03/23/2015

Dear Family,

So the update for this week...

I am so proud of the missionaries here in the Vancouver North zone. We have been doing so well and we have improved a lot. We had a baptism on Saturday and another one coming next week.. We seem to be more unified and have a better relationship with each other so that has been cool to see. This is the last week of the transfer so we will see how it goes. We get our transfer letters on Friday so I will let you know what is going on next week. I am not expecting to go anywhere (knock on wood!) and I have no idea if I will get a new companion. We will see.

So we got some bad news on Thursday. Reine found out that she is moving! She actually packed up and moved to Seattle yesterday. That was a bummer, because she is so close. I do feel like this will be good for her. She is moving because she can't find work. Because of her different culture, I think she felt uncomfortable getting baptized because she was living with her good friends who are not really interested. We are going to get her information and send it to Seattle.

Mike actually came to church! For all three hours! We had been pushing him and pushing him to get there and then we didn't say a word to him about it this week and he just showed up. It was cool and I think he had a good time. I will keep you updated on him.

We had another good lesson with Jeff this week. He is moving slowly but surely. He is such a good guy that needs lots of help. I don't see him getting baptized soon,but we are planting some seeds for later on. Did I ever mention Vadim? He is a super nice Russian guy in his 50's (there are a lot of Russians here and most of them are not so nice). We gave him a Russian Book of Mormon a couple of weeks ago. We stopped by on Saturday and he has already read the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the witnesses and the first chapters of 1 Nephi! He was telling us all about Nephi building a boat and coming across to America. It was so cool! There is a bit of a language barrier, but we make it work. He is just so rooted in his own church and that makes it hard. You never know what could happen. 

Thank you so much for the great email! To answer your question about how the youth stay strong, .I think they all just pretty much band together.There is no gray area anymore. There is a family here where the parents are totally less-active and hardly come to church at all. Josh is 17 and Emily is 15. They both come to church and they stay for all three hours. It is really impressive. I can't say that I would do that if I didn't have support at home.

Ok so yes, I remember Brenda Sewell now. That is so sad. That is also sad the Merle Kay passed away as well. Time is moving right along. Thanks for the baseball update. I do remember Preston taking that catcher out. Was that right after m]he moved there? I remember all of us being a little scared of him after that! I am glad that baseball is going well so far and I hope everybody keeps it up!

I really liked a talk that was given in our sacrament meeting yesterday. It was our first counselor. He talked about sustaining our leaders. He said that when somebody is called for the sustaining vote, we all just raise our hands and usually we don't even know who they are or what they have been called to. Then we are bickering next Sunday as to how somebody is doing their job. He always wants to say, "well you sustained him/her!" He said that instead he just references 1 Nephi 15:8. I thought that it was a great thought that we can all apply to our daily lives.

Thanks again for the email! It is great to hear from you. I am loving the mission! I am also anxious to see and talk with all of you again. I love you! 

Love: Jaxon