True North Strong and Free

So today's my first P-Day in my new home.  Edmonton has been freezing since the day I got here. But I'm told, its still comparatively warm to the rest of the winter...  Brrr.... Who decided to live here?  Just kidding, its pretty awesome here.  I've been having a good time.  I'll admit, when I first got here, things weren't really as I expected, I didn't understand how the missionaries were doing their work, and I was in a bad attitude.  But I had an experience on Friday, at English class we were playing a game with some of the students, and they were really impressed by honesty when I called myself out for messing up, and then I saw one of the students do the same thing later, so that was really cool for me, and I think that's when I started to understand why and how the Mandarin Elders here work.

There has been some tension with language Elders here.  We are being put into car shares, which almost all the missionaries hate, but I figure it has to have a reason for things to be the way they are.  So I guess its all going to be alright.  Driving in the snow is new for me and my companion, Elder Liu, so I am a little worried about that, but its been alright so far.  Hopefully we'll be safe.

I taught my first lesson in Chinese on Wednesday.  We met with Hugh, who has started praying and really loves praying and going to church, so that's really awesome.  He didn't make it to church this Sunday because he had a headache, but he said he would come to the YSA Family Home Evening tonight.  We are doing a cultural heritage night, so that's going to be interesting.  We are making Chinese dumplings and green onion cakes to bring and share, and will probably teach some Mandarin phrases.

Anyway, doing great up here and loving it.  Hear from you next week!

Elder Liu, Elder Ethington, President and Sister Manion

Borrowed a coat and hat from his companion

Elder Liu, Elder Ethington, Elder Sun (new from Taiwan this transfer), and Elder Karren

Selfie in the snow

So today is my final P-Day in the MTC.  Just a little crazy.  These last couple days have been a little bit of fun, and a little bit of sad. I will miss a lot of the people I've met here at the MTC, and I've been saying good bye to them for the past little bit.  I leave tomorrow morning at 2:30 in the morning (WAY TOO EARLY).  The rest of my district leaves today at 1:30, but I will still beat them to the mission field, which I think is pretty funny.  While Elder Wimmer is gone and I'm still here, I get to be temporary companions with Elder Mertz.  He's a really great Elder from the district just behind us (well, 4 weeks behind us...) so I am excited for that.  I am really sad to see Elder Wimmer going though.  I was really blessed with him as a companion.  He put up with a lot of stuff (see the Halloween costume pictures) and helped me with a lot.  And it was great to see him grow as we were here.  I will definitely miss him as we spilt paths.

This week, whether I was aware of it or not, I feel was a bit of a spiritual growth spurt for me.  After Elder Wimmer recited the First Vision and gave me such a clear witness through the Holy Ghost of the truthfulness of that account, I have spent the week seeking to grow that small seed of testimony.  Elder Wimmer also got to recite the First Vision in mission conference, which was awesome.  Partly because we got to sit in the front.  The plan was for all those reciting to sit on the front row and the companions to sit on the row behind them.  Since all the others reciting it were sisters, I was about to be in the second row with 6 sisters (Every single group was a tripanionship, until ours got split with Elder Eggersten joining....)  Not that I was going to complain or anything...  But things ended up being just a little different from that, which is alright.  I was just really happy to get that same witness again.  And finally, in the Temple this morning, I had the expereince where that need to know how everything works, and why that I feel makes so much of the difference in Math and Physics, just melted away, and I was able to just let things be, and know that somehow, everything works, and no one (definitely not me) can comprehend the mysteries of God on their own.  Anyway, it was just a great week, and great last huzzah with my current district.  I bought everyone a cream soda one day, and we got a picture by the Cream Soda Tree, named because it smells like Cream Soda.  Elder Wimmer and I also had the chance to bless the Sacrament this Sunday.... Only we do our meetings with the missionaries using "SYL" or trying to only speak their language.  Which, scarily enough, includes the Sacrament Prayers.  Now, because Chinese is tonal, thats a total part of the prayer, and  I was really freaking out thinking I would be up on the stand saying the same thing 5 times, and then finally, humiliatingly, and mercifully, the Branch President would let me do it in English....  but there were no issues.  Which I know was a blessing from God, because I hate tones.  Mostly.  I have been going to choir with Elder Wimmer, and its really fun. Its awesome becuase I like sitting by him, and he says I can match pitch (most of the time) so I just try to follow him, which is really kind of cool.  Anyway.  This week comes to a close, and a new adventure begins tomorrow.  A freezing adventure... Brrr.....

Elder Ethington

T.J. loved his district! Here they are pointing to the missions where they will serve. One of thses things is not like the others....
 Elder Wimmer, his companion for his 9 weeks of MTC training,  is right next to T.J.

Elder Ethington and Austin Haymond-old friends from Hamilton Prep-found each other in the MTC.
This is T.J.'s last week there!

So this week was a pretty great week.  Elder Wimmer and I have been having a great time with our investigators and had definitely our best lessons this week. There were two that stand out to me with just me and him, and one from when I was still with Elder Clark and Elder Wimmer.  The first, with all three of us, was a Skype TRC appointment, which I have another of today after this....  Woohoo...., and the investigator told us that she had two questions she had been praying about.  One had already been answered, and then another was answered by one of the scriptures we shared in our lesson.  That was a really cool experience.  Its one of those things I see the Spirit working through the missionaries.

Another lesson was with the investigator version of our teacher.  We were trying to teach the commandment to follow the prophet, and to do this, we included a conference talk about some of the things we  had been talking about recently in our lessons, mainly exercising faith through Prayer and Scripture study.  Our teacher told us afterwards that it answered a prayer, which we weren't sure if it was her personal prayer or the investigators.  But again, that was really awesome.

Ok, the third lesson.  We teach the other companionships in our district so that we can have more teaching and get to know how an investigator feels.  Some of the companionships don't take this a seriously, but the others are patterning their investigators on real people, so its an actual thing for them.  And one of those was the sisters.  We were teaching them on Saturday, and Elder Wimmer recited the First Vision in Mandarin, and it was really powerful, and I asked them what their thoughts were, and it was really quite for a while, but not at all an awkward quiet.  And then Wu Jie Mei (Sister Baird's investigator, who had been really closed up) broke the silence and told us she didn't have a thought so much as a feeling that was just too big in her heart.  And it was just a really powerful witness to the investigators and to me personally that Joseph Smith's account and his experience are true, and that that is the message we are going out to teach.

This week turned out to be pretty good.  It started out kind of rough, but I was able to see those around me who tried to cheer me up, and I was glad for that.  My teacher took the only thing she really could, the fact that when we do Chinese exercises in class I talk about cookies, and she brought cookies to class to try to cheer me up.  Its just been a really good end to the week.

So here's another week down.  We are about 2 weeks out from leaving the MTC, and we expect to get our travel plans this week, Thursday or Friday.  So that's pretty darn exciting.  And I hear from Elder Bergeson that Canada has not been bad, he's had some great times there, and I am definitely looking forward to getting there.

Tomorrow morning my companionship will be split up.  Elder Eggersten, who came in two week before us, when he was supposed to be with us, will join and become Elder Clark's companion.  Elder Wimmer and I will still be companions.  I'm pretty excited, I think having just one companion will make things just a little bit sooner.

For our Tuesday devotional we had a speaker, Larry R. Lawrence.  I didn't make the connection with the Lawrence family until they showed the front row of family members, and I saw Makenna sitting there.  I went up and said hi to her after the devotional.  It was great to see someone I recognized from home.

So this Sunday I was made the District leader, for the last couple weeks that we are here. I wasn't really expecting that, and there are some study things I need to do for it, that I probably should have already done, but haven't...  But I'll get to it, I promise.  

Not a lot else this week.  Everyone is gearing up for getting into the field, which is great.  I think its going to be like the last few weeks of school, where everyone doesn't want to work or study, and its going to be a hard time staying focused.

So I guess that's six weeks here. Time is really flying.  Only a few more and I'll actually be in the field.  Which is a little scary, but also I'm really just ready to leave and to get a change of scenery.  So this week not a crazy ton has happened.  Oh, except yesterday.  Elder Wimmer and his brother performed in a Sunday night devotional, so we all got to sit in the front with them, which was awesome.  And the speaker showed us a rough cut of the Christmas video the church will come out with, and it looks pretty freaking amazing.

This week we did start talking about the Word of Wisdom with our investigators, which was a bit of a new experience.  I don't think our companionship was really ready for it, so it was hard.  And mostly we just diverted it and said we would handle it another time.

I did get a package from the Allens, and that was probably the highlight of the week. It was great just to get a package from home, and to see the pictures my cousins drew me and it just made the day great.

We also found out that once the oldest districts leave, one elder who came early but should have been in our district will be put in our district, and break up the tri-panionship.  So thats all going to be interesting...

Anyway, I'm having a great time up here.  The weather is getting a little more chilly but, its all fun.  Bye!

Well time is really starting to blur now.  We passed our 1 month mark this week, which was great.  But at the same time, its scary how much I have to learn that I haven't gotten to yet.  But its all going fast, and getting faster and better.  We finally got new Mandarin speaking missionaries this week, all going to Taiwan as far as I know.  But  thats alright, its nice not to be the new district anymore. Although it is a little more likely that we will be called on to give a talk in Sacrament meeting now.

So we had a great week at the MTC with General Conference.  I loved every session, but especially the Saturday Afternoon Session.  I also loved Elder Bednar's talk on Sunday.   Everything was great and I got so much out of all the talks.  And Sunday Night we had a great devotional with Vai Sikahema, who taught us never to miss a missionary opportunity, but it was one of the most fun devotionals I've been to.  So that was a great time.

This week we got two new investigators, the other companionships in the district form groups of investigators for us to teach, and we are a group for each of the companionships.  So thats a new challenge.  But its a lot of fun.

We have been having a blast as a district, we did endowments together today and then played basketball during P-day.  I know some Elders don't always enjoy basketball with the sisters, but I am having a good time.  They're always up to something entertaining.  This week they made a "I am a Missionary" batman mural on our Chalkboard, its one of the pictures I've sent.

Anyway, thats my week.  Its going great, but I'm kinda ready to get out of the MTC.  But I still have a lot to learn. Anyway, good bye. I miss you all. Please send mail, I love getting it.  And have fun!

 

Moustache Monday

Singapore companions Elder Clark and Elder Wimmer