Monday, February 6, 2012

February already!


 
    Elders Galbraith & Leavitt with Sis. Harder

 
    Battleford sunrise

All those trips to Idaho and southern Alberta prepared me for traveling across the province. Ok, in all reality these were short trips, but still, you get the point. I have been around lately! This past week we made trips to Saskatoon, Prince Albert, back to Saskatoon, the Battlefords and back to Regina. It is good to be out on the road, and though scenic, I prefer Ontario's landscape a little more, but still enjoy Saskatchewan a lot. Elder Dunn and I were privileged to travel to Saskatoon and go on exchanges in my old area (Kingsmere) and to attend 2 district meetings on Wednesday in and to get to know the northern part of the zone more. I also got to meet Sis. Harder again! Oh, she loves me. She has a few pictures on the wall of me she keeps up at all times. The bishop calls her "a rock", which is amazing to hear. Goes to prove that the Book of Mormon DOES teach of Christ and it complements--not competes---with the Bible. Sis. Harder was SO resistant to accepting the Book of Mormon and I will never forget that experience when the Spirit hit her, similar to Irene's experience when (in her words) "God smacked me upside the head". Oh, it was neat being in my old area for an exchange. Moving on--Wednesday morning we attended district meetings and then headed up to Prince Albert and had a positive exchange there and got to know the district leader up there. That area is on fire! 7 baptismal dates! Back to Saskatoon--dropped off Elder Dunn to head up to the Battlefords with a Brit, Elder Mansfield, so he could exchange with his district up there. An elder up there said something interesting to the effect that he has not had much success on his mission directly through finding, but has noticed when he is more diligent about finding that referrals come to him and other things happen. That elder feels that new investigators are a function of obedience. Interesting. After that, back to Saskatoon to pick up Elder Dunn and drop off Elder Mansfield (who I am fond of) and back to Regina in time for appointments Friday. Phew...tired yet?

To let you know a little more about our zone, I will include a bit of my letter to President. Usually I hand-write letters, but figured I would fire him an email for a change. I put this in my letter to President:

The work is Saskatchewan is progressing. As a whole, the entire zone is on the upswing, yet in each area there is realistic room for improvement, which excites us for this upcoming week. Everything in the zone was better, minus investigators at Sacrament Meeting, but even there I see positives. The past few weeks the zone has heavily relied on Elder Zohner's district for investigators to come to church, but this past week each district played a role. Also, each district sees room for improvement. Those are most noteworthy. Talking to the assistants, we feel that compliments and encouragement will best help the missionaries and the work succeed. As for the Regina YSA, we are especially excited about Sarah, an investigator we are working with, who is being well-fellowshipped by the ward here. Her grandparents are members and that sparked an interest to meet with us. Initially she did not know if God was there for her, but now she recognizes her life has improved in many ways since she began to read from the Book of Mormon and attributes that to God. I have had so many experiences lately with investigators receiving answers through the Book of Mormon. Funny how that works? As for myself, I feel I have mostly adjusted to the new tasks of a zone leader. I was exhausted the first few weeks. Sometimes I struggle to know how to best help the district leaders, but after talking to the Assistants I want to focus on helping everyone's testimonies. From there we can build stronger, more determined, missionaries.

Grandma Jeannette was right when she felt I was pretty nervous and hesitant a few weeks ago about being a Zone Leader. Not to say I am settled, but I feel I am beginning to get the hang of things. Sometimes I do not know the best way to help someone but I try.

To answer a few questions:
Yes I have a new logo for my new area, but I have not done a "pretty" one yet to take a picture of. Remind me next week and I will try to send one. Looks good, and a little different. As far as the documentary goes...looks like they got the green light from Salt Lake! Ha. But seriously, they had to talk to President Paulson and to an area authority, and with a few adjustments to fit Church policy, looks like this thing is going to work out. Nice! We have had 2 or 3 audio interviews at the church building, and my guess is they will follow us around in the next few weeks. They plan to spend about 4-5 hours per week with us, and they cannot record any conversation we have with investigators or contacts, but they can take pictures and just follow us around to be in our shoes. Fun, eh? Elder Dunn and I are both excited, but nervous at the same time. Yikes!

When baseball swings around, let me know about any news.

As far as "worldy things" goes, I heard about the new Camaro ZL1........are you serious? A member occassionally tells me car news, but I saw the headline for the Camaro when I was at McDonalds. 0-60 in 3.9?! That's as fast as a lambo. Sheesh. Things are a-changing. Elder Dunn thinks I should do something in the automotive world dealing with business. Who knows? I am gleaning ideas.

This upcoming week we get transfer calls. I expect to stay in Regina for a while, but you never know. Then again, you may know sooner than I.

Love you all,

Elder Galbraith

For P-day we went to the RCMP museum and took some pictures. I look pretty good in uniform, eh? Enjoy!



                              Still some TJ in there!

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