Transfered To Delta!

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well! =)

So many changes happened this week, on Tuesday we got a call from President Nelson, and guess what? I got transferred to a new area, my new area is only about 30 minutes away from my old one just a little closer to Vancouver and the mission office. 

 I'm serving in Delta now and my new companion is Elder Nielson he's such a cool guy and we get along way good. He was in Langley north and I was in Langley south a few months ago so we already knew each other we just thought it was really funny how they put two such young missionaries together because Elder Nielson has only been on his mission about a month and a half longer than I have. So we're way excited to go to work here.

 Oh another thing about this area....it's a biking area! But we're going to be getting bus passes for the winter so it's not that bad. Anyway my new address is #216 7445 Scott Road Delta B.C. V4C 0B7 so let everyone know and tell anyone that if they have sent me letters recently that I won't get them probably for another two weeks, so I will reply to them as soon as I get them or I'll try to.

It was really hard for me to leave Langley, it's weird because I didn't notice how much I had become attached to the area and the people there, especially some of the people we taught. So we got our transfer calls on Tuesday night and then we leave Thursday at lunch time. So I basically had a day to go around and say goodbye to everyone, I was really sad to say goodbye to Peter, because he was so upset that I was leaving, it was weird because I felt that I had so much more work to do in Langley. But I do have faith that the Lord has put me and Elder Nielson in Delta for a reason and I know that there are people who are being prepared to hear our message.

It's so funny because in Langley we had 6 progressing investigators and then I come here to Delta and I find out that they only have one investigator! So we have alot alot of work to do here, and I'm really excited to do it. Many people that live here are east Indian so alot people cannot understand what we're trying to tell them, so basically we're trying to contact people and speaking as simply as we possibly can.

We live in a really nice apartment, it's brand new less than a year old and our bathroom has heated floors! EVERYDAY!

So my second day in Delta we spent over five hours straight tracting, and we walked everywhere we went and I was so tired at the end of the day. But it's cool because I saw that as we showed our faith in God that he blessed us with people who were willing to listen, there were occasionally people who were just not happy to see us at all, but many of the people here are very nice and polite which is quite the change from how people are in Langley I guess the cultural differences.

This week I really had my faith restrenghtened because I knew that I didn't want to go to a different area, but I knew that I was being sent there for a reason. The night that I found out that I was leaving I prayed for a while and I asked the Lord to give me to strength to be able to do whatever it is that he needs me to do. I remember that I didn't really feel any sense of reassurance that night but then the next morning while I was taking a shower, it's funny because I have alot of cool spiritual experiences in the shower now because I reflect alot. Anyway while I was in the shower I just felt like I had this added strength and courage to go somewhere new.

 Change has been something that I have never been to good with and I know that, but I know that the Lord blessed me with those extra bits of energy and strength that I need so I would feel good about going and starting a new area up. I'm so happy to be here right now, and I know that it's probably going to be really tough to keep a positive attitude especially since we might not always see the fruits of our labors, but I know that as we put our faith in the Lord after we have done all the we can do ourselves that's when he'll step in and we'll see miracles happen! I know that because I've seen it before.

Yesterday we had church at 1, so we had all morning to work so we decided that we would go and see one of the people who said we could come back on Sunday while we were tracting on Thursday night, so we knocked on his door and he let us come in a speak to him. He's from Guatemala and he is married and has a son, their names are Hulio Fransisca and Carlos is the son. Elder Nielson and I are so excited to begin teaching them, they are so nice and humble, we also know that the message that we have to share with them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bless their lives more than they or we can imagine.

Anyway I hope that everything is going well, I appreciate you guys supporting me so much, your support and just thinking about you guys gives me the extra push that I need. I love you guys so much!  I find that while I've been out I've appreciated alot of things that I simply took for granted while I was home. Even just the simple blessing well I guess not so simple but awesome blessing of our family especially. Your all so important to me. So thanks for giving me that extra push to give up things that I've been holding onto it's helped alot, even though it was hard.

I love you guys, thank you for all that you've done to make me who I am, and I guess I can start saying Merry Christmas now!

Love Elder Kameron Lahache <3

First Snowfall in BC !



Elder Lahaches Apartment



Hi everyone!

 So I've been thinking alot this week trying to figure out what to ask for Christmas, so I would like the things I asked for last week I can't even remember what I asked for and the only other thing that I could think of is some more CD's and prefect pushup bars. That is all!

 This week was really great we now have 4 progressing investigators Tony, Jen, Brad and Peter. We have Taloo as well but he's having a difficulty understanding what we teach him because his first language isn't so we're going really slowly with him making sure that he understands everything well. Taloo had a baptismal date for November 27th but we decided to move it because we felt that his understanding wasn't fully there yet.

 Also this week we got 2 new potential investigators their names are Gene and Bryce. So we met all these people one night while we we're tracting and it's actually the most success I've seen to come from tracting my whole mission so it felt really good. Gene met with missionaries before so she was happy to see us she said that the missionaries just stopped coming to see her one day and she never heard from them after that, apparently that was about a year ago. She asked for the address of the church and she said that she would love to have us back so I was really happy. Byrce is a really philosophical guy and we had a good conversation with him about what he believed and what he thought of religion. He was really surprised with some of the beliefs that we have and he said that he was interested in learning more so we're going to be going to visit with him later this week!



Snow Covered Mountains



 We had a lesson with Jen on Monday I think I might have told you guys about it already I'm not really sure, but anyway it went really well she said that she feels that when she goes to church and thinks about Jesus more that there is this light in her life. So we told her that we would be able to help her feel that light all the time and she really liked that, I felt the spirit so strong when I bore my testimony to her about Jesus Christ and his atonement I know that it's true.

 It snowed here on Friday night and there has been snow here every since! It's only around -2 right now but the mountains are all full of snow and it's so nice! I want to go snowboarding so bad! But I guess I'll have to wait. People keep saying that this winter is supposed to be the worst winter that B.C. has had for 50 years so I'm saying bring it on! I was so excited to see the snow and it made everything alot brighter because it's nice to see white instead of everything seem all gray because it's cloudy all the time. Elder Hayes and I are really excited for Christmas so we already started to listen to Christmas music. 32 days until Christmas that's crazy time is flying by. I think I might go buy a jacket soon maybe this week or next week I'm not really sure.

Anyway that's pretty much the highlights of the week

We're using different computers today so I can send pictures so I'll show you how much it snowed here

Love you!!!

Kameron

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