the green anymore!), I was with Elder O this time, he is a fantastic missionary. Elder N is also a wonderful missionary, and an excellent example (As are all of my leaders up here). They're all awesome. :D While I was with Elder O we had our district meeting (which happens every Wednesday) and did and awful lot of tracting. We were able to have a good 40 minute conversation with one woman about the gospel and we answered a lot of her questions. Elder O is a BOSS at knowing the scriptures and he pretty much talked to her the whole time all I had to do was nod and be like "What he said!"  

That evening we had a lesson with J, which was pretty cool. J is a man who works as a construction worker, and lives by himself in a little wood stove heated house. He knows the church is true. He’s read from 3 Nephi 11 through the end of the Book of Mormon, and started in from the beginning again (I think he's in 1 Nephi 20 now?) he says that he wants to finish the Book of Mormon before he prays about it, and we keep telling him that he doesn't need to finish it to get an answer that its true, but it’s hard because he is making such great progress at reading the book, even though he is having a hard time grasping some of the trickier concepts, such as several different groups of people crossing the ocean to the Americas. But he understands more and more each time we talk, so we are just going to keep being patent with him and trust that the Lord will help him to see how important this is to him.

Thursday was our weekly planning, I must admit when I first arrived in the field I didn't appreciate weekly planning very much, it felt to me like a lot of sitting, and like we didn't accomplish very much for the amount of time it took. (Granted a lot of the time was taken up with Elder A having to explain everything to me because I had no idea who or what he was talking about.) But in more recent weeks I have come to enjoy it more, I think in part because I feel like it has become more effective (much less time is spent explaining now), and also I understand it and its purpose more (it helps us prepare for the coming week by making specific plans and goals for our investigators, lessons that we will teach them, and things we can do to help their testimony grow to where it needs to be).

Thursday evening we were able to have a lesson with A and S, who are both incredibly solid investigators, we watched the Restoration movie and taught them both the Word of Wisdom and committed them to live it. They both agreed without hesitation! They are both were excited and willing to obey the commandment of the Lord. They're both incredible! They are doing awesome and will probably end up getting baptized sometime in December. :D

Friday we helped out with Special Events again, setting up for the lighting of the Christmas decorations around the Court House, there were some huge tents and some complicated wiring for speakers and lights, but the coolest part is that G was there again, and he was in charge of the technical side of things, and since we had helped him put the float together all by ourselves (and are essentially his favorite people in the whole wide world) we got to turn on the lights! There was a big crowd and a countdown and everything! I felt awesome. G told us later that we were actually the fall guys in case everything went wrong he could just blame it on us. ;) ... I took it as a joke... I hope he was joking. : P

Saturday we did some MORE service, helping the Scouts deliver Phone Books. We went out with our Branch President and delivered over 250 phone books ourselves.   Then in the afternoon we helped the Special Events people AGAIN (3rd time this week) this time we were setting up all the tents and speakers and electrical equipment at the waterfront for the bonfire and fireworks show that was going to be held that night. This time G just told us to set up the super expensive sound system and then left to go haul the porta-potties down with another guy. Weird how just because you have Jesus's name on your chest you are instantly trustworthy. After we were finished setting up there we went back to our apartment to get out of our service clothes and get dressed up like Missionaries for our Branch Christmas party. The party was awesome! There was food, and games, and carols, and even a spiritual though by the Branch President. We also had an appearance by some big fat bearded guy all dressed in red who handed out gifts. No idea who that could have been. ;) Oh! It was Brother Clause, from WAY up north. ;)

Sunday we had Church, and in the afternoon we went around and visited some people we had talked to earlier in the week. One young family, M and her Boyfriend J, emphasized, at least in my mind, the importance of referrals. We had talked to M earlier in the week and she had said that we could come back and share a message with her about God and Jesus Christ. But when we went back Sunday her boyfriend J answered the door we introduced ourselves and he said that he wasn't interested and started to close the door, we were like "Wait! Wait! We talked to M, she said we could come back." He stopped closing the door and we asked if we could share a message with them both about the Restoration of the Gospel. He again said that he was not interested, and started to close the door again, and then we asked if M was interested and this time he opened the door all the way and we could see in to the house and M sitting on the couch. He asked her if she was interested and she said yes. We were actually able to go in and have a nice lesson and get to know both of them and their two young children a bit better, we learned that J is actually attending AA and searching for that higher power in his life to help him quit drinking. We told them that we could help them get to know God for themselves, and we taught the message of the Restoration. We left them a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed them to read it as a family, and in the end we asked J if there would be a time that we could come back and answer any questions that they had and share another message with them, and he said that we could come back next Sunday. So in the course of an hour he went from "not interested" to inviting us back again all because someone he knew was interested in what the missionaries had to say so he took the time to listen to it himself. :D

Sunday evening we had a Branch Potluck with all the leftovers from the Branch Christmas Party, and afterward we watched the First Presidency Christmas broadcast. It was soo good, but I kept trying to nod off in the middle because I was so full of good food and I was getting hit with a nap attack pretty hard. After the broadcast we had another lesson with J, which was good, and that brings us up to today. :D

A ton of really cool stuff happened today, and that's the reason I'm writing so late, but I'm out of time now, so I'll just have to wait to tell you about it until next week. :D

Love you all so very dearly, and can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas (22 days!),

Elder Thomson

P.S. Well, I'm not starving. On an unrelated note; what are the symptoms of Scurvy? ;)