Experience to remember...or Forget!

Back in June, Brent had one of those experiences a lot of missionaries go through, but usually wait to get home to share it with their mother. Well, Brent must have decided everything worked out fine, so he shared the experience in his email. This is how he told it:

"So it's all ok and i am still alive, haha, but I did have my first experience with a guy pointing a gun at my face. Yeah it was crazy but it turned out ok. We were just walkin by this house and these two guys and a girl were out drinkin in the front yard so we just walked by. Then on the way back I just said "hey whats up," you know, then kept walking and they asked what are you guys doing. So I turn and walk back over, and as I get to the fence I say we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ and the guy pulls a gun out from behind this tree and points it at my face. Then his buddy, after a second, just said hey no put it down, and the guy talked to us for a bit while the other drunk guy and girl were being ridiculous. But yeah it was weird, i'll admit a little scary, but after I was so mad about this 35 year old, 5 foot nothing doing that to me, but its ok...that is how my week ended."

Fortunately nothing happened, and it will just be one of many crazy experiences experienced on a mission.

Willy's Official Missionary Sunset...

Brent received his release date this week, and is actually going to make it home a day before his 21st birthday when he gets home on the 19th of November. He was hoping to make it to the December transfer, but his Visa expires in between transfers, so November it is. I'm sure it will be a bitter-sweet day for him, but I'm sure he is excited to see his family and friends back home. Until then, he's got a lot of work to do! :)

Willy's Home on Vancouver Island

As I mentioned in the last post, (which as you can see was over a month ago) Brent was transferred at the end of May to the city of Duncan, British Columbia, located on the southeast corner of Vancouver Island. Duncan is a recreation community in the Cowichan Valley, rich in First Nation history, situated next to Cowichan and Kokisilah Rivers, close to the ocean and surrounded by the Coastal BC Mountain Range. Although the City of Duncan has a population of less than 5,000 it serves the Cowichan Valley, which has a population of approximately 78,000.

Duncan's tourism slogan is "The City of Totems". The city has many totem poles around the downtown area, which were erected in the late 1980s, including the world's largest totem pole (in diameter), carved by First Nations artisan Simon Charlie. There are nearly eighty totem poles in Duncan, both downtown and along a half-kilometre section of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Duncan is also home to the world's largest hockey stick and puck, which is on display at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan. Built from wooden beams reinforced with steel, the stick measures 205 feet and weighs a considerable 61,000 pounds (28,118 kgs).

"Goodbye" PG..."Hello" Duncan

Brent finally sent some pics home to add to the blog, and also let us know that he was being transferred this week to the city of Duncan, BC located on Vancouver Island. His time in Prince George has been full of ups and downs, but like all the areas he has served in, he is really going to miss the people. The pictures he sent this week are from a few weeks ago when they were renovating their apartment, and doing a little spring cleaning at the request of their Land-lord. There was a wall in their apartment that I'm assuming was some kind of infamous "Prince George Zone Mural" that had been there since 2006, and had all the missionaries names on there who had served in the area, or something like that. Here's how Brent described it and the other photos he sent:
"...So the wall has been up since 2006 but President agreed with the new ways of the mission it needed to go, so yeah I got to paint it, but hey it was cool while it lasted right! then I will send you a picture of Elder Watterson, Elder Yuen, Elder Barton and me down in Williams Lake on exchanges. You need to put it on the blog, because Yuen and Watterson want to be a part of the blog haha, so send a huge shout out to Watterson and Yuen!!"

-Before- (Notice where Brent's name had to be...)

-After-

Williams Lake Exchanges...Not sure what the Axes are for????

Here is what he had to say this week about moving on to Duncan, BC:

"I just wanted to let everyone know I am being transferred to Duncan. It is on Vancouver Island, so it should be good. I am actually headed to be Zone Leader again with Elder Barton, who was the other ZL in Prince George when I first got here! He goes home in six weeks so I will be with him for that six weeks, but it should be cool! I am guessing this will be my last area which is crazy but I am excited!! I am sad to be leaving Prince George, and will for sure be missing some of the families, and the people! But it's all good I just wanted to let you all know, so yeah no more mail to Prince George. I love you all a ton!"

Willy's Latest Adventures

Brent's last few weeks have been a mix of experiences, some of which he'll want to always remember and others that he'll gladly forget. He enjoyed the uplifting messages shared in General Conference, and how it not only strengthened his testimony, but those of some of his investigators. Here is some of what he had to say after Conference weekend:
4-6-09
"...I have to admit, if I would have known General Conference was that good, I may have tried to listen a little better the first 18 years of my life :) One cool story that happened after General Conference, our investigator Laura, she actually brought her boyfriend for the first time which turned out way good, he has never been to church but he came for conference, and she has always told them how we teach. But so anyways that is not the cool part, after conference was over, she actually only came to the last session, but so after she asked us a question and she said how come when they talk they speak with so much more power than you guys!!?? Haha! She wasn't saying it bad, but she told us that those guys blew us out of the water in terms of teaching! Now usually I would take that as don't you diss on me, and throw up my gloves, but it made me smile cause she sees the power that we are talking about, and she said there is something different about those men! So tight huh, now all we need to do is fill up the font, but we will figure out a date for that..."

After an awesome weekend of Conference it was back to the battlefield, and learning that the Adversary is constantly working to find ways to throw a few forks in the road of those investigators that seem to be progressing. So I guess the last couple weeks have been full of challenges with investigators and many hours of what seemed to be "fruitless" tracting. To let out some frustration, Brent and his comp decided to go shoot some hoops after a long discouraging week, and this is what they found when they arrived at the gym:
"So I was starting to feel peace when we arrived at the church, like "yes now i can just shoot around," then we get inside and all these chairs and tables are set up all over the floor, :( talk about kicked in the face, but we decided to make the best of it, and just used all the obstacles as defense, it felt like us vs the world, cause that is how the days had been going but dont worry we won :)"

Here are a some pics from the last couple weeks:

"This is the annual snow run with a family where you run bare foot to the woods through their yard to usher in spring. It is with the Ryan family, a cool family up here!" Elder Wilson & Elder Hall

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!!???"