Spring? Nope Still Winter!

Still snowing. Still below freezing. Spring starts in June here. I'm just crazy grateful I'm in a vehicle now.

An interesting week. We had Zone Conference this last Wednesday. It was a nice one. They are starting to try and get things going with technology, Facebook, etc. It still doesn't make sense to me why the people who are in charge of it and are supposed to train us on these things (iPads, Facebook, etc) have no idea what they are doing. The main people over Facebook are a senior couple who didn't have a Facebook until they got out here. Oh well.

We've been going through the ward list a lot this week. Just hitting up everyone on there that seems to have no info about them and taking notes. I'm making a master directory of the ward that has details on everyone that is in our area. Because we don't have one... And it's needed. My companion doesn't really know a lot of people in the ward. So random drop ins. Which is fun because I've now driven over my whole area. The disadvantage is that the church has not been sending back the records of people that move but don't have a forwarding address.  So it turns out that what seems to be half of the members in our area don't actually live there anymore.

Naples was way cool! Finally got to get down there as it's at the bottom of our area and I've been trying to get a feel for the amount of miles we use and how far it is down there. They would never go down to Naples because of miles but really if we are smart about it we have plenty to get down there. Naples actually makes me feel like I'm back home. It has lots of hills. So it's not all flat ground! There is actually a little baby mountain. Plus when you drive down there you drive next to Canandaigua lake which is way cool! It's completely frozen over right now and looks way cool. There was a slight fog over it and I was just itching to have a real camera to take pictures.  Sadly that was not the case. Plus being in Naples gave us the opportunity to 4 wheel drive the truck which was fun because we had to keep going on dirt/mud/frozen mud roads. I love trucks.

We had a talent show this last Saturday as a ward activity. Not as many people as we were hoping showed up. There were tons of active members there though. We performed. We danced to a remix of I hope they call me on a Mission. It was horrific hahaha! It crashed and burned. It was funny though because the sisters wore white shirts and ties as well. And it had a rap part. Ha!  So Frozen. The movie. Ya. The song let it go? That sure gets stuck in your head after listening to a 7 year old sing it and do every action that she does in the movie (or so I'm told). Basically she acted out and sang the whole scene.

This ward feeds us so much and it's awesome! Mostly because I have enough money now to buy really healthy food for lunch and have been trying new things, eating more fruits and veggies, etc. It's great! I've discovered yogurt, crunchy peanut butter and frozen chicken breasts among other things.

Our ward mission leader here is quite the character. He makes funny jokes all the time. Him and I were joking about how I could learn everyone in the ward if he were to just draw out the Chapel and label where everyone sits because everyone sits in the exact same spots every week without fail. Go figure.

Stephen, the future missionary that had to get a tattoo to come on a mission, got his mission call! He opened it at the Hill Cumorah. No big deal. Just a sacred site that is only 20 minutes away. Boom.  Living in the coolest mission. He leaves in May.

I'm going back to my old ways of not doing this whole P-Day thing right. Today we are helping move furniture into the sisters' apartment then have district meeting. Luckily that gives us plenty of time for laundry and shopping but no relaxation or fun time. And next week we are helping a family move in on Monday. Who needs P-Day, right? I guess it's another way of showing God that I'm willing to work hard.

Blind Date Chaperone

It's been an interesting week. Definitely been an odd one for weather. We decided to jump up to almost 50 degrees on Tuesday. It was fantastic! I was ready to pull out my shorts. Except I can't wear dress shorts. It was definitely a nice day! We got to go to the temple that morning which was always a good way to spend the morning. Sadly we can only go once a transfer even though it's way close. But then NY gets a good laugh at us and throws us into a 12 degree blizzard on Wednesday with about 14 inches of snow. Jokes on us. No warm weather here! It's been chilling around the 20's for the rest of the week.

For how much it snows here you'd think they'd be more used to it? But during the blizzard where you could see easily at least 50 yards, they shut down driving in the county except for emergencies. Or at least that's what the members called and told us. So we were stuck inside our apartment doing paperwork.

Our downstairs neighbor however decided to set off the fire alarm. Luckily she chose a moment which was kind of a lull in the storm. So that was nice of her. She then set it off again Friday morning at 7:30. It's good to know that the fire department has a solid 6 minute response time. I was quite impressed.

Got to go on my one exchange for the transfer. Which is weird because usually it's a lot more per transfer. But... You don't exchange with sister missionaries. I stayed in my area and Elder Danielson the Zone Leader came up. It was a solid day and we were able to contact a ton of people. We've been trying to sweep through the ward directory and former investigators to find people who have fallen through the cracks. At one door for a less active member, we gave a good knock and some 14 year old girl answers the door. She tells us that he doesn't live there and we strike up a conversation with the usual questions "Have you ever seen guys like us walking around?" Turns out she was familiar with the fact that we were missionaries. So we ask her, "Would you be interested in hearing our message?" She just pauses for a moment and goes "Definitely!" Elder Danielson and I were shocked! You occasionally get a sure but never a definitely! So we set up an appointment for this week.

We also got the great opportunity to be dinner guests for a blind date. That was great! They set up a date and met online and we were there to eat dinner with them. We didn't know what was going on until about half way through the dinner. But we now have a guy who seems to be interested to teach. Except he is from Oklahoma and has some southern accent so sometimes it's hard to understand what he is saying.

Then, of course, Saturday night at 9:30 we get a call from our mission president. "I'm coming to your apartment at 8:30 tomorrow morning.  What?!?! Luckily we keep a way clean apartment so it wasn't a big deal. I just spent the whole night worrying over why he was coming.  Turns out he just is doing a tour of the mission and getting familiar with the different apartments. But while he was talking to us Sunday morning he decided to inform us that he was coming to church with us.  Yep. Anxiety through the roof right there. It turned out okay but I've never been more nervous and self conscious in my life! I am starting to get used to President Francis and the hugs and stuff. It still pushes my personal bubble but I'm getting there! He's a good guy.

Just to give a feel for how close we are to the sites. We had dinner with a family the other night who was at the top of the ward boundaries. Very nice family. They live on Stafford Road. That would be the same road that Joseph Smith's farm is on. Yes. We are that stinkin close to the Sacred Grove. Granted there is a thru way in between them and the Smith Farm. But still!

I've realized a lot lately how much church was almost a Sunday Religion for me back home. And I thought I was good at living it!  Nope. Compared to the people out here. I've gained tons of respect for them. Church really is a part of their daily lives. They are known around the community for being Mormon. They know it. They live it. They love it. The Father of the Stafford Road Family was telling me about his business he is starting up. Where local companies pay him to put an advertisement on his TV's. Then he pays a percentage to other local companies to display the TV's in their businesses on unused wall space. Which seems to be going quite successful as he just started it a month or so ago. Great idea. What is he doing with it? Well included in the ads is an ad for the church. A donated ad. Free to the church this member is taking it upon himself to help spread the Gospel. Most of it is just a simple ad for the Hill Cumorah (located just 15 minutes away). It just reminded me about how we all have to do our part in the Gospel. Not just serve your two years and then go back to life.

Apparently spring starts in June here. So there isn't much hope for warmer days for a while. Haha!

Priesthood Power

Somehow I always manage to find myself volunteering for things on P-Day. Oh well! This time I'm getting the emails off on Monday. Today we painted and removed carpet out of a trailer/house/mobile home thingy. It was quite fun!

Canandaigua is pretty sweet! There is lots of things set up here that is great activities. A scripture study group and also every Saturday sports from 1-3 for anyone to invite friends. So that's pretty great!  It's definitely a fun area to serve in!

Was able to have a cool experience this last Saturday. A teenage girl (Recent Convert) asked for a blessing. After that, I went up to one of the Sisters and asked if she was okay. She brushed it off and said "ya." But then she started to tear up and asked for a blessing. Sadly, I'm not really allowed to help her other than to give her a blessing. I can't really ask what is wrong... Lame. Oh well. But that was a really cool blessing! Then the other two sisters asked for a blessing. Then we went off to a dinner appointment with some eternigators (Eternal Investigators). We got a call right at the end from the two sisters who asked us to come over and give a blessing to their returning to activity member who is preparing for a mission. That was AWESOME! We were all choking up at the end. It was a great day for the Priesthood Power.

We have one interesting Recent Convert. He's... A character. He calls us without fail about 4-5 times a day. Sadly, the bishop and a few others are also on that call list. He tells us all about his spiritual experiences. Which is great! But he thinks he knows it all right now so he is preaching to choir and we have to correct him on a couple doctrine. Great kid though!

One reactivated guy preparing to serve a mission has to get a tattoo to serve a mission! It's hilarious. He has to make his slightly suggestive tattoo of a Hawaiian girl, a little bit more modest. Or completely remove it. Which wasn't in the budget. So he is throwing a BYU Hawaii shirt on her. Quite funny!

It's definitely a whole different mission [in Canandaigua] being so close to the sites and being outnumbered by site sisters. It's quite an interesting adventure!

Sadly though, my camera screen finally completely broke. Which is no fun. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to fix that yet. For now I'm just blindly taking pictures when I remember to snag pictures.

The Promised Land

Quite the crazy week just happened! Leaving, meeting new people, new area, etc. it's been a roller coaster of a week.

Saying goodbye was kind of tough. Everyone was pretty much a bye on Facebook which is nice. But we did make sure to go over to Stephen's which was tough because I love that family tons! The kids were sad I was leaving as that's one of my bigger bonds. Then there was Andy... There was a huge knot in my stomach to go over there and say goodbye. I was so sad. But when we got over there and explained, Andy seemed to handle it pretty well. I was glad! He was saying it was a big bummer but there is nothing we can do. He told me he'd make sure I knew when his baptism was so I could come out and be there for it. And then the huge tear jerker.... He basically testified that I was there for a reason. The God sent me to Buffalo to find him. To knock on his door. To teach him the things he needed to hear to change his life. Then he testified that I was going off to Canandaigua because out there was someone like him that I would help and find. Then he told me he was going to continue working towards baptism in my name. That he would work hard to become a better person. Ahhh! It was a tear jerker. I said the closing prayer and we left....

Transfer meeting was cool. I had not been to one since I first got out here because of how far away I was. We just switched around out there in Buffalo and minimize the amount to come out all the way out to the mission office.

Canandaigua. The city next to Canandaigua lake which is one of the finger lakes. It's a very pretty sight. It's a pretty sweet place so far. A little bit of an older ward especially compared to Buffalo where everyone was 20's and 30's. It's been fun so far! They have a couple different things set up by the missionaries for weekly finding activities and it sounds like they go on splits with the missionaries fairly often.

Elder Southwick is a good guy. He only has 6 months left as he came out a year before me. He is from Kaysville Utah next to Farmington and lagoon. He's a twin. Easy to get along with and willing to work!

One of my first nights we had dinner with an older gentleman. He served in Berlin/North Germany mission during Feb 1961 - August 1963. Which was pretty cool. He became fluent in German of course. So naturally he came home and joined the intelligence section of the military and spent a couple years chasing down spies and worked in espionage. No biggy or anything. It's pretty sweet! Hopefully I can get some cool stories out of him haha

The district is pretty cool. We got 4 sisters and two elders because we are 15 minutes away from the Sacred Grove!! There is Sister Sharp and Sister West who are both seasoned missionaries. Then Sister Tran who is training Sister Flores. Of course you also have me and Elder Southwick. It's a party. It's definitely interesting to work with mostly sisters. It'll be an odd transfer ha!

Steven is awesome! He is a 25 reactivated stud! He is preparing to serve a mission so he hangs out with us a lot to go out teaching and what not. He also sat in on our district meeting. Which is cool because he has great insights. He is going to be a fantastic missionary. He used to go to none other than Riverton High School for sophomore and junior year! I was like "Silver Rush?" And he just simply replied "loved it!" So small world when you're a Mormon! Turns out I went to middle school with his twin younger brothers.

We are spoiled. First we have a truck! Which makes sense because it's like a 30 minute drive through the country to the bottom of our area. And and and and I get to drive! Yay! My companion isn't really fond of driving. I was definitely okay with taking on that responsibility! Ha! Plus our apartment is way nice because it's supposed to be a sisters' apartment but they have to have at least one set of elders in the area. So spoiled! Basically Zion.

This weather is a teaser. It likes to tease us about once a week by getting way warm up to about 30 degrees. But then it drops right back down to 12 degrees. And that's cold. And there is snow enough to share.

Excited and ready to hit the ground running and turn Canandaigua into the next city of Enoch.

Elder Brandon Christensen

412 Camelot Ct

Canandaigua, NY 14424