Como sabemos, no somos perfectos y no sabemos todos que van a pasar. Lo que sabemos es que hemos recibido señales para buscar, y tenemos que ser preparado, y hacer todo lo que podemos para que estemos listo para Su Segunda Venida. "31 El cielo y la tierra pasarán, pero mis palabras no pasarán. 32 Pero de aquel día y de la hora nadie sabe, ni aun los ángeles que están en el cielo, ni el Hijo, sino el Padre. 33 Mirad, velad y orad, porque no sabéis cuándo será el tiempo. 37 Y lo que a vosotros digo, a todos lo digo: Velad." (San Marcos 13:31-33, 37"

16 March 2015

Finally a GOOD week!!! Didn't start off amazing, but it ended up being great anyways!! So we went to Moxie's last p-day again. Like literally everyone was telling me how it doesn't matter if we go. They were all saying how pres. knows and doesn't care, and member's take us there sometimes too, and all this crap. But like honestly, it doesn't matter. It still isn't the greatest place in the world for missionaries, and that's all that matters. After that though, we stayed at the ZLs apartment for the night, and they had a chess set, so me and Keck played, and I beat his BUTT!!! haha Then later, more people got there, and I played someone else, and destroyed him too!! He kept asking how I was so good and how does he get better. haha! Tuesday was zone training which wasn't too bad. Then we went to sushi and tai again, and it was flippin gay. Like when we got there, they were all sitting at a much smaller table than last time, and there was only two seats left. When we came over, Elder Mackey (the douche I told y'all about) was like, "oh hate to break it to you guys, but those are for the sisters". So we sat by ourselves the whole time and no one joined us... Like seriously?? But whatever, I'm still alive and kicking. But later on, back in Brooks, we had dinner at bishop's house and had splits after with the elders' quorum. I went with brother Vary, and Keck went with brother Blumel. Brother Vary is so cool!!!! He is only 26 and acts like seriously exactly like me and it's hilarious!! We got along flippin great, and later on, Keck even said that we looked like we would have gotten along. Haha! But at one of the houses we dropped by, there was only a couple Mexicans outside working on a truck, and when we asked in English if the person we were looking for was there, and they didn't understand. So I was like crap, they probably speak Spanish.... "¿Hablan español?" "¡Oh, sí, sí!" So, by myself, I asked if the person lived there, they replied and said no, he probably lived there before one of them (one of them lived there they also told me), and I understood like exactly what they said and they understood me, and I was the only one who spoke Spanish besides them!!! So yeah, I'm super glad I was able to do that by myself :) On Wednesday we found an investigator!!! Her name is Rebekah, she's from Congo, speaks french, and has only been up here for 7 months!! She invited us straight in when we got there, and she went and grabbed a bible once we were sitting on her couch. She said that she actually was pretty acquainted with the "LDS" church, but had never heard of "Mormons" until she got here. People also tell her we aren't Christians, which was also something she hasn't heard until she got to Canada. So we explained the nickname and how people just don't like us for some reason, so they make up lies to deceive other people. But she was super cool and really friendly! Thursday we went on exchanges and I got Elder Rodriguez. We got along so well!!! He's got a crazy inactive background, but he's super solid now and determined to do right and serve a good mission. We didn't get a WHOLE lot done, but we met with Ashui (a recent convert who speaks very little English), and it went great!! She received everything perfectly and was super attentive. I also found how great of a testimony she has. Her only concerns are that she has trouble paying her 10% to God (tithing) because of everything she has to already pay (i.e. for kids, parents, school, etc.). Like if everyone had a testimony like that and had that much of a desire to keep the commandments, that would be flippin amazing! Friday we went to DQ with the Blumels, and it taste so different!!! Like the seasoning on the chicken was way bland compared to back home, and the BBQ sauce was way gross!! I also discovered recently that like pork-n-beans are like the most popular thing up here. As in, that's the only kind they even sell in Walmart (which sucks up here)!!! And no one has ever heard of "ranch style beans", which are my favorite!!! :( And also, when we were tracting, this group of 3 black girls followed us around telling me I looked like human Ken (like barbie doll Ken. Look it up, I have no clue), and asking how many plastic surgeries I had to look like I do, and they were like messing around and kept saying that I was hot and stuff and whatever... It was weird!!! They seriously followed us for half an hour saying stuff like that. We just left after a while and they like followed us (basically just me really. They kept like getting in my way) until I drove off like as fast as I could. HAHA!!! On Saturday we didn't have a lot of success. The absolute best part though is that we got Rebekah to Ben Blumel's baptism!!! She missed the actual thing, but she was there in time to see his sister give a talk and see his confirmation. And the closing song was "Follow the Prophet", and for the last 2 verses, she sang the chorus, which was awesome!!! So she liked that, and she had actually also brought a friend with her!! At one point, she was asking how she could serve a mission like us, and she wanted to get her friend into the "ministry". But they met and talked with bishop, and it was super flippin awesome!!! And on Sunday, she came to church!!! In gospel doctrines class, we just taught the first lesson (the restoration). She took it all pretty well, but the only thing she didn't quite believe, was the Great Apostasy. But hopefully in time she'll warm up to the idea :) Not much else after church until after dinner when we had a lesson with a less active. His name is Hakeem, and he's also from Congo, but has been here for 10 years. But he was so awesome. We taught him about the Atonement and read him the scripture 2 Nephi 9:7. I did most of the explaining, because honestly, Keck doesn't do a very good job at it. But we explained how why the atonement is necessary, because we WILL sin, and how it's infinite, and we can use it any time we want because we will never not sin, and God put it there so we could repent and keep trying our best. But I explained like most of it, and when we were done and answered all his questions, he said thank you so much for coming by and how thankful he is that we talked about that scripture specifically. He was so awesome and understood like all of it. So I'm sure if we keep working with him, we could get him back out to church :) But have been working pretty hard, and I'm glad it's finally paying off and we're finding people to teach and reactivate and help change for the better. Thanks to all you guys for all the prayers and support. I'm so glad to be in this service and change peoples lives and show them true happiness. I hope all you guys are doing great and being great member missionaries ;) I'll talk to you guys next week!! Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. I've been forgetting to tell you guys, but up here, they don't have the letter Z... It's pronounced Zed!! Isn't that weird?? Also, the garbage disposal? Yeah, they call that a garberator. Haha!! Just some funny things they do up here :P

9 March 2015

I only have one new picture this week. LOOK AT ALL THE MAIL I GOT!!!!!!! When the ZLs were giving it to me, it was just like letter after letter after letter, and everyone was like wow, looks like no ones forgotten you yet! don't worry, it'll come in time. HAHA!! but whatevs, as long as i get like at least one letter every time, I'll be fine :P A slow week... That's what this past week was. BUT i got everyone's letters last Tuesday and we have Facebook!!!! But it was still slow, and it SUCKED!! On Monday we didn't go to Moxie's because I told Elder Keck the I didn't want to, and I'm driving, so I basically have final say now. Haha! Then later we met with President for a "trainer's re-training" meeting sorta thing, where he basically told us we need to be doing 12 week more and stuff, and when we were leaving, Elder Keck goes, "I'm sorry Elder Windham. I've been a bad example and a trunky pile trainer." He said it kinda jokingly, nut he's actually been doing a little better this week! Like we've done 12 week every day basically. Then on Tuesday morning, we all had personal interviews with pres., and that went pretty good. That's where he told Keck to do 12 week more and stuff, and he promised he would do that and we'd have comp. study every day, and we've done pretty good!! For lunch we went to this place called Sushi and Tai, and I've never really had sushi before, but it's not too bad! Of course I didn't eat the raw fish kind of sushi, just the fake stuff, but I kinda liked it! Then when we got back to brooks, we read the online manual for Facebook. Then, we went to this black guys house who our bishop referred to us, and he was like really only interested in the bible and king David for some reason, but I am pretty sure he's not even all there, but whatever, he's not a bad guy... Actually, we found out yesterday that he got arrested on Saturday for stealing from his work..... SOO the bishop said to just keep seeing him and maybe we'll be a blessing to him or his family at least. IDK!! Wednesday we tried more stop-bys with no success. One lady was on her way to work and said come by Sunday, but that was it. Also, I read all my letters and they were AWESOME!!! Thank you guys so much, and I'm gonna be spending a lot of time today writing back!! It'll take a while, but we're getting haircuts today, so I can write while he's getting his and showering after. Also, Wednesday was the first time we did Facebook on the mission!! I'm just finding some people on the mission and in the area right now, but they are going to let us use it starting tomorrow and then we can begin posting!! Thursday we tried to stop-by some people again, but, no surprise, zero success. We gave a card to one guy, so now if he's interested, he said he'll call us... Also, I had forgotten my chapstick at the stake center on Tuesday (I've never actually kept it without losing it for that long. I got it in the MTC!!). That was a bummer, but I got some Burt's Bees!!! IDK why everyone says it's so amazing, but it ain't too bad!! Friday was almost entirely a waste of time. We did language training meeting which I GUESS is somewhat productive, even though we played this pool jeopardy game for the Spanish thing... Then we all went to Canadian Pizza unlimited for lunch. Then after that, we did FB for almost 2 hours, then it was almost time for dinner at the Blumels, so we went and helped make homemade pizza, and just sorta talked and hung out until 9:20!!!! So yeah, a wasted day when it comes to finding/being a stinkin missionary!! :( Saturday Pretty sure was also a waste of time. But we did some stop-bys and this guy answered. He was the husband of the lady we talked to a bit a couple weeks ago. He was really friendly and super nice, but he said they probably wouldn't be interested. So now we have enough people crossed off our stop-by list that we'll have to start tracting again pretty soon, so HOPEFULLY we'll finally find someone else. Also, when we tried to stop-by Suzanne, the one from Newfoundland, and she said not right now because her husband is on his way back because he found out his dad has cancer.. So hopefully he doesn't somehow associate that with us in some negative way!! Sunday was also pretty lame. We went to a members house for lunch at like 2, and it was pretty dang good!! We had burgers, steak (WAY different than back home. Not as good I don't think haha), and Mac-n-cheese, which up here they just call Kraft Dinner. Kraft is the THE brand up here. So everyone does Kraft mac-n-cheese, so they call it Kraft dinner. ALSO, a funny thing they say is a garberator... That's what they call the garbage disposal thing in the sink haha. Anyways, sorry, but we played a few board games at their house too, and we were gonna play settlers of Zarahemla (a little different from Catan), but I told my comp. that we should probably go and be productive somehow haha. So we left at like 5:30, and we tried to drop by that lady who said come Sunday, but she didn't answer, even though I think she was home because her car was there. We also tried to set something up with Alaina, but she gave us a BS excuse. I was like 7:30 and she said how she's doing dinner and she wants to set the kids schedule up to go to bed after dinner. Like she told us the other day that they were like staying up 'till 3 in the stinkin morning. So we just texted her a bit about some uplifting stuff fo show, and after like 5 texts, she just replies "ok.." Like COME ON!!! If you're interested, tell us. If not, TELL US!!! But yeah, I can feel myself feeling more and more depressed in the mission because of the lack of work and extra time we have because of it. Like we don't necessarily want to start tracting quite yet because there are still enough people to drop by that we could possibly pick up like one or two more investigators, but it's not looking too promising right now :/ anyways, hopefully it picks up soon. I'm not up here to spend my time working in circles and not spreading the gospel because no one's interested. People say even if you don't change anyone else's life or whatever, then you'll at least better yourself. I don't want to better myself! I'm up here for them, not me, and it SUCKS that it feels like everything I'm doing is in vain because none of them really care, they just say come back because they're too nice to say no. Like seriously, tell us no so we can stop wasting our time with you and move on. Thanks again everyone for the letters. I love reading them and hearing from you guys. Keep working hard in whatever it is you do, and I hope you all miss me!! haha just kidding :P Sincerely, Elder Levi Windham

2 March 2015

So, I actually remembered my journal AND my camera this week, but not much has happened... On Tuesday after we got back from P-day, we went on splits with the High Priests, and I went to visit a couple people we knocked into a few weeks ago. Both times it had been the wife of the person who lived there, and they said their husband was a member. Then both times this time, the husband answered!! One was baptized when he was 8 and moved in with his dad after a divorce, and they stopped going to church, but his mom is still a member... I guess that's just how it goes.. But he wasn't really interested at all, but he was nice! Then the other guy hasn't gone to church for only a couple years. I suspect he either had an affair or something along those lines, because he also got divorced a few years ago and at one point, he said, "I've made a few choices in my life, and I just don't think church is really cut out for me anymore." But he was super friendly and really nice, and we got his number and he said to give him a call whenever, and we could drop by any time he's not busy, so maybe we can reactivate him or something or get them out to church at least! Wednesday when I was reading the old testament (I'm gonna read the bible straight through now haha), I was reading where God said to change Sarai's name to Sarah, and in the footnote for Sarah, it said "i.e. princess", so I think I know what I want to name my first daughter!! haha Then later we dropped by this older lady who we had given a BOM a couple weeks prior, and she let us straight in!! We found out she is from Newfoundland (anyone from Canada knows "newfies" basically have their own language haha) and had Catholic background. She hadn't gotten to read the BOM yet because she had her grand kids over most of the time, but we explained what the BOM was and she seemed pretty interested, and she said we can come back any time. So hopefully that's a new investigator! WOOHOO!!! Not much of any success of any kind on Thursday. We did some stop-bys with no success. The only nice thing that happened Thursday was we got a call from the ZLs and they told us that I get to be the designated driver and now I'm driving!! FINALLY!!! I was getting pretty sick of Elder Keck's driving haha. Friday we went and translated for a former investigator at the car shop while he was getting his car fixed. I found out that they charge .8 of whatever it is they're doing just for labor... So like if you buy a $100 part, they charge .8 just for labor, so you're basically doubling the price JUST to put it in... IDK what it is in Texas, but that sounds ridiculous! Then we did more stop-bys... No success. We also tracted for several hours with no success again. It also started snowing pretty hard while we were tracting, which was pretty fun, except it was flippin WINDY, so that made it pretty miserable. Also, I've been forgetting to say how insane this weather is up here. In Med Hat, which is like an hour East of us, it could be +10 C or warmer on P-day when we get there, while here in Brooks, it's still like -3 C!! Then we got up to +6 C in Brooks for a couple days, then this past week, it dropped back down to -12 C.... It's worse than Texas!!! haha Saturday we did some more stop-bys and some tracting with no success again. One guy was a drop by, and the first time it had been his wife who answered. But when he came to the door, he looked at us and goes, "who are you guys with?" And I said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and he goes, "nope, sorry" and slams the door so hard I felt the air around us move and the ground shake!! Like bro, no one deserves to be given that little respect, especially if you literally just BARELY met them. But whatever, he'll be apologizing some day haha. Yesterday we didn't get much done, although we FINALLY got to go back by Alaina to see how they're doing. She's so nice and inviting, but this divorce sounds like it's flippin heck for her. Like the guy (a Muslim by the way) had an affair on her with someone at the police office he works with, and is a total jerk and is just trying to get the kids away from her. Like that literally sounds like it's the only thing he wants, is to get them and make her suffer. The number of things he does is just redonk (ridiculous). I don't want to delve too much just because of how pathetic it is and how long it would take to explain, but he's flippin lame and doesn't deserve anything. But I really feel like we can help her a lot because she is going through the same thing I have sort of gone through so I can relate in a lot of ways and I feel for her. But we spent like 2 hours over there last night and talked the whole time, and she really seems like she is seeing God's assistance in her life through all this. But this week has been pretty lame and unsuccessful, except we hopefully picked up a new investigator!! Also we are dropping Amanda for now since we can never meet with her or get a hold of her or catch her at home, so we will be trying to focus on finding other people and the people we have now :) Thank you guys for all the support and letter you've sent. I will continue to keep you guys up to date and hope you're all doing fine without me!! haha I love you guys, and you have all blessed me in so many different ways. Love, Elder Levi Windham 7044 Farrell Road SE Calgary, AB T2H OT2 Canada

24 February 2015

Okey dokey, so this will probably be another really long one, so prepare yourselves! haha So last Tuesday was pretty uneventful. I had told Elder Keck that morning that I wanted him out of bed and done with showering and stuff by 9:00 so we could start our day at the time we're supposed to... And he did it!! haha I was pretty surprised when he got up to take his shower at like 8:30 instead 9:15 like usual, but he did it! Then we did our comp. study like we were supposed to! Then Rosemary Elders came in for district meeting. Then around 1:30 ish when we finished, we came back and did language and 12 week, which wasn't TOO too bad even though I didn't really want to. I basically just translated a page out of the Liahona, which took LITERALLY an hour, but it was a pretty cool story about this lady who wanted to take a picture of temple square with untouched snow but there was one trail leading to the temple from the women who were on their way to work that morning, and how they were so diligent even though it was still pouring snow and windy. A little later we had dinner with this family who had three older boys and two little girls who were flippin adorable!! And they were all really well behaved and listened to our message pretty attentively and it was super nice. On Wednesday I got him to get up at 9 again!! We also did all our normal studies like we're supposed to do (i.e. personal, companionship, language, 12 week)!! I'm pretty sure that if I just keep being persistent, he'll start doing it on his own :) We did some more stop-bys but with no success. Dinner was good and we had homemade perogies, which are really hard and time consuming and DELICIOUS!!! They said they ONLY make them for very special occasions or Christmas because that's just how much of a pain they are to make, so I guess we're pretty special! haha Also, something Keck told me at some point was that for his last transfer, he'll probably just make his comp do everything, so if I'm his comp., there'll be a bit of a problem there... Thursday was pretty lame since we had to weekly plan. After we finished though, while we were doing some stop-bys, we had another companionship inventory, and I told him about how I really don't like his laziness and we came out to work, not to be lazy piles (a pile is kinda short of "pile of crap", or just a lazy missionary). Also how I don't like how much he calls other missionaries and texts them for unimportant reasons and I never know what's going on when he texts or someone texts him, and he said that's totally understandable. So now basically every time he calls someone, he puts it on speaker, and I also have the phone most of the time, which is pretty nice!! Then he told me I should work on being more humble... He didn't do a very good job explaining what exactly he meant by that. But he basically just used my example with Elder Mackey. IDK if I told y'all about him, but a couple weeks ago, there was an Elder who, with Elder Keck and another missionary, were talking about where we were going for lunch after Zone Conference, and I was kinda off to the side, and didn't really hear, and I said, "Where are we going? I didn't hear." And he just turns to me and goes, "I know, we weren't talking to you.." Like ok dude, what the freak ever. Then a week later or so, they were messing around on Facebook and chatting with some girls in the MTC on thhe Mormon.org chat thing (not supposed to do either of those), and I had sorta seen them doing it earlier, and was just like whatever. Then like a few hours later I came back and they were still doing it, and I came to the computer and just like leaned in with them and was checking it out, and he exes out of everything and closes it all up, and I'm like, "I already saw everything earlier. I know and don't really care." And he just goes, "ok, so, go away." Like bro, I have never said anything to you ever. Why are you like that..? Anyways, Elder Keck told me how I shouldn't be so prideful and think that it's his problem or whoevers problem and not mine if they act like that, and I should try to be kinder and more Christlike, and try to be less obnoxious or whatever. Because I talk a lot or make it sorta known when I talk, like I wasn't to be the center of attention. I'm just an outgoing person, and I don't like being quiet and sitting in the background. I like participating and be present. But yeah, I re-explained how I won't actually start anything with someone like that as long as he isn't going out of his way to bother me. Then he also said how from what he discussed with another missionary, there's only like 4 people in the zone who like me: both the zone leaders and this other companionship (one of them used to be Assistant to the President). And I told him how if those are the only people who like me, the people who are in authority and someone who used to be AP, then I must be doing something right, and maybe other people need to stop being so judgmental and rude. But whatever, never in my life have I had any enemies or people who legitimately didn't like me, so I'm not changing now that there are a couple missionaries who don't like me very much. Friday was actually productive! Elder Keck didn't really feel too good, so he made me decide what to do. I wanted to go tracting (since we don't have any really investigators). We placed several BOMs and one person seemed actually genuinely interested! She was very appreciative when we gave it to her and explained how it's a lot like the bible, and we went through the pictures in the beginning, and she seemed totally intrigued the whole time, and when we asked if she would read it and we could come back in like a week, she said "oh yeah, sure, definitely." Like PLEASE be interested!!! haha Saturday Morning we tried to get a hold of Alaina and she never picked up. then at like 1:15 she called and said they all slept in and we could come around 2:00 to help her out (we had asked the other day). When we got there, the task was to help her clean up her basement. that place was a DUMP!! She has five kids, so they all trash the place basically (sounds all too familiar haha). But yeah, that was pretty nasty and super messy and took a while, but we got it done and will come back another time to talk and have a little lesson with them! OH!! and her 5 year old son LOVES spider-man, which is funny and I told her about how my little brother loves spider-man too haha. So Sunday was another frustrating day in the sector of laziness. On our way back from Bassano from teaching Elizabeth after church, Elder Keck said we were gonna do more personal studies because he hadn't done them that morning (even though I had). When I saw him in the morning, he was just sitting there eating his stupid breakfast bar, doing nothing... So when we got back around 3:45 in the afternoon, he went and laid on his bed, got under the covers with the phone, and started reading... LLLAAAAAZZZZZYYYYYY!!!!!!!! Like yeah I know you're not breaking any rules, but you're SOOO flippin lazy!!! So I got to write in my journal a bit about it (a pretty funny entry actually haha) and read some more. But once we finally got out.... no success. A few nice rejections, but nothing. We placed one BOM to this lady who seemed pretty interested, but that's it. One guy actually answered the door in nothing but a red pair of boxer briefs and a T-shirt and goes, "oh hey guys, just making love to my wife." I didn't think he was serious, and when we asked if he was interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ, he turns inside and yells, "Hey honey, you want to talk about Jesus? *turns back immediately* nope, bye guys" and slams the door... I honestly think he just took his pants off before answering the door so he could say that hahaha. Yesterday was actually quite successful I think!! We placed I think six BOMs and several of them seemed actually genuinely interested! The first lady said her husband was Mormon but hadn't gone to church in a while. We later heard that he was raised LDS but hadn't gone for a while. She was very nice and said to come by in the evenings if we wanted to catch him and we could talk to both of them and see if we could get them back out. Then a couple doors down was another super nice lady who we gave one to and said for us to come back. A few more doors down was this lady who was about to leave with her kid and we told her how through the Book of Mormon and the bible, someone can come closer to God and and build their testimony in him/ She took it quite appreciatively and said she would definitely read it and we could talk about it later. Then one guy, when we approached the door, I saw a little sign in his house that said "prayer", and then he didn't seem to interested when we first started, then I introduced him the BOM and said how by using it and the bible, you can use it's teachings and message and it can help guide our lives and make us happier and bring us closer to God. Then he kinda got this look on his face, took it, and goes, "ok, you come back later.." haha so I think that was kinda his way of challenging us like "ok, we'll see if it brings me closer" haha. So yeah, I'm really glad we did this much tracting. It was pretty scary sometimes, but we survived, and I'm really thinking we'll pick up at LEAST one new investigator!! A lot of the people who took them were genuinely appreciative and very nice, so hopefully one of them at least will look through the BOM and keep some bit of interest, that way we can help them to feel the spirit and really come closer to God. I love this gospel and I'm so thankful I have this chance to serve The Lord and can't wait to help someone change their life for the better. I love all you guys and can't wait to get more letters!! I'll try and get some stamps to send you guys some, but I heard they're like $1.50 up here! Yikes!! But thank you all for all the support and I love hearing from you guys. Until next week! Love, Elder Windham