Greetings from Canada! it is like -25 Celsius outside. Good thing I'm leaving. 

I haven't much to say really, so I'll just do the same thing Riley did before she got home. That is, to attach fitting song Lyrics. 

When you find its me your missing, and you're hoping I'll return,

To your thoughts I'll soon be listening and in the road I'll stop and turn. 

Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears it end

And the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again. 

Love you all and see you soon!

Elder Higginson

The Close of the Ministry of Elder Lincoln James Higginson

Greetings from Canada. I hope that all is going well down there in the states. A member in St. Albert reported that his brother that lives in Star- said that he had planned on cutting his grass the other day. Guess there isn't a lot of snow yet? Not a ton to speak of up here either. I hope it continues this way for the last week of my mission. 

With everything rapping up here and flight plans coming in, It would appear that I'm almost done with this chapter of my life. It doesn't feel like I've been out here for the whole two years. It feels like I went home somewhere in the middle. Not sure why. It was so long ago that I started my mission with Elder Allen in St. Albert, yet the last year has just gone by so fast! I don't know how to explain it. It's been a good run, it really has. 

I was with my old friend, Elder Beutler, on exchanges last Thursday. He was one of my companions in the MTC and we get along swell. On our exchange we did two hours of contacting on the infamous 118 ave. -the southern border of the North Edmonton Stake, and we talked with tons of people. It was cool, seeing that both of us were a bit apprehensive about talking with people towards the start of our missions. Now here we were at the end, just tearing it up, finding all sorts of people. That next morning in companionship study we went into the Book of Mormon, into Alma 26 and read together.

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon...

 30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

 31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

As we reflected upon our missions, we could truly say that we had had a similar experience. The kind of experience that only a faithful missionary truly knows. I have entered into the homes of these people and I have taught them. From the streets of Edmonton to the Rocky Mountains and from the hills of Sherwood Park to the forests of central Alberta - I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. I have come to know of a surety that God works through those whom he has called. Through his Son, we may find forgiveness and peace. And through his plan, we may indeed find happiness and exquisite joy, together as families. And this is the testimony which is in me. And I make an end.

Elder Lincoln James Higginson 

Better times

Dear Family and friends,

        This week was pretty good. I honestly don't remember a lot of specifics right now. All I know is that we've been pounding the pavement from morn until eve. We are teaching an increasing number of lessons. We are also finding more new investigators. No, things still aren't perfect but they're getting better over all. 

     I got my travel plans this last week and my 2 week letter came today. I'll have my exit interview with President next week on Wednesday. 

      Sister Van Vleet has been doing more good work with her companion in Belmead! We taught another lesson to the Filipino lady that they found and we were able to support her, even though she's going through some serious trials. Man, why are sister missionaries always hugging investigators!? It's all good though--they seem to have a bond with this lady. After we taught the lesson, we got a selfie with Sister Van Vleet and went to go contact some potentials near the West Edmonton Mall. After experiencing no success, I decided we should go knock out a few complexes before heading back. At the 4th door we go in with a lady named Rhonda. She was really nice and had met with missionaries in her younger years. She remembered about Joseph Smith and she was really receptive to the message. Before we could even ask for referrals, she told us her daughter had been looking for a church. We'll be passing them over to the sisters tomorrow hopefully! Choosing to use time wisely always seems to yield the most blessings. 

     Here's a funny story. We had to do splits because we had two teaching appointments scheduled for the same time. So I took Elder Thomas, a wonderful and very new missionary out to teach. Unfortunately the person no-showed, which isn't really uncommon, so we decided to do a little tracting. after a couple doors we go up to this house and there is a package on the door step. We were joking about posing as the delivery guys and giving it to him but we didn't. The fellow inside was east Indian. Not interested, but friendly. as we were preparing to leave we mentioned the package and he was like "It's from the church. The previous owner here must have ordered it. I sent it back, but it keeps coming here. I think it's bibles or something. You can take it." Being highly skeptical that the parcel was from our church, we kind of laughed and then checked the label. Sure enough, 

The Church of 

Jesus Christ 

of Latter Day Saints

Teachings of Gordon B. Hinkley

40 manuals.

I started to laugh, then Elder Thomas started to laugh. Then our friend in the house started to laugh. So we asked to for referrals and took the parcel with us. Just another day in the work of the ministry. 

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! We will be having an American Thanksgiving after District meeting on Thursday. We're in charge of Stuffing and Soda. We'll also be bringing some Balute. I got some from the Filipino Store. What's thanksgiving without a few boiled duck embryos? We'll see how it goes! 

Love,

Elder Higginson

Fight the Good Fight

Greetings from the wicked North.

First off, thank you for all of your prayers and for putting my name in the temple. I'm certain that I'm getting a great deal of strength beyond my own to deal with the garbage that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Honestly, things are getting better. He's starting to conform, albeit some what grudgingly. Just an observation. I've noticed a direct correlation between a missionaries cleanliness and their overall caliber as a missionary. So be cleanly folks. 

I've been finding ways to be more charitable towards my companion. Charity is something that is easy to have for our friends and those who choose righteousness over wickedness. It's less easy to have charity for them that disgust us. But that's what it takes. On Saturday morning we got up and I could tell the comp. wasn't in a good mood. He's usually not in the mornings. So I went on as usual and began to make breakfast while he was in the shower. I had thought about doing my customary 'make breakfast for your companion because that's the best way I know how to serve him" but I shrugged it off. I was behind and he was irritating me anyway.  I was about halfway done making my french toast when I received a direct prompting to make some for Elder Henry. So I did. Got it all ready and out on the table. He was appreciative and it totally changed the whole day I think. He actually participated fully in Companionship study and we had a merry go of it. After serving him I was also able to look past more of his little failings that affect me. It was just an all around good thing. Sure, there is a heck of a long way to go, but I've at least learned one thing and I hope Elder Henry has learned something too. 

We had ZTM on Thursday and I didn't realize that it was my last one. Elder Beutler, Myself and Sister Aldrige all gave our departing testimonies. The time is coming faster than I realized. Which is good, get me out of here!  I would be rather sad to be leaving the field so soon, if it were like it was in the good old days. But this last experience is how I'll sever myself from the work. Sure, I'll make sure to be a good member missionary when I'm home and maybe a senior missionary with my wife some day but this kind of gig is getting old. Forgive me for my pessimism. I will not however, shorten my stride in these last weeks. 

So you'll think this is interesting. Sister Van Vleet and her companion, Sister Hempworth found a Filipino woman and began teaching her and we were able to come and teach with them last week! Except Sister Van Vleet was on exchanges out in Drayten Valley. But we'll be teaching this woman again tomorrow with them. She's a really nice lady who just came to Canada within the last couple months. It's always fun to see old friends as well. Sister Van Vleet still has that greenie fire! or at least that's what she's claiming. She's pretty trunky if you ask me haha. Still doing good work though.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Mother says that the weather is getting cold. Surely there will be snow by the time I'm down there. :)

Love 

Elder Higginson

While God is marching on

Greetings from the Wicked North.

This week felt more like a month. It's been rough. But things are getting so much better. We've spent a lot of time on the phone with President and with the Zone Leaders including an emergency exchange on Saturday. But we're making headway. I will prove to the Lord that I will not shrink.

This week has been pretty good for the Work. We've been able to teach a decent number of lessons. We were able to get in touch with Monte, that fellow who wanted to be baptized,  and he's been swamped with a lot this week but he would like to meet at the beginning of next week. Seems like he's still sincere! We were able to meet with Irvin and taught him the plan of salvation. He really would like to come to church this week. Were also able to teach his son, John Troy, who seems really Interested! We've picked up a few new investigators, and we are getting more organized in our efforts to cover two stakes. 

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and it was really nice to hear from Elder Rasband and the other general authorities in addition to our local leaders. There was a promise made at the beginning of the meeting that those who had come with questions or seeking guidance would receive it. I felt a great measure of the spirit during the meeting and felt that I have received the answers that I needed and some of the direction that I should take. Truth be told, I need to repent of my pride and try to have more charity. There are things that the Lord wants me to learn before I go home. I was also fortunate enough to see many of my old friends from the St. Albert ward and recruited a few to help us out in our proselyting efforts. 

Elder Henry has been making some great changes to conform to the mission standards and I'm pleased with his efforts. Elder Henry was born in San Diego and moved to the Philippines when he was 10 years old. He joined the church a couple years back and decided to join the mission. He played soccer professionally before he came out. Also, he's a code changer! We'll just be sharing a message and all of the sudden he'll start talking in an English accent and not even realize it! then he has his black man voice, which is his normal one, and then the Tagalog accent. Funny stuff.

Anyway, I'm doing a heck of a lot better than I was last week folks. I'll hang in there and do what I need to do. I'll just quote Elder Carlos E. Asay who was quoting from"How firm a foundation" to rap this up here. 

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

I'll give you an update in a week! 

Love,

Elder Higginson

The Mish

Hello everyone.

I'm glad to hear that you all had a fun trip down to California and Disneyland! Some good quality time with family and relatives is always good for the soul. I look forward to seeing you all in five weeks or so.

This week has been admittedly very difficult for me. I have been sent back to the North, and it is much worse than the last time I was here, if that were even possible. I have been sent to clean house, in more than just the literal sense. on day three we had the Zone Leaders come help Clean the apartment with us as well as the missionary that I replaced up here. I've had to clean out an gut 9 apartments over the course of my mission. This one I've had to clean twice. Basically I'm done with the nonsense, so I arranged for the fellow who was here before to come back and pay for his sins. The place was not livable. 

Basically, I've been put on babysitting assignment for my last 6 weeks. This is the worst possible way I could end my mission. And though the last 6 days have been hell and I've hardly slept and lost my appetite and I feel awful most of the time, we are seeing some improvement. President, the Zone Leaders - my old friends Elder Hunsaker and Elder Finch and my district leader Elder Beauter - one of my old MTC companions- have all stepped up behind me and promise that they will parachute in if things get too out of hand. But in the end, I'll still have to be in the lions den 90% of the time. I hope I can help change this fellow some. He has made some changes in the last few days and I am pleased with his progress but he still gives me grief. I have cause to mourn daily because of the wickedness of my brethren. 

Do not worry about me. I've done this before- and even though it was the most difficult part of my mission, I did learn things about working with others possessed of opposite personalities. I have a hard time accepting that this is what the Lord want's me to do now in my last chance to affect the people and be exactly obedient and see miracles. But Elder Henry, my companion will at least work during the day. We'll see if we can focus as much as we can on doing the work. 

Yesterday we were really busy. We only had about 40 minutes to do studies before going out. We taught a less active at 9:00 A.M. and then went near by to visit an investigator in the hospital. Unfortunately, he was unable to entertain us at the time, so we went back to the vehicle. as we were walking down the street I talked to a man who was passing by us and struck up a conversation. After learning that we were Mormons he told us that he had read the Book of Mormon. So I asked him what he thought of it. His response was -"It was Divine...but I never was able to find a baptizer. I went to a couple church's but I could never find a baptizer." I asked his name and he told me it was Monte. I said "Monte, today is your lucky day. My companion and I have authority to baptize." He started getting excited and I told him we could have him baptized in a couple weeks. To which he responded "why wait? If you have the authority lets just do it right now." We explained that there were a few lessons and preparations that needed to take place first and we needed to do it under the direction of a bishop but that it could happen at as fast a pace as he wanted. He told us he'd jump through whatever hoops he had to, but he really wanted to do this. So we put him on date for November 12th and promised a few blessings that would come into his life as a result of entering into the covenant of baptism. I'm not even joking. I've been working on bringing baptism into our finding situations and making the invitation to people on the street and God provided someone who brought it up in the conversation before we did. How's that for faith promoting!?!? We will hopefully be able to meet with him today.

Love you all and I'll give you an update next week. 

love,

Elder Higginson

Transferred again

Greetings from Canada. 

So the big news is, we are getting rice-washed out of this place! Rice washing is the equivalent of white washing, or were both missionaries are transferred out of an area and two new missionaries are put in. We call it rice-washing because we're Tagalog and Filipino culture revolves around rice. Go figure.

I'll be going back up to the North Stake, with Elder Henry. The last stint I did up there did not go super well, but I'm optimistic and hope we'll be able to have a really good 6 weeks. 

Now for the update on the work for last week. Basically we rode buses and the Edmonton Light Rail and made our way around to potentials on foot. And we still don't have a car for some reason. But it matereth not, we will be out of here tomorrow. The traveling assistants will be taking over our apartment. Good thing it's in pretty good shape. Dang it, I thought that would have been the last apartment that I would have to clean, but undoubtedly, I'll have to clean another one. But I digress. 

We were able to teach a few people. Denilo said he brought the Book of Mormon to work, but was not able to read it still for some reason. Haha, good start I guess. We were able to also pick up a former who hasn't been taught in several months. He let us in and was really receptive to our reteaching him the restoration. It was really hot in his house and there were distractions, but we did our best and tried to focus in. He agreed to be baptized on the 10th of December if he gets an answer about the Book of Mormon. 

One of the Filipino young men in our stake invited his friend to church this week and he came! But he didn't tell us, so we weren't there, but he wants to come next week as well evidently! This is what I've been praying for since I got here. Some solid member referral that we'd be able to put on a course towards baptism. And it seems to have appeared on the last day of the transfer. The work has really picked up here in the last 6 weeks. We've got 2 people on date and have found 28 new investigators. that is a serious improvement from the work that was happening before. We've talked to tons of people. 1,254 approaches as they've been recorded, which referrers to doors knocked, people approached on the street, bus, whatever - regardless of their response to us trying to share the gospel with them. President wants us to keep track and report all this stuff these days. I've done what I was supposed to do here. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I heard that California was exciting. Keep on doing the hard things and keep the commandments!

Love,

Elder Higginson