Week 7 Langley BC

Hello everyone!

 This week went by incredibly fast!  My mission gets better and better everyday! It's amazing, this week I really learned that Heavenly Father puts us in the right place at the right time! 

 Yesterday we were going to visit a lady named Lutha and her and her family are from Berma and I have no idea where that is. But they did live in thailand for a while too and now they are refugees here in Canada! But they are such an awesome family to go visit. They let me play their guitar which is really nice! So anyway back to the story, we were on our way to visit Lutha when we saw this lady and she had dropped a big box that was filled with alot of things. So we walk up to help her and it turn out that it was one of our investigators who we have been teaching! Her name is Leean, and we we're helping her move on Saturday but I guess she wasn't finished because this was happening last night. Lately she's been avoiding us because she's been loosing alot of appointments that we've set up with her. So we helped her out and she was really grateful, and I felt that she was happy that we were there to help her when she needed us. So hopefully if things work out the elders in the new area where she moved will continue to meet with her based on how she now feels about the elders.

 Earlier this week I went on splits with another elder. Elder May and I go on splits alot because he is district leader so it's nice to get to know all of the missionaries in out district I'm pretty good friends with everyone because we go on splits so much. So anyway last Friday I was on splits with Elder Neilson and he's from Utah. Not really a big surprise there but anyway we met with this lady named Betty. She has met with the missionaries before and pretty much has been taught all the lessons. So elder Neilson and I are teaching her a lesson about faith, and we're reading from Alma 32. Through the whole lesson I just kept getting this feel to commit her to baptism and in my mind I was like no it's too early I can't. Then later on I would hear it again, commit her to baptism and it was near the end of our lesson so I said well I guess if I felt this feeling twice it must be important. So I asked her if she received a witness that what we are teaching her is true will she get baptized. She said YES!! So we have a baptismal date set with her for October 23rd. so hopefully I will still  be serving in this area when that happens. But 

 I was so happy for her and I felt that spirit so strong in that lesson, and it really helped me to see that what I'm doing is to help people PREPARE to be baptized, so even if I don't get them baptized while I'm here I helped them get closer to receiving the blessings of being baptized. With Betty she's been meeting with the missionaries for a little over a year and now she finally feels that she is ready to get baptized. It's great!

 On Wednesday we also go to have Zone conference and it was great! One of the elders from the quorum of the 70 was there! Elder Pearson! He was such a great speaker, and I remember when he walked into the room I just felt his spirit that he had and I was like wow, that's really incredible just to be able to feel his presence, I want to be like that! He talked about how we need to leave out old self behind and become a true disciple of Christ while we are on our mission. We can still be who we are, but stuff like music and movies and attitudes that we had at home need to change and we need to become true representatives of Jesus Christ. I feel I've been doing really good at that, through my whole mission, but Elder Pearson has helped me to see that there is always something that I can be doing better at. I got to see some of the elders from my MTC district too! But I didn't get to so either of my MTC companions, so I was a little disappointed but I know I will see them at least once during my mission.

 It's great that our whole family is reading the scriptures everyday now! I know that as we all do this that our families testimony will grow strong and our family will be blessed with the strength to fight the temptations that we face in this world. I really like the whole book of Alma because there is so many great missionary experiences in there that I can learn and apply in my mission.

 So what did you guys do with the bishops car then did you just scrap it?

 That's awesome that Dad and Cody are having fun playing hockey! I wish I could be there playing with you guys! I don't really need a crock pot it's okay, we've actually been doing really good with having enough food to eat, the Lord provides for us I know that because we would just be running out of stuff that we bought for a week, and then we would go visit a member at their house and they would give us food. So I know we are being watched over and protected always.

 Anyway I have to go because I have alot more emails to write

Love you all, I look forward to reading your letters every week!

Elder Lahache

Letter from Vancouver Mission Preident

President Nelson sent us a letter informing us that our son has arrived and is now in the mission field of the Canada Vancouver Mission

We also received our first picture from Elder Lahache earlier this week he looks really happy. He has not lost any of the weight he put on while he was slinging roofing shingles with Shawn H, despite the lack of DA's !

Elder Lahache with President and Sister Nelson

Week 6 in Langley BC

Hi Mom, Dad, Cody, Colton and Kelsey!

So this week has been a rather slow but quick week at the same time it was weird. We had a very succesful week. It's been starting to rain alot more too but it's not bothering me at all! It's actually pretty nice. We found a new investigator this week! His name is Gaviel, but it's weird because you pronounce his name like Gathiel. He and his family just moved from Mexico about 3 years ago and they've lived here in Langely for about a year. But aparently he lived in Montreal for a year too! So he can speak french english a spanish, so that's good for him. He is such a great guy though he reminds me alot of Michael because he has that deisre to know about the church. It was funny how we met him because we were supposed to be going to visit a less active that I guess used to live in that house, but then Gaviel opened the door. So me and Elder May were pretty confused bu the situation so we just introduced ourselves as missionaries and that was on monday and we met with him this past Friday. We taught him mostly about Jospeh Smith's first vision and the Book of Mormon.

 Alot of people that we tract into never heard that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and when we tell them about they always want to know more of who he was and what he did. That's exaclty the kind of people that we want to find! Gaviel was just like that he wanted to know what was the difference between his religion, he's catholic, and ours. We told him that there is a living prophet on the earth and that we can know if we read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He was really excited and I was excited too, I really hope that we can continue to meet with him and teach him, he's an awesome guy. I always feel the spirit so strong whenever we read Joseph's quote of what he saw when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him.

 Later this week we're going to be having Zone conference so pretty much all of the missionaires in the Vancouver Mainland area are going to come meet together and there is going to be a member of the seventy there! I'm really excited because I'm going to be able to see all but one of the missionaries who I went to the MTC with. So it will be nice to be able to see them again. Also for this we were asked to write a 3-5 minute talk on how to become a more effective missionary. So I've been thinking about that alot, it's hard for me because I really haven't been out too long. I was thinking for me especially would be to think more about uplifting music than thinking about the music that I listened to at home all the time. That's probably been the hardest thing for me.

 
 On Saturday our ward had a corn roast and it was awesome! This less active family came who we invited earlier in the week. They're the Ezaki's and they're Japanese, so they have 3 kids. They're really nice so it was great that they came and alot of the member were happy to see them too!

 On Saturday night we also met a new potential investigator, her name is Jen and it was cool how we met her because we had just finished one of our appointments in the area and it was later at night so I wanted to get home and go to sleep because I was tired. Elder May said we should talk to this last lady that we saw walking down the street, so I said ok and we went and talked to her. We asked her if she was very religous and she said that she believes in God but she feels that there is something that is missing from her religion, I think she was protestant. So we told her about her message and now we're going to be going to visit her sometime this week. But it's just amazing how when we least expect it God puts people who are prepared to hear the gospel in out path. Also that people are really searching. I'm learning so much on my mission it's great, I actually really like reading the Book of Mormon, the stories are amazing and there is so many lessons that we all can learn from it. So it's really great that you guys have set a goal to read it while I'm gone. I know that you will be blessed as you read diligently.

 I'm so excited for Kelsey that she's starting Karate that's really cool I know that she will do fantastically well! How is Colton liking his new Halo game? It's weird being on a mission because I don't really hear much about news or what's going on in the world anymore, which is pretty nice because it helps me to stayed focused. How is Cody liking playing hockey again, even though the team isn't fantastic? I wish I could be there to play too! That would actually be so fun.

 To answer your questions I don't really need anything in terms of stuff to cook with right now, but I might later on. And we barely have time to cook food, we're lucky if we get an hour for supper. But we don't have a crock pot I wish we did because that would make things alot easier, but we'll manage. I usually make the fish that dad buys alot because I got this huge bag of it at Costco, and usually green beans and corn to go along with that and whatever else I'm feeling. But here we don't get that many DA's because the mission leader here has asked that if you invite the missionaries over to invite a less active member of an investigator to the DA too. So yeah alot of people aren't inviting people to supper and because of that we can't go eat at people's homes. I didn't get a chance to ask my mission president about the guitar but I don't think I will be allowed one. I'll ask him when I see him on Wednesday though.

Love You, have a good week!

Elder Lahache

Week 5 in Langley

Hi Mom and Dad!

 So this week was a crazy week and Elder May and I have been really busy. We've been mostly meeting with 2 families, one of them is from Tailand and the other family is the one I told you about last week, the family where we went to their house and we blessed it. We've been visiting alot of inactive members as well. 

Ok so to answer your questions really quick. Yes that is the right address, we are staying in a house but the bottom floor is two apartments and the top floor is our landlords house. They are really nice people they like the missionaries because we keep our apartment clean and are not really loud either. So that's good. I'll get a picture in front of the temple here in B.C. so we can use that for the plaque at church I think that would be really nice.

 I've been feeling pretty tired this week, not really sure why maybe it's the weather, but it hasn't really been raining too bad. I think it's rained 3 times this past week but I think that's normal fall weather. I find it's really similar to back home.

This week I also found out that after this transfer that Elder May will be going home! I was so shocked when I found out and now it's all he ever talks about how excited he is to go home. So I'm happy for him but it makes it hard for me to concentrate on my missionary work him too especially.

This past week I went on splits with another missionary on Wednesday, I forget the name of the area where I went for the night but the elders had such a nice apartment. I mean ours is nice and all but their's was a condo and on the main floor they have a gym and everything! So they're really lucky. But while I was out there I was on splits with Elder Mccoulough and he's from Utah and it turns out we had to same teacher in the MTC! So we got along pretty well. 

While I was out there we went and taught a woman named Janine and she had all these questions from the bible. Questions that I never even thought of in my life,  she was trying to start an arguement and I just told her that we weren't there to argue but to testify of Christ and I beared her my testimony of Jesus Christ and his Atonement. I know that she felt the spirit because after that she listened to what we had to say without trying to start an argument again. So I thought that was cool.

This week I was reading in the Book of Mormon about Ammon and he was such an awesome missionary I want to be like him! I never noticed before but there's alot you can learn from the people Ammon taught like King Lamoni and his father, they both had such incredible faith in God. I really liked that story and it really made me feel that I can do anything as a missionary as long as I have faith that God will work through me.

Vancouver has been pretty nice. Especially the area that I'm in now it reminds me alot of home. Now that I found out that Elder May is leaving I'm more than likely going to be here for another transfer.

But tell everyone I love them and I miss them very much especially this week. Tell Doda and Boba and Ma that I love them. And I love you too Mom and Dad! talk to you next week.

Elder Lahache

Week 4 Langley BC

Hello Everyone !!!!!!


Wow it feels like it's been a really long time since I last wrote and I've been dying to write all of the amazing events and changes that have happened even in these past few days. Ok but first I have to tell you that I forgot my camera at the apartment so I won't be able to send any pictures this week I'm sorry! I was in the apartment this morning and I kept on saying to myself I can't forget the camera, but I did! So I'm really sorry

 So I arrived in Vancouver on Monday around 12:15 and I got through security really quick in less than 10 mins actually and I waited for everyone else to get their Visas for about 3 hours! So then we met our mission president and his wife, President and Sister Nelson and they are really nice. We stayed in the mission home overnight and the next day we were introduced to our companions.

 My new companion is Elder May and he's from Kansas I'm not sure what part of Kansas though. He's a really great and spiritual missionary he's been out on his mission for almost 2 years I think he only has 2 tranfers left.

 We've been really busy the first area I'm serving in is called Langley but more specifically the Brookswood area, and guess what? Our chapel is right across from the temple so we get to see it all the time! It's so nice, but we don't get to go in it while we're on our mission only the week before we leave to come home do we get to go in. I think it's like that because they don't rent any clothes out at that temple. But you never know what might change in 2 years. Ok so the address for my apartment where I am at now is 21633 50B Avenue Langley, B.C. V3A 8B9. So let everyone know of that if they want to send letters. 

 Elder May and I have been really busy, we have at least 6 appointments a day, so we're always on the move. But there are a few people who I really like who we are teaching. There is  this one man and his name is Peter and he lives in the hospital, like the hospital in town when I was doing my 24 hour service project for high school. But Peter has bee living in the hospital for a few months now and we go and visit him alot. He's a tough investigator and he say's he enjoys giving us a hard time almost as much as he enjoys our visits. But he's really great we're trying really hard to get him to understand what the great apostasy is. Because he's Catholic and so he thought that God's authority was always on the earth since Christ. So yesterday we were talking about that with him again. And I just felt that I should share with him Moroni 10:3-5 where Moroni promises that if we pray with real intent to God that he will answer our prayers. So hopefully he will receive an answer to his prayers Elder May and I have been praying for him alot. 

 We had this really amazing experience yesterday. Elder May and I were tracting and we felt that we should be doing something else. So we got out our cell phone and starting calling all the inactive members on our list that we had. So we called up this lady named Lianne and she sounded like she was having a hard time. We asked if it would be alright if we came over and visited her home. She said that it would be great for us to come as soon as possible. So we went over, and it turns out that this family has been feeling negative feelings in their house and they wanted us to bless their home. So before we did we shared a scripture with them and when we read it I could just see the happiness that it brought the whole family. I've never seen anyone react to the scriptures like they did and it really made me see just how wonderful the scriptures are and how they can bring us peace and comfort. After we finished reading we left them with a prayer and blessed their home as we prayed. I really felt the spirit as we prayed inside of me and all around me too. So it was really an awesome experience.

 I hope that everyone is having a great Labour day I wish I could be there with everyone at home, because I really miss everyone. But there is work here for me to do

Love 

Elder Lahache 

August 30th Heading to Vancouver

Elder Lahache left the MTC with 12 other Missionaries who will also serve in the Canada Vancouver Mission. Shawn H and Mattie met up with him at SLC airport. Thanks Shawn and Mattie for the pictures!

Checking Baggage 

Getting Boarding Passes

MTC Companions

Calling Home

Elder Lahache with his name plaque !