June 1, 2023

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 simplify your lesson to the absolute essentials (I choked when trying to explain Judgement, and had to tap out and let Elder Sorenson save me.)

I barely survived and came out humbled "even to the dust..." :) (I exaggerate a little bit, but not by much) 

We also had a interesting lesson with the most wonderful old lady, Joan. We taught her about the Restoration, the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and invited her to not take our word for it but to pray and ask for herself if the message was true. She agreed, promised to do so, and basically told us that she already believed the message and that the Book of Mormon was true. However, she made sure and clarified that she was content with catholicism.

 Me and Elder Sorenson kindly implied that if Joseph Smith was in fact a prophet, that means the things he revealed were in fact from God and that meant that baptism had to be done by one with legitimate priesthood authority. She agreed, then suggested that because she had already been baptized twice she was all good. So we tried to clarify again, then she agreed again, but also didn't.

It was a wild lesson, we just kind of went in a circle and didn't get anywhere. We had a good laugh after the fact. 

But just to clarify, I don't want to put her down in any way, I'm telling you, if the Pope knew Joan, she'd be Sainted in an instant. Her ability to love others is so extraordinary its nearly superhuman. 

We also got to see Old man Boomie again! We had a good visit, listened to some of his stories, had a spiritual thought, then he gave us a triple chocolate pie (if there are pies in Heaven, then Boomie's the one making them)

Finally, while listening to a Sunday School teacher in Sunday School on Sunday on a sunny day, I was thinking about the state of my testimony. I asked the classic question of "If I knew no members of the Church, didn't have the pressure of habit, social peers or tradition, where would I be at?" Or in other phrasing, "what percentage of what I believe is traditional? What percentage is from a percieved social expectation? and what percentage is truly genuine?" 

I thought for a bit, thought a little bit more, than concluded that quantifying faith was a tricky business. Regardless, from that pondering came the conviction to aim for a greater percentage of a genuine testimony. One with the greatest factor being that of a personal connection and relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's it! Once again, it's hard to throw down a week of missionary life in one email but these marked the major moments

Bless all your souls, love you guys. 

1) Me and Elder Sorenson struggling to get a Independence day picture (for some reason I got no Canada pictures)

2) Boomie's triple chocolate pie.

3) The legend, Old Man Boomie

From Dad - Vacation Time!

Dear Ben,

Time moves a little slower on vacation. So slow in fact that I forgot to write you an email yesterday!  Hopefully you can get this still today. 

The saga with the mower is ongoing as I think I didn’t put enough oil back in after changing it and while I was mowing on a slant by the road out front I heard a thump and it died. Another learning opportunity!! I’m going to know the mower in and out by the time I’m done. I’m thankful to the Bonells for lending me their mower to clip the grass before leaving on vacation. 

On Friday we packed up the little car in preparation for a week at Premier Lake in BC only to find they we could not possibly physically fit all our stuff into that trunk and still bring the girls with us! So we said a prayer for our van and transferred everything over to the silver bullet van and headed for Glenwood. We were happy to find out that the Bectel’s were already at G&Gs and that Sam and Damon had come too!

We enjoyed a great visit and delicious chili buns and jello etc. we enjoyed a family softball game in celebration of Tyler’s birthday.  

Saturday after dropping Mom off in Mountain View to go hiking with her friends Siobhan and Jamelyn in Watertown for the day, we  made a plan to go tubing down the St Mary’s river to Kimball park about 15 min. from Liz and Jeff’s. We were a little challenged in our plan when we discovered most of the tubes had leaks but some creative patching and some faith and we were off down the river through some fun rapids and a beautiful summer day. First time tubing down a river for the girls. Did you ever try that? We had a great time and got a little more sun than planned. 

G&G we’re the shuttle drivers and were cheerfully waiting for us at the end with cookies and water.  

We headed back to the Bectell’s and enjoyed more food food and visiting. 

After supper I headed to Cardston to shop for camping and picked up Mom again. She was happy and a little pinker than when I dropped her off. Also a bit tired after hiking 20 km and 350 stories. 

We left the girls at the Bectell’s Saturday night to go to a Cardston youth dance. First in so long ! No masks and turns out 600 youth came. Abby tried the mosh pit briefly and decided she preferred not being in the center but was ok part way in!  Still not sure what her Dad thinks about it!

Sunday we loved being able to go to church and sing and shake hands and participate without faces covered. Grandma bore her testimony. So grateful for the heritage and history of faith in our family. 

Capped off fast Sunday with a fantastic feast of KFC chicken, potato salad, jello salad with strawberries fresh from grandpas garden. Aunty Liz brought amazing fresh rhubarb slush with ginger ale to cook us down. We were pleased when Aunt Tina and Clay came over to join us. Reanna and Isaiah came too. Isaiah is 8 and a breath of fresh air always coaxing is to play a little more!

Dad