Faith Is Like A Little TUMOUR

Week 23

Yoohoo! Hello family! 

How are you all this week? That's good, I'm great, thanks for asking. :)

I was saddened to hear the news of my Great Grandma Wells passing. She lived a good life and raised good kids and grandkids and I'm very honoured to be numbered among her great grandkids. She was a huge role model to me. She even started me writing poetry. For that I will be forever grateful. I know she has been reunited with her husband, Who has been gone for over 30 years. I hope I can make them proud in my service as a missionary. 

Most of you know, there was a missionary broadcast on Wednesday for the whole world. They changed some things about the schedule, and with our record keeping in the mission. Not a huge change, but it's still worthy of mention. 

Friday we had our mission tour with Elder EchoHawk. He is truly called of God. His testimony was evident throughout the whole time he was with us. He was able to uplift and motivate us through the spirit. He shook my hand twice because Idahoans are awesome. (He was a government guy for Idaho for a long time.)

As for missionary work this week, it's been slow. We've been tracting so much. I'd like to say I hope I never see another front door again, but that would be invalid on two accounts. 1. I know I'm gonna see a billion more doors in the time on the mission. And 2. Canadians like to use their side or back doors more than their front doors. There's always a sign saying "use side door."

We had a lot of appointments fall through this past week, which is sad to say. But no worries, we keep pressing forward, onward ever onward. 

We had a fantastic lesson with two less actives, Terra and Dalyce, who are sisters. We watched the video, the Hope of Gods Light, and talked about coming to know the truth through prayer. Terra even testified to her sister that reading the Book of Mormon brings so much peace to your being. 

Elder Johnston got in trouble for climbing a pillar of rocks outside some lady's house, so that was funny. We also got to witness the baptism of a recent Converts younger brother, Topher. So I can say I've been to a baptism on my mission. Oh, and the title for my email is because in a lesson with The Nguyen boys, while we were talking about how faith is like a little seed, the one boy said, "OR LIKE A TUMOUR!" This caught me off guard because I had been looking for a reference to share with their mother. I was so confused why he said that until I Zoned back in. 

So that was our week! I was also able to finish reading the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time. But I got so much more out of it, especially after praying to know the truth of it. Because I know we receive the truth of all things through the Holy Ghost. The church is true everyone! 

I hope y'all have a great week, and I hope to hear from you soon! 

Love,

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Elder Wells

Pictures:

1. Google maps image of my favourite place in the world, with a little help from markup.

2. Videos of me being destroyed at arm wrestling

3. One more bench picture never hurt anyone.

4. Selfies in the church

9.9 on the Rector Scale 💥

Week 22

5 Months!!!

Hey everybody! 

My email title is clever, I promise. Just give it a second.

We started out this week helping out brother Nesom from our ward with his horses. We put up a round pen for his new colt so he can train it and break it to ride. Then he took us out for lunch... at McDonald's. 

In the past week, all three of us have been some degree of sickly, and Wednesday was Elder Woodruff's day. So we sat inside a lot of the day, because it's better to take a day to recover than go out and work five days feeling like garbage. Later that night we had dinner with our bishop and his wife and his parents, who are from Scotland. They're so cool, I love being around them. Sister Lambert made my favourite meal for us, Chicken Cordon Bleu! It was awesome! Then we had a sweeeet strawberry rhubarb pie. (I've gained 20 pounds and there's no question on who's to blame for that. Haha)

Thursday we had our district meeting, then we went tracting and met a really cool new potential guy named Eric. (That's about the 5th one we've met) then we went to Devon and tracted a bit, met a large hairy shirtless guy holding a baby and talked to him about the gospel on his doorstep. We gave him a Book of Mormon and will hopefully be going back soon. 

Then we had dinner with the Chutes, the family of our recent convert Julianna (9 years old). We had tacos! Julianna had to leave for a birthday party, but her younger brother Topher is getting baptized soon, so we focused the lesson on him. We taught him about the Holy Ghost. It takes me back to being his age, and I wish I knew as much about the gospel then as I do now. Depending upon when he decides to be baptized, Elder Johnston might get to baptize him because both his dad and his step dad are going to be getting surgery next month (don't quote me on that.) so I will at least get to go to one baptism. 

We might be moving apartments next month, so we got to go and check out some pretty nice ones in town. We won't know for sure until later, but I shall keep y'all posted. We did a lot of planning Friday, then had dinner with the De Vries, an awesome young family with tons of returned/one serving missionaries. It was awesome to see connections with them, because One served with Spencer Anderson, one of the sons girlfriends who was there served with Elder Connor Hansen (Sister Hatch) and one served in Glasgow Scotland where Elder Greer is from! When you're a Mormon, you can't walk ten feet without having a connection to someone! 

Later we had a lesson with Dalyce, our less active friend, and she was able to read the Book of Enos! 

Braydon is slowly moving back towards baptism. He's been at church though which has been awesome. 

We have a lesson with our buddy Aaron tonight, and I'm excited to talk to him more about faith and baptism! 

Saturday morning, the Rector family (there's the joke in the title) had us over. Brother Peter Rector had a bunch of his nonmember friends over, and they shot guns, had lunch, and blew up a propane tank! It was awesome to watch, I have a couple videos of it, I'll send them. A lot of his friends wanted to know why we weren't shooting, why we were wearing ties, and what the heck two idahoans were doing in Canada. When we told them what missionaries do, they said that's very honourable and we must be dedicated. We try. It was great to plant that little seed and get the bug in their ear. 

We had dinner with a family from the Philippines later that night, and they set up a time for Elder Johnston to try balut. If you don't know what it is, it's a fermented duck egg that they eat in the Philippines. I'm not going to eat it, because I know myself and I would not be able to keep it down. 

Last night we had dinner with the Lamberts again and we had chicken and waffles.... if you haven't had that I suggest you get it sometime! Super good! 

We met a lot of awesome people while tracting this week, and although we have been every degree of sickness, we are still pressing forward. With steadfastness in Christ. Always! 

It's great to be here serving the Lord and the Canadians. Although many doors remain closed and many hearts remain hard, that doesn't mean we won't be looking for opportunities to share the gospel with people. If you haven't watched it already, I suggest y'all look up the "Work of Salvation" Mormon Message. It's amazing. Go out and do some good for someone! Let us all press on! 

Love you guys! 

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Canada Edmonton Mission

2 Nephi 31:20 

Pictures/Videos

1. Long distance video of the explosion

2. Video from Brother Rectors Perspective in slow motion

3. All the trees here look like this right now.

4. These boots were made for tracting, and thats basically all they do. 

5. Finding this in Walmart made me trunkier than an elephant going to Hogwarts

Death By Lasagna

Week 21

Hiya! How goes life? 

We have found a lot of really great people this week, but sadly we had a lot of appointments fall through. 

Tuesday night, we had a really great first visit with a former investigator named Aaron. He is really excited to have the missionaries meeting with him again, and we're excited to teach him. 

We went on exchanges with the Zone leaders this past week as well, and it was a very good learning experience. Elder Bonny was able to teach us, although we didn't actually teach anyone else haha.

On Thursday we had dinner with the Francis family, and we were eating chilli. I can't get into much detail, but Brother Francis offered us 5 different kinds of hot sauce to put in our child. I decided to take the 3rd hottest one. It was really hot, but that's not the worst part. Let's just say I took a trip to the Lou and regretted it. 

Later that night we called a bunch of numbers in our phone and we were able to set up 3 appointments for the coming week. (More on that later)

We have our buddy Braydon back to being excited for baptism, so that's great. (In other news, I won't be able to go to Peggy's baptism, but if she gets to go to the temple for baptisms for the dead, I will be able to go to that.) 

We also had dinner with a great family named the Jeffrey's. They are awesome, and Brother Jeffrey is really excited to do missionary work with us as a ward missionary. We had Lasagna for dinner with them, and it was really really good! On the flip side, we don't know what she put in it, but it destroyed our innards. So that was fun. 

During my personal study the other day, I think I may have found part of the reason we are called "Mormons." In Mormon chapter 2, Mormon is all alone. He is standing alone in his beliefs because everyone around him is absolutely wicked and bloodthirsty. But that doesn't stop Mormon from being righteous. He knows that he will be righteous no matter what everyone else is doing, and that's what we ought to be, as members of the church. Righteous no matter what the world thinks. We should be able to stand up for our beliefs even if we are alone. Food for thought:) 

We were also able to help a guy move in to the building next door, we met his buddies on the street and were able to cut their moving time in half! It was so cool! I'm kind of kicking myself because we weren't able to get their phone numbers. After we moved all their stuff in, they invited us up for pizza and soda, and we sat and talked about the gospel, and even gave away a Book of Mormon. It was a really cool experience. I know the Lord placed us in that place at that time for that reason. 

Yesterday was a bit of a bummer. We had a lesson scheduled and when we went to see him, he wasn't home. We called him and he said come back around 4. We went to another lesson and she wasn't home either, even though we had set it up and even called her to remind her the night before. Then we went back to the other guy and he wasn't home AGAIN. Plus we had another lady text and cancel on us. Sometimes things like that are a bit frustrating, but we would not be dragged down. We were very prayerful about what to do, and were able to perform some service to two less active ladies in our ward. 

There are two quotes from people we talked to that I'd like to share with y'all. The first one came from a guy we tracted into. We knocked on his door, he opened it, looking excited to see us, then said the following, and I quote, "You guys are Mormons? THAT SUCKS!" Then slammed his door. That was a little hard to take but we know the Lord will soften his heart one day. 

The other comes from a lady in our ward here in Leduc. She said, "Life is hard. And that's ok." Then she talked about how we need to find joy in the little things. I totally agree with that. Sometimes the big picture is too much to handle, so we have to take a step back and breathe. 

I hope all is well for y'all! Dare to be Mormon! 

Love ya! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

1.District picture

2. Funny district picture

3.  Companionship hockey

 Video: we ran out of kilometres on our car... this was the next best thing. 

4. A bit of fun while bored in the apartment

Thy Will Be Medium-Well Done

Week 20 

Hey howdy hey everyone! 

It's been a crazy week, and this is probably gonna be a really long email, so bear with me. 

Tuesday night we had dinner with the Jeffrey's, and while we ate, somehow we got started talking about Dr. Who. I have seen a couple episodes, but I was never educated very well in it, so their daughter Leomi gave us a crash course to becoming a Whovian. It's totally ok if some of the older folks don't understand this, it's just about a tv show. Haha

Wednesday was my birthday, we spent the morning tracting, went to subway for lunch, helped out at the old folks home with curling (weird Canadian sport I didn't know existed), then went around town taking pictures of some of the sights, especially the Meadowview Dinosaur park. If you know me at all, you know I have a huge fascination with dinosaurs, so we had to go. It was super duper cold, but we had fun nonetheless! Later that night we went to Braydon's Aunts house to have dinner and celebrate my birthday. It was really fun! Except for their hamster biting me, that was a bummer. 

On Thursday we had district meeting in Bearspaw, we got taught about better ways to follow up and use some points from preach my gospel. There's a tradition where if anyone slips on the ice, they owe donuts for district meeting... we've had donuts every district meeting so far, and I am in charge of next times donuts... oops!

We had dinner at a members home on Saturday night, with the Rector family. We challenged them to have nonmembers in their home sometime in the next 30 days, and brother Rector immediately accepted, saying he'd have about 6 of his friends come over from work, and they were gonna go shooting in the back yard (they live in the middle of nowhere) and then he invited us and said we could watch him blow up a propane tank. So we get to do that sometime in the next month! We also might get to go ice fishing! Woo! 

Later that night we also met a less active lady named Debbie and her two kids who are awesome. The only reason they don't come to church is because the boys live with their dad on Sunday, and Debbie works on Sundays, but she's trying to get her schedule changed! So we're excited! We mostly work with less actives in this area anyway, so that's exciting! 

On Saturday, we were stopping by a bunch of people we were supposed to visit, and as we were heading to stop by someone, we spotted a Uhaul truck and some people looking stressed outside of it, smoking. We knew they needed help, so we walked up and asked if we could help them. The first thing the lady said is "well we can't pay you," but we told her that's fine. Later we found out that it took them 4 hours to load it all in the truck, but we unloaded it in roughly 15 minutes! I know we were supposed to be there for a reason!! 

That night we accomplished the Steak Challenge. That includes an ice cream bar, a 43 ounce steak, two sides, two biscuits, another ice cream bar, key lime pie covered in whipped cream, and then a huge ice cream sandwich. And all 5 missionaries who attempted it made it through! It was awesome! 

We also went on exchanges with the Mandarin Elders again, and we went and tracted in the tiny towns near Devon. It was a lot of fun, but it was also really really cold! We gave out about 8 or 9 Books of Mormon, but nothing too promising.. it's ok though! 

This week has been great, and I know I'm here in Canada for a reason! Also by the way, Peggy from Vermilion has a baptismal date! Shes moving steadily along and I might be able to go to her baptism! 

Hope y'all are staying warm! Love y'all! 

-Elder Wells

Many much Pictures:

1. Half of Canada Edmonton Mission from Christmas Conference

2. Sunset on a hill

3. I got eaten by a dinosaur.

4. Birthday treat at my request

5. The meadowview Dinosaur park was a must for my birthday adventure

6. Apparently my favourite pose is a thumbs up 

7. Welcome to Real. Welcome to Fresh. Elder Wells.

8. The first leg of the steak challenge... a 43.5 oz. steak!

9. We came, we conquered, we waddled home.

10. The conquerors of the steak challenge, Wells, Saumweber, Mejia, Johnston, Woodruff

11. A tiny diner we had lunch at in Warburg with Elder Howlett

12. Elder Howlett, Elder Johnston and I while tracting in Warburg 

13. The end of our exchange with the Mandarin Elders (McDonald's parking lot)

14. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. 

15. Video of my birthday party at Dalyce's house

Gas Station Miracles ⛽

 Week 19

Hello and happy 2017! 

There is a whole lot to look forward to! 362 days left! Make it count! 

This coming Saturday we are doing what's called the "Steak Challenge",  member in our ward does it. It's basically you have to eat an ice cream bar, a 45 ounce steak, three sides, two biscuits, another ice cream bar, a quarter of a lemon pie covered in whipped cream, and a huge ice cream sandwich. So..... pray for us and the assistants as we do that on Saturday! 

This has been a wild week, I've had a lot of fun on the two exchanges I went on, and got to be around some people of different cultures which is always a good time. 

We went on exchanges with the Mandarin Elders, I was with Elder Howlett who came out with me, and I got to sit in a couple of really really spiritual lessons with some Chinese people. The spirit was definitely present even though I had no idea what was being said half the time. Luckily, one of the people spoke just good enough English that I understood when he asked me if I had seen Gods hand in my life. I was happy to tell him I had indeed and my life has been fantastic because I can notice and look for His hand every day. 

Also during that exchange, we got to  go street contacting on Whyte ave, the most busy street in Edmonton. Lots of interesting people and things. 

We had a great lesson with Brayden, we taught him about tithing and fast offerings. He actually sat still and filled out a tithing slip for us, so that was sweet! 

We also went on exchanges with the YSA Elders yesterday, and I got to be with Elder Nield from my MTC group! It was a lot of fun and we did lots and lots of tracting! 

That night I had a bit of a creative spurt and I decided to write a poem called, "Where Are You, God?" I'd love to share it with y'all.

Where Are You, God? 

"Where are you, God?" The world seems to say.

Without a known purpose here, they Go about their way. 

There are no morals, the just are gone

To share the goodness, would just be wrong. 

They know there's got to be a ruler, somewhere amidst the sky

They know that they have things to do, but have no idea why.

The bible, the bible, they have the bible, but will that alone suffice?

Who are these young men to say that all we need is Christ? 

Where did I come from before here? where do I go after I'm dead?

It doesn't seem like all that much to live by what Christ said.

We live, we die, we love, we cry

The world beats down, and still we sigh

Where are you God? You sure aren't here

You should be here with me, conquering my fear. 

Could it be, we lived with Him? He wants us all to return?

How can this all be so true, as He watches the world burn?

Did Jesus come and heal the sick and take on all our pains? 

Maybe Perhaps there is a Way to live with God again. 

Where is the truth that I need? How do I get to Him? 

I want to fill my soul with peace, and with Him enter in. 

Is it true? Is God out there? Does He know us all? 

There is only one way to find out, as to my knees I fall. 

I had the chance to read that in a lesson with our less active friend, Dalyce (Braydon's aunt) after I felt a strong prompting to do so. I love those moments when the spirit tells us to do something and when we follow those promptings, we see the immense blessings from it! 

Speaking of which, We were gassing up our car the other day, and I felt this strong prompting to give the people on the other side of the pump a Book of Mormon. I had over heard some of their conversation and heard some not so good words, and decided to listen to the spirit. I got in the car and told my companions, "I really feel the need to give them a Book of Mormon." Do it! They said! So I hopped out, nervous as heck, and gave it to them. I told them that it would bless their lives and that it goes hand in hand with the bible. They seemed very excited to read it and I felt so good about doing that! One of my goals is to be more spontaneous and in tune with the spirit, so I've been striving to do that.

I know that when we listen to promptings, Heavenly Father guides us so we can bless other people's lives. We have to be righteous in order to receive those promptings. Then we have to act. Even though the voice of the spirit isn't loud and doesn't shake us, we have to be willing to listen and to act, and as we do, we become instruments in Gods hands! 

I love this work and I love you guys! 

Love, 

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Canada Edmonton Mission

2 Nephi 31:20 

Pictures:

1. Street art from Edmonton 

2. Another red bench picture (red benches are my thing)

3. We found a frozen pond with some hockey nets set up, so we decided to have some fun.

6. Elder Nield monkeying around

7. Elder Nield, Representing Pocatello Idaho

8. My nutritious dinner, Ramen Noodles (which actually got me sick)

An Asian, 2 Russians, and 3 Missionaries on The Side of The Road...

Week 18

4 months down, 20 to go! 

So. Much. Food. 

We had Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday, and it was very spiritual. I was asked to bear my testimony, and It was really cool remembering the first time I bore my testimony in ZTM the first week I was in the field. I feel like I've grown a lot since then, and I'm glad I can see the change! 

We did quite a bit of tracting on Thursday, and we're trying really hard to work on our following up. People have been very busy with Christmas and family and eating, so we haven't been able to just randomly show up and teach. But we're trying to do this cool thing called getting their phone number from them if they seem interested, that way we don't spend all our time stopping by people randomly and annoying them. 

Saturday we had no idea what to do, since it was Christmas Eve, and we didn't feel comfortable bothering people that day. Luckily, the brains of the Leduc operation, Elder Woodruff, decided we should bake cookies and take them to people we have met in the area. So we spent the first half of the day baking and stuff, then ran the plates of cookies out to people and shovelled their walks as well. It was super cool to see the smiles on their faces and sharing the Christmas spirit with Gods children. 

That night we were invited over for Christmas Eve dinner with a sweeeeeet family named the Jefferys, their son just got back from his mission in Idaho Falls. He proposed to his girlfriend that night! It was adorable! They had to come down and interrupt our game of Pictionary to tell us the news. Mucho congratulations to them. 

Christmas was a wild day. We got invited to have Waffle Breakfast on a members home before church, and thus began the first day in the reign of the Feast. (Catch the reference) then we went to church for an hour, and sang a lot of songs. We came back to that same members home for lunch, and I got to try the delicacy of pickled herring. Which is just a huge chunk of fish that tastes like pickles and boogers. Not too bad. After lunch with them, we headed out to Devon to the Laws home. On the way there we spotted a guy with his car stuck on the side of the road. There was two guys trying to help him get it out, but they weren't getting where. So we hopped out and helped the Asian guy and the two Russian dudes get the asian guys car out of the ditch, meanwhile getting the Russian dudes car stuck. Luckily by the power of God, we got them both out and sent on their ways. And yes we were in our suits. It felt good to serve them, because the Asian guy was very very distraught by this time. Mormons, There When You Need Them Most. 

Anyway, then we went and Skyped and ate a TON of food, opened some presents, and went to play games with our investigator Braydon's family. 

Yesterday was Boxing Day, we played pool, ping pong, ate a ton of food, then went straight to our dinner appointment since lunch was late. More food! Then we went and played games with Braydon's family again.... MORE FOOD! It was really fun, and we were able to have a very spiritual conversation with Dalyce, Terra, and Braydon. I was able to tell Terra, without wavering, 

"If you invest yourself into the gospel and it's not true, you've lost nothing. But if you don't invest yourself in the gospel and it is true, you've lost everything." I felt very confident in that, knowing the truth of it. 

I hope y'all had a marvellous Christmas and Boxing Day, even though probably none of you celebrated Boxing Day... have a great week guys! Love you much! 

Pictures:

1. Millwoods Zone Missionaries

2. A bunch of nutter butters

3. Our cookie project

4. The tallest elf 

5. This is how we keep track of the months we've been out! 4 month mark! 

6. My companions and a huge chocolate bar

7. I'm not really up for Christmas cuddles from E. Woodruff

8. Christmas morning

9. The Hinmans dog, Diego