Missionaries are a treasure of the Church - Elder Yamashita

Elder Yamashita shared a message with the missionaries currently serving around the world. "Your attitudes and the love that you show toward others are very significant messages. ... Your message is a message of love, a message of hope, and a message of faith. Your attitude and your actions invite the Spirit, and the Spirit enables us to understand the things that are important. What I want to convey to you is that through your love, you are imparting the love of God."

"Grandma is that a real missionary?" I loved that talk by Brother Matthew O. Richardson, "Teaching after the manner of the Spirit"

A picture of the Bow River and Downtown Calgary with the leaves changing. Fall has arrived in Canada!

Me and Grandpa B - the most interesting man in the world!

Hello!

Well thanks Mom for your kind words that you shared with me. I felt the Spirit strong and I am grateful that we have both been able to grow closer and strengthen our testimonies. It is a pretty strange concept to understand, but I feel like my relationship with my loved ones has grown so much stronger as I have been away from you all! I feel so close to all of you and can't wait to be able spend time again together! The mission is so inspired and I loved what somebody said in conference that the blessings of missionary service continue into the eternities...wow I love that promise! 

Everything is great here, just getting cold. Today we are going to the Chinook Mall which is one of the nicer malls here like South Coast Plaza to buy a few winter things. Then we'll head to the chapel to hoop it up. I have a few pictures for you but the lighting is not that great.

Conference was incredible! My questions were answered just like all of you! I was telling President the two things I got most out of conference was to center my teachings on Christ more, and to let the investigators feel of my love for them. I have this untrue preconceived notion that the Latin people, because they have such a firm belief in Christ, do not need to hear as much about Him as others. The Spirit told me pretty clearly that that is false haha. That should actually give me a bigger reason to focus on Christ as I teach them, because that is what they already relate to so well. They all say that they want to follow Christ and have "found Him", so if I show them that this message is about Christ, it will really show if they actually have a desire to follow Him, if that makes sense. I tried it out yesterday on this man from Venezuela. He said Christ is in his heart and he was actually headed off to Mass with his family, and as we testified that this gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored, he still shot it down. Tells me he is not really a true follower, if he won't agree to grow closer to Christ. Also I feel like I love my investigators, but I am going to focus on showing that more, really get to know them, befriend them, and show an interest in their personal lives too. Hopefully that will help me be able to help others more effectively. 

Elder Dutson and I are doing great and working hard. The weather definitely toook a turn for the worst this week, so it looks like the cold is coming! I was looking through my journal and it looks like the first snow was October 18th last year. So a continuation to that miracle from last week! (About that door we knocked). So we went by a member family last night, the Jaco family, and we shared this miracle with them too. Sis. Jaco started crying and everybody else's jaws dropped and we were confused...it turns out that the Jaco family is very good friends with this family we met and have been thinking about inviting them all week long!!! Sis. Jaco recognized that the Lord is moving the pieces in this situation, so she called up Judith right there in front of us and set up a dinner and lesson with us for this Saturday! That is member missionary work right there. Then Bro. Jaco got on the phone and invited a different family over next Monday to listen to our message! Then, for dinner right before we were with the Pavons, and they are inviting another family over to meet us on Sunday! So yesterday alone we were able to help set up lessons for 3 different familes! There is a total of 8 possible baptisms between these 3 families! We are super excited and feel so blessed that the Lord has made this possible and slowly but surely prepared these people. It should be a fun week! We also got a call from the North elders who taught a mexican lady, Rosi, who actually lives in our area! We have soooo many investigators right now, so hopefully we can do our part and help them into the waters of baptism. They are solid so we are praying there should be lots of harvesting this month.

Basically, life is really great right now haha. We are seeing a ton of opposition, but that is what happens when you are doing the right thing. Thanks for all of you love and support, and I look foward to hearing from you next week!! Have fun and be safe!!!

Blake, sounds like you had a fun time chillin with your Provo friends! I'm glad you were able to go down there. Yes conference was amazing! Seriously I think that is the biggest thing about conference for me, it just motivates me to be better and reminds me of my covenants that I have made to be obedient, serve, etc. I was totally thinking about you during all of those talks that were focused on the future missionaries...you are getting pretty close to the best 2 years of your life! Just think, Heavenly Father already knows where you are going to serve, so He is preparing your future companions and investigators right now to so they are ready to cross paths with you within the next year. You are going to be a stud missionary Blake. I will keep prayin for you and I hope you have a sweet week!! Love ya!