Yes, I received the box. And it was AWESOME! I think I almost literally wept like a child. I love dream bars. Gosh I'm going to be fat..... Who am I kidding? I already am!
Isn't Laura and her fiancee awesome?!(Just a side note: Laura Stringham and her fiancé came to visit a relative in Orem. They are in Nate's ward in Calgary. They brought me a box of books from Nate and I sent a goody box back with them.) They're both such good people. He gave me the hug that you requested. He told me it was a mom hug, and so he hugged me. His whiskers brushed against my cheek, which made it kinda hard to think of my mother, but it was still very tender;D
I absolutely LOVE Robinne for making those rolls. I LOVE her rolls.... Everyone up here calls them buns.... I don't really understand that, but whatever....
Thank you to Kathy! I miss that lady so much! I'll always be her Ellard and she'll always be my Betty! She and Arlene;D Miss that good lady as well!
Yeah the fireworks wouldn't have made it..... Mama McIver (Beth McIver, Ginger's Mom) sent me a "Patriotic Box" this last week (picture to come) and the box had been torn open. The only guess we or the mission office had was that they were looking for fireworks because the customs statement said "Patriotic Trinkets". So yeah. Don't send fireworks;D We'll just have a member drive to Saskatchewan if we need them, haha.
Elder Clarke was absolutely Ecstatic to get the stuff you sent. He kept on telling me how much he loved you all. So there's a lot of love going on;D
That is so cool that 3 women from China came to Gospel Essentials! That is seriously the coolest thing for missionaries. We love it when that happens. We actually were tracting last week and we ran into a Mandarin family that I was able to chat with in Mandarin. They said I have an excellent accent! So thank you to Hong Lao Shi (James Hoopes) and Gong Lao Shi (Jo Kung) for all the tutelage;D We'll be following up with the Mandarin Elders this week to see what they did with the referral.
That's cool that sister in our ward is in Halifax. Nova Scotians are odd, but cool;D I saw on Facebook that Megan Hanks from middle school just got called to Edmonton, just north of Calgary. That is great.
Alright, now for my update:
Well the time has come. We are officially a biking area! It's going to be super fun. We have already been biking a few days this week, and we are super blessed to be biking in our Zone. We regularly get to bike through Fish Creek Park, which is a super gorgeous area. We have to go through it to get to the other areas. So choice. Not to mention, I'm hopefully going to lose a few pounds doing it;D
I've been taking lots of pictures with Dad's new camera, so that has been really fun.
This week in YSA, we've been pretty busy. Lessons with Delano, Bernard, and the like. It's been going really well. We had an amazing lesson with Delano. We watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie with him, and it really touched him. He thought it was incredible that Joseph Smith built a temple just as Solomon was commanded to. He thought it was also cool that he was doing it in the way that Solomon had done it. With the finest materials, and the like. I've never had lessons on my mission where I felt so much that Christ was fighting SO HARD for someone. He really wants Delano to be a part of His church. We feel it every time we visit.
President Miles is really something, Mom. He is the greatest. We woke up this morning, and he just sent us a random text telling us what a good job we were doing. That kind of stuff means the world to us. It shows us that he cares about us and that he is thinking of us even when we wouldn't think he would be. He's an inspired man.
Well we lost Sister Joseph today.... She is the Kiwi Sister that served with me in Magrath. She was in our Zone when I came up. She has been emergency transferred to help another area.... Really really sad.... Elder Clarke and I were really beat up to see her leave. But all will be well. There's not a lot of chance now that I will see her before she goes home. She's so awesome. We'll just have to take a trip to Auckland sometime;D
Other than that, things are really going well. I'm loving the mission and I'm having the time of my life. Clarke is a fantastic, Golden companion, and it's so great to have someone who wants to push to greater heights. Thanks again to everyone for all of the things in the package. It was VERY much appreciated.

Love you all!

-Nate