I can hardly believe it. This last week seals my experience as a set apart representative of the Lord Jesus Christ in British Columbia. I bear you my witness that He is here. He is in the midst of this sacred land, directing the great gathering of Israel as the messenger of the covenant. The promises that God has given to the ancient faithful are being fulfilled right before our eyes. As voices “speaking out of the dust” (Moroni 10:27), heaven and earth are connecting to “gather in one all things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10).

I am so grateful to behold these marvelous miracles. The gospel of Jesus Christ is real—the power of His Atonement is eternally transformative and breath-taking. I can never deny these truths for I have received numberless witnesses of these realities. I love Him with all my heart. I look forward to being reunited with you all and for the great blessings and opportunities that lie ahead.

Yellow Deli Experience

As we drove back from the Kelowna Zone Conference we had the opportunity to stop by Yellow Deli for lunch in Chilliwack, and oh what an opportunity it was. I’ve only heard the rumors and legends about this place, and let me tell you—it did not disappoint. Their sandwiches are incredible!

Now for some background, Yellow Deli is a restaurant completely run by the “Twelve Tribes” religious movement. The restaurant gives you warm cabin vibes; as you walk in you are greeted by rustic wooden furniture and yellow accents. We noticed pretty quickly that the staff were all strangely very similar. The place is run by a bunch of men over the age of thirty, all with man buns and muted flannel shirts. They all were very kind, they kept coming up to talk to us as we sat at our table.

One man in shorts and a beard came over and asked us, “who was the guy who sailed over the ocean with those rocks in that book you have?” We answered that it was the brother of Jared. Unsatisfied with the answer, he responded, “I’m thinking of a different guy… what was his name?” After some pondering, we discarded the whole “rocks” part of his question and asked, “was it Nephi?” He quickly exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! That’s the one.” Then quickly ended that topic of the conversation with that he really liked that story…

He then proceeded to his intended topic, which was that he once was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He then briefly unfolded his backstory. Some time ago—I can’t remember if it was specified—he had some questions about the church. He went to his priesthood leaders, wasn’t satisfied with the lack of answers that were given by them, and explained to us that he was treated wrongly by them. He took out his records due to social issues and was glad he found a community here.

He concluded that Joseph Smith got one thing right, “that none of the churches were true.” Which looking back is an interesting assertion. In very brief summary, this is an organization that believes in…

1. The restoration of the Twelve Tribes to create a New Israel.
2. The church will be restored to its original form as described in Acts 2.
3. Observance of the Sabbath maintaining parts of the Mosaic Law.
4. Three distinct prepared places for eternity.
5. An anticipated Second Coming of the Messiah.

Now, to believe that the fallen nature of all churches was the only thing Joseph Smith “got correct” is a severe misrepresentation, even if you are simply comparing belief systems. However, let this not disregard the most central figure, Him who has given us His gospel, Him who created the heavens and the earth, Him who makes men free and salvation possible. We must not lose focus on the Savior Himself, Jesus Christ.

If anyone is looking for “peace that passeth all understanding,” healing, and most importantly the cleansing power that comes through His Atonement, we must look to Him. As we do so, we may take diligent heed to the words of Christ that will direct us to His living Church today. Apostasy quickly comes as we take Him out of our central focus and replace Him with a figure or doctrine that is. It’s especially common in Church History to put the central focus on a prophet or event rather than Christ himself. I found it inspiring that those in the Church History department ensured to keep Christ at the center while writing a multivolume narrative history of the church.

Mission Leadership Council

Staying on the topic of keeping Christ at the center, we had our bi-transfer leadership council meeting. I felt that the Spirit was present and led to some inspired council that was very helpful for the Vincents, but by the end we came crashing down when President opened up the floor to questions. All of which were presented by missionaries in the council had to do with interpretations of specific standards and rules we were to follow as a mission.

I quite honestly feel that we have “gone beyond the mark” similar to how the ancient Prophet Jacob teaches. Addressing the people he explained that, “the Jews were a stiffnecked people; and they despised the words of plainness, and killed the prophets, and sought for things that they could not understand. Wherefore, because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand, because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it, that they may stumble” (Jacob 4:14).

I definitely don’t believe that we are stumbling as badly as the ancient jews did, rejecting the messiah who stood in front of them with open arms. However, I do believe that we are missing the mark, who is Jesus Christ. A brief passage in Matthew’s account of Christ, clearly manifests how we truly follow the commandments and rules.

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

My Final Exchange

Elder Fielding is awesome. Despite all of our lessons canceling we had an incredible exchange. We made opportunities to teach the words of Christ on the phone, over text, and once in person. It was really good chatting with each other, we both got a lot out of the exchange.

Mapping Madness

Sister Vincent tasked us with the project of creating mission maps for each Stake of British Columbia. The idea is to have these maps printed and laminated so she can visualize everything and take notes on it for transfers.

Do not be deceived, one would think that such a simple task would be easily accomplished. However, it took us one and half full days in the office to get this all mapped out. The Prince George Stake is the size of Texas, tracing that took several hours.

Despite the challenges we faced, we have completed the maps for all the Stakes, with Church buildings and transparent boundary cut-outs. I would have never thought I’d be doing this the last week of my mission; but it was still pretty cool to see it all come together. Hopefully it proves to be helpful in the future for the Vincents.

Taking time to map all of British Columbia brought my mind to ponder upon the uniqueness of this sacred land. What a tremendous blessing to serve here, a place where the gathering of Israel is so prevalent. With so many languages, diverse backgrounds, and people from all over the world moving here—and not only that but the wonderful First Nations people, who’ve lived here for tens of thousands of years. These people are descendants of the Lamanites and the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is a keystone to their history and speaks directly about them.

Joe Dass gets Baptized!

After five years of being taught by 40+ missionaries, and attending church 140+ times, the historic day has finally arrived. I had the blessing of teaching Joe at the beginning of my mission. He now seals the end of my mission with his baptism—pretty incredible.

Joe is a character. He’s from Fiji and works at the Rogers arena. Each missionary has the opportunity of hearing about all the concerts at this arena and Joe’s perspective of the celebrities. It’s pretty funny haha. He really likes the Hans Zimmer guy because the audience is much more reserved. He then will talk about Eminem and how he can’t understand a single word they are saying. With others he will talk about how crazy the audiences are.

It was really special attending his baptism. I reflected upon the beauty of how the Lord showed His love to “the one,” as taught in the parable of the lost sheep. You think about how many missionaries taught him, how many lessons he’s had, and how many times we came over to fix his printer. If you were to quantify the resources, money, and everything that went into that, by worldly standards—someone like Joe wouldn’t have continued to be taught. However the Lord’s higher holier purposes prevail. This expression of His love captures a small sense of His abiding compassion for each of us. God will employ every possible measure to help us find joy and ultimately return to our heavenly home. He has given us the whole world, all we need to do is choose Him.

It was a blessing to see the joy on Joe’s face seeing all of us at his baptism. When he was raised out of the baptismal waters, witnessing the joy and light on his face was very touching. You can almost feel the heavenly hosts on the other side of the veil rejoicing in his faith and commitment to the Savior.

Seeing Old Friends

My heart is full. I can’t express my thanks and gratitude for these great blessings enough. On my last weekend of the mission, I had the opportunity to travel to Maple Ridge, the Vancouver Temple, and the Fraser Valley YSA to film videos of those sharing their witnesses of Christ.

I had the privilege of seeing many of my friends again and it has opened my eyes once again to the vastness of God’s work. I did not go in with the intention to see all these wonderful disciples of Christ again, God orchestrated those interactions and made it possible.

Till we meet again

Marvelous opportunities lie ahead of us. Words cannot describe these past two years I’ve had serving the Lord Jesus Christ in this sacred land. I love Him with all my heart, He has changed everything for me. I look forward with hope and confidence.

The best is yet to come, the Savior is coming again. May we all prepare and serve with all of our hearts. Then, with Job and all the refined faithful, we will behold a world “too wonderful” to understand. I so testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.