Elder Laahche

Elder Laahche
Canada Vanvouver Mission 2010 - 2012

Monday, December 19, 2011

Elders Lahache and Henderson at Ward Christmas Party


 Hey everyone!

 Christmas is just around the corner, I can't believe it already! Everyone at home must be so excited to get together with the family! So first thing is I forgot my camera, but I brought my cable for it! I'm sorry! If I have time during the week I'll come and send you pictures, we're just so busy as missionaries I really don't have time to take any pictures. We're always working, we can't really afford to slow down for 2 minutes there's always so much to do. Always one more person to talk to one more door to knock one more person to call or one more record to fill out.

Burnaby really picked up in these last few weeks and we need to be organized and be on the ball all the time to make sure that everything continues to run smooth. This is all about the people and we cannot afford to let them down. That being said I've had to become much more organized which I am now, luckily I've had many good companions in the past that I've been able to learn much from and they have helped shape me into the missionary that I am today! It's important to always be doing to BEST things especially as a missionary. It's like in the talk that dad wrote there are good choices, better choices and the best choices.

 I will definitely make time to take pictures in the future, pictures that I'm in. I'm honestly lost in the work and it's crazy because I'm constantly thinking about people and what they need. It's when I'm thinking about these people early in the morning or late at night that Heavenly Father often blesses me with the inspiration that I need to help these people out. I rely so much on receiving answers from Heavenly Father, I don't know what I would do if it wasn't for the gift of the Holy Ghost as a missionary.

 We are continuing to find people who are prepared, we have been steadily finding 1-2 new investigators a week. Not many of them get past the first lesson, but it's good to always be finding new people to teach.

 Elder Henderson is a great missionary, he's from Bountiful Utah! He's super excited to be on in mission, and always carries the spirit with him when he speaks. I can feel it and I'm excited to see that spirit that he will continue to bring into lessons as we teach in unity together.

 This week is going to be great were going caroling with the Kutney family on Friday night, and we're going to be going to visit some of their friends as well as some less active members in the ward. I'm excited we went caroling last year in Delta and it was great!

 So on Christmas day, we have church, I believe from 9:30-10:30 A.M. So I think I would call after church so probably around 11:00 here so 2:00 around at home. Hopefully that works, if it doesn't just call the mission office and tell them to send me the message. We're planning on working pretty much the whole day, someone has invited us over for Christmas dinner so that will be great! But I'm excited to go out and meet some people on 
Christmas, it's going to be just another work day as a missionary.

 I have a couple of good ideas to do that will make contacting more effective on Christmas, we're going to sing a song and share with them Luke 2 or maybe the Joy to the World DVD. Then ask them if we can come back another day. I'm excited to see how it will work. I haven't received the Christmas package that is wrapped yet, but when it gets to the mission office I will go pick it up for sure!

 Thanks for the socks and jams and the scones too. I really needed those socks I only had 1 good pair of socks left!

 I am so grateful for my mission, because I feel that I am becoming the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I get to help so many other people too and that brings me great happiness. I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm not a missionary anymore. Luckily it's still far away so I get to focus on this work which I love.

 I'm super proud and happy for Cody and the decision that he's made to go on a mission. I know that the Lord will bless him and he will be a great missionary.

Have a great week! I love you guys I'll talk to you on Sunday!

Love
Elder Kameron Lahache

Monday, December 12, 2011

Staying In Burnaby !

Hello everyone!
 
 So I have big news, as everyone knows last week was transfers, now we all now that I wasn't expecting to be transferred. However We also know that President Tilleman is known to be unpredictable. This transfer was crazy, there were many changes in the mission the Vancouver Zone (the zone that I'm currently in was divided into two zones). Plus 20 new missionaries arrived, as a result many new areas have been opened. So just so you know, we did get a call from President Tilleman on Transfer calls night. Turns out that...... I am .......staying in Burnaby! Elder McGahan got transferred to Vancouver YSA, and I received a new companion. His name is Elder Henderson and he is from Bountiful Utah! So I've been in Burnaby since June, but all the members in the ward are happy that I'm staying here for Christmas.
 
 So this week was crazy! Thursday was transfers, so we went to Richmond and I picked up my new companion, it was the biggest transfer that we had in a really long time, almost the whole mission was there for transfer lunch! It was nice to see many of my mission friends. We got to our area later that night and Elder Henderson and I decided that we would go out and do some street contacting. 


So we were walking around and I saw this one man in the corner of my eye and he had his hood up and headphones on and at first I thought that he wouldn't be too interested to talk to him. Just as I was about to pass him by, I got this impression, you need to talk to this guy. So I stopped called him from across the street and told him that we wanted to talk with him. At first he looked at us like we were crazy, and then he said you know I'm in a hurry right, and I said no problem we can walk with you. So we started to talk with him about what he believed and how God has made an impact on his life. He just completely opened up to us, it was really cool to see, then he paused and just asked us randomly, so what's going through your mind right now I'm sure you thinking about what your going to say to me. I just turned to him and I said honestly nothing, I'm just concentrating on what you saying so I will be able to understand you! He thought that was really cool and he said that he respected us because we were doing that. Then he continued walking and showed us to his home and he said he never does that with people but he felt that he would be able to trust us. So we talked with him for a few more minutes and got his phone number and told him we would be giving him a call soon. It was cool because it helped me to me to understand the importance of listening. When we really listen to people because we love them they open up to us and the spirit can be there.

 Also on Saturday Elder Henderson and I attended our ward Christmas party, which was cool. We had over 200 people show up it was a great success, there were so many non members there so Elder Henderson and I were so busy talking with everyone we barely even had time to eat. We also had the chance to sing a song, we Elder Henderson and I sang Oh Holy Night, it was great!
 
 So I also forgot to tell you last week that in our apartment we have a legit Christmas setup, we have a legit Christmas tree, with a legit electric fireplace, legit stockings and sweet Christmas music that we play every morning! I'll have to send you a picture to show you what it looks like. I keep forgetting to, then we get to that library and I always tell myself I'll remember for next week. But I'll get it to you. Crazy to think that in less than two weeks it's going to be Christmas right?! We need to start talking about when I'm going to be calling home, should I call Doda's like I did last year? We might be able to do video calls again, not sure yet but I will tell you as we get more details.
 
 The Christmas season is really opening doors to us, and we're planning on working all day Christmas too! I figure I have the rest of my life to relax and be with family on Christmas day, but this is my last Christmas as a missionary so I want to make the best of my time!
 
Dad I read your talk it's awesome! I wish I could have been there to see it. Thank you for sending it to me though. We have such an awesome family, I tell the missionaries here all the time and everyone wants to come and meet you all when I get back. Especially this one missionary names Elder Cielo he's one of the Spanish missionaries that live with us in our apartment!
 
Hope everyone at home is enjoying the Christmas season!
 
 Love,
 Elder Kameron Lahache

Monday, December 5, 2011

MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING IN BURNABY!

Hey everyone!

 The Christmas season has officially begun! Isn't it awesome, I love seeing all the lights and everyone is happy to see each other the music is heartwarming. It's truly one of the most wonderful times of the year! 
 So first of all I have to say, and I know this e-mail won't do justice, but WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

First snowfall in Burnaby and our  haggard snowman
 Thank you so much for that package that you sent me. I wasn't expecting to get anything this early. I love the ties, I've worn them both already and everyone has been complimenting them. They're really nice. Thank you also for the iPod it's funny because I was debating whether or not I was going to buy an MP3 player soon, because it's become a pain to carry all my CD's that I've acquired on my mission. I was so surprised and so shocked. Elder McGahan and I were at home we were doing our weekly planning, and we just finished and were getting ready to eat lunch when I hear the doorbell ring. So I ran to the door because I always do it's just exciting the get visitors to our house. I open the door and the first thing I see is the UPS truck, then I notice that the UPS man is standing right in front of me. He said hi does Kameron Lahache live here, it was weird because I didn't recognize my name for like half a second. But then I said yes that's me, and he told me that the package was for me. So I grabbed it but I didn't open it for another hour at least. I was wondering the whole time what it could possibly be. I thought it was the razors for my shaver or something so I was like sweet. Then I opened the package read the letter and I figured that you sent me Dad's old creative MP3 which was still sweet. But then I opened more and I was like WOW!!!!!!!! Thank you I bought a cable to connect it with the car today and we're listening to awesome Christmas music.

 Well I hope that no one is sick of me saying this, but MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING IN BURNABY! Left and right I honestly can't believe how blessed Elder McGahan and I have been in our area. So on Friday night I think it was Elder McGahan and I were out tracting on a street. We got to this one house and a lady answers the door. We start to explain to her that we're the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She said that she knew who we were and that surprised us because not too many people just come out and tell us that. So we asked her how she knows us and she said that she used to meet with sister missionaries. She then went on to tell us that she appreciated what we were doing but she felt that she learned enough and that she felt that she needed to learn more about the bible before she would start to investigate The Book of Mormon further. That made me sad, but we do have to respect people's free will. So we went to the next house and knocked on the door. No one answered then we felt like we should go back to that ladies house again and ask her if she knew anyone we would be able to teach. So we went back and asked her and she said that she knew of this one person only she didn't really remember where she lived. So we gave her our card with our phone number on it and we said that if she remembers to please call us. She said she would and that was it. We got back to our apartment and we noticed that we had a voice mail, so we checked it and it was the lady who we gave our card to! She said that she had some questions for us and if we had time the next day she wanted to meet us to talk. Elder McGahan and I both freaked! So we went back the next night and we got to meet up with The Lady (Shannon) and her daughter Maria. It was a great lesson, we brought Brother Poetker and he shared his testimony it was great. We'll be hopefully going back later this week.

 The first Presidency devotional was great. We got John Wuttunee to come to church and he thought it was great. He loved the devotional too, I'm so excited for the wonderful things that have been happening here. It must be the awesome Christmas spirit. 
One HUGE Shar Pei like Shawn H's Congi away mon chienne

 Oh dad I was just thinking about you eggplant parmigiana this week. I smelt something similar this week, I was just dying for it! So I look forward to having it again in the future.

 Hope everyone has a great week.

 Tell everyone at home I love them, and I miss them especially around Christmas time. I know that this work is worth it though, we are helping people have better lives by coming unto Christ.

 Love,
 Elder Kameron Lahache