Happy 31st Anniversary Mom and Dad! I honestly don't remember which day it is/was, but I know it's sometime in the 20's of August! I'm guessing the 28th or 27th am I right? Man that means Chris will be 30 this year! You guys are old :) In celebration let me share a scripture in the good book of Proverbs 20:29.
"The glory of young men (and women) is their strength: and the beauty of old men (and women) is the gray head." Love you Mom and Dad! :)
Anyways hello dear family of mine!
Man oh man has it been a crazy week! Our numbers were in the toilet to tell you the truth haha. I say "haha" only to keep from crying. Haha in all seriousness though it was kind of a garbage week. Health-wise and in terms of the work. I've been sick all this week which is totally weird because I never get sick. Honestly I don't remember the last time I had a fever, cold, etc. I just like getting the big stuff like Diabetes! Go big or go home :) Last Sunday we went over to the sister's house (they live with an old member lady and she was present don't worry haha) and gave Sister Bunker a blessing because she was sick. In the process, I think I caught it from her, because I woke up the next day with a super sore throat. Over the next couple days my nose started running a straight up MARATHON and I'm coughing. I've been loading up on Mucinex though which is working wonders! My throat is fine but my nose hasn't finished the race yet. But I feel okay.
Elder Cone and I are still on the hunt for investigators, and it's not looking good. We sure do love tracting though! It POURED rain on Thursday or Wednesday, one of the two, and we were out tracting on our bikes without jackets. So we just kept on tracting haha. Finally I decided I was done and I felt like junk so we came back home and I took a nap. It was glorious and much-needed. So Ray, who was supposed to be a sweet investigator and was super interested at his door, called us on Tuesday and hour before the meeting and told us he's not interested. Sweet! We haven't had any contact with Lillie this week, and so hopefully this week we'll find her home. Other than that we're actually having a lot of fun. Elder Cone is the biggest goofball on the planet and he keeps things interesting and we laugh a lot which is good :) Things will move forward just like they did in Spruce. My testimony of Prayer and Fasting is going to grow a ton!
It's the last week of the transfer! I can't believe how fast it's gone by. I think Elder Cone will stay another transfer but he's thoroughly convinced he's out next week. We'll see what happens.
So on Saturday we stopped by a garage sale and they had this sweet old road bike for $25. The bike i'm using now has a bent back wheel and it scrapes the outside metal all the time it's super annoying. So we used our bottle money that we've been saving up and bought it! After we bought it we realized the tires were flat, and so we threw it in the back of our Malibu because who knew that it was against the rules? Honestly we had no idea haha. Anyways so we got it about halfway in and it wouldn't go any further, so I just sat in the back seat and held the door closed, and we drove about a kilometer down the road to our apartment. Once we got there, we realized the bike was caught in the seat belt, and the seat belt had locked. So we had a bike hanging halfway out of our car that couldn't go in our out because it was entangled by a locked seat belt. So we called around for 15 minutes trying to find someone that might have tools, because all we had was a dinky pair of pliers. Nobody could help us, and so we started trying to take the front tire off with the pliers. That didn't work, so we went over to the handlebars and took those off, and finally after almost an hour of pushing and pulling, it came out of the car :) So that night I took it apart and today we have to go buy new tubes for it and grease it up and she'll be good as new! It's bringing me back to the Target days! I actually really enjoyed working on bikes that was a sweet job.
Hey I wanna vote in this election! All the Canadians are telling me I can get some absentee ballot or something like that? Is that the truth or are they lying to me?
What the heck is Bryant really doing marching band and cross country AND he's center snare? Man that kid is in for a ride of a lifetime! What a stud :) Tell him to email me and update me on his life!
Hey tell Lorena thanks for the picture of my Eagle Project! Looks like she's still standing! It expertly crafted so of course it is :) Anyways that's all for this week. Thanks for all you guys do and I'll talk to you next week!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Steven Read's adventures as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Canada Edmonton Mission.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Now Hiring Investigators
Hello!
This week we decided to give up on the Family History Center because everyone and their mom seems to be going there lately. So we're back to the library now. But an Elder from my last area gave me his old library card, and the guy I replaced here gave Elder Cone his library card, so we both have two which means two hours of emailing again! It's so much less stressful. Plus there's not much else to do before 1pm when we all go to the church.
This morning I cleaned the bathroom like I do every week. I don't know what it is with clean bathrooms, but I really have a problem when they're dirty haha. Random I know, but I thought you might like to know :)
Hey mother of mine I went and got an A1C today and it was $125. 125! I can't even believe that. I guess since we're in a different health district they charge more down here. That's what I get though for coming to a country with free health care! I'll be getting my A1C's in Edmonton from now on. They'll let me know sometime later this week or the next what the results are. I feel great though!
So this week we met with Lillie, the chinese lady that came to church last week. We went with two sisters from the Relief Society and it went really well. She said she believes there must be a true church out there, and she's willing to look for it. Golden! She really liked the Restoration. We're hoping to meet with her next week because she has family in town this week.
Ray, who was that potential we contacted last Sunday, didn't want us to meet in his house and was under the impression we'd be having lessons on his doorstep haha. We brought a member, so we decided that wouldn't do. So we scheduled another appointment for tomorrow at the church. Hopefully he shows up :)
Despite the fact that we have zero progressing investigators we still keep pretty busy. We've been trying to contact all of the "unknowns" in the ward. Aka the people nobody's heard from or seen in years, OR the people we've never met. It's been keeping us pretty busy, and since we're on bikes it takes a little longer. I love bikes! It's such good exercise and I love being active so it's a win win! We have to take advantage of them before everything turns white for the next 8 months! Honestly I'm really not looking forward to winter. It got down to a whopping 12 degrees the other day and I had my peacoat on all day, no joke haha. My body gets acclimatized pretty easily, but when it gets cold it's gonna be rough until it does.
Man it sounds like you guys had a way busy week! The beach is always fun though, you have no idea how much I miss it! When I get home that's the first place I'm going. Haha when you guys talked about Sister Little at Bryant's Eagel Project I laughed so hard. I love that lady she's one of a kind! Hey send me pictures of Bryant's project I want to see it.
That's crazy that Skylar's back. I wish I could've been there at his Homecoming! Somebody tell him hello for me :)
Okay we're going shopping, have yourselves a great week!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
This week we decided to give up on the Family History Center because everyone and their mom seems to be going there lately. So we're back to the library now. But an Elder from my last area gave me his old library card, and the guy I replaced here gave Elder Cone his library card, so we both have two which means two hours of emailing again! It's so much less stressful. Plus there's not much else to do before 1pm when we all go to the church.
This morning I cleaned the bathroom like I do every week. I don't know what it is with clean bathrooms, but I really have a problem when they're dirty haha. Random I know, but I thought you might like to know :)
Hey mother of mine I went and got an A1C today and it was $125. 125! I can't even believe that. I guess since we're in a different health district they charge more down here. That's what I get though for coming to a country with free health care! I'll be getting my A1C's in Edmonton from now on. They'll let me know sometime later this week or the next what the results are. I feel great though!
So this week we met with Lillie, the chinese lady that came to church last week. We went with two sisters from the Relief Society and it went really well. She said she believes there must be a true church out there, and she's willing to look for it. Golden! She really liked the Restoration. We're hoping to meet with her next week because she has family in town this week.
Ray, who was that potential we contacted last Sunday, didn't want us to meet in his house and was under the impression we'd be having lessons on his doorstep haha. We brought a member, so we decided that wouldn't do. So we scheduled another appointment for tomorrow at the church. Hopefully he shows up :)
Despite the fact that we have zero progressing investigators we still keep pretty busy. We've been trying to contact all of the "unknowns" in the ward. Aka the people nobody's heard from or seen in years, OR the people we've never met. It's been keeping us pretty busy, and since we're on bikes it takes a little longer. I love bikes! It's such good exercise and I love being active so it's a win win! We have to take advantage of them before everything turns white for the next 8 months! Honestly I'm really not looking forward to winter. It got down to a whopping 12 degrees the other day and I had my peacoat on all day, no joke haha. My body gets acclimatized pretty easily, but when it gets cold it's gonna be rough until it does.
Man it sounds like you guys had a way busy week! The beach is always fun though, you have no idea how much I miss it! When I get home that's the first place I'm going. Haha when you guys talked about Sister Little at Bryant's Eagel Project I laughed so hard. I love that lady she's one of a kind! Hey send me pictures of Bryant's project I want to see it.
That's crazy that Skylar's back. I wish I could've been there at his Homecoming! Somebody tell him hello for me :)
Okay we're going shopping, have yourselves a great week!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Monday, August 13, 2012
Happy 11 Months!
Hello dear family and all other listeners!
Tuesday I hit 11 months! Man it's flying by. This time next year it'll have been a year. Crazy. So we had a nifty little week! We started it off by dropping every single investigator we have haha. Very productive. None of them were progressing or willing to do anything, so we started off Tuesday with 3 investigators and by the end of the day we had zero. We met with them all and told them though, we didn't just stop talking to them haha. So we spent quite a bit of time finding this week. It paid off too! Yesterday at church this lady from China walked in and said she had just moved from Vancouver and was looking for a church, so she walked down the street to ours! She wants to know more about the church and what we believe in, so we're going over to her house tomorrow afternoon and hopefully teaching her the first lesson. THEN we were out contacting potentials yesterday night and we decided to go try Ray, a potential from about a year ago. He answered the door and we started talking, and actually ended up talking on his doorstep for about 45 minutes it was sweet! We shared the first vision and Moroni 10:3-5 and talked about the Book of Mormon and he started tearing up and told us we could definitely come back. So we're going back tomorrow night :) Way cool! It was a super good day yesterday.
We've been biking this week too it's soo sweet! I love it. Let me tell you, I've never felt like a missionary until I started riding bikes! We only have 150 clicks in this area so we try and bike as much as often. Plus it's good exercise :)
Hey Mom before I forget, we went to get an A1C this week.....but we got there and I realized I forgot my wallet.....so I rescheduled for next week haha. I'll get there I promise! Also, so Jessica Sellers was in the MTC at the same time as I was, and she stayed in the same room as the sisters in my MTC district. So Sister West, who was in that room with her, is now in my district here, so she wants to know how Jessica is doing. Do you know? Haha random I know.
Sunday we broke into a car! One of the girls in the YSA ward came to church early, just as we were leaving, and told us she had locked her keys in her trunk....so Elder Cone used his expertise to sneak a hanger down adn pull up the lock. It was very impressive. I've never actually witnessed someone using a hanger so it was quite interesting to see.
So today the Sukhu's were driving to Calgary, and so they drove through Red Deer and called me up and we went out to lunch! It was awesome to see them. Tony just got ordained a Priest, and they've got Hometeaching and Visiting Teaching routes they're way excited. It's cool to see they're still doing well :) Hopefully I'll be near Edmonton when they go through the temple! Woo!
The other day I was thinking how sweet it is to see all of the different people in Canada and where they're from. Our Ward Mission Leader is from South Africa, yesterday we ate dinner with an older couple from Zimbabwe, the day before that we ate dinner at a lady's house that was from Switzerland, etc. It's awesome I actually really enjoy seeing people around here and where they're from.
This week we'll finally get mail! I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for mail to get here, and finally the Zone Leaders drove up to Edmonton this week! So we'll get mail today!
I'm trying to think of what else happened....and I'm drawing a blank haha. I'm doing really well though, and I'm still learning the area slowly haha. I still refuse to drive and don't see that changing any time soon! Elder Cone loves to drive though so it's all good. Anywho, we're going to shop. Glad to hear you're all alive!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Tuesday I hit 11 months! Man it's flying by. This time next year it'll have been a year. Crazy. So we had a nifty little week! We started it off by dropping every single investigator we have haha. Very productive. None of them were progressing or willing to do anything, so we started off Tuesday with 3 investigators and by the end of the day we had zero. We met with them all and told them though, we didn't just stop talking to them haha. So we spent quite a bit of time finding this week. It paid off too! Yesterday at church this lady from China walked in and said she had just moved from Vancouver and was looking for a church, so she walked down the street to ours! She wants to know more about the church and what we believe in, so we're going over to her house tomorrow afternoon and hopefully teaching her the first lesson. THEN we were out contacting potentials yesterday night and we decided to go try Ray, a potential from about a year ago. He answered the door and we started talking, and actually ended up talking on his doorstep for about 45 minutes it was sweet! We shared the first vision and Moroni 10:3-5 and talked about the Book of Mormon and he started tearing up and told us we could definitely come back. So we're going back tomorrow night :) Way cool! It was a super good day yesterday.
We've been biking this week too it's soo sweet! I love it. Let me tell you, I've never felt like a missionary until I started riding bikes! We only have 150 clicks in this area so we try and bike as much as often. Plus it's good exercise :)
Hey Mom before I forget, we went to get an A1C this week.....but we got there and I realized I forgot my wallet.....so I rescheduled for next week haha. I'll get there I promise! Also, so Jessica Sellers was in the MTC at the same time as I was, and she stayed in the same room as the sisters in my MTC district. So Sister West, who was in that room with her, is now in my district here, so she wants to know how Jessica is doing. Do you know? Haha random I know.
Sunday we broke into a car! One of the girls in the YSA ward came to church early, just as we were leaving, and told us she had locked her keys in her trunk....so Elder Cone used his expertise to sneak a hanger down adn pull up the lock. It was very impressive. I've never actually witnessed someone using a hanger so it was quite interesting to see.
So today the Sukhu's were driving to Calgary, and so they drove through Red Deer and called me up and we went out to lunch! It was awesome to see them. Tony just got ordained a Priest, and they've got Hometeaching and Visiting Teaching routes they're way excited. It's cool to see they're still doing well :) Hopefully I'll be near Edmonton when they go through the temple! Woo!
The other day I was thinking how sweet it is to see all of the different people in Canada and where they're from. Our Ward Mission Leader is from South Africa, yesterday we ate dinner with an older couple from Zimbabwe, the day before that we ate dinner at a lady's house that was from Switzerland, etc. It's awesome I actually really enjoy seeing people around here and where they're from.
This week we'll finally get mail! I've been waiting for what seems like an eternity for mail to get here, and finally the Zone Leaders drove up to Edmonton this week! So we'll get mail today!
I'm trying to think of what else happened....and I'm drawing a blank haha. I'm doing really well though, and I'm still learning the area slowly haha. I still refuse to drive and don't see that changing any time soon! Elder Cone loves to drive though so it's all good. Anywho, we're going to shop. Glad to hear you're all alive!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Monday, August 6, 2012
Thunderstorms!
Hey team!
Libraries are closed this week because of some random Canadian holiday. I'm not really sure what exactly it is though haha. So we're in the Family History Center at the church! They let us come in here it's way sweet. So no hour time limit like at the library!
This week was another crazy one! But a little less than last week. I'm starting to get the hang of the area, and another week at church helped too. We visited a lot of members this week trying to get to know more people, and we taught 19 member lessons it was crazy! Every mission is so different, because I don't remember the missionaries ever calling us to come by and share a message with our family, but honestly that's how we spend 70% of our time. I love it! Members are so good to us :)
I did baptismal interview for a little 9-year-old girl, and it was way cool! It's amazing to me to see young people like that, who honestly probably have stronger testimonies than I do. I was amazed at the knowledge she had, because I definitely didn't have it when I was that age. Children are amazing!
I'm still boycotting driving! It's beautiful just being able to relax, enjoy the scenery, save money, etc. I'll drive again when I'm in the land of sensible speed limits again :) Think of the money we'll save!
We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Friday, it was awesome. I love exchanges. We drove out to Sylvan Lake, which is a little town about 20 minutes outside of Red Deer, and spent most of the day out there. I was with Elder Morely, who was also my Zone Leader in Spruce Grove for a little while, so it was cool to see him again.
We've had some crazy weather lately! Alberta gets some wild thunder storms, and Saturday night we had the biggest one I've ever witnessed. We had just gotten into bed and all of the sudden we heard this super loud thunder and lightning illuminated our room. So we got up and went out on the deck and I saw the most lightning I've ever seen in my life! It was honestly like the movies, where there's no pause between each lightning strike, and the rain's coming down in buckets, etc. It was so cool! So we stayed up for about an hour and watched it. I didn't even think to get pictures though....
The other night we went to a members house and she made us sushi! I was in heaven. I honestly think it's one of my favorite foods without a doubt. She even gave us all of the extras to take home! It didn't last very long.
Hey the Trek sounds like it was way sweet! I'm glad you guys had fun. Yeah Mom I heard about Sam! That's crazy about his appendicitis, now he's part of the club! It's all the rage to get appendicitis on vacation :) I'm glad he's doing alright. So this area is pretty much dead hahahaha so I wish I had more to tell you.....but I don't :) This isn't the first dead area that I've come into though, so hopefully things will pick up like all of the other ones. Time's flying though, so that's good! Anywyas, that's all I've got for you this week. I appreciate all you guys do for me!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Libraries are closed this week because of some random Canadian holiday. I'm not really sure what exactly it is though haha. So we're in the Family History Center at the church! They let us come in here it's way sweet. So no hour time limit like at the library!
This week was another crazy one! But a little less than last week. I'm starting to get the hang of the area, and another week at church helped too. We visited a lot of members this week trying to get to know more people, and we taught 19 member lessons it was crazy! Every mission is so different, because I don't remember the missionaries ever calling us to come by and share a message with our family, but honestly that's how we spend 70% of our time. I love it! Members are so good to us :)
I did baptismal interview for a little 9-year-old girl, and it was way cool! It's amazing to me to see young people like that, who honestly probably have stronger testimonies than I do. I was amazed at the knowledge she had, because I definitely didn't have it when I was that age. Children are amazing!
I'm still boycotting driving! It's beautiful just being able to relax, enjoy the scenery, save money, etc. I'll drive again when I'm in the land of sensible speed limits again :) Think of the money we'll save!
We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Friday, it was awesome. I love exchanges. We drove out to Sylvan Lake, which is a little town about 20 minutes outside of Red Deer, and spent most of the day out there. I was with Elder Morely, who was also my Zone Leader in Spruce Grove for a little while, so it was cool to see him again.
We've had some crazy weather lately! Alberta gets some wild thunder storms, and Saturday night we had the biggest one I've ever witnessed. We had just gotten into bed and all of the sudden we heard this super loud thunder and lightning illuminated our room. So we got up and went out on the deck and I saw the most lightning I've ever seen in my life! It was honestly like the movies, where there's no pause between each lightning strike, and the rain's coming down in buckets, etc. It was so cool! So we stayed up for about an hour and watched it. I didn't even think to get pictures though....
The other night we went to a members house and she made us sushi! I was in heaven. I honestly think it's one of my favorite foods without a doubt. She even gave us all of the extras to take home! It didn't last very long.
Hey the Trek sounds like it was way sweet! I'm glad you guys had fun. Yeah Mom I heard about Sam! That's crazy about his appendicitis, now he's part of the club! It's all the rage to get appendicitis on vacation :) I'm glad he's doing alright. So this area is pretty much dead hahahaha so I wish I had more to tell you.....but I don't :) This isn't the first dead area that I've come into though, so hopefully things will pick up like all of the other ones. Time's flying though, so that's good! Anywyas, that's all I've got for you this week. I appreciate all you guys do for me!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Monday, July 30, 2012
Lost in a Strange Land
Hey fam and everyone else!
So it's been a crazy week, and I'm waiting for things to slow down, but they aren't haha. I never realized how much I was used to the happenings in Spruce Grove, because I honestly feel like I just left home and started my mission again! Change is bittersweet for sure. But anyways, things are going really well!
Red Deer is a beautiful town! Of all the places I've been so far, Red Deer is the most like Oregon. It's SUPER green I love it! It's quite big though, easily bigger than Beaverton. I'm in the southwestern corner of the city, and it's not too big of an area, actually it's quite small. But not small enough that we don't get a car :) I've given up on driving for now haha. I'm much happier sitting in the passenger seat not worrying about the speed that I'm not aware of haha and constantly being on the lookout for photo radar trucks. I'm scarred for life. So today I was supposed to drive (normally we switch off weekly) but I decided I'd rather not so Elder Cone will drive this week :) We'll see how long he likes driving 24/7!
The ward is sweet I love it. It's about the size of our ward back home, and it reminds me of Southwood a lot. They asked me to come up and introduce myself/bear my testimony. Nothing I don't do every day anyway so it wasn't quite a Baptism by Fire :)
Elder Cone is pretty good so far. Like I said I was in the MTC with him so I know him pretty well. Which is probably a good thing! He's not very familiar with the area though haha so it's been a gong show but I love it! We're having fun. I wish I could tell you all about the work we're doing haha but honestly I don't know the names of any of the people we're working with nor have I met them hahaha did I mention I love getting transferred? :) Give me another week. I'm trying to push myself to learn the area and the names of the members quick because we won't get anything done until then!
It really is it's own mission here haha we have our group of 8 missionaries here in town and other than that I don't see or hear from anyone! No complaints though I'm just glad to be with other missionaries. So normally we ride bikes around our area to save on clicks, but our WML took back his back this week for vacation so we're either legging it or driving. But there's a sweet park with a bunch of fields across from our apartment so I run there every morning while Elder Cone does his own thing.
This old lady does our laundry for us haha it's so sweet! We just take it over on Friday and pick it up on Saturday. She makes us shampoo our collars beforehand though and we HAVE to give her 7 shirts every week. No less or else she buys us more. I know because she bought me 2 already hahaha.
Hey Mother Read I got the package just in time! Like it didn't come on Monday so I was freakin out a little bit because mail takes forever to come down here. But lo and behold there it was on Wednesday for transfer meeting! Our prayers were answered!
That's sweet the Trek's this week! You'll all love it that was one of my best memories in Young Men's. But I was with Kyle the whole time so that could be why :) Yeah Dad there was crazy rainfall here a couple of weeks ago, so there was some flooding. When we did the service we wore our service clothes, no way am I ripping up wet carpet in a suit :)
Welll other than that I'm doing really well, just trying to get into the swing of things. Hope your week goes well!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
So it's been a crazy week, and I'm waiting for things to slow down, but they aren't haha. I never realized how much I was used to the happenings in Spruce Grove, because I honestly feel like I just left home and started my mission again! Change is bittersweet for sure. But anyways, things are going really well!
Red Deer is a beautiful town! Of all the places I've been so far, Red Deer is the most like Oregon. It's SUPER green I love it! It's quite big though, easily bigger than Beaverton. I'm in the southwestern corner of the city, and it's not too big of an area, actually it's quite small. But not small enough that we don't get a car :) I've given up on driving for now haha. I'm much happier sitting in the passenger seat not worrying about the speed that I'm not aware of haha and constantly being on the lookout for photo radar trucks. I'm scarred for life. So today I was supposed to drive (normally we switch off weekly) but I decided I'd rather not so Elder Cone will drive this week :) We'll see how long he likes driving 24/7!
The ward is sweet I love it. It's about the size of our ward back home, and it reminds me of Southwood a lot. They asked me to come up and introduce myself/bear my testimony. Nothing I don't do every day anyway so it wasn't quite a Baptism by Fire :)
Elder Cone is pretty good so far. Like I said I was in the MTC with him so I know him pretty well. Which is probably a good thing! He's not very familiar with the area though haha so it's been a gong show but I love it! We're having fun. I wish I could tell you all about the work we're doing haha but honestly I don't know the names of any of the people we're working with nor have I met them hahaha did I mention I love getting transferred? :) Give me another week. I'm trying to push myself to learn the area and the names of the members quick because we won't get anything done until then!
It really is it's own mission here haha we have our group of 8 missionaries here in town and other than that I don't see or hear from anyone! No complaints though I'm just glad to be with other missionaries. So normally we ride bikes around our area to save on clicks, but our WML took back his back this week for vacation so we're either legging it or driving. But there's a sweet park with a bunch of fields across from our apartment so I run there every morning while Elder Cone does his own thing.
This old lady does our laundry for us haha it's so sweet! We just take it over on Friday and pick it up on Saturday. She makes us shampoo our collars beforehand though and we HAVE to give her 7 shirts every week. No less or else she buys us more. I know because she bought me 2 already hahaha.
Hey Mother Read I got the package just in time! Like it didn't come on Monday so I was freakin out a little bit because mail takes forever to come down here. But lo and behold there it was on Wednesday for transfer meeting! Our prayers were answered!
That's sweet the Trek's this week! You'll all love it that was one of my best memories in Young Men's. But I was with Kyle the whole time so that could be why :) Yeah Dad there was crazy rainfall here a couple of weeks ago, so there was some flooding. When we did the service we wore our service clothes, no way am I ripping up wet carpet in a suit :)
Welll other than that I'm doing really well, just trying to get into the swing of things. Hope your week goes well!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Banishment!
This week was probably the most eventful of my mission thus far! Let's
start with the Sukhus! They are baptized and confirmed members of the
church :) The baptism went really well and there was a huge turnout
from the ward. I can't tell you how much it means not only to the
Sukhus but also to us as missionaries to see the ward support them
like they have. It's so sweet! I attached a picture of Elder Nabrotzky
and I with them at the baptism. On Sunday they got up and bore their
testimonies in Gospel Essentials. It was a cool experience. They're
definitely converted. Your guys' prayers are much appreciated and I'm
sure they helped!
So on Friday leadership calls went out and I got called as District
Leader. Elder Kember's the DL here and he's training which means he
won't get transferred, so I've pretty much known since Friday that I'm
outtie. It was actually pretty nice because I got to start early on
packing and saying goodbyes, so I'm pretty well done :) I can relax!
Yesterday morning President called and told me I'm going to Red Deer!
I had a feeling that would happen haha don't ask me why. So I'll be in
the Red Deer 1st ward with Elder Cone, a guy I came out with. He was
also in my first district in Southwood, so I know him pretty well.
He's a good missionary and works hard so that's good. We'll see how it
goes! I know a lot of the people down there too so it'll be fun! I
didn't really care where I went as long as I was around other
missionaries, because being alone is as fun as it sounds! Haha so
it'll be fun. Red Deer and Grand Prairie are pretty much their own
missions because you don't hear from anything in the city very often
and you only see the people in your zone. I'm actually way excited I
have a sweet district and we meet every week again! Hallelujah. I'll
miss Elder Nabrotzky though, I've become quite attached to him
regardless of our different personalities. It's almost like watching
your son leave for college, not that I know what that feels like haha.
He'll have a good mission though I'm excited for him!
Speaking of, Elder Merrell, my trainer, goes home on Thursday! It'll
be weird not having him around. He'll probably be married in 3 months
to tell you the truth haha. He left me a bunch of stuff, including his
Magic Bullet, which is nice :)
So this week was sooo much service for members whose basements
flooded. We spent hours at various member's houses helping them rip up
carpet and underlay, vacuum up water, de-junk old soaking boxes, and
we even helped one of the members remodel their basement haha. Busy
week! I love service though, it's a good feeling and a nice change
from the ordinary.
Haha yeah Dad I don't know if I'll get my license banned, but I don't
think I will because the cars aren't registered to me. Plus Canada has
no record that I'm driving! Only the church does. Plus since there's
technically two of us in the car and they have no record of who was
driving at the time of the ticket. I've just been shafted every time
because I'm the only one that can drive haha so it's no secret who was
speeding. Which is also why I always pay the whole thing, because I'm
not going to make someone else pay for a ticket they didn't get. Soooo
yeah. We'll see what happens. Hey I'm not exed though, they decided to
continue to let me drive!
Utah sounds like it was a party! Seven Peaks is my favorite place on
this green earth. At least it was when I was 7 hahaha. I'll go back
when I get home and try it out again, see how it compares. I'm glad
you guys enjoyed your stay!
Isaac's leaving! Tell him I love him and that he'll do great. I'll
talk to him when Canada's mailing system delivers mail to Guatemala in
6 months! Hahaha.
Alright well that's all I have for you in this week's edition. We're
going over to the Sukhu's for lunch and so I can get pictures with
them. We're also driving into Edmonton to pick some things up from
various other missionaries. Barrhead is also driving down to get mail
and say goodbye. Busy day! I'll miss Spruce Grove a lot this is such a
sweet area. Hopefully I'll serve around here again!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
PS I have also included a picture of me on my noble steed! And also of
a buffalo we saw on the way to Barrhead the other day. Cool eh?
start with the Sukhus! They are baptized and confirmed members of the
church :) The baptism went really well and there was a huge turnout
from the ward. I can't tell you how much it means not only to the
Sukhus but also to us as missionaries to see the ward support them
like they have. It's so sweet! I attached a picture of Elder Nabrotzky
and I with them at the baptism. On Sunday they got up and bore their
testimonies in Gospel Essentials. It was a cool experience. They're
definitely converted. Your guys' prayers are much appreciated and I'm
sure they helped!
So on Friday leadership calls went out and I got called as District
Leader. Elder Kember's the DL here and he's training which means he
won't get transferred, so I've pretty much known since Friday that I'm
outtie. It was actually pretty nice because I got to start early on
packing and saying goodbyes, so I'm pretty well done :) I can relax!
Yesterday morning President called and told me I'm going to Red Deer!
I had a feeling that would happen haha don't ask me why. So I'll be in
the Red Deer 1st ward with Elder Cone, a guy I came out with. He was
also in my first district in Southwood, so I know him pretty well.
He's a good missionary and works hard so that's good. We'll see how it
goes! I know a lot of the people down there too so it'll be fun! I
didn't really care where I went as long as I was around other
missionaries, because being alone is as fun as it sounds! Haha so
it'll be fun. Red Deer and Grand Prairie are pretty much their own
missions because you don't hear from anything in the city very often
and you only see the people in your zone. I'm actually way excited I
have a sweet district and we meet every week again! Hallelujah. I'll
miss Elder Nabrotzky though, I've become quite attached to him
regardless of our different personalities. It's almost like watching
your son leave for college, not that I know what that feels like haha.
He'll have a good mission though I'm excited for him!
Speaking of, Elder Merrell, my trainer, goes home on Thursday! It'll
be weird not having him around. He'll probably be married in 3 months
to tell you the truth haha. He left me a bunch of stuff, including his
Magic Bullet, which is nice :)
So this week was sooo much service for members whose basements
flooded. We spent hours at various member's houses helping them rip up
carpet and underlay, vacuum up water, de-junk old soaking boxes, and
we even helped one of the members remodel their basement haha. Busy
week! I love service though, it's a good feeling and a nice change
from the ordinary.
Haha yeah Dad I don't know if I'll get my license banned, but I don't
think I will because the cars aren't registered to me. Plus Canada has
no record that I'm driving! Only the church does. Plus since there's
technically two of us in the car and they have no record of who was
driving at the time of the ticket. I've just been shafted every time
because I'm the only one that can drive haha so it's no secret who was
speeding. Which is also why I always pay the whole thing, because I'm
not going to make someone else pay for a ticket they didn't get. Soooo
yeah. We'll see what happens. Hey I'm not exed though, they decided to
continue to let me drive!
Utah sounds like it was a party! Seven Peaks is my favorite place on
this green earth. At least it was when I was 7 hahaha. I'll go back
when I get home and try it out again, see how it compares. I'm glad
you guys enjoyed your stay!
Isaac's leaving! Tell him I love him and that he'll do great. I'll
talk to him when Canada's mailing system delivers mail to Guatemala in
6 months! Hahaha.
Alright well that's all I have for you in this week's edition. We're
going over to the Sukhu's for lunch and so I can get pictures with
them. We're also driving into Edmonton to pick some things up from
various other missionaries. Barrhead is also driving down to get mail
and say goodbye. Busy day! I'll miss Spruce Grove a lot this is such a
sweet area. Hopefully I'll serve around here again!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
PS I have also included a picture of me on my noble steed! And also of
a buffalo we saw on the way to Barrhead the other day. Cool eh?
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Traffic laws are SO tiresome
Hello my friends,
This week was super good! And then bad in some other ways.....Let's
start with the bad news first, shall we?
So today we were just starting companionship study, when I got a call
from Elder Eklund, the vehicle coordinator. He told me that I have
another ticket for $113......now you're probably thinking that it's
ridiculous that I have another ticket, considering this is the third
one on my mission, but might I point out that I didn't have any back
home! Let me try and rationalize my mistake haha and give you my
reasoning. So in this particular instance, I was driving on a road not
much different than 185th ave back home. It's almost all commercial
with parts of residential. So the speed limit is 45 mph on that road
if I remember correctly. At least I think it was. Km/hr has me so
messed up haha. Anyways, so might I be so bold as to say that I
regularly did about 50 mph on that road? 5 mph over the speed limit is
not a big deal, right? Anyways, so for this ticket I was driving and
was doing 78 in a 60 km/hr zone. BUT it's only because I
sub-consciously want to do 50 mph on that style of road, which is
right around the speed I was doing when I got the ticket. So parents,
siblings, members of the jury, I think it is safe to say that I had no
desire to speed, but I only did it because that's what I was used to
back home, and these silly Canadians have weird speed limits. 60 km/hr
is 37 mph.....that's so slow I feel like I'm doing 25! But obviously I
need to watch the speedometer. BUT that may not even be an issue
because this is ticket number 3 and the rumor around the mission is
that you get exed (banned) from driving at 3. But it's not confirmed.
So I'm just waiting on that phone call from President. It would be
unfortunate though because Nabrotzky can't drive, which would mean one
of us gets transferred. Oh well! Anyways, I'm sorry I got the ticket,
I know it's not the best news to get haha. So I'll pay it off and
scrimp and save for the next little while.
Anyways, now that that's off my chest, we can begin! This week was
really good actually. We had a lot of good visits and some good
progress in the area!
La familia de Sukhu is doing super super well. Danielle lost her
Grandma last week, and so it's been a rough couple days for them. I
made them pumpkin cookies (the only other recipe I have ha) and we
stopped by and talked about the Plan of Salvation. She said it helps a
lot knowing for a surety that she'll see her again. Their baptismal
interview was on Friday and they all made it through! They were
extremely nervous going in, but I think they realized there was no
death penalty if they failed haha. So their baptism is set for this
Saturday at 2pm. We've been keeping daily contact, usually just
stopping by at the end of the day and watching a mormon message or
something. They're awesome! Keep them in your prayers. The week before
and after the baptism is always the hectic one. Also, Erika,
Danielle's mom, (the one you talked to, mom), was supposed to fly up
for their baptism. The ward surprised her with a plane ticket a few
weeks ago. But after Erika's mom died they decided to use the ticket
to go to the funeral in Pennsylvania instead. Which is totally
understandable. So no seeing Erika :( Oh well they only live in
Northern California I'll visit them some day.
Haha one of the members in the ward offered Elder Nabrotzky speech
lessons. He has a very prominent lisp and she was a speech therapy
teacher back in the day, so she offered when we were over there last
week. She taught Fifita for a little bit too and he improved a lot, so
it'll be good for Jablonski to get them. We went over on Saturday and
we're going over today after emails too. She's served a million
missions with her husband and it's always nice to go over there and
get missionary advice :)
We're hoping for a new investigator this week! One of the members in
our ward just married a guy named Dan. We ate dinner with him once a
few months ago when they were dating, and he called himself a "wannabe
mormon." Well "wannabe" no more my friend! We're going over on Sunday
to teach him the first lesson. He comes to church every week and takes
notes, and he even took notes during my lesson in Gospel Essentials on
Sunday! I was quite honored :) So yeah we're excited for that!
We've had sooo much rain in the past week. We went from heat stroke to
drowning! It rained non stop all Saturday and Sunday, and all of the
major highways around here were flooding it's crazy. The dry ponds
were all full to the brim and a lot of people had flooding in their
basements. Mostly just the older homes that don't have sump pumps. I
realized why we don't have basements in Oregon! We'd all die.
On Sunday after Sunday School, Brother Flexhaug, the Elders Quorum
President approached us and asked us if we could go and help one of
the members whose basement had flooded. So we drove home and changed,
then went over to the Gander's house and and found them ripping up the
carpet and underlay. We spent a couple of hours doing that and
scraping the glue off from the underlay. They decided to just let the
carpet dry then put it back down with no underlay, in case it happens
again. There were 5 other families whose basements flooded, but they
all had hometeachers that went over. So that was an adventure!
Today we did it all again, and went to the Hamiltons and helped them
clear out their basement and get rid of junk so that it could all dry.
They've lived in the house for 40 years and you can definitely tell
haha they've accumulated a lot of junk. So we helped them all morning
and we're going back tomorrow too. Service is nice though it's a
welcome change from the ordinary.
Transfers are this week and I'm curious to see what happens! I've been
here since February, so I wouldn't be surprised if I left. We'll see
though! I wouldn't mind stay in Spruce another one.
So anyway, that's my week. I'm glad the reunion was a success and that
Jim's doing okay, that looked like a nasty injury! You guys are the
best!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
This week was super good! And then bad in some other ways.....Let's
start with the bad news first, shall we?
So today we were just starting companionship study, when I got a call
from Elder Eklund, the vehicle coordinator. He told me that I have
another ticket for $113......now you're probably thinking that it's
ridiculous that I have another ticket, considering this is the third
one on my mission, but might I point out that I didn't have any back
home! Let me try and rationalize my mistake haha and give you my
reasoning. So in this particular instance, I was driving on a road not
much different than 185th ave back home. It's almost all commercial
with parts of residential. So the speed limit is 45 mph on that road
if I remember correctly. At least I think it was. Km/hr has me so
messed up haha. Anyways, so might I be so bold as to say that I
regularly did about 50 mph on that road? 5 mph over the speed limit is
not a big deal, right? Anyways, so for this ticket I was driving and
was doing 78 in a 60 km/hr zone. BUT it's only because I
sub-consciously want to do 50 mph on that style of road, which is
right around the speed I was doing when I got the ticket. So parents,
siblings, members of the jury, I think it is safe to say that I had no
desire to speed, but I only did it because that's what I was used to
back home, and these silly Canadians have weird speed limits. 60 km/hr
is 37 mph.....that's so slow I feel like I'm doing 25! But obviously I
need to watch the speedometer. BUT that may not even be an issue
because this is ticket number 3 and the rumor around the mission is
that you get exed (banned) from driving at 3. But it's not confirmed.
So I'm just waiting on that phone call from President. It would be
unfortunate though because Nabrotzky can't drive, which would mean one
of us gets transferred. Oh well! Anyways, I'm sorry I got the ticket,
I know it's not the best news to get haha. So I'll pay it off and
scrimp and save for the next little while.
Anyways, now that that's off my chest, we can begin! This week was
really good actually. We had a lot of good visits and some good
progress in the area!
La familia de Sukhu is doing super super well. Danielle lost her
Grandma last week, and so it's been a rough couple days for them. I
made them pumpkin cookies (the only other recipe I have ha) and we
stopped by and talked about the Plan of Salvation. She said it helps a
lot knowing for a surety that she'll see her again. Their baptismal
interview was on Friday and they all made it through! They were
extremely nervous going in, but I think they realized there was no
death penalty if they failed haha. So their baptism is set for this
Saturday at 2pm. We've been keeping daily contact, usually just
stopping by at the end of the day and watching a mormon message or
something. They're awesome! Keep them in your prayers. The week before
and after the baptism is always the hectic one. Also, Erika,
Danielle's mom, (the one you talked to, mom), was supposed to fly up
for their baptism. The ward surprised her with a plane ticket a few
weeks ago. But after Erika's mom died they decided to use the ticket
to go to the funeral in Pennsylvania instead. Which is totally
understandable. So no seeing Erika :( Oh well they only live in
Northern California I'll visit them some day.
Haha one of the members in the ward offered Elder Nabrotzky speech
lessons. He has a very prominent lisp and she was a speech therapy
teacher back in the day, so she offered when we were over there last
week. She taught Fifita for a little bit too and he improved a lot, so
it'll be good for Jablonski to get them. We went over on Saturday and
we're going over today after emails too. She's served a million
missions with her husband and it's always nice to go over there and
get missionary advice :)
We're hoping for a new investigator this week! One of the members in
our ward just married a guy named Dan. We ate dinner with him once a
few months ago when they were dating, and he called himself a "wannabe
mormon." Well "wannabe" no more my friend! We're going over on Sunday
to teach him the first lesson. He comes to church every week and takes
notes, and he even took notes during my lesson in Gospel Essentials on
Sunday! I was quite honored :) So yeah we're excited for that!
We've had sooo much rain in the past week. We went from heat stroke to
drowning! It rained non stop all Saturday and Sunday, and all of the
major highways around here were flooding it's crazy. The dry ponds
were all full to the brim and a lot of people had flooding in their
basements. Mostly just the older homes that don't have sump pumps. I
realized why we don't have basements in Oregon! We'd all die.
On Sunday after Sunday School, Brother Flexhaug, the Elders Quorum
President approached us and asked us if we could go and help one of
the members whose basement had flooded. So we drove home and changed,
then went over to the Gander's house and and found them ripping up the
carpet and underlay. We spent a couple of hours doing that and
scraping the glue off from the underlay. They decided to just let the
carpet dry then put it back down with no underlay, in case it happens
again. There were 5 other families whose basements flooded, but they
all had hometeachers that went over. So that was an adventure!
Today we did it all again, and went to the Hamiltons and helped them
clear out their basement and get rid of junk so that it could all dry.
They've lived in the house for 40 years and you can definitely tell
haha they've accumulated a lot of junk. So we helped them all morning
and we're going back tomorrow too. Service is nice though it's a
welcome change from the ordinary.
Transfers are this week and I'm curious to see what happens! I've been
here since February, so I wouldn't be surprised if I left. We'll see
though! I wouldn't mind stay in Spruce another one.
So anyway, that's my week. I'm glad the reunion was a success and that
Jim's doing okay, that looked like a nasty injury! You guys are the
best!
Love you guys,
Elder Read
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