Lyle's Baptism!!

Hello from the promise land! The three main components of missionary work are finding, teaching and baptizing. This week, we got to do all three! Lots of good is happening in our area and we are doing our best to capitalize on all of it.

We went down to Sherwood Park on Wednesday for the meeting for new missionaries and trainers! It was cool to sit down with the new mission President, his wife and the assistants and receive a little instruction. 

On Thursday we went over to High Prairie for district meeting and then I took Elder Brown back with me all the way to Wabasca for Lyle's baptismal interview. All went well and we fixed somebody's flat tire on the way back amid 50 thousand Mosquitoes! 

We filled the font on Saturday starting at 1:00 p.m. and did our weekly planning session off to the side. When Lyle showed up with the Vadnais', the family that has been fellow shipping him, we showed them inside and got them into the dressing room. Lyle came out all set, But Jon came out late and said there was no way he could fit into the XXL jumpsuit. You'll bee happy to hear that I didn't even panic that bad. We called a few people and tried to get him the temple cloths from one of the members of a similar girth. We misjudged it apparently because they didn't fit at all. It was decided at that point that I would perform the baptism and everyone was good with it. Good thing Sister Park advised me to bring my white clothing just in case. Lyle bent his knees and went under like a champ! No repeats or anything necessary. It went lovely and we had Jon do the confirmation the next day and President Park ordained Lyle to the office of a priest! It was all a joyful experience to be certain. After the Baptism, Lyle shared his experience growing up and how he came to join the church with a small group which included an unbaptized 9 year old, the son of less-active parents. He has been living with his grandparents who are members of the branch and we should begin teaching him soon. 

Len Smith is doing well and is talking openly with the members about getting baptized which is a great thing. I think he is feeling more comfortable with his decision now that he's made it. He is such a fun fellow to talk to and he's got a great sense of humor. Pick and flower of England, I tell ya. 

We had a great Branch outing last night and this morning out in the woods and at Martin Mountain! Len came, and so did Seth, the unbaptized 9 year old and another returning less-active and his son. We are seeing hearts soften and miracles unfold before our eyes out here. The situations present themselves and we just have to befriend, act and invite. I'd just like to share a scripture that I've memorized this week that I think is applicable. 

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed. 

Doctrine & Covenants 123:17

that is my testimony for this week and I leave it with you sincerely, In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Bringing in the Sheep

Hello from Slave Lake

We had a pretty good week! It's been blazing hot and muggy and missionary work is always filled with ups and downs, but we're doing well and We have a baptism this Saturday! Thank goodness, it's about time. So, I'll give ya the scoop.

Lyle was married to Amanda (his member girlfriend) last week by President Park down in Waterton Alberta. We heard it was a splendid celebration with all the bells and whistles. We have been able to Skype with Lyle since then and he's doing well! The baptism is still a go and he seems to be so happy with everything that is going on in his life. I will send some pictures next week! 

And more grand news with our blessed English investigator Len. He's been investigating for about 10 months now everybody is worried that he's becoming an eternal investigator and we're like "what do you want us to do? Drop him? Or perhaps tell him that we'll steal his fish and chips and ban him from watching soccer unless he gets baptized forthwith? You cant just force someone to be baptized and you really shouldn't drop them if they really are making slow but decent progress. Anyway, since we finished teaching him the discussions a couple months ago, we've been working really hard to find out his concerns and have meaningful lessons in which we involve the members as much as possible. And evidently showing him the Joseph Smith movie helped a lot! We heard from a member that Len said it was a powerful message and it impacted him. So we were teaching him this last Saturday and out of the blue he tells us he's been thinking a lot about getting baptized and that he'd like after his life gets less hectic in a little over a month. Most likely early September. And so I casually pulled out my calendar to try to set a date but he wasn't quite ready for that! Oh, it's so good though, to have all the planning and work finally pay off. We've helped him feel the spirit and do all we can to prepare him, but the decision to act is not ours, it belongs to the investigator. The very pick and flower of England, good ol' Len.

We've been able to work really well with the members this week! We received 3 new refferals from them and we have begun teaching two! Members are much more effective than us at finding worthwhile people to teach. So be a missionary! This morning we had an appointment with our good return missionary friend Ben, who invited a coworker to read from the Book of Mormon and hear our message! It was a blast, and we have a return appointment! I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Higginson

 

                                  Zone Training Meeting, to the left of me are my two sons.

Training--week 4 of 12

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well.

We had a long week but it was still good and successful. we got stood up by like 10 people which was kind of frustrating but that's the nature of the work I guess. People say come back tomorrow at 3:00, then decide to go camping all that day and to top it off, they leave a "Strait up Luciferian" to watch the house and answer the door when the missionaries come. Classic! Not super impressed though... 

We met the new mission president on Saturday! He's a good guy, a convert himself. He has a super cool picture of himself when he was going to be set apart as a mission president and the missionaries who baptized him back 40 years before were there with a couple members of the seventy. The work we do here and the friendships me make will last a long time! 

Lyle got married at 1:00 A.M. today! just 11 more days until the baptism. We were able to show the Joseph Smith movie to Len, but his wife had to go to down to Edmonton unexpectedly to a sick friend in the hospital. Darn, but it was still great and the spirit was strong when we watched it. I was able to bear my testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and I know Len certainly was touched by it all. The Fam is doing well, Bev has picked out a wedding dress which is good news. We also picked up a former investigator couple out in Widewater, about 20 minutes out of town. They are great folks and lots of fun to teach. The wife has no Christian background, except for what the Elders have taught her. Both of them seem to clearly remember a great deal about the Book of Mormon and were a decent way into. We were able to answer some questions and we have a return appointment for next Monday which is great! I've sent pictures of their sweet redneck hot tub separately, but it's awesome. 

Well, that's about all I have for this week! This week is going to be busy and we'll probably drive 1000 kilometers between Faust at the other end of Slave Lake to Wabasca and to Edmonton for a Zone Training Meeting. My goodness. Have a wonderful week. 

Love, 

Elder Higginson

                                                  Elder Higginson with Elder Miller

                                                     Redneck Hot tub

 

Green for life

Hello everyone! Guess what?? It is stinking hot and muggy up here! And we only have 2 dinky fans to deal with the problem! We'll see if we cant get that fixed later on. 

I said goodbye to some of my best friends in the mission last Wednesday. All the sisters I came out with went home and Also, Elder Barber, Elder Wood and Elder Klinger. I've served around these missionaries for most of my mission and they've been wonderful and stalwart fellow servants. Particularly Elder Barber. He was my Zone Leader when I first got called to be a language missionary over a year ago. He was always there to listen when I needed support, even after I left the area. We saw numerous miracles together. He will be dearly missed.

We had a good week! Monday, Tuesday were sort of a drag and we spent 6 hours on the road on Wednesday, but somehow we've managed to have a killer week! 12 lessons in not even 5 days. 5 new investigators. I've never worked so hard in my life folks. We cut 2 hours and 40 minutes out of our lunch breaks because we had appointments and just loads of people to follow up with. Elder Miller is getting a heck of a lot of experience Finding, Teaching, Planning and hauling boxes out of a flooded basement haha! But I'll get to all that in a bit.

Elder Miller is an obedient son. He's from the Uintah Basin - from a town called Roosevelt, which I believe I've heard of before. Now here's the kicker- He did cross country before his mission, his favorite music is Celtic, Irish and Scottish Folk, and he read the bible all the way through when he was 12. I think we shall hopefully get along well! The other thing that's nice is he is very familiar with Lessons one through five in Preach my Gospel. he's jumped right in and we'll be equally yoked in our teaching in no time! 

Now here is the rundown on the work of the ministry: Lyle is doing well, He'll be having his baptismal interview in 3 weeks from tomorrow and baptism 3 days later. He's been experiencing opposition from his grandma and other kin, which he's mostly just frustrated about. He asked for a blessing just after our lesson and I think it helped him. He's a hail fellow well met on most days and we love him. Our other man up in Wabasca, Robert is doing great! We'd only taught him once before but when we came up last Thursday he told us he really felt the spirit when we prayed with him in our previous visit. He prayed about the Book of Mormon this time around, felt the spirit and agreed to be baptized on the 6th of August! Robert was very enthusiastic and seems sincere about all this. I couldn't wipe the smile off Elder Millers face haha! I hope he's not getting an unrealistic expectation for what missionary work is like, because it's booming here right now. Andrew had a good experience with repentance this week. He's been working on getting control of his temper and making good progress. I've honestly never seen the guy mad, but I'm glad to see him coming along. We were able to meet with a lot of our solid investigators this week and they are making good progress. 

On Thursday morning we were awakend by a text from President Park. Evidently the basement home of some of our members flooded during the night and we had to go help. 3 hours later most everything was under control. Quite the adventure! 

President Manion will be heading out this Friday, which is sad. I'm really going to miss him and his sweet wife. They've been such a great support and I owe them a lot for saving me from my woe and helping me with difficult companions. I'll never be able to repay them for what they've done for me.

I hope you all enjoy your week! Canada Day is this Friday, so enjoy not celebrating that I guess haha. I'll let you know how things are going next week! 

Love, 

Elder Higginson

                            My brother in the faith, Elder Logan Barber

 

The Greenie, Elder Miller, and I out in Wabasca, picture on the lake

                  Trainers meeting with President Manion