Short Week

It seems like I just emailed you all!  Well, P-Day was late last week, so I am going to blame it on that.  Anyway.  This week has been very quick, and pretty good.  Thursday we met with Stephan, who has been quite closed off before.  We have been playing gospel related games with him, which seems to have had a good affect.  We were told Sunday that he is opening more, not just to us but to the family he lives with.  We involve the kids in playing the games, so it seems to be doing well for him.  We also met with Hugh, who is starting to teach Elder Liu the lessons with me, and with Helen, to whom we gave a copy of Book of Mormon Stories.  Other than that, Elder Liu has been pretty sick this week, and so we spent a lot of time inside with him sleeping.  I spent some time trying to find people to help us with our Social Media blitz this Saturday, and we have it mostly figured out.  Just need to find a couple more people to go with us.  But it is all coming together well.  Well, I miss you all and hope you are all doing alright.  Love you!

Family Day

So I apologize.  My weekly email has been late a day.  Yesterday was Family Day in Alberta.  Which means that we didn't have P-Day, and we weren't supposed to be tracting.  So we helped Hugh and were with him most of the day.  It was good.  This week we also helped our investigator Christine, who broke her arm recently.  There was quite a day of snow, about 6 inches over night, and she finally asked us to come help her.  That was a big step for her, because she hadn't really ever asked us for help before, we always just kind of show up after it snows.  But it was really good to help her, and she really appreciated it.  Earlier, we had brought over cookies and a card letting her know we had heard and hoped her arm got better.  It was really good for her, and surprisingly, Chinese people tend to like Chocolate chip cookies.  Everyone that has had them has said they were good.  Christine asked for the recipe.  I totally did not expect it, but it has been fun to see. 

This week we did lots of finding, and we found one Chinese girl who works at a phone case stand in one of the malls who wanted to talk to us.  She was a little interested in our message, but she is very busy.  We are trying to find a time to meet with her, because she shows some real promise, and we are excited. 

We also were able to talk to the three new investigators we were to get this week.  One it turns out does not live in our area, so we were disappointed in that.  Another will move into our area in two weeks, and he is awesome.  We are excited for that.  And the third is in China taking care of family business, so we were unable to meet with him this week, but he is also really awesome. 

This week has been a good week for me.  The temperature goes up and down, snow falls and melts, ice forms, and I get all the more stressed to drive.  My one consolation is that Canadian drivers are the nicest drivers I have met.  These people are so nice, and its good to have that when I neither know the area well, nor how to drive on the snow.  But, it does confirm some stereotypes, at least in my mind.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all and pray for everyone of you.

Driving, The New Year Fireside, and Success

This week has been a very good week for Elder Liu and myself.  We found out this week we have 3 new people we will start meeting with in the next 3 weeks.  Which is pretty great since we haven't had a really solid new investigator since I got here.  I have no doubt this is connected to our renewed effort to be more obedient and work together as a companionship.

This week we had our Chinese New Year Fireside, which was great.  There were so many people there, it was great.  Lots of people I had met through English class, and they brought friends.  It was a great chance for all our members and investigators to get together, which was awesome.  And I got to watch Elder Liu give a talk again (this time in Mandarin).  And then we had food afterwards.  It was very good, but I didn't get to see everything, I was caught up talking to people for most of the time.  But it was a great experience.

Other than that, I have been driving this week, during snow.  It is difficult, but not as bad as I may have thought.  It was fun to be out during some of the storms, although I didn't particularly want to go fast when I was.  Not that that bothers me or the vehicle coordinator.  Elder Liu will just have to learn to live with it.

Anyway, I'm grateful for all the prayers, and all the support of everyone.  It makes a huge difference in the experience I am having.  Hope you are all doing fantastic!

New Year Fireside

Driving and More Snow

This week has been a good week.  With transfers, there are a few familiar faces that are gone now.  Elder Nelson, one of the Londonderry Elders, left to a new area and so asked for us to help him with getting ready for that on Tuesday.  We were able to, and then we had to go to an appointment with Helen.  Helen is doing really well, she is starting to show more and more interest in things about the Book of Mormon and other things.  Which is really exciting for us.

This week we are gearing up for our Chinese New Year fireside, which is set to be lots of fun.  Elder Liu will give a talk, and so I'm excited to see how he does this time.  But we have been giving out lots of flyers to anyone who speaks Chinese.  Its nice to have a specific activity to invite these people to rather than an English Church meeting...  I think the work here will accelerate rapidly, so I am excited for that.  We are gathering members, and we are still waiting for what I see as the critical mass.  But when it happens, its going to go so big.  I get really excited for it.

This week I started driving, and thats a totally new experience.  I am constantly reminded (mostly by family) how little I know about driving on the snow.  So, needless to say, I am trying to take it very carefully.

Other than that, yesterday we helped an investigator who had badly sprained his leg to go to the hospital and see a doctor.  When he went to actually talk to the doctor, the security asked Elder Liu and I to stay behind, and we did.  We stayed for quite a while.  And in the waiting room there was a TV playing the Super Bowl.  Its weird to think the only time I've watched part the Super Bowl on Sunday was on my mission....  But really, I tried not to watch.  And I realized why we can't, its too dang distracting!

But it has been a good week.  We are doing well in Edmonton, surviving in the snowy flatlands.  I truly miss the mountains in Arizona, and the beauty of the desert, but I am getting used to the beauty of the North.

Elder Nelson (not T.J.'s companion)  taking pictures of the river view

River View

Downtown Edmonton