Oct  13, 2014

Hi Everyone, It looks like the Grand Canyon hike went well. I'm pretty jealous, it sure looked like fun. haha lookin good with the braces Syd. I bet they hurt. So this week was absolutely amazing. Things up here are really crazy. It is literally a whole different culture up here. It's sad to see a lot of it. a lot of these kids up here just run around all day and do bad things. like we work with some people who's 8 year old daughter smokes and drinks. its so sad, but I'm glad I'm able to be a part of helping others change their lives. We had some great things happen to us this week. so we've been spending a lot of time this week with a less active member named Wally Dumas. Everyone up here is a Dumas ( we have this joke whenever we talk to him, we tell him to stop being such a Dumas) but anyways, we've gone fishing with him a lot this week and every time we go fishing with him we teach him a lesson. So we we're teaching him about the priesthood because we want him to baptize his cousin Noella (ill get to her later). He was just like, heck no bro. things are really strict and I don't want to have anything to do with it. So we talked a while and he started asking about what he needs to do to get the priesthood, so we went over word of wisdom, chastity, commandments, all that jazz, and he was just like, that's it? He started to talk to us about how he really wants to do better. So we spent the whole week with him, not all day but we saw him everyday, and he told us, that it was getting easier to say no to all the bad things his family and friends wanted him to do. He came to church Sunday and even gave up moose hunting to be there. Then he set up an appointment with the branch president right after church and they talked about some things he needed to do and he is really on track! It is so great. We're going fishing with him again today. I'm excited. So his cousin Noella Caribou has been investigating for a while and told me she really wants to get baptized, but just has to quit smoking. She says its hard cause she's been doing it since she was 10. but she's starting this program to help her get off and I made it a competition between her and Wally to see who can quit the longest. She has quite the story. A month or so ago, she jumped off a 5 story roof and shattered her leg and compressed her back, she was drunk and tried to commit suicide. But we've been working with her and she is doing so well. She even came to church this past week. So I'm going to get so fat up here. I've literally eaten bannock (fry bread) and fried fish 12 times this week. It's crazy. whatever. It's all good. I just remembered another crazy story from last week. so we were stopping by Wally's sisters place (everyone up here is related. its crazy) anyways, we walk up to the door and there is bloody handprint smeared on the door. So we're like what the? It turns out the night before some of her cousins broke in and attacked her boyfriend Jeremiah, and just about killed him. It was brutal, so this week we went over and helped him move some furniture, and he was pretty messed up. The inside of the apartment was a battle scene. The guys got caught and they are in jail for like 12 years or something. but he was talking to us for a bit. He still doesn't know why the heck they attacked him. I never thought on my mission I would be following around a native guy through the bush, up and down rocks and cliffs to find a monster fishing spot and catch some monster fish. I never thought I would be doing all the amazing stuff we do here either. I love this place so much. It's beautiful here and the people are the best. It's a totally different world up here. We get to have bonfires with investigators and do all sorts of stuff that the missionaries in the city don't get to. It's great. Well this week were going to Winnipeg on Thursday. The car ride is going to stink, but we will make it fun. love you all Elder Porter