Cuttlefish

So I just turned to my zone leader and asked him for a Subject line for this email.  He told me "Cuttlefish"  So now you have it.

This week has been awesome!  Thursday I gave a training to my District on the importance of the Book of Mormon in the work that we do as missionaries.  Later that day, after so many lessons cancelled on us, we finally had one that worked, and we taught Alyssa.  Part of the lesson was reading in the Book of Mormon and asking her to read from it daily. She agreed and then came Saturday with questions that she had from what she had read. It was great to see how she took the invitation and ran with it.  She is doing so awesome.  I love working with the Chinese people here in Edmonton.  They are so great, and there are truly those who are prepared to hear the Gospel.  We spend our time trying to find those and to help them, and I am grateful for the chance I have to serve among them.

The rest of the week was good as well, although we had lots of lessons cancel on us because of midterms.  It was less good, but we still have great plans for this week.

I love you all!  Hope you are doing well!

Thanksgiving and a Baptism!

This week has been so awesome!  There have been three awesome things that happened this week.

I'll start off with the non-spiritual, Canadian Thanksgiving, although we still somehow find a way to make it spiritual.  Elder Liu and I had a great Thanksgiving, we spent the day baking a turkey.  That is the first time either Elder Liu or I have ever attempted anything on that scale.  And despite a lack of resources, time, and expertise in the matter, the turkey turned out not half bad.  And we still have a ton of it left over.  So we will be eating and sharing turkey for days to come.

Now, onto a more Spiritual note, today we had the opportunity once again to attend the temple!  I am so thankful to have a temple so close by.  The blessings of the temple are amazing, and I always learn something new, every time I go.  This time was super awesome because Elder Liu and I stayed a little longer to complete the Initiatory work for a few of a sister missionary's ancestors.  It was great to participate in that ordinance, it has been almost a year since I have had the opportunity, and I loved every minute.

Finally, my favorite thing from this week spans two days.  On Saturday, we got to witness the baptism of one of our investigators, Hanson!  He was so excited to be baptized and I was so glad to see him taking this step to follow Christ.  I am so glad to be sharing this message with the Mandarin speakers of Edmonton, and the opportunity I have to help those I meet come unto Christ.  But that's not all!  On Sunday, I had the special privilege of confirming Hanson a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and giving him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was such a special experience, and a bit of a nerve wracking one, as I was asked to do so in Mandarin!  Part of the ordinance includes a blessing as directed by the Spirit, and I have very little experience in English let alone Chinese!  It was such a great experience though, and I really felt the Spirit working through me as I spoke to Hanson for his Father in Heaven.

I am so grateful for the experiences that I am having here, I am so grateful for all the blessings that God has poured out  upon me and my family.  I love you all!

P.S. I will send pictures when I can get them off of the camera.  Bye!

General Conference

This week obviously was Conference!  I loved Conference so much!  My absolute favorite talk was Elder Stanfill's talk during the Saturday Afternoon Session of Conference.  I loved the message of hope that he gave, and the inspiration he gave to overcome doubts.

Elder Holland's talk on Mothers was also so great!  I am so grateful for my mother who continues to nurture me and lift me up when I get discouraged.  My mother is the greatest in the world! (I know everyone says that, but seriously she is.)

The rest of this week has been a great build up to Conference.  Elder Liu and I met 4 new people playing badminton that we are trying to meet with regularly.  Badminton is so much fun!  I loving playing and getting to know the Chinese people in Edmonton.  Its funny to see how high a percentage of the people playing badminton are Asians. And how surprised they are when a Canadian/American can speak Chinese.  Its lots of fun to see the different reactions.

I am so grateful for the chance I have to serve in Edmonton, Canada, even if its starting to get cold!  And let me tell you, its starting to get cold.  It has been about 5 degrees Celsius most days recently.  And finally, I get to unpack my winter gear.  I had tried to keep it packed in anticipation for transfers, which are this week.  Elder Liu and I are still serving together, making a whopping total of 5 transfers together at the end of this next one.  I am so glad to be serving with him still. He and I do great work, and we are excited to see how the work continues to progress.

This week we also got to see Hugh, a member in the last area I served, who is moving to Fort St. John.  We are going to miss him so much!  But we are happy to see how solid he is in the gospel!

Hugh and Elder Ethington

A New Plan for the Mission

Its been a great week!  Elder Liu and I have had so much work, and it has just been awesome!  We were able to help so many people this week as well, and I am grateful for the chance I have to be serving here in Edmonton.

Probably the highlight of the week was District meeting, which I didn't have to give a training for.  Instead, the zone leaders gave a training to all the missionaries in our zone, talking about the New Plan for the Mission.  Going through 4 steps: Strengthen work with the Ward Council, Rely on the Spirit, Strengthen Personal Conversion, and Diligence.

I am super excited about these four steps and seeing how I can apply them personally.  We have been asked this week to set specific goals and steps that we will follow to work on this plan ourselves.  I am anxious to see how this plan increases our work, and helps us help those we meet.  That has been a big part of this week for me, realizing in everything that I do, that I am here to HELP people. That's the big reason. I know everyone says that all the time, and some part of me realized it, but I internalized it in a new way this week, and it brings a whole new sense of peace and hope to the work.

This week we also got the picture taken of our half of the mission conference with Elder Golden.  I'm in the middle, on the left side of the middle, standing on a chair.

Love you all and hope you are doing well!

Mission Conference

Hey!  How's everyone doing?

This week was our Mission Tour with Elder Golden, of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  It was a great chance to learn from Elder Golden.  He taught us a lot about faith, personal righteousness, and the key indicators.  It was a great conference, and I learned a ton.  I have recommitted to perfect obedience.  Elder Golden shared with us that perfect obedience doesn't mean waking up at 6:30 if that is what the rule says.  He told us it is waking up at 6:29.  Living the commandments on the edge is not the way to live.  Instead, he told us to live on the safe side of the commandments.  I loved the wisdom he shared and the knowledge he has.  Afterwards, I was able to have a personal interview with him.  We talked about my family, missionary work, and the scriptures a little bit.  It was a great experience.

Other than that this week has also been a huge success for missionary work in the Bonnie Doon Mandarin area.  We have an investigator, Hanson, on date for baptism.  He is doing awesome!  As well, we have two new investigators to work with.  This week at the YSA Home Evening activity, we had 10 people who showed up.  It was amazing to see the fellowship the ward brings to activities like this.  This particular one was a dinner put on by the bishopric and their wives, and it was great to see how all of the students introduced themselves to our friends, and tried to break down a very obvious language barrier.  I am so grateful for the people I serve around and I serve with.

I hope everyone is enjoying the heat as well, because it started to get cold now.  Today may have actually had a little snow.  It didn't stick, but it felt like the rain at one point turned to snow.  And in that weather, we played Ultimate Frisbee.  It was a great day.

Hope you are having a great time.  And I love you all!

New Investigators

Hello all!  Its been a wonderful week here in Edmonton!  Elder Liu and I have had the chance to teach two more Chinese people this week, Hanson and Jason.  Both are new students from China, and are studying at the University.  They are super awesome and super solid!  We are super excited to start meeting with them.  This  weekend Jason got sick because of all the rain that fell in Edmonton.  Seriously, we had two solid days of rain.  Nothing heavy, but just so long and so much, and Jason wasn't prepared for it so he got sick and wasn't able to come to church or to FHE.  But we had both Angel and Hanson at Church and FHE, and they both really loved it.  It is sweet to see how great the ward here is at fellowshipping new people and making them feel so welcome.  Having the support of members, and knowing there are people you can count on to watch out for those we love and are trying to help is such comforting thought.

The rest of this week has been great.  Elder Liu and I are doing well again.  We are still completely different people, but we are growing a lot more together and learning to complement the differences we find in each other.  Elder Liu's enthusiasm and ability to talk makes up for my lack of things to say.  And I can help Elder Liu focus and drive him to finish a task or a goal and we get some real work done here.  Its been a great time.

This week also marks two important days.  My one year mark of being a missionary, and the day from which I only have one year left of being a full-time missionary!  Its crazy to see the time passing so quickly.  But I still have so much time and so many great experiences in store!  It is super exciting!  

I love you all and hope you are doing well!  Bye!

Transfers are Back

So yesterday was the day we got our transfer calls.  I am staying here to serve with Elder Liu, my trainer, and Elder Saumweber is heading to the Mandarin Riverbend Area to serve with Elder Wu.  I am super excited to serve with Elder Liu again and super sad to see Elder Saumweber go. I have really enjoyed serving with him in this area.  But we have been able to get some good things done here.  This last week we committed our investigator, Scarlett, to baptism on September 26th.  And we are super excited for her.  We are hoping this week to get Angel, another investigator, to set a date as well.  So we have good work coming forward.

We also baked cookies this week, to give out at the booth missionaries do at a chapel on a busy street.  They seemed to be a pretty big hit, so we were happy about that.

This weekend we have a huge event for Chinese students happening at the institute.  We are planning on having over 200 Chinese students in the institute to talk about life and study in Canada.  It should be an awesome experience and an awesome chance to help people.

A good part of this week was spent sick, and so not much else happened.  Sorry for the pretty boring email.  Its been a slow but great week.  Love you all and Hope you are doing well!

Saumweber made peanut butter cookies, and Ethington made chocolate chip for handing out from a booth at a chapel on a busy street.

Saumweber's cooking