Hello Again! What a week it's been in Nanaimo! With transfer calls
tonight, it will be interesting to see if I stay or go. Sadly, it's
unlikely that Elder Glover and Duersch will be staying. Both of them go
home in 6 weeks. Elder Lawter is now on an extension and will be moving on
in 3 weeks.
It appears that the devil is trying to do everything he can
to keep our 4 baptismal dates from happening. Elmer ended up moving on Sunday
(we still knows where he is and he said that he felt bad and really wanted to
go the week after) Tanya got sick, and as it turns out Shawn and Violet are
common law and don't plan on getting married for quite a while. :( We will
still keep on praying for them and I have faith that God will prepare a way.
Tuesday was a bit of a rough ride. Elder Buchanan and I who
both can't drive due to lack of experience asked Brother Back to give
us a ride to see an investigator named Marie who is originally from Haiti
and is a devoted Catholic. When we discovered that the other Nanaimo Elders
could give us a ride we decided that it would be easier for Brother Back
to just drive straight to the lesson. They had something that came up and then
we had to call Brother Back again to ask if he could give us a ride when
he had already was almost there! After we finally got to the appointment we
were able to have a great lesson with Marie about the Restoration and
things somehow miraculously worked out! After the appointment, Brother
Back and our companionship went back to his house for a while and ordered pizza
from a place called "Little George's" which some claim has
the best pizza in Nanaimo. Those people didn't lie!
On the more positive side of things, we did find 6 new this
week! Elder Glover and I went on an exchange together on Wednesday. As we
drove down to the reserve by Ladysmith to visit Jackie and Jerome,
we received a call from them that Jackie was sick so we decided
to turn around and tract in Ladysmith for a little while before driving
back to Nanaimo. Later that evening we found 3 investigators in a
large complex not too far from our apartment. We taught another investigator we
found last week named Kevin who said that he had a dream about the two of us
and him "crossing paths." Kevin is incredibly solid and
it almost seemed as if he was meant to join the church! The only reason why we
couldn't set a baptismal date with him was because of the fact that
he has some word of wisdom issues. He told us that he feels like as
he learns more about the message of the gospel, he will strive to overcome his
addictions. When we told him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy
he stated "I feel like this book was made for our day." This
was very surprising to us because we had forgotten to mention that
part all together! It's almost like he can see into the future or something! We
will meet with Kevin again tonight.
The miracles didn't stop there! Last night Elder Lawter
and I went street contacting downtown. We needed to find just a couple more
people to teach about the gospel before the week was over in order to reach the
standards of excellence. The first person we found was a man named Matt who was
originally from Edmonton of all places and is currently living outside of
Nanaimo. He said he is looking for some guidance in life and we gave him a Book
of Mormon. We agreed to meet him at the church this coming Wednesday. The
second person we found was a little more interesting. As we walked away
from Matt, we noticed a couple of young adults goofing off and making loud
noises just across the street from us. My first thought was "Oh
please no, anybody but those two!" And sure enough, Elder
Lawter began crossing the street towards them... When we told the two of them
who we were, the young woman said to us "Hey that's really
cool, I'm actually looking for a church to join." My
eyes must have gone to the size of softballs. This had to be a joke, but it
wasn't. The Lord sure knocked some sense into me that night! Her
friend walked away but the young woman stayed. Her name is Jessica
and she was originally baptised a Catholic. She asked all kinds of stuff about
what makes us "different" from the other churches. We told her and
she loved all the stuff she was hearing, especially the bit about life after
death. We agreed to meet with her on Saturday.
Well that sums up the week! It will be a sad day when I
have to leave Nanaimo. I never thought I would say it, but
teaching is actually my favorite part of the mission! I've met a lot of
great people here and I'm looking forward to meeting many more as time goes on.
I love you all and miss you!
Sincerely,
Elder Maclean Samis
Elder Maclean Samis
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