To mom...

Thanks for the chords. a member in the branch was putting on kt tape when we went over for dinner last week due to plantar fasciitis. I told her I have it to so she brought me some to church on Sunday. Wade must not want to drive too badly haha. I wonder if kt tape would help me be able to run. That would be cool. I shaved my ankle haha. Does it seem like it's been a year since you dropped me off? It's funny how time works. Love you

Brenden

ps who else is gettin married and stuff?

Hi :)

Hey everybody!

Great to hear from you all this week. Sorry to hear about Sam. Hope he's doing ok.

It's been another great week here in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. We had a lot of fun and a lot of success this week. Our investigator Tanya made it out to watch the baptism of a girl in the ward and she really enjoyed it. She was pretty neervous about getting baptized but I think that helped her a lot. She's been progressing very well. In the nearer future though, we've got Brandon who's getting married and baptized on the 8th of June. That night is also transfer calls so it's going to be a crazy day to be a missionary. Yesterday we had a bit of an adventure. A guy from Toronto was up visiting so he showed up to our church. He's the only member in his family, who all live in our area. We went by to try to visit his sister after church where he was staying. She wasn't home but he came out and talked to us for a second then asked if we had a minute to go meet his cousin. We said yes and we got in his car. We drove through the small town (some would say hick town) of Chalk River, Ontario with him and stopped at a house in the bush. We got out and met his aunt, uncle, and two cousins. They were all super nice and were kind of red necks haha. We talked and got to know them for a bit then he drove us back to our car. It was cool to see a member, not even from our branch, jumping at the opportunity to introduce us to people. That's what the leaders of our church are talking about when they discuss member missionary work. We can knock on doors all we want and maybe meet some interested people occasionally, but if we had member missionaries like him more often introducing people to the missionaries, the missionary work everywhere would explode. Anyway, I'm done with my rant haha.

I'm picking up a bit of a Canada accent up here. I need to stop serving in English areas haha. Transfer calls are already coming up again a week from Saturday. I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone. I guess it's cause we've been busy. Oh man, and with it my year mark is in a couple days. I'm not sure what is happening to the time. I used to think a year was a long time but now I'm not so sure. Well I'm doing well. Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow

Good Week in Petawawa

Hey everyone!

I don't have much time at all but I just wanted to send a quick letter to let you know I'm still alive. Elder Boehme and I have had some pretty good success these past weeks despite some time out of the area. The investigators here are doing really well. We should have a baptism coming up on the 8th of June. We had splits this week from the other Elders in our district. It was a fun opportunity to work with them. Our district right now consists of 2 teams of elders and a senior couple. All four of us Elders were in the MTC together so it's pretty cool. I'll write more next week. Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow

Happy Mothers Day!

Hey everyone!

It was great to Skype home yesterday! Seems like the family is all doing well. It's funny how people don't stop growing just because I'm away. This week was very fruitful with a couple of cool stories as well. The first success of the week was we found a lot of future service opportunities. President Cannon has really been pushing for service in the smaller towns like ours and we had been struggling to find it. We'll probably start volunteering at a soup kitchen and a couple other things pretty soon.

On Wednesday we went to pass by a family that we had met a while a good. We just dropped in and they happened to be getting ready for dinner. As soon as they opened the door they invited us in to eat with them ha. Usually when we pass by someone it's just so we can set up another time to come by since they're usually busy when we pass by. We were completely unprepared to be invited in for dinner haha. It was really awesome to meet such a caring family. So we had burgers with them and we found out they when they used to live in Virginia, some of their best friends were members. It's ALWAYS a breath of fresh air to meet people who have already known members in the past. We gave them a Book of Mormon and bore testimony of it. They invited us over for dinner again next week.

The other really cool experience from this week was yesterday before we skyped home. We drove up to a little town called Chalk River since there was a less active member listed on the ward list up there. We figured we'd try to go meet him. When we got to the town, we realized that his full address wasn't even on the list. We tried to call the number but there was no answer. We started knocking doors for a little bit but few people were home. Elder Boehme and I took a pause to evaluate the situation. Something drew us down the highway that ran through the town. As we were walking, a group of 7 or 8 kids came towards us. They were kind of a troubled looking bunch ha. Baggy clothes and cigarettes. When we got close enough they slowed down to talk to us. Sure enough, one of them was our less active friend that we had gone to visit. We talked with them for a few minutes. One of the friend's mom is also a member and has known a lot of missionaries in the past. We took down their info and we'll go pay them a visit again in the future. It was super cool. Sometimes following the spirit makes you feel pretty sheepish and you realize afterwards what you were being led to do.

Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow

New Area!

Hey everyone!

It was a really good week this week. Wednesday I left Quebec at 8 a.m. and got to Montreal around 11. I saw three past companions there which was super cool. The best thing about being transferred is seeing all the other missionaries who are there. We were supposed to catch the bus for Ottawa at noon but everyone wasn't ready so we didn't end up leaving until 2. We got to Ottawa at about 5 where Elder Boehme and Elder Moolenbeek were awaiting my arrival. We had to leave right then since we had a dinner appointment an hour away to get to. Elder Boehme was in the MTC with me so I already knew him, but Elder Moolenbeek is actually from Ottawa and he's been here waiting for his visa to go through (serving in California), but he's leaving tomorrow so it'll be just down to two of us.

The area in Petawawa has been full of success lately so I came in at a good time. It's a small town feel and it reminds me of home. This week was stake conference for the Ottawa stake which means I saw tons of people from my first area. It was pretty cool but pretty weird at the same time. I got to see Zoe! It was super weird since she got baptized while I was gone so she's a member now. It was super cool. I also got to stand in the circle to give a young man from Fallowfield the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was a good day. It's been a super busy week and I'm excited to get back up to Petawawa to get more familiar with it. I'm short on time today but I'll write more next week. Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow