Goodbye,America! Hello, Vancouver

It's about time! I'm so happy to finally be out of the MTC and in my mission. It's very different in the field than it is in the MTC. It's so much better! I loved my time in Provo, but Canada is the best!

Wednesday was crazy. We left the MTC at about 6 in the morning, then Elder Claflin and I, literally ran to Cafe Rio. It was amazing to have some real food after 2 months of the MTC food. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Customs was awful. We waited for literally 3 hours in the airport. They didn't even ask us any questions. The conversation went like this. "How long are you staying here?" "2 years" "Why?" "A mission." "Have you ever been arrested?" "No" "Ok, go sit down." That was it. And then we waited forever. But we got our visas so it looks like I'm staying here! Then we met the Mission President (President Burt) who is SO awesome.

My companion is Elder Lau from Hong Kong, who moved to Toronto 8 years ago. He was called as an English missionary but President Burt changed him to Mandarin after about 4 or 5 months. English is his 3rd language so it's not the best, but understandable. When he speaks Chinese it's hard to understand, but I think I'm starting to discern the accent.

My proselyting area is the Vancouver area which is so awesome!

You would all be blown away at how many Chinese people are here. Basically every sign you see is in English and Chinese. It's hard to believe I'm only in Canada. It seems like the only other white people I've seen are other missionaries!

Thursday it rained basically all day, but for a dessert kid I loved it! The only problem is nobody really wants to talk to you if it's raining, they don't want to get wet.

I taught my first lesson in a Tim Horton's which was pretty cool. Tim Horton's are everywhere in Canada, it's awesome! And by taught, I mean my companion and our member present did all the teaching and I sat there trying to figure out what was being said. Chinese is so hard, especially because everyone speaks SOO much faster than what I'm used to. I feel like I learned nothing in the MTC. Luckily everyone has that feeling so I know it will come in time. Our investigator is named Grace Huang and she has a baptismial date for October 23rd and is progressing well, which is so awesome. We then got to go to the church and give the sister missionaries' investigator a blessing, which was a cool experience.

Friday we went to go visit the Ling Family. The wife is a progressing investigator, but the husband doesn't really want to do anything church related. They are both super nice and love listing to us and talking with us though. They are an older Chinese couple who don't really speak English. But they are super funny. I guess he said my hair looks Jewish (whatever that means) and she said I'm very handsome and should get a Chinese girlfriend so I can learn faster. They are really fun to be with! I guess the Chinese people think tall white guys are good looking, because everyone keeps telling me I'm super handsome. It's so funny!

Talking to people on the street is hilarious. I'll just walk up to a Chinese person and start speaking Chinese and they look like they just saw something exploded. They get so startled when a tall white kid starts talking to them in Chinese!

Saturday we went back to the Ling family and taught their son Cation. Sunday was the Mid-Autumn Festival (a really big Chinese holiday) and so Ling Xiang Sheng gave us some moon-cakes which is a pretty popular Chinese dessert. It's really good. Cation doesn't really speak Chinese so that was good for me because I could actually teach. But the thing with Cation is he is the laziest, most un-open kid I've met in my life. All he does is sleep and play video games all day long. he might go weeks without leaving his room. We tried to get to know him and be his friend but he doesn't really want to. Hopefully he'll start to change. His parents are really worried about him.

Sunday we went to church and it was a little bit overwhelming. We go to the Chinese ward in Burnaby so we need to travel for about a half hour to get there. A lot of members tried to come talk to me but I had no idea what they were saying. I'm just praying that the gift of tongues will come soon. We visited a less active young man, and the Zhang Jiating, a part member family. They gave us tons of fruit and moon-cakes again which was nice. I think moon-cakes are my new favorite dessert!

That's about it for the week. Some cool things about Canada; the stereo-types are one hundred percent true. Everyone (at least all the English speakers) totally say "eh?" and "soory" and "aboot". It makes me so happy! Also I'm not sure if it's a Chinese thing or a Canadian thing but you take you shoes off as soon as you enter a house and put on some flip flops. Vancouver is SUPER rich so I see like Ferrari's and BMW's and Maserati's and Lamborghini's every day.

The M in the McDonald's logo has a maple leaf in it, they have this thing called Poutine which is basically french fries, cheese and gravey and is very interesting, their money looks like Monopoly money and the coins are called "Loonies and Toonies" I couldn't make that up if I tried. It's the best!

Oh, and My new address is:

Elder Wallace

112-6015 Tisdall Street

Vancouver B.C. V5Z3N1

Canada

I'll be there for a while so feel free to send me things! ;)

Love you all!

王長老

Elder Wallace

 

Starting on top left:

The Wah Yan Ward program, Canadian Money

Cool Car, Moon Cakes(so good)

Poutine: An interesting Canadian meal., It’s so beautiful here

There was legit, a Chevron just floating  in the middle of the ocean., city

city from a far, what I’ve been eating daily

Chinese signs, Heading to Canada

Me, Elder Claflin and OuYang Laoshi,

Our District and Song Laoshi

Elder Wallace has arrived in Canada

Dear Brother and Sister Wallace,

Thank you very, very much.  Your son, Elder Brandon Wallace, has arrived safely this week in the Canada Vancouver Mission and I am thrilled to have him here.  He is very much needed.  There is a great work to be done in this marvelous part of the world.  Your son will be an instrument in the hands of the Lord and a fellow servant with us and over 200 other faithful missionaries to accomplish His sacred and holy purposes.  Attached are two pictures of your wonderful missionary, one with myself and Sister Burt and one that also includes your son’s new companion.

I pledge to you that I will do all I can to build upon that which you have taught your son, and to build upon the standards you have established for your family.  Please know that I desire to sustain you in your sacred parental role and to never do anything that will detract from or interfere with that eternal relationship.

A missionary’s success is dependant upon the active role of many people including you and us.  I pledge that I will do everything I can to provide him with meaningful experiences to give him an opportunity to maximize his growth and potential.  I also need your active support to help your son become the kind of missionary whom the Lord can use to accomplish His purposes.

Missionary work is very hard and strenuous.  Much will be expected from your missionary.  I pray for your continued support and encouragement of your son as he begins this challenging and extraordinary experience.  It will be a great blessing to him and to the work in our Mission if you write to him each week and encourage him to be diligent in this great work.  Monday is Preparation Day when he will have access to email to communicate with you. He can provide you with his physical address at that time also.  Should you have an emergency need to contact your son, I would appreciate your calling the Mission Office (xxx-xxx-xxxx) rather than calling your son directly.

As you might imagine, in order for a missionary to be successful, he must be focused solely on his missionary activities.  Any news, letters, or packages from home that distract his attention from his missionary efforts will be disruptive to his work.  Accordingly, I suggest that all of your letters be positive, upbeat and spiritual and, to the extent possible, that discussions of bad news, disappointments, discouraging items, etc. be avoided. 

I will do all I can to teach, and honor your son and allow him to realize the injunction, “O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve Him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the Last day,” and that he will have many opportunities to “invite all to come unto Christ and be perfected in him.”

Our Mission Motto is “Love, Serve and Obey.”  Sister Burt and I will do all we can to ensure that this will be realized by your son in all of its various forms.  We invite you to be companions with us to ensure that this happens. Thank you for everything you have done to prepare your son for this glorious work in which he will be engaged.  With your help and prayers, Sister Burt and I are confident he will be a great success.

Respectfully yours,

Ronald P. Burt

Mission President

**Please consider as you plan ahead for Christmas and birthday gifts that we recommend, instead of sending packages, you provide your missionary with additional personal funds they can use to buy the items they need and want here.  Because our mission spans an area much larger than the state of Texas, transporting packages from the mission office to your missionary may involve planes, buses or ferries and is difficult, expensive and time-consuming for our zone leaders.  If you need to send a package to your missionary who is serving far away from the mission office, please consider mailing it directly to your missionary’s apartment.  If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call or email the mission office.

 

 

My last Monday in America

This is a lot later than normal, because yesterday my companion broke his retainer so we got to leave the MTC and go to the orthodontist. It was the BOMB because we got to be missionaries out in public, got to hear waiting room music, and they gave us free Slushies!

In case you can't tell from the title, I'm so stoked to be finally leaving the country after 9 long weeks. 2 months in the MTC is a long time, but I'm so grateful for the spirit I felt here and the preparation I had.

So for TRC on Monday we Skyped Tsai Jie Mei again. She was our first Skype TRC. It was awesome, because she totally remembered us and we were able to have an awesome lesson. We taught her about how to receive revelation through reading The Book of Mormon and she shared with us an experience about her friend that committed suicide and how she found peace through reading The Book of Mormon. It was such a sweet experience. We were all crying, the Holy Ghost was definitely there.

Our Speaker Tuesday night was Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, who is the General Primary President. She was an awesome speaker! One thing she said that stood out to me was: "While we are on the Lord's errand, we are ENTITLED to his help." That just gives me so much motivation, and I hope it does to other missionaries too. I've just seen the Lord's hand in my life so much since starting my mission, even just while being in the Missionary Training Center, and I know I'll see so much more once I get to Vancouver. I'm sure all the other missionaries out there understand what I mean.

Also, for all my friends going to Third World Countries on their missions, My companion killed a MASSIVE mosquito eater in our room with his belt so At least I get a taste of your experience! XD

Wednesday I hosted again for the last time. It was nice to see that I finally leave the MTC before all these new missionaries! We finally got some new missionaries in our zone which makes me a Grandpa finally! And because we are the oldest, we taught some new missionaries in another zone about daily planning. It was cool to see how only 2 months ago I understood nothing that was being said to me just like they do, and now I can speak so much. I'm NOWHERE near fluent, but I know a lot more than I did before I got here.

We got our new name tags on Thursday which made me so happy. They look so sweet! There's a picture down below. Our "investigator" we were teaching had a sick grandpa who he loved more than life, and while we were teaching him, he got a call that he had died. It was really sad, but I was able to explain that I had the exact same scenario happen to me so I understand, and we were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to him. I know it's not real, but it was a really sweet experience, and our teacher is a good actor.

Friday we had our In-field Orientation, it was so nice to finally get to say "I'm leaving the MTC." It was pretty cool, just really long. A lot of the stuff they taught I had been doing for the past 2 months, not 2 weeks like other English missionaries are doing.

Bad news though. All of the Taiwan Missionaries who were supposed to leave tomorrow didn't get their visa so they are staying at the MTC for a 10th week. They think they will come this week, so they haven't been re-assigned yet, so I'm praying they will come in this week. Just makes me so happy I'm going to Canada.

Saturday Ge Laoshi (Our teacher) told us the story behind Han Ge Hui (The investigator he was playing who's grandpa died). Spoiler alert, Han Ge Hui is actually a girl! He just plays her as a guy.  It was really cool to see how he met her and her conversion to Christ's gospel. 

Sunday was really special. Friday night they told me they forgot to let me know I was teaching Priesthood meeting on Sunday so I had only about 1 1/2 hours of prep time for that lesson. It was on faith, so it was fitting that I needed faith that it would go well. And it did, it was a nice lesson.

So sunday night was the best. Our devotional was by Lloyd Newell. He's the guy who does Music and The Spoken Word and is the narrator for General Conference. The guy who says: "This is the 185th annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" When he did that voice it was so funny!

So he ended up doing a "MTC and the Spoken Word" It was so cool. We sang: How Firm a Foundation, Redeemer of Israel, Let Us All Press On, Praise to the Man (that one was actually a video of the REAL MTC [Mormon Tabernacle Choir] Singing it) and We Thank Thee Oh God For A Prophet. It was a great devotional. I came into the MTC at the right time, devotional wise.

As a District we all went back to the Classroom and said goodbye and had a little testimony meeting. Then the people who left this morning asked all of us Elders for blessings and the spirit was probably the most powerful I have ever felt it. I definitely felt God's love and power yesterday.

That's about it for now. The next letter will be from Canada. Once I get there I'll send my new address so y'all can send me stuff ;) Love you all, and I'm so excited to get to the field!!!

With all the love I can put in a handshake,

王長老

Top Left: Elder Claflin, Elder Leonhardt, and Me , District,

All the Elders,  Me and my companion at the temple where we ran into DaoQi Laoshi (one of the funniest teachers we've had sub for us)

My district with Ge Laoshi (in the middle), new and old name tags

THE CREW-below

Brandon speaking Chinese

Video Translation

We have some family friends that Bob grew up with. Their son went to Brandon’s mission 20 years ago. Bob’s mom sent him the video and he translated it for us. Thanks Paul.

Hello everyone.  Today is Sunday.  I'd really like to share my testimony with you.  This is very quick but I know that this Church is true.  I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can  receive forgiveness.  I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that through the power of God, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true.  I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon.  I love you all and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.  See you later!

Hope you enjoyed it!  Talk to you soon.

Flight Plans

We got flight plans baby! BOOOOHYAAAHHH!

I realize I didn't take a picture of them, I was just so excited I forgot to. I leave here on the 23rd and I CANNOT wait.

So because Monday was Labor Day the temple was closed and there was no mail so that was a boring P-day. We taught a Tsai Jie Mei for skype and that was kind of hard because the connection was bad and she talked really fast.

Tuesday was an average day. We're teaching our investigators everyday which is fun. Chinese is still hard. Our speaker for Tuesday night was Brother Gerald Causse from the Presiding Bishopric. He was really good, it was an awesome talk. He talked about feeling inadequate for your calling (which I'm very familiar with) and how we really need to rely on Heavenly Father. He also said that we should be repenting everyday for being imperfect. I thought it was an awesome thought.

Wednesday was pretty nice because we are officially English speakers! all that means is that the English speakers who came in on Wednesday who are here for 12 days, we leave the same time they do.

Thursday was sad. Elder Mckay in our district went home for medical reasons. He was an awesome guy and we all really miss him. Before he left we all watched the church's new videos they released for their 12 step addiction-recovery program. I advise EVERYONE TO WATCH THEM. They are by far the best videos I have ever seen the church put out. They may not be appropriate for little children because they talk about some heavy addiction related topics but they are so inspirational and insanely well done. 

Here is the link, everyone should watch this!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/12steps

Friday was so nice because we got flight plans. I cannot wait to get to Canada. Our flight leaves at 11 Utah time and get's there at 12:20 Vancouver time. It's a whole lot better than everyone else in my district who has 20+ hours of travel time! We still don't have our new name tags which is a little worrying. We were supposed to get them 2 weeks ago so we don't know what the problem is.

The first BYU home football game was on Saturday and we all studied outside and could totally hear the music. I haven't heard music in 2 months and it was the greatest thing ever! It was NICE. Especially because, if you know me, the longest I go without music is when I'm asleep, so it was a nice little change.

I taught District meeting yesterday (which is basically like Sunday School) and it went pretty well. The topic was obedience and it was nice to learn how to be more obedient and how to get more blessings. Last week, I forgot to mention, I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting. It went well, but instead of saying I want to share my testimony I said I would like to share my Bible. (in Chinese of course)

Our new Branch President is an insanely cool guy. I'm pretty sure he's a certifiable genius. He's worked for Reagan, Nixon, and Ford, the prophets and apostles call him up all the time, he eats dinner with President Monson all the time, and President Monson has sealed a couple of his kids. He has so many cool stories.

I think that's about it for now. One more P-day and then my next letter will be from Canada! I'm super excited. Love you all!

王長老

Elder Wallace

Picture:

Recreating a picture dad took while he was in the MTC, Chilling during Temple Walk

District, “Pocket” sized Dictionary  bigger than his scriptures

Elder Atkin from our home ward who Brandon got to Host the day he entered the MTC

 

Below: His companion got a tri pod so they had a little fun!!

Sickness

Wo de Pengyoumen

So this week has been eventful. I got really sick, we had an apostle come, and I got made District Leader.

So by Monday night I was feeling sick so that wasn't fun. I've been sick all week and I'm finally on the tail end of it now. So hopefully this week will be better. We had our first Skype TRC  last Monday and that was so sweet! We just Skyped a lady who lives in Toronto and taught a 30 min lesson. Her name was Tsai Jie Mei and she was originally from Taiwan. It was really fun and we could talk to her pretty well. We have another one tonight so that'll be really fun.

So the only good thing about Tuesday was that it was finally September so I will leave the MTC this month (hallelujah) I woke up at 2 and my throat was on FIRE. I had a really bad head cold and terrible drainage. (I know, hot right?) Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the 12 came, but about 10 mins during his talk I had to puke so I missed it. So yeah. That was a fun day. We also got a new teacher because Ang laoshi got married and the schedules got switched around with school starting so our new teacher is Ge laoshi (Brother Gerber) and he is really cool. I like him.

Wednesday I met a new Elder who leaves next week for the Gilbert Arizona mission. His name is Elder Mitchell and I told him if he sees my family to say hi! So Mom, if you get a hug from a random missionary don't freak out, (actually do, because missionaries aren't allowed to do that)

Nothing big Thursday. We basically finished up teaching Bi Jie Mei. She is very accepting of everything we teach and is progressing to baptism. I think we are done teaching her for now and then Our teacher will be a new investigator that we should get this week and teach up until we leave.

Friday my cold moved to my chest so that was so much fun. (not really, in case you couldn't tell)

That's about it. Daily MTC stuff. Taught our new teacher's "investigator" Han Di Xiong and it went alright.

Saturday was awful. I couldn't breathe, I was coughing like crazy and I started losing my voice. I tried to teach a lesson to our "less-active" member Cai Jie Mei but I could barely talk. So I went back early and tried to sleep it off.

Sunday was a little better. It was fast Sunday, which is hard if your sick. But I did it, and fasted that I would get better. Throughout the day I noticed I really was getting better. It just helped build my testimony on fasting! I didn't mention that last week I got to bless the sacrament in Chinese which was a neat opportunity. Our Branch President got released and a new one (President Newell) got called. He seemed pretty cool. I also got called to be the District Leader. Basically I'm just in charge of our district devotionals and I get the mail. So not much different except now I have meetings to go to on Sunday. Oh well, I'm happy for the opportunity. The Provo Temple President was our speaker on Sunday. He was pretty good. He really focused on OYM (Open Your Mouth) It's really important to share the gospel with everyone and so Opening Your Mouth is a very important thing to remember.

So that's about it for now. Our new name-tags didn't come yet, but almost definitely will this week. Friday is our FLIGHT-PLANS, which means I'm almost out of this prison! Can't wait for that. If anyone wants to send me letters or DearElders or anything while I'm here do it soon because I'll be out of here soon.

Wo hen ai nimen!

王長老

Elder Wallace

From top to bottom:

Me and Elder Huang (The Elder from my mission who knows the Chinese Elder's I will be with) and His comp Elder Lan from Toronto that also speaks Chinese. Talking to them is so much fun in Chinese.

We found a mirror on a stick and got bored! (almost a selfie stick)

Sick Selfie