Happy October!

September 24, 2012

Dear family and friends,

This week was pretty good. We didn't quite meet all our goals but we worked hard. Last Monday night we visited a former investigator who was in our area book. He's a member of the "Community of Christ" aka RLDS. It was interesting. We had to resist the urge to just ask him about his beliefs cause we were curious about how that organization came to be haha. It didn't take long to see that he wasn't interested so we didn't stay for very long. On Wednesday we had splits. I went with our district leader Elder Odle who goes home in 4 weeks. It was a good split. On Thursday we did service for a part member family. She grew up in Utah and is pretty active but her husband isn't a member so right now we're working on developing a good relationship with them. We helped them stain their shed and I think we'll be going back to do another layer this week. They're a cool family. On Saturday we had pretty much the whole day for knocking, so we went to a complex where the doors come in sets of four on each building. We spent about two hours there and estimated that we knocked about 100 doors and only talked to about 10 people. Apparently no one is home on Saturday afternoons. We did find two new investigators this week though. One thing that has been surprising about contacting people is that the older they are, the less interested they are (generally). This week, however, our 2 new investigators were both over the age of 70. A couple weeks ago we helped a family move who weren't members because a member in a ward knows them through work. Last night we had dinner at that member's house. His friend had given him to give to us gift cards to the movie theater as a thank you. I think I'll just put it in my journal. Things are going well in Fallowfield. Still searching for those who have been prepared.

Love,

Elder Oxborrow

October 1, 2012

Dear family and friends,

First off, shout out to my brother Clayton on his call to the Mexico Puebla South Mission! Congratulations!

I can't believe it's already been 4 months! I've been on my mission longer now than I was in Alaska last summer... That feels weird. Fall is starting to fall and everyday Canada gets more beautiful. The members we live with have a lot of property with large trees and a river flowing behind so it's very beautiful, especially this time of year. Transfer calls come again in less than three weeks. I'm hoping I stay in Ottawa. Quebec will be cool though when I get transferred east.

It's been an eventful week. On Tuesday we had splits again, only this time I stayed in my area and Elder Messinger who has been out as long as I have came into the area. We were mostly knocking for the day. After our dinner appointment we continued knocking and found a new investigator.

On Wednesday after we unsplit we had more knocking (we were low on kilometers since it was the end of the month), and we found two people we were able to teach a quick discussion to. One of them, however, was very drunk haha. He probably doesn't remember much of what we talked about, but maybe he'll remember feeling the spirit.

Thursday was district study, which means it was the day we go get our free subway! Then we had a lesson with Myrium. Can't remember if I've talked about her before. She's haitian and has a great spirit, but has some family problems holding her back. She met with the bishop though and is doing pretty well. That night we went home teaching with brother Norman to a less active lady. She didn't let us in but we talked for a while at her door, and she came to church yesterday so that was good to see.

By the time Friday came around we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with kilometers, so after weekly planning we had no choice but to ride bikes to our lesson at 5:15. It was a 16 mile round trip. My legs were tired. It's scary riding bikes on main roads with on ramps. That night we had a lesson with Mark Kaiser, who is a former investigator whose information we found in the area book. Elder Rasmussen talked to him on the phone for quite a while a couple days before, and it sounded like he had had some good experiences with the missionaries, so he wanted us to come over when his two kids were at his house. We went at 7:30 Friday and just tried to get to know him for a while and follow the spirit. His kids, Matthew and Zoe were really cool, but a little shy. I think they warmed up to us quite a bit the longer we were there. We ended up giving them both a Book of Mormon and testified of how it can help them. Mark seemed pretty open to us teaching them. We were able to set up another appointment for 2 days later (so yesterday).

On Saturday after studies we did more bike riding, this time not quite as far. We went to Richmond which is just south of our apartment. We knocked there for quite some time since we didn't have anything until our dinner appointment.

On Sunday we had two investigators at church. We were able to teach one of them after church. His name is Marco and he is a friend to a 19 year old in the ward named James. He's used to a church with preachers so he said he was a little bored haha but still enjoyed it. Our dinner appointment that night cancelled, so when brother Potter (the member we live with) saw us come home he invited us over for dinner. It was a much better dinner than we would have had otherwise haha. After dinner we headed to the follow-up lesson we had set up with Mark, Matthew and Zoe. Matthew wasn't there but we taught Zoe and Mark. We talked about prayer, and I shared a personal experience with the Book of Mormon. It went off course from what we had planned, but we both felt good about it. We also taught Steve, our recent convert.

So it's been a full week. Looking forward to conference next weekend! We're planning on going to the chapel a half hour early to catch music and the spoken word. Since we're two hours ahead here, priesthood session will start at 8 and end at 10, so we'll have to hurry home after. Enjoy the colors of fall!

Love,

Elder Oxborrow

Another Great Week!

Hello family and friends!

First off I'd like to say thanks for the letters! I'm working on writing back, but P-day is often one of the busiest days of the week. Well Everything has continued to go well. After the baptism last week we don't have anymore serious investigators which means we've been doing a lot of finding this week. I'm learning to like knocking doors more and more. Especially when it works. We also tried to visit a lot of less actives this week... which turned out to be equally as adventurous as knocking. We have a list of less actives so sometimes we just drop by the ones we're close to so we can introduce ourselves. So we were doing that one day and we knocked and a Haitian lady came out and started speaking French. We told her we saw her name on our list. Turns out her daughter who used to live there is a member but her and her husband are Jehovah's Witnesses. So she invited us in (most Haitians do) and after a long religious discussion, she offered us some orange juice and we left. A few days later, we were doing some less active hunting again and we knocked a door and a kind looking lady opened it. The first thing she said was "Oh they're not home but we're the more active side of the family." Apparently the couple who lived there were downtown getting things ready for their daughter's wedding, but all the extended family from Toronto was at their house. So after being fed by them and finding out a little more about the family, we headed off. You never know what's going to happen when you knock on a door haha. Hope all is well for all of you!

Love,

Elder Brenden Oxborrow

P.S. The last address I sent was only mostly right. So don't worry letters still got here, but here's the more accurate one.

Elder Brenden Oxborrow

3231 Steeple Hill Crescent

Richmond, ON K0A-2Z0

Canada

WEEK 2 (in Canada)

Hello everyone!

It's been a great week! It's rained a lot and when it rains here it reminds me of Alaska. It's crazy how many people I've met knocking doors haha. Some pretty crazy ones too. Everything from Jehovah's witness to atheist philosophers to this crazy guy who almost closed the door on us but then he decided to ask us if we believed that the world was going to end this year haha. We actually had a miracle knocking though this week which was awesome. We knocked and this door and a guy named Dan answered and said he had been researching Mormons like that morning so we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him we'd come by later, so Saturday we went back and talked to him. We asked him if he'd read and he said "yeah but I was only able to get through the first book." He read all of first Nephi! Haha so awesome. He said he really enjoyed it and feels like there was a reason we showed up at his door. He said that he's pretty sure that it's a sign from God. He was cooking dinner so we couldn't teach him that night but we have an appointment set up for Tuesday. Hopefully it goes well. We also taught a lesson in French yesterday. She's an African lady who speaks English and French. That was super cool. I feel like I can say what I need to in French but when it comes to understanding everything they're saying, I need to improve ha. I keep meeting so many awesome people. The ward is amazing and the recent converts are so strong. This one guy named Steven just got baptized a couple weeks ago and you can just see how the Gospel turned his whole life around. I'm still working on the Canadian accent and it's coming along eh. Oh yeah and milk comes in bags in Canada. Super weird haha. We get free Subway once a week since there's a member who owns a bunch of them in Ottawa. Today for P-day we're going to the Science and Technology museum. All is well.

Elder Oxborrow

I'M HERE!!!

Family and friends,

I made it safely to Montreal, and met the mission president and his wife and it all went great. I described most of that in the last e-mail. The next morning, I got to find out what area I'd be serving and.... Ottawa! I'm in an English zone so that makes it a little easier haha. It was about a 2 and a half hour bus ride from the island of Montreal, and while I was on the bus I actually sat next to a guy from Western Canada and had a long conversation with him and for a lot of time we talked about religion. He had a lot of questions about missionary work and some other doctrinal things so I answered those and then when we got to the stop I gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised me he'd read it. So that was cool, but anyway the area is called Fallowfield and there's an awesome ward here. My companion is Elder Rasmussen from Highland Utah and he's been in this area for about 8 months so he knows it really well. They actually had a baptism the Tuesday I was flying in. His name is Steve and he's super cool. He invited me to stand in the circle to confirm him so that was cool. Got to stand in the confirmation circle my first Sunday here haha. Since it was testimony meeting the bishop asked me to come up and share my testimony and I forgot to introduce myself haha. I didn't say my name or where I was from ha. Oh well I'm just a greenie. The ward is super supportive of missionary work though so it's awesome. We've had dinner appointments almost every night since I've been here. We have four hours of study every morning. 1 hour each for: personal, companionship, language, and training. We've done a lot of knocking since I got here. It's not bad but I don't like feeling like I'm bothering people but I'll get over it haha. It's been really hot here it got up to like 38 degrees celsius and it's so humid ha. It makes it so you can't escape the heat even in the shade. Our apartment is attached to some members' home and they are really nice. It's funny cause everyone up here actually says "eh" a lot and has a Canadian accent haha. So we had some pretty awesome experiences already. Yesterday we were out knocking and we weren't having any success so just as we were getting ready to head back to the car we saw a guy walking down the side walk so we decided to talk to him. We told him who we were and about the Book of Mormon and it turned out that he had read some of it before and even prayed about it and had a really good feeling when he did and he felt like there was "something to it". He even said he'd buy one from us! Haha so we gave him one and told him to read the introduction and we got his contact information and everything so we've got high hopes for him. I guess fasting works! Then today since it's p-day we were doing laundry (at a laundromat) and a lady approached us and asked us for a Book of Mormon. We were amazed haha. 2 perfect investigators in 2 days! Turns out her husband used to be mormon and it seemed like he still had a pretty strong testimony so I'm not sure why he went inactive but I guess they were going to a different church and didn't like how their church would teach one thing and then turn around and do another. So I guess for a couple months now she's been seeing the missionaries at the laundromat and trying to work up the courage to ask! She knew exactly when we were going to be there! It was pretty crazy. So we talked to them for quite some time and got their information and gave them a Book of Mormon, and they even wanted another one so she could give it to her mom. So we've already had a couple miracles just in my time here. The work seems to be pressing forward strongly in this area. Before this year, the ward's record for baptisms was 3 in a year, and at the start of this year they made a goal to have 8. So far they have 4 and we have one date set for an investigator, and some more promising investigators popping up. We get to drive pretty much everywhere we go since the area is so huge, and we drive a 2012 Subaru so that's super nice. There's a lot of different kinds of people up here. You never know who's gonna come to the door when you knock. Some people like to talk, a lot don't haha. A few are rude which is funny cause we just tell them to have a nice day very politely haha. This one guy and his brother started bible bashing us so we had to get outta there ha. Basically I'm just trying to learn as much as I can and get used to the schedule. I'm always wiped out (and usually sticky from sweat and humidity) When we get back to the apartment. I can't figure out why I'm so tired in the morning though because I sleep way better here than I did in the MTC. I do kinda miss it there though since I could play basketball every day. That was nice. We actually can't play basketball at all here since so many missionaries have gotten injured but at least we can play instruments and listen to music. Well I won't make this too much longer. All is well, and they weren't lying when they said it would be hard work. I hope I'll adjust to it more and be less tired. It feels like it's been a lot longer than a week since I got here, and it hasn't even been that yet haha. Well I'm doing well and I hope you all are too.

Love, Elder Oxborrow

p.s. Since I'm pretty far from the mission office, it will probably be more effective to send mail to the apartment. The address there is:

3231 Steeple Hill Crescent

Ottawa, ON K0A

Canada