Week 12, 12/15/15

Hi cuties. This week was another good one! First off I know you're probably all wondering how things have been going with our gay investigator. Unfortunately he has been out of town the past week so we have been unable to meet with him again, but he still wants to meet, hopefully we can meet again sometime this week haha. We are still enjoying the so far very abnormally warm winter here. It's been hitting a balmy 25 degrees pretty regularly. Not gonna lie, I'm still cold all the time but from what I hear it usually gets down around -30 sometimes around this time of year.  Also, the subject of the email is titled the way it is because elder Payne and I both say quack occasionally and one of the more elderly members caught on and said full quack the other day and it was just really funny.... Kind of one of those "you had to be there" moments. 

I think I'll trade in my football pads for some hockey pads after the mish

Well on to some highlights from the week. Wednesday we went down to Edmonton for interviews with our mission president. I got to learn some great things from him, I love that man! I also got to talk with a few elders and sisters in my zone for a while and get to know them better (we never see them cuz Slave Lake is so far away from everything), so that was good too. Thursday we had exchanges and I stayed in Slave Lake with Elder Sortomme. It was a pretty productive day, and we managed to find a new investigator! 

We got together with these district Elders I did my first exchanges.  Meet Elder Sortomme

When we exchanged back we met at the trailhead for what was supposed to be a quick little hike to the geographical centre (that's how they spell it here) point of Alberta. Well sadly it wasn't quick because we pretty much got lost in the Canadian forest and hiked 30 minutes in the wrong direction. We probably wasted like 2 and half hours finding the right trail and the monument that was at the centre and hiked about 6 miles, trudging through 8 inches of snow in our snow boots. We were all pretty dang tired after that haha. 

Saturday morning we were able to do some service for two of our investigators named Warren and Sammy. It was pretty fun, we chopped a lot of wood and got a pretty good workout in the prOcess (how they say it here), and I got to drive a quad (what they call four wheelers) hauling firewood around the lot. We had some fun conversations with Warren and built our relationship there, he even wants to take us ice fishing now haha! Hopefully we can get them to church this next week eh. 


Another fun thing this week was the branch Christmas party on Saturday night. It was a Pajama party so one of the members made us these pretty extravagant onesies. We were quite the site not gonna lie. Maybe the church should always have missionaries wear onesies out proselyting because it was a pretty good conversation starter. There were a lot of non members there, the food was great, I ate lots of cookies, so all in all a solid party. 

The main event of this week was definitely our lessons with Lawrence. We met with him twice and we were able to teach him everything else necessary to get him ready for his baptism this Saturday. Elder Payne and I are honestly amazed at how ready this man is, and how dedicated he is to gaining a testimony. He said in a previous lesson he doesn't feel like his prayers are being answered. He admitted he was looking for a miracle, what he did was he prayed to receive an answer and then opened up the book to a random page and read a random verse. He said he didn't really receive a specific answer but more of a vague one. I personally think it was pretty specific, he opened up to Alma chapter 32 that talks about faith being like a seed, and how we need to plant it and nurture it to see if it is a good seed. Elder Payne and I knew that was the Lord telling him to continue exercising his faith by reading, praying, going to church, etc and over time his faith will continue to grow. In our lesson with him on Sunday night, the spirit was there so strong and as we testified at the end of the lesson, he realized the Lord really has been answering his prayers this whole time, and he told us that with tears rolling down his cheeks. We all could feel God's love so strong it was amazing :) seeing Lawrence's progression and the many miracles we have seen with him has definitely been the most rewarding experience of my mission so far. He is going to make such a great member! 

Well it's been a great week and I have a feeling this week will be great too!! Christmas season is the best time of year by far. I hope you all are trying to have a Christ-centered Christmas this year! Ya know I guess He is kind of like the reason we celebrate or something like that ;) I love you all, thanks for all the support!  

Elder Bonny

As a bonus - check out this awesome original missionary harmonica performance of "Slave Lake"...(not to be missed)