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.

Brown Eyed Big Sister

By Trevor Jordan Wells

My first best friend was a brown eyed little girl

Who showed me the way to live in this fun, new world.

She would take me by the hand and show me how to be,

How to walk, how to talk, how to sing, how to see.

I never had to go to my friend's house, she lived just down the hall

The things I learned from her, she'd always be there when I call.

She and I would go on expeditions in our minds, somewhere far away,

Trying to live like Peter Pan, never growing up, we would always fear the day.

But that day came and went, as we know all days do,

With bags all packed and goodbyes said, she went to USU.

She learned to love the college life, and I struggled to get through school,

We both loved and lost and cried and found that procrastination can be cruel.

She fell in love a time or two, and fell out just as fast

We gave each other life advice, and talked all about the past.

She came home for a few summers to check up on us all,

But that summer was never long enough, once I got my mission call.

We were excited I'd be serving the Lord, but I knew it would be rough,

To leave my brown eyed best friend home, with all my worldly stuff.

The day soon came when I had to depart, so we picked her up on the way

Her brown eyes filled with tears, and so did mine, but I'd be back one day!

The letters I get from her tell me to work harder still, and keep on pushing on,

Looking at it from the inside, my time is going, soon to be gone!

I know back home she's still a Utah driver, with Idaho in her veins

Her spiritual example has shown me how to hand God my life's reigns.

My best friend is my big sister, who's seen me through it all,

She's older than me in age, but I'll always be more tall.

She knows me inside and out, my loves and hates the same,

She's put up with me for 19 years, and still I call her names.

I'll never look to anyone the same way I look at her,

She is one of my biggest role models, my emotions she will stir.

I feel I never say it enough, but her smile is a work of art,

I love my brown eyed big sister, with all my blue eyed heart.

..........You Lost Me

Week 30

7 months on Friday! 

Salutations! How goes life? 

Mission life is great. I love it out here. Especially since it's been warming up a little bit, finally to about an average of 0 Celsius every day. Same as our teaching pool. (Literally though)

We went on exchanges Tuesday night to Wednesday night, and I got to be with the great Elder Alvey from Ogden, Utah. (No relation to president Alvey from singles branch, as far as we know.) Our exchange was honestly awesome, being able to be a Zone leader for a day was pretty crazy. Nobody was home when we knocked, but that's ok. We had some good experiences and were able to learn a lot from eachother. 

Oh! And we had dinner with the temple president. That was pretty awesome. 

We tracted into a really cool guy named Marlon the other day, he decided to let us in and tell us his life story. He talked a lot, and I was tempted to sing "The Time is Far Spent" but I thought better of it before I did it. Luckily he took a Book of Mormon, and we told him where the church was, and invited him to come. We kept watch for him on Sunday, but he didn't ever show. 

Oh fun experience, we were tracting our neighbourhood, and this one guy opened the door. Super elderly guy, couldn't hear us, said, "hang on, let me get Karen." Karen comes to the door and says, "come in! Ron used to talk to you guys all the time!" So we went in, they gave us a bowl of fruit, water, and then we sat down to talk. Karen had the news on, so she started rambling on about politics and how terrible the US President is, and then she went off about the Canadian Prime minister, then she asked if we keep up on the news. As missionaries were not supposed to get involved too much with politics. Then she basically reprimanded us and said, "well you need to keep up on your government because it's all going to hell." She asked us a few things about Mormons, some specific things about the temple, which we couldn't be so detailed in answering, because it's sacred. Then we somehow got on the subject of her husband Ron. Here's the thing: we never met with Ron. The missionaries years ago did. Ron is now dead. Karen continued to tell us all about Ron, and how much she misses him, and that she feels his presence all the time, and he's definitely still around. The more he wants her to be comforted, the more she gets a bit of pressure on the back of her head, and she knows it's him. Apparently he's also been going over to the neighbour, because he wakes him up by yanking on his leg... we tried to teach while we were there. But the spirit wasn't there at all. Gotta love Canada. 

We finally were able to meet with a man named Cory, who literally talked for about two hours. The whole time he was talking, he talked so fast, and covered so much, I couldn't keep up. (Hence theI didn't say anything the whole time we were there. He and Elder Nelson talked about everything. I was waiting for the spirit to tell me what to say, but the spirit wasn't there. Cory was being way too analytical and nit picky. And I'm not one to bash. But the work continues to move on! 

Our one most solid potential, MaryLou, is on a trip to Cancun with her daughter until the first part of April. Sadly that means we won't be able to teach her until she's back. But! She did take a Book of Mormon with her to read on the way! 

Other than that it's just been a lot of knocking doors! One lady said when they were driving through Utah to get to Mexico, she could visibly see a difference in Utah compared to the other states. There's just something about Utah. And I can attest that that is basically Zion! That is the promised land! 

Alright everyone, have a great week! Keep on keepin on! 

Love you all! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

Elder Nelson (befuddled)

Stewardship selfie

Video of the back roads of Alberta 

GUYS ITS FINALLY ALMOST NOT NEGATIVE TEMPERATURES

Week 29 

Hello Everybody! 

It has been a super swell week! 

It's been snowing like mad and finally this week we are GOING TO HAVE POSITIVE TEMPERATURES! It feels like forever since that has happened. I'm so excited, my friends... if you couldn't tell. 

Let me begin by telling you all about the lunch we had Wednesday with an amazing Sister from our ward, Sister Buck. She is a very exuberant lady, she's a little bit older, and I don't think anything could get her down. We went to a super down home restaurant on the bottom floor of a little Stony Plain museum. The food was absolutely spectacular. The entire meal, sister Buck was giving us life tips, and I was mentally jotting them down because she is all knowing, I swear. She's so smart. 

Alright, all y'all of my fellow missionaries, if you ever get the chance to receive a priesthood blessing from your mission president, DO NOT PASS UP THE OPPORTUNITY. I received a blessing from President Pattison, and all the words he spoke were exactly what I needed to hear, even though I had only told him I needed a blessing and explained a bit why a few minutes before that. It's crazy marvellous how he knows me and my circumstances through the spirit.

To make a short summary of the crazy woman we met with the other day, she spouted off the problems she has had in the last fifteen years, and then offered us a job doing her paperwork for a bunch of her lawsuits.... missionaries aren't supposed to do that. So yeah. We're not going to do that. She wasn't very happy with us, but it's not our place to get involved with that. Anyways. -Now back to your regularly scheduled Elder Wells Email.-

It's really funny to see our faces after we've been tracting for what feels like three days straight, and we finally find someone who says, "come on in boys! Teach us about Jesus." No lies, y'all. That happened like three times, and we almost had to pray to double check if it actually happened. And the first lady called herself a Bhuddist Catholic. Let me tell you, she had a really relaxing vibe all throughout the house. Super duper chill. Loved it. 

And to end the week, on Sunday as we were scraping ice off our car, we accidentally locked our keys in our car... and it was running. We were late to ward council, but luckily we live in the same town as the mission vehicle manager couple missionaries. Blessings for sure. Eventually we got it fixed and whatnot. 

In other news, we haven't been teaching hardly at all. There's a lot of work to be done, but not a lot of people are willing to change. So we just knock doors and do service and eat the member's food. No just kidding, but really, they feed us a lot and I love it. 

Last night we did some pretty interesting service for a member, he asked us to help him load some things in his truck, he runs a Mac's Tools truck. So we figured it wouldn't take too long, but when we got there, the real problem was getting the back door (kind of like a drawbridge door on a castle) of his truck down. So we jumped up and down on it for 15 minutes. Because we're dignified young men in shirts and ties, and when we're asked do help, we do it. It finally came down and we got the giant tool box in the back of the truck. And we all lived spiritually ever after. 

Hope everything is well for all y'all back home! I have really seen the ways the spirit teaches us through others this week. It's been a huge tender mercy to see all the things the spirit has been needing to teach me. 

It's a great day to be alive. Love the Lord and He will love you back.  (He loves you anyway but it sounded good so I'm leaving it in the email.) 

Have a great week everyone! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

1. The Fleet

2. Redneck Creativity

3. The Riverbend Zone (minus Elder Nelson, not sure where he was)

4. Canada is pretty

5. Canadian backdrop

(Stony) Plain and Simple Truths

Week 28

Do you get it? Stony Plain? Plain and simple truths? Ha....haha....

Hey y'all! 

It has been a good first week in the great new area of Stony Plain! My companion is Elder Sean Nelson from South Jordan, Utah, right close to the temple I got my middle name from. He's a great guy, super organised (we're given companions to learn from, eh?), and he goes absolutely bonkers when he sees snowmobiles because that's his favourite thing. Especially after we got dumped on the other day, a foot and a half of snow OVERNIGHT! 

So, as my title suggests, I've learned a few Plain and Simple truths in the last week. 

Plain and simple truth number 1: sometimes we, as missionaries, are sent to areas to change other people's lives; other times we are sent to areas to learn things for ourselves. Here in Stony, there are very little teaching opportunities, we don't have any progressing investigators, and so that leaves tons of time to learn things for myself. 

Plain and simple truth number 2: There is always more than one way to skin a cat. This is a phrase my dad used to say sometimes. This is what I learned from the service we did for a lady in our ward yesterday. She is a very independent lady, heck bent on doing her own thing. She sold her portable car garage to someone in their tiny village of Wabuman. Since it was so large and hard to take apart, we decided it would be easier to just pick it up and move it three blocks down and a block over (up a hill also). So that's what we did. Cars were driving around us and giving us the "What the Heck?!" Look. I'll attach a picture of it. 

Pretty cool experience from Sunday, I bore my testimony in the Stony Plain Ward, even though I've only been here for a few days. A bunch of people came up and told me they know where Burley is. That was cool. One guy, Brother Heap, served his mission there. He was a missionary in my home ward when I was a kid. Now I'm a missionary in his ward. Funny how time flies, and the Lord places us in certain places for a reason. 

But yeah besides those things, I've been a little homesick for Leduc. It's gonna be hard to connect with the members here, but I'm sure it will happen! Oh! And by the way, they are going to be creating a new stake in the Edmonton area. So in the next month or so, we will have 5 stakes instead of 4. That was some very unexpected news we got Sunday. So there will be some very hefty changes coming our way soon. 

Thanks for all your prayers in not only my behalf, but in every other missionaries behalf as well. I know the work is moving forward, and we are standing firm in our steadfastness in Christ. There's nothing better than serving a mission to bring you closer to Jesus Christ. I know this is true. I've been able to actually tell some people how I came to know the truth of the gospel. The more we bear personal testimony, the more people feel the spirit. The church is true! 

Hope all is well back, home! I love all y'all! Keep on keeping on. 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

1. The Millwoods Zone

2. A little more dignified

3. The Fitzners and I (they are the ones who buy and cook the crazy steaks)

4. Us and our friend Terra

5. Three of the five steak club members 

6. The Lawrence family (minus their oldest daughter Sydney)

7. Our investigator Aaron

8. Elder Nelson and I outside the Edmonton Temple

9. Bench.

10-11? Mission tour pictures with Elder Larry J. Echo hawk (Elder Nelson and I didn't even know each other but I was standing right behind him) 

12. Elder Nelson and I did the hard thing.

13. Only in Wabuman, Alberta

"Adam Left the Garden, Then God Made Mustard."

Week 27

SIX MONTHS!

Disclaimer: the title of this email is not doctrine, it was a funny quip from Christopher De Vries. I repeat, THE ABOVE IS NOT DOCTRINE. Carry on. 

Hello mi amigos! 

I have reached my six month milestone! Hallelujah! It's gone by so fast, but it's been so great as well! 

We received transfer calls this morning, and I am leaving Leduc tomorrow! I'm headed to Stony Plains (west of Edmonton) to be with Elder Nelson. Elder Johnston is staying in Leduc and will be Training a brand new missionary, and Elder Woodruff is going to Griesbach. It's sad to be split up with these guys because we've literally spent almost ever waking moment together for the last 3 months. I'm sad to leave but excited to see what God has in store for me in Stony! 

We had a good exchange with Elder Christiansen this week, we were able to learn a lot and as we did so, we got to witness the steak challenge again. This time it was the first female to ever attempt it, and her brother. Neither one made it through, but while they did that, we also had steak, but brother Fitzner said it wasn't beef, and he wouldn't tell us what it was until after. It ended up being yak steak, and it was by far the greatest steak I've ever had. 

On Friday, I reached my six month mark! The tradition of the mission is to burn a tie at six months, a shirt at a year, pants at 18 months, and a full suit at two years. So I have a video of me burning a tie. It was a great time. 

Saturday we did some quick service moving exercise equipment for Sister Nguyen, and basically the rest of the day we tracted. Knocking doors isn't my favourite thing to do, but being a friendly guy like me, it's not too hard to do either. Every time we knock a door, we are giving the people an opportunity to learn about the restored gospel of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. It's sad that most of them turn it down, but we know one day they will be able to know. As Elder Christofferson said in the MTC, "If these people knew that we bring the Kingdom of a God to their doors, do you think they'd turn it away?" Think about that.

Sunday was one of the most full days we've had in a very long time. We went to church, as normal, but then we had a lesson with our buddy Aaron. It was honestly spectacular because he has such a huge desire to know the truth. While we were talking about the gospel, we found out that although he's been investigating for a really long time, he has never heard of the Pearl of Great Price or the Doctrine and Covenants. So we are going to take him a copy of both tonight. We were able to help him to understand a bit more of what we know, and he is planning on coming to church this Sunday! 

After our lesson with Aaron, we took the sacrament to a very ill member of our ward, and her very old mother, and we also gave her a blessing. It was a very touching moment to see her faith and how she's clung so much to what she knows to be true. 

For dinner we had the most amazing authentic tacos I've ever had, and we visited Sister Kruyer in the hospital. She had to endure a terrible infection on her leg, tons of surgeries, and lots of doubt, but now she is just days away from finally leaving the hospital. And even better, she'll be leaving there on her own two feet. She told us so much there were times she wanted to give up, but she knew she couldn't. And I will reiterate one of the last things she said whilst bearing her testimony to us: "Life is Good." I know it is. It truly is good when we look at the positive side of everything, no matter how hard it may be. Turn to God, and He will have your back. 

Thanks for all you do! Love y'all! 

-Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures/videos:

1. The district left to right: E. Christiansen, E. Li, Sis. Bischoff, Sis. McSweeney, E. Lian, E. Woodruff, (in front) E. Johnston, E. Nield, E. Howlett, Me.

2. Silly district

3. Comp. picture

4. The Visa Waiter, The Trainer, The Piece of Work

Video: Tradition states: "He who reaches the milestone of six months of service to the Lord must burn a tie in order to continue on in the service of the Lord." (This is also not doctrine, I'm just trying to make you laugh.)

5.  Goodbye pictures with our friends, Donne and Trudy

6. Donne and Trudy after we moved a bunch of furniture for them.

I Was Hoping You WOOD

Week 26
Happy (late) Family Day, everyone! 

Yesterday was Alberta Family day, so I hope you all were hanging out with your fams! Families can be together forever! 

Anyways, it's been a really good week. as far as updates go with our investigators, Braydon told his mom that he wants to be baptised after he turns ten, later this year. Also, he's been praying in the morning with his family, so that's pretty excellent! 

Aaron is gone for the week so we haven't been able to meet with him. My companions had a lesson with him the other day before he left, while we were on exchanges, and they said it went really well. So great stuff! 

On Thursday we had the Lamberts (an older convert couple from our ward) come to our district meeting and share their conversion story. It was really great to see how the gospel turned their life completely around. I can testify that this gospel can and will change your life, if you let it! 

After district meeting, we were able to go on exchanges with Elder Lian, one of our Mandarin elders from Taiwan. He's sooooo funny. We had a lot of fun conversations, especially while we were doing service for our buddy Donne. 

Cool story about a referral, we got a call from some missionaries in Edmonton, telling us about a guy named terry. So what happened was he is researching a bunch of different churches trying to find the right one for him. He remembered building a house for some Mormons, and decided to find the closest congregation and give them a call. So he called one of the chapels, and these missionaries "just happened" to be there to answer his call! I know that Heavenly Father planned for this to happen! So he talked the missionaries that he wanted a King James Bible, a Book of Mormon, a pearl of great price, and the Doctrine and Covenants! We got the referral from them, and decided to go visit him in Devon. When we sat down and talked to him, he had tons of questions about the temple and how we came to be and why we chose to serve missions, and why the Book of Mormon matters, and then he told us he would also like a copy of Mormon Doctrine (which is a pretty hardcore deep doctrine Book!). He said, "let me stay up for a few nights reading what you gave me, and then I'll call you." We were literally blown away! At this point we know he is focused a lot on the trivial stuff, but we can help him turn to the spiritual side more so. Pretty darn great! 

I was also able to spend 2 hours with one of the Assistants to the President, Elder Saumweber, on Friday, tracting, and we were able to give out like 9 copies of the Book of Mormon. It was awesome to see the way he tracted and interacted with the people. We saw some real miracles. He leaves at the end of this transfer, so I'm glad I had that time with him. The main thing that made it great was getting to talk about country music the whole time. Made my day:D

Since yesterday was Family day, we went to the church and had breakfast with the ward family. I have really come to love our ward family. They're great. We had a huge breakfast, then we had the opportunity to drive out to the country and help the Arnold family chop some wood. Living the lumberjack life for a little while. I should have gotten a picture of the huge pile of wood we stacked. (That's where the terrible pun in my email title comes from.) It was a good workout. It's also amazing to feel the Love of God flow through us to bless other people through our service. 

Next week is transfers, so we shall see what happens! Elder woodruff got a call from president yesterday saying the other missionaries who were waiting for their visas got them, and they will be leaving Sunday. Elder Woodruff's can't be too far behind, we think! 

I'll be sure to let y'all know what's happening at transfers. 

Thanks for all the prayers in behalf of my companions and I and our investigators! I love you guys and hope you have a great last week of February! 

Love,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Elder Wells

Pictures/videos:

1. Elder Lian and Elder Woodruff

2. Object lessons with The Jeffrey family (Stephen Jeffrey getting wet)

3. Our bishop, his wife, and his parents. Left to right: Bishop, Mary, me, Myra, Leon, Woodruff, Johnston 

4. The snow was so wet, then the sun came out, and it rolled down someone's windshield

5. Kid from our ward, Matthew at the His Hands fireside in Edmonton