So this last week we had Zone conference. I love zone conference. It's great. It was on Tuesday, so on Monday we had some Elders drive down from what's called the video zone and spend the night. It's called the video zone because they're in the northern part of the mission, and they're so far spread out from everyone, that they can only have district meetings, and zone training meetings, and usually zone conferences by SKYPE. but this zone conference was Christmas, and a lot of people got transferred into the video zone, so President Thomas wanted them all to drive in.
The elders that were spending the night with us were from Thompson and Flin-Flon. One of which was my first companion, Elder Hatch. We were waiting for them at the church, and were surprised when we were expecting two cars, and they only pulled up in one truck, and all 5 of them piled out. Turns out that when you have black ice in -40* weather. Things tend to go bad, and missionaries wreck cars. So that's what happened. They wrecked their car into the back of the truck. It was hilarious. but I'm sure it ruined presidents day.
The next morning we loaded up their truck, our truck, and the sisters in their car, and drove two hours to Saskatoon to zone conference. It was a pretty laid-back Zone Conference. We just hung out and ate lunch, then we had a little bit of training, then the senior couples that I served with in Winnipeg came and told us old Christmas stories. I love them to death. After that President Thomas got up and shared Christmas stories about his life. They were kind of how Dieter F. Uchtdorf would do it. With airplanes. I'll put that at the end of my email.
On Wednesday we traveled back to P.A. and I mainly got to know the area and most the people we teach and work with. On thursday we did service at a food bank and actually started talking to a lot of people who are interested in learning. We set up a lot of appointments and we're excited to meet with them. Same thing happened on Saturday when we did some service at a place that builds houses for the poor. On Sunday we got to go caroling with a family in our ward in about -35*. it was fun, and I got to play bongos, but even with gloves, my fingers were freezing cold. Now some of the most interesting stories come from Friday. On Friday I went on a short Exchange with the other elders to teach one of them how to street contact because he never had to do it in his last area because it just barely opened and they were teaching 30 lessons a week. Crazy. But on the other end of the exchange, my companion and his companion got a knife pulled on them! it was crazy! They stopped by a guy we tried a few nights ago but wasn't home, but he answered this time, pulled a knife, and asked if they were jehovah's witnesses. But the thing was he was filming it the whole time and laughing about it so they weren't really scared, just thrown off guard. It was crazy. Later that day we went to a Native reserve that we have a member and an investigator at and asked for service because we want to find people to teach out there. But after that we went out to a member's house that lives 30 min out of town in this town called birch hills. It's beautiful. it only has about 1,000 people, and has a huge Christmas tree right in the middle of it. We have a couple people we want to teach out there. We just want this whole are to explode, and it might. President Thomas says every time he comes to P.A. he feels good about it. And i felt that when I drove in. I don't know what it is.
The only problem with all of these places is we don't have enough "K's." or distance that we can drive on our truck. It's terrible! There's this place about 2 hours north of here called La Ronge that Elder Hindes and I want to go to but we just don't have the K's. it bugs. The thing about the Price Albert ward, is the geographics of it have to be one of the largest in the world. it covers most of northern Saskatchewan, If you look it up on maps.lds.org, you'll see what i'm talking about. Now it's been cold up here. I mean really cold. I hope to develop a frost layer by the time I'm done here. So this week has been the COLDEST week I have ever seen. I know I say that every week, but It keeps getting colder! this winter is apparently colder than last winter. For example, I thought -40 was cold. That was until we woke up this morning, and it was -49*c out side. that's -54*f. we decided because it was so cold we went out and threw a pot of boiling water. I thought it was neat in 5*f. I was wrong. I know it was the winter solstice this week, and I realized that I'm so far north, that the sun nover reaches mid sky. It basically always looks like it's setting. It makes for beautiful light, but it never gets warm. That's my week really in a nutshell. I'm excited for Christmas. we're spending Christmas Eve with an older family with no kids, and Christmas we're spending with about 5 different families. So we'll have plenty to do. I'm really looking forward to it, but once it's gone people will finally not have an excuse not to meet with us, so that will be great. Here's my Christmas message from President Thomas, to me, to you guys:
President Thomas used to fly float planes out of a waterfront in Ketchikan, Alaska. It was at one point the 5th busiest airport in the world! That was because they had to deliver freight, cargo, groceries, people, and mail to all of the southern islands of Alaska. One Christmas, the weather turned super bad about 10 days before Christmas. Bad enough that they were not able to fly in it. The storm just got worse and worse and the mail just started to build and build, as did the panic. People started phoning in to the water front seeing if their mail was going to get delivered, but they couldn't get up into the clouds to do it. As Christmas eve came around there seemed to be no hope. That was until about late afternoon when the storm cleared. People started phoning again to see if their Christmas presents would be delivered, but it was too late in the day. If any one was going to go make a delivery, they wouldn't have enough time to get back before it was dark. President Thomas, being the man he is said to just leave him one plane in the water the next morning, and he would make a delivery or two. He woke up the next morning, headed down to the dock before sunrise. When he got there, to his surprise, he saw that every airplane was in the water, and there was mail being loaded on the dock, and pilots running everywhere doing as much as they can, and by the end of the day, all the packages had been delivered, and the hanger that was once filled with freight, was empty.
I'm so happy that this Christmas I could spend away from home, serving my Lord. The best part is, I'm not even feeling that homesick. I love how in the bible it talks about how when you lose yourself in service, you'll find yourself. I've really come to find that in myself. I'm finding myself, who I am who I want to be every day. I've really just focused this Christmas on the spirit of giving, and not receiving. Christ, he was the perfect example of that. He gave us everything. He gave us his life, and the atonement which is everything. I love him so much for that. I love what Dieter F. Uchtdorf says: "Christmas and some of the cherished traditions of the season remind us that we, like the Wise Men of old, should seek the Christ and lay before Him the most precious gifts: a broken heart, and a contrite spirit."
Love you guys. Have a very Merry Christmas.
Elder Jake Sorenson
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