Emergency Transfer to St. Stephen, New Brunswick

Dear Family,

Moncton has fallen. I don't have a lot of time because we're trying to get down the coast in a bit, but I'll explain what has happened this past week and why we're moving. Elder Collett and I are both going together so it's not the worst thing in the world. The joke around here in the Canada Halifax Mission is that for every door we knock on, a family in South America gets baptized.

To put it simply, this ward is messed up. In the past, President Leavitt has hit Moncton with everything he's got. He sent in the best senior couple for a year and they did some amazing things: concerts, firesides, bbqs etc. Look up Elder Call Orange Blossom Special and that was for Moncton. Moncton has had 6 missionaries in the ward and not apostate missionaries, the best missionaries President could send to this place. Elders who are ZLs, District Leader, 2 STLs, with at least 15 months of experience. And then there's me, but anyways. The missionaries in this ward are just disrespected by members. President himself said he's never seen a more dysfunctional ward in his 62 years.

The building is a disaster. Honestly, I would never bring an investigator to the chapel because it was just disgusting. The members have cleaning assignments but they just don't want to do it. We spent all of yesterday cleaning the chapel after church which was an amazing spiritual experience. 4 Elders in white shirts and ties scrubbing and vacuuming the chapel until it was presentable for the Spirit to be there. The rest of the church needs some serious renovation and the members here don't deserve this building. 

The building really reflects the state of the members attitudes towards member-missionary work. The bishop even explicitly stated that he doesn't want us baptizing anyone. Not to mention that the bishop is nearly innactive and has a serious WoW problem. Same goes with the Elders Quorum president who hasn't been to church in a year. I hate to be so blunt, but this ward is just pathetic. President told us that we don't have to like these members, all we have to do is love them.

While cleaning the chapel we found some suspicious things. One of the doors from the outside into the Chapel had been tampered with so that people could just come in whenever without a key. It's so much disrespect to the reason why we go to the Chapel, to take the sacrament. I just want Elder Holland to come here and lay the smack down on these prideful members.

There's a large problem with gossip, modern day secret combinations, OW garbage, and anti-mormon literature being passed around. There's this British family here that's been in this ward for half a century. Once they got every family member into a leadership position they ran this ward to the ground with alienating certain members and spreading gossip about others. Just this past week Elder Collett and I broke up a fight in the middle of sacrament meeting between two of these British members. It's so sad, and I'm frustrated with how things are.

The former ward mission leader has a personal vendetta against Elder Collett and I. He would never come to church and so we took over as Ward Mission Leader. We ate dinner at this man's house and he was kind but there was so much tension in the room it was hard to feel the Spirit. He asked us if we would move this less-active woman last Thursday. This less-active woman said she had to work and didn't even come to church the following Sunday. We spent 5 hours moving her entire house by ourselves in the rain. She was then upset that I declined her invitation over the phone to come back and move her stuff around her new place in Shediac. She's quite the free spirit and we had to do a lot of the packing and moving while she was away at work. Not even a return thank you call. Makes my blood boil.

Then, the following morning this ex ward mission leader calls me up and chews me out for 10 minutes over the lamest stuff. He got mad that we have to have the phone on speaker as missionaries and told me that if we have prospective investigators they'd get annoyed by that. Then he got mad we wouldn't spend kilometers to go out to Shediac again and that we didn't take pizza from him when we left this past Wednesday. He literally said we weren't intelligent missionaries and he was mad that we weren't visiting more people in the ward. President said this less-active man is just on a power trip and is mad that he's not ward mission leader anymore.

So needless to say, we are moving to St. Stephen while Moncton, one of the largest cities in the mission, is being shut down for a while until this ward can humble itself and try to run itself without missionaries dragging it along while it won't walk. We also suspect some leaders are modern Gadianton Robbers stealing tithing money for their own use. President is furious and the stake president and his counselors are coming up to Moncton next week to try and fix things.

I'm a frustrated with how the beginning of my mission has begun, because seriously the area itself was amazing. We were having so much success in Dieppe. We found a young family that wants to get married and start going to church!!! They fell from the sky! We were teaching them and they really want to get baptized. I know that your prayers and scripture study led Elder Collett and I to them. We also found this one man who wants to know more about what motivates us as missionaries to come all the way to Eastern Canada. And he wants to take me to Tim Horton's because I've never been so hoorah! That's our last activity before shipping down to St. Stephen. I feel mad that these investigators are way too good for this ward. I want to start a branch in Dieppe if things don't straighten out because I know we can do that. 

It feels like we're leaving these investigators behind with their salvation which brings me to tears. I don't want to give up on them, but if they did get baptized and did come to this ward they wouldn't last and it would hurt to watch them go less-active.

I really think that the Lord is trying to  teach me about the moments before the atonement. How it's not about what you want as a disciple, it's about what you need. Praying to remove the bitter cup is not sufficient when going through a trial. Praying for strength to partake of the bitter cup is aligning ourselves with the will of the Father. I won't lie, this is really hard to leave Dieppe, but I know that God is in the details of what's going on and things will get better.

I had a splendid opportunity to speak with Elder Collett (remember he was called as a French missionary) about how to cope with wanting to speak a different language as a missionary and then not getting that wish granted. I know that if I wasn't called to speak English I wouldn't have grown closer to my Saviour which is what this life is all about. I'm pleased with the trials ahead and I will move forward in faith as I serve the people of St. Stephen.

Thank you so much for your letters and your prayers. I love you all and wish you all the best this next week.

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder McGuire

 These are all the other elders in our apartment. From left to right: Elder Johnson, Elder Raymant, and Elder Collett. We made amazing potato stir-fry as our last supper. More on why it was our last supper later :))))
Also, Elder Collett and I made some amazing sausage and rice that was life changing. Would've made you proud mom to watch me cook :)))

This was the sunset on the way back to Moncton from Amherst. During our drive we had on Men of MoTab singing "Be Still My Soul." In my personal study I've often wondered why there are so many tree analogies. It's because trees are all around the world to remind us of certain things-faith, tree of life, family history etc. It was very soothing because there are so many trees here and that left me with a feeling that Atlantic Canada will move forward in the work of salvation. 

 These were from our visits to Amherst in NS. Really a beautiful place that reminded me a lot of Flagstaff. The buildings were historic and looked like Harry Potter.

The Canadian money smells like maple!!!!

With the Acadian monument and the coolest street name that I'll use to pwn you all with in Scattergories