Week 14

This week was a slower week, because like I was saying last week alot of the people who we've been meeting with aren't interested in hearing our message right now. So Elder Hayes and I have been trying to come up with new ideas on how we can find some new people to teach to. We do alot of door knocking but that is not very successful. So we've been praying alot this week asking God what we should do.

 

 Later on in the week there was a missionary who served where Elder Hayes lived (Toronto) and he called Elder Hayes,  they were talking about what are some of the ways that he found new investigators. He said that he came up with this program called "The Island", basically it's a program where we give members a goal. The goal could be getting their friend to come to church or just attend a family home evening or a really good goal is be baptized. So we would establish that goal and we'd say ok well what are 3 steps that you as a member can take to help your friend achieve this goal. So we would come up with 3 steps and a date by which they will have it accomplished. Then we will follow up to see if the member did it or not. I think it's a little tough for some members, but I guess sometimes we need a push to do missionary work and once we feels the good feelings that it brings us then we will be more willing to do it ourselves.

 

So we're going to be trying for the first time tonight with the Bishops family so we are excited to see how it will go!

 

We're trying this out because in a meeting that we had in the MTC there was a saying that says, If you always do what you've always done then you will get what you've always gotten. So tracting hasn't been really getting us any new people to teach. So this new Island program is going to help us to work with the members.

 

This past week I have been really amazed because I have really noticed the spirit working through me this week. We were teaching a lesson and we were teaching a topic that I always had difficulty explaining, but in this one lesson I was able to teach about the apostasy so simply in a way that I never even thought of, it was like the idea just came into my head out of nowhere. I knew that inspiration I received was the spirit helping me, it's happened many times through my mission but I really noticed and was grateful for having the companionship of the spirit this week.

 

Have you guys installed the new stove yet? Does Kells actually have a sports team now! I remember that Cody would play after school for for but I don't remember them ever having teams, that's cool though and it's awesome that he's really good at basketball. Elder Hayes and I have been trying to start a sports night like the missionaries did back home, we had our first one this week and there was 3 people who weren't members of the church! So it was really successful and everyone had a good time so hopefully it will continue to be a good event.

 

Is everyone getting excited for Christmas, it's so weird because this time last year I was working night shift at Toys R Us and now I'm on my mission, for 3 months already I guess it's not really that long but time seems like it's flying by

 

Hope everything if going good for everyone at home I think about you guys alot!

 

Love 
Kameron

Langley Week 13

Hi!

 

Sorry I'm mailing back so late today we had a bunch of different things that we needed to get done today! It was crazy we we're running all over the place.

 

This week was a good week though in different ways, Elder Hayes and I are starting to work alot more with members so that we can show that we are here to serve the ward. I would say that it's working pretty good so far, on Sunday we got a referral for this lady who really is looking for something to believe in so she is ready to hear what we have to say. Plus she already has two friends who are members and that helps so much. I find that when we have investigators who are good friends with us only and not people who go to church they progress alot slower than an investigator who has a friend in the church. 

This week on Thursday we went and visited Tony, I don't think I've told you about him yet. But I would definitely say that he is our best investigator at the time. He's just so sincere, and he knows that if what we are teaching him is true, then he and his family have some changes to make. He's an awesome guy though he has two kids and he and his wife are still together. Anyway we've been meeting with him for some time now, when we first started to go and visit him we would usually just have a bible bash session. Which isn't good at all because the spirit is NEVER there when that happens. So we started to testify alot more to him, and he says that a testimony is hard to back up because there is no proof, so we would just tell him that's because every has to have their own witness from the spirit to know what we're teaching is true. So I can see just in the past two weeks he's slowly but surely beginning to open up to the idea that he can pray to know if what we're teaching is true, he doesn't have to be shown proof in the bible, which is important. But if you can be convinced into believe something then I think you can just as easily be convinced to not believe anymore. Also we started to bring Bishop Engen to our lessons and they get along great, I think it's nice for Tony to hear other people to tell him that they believe the church is true other than just the missionaries, because we're called to do it and it's what we're supposed to do. Not that our testimonies are not good enough, I just think it means alot to him to hear other members bear testimony. So that's what we've been doing with him. He's slowly but surely progressing I think he'll one day make a great member and he will have such a powerful testimony. I love to teach him, I feel good when I do.

 

So Betty Fung decided this week that she didn't need to meet with us anymore, which is a bummer but I wasn't really surprised because I just felt that her heart just wasn't there when we were teaching her, so we'll occasionally drop by and see her. It's weird because I don't like being dropped or dropping people because I feel like there's so much more that we can teach them, I just want them to feel the spirit and gain a testimony so bad! But I also know that every action that we do makes a difference whether we see it or not, which is sometimes a little hard. Taloo hasn't really been keeping his commitments that we've been giving him either, I think he's scared to be baptized, so we'll be seeing him on Tuesday, so we'll try to get to the root of what is going on. Something in the last week changed with him.

 

The weirdest thing happened to Elder Hayes and I this week. So we were just knocking doors on this one street, out of nowhere this random car stops like 15 feet ahead of us and I could see the window roll down, I had no idea what to expect. So the window rolls down and the people in the car start blasting the song that goes "do you really want to hurt me do you really want to make me cry" then this random girl sticks her head out of the window and she's recording us with this super old camera from the 90's or something. So she recorded us knocking doors for like almost a minute and it was so awkward. I guess we seemed pretty cool to those people.

 

Kelsey's testimony is awesome! I think that's so great that she knows all those things to be true at such a young age. It took me a little longer to know, for sure that the church is true.

 

The weather has been alright it rains pretty much everyday and it really bothers Elder Hayes but it doesn't bother me at all, when it does rain it usually rains for about an hour or two plus it never really pours down usually it's more just a mist. I think since I've been here it's only poured twice and it was pretty bad.

 

Hope everything is going good at home. I missed you all alot this week I don't know why, I'm really excited to see what that new stove will look like in the kitchen it sounds awesome. I've been cooking alot more lately but we usually only have about 30 minutes to eat. So I end up cooking just pasta all the time, which is fine. What can I cook that is fast to make?

 

I'll talk to you next week

Love you!

Kameron

 

Busy Week On The Road !

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good week!

 

Things here have been going good. I was barely in Brookswood this week though I got back Saturday night and for the rest of the week I was in 2 different areas, Willoughby and Maple Ridge they're both in my district but I wanted so bad to be back in Langley. Elder Hayes was there for some of the week but we were on exchanges with other missionaries so we barely got to focus on our area. It was only a week but it seemed like forever!

 

The weather has still been around 10 degrees everyday so it's still pretty warm but it has been raining alot pretty much everyday, but usually it only rains half of the day, it's not that bad. But it's weird because I look at the grass and it's actually greener now than when I got here, and winters coming up.

 

So there are a few exciting things that happened this week. One day I think it was on Thursday I wanted to come back into Langley but I was on exchanges with another Elder from Willoughby, so I figured well I'm supposed to stay here. But then I kept on thinking about it, that I should go to my area even if it was for a bit. 

I asked my companion what he thought his name is Elder Olsen. He said that was fine, so we when back I had no idea where it was that we were going to be going. Then I thought we should go visit Taloo, he's 15 years old and his family is from Berma I think I told you about them before, so he speaks Karen an indigenous language from that area where he lives. Anyway we've been meeting with him and his family. So I thought that we should go visit him, so we went in he was home and I felt I should share with him the promise that Moroni gives us in the Book of Mormon. The promise that we can pray and know through the spirit that the Book of Mormon is true. So I shared that and he said that he thinks that's true because he says that he feels really good and happy when he reads the book of Mormon. So I asked him if he will be baptized and he said yeah! So we set a date with him on November 27th I believe that's the last Saturday in November. So I'm so excited for him he's such a nice guy! But yeah I feel like I've been having more spiritual experiences on my mission than my whole life. I can truly see how the spirit can guide us to where Heavenly Father needs us.

 

So on Saturday we had trunk or treat, I got back into Langely officially on Saturday too. So we stopped by and there was so many people there. Alot more than I was expecting, Elder Hayes and I only stayed there for about 10 minutes though because we had alot of catching up to do with our area considering we were both gone all week. This week will be the first week than Elder Hayes and I will be able to serve in one area and focus on it together, so I'm really excited to see how much work we'll get done this week. I think that with us both working as hard as we can and with God helping us that we will see alot of progress.

 

I need a sewing kit because I already ripped one of my pants so now I need to fix it! So we'll probably go and pick that up today.

 

So for Halloween we were not allowed to go out after 6 p.m. so the missionaries in our district just went to an apartment and played a game of risk. We didn't have time to finish the game but it was still fun.

OH! There is this new missionary who is serving here in my district, and he's from B.C. but his visa to the U.S. is delaying from going to the MTC so he's serving in our area untill his visa comes in. Anyway what's really cool about that is he's going to serve his mission in Fresno California! That's where Elder Jason Glowa is!!! So I wrote a note to him and if they ever run into each other then I have a note that will be delivered to Jason!

 

Anyway that's basically the highlights for my week, I can feel that this week is going to be a good week!

 

Love you all! Take care! Thank you for your prayers they help me so much

Love

 

Elder Kameron Lahache

Week 11

HI

 

Thanks for the update on how everyone is doing. I was thinking about Chris alot this week and I was wondering if he would be getting his mission call soon or not so that's awesome that he's going to the Philippines, so what did the Morales' have to say about that? Tell him I said that he's going to be eating alot of eagle eggs! So he will have eagle powers. 

When is Christien and his family moving? It's so weird next week is already Halloween! I have no idea what we're going to do at night when people come knocking on out door for Candy maybe we'll give little backs of Candy with pass along cards taped to them. Our ward here is having a Halloween Truck or Treat on Saturday night, I guess because they would prefer if people didn't go trick or treating on Sunday which makes sense. So basically all of the people in the ward are going to decorate their trunks in their cars and the kids are going to car to car all dressed up and say trunk or treat. It's pretty neat and the young men are having a haunted house too so it should be a fun night. Not sure if we are going to be going to that though, we're usually way too busy.

 

So it's been a really fun week, being in a tri companionship with Elder Hayes and Elder Zebley has been really fun, it reminds me alot of the MTC because I was in a tri companionship there. But we all get along really well, and we've been having alot of fun but working really hard at the same time. 

There was something really pretty crazy that happened this week though, there are these two people who we went and did service for this week. Their names are Tim and Brenda,  Brenda is a native, and she lives on the reserve that is close to here. So I got to go on the reserve for the 1st time since I've been here! Anyway what we did for them was help them herd their cattle from one field to another, so we did that then we had to put the bulls in this temporary enclosure which we made. The bulls were in their cage for about 5 minutes and then they just started ramming each other's heads! I had no idea what to do so I pretty much just stood there and watched, so the bulls pretty much wrecked the fence which we made and we had to go herd them back and put them into the new field. It all worked out in the end and no one got hurt so that's good.

 

This week we also had a missionary fireside that we organized. I was pretty much in charge of it,  I was running around doing all the last minute preparations during the week. So we had the fireside and there was about 70 people there which isn't much but it was a fair turnout. We decided to call the fireside; "The Restoration: our Witness of Christ". We pretty much just covered the first principles of lesson one of preach my Gospel, which is the Restoration. We got members from the ward to give a short 5 minute talk on each of the sections in lesson 1. So there was about 6 little talks. Also with each principal we sang a song that explained it. It was more of a musical fireside than normal. The spirit was so strong though, and I was able to feel it at the end especially when we got myself and a few other missionaries to bear their testimony on the Book of Mormon. I know that when we bear testimony that the spirit witnesses to us and those who we are speaking that the church is true that the book of Mormon is true and that we can all gain our own testimonies if we have the desire to seek out God. Everyone after the fireside was over said that the fireside was excellent and that we should do another so we probably will in a few months, if I'm still here. If not then the new missionaries here will.

 

Missionary work is so fulfilling, even though I don't always see the benefit for it right away, I can see how people have changed since I first got here. So for me it's teaching me alot of patience and that everything doesn't always come right away, but if we are diligent with those who we are teaching and continue to support them, they see that spirit that we have within us and that spirit will change them slowly over time.

 

I love you so much, and tell Colton that I'm sorry I can't play xbox, the other day we went visit a members house and the Dad wanted me to play wii sports with him. I said no but it was hard. But I'll play with Colton when I get back, which is in a while.

 

But thank you for taking the time to write me, it means alot to me and I appreciate the updates on how everyone is doing it makes it feel like I'm still home in a way.

 

Have a good week

Love

 

Elder Kameron Lahache

Week 10 And 2 New Companions !

HI everyone!

 

This week has been great!.  This week we had transfers and Elder May left, so I'm still in the same area and I have 2 new companions again! I don't know what it is I guess it's just my luck that I'm in another threesome again. So my new companions names are Elder Hayes and Elder Zebley . Elder Hayes is from New Brunswick and Elder Zebley is from Pennsylvania near Philadelphia he said. I'm so happy be to be with them, they so fun to be with and we all get along really well. Elder Zebley is only going to be with us for about two weeks because his new companion got stuck at the MTC for at least another 2 weeks! So when his companion gets back that's when he will return to his area. It's been a nice change though to get a new companion, plus we all work really well together so it's helping so much.

 

So this week has been crazy we had a million appointments because Elder May is leaving and everyone wanted to see him, we've been having a D.A. pretty much everyday now, it's awesome. Plus Elder Hayes is a pretty big guy, so when I told him that we usually don't have D.A.'s he said that has to change so I think that's pretty funny. So now I'm the senior companion of the area already! It's weird because both Elder Zebley and Elder Hayes have both been on their missions longer than I have, but I guess it's because I know the area more. I don't want to be a guy who just bosses around the other missionaries though, I want them to help in some of the choices that we make like who will we visit today and what we should teach. That's something Elder May never really did with me and it annoyed me because I felt like I was giving no input. So unity is basically what I want to accomplish.

 

On Thursday I went and I dropped off Elder May at the mission office, and while I was there President Nelson wanted to meet with me. Just to check up on how I've been doing. In the meeting he said he feels that I should pray about the Book of Mormon to know that it's true. I had no idea why he felt prompted to tell me that because I already had a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. But I figured why not? It will only strengthen my testimony. So I began to pray and ask, I was expecting to feel the spirit while I was praying or reading as a response but that never came so I thought what the heck? I'm doing everything I did before to gain a testimony before why isn't this working? I thought about it alot, and I kept reading and praying. So one morning for personal study I was reading in D&C section 6 I read this and I was amazed.

 

14 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast ^ainquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

  15 Behold, thou knowest that thou hast inquired of me and I did enlighten thy ^amind; and now I tell thee these things that thou mayest know that thou hast been ^benlightened by the ^cSpirit of truth;

  16 Yea, I tell thee, that thou mayest know that there is none else save God that ^aknowest thy thoughts and the ^bintents of thy ^cheart.

  17 I tell thee these things as a witness unto thee—that the words or the work which thou hast been writing are ^atrue.

  18 Therefore be diligent; ^astand by my ^bservant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for the word’s sake.

After I read that I felt the spirit so strong. It was like God was talking to me directly as I was reading that. My testimony has been strengthened so much by this experience. I know that God answers our prayers through scriptures, that our leaders are truly inspired of God. Especially that prayers are not always answered the way that we want them to be answered, but the way the we need to be answered at this point in our lives. Just reading that and feeling the spirit made me want to share what I know to be true even more. 

This church is truly a blessing for all of us it gives us strength and the faith that we need to go forward in life and be happy as we do the best we can to live that commandments that Heavenly Father has given us. It's weird because I'm on my mission to help people gain testimonies and come unto Christ and feel his love. But at the same time my faith is growing so much everyday, and my testimony is becoming so much stronger that it has ever been in my life.

 

Anyway I have to go because my time on this computer is about up. Thanks for your prayers they're really helping me out I feel it. I love everyone at home so much! I miss you too haha and it's only been about 2 months oh well. This experience so far has been great I'm so grateful for the chance that I have to be a missionary and all of the wonderful people that I meet.

 

Have a good week! Love you! <3 AWWWWWW :)

 

Kameron

 

Week 9 Langley BC

Vancouver Mission Zone Conference

Hello everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't really have much time today because we're super busy! We have a lot of appointments today. It's so weird that I won't be there tonight to be with everyone at Ma's house today, I'll miss it so much! But we are going to a members family for thanksgiving dinner tonight. We went somewhere for thanksgiving yesterday too. So two thanksgiving dinners, we have a DA everyday this week because everyone found out that Elder May is leaving this week so now everyone is inviting us over for supper and for lunch and breakfast. Today we had a breakfast appointment and a lunch appointment and a supper appointment. But yeah this past week we've been really busy, on monday we had lower mainland P-Day and that's when all the missionaries in out whole zone come together and we play sports, and on that day we played dodge ball. That would be actually super cool if Shawn came and worked on out kitchen, then Cody would be able to work with him a bit and then go back to Salt Lake with him! 

So this week coming up on Tuesday so basically tomorrow I will be finding out if I'm getting a new companion and staying in this area or if I will be going somewhere else. I hope I can stay here for at least 1 more transfer. But if I'm called to serve somewhere else that would be fine I'll go where the Lord needs me. 

Today is my two month mark it's crazy because it seems that I haven't been out for that long, like it seems I've only been out for a few weeks. Time is just going by faster and faster now, I remember when I first got here it seemed like forever until Monday came around probably because I wanted to come write you guys! I feel like I've learned so much already in such a short period of time! Especially since I read the scriptures everyday there is so much that we can learn from them. My testimony has grown so much just from reading them regularly. So Betty our investigator is doing alright she's having a really hard time keeping commitments that we invite her too, especially the word of wisdom, with coffee. So I'm trying to think and I'm praying asking for some way that we can help her with this addiction that she has. 

Anyway I gotta go now because I have an appointment which we are late too! But I love you all and I miss being home especially today!

Love you
Kameron

Week 8 Langley BC

HI! everyone!

 

Well first I would like to start off by saying that General Conference was awesome! I learned so much and was even humbled by some of the talks that were given. Especially during the Priesthood session. I got two main points from all the talks which were. 1. To be obedient, and fight away temptation, which is especially important as a missionary and 2. To be grateful for what we have, and realize that everything that we have is a blessing from Heavenly Father. Such an amazing conference I really felt blessed and privileged to live in a time where we have a modern prophet who leads and guides us so that we may be happy in this life and be with our family forever!

 

Something funny happened this week but the experience strengthened my testimony. So I think it was on Wednesday or Thursday I don't know all the days kinda just blur together now! Anyway there was this other companionship of missionaries that called us (Elder Salmon and Elder Newton, who was with me at the MTC) and said that they had locked themselves out of their car and they needed us to come and help them by bringing them a wire hanger. So we did and we got there, and we spent almost 15 mins trying to get it to work. Finally Elder Salmon said that we should pray. So I went to the other side of my road and said a prayer that somehow we would find a way to open the door so that we may get back to our apartment in time to do our nightly planning session, because it would around 8:30. So we again start trying it, and no luck. But then a car pulls in across the road into his driveway, and a man gets out sees that we are having a difficult time and comes over and asks if he can help we said yes. So within 5 mins this guy had the car unlocked for us. It wasn't until later that I realized that this man was an answer to our prayers, and that Heavenly Father works through us, everyday people. It really helped me to see that I being called as a missionary will be that person that comes and helps people when they need it the most. I think it's just awesome how God works and answers our prayers, as long as we pray in faith.

 

Our investigators are doing alright Betty has a really hard time with Coffee so we set a goal where she drinks less a less every week so hopefully that will help. Gaviel kind of dropped us, he said it was too hard for him to accept what we believe because of how he was raised in what to believe his whole life. But he still wanted us to come over and pray with him occasionally. But that's ok, as long as we help these people in anyway we can and make them feel of God's love that's what matters most to me. I won't let these little things discourage me, because I could be alot worse and be like Alma when he went and taught in Ammonihah, and was completely rejected by the people. But even he was told to persist in teaching and then when he goes back to the city to teach again Amulek accepts and and Amulek becomes a great teacher to the rest of the people throughout the city and land.

 

The weather hasn't even been really that cold here at all. It's still usually 15-25 degrees, and it's been really sunny and warm for the past week. But the leaves are changing, alot of the people here tell me that all I will need for winter is a sweater, unless I got more up north, but the winters here are apparently a joke to how they are back home so we'll see. If I need anything I will let you know.

 

I'll talk to you again next week, have a good thanksgiving weekend this weekend

LOVE YOU!

Elder Lahache