A New Adventure in Chatham

My goodness! My first week in Chatham was fantastic! It's quite the place, it was hard to leave Burlington, but It was time for me to move on, and I'm glad that I get to be here in Chatham now! Chatham is a small town about 45,000 people live here, and it surrounded by a bunch of tiny towns, such as Wallisburg, Dresden, and Tilbury. There are a bunch more, so basically Chatham-Kent County has about 110,000 people. The Branch here is small, it was weird to be in a congregation of only 80 people, basically the same people run everything. But the Branch is super awesome with missionary work, they love to come out teaching with us, and love to help us out.

Brother Hunter is one of the Members here who is awesome, we met him the first night we got here and he said "Me Casa es su Casa" My house is your house. He loves to come out teaching with us, and because he works from home, he can come out most of the time. He is a horticulturalist, and sells seeds online.

One of my favorite parts about the area is Walpole Island First Nations Reservation. It is a Native American Reservation in our area that has a few members out on it! We went by Brother Smith, who is a world famous fish carver, sounds weird but it's really cool! He is actually going to teach us how to carve fish, so next week we are headed up that way to carve us some fish! All of the stop signs there are in some other Language, I don't even know how to pronounce anything up there, but it's a fun place to go. Brother Smith was telling us about the Traditionalists on the Island, they believe in the "Great Spirit", which is super interesting because in the Book of Mormon, Lamoni's father also believes in a "Great Spirit" interesting how that's been passed down eh?

The very first door we knocked on in Chatham was a girl named Kelsey, she is in her 20's, and because the closest YSA is 1 hr 15 min away, we get to teach her! She seems super solid however, and we are meeting with her tomorrow! We are excited to get to meet with her! 

Last week we also met Dorian, who is 30. He was in a car accident 10 years ago and he has a strong testimony of the power of prayer. He saw how it saved his life, and he wants to do whatever he can to grow closer with Christ. We met with him again yesterday, and invited him to be Baptized on Feb. 13th, and he said he would! So exciting! We are going back again to meet with him on Wednesday!

We also stopped by a Less-Active family in the ward and then worked around them and found a bunch of people there were interested! One of which we were able to teach was Brandi, she is in her 20's and her family is religious but she has never found it for herself, she is excited to read the Book of Mormon, and I'm excited to meet with her tomorrow as well! Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day!

We decided we were going to go by another Less-Active member as well, and we didn't realized he lived like 10km in the middle of nowhere. Turns out he wasn't home, so we walked down the street to his neighbor, like 200 yards Where we met Al, who was an older gentleman who owns 180 acres and farms it! He let us into his home to escape the cold weather, and listened to us for a bit. He said he wasn't going to convert to our religion, but we all know that you don't say that to missionaries! :) CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Whelp, a few things about Chatham, there are crows everywhere, and they are huge here! They seriously are in every tree and on every building! The river that runs through Chatham is called the Thames river, and it is partially frozen, but it kinda looks like Chocolate milk right now! There are cops everywhere here, and I never see them doing anything but driving around. 

I hope everybody at home is doing well! 

My Ponderize scripture this week is 3 Nephi 18:20

Love you all!

Elder Taylor