Ahh man, my luck is crazy! I somehow managed to leave Prince George before the dreadful winter and somehow found myself over here on Vancouver Island. You know, I’m grateful for this divine timing, and I’m super excited to be serving here on the Island now. I’m serving now with Elder Cockx, still Zone Leaders thou :( haha. He’s awesome! From Belgium, super funny and energetic, it’s going to be good to work with him; looking forward to the rest of the transfer.

Faith in Jesus Christ Before He Came

We had a great lesson with this guy and his wife who spoke Turkish. They were super nice, and brought their young kids too which was pretty fun. They kept themselves entertained in the nursery while we had our lesson. Now as you might imagine, this lesson was quite difficult because they speak primarily Turkish; they are both learning English, but we had to rely on Google Translate for a lot of it. They were very sincere and honest about what they believed which was nice. We showed them around the church a bit and the baptismal font. I believe they were able to feel the Spirit because the wife commented on the room and said that it was very beautiful and they were grateful for the opportunity to see it. We had another lesson and this time it was with a guy from Iraq which was pretty cool. We had a good discussion about faith with him. He brought up some interesting perspectives and it was a bit difficult to come to a good conclusion with him. At the end we all got a good laugh trying to find a middle ground with each other, so that was pretty good. He asked us how people can have faith in Jesus Christ before he was born. His understanding was that we can have faith in him because he was born, it’s history and we can read about his life. But how could those that lived before him had faith? We talked about the role of prophets and how they have been direct witnesses of Jesus Christ all the way from Adam (either by seeing visions, receiving revelations, and even seeing the premortal Jesus Christ in-person). But he was struggling to see how that answered his question. We continued to try to explain and help him draw a conclusion. We then asked him if he believed that He was going to come again. He said yes, and then we played his game and threw his argument back at him haha. How can you know that? That’s in the future, it’s not history, etc. His response was that he believed. Haha so we all got a good laugh at each other at the end. We concluded by talking about receiving a witness of the Holy Ghost. We can feel it in our hearts that it is true. He added how we don’t feel anything in our hearts, it’s all in our minds and how he uses his mind instead of his heart. We asked him if he believes that the Book of Mormon is true, and he said “yes.” We then asked, “well, how do you know?” In response, “it makes sense in my mind.” So you know, good on him for using his mind to find that the Book of Mormon is true. I personally like the approach of doing both with the witness of the Spirit being the foundation; but he may just be being influenced by the Spirit without realizing it.

Putting Tyler on Date

We had another great lesson with this guy named Tyler. He’s absolutely wonderful, his heart’s in the right place and really opened up to us. He’s going through a really tough time, but he really wants to get baptized as soon as he can. Hc’s been coming to church on Sunday and that’s been awesome. He’s also been listening to the Book of Mormon, so that’s been really good. He’s on baptismal date for November 23rd, but we may make it sooner if he’s progressing faster.

My First Sunday

This was my first Sunday in Nanaimo, and the ward seems super awesome! The ward is very kind and they fellowshipped with both of our friends that came. The ward’ also pretty big, probably 100-125 people came; bigger than any ward I’ve served in thus far. We also had a funny coincidence, in Prince George, we helped Brother Teixeira move and he just happened to move into this new ward that I’m staying in. Guess we can’t get rid of each other haha.

Nanaimo is Blessed

When I arrived, it rained a lot. Kinda was expecting it because it is a rainforest, but everyone said it usually doesn’t rain like this. Anyways, it’s cleared up now so we can do more in-person finding. We also are teaching a massive amount of people so that’s super sweet! Over the span of three days we’ve received nine referrals from people that signed up to learn more from social media. Which I was talking to Elder Cockx about and apparently they don’t usually get that many that quick. So I guess I brought them with me haha. We also had some guy named Dallas call us, and that’s pretty neat. He said that he was researching our church and wanted to know if tithing was required. I’m guessing he called us from Google Maps or something because he wasn’t expecting to talk to missionaries, but he was appreciative that we were able to answer his question. It sounded like he was sick and unable to go to work that day so he spent some time just researching the church haha. He’s been trying out other churches too, but he told us about his experience in the Catholic church that turned him away. As D&C puts it he is “only kept from the truth because [he] knows not where to find it.” But you know, he’s calling us, so he’s on track! We set up a time to meet with him so that he can learn more, and he’s going to try to come to church on Sunday! Crazy! Just from a guy that randomly decided to call us for a question. God is hastening his work. Especially with the Victoria temple being announced, that will be built on the Island. We just recently found out from some members that they have successfully purchased the land. It sounded like they had to move a road because of it.

“The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” –Joseph Smith