WEEK 44 RICHMOND: God Bless The USA 🎇🎆🇺🇲🦅

Funny thing is, is that this story starts off on Canada Day...

Don't get me wrong. Canada is amazing, I love this place. And I'm so grateful God called me to serve here.

But. They. Just. Don't. Know. How. To. Par. Tay.

But it was a great Day of Canada. We had mega ZoCo. Probably around 160 missionaries, which was flippin' epic. So many friendly faces, lots of amazing spiritual upliftment. And best of all?? Mr. Gu came through on his promise and cooked up some incredibly delicious Na'an Bread. Then finished the night with hot pot at a member's house. It was very fun, but also sad because this member is leaving and they're the goats. 

And no fireworks .

I will sacrifice my enjoyment for eternal salvation for myself and others, thank you very much. I will just blow some stuff up in 2 years .

God Bless Canada! This place is great!

Thursday we had our district council, went pretty good. Had a meal with Mr. Gu, once again, and he cooked up even better than before. Bro is so flippin' amazing! He whips out 2 full chicken and goes to down on them. Heads flying everywhere, feet, organs, just craziness, and the best thing was that it was delicious. He also told us to bring everyone, so we invited members and some of the Elder's friends. Then had a fire lesson afterwards! Blessed UP!!

Hit up exchanges with Elder Meyer. Running it back since Van. It was really good, we were able to put their friend Dom on date, who me and Elder Barnes were teaching, but passed to them. So that was a sweet full circle! Found some cool people. Had a member meal with a goated couple, and finished the night up with basketball night.

Ohh, my ankle? Still cooked, thanks for asking.

Did I play? Of course! Sorry mama, the works gotta get done though, yk?

LET FREEDOM RIIIIIIING!!!!!

Yup, I still love America! Shoutout Clark fam, it was a pleasure to talk to y'all!

Had a lesson with Li, which are always just amazing, we invited him to pray for an opportunity, and hand out a BoM. Bro texted us this morning saying he did just that! Fire!!!!! Li Le'Goat!!!!! It was so cool though. When he came into the lesson, some unfortunate stuff had just happened in his life, and he was pretty angry. But by the end of it he was like, yk? Being here just makes me feel calm, I'll forgive them!

Like Bro!?! Could you be anymore epic?!?!?

He's just amazing!

Fear not, Blasted some Lee Greenwood!

Played badmitton with some members and Mr. Gu. Then had a most epic lesson with him at the end. (Playing Badminton with him was top 10 funniest things ever) HE'S ON DATE!!!!! It was such a spirit filled lesson, then we invited him. And he was like, wait, I can be baptized? Yes! I want it! I feel so good in my belly right now!

Like that is what a 4th of July miracle looks like. He's just so flippin cool!

Sunday was amazing. Church, finding, and crack pot chicken. Three best things!

Monday was a lot of planning!

Rip America (Fifa).....

Then today was amazing. Temple p-day! Always a blessing in life. Bye-bye party for three of the Chinese Elders. You will be missed. But. We went and did Karaoke. So that was so much fun. Sang so much Chinese music!

So ya. That's the week. Pretty Good if I say so.

Also,

Quick little story, because the vow of silence has been lifted.

Without further ado...

The day is June 29, 2026. It is around 10am, and we get a call from the APs asking: Y'all still home?

We were like, yuh, but we about to walk out the door. 

They said pull up to the crib real quick.

So we did, they tell us a lil' secret.

3 hours later. We arrive at the church, 8 Elders pile into a van. Take a 40 minute drive to Burnaby, that is outside our zone...

(You like how mysterious this is??)

We pull up to a Nissan car dealership.

Huh. That kinda strange...

We go inside with some of the senior missionaries. They hand me a pair of keys and license plate. They hand my companion a different set of keys and license plate.

And lo and behold, I got a brand spankin' new 2026 Nissan Rouge. 23km on the odometer. Sold sign still on the dashboard

No Tiwi!

All eight of us get into our own cars. And we are let loose.

40 minutes

Of

Bliss!

The End!

So ya, secrets out. We got to go approved apostate for 40 minutes. No companion and no Tiwi .

I felt like a lil' kid on Christmas when the APs told us we had to help them drive these cars from the dealership to the office. 

I may or may not have hit a little jig.

It was fun though.

Ok though, story time over.

Thanks for listening! See you next week!

Now, going kind of counter to the type of story I just told, President said something that stood out to me during ZoCo.

He was talking about missions and the gospel, and how when we are trying to follow Jesus Christ the best we can, the joy we feel will be greater than anything else. Especially on the mission. We should have an immense amount of joy out here. 

And I got thinking, I was like ya', I agree, I've had so much joy on the mission. But it's also very much the hardest thing I've ever done. I could be home doing a lot of fun things, one being enjoying the 250th with a bunch of fireworks. I had a fun life before the mission.

But then Prezy drops a bar. "Joy in the gospel is not the same as enjoyment"

When you look at it, enjoyment doesn't last. But the pure Joy that Jesus Christ gives does. And it last for eternity. 

I may not "enjoy" my mission every single second. But I sure am having Joy. I'm finding Joy. I'm living in Joy. I can have this Joy because I have a knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it means for me. And that is the greatest Joy. 

So it's important to put your focus on the things that really matter. Life is going to be hard and we can't enjoy every part of it. But because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can and will have Joy through ALL of it! 

Zone Conference

Mega Zoco Core

Our little adventure

卡拉Ok