January 26, 2014 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

The 2nd Year Begins...

January 21, 2014 is a day I will never forget for the rest of my life. The day I left for the MTC. Much has changed in that time and here I am, just past my year mark in a seemingly rough time for my companion and I. Poor Elder Johnson had to see the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis on Wednesday and has been sick for a while. He just finished his anti-biotics and he's been doing a lot better. 

Our teaching pool continues to sit empty with Garry in a reflection process. In my previous letter I forgot to mention him. His girlfriend had a heart attack at the beginning of last week and has returned from the hospital since then but has still been not feeling well. Garry has been under a lot of stress as a result and he ended up missing church this week and the last. 

Thus, we did a lot of finding this week. On Tuesday while I was on an exchange out in Mission, Elder Johnson and Elder Mahabeer found a lady named Teressa who seems keen to learn. We'll be seeing her on Tuesday. The exchange for Elder Orr and I was a good one. I met one of their investigators with a baptismal date. His name is Shane and it appears that once he's quit smoking, he'll get baptized for sure! We also moved a family out with the Mission East Elders which was good fun.

We haven't been able to talk to Sara since our last visit. She doesn't have a phone and we're not allowed to meet in the place she's staying in at the moment. Chris has been busy and told us over the phone that he doesn't want to pull her away from the things she's been having to deal with so we have no choice but to just pray that there'll be a way to get to her somehow... Wednesday the 22nd was the official day of our year mark so we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate, other then that it was a fairly normal day.

Thursday we had a special zone training in the church's high council room where we heard from Sister Burt and the assistants while President Burt interviewed each of us. After Sister Burt did a role play with one of the Chilliwack sisters, she turned to me and ask the question "Elder Samis, at the start of your mission, how did you feel knowing that you had to talk to complete strangers all the time?"  I replied, "I thought, how on earth am I going to do this?" It made me further reflect on how far I've been able to come. Only through God has such a thing been possible. Sister Burt went on to explain that just because you're a missionary doesn't mean that you don't have to be yourself. We were encouraged to show enthusiasm and energy when we talk to someone.  

Sunday night we went to dinner at the Hara's place. Then we saw Brother Gauthier and a less active friend of his named Gerald who has been living in his place for a couple months. He told us that he's ready to come back to church and to come out teaching with us! He's originally from Ontario and he said that he would go teaching with the elders there all the time. 

So far 2015 hasn't been very kind to us. I don't know why things have happened the way they have been lately but I know that there's someone else who does. They say that January is a difficult time of the year for a lot of people. That may be true but things are the way they are. Hang on everybody, the month is almost gone! 

Elder Maclean Samis          

January 19, 2015 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

SLOWLY BUT SURELY

This week we went finding... a lot. Elder Johnson and I have been doing what we can to find those who are ready to hear about the gospel. We've found several potentials, but there isn't any telling where they'll end up save it be one.

The most solid of these was a Native woman named Sara who was actually referred to us by Chris, a long time investigator. Elder Lamb and I had met her briefly the last time we went to Chris' place. She popped out of another room and introduced herself but disappeared as quickly as she came. We saw Chris on Friday and he asked us permission to have Sara join in the lesson. The answer was yes of course!

Sara is quite a remarkable woman. She was born in Fort McMurray but moved to BC when she was two. She's a childhood friend of Chris' and has worked her way out of a rough lifestyle. She seems to shine with this positive vibe that makes it easy to like her. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she loved the thing! As we were talking with Chris, I noticed her reading the introduction and the testimony of the 3 and 8 witnesses. Chris hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon and hasn't come to church in a very long time. When we chastised him, Sara took our side and told him "we should totally study this together! It would be fun!"  Music to a missionaries ears indeed! 

Aside from meeting with Sara, there's not much else to talk about. We tried to re contact a lot of potentials and formers with a few members but things haven't clicked with them. Nolan has fallen off the earth it seems.

Our new zone leader is Elder Mahabeer who is from Jamaica. I haven't been around him very much but he seems cool. He's only been out 6 months! Hope everyone is having a good January and that its not too cold. Ta for now!

Elder Maclean Samis  

January 13, 2015 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

1 YEAR, 2 AREAS 

I apologize about the fact that I'm emailing a day late. We had a temple trip today, so our p-day got moved to today after the trip was over. Lo and behold, I am still in Clearbrook. Elder Lamb meanwhile has been moved to White Rock to become a zone leader. My new companion is Elder Johnson who came out at the same time as me. We didn't know each other very well though since we weren't in the same MTC district.

Elder Johnson is from Ephriam, Utah and has been great working with so far. It's a good thing too because it's been a rough transfer week. On Monday night we got the call from the assistants and Tuesday, Elder Lamb said his last goodbyes to our investigators and beloved ward members. Wednesday morning, Elder Lamb and I had to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:00 am so that we could go to Mission. Elder Lamb went to White Rock with Elder Pettilot and Elder Butler while I went with Elder Engalsted and Elder Orr to Vancouver to grab Elder Johnson and take him to Clearbrook. The rest of the day we did a lot of finding and a visited a couple of members.

We taught very few lessons this week and went out finding with not too much to write about. We found a couple of people who we thought had potential but both of them blew off their return appointments the following day. We did teach Nolan at Brother Taylor's house and discussed baptism with him on Thursday. He seems a little worried about changing too many things about his life style when he does. We're still teaching him.

We saw Garry a couple times, once on Wednesday and once yesterday. We've brought Brother Newman with us both times and he's been a great true friend for him. We taught the Law of Chastity in our most recent visit and its now up to him to get married to his common-law wife at some point. It won't be an easy choice for him to make if he commits, so please everybody pray hard for him!

I can't really give a lot of details about much else. I've realized that I don't know my area as well as I should and it's been easy to get lost. I think it's easier to navigate your area if you're the one driving most of the time. Between our trip to the temple, and to Vancouver, and getting lost our KM allotment has been destroyed and it's not even half way through the month. Have a great week everybody!

Elder Maclean Samis   

January 5, 2015 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

A NEW AREA IN A NEW YEAR?

Well the snow has finally come and it has come pretty hard. So hard that church got cancelled yesterday after sacrament meeting. It really wasn't that much but it was enough to scare the city. 

Tuesday I went with one of my zone leaders, Elder Engelstad to Mission for the day. We taught several really solid lessons and did a lot of finding. Nolan was taught by Elder Lamb and Elder Orr while I was away. Sadly he wasn't able to make it to church. They also taught a lady named Melody who became a new investigator. Devin meanwhile has stopped investigating altogether... it just seems like he's lost interest for the time being.   

New Years day was fairly ordinary. We had a pizza dinner at Noftle's who's family is always fun to visit. The Cervos came as well and it was a great time!

Throughout the week we've been working with Joel and his teen aged sons to create a video based on the song we sang at the Christmas Party. The boys finished the editing on their own Sunday and it turned out awesome! A good memory to have one of those fun times on my mission. 

As for our teaching, we taught Garry on Friday and had a really good lesson with him on the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said that he really enjoyed his time at church last Sunday but he wants to keep coming before he gets baptized. For whatever reason, he didn't come to church either. 

Transfer calls are tonight and with the way things have been going in our area, it might be time for me to move on. I've loved the members here and if I don't stay, it will be hard to say goodbye. Talk to you all next week to bring you the news and have a happy New Year! :) 

Elder Maclean Samis 

December 29, 2014 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

Green Christmas

Good tidings! This is Elder Samis reporting from Clearbrook. There is much to talk about with Christmas being last week and the new year is well on the way. Not much happened worthy to report leading up to Christmas Eve except that I got my glasses taken care of. We also dropped off a bunch of gifts for the ward's secret Santa project. 

On Christmas Eve we visited Tim and Sylvia. We played with Tim's old electric race car circuit for a while. At the end of our visit, they gave us each a really nice basket filled with a bunch of treats of all sorts. If there's one thing we got a lot of for Christmas this year, it was chocolate! For dinner we went to Sister Lougheed's place for a turkey dinner in Aldergrove. She brought a non-member friend named Bill whose been to church a few times, but says that he doesn't have any interest in learning from us. After that we went to the Hara's place where we hung out with a bunch of ward members and played Scrabble.

As soon as we woke up on the 25th we said our prayers and opened our presents. We studied and went to the Cervo's for a crape breakfast at 10:00am. Then came the moment most missionaries long for, making a Skype call home! :) I used the Cervo's computer to do it. What a cool feeling it was talking to my parents and my siblings face to face for the first time in 11 months! There's not much else quite like it! It didn't make me homesick at all even though it was a little hard to hang up once my time expired. After Elder Lamb finished up his call, we went with Bishop Vidal to contact a referral he gave us. We told him what our purpose was as missionaries. His name is Dan. He has a strong belief in Christ and he's willing to listen and keep an opened mind and learn even though he says that he won't become Mormon. After we made our calls we saw the Noftle family. For a gift they gave the 2 of us matching ties. From there we went to the Olson's for Christmas dinner at 3:00pm. Because Sister Olson is actually Bro. Noftle's sister, there was a big gathering of Noftles from Chilliwack and Abbotsford, all of them members of the church. Next up we went to the Kozak's place. We met Sister Kozak's father and younger sister there and we played the board game "Catan" in which I lost badly. It was my first time playing and there's no such thing as beginners luck when it comes to Elder Samis. To finish off what was a great Christmas Day, we visited Bishop Vidal at his home. He had the day off work so he wanted to come out with us to stop by some less active members the next day.

On boxing day we did just that! We saw several less active families and members. Our bishop is just so awesome! President Burt called us in the afternoon and said that he wanted to come over from Richmond to have an interview with everyone in the district. He took us out to eat at Wendy's first! Speaking to President Burt is a lot like talking to your father. He's very loving and its easy to talk to him.

Saturday was great! We contacted a potential the YSA sisters gave us named Gary. He's native and had somehow lost part of his right arm. We taught him the restoration and he's really intrigued by everything. He's Catholic and doesn't really see too many differences between them and the Mormons' beliefs. He's having some struggles but wants to change. A few hours after the lesson, we got invited to come to a pizza dinner party for the 12-14 year old youth at the Taylor's place and he suggested that we bring Devin and Nolan to it. We stopped by about an hour before the start to invite both of them but Devin wasn't up for it. We answered some questions Nolan had from things he learned at church and had a mini lesson before the party. The party itself was a lot of fun. We played board games and Nolan really seemed to have a good time!

Sadly, Nolan couldn't make it out to church on Sunday but Gary and Raj did. Gary loved church and the lesson that the sister missionaries taught in Sunday school. He said that he for sure wanted to come next week. Well, as I have named these events, I truly have been graetful for them, especially at this time of the year. It was hinted during our interviews with our president that there was a chance that Elder Lamb and I will be leaving the area after this transfer. I have loved being here but I almost feel like perhaps a change would be best... If so I'll sure miss the ward. Without their help, things just wouldn't be the same. Clearbrook has been a tougher proselyting area then Nanaimo, but there is still much to be grateful for. May you all enjoy the rest of the Christmas season and achieve your new years resolutions! Cheers to 2015!

Elder Maclean Samis          

December 22, 2014 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

Winter Solstice Miracles

Today is my 11th month mark. Never would have dreamed that I would be able to make it this far! Well we have some good news in our teaching pool. These miracles happened over the last couple of days. The first half of the week before seemed to be quite slow. Our finding efforts seemed to not be very productive. 

Thursday evening, we helped set up Christmas lights with the sisters and a couple other members of the ward for the ward party. First we had to test a lot of the strings because many of them were the kind that would go out altogether if only one went out. We had to use a ladder to hang them on these small hooks that were nailed to the wall of the gym. It took quite a while. 

Friday was really fun! We went to the Mays out in Aldergrove. Elder Lamb and I didn't have a Christmas tree so Brother May suggested that we could make one in his shed. We took some scraps of wood and stapled them together. The result was perhaps the trashiest artificial tree ever made. It was awesome! The same evening was the Christmas party in which Elder Lamb and I sang a parody of the song "We're Gonna Be Friends" by Jack White about missionary life around Christmas time. We wrote it around a week before we actually performed it. Even though neither of us can sing that well, it was great to just have a little fun. I didn't even feel too nervous about it.

On Saturday morning, we had a brunch appointment after our studies with the Bumby family who fed us enough Bacon, eggs, and hash browns to last us well until late in the afternoon. It had to have been the best breakfast I've had in close to a year. After we were done eating we received a call from one of the assistants who told us that they wanted to split up and have one of them join us while the other would go with our zone leaders. That exchange was EXACTLY what Elder Lamb and I needed to give us some motivation so close to Christmas, a time when everyone is "too busy to meet". 

We went contacting at the high street mall as soon as we began the exchange which was busy with shoppers. Let me tell you, it rained hard. So hard, that there was security workers walking around giving away free umbrellas to everyone who needed one! The assistant that we went with was Elder Gomez who used be a Chinese speaking missionary before he moved to English work in Richmond. When he began speaking Chinese to a group of Asian college students at the mall, one of them blurted out "What the- this white kid can speak Chinese!" Like seemingly all assistants, Elder Gomez can keep talking to people and make it sound like he's talking to his best friend and not some random stranger on the street. It's a skill I covet sometimes...

After racking up a bunch of quality gospel conversations, we dropped by a few potential investigators and 3 of them are willing to start meeting with us again! Elder Gomez had heard all about Devin so he was keen on meeting with him. We went over to his place and taught him with Bishop Vidal that night. We met his step dad and his younger brother, Nolan. We asked Nolan if he wanted to join us. He told us that it was best he didn't but listened from the other room. Eventually, he came out and sat in.

After the lesson, he told us that when the YSA sisters found and taught Devin for the first time, they also taught Nolan. He told us that he lost interest but wanted to start learning over again because he wants to do what he can to change his lifestyle. Both him and Devin wanted to come to church but Devin sent us a text the next morning saying that his mother wanted to take them to visit their cousins and they wouldn't be able to come. (D'oh!) About a half hour later though, Devin sent us another text saying that Nolan wanted to go to church! This really surprised us, but he was able to go and it was a great experience for him. We thought he would feel uncomfortable but he interacted with the young men really well. It was great seeing how happy he was there. He's a really sociable guy while Devin is more quiet and shy. 

Our friend, Raj also came out to sacrament meeting but he was called into work and had to leave right after. He said he enjoyed it though and wanted to meet with us on Friday night. And thus ends the last week before Christmas. My family will be thrilled to know that the zone leaders called us this morning to inform us that President Burt has permitted the missionaries of the Canada, Vancouver Mission to SKYPE their families! :D Wha hoo! So stoked for that!

Also a very special thank you to all those who signed the card I received in the mail from the Kingsway YSA ward in Edmonton. You guys Rock! Christmas is gonna be a good one indeed! We'll be going to the Hara's for dinner on Christmas day and then to both sets of Noftle's, the Olson's, and the Kozak's for some fun on Christmas day. Have a wonderful Christmas and don't forget why we celebrate it. Talk to you face to face Thursday Samis family! :)     

Elder Maclean Samis    

               

December 15, 2014 - Area 2: Clearbrook (Abbotsford)

Some Holiday Cheer!

It's finally truly starting to feel like the holidays in Clearbrook. Monday night we went to Mandarin Garden Restaurant and ate with the seniors of the ward for their family home evening activity.   

Tuesday night was a night to remember! We went caroling with the youth at high street mall. We took some pictures by the big Christmas tree after.

We had a big zone meeting on Wednesday. We watched an old short film the church put out some years ago called "Missionary Christmas"  which was a really touching story about a new missionary and his companion who find a family while shopping for a Christmas tree. They teach them in their homes and all three of them get taught and baptized. 

We saw Devin on Thursday and we invited him to the big stake conference on Sunday in which Elder Bednar came as a special guest, unfortunately, he got sick and couldn't come.

Friday I went on an exchange with Elder Orr, who just became our zone leader this transfer. He's a remarkable missionary. He's a little more quiet and reserved, much like myself. He's from Salt Lake City. We taught Chris and we showed him and his brother Richard the "He Is the Gift" video. Richard really seems to liked it and he said that he would be happy to start learning! 

We exchanged back the next morning and ate dinner at a big gathering at Sister Jonasen's home. The Taylors and Noftles were there. We went to the adult fireside. Elder Bednar was at this one too and he spoke in a humorous way you don't see him use in general conference. He told the congregation about the time he was on a tv broadcast getting interviewed. He answered all the questions he claimed even a primary kid could answer. The message? That telling our friends about the gospel is easier then one would think. 

In the session the next morning he gave an analogy of how the Christmas tree symbolizes the exact same idea as the tree in Lehi's dream found in the Book of Mormon. The tree itself represents Christ and the white lights represent the love that he has for us. He also pointed out we are the only church with doctrine of eternal families. 

Before I close up this week's email, here's a photo of me with Santa Claus (aka  Bro. Newman)!