30 November 2015

Hi there everyone!!!! Another week down in the "Great Canada Calgary Mission" and almost 365 days since i left behind my life to come serve the Lord for 2 years and learn more about myself than i EVER expected.. I LOVE IT!!! We taught all of our investigators except Harvey and Rosio..... ok, frustrating story about him!! So Sanchez is, well, a native spanish speakers from a Latino country, so people automatically like him because of that, and when he gives people our number, he ALWAYS gives it as if it his HIS number, and they ask for the name to put, and he says Elder Sanchez, so they think it's like his number and they'll be talking with him when they call.. So we tried to confirm our appointment for yesterday, and Harvey had to call us back later in the day and when he did, I answered and he's like "hola Nicolas, como esta??" and i'm like (in spanish) "oh sorry, this is Elder Windham" he's like sorry? "yes, this is elder windham.." who? "elder windham, the companion on elder Sanchez." oh ok.... then he told us that he couldn't meet yesterday, and while he was talking, at some random point, he switched to speaking English...... DUDE!!!!! i'm speaking spanish with you, i'm responding to what you say IN SPANISH, and you're gonna speak English? Sanchez was busting up laughing over on the couch because because we both know that he spoke spanish because, well, i'm white, and english is my first language.... Well at the end of the conversation, we were gonna call him back later in the week to see when they were available, and he's like "yeah, maybe when i call, i can talk to Sanchez." grrrrrr i HATE the latino bond that they all have because he shares similar countries and language with them and whatever. It's nice to be with a latino companion, but it's annoying that they obviously like him more just because he's latino, and it's so annoying..... Oh, Sanchez the tree, oh sanchez the Uruguayo, oh Sanchez the soccer player.. Bleh, thanks for giving us dinner everyday, but would you if he wasn't here? pretty dang annoying.. anyways, i ain't complaining am i? ;) haha! Just one of those things you gotta get through on the mission and learn from.. why can't i be browner?? i AM a quarter Mexican, soooo.... haha! whatevs, i'm learning from all of this so that's good :P We met with Maricel and were gonna meet with Tatian and Juan, but Juan wasn't there, so it was just Tatiana and the member we brought. But we taught them both the Restoration, and they both accepted it really good!! When we asked Maricel if she'd be baptized if she received confirmation that the BOM was true and the church was true, she said possibly.. so that's pretty good!! She's actually reading and praying sometimes she says, so if she reads the book of mormon and keeps praying, we think she'll most likely be baptized :) then when we asked Tatiana, she said probably yes!!!! So she's doing WAY good, and asked a lot of good questions at the end of the lesson and she continues liking all the answers and she's doing really good :) Also, on Saturday, there was a cultural night thing where the different members from different countries did some of their traditional dances and had little stands with food from their countries and it was SUPA FUN!!! At the end, they just cleaned up all the chairs and put on some music and had a little dance thing and we're like NOPE!! time to go!! haha but it was super cool, and a TON of nonmembers came and we talked with a ton of them and it was a really good activity to get nonmembers to and meet them :) we're gonna try and talk to the members who had friends come and see if we can get them to get there friends to start taking lessons :) great finding opportunity!! So yeah, pretty normal week.. I hope Y'ALLS was fun!! I love you guys and can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!! There was already a member who invited us and the other companionship of elders to come to their house on Christmas, so hopefully it'll be god Christmas food and they'll have more than one computer so we don't have to all 4 try and use the same one.. we'll see!! Have a great week everyone and i'll talk to you laterz!! Love, Elder Levi Windham

23 November 2015

Hi everybody!!! I hope you've all had an awesome week because i have!!! Of course, things are always getting better and (pretty much) always looking promising :) For starters, i got to see my first temple rededication!!! The Montreal, Quebec temple was rededicated yesterday so all normal church services were cancelled!! But we went to the final session at 1, and lemme tell you, i flippin LOVED IT!!!!! seriously though, the spirit was for reals so flippin strong, and it made me want SO BAD to go back to the temple!!!!! It's been way too long since i've gone :( however, we live pretty close to it here in Calgary, so i just have to wait until next transfer to go with Sanchez since he went last transfer already :P But yeah, that was a super spiritual experience and a good tear jerker and i really liked it a lot and am so thankful for the chance i had to see it :) Oh, also, as i said last week, i past my "one year left" mark this past week...... Eh, not too huge, but i'm halfway this week until i'm done O.o CRAY CRAY!!!!! see you guys in a year ;) haha! So something weird this week was some members asked us to come give a blessing to a baby.. not a huge deal, but the kid isn't part of a member family, and the parents TOTALLY have no clue we gave it a blessing... They wanted us to give it a blessing of wellness (ok) and also the blessing they do in sacrament meeting where they give the baby a name..... HUH???? Yeah, they wanted us to do a "baby blessing" to a kid who's parents 1) aren't members, and 2) had noclue we were doing anything at all.... I was like uuhhhhhh i don't think we're really supposed to do that... So we didn't :P So there are some less-active kids we are working with who play WAY too much video games, and we taught them this week and it went pretty good we believe!! The dad is really solid and bore his testimony a couple times throughout the lesson, and you could see in the eyes of the kids that they were like thinking about it this time. The oldest one is kinda the worst one of them. I looked at him a few times throughout and i could see the gears really turning and it was a pretty nice thing to see. We talked pretty much about how this life passes, and after this, we have what we did in this life and our testimonies, and how we need to really work on strengthening our testimonies and reading the scriptures, because THAT is where we find happiness and protection from the world, not in some man-made entertainment made to distract us from all things reality and important. It was a super good lesson and it was nice that we prepared for it too and were ready :) We ALSO had a lesson with another less-active guy and his (active) wife. We were going to talk about Nephi's vision and the scriptures, but when we started talking about it, we discovered he had NO idea what the vision was and like totally hasn't read the BOM through. We came to the conclusion after a bit that he was baptized as a kid, but maybe his parents divorced and he lived with his dad who wasn't super active in the church... I feel like i've met a lot of cases like that and it's almost always the guy who was weak and not founded in the gospel so he fell away after a time :/ Anyways, it was also a really good lesson and he was SUPER attentive the whole time!! When we were getting ready to go, he asked his wife like "hey when's the next time we can have them come over?" SO AWESOME!!!!!! That was also a super good lesson and made me really appreciate being out here :) Oh, so sometimes it's ACTUALLY cold now!! We went area book contacting the other day, and DANG it was nippy outside! like it was only -9 C, but we were outside walking around for about 3 hours, and after 3 hours, you really stop being able to use your fingers if you don't have good gloves... Haha!! but that was fun and fetching cold. I've been really trying to think of what we can say to people who are like "yeah, we're already Catholic but thanks anyways." Like how do you get them to see that it's good to be christian, but it's more than just believing, because this church isn't just a church where you belive in Jesus Christ, this is HIS church.. But you have to do that in like 30 seconds or less and you can't hurt their feelings and you still get them interested... Hmmmmmm any suggestions? Anywes, my spanish is getting better and better and i LOVE IT!!!! just last night, at the end of comp. prayer, Sanchez got up and was like "good spanish." tehe. YEAH BUDDY!! So yuppers, i love you guys and i hope you're all have a FANTASTIC time :) take care!! Love, Elder Levi Windham

16 November 2015

Howdy doody y'all!!!! It's been another week here in Calgary North, and lemme tell you............ It's been ight!!! We totally have like 5 investigators (2 couples and a single lady) who are all pretty stinkin solid!! We had a lesson with Maricel on friday and it was pretty nice!! It was the first time i met her but they had a lesson with her a week prior on exchanges. Sicne the last visit, they asked her to pray about what they'd talked about, and she had been doing it!!! We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her, and asked if she would be baptized if she received an answer, and she hesitated a bit... but then i told her that we know it's a hard choice to make and big change, but that as she prayed for help and guidance, Heavenly Father would give her strength and and she would know that she's making the right decision, and she was like "yeah, that's true, i'l definitely be thinking and praying about it." SO AWESOME!!!! She's pretty solid if i do say so myself :) We also had a lesson with a younger couple who are from Mexico. Super nice people. They have one 6 year old daughter, and the husband is attending the college up here studying oil engineering. We taled about the plan of Salvation with them and she had a couple questions about resurrection, which we answered and she liked the answers :) they both participated a bunch, and a couple times, the member we brought chimed in too, and it was so PERFECT!!!! It was a really good lesson overall and i think the spirit was at LEAST telling them that what we were talking about was good :) at the end of the lesson, we asked the husband if he wanted to choose someone to pray, and HE DID IT!!! It was also a real prayer and not one of the Catholic recited prayers, which is AWESOME!! They told us they'd be praying about what we talked about and are looking forward to meeting again next week :) Anyways, the work is going good!! It's pretty flippin nice to have investigators you have to think about :) i just need to get Sanchez to understand that just because the scriptures say "take no though before hand," it's not saying that you don't have to plan the lesson!! I've yet to do comp. study with him, but imma try and get pres. to talk to us because we have a few problems that i can't approach without him biting my head off.... BLEH!!!! Whatevs, i'm learning more than i ever expected to.. haha!! i KNOW i wouldn't have learned this much in the Navy. Again, thank you EVERYONE for all you do to help me be out here. I'm really trying to work as much as i can to show my Lord how eternally greatful i am for all the people who have made my mission possible and are still helping. Thank you guys, and i'll continue letting you know how i'm doing out here :) I LOVE YOU!!!!! until next week :) Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. i named my email this because for SOME REASON, Canada forgot how to snow and it only snows like maybe 10 minutes a week, then a bit on sunday night just before pday.. what's up with dat??

9 November 2015

Well how's everyone doing??? I'm doing pretty good i think so :) a few ups and downs and trying to solve a couple clicks in our companionship (kinda a given in a new companionship), but other than that, it's going pretty good!! We actually have more work than it feels, which is pretty nice! We've had a couple lessons with investigators and some less-actives, AND we got some of those less-actives to church!!! SUPA dope!!! It's a guy and his 3 boys, but the dad works so he can't come, but we got the 3 boys to church which is pretty awesome :) they're 18, 15, 13, so they all go to young mens so it'll be pretty nice if the young men step up and are good fellowshippers :) We had a our first lesson with some new investigators yesterday and it went really great!! We talked about the plan of salvation, and they took like everything in!!!! The husband says he's a "believer", and the wife is catholic. They're both divorced but have been married to each other for 3 years now. They're in like their early 40's or so. They're super nice and really receptive. After the lesson, he was like "hey, can we keep these pamphlets? I'm looking forward to being able to meet and talk some more in the future." SO we have another lesson set up for next Sunday again. We had a family home evening with those less-actives i told you about. The dad is WAY nice and i stinkin love the guy. He's a single dad raising all 3 of them, and he's just so nice and loves them so much and it's nice to see :) we shared a message and played a little game (tooty fruity) and had a little snack after. They're super sweet and i gots a lot of hope for them :) the only problem is being able to get them to church because none of them can drive and like no members we've asked have done anything... pretty frustrating really :/ we asked our zone leaders if we could just give them a ride since they're all members, so luckily they gave us the thumbs up. The only problem is that we may not have sufficient clicks (kilometers) to be able to do that all month, so we'll have to keep searching for a way to get someone else to give em a ride. The only problem is that it's 3 boys, and most people wouldn't have that kind of room to give 3 people a ride :/ the struggle is real y'all!! Anyways, me and Sanchez are getting along for the most part. like i said, a couple bumps, but we're getting through em pretty quickly thank goodness :) guys, you learn so much on the mission!!! fo realzies, it's constantly demanding you to refine yourself and change who you were before and become a better person. One thing that it REALLY demands for refinement is humility.... HOLY GUAC pride is tough. We all have it, just in different versions and amounts. One thing on the mission is it's hard not to be jealous of other's success. It's something i'm getting better at, but SOME people still have issues with, and it slightly pulls you in.. then you just have to step back and think "hmmm, why am i feeling like this? oh that's right, because i'm a PRIDE SACK!!" haha but yeah, someone said one time that pride is more than just being prideful in your own success, but being jealous of other's success. So that's something i've been working on is not being jealous, but trying to figure out how they do it.. ya know?? ;) Anyways, i love you guys!! thanks for all your support and love and LETTERS!!!! i'm still working on getting out some replies so you'll be getting em pretty soon :) take care everyone and have a great week!!! Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. it like snowed a TINY bit this past week, and this morning, EVERYTHING was covered in snow!!! it's about time Canada starts acting like Canada ;)

2 November 2015

​Hey everyone!!! I hope you've all had a great week this past week :) well, i was right ab out going with the person i thought i was!! He's from Uruguay, and we've been speaking a lot of spanish which has been pretty nice and good to help me with mine. It's funny because like i can ask him for help with how to say stuff in spanish and he asks me how to say stuff in english, so it's like a win win in that category ;) however, what's also pretty nice is that we have a couple investigators we are already trying to set tuff up with. However, they're not like super duper solid because they're latino peeps and so is my companion, so it's easier to get into that little friend point where they get along as buds, but don't necessarily preogress a ton because they're more friends and he doesn't like want to push them away by trying to be all churchy or something...... however, i could be pretty wrong about that because that's just what i think i see within these first few days. we have an appointment set up TODAY ON PDAY at 1, so i'll meet someone at least :P the members also seem a lot different than in the branch (or Rama in spanish), so that's kinda weird. It feels less homey and inviting. I've heard a lot about the ward, so i'm hoping that most of it is wrong :P but it is whatever you make of it, so imma come into this with high hopes of having a good time and enjoying it :) So, what are some things that happened this week..... Well, we went downtown contating on Saturday and that went pretty good actually!! My comp. (ELder Sanchez) didn't think we'd need jackets because it wasn't SUPER cold, so we didn't bring any.... that was a mistake -.- it was stinkin COLD yall!!! but eese all good, i talked to some pretty ight peeps :) i talked to these baptist people and had a pretty good conversation with them. They kept saying these things about our church and were like "so, correct me if i'm wrong, but you guys believe..." and i was like "ummmmm no, we don't we really believe..." So it was a good, educational conversation. I got to explain some pretty good, basic doctrine and our stance on some things. Overall, it was a pretty good little discussion :) neither of us got bashy, and at the end, they were just like "so, how old are you?... where are you from?... we respect a lot what you do.." SO it felt pretty good to actually give them a better idea of what we really believe :) ALSO, i talked with this guy from east Africa somewhere, and he's actually a christian and SUPER nice. He told me that apparently, a lot of the Muslim or Arabic​ people you see walking around don't even speak or read Arabic... like what the?? But he said he really likes our church because we know what we preach and don't go into it blindly just because other people do it. He also watched a movie apparently about how when the LDS church was starting up, how much it was persecuted and how many people were killed, so it made him wonder why it was hated so much and stuff and he wants to learn more. He asked me for a Book of Mormon so he could read it and understand our church a little more so he can look into it. He asked where our church buildings were so he could check it out. SUPER nice guy, and it'd be pretty sick if he actually gave us a call. Just a big bummer is that like half the people who are actually willing to talk to us are drunk or homeless or something, so it's like hmmmm you gots a bit of work to do :P haha but eese all good, not like they still aren't able to be taught and change their lives for the better :) But yeah, not a ton besides transfers. That kinda takes up the majority of the week :P packing, getting transferred, unpacking.. yeah, not a hauge fan, but at least i only have to do it like every 4 or 5 months which is pretty nice for me :) I HATE MOVING!!!! I remember when we moved apartments in Brooks, it stressed the heck out of me, like baaaadd.... but eese all good, i'll be here for a pretty good while :) we live in a basement beneath some non-member dude. We actually had to sleep in the zone-leaders pad on Halloween because they were throwing a big party up above us and we couldn't sleep, so we drove over at like 10 o'clock to stay at their pad :P whatevs, at least i haven't heard them breaking the ley yet xP haha! but besides that, i get to be in a basement for winter again, so it'll be nice and chilly if we want it to be :) we have this puny little portable heater for the entire apartment!! haha but it does a good job :) i'll have to take some pictures and send em so you can see :) anyways, i hope you guys all have a great week. I'm working on getting some letters sent out because it's kinda been a little while since i sent one. I actually work out in the morning!!! So that takes away that opportunity to write :/ but i'll be sending em out within the next week or so :) I lpove all of you guys, and i hope you have a great week. Take care!! Love, Elder Levi Windham p.s. It's snowing today!!! this is like the first GOOD snow day we've had and it's ACTUALLY sticking to the ground!!! So i'll get some pics of that and try and send em too you guys :)