July 20, 2015 - Area 4: Surrey East

Three Quarters There...

Another week has passed away and another mile stone has been reached. In 6 months from today my mission will be over... Its a scary thought. Its one of those thoughts that makes you look at yourself in the mirror and realize that you have very little time left to improve. By August 6th, the sisters I came out with from the MTC will be home. Elder Lawlor will be gone with them. In a missionary sense, you can consider me "old." 

In short, the week has been pretty good. We taught Ian twice this week. Both the Restoration and Plan of Salvation. He wants it to be true, he just needs to get a spiritual witness that it is true. He's been reading the Book of Mormon daily and has a baptismal date for August 9th. He came to church on Sunday too. Levi and Sonya got back from vacation on Saturday so we'll be able to teach them again soon. We haven't been able to meet with Dawn yet.

Early in the week we found a young man named Ryan who is interested in the church. Before we saw him the next time, his family found out he was being taught by us and they are interested as well! They had to move the appointment they set with us Friday evening to this week but we have great hope that we'll be able to see them this week.

The biggest wow moment of the week was on Saturday. We were at a members house for dinner. Dawn Sutton is his name. As we were eating, I noticed an old black and white photo I knew I had seen before. It was of my Great Grandpa Prete with his family (who was my dad's mom's dad.) I told him about my relation to the Pretes. Turns out his mother was a Prete and she happens to be Great Grandpa Prete's sister! That's not even the crazy part. He told me that President Burt's mother was a Prete too, another sibling of Great Grandpa Prete! That basically means that President Burt is a first cousin of my Grandma Samis! Don't ask me what that makes me to him but its a small, small world when it comes to them Mormon families. I hope everyone keeps enjoying the summer. It won't last long! The days are getting noticeably shorter and we're already two-thirds done July. Love you!

Elder Maclean Samis

July 13, 2015 - Area 4: Surrey East

Attitude Adjustment

Another week has passed and things have been pretty good down here. The weather has cooled off considerably and we had a bit of much needed rain the last couple days. Its been unusually dry for BC this year with all the dead patches of grass everywhere. The cooler weather has made things feel a lot easier to bear it seems. 

Wednesday we decided to try and meet with Jonathan again. We taught him the Restoration this time. He accepts everything, its just a matter of whether or not he wants to act on what we're teaching him. He certainly needs some prayers. He missed church again this week.

On Friday we had a big combined conference with the Chinese zone. I learned a lot of things that day including how to improve something I haven't been doing well lately: HAVING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE. The key has been told to me a few times but the idea somehow stood out to me more then before. You just need to forget yourself and go to work, as President Hinkley's Father told him when he was serving in England after he told him in a letter home that he wasn't well and believed he was wasting his time and his Father's money. I've found that with a positive attitude I have become a better teacher and more people listen to what I say.  

The teaching pool is still small. Levi and Sonya have been away again, this time in Yellowstone National Park. Saturday we did see some fruitful results from finding. We found an Indian guy named Paul. He drives trucks for a living and he seems to be really friendly. He was set to come to church but he got tied up with getting suddenly called into work that day and felt bad about it. Yet another ball thrown by Satan. On the same street we met a lady named Dawn who we're planning to see tomorrow. She has a husband and a couple kids. During our weekly planning we came to the conclusion that we needed to pray to find a family to baptize so perhaps this is a terrific opportunity to do so!

Sunday we had a guy named Ian who met the Sisters a couple weeks ago and came to church for the first time. He had never gone to church in his life before and seemed uncomfortable at first but things got better for him as the meetings moved along. That's really all there is to report for this week. Sounds like quite the scorcher going on in Edmonton. Stay cool!

Elder Maclean Samis 

July 6, 2015 - Area 4: Surrey East

Pain Day

Another challenging week has struck the Surrey 1st Elders. Last Monday morning Elder Lawlor woke up really sick to his stomach and was having to use the washroom every 15 minutes. I felt fine in the morning but shortly after I finished emailing, I started feeling sick too. First came the fever, then the achy stomach, then the bad diarrhea. Elder Tolman was taken away to work with the West Elders to prevent him from falling victim too. We became so sick that we ended up having to stay in the rest of the day to get some sleep and drink plenty of water. At about 8:00 pm I ended up feeling so disgusting that I thought I was going to pass out but luckily I vomited before I did.

Tuesday was a little better for me, but Elder Lawlor was feeling about the same and sometimes even worse throughout the day. We were able to do a little work for about an hour and a half during our studies, but we realized our mistake. Feeling more exhausted then ever, we called President Burt and stayed in until the last hour of the day. 

On Canada Day I felt better but poor Elder Lawlor was still a mess. Despite eating next to nothing for almost 3 days, he still kept on having to use the washroom over and over and had to call the mission nurse to figure out what to do. When he described the severity of the pain in a certain area in his stomach, she suggested that he go to the hospital just in case he had appendicitis! We had to wait for about an hour and a half in emergency only to luckily find out that it was apparently just a bad stomach virus that was going around. Despite all the terrible things he's had to endure, Elder Lawlor still kept a remarkably positive attitude. He's a real trooper and has been a great companion!     

Then came Thursday. Elder Lawlor was finally better, though he still had to get some rest before we left the apartment. Elder Tolman came back that evening and managed to not get sick fortunately. What of Friday? That was my birthday! It wasn't overly eventful. I ate McDonalds with my companions and then went to DQ during the evening for an oreo birthday cake blizzard which proved to be very good. I turned 21 and I will be the same age when I return home this January. Time grows short.

Well due to our illness, we didn't teach many lessons. Just the usual finding. Ever since I've arrived in Surrey, there's been a strange way god has chosen to teach us. Whenever we overcome an obstacle it seems like BAM! something else bad happens and we get knocked back on our butts. I have no idea why the success has been so scarce in this area but we just somehow need to man up and figure things out. Hope July has been treating the rest of you good. Have a great week!

Elder Maclean Samis