Week 36 Big Ol' Texas Smiles

Week 36 

Hello! 

What it is, cuz? (Common greeting in the Canada Edmonton Mission.)

This week was quite slow. Had some really good up points, luckily! 

One of the greatest parts of the past week was getting to reteach an excommunicated member who is sincerely wanting to be baptised again. His name is John, and he is super cool. He came to church last week, and invited us over for lunch on Friday as long as we brought a lesson as well. We shared with him the #PrinceofPeace video, figuring that anyone who disinvolved themselves with the church ought to at least be told how much the Saviour loves them. So we did that, bore testimony, and asked if we could teach him all the discussions again. He said yes, then asked if we could do the first discussion right there. So we did, and it was awesome! 

This past Sunday was a great day. While we sat in sacrament meeting, we noticed some guy sitting up on the stand next to bishop. Neither of us knew who he was until he got up to speak at the end of sacrament meeting. It was the stake president, President Garside. Towards the middle of his talk, (it was very unorthodox, but he's the stake president so I guess it's ok) he said, "elders, come up here, please." Caught us off guard completely. We were comfortable! Just kidding. We came up, he asked us where we were from, and we both said Idaho. He shook his head in disappointment. "I was hoping one of you was from Texas. The great thing about people from Texas is that they always have a big ol Texas smile on their faces. You both have Idaho smiles. Make them into Texas smiles and have more enthusiasm when you share the gospel." So all day Sunday we were told to smile bigger and be more enthusiastic when we talk to people. Which is honestly good advice for all of us.

In the third block of sacrament meeting, since it was the fifth Sunday, we were asked to give a presentation on sharing the gospel through technology. This has been a big push with our mission. Elder Kay and I had brainstormed a ton of ideas of how we can share the gospel using the apps and social media that we have, then organised it into a presentation. Brothers and sisters, I wish you could have been there. The spirit was there in full force. We shared a dozen plus ideas of how to share the gospel, shared experiences, and basically just tried to motivate the ward to do it. To Pray for the opportunity, look for someone to share it with, speak about the gospel to them, and invite them to come closer to Christ. Saying you'll do it and actually doing it are two different things. In the words of the great motivational speaker, Shia Lebouf, "JUST DO IT." It was really awesome.

We had a lesson with our buddy Michael, a 17 year old who is really just looking for truth. We taught him about the priesthood, and brother Schade told Michael that if he really wanted to know, we could give him a blessing to help him feel that this could be/is true. He said he wants to pray about it before he does anything. 

Yesterday we had an amazing lesson that resulted in a new progressing investigator! Her name is Cheryl, she's super duper into history, and she received a copy of the Book of Mormon from one of her coworkers... 40 YEARS AGO! She dug it out and started reading it, and she's very interested. After the last time we met, I mentioned that I like poetry, so she let us borrow a book of what seems to be Islamic poetry. I'm not really sure about it, but I'll give it a read. And funny thing, while we were tracting yesterday, a lady asked me if I wanted a poem her dad wrote about the bible a long time ago, and of course I didn't turn it down. So I received a bunch of poetry yesterday. Pretty crazy stuff. 

Anyways, it's been a good week! I hope you all have a great week. I want you to know that I know how true this church is, and not only that, but how much our Heavenly Father loves each of us. Individually. He wants to bless us. We just have to put down our umbrellas and drink up the blessings! 

Thanks for all you do? Love y'all! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures 

1. I see skies of blue, yellow bridges too...

2. Super creepy old house we found the other day

3. Someone thought they were funny and put a 1 after the rogue. Like the star wars movie, Rogue 1. 

4. Eating lemon mug cake for breakfast (from my mom)

5. Elder Kay, Layne Henriksen, and I being dumb

6. Walking to our dinner appointment because we were low on kilometres!

7. Bench #11?

8. Hot dog roast at the Ward Mission Leaders house!

9. More silly

Week 35 Always Stay Humble and Kind

Week 35

 Hey Halla Hey, family! 

Kind of a simple email for y'all today. We did some exchanges this week with the Belmead and Spruce Grove Elders, played some pranks on each other, taught a few lessons, did some service, and knocked some doors. 

On Sunday, since we are now in the Edmonton North Stake, one of the Stake Presidency members came and spoke to us in sacrament meeting. He wanted to talk about Christlike attributes. His talk was really good, then he mentioned he wanted to read the lyrics from a Tim McGraw song. He had my full attention as soon as he said the name! He started reading, "Close the door, say please, say thank you, don't steal, don't cheat and don't lie, let yourself feel the pride but always Stay Humble and Kind." How simple and true those words are. This was a big lesson for me. I've heard that song over and over since it came out, and I love Tim McGraws work, but with this specific man reading this at this specific time, the spirit overcame me and I realised, it's that simple. Just stay humble and kind. Open the door for people. Do a random act of kindness. Compliment someone. Don't let anything go to your head. In the words of James E. Faust, "Don't you ever inhale it." Be smart, make good choices, say your prayers, listen to the prophet. Be grateful. How simple and true these things are. 

The more we obey the simple commandments, the more we are blessed. Love one another. Jesus Christ Lives. He set the ultimate example. God Loves you. Jesus Christ is His son. I love you also.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. 

Love, 

Elder Wells 

Pictures:

1. Strange things found in Canada.

2. My Beloved Companion, Elder Kay

3. Elder Henriksen, Elder Henry, Elder Smith, Elder Kay, Elder Wells (the spruce grove elders) 

4. Oh....Canada.

5. Elder Smith and I in Spruce Grove on Exchanges

6. Another Bench... this may or may not be me.

7. It's almost May, right? 

Video: Elder Henry was unhappy we parked in front of them. (Notice the weather change from the video to the last picture) 

Week 34 Bob is Risen!

Week 34 

Hello my friends! 

How are y'all? 

So transfers were last week, I stayed in Stony Plain, Elder Nelson went to River Valley, and my new companions are Elder Kay from Blackfoot Idaho, and Elder Henriksen from Dayton Valley, Alberta. Elder Henriksen is just on a mini mission (a thing I didn't know existed) for two weeks. His actual mission call is to Trinidad, (another thing I didn't know existed). 

So with all the changes, it's been really interesting for me to lead basically everything, and to settle into the change. It's been really fun though. We're still trying to find the perfect balance. 

I did three baptismal interviews the other day for three little girls from the Barrhead Ward, but since it was snowing really bad, they didn't want us driving in it. So we did it over Skype, which was really strange, but I'm glad we were able to do it, and I'm excited for them! 

Actually, funny story about the snow, it's been raining and snowing off and on a ton lately. We got an offer to go out to Wabamun for dinner with some members, but with the weather, I wasn't too sure about it. So we started driving, and right before we got on the freeway, the spirit said, "Don't go out to Wabamun." So last second, I went straight instead of getting on the off ramp. We called the members and apologized, but I wasn't going to ignore a prompting like that. Not sure what would have happened, all I know is we never, ever, ever postpone a prompting. 

We have had the amazing opportunity to use Facebook with members lately, getting them to share the #PrinceofPeace video. It's so great to see their fear and awkwardness towards it turn into joy and accomplishment as they overcome social barriers and share the gospel with Gods children. I love it! 

So explanation of the email title. Our bishop has been going through the ward list making sure everyone on the list has had some sort of contact with the church in the last year. So we were assigned to go out and find some of the "lost sheep". One of these was a man named Robert, a 92 year old who live(d) out in Wabamun. After driving out to Seba Beach to take something to the Drayton Valley sisters, we decided to go look for Robert in Wabumun. We circled the block a few times, then decided the one without a number had to be his house. So we started to say a prayer, which was then interrupted by a random lady standing outside my window. She asked if we were looking for someone, and we said Robert (Insert last name here). She said, "oh, Old Bob? He's dead." Then continued to talk about his family and his life story. 

So Bob died. But that's not all. 

We went tracting a couple days later, and we got to the second house in the coul-de-sac, and this older gentleman let us in, took a Book of Mormon, and said we could come back. As we were leaving after teaching a bit of the Restoration, we asked his name. HIS NAME WAS BOB. BOB ROSE AGAIN. Of course it wasn't really the other Bob, but we just thought it was funny. 

All is well here in Stony Plain. I have definitely seen the hand of the Lord in many things. I was also able to write another poem during personal study the other day, I'll be sure to send it as well. 

I love you all, I hope your Easter was great! Have a spectacular week! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Stony Plain, Alberta

Canada Edmonton Mission

Pictures and videos

1. Pretty darn awesome monster truck! 

2. That's quite the "No Soliciting" sign....

3. They call a group of crows a "murder".....

4. Elder Kay dumped a bunch of rice down the sink on accident.

5. Elder Henriksen.... not sure what he's doing. 

Week 33 Elder Wells Takes Over (Insert Stressed Out Emoji Here)

Week 33

Happy Transfers, everyone! This transfer literally FLEW by. Elder Nelson is headed out of Stony, he's been here for 6 months. He passed all his knowledge to me, and I will be taking over this place, plus I'm now the district leader. I'm trying not to let it stress me out. I promise. I am not stressed. At all. (#Fibbing)

Probably the most exciting things this week were the wonderful drunk lady we met with on her porch, our lesson with a six year old with really good questions, and we got a 5th Edmonton stake, so all the stakes here were moved around which also moves all the mission zones around as well. 

Tammy is the drunk lady. She is literally drunk all the time, according to Elder Nelson. She came to the door, showing way too much of herself but unaware of it because of her intoxication. We had a member with us, we stood on her doorstep and listened to her slur out a bunch of anxieties involving certain eastern religions. She rambled for about 15 minutes, then we prayed (holding hands at her request) right there in the rain on her porch. Luckily about halfway through her rambling she zipped up her weird adult sized onesie. (We were so uncomfortable.)

Winter was the insanely smart 6 year old. We had knocked into her mom Vicky a few weeks ago, and she told us to come back a couple times. We came back, and as it turns out, her kids were actually looking forward to us coming over, and Vickys friend (a member of the church) had told her years ago, "if you see missionaries, be nice to them!" Sooo glad she listened to her friend. She wanted us to come in and teach her and her kids, because the oldest, Winter, had heard tons of things from her friends about God, Jesus, and the like. She had insanely deep questions about the resurrection and reincarnation. That was way cool. We drew out the Plan of Salvation for her. It was honestly a miracle we were able to teach them. 

With the stakes being reorganised, we got moved from the Riverbend stake to the Edmonton North stake. On the other side of Edmonton there is now a Sherwood Park stake. So that's exciting! We got to hear from Elder Jörg Klebingat of the 70. He was way cool. 

I have learned so much from this transfer. Elder Nelson taught me a lot, and I'm glad we could be together for these six weeks. I now have to take on the responsibility of being a leader, so prayers are always welcome. 

Thanks for all y'all do! Love y'all! 

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Stony Plain, Alberta

Canada Edmonton Mission

Here are some pictures and videos for your enjoyment. 

1. The District. 

(Elder Wells, Elder Nelson, Elder Alvey, Elder Klunker

Sister Shoemaker, Sister Dearden, Sister Waite, Sister Watts

Sister Blackburn and Sister Hacking)

2. The District again

3. The Ukrainian Weather Caster.... I laughed way too hard at this

4. Someone's pet wolf #WelcomeToCanada

Videos:

Elder Nelson got mauled by a members dog

What even is spring?

Pretty sure this person had a wolf chained up...  

Stony Plain: Gospel Ghost Town

Week 32

Hello from the Canadian Side! 

How is everyone! That's good to hear! 

This will be a short email because we spent most of our day at the zoo and at the temple. I'll send more pictures later! 

The reason Stony is a Ghost Town is because not many people listen to us. We have no investigators, and the less Actives here don't want much to do with the church. So that's sad. But we continue forth! 

Fun story for the week, we went out to the Paul Band Indian Reserve, (which I forgot was in our area because it has been too cold to go out there). Before heading home, we decided to stop by a guy named Leon, but we ended up getting stuck in the mud. 5 heartfelt prayers later, we made it out and headed home. 

We did have one investigator ish person, Barb, came to the last session of conference, but she wasn't very happy with the session for weird reasons. 

We got to have supper with a nonmember named Dan, because he is friends with our less active friend Terra from my last area of Leduc. It was good to see her again. 

I'll be sending some more pictures here shortly from our trip to the temple and to the zoo. 

Thanks for everyone's support and prayers in our behalfs! 

Keep up the good work! 

Love y'all! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells 

Pictures:

1. A member of our ward bought a creepy old abandoned house with a creepy barn and garage to match, so we explored before dinner.

2. Majestic

3. The Great Alberta Landscape

4. I climbed a thing

5. Trying to look good

6. I've really come to love dogs on my mission. Especially the huge ones.

The Funny Acreage

Week 31 

Hiya friends and family! 

This was honestly one of the most up and down weeks I've ever had. Like a roller coaster, but imagine it's being driven by an illiterate chimpanzee. That's how our week has gone. 

Amongst the ups and downs, we had a super deep conversation with a former investigator named Grant who got so far into astronomical physics that he decided there's no other way that science can work except if there is an "Infinite Intelligence" out there. So that's pretty cool. 

We had a Zone conference on Wednesday last week, informing us about some ways we can use technology to teach lessons and give people better use of fellowshippers. Including, but not limited to: skyping members into lessons, skyping investigators, putting investigators in facebook or text group chats (so as to circle the wagon and give strength and protection to investigators), and the possibility of future facebook use in the mission. We are also going to be starting with our Easter initiative very soon, where we will go into members homes, watch the Prince of Peace video, then have the members look through their facebook friends and find someone to send it to. I'm way excited for it. 

Our next couple Sundays are going to be pretty crazy. We have General Conference this weekend, a special Edmonton area broadcast (because we're getting a 5th Edmonton stake), then stake conference, then I think ward council. Pretty awesome stuff! 

On Friday, we had dinner with one of our investigators, Rosanna, at a members house. She's not as open as we thought she was, and she has so many wrong definitions of words from the bible. It was really hard not to have it turn into a bible bash. Elder Salter, the member, was throwing out like 40 scriptures at once, trying to help her understand the correct doctrine, and she was not getting it at all. But we won't be able to meet with her again until after 3 weeks, because she's going to Costa Rica. 

A member of our ward, and our upstairs neighbour, was willing to come with us to a couple single sisters the other night. Barb is super solid, really into reading the Book of Mormon, and really wants to know what God wants her to do. She's super solid, and committed to come to General Conference this weekend. She's super awesome, as long as you don't bring up Islam, which she usually does. One the complete opposite end of the spectrums, we met with Shelley for the last time. She ranted about all her problems (again) and the things she's not willing to take responsibility for. The spirit was absolutely not there. Brother Marepeza bore testimony to her that God loves her, and she snapped and started talking about how much she feels God hates her. She is very emotionally and mentally and physically unstable, and we wish there is something we could do to help her, but she needs help beyond our control. It's not a good place for missionaries to be going, so we won't be going back there. She is honestly crazy. She tried to illicit our help in suing a bunch of people, saying "for each hour you help me with this paperwork, I'll listen to you preach. Anything you want. I'll even (bleep)ing pray!" Sorry, Shelley, that's not how God works. She belongs on the Funny Farm. But in Canada, nobody call it a farm, they call it an Acreage. So she belongs on the Funny Acreage. 

All day yesterday, we cleaned an old missionary apartment. We figured it would take about 2 hours, but it ended up taking 8. That was pretty fun. Then last night, we met a lady while she was walking, and found out she had just lost her nephew to cancer, and she had taken in his 5 kids because their mother is unstable. We set up a time to meet with her again, and testified, right then and there, on the sidewalk, that God is taking care of her nephew, and the Plan of salvation is real. It was amazing to see how we were placed in the perfect place at the right time. 

All in all, I've seen the ways the Lord blesses our lives. Some people have to be brought very low before they're able to be taught, and others just need to open their minds and hearts to the spirit. I'm so glad I've been able to be a part of this work, in helping out Gods children. I love it, and I hope y'all do too! 

God loves all of you, no matter what. I know that is true. 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

1-4These shoes were given to me by a good friend, Clancy Crane, and they have served me well. But I think it's time to retire them. #TractingProbs

5. A family in our ward has a pet chinchilla! 

6. Bench.

7. This is what happens when you have no investigators..... 

8. At the end of our 8 hour cleaning project from yesterday (3 Utahans and A Potato...Elder Nelson, Elder McEwan, Elder Wells, Elder Smith) 

I'm Going On a Mission

I’m going on a mission, I’m going to serve the Lord

I’m going to freeze my tail off, I’m going to go knock doors

I’ll make it through the MTC I’ve heard I’ll like it there

I’m going on a mission

To teach and lose some hair

I’ve got my suits all packed and ready

I’ve read true to the faith

The field is white and set for harvest

It’s time to shave my face

My family I will leave behind

My friends and my cell phone

I’ll be away for two long years

But I won’t be out alone

As I pack my one last tie, my mom sheds one more tear

I puff out my chest and smile and say I don’t have any fear

Of course I know that is a lie

I’ll get homesick a lot

But I know I’m doing right by this,

God’s children should be taught

I’ll testify of God the Father and of his holy son

I’ll leave and serve with all my heart and say thy will be done.