First Letter From Canada

This photo was untitled; however, best I can tell, it appears to be a 

selfie in the mission, likely on the way from the airport.

Okay, thank you for all of your letters. It was so fun to hear from home but also very weird. We are sooo busy that I never really think about home much. I'm trying to be a pure vessel for the Lord in mind as well so I'm not sure how to do it and think about home if that makes sense? But of course I miss you all so much!! 

Ok so it was funny at the airport. I decided that there are two types of people in the world. The ones that look at you and quickly divert their eyes, and the ones that stare. It was kinda weird sticking out like a sore thumb but now I love it. Because we see so many people we don't get the chance to talk to all of them but hopefully they notice my name tag and they get a good impression of Missionaries in their head. If that makes any sense...

The Book of Mormon musical is coming to town and the mission had set up something really great. Have you read the official church stance on the play? It's great. But we are going to have 3 members following missionaries around all day taking pictures of them doing the work and tweeting what they do. So the message gets out and people have a more accurate idea of what we're like. The play will bring more publicity to the church so hopefully people will actually LOOK at the I am a mormon cards. We hand out soooooo many each day.

So the day we got to the mission home we had a fantastic dinner (I am like a bottomless pit, which could get to be a huge problem). Then the APs drove us to the hotel where we slept. Elder Karl is officially the WORST driver. Ever. We started singing hymns, hoping that angels would protect the car. I can't even describe it..imagine driving in Paris in a huge van with a trailer and never looking before you crossed into a lane....!!! haha

I saw Sister Bodine (friend from Orem High) at the Chapel! It was great. She is so cute. My trainer actually trained her! So that is really fun. My trainer is fantastic.  She is really really obedient (so much so that on the first night when 10:30 hit and I still had to brush my teeth she said no way), so I sort of had a breakdown.  I was running late because I was recording down into my journal, and daily planning had gone late and I was just feeling overwhelmed with all the stuff that I had to do before 10:30. But Lately we have been getting in earlier and it's been way better :) Lean on the Lord. It's the only way!

So we are just building up our teaching pool so as of right now we have basically zero investigators. We've taught two less active lessons, which went well.  The spirit was so strong but they ended up not showing at church. It'd be way nice to have a lesson....the spirit is so strong in them. We contact/tract all day. We set up two appts last week which we brought members to but they both fell through. So we tracted. Mom, I'm not sure if you did any tracting on your mission because you never mentioned it? But I always think of you, Dad, and tracting in holland, and how you and your companion would play a game where he would make you talk to middle-aged, successful men. 

Our area is a bus/walking area by the way! So that is great,  but it makes it hard to get home on time because we try to talk to everyone we see. My companion usually sits at one end of the bus and I'd sit on the other. In the beginning I dreaded going out of the apartment because it meant getting on the bus (I would still talk to people, but I just didn't love it). But I prayed that I would get more comfortable and I am! I think I am making a lot of progress. My favorite thing is when people ask me what I am doing here. Usually we talk and I just ask them questions about themselves and then introduce myself/my purpose. Then we share a quick thought, give them a card, and take down their info (if they are willing to part with it, ha) and give them a call later in the week to set up an appointment. None of them have gone through yet. 

We met a lady named Shannon and I think It was our best contact yet. We are calling her later today.  She recently divorced. She has a child with polio and has felt God help her in her life. Pray that we can meet with her!!!

We have met two drunks thus far....one was so sad. She was bawling her eyes out and was so excited to hear that Jesus's church was on the earth. She said some...not so nice things about Muslims. Poor girl. I wanted to just hug her and tell her it was going to be okay, and to receive the gospel in her life. Then we went to talk to someone else and the cops came to talk to her....

I saw a funny thing on an apartment door: "Cats are like potato chips....you can't just have one." It really made me laugh. haha that was probably the funniest thing all week. Pretty lame....#lifeofamissionary

I love my IPOD! It's great because I hadn't previously listened to a lot of the music on it.

We have a gym in our apartment building! I jumped roped one day, stairs another day, hamstrings and arms, any way it's good, I'm not sure how to incorporate fast twitch stuff into my work outs though. Yesterday we met a guy that was 16 and his 800 time is 1:53 pretty (good eh? ;)

The first couple days we ate pasta a ton. I could eat it every single day :) hmmm i've made cooked veggie tables, GF pancakes, and tons of oatmeal.  We went to Tim Horton's (a donut shop) yesterday...the donut was really good. Hopefully I can go their sometime and share more pictures because I can only send one a time on this camera! Gah!

Sam's breakfast

Our apt is pretty nice! lots of space, however i'm pretty sure there is mold in the bathroom. There is no AC, and we we have the fan on all the time. But I've been able to sleep pretty well. My comp played basketball in highschool so that is fun. We will play sometime but i'm sort of nervous because I didn't bring my knee brace. Maybe i'll find one here.

There are many people from War countries here. A LOT of muslims. They are a pretty hard contact because they don't budge, and retention rate isn't great because unfortunately once they join the church they don't get much support from their community. Plus, we can't divulge any information if one get's baptized because they could be killed if they go back to their country. But they are always so nice, and very family oriented. I'd say that the top religions in this area are Muslim, Catholic, and then Hindu, and then a mix of born again christians (who always want to argue and it's so frustrating because their hearts are so hard and they use the Bible and the whole revelations verse about not having any more scripture.. I just wish that the Plain and Precious things hadn't been taken out of the bible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gah!)

1790 Eglinton avenue east Unit #204

North york Ontario M4A2T3

This is my address I believe?! Maybe test send a letter to it?

LOVE you all!

The work is tough! But if the lord needs me to tract for the next 18 months i'll do it! haha  We're trying to think of ideas to get more referrals from members. I'm actually really excited about that. We are planning a party. The church here is HUGE. It used to house the old mission home.

Love you:)

The book of mormon. is amazing.  I LOVE IT!

I'm guessing that these are Sam's roommates and companion from the MTC.