Back and forth...

Some cute messages between Brenden and his mom (via email).

Mom:

We like letters.

Morgan likes letters.

Need stamps?

Brenden:

I made you a graph of my time usage to help explain why you haven't gotten a letter since I've been in the field. I'll try to send it soon.

Mom:

what should I put in your christmas package????

You CAN or CAN'T have an ipod with church music on it???

give me your santa list!!!

Brend:

yes i can have an ipod. that would be nice to have. Other than that I don't really know... I bought a gps already so i don't need that. Honestly the best thing would be money to buy a couple clothing items (since I'm no longer the same size).

*****

Brenden:

packages should be sent to the mission office, not my apartment address. The mission office address is:

Elder Brenden Oxborrow

470 Rue Gilford, Suite 300

Montreal, QC H2J 1N3

Canada

did you send it by local post?

mom:

I sent it via Express Mail

Brend:

Hope that works. Canada can be picky with some things, and the mission office isn't very flexible with things on their end. 

mom:

it will be... I paid more to get it there... 

Brend:

If you sent it to the mission office it has to be there by the 18th or I won't get it..

How do you make gravy for biscuits and gravy?

*****

Brend:

do you still exist? When should I call home on Christmas?

Mom:

HELLO my brenden friend!!!!

I would love to skype on Christmas if that is a possibility... if not, you know us... we are up early.  we get into utah again at midnight on Christmas eve... so maybe give us until 7 or 8am (9-10 your time).

Brend:

I don't have a skype account...

mom:

should I make one :)

Brend:

yeah certainly

It's Cold

Dear family and friends,

I think we've gotten our first taste of Canadian Winter. The temperature has been sitting pretty consistently at about 23 degrees F, but that combined with the wind and the humidity gets pretty hard to handle, especially while we're out tracting. The good news is, it only gets colder! Haha. I'll be getting some thermals or something soon. Our investigators are doing well. We met with Zoe this week and just read the scriptures with her and explained as we went along. She should be coming to church again this Sunday. Diane was supposed to come to church this Sunday, but I think she was a little nervous about it so she didn't show. However, her sister talked to her about it and it sounds like she'll be coming next week. We're meeting with both her and Zoe this Thursday and we'll be talking about baptism with both of them.

This morning we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow! It was pretty exciting. Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow

Happy New Year

Hello family and friends!

It's only been about a half of a week since my last e-mail. Basically we just did a lot of knocking this week which isn't fun in the cold. We started knocking one of the few buildings in our area and everyone just kept kicking us out so we gave up on that building haha. So basically we're stuck to knocking outside. It's not too bad except for when it gets windy. We've got zone study tomorrow so we'll get to see all the missionaries. Should be fun. It's crazy how huge the banks of snow everywhere are. Yesterday there was a pile of snow about 20 feet high. Happy new year!

Elder Oxborrow

Happy Christmas...after

Dear family and friends,

What a great Christmas season! We had a great missionary Christmas party last week and got to see a lot of old friends from the MTC. We got to watch Princess Bride, and did a white elephant exchange with all the missionaries. I ended up with a tie. Pretty original haha. We got our Christmas packages from home which was cool. On Christmas eve we were at the Christmas family's house haha. It was a lot of fun. We had beef wellington and built gingerbread houses.They decided to make it a competition which was a mistake on their part because Elder Wilbur and I created the most beautiful gingerbread house the world has ever known. We also got to watch It's a Wonderful Life! It was awesome. That made it a real Christmas. After the movie, they gave us a stocking full of random gifts including deodorant and a Wal-Mart gift card. Good stuff. On Christmas day we got to sleep in! Best gift ever, although I couldn't sleep any longer than 8. We opened our packages and then we went to the Verstappen family for lunch and to call home. It was great to hear from everyone. Sounds like everyone's doing well. Since we had the rest of the day off we went to the gym at our chapel to do some physical activity. Great Christmas! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays! Happy New Year!

Elder Oxborrow

Christmas Skype

Happy Christmas

Hello family and friends!

The Christmas spirit is in full swing here in Ottawa! We had an awesome week this week. Our investigator Zoe has been coming to church for the past couple weeks, but her dad has kind of been convincing her to go home with him after sacrament meeting each week. This week she decided to stay and she loved it! The young women were awesome in fellowshipping her. After the second class Mark asked her if she wanted to go and she quickly told him she wanted to stay for the third. Mark also enjoyed the meetings and is planning on coming next week and singing with the men during sacrament meeting!

Tomorrow we have district study in the morning and then we're headed straight to Montreal to do splits and stay the night. On Wednesday we have our mission Christmas party which is actually only with half the mission so I won't get to see everyone but it'll still be fun. On Christmas eve we've got dinner with the Christmas family (that's their last name) and on Christmas we've got dinner with the Verstappens who have a son in France on a mission.

Should be a white Christmas up here I hope everyone is enjoying the season back home. Have a merry Christmas!

Elder Oxborrow

December

Dear family and friends,

It's been an eventful week. Wednesday was transfers, so I received my new companion, Elder Wilbur. We were in the MTC together so I already knew him, but he's been in Quebec for the past 4 months. I'll be in Ottawa for at least 1/4 of my mission, possibly more if I stay here again for another transfer (which is very possible). Thursday was zone study so the whole zone was here. On Friday we had a less with our new investigator Awuet (a wheat). She is from Egypt and has 2 kids. We committed her to baptism and she accepted and asked if her kids could be baptized too, so we should have 3 baptisms coming up soon! On Saturday we met a lot of very friendly less actives in the ward. Our ward christmas party is this Saturday, so it's a great opportunity to invite our investigators and less actives out. Sunday wasn't quite what we were hoping it would be. If everything had panned out we would have had 6 investigators at church, but we ended up with two. Such is the story with missionary work haha. Still a good week though. I'm a bit jealous that my best friend and my brother get to be in the MTC together, but I'm excited for both of you! The work is pressing onward here. This week the zone leaders were asking all the companionships if they think there's room in their apartment for another companionship... The mission is going to explode with missionaries before too long! This morning we woke up to freezing rain. I have never seen this before in my life. Apparently it's an eastern thing. It happens when the water in the clouds is still liquid when it starts to fall, and it drops below freezing as it falls through the air, but it doesn't freeze because it's being stirred by the air around it. When it lands, it freezes instantly to whatever it hits. When we woke up this morning there was a thin layer of ice on everything. It was pretty crazy. Well I'm gonna go play a board game or something. Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow