Week 78-Walk & Talk August Update, Honeybees, and Ward Party

53,873 in the final countdown...

Well, if this were The Price is Right, mom would've won the prize with her guess of 53,574! :D  We're entering into the final week of contacting, and the current tally is one week behind our actual (Our AP's are a little slow...)- I think we'll end somewhere around 90,749: the population of Orem in 2012. :)  Looking at it like that helps me put it all into perspective.  I can't even imagine what it would be like or how long it would take for me to personally speak to every citizen in my home town, but 260 missionaries have contacted well over half that amount already!  It reminds me of Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk from October 2012: Be Anxiously Engaged.

"Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator. It is estimated that to produce just one pound of honey, the average hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short lifetime of just a few weeks to four months, a single honeybee’s contribution of honey to its hive is a mere one-twelfth of one teaspoon.

Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.

...

What do we need to do to become like the dedicated honeybees and have that dedication become part of our nature? Many of us are dutiful in attending our Church meetings. We work hard in our callings and especially on Sundays. That is surely to be commended. But are our minds and our hearts just as anxiously engaged in good things during the rest of the week? Do we just go through the motions, or are we truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ? How do we take the seed of faith that has been nurtured in our minds and plant it deep in the fertile soil of our souls? How do we make the mighty change of heart that Alma says is essential for our eternal happiness and peace? (see Alma 5:12–21).

Remember, honey contains all of the substances necessary to sustain mortal life. And the doctrine and gospel of Christ is the only way to obtain eternal life. Only when our testimony transcends what is in our mind and burrows deep into our heart will our motivation to love and to serve become like unto the Savior’s. It is then, and only then, that we become deeply converted disciples of Christ empowered by the Spirit to reach the hearts of our fellowmen."

...This is something I've been thinking about a lot this week.  In a zone conference towards the beginning of my mission, President Nicholas presented some statistics showing the Canada Calgary Mission to be the lowest baptizing mission in North America.  I hadn't really been discouraged by that because I've seen people change regardless of how it appeared on the key indicators.  Unfortunately, the key indicators I submit every week have been repeatedly lower in this area than in any area prior, and the people appear less willing to change.  The last baptism here was 2.5 years ago.

Admittedly, at times I find myself discouraged looking at my meager "twelfth of a teaspoon:" teaching one or two lessons a week doesn't give the greatest impression of a work that's hastened.  I'm learning every day to become more content with the amount of work that's available whilst refraining from complacency with the work we have.

Soo that's kind of what's been going on here...  Elder Short's getting a little bit trunky, the members are all awesome, and each day's a new day. :)

The Chaparral ward had a party on Saturday night at Lake Chaparral in the attempts of getting people excited to do missionary work.  Almost every community in South Calgary has a private, man-made lake, and Chaparral's is much closer than the chapel.  Our Ward Mission Leader purchased hot dogs and hamburgers, set up several activities (fishing, frisbee, mantracker, minute to win it oreo challenges, and a rubber duck race in the man-made stream), and let everyone go ham!  We were expecting about 75 people to come, but we went through 120 hot dogs and 60 hamburgers.  I think we had a few more than that. :)  Apparently there were a few nonmembers there too, but Elder Short and I were being mobbed by children as they drafted their rubber ducks and devoured countless oreos, and, again, nobody introduced them to us... Or told us there were nonmembers there until they'd say something like, "Hey, that lady that left twenty minutes ago wasn't a member." :/ We're beginning to wonder if people know that we just don't know who "doesn't belong." :P

Well, I don't really have a whole lot else to say- thanks for keeping me updated! Logan is getting super tall.  Weird.  And it's soooo weird to see Ciera home... :(  The Sisters who came out with me go home in two weeks, and I just have to say that 18 months would not be enough time!!  Lucky for them that they're allowed to serve as many missions as they want, eh? ;)

I love you all and I'll write later!

-Elder Jared D. Larsen

Week 77-Random Updates and an Unscheduled Bus Stop

35,333 and counting...Previously on Expedition Canada: Exactly like home, but the people are more polite:

Barry (investigator from Airdrie) was baptized last month!

Ellingson's (more investigators from Airdrie) were baptized at the beginning of this month!

The Queensland Sisters had a baptism for a British lady two weeks ago!

...I think that's most of the stuff that happened that I didn't really mention in my last emails...  So I guess I can move on to this week. :)

Basically...  This week's been less-effective.  We've spent the majority of our time busing from place to place, leaving minimal time to actually meet with anyone, and the people we actually met with don't really want to meet with us...  So we've been doing a lot of service.  There were two missionary homecomings in the Midnapore Ward on Sunday, so there were a ton of people there.  Supposedly there were a ton of non-members there, but with the influx of new faces, it was impossible to tell who we should've been inviting to Gospel Principles.  If you ever invite a non-member to church, invite them to Gospel Principles- the missionaries probably won't notice them. :P

One cool miracle we saw this week: Elder Short and I hopped on a bus to try to talk to some people since there wasn't anyone on the street.  We showed the driver our passes, turned around and.... The bus was empty. (>_<)  We took our seats and rode around for about fifteen minutes, and nobody got on.  So we decided to stay on the bus until it took us to the other part of our area.

Suddenly, the bus stopped.  Not abnormal, considering that's kind of what they do: But there wasn't anybody waiting at the stop.  The driver stood up and came back to talk to us.  He told us that he respected the work our Church does and that he wanted to meet with a "responsible" for our church- He's from Iraq and English is his 3rd language.  We talked with him for a bit, swapped phone numbers, and we told him we'd see if we could set something up with the bishop.  Then, he and I had a conversation in French, we arrived at our stop, and left.  I don't know what'll happen there, but I hope it's good!

Well, I'm going to head out- I love you, hope you're doing well, and I'll write ya next week!

-Elder Jared D. Larsen

Week 76-Walk and Talk August Update and a Special Temple Session

Hey hey hey!  It's P-day once more, I'm here in the Family History Centre, and life's pretty good.  :)  I'll see what I even remember about this week...

Well, this week's update on how many people our mission's talked to so far is:

*drum roll*

17,307!!
Haha, we weren't even close to the 250,000 we should be at by now.  :P  I'll share a short excerpt from my letter to President last week:

"Walk and Talk August. You're probably reading this a ton, but Elder Short and I are struggling to see how we'd achieve this goal. Our area's got a decent population, and we struggled to contact 70 people over the course of 2 days... So I can only imagine what it's like in small areas. Basically, I was getting pretty discouraged: Especially when the pouring rain hit, and people vacated the streets during prime contacting time. This morning in personal study, I read verse 49 of D&C 124:

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.'

...So I honestly do not believe that it's physically possible for us to reach a goal of 1 million... but I do honestly believe that if Elder Short and I do everything within our power to achieve that goal, the Lord will accept whatever we can offer. :P"

...In response to not only my comments, President sent this to the mission in his weekly message:

"Last week’s letters to me were interesting!  Many of you have accepted and are enthusiastic about Walk and Talk August and the prospect of talking to 1.0M people in August.  On the other hand, several of you pointed out the impossibility of our achieving such a goal.  Some even indicated that it seemed a bit ridiculous.  You did the math and quickly pointed out that there wasn’t any way that each companionship could talk to the required number of people each day to achieve the goal.  Maybe so, but is anything too hard for the Lord? 

In 1 Nephi 17, Nephi is asked to build a ship, '…after the manner…' which the Lord would show Nephi.  Does Nephi tell the Lord that this was something that was too hard to do, that all he understood was camels and the desert, or that he had never seen a ship?  No!

Nephi’s first question to the Lord was '…whither should I go that I might find ore to molten that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou has shown me?' 

Nephi exemplifies the faith that the Lord will '…prepare a way...' and '…provide means whereby (he) could accomplish the thing which (the Lord) had commanded them.'  Nephi’s faith was to go and do, no matter what the Lord asked him to do.  His faith was rewarded by miracles and then more direction from the Lord.  'And the Lord did show (Nephi) from time to time after the manner that (he) should work the timbers of the ship…' which was '…not after the manner which was learned by men…but after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me…And I Nephi did …pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.' 

Elders and Sisters, this Walk and Talk August not only about 1.0M people contacted, it is also about how we exercise our faith in the Lord and set aside our fears; how we go about finding the 'ore' to make the 'tools' to accomplish what the Lord has asked of us and then doing more in August than we have ever done before in this mission."

...Pretty throw down, eh?  Well, we are seeing good things happen as we do our best to achieve this goal.  Our numbers have gone down as we've scheduled most of our times towards finding, but it makes me feel like a more effective missionary. :P

Things that happened this week?  We taught our investigator Rob (first time in over 8 weeks), our investigator Twyla came to church with her 4 kids, I gave a talk in the Chaparral ward, and we had a zone conference on Wednesday that included a special session at the temple!! :D  (Oh, also, last week two non-members just randomly showed up at church; we haven't seen them since, but I'll let you know if they show up again. :P)  Rob's struggling with some doctrinal concerns because he hasn't received an answer about the Book of Mormon, Twyla's common-law husband has been taken out of the picture for 3-4 months, causing her a bunch of stress that was greatly relieved in coming to church, and the session at the temple was just amazing!

We had a special training in the chapel across the parking lot by the President of the Calgary temple, "the multitude being so great that [President Bennett] could not teach [us] all within the walls of the temple" (Mosiah 2:7).  Just as King Benjamin did, he treated that chapel as an extension of the temple, discussing the various ordinances and covenants that are performed therein.  The best part, however, was seeing my good mission friends in the celestial room, wearing their temple clothing.  Picturing the Celestial Kingdom in a similar manner, it helped me realize just how great the Celestial Kingdom's going to be!

What else to say... Oh yeah!  Did you know Jaden Foster's in this mission? Sister Almeida and I saw him be born at transfers. :)  It's great to see him here!  There are at least 6 missionaries from Orem in this mission: Me, Sister Almeida, Elder Foster, Sister Butler, Elder Abunuwara, and Sister Eyestone.  Weird.

Poor Grandpa!!  I'm glad he's okay, but you're right- things just keep happening to him. :(  It'll be good to spend time with them: even if it's on the way to a funeral.  Give them each hugs from me: Including Aunt Carma and Uncle Doyle. :)

Well, I'm going to do some shopping. I love you all, and I'll talk to you later! :D

-Elder Jared D. Larsen

NOTE: Any all thoughts and prayers as the Calgary missionaries strive towards their goal of talking to 1 million people this month would be greatly appreciated!

Week 75-Orphaned, New Companion, Walk and Talk August

"That rainbow looks like it's coming out of the closet.  Still faint enough to hide, but everybody knows what it is."

Goooood afternoon, family!  :D  How's it going with you?  Well, for me, things are going pretty swell: It's been a great week, and a lot has happened.

1.  I'm officially an orphan.  :(  Elder Lauzon and both Sister Long and Sister Johnson died this transfer, so I'm the oldest of my generation now.   It's an interesting experience to see them go... Especially Elder Lauzon.  I really wish I'd appreciated him more when he was my trainer.  But, he says he's going to stop in and say hello to you all from me and send me some trunky photos. :P

2.  I have a new companion!  Elder Short has been out for 23 months, he's from West Valley (UT), and, as you might be able to tell from the subject line of this email (see starting quote), has a personality bigger than the state of Texas. :)  I can definitely tell it's going to be a fantastic transfer.

3.  President Nicholas issued a new directive for the mission called "Walk and Talk August."  Our cars will be parked except for emergencies, they're issuing us bus passes, and our goal is to talk to 1 million people in the month of August!!  ...Honestly, I don't think it's possible... Every companionship needs to be talking to 280 people every day, and Elder Short and I have struggled to get 130 over the last 3 days...  But it's a fun initiative that is already yielding a whole bunch of miracles!  I anticipate a few more over the coming days.

Amena is probably the coolest story that came of this.

Elder Short and I went street contacting in Fish Creek Park (huge provincial park in Calgary) hoping we'd find more people there than anywhere else.  All in all, we only say 3 people.  And the third was while we were walking back to our car.  But, fortunately, that was Amena. :)

We found ourselves lost on the walking trails, called out for directions, and began a friendly conversation with her.  We brought up the Book of Mormon, and she asked us a couple of questions, and motioned in the direction she was walking.  Unfortunately, the time was running short before curfew, so we had to decline and tell her that we were actually walking the other direction towards our car.  She paused for a second, then said, "I've got time."

...She walked with us the next twenty minutes, all the way to our car. :)  We taught her most of lesson 1, gave her a Bible (her request), and she told us she'd talk with her member friends to get back with us.

Anyway, without this directive from President, we probably wouldn't have been in FCP that day, but because we're striving for obedience, we saw a miracle.  I mean, who just walks with the missionaries to discuss religion?!  Love her so much. :)

Um... Well, I should get going.  I love y'all, hope to have better/more miracles for next week!

-Elder Jared D.  Larsen