Elder Johnson's August 22, 2011 E-Mail (from Whitehorse)

Hi Mom:

As to your questions:

1.    What is your area compared to Elder Hartman's (I read his blog) area?  Physically, I mean.  What part of the town do you have and what is your district called?

 My area is identical to Elder Hartman's. Whitehorse is very small, but there's a lot of people. We're around each other almost every day. They took the southern portion of Whitehorse; we took the north.

2.    What is your new companion's name and where is he from?

 My new companion's name is Elder Jason Record, and he's from Spanish Fork, UT. You can follow his blog at elder-record.blogspot.com. You can even add your e-mail to his e-mail list, and you'll be notified when there's updates. His dad is a computer guy, and he's responsible for the updates, so it's updated very quickly and often.

3.    What was church like?  Are the Canadians more or less friendly?

 Church in the branch was interesting. Very small, maybe 20 people when sacrament started. Only one Aaronic priesthood young man, so me and Elder Hartman blessed and Elder Bowes and Record and the young man passed. 10 minutes in, a wave of young adult Abercrombie and Fitch look-a-likes walked in--apparently, they are security salespeople from another portion of Canada. They're leaving in a week, though. Typically, we'll have roughly 60-80 people at church.

Canadians are much more friendly, immensely more. We've done a lot of tracting this week. Every door that answers is willing to talk. But they are so accepting that they have problems making commitments. It will be a struggle, but we will work hard and have faith the Lord will bless us.

4.    Brittany wants to know if the Canadians have good bacon .....    :|

 Haven't tasted any yet. I've seen it, though. And they do have bacon, and it's Canadian bacon, so we've not been deceived all our lives. They accept the States currency as readily as they accept their own--probably unique to Whitehorse I'd imagine because it's so close to the border. But I know that places in the border near AZ won't accept pesos, so it's nice they do it here.

5.    How was the flight into Whitehorse?  How did you fix the handle on your carry on?

 No flight to Whitehorse. A long, 18-hour bus ride on a very bumpy road. We survived, and I've got that to look forward to in four-and-a-half months.

6.    How are you e-mailing us?  Are you in a library or what?

 We're in the church genealogy library. They've got decent computers. No Microsoft Office. We're going to explore our options at libraries downtown next week.

7.    Well, anything you want us to know would be awesome!

Canadians are interesting. Almost everyone here is stylish, especially in the small downtown area. And everyone is very pretty and petite. French, German, Phillipino, Hispanic, Spanish, Indian (dot not feather)--the area is extremely diverse because of its favorable immigration laws. It's a very nice community. They've got a lot of respect for the Native people (which, here, they are appropriately called "First Nations," not Natives).

 

Nothing else to tell you now. A lot of work to do--going to do it. Ask me more questions next week. Research Whitehorse, read those missionaries blogs. You'll be filled in pretty good on what's what.

 

Love,

 

Elder Johnson