Snowfall

Greetings from the Wicked North! We got our first Snowfall this week on Friday and it didn't end until Monday! We got a decent bit, it was nasty. Super cold and windy. Not Ideal for doing missionary work but that didn't stop us from getting 5 new investigators and putting one of them on date for Baptism on the 26th of November! Hopefully we'll get this area to produce some fruit.

Last Saturday on the 8th, We were able to attend the first ever Tagalog Endowment Session! It was a pretty cool experience and I was able to go through without needing the head set. There is a bit of deep Tagalog in there, but I was able to understand most of the stuff from context clues and memory. Filipino members came from all over the city to attend and I got to see some old friends.

unfortunately just before getting to the temple We got rear-ended on the overpass. Not a great thing, because two days prior I hit a curb and caused some damage to the vehicle. So all the paperwork for that will now have to be done all over again. Lot's of things have been causing me anguish this week. Reminded me of when dad was serving in South Carolina and experienced the buffetings of Satan after being in a car accident that was not his fault. It is no surprise that when I'm becoming the best missionary I can be, I face great opposition. I spent the weekend with a little black rain cloud hanging over me,  but I was able to have a change of perspective that is helping me get back on my feet. For a lesson we were sharing with some members at our Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday, Elder Ranu found a Talk from Elder Uchtdorf entitled "Grateful in any Circumstances" I would encourage all of you to read it if you have forgotten what it's about. I'll just share a little. 

"My dear brothers and sisters, the choice is ours. We can choose to limit our gratitude, based on the blessings we feel we lack. Or we can choose to be like Nephi, whose grateful heart never faltered. When his brothers tied him up on the ship—which he had built to take them to the promised land—his ankles and wrists were so sore “they had swollen exceedingly,” and a violent storm threatened to swallow him up in the depths of the sea. “Nevertheless,” Nephi said, “I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.”

"This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer."

"We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?"

"Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges."

"This is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals the heart and expands the mind."

I have only 7 weeks left to prove my mettle and serve to the best of my ability. So I'll work through this and make it count. We've got a good week lined up and it should go by fast. Thank you all for the continued Emailing and praying for me! Have a good week!

Elder Higginson

This was after the Tagalog Temple session. So many wonderful Filipino friends from past area's!