The Christmas call

It is that time of year again when we celebrate Christmas.  It is also the time of year when our missionary gets to call home.  This has been our tradition for the past seven years.  For the past seven years our family has had a missionary serving in one part of the world or another.  So getting a missionary call on Christmas is just what we expect.  This year was a little bit different though.  All of our kids were spending Christmas in different places so the family togetherness was more of a virtual thing than a physical thing.  You can put it this way, there were a lot of skype windows open and getting the skype conference call working was a trick.  But in the end, we all had a great time talking to Brendan and knowing that he is doing well.  We talked to Brendan for about 40 minutes and also got the chance to meet his companion and some of the Sisters that he works with.  Brendan looked really good and his sense of humor is still pure Brendan.  Here is just a sampling of that humor for those who have missed it over the last year:

"Ya know what I don't get. I watched all the missionaries in my district start calling home and immediately when their family popped up on screen everyone started crying and Kleenex were everywhere. They were sharing all these intimate moments and I was sitting in the corner just thinking "thank you Heavenly Father, for giving me the family I have. Truly, thank you" I hopped on Skype and called Alex and Annie and immediately when they popped up, me and Alex were just WAZZZZZ UP????!! it was great. No tears. never tears. Fake tears were shed on my part. But that was to check if I still had that youngest child talent of busting out the waterworks on command. The verdict... I can't."

So Brendan told us about an interesting experience that he and his companion had in the YSA Ward.  One evening before Christmas, the Ward decided to go Christmas caroling for their activity.  When Brendan told us this story, he put in the subject line of the email, "Caroling to Muslims".  Not that Muslims had anything to do with the story really, it was more that Muslims as well as a few other religious sects don't really celebrate Christmas.  If you are at all familiar with Canada, the country is much more of a melting pot for different ethnicities and religions than is the United States.  So when the YSA Ward decided to go caroling, it turned out that many of the people they visited didn't even know that caroling during the Christmas season is really a thing.  Needless to say, they really enjoyed the experience and also had an opportunity to explain to people why they were there and what Christmas is all about.  You really can't ask for a better missionary experience than that.

Things have been going great for Brendan and his companion when it comes to being able to teach and baptize new members of the church.  Brendan told us just a few weeks ago that another person that they had been teaching was just baptized as well.  He also told us a story about how he and his companion decided to start calling phone numbers in the Ward directory and setting up appointments.  Calling one of the less active members of the Ward really turned out to be "the right thing at the right time".  I won't go into the details of the story here but during some of the teaching moments that the missionaries had with this Ward member, those exact words were said.  This was a real testimony builder for both Brendan and the Ward member.  To make the call at the right time and then teach the lesson that was needed, just shows that the Lord is in control.

Brendan was really excited about Christmas and the Christmas package that was sent from home.  There was stuff in the package like vitamins, candy, games and a camera.  You can probably understand why a missionary might not be too excited about vitamins and stuff like that but you might think that he would be excited about a camera.  Not Brendan.  No, the thing that he was most excited about was the new Junior Ranger badge that his Mom sent him.  Last summer we took a trip up though Wyoming and South Dakota.  Brendan's Mom was able to pick up a Junior Ranger badge from a few places along the way.  The reason why she did this was because every time Brendan had an opportunity to get a Junior Ranger badge from one of the National Parks we visited during family trips, he did.  In fact during high school Brendan would proudly wear his Junior Ranger badges to school.  You might think that wearing Junior Ranger badges to high school is kind of a strange thing for a kid to do, but hey, that's just Brendan's personality.  Anyway, in his email home after opening his package, his new Junior Ranger badge was all he could talk about.  

It has turned really cold in Winnipeg.  Brendan said that December wasn't really bad but once January hit, the temperatures have really dropped.  Here is how Brendan describes it:

"So winter has finally come. Winnipeg style. Its been below freezing for about all of December but January hits and everything drops even more. It has been in the minus 20's (Celsius) all this week and with windchill it has been a steady -38 Celsius. That's probably about -38 Fahrenheit. Its been good. I like it. You go out in that kind of cold and you are warm if you are smart and you feel like the MAN. We went street contacting yesterday evening in -35 and my eyebrows and eyelashes froze. I'll send some pics. It makes for an interesting time.

I will say, the strangest part of it all is when your nose hairs freeze. That is some crazy stuff! Feels wack. The wind here is gnarly. That just feels like it goes straight through your skin and straight to the bones. It is wack as well. But maybe the #2 strangest thing, people are out here walking their dogs! And they put these little dog shoes on their dogs. Its hilarious to watch. Truly."

Interesting experiences and random thoughts

Here we are in December again and you know what that means.  For the last 7 years we have been skyping with one of our missionaries at Christmas time and this year will be no different.  Except this year Brendan will be the missionary that we will Skype with.  Up until now, Brendan has been the one here at home skyping with one of his siblings serving as a missionary at the time.  Brendan actually skyped us for the first time last Mother's Day so this will be his second Skype home but his first Christmas.  This should be fun.

As usual, Brendan is just loving the missionary work in Winnipeg.  He is still working with the YSA Ward there and loving it.  This is the second YSA Ward that he has worked with.  The first one being in Regina and now again in Winnipeg.  He told us that he wishes that he could somehow mesh the two YSA Wards together because he has seen some great things from having experienced serving in both of them that would make for one exceptional Ward. 

But missionary work also has it down times.  The trick is to turn the negatives in to positives.  Here is one of those down times and how Brendan handled it:

"Next up I learned two things, Pomegranates are so cheap, and delightful. I forgot how much I loved them. But I will tell you who doesn't like them, white clothes. Whether that be white shirts or G's, pomegranate juice might as well be blood. That stuff don't ever come out. And I learned that the hard way. I still have a couple poms left, so I will probably just strip down before I cut them up and eat them. Can't risk any more casualties. But, actually in reality I avoided some casualties, thank you TIDE TO GO!!! Seriously though, that stuff works wonders. You want a scripture reference, Although your white shirt maybe as red as scarlet, dab a little tide to go and it will be as white as snow. Learned this for real this week. #miracles"

Averting a tragedy and turning it into a miracle.  Isn't that just the missionary way?! While we are on the subject of how missionaries deal with certain events and opportunities, Brendan told us about a recent Family Home Evening with the YSA Ward.  This activity included a Zumba class.  But obviously before starting any kind of class, there must be a prayer and a spiritual thought.  Brendan and his companion were assigned the spiritual thought.  Brendan didn't tell us what he had prepared for the spiritual thought, but what he did tell us was this:

"But tonight for FHE we are doing zumba. SOOOO DOWN! With some spiritual throw down of a well prepared spiritual thought that we got assigned and then hitting the floor for some zumba, we are gonna be shaking our booties with a tear in our eye. What more can you ask for?"

Ok, it is time for our monthly Canadian vocabulary lesson from Brendan.  This month the word is "toque".  We were introduced to this new word due to the fact that winter is coming and Winnipeg is getting cold.  Brendan has found his new best friend which will keep him warm though the bitter Canadian cold.  Ear Muffs.  No, the meaning of "toque" is not ear muffs but you are close.  A "toque" is actually Canadian for "beanie" which is all Brendan wore last winter to keep his ears warm.  Last year was OK but this year with ear muffs, Brendan is in heaven. At least his ears are. Not to mention that when he goes to one of his appointments, he won't be taking a beanie off his head and looking like he just rolled out of bed.   The rest of him will probably still be cold especially when it hits -40 in Winnipeg with 40 kph winds. 

Here we go for one of the funniest stories of Brendan's mission.  There are a lot of different ethnicities in Canada.  One of the main groups of people to immigrate to Canada are Nigerian.  Brendan says that they are some of the nicest and kindest people he has met.  Ever since Brendan got to Winnipeg, he has heard about a church called "Redeemed Christian Church of God" where many of the Nigerian people meet on Sundays.  A few weeks ago Brendan and his companion decided to attend this church to meet some of the people and get to know them a little better.  When they showed up at the church, they were the only two white people there.  Then they were immediately ushered to the front from the chapel and given all of the attention and love that the rest of the congregation could give.  Then the pastor of the church asked the two missionaries to stand and invited the entire congregation to come and shake their hands.  All 200 of them!!  Then the gospel choir began to sing and the band played and as Brendan described it, it was like a full on concert.  Anyway, none of that is the funny part of the story.  The people at the church seemed to be very kind and friendly people.  The funny part of the story came later which Brendan didn't even know about. 

Just a few days later I was sitting at home working when I got an email from a strange email address.  Of course, everybody gets email from strange email addresses and normally I would have just deleted it.  But this one had the subject line, "We are glad you came".  When I opened the email it was from the Pastor at the "Redeemed Christian Church of God".  Apparently, Brendan had given them an email address thinking that it was one of his old addresses from before the mission.  As it turned out, it was one of my email addresses that ironically enough, I only use for corresponding with church members and scouting.  The email was very nice, here is what it said:

"Dear Brendan,

Blessings and greetings to you in Jesus name. We were privileged to 
have you as our guest this past Sunday.  We trust that your visit was 
spiritually enriching and that you were warmly received.

As a Church, we are committed to the person of Jesus Christ, and we 
base our teaching upon the revealed word of God.  It is our desire 
that people come to place their trust in Christ to forgive them and 
lead them, and that they grow in their relationship with Him.  We feel 
God is doing extraordinary things among extraordinary people and would 
love to see you be a part of this. Kind regards, ..."

When I told Brendan, in my weekly email, what had happened, he responded back saying that he just about laughed himself to death and that whole story just made his week.  I guess the best part of the story is that there are good kind people everywhere.

If you have known Brendan for very long, you would know that for whatever reason, his mind just goes to random thoughts.  Apparently that even applies to his emails as well.  Here is a random thought from Brendan that you just might find funny.  Especially given that he was a radio DJ through high school:

"Anyways, this week was crazy. Lots of stuff. Well, where to start. I don't know. I give up. I'll talk about what's on my mind. On a mission, your musical taste just dies. Straight up, two weeks in it just dissipates. And all that is left is cheezy EFY songs from the early 2000's. But you want to know what is strange. I TOTALLY DIG IT. haha, you should see me. We get bumpin in the car. EFY 2006 comes on and next thing you know I'm air drumming and singing along to "Power in Purity" like its Bohemian Rhapsody. ITs great. I love it. It will be weird in year or so to go back to listening to my old stuff. It's almost as if my ears are stuck in limbo and maybe some day they will make it to heaven. But for now, I'm sticking with the For Strength of Youth greatest hits 2014."

Brendan has been learning a new skill lately.  They  recently met a man who is deaf and attends one of the nearby Wards.  So now every Monday night this man teaches them sign language.  According to Brendan, he and his companion are getting really good at sign language.  Brendan said that now that he has been learning sign language, he is meeting all kinds of people who are deaf.  The great thing is that now he can more easily communicate with them.  Brendan is even considering asking his mission president if he could be reassigned as an ASL missionary.  I'm guessing that isn't going to happen but hey, if having the ability to at least make a door approach in sign language opens the door (so to speak), then it must have been worth it. 

Diversity is the spice of life

After spending a few months in Regina, Brendan is off to the "peg", Winnipeg that is.  He has spent a lot of his time serving in the YSA Wards and as a Zone Leader.  With this transfer to Winnipeg, about the only thing that will change is the place.  Brendan will still be serving in the YSA Wards and will still be a Zone Leader.  One interesting thing however, is that in both Regina and now in Winnipeg, he is serving with two other fellow PGers.  Elder Merrell, Sister Alder and Brendan were all friends at one time or another during high school and now they are serving the Lord in the Winnipeg, Canada mission.      

According to Brendan, there have been several miracles that have taken place in the last few weeks in the Regina area.  The most important of which are the baptisms of two young men who have been taking the lessons from the missionaries for the past couple of months.  Besides the fact that they have chosen to join the church, their names are what makes them unique among new members of the church.  I won't mention their names here but just know that with names like theirs, they were definitely destined to do great things.  The other great miracle, although this one somewhat pales in comparison to the previous miracle, is that Brendan and his companion have too many dinner appointments.  That may not seem like much of a miracle to you, but to a missionary it is a wonderful thing.  Well, at least to Brendan anyway.  He told us that while he was serving in some of the smaller areas, it was difficult to get dinner appointments.  But in the bigger cities and the more established Wards, dinner appointments seem to come a little easier.  Another reason why dinner appointments are so plentiful is because of the time of year.  Unlike the U.S. who celebrate Thanksgiving in November, the Canadians celebrate it in October.  Brendan told us that there have been some nights when they have had two dinner appointments and at least one night when they had three.  In fact Brendan said that during a recent dinner appointment with his Stake President who is from France, there were also two investigators from Nigeria, another man and his wife from Mexico, a young person from Iraq who had spent 9 years in a refugee camp and then the two missionaries from the U.S.  As Brendan would put it, Canada is the real melting pot of North America.  

Have you ever heard a missionary give you the "play by play" rendition of how thing are going?  Well, here is the play by play as given by Elder Nicholes in a recent letter home:

"Well well well, here we are again with another edition of random spattering of typos and broken thoughts somewhere racing in my mind as I watch terrible parenting here at the local library. I'm glad you could join us this evening and I hope you don't enjoy your stay.

But this week was a wiz(ard) I don't know why I added that last part. But anyways, moving on. Lets talk baseball. The Jays are killing it in the Playoffs and Canada is going nuts for it. On to hockey, the jets are off to a good start and the city of Winnipeg is ringing with the chant of GO JETS GO. GO JETS GO. GO JETS GO. I like it. On to Canada Winnipeg P-day activity, volleyball. I spiked the ball into a Sisters face today. I don't think we will be playing volleyball any more..."

 Speaking of play by plays and other funny stories, a couple of weeks ago Brendan told us about his new found love for Asian food and how a white kid from Utah impressed the presiding matron of a local Asian family.  Here is the story because Brendan tells it better:

"Well, I want to start by gloating. Yeah, it was good. In Regina I ate a lot with a member family from Vietnam and they taught me to eat with chopsticks and I started getting really good with them. Well as good as a white kid from Utah can get with chop sticks but that is beside the point. Here is why. Elder Gottenbos and I went to a member's apartment who is from China. And they made us Kimchi. AND SINCE I CAME OUT, I LOVE KIMCHI! I love Asian food so much. Like I never had real authentic Asian food till I came to Canada. Where you go to any Asian restaurant and you know it is the real deal. But anyways back to the point. They asked me if I wanted to use chopsticks or a fork. I said Chopsticks and they said the thing they always say... "you sure?" I said yes. They bring them out reluctantly and I start eating the kimchi with them and then the mom who speaks no english what so ever says something in chinese. I look at her son and he says "she just said that you are really good with chopsticks" BAM SEAL OF APPROVAL. That is all. My ego is at all power."

OK, now that Brendan has impressed the Asians with his crazy chopstick skills, it is on to impressing the East Indians with the game of cricket.  Here is how he did that:

"Moving on to my next gloatworthy thing. We were out walking by the university doing some contacting and there were a bunch of East Indians with these boxes and stuff. When I looked a little closer, they had a cricket stick. I WAS SO DOWN! Every night in Regina I would see these East Indians playing cricket by some apartments and one time we went to go join them but we didn't end up actually playing. They just taught us how to play. And So I wasn't letting this chance go by. I yelled out to them and they immediately invited us to play. AND IT WAS AMAZING! Seriously the funnest game ever. And super good way to contact. Me and Elder Bos made a good team I'll tell you what, he was an incredible baller (pitcher) and I was killing it on the hits and fielding. We ended up beating the other team. It was so fun!! Dreams really do come true."

This month's letters from Brendan just keep getting better and better.  Not only were the baptisms, impressing the chinese family with crazy chopstick skills and then playing a mean game of cricket isn't enough, just wait until you hear what's next.  So Brendan and his companion get a call from the assistants telling them that some visitors from Salt Lake will be coming to the Winnipeg area during the next week.  But these visitors aren't just anybody, no they are the people that actually wrote the "Preach My Gospel" manual.  If you aren't family with the "Preach My Gospel" manual, it is the manual that all of the missionaries throughout the world use when teaching the Gospel to people who are interested in knowing more about the LDS church.  In addition to visiting the area, they want to accompany Brendan and his companion during some teaching appointments to see how the missionaries are using the manual.  The assistants told Brendan that he and his companion needed to have three solid appointments for the next Tuesday night.  If you have ever served a mission, you probably know that many appointments fall through.  So making sure that you have three solid appointments, can be tough.  Brendan told us that this assignment really put the pressure on them to set up appointments.  So they literally just started asking anybody on the street if they were free on Tuesday night.  As it turned out, just asking people if they are free wasn't a half bad contacting approach.  Tuesday night finally came and here is how it went:

"This week was actually pretty great. We had some interesting things happen that made it great. If you read my email last week you would know that we were getting a surprise visit from some people from the mission department of the church and that they were going to go on splits with us. Well, turns out it wasn't just anyone from the mission department. IT WAS THE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, and we were in a tri-pan with him all Tuesday night. And I have no idea why I fretted about it, haha, it was the best! He took us out to Applebee's for all you can eat ribs and then we had a couple appointments set up for that evening that he came a long with. And at one point we were going through the Plan of Salvation pamphlet with one of our investigators and Brother Wade starts going through it and giving all this detailed background on things in the pamphlet and that's when I realized, "My investigator is going through the pamphlet with the person who WROTE the pamphlet." Blew my mind. But it was super neat. Later he gave us all the little details on Preach My Gospel and how it is used in all the missions around the world. It was a really a super fun night. Love that guy. We are best friends now. haha"

Over the last few weeks Brendan seems to have talked a lot about the diversity of people who live in Canada.  Just this last week Brendan told us that his teaching pool is currently made up of people from Korea, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, China, India, Mexico, United States and Australian Aborigine.  Brendan is now a connoisseur of authentic Asian food and to our surprise, really likes spicy hot food.  Which is funny because he wouldn't touch the stuff before his mission.  Needless to say, things are going great in the Winnipeg, Canada mission and especially in the YSA Wards where Brendan is serving.

Pre-Apostle encounter

Brendan has had an exciting last few weeks.  I'll start out by relating a story that Brendan told us about last week.  The experience actually happened a few weeks ago but became an even bigger story with the calling of the new Apostles last week during General Conference.

So about a month ago Brendan's mission had a visit from Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Seventy (at that time) who came to tour the Winnipeg, Canada mission.  As part of the mission tour, he visited the Regina area where Brendan is serving has a zone leader.  This, of course, was an exciting event for the missionaries because they all had a chance to meet and be taught by a General Authority.  Last week after Elder Renlund was called to be one of the newest Apostles, I asked Brendan if he had a chance to meet Elder Renlund when he visited the Regina area.  Brendan responded back by refering to his weekly family letter and indicating the he and Elder Renlund were now on a "last name" basis.  So here is the full story about Elder Renlund's visit to the Winnipeg Canada mission.

It all started out with a missionary zone conference that included all of the missionaries from the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw.  That's right, "Moose Jaw" is the name of one of the cities in Brendan's zone.  Brendan and I have an on going inside joke about Moose Jaw being the place to be.  But that is a story for another day so let's get back to the zone conference.  Brendan started out by telling us that he was asked to conduct the zone conference.  So as the missionary in charge of conducting the meeting, Brendan was obviously sitting on the stand when Elder Renlund came and sat down right beside him and started talking to him.

"He asked me if I was Elder Nicholes. I told him I was, I may have jokingly asked him if he was Elder Renlund but really I was too nervous to remember. haha. But he looks at me and asks me, "is there anything thing you would like to know?" I said No, but is there anything I should know. And he looks me in the eyes and says, Relax. Can I let you in on something, first off, I had told no one that I was nervous about conducting this meeting. Sure, it was my first time ever conducting anything and it was a member of the Seventy. haha, but I had kept that in. And after I shook Elder Renlund and Sister Renlund's hands I hugged President Craig who was next in line and President Craig tells me that Elder Renlund said that Elder Nicholes needs to let his nerves go. I hadn't told no one! Or voiced any concern. But I'll let you in on another thing! You want to know what makes you as unrelaxed as possible!? HAVING A GENERAL AUTHORITY TELL YOU TO RELAX! haha. Anyways it all went really well. I love him a lot! He is an incredible man and I sustain him with all my heart."

Brendan initially told us that the zone meeting went well and despite Brendan being nervous, he was able to conduct the meeting as you would expect.  But then at the bottom of his family letter, he said:

"P.S. I lied about the conducting going well. I got called out by a General Authority as he sat in the audience while I was conducting. I slipped and said that we were going to have a prayer then a song when Elder Renlund goes "We are going to have a prayer first?" I had NO IDEA what he was talking about. I had not noticed that I had messed up and I just stared at him like a deer in the headlights. It was super funny. I was so lost but all was well. We then had a leadership meeting with him and I got to talk to him pretty much one on one for about an hour and a half, so really it was an incredibly neat experience! I love this gospel!!! There was a lot more that happened but its hard to convey through messaging. But anyways there ya go. Love ya!"

Here is another interesting "small world" experience that Brendan had this last week.  Brendan and his companion attended a baptism service in their Ward.  After the baptismal service the Ward Mission Leader asked the missionaries to meet with him for a few minutes.  As often happens, the meeting started out by having everybody introduce themselves.  Of course the missionaries introduced themselves and stated where they were from.  Brendan said that he hates doing that because most of the other missionaries are from various different places throughout North America and the World.  Of course when a missionary is from an interesting place, everybody wants to know about it.  But when a missionary states that he is from Utah, especially from Utah Valley, the response is usually something like "oh that's nice".  But this time was a little different.  When the Ward Mission Leader asked Brendan where he was from and Brendan told him Utah, the mission leader said, "Oh, where abouts?".  Brendan told him the city and the Ward Mission Leader excitedly stated that he had served part of his mission there.  For those from Brendan's home Ward who may be reading this blog, you might remember that for a long time the missionaries live just a couple of houses down from us in a basement apartment.  Well, it turned out that the Ward Mission Leader just happened to have been one of those missionaries.  So here you have Brendan who is now serving in a Ward in Regina, Canada with a Ward Mission Leader who spent several months of his mission, years ago, living just a stones throw from Brendan.  Small world, don't you think?

If I haven't told you before, Brendan is now serving with the YSA Wards.  Due to the fact that the YSA are spread out over several different Wards, a couple of weeks ago Brendan gave us a run down on the Pro's and Con's of working with the YSA. 

Pro #1 - He and his companion get fed a lot.  The way Brendan describes it is that the members feed them like they are "emaciated little street erchins".  It's the best.

Con #1 - They have seven hours of church on each Sunday.  In fact just the week before they had spent from 10 in the morning until 10 at night in church meetings of one kind or another.  It isn't that they dislike being in church, it is about the fact that after sitting on hard benches or chairs for seven hours, your butt gets kind of sore.

Pro #2 - Seeing all of the less active members or investigators come to church.

Con #2 - The missionaries get really weird looks from members when they see the missionaries refuse the sacrament.  It's not that they are really refusing the sacrament, it is that the missionaries have already attended several sacrament meetings that day and have already partaken of the sacrament in an earlier meeting.  But obviously the members don't realize that.

As you can probably tell, Brendan is having a great time on his mission.  He is working hard and enjoying the hard work.  The interesting thing is that he himself is the one comparing Brendan of the pre-mission life to Brendan the missionary.  Every once in a while he will mention how he really enjoys things like General Conference or attending church for seven hours on Sunday (except for the sore butt part).  Then he will point out how weird it is that he actually enjoys those things, because the pre-mission Brendan never would have.  It is interesting how much a mission changes a person.

Here are a few pictures that Brendan sent home recently.  If you went to High School with Brendan, you may recognize another missionary in one of these pictures.

Time to step up and take control

Things are going well for Brendan.  He is still in North Central Regina which he affectionately calls "the hood".  He loves his area and loves the people that he is teaching.  Apparently summer has come to an end in Regina.  Brendan told us that his wool socks are out and on his feet and he doesn't think that they are coming off for a while.  From what we have heard, when the Winnipeg area decides to get cold, it really gets cold.  Brendan spent all of last winter in Minnesota and experienced some cold.  But it appears that he hasn't really experienced cold yet until he spends a winter in Winnipeg or Regina as the case my be.

This past month our whole family spent some time in Canada.  Obviously, Brendan was in Regina, Saskatchewan serving as a missionary and the rest of us were in Edmonton, Alberta.  We were their touring Brendan's sister's mission who returned home from her mission just two days before Brendan went into the MTC.   In Canada there is a Dunkin Donuts like store on every corner called Tim Horton's.  The missionaries like to go there occasionally to get hot chocolate and pastries.  While we were in Edmonton visiting many of the people that our daughter knew and taught, we received this rant from Brendan about Tim Horton's in his weekly email:

"So I don't know what it is like in the rest of Canada, but here in SK, Timmy Hortons has been advertising the socks off of their new creamy chocolate chill. And it looks so good! And so this has been the week of the lunch (aka dropped appointments, for those non missionaries) we were discouraged. So we were so hyped to get our CCC on! Honestly, I think I was just sold on the alliteration. It is so catchy. say it, Creamy Chocolate Chill. Creamy chocolate chill. Well IT'S GARBAGE!! straight up nesquik powder blended with some ice. I'm mad. I HATE TIM HORTON!!!!"

So just to spite Brendan and since we were in Canada, his brother had to stop by Tim Horton's to get a "Creamy Chocolate Chill".  We all gave it a try and it turned out to be one of those things that you either loved or hated.  I was on Brendan's side and didn't really care for it.  However, his brother just couldn't get enough of the CCC.  Everyday thereafter, he had to stop by the nearest Tim Horton's (which was usually on the next street corner) and buy another CCC.  We lost count of how many CCCs Brendan's brother consumed while we were touring around the Alberta area.  But at least we felt like we were somehow sharing a moment with Brendan even though were were hundreds of miles apart.

For Brendan, the disappointment of the Tim Horton's CCC just seemed to continue that week.  Brendan told us that every day they had a bunch of appointments with investigators and were ready to really do a lot of teaching.  But each and every day, all of their appointments fell through.  Then on top of that, Brendan told us that they were targeted in a "hate crime".  Luckily nothing happened to the missionaries personally but someone did key their car rather severely and carved some rather crude and vulgar things into the side of it.  So their day turned from being ready to teach, to having no one to teach and finally spending the day with the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) sorting out the whole car issue.  But just when it seems that all was lost, a miracle happened.  Brendan and his companion were able to meet with one of their investigators and set a baptismal date.  From the way that Brendan put it in his email home, that one appointment made up for the whole day and probably the whole week.

So the craziness of missionary work continues.  Brendan told us last week that it was time for transfers again and he had a feeling that his companion was going to be one of the new assistants to the president in the mission.  Well, his feeling turned out to be true which also meant that Brendan's companion was going to have to leave a few days early for Winnipeg to get started with his new responsibilities.  This left Brendan as the lone zone leaders in the area which meant that he was going to have to take care of transfers by himself.  From what Brendan said, there is a lot more to transfers than just missionaries moving from one place to another.  As the zone leader, he has to keep track of the phones, car keys and answer any questions that the transferring missionaries might have.  He said that it is truly a three day event that he will be doing by himself.  Hey, welcome to missionary work.  Sometimes, if not most of the time, things just don't go the way you planned.

Brendan included a little "Aha" moment in one of his most recent letters home.  This is what he said:

"It's incredible what changes you can make when you spend all day every day trying to be Christ-like. Linda K. Burton had a quote last conference that has changed my life forever. It says "When was the last time you chose to be happy rather than being 'right'." I have taken that to heart and it has made all the difference for me. Me and Elder Joncas were not similar AT ALL. We honestly had no compatibility, yet we became the greatest of friends. Why? Because we were both striving to be like Christ. It's that simple. I love it.  Just thought I would let my family and friends know that. I know you can't imagine a Brendan without imagining him always trying to be right, but I'm pleased to say that I'm changing. And I blame the Atonement. once again. I'm not perfect. I still have sassy remarks come to my head that I have to bite my tongue to keep from escaping, but I'm getting better.  I'm a recovering know-it-all and you can too."

In the "hood" and loving it

Not too long ago, actually about six weeks or so, Brendan made the big move across three provinces and two countries from International Falls Minnesota to Kindersley Saskatchewan.  Now just six weeks later, Brendan is on the move again and this time it's not just from one town to another.  He emailed us a couple of weeks ago and told us that he was being transferred from Kindersley to Regina.  Not only that, he was also being made a new Zone Leader in that area.  That is a big responsibility for a missionary who has barely been out six months.  But before I get into more about his new area and new calling, there is a matter of just how he spent his first birthday on his mission.

So this is a great story and fortunately there is some great video to go along with it.  Brendan and his companion were invited to dinner by a Filipino family who are members of the Ward in Kindersley.  Brendan said that the Filipinos make the best food.  So for the most part, his birthday dinner was wonderful.  But there was the matter of the initiation into Filipino culture that Brendan had to go through.  If you have never heard of balut, it is actually a fertilized duck embryo that is boiled and then eaten in the shell.  This was Brendan's special birthday surprise.  Rather than trying to describe the experience, you can see it first hand in this video.

That wasn't the only interesting thing that happened to Brendan around his birthday time.  He also shared with us another story about how the "church" is trying to kill him.  In this case he isn't talking about the members of the church or the doctrine, but instead he is talking about the church building itself.  This is the point where I will let Brendan tell the story:

"The first thing that made this week interesting was the fact that the church is trying to kill me. I don't mean the body of the church or the leaders. I mean the physical tangible phase 2 church building of Kindersley, SK. I was doing some family history work on the computer when I realized that it was time to go. So I stood up promptly from my hardly cushioned typical church chair. And BAM. Imagines of all the wooden corners that have given me pain and stitches through out my life rushed into my head. From the downstairs TV cabinet thing that lacerated my inner ear at a tender age to me tripping and hitting the window seal so gracefully in the upstairs studio. But WHAM none the less, I rammed my head into yet another wooden corner. The bane of my existence struck again. I immediately made a loud grunting noise which wasn't a cuss word. So I'm making good progress. haha. I felt my head and I was gushing blood. So I ran to the bathroom and some how kept my white shirt untouched of red stuff. Quite impressive. But now I have had a week long headache and an indent in my scalp. But hey, hospitals are for wussy's. And I'm not a Canadian citizen so it would have cost an arm and a leg. But all is well that ends well. (seriously there was a lot of blood)."

We didn't get a family letter from Brendan for a couple of weeks after he was transferred to Regina.  But when we did, the subject line read "Ganglords got cha back mmmmhhh".  Apparently,  Brendan is now serving in the inner city area of Regina.  Needless to say, it is the rougher part of down.  Here is another story that Brendan shared with us about his new area:

"We spend quite a lot of time in an area of town called North Central. It is the hood. I love saying that. "Hood" Something I never got to say much in the 801. "hood" But crazy things have happened this week that I really don't feel comfortable telling you guys about. Just know that the hood is a scary place and that really bad things happen to some people that we teach and it really is hard to deal with sometimes. But we were walking down the street the other day and this guy called us over. Medium build covered in tatts. A couple teardrop tatts (mom translation: that means he has killed people) and we talk to him for a while and apparently he is a ganglord here in North Central. He tells us that he has our back and that we don't ever need to be scared in the hood. We have protection. If anything goes down, call him. Its great. I love it!"

That is just the kinds of story that every missionary parent just loves to hear about (re-read that last sentence with a sarcastic tone).  Anyway, we are just grateful that Brendan is being watched over by our Heavenly Father as well.  With that kind of assurance, everything should be great.

Brendan is loving his new area and his new companion.  He said that his companion is one of the hardest working missionaries in the mission.  From the time that Brendan arrived in Regina, it has been non-stop missionary work.  In fact, last week we didn't get an email from him until about 8:30 at night because he and his companion had a full day of service to attend to.  Along with that, Brendan said that they have met a lot of people while out tracting and many of them have been very receptive to the gospel message that the missionaries have to share.  Brendan has told us over and over again just how much he is loving his new area.  They are teaching several new investigators and are hoping to challenge a few for baptism soon.

So here is another great story that Brendan told us about.  While Brendan and his companion were out tracting, they came across a very unique house.  They stopped and knocked on the door and the owner of the house came out to talk with them.  As happens quite often, after talking for a few minutes the owner asked if they could come back some other time.  About that time Brendan smelled something incredible coming from inside the house, so he asked what it was.  The home owner said that he was making soup and asked if they would like some.  You know missionaries, when it comes to food, you don't have to ask them twice.  So they went in, sat down and the home owner gave them each a bowl of soup.  Brendan said that it tasted a little spicy and was really good, so he asked what kind of soup it was.  About that time the man took the lid off of the soup pot and showed them what was cooking inside.  There it was, authentic sheep's head soup made with a full sheep's head boiling in broth and spices inside the pot.  He said that it was kind of creepy but since the soup was so good, he actually wanted some more.

So here is one last story that is soooo Brendan.  He sent us an email with the subject line that said, "Sometimes you cut your own hair. Sometimes you end up with bald spots":

"I did indeed give my self a haircut for the second time since I have been out. The last time I did a really good job. This time it started out well, but... I had finished up and taken a shower to rid my self of sick hair. Then I noticed some hairs in my ridiculous cowlick were a little too long. So I pulled out the clippers and took off the guard cause I was just going to clip the tops off. But as you know, looking in a mirror everything is opposite. Sometimes you forget this when you cut your own hair. This was one of those times. And long story buzzed short (hah hah) I now have a glorious bald spot on the side of my head that is the size of a fifty cent piece. But it is a great lesson in humility and forgetting about what people think. So honestly, in a strange way you can check that one off as a blessing!"

Balut before peeling the shell off

There's a tasty morsel right there.

    

The big move... road trip

This last month has been a month of change for Brendan.  Just a few weeks ago Brendan got the transfer call and was asked to transfer from International Falls Minnesota to Kindersley, Saskatchewan, Canada.  If you look that up on a map or even plot it on Google Maps (map), you will see that it is almost a 14 hour drive and that is if you are going straight there.  Of course the missionaries never go straight there because they have to figure out the logistics so that they always have a companion from one end of the trip to the other.  So for Brendan it was more like an 18 hour trip on the road and staying overnight with some of the other Elders along the way.  As far as the mission boundaries go, Brendan almost went about as far from one end of the mission to the other as he could within the Winnipeg mission.  He covered 3 Canadian provinces and two countries to get there.  Then if you count the fact that part of his area includes a bit of Alberta, you can add yet another province to that list.  He also went from the small town of International Falls to an even smaller town at Kindersley.  There is also one other interesting fact about being in Kindersley.  Brendan is now literally within about an hour's drive from his older sister's mission.

The next bit of change for Brendan, if traveling across half of the country of Canada isn't enough, with the month of July also comes mission president changes.  So Brendan now has a new mission president also.  His new mission president didn't have to come from very far though.  Since they are from Calgary Canada which is one of the neighboring missions of Winnipeg, their move was probably easier than most.  Brendan told us that he finally got to meet his new mission president when they had a zone conference in Saskatoon.  Brendan said that he is very impressed by his new mission president and he has already inspired Brendan to do more scripture memorization.  Here is what Brendan wrote home:

"This week we also welcomed in our new mission president. He and his wife are from Calgary and they are really quite neat. It was quite a neat experience to meet them. They came to Saskatoon and everyone in the Saskatoon zone came and met them. Then they spoke to us for a couple hours and man that guy knows his scriptures. Got me in the mood to continue memorizing. So this week that has been a big focus of mine. Whenever I have a bad thought or really any temptation of any kind, I start reciting scriptures in my head. I already have 5 down in the last two days, so things are going well hey? I'll have to keep it up and me and Chris can battle it off for the family scriptorian award."

So here is the interesting thought I had when Brendan told us that.  He said that he was inspired to do more memorizing and that if ever a bad thought or temptation occurred that he would recite scriptures in his head.  That sounds like a great idea.  Then he said that he had already memorized 5 in the last two days.  So my question is, where are all these temptations coming from that are causing him to memorize scriptures so quickly?  Never mind, Brendan has always been the fact and trivia member of the family.  Memorizing anything whether it is scripture or historical facts, has always been easy for him.

Brendan's new companion in Kindersley was actually one of his companions from the MTC.  So Brendan was pretty excited about the change.  But the downside is that Kindersley is a really small town which means that the teaching pool is pretty small as well.  In fact Brendan told us that they really didn't have anybody that they are currently teaching and are basically starting from scratch.  When he wrote home a couple of weeks ago he said that it had been one of his hardest weeks on his mission.  Mostly due to the fact that they are having to spend all of there time trying to find people to teach and none of their time actually teaching.  In the last week or so they have been able to meet some new people that have been interested in knowing more about the Gospel, but it hasn't been easy.

We received a text from one of the members in Kindersley thanking us for sending our boy to them as a missionary.  They also sent us a couple of pictures of the hard work that they have been doing.  But from the looks of those ribs that Brendan is enjoying, I'm thinking that Brendan got the better end of that deal. :)