June 10th, 2013

Saying good-bye to Elder Jones (he's going home), one of the first missionaries Justin met when he got to the mission

                                         Waterton park

 A can of Spam for Jason Glowa (because he knows Jason will get a kick out it...!)

 

Hey family,

Not much happened this week, only that Cardston got it's own set of Sister Missionaries which is pretty cool, we got Sister Long,  Lanham, and Stucki.  They're all from Utah and they're working great here in the area.  We had to hand off a lot of our people that we were teaching to them but now we're going to try and find more people to teach.  Oh and also the district ended up splitting, so now Magrath, Raymond East and Raymond West are now their own district and Cardston West, East and the Sister Missionaries in Cardston are going to be their own district.  Before they were combined in one, so now there are three districts in the Fort Macleod zone....the areas include: Clairsholm/Champion, Fort Macleod,  Pincher Creek.  The three areas in Cardston, Magrath, and both areas in Raymond.   This is just crazy because now there are 19 missionaries in the zone and soon they might be splitting both stakes in Cardston and possibly splitting the zone into two zones. One being a Cardston zone and a Fort Mac zone.   Lol!  It probably sounds like I'm speaking chinese!  But this is super cool how the mission is just growing like crazy.  Oh and we might be getting a couple of baptisms pretty soon.   It's the Olsen family who have been less active for years and we got them to start coming back to church and a couple of their kids are interested in joining, so tonight were going to set a date for the end of the month for a baptismal service. There are also a lot of investigators that are going to start progressing pretty fast....one of them being Joseph H., who just needs a confirmation that the Book of Mormon is true.   He told us last time that he wants it to be true and that he would like to be sealed to his wife  because so far he's been seeing the blessings of living gospel principles.   Oh and tell Andrew I hope that he passes everything.  That would be nice.... just tell him to work hard and to set goals and make plans.   Tell him to read the quote on page 146 of Preach My Gospel.  It's something I wish I had known before my mission because it is such a good life skill that's just great, if mastered.   Tell him to read a lot of Preach My Gospel because there are so many life skills that are outlined....it's crazy!

 

Well I better get going....

Love you guys!

Elder Justin Gagnon

June 4th, 2013 - Happy Birthday Elder Gagnon!

Justin's favorite birthday cake made by Sister Tanner...Thanks for the cake and pictures Sis. Tanner!

                               Opening his birthday gift from home

                              Excited that we sent him "Loups Garous"!

              Some of the necessities for a missionary....razors and a new tie :)

 

Having a Happy Birthday thanks to caring church members...a candy tree from the Tanners!

 

Hey Family,

The work is going good here in Cardston!  We managed to pick up some solid investigators this past week.  One is a family that moved here from Spain so their English is not too good, so we got a Spanish person to translate for us.   We also picked up a less active family who want us to come over to teach their kids because their almost all over 10 years old and not baptized and they told us that they would like to get sealed in the temple.  One of the less actives I was working with (Robby) from Magrath also might be going through temple this week and he wants me to be there.  I find it so cool that he's going through the temple because he's made some major changes in his life and I'm super happy for him!   Also one of our other less actives,  Leah is also going to be going to the temple pretty soon because she told us as well that she wanted to change as well and that was her goal.  Oh and we just came from the temple today and it was great, as always.  But other than all that, nothing else really exciting happened this week other than my birthday!  Oh and the cake was great and I love the tie as well...I'm wearing it right now and it's probably my favorite tie.   Right now it looks like we're going to try and grow our teaching pool in Waterton just because everyone goes there but the past few days have been pretty crappy.  But right now it cleared up quite a bit and we'll probably be going there a lot this week by getting rides with members just because its hard on our kliks.  Earl is going good,   he's been coming to church the past couple of weeks and our activity in Waterton was really fun as well.  Well I should probably get going because the zone wants to use their zone P-day, so we have a lot of Elders here in Cardston.  

 

So love you guys!

Elder Justin Gagnon

May 27th, 2013

Elder Gagnon with his companion, Elder MacDuff on his birthday at the Olsen's house....Sister Olsen sent me the picture with the following message: 

Today I met your son Elder Gagnon!! And here he is on his Birthday for you to see! He says to say thank you for the birthday present...the Werewolf Cards!!, He was looking great, seemed very happy and excited for his birthday. I told him had I known I’d have baked him a cake, but he said they just came from another family who had a birthday cake for him!

He was shocked when I told him I had talked (emailed) with you, he said you know my mom????

Haha, I reassured him that us missionary mom’s look out for each other and our missionaries!!

He is a great young man, had a super spirit about him and he and his companion seem to be content with one another.
I was excited when I saw his name tag, and I recognized it right away!! So fun to make these connections!!

He’s doing well and he is happy and healthy, and I’m looking out for him for you!!

Love

Jeanine Olsen

Cardston

 

Having fun at the Tanner's

Hi Family!

Sorry, but I have to get going soon because the zone leaders told us that we're going to go to Waterton Parks with the whole zone!  So sorry if this is going to be a short e-mail.  Well we're doing good this week.  We managed to pick up a new investigator, his name is Earl Cowan and he works for the fire department and loves having the missionaries over. We also started a thing where every week we're going to go to the Temple Street Villa (a senior's residence) and share spiritual thoughts. (kind of like what we did at the Diamond Willow at Magrath).   I love doing that because you gain a relationship with a lot of the seniors and some of them end up giving you referrals.  I still remember sharing my last spiritual thought at the Diamond Willow in Magrath and how many of them told me that they were going to miss me.   It was a emotional day lol.  But things are really moving along in Cardston and we might actually start going to Waterton to start teaching some people because a lot of people go there at this time of year.   The past couple of days the weather has been a little bad as well but it clears up pretty fast.  Actually two weeks ago was pretty weird, we had winter, spring and summer all in one day!  It started off pretty chilly out, then out of nowhere a giant blizzard comes over us for like 10 minutes, then it cleared up and the sun came out and melted all the snow away!  It was super weird!   Well I better get going, the ZL's are texting me like crazy!

Love you guys

Elder Justin Gagnon

May 21st, 2013

Fudge shop in Waterton....apparently it's the best!

 

                 Visiting a senior's residence in his old area, Magrath on splits day

                                         Mountain goats in Waterton Park

                           Having fun on "plasma cars" at Sister Swift's house - check out the video below!

 

 

 

Hey Fam!

Things are just getting better every day here in Cardston.  We've been finding a lot more people to teach which is good and we've been trying to gain back member trust in the area because that seemed to be a big problem in this area in the past.   No one really liked the missionaries too much,  but a lot of people like us now which is good and people are starting to trust us with their referrals.  We just picked up a new investigator last night.  His name is Earl Cowan and he lives with a member family. He's a really nice guy and loves having the missionaries over.  He told us in the beginning that he was not going to listen to spiritual thoughts if that's what we came there for, but we did a subtle spiritual thought anyway and committed him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he said yes!  This was a suprise because in the beginning I thought we were going to go nowhere with him but we tried to focus a lot on listening to what he had to say and the spirit just did the rest!  We also got a new ward mission leader in 1st ward which is good because we've been without a ward mision leader for a while in that ward.   We also got a new ward mission leader for the Mountain View ward too which is good.  This past p-day we ended up going to Waterton Park and it's super nice up there and it's part of our proselyting area because there's a branch we cover up there that's only open in the summer.  We're not allowed proselyzing up there though because the park is scared that people might not come back if we start approaching people.  So we'll start going up there and just walk around all dressed up and see if people approach us instead because theres a lot of people that go up there in the summer.

But that's cool that Elder Bernier came back to visit.   Did he give you guys his e-mail?   If so what is it?    I would like to start e-mailing him once and a while. Did he also end up visiting Nancy Taylor? If he's still there tell him I said hi and that I miss going on splits with him and Elder Holm.   We had so much fun together!  Tell him that I also thought that we rolled dice and that he couldn't visit Montreal till I came back.   Tell him he should fly up to Alberta one of these days to visit because it's super cheap to fly from Utah to Alberta (people here do it all the time).  Tell him also that I love him for being the great Elder that he was.   Well,  hope everything is going good back at home and I hope to hear from you guys next week.

Love you guys!

Elder Gagnon

May 13th, 2013

Hey fam,

It was so nice to talk to you guys yesterday and to pull that trick on you guys the day before, I found that very funny!  But yea I'm not too sure what to write about and I don't know why the SIN # is not working. That's funny but I'll just send a pic of my SIN card just so you have picture proof that that's my #.   But yea last night that new investigator ended up bailing on us but he said he would like to reschedule which is nice.   We also picked up a new investigator, her name is Masumi Quinton and she's originally from Japan so she doesn't speak English very well, so what we did was we got a returned missionay to speak Japanese for us and the husband who is a member translated what she was saying to us which was really cool.  The husband is a less active member though but he's planning on coming back to church and getting married in the temple.  We also visited Lance a couple times this week to help him out and he seems to be progressing pretty well.   Well that's about all for this week.

Love you guys

Elder Gagnon

May 6th, 2013

Hey family,

Everything is going a lot better here in Cardston, we're pickin up lots of people to teach, One of them being Brother Shewchuck.  He's a member but has some things he wants to work on. But it's super good working with less actives.  We also have another person who wants to know if the church is true, but he's super busy and hasn't been able to meet with us.  But he will probably find the truth for himself and we told him when we saw him on the street that we see you going to the temple with your wife and getting sealed and he told us that he would really want that so badly for them, so I can't wait to see him again.  We're also working with a family that just moved in the stake. They're the Daychief family and they're native. The father was apparently exposed to Mormons his whole life and he's really open to learning more about us which is good. We're also going to start teaching a family that has some kids that want to be baptized but the father is on and off about the church.  I'm pretty sure he'll come around to coming back to church though. They live out in a town called Leavitt which is part of the Cardton West Stake, it's just a small town though and not many people live out there.   But yea the missionary work is going good. I can't wait to skype you guys for Mother's Day!. O and I'll send that SIN number to you ASAP.

Love you guys

Elder Justin Gagnon

                                          Cardston district missionaries

               Elder MacDuff and Elder Gagnon in front of the Cardston Temple

April 29th, 2013

Hey fam,

Everything seems to be going well here in Cardston!  We're setting up tons of lessons now with less actives and we might be picking up a new investigator this week. His name is George and he's a native that just moved here from the Kieni reserve. He seems pretty solid and he likes us a lot. He lives with his sister right now who is a member of the church but has just gone a bit less active. But she came up to us on the street and told us that she was trying to get back in the church. It's pretty exciting.  My companion is from Quebec city so we're working on his English, but my mission president said that we shouuldn't speak french because it's not part of our mission language.  But our studies in the morning are extra long now, we now have an hour of language study, one hour of comp study and one of the 12 week program.  It's long, but we manage!  Oh and I thought I told you that we live in an apartment now, lol.  I guess I didn't.   But yea for my birthday I was wondering if I can get some "loups garous" cards because there's a YSA here in Cardston and they're looking for more activities for family home evening every week. That's just somthing we used to play at the YSA in Montreal and I thought I would bring a bit of the French culture here to Cardston.  It can also be something we can do for a p-day.  Oh yea, there's also a member here in Cardston who might hook us up at the gym every morning at 6 AM so we can work out every morning, so tell Dad I'm gonna get bigger then him this transfer so he'd better start getting serious or I'll beat him at wrestling in 18 months!  lol just kidding!  Just tell Dad I'm gonna start working out again every day.  Well that's it for this week and Veronique Jensen is going to post some pics on facebook in the next little while of me and her baby cow they have. I took some pictures this week but I left my camera at the apartment. :(  Darn,  because I took some good ones.  I can't wait to send them next week though.

Love you guys

Elder Justin Gagnon

April 26th, 2013 - Update on new trainee

Hey Fam!

I just got my boy a couple of days ago and his name is Elder Mac Duff.  He's from Quebec City and so every morning when we wake up we do language study as well as companionship study which is weird because we never had to do that on my mission.  I love it though!  I find it so effective because I'm also improving on my French because of it.  He's a super nice Elder though and has a great desire to serve the Lord.  I'm so happy and feel blessed for my endurance from the last transfer!  Oh and the reason I'm writing you on a Friday is because President told me to write you once I got the new missionary.

If you want to find his parents you can look in the Quebec Longueil stake directory. I'm pretty sure his family is the only Mac Duff's in the stake.   Carole is his mother's first name though.

Love you guys

Elder Jusin Gagnon

April 24th, 3013 - Becoming a trainer and a visit to the Cardston temple!

Hey Fam,

Well this week is transfer week and I was asked to train here in Cardston which seems like it's going to be fun!  I guess they called me because of the big influx of missionaries that we're getting this transfer. This transfer we're getting 24 new missionaries in the mission.  Whats crazy is that some Sister Missionaries are training after being out for only 6 weeks in the field!  It's really cool too that the work is really getting a lot bigger.  I'm really ecxited to have my first boy though because I did train a greenie for a day because we had an exchange and it was really fun going over the stuff I was trained on by Elder Jones.

 

I find that crazy that the mall burnt down which means no more Deli Bec and I loved that ice cream shop. It was the closest one to our place, now we have to go all the way to DQ.  Oh well, but yea to answer some of your questions, we have been working but I always have to organize splits.  Because of some problems I'm with Elder Binnie for now which is one of our zone leaders.  It's been nice because we were able to do some missionary work.  We went to the temple this morning and it was a fantastic experience!  This is a really different temple with probably the darkest celestial room in the world!   It's still pretty bright but it shows me and really built my testimony on how hard the saints worked on this temple with their skill and craftsmanship left a mark on how big their testimonies were of the restored gospel.  The celestial room was super cool there though. The room was made of all mahogony wood and there was only white on the ceiling to lighten the room up. I loved it though and we have to go to that temple some day because you will love it!  I was also asking people where they got the granite from and they said they got it all from BC and had to haul it to Cardston which is super cool.   It was really nice to be a part of an endowment session in the first temple in Canada.

Love you guys

Elder Gagnon

April 15th, 2013

Hey Family!

Well, transfers is next week and I know that I'll be staying here in Cardston, so at least the work will start back up this next week.  Elder Wilson is still sick, but I have been keeping in touch with the Mission President about the problem and right now he's been telling me to be patient with the situation and he'll ponder about what should happen. The work isn't fully dead in the area though. I have been trying to arrange splits with the youth at least once a day and it's been pretty successful. We managed to get lots of referrals from members and getting a lot of appointments with people who will probably become investigators, so I'm excited about that.

As far as weather goes around here, we have actually been getting lots of snow this week.  It's pretty crazy and it's still coming!  This is probably more snow we have had all winter!  It kind of sucks because the whole zone was pretty excited about playing golf this p-day. But everything is fine here in Cardston and I can't wait to see some pics of chris's B-day. Oh and I got the package from you and the young women as well!  I thought that was really cool and I'll try and get a letter out there shortly this coming week.

 Love you guys!

 Elder Gagnon

April 2nd, 2013

Hey Fam,

This week was the same as every week so far in Cardston. Elder Wilson is still very sick (I don't think I told you but he's been sick ever since I got here in Cardston), but I keep praying for him.  But the area is doing alright we've been getting some referrals from members which seems to be working really well. I find it works alot better than just going door to door, especialy in these areas where LDS is the majority. We have also trying to work really close to the ward mission leaders as well and just trying to get to know as much of the ward auxiliaries as we can. We're hoping that once Waterton Park opens up we will be able to find some more people to teach because that seems to be a big attraction around here. Oh and that's the park where Heather is going to be working.

I also never got that package yet but I think I will get it this Friday because the zone leaders are going to Calgary for a Zone leaders meeting and to pick up mail as well. I don't think I told you yet but one of my zone leaders is Elder Fitemant who is also from the same stake as us and he knows Patrick and Anik. So you'll have to ask the Carpenters if they know him. So how do you guys like the new car? Did you guys end up selling the van? Oh, did you also post on my facebook that I can receive e-mails from friends?

Oh and the reason we're e-mailing on Tuesday today is because the library was closed yesterday because of the Easter holiday.

 Love you guys

Elder Justin Gagnon

March 25th, 2013

Hey family, This week was pretty slow in terms of work because my companion has been sick all week, but we have been trying to set up splits as much as possible cause I cannot just stay in the apartment and do nothing all day. He's been out for 3 months by the way just to answer your question and I try to pray for him every day. So far though the work is picking up slowly but surely. I've been praying a lot for the area and we've been getting lots of referrals from members. One of them seemed pretty interested and says that he would like the lessons once work calms down. We also had the oppertunity to get gas and the person behind the counter asked us some questions about the temple. So we filled him in and gave him a Book Of Mormon and a temple magazine. He also said he would love to meet with us when work calms down a little, his name is Pasini and him and his family own the fast gas business and they're from Pakistan. We're also planning on picking up some more investigators this week cause theres a cub car rally and Chili cook off and we asked the youth who will be serving missions soon to bring their non member friends to the event. We also have some potentials that might show up as well. I've definitely seen the blessings of praying for the area and it seems like we will see lots of success in the next couple of weeks. So that's cool that you guys got a new car. I love the colour by the way! It's like the perfect style of blue. Oh my, this might sound way off topic but I just saw and spoke to Veronique Jensen who just walked into the library. She's just doing some grocery shopping here in Cardston because Mountan View has like one corner store. LOL. But anyway really nice car. I can't wait to take it for a spin one day. The snow also seems pretty crazy. I've been having a great winter though. We get big dumps of snow but the chinooks just take it all away the next day. I think I used my boots like once this winter. That was when we went snowshoeing in Waterton Park. I also heard that Heather Schurman might be moving up here to work in Waterton and I might just be around to see her move here. Well so far everything is going well and I love you guys. Love Elder Justin Gagnon