Canada, eh?

Hey Mother and family!

 

So before I forget, I got Grandma Read's letter last week and sent her a letter a couple of days ago. This week was fast! We had two exchanges and those always make it seem like time flies. I left for the first exchange and went with Elder Albright in Meadows. He's been in the area as long as I've been in mine and they're just north of us so I see him a lot. We had a party! Not literally, but it was a lot of fun. Our dinner appointment that night took us out to Montana's which is a barbecue restaurant. They got us all-you-can-eat ribs it was delicious. Plus eating out as a missionary is always good. So then we went on exchanges with the zone leaders on Friday and I stayed in our area. It was pretty cool. They're way better missionaries than I am so I learned a lot.

    Elder Wood and I are completely out of money this month hahaha and cards don't replenish until Wednesday. So we're gonna live off of oatmeal and rice this week! We're pretty excited. Elder Wood sleep walks all the time it's awesome. I always wake up and he'll be roaming the apartment. Then he'll suddenly stop at some odd place (like staring at a wall), stay there for a little while, then walk around some more. He wakes up all the time with his head at the other end of the bed. It's so cool. When we were on exchanges, he was with the new missionary from Meadows, and he woke up in the middle of the night and Elder Wood was pointing and screaming at "someone" at the door to "GET OUT!!!" haha too bad I missed it. I'm keeping my camera by my bed from now on.

    So we're teaching this guy named Jason for the past 4 months. We started teaching him when I got here. He isn't a member and he and his LA wife were coming to church together earlier last year, but then I guess they both dropped off the radar until early October when he started coming alone. We found out that his wife left him and she's apparently living in Oklahoma now. So he comes alone because he said he always felt that coming to our church was the right thing to do. He's awesome. He comes to church every week on his own, participates in the lessons, he's incredibly smart (he's an analytical chemist for a pharmaceutical company developing a cure for hepatitis), and he loves meeting with us. Unfortunately he's pretty skeptical and he naturally looks for proof in the things that we teach him. But he recognizes that skepticism inside of him and he's working hard on developing faith. He loves the church though, and he requested that he be more included. So they just gave him a calling last week as a Scout Leader assigned to the 14-year-olds. It'll be a great experience for him. We've taught him all of the lessons, and he prays, reads the Book of Mormon, comes to church, etc. He's doing all of the right things but he doesn't want to be baptized until he knows for a surety that it's right for him. He's a great guy though and we really enjoy teaching him. He has amazing comprehension and retention and I hope I get to see him baptized.

    We're teaching another guy named Alex Mcleod, who came to the gym on Pday while we were playing basketball, and asked for a JST Bible. He's very religious and is really interested in what we believe. We've met with him a couple of times, but we always end up going off on tangents because he has some super deep-doctrine question haha. It's a struggle to stay on track but he's been reading the Book of Mormon so we're hoping he keeps going! He hasn't come to church yet though, which is super important. So that's our next goal. Other than that we aren't really teaching anyone else but we tract A LOT and we spend most of our day finding people. Hopefully we'll find some more!

    So this week was pretty good. This coming week is the last of the transfer, and I have this bad feeling I'm getting the boot. Yeah mom they live trainees with their trainers for a minimum 12 weeks now. I finished that last transfer though with Elder Merrell. I hope I get to stay here. I really enjoy the area and the ward, but I'll go wherever the Lord wants me! We'll find out next week. The weather this week has been pretty good. It sits at around -5 all the time which sounds colder than it is. No complaints!

    Anyways that's all I've got this week. I'm glad to hear you're all doing well! I miss you guys, and I'm glad to hear Geoff's birthday went well, and that the Ducks won! Keep me updated on the happenings back home!

 

Love you guys!

 

Elder Read

 

 

PS - My back's good now! :)