Baptism!

This week was an awesome week. Not only did it stop being so bitter

cold, but we had a baptism! Constance was baptized on Saturday and it

went very well. Everything got planned out well and members of the

branch helped out a lot. Yesterday she was confirmed by the branch

president, and then in relief society she taught the lesson! She's

definitely a solid convert. She's a perfect example of someone whose

life has been changed and blessed by the gospel.

Last Monday we had our Zone Activity at the Ice Hotel. It was pretty

sweet. They had a drumset made of ice with electric drum pads wired to

it. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. That night we had 10 missionaries

sleeping in our apartment. There was barely any room to move around.

I'm glad we're moving into a bigger apartment this week for when the

other missionaries come down. Tuesday was zone conference which was

good. President Cannon gave us some good trainings and talked about

preparing for all the new missionaries who will be coming in starting

next week.

Yesterday we were out knocking and this lady of about 60 opened the

door and quickly invited us in and told us to warm up. We could kind

of tell something was weird from the get go but she had us sit down on

her couch and started talking to us and for the most part a lot of

what she was saying was nonsense. She asked us where we were from and

how we got here... and then she asked the same questions like three

more times. We were both quite caught off guard and were wondering

what was going on when we saw some medication on her coffee table.

We're hoping it was just by accident that she took too much meds or

something. We had to tell her we had somewhere else to be and get out

of there ha. We might try back another time when hopefully she's more

normal. As a missionary, you tend to wish that the number of people

you meet who are 'interested' was equal to the number of people you

meet who are 'interesting'. Great week! Je vous aime!

Elder Oxborrow

P.S. I haven't sent pics for a while so it's a bit of a catch up this week.

1-Saying goodbye in Ottawa

2-At the army base in Quebec (the elders quorum president is in the military)

3-Baptism

The rest- Ice hotel

February

Cher Famille et amis,

Well January has come to an end, I'm hoping that means it will stop being bitter cold and start being just cold. Today I think we've got a wind chill of -36 or something so I guess I'll keep hanging tight. It was a very busy week. We had visits with a lot of less actives, and didn't have a lot of time to find new investigators. Our main investigator Constance, however, is doing very well. Yesterday she got up and bore her testimony about how much of a blessing the Gospel is in her life and how grateful she is for her friend who told her to look into it. Her baptism is this Saturday and we're all super excited for her.

The other day we were on the bus to head back to our apartment and a kid sat down across from us wearing a coat with a `Powder Mountain` patch on it. It took me a minute to process it but once it sunk in I asked him if he had been to Utah. Turns out him and his dad had gone on a ski trip there a while back. That was pretty cool. I told him I was from there so we talked about the different resorts and stuff for a while then we told him who we were and why we were there and he thought that was pretty cool. We didn't get his number or address but it was still cool. Then just a couple nights ago we were on the bus and a couple girls got on and they were speaking English so we asked where they were from and they were both from Western Canada and they were here for a speed skating competition. Turns out, one of them had also been to Utah for a competition and visited the temple and everything! So she had heard of us because of that. She was leaving Quebec the next day so we weren't able to set up an appointment but hopefully we sparked more of an interest for her in the future.

We found a new apartment this week and it's super nice! We're just waiting for the mission to get all the appliances and stuff in there so we can move in. Today's our Zone Activity so we've got 10 missionaries staying in our current apartment tonight. It's going to be packed. We're going to see the ice hotel today! I'll send pictures next week. Should be cool.

Love, Elder Oxborrow

In Canada, it's not girly to wear a scarf.

Hello family and friends,

It's been a fun second week in Quebec. The language is still hard to understand. I hope I'm understanding more but it's hard to tell. Some people have some crazy accents. On Tuesdays we teach a free English class and that's a lot of fun. I never realized how hard of a language English is until I started teaching it to someone who doesn't speak it. We've had to spend a lot of time this week searching for an apartment because of the new missionaries coming in. I have a feeling my companion and I will both be training again soon. We have a lot of awesome investigators but right now our main focus is Constance. She's about 20 and is doing awesome. Her baptism date was set for February 23 but a couple things we were waiting on got lined up faster than we had expected so she's being baptized on the 9th! We're super excited for her.

A few days ago I was asked to give a talk in church. I was pretty nervous about it since my pronunciation still isn't the best, and I've never given a talk in French. I typed it all out though so I knew I could have that to fall back on. It went pretty well. I talked for about 18 minutes and didn't realize I was going that long so I hope I didn't bore anyone ha. Well the work here is progressing, and we're looking forward to the changes coming our way. Hope all is well back home. Sounds like a lot of people are getting mission calls. Good stuff.

Elder Oxborrow

Je ne comprend pas francais

Well first off, the city of Quebec is beautiful. Everything is so old! All the church buildings are big stone structures, and everything is French. Although I don't have much of a problem getting my idea across, understanding what people are saying to me is another story. Some of the french accents here are crazy! We have a decent sized area. We cover about the bottom third of the part of Quebec City that is north of the St Laurent River. Basically we cover the down town area including Old Quebec which is awesome. We take the bus/walk everywhere since we don't have a car. I don't mind it too much. It feels good to be walking around instead of just driving everywhere. The only downside is that it has been freezing cold here with plenty of wind. Last night Elder Oviatt and I were walking to an appointment and the wind was gusting at 80 mph. It's kind of ridiculous how cold my face was. After a few minutes of walking, I looked at Elder Oviatt and noticed his ears were turning white. He started warming them up and noticed they had started turning a bit hard. Good thing we caught it when we did or it could have been bad. We have to be careful to stay near some place we can warm up since we don't have a car to warm up in. I'm loving the new area.

Love, Elder Oxborrow

Transfers

Dear family and friends,

It's been a great, warm week in Ottawa! We've had a heat wave for the past few days and tons of snow has melted. It's been very nice but it will be hard when it cools back down. Our investigators have been doing awesome! Zoe came to a baptism on Saturday and it helped both her and her dad a ton. Then on Sunday she invited two of her friends to church. She's awesome. On Saturday we had transfer calls and it saddeneth me to say that after 5 1/2 months here in the land of english and dinner appointments... It's time to put my french shoes on! I'm being transferred to Quebec city which is one of the oldest cities in North America and is purely french. It's been sad for me having to say goodbye to people but I'm way excited. Quebec City sounds like an awesome place. My french should finally start improving haha. Four of the elders I came in with are also leaving with me so a good chunk of us are leaving Ottawa together. I'm sad but excited about the change coming! Love you all.

Elder Oxborrow

P.S. I'll just start having everyone send mail to the mission office so you can just send mail to this address from now on:

Elder Brenden Oxborrow

470 Rue Gilford, Ste 300

Montreal, QC H2J 1N3

Canada

It's Cold

Hello family and friends,

It was a fun week to be a missionary. One night when we got home it was -15 F. Boy does that feel nice haha. It's livable though. It's ok since every time we go tracting in the cold our wives become more and more beautiful. Our week started on Tuesday since we weren't allowed to proselyte on New Years Eve. We helped a less active lady move this week. She really appreciated the help. We did a lot of knocking this week but had more success visiting less actives for the first part of the week. About Thursday on we started seeing a lot more success from knocking and with our investigators. We met with our investigator Diane and since we hadn't met with her for a while we had to push back her baptism date to March 2. We're crossing our fingers that she'll keep her commitments to prepare herself. We also met with Zoe that same day and had a great lesson with her. We brought one of the young women who has really been reaching out to her. The lesson was focused mainly on resolving her concerns and questions. The weekend was when we had a lot of success in finding new investigators. We found 7 or 8 people this week who we'll be seeing again. It was a great week. One thing about missionary work I've learned is that the more energy you put into it, the more joy you take out of it (even though it's sometimes exhausting).

My condolences go out to the Mitchell family. I have no doubt the Lord is with them every step of the way.

Love you all!

Elder Oxborrow

P.S. Some photos I meant to send sooner

Christmas Skype!

(from the mom)
We had a great opportunity to skype with Brenden on Christmas day.  Aspen freaked out a little (screamed) when she saw who it was on the computer.  Since the 'call" she has been telling people Brenden is back now.  Funny how being able to see someone makes them BACK even for a little bit.

We were all able to visit with him:  Grandma and Grandpa Fraser, Aspen, Hayden, Austin and Wade.