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 

Christmas Conference, Laughing Fits and Chicken Milk

Week 17

Hey guys! Merry week before Christmas! 

I hope you don't question the title too much. Let me put it clear: you cannot milk a chicken. 

This week has been pretty great. We have done quite a bit of tracting, and given away quite a few copies of the Book of Mormon. It's really weird to have a dinner appointment every night, but I'm getting used to it. Can't complain!

Our buddy Braydon is getting really close to baptism, we have 4 meetings to cram into the next week and a half, so it'll be fun! Last Tuesday we taught him the commandments using hand gestures, and he actually did really good. We got a text from his dad (former investigator) this morning saying he wants to meet with us again, which is super exciting! 

We had Christmas Conference on Wednesday, and it was really great. There were several really great musical numbers, and a lot of fun activities for us to do. We surprised President Pattison with a song called The Standard of Truth, and he cried a lot, as did the rest of us. It was very spiritual. We played the left and right game with our white elephant gifts, and I ended up with a game called bean boozled. 

We had dinner with the Rodriguez family that night, and they were super fun to be around. They're from Guatemala, and they looooved to tell us about it. We showed them the Because of Him video, and afterwards what Grandma Rodriguez said really struck me. "I know Him." She said. She testified about her personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and I believe that is something we all ought to have, not just at this time of the year. Before we got all spiritual, we were talking about tres leches cake, and she made a joke about The three different kinds of milk in tres leches. Disclaimer: Chicken milk is not a real thing! 

We had a ton of dinner appointments this week, and one Sunday night with the smith family (including Sam Smith hehe), and they invited a ton of their friends. It was awesome to see their missionary efforts, and to read some of their Calvin and Hobbes books! 

We went on exchanges Sunday night to last night with the Gateway YSA Elders, Elder Neild and Elder Christiansen. We had a lot of fun and a lot of good talks with people while we had Elder Christiansen with us. We also got told were run by Freemasons and a bunch of other stuff. Got cussed at a few times. Good fun, life of a missionary. 

We had a sweeeeeeeet lesson last night with a Brazilian lady named Marcella, it was a little difficult because she has a hard time expressing herself in English. But luckily we brought a member with us, who not only knows Portuguese, but learned Portuguese because she was given a Portuguese Book of Mormon. So that was pretty cool. We showed her the Restoration video in Portuguese, and she really enjoyed it. Her and her husband Moacyr really really like us, so hopefully they continue to listen to us! 

This morning we were able to do some service (on a pday, like whaaaat?) for something called the Christmas Elves, they gather together food and presents, and they deliver them to underprivileged people in the area. The Beaumont sisters also came to help. So we got to load up the deliverers cars with boxes, then they drove off and delivered it. There were about 85 houses they loaded out to, so that was cool. The whole time we were doing it, I had an undeniable happiness inside. I couldn't stop singing dancing and smiling. Serving people is great. 

I want to wish y'all a very merry Christmas! This is probably the most opportune time of year for us to share the gospel and be prime examples of Christlike Service. I want to challenge you all to do your best to do some random acts of service, and make somebody's day. 

I love you all! Keep moving forward! 

Love 

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Pictures:

1. Elder Chamberlain and I at Christmas Conference

2. Elder Haymore, friend of Jordan Stone from Arizona

3. Elder Haymore and I again

4. My white elephant gift, there's two flavours for every colour of bean, one good, one bad. for example: Spoiled Milk and Cocount, chocolate pudding vs canned dog food. Pretty nasty.

5. Merry Christmas to my family:) 

6. Left to right, Elder Johnston, Elder Woodruff, Me, President Pattison, Sister Pattison at Christmas conference 

7. Elder Carter Hinton from my MTC district

8. A sick totem pole we found

9. Little Christmas sketch I did at church last week

10. Elder Woodruff and I at the Country Christmas lights

11. Elder Wells, Elder Woodruff and Elder Johnston

12. Merry Christmas Y'all. 

13. Our neat little Christmas tree, with all of Elder Johnston's Gifts

14. I met a famous little snowman 

15. The picture doesn't do justice, but Brother Townsend looks like Chris Pratt

Videos at country Christmas, and Elder johnston doing weird things with his eyes

The Weather is Absolutely Frightening

Week 16 

Some of you may remember at my farewell talk, I read a poem that I wrote. One of the lines of the poem was, "I'm going to freeze my tail off, I'm going to go knock doors." Yeah, that was this week. It's been down to -40 Celsius (the same as -40 Fahrenheit). At that temperature, were not allowed to go outside, so we had some time to spend in the apartment together.

Oh yeah! Last week was transfers, so I was transferred to Devon/Leduc. It's just south of Edmonton. My new companions are Elder Johnston from Rigby, Idaho, and Elder Woodruff who is waiting on his visa to go to Guam. He is from Innisfail, Alberta. Not too far away. 

It's been really hard to get used to a ward, after being in a branch of about 40-50 people. But it's been good thus far. 

We have a lot of recent convert lessons going on, because I guess 5 people got baptized in September/October, so we only have like one investigator. His name is Brayden, he is a 9 year old boy, with severe ADD/ADHD. But luckily, he's on baptismal date for December 25 or 31. So our lessons only last about 10 minutes with him. We got to have a really cool object lesson with him about the Holy Ghost and how it's like an electric blanket. (I've been sleeping with the electric blanket since that lesson) Brayden's mom, Terra, is a returning less active we've been working with. 

We've been able to have some really great lessons with some great people this past week. I wish I could go into more detail, but I don't have names down. 

Kind of a fun experience  the other day, while we were tracting, we knocked on this guys door, and he opened it and this massive wolf-like German shepherd almost knocked me over. I was so scared. But I know I have protection with the Lord on my side! 

We stopped by a couple of older ladies, Ida and her daughter Erika, and Ida is from Germany. She lived through the wartimes and told us all about it. I now know more about Ukraine and Germany and Russia than I ever thought I would. We were able to share a Christmas video with them, and the spirit was very strong in the room. 

That same area with the huge dog, we left half the block unknocked, because we had to go somewhere. A few days later, Elder Woodruff asked me where I wanted to tract. I said we needed to finish the last place we were. As we finished that block, nobody had heard us out, listened to anything we said, let us in, took a card, or anything. Then we got to the second to last house. A super nice lady named Ralene let us in and was really perky and happy that we were here to teach her about the truth of Jesus Christs gospel. That was a miracle in and of itself. 

We went tracting yesterday, and the entire street for the most part was really nice to us. People feel bad when they see you freezing, and they will a lot of the time let you in. I'm thankful for hand warmers; greatest invention next to the toaster. I found a place on the map called Wells court, so we obviously had to go tracting there. We met a super cool dude named Darcy who is obsessed with gramophones. I knew that it wasn't just a coincidence that we tracted Wells Court, but it was because Darcy needed us! 

It'll take some getting used to, and I know that Heavenly Father knows us and our weaknesses. He knows where we don't quite reach the mark, but He makes up the difference. Sometimes we have to humble ourselves enough to be on our knees, asking for help from the atonement before He will help us do what we want or need to do. I know it's true, and you can too! 

Love all y'all! 

Elder Trevor J. Wells

Canada Edmonton Mission

2 Nephi 31:20 

Many much pictures:

1. Chris, member from Vermilion, with Spike

2. The city of Edmonton

3. Letting my Idaho show

4. Elder Woodruff and Elder Johnston playing battleship on our -40 day

5. Repping the Ugly Christmas Ties (Johnston, Woodruff, Wells Christmas Card)

6. Leduc thought I was so baller, they named the court after me. 

7. Whoa. That's my name.