Winter Returns

Hello!  How are you doing this week?  This week has been good here in Edmonton, Canada.  Doing the Lord's work and helping people to come to know Christ and the miracle of his Atonement.  Again this week, I have really come to appreciate the gift of the Atonement.  In his love and mercy, Christ descended below all things. Why?  So he could lift you and me.  I love that.  I love that the Atonement has so many blessings for us.  Not only does it cleanse us from sin, but it also heals is and let's us grow, get better, and become more like Jesus Christ.  And that opportunity for growth, that chance to be better than I can be on my own, is something special. A lot of people may not see the need for that.  But I can tell you that I have learned that through the Savior, through his Atonement and obedience to his commandments, he can help us do more than we can do on our own.  And I can promise as you seek God and ask him about these things, he will tell you they are true.

This week has been good for work in Edmonton.  Elder Decker and I have seen great blessings as we've worked hard and we are so happy to see our friends here progressing.  One of our investigators, Hannah, who has a goal set for baptism in a couple weeks, has moved recently, and this week we will pass her to another set of Elders who work with people in that area.  Kinda of sad to not be teaching her anymore, but still excited for her progression and for the opportunity she has.

Also this week, we've worked with the Greenfield Ward Sister Missionaries, meeting a few families in their ward.  They're great missionaries and are great support to us as we try to work with Chinese people.  For some reason, some people respond better to two young women coming and inviting them to church than they do to us two, not nearly as smiley young men...  So it's great to be able to work with them.  I love to see a harmony in missionary work, with members, other missionaries, or the people we teach.  Just helps assure me we are in the Lord's work.

Well thanks for reading!  Hope you're doing well!

Elder Ethington

Sister Kirts, Sister Lacno, Elder Decker and Elder Ethington posing in the Chinese way

A Week In The Life

Hello all!  How are you doing this week?  Elder Decker and I have been having a great week!  The work here in the Riverbend Stake has been moving forward strong and we are excited for harvest that has begun.  We have been able to meet with some of our great investigators.  We are super excited for Hannah, who has accepted an invitation to be baptized this month.  We are still working with her and hoping to prepare her and make sure she is ready for baptism at that time.  One thing that got sorted out this week is her baptismal interview.  Since she is new in Canada her English still needs some work, and our zone leaders were worried about being able to effectively communicate and make sure she was ready.  Fortunately for us, last transfer one of the Mandarin was called as our Assistant to the President.  So now he will conduct the baptismal interview for her.  We are super excited for that.

This week we also met with Holly, who opened up to us and we had a great conversation with her and her fellowshipper.  Her fellowshipper is awesome, not just as a friend, but he also does blacksmithing.  So I think he's pretty sweet.

Finally this week we have a new investigator!  Her name is Casiel, and she is a young woman staying in the home of a family in one of the wards here.  We visited with them before, but at that time Casiel wasn't really ready to start learning about the Church yet.  This week, she was ready.  We are super excited to start meeting with her.  I am so glad for the members that she lives with as well.  They are super awesome and great friends and support for her and are loving her so much.

One of the awesome things that happened that we didn't get to be a part of was one of our investigators who helped with a dinner put on for seniors in the area.  The dinner was Broadway themed, and she is a great violin player, and she played I Dreamed A Dream accompanied by a member of the YSA Ward.  Although we weren't there, we heard it was super good and she played super well.  Hopefully we are going to be able to have her play a special musical number in Sacrament Meeting in the next couple weeks.

I hope you have had a good week.  I know I have, and I know I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life.  Love you all!  Have a great week!

Elder Ethington

Elders Decker, Bergeson, Ethington and Rich

Walruses

This week has been awesome!

This week Elder Decker and I have been working with some great investigators: Hannah, Holly, Victoria, and Tina.  Probably the highlight of the week is setting a goal for baptism with Hannah.  Such a great experience to help people as the prepare to make sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father and to see the blessings that flow into their lives.

This week we've also worked with a few less-active members in the area.  It just reminds me of the cultural differences between Western Culture and Asian Culture.  Its amazing to see the difference.  And sometimes it is difficult to understand these differences, but they are really ingrained in people, so we have been spending lots of time to try to understand different thought processes and how we can best help our investigators.

Thanks for reading!  Sorry its short, Love you all!  Hope you're having a good week!

Temple Week!

Hey all! This week we were able to go to the temple! It was such a great experience to be back in the temple and to see the love of those serving there and how great the work done inside is. Loved it!
This week was our Chinese New Year Fireside! It was a great activity! We had a few talks from some members in the area who speak Chinese, and they were great. But the part everyone loves tho most is, of course, the Chinese food potluck afterwards! It was so delicious! So much yummy Chinese food all in one place, I loved it! Elder Decker and I had a great turnout from our area, people that we are working with and so we very much enjoyed it! 
This week I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Mathewson. He is such a great guy. He is almost done being trained and he is a great missionary already. So excited to see and hear the great work he will do. 
This week started off with some bowling last P-day, which was super fun. There is a place here that has "Twooney Tuesday," which is bowling for $2! It was sweet!
Well that's been my week! Hope you all are doing well!

Week of Meetings

Hey all!  This has been a great week!  We did have a bunch of meetings, but they were awesome.  We were able to receive training as a world wide missionary force, something that hasn't happened in over a decade.  It was so great!  The title of it was "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts"  jam packed with awesome knowledge and reminders. I super loved it.  We also were able to meet with President Manion yesterday to discuss our specific needs as foreign language speaking Elders serving in Edmonton.  It is great to work so close with President Manion and to see the care he has for all that we work with.

This week we were able to have some great discussions.  Thursday we met with a lady named Angela, and had bible study with her.  It was great.  We also had a lesson with the Lu family here, who are also great.  They have two little boys, one who was running around during our lesson who is three years old.  His parents told us at one point he was born in the year of the Dragon, and then he roared like a dragon.  So cute.

Well, its been a good week.  Love you all!  Bye!

Sorry I'm Going to Email You All Again

Hey!  Sorry, I haven't emailed for a bit!  Its been a great time here in Edmonton with my new companion Elder Decker.  We have been having some great work, great referrals from other missionaries still, and super enjoying it.

We are also gearing up for the coming Chinese New Year Fireside.  We have the fireside at the end of January, but the New Year is in the middle of February.  This year is going to be the year of the Monkey!  So get ready for all the Monkey jokes.  I don't have any, but I know lots of Chinese people will teach them to us.

This week I got a box from my family. They told me before that the theme came from two things: an Elmo book, and a Michael Jackson song.  I was very surprised, but also it was a lot of fun!

I hope you all are having a great week, and that you continue to do so!  Love you all!

A Late Letter...

Hey!  It's been a great week!  Sorry about not writing last week!

Elder Decker and I got super busy doing all the things we needed to do for our P day.  Sorry about that!

These last two weeks have been awesome!  Elder Decker and I have been doing great work, and we have had great results!  We have had several solid referrals come from other missionaries we serve around, and it has been great.  I love to see the awesome work that can be done when we work together well with those around us.

We are still having a great time here, especially with getting members out to lessons.  There are so many soon to be missionaries or fresh returned missionaries that are so willing to help.  As well as the others!  That is one of the greatest blessings in a missionaries life, is members being solid and dependable supports in the work.  We may teach and cry repentance, but the members with whom our investigators become friends, those are some of the most important people to these new converts.

I hope you have had a great holiday season!  Love you all and miss you!