Happy Memorial Day!

My dear family,

I totally forgot about Memorial Day! How'd it go this year? They have
Victoria Day up here the week earlier, and it's part of the May Long
Weekend, which is the weekend preceding Victoria Day. Just like in the
States, everybody leaves town for that weekend and the kids get school
off. But not the missionaries! No sir we work through the wind and
hail and the snow and rain!

This week was a good one. It continued to rain up until about three
days ago. Now it's back in the 20's and is beautiful! I learned how to
convert Celsius in my head, so I thought I'd share my knowledge. To go
from Celsius to Fahrenheit you multiply it by two, subtract a tenth,
and add 32! Viola! Pure magic. Normally I have to whip out the cell
phone and use the converter app, but no more!

Jaime is still on date for this Saturday! We're pretty stoked to be
honest. It's a YSA baptism, and so of course there was a Facebook
event created and 250 people were invited.....haha and guess who gets
to give a talk on Baptism? :) I've never spoken at General Conference
before but I'm sure this is what it'll be like. Haha we're excited
though, and Jaime's a perfect example of how a ward should handle a
baptism. Elder Nabrotzky and I have literally taught her the lessons
and that's about all we've done :) the ward has really taken her under
their wing and prepared everything it's awesome.

We're still Ward Mission Leader-less and it's starting to make me
nervous, but Bishop assures us that a new one will be called soon. I'm
a little nervous because I've had good and not so good Ward Mission
Leaders, and they make or break the work in the area a lot of times.
So here's hoping we get someone solid!

Haha I went into my box of insets to change my site, and guess what
was sitting there! A flash drive! I had no idea it was there until
now. Now you'll have to remind me why you sent it.....haha I forget,
was it so I can send pictures home?

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and it was a Canada-Wide broadcast
from Salt Lake. Coincidentally, Elder Walker (who just toured our
mission two weeks ago) conducted the meeting! He even looked the same!
President Packer spoke, along with Sister Steven's from the Relief
Society and Elder Cristopherson. It was a good conference I enjoyed it
a lot!

We had a trainer's meeting last Thursday at the mission home, and it
was weird being there again! I haven't been there since I flew in. But
all of the training companionships were there and the ones that are
out in the boonies called in. It's just a chance for President to see
how the 12-week program is going and to see if anyone has any major
concerns. Pretty basic!

Elder Nabrotzky is coming along pretty well. He's still green and
makes mistakes a lot, but who doesn't, right? He'll get it. It took us
awhile to understand each other, because we've got pretty different
personalities, but we're working hard together and it improves every
day!

Hey has anyone heard about the Wheel of Fortune in Portland? I think
they're calling it Wheel in Portland.....clever. We went to a member's
house and for the 5 seconds before they turned it off I saw it! Crazy!
Is it still going on? Portland is famous among Canadians, for those of
you who didn't know. I've been told a million times after I tell
people I'm from Portland that "If I were to move to the States,
Portland is where I'd go." Boom. Portland wins!

Another random thought. Yesterday we ate dinner at a member's house
and their son and daughter-in-law were there. They asked where I'm
from and I told them Portland, and then the daughter-in-law, Sister
Jensen, got all excited and said she served her mission there! I asked
where she served and she said Forest Grove, Vernonia, and some other
places I don't remember haha. But she was in Vernonia for those crazy
floods! Small world. AND THEN since she served in Vernonia I asked if
she knew the Rice's and she's related to them! It was pretty cool. So
if you see the Rice's, ask them if they know the Jensens in Edmonton.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Have yourselves a good week
and try and stay away from the doctor's office haha I feel like I just
read through a medical history report. You're in my prayers and I miss
you guys a lot!

Love you guys,

Elder ReAd

PS I love mail