September 30th Letter

President and Sister Archibald!
the Calgary south zone!

district breakfast Good bye to elder Petersen, he was a Canadian who was serving in our mission waiting for his visa to come through

we love him

Yo family! Life is good here, its starting to get colder, so suit coats are back on and so are jackets, I've still got that sense of adventure for winter, so its all good. Transfers are next week, so I'm a little nervous about that, i really love this area, and don't want to leave yet, but seeing as I've been here for 6 months its only fair for some other missionary to come and enjoy. But i love this ward SO much. There are so many sweet people, and its a young ward so i feel more like I'm serving in a ward with my brothers, sisters, and friends. Its awesome. And a bit of a self esteem booster came from when i picked up the dinner calendar from relief society and the dinner calendar was packed....up until the day after transfers. haha it felt good to see that. But i really do love this ward. I'd spend the rest of my mission here. I'm really excited for a Church tour that we got happening this Friday night, we challenged some members to have someone for us to teach, and their neighbors agreed to meet with us! I'm so excited for that!!! Tell nanny that i love her and loved her email and I'll ask president about talking to her. I love you all!

September 23rd Letter

new mission car
calgary food drive, the traffic directors

larsen in the tunnels under the church!

crazy stuff in the tunnels

us again

Life is going really good up here. Elder Larsen and i went exploring in one of our church building and we found a tunnel that goes under the cultural hall, and then up into a ladder, that goes up to the furnace area. it was SO much. fun. A blast. I felt like Indiana Jones. and that got us wondering about the other chapels in the area, so we definitely found some other crazy spots in other chapels and that was fun. SO we're going to the lake again today, and i hope something exciting happens again. We got together and had a district FHE/bonfire for someone to burn their tie and it was great. WE all shared spiritual experiences from what we've learned being on missions and why we are out here. It was a great experience and really helped me see that we are doing something really important out here. It was an amazing night. And then last night to celebrate pday eve we made root beer floats. I love being a missionary and having this opportunity to serve the Lord and experience so much growth. i love you all!!!

September 16th Letter

makin banana cream pie for a ward party!

Petersen, being cute

marsden, being angry

larsen, being happy!

marsden, being angry

playing some vball i love that shirt!

setting.........ps, this is the day we saved the guy!!!

Hello family! Life is good. Highlight of the week is for sure the New Brighton Ward's Chili cook off! The Sunday before they mentioned that not too many people had signed up for pies, so i signed up to make two banana cream pies. The party was a blast. There was a good turnout and the chili was GREAT. And everyone loved our pies. Sadly, not too many people got to try them, because they were gone so fast! Definitely delicious. And on Sunday a couple people brought friends to church, and we had a great Sunday school lesson. it was sweet. hearing about Elaine was hard, so it was hard to think of stuff to write, so i just wrote this. It was so hard to hear about Elaine's passing from cancer. I cried for the first time since we lost the CIF quarterfinals game my senior year, back in 2007. Wow what a loss. I've never known of someone like Elaine. She REALLY had concern for you when you were injured, and would help with more than athletic injuries. She was SO easy to talk to, and always was willing to provide good common sense down to earth advise. Everything with her was REAL and alive. The training room was a place you could just feel comfortable in. I'll never forget when i had my second concussion, and she looked at me with a straight face and said, "You have some draim banage." I thought i was hearing wrong and going crazy, and she kept going at it. 3 minutes later she stopped and was just cracking up and then i realized she was teasing me. Its one of my best memories. There's really no words that can entirely capture what she's done in life and how much she means to so many people. I wonder if she's up there in Heaven right now, taping up old long gone Elsinore High school football legend's ankles. Maybe working at some heavenly rodeo or something, i don't know. But I know that she is up there, in a better place, with no more pain for her to struggle with. Thanks for everything Elaine, I love you!

September 9th Letter

Tucking in my boy I threw this cowboy hat in the air toward elder larsen, and it landed right on his head!
SO cool bed time story

Sword fighting with e larsen


Hey! how's it going everyone! Life is good up here from Calgary. just keeping it real. Sorry about the delay, myldsmail.net was not doing too hot yesterday, so i couldn't email for half the time. SO when i went to send the email it totally got lost and i was not happy. That happened multiple times so that was frustrating. We just had mission conference and it was great. WE had Elder Kent Richards from the second quorum of the seventy.It was so good. Just one of those conferences that really gets you excited for everything and fills you with knowledge and makes you want to do better. SO, here's the story for the week. First, a confession. I went swimming. Ok, now the story. WE had an awesome day at one of the community lakes in our zone. An investigator of the zone leaders wanted to thank us for all the service we've done for her so she had a BBQ for us. It was awesome. We played beach volleyball, played a sweet game of capture the flag, and had awesome hamburgers.Then, towards the end of the day, we were trying to catch a seagull (yes they are up here i was so shocked when i saw them) using the box and stick method. It was pretty serene. A lady was combing the beach using one of those tractor things they use at baseball games, and seagulls were everywhere. All of a sudden we start hearing someone yelling "help help help!" I first thought it was the lady on the tractor, like she had gotten stuck or something. But then i saw a guy thrashing around in the water. Someone goes, "is that guy drowning?" And the elder holding the string says, "forget this!" He drops the string and takes off running. That kind of wakes the rest of us up out of our stupor, so me, elder larsen, and elder whitt are sprinting down the beach as fast as we can, larsen in front, me behind, and whitt behind me. Larsen rips off his shirt, and that really wakes me up to the situation. This guy is DROWNING. SO i take mine off as well, and run into the water. We ran about 150 yds down the beach to get to him, and he was about 20 yards offshore. (we later looked at our footsteps and they were about 10 ft apart. we were running pretty fast, hahaha) Larsen gets to him first, grabs him around the chest and starts swimming him in. I finally get there and grab him arm to stop him from flailing, cuz he was fighting larsen pretty bad. Then whitt gets there are starts helping him as well and we bring him in. Turns out the guy was in the second stages of hypothermia when we pulled him out. So, there's some highlights. We Saved a guys life, and got to swim legitimately. It was pretty awesome and a story to beat all stories. Now i just gotta get it down in my journal. Another missionary was talking to him as he was recovering and let him know who we were so hopefully he gets interested. Life is going good though. the ward is on fire with missionary work so we are happy about that. I'm so happy so be out here and count my many blessings that i get to serve people up here as well as my God. I love you all!

What are the qualities of your bishop that makes him a missionary bishop?

Missionary work is a big topic in PEC and he always wants to help. Also, his mission is decently fresh in his mind, so he knows how it is. Also, he never judges us, but is grateful for what we're doing always, and that makes me want to do more.

ANSWERS TO DAD'S QUESTIONS:

What does he do in the ward to excite them?

The WML did a 5th Sunday lesson on this new book that is out. instead of doing a typical missionary work lesson, he did it in a round about way that wasn't so same old same old, but people saw it as really important. The church hired a PR firm to survey what people around the world thought of our church, and L. Tom Perry did a talk about it. I can't remember what its called but you could probably find it. Its in church bookstores.

What do the members do for themselves to have the spirit of missionary work?

We help them. They need to recognize when they have one, and love it

What do you and your companion do to add to it?

Share scriptures, challenge and commit them.


Tell me what you do as a district leader. How does it differ from what you would be doing as a regular missionary?

TO be honest, i don't like it. They throw so many rules and regulations that you cant do what you feel but have to do what you're told, even when its not necessary. But i do like preparing the trainings i have to do every Monday morning, that's fun. But there's just a lot of unnecessary work and even back biting they ask you to do. I don't like that part at all.
Has it been a good experience?It has, you see a lot, and the responsibility is good. I like that part. it gives me a feeling like i can always do more and help others.
NO id didn't send pics. I didn't have any. But i do this week.

September 2nd Letter

The ward is doing great. I love this ward, I'd gladly end out my mission here. The ward is on fire with missionary work, and i love it. It feels so good to have the bishop behind us so strongly and the rest of the ward is following suit. Thanks for the package! I loved it. The family picture is on my desk! Things are GREAT with the new companion. he a funny kid from Idaho. Cool experience, ready GO: SO we went on splits last night, and i felt a really strong impression to send Elder Marsden to contact a former investigator that we lost contact with. Basically, they taught her about the book of Mormon, set up an appointment and she's still solid! SO good to hear! I'm so excited because the one time we met with them before they were WAY solid, and its gonna be GREAT. i love you all and pray for you! life is good!