August 20, 2017 - Ontario

From Dad:

Hi Josh,

Sorry we did not get a letter to you last week. If we were better thinkers aheaders, we would have scheduled or sent a letter before we left on the canoe trip. As it was, we were totally without access to the internet for 8 days in Quetico park.More details to come on that later in the letter.

This week I received a popup on my Facebook reminding me that it was 2 years ago that you opened your mission call. 

And now we're waiting for Sam's mission call! he went for his interview August 9th with the Stake President and was submitted that night. So the waiting begins!  It will be interesting to see whether or not you will overlap or miss each other. From other reports of mission calls, if he ends up going out of country, you will likely see each other before he goes. That would be a fun blessing.

Loved hearing about your "Miracles". Hope you have many more as you run the home stretch. Keep going strong and serve with all your might mind and strength. It will be worth it. We're excited for your opportunity to serve as a District leader. You'll be great.

This last couple of weeks has been a great adventure. After the Olsen reunion, Abby and Mia headed back west with Mark and his kids to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Taylie and Steve while we were away. Mom, I, Sam and Ben and Steph and Tyler packed up our packs and gear and headed out on a canoe trip with Grandma and Grandpa Bruce and a few others. 7 canoes in total!

We ended up going on the reverse route from what we did 3 years ago.The weather was fantastic and the fish delicious. 

The "Hitting the Wall" moment came for most of us when we ended up lost in one of the swampy areas between lakes. At one critical junction, we missed the right turn to the portage into Sturgeon Lake and instead went North into more swamp, little lakes and run down portages. By the time we realized we had missed the turn, we were 3 hours down the path. As we scratched our heads and figured out where we were, we had a defining moment where we had the realization that there was no way forward. Rather, we would have to turn around and retrace our steps back through the crazy wild forest and swamp areas we had just fought our way through. And I mean literally fought our way through as this was a round less taken by anyone. We were portaging through bush wacking vs. trails. We were pushing the canoes through swamp and beaver dams, often falling up to our chests in water and grass. It was a daunting prospect. It was inspiring to see and experience the resolve and determination of everyone as we hitched up our soggy pants and shoved our way back into the quagmire. Grandpa had to take a little walk before we started out again to "double check", but I believe he probably was going off to be by himself, maybe to kick a log or two in frustration, but I imagined he also said a prayer for help and safety. You have a faithful heritage in your Grandpa and Grandma Bruce!

After a few more hours of effort, we heard the joyous sound of Sam and Ben yelling back from a foraging mission down a side path they had found the portage out! And it was only 50 meters long! We finally emerged onto the welcome vista of Sturgeon lake as dusk descended and we had the unique experience of paddling in the dark to our campsite, the sandy peninsula where we spent Sunday 3 years ago if you remember.

Of course, we had many discussions based on Grandpa Bruce's oft repeated quote that "Life is like a canoe trip". I think we all, at some point or another reach a point in our lives where we look around and wonder how we could have gotten our selves into such a mess, so far off track.And we wonder if we can ever face the daunting task of retracing our steps back to the right path. But the joy that comes when we do and we feel the great joy that comes from being where we know we want to and should be is so wonderful. 

The best part of the whole trip for me was having your Mom there with me. She is the light of my life and I can't imagine my life without her. She has heard about canoe trips her whole life. Grandpa Bruce shared that when his boy's were growing up he wanted to find something to help turn them from boys into men, so he came up with the bi-annual canoe trips. It was only a few years ago that he wondered why he hadn't done it with his girls! So it was a highlight for him to to have a daughter and grand daughter on the trip.

Sunday we had a very spiritual camp meeting and I really enjoyed Tyler's favorite scripture he shared in Omni 1:26

26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved. 

He talked about how amazing it is to be able to offer our whole souls and encouraged us to consider if we are doing that for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our journey home from Ontario took us 30 hours due to having to fix a trailer tire that we didn't have a tire iron for (had to drop the trailer and run into Medicine Hat) and had to get it repaired in Lethbridge. We met Mark there and Sam bought Marks old Hyundai Elantra for going back and forth to work with. We split up and Mom and Sam went to Ft. Mclead to pick up the girls and we met in Airdrie for lunch. The girls came running across the parking lot to greet me and gave me a big hug. It was nice to feel remembered and appreciated and I missed them Each one of you are so precious to me and Mom!

Hope you are finding joy as you persevere through your own swamps and challenges as you sprint to the end. Hope this doesn't make you too trunky :)

Love 

Dad.

From Josh:

Changes are all over the place this transfer, i don't know if I said in my last email but I am currently training a Visa waiter and I am co district leaders with my companion.

I feel like this is going to be a great transfer.

This week has been up and down honestly, I am feeling hyper sensitive because of my trainee , we have come in contact with a few people this week that have tried to topple our testimonies and I don't know how strong my trainee's testimony is, we are kind of preparing him for the next faze of his mission, he will be going to India at the end of this transfer and we are trying to do all we can to help him, but I guess it can't be helped when you have a huuuuge church that hates mormons just up the street. surprisingly we got bashed by a Catholic, as usual he was super nice and gave us water but once we got into the gospel he started bashing back and forth, everything from Tithes to evidence. Too many people base their faith off of evidence, they want proof of everything that God has to offer. God has commanded us to walk by faith and not by sight.

We met this one person, his name was Adrien, and he does not believe in anything, he claims to even be unsure about gravity, he let us in and gave us water (figures) and no one lets us in, so we figured he was a basher, as we spoke to him we definitely realized that he was trying to topple our faith with logic and philosophy, every time that we mentioned faith he would stop us and say, "you mean pretending" and to be honest after a while I even started doubting my feelings, so I told him that we had to go, he didn't seem to want us to leave so we said that we had an appointment to go to, we finally left and it turned out to have taken 35 minutes of our time. Someone once told me that "if someone is taking up your time when you could be sharing the gospel with someone who will listen then they are a servant of the devil" it was funny because that same guy who told us that was taking our time and wasn't really willing to listen to our opinions. 

Training life is a blast, everything we do is some new experience to Elder House (my trainee) 

and I have realized more and more how much of it has become old hat to me, and so being able to try to help our trainee to see the fun in all of it I have been able to learn to appreciate things that I had put to the side. So I get to experience everything anew again. 

District leader life is a fun time as well, I love getting to know more missionaries this way, I had to get used to being a regular missionary and being cut off from socializing with other missionaries to an extent but now I can develop relationships and help other missionaries, a lot of them are pretty new to the mission, so I am grateful that I can help with problems that I have faced and give advice and suggestions to how to deal with it better then I did, the key I think is being open and honest with everyone, the more open I am the more someone else will feel open to open up if that makes sense. 

anyway I love you all, I am grateful for the influence of everyone i have come in contact in my life, and I love the things I can take away.

All the food I have in the fridge is super cheap and not too healthy because I am living off a limited budget but I am getting by, the members here are super nice and feed us a lot. Elder House is fighting to stay awake all day (I remember those days) we just keep telling him that he will get used to it. we have 2 companionships in the district, one set of sisters and one set of Elders, so its going to be a fun transfer... I have to say I started the D&C challenge, which is to read one section of the Doctrine and Covenants starting at the end and reading to the beginning as sort of a count down. its a stupid tradition but I enjoy it because its helping me to keep track of my scripture reading so I will finish D&C for the second time before I come home. 

Love 

Josh