Week 100: Canadian Thanksgiving! And Kenneth's Confirmation!

Probably one of the highlights of last week was going back to one of my favorite areas, Bayview, with one of my favorite past companions, Elder Stowell! It was a fun day to be back in full Chinese work, something I haven't experienced in over half a year. Got to see the Bishop, some of the ward members, and Yiwen, one of the people I had taught who got baptized after I had transferred out. It was a lot of fun! We also exchanged with the downtown Toronto Portuguese elders. After the exchange, Elder Carroll and I got to watch part of a baptism in Spanish! Me estoy olvidando español. :0

Facebook post from Lu Yiwen (Oct. 5th): 

"Went to teach a lesson with the missionaries and guess who I saw!!! 

So happy I was able to once again see and help teach a lesson with the missionary who 'found' me on the street like 1.5 years ago xDD"

I've kind of realized the lack of progress in my Chinese for the last while, so I'm trying to make more of an effort to find time to study and speak the language... I'm not at the level with the language that I wished I'd be at by the end of the mission. But I've kind of accepted that, and realized the Lord had other things for me to learn here, while studying Chinese can always be continued after the mission. So I'm grateful for that, and looking back I wouldn't have wanted it any differently.

Yesterday was fun! Canadian's have their thanksgiving a month early :) To celebrate, the whole Brampton zone went to the mission home and took a morning jog with President Shields. Then we had lunch and played some sports in the Shields' backyard that morning. It felt really weird to just be hanging out not doing missionary work, haha. It helped me realize that I don't want to lose that feeling of being productive and effective with my time when I go home.

 Canadian Thanksgiving Day   

Well, other than that... Oh! Kenneth got confirmed on Sunday! We met him on Tuesday, and he bombed the Thursday appointment we had set up! And he had lost his phone. So with no way to contact him, Elder Carroll and I went "Kenneth hunting" all weekend. He was never home, we asked his neighbors, we  frantically went by food banks and other places he'd be at. We finally run into him on Saturday evening though, so all was well! We were relieved he didn't fall off the face of the earth or something.

Love y'all!

Elder Holt

洪长老