Saturday, January 31, 2009 - Snow & Ice in Lubbock

Hi! How's it going?

Things are going well here.

Tuesday, we woke up, and we were getting ready to leave. Elder Northey walks out to the car to put something inside, and when he comes back, he said, "you might want to bring your camera". I wasn't sure what he meant until I walked outside, and everything was covered with snow and ice! Tiny ice pellets were falling from the sky at that point. It stayed all day, and halfway into the next.

Tuesday afternoon, we got a phone call that our large passenger van rolled over. Elder Johnson was driving with Elders King and McKeen to an outlying town called Post for a baptismal interview, and it [the van] slipped on the ice. His Canadian driving skills didn't help this time, and it did a full barrel roll before landing on its side. They were banged up and had to make a stop at the hospital just get checked up. They're still sore, but they're all fine. Always wear your seat belt. Right after this, they parked all the cars in the Lubbock zone for the day.

Also on Tuesday, President Rose [previous mission president who completed his mission last June] called. He wanted the address of a departed missionary. He's gone back to being a lawyer, but he misses being on a mission. We were all happy to hear from him.

Elder Gibb has been wanting to switch to a service mission, but Salt Lake is being rather slow on this process. So in the meantime, a member here in Lubbock, who owns a large cotton farm, has offered to let him work there. So we've been ferrying him back and forth to the farm to work, and on two days a week, he works at the temple, cleaning inside, or on the grounds.

Anyways, never a dull moment.

Also, that's awful to hear about Patrick and Hamish. What's worse is that I heard about this [new rule in applying for a visa] a few weeks ago! I guess mentioning it wouldn't have made any difference. Apparently, the new rule says that it takes six months to get an R-1 visa. That's really dumb, and this country is really going to feel the consequences of it. Hopefully, it won't be long before they fix that. In the meantime, working a lot with the missionaries will do wonders for them, and for the mission.

Anyways, I hope all is well.
Get missionary work sparked in Montreal. Do it by example.

I love you

-Elder Brandon Wong

Something I wish I knew before my mission: the meaning of independent identity.