R.I.P. 2014

Skyler with a local member missionary.

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a very happy new year and that your 2015 is off to an exceptional start! It has been goof for me up here in Canada. It isn’t quite -40 like it is in Alberta or Manitoba (in fact, it’s about 40 degrees outside) but it is sure dumping rain on us. Good old B.C. weather! I finally invested in some rubber shoe coverings to save my shoes from water. Genius invention those things are.

I have been reflecting on my 2014 and I came to the realization that it was easily the craziest year of my life. It may hold that spot for a long time too! I spent all of it in Canada on a mission away from home, have lived in 6 different places, have been just about everywhere in the Lower Mainland since I got here last February, met crazy people, baptized a good number of people, ate some weird stuff; it was a good year! Definitely well spent. But let’s get back to the week at hand!

On Monday it was a downright gong show. We went to the Metropolis Mall at Metrotown and it was so worldly, we were all sickened afterward. Then we went and got the spiciest donairs I’ve ever had! Tuesday we went to Richmond and contacted there a lot, and then at night we met up with our Korean friend Lee. After that, we drove up to North Vancouver and met an investigator some sisters had passed off to us. He is Persian and really stubborn (he was hung up on the way Joseph Smith was dressed in the picture at the front of pass out BOM’s; “He looks like a business man! Jesus just wore some flip flops!”.) but he has some potential! He came to church on Sunday and brought us some sweet laser cut name tags he had made for us. So that was pretty cool. But he was sure bored in Elders Quorum. Given, Elders Quorum in a YSA isn’t the greatest, but at least the teacher is trying ok!

Wednesday was New Years! We didn’t do much for it, but it was a good conversation starter when we were downtown. We had to be in by 6:00 and we planned until the rest of the night. Happy New Year! Thursday we had a district meeting where I was asked to give a training on “finding joy and happiness in missionary work”. I was totally the guy to ask to train on that!! Haha, it actually went super well and we had a great meeting. Then, because I’m with the zone leaders, we had to go to another district meeting! Also fun and very spiritual! Next, we taught one of our investigators about Repentance! He has a HUGE language barrier (we are kind of used to them considering all of our investigators don’t speak English as their first language…) but at the end of the lesson, he got it and it was glorious!

Friday, I was on exchanges in Korean work! Elder Kim and I helped move a less-active Korean families re-upholstery business. Now that… That was exhausting ha-ha. The two of us had to carry two sewing machine tables up two flights of stairs and loads of fabric. The Asians we were with were too small to do it…. “Just use the white guy!” But we did it and now it is done. I was so sore the next day! I also had no idea what was going on the majority of the time because it was all in Korean……but then they fed us some great legit Korean food! Yay for cultural diversity! On Saturday, it was Elder Anderson’s birthday and we went downtown with Lee and ate at a Korean restaurant! Now that was a little too diverse haha. Not a big fan of Pig hoof. But the rest was pretty decent! Also on Saturday we had a mission coordination meeting to get ready for a showing of “Meet The Mormons” in the YSA! President Burt snagged a copy somehow, and he’s lending it to Van YSA to show it January 18th. We plan on having a TON of non-members and the push now is for people to invite their friends.

Sunday was church which was excellent! The morning was a gong show though; one of my comps wasn’t feeling well and we were going to push him off with some other Elders but then he started feeling better. So we went to church and had a good fast and testimony meeting! Except it seems like most of it was just people talking about New Year’s resolutions they had set. After church we ended up talking to one of the Branch Presidency for about an hour. He served/opened the Yugoslavia mission and had some CRAZY stories! Time in jail, hiding in basements, being told by general authorities to have $50 to bribe a police officer if they had too… Crazy!

Overall it was a wonderful week and it may be my last in the Vancouver YSA. Transfer calls are in like, two hours, so anything could happen! I’m really excited for this next year though, and I feel like it will be a good one. I hope you all set some good goals for this next year! And have a great week everyone! I love you all! Talk to you later!

–Elder Rushton The Third