Elder Skyler Rushton at Vancouver Temple
Hello friends and family! What a crazy week it has been here in the area of Vancouver. My only question: Where the heck am I? I know, strange question. But it is the sum up of all of my thoughts since I’ve been here! So the first day we drove here to North Vancouver (The name of the city is really “North Vancouver”) we got to drive through downtown Vancouver. So. Crazy. The traffic was nuts, every ethnicity was very well represented, names of stores in Mandarin Chinese to Farcie to Punjabi to Thai to Keren… You name it, it was there. Scantily clad everyone (except for the missionaries of course!), street performers, and business people; there was everything. It was a tad bit overwhelming! And that was just downtown during the DAY! On Saturday, we got the opportunity to drive through it again at night.
Nighttime Vancouver is very different from day time Vancouver. We saw a lady walking around with a giant snake draped over her shoulders, tons of crazy homeless people, tons of nightclubs and the kind of crowds they attract, giant bright neon signs; it was pretty much Las Vegas Strip status! It was all enormously different from my last area, that’s for sure!
So up here in North Van, it isn’t too bad actually. It’s one of the most beautiful places to live in the province, and also one of the most expensive. For those of you that know what my house back home looks like, it would cost about $1.7 Million here–land included. Super— Expensive. Most homes have basement suites so the owner can pay for the house. We live in one of two basement suites at our house, and its pretty ghetto-ey for $1100 rent haha! Although I will say that the gas fired stove is a nice touch! The members here are pretty rich apparently, but the chapel is pretty old so I’ve really yet to tell. I’ve seen every single nice car imaginable this last week, which is what missionaries, told me to expect when I knew I was coming here. Lamborghini’s, Porsches, Maserati’s, Corvette’s–everything. I’ll have to take some pictures!
In terms of missionary work here, it is a pretty small ward with a little bit of potential. There are three sets of missionaries in the ward, but only the sisters have baptized in the last year or two. There are tons of people to talk to here, so hopefully we can find some solid people to teach. Korean Elders are my district, so I should be learning some more Korean this transfer! Also, the zone leaders are Chinese ! I hear that exchanges in those areas are fun too, because all of the lessons aren’t in English and you don’t do anything except smile ha-ha. I’m good at that!
Elder Daniel L. Johnson of the seventy came to our mission on Saturday and gave a powerful training to us, the Bishop’s in the area and the ward mission leaders on member-missionary work. It was super intense. He broke the wall between members and missionaries and made us all feel unified in our work. It is kind of hard to describe! Every member in attendance gave at least one referral to the missionaries in their ward, and Elder Johnson didn’t come with any prepared material; he just followed the Spirit the whole time! His goal was to bring members and missionaries together. Well Elder Johnson, you succeeded. Job well done. Hastening of the work, here we come!
Well that’s pretty much all I’ve got to report! I love all of you and I hope that as you all head back to school and stuff that you’ll be able to adjust easily! Have a great week everyone! I’ll talk to you later!
–Elder Rushton The Third
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