How does it feel to be 20?

  Calvin's 20th birthday was on January 25th. His first birthday away from home. We sent him a package with some leaves from Palmyra (the Sacred Grove and the Temple) that we had picked up off the ground when we were there in October. We dried them and laminated them. We also sent him a huge (almost as large and deep as a 9x9 baking pan) Millennium Falcon rubber ice cube mold, a package of Jello (because he may be able to use the ice cube mold for the Jello if he's careful not to put the Jello in hot!), a Yoda Pez dispenser, some more D&D figures and some letters from us. He'll talk about that in another email. I have to ask him specific questions all the time about things we sent, because he forgets to tell me that he's gotten them.
  I also forgot to mention in the last post that you can google "snow removal in Quebec, Canada" and watch videos of the way they deal with snow removal in Canada. It's really quite unique and works very well! I think the US could take a note or two and get some better ideas.
  AND I forgot to share that Heavenly Father loves missionary moms. Each week I find that there is a tender mercy for me from Heavenly Father. Missions are very demanding and hard for the missionaries, but they are also very hard for mothers. The rules for contact with our missionary are very strict: emails only on Monday, and a telephone call (or Skype if it's available) on Christmas and Mother's Day. (Yes, if the missionary is hurt or very ill he or she may call parents) Yes, it does seem a little Draconian for those who haven't grown up in the church, knowing that this is coming. But my son is in Canada to serve the Lord, to help people come to know Christ, to serve the people in his area. Whether it be teaching them about Christ, bringing them food, shoveling their driveways and sidewalks, helping them in their gardens or fields, mucking out animal stalls, helping out in soup kitchens or whatever, he is there to serve. I wouldn't want to be a distraction to the work he has prepared himself his whole life so far to do. I have always believed what Joseph Smith said: “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation."
  Heavenly Father knows what we need! He knows how difficult it is for us to send our sons and daughters on missions (often to countries halfway around the world). Every week I find a tender mercy whether it be meeting a missionary whose friend is serving in the same mission Calvin is in, or listening to my iPod on shuffle and a French song comes on just as I'm thinking of Calvin, or a mission president's wife who makes sure my son has good boots as he serves in the freezing cold, to other little things like that. Heavenly Father is in the details!
  The week of Calvin's transfer, I got a Facebook message from my beloved friend who lives in New York City. I will paraphrase it: "You're not going to believe this, but I have a friend here in NYC who is Canadian. His mother lives in Calvin's new area. Calvin may have had dinner with her this weekend. My friend's best friend still lives in Canada, and he's not a member of the church, so I have a referral for Calvin. How do I get the referral to him?" Tender mercy! And it also reminds me that within our church, the world is really quite small!
  Now on to Calvin's email:

Momm,

so, what happened this week? Not much, But we had a good week. I'm starting to understand the French here, which is exciting! No more looking at people and nodding and making affermative noises as if I know what's going on!  But I still have lots to learn. It's even weirder when your tracting because you run into accents of varying severity. But we havent had a lot of time to do door to door, because of the new rule, that we cannot go door to door in -20 or lower weather. So, we have been contacting in shopping malls (which is so wierd) and tracking down formers. [inactive members of the church] So, that's what we have been doing lately here. 

 Chicoutamie is BEAUTIFUL!!! Ikeep wanting to stop and take pictures, but we have no time, and it would be awkward to linger after knocking on someone's door to take pictures. 

  Oh, so this week, well, there are a few good stories, we had tracted into an investigator last Sunday, and had set a return appointment this friday (my birthday!) well, we went to the appointment, walked into the appartment building, and suddenly my compannion stops, and starts staring into the mailbox. I look over and see a blue bound book. It's a Book of Mormon, with rumpled torn pages, and some completely torn out. We picked up the book, and it was wet. We have no idea what happened, but there were some underlined words, as if someone had read the book. So we dont know what happened. we tried calling him, no answer, and knocked on his door two different times, again with no response. so, we are planning on going back there to see what happened sometime this week. 

   But, what else happened this week, well, I got Happy Birthday sung to me twice. Once by the entire Zone Council because Sister Cannon called when everyone was there to wish me a happy birthday. the second time, was by my district leaders' Tahitian companion. Then the sister missionaries in Dows Lake sent me a happy Birthday text. They are awesome! And don't worry, we had a dinner appointment. Oh! We also taught this Colombian guy. He only speaks Spanish and French, and It`s like he`s speaking in Spanish when he speaks French because he has a really heavy Spanish accent, and mixes spanish words in with his French. But, the lesson we had with him was super awesome, because he started asking really good questions, and the discussion started going twords baptism, and authority, so next time we`re going to talk more about that. Going to go for a baptismal challenge! Or at least we`ll try! 

  Lets see, what other stories can we tell. Quebecquois dont like to wear shirts. or pants. and they have no shame answering the door without either or both. I almost burst out laughing at the second guy who answered the door without his shirt on. 

  Well, that`s all that I can remember, and my hour is almost up! Love you all sooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!

You are the best!! Yes, I`m taking care of myself! 

I`m warm! 

I`m happy!

I havent got my package yet, but next week I should!

LOVE!
Calvin Messinger

  Have I mentioned that Calvin always signs his written letters with his first and last name? I keep telling him that he only needs to write "Calvin" but he always signs both names on his written letters.

Maybe I should forget about blogging every week

The ice in the river that Calvin mentions - at least I think it's on the river - and sorry it's sideways.

Le Gros Lapin de Chicoutimi - and Calvin's apartment, on the third floor, and his companion already fell on the stairs , or perhaps through the stairs?

  Yet again I find myself weeks behind in updates. No excuses, just weeks behind.
  Calvin had written that he needed to get boots. I missed him being online - sometimes I can time it so that I'm online the same time he is, and I can shoot a quick message to him, but that particular week I missed him entirely. I worried about him getting boots, so I emailed the mission president's wife about it (she's really good at making sure the missionaries have what they need). She called me back, but I was at a Relief Society meeting. Between emails to her, messages taken by my daughters, and fervent prayer (because it's REALLY cold in Chicoutimi!) Calvin got boots. I think they were in the "missionary free store." I have mentioned before that some missionaries leave behind things (like coats and boots and probably blankets) when they go home. These items are stored in the mission home so other missionaries can use them as needed.

Hey momm!!!

Here I am in the GREAT WHITE NORTH!!!!!!!!! I feel like we are on the edge of the world, even though there is still a long way to go to get there. But, here I am! Well, what has happened, lets see, at the beginning of the week, I said good bye to Chapel Hill. I was sad, there are a lot of amazing people there, and the work is going to go so well there, but I'm sure we are going to have a lot of success here as well! So, that was Mon, and Tues, was going around and talking to people, doing a last bit of work, and then on wednesday, I was off! Off to the bus station to go to the station in Montreal, to do transfers, which is basically an hour of missionaries talking to each other. I saw [the other missionary from our Stake] there, as well as a surprising number of other missionaries I know. I didnt know that I knew that many. Then, on another bus to go to Quebec City. We got there, and all the other missionaries were late. So, after they arrived (the sister missionaries arrived first, then the Elders, and the Zone leaders, and  my companion met us at the institute building). So, what happened then. Oh, so then we ate poutine at Intuitions (which was awesome!) and then we split the zone leaders for the night. [A definition of splits: Elders (and Sisters) are in companionships of two, so when Calvin mentions his companion, he's talking about the other missionary he works with. A "split" occurs when the elder or sister work with someone other than their own companion. Or the companionship is "split" up. Splits always occur with someone of the same gender.]  We taught some Quebecquoi people, and i could understand most of what they said, which was a false impression, and I'll tell you why later. So that night I found out my comp has read, and loves, the Wheel of Time, and Belgariad series. I was so happy.

   So, a little about my comp. He was born on the Isle de Reunion, and speaks french. Yes, his family is Chinese, and malagasy, and just about everything else in the book. But, his Chinese grandfather didn't teach his father Cantonese, so he cannot speak Chinese. He likes the Men in Black movies, and loves Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and stuff like that. umm...... he also can cook good french toast. So, thats a little about him.

  So, the next day, we drive two hours up to Chicoutmie!! [Hmm, by my calculations it took Calvin two busses, a two-hour drive, and two days to get from Ottawa to Chicoutimi! That's a LONG transfer time! The elders here in our mission take a day to do transfers. I think the longest they drive is perhaps 8 hours total?] So, that was fun. We went through tons of hills, that looked like mini mountains. It felt like i was in Idaho again. oh, it was something like -28 to -25 ish up there. It warmed up when we got to Chicoutamie: -23ish. Oh, i didnt tell you, we have a truck. We get to drive a truck up here. So, we get here, and have correlation [a meeting to discuss what the goals for missionary work are for that week, and how teaching investigators is progressing] with our Ward Mission Leader I didn't know much about the area, so there was not much I could do. After that, we went knocking. and knocking. and knocking. My companion says thats how most of our investigators are found. by knocking. We hope to change that soon, because this transfer we are going to focus on missionary work. so, then, we went and taught  less active kid, which ended up with us listeneing to this Quio man telling us for an hour his life story, and how english is inferior to French, and how Quebec should be a seperate country, and blah blah blah blah was about all I heard. The biggest problem with that lesson was that I could not understand ANYTHING that man was saying to us. He had the WORST Quebecquoi accent I had heard up until that point. "Moui-le, bain le le le le le le" I was like " WHAT IS HE SAYING!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THAT?" Elder Thia told me not to worry, because most Elders dont understand at the beginning and that I will get it, which I hope is true. Then, we went and taught someone, who had an even WORSE Quoi accent, and no teeth.  I didnt understand a word he said.

   The nevxt day we went tracting, and I felt more like I was in a deep, dark hole that I will never climb out of, because I found out that I did NOT understand Quebecquoi. It's not French. I don't know what is is, besides and abomination before the Lord. ok, that was a little over the top, but it's not French. The quebecquoi are interesting people too. They talk very fast, very loud, and over top of anyone else. They also talk on forever, and almost never let you speak. So, thus far, it feels like I'm serving a real mission. It feels like I'm in an entirely new mission up here. The weather is so different. thus far, I think we've been up above -10 once (?) and even then I''m not sure. But I'm having the time of my life. It's so fun. OH, tell [a member of our branch] thanks for the hat. I didnt use it at all until I came up here, and now it is a most treasured possetion! Oh, yeah, I got boots, too. Sister Cannon found some in the mission Home, so you dont need to worry about that any more, and they are the perfect boots, too. Very warm! So, I am warm. and relatively happy, despite the fact that i cant understand a word of what people say. They all say that my French is good, to which i reply in my head " I hope so, because that means at least one of us understands whats going on here!" Oh, Canada uses Tractors for clearing out snow, a lot more than we use snowplows. Oh, and they have the BIGGEST snowblowers I have ever seen in my life with those tractors. So, tracting in -20 weather, talking to people I cant understand, that's basically my life right now. [his temperatures are in Celsius, so it's about -9F]

  But, its beautiful up here! one day, we passed over a river, that had HUGE ice chunks floating in it, and this awesome fog rising off of it int the day time. I wish I had a IPAd with a paint program on it so I could paint all this scenery. So, anyways, that's life right now in the Great White North!  

   Yes, I did get the email too late, I chucked all but the essential letters. I have warm boots, sister Cannon herself called me after getting your email. She takes super good care of us.

   LOVE YOU!!!!!
     Watch out for the Gros Lapin de Chicoutamie! [see the picture above]

      and blizzards, and all sorts of machinerie for moving snow!!!!!!!

    love

Calvin

Surprise!

Yesterday, after I posted the update, I realized that Calvin will be reaching his 8 month mark at the end of January. He'll be 1/3 done with his mission! Wow!

So here's Calvin's email from today. No, I didn't edit it for spelling or grammar or anything:

hey momm,

so this week was transfers. I'm really sad to leave Chapel hill. I'm like already homesick.

But I'm going to northern Quebec, to a place called Chicoutamie. [Chicoutimi] And my comp is a francophone, so my days of engrish are over! I'm gonna get sooo good! 

But i am sad to leave Chapel Hill. i'm even more scared because i might not come back. Promise me that we will!!!!!!! right away!!! That way we can see everyone! [Calvin has already planned our return to Canada when he is finished with his mission.]

But i am excited to have REAL Quebec poutine!!! Aww, poutine is the best! [For those of you who don't know, like ME, I looked it up on Wikipedia and this is what they say Poutine: is a Quebec dish, made with french fries, topped with brown gravy and curd cheese. Sometimes additional ingredients are added] I'm excited to go up to the great white north. But I got to buy some boots, but i guess I'll buy some at the Salvation Army. Im serving in the area [the other Elder from our Owego Stake] just served in, too. soooo close, yet sooooo far. anyways, how did our week go?

 mon: it was monday, what else is there to write about? No, we played RISK, and [an Elder] flew his RC helicopter for a while. \

 tues: all our lesssons fell through, but we went knocking for 6 hours, and found SOOOOO many cool people! SOOO many immagrants! A phillippino lady, a Jamacan guy, a Haitian (YAY!), and a few other people. yeah, so that was a good day

wed: We had district study, and my last split with Fallowfield [an area within Ottawa]! so, we went knocking for the whole day. OHH!!! I  almost forgot to tell you!!! We have a deep fryer in our appartment, so I made fried plantin!!! I finally know what those HUGE green bannanas are, and they are sooo goood!!! So long as they have picklies (a hatian sauce, made with lemon juice, honey, beef bolion, jalapenios, vinegar?, and lots and lots, and LOTS of onions) Plantin is so good! but my first attempt was pretty messy. 

thurs: We had a lesson with [an investigator]. That went well. then we had a lesson with [a family].

fri:Everything fell through again, after weekly planning. soo, our member present lessons were destroying us. but, we still had  great day. 

Sat: same story, everything fell through. Went and talked to an older lady about missionary work, then saw [a family] again, then ate at [another family's] house, and went home for transfer calls. The rest of the night was freaking out about transfers, and starting to pack. 

Sun: was depressing. lol, not really, but i said goodbye to everyone. they actually announced it over the pulpit that [my companion] was training and I was leaving. I was soooo happy, because everyone was there!!!! I'm so jelouse of the greenie coming in, because he is coming into an area where the Ward mission leader, the Elders quorum president, and the Bishop are missionary minded, oh, and the Releif Society president has a son who JUST got back from a mission, and another who is out in France, Paris, and apparently their  district has had 35 baptisms. In FRANCE! wow. SO, MissionAry work in Chapel Hill is going to SKYROCKET! So, I want to take some of that fire to Chicoutamie. After church, we had one of the strangest lessons I have ever taught, walikg down the road, looking for a coffee shop to sit in. The lady really wasnt interested. then a lesson with [a young man] which didnt go off too badly. 

   So that was my week thus far.

   So, That is really all I can think of now for news. I feel really wierd, like I'm floating. I have no niche. I'm unnattached to any area. It's really scary!! I cant wait to get to Chicoutamie, and to get to work! 

I've been going through my old letters, seeing what I'm going to keep, and what i'm not. i guess Ill have to throw some away, which really stinks. But am I ever going to look at them? No, I just want to save them for posterities sake. 

anyways, enough ranting

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I will take lots of pictures, and study my French SUPER hard!

LOVE!!
Calvin

So this week is his very first transfer "in the field." How exciting!!

December 30th to January 7th

Once again, I am very behind. No excuses! But I do have a few pictures. The first one is from Sister Cannon. Every time she and President Cannon visit with the missionaries, she takes pictures of them and emails them to the families (can I tell you how much I LOVE this woman??). So here was the latest we received on the 30th of December. I felt so spoiled! To Skype with Calvin on Christmas Day, then to get this picture the next Sunday, and in the January 7th "Kaldt to Serve" (the mission newsletter) there was a picture of Calvin with his companion (but I won't post that one because remember I have this thing about posting pictures without the permission of everyone in the picture).

I wrote to Calvin that his letters didn't include a lot of detail about the areas or the people, he gave a general overview of things. I asked him to write more details in his letters so that we can have more of the flavor of what is going on in his daily life. Here is Calvin's letter from the 31st of December:

Momm, 

Yeah, i was writing a lot of the details in my journal, but if you are keeping track, i will write more details. Sorry I have been so bad at that, I need to repent in sackcloth and ashes. [he says that a lot]  So I will by starting today! So, we got lots of snow up here, too. Oh, wow, last Preperation day was only 5 days ago. That messes me up. Ok, so, preperation day we spent in Babylon (the missionary name for the Rideau shopping center) following the zone leaders around while [an elder] bought a new suit. (hey [same elder] did you... did you buy something last pday?? I dont know, I cant remember..... I think it was....... ) So, after waiting in line for 2 hours at Zaras, we left the Rideau center, and hung out at the zone leaders appartment. I sketched LOTS of people in the mall, making sure i took note of the design of the coats, hairstyles, stuf like that. Unfortunately I couldnt put color in, because this one lady had her hair done in this awesome way, but i couldnt show the color. So, after that, we ate at [young couple's] house. That was fun, they are this super cool young couple. After that, what did we do? we didnt have a lesson with [another family]...... because it wasn't monday. so I cant remember what we did. (planners only have what we PLANNED to do, not what actually HAPPENED!) 

    so, then the next day was District study, then our DA with [a family] cancelled, because the roads were so bad ( they gave us a bunch of baked goods and candies like cookies, and brownies, and fudges, and all sorts of other stuff on sunday. We are DROWNING in candy and baked goods at our appartment ) umm... we also did an interview for baptism with an investigator in Champlain (the zone leaders) so, that was cool. so they had a baptism this week. The next day was weakly planning. so, we did a lot of thinking. Hard thinking. Lllllllloooooonnnnnnggggggg thinking. but that was ok. After that we ate with [a couple]. They are lots of fun! we had spaghetti. and little cheezecakes, that she gave us to take home (Throw me a life boat!!) Then after that, we went to a lesson with our recent convert. He LOVED it. We taught this super awesome lady. She is from DRC Congo, and has 2 little girls. So the lesson was all over the place.  But her and her husband are super solid investigators, so we are really excited. Then we went and knocked [his term for going door to door] for 15 minutes. 

  The next day, NOTHING worked oout that we had planned. We met with [a sister], who told us [her friend] doesnt want to get baptised any more, so thats sad, but we had a nice meeting with [the sister]. She gave me a coin purse from Siri Lanka, because that is where she is from. [My companion] let me have it, because there wasn't another one. So it currently has a whole dice set in it i found in the apartment. (Yes 20 sided, 10 sided, everything I was so happy!) So, we then had a lesson with a young man from our Ward, who had some question about the Plan of Salvation. We took a priest age kid with us. So, after that, we took [the priest-aged boy] with us to a lesson with [a family], which was cancelled at the door, because [the wife] forgot, and her son (the investigator) was grounded until he finished his homework. So, we went and taught a Malagassi man in french. Unfrtunately [the priest-aged boy] doesnt speak French. [He] is a really cool kid. He is part aboriginal (knick nack tribe? not sure but I think thats  what it is) and he comes with us to LOTS of appointments. After dropping [the priest-aged boy] off at his house, we went to [a family's house] for a good, Hatian DA. [The dad] cooked most of the food, or at leas prepared it, and it as all DELICIOUS! Hatian food is AWESOME! So then after having a lesson with [them], we passed by 2 less actives who were near each other. Neither was home, so we decided to try and help someone shovel snow. But that person wasnt interested in having our help because by the time we got there, they had already shoveled their driveway. So we went back to the car, and as we were about to get in, we hear this grating sound, like some one shoveling. So we go to help that person. he isn't interested, but his wife/ daughter (couldnt tel wich) asked "Is that the Mormons?" So we went to talk to her, and it turns out she had talked to missionaries on an airplane, as they were going home. So he gave us her # and Email, but wasnt really interested. Still, a cool expirience, showing that God really does guide us. 

  So that leaves us with sunday, which was wierd because President and Sister Cannon came to our Ward. They came to give us interviews, but also to give some talks, and lessons in ward council, sacrament and the third hour.  Of course, one of our investigators shows up to church, but he's always there, he is practically a member. And i got to do a "split" with Sister Cannon. It was in the church building, but technically i guess it was a split. I just went with her to help teach the youth. It was interesting.  Sister Cannon talked about 7 positive contacts with members makes someone interested in the church, and how being and example is the best way to do those contacts. Then she had the youth role play some scenarios on how they could be examples when faced with immodesty, porn, disobeying parents, stuff like that. And how that influences a person to be interested in the Gospel. After Church, President and Sister Cannon came to our appartment, and while president did interviews, she inspected it. She was appalled at the bathroom, and how much clutter there was in the appartment. So, while I was being interviewed, Sister Cannon told my companion all the things we need to do to fix our appartment. Sister Cannon took the picture [the picture I posted at the beginning of this letter] after interviews was done. Actually, which picture was it? Anyways, I told Sister Cannon how much you love those emails. Oh, and she thought Sophie was the most adorable thing, and she was impressed with dad's drawing of the muscular missionary. so, after that, we went and taught a lesson to [a woman], and committed her to baptism on the 16th of February. Then, had a dinner apointment with [a family], and [another family] were also there too. That was fun. Then we saw (a spanish Less active) and he actually went to CURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! He goes to a spanish group at the Riverside chapel, so we didnt see him, but he WENT!! So, after the lesson with him, we stopped by [a family'd] house, and dropped a restoration DVD, and that was our week. 

    Today we have a DA with [a family], and since we cant prosolyte after 6, we may spend that time with them. Yay! I love [this family]!! I'm so happy they are back from Germany. 

    I got the Totoro pic. :) that makes me happy!!!

    Well, I love you all , and I miss you LOTS!!!!!!!!!!! I cant wait to bring you all up here to show you the Great White North, and introduce you to EVERYONE!!!! 

    Love you all lots!

    Watchout for ohmus!!!

Love

   CALVIN

I'm sorry this gets rather confusing to read sometimes when I edit out the names of people. But I feel very strongly about protecting privacy. Before you read this, for those of you who aren't LDS, I probably should explain that "greenies" are missionaries fresh from the MTC, so they don't have a lot of experience in the mission. There is a sort of hierarchy in missions, but it's not based on merit (in other words, you can't really "earn" a "promotion.") Here are the terms they use, in hierarchal order, starting from the "bottom."

You start as a "Greenie" fresh from the MTC, and you're a Junior Companion.

Senior Companion

District Leader

Zone Leader

Assistant to the President

 Here's Calvin's letter from the 7th of January:

Hey Momm!!!!
Ok, sooooooo what happened this week......... well, on New Years Eve, we went to [a family's] house for their dinner appointment. We had some lessons set up, but they all fell through, and since we cant go door to door after 6 on New years Eve, we spent the evening with [them]. (oh darn!) They are an awesome couple, and [he] is the new Elders' Quorum president! When we come back, [when we as a family go back to visit people in Calvin's mission] we have to go and hang out with them. I dont know what we will do, because D&D will be WAY to booring for [her], and watching Babalon 5 wouldn't work either. Oh, well, worry about that when i get there. 

     Tuesday. Was ZONE STUDY!!!! had an awesome time with that. The trainings were really good too. We had one on gratitude by [a Zone Leader], which i think it was the best training of that day, which is high praise! Because, (these essentially two greenies) did this awesome obsticle course training, demonstrating how the spirit works. That was fun! So, after Zone Study (I got the packages from both Grandmothers that day as well) we went on splits with the Zone leaders, so i got to go to downtown Ottowa for the day!!!! that was fun, because we taught this girl who was SUPER prepared in advance by the Lord. She reads LDS blogs in her spare time, and got interested by reading those blogs, then saw a mormon.org link on that blog. So she requested a missionary visit! then we taught one of the more interesting investigators.

    wednesday. So, we unsplit, and immediately ran off to have a lunch appointment with a YSA member, who after wards came with us to a lesson. He is a returned missionary, and has TONS of good advice. So, then we had a lesson with a non practicing muslim. We have only had two lessons with her thus far, and are planning to pass her off to the Dows lake sisters. So, that was pretty cool. (The YSA member we took) did really well, though I think he was hitting on her the entire time. As he said "Elders, your not dropping your potentials, your dropping MY potentials" or something like that. so he's pretty funny. After that, later in the day, we went to a dinner appointment with our eternagator. She cooks REALLY well. she is a cook by profession, and she's hatian, so we had some AWESOME Hatian food , like plantaines, some turkey, and talapia. I gotta learn how to make all of that stuff!!! (Actually, we bought a plantaine today, and since our appartment has a DEEP FRYER in it, we are going to try to make some) [She] also had one member, and his daughter, over so we could be there, but we had no idea that she was going to bring her family out too! Some neices and nephews, so we got a potential investigator for the Riverside sisters! victory! 

   Thursday.  We got into a long discussion with an aethiest about our doctrine, and we went into some DEEP doctrine. It was the worst lesson ever, and i will NEVER do that again!!! we wasted so much time. so, after that (we found him by knocking) we went to a dinner appointment with [a family]. After that we had a lesson with the husband of a couple we found who are from DRC Congo. we brought a member (who incidentally has one son out in france, Paris? i think and one son JUST got back from Chile). [The husband] had a friend over, which was fine, until the friend had a question. He hijacked the rest of the lesson, because he asked "how can I know TANGIBLY that God is there?" At the end of the lesson, [the husband] was like " I still want to hear your guys' message, so next time, we will ask the questions AFTER the lesson." They are super solid potentials! 

  Friday. Friday was weekly planning, which we finally, FINALLY did in one shot! after that, i cant remember exactly what happened until we went to see Brother [], (who came to church this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AUGH!! we are SO excited!!!!!) So that was Friday

   Saturday.  We had a lesson with our Malagasi (He's from Madagascar) investigator. It went well, but he isn't really progressing well. then, we went knocking, ate at Five Guys, and then passed by [a woman's house] (who wasn't home GRRR!!) and finished off the night with a visit to [a family]. You never told me the Red Green show was Canadien!!!! 

   Sunday. So, we had a lesson with [an investigator] that flopped, then a surprize lesson with [the woman we tried to visit on Saturday] (who was at church!!!!!!). She actually invited us over for a Lunch dinner appointment, so we shared a spiritual thought with her. then, ate at [a family's] house, and saw [another family] there! (tis been FAR too long) Then we went knocking to finish off the night. 

 So, that was my week in a nutshell! oh, [one of the men we taught] asked me to do the closing prayer, so i did in French, the whole lesson is in French. After the prayer, he said "Its ok if you do it iin English. I can tell your not fluent like your companion there." it was pretty funny.  I thought you would get a kick out of it. 

No they dont send Elder way ip to Ninivut. 

You guys watched "The ARTIST"? I heard that one was good. NAd Chantal got accepted?! With SCHOLARSHIPS!?!?! And Sophie went to SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Miranda got her Patriarchal blessing?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!???!?! NO WAY!! so much is changing! 

i love you all, and i hope all continues to go well for you!!!!

Keep up the good missionary work!

Love you!

Watchout for computers that sudde----- 

Okay, so I was going to try to paste this picture from the "Kaldt to Serve" from this week, but I can't figure out how to do it, and Todd isn't here, so I'll describe it:  You know the fans with round heads? and the covers are essentially painted, metal wire spokes radiating out from the center of a solid plastic circle? One set of missionaries found a discarded stand fan. They detached the metal cover, poked a hole in the center of the solid circle, looped a piece of string (or perhaps a leather bootlace) over the clothes rod, put both ends of the string (or lace) through the hole in the center circle, tied a knot to secure it underneath, and use it as a holder for all their ties! They have A LOT of ties from the looks of it. I thought that was a pretty clever idea!

Christmas Day!

Notice the "bunny fingers" from Grandpa and Chantal. Like Grandfather, like Granddaughter!

Gosh, Calvin doesn't look ANYTHING like Todd now, does he?  *smirk*

Momm

First off, I have to apologise for my lack of forsight to tell you all the details of when I was going to be calling, where i was calling, etc. etc. I hope you werent too worried!!! We just hadn't planned that far ahead, and i forgot about preperation day not being on monday, so sorry about that!! 

  [The family we Skyped from] are a super awesome family! So Christmas was great because we all got to sleep in!!!!!! (a special gift from our mission president!) So I slept in until 8:15. I feel lots better because of it! Then I waited for my companion to shower, and get dressed, (I stayed in my pajamas the whole time) and then we...... washed dishes! Mostly because my companion started to, so once we got that done, we opened our presents!! HOLY COW!!! We got A LOT of candy! I think i might be set until NEXT Christmas!!!!! There is SO MUCH! But it was all awesome! The first Christmas i actually appreciated getting clothes for christmas! I opened your package last!  :) i really enjoyed it!!! We immediately filled up the ice cube tray! Best ice cube tray ever!! I hope everyone else had a good christmas, and that you guys found ways to serve others. I have been thinking a lot about that. 

   So, after opening presents, we went to the [members'] house, where I talked to a lot of funny people whom i hadn't seen for a while! After that, we went to another members' house for lunch. That was fun, because they just had little hour dourves for lunch , and talked, and shared stories, etc. Then we did some secret cookie leaving  operations for some less active members. That was fun, we had to book it down the street, and my companion dropped the keys in the street, so we just left them there, hid, and waited until it was safe. It was a lot of fun! Then we ate dinner at another member's house and then they gave us the leftovers! But we wont be able to eat those this week, because we have dinner appointments for the entire week!! Feeding the missionaries before really works well!!!! [I've always told the missionaries that I'm feeding them because some day my son would be on his mission and if I fed them, he'd get fed!] and its not like you cant eat just a little at members' houses either, because they expect missionaries to eat LOTS! So we leave dinner appointments totally STUFFED. it's the BEST! 

   So, It was AWESOME to talk to you all!!!!!!! That was lots of fun. I think the [family] enjoyed hosting us for skype as much as we enjoyed skyping! 

   As far as the visit from Uncle brad and Aunt Sonya, I dont know how much longer i'll be in Ottowa, Let me know when they plan on coming out. Also, i totally forgot, but winter sports aren't allowed, which includes ice skating. Sorry! oh, and we cant give our # out to you guys. 

    So, I love you guys soooooooo much and it was great to talk to you!!!! i cant believe how much Chantal and Miranda and Sophie have grown up!!!! they look and sound a lot more mature. 

    Love!

Calvin

Yay! Skype Tomorrow!

This is Calvin's area map

This is the mission home

A beautiful archway into Chinatown?

A horse to make Miranda jealous. :-)

                                     

Calvin's desk - and I don't know what I did to make the comments off center now.

A message for our family, written with a white erase marker on the back of his tag.

Todd answered the cell phone tonight and heard, "Dad? This is Elder Messinger, uh, I mean this is Calvin." Todd laughed and laughed! We all laughed when Todd told us. Calvin will be Skyping with us tomorrow. YAY! We'll get to see him!

I've been really bad at keeping up with Calvin's emails home this month, sorry. But now I'm on Todd's computer where all the pictures from Calvin's latest snail mail are. So can I beg your forgiveness with pictures? Okay. Good.

First let me post Calvin's email from December 10th:

Momm,

   So, this week was really interesting. our car got stolen. no not really, but in effect it did. What happened was we took the car to get the oil changed and the tires changed, and while we were waiting, the guy at the front desk started making calls about a car that was stuck on a lift. He was asking if someone could come and fix the lift, went back into the garage, came out, and said " well, guys that car on the lift is yours." We were like, "What.?" He explained that the lift's hydrolics had failed. so we went back, and luckily the car had had emergency braces put underneath it, otherwise, it would have been dropped. So, we ended up bumming rides off our Zone leaders and members for the rest of that day and part of the next. that stunk. 

   So in our companionship, we made an effort to do better at talking to everyone, and its really cool how that improves a day. Since everyone is really nice here, they will at least talk to you. 

   Most of our solid potentials right now are Hatians. They love missionaries, and they will always talk to you. Especially if you know French, and if you say "Sake Passe!" you are their new best friend immediately, mostly because sake passe means whats up in creole, and most people dont know anything in creole, so that scores you BIG points with them. Hatians also love feeding you. I havent had many dinner appointments with them, but they offer to feed us often enough. I love hatians! 

   what else is going on, well, as for skyping, i think we can, but I dont think we can use members' computers, so IDK, I'll ask my Zone leaders. 

   Momm, havent you been reading ANY of my emails, begging for us to come back after my mission?!? Of course I'll come back and show you everything!!!!  [I asked him if we could go back and visit his areas because we stalk him on google earth and it looks so beautiful there in Ottawa! I also watch travel shows whenever I can on PBS on Saturdays and other days of the week and I've only ever been to Prince Edward Island and the Toronto Temple in Canada (which are not in Calvin's mission) but I've always wanted to go to Quebec and Montreal, and now Ottawa is on my list of places to visit.]

   I am staying quite warm, i actually kick blankets off the bed because its too hot some nights, but usually i count my blessings and stay warm. 

   So what else can I tell you about my mission, umm.. well a guy just returned from his mission just this week, so that was awesome to see. he actually served where my companion is from, so he brought TONS of  presents back for my companion from his parents. Oh, we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree kit, so we set that up as our christmas tree for the time being. we have  a bigger one, but we are just too lazy to set it up right now. We didnt put presents under it, we just put it on top of the presents! 

   By the way, in the pictures, the clouds were clouds before a tornado, but there wasnt one. It was still pretty cool!

   Umm, yeah, so lots is going on. Umm, oh yeah! So we have that stratego game in the mission apartment, so we play it on Preperation days a lot. The last few preperation days have been us mostly playing Clue at the Zone leaders' appartment. lots of fun!

Love you all!!

Keep going!!

Do me a favor, and this christmas look for a way you each (except Sophie, she is my favorite! Just kidding ) can do meaningful service for someone else. I have been thinking a lot about that these past few weeks and how all my favorite families in the mission constantly look for ways to serve others. 

LOVE!!!!!!!!
Watch out for ......... EVERYTHING!

Calvin

About the "Watch out for . . . EVERYTHING!" I usually end my letters to Calvin with several one-line reminders: Study your scriptures and "Preach My Gospel!" "Pray fervently!" and I include a silly line "Watch out for ____________!" (Ninja Snowflakes and Dalek Christmas Trees are some of the recent warnings) It's just something fun I do.

Did I mention there is another Elder C Messinger in Calvin's mission? And that we thought it would be fun if they were companions at some point? Can you imagine "Hello, we're Messingers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." We thought that would be pretty fun.

Here's his email from the 17th of December:

Momm, 

   AUGH!!! I cant wait to get bck and see Sophie!!!!!! she is going to be so BIG!!! I cant wait to just do stuff with her! [When I write to him, I usually try to include some cute things Sophie says and does.]

yes i do love my other sisters, dont worry, and i cant wait to spend time with them too. oh tell miranda that my companion and I quote invader zim all the time. So, this week. Well where to start. So my companion and i have been thinking about doing more member work in the sense of teaching members lessons. That way, we strengthen Zion and make the members more confident is sharing the Gospel. we havent had a good comp discussion about this, how we are going to do it, what it will mean, etc. We got the idea, when a member who recently got back from his mission said that for the last 9 months of his mission, he only tracted about 10 hours overall. That was because he had been doing member lessions, and their baptism number actually increased. So, we were blown away by that. We just want to do stuff effectively. 

   Umm.... it was basically a regular week. We taught some people, and did missionary stuff. Yes that is a terrible response, but there is just SO MUCH we did this week. nothing  too too exciting, except the fact that we have a girl commited to a baptismal date.

   Now, we are meeting with this awesome guy who is super cool. He is part native, and is really interested in the church, and he listens to the lessons. 

   We got to see another recent convert. she is ok. We had a great lesson with her about the Tree of Life story . This has been our theme for lots of our lessons, and it works super well now a days, because we use everyone's Christmas trees as the tree of life.  Its pretty  fun ! 

    So this week we have our Mission Christmas party. We are going to be away from our areas for 2 whole days. We wont really be doing any work for about 3 days strait. Our numbers are going to PLUMMET!! But hopefully not that bad. 

     So thats all new right now. We are goig to an aviation museum today, and then to dinner, and then off to do some random work (probably tracting this appartment building  we have been working in for a few days) Then, we will go [to a family's house].  :) sooo happy, [they] are AWESOME!!! 

  Anyways, love you lots!

    Calvin

Merry Christmas

Happy Bump Day!

  Last Wednesday - November 28th - Calvin reached his 6 month mark. Missionaries have names for milestone days, and some missions celebrate by burning clothing:
6 months: Bump Day; burn a tie
12 months: Hump Day; burn a white shirt
18 months: Slump Day; burn a pair of pants
24 months (last day before you return to the mission home to go home): Dump Day; burn a suit
  I have asked Calvin several times if he burned a tie, but he hasn't told me how he celebrated yet. Maybe he didn't celebrate. Some missionaries don't pay attention to the milestones. Since I didn't post last week, here are two weeks' worth of emails!

Momm, on thanksgiving we had an AWESOME dinner with an American family. They had football on the TV they made a HUGE turkey dinner, it was all awesome! I thought of you all, and hope that your thanksgiving was GREAAT!!!!!!!!!!

Calvin

Momm, 

Wow that sounds like a great week!!!!!!!!! I am SO MAD that I missed [Miranda's] LARP party! That stinks! What happened at it? And which movie was skyfall? [Todd and I had a DATE! We went to see Skyfall. They had started the ads for it before Calvin left on his mission, but missionaries don't really pay attention to current movies because they don't go to movies.] So, I have had a pretty good week. I'm really nervous for transfers because i dont want to leave my area, i love all the people WAY too much! but I know it wont be to bad. So, this week we have a new baptismally committed person. She is 59 years old. She is really nice, and was introduced [to the church] by her friend who is super awesome! They arre roommates in the retirement home. We are haveing a great time, the new bishop is making his focus on missionary work. He is really buisness like and wants to get stuff done, it's really good. I am so excited that the area is picking up again!

Anyways, i will write more, but I cant think.... OH! We had someone run away from us. We knocked on their door, and we hear some footsteps, so we knock again. Then we hear this mechanical grinding sound, so we wait more. next thing we know, a car comes zooming out of the garage and zooms away. we both laughed our heads off! so thats my funny story so far! besides making plasma in the microwave. 

Love you all lots!!!!
Calvin

That's pretty funny that they had someone run away from them. We were speculating why someone would feel the need to run away from missionaries. Perhaps it was the black coats that scared them? For those of you who aren't LDS: Missionaries are good kids, and if you don't want to talk to them you can tell them you're not interested and they'll respect your wishes and leave. However, as the mother of a missionary I want you to know that if it's a hot day, or they look particularly tired, it's okay to give them food and water. You can still tell them you don't want to discuss religion, and you don't want to take their lessons. But remember that they are young men, and their mothers worry about them, and any kindness you show them would be greatly appreciated. Speaking of worry, what's this about plasma in the microwave?! I'm pretty sure that's not something allowed by mission rules - or any sane rules outside of a laboratory experiment! Gotta ask about this.

**I am not posting what Calvin wrote about making plasma in the microwave. Missionaries are, after all, 19 - 21 year old boys. They are known for doing stupid (often dangerous) things because, well, they are 19 - 21 years old, and boys these age often do stupid things when they're on their own. I am not amused, and I let Calvin know in a follow up email that I was not amused. Now on to this week's emails.

I wrote Calvin a nice, long email describing my week to him, and apologizing for writing so many emails to him every week. I usually watch for his first email to appear, then if I have questions I'll write a line or two. Sometimes that's the only way I get answers to questions - like if he has his winter coat yet, or if he needs anything like new shirts or socks or ties. Calvin tends to forget to answer questions like those. This was Calvin's first email:

Momm,

 You are NOT selfish. you are a MOTHER. You have an especial privelage to my time. 

love,

Ccalvin

momm, 

 yeah i think you might have mentioned that you love me.I dont know about skype. I might be able to. [I asked Calvin if he would be able to Skype with us for his phone call at Christmas. Some missionaries can Skype, others can't.]

Yeah we watched the [First Presidency Christmas Broadcast from Salt Lake City], it was a lot of fun! It was great to get that spiritual uplift. 

so, transfers, I'm staying! Im going to be in Chapel hill for Christmas!!!!! thats pretty cool! I am so excited, and i'll be with [my current companion] too! We are both excited, and things are picking up in the mission thus far! So you watched Lincoln. What is that? Was that the vampire hunter one, or a different one. I have been out of the loop for a while. [See? I told you missionaries don't keep track of movies and things. This time I went to the movie with friends - wow, I haven't been to movies for almost a year and now two in two weeks? Wow.]

So lately I have been worrying about [a family]. lots of negative things are happening, and its affecting them being able to come to church. But our ward has been super good with supporting them. Its wierd, I feel like I've been living in this ward all my life. I know everyone, and things have started to blend together. 

Oh, keep an eye out for an elder. he will enter the MTC on Jan 20th. he is a cousin of an elder here, but he is going to utica, so idk if that is our mission [it is], but I think he might be there. 

ok, Ill send this early bc inquiring minds want to know. there really isnt anything else that I wanted to say.

 LOve

Calvin 

Calvin usually forwards the mission newsletter so we can see what's going on in his mission. We learned this week that there is another "Elder C. Messinger" in Calvin's mission. His first name is different, but still it starts with a C!! We were flabbergasted that the first initial is the same, and that the last name is spelled the same. I'm so glad I've been writing his full name on the packages!! It must be a little confusing for the mission president that their names are close. And wouldn't it be cool if they ended up companions?! Elder Messinger and Elder Messinger! Then they could say "We're Messingers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!" Sorry, it's really fun to have our last name sometimes. Especially when it talks about "Heavenly messengers" in the scriptures. We always read it "Heavenly Messingers," and remind our kids that our last name has a special responsibility associated with it.

All fun aside, the mission is preparing for an influx of new missionaries (both the normal number of missionaries they usually expect, and a greater number of incoming missionaries since they changed the age requirements). The newsletter mentioned cleaning apartments. Calvin had become quite the pro at cleaning before he left, and we've discovered some really effective, non-toxic, cleaners since he left, so I wrote a quick email with some of the "recipes" we found.

thanks momm!
This will come in handy! I've also done a lot of cooking. Really bad for my waistline. but! its been delicious. Members feed us really well here, though. we cook ourselves some monsterous llunches, just because. Thanks for teaching for all these lessons that you have given me!
Calvin