December 10th, 2012

Elder Gagnon and Elder Trone (who is going home soon)

The village they set up at the Lamb's house

Hey Fam! Everything is going well here in Magrath. Right now we are almost ready for one of our investigators (Judy) to get baptized, we also have two other families: the Wrights and the Landry's who were looking into the church (the Landry's sadly dropped us to think about some stuff). We are also teaching a less active family: The Jensens who are a couple who are having a baby and want to get sealed in the temple. They're both my age actually. But they both have a strong disire to raise their child in the church and be active again. We are also teaching another family (the Smiths) who also want to get sealed in the temple. Oh yea and my companion is Elder Jones right now and he's from Wales. He's a seventh generation in the church so which makes Dan Jones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Jones_(Mormon) one of his great ancestors. Pretty cool huh? Well anyways, I managed to find Troi's postal code and send him a letter. He sent me a Dear Elder while I was at the MTC so I needed to write him back. Oh and for Christmas can you send me my Ninja Turtles blanket, it's so comfortable! Well I hope you guys are doing well and can't wait to see you guys on Skype this Christmas. Love Elder Justin Gagnon

December 3rd, 2012

Elder Gagnon, Elder Jones' ex-companion, Elder Jones

Elder Jones at the Boyes place...

An oil vial Elder Gagnon picked up at the MTC

Hey Fam! Magrath is the best! I've actually thought about moving here some day just because the comunnity is so great! But at the Lamb's place we live in their basement and I do my own laundry and make breakfast and lunch because dinner is always set for us at a member's home. We have a great ward mission leader Brother Spackman who sets us up with these dinner appointments. He actually was baptized the same year as me, Chris and Andrew. He is really on the ball with helping us and our missionary work and is hoping to serve a mission with his wife within the next two years. I love that family. But we serve the whole Magrath stake so we cover 8 wards, 6 in Magrath, one in Spring Coolie, and one in Del Banida. we haven't been in Del Banida yet but Spring Coolie has about 60% active members and the population is about a little less then 100 people and apparently everyone else who lives in Spring Coolie are active non members. This week we also went on splits with a couple of young men because I told my comp that I support bringing young men with us because that's what helps them want to serve missions in the future. So as we were on splits I found a non-member family through some investigation through other people. You really have to search and find out through other people who is not a member in this town. Like one time we were at a member's home and she told us of a person who is less active that works at the gas station at a specific time, so we wrote it down and went there to get snow cones just to talk to her. Anyway, I gotta go now! Talk to you next week! Love Elder Justin Gagnon

November 26th, 2012

Elder Gagnon and Aaron Collette, an ex LaSalle ward missionary who now works at the MTC

A comic Elder Southam made of Elder Boyer on his first day of teaching...

Hey Fam! Things in Magrath are awesome, the people are super nice and we get dinner appointments every night! As far as teaching goes there's quite a bit of work that needs to be done in Magrath because there are a lot of less actives, but we do have a few investigators...one of them is Brother Boudrie, he's what we call a dry Mormon because he goes to church every Sunday, he contributes so much to the church and he has a calling as stake missionary, but he's still not baptized. He tries to hide his non-membership and he does it really well. We also have another investigator named Judy, but she's one of those investigators that you really have to be friends with her for a while before you bring up the subject of baptism because past missionaries have done it and it did not turn out nice. There are more investigators but i just need to see them. There are also a lot of part member families which the non member living in the home wants nothing to do with the church which seems to be the big thing for inactivity for members. If I can describe Magrath to you I would probably say it looks almost identical to Khanawake at home just no natives and a lot of Mormons, with two church buildings and six wards (three in each building). Me and my companion are getting along just great and we're both Zelda fans so we talk a lot of Zelda when we get the chance. O yea before I forget tell Andrew to go on my ps3 account and tell him to add droppie4 or droppie04 to my friend list because he is one of my ward mission leaders. Oh and did you tell Jay about his Sunday school teacher? Ask andrew how the new Blackops is? O and I forgot to tell you , just the other day I went out to buy some Subway and a member lady came from behind and said "I'm paying for you" so that just shows you how nice the members are around here! :) Well I g2g so I'll talk with you guys on Christmas :D Love you guys! Elder Gagnon

November 19th, 2012

Hey Fam! Everything is going great here in Magrath, the people here are pretty much all members. We try to find those who are not members though. I'm not too sure if I'll be able to find the Jensens family because there are just a ton of families under that same name here in Magrath. We are teaching a new Jensen family though because they're inactive. But yea living in a member's home is the best because the member buys all our food so we don't have to buy anything. I spent a total of 2 $ this week! So money is just going to build up on my JP card until I leave the area. My comp is super awesome, he's from the UK and speaks Welsh and plays rugby. The Lambs' family that I live with have no kids living with them but they do have kids that moved out. We do have a car as well, which is pretty nice but I can't drive it yet. Church this Sunday was fun because I got to meet Jay Glowa's old Sunday school teacher Brother Sholts, so tell Jay I met him. I'm not sure if I really need anything for Christmas but it would be nice if I can get that Charlie Brown Christmas album on the Ipod. If you think I might like something else for Christmas, go and send it. Yea we did get some snow in Alberta but a chinook came and took it all away. But it does still get pretty cold here but I'm fine with it. Oh and for christmas I'm allowed to Skype, so send me Andrews skype account name :) A lot of the pics I'm gonna send are lots of pics with people at the MTC, there is one near the end that's me and my companion, my favorite pic is the one second from the last because a family called the Millers lost one of their daughters in a car crash and the pic was the first time I cried looking at a picture(it's the only pic that's a drawing). Well I hope you're all doing well and I hope to hear from you guys next week. Love, Elder Justin Gagnon

Arrived in the Canada Calgary Mission

Hey Fam! I'm just e-mailing really quick to tell you that I am doing well and I'm currently in the Magrath area which is pretty much an all LDS town and I'm living at the Lambs' place which is like heaven for a missionary! Sister lamb spoils me and I get lots to eat. The best part is that I don't need to spend any money because Sister Lamb buys all our food and makes her own laundry soap, so I thank her every day for what she is giving me cause missionaries rarely get this spoiled! My comp at the moment is Elder Jones and he is an awesome guy from Wales. Love you guys and hope to hear from you guys on P-day. Love Elder Gagnon!

Week 2 at the MTC

Hey Mom, The MTC is still awesome and some of the food is great, and yea my p-days are on Wednesday at the MTC. I've got a bunch of names for you to add on facebook because I was called to be zone leader. This list is a list of Elders who left: Elders Jordan Don Macky, Raymond Joseph Wilkins, Elder Tanner Allen Smith is awesome and he's from Mountain Green Utah. The two others are from Utah and Maine, Elder Jordan Hulka from Cal, and Daniel Miller from Utah. Now it's my District: Elders Daniel Smith from Utah, Elder Richard Boyer from Texas, Brett Gonser from Arkansas, Charles Kirwan from N Carolina and Elder Nathan Thorne from Missouri. Now people from the new district: Elder Brandon Aalders from Utah, and Evan Holley from Utah. But yea my week has been great, but I already used most of my time sending these names to you. But yea how is everyone at home? I'm sorry to hear what happend to Elder Hopkins. Days at the MTC are pretty repetitive because I'm english speaking. Days consist of class time, study time, planning and gym. Well I hope you guys are doing well and tell all my close friends that I love them. Love you guys! Elder Justin Gagnon P.S. O and I'm going to be at the airport at around 5 am and 8 am Utah time 'cause I'll be transferring.

First letter home from the MTC October 31st, 2012

Hi Mom! The MTC is awesome and the people are great! The young missionary that dropped me off I never saw again but I did get to meet my district the first day. My companion for the MTC right now is Elder Gentry and there is a missionary in my district that is from our stake that's serving in the same area as me. Tell Nathanial that it's the Flamenco Guitar guy from YC. He is in the same district as me and is my room mate. Ask him also how much he loves having that Genesis! Tell Cody to GET HIS PAPERS IN!!!!! along with Nate and please tell them and Jordan and all my friends at church that I love them. If you can, tell Troi thanks for the dear Elder and that I love him too. Tell him to show his brothers and Josh and all the guys how to send a dear elder because they're awesome to receive! Tell Thiago that the chocolate milk is still great and tell him and Jason that I love them, along with the rest of the Glowas and Moraises. Thanks for the Krispy Kream doughnuts and the Reese cups, but don't send any more food cause our food storage is full cause a bunch of missionaries just left and gave us all their food. O ya and when you sent me that package with the shirt lint remover I had just bought one, but the more the better...... I guess....... Anyway I got a bunch of pics that I will send but I can't cause this computer can't show the file cause it needs an update which requires a password to do. But I went to the temple and it was awesome. My time is almost up so I guess you can post all the first paragraph in my blog. Love ya! Elder Justin Gagnon