Dear Home,
I am now safely settled into the Flin Flon, Manitoba area of the Canada Winnipeg Mission, but I don't actually live in Flin Flon. I live in Denare Beach, Saskatchewan, where some members own a motel that's right on Amisk Lake. (I had a quick lesson in Cree, the language of the natives here, and Amisk means Beaver, which is Canada's national animal, I think.) It's an incredibly beautiful area. If there wasn't a Don't Go Swimming rule, I'd borrow a boat form someone and check out a few of the hundred or so islands on the lake. If I'm able to raise some money up later on in my life, I'd like to come back for a visit some day. I know I have to visit Saskatoon with my Mom sometime. We've got a lot of bridges to walk across! Perhaps my trip to Flin Flon will include my (future) wife and kids instead.
On Wednesday morning, Elder Jons noticed a black animal on the far side of the bay (I thought it was the far side of the lake, but no, this lake is huge. You should try and find a map online, maybe). We thought it could be a bear, so we went out with our cameras and snapped some pictures. I got my camera to zoom in as close as it could, then I zoomed in on the picture as close as possible, and saw that the animal was not a bear. It was a beaver. But still, I got a good picture of it, and I'm very impressed with the zooming abilities of my camera. ^^ A very good buy. Thanks, Mom! ^^
Thursday was my year mark, or Hump Day, as most people call it. On that morning, driving from Denare Beach to Flin Flon, we saw a bear. A real black bear. Clearly. It crossed the road right in front of us. Picture, please? No. My camera was in my pocket, and Elder Jons's camera was in the back seat. By the time we were ready to capture the proof our sighting, the bear was in the woods on the other side of the street. I now keep my camera in the glove box, within quick and easy reach.
Mom asked me if I celebrated my Hump Day in any way. ...Yes and no. Elder Jons made pistashio pudding, which is really good! But we didn't do anything else. I was going to burn a tie, but I never got the chance. =/ Maybe later.
To set your and Mrs Miles's concerns to rest, we haven't been getting mosquitoes yet. A few popped up, but then some more snow fell and now they're gone again. They'll probably come back when the snow melts, but don't worry, I've already got the spray I plan on using. ^^ I'm safe. =)
On Saturday morning, we woke up to find over 6 inches of snow on the roof of the truck, and everywhere else, for that matter. Sadly, after about a week of glorious weather, just as I got used to wearing sunscreen again, it snowed, and it's been cloudy and kinda cold ever since then. Luckily, it's all going to melt away soon, or so I'm told. Appearantly, it's normal to get a freak snowstorm just after the end of winter. The locals almost count on it.
But that's about all that I have to report, and I think my time is up anyway, so I'll be logging off now.
Thanks for reading, and much thanks for those who write to me. I'll write to ya'll again next week. ^^
1 comment:
I love your experiences from the great CWM. I can't wait to go back someday again to visit. I had an animal story from my time spent in Selkirk, MB. My comp and I visited a reservation every other Saturday and on the way back one time I saw something on the road up ahead (something small but not too small. As we came closer we passed it and I told my comp to slow down. It was a turtle in the middle of the road. I told him to back up and I opened the door and scooped it off of the road and took it back to the pit. (mission lingo for apartment) we didn't keep it but gave it to a member who took care of it for a few days and then let it go near the river.
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