21 November 2016 Final Entry

Buenos Dias todos!!!! Espero que hayan disfrutado de esta semana pasada!! Yo si lo he hecho, y espero que ustedes tambien :) so YEAH!!! This email will be quick and bitter sweet since if anyone is actually interested in knowing how my last week was, they can ask me in person or on the phone xD real quick what happened yesterday then i just want to leave you all with some dying words and comments ;) so for my last Sunday, i got to give a farewell talk in the branch, and dang that was hard. I served there for a whole year of my mission and i'm gonna miss those people SO MUCH!!!! at the end of sacrament meeting, a couple of the mothers were like "well thanks elder for making all of us moms cry." haha! it was nice to be able to say bye to everyone like that :) anywes, that was real quick, now to get all mushy and stuff ;) Honestly, the mission has been, hands down, the greatest experience of my life to this point. I know there was a lot more time, effort, work, tears, and struggles put into making this all possible, and i know there are more people that i don't even know of who helped make it possible, and i will never be able to thank you all enough. This has changed my life and i have had the chance to touch the lives of others and change their lives too in a way that i NEVER could have done had i not served a mission. just yesterday some members were telling us how to them, even if we feel like we didn't have a successful mission, that we were successful to them because we were the missionaries who helped their son get on his mission, and he's now in Argentina helping other people change their lives. I have learned lessons out here that can't be learned anywhere else besides the mission field, and i know that i also learned things that i couldn't have learned in any OTHER mission besides this exact one. I know the Lord had and has a plan for me, and that's exactly why he called me to this mission at this time. The struggles i had and times i passed through were exactly what i needed. I never told you of any of the REAL struggles had here, but just let it be known, it's a miracle that i stayed the duration of my mission from start to finish. The Lord truly sustained me through my mission, and i have developed a significantly deeper love and understanding of the atonement throughout my time here. I have come to better grasp the not only forgiving power of the atonement, but also the enabling power that it offers. The atonement is not only for the sinner, but also for the weak at heart and those who are stumbling to hold onto the things that matter most. I can now, without a doubt, say that i know my Saviour lives, and that He has restored His gospel to the earth today, and that we have a living prophet who gives us His word today. I know he suffered pain that no man will EVER understand, and that the benefits that we can have now because of His perfect love are extended to all those who come before him humble, and ready to do His will. I leave you all with my highest gratitude for ANYTHING you have done in any way to support me and help me out, be it prayers, donations, moral support to family or me personally, anything. I thank you all so much and leave this LAST missionary email with you foos, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. ​Sincerely and with much love. Elder Levi​ Alexander​ Windham T​hank you

31 October 2016

Herro everybody!!! I hope you've all had a pretty dope-tastic week!! mine's been pretty good :) This week has been pretty good for a couple reasons! I shall describe them as short stories, narrated by yours truly: [the person reading this email]. So for starters, we did all the cookie deliveries this week!!!! There were a few pretty fun stories and i shall continue to recount the FIRST and WORST (well, more like scariest) one. So this is a less-active Mexican family who we used to meet with and they NEVER did anything, so we stopped. Anywes, i went and placed the plate of pumpkin cookies on their porch, knocked, then ran around the corner of the duplex. I watched to see when they came and grabbed the cookies, but they ever came.... so i started going back to knock again and Elder McLaren (who was about 2 yards away) whispers at me. so i look and can't see a thang, and keep going to the door. to my great surprise, as soon as i got to the porch, the door swings open and i just drop to the ground, hoping he didn't see me (i'm also literally right next to the posrch which is not very tall). anyways, my thought was hmm maybe this porch chair will give me sufficient cover that he doesn't see me..? well, lemme tell you that i was totally FALSE in that assumption, and instead of protecting me, he said "eh, que quieres guey?!" and KICKS the chair at me!! so i immediately come out of my very secretive position pleading mercy and forgiveness, saying his name and telling him "LOS MISIONEROS!!!" he then got a little embarrassed and was like oh elder, you can't be doing that! i was ready to fight! hahaha so yeah, that made me pretty paranoid for a lot of the future deliveries, but heaven knows that didn't impede our Booing :) Then also last week, we had another lesson with Emmanuel and Tesoro!!! We taught the restoration all the way through and she seems super solid!! Once we got to the restoration of the priesthood, we extended a baptismal invitation for when she knows what we're teaching is true, and she said YES!!!!! So she's pretty dang solid. Elder Nuttall said she kind of reminds him of Gloria, and look what SHE DID!!!!!! #enduretotheend Speaking of Gloria, we had a lesson with her too!! it was a pretty good lesson. She's also totally solid and believes everything :) also she, Luisa, and Sophia ALL came to church yesterday!!!! and they stayed all 3 hours too :) it was nice because they talked a bunch about missionary work for the members and then in 3rd hour, since it was the 5th Sunday, they had it all combined and they talked about genealogy work and whatnot, and apparently Luisa is super interested in genealogy work!! So that'll be perfect for her because she can do all the work then take the names to the temple :) SO SICK!!! Also this week, we had interviews. pretty much for that, president basically just renewed my temple recommend since it expired October and i need to renew it before i go home, which is in very little time............ SO, the reason for the which i started emailing SO LATE today is because this morning we went to go on a hike with the other branch spanish missionaries!!!! it was pretty nippy and pretty dark when we started. we had to use flashlights for like the first 20 minutes!! it was super fun :) i don't currently have pictures, but at some point in the near future, i'll probably blow all of your electronic devices up with pictures and whatnot :) so that was kind of our week!! not everything, of course, but some of it :) i hope you guys all have a great Halloween and don't do anything unwise and you enjoy having a normal life. because imma join you in, like, 25 days or something like that....... TTYL!!! Love, Elder Levi Windham

3 October 2016

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great conference weekend :) i know I DID!!!!! This has honestly been another slower week unfortunately, but that's ok!! we can't let the slow times get us down :) alls i know is i've been having much more meaningful studies and it feels better to know that i'm at least trying to find people out there, we just haven't found them yet :) so yeah!! Tuesday we had ESL and that was an interesting night... So imma let you all know of this funny little story just because we all got a pretty good kick out of it xD in our ESL class, there is a chinese girl named Chloe (just her english name). She's been in Canada for about 3 years and her mom is here too and has been here for like 2 months. anywes, Chloe speaks pretty good english and is pretty used to the Canadian culture now and whatnot, and also has a big ole fat crush on one of her English teachers.... the one and only Elder Windham!! So we've all know this for a pretty good time now, and last week, at the end of class, she comes up to me and asks me ON A DATE!!!!! dang, that was flippin awkward... of course i had to explain that we don't date and do stuff like that on a mission, and if we were to do anything, we would all 3 go.. haha i don't think she'd really like that as much... but what the heck!!! that's honestly like the third of fourth time on the dang mission that i've been asked out. honestly more than ever happened back home.. haha! so that was funny :P Wednesday we got to go teach a little kid who's turning 8 on the tenth of this month and his mom wants him to hear the lessons before his baptism! him and his little brother are super chill haha. But dang, teaching kids is WAY different and harder than teaching older people.. haha! Thursday was the baptism of the 95 year investigator of the hermanas!! seriously SO CUTE!!!! there were FOUR people in the font making sure that it was all good! xD it was definitely an experience to remember :) hahahahaha ok, so i gotta tell you what i said during our missionary presentation while she was changing after the baptism xD so we watched the #hallelujah video and then kinda had a discussion kind of thing with everyone who was there. Then when we were baring final testimonies before sitting back down, i was like "so, i can imagine that most of you have thought to your self 'wouldn't she have been able to just die and then we do the temple work for her?' BUT that's not the case!! The Lord has preserved her all this time and given her the strength that she can still accept the gospel and follow the Saviours example and be baptised." so it started off TERRIBLE and there were quite a few gasps and giggles, but i came back quick and managed to maintain the spirit. I haven't gotten too much flak for it so i think i got off safe ;) haha! just future refrence, don't always say exactly what you are other people are thinking 😅 Then this weekend was CONFERENCE!!!!! Honestly, it has gone by SO fast since i started paying close attention and taking notes, and you get so much more out of it!! One of the talks that really touched me was when Sister Reeves talked about using the atonement. One of the things she talked about was how sometimes we think that the best thing to do when we've committed a grave sin is to not tell our bishop or others about it in order to "protect" them from the hurt feelings that can come from hearing about something bad we've done. Obviously we don't have to admit EVERY little siin, but there are the few large ones that may require our confession and a more outward effort to receive full forgiveness. That's something that we can all do is if we are trying to hold in our sin and guilt because we don't want to bring shame or disgrace on ourselves or hurt to those we know and love, to not hold that back!! the guilt will just eat us away and eventually we won't be able to bare it anymore. If we just bring them before the Lord and talk to the proper people who have been called by the Lord to help in situation exactly like this, then we will feel the love and relief that the atonement offeres and that guilt will be washed away and as we find in the scriptures,"i the Lord will remember [your sins] no more." that peace of mind and relief of guilt is worth it so much more than holding it all in. I love you all SO MUCH, and i hope you all have a great week!! Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. in case you are wondering why it says transfer week, that's because it's TRANSFER WEEK!!!! I'm not sure what exactly will happen this Thursday, but it will be the last chance i have to be transferred or get a new companion. 7 weeks from this Friday, i will be coming home........ THE MISSION CAN'T BE COMING TO AN END!!!!!!!

19 September 2016

Helloooo everyone!!! thank you for joining me again on this fabulous Monday morning. I'm your host, Elder Windham, and i'm about to give you all the low down on how this week done gone down!! So we had a pretty dang successful week, let's just say that for starters. The primary reason for that is because we found FOUR NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!! what what!! Crazy because that makes up close to 1/3 of all the investigators i've ever had for my entire mission. haha! yeah...... SO, two of them we found when we received a referral from some english elders for a lady who had apparently taken lessons before, and was interested in meeting some more missionaries. She's from Venezuela and her name beith Marilyn. She has 3 years in Canada and is here with her husband and has 2 kids. she's SUPER sweet and i think she'll be pretty open and accepting :) then when we met her, by surprise, we also met a friend of hers who is here learning English. He's been here for like 3 weeks now but speaks a tiny bit of english already (i'm pretty sure). But we've only met them once and shared some of the restoration with them, so we shall see where it goes :) Then one day we decided to pass by a former that was taught last year. They had trouble meeting last year because it was right after her husband DROWNED. but when we went by, we were only expecting to talk for a bit and she let us in!! (i think i may have already told you all that..... oh well) Anyways, we went back last Thursday to trim her trees (future reference, don't have missionaries trim your trees 😅) then shared a message about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. Interesting thing to note, last year when she was being taught, her mom wouldn't sit in on the lesson, but when they asked if she had been reading the Book of Mormon, she would say "no, but my mom has read some of it." and THEN when we were about to start the lesson, we asked her mom if she wanted to join for the lesson, and she was like "yeah, of course i would." SICK!!!! it'd be crazy if this whole time the mom has just been being prepared and now she can like help the daughter start doing stuff :) Then the last one we've started teaching is an 8 year old kid who's mom isn't a member but his aunt and cousins are, and he goes with them to church and loves going to church, so he said he wants to get baptized!!! So we gone teach him all do good stuff so he can be right and ready to get dunked :) haha! So yeah, besides that, nothing much.... except on Saturday we got to go to THE TEMPLE!!!!!! So i totally forgot to tell you all (i think.... i'm very forgetful) that a couple weeks ago, one of the kids here in the branch got his mission call to the Neucan Argentina mission!!! He lives the 26 of NEXT MONTH and he's going to the MTC... somewhere down there :P but on Saturday he took out his endowments and we and the other Spanish elders all went to the temple with him and his family and all their other Mexican friends (like, they're actually Mexican, not just Spanish and i say they're Mexican haha). Then afterwards we all went to Costco for some hotdogs and poutine :) YUM!!! oh yeah, this week we also had our zone conference and it was AWESOME!!!! It is my LAST zone conference EVER!!!! i couldn't believe it when i realised it. In fact, i still slightly can't believe it, but it flippin happened, and it was definitely a great last zone conference :) we totally have the best mission president ever :P haha! Whale, that was my week in a nutshell (kinda a big nutshell but whatevs haha). I hope you've all been doing great, and i want you to know that whatever happens in this life, or whatever trial you're going through, it'll be 10x lighter and easier if you allow the Lord to step in and lend a helping hand :) you're all the best and i'll talk to you laterz!! Love, Elder Levi Windham

5 Sept 2016

HERRO ERYBODY!!!!!!! i hope everyone has had a great week this past week :) mines been pretty good!! not a lot happened because we had other stuff going on that had to do with transfers, but dats alright, we're planning on working HARD this transfer and getting lots of work done :) so yeah, that's mostly all i have to report on is transfers :P turns out that for the first time in my mission, i am on a 3-leg!!!! both me and Nuttal stayed here in downtown Calgary and we received an addition to our ranks. Elder McLaren!! He's from Alaska and is big on football and working out. Not super BIG, but he's a fit dude and it'll be nice to have someone who can help me get motivated. not to mention he brought a bench and 125lbs of weight with him. haha!! So this transfer will be filled with WORK and working OUT ;) ;) but so yeah, i believe this will be my lamest email yet. so i shall re-address you all in a week from now and inform you on the progress of the Lord's work :) take care and you all da bomb!! Love, Elder Levi Windham

29 August 2016

Might i say, i am now part of the old person club.... I have now completed the ripe old age of TWENTY-ONE!!!! If i wanted to drink in the U.S. i could... but heaven knows that'll never happen... haha! funny thing though is in Canada, the legal drinking age is 18... what the?? haha but either way, my birfday was yesterday, and it was a pretty good one :) allow me to explain why :P So this week (and pretty much the whole transfer) has revolved almost completely around Gloria. Every planning session, every companionship study, every lesson idea has pretty much been geared toward her and what she will need to in order to be baptized. So this past week we had two lessons in prep for her baptism on Saturday. First one was Tuesday and we were PLANNING on having a quick 30-45 minute lesson, but being the second to last lesson and with the topics we covered (baptismal questions, tithing, fasting, fast offerings and how to donate offerings) it ended up being dragged out to a two HOUR lesson!!! whoa, we defs don't take that long every time, but we talked a bunch about church on Sunday where like all the talks and lessons in classes were based on families and eternal marriages and whatnot. So she was like "do you guys do that every sunday? just have everything based on the same thing?" we were like well in sacrament meeting sometimes, but how gospel principles was based on it too was just a perfectly timed move made by God.. haha! ok we didn't word it exactly like that but you get the idea ;) and then Wednesday was her INTERVIEW!!!!! Elder Cervantes (who is dead.. mission terms) did the interview. He is from Costa Rica and was the AP, and had been zone leader and also district leader and never done a baptismal interview, so he was SUPER excited and honored to be able to do it for her, AND he finished his mission LAST WEEK!!! like literally the interview was Wednesday and he went home Friday. He was really appreciative of that :) Then Thursday was weekly planning day... basically all of that was prep for her baptism on Saturday haha. Friday we had our LAST LESSON!!!! It was a dang good one too. We talked about temples, baptisms for the dead, eternal marriage, family history work, and all of that good stuff :) but she was pretty intrigued and interested in the baptisms for the dead, and when we explained it to her, she immediately accepted :) Saturday was just a busy day in general. we helped with a move at 10 in the morning and didn't finish until close to 1:00!!! then a family was having a birthday party for their daughter at 3, so we went to that for like an hour. but then we drove straight up to the stake center to make sure the baptism before us didn't drain the font......... the did not.. whew!! so we ran all the way back down to the south side of Calgary to pick up the dinner for the baptism (a Uruguayan soup thing.. flippin bomb.com), then went back up to the stake center to set up more chairs and tables for refreshments (more like dinner in the spanish culture haha). luckily the family of one of the ladies who was gonna give a talk showed up early to help prepare everything, so we got that done just in time. then as time starts passing, people are beginning to shop up. another things to note about spanish culture is if you say something is at a certain time, you better believe that it ain't starting at that time.. haha! the "time" for the baptismal service to start was set for 7:00, but hardly anyone was there by 7:15.. haha! but by the time we got started, the whole room was full. we originally set up 60 chairs, but they had set up another row just to be safe, and they told me that there was maybe only 5 chairs empty. it was amazing how many people came to see it :) anyways, Gloria got there around 7:20, she got dressed, i got dressed, and the service began. I just want to say, being able to participate in someone's baptism like that has changed my perspective on the mission a lot. The fact that she chose me to perform the baptism and how much effort we put in to prepare everything and get everything taken care of was incredible. She was so nervous going into the font, but when i said the prayer and baptized her, after i got the thumbs up and they closed the doors, she just started crying. She turned to me and looked up and all she said was "thank you" and gave me a hug and continued crying. i don't know how long it was , but i hadn't felt so happy in my whole mission. Several people told us later that it was the best baptismal service they had ever attended, and even when she came up out of the water, she came out "gracefully". the time, effort, preparation, prayers, fasting, and everything that went into her being baptized was all 100% worth it. This church is flippin true. thank you everyone for your love and support. This mission has changed me and continues to do so. I can't wait to get home and see how much my perspective has changed once i get to the "real world" again. i hope everyone is doing well, ad i shall re-address you all next week :) have a great week! love, Elder Levi windham

22 August 2016

WELCOME to the weekly update on the life of Elder Levi Windham of the Canada Calgary Mission!!!! this has been an eventful, but not so eventful, past week. Weird how that works out sometimes.. like it feels like stuff happened, but not much did. the week just flew right by me and i haven't a clue how it slipped away so fast... Must be my brain starting to slow down because of how flippin old i am in the mission.. haha!! just kidding, but did you guys know that on Thursday, i will have only 3 stinkin months left on the mission? How weird is that??? Like i literally used to only be OUT for 3 months, and now i have that much left.. Why is time going so quick?? but don't worry, i don't think about it too much, which is why i think it's going so fast haha. so yes!! this week honestly not a TON happened besides Gloria came to church yesterday... WHOOP WHOOP!!!! we literally only have to teach 2 more lessons and we will have taught all the doctrines that need to be taught before baptism, and i know she'll be fine in the baptismal interview :) we were talking about it this morning because we're gonna go over the baptismal questions tonight in our lesson, and we both felt she would be fine answering all of them :) even our branch president came to the lesson last week and he said he felt like she was ready for baptism :) so i will re-update you on the situation next week when it has either happened or not happened.. haha! As the Lord desires :) So yeah, this week we mostly tried to go by less-actives so we could update their info (address, number, etc.). It took a couple days to finish our weekly planning because we were working on the baptismal program which took FO EVA to make!!! but eese all good. It looks flippin sick :) oh, a big thing that did happen (besides our lessons with Gloria and her being amazing) was on Saturday, the branch had a branch picnic!! that was WAY fun!!! we played some football (the american kind haha), some soccer (other football),did some jump rope stuff, played a couple games, and THEN, for the final activity before we left, they did this thing where they took a rope and would hold it at varying heights and see who could jump the highest. I don't know if you all know, but i gots some hops... Like once i'm warmed up, i'm straight up able to dunk a basketball :) anyways, so me, one of the youth, and this other kid who's likea year or so younger than me and a recent convert were the last ones going. Eventually it was just me, and i flippin CLEARED that thing!!! The girl who was holding it is like 5'5" or something like that, and she had it up to her chin... i made it. then she put it to her nose.... i made it!! and THEN she put it up over her head so it was as tall as her!! i tried..... failed. BUT, i was determined to make it, so i tried again and i flippin MADE IT!!!! So i am able to jump and clear a height of almost five and a half feet!!! super crazy and it was SO FUN!!! the youth who stayed in the longest was like bro, you got hops man! haha that was a fun day :) also got SUPER sun burned!!! xD so yup, that was at least the gist of my week :) i hope everyone is doing great (or better), and you all keep focusing on your scripture studies. I know that's what has helped me a TON this last month or so, so if you're not doing it, DO IT!!! ;) talk to you all next week!! Love, Elder Levi Windham