This was my first week in Canada! I arrived here on the 7th at noon! It's crazy how flat it is here! No mountains or anything! Their snowboarding resort is a hill.... haha! But it is nice up here and I love it! My mission president was a cheer leader in high school as well which I thought was way cool! He said I can dance on p-day (which is today!) so I am excited about that!
I'm serving in the Mission Hill ward in St. Albert! It's such a nice ward and the bishop is a dancer as well! On sunday I met him and he told me he is a body popper from London, England! He said he was once the best there and he is an "OG" (original ganster)! haha! It made me laugh, but he was serious! So I can't wait to see him dance, and I called him out for a battle sometime! He's way cool but he's serious when it comes to the missionary work, which is great! :)
I love missionary work so far! I've had multiple experiences so far and i can't share them all. But on Saturday, we went tracting and we said a prayer to help us find someone who was prepared. We have a big map in our apartment and I picked a street close by (to save on Klicks) and we went there. When we pulled up to the first house on that street, the dad was leaving.. so we thought we were out of luck. We decided to still knock on the door to see if anyone else was home. A girl answered the door and she was probably in her mid 20's. It was crazy how prepared she was! She was telling us that recently she and her sister have been researching a lot of religions and asking everyone they knew, what they believe. So when we showed her the Book of Mormon, she said "hold on!". She ran downstairs and grabbed her own Book of Mormon! But it was a triple combination set with the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price in it. So we taught her the whole first lesson on her doorstep and answered all of her questions! And she had a TON of questions (which was way good)! We were standing there for longer than an hour! We couldn't go in though because she was the only girl home.. but it was so worth it! it's crazy how the Lord works! Maybe if her dad was still there we would have never been able to teach her! Everything just seemed to fit how it was supposed to! Her name is Talia by the way! Anyway, that's the short version of the story and I have so many other experiences!
We have 2 people on date to be baptized on February 25th and 3 people set for March 17th! I wish i could tell you all their stories and all their names and how we found and taught them, but that would take way too long! Our goal that our mission president gave us is to teach 20 lessons a week, which is a pretty hard goal.. My companion and I worked way hard this week and we got 30 lessons! :) Cool, huh?
We have 2 people on date to be baptized on February 25th and 3 people set for March 17th! I wish i could tell you all their stories and all their names and how we found and taught them, but that would take way too long! Our goal that our mission president gave us is to teach 20 lessons a week, which is a pretty hard goal.. My companion and I worked way hard this week and we got 30 lessons! :) Cool, huh?
My companion's name is Elder Kember! He is from Ontario, Canada! He is a convert of a year and a half and the only one from his family, which is almost the same as my last companion, Elder Pineault except that Elder Kember does not speak French! But he is way cool! He is my same height, build, and same almost everything! People say we look like brothers! He is pretty much exactly like me and we get along way good! He's my trainer, so we are companions for the next 2 transfers. Each transfer is 6 weeks, so I'll be with him for at least the next 3 months! He is my "dad" and I am his "Son" in missionary language. And when people go home, they are "dead." ha,ha! So i have a picture of my "grandpa" which was Elder Kembers trainer or "dad." Does that make sense?
But anyway, the weather here is cold!! It's usually -18* C and the first couple days, I shivered no matter where I went! People keep telling me this winter has been the mildest they have ever had! So I'm scared for next winter! One thing that is hard to get used to is the roads, They are ALL covered with about an inch of ice.. so no matter where you go, you're driving on ice! New missionaries can start driving after their first transfer (after 6 weeks). Oh yeah, we got a Subaru car, which is the nicest car in the mission! We also got a cell phone for contacting investigators! Our apartment smells like smoke when you walk in the building, but our room is smoke free which is nice! We are hardly ever home though unless we are sleeping or eating! And sometimes we wake up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 so we can play basketball at the Stake Center in the early morning!
Canadian's are soooo nice! It's kinda funny how they say, "eh" all the time but I'll get used to it... eventually! They all have accents too which is different! But every person I meet here (in the ward) is so nice! We went tracting a couple days ago and every door we went to slammed the door on us! ha, ha! That was a fun experience too! They have outdoor hockey rinks on every block and at the high schools they have those instead of football or baseball fields! Every one plays or has played hockey!
Oh I mentioned "klicks" earlier,. those are how many miles we are allowed to travel in a month. As a missionary we are limited to 2000 klicks and we can't go over that! They measure in Kilometers not miles... which throws you off when you see a speed limit sign that says 100!! That's about 60 mph.
Anyway, I told you everything that I can remember.....oh... My p day is now on Monday so that's why I had to skip last week's p day! :(
I love you all! Take care!
-Elder Stevens (the dancer)
