Willy the Carpenter

Brent's last couple P-days have mainly been spent working on remodeling/cleaning their apartment. He said the Land-lord made a visit and told them their place was looking a little ridiculous, so it was time for a little "spring cleaning." Fortunately, Brent actually had some painting experience from a job he had right before his mission, so they were able to give the place a nice new coat of paint. I guess since they were changing things around, they decided to add bunk beds to their newly remodeled home. Of course a real carpenter actually has a truck to haul the material, but who needs a truck when you have a "spacious" mission car, and two creative missionaries. Nothing like drawing attention to yourselves in a Home Depot parking lot with a car full of lumber for two bunk beds and two Elders standing outside wondering where they're going to sit for the drive home....Here they are testing out the weight capacity of their design:Here's what Brent had to say about the finished product:
"Ok, so for something cool this week we built bunk beds. Pretty cool! I will send some pics, but yeah we got it approved from the office for our apartment!! So that is cool right dad!? I think you would be proud! They are as solid as a rock, and if anything it should impress Candice :) Haha."

A Few Racks of Ribs & Two "Starving" Missionaries

One thing that hasn't changed since Brent left on his mission is his appetite! He may not know how to cook anything that can't be warmed up in the microwave, but he can sweet talk his way into any dinner table. While living on the Northern Coast he enjoyed some excellent seafood, and this past week he had a chance to enjoy a little of the "turf" variety. Here is what he had to say about the tasty feast:

"Hey my awesome loved ones back home, just wanted to send some quick pics from tonight. I basically ate a pig by myself, so me and Elder Schuwer wanted to show you the two pigs we ate! Haha...The family we are at is the Krell's they are way cool, and they fed us like kings!! Well I didn't eat much else, just water and ribs but still that is healthy right!!???"

Willy's Trick Shot

Evidently Brenter has spent a lot of P-days in the gym working on his B-ball skills, and practicing a few trick shots. Here's a little "missionary magic" or luck...(I wonder how many times he had to video this shot before it went in!??)

"Coach Wilson"

Brenter finally sent some photos of his basketball coaching days in Prince Rupert. He really enjoyed the opportunity to coach the kids, and of course have some time to play some hoop and show off the skills he learned from his older brother! :) Here are a couple of emails he sent of his coaching experience:

11-24-08
"Ok so guess what??? I am coaching now!!! Not sure if I told you this before, but we are coaching the Sophomore basketball team at the high school, which is 8th and 9th grades in Canada. The high school got our number and wanted us to coach, ha, so we had them call President Nelson, and we talked to president, so he loves the idea. So yeah, we get to coach high school ball, but we only practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. They usually practice on Sundays too, but we changed that because we said we wouldn't do it, so hey no more Sundays for the team, that is cool right!?? At practice I made them run ladders for swear words :) Ha!! The day after our first practice this old man comes up to us in the streets and starts talking to us, I was lost with the conversation, but he was just telling us about his wife dying and how it hurts, and then comes to find out he saw us coaching ball and wants us to come visit him and his wife. When I told him we will help him with his house work and stuff he almost started crying so it was way cool, but yeah so we are finding the way to people...Our baskteball team is coming way good the principle even said he has seen a huge change since we have started coaching, now we just gotta win some games when that time comes."

12-9-08
"Basketball is way fun! We have one dad who talks to us every week now, and then we met another dad who was just shooting around and we are already kinda friends, cause I played some pick up games with him, and he just asked me a question, and said in his church his preacher can't answer why there are so many churches, and I asked him if I had the answer would he beleive me and he said yes. :) He is going out of town for Christmas, but he said when he gets back he wants to know, so hey things will just get better and better!! Our first basketball game is Wednesday against the other coach that is Mormon, so it will be a big community deal. :) We are the under dogs, so hey I don't know if I can pray for this sort of thing, but we are hoping for a game!??? :) Haha, no it will be fun!!!"

Here are a couple pictures of Coach Wilson and Brown with their team the CHARLES HAYES HURRICANES

Life in Prince George

The blog has finally caught up to Willy's life in Canada. This post really has no rhyme or reason to it, just the last few photos Brent has sent home of the happenings in Prince George. This first picture is Brent using his car as a watercraft to forge the "river" in the parking lot. He said it's time to invest in a canoe...The bruise on his wrist is supposedly from hitting the rim after being pushed from behind while going up for a dunk, or so he says!!?? :) This could be another one of his "fish stories," and he actually just slipped on some ice or rolled the car window up while his wrist was still hanging out, but we'll go with the dunk story for now...(Doesn't this picture just scream, "Mommy, look what those mean boys did to me!!?)This last photo is Brent and the other three missionaries in his apartment showing off their St. Patrick's Day ties...

Zone Conference....or NOT!!!

To a missionary a Zone Conference always is a time to hang out with your fellow missionaries, share stories, and hopefully come away with a renewed faith and desire to work harder than before. Brent's always enjoyed this opportunity to be, as he would put it, "lifted up" from a message from the Mission President and other activities from Zone Conference. This particular Zone Conference is one that he has been looking forward to ever since he found out that a member of the Seventy would be visiting their Zone. After an awesome week of missionary work where everything seemed to fall into place, it seemed as though this Zone Conference would be the "Cherry on Top" of everything that had occurred the past couple weeks. Well let's just say things didn't work out exactly as Brent had hoped...here is how he told the story:

3-23-09
"So we came back Thursday night, from our Zone Leader duties, and the whole zone traveled in that night too because, zone conference was supposed to be Friday morning. You know the cool zone conference with Elder Dickson from the seventy!? So we are all you know getting ready trimmin our nose hairs, polishing our shoes, and pulling out the nice ties! You know trying to really impress! So yes it goes down like that. Friday morning we get to the church, all seated, reading our scriptures some Elders getting the dust off theirs haha, jk! So yes then 9 o clock comes around no President or anybody, then 10 o clock, still no word nothing, so I start calling the airlines, calling salt lake, like hey one of your Seventy's and our Mission President is lost!! Okay, I really didn't call the Prophet, but thought about it! So finally at 11 o clock, President calls me, and he just finally landed, but they landed back in Vancouver!! I guess the fog was too bad so the plane had to turn back around! So yes that means Prince George was the only zone who didn't get to visit with the General Authority, so every other 130 missionaries did but no not us 14 freezing to death in the north; if you cant tell I wasn't to happy about it, but oh well life goes on! Elder Barton and I just ended up having zone conference, and Elder Dickson did call and talk on the speaker phone for 20 mintues. Haha!"

Here are the photos Brent took from the infamous "Zone Conference" and the note he sent: "This is all we knew what to do, after realizing our Mission President wasn't gonna come see us! Just kiddin President. But seriously."