Ben's Mission to Toronto

From Ben The Death of Elder Sorenson And so it goes! Elder Sorenson, my trainer, is dying. Carrying on. On Wednesday he'll have officially passed on from this life. I predict he'll be married before I come home.  But yes. Elder Sorenson is going home, and that means I will be getting a new companion, which also means I will be showing him the ropes of the Trenton area, which means I need to be on my A-game.  This week has been something crazy. Because it was Elder Sorenson's last week we were blitzing around our area and saying goodbye to a respectable amount of people. Because my phone has a better camera, I became the official traveling photographer to get pictures with Elder Sorenson and the members; which had me sweating buckets as my phone is caseless and feels as fragile as a phone would with a case, but without its case...  :) Our legendary friend, Boomie, unfortunately had a stroke earlier this week, so we came and dropped off some cookies. He is so grea...

From Dad - A good week Dear Ben, Hope you had a great week! For me it had some anxiety related once again to the lawn mower. I'm trying more often to take my cousin Mel's advice and ask myself "Why did I shout for joy for this trial". In my case, "Why did I shout for joy when I knew that my mower would break down every 3 weeks!". In some ways it is so I can learn patience and also learn new skills. I actually quite enjoy learning all the parts of the engine!.   This week I replaced the connecting rod that drives the piston as it broke inside the motor because I didn't put enough oil in the last oil change. I don't think I even knew what a connecting rod was. Then I got the joy of figuring out why when I attached the new one why the crankshaft wouldn't turn! Didn't used to know what a crankshaft was either. After some frustration and a good night's sleep I discovered that the crankshaft was scarred when the connecting rod broke so that is ...

From Mom - Rain At Night Dear Ben, After we chatted briefly on Monday, we got into the serious business of camping in beautiful British Columbia. It was hot, but happily it rained a little every night which is so lovely to listen to inside our tents while tucked in our sleeping bags. It cooled everything down, brightened the world, smelled great and made the trip that much better. Highlights include hiking to find some hidden lakes. Besides Mark and Todd’s huge full-grown puppies trying to knock us off the trail, our lives were NOT in danger in spite of the “bear-with-cubs-in-area” sign. There is some beautiful water and flowers to see, alpine air to breathe and it was rejuvenating in more ways than one. The girls loved the traditional tube rides.  We tried paddle boarding and loved it.  Did some cliff jumping. Sat around the fake propane fires (due to the fire ban). Found a couple of geocaches. (Mia may have converted the little cousins.) Ate a lot of junk food. But hone...

From Ben: Bless Boomie Alright, family and friends, there are some scary parts about a mission. You see some sketchy characters, you go to some dodgy neighborhoods, people give you that shifty side look. But. There is nothing as scary, as heart thumping, as tense... as teaching children.  Teaching Gospel doctrine and principles is not terribly difficult. It's pretty straight forward (so I thought,) but when me and Elder Sorenson sat down to teach this adorable 8 year old Vanassa, I realized that teaching the Gospel to a child is a whole different battlefield than when you teach it to an adult. Because their attention span is nil, you've gotta be both respectful of what you're teaching and entertaining.  Because they are completely honest in both word and facial expression, they give near immediate feedback that tells you how well you're doing (from Vanessa's face, I've got a ways to go still) And because their understanding of the Gospel is fledgling, you gotta ...