Only in Alberta

Cattle crossing the street, only in Alberta!

 Elder Call and Elder Madsen on their way to email their mom's!

 A beautiful prairie sunset

Dear World,

This week was pretty crazy! My stomach is still getting used to all this free food we get. I haven't even had to make myself a lunch yet! And another plus, it didn't even snow this week! Woo!!

Well, its branding season here in Alberta, so we were able to help out doing that twice this week! It was definitely fun to wrestle some calves!! I even rode one of them! I only ended up with a couple bruises and a little bit of blood on my pants and shoes from branding. Maybe these crazy Albertans with make a country boy out of me, haha!

We also had the opportunity to try something a little new this week! Well, we castrated the calves when we branded, which was... uh... interesting! But afterwards we all manned up and tried Rocky Mountain Oysters! So that was exciting. There was a member taking some pictures, so I'll have to get those from her and send them! Haha, it was awesome to say the least, and it didn't even taste bad!

We've been doing tons of service. We helped two people move this week. I'm really hoping that this will open the door to teaching opportunities. We are having a hard time finding people to teach. I'm super excited to get a baptism. This Zone has tons of potential to find, teach, and baptize. So, we're working our behinds off like crazy this next week.

Ha, so I've already seen eight people from the Coaldale ward here! My Elder's quorum President took us out to lunch, and I saw my Ward Mission Leader after he went to the Temple, and quite a few others! It was awesome!!

Well, not much to report other than the Church is true! Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Call

Hey mom! Here's my two cents on prayer (I'm teaching the YW this week and asked for his thoughts on prayer) ... God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are His children. He loves us and wants to have a good relationship with us. He wants to help us and guide us, just as a parent here on earth does. And that comes as we pray.

To answer your questions:

What's one cool thing you learned about Elder Madsen this week?

He either wants to go into landscaping or into the army

Do you feel busier as a ZL than a DL?

Haha, yes I definitely do!

What was the best experience you had this week?

I would say the craziest was when we wrestled cows and branded and castrated them!

What was a spiritual insight you had this week?

If we really do love God then we will keep His commandments.

Did you have any great teaching experiences this week?

We weren't able to teach much. We did a lot of service this week though!

How are YOU doing?

Honestly Brooks passing away makes me feel horrible. (tender thoughts continued here that I decided not to publish)

If there was ANYTHING you could receive in a package - besides Taco Bell - what would it be????

I would probably just take something homemade. Letters, pictures, drawings, all of that sounds good to me!

Your favorite food in Canada? Elder Madsens favorite food?

My favorite Canadian food is ketchup chips! I'm not sure what Elder Madsen's favorite food is, but I do know that he highly dislikes ketchup chips!

Congratulations to Kylee on her mission call! She will be a great missionary. Wish her the best of luck for me! And keep going with the Book of Mormon even if you don't finish by Thursday! Keep it up! I can't believe I've almost been out for this long. A whole year! I'm excited for the next year ahead of me. Thanks for sending those pictures! Tell Zac the picture of his welt is sweet! I loved the other pictures, and the quote as well. Thank you mom! I hope that you have a great week and that you enjoy the kid's last week of school! Have a fun start to summer! I love you mom!

Love,

Elder Call