Transfer time

Good-bye Goliath

Ah! Transfers strike again and claim another victim--Elder Morris. Our 4 month stint has come to a close. 3 transfers is a long time to be together with one companion, and I am glad that I have spent the past 3 with Elder Morris. What a missionary. I think he was born to be a missionary. He has helped me focus on the work and over the past 4 months I feel that I am now more of the missionary that the Lord needs me to be: I am more bold, more diligent and have better studies than before. So thank you to Elder Morris. I am staying in I-Falls/Fort Frances and getting Elder Bodily from Preston, Idaho (Napoleon Dynamite's town--yes it’s a real place). I am really excited to serve with him for a number of reasons. He has only been out in the mission field for 1 transfer (6 weeks), so I have the opportunity to try to be a good missionary example to him, hopefully setting the tone for the rest of his mission. Remember last week and my schpeel on the power of examples? To answer your question, yes, I will be the senior companion, which means that I get to drive, oh ya! I have driven occasionally on long trips (the entire 13 hours from Saskatoon to I-Falls!) but now I am the primary driver. I am passionate that just because someone is a senior companion, district leader, zone leader or assistant, does not mean they are a "good", or a "better" missionary than someone else. So me being the senior does not mean I have passed some kind of bar test, but that...I am the senior companion, and that in my head I have the responsibility of setting a good example. But I am excited for this next transfer, even with losing Elder Morris. Back to Elder Bodily--he was trained by my best friend in the mission, Elder Dunn, who was in my group in the MTC, so that just adds to the excitement. The only thing I have heard about Elder Bodily is that he knows how to work--good. Having a companion that does not want to work would make me insane, as if I am not already, right?

So, that is transfers.

Happy belated birthday to Tayson! 12...sheesh. I am getting to the point when I can say "I remember when so-and-so was born..." and it makes me feel really old. But seriously--I remember when Tayson was born. Tayson, now that you are officially a teenager, just hold to the rod and never let go, that is especially important in your teenage years.

Bears. So many bear stories this week! So I went on my first-ever missionary "splits" with a member and while Elder Morris was with Bro. Oster they saw a bear! After their lesson they saw a bear outside the person's sliding-glass window and Elder Morris put his face up to the window and the bear came to the window and put his face on it--so his face was inches from a bear! AND...the past 3 nights when we have come in the Cutlers have told us that we have missed a bear by only a minute or 2. I took pictures of a couple of tracks that were just outside our apartment, but I have not yet seen the bear! Argh! It was really creepy coming in last night because it was dark, and we came around the corner to the apartment and we saw a lawn chair out in the middle of the field and the forest was completely dark. It looked like something from a horror film, because the bear could have come at me from any angle. But it was all exciting too. I want to see a bear! Don't worry Mom, black bears are generally afraid of people, same with the timber wolves, and the moose, and all the other wild North creatures...

Speaking of bears, for Elder Morris' last P-Day we are going out to a bear reserve just north of Emo, Ontario. I will try to take plenty of pictures. If I can't see a bear there, then I really am in trouble.

So I have a good story for the week. On Tuesday we had an appointment set up to meet with a potential investigator, and were not sure whether the appointment would happen or not. Against all odds...it did happen...or this would be no story, right? This lady, Pam Beamcheu, answered the door and pointed to the chairs already set up and said "I have been waiting for this all day!" I don't usually get that. She went on to explain that between the time we first met her and our appointment that she had many prayers answered and good things happen and because of those occurrences she wanted to hear what we had to say. I was pretty dumbfounded. Sheesh, tracting does work! It is easy to get down when I have weeks on end of 20+ hours tracting each week and hardly any results. But the Lord does come through! Pam was prepared, and she has a baptismal date for May 21st! She is about 60, and is getting a kidney donation from a relative--one of the answers to her prayers that had her want to hear what we share. She said that so many good things happened to her since we first met that she knew what we shared was special. It is simple, really: God has called a prophet today like he has in times past. The same organization that Christ set up when he was on the Earth has been restored. The Great Apostasy, or falling away (2 Thes. 2:2-4) was predicted. We have a modern prophet today and as evidence of all that we share the Book of Mormon, which no-one can refute after diligent study! Oh, if only the world would slow-down the pace of their lives and humble themselves to just listen! Pam did, and it has strengthened my resolve to do the Lord's work His way.

Elder Morris did the math and for the past 4 months we have had something like:
183 appointments happen
197 fall through (lunch us)
That is a lot of appointments!

I guess the funniest story of the past week was Friday when a guy worked himself into a rage on a doorstep and threatened to punch us in the neck. Ya, we got off that doorstep in a hurry because he really meant it. He made a fool of himself, because we really didn't say anything other than "Hi, I am Elder Morris and we share how God has called a prophet today and---" then he went off about something. It is funny looking back at it. Just shows that people really do not understand our message.

Thanks for the package Mom and Dad! I laughed at the irony of getting an Easter bunny. I think I might actually eat this one...ha. Thank you very much for the package, I got it on Saturday, just in time.

Love you all,

Elder Galbraith, over and out