RICHES OF THE ISLAND
Hey everybody! It's been a quiet week in terms of finding.
Last week we found 3 investigators and we still haven't had any of our
appointments go through yet. On Tuesday during another exchange with Elder
Rolfson, we tracted on one of the richest areas of Nanaimo, TRINITY DRIVE. Not
knowing how nice the homes were there, it was quite a shock and I felt
slightly intimidated by being there. Even so, both of us got the strong
impression that we had to stay there. Almost all the people on
Trinity were either atheist or born again with zero interest... except for the
very last house on that street where we met Seema. She had company over when we
knocked on her door but set a return appointment anyway. The lesson? Never
ignore the promptings of the spirit!
Ladysmith has been disappointing thus far. We spent a lot of
time there on Thursday and Friday without any finding success. Our appointment
on the reserve fell through and due to the distance of it from the town, Elder
Groeneveld and I have decided that it's best to stay in the town for now.
On Friday the two of us were attempting to find a member family's
address on the south side. It was there where we came across a group of huge
homes nestled in the hills by the ocean. There was another area close by on the
very edge of town where a cluster of brand new several story palaces sat high
above the highway almost hidden by the thick trees that surrounded them. The
cost of these homes must have been off the charts because there was a giant
'private property, no trespassing' sign in front of the turn-in. Elder
Groeneveld turned to me and said "It makes me sick thinking how rich
some people are!" I turned to him and said; "Just
remember Elder, homes like these are nothing compared to what your home on high
will be like." 
Later that night Elder Groeneveld had to go to a baptismal
interview while I exchanged with a greenie named Elder Sorenson. Because the
both of us are naturally shy and quiet, tracting door to door for those few
hours were pretty adventurous. We didn't find anybody until one of the last
houses we knocked on where a man named Steve talked to us. He said he had gone
to a lot of churches and he didn't understand the Bible that well. Amazingly,
the two of us were able to answer every question we were asked! He agreed to
have us over this Tuesday and I'm excited to teach him more. During the last
half hour, the two of us were walking along Nicol Street and towards downtown
Nanaimo. It was around 8:30 at night and for whatever reason, it was dead
silent when we got there. When we saw that nobody was there we turned around
and started heading back to the apartment. As we headed back we both got a really heavy
feeling that was warning us to get back to the apartment parking lot as soon as
possible. We were not sure why we got the warning from the spirit but we knew
that it was best to follow it. We felt much safer when we got there.
The Zone Leaders in Nanaimo got two baptisms this week! :) Sue and Bob have been meeting with Elder Duersch and Glover for quite sometime and we got to attend their baptisms on Saturday at 4:00pm. The Larsen family and Brother B are both doing great! Marly and her two kids Lilly and Malachi have come to church and have loved it! Lilly turns 8 on May 4th so it's quite possible that she will be baptized! As for Brother B he's come to church for the third straight Sunday! What a blessing it is to be able to help re-activate!
Shortly after the baptism we exchanged again. I went on an exchange with one of my zone leaders, Elder Duersch. He's an amazing missionary and the two of us found great success together when we taught A new investigator living on the north side of Nanaimo named Chris. We taught him about prayer and the spirit was clearly there. Even though I still don't talk that much I feel like I have the desire to talk to people as the spirit guides. After teaching Chris we stopped by a less active named Matt who has been reading the scriptures frequently and asked us a lot of questions about them he was uncertain of. Amazingly, Elder Duersch and myself were able to answer the questions to some pretty deep questions about the Book of Mormon. Matt has come to church the last couple Sundays so we're really happy for him!
So even though we haven't been finding, we have been doing some quality work with our less actives. No matter how tough things get I'm still a firm believer that everything will work out ok as long as we have faith and we work hard. Transfers are coming up this Wednesday and we'll be off to Richmond again. My first transfer has flown by so quickly. Where does your time go on your mission? As always, I love you all and miss you greatly!
Elder Maclean Samis
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