Well.
I'm sorry to inform you that I have taken a vacation from my mission. I'm in a nice beach town called Leamington. The weather is warm, the apartment is very nice, there are tons of Mexicans (and Pupusas right by our place), and we have a car. HAHA!!!!
So I'm still a missionary and we are still working super hard, but I'll be honest, I feel like President sent me out here to give me a vacation. Training and having a sick companion and being a District Leader for 6 weeks and busing around (except when I'm chauffeuring the Zone Leaders) in the cold and busy town of Toronto really does wear you out. So President generously sent me to Leamington. And I LOVE it out here. It's both and English and Spanish area. There are tons of Mexican immigrants who come up here to work on the farms. It's funny to see them walking around all bundled up because they think it's freezing here. Whereas I'm wearing short sleeves and not feeling a thing. My new companion is awesome too. He lived most of his life in Price, but his family recently moved to St. George. He's a firecracker and we're pretty crazy all the time. He's a hard worker though and we're getting a lot of good things done. 
I'm happy you're going to start working part time, Mom. That's great. Would you be able to tell me how much I have on my card. When I try to check my account online, I can't because it wants an authorization code that I need to get from my home email or through the phone at home. Which stinks. I'll definitely be more careful on my money though. I had to dip into my card with my last companion because he didn’t have any money (because he bought a bunch of medication and I’m pretty sure he never got it refunded by the mission) and I should have asked the mission for more money instead of using my own, but I was too dumb and stressed by everything going on. Law of Consecration I guess. Sacrifice brings blessings. Or homelessness. ;) I can't really think of too much else for Christmas. Ties, cuff links, missionary stuff.
So last Monday, we said goodbye to one of my other favorite families. The Lugos (and Kimmy too). And we were all very sad. I truly miss all my family back in Toronto. I hope to be back soon!! Toronto Trunky!!
Tuesday was a lot of driving. We all woke up super early to drive to Brampton, where I said goodbye to the dying missionaries, got my new comp, and then we drove about 4 hours to get to Leamington. We stopped in London on the way there to eat Smokes (of course, don't tell Dad) for Elder Olsen's first time. But the drive was very long. Since we've been here in Leamington, we've done a TON. We've stopped by many less-active members (many who had no desire to come to church and one who talked for a long time about how everyone manipulates everyone else and there's no way to avoid it, it's just life). One less active member, Brother Bailey, is a huge hot-wheels car collector. I'll have to get a picture because he has walls covered in Hot Wheels Cars. He's a super funny guy, used to be a bouncer (where he once fought a Leprechaun), and has a strong testimony of the Gospel. He just doesn't feel welcome at church because he's very different and supposedly there's a lot of judgemental people in our Branch.
The Branch supposedly has about 40 people come out every Sunday and everyone says they're like a super close-knit family, but on the other hand, every says that basically all the members have been offended by other members and the Branch doesn't like activities at all and that no one likes to be social. So we'll have a lot of fun with that. One of the leading families in the Branch is the Saunderson family. They are an older couple (not super old, like late 50s) and he's from England and used to be a Bishop, Branch President, and Ward Mission Leader. We had dinner with them last week and they're stellar and help us out with the missionary work a lot.
Last Sunday we had Stake Conference and afterwards we had a Potluck where I was able to meet some more members of the Branch. They all seem super nice and I'm excited to see the work here progress.
Our Stake President here is powerful. His talk during Stake Conference was intense and he made a lot of very powerful statements. One thing he said that I really liked, and I'm paraphrasing here is that "If you are not willing to clean the feet of your enemy, you are not worthy to enter into the Kingdom of God." We've had a lot of run-ins, here in Leamington, with people that want to debate with us. It always very frustrating but in the end, we just have to love the people and hope the best for them. They are just confused sons and daughters of Heavenly Father and they need some more light in their lives. I feel like I'm going to have to teach a lot of Forgive and Forget in this Branch because people aren't realizing that when we leave the church or get angry because we took offense to what someone else said or did; all we are doing is hurting ourselves or impeding our own Salvation. So, Forgive and Forget. If you're holding any grudges, let them go. It's not worth it. I love you all and hope you're having a wonderful week!!



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Elder Flint
Canada Toronto Mission