The Call

I received the call Sunday afternoon. We were enjoying some nice ice cream brought to you by the after church dessert potluck social. This was a special Sunday where the all of the graduating youth that would be aging into YSA came, and the Stake presidency came as well. As they were announcing all of the leaders in the YSA Branch that’s when the phone began to buzz. I was quite surprised when I discovered it was President.

Upon answering the phone, President then asks to speak to me privately. He had a lot to tell me regarding what was to follow. He shared that he has some confidential early transfer news for me. I’ll be transferring early on Tuesday, so I need to have my bags packed by then. He then told me about my new assignment. I’ll be taking the place of the social media sisters and the tech elders. Me and my new companion will be leading out the social media page and the tech responsibilities for the mission. He shared that we will be covering the Vancouver YSA area, but we’ll be staying at an apartment in Richmond. We’ll also be full-time office missionaries as well; our proselyting time will be in the evenings after the office is closed and I’m guessing the weekends too. President eagerly told me that I would have my own desk in the office too haha, so that’ll be pretty neat.

The last vital aspect that he shared in regards to the assignment was that we were really going to be big in transitioning the new mission President. We’ll be having lots of meetings with the Gills but also with the Vincent’s when they arrive. It will be interesting to see what that will all entail.

President and Sister Gill were super sweet. They said that all of this is possible not just because of my talents but because of my consecration and obedience. They expressed their gratitude and love for me. I’m so grateful to have them as mission leaders, they are incredible!

A Special time in the House of the Lord

All the missionaries in the mission leadership council had the special opportunity of attending the temple for an endowment session the day before our MLC meeting. The last time I’ve seen this happen was a year ago, and it was just after MLC. Everything was arranged for everyone. Everyone traveled down a day before and seats were booked. My guess is that since the Gills only have a couple of weeks left, this was made to be a special occasion for them and us in attendance. We arrived in the evening and there was this beautiful warm sunshine reflecting off the side of the temple. After we progressed through the temple to the Celestial room you can see the bright warm rays of sunshine penetrating through the window shining onto all those in the room.

President and Sister Gill shared their experience seeing all the missionaries gathered in the temple together. They shared that missionaries are always brighter after leaving the House of the Lord. President spoke about the light that was present outside and reflecting in the temple. He said that photographers often refer to this light as “sweet light.” But as the light reflected off of our countenances in the Celestial room, he shared that he had seen nothing that compared that closely to the glory and the light reflected upon angels' countenances. He said he was absolutely stunned seeing all of us dressed in white, filled and reflecting light, praying: some standing, some sitting.

“That thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house;” (D&C 109:12)

Offline Missionaries

Just after we drove to Vancouver on Saturday afternoon, we received a call from the Williams Lake Elders (who live 8 hours away). They shared that they had some bad news, one of their phones has been lost; which wouldn’t be a big deal except that it was the device carrying the sim card. All connection to the internet can exclusively be found at restaurants and libraries for them, hence why they were able to call us. We were scouring around trying to find a solution to get a new sim card back to them by the end of the night. Realizing that the IMEI numbers of the phones were saved in a spreadsheet, we called the old technology missionaries. They said that it was saved on the old MTS laptop; unlucky for us, as that laptop was all the way back in the mission office. So after just arriving in Vancouver, we quickly made our way back to Richmond. Fortunately we located the document, and it just so happened that the Williams Lake area was closed when the document was made; so despite us having the information for all other areas in the mission, Williams Lake happened to be the only one we didn’t have.

At this point we had to be the bearers of the bad news to President. We laid out the current dilemma, and he asked us how we should go about it. We shared that we could try mailing it, maybe there’s a chance that we could find a carrier that with priority can get them it in less than two days. The odds were stacked against us, Williams Lake is quite rural, it’s a weekend, and most mail services were closed at this current time of day. After searching around, we realized that the soonest we could get it to them would be by Wednesday and it came with a lofty fee. At this point, we were at a loss, we couldn’t think of any other possible solutions other than having someone drive up themselves.

We both have been praying in our hearts, but we decided to pray together vocally to ask for direction from on high. After the prayer we kept pondering, no clear apparent solution had come to fruition yet. I had the thought to go try to login to their area email remotely through our office access. Once I was there, I went to account details and checked to see if location sharing happened to be turned on–as I expected it was not. But then we had the thought that maybe we could pry open Google Maps on their area email and force it to share location on the area email in an effort to locate the device. As promising as it seemed, sadly it didn’t work out.

We sat pondering again, at a loss at what to do. Elder Chandler had the idea to call around the Vernon zone to see if there were any spare sim cards floating around in one of the areas. If we happened to find a set that had one, it was a much closer drive to get it to Williams Lake from their area. We reported back to President, sharing that we were investigating this solution and will keep him updated on how it goes. We found one sim that was there, but unfortunately it was inactive. We waited the rest of the night for responses, but that’s all we had. Towards the end of our night, President Gill called us with a solution. He shared that having the missionaries in the Vernon Zone meet half way to Williams Lake is a good idea, but there are too many variables due to the Williams Lake Elders lack of internet connectivity on the drive. It’s not safe. So instead, he was going to have Elder Kuta (our vehicle coordinator) drive up to Williams Lake tomorrow with a new phone and sim card. All we need to do is work on reporting the phone as lost, and getting this sim card migrated to the area’s old number.

I’m grateful that we were able to come to a solution. The Williams Lake Elders now have a sim and all is well in Zion.

Meeting with Hunter

We had a meeting with our OTC representative, Hunter, he’s basically the guy over our mission for social media. He shared that our mission is in one of the top four missions in all of North America for media referral contacting and conversion rates. In the last 30 days, our mission has received over 1,000 media referrals. 0.80% of media referrals found are entering the waters of baptism in this mission, compared to the rest of missions in North America, we rank number two. Lots of super exciting news for the Canada Vancouver mission!

Our Constant Companion

In one of our meetings with the Gills, they asked us how things have been going outside of the office and in our area. They shared that they were hesitant to give us an area, and it sounds like they were thinking about taking it away. So we’ll see, I was pretty honest and said it’s been pretty difficult trying to balance all of this with keeping in contact with our friends over the phone. Realistically we only really have Saturday and Sunday as our real proselyting days. The travel to and from Vancouver really diminishes the actual time we have. So we’ll see what happens, I’ll do my very best, I’m grateful for the wonderful individuals in the Vancouver YSA, and the friends we’ve been able to meet. I pray that this assignment doesn’t take away from them, and diminish their progression in any way. President shared that if we are feeling bad that we aren’t doing enough in our area, that those feelings are coming from the Adversary.

At the close of our meeting, the Gills shared that the Holy Ghost is our constant companion. As we make virtue a highway to be in-tune with the whisperings of the Spirit, we cannot fail. There are more aspects that he described about the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost and what it means for us and the APs in these assignments, but my memory is failing me so unfortunately I cannot write them down. However, I’ve been pondering what he said with regards to this and I’ve had feelings and thoughts that I cannot describe.

The Holy Ghost works in marvelous ways, He directs us in all aspects of our lives to lead and direct us back to Jesus Christ. When we first came into this assignment, we didn’t have a sim card, WhatsApp, an area, or a vehicle, even our apartment was subject to change. However, just over the course of two weeks, we’ve been so busy. It’s been remarkably clear what our roles are at this time, and the things we need to be focusing on. In the business world, you would think that we would need a manual or some sort of list of instructions of our responsibilities in order for us to be productive and ensure that we are working on what’s needed. And not only that, but to also ensure things don’t slip through the cracks! It’s pretty incredible that the Holy Ghost has been our constant companion and leading and directing us to higher and holier paths for the mission. I express my gratitude and love for the Savior, for this remarkable season and opportunity we have to serve and bless the lives of others. I know that as we follow the Holy Ghost, we and the mission will be prepared for the arrival of the new mission leaders.