Welcome Home!!

Hugs, tears, smiles, and one epic dunk!

Week 104, 9/28/17

Pres and Sis Pattinson

Wow.... I cant believe it but my mission is pretty much over!  But not until I send my final group email. :)  

 With it being transfer week will be pretty short, but this week I really learned how God is in control of everything and works by wise means to "kill two (or three, or four, etc.) birds with one stone."  First example, remember my story about Rita and Jordan last week? Not only is their conversion process helping them become more converted to Christ, but it is helping and continues to help a whole bunch of other people who heard the story or are involved in teaching them come closer to Christ and remember their testimonies too.  It was pretty cool in fast and testimony meeting this week when the brother who helped us teach them the first time got up and talked about how much that opportunity helped him feel the Spirit at a time when he needed it.  Rita and Jordan are still doing very well and I am confident that they will have the opportunity to be baptized soon.   

Gonna miss lots of families like this!!

Second example.  We were doing some office work on Saturday night (typical) and a companionship called us because they were close to our apartment and wanted to go tracting with us to finish out the night. There were 4 of us at the office and I felt like I needed to make it happen.  So essentially I ditched them and this companionship came and picked me up.  I knew of a potential investigator who we had a super good conversation a few weeks before who we recently found out lived super close to us, like literally 15 yards away.  So we went right to their door and ended up teaching her and her two friends and felt the Spirit really strongly with them.  It turns out that a few hours before when she went to go do her homework she turned to the page that she put our diagram of the Doctrine of Christ that we gave her when we talked to her, and was reminded of the good feelings she felt when we talked, so of course the Lord had us go and teach her and her friends that night. 

Gee - I can't wait til I hit puberty

The second bird killed was that the companionship I was with was having a really rough day and desperately needed a good boost like that.  It was such a good moment.  We have taught her once since then and she is pretty solid!!  

Well finishing my mission could not have gone better.  None of you will ever understand how amazing my mission has been for me, and how mercifully and miraculously the Lord has blessed me.  That is totally okay with me though because my mission is for the Lord and His children.  Nothing I say can suffice to express the magnitude of happiness that the Lord has given to me through serving Him full time!  

Peace out - Elder B 

Weekly Scripture is super cliche this week but its fine with me:    2 Timothy 4:7-  I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:   

Add caption

Week 103, 9/19/17

So....  There's a straight up blizzard happening outside right now. In moments like this it's not hard to be excited that I go home in a week and a half.  That sounded really negative but other than the snow this week was actually one of the best weeks of my mission!!  I have a few awesome stories.  

I understand that this is a super long email and there's probably very few of you who still actually read these, but this week the stories are better than usual. :)   

On Friday there was some chaos that went down and we had to drive an hour south of Edmonton and back to pick up a missionary who had to go go home early the next day for a medical emergency.  This missionary came out with me and was pretty much done with his mission anyway, but the details of his medical situation were definitely causing him some stress.  On top of that, he has had a pretty rough mission with not seeing much/any fruit from his labors, being misunderstood and a whole bunch of other things.  He also has a lot of family struggles back home.  He is honestly a great guy though. President Pattison still wanted him to have a good experience leaving the mission so he had us organize a get together at the mission home with some other missionaries who are going home with us, where we had some donair pizza and ice cream and just chilled for a bit. :) 

This Elder really appreciated it.  We finally got back to our apartment around 10:30. When we got out of the van, I was saying something to the Elder while looking at him across the top of the van, and I saw something weird looking behind him in the sky, so I looked up and there was the most extravagant display of dancing, green, purple, and some orange NORTHERN LIGHTS I have ever seen!  So of course we both started freaking out.  Just to put this in perspective, I have never seen the northern lights while being in Edmonton and I have been here for pretty much 18 months.  Seeing the northern lights was something that he has always really wanted to experience, and he never has.  Then, amidst all the trials he was going through, probably wondering if his mission was acceptable to the Lord, in need of some of God's love, Heavenly Father gave him this amazing experience he has always wanted on the very last night of his mission.  

I know that this was a gift from God.  I know that He loves us and created this earth not only to be a place for us to experience our days of probation but to have JOY and experience the beauty of His creations.  It was so humbling for me to be a part of this super special moment for this missionary, and I still get giddy with happiness every time I think about it.  So yeah, I ran inside and got everyone in our apartment and we enjoyed the northern lights for an hour or so that night.  Such great memories!   

One more miracle story and then Ill be done:  So Tuesday- Wednesday I had an awesome exchange with Elder LeFevre, and Tuesday night we were doing some contacting at Southgate LRT station, my favorite spot in the mission to talk to people. When at Southgate we usually split up and have one on one conversations cuz there are so many people to talk to.  I started talking to a nice girl named Rita who was waiting for a bus with her cute little daughter, and we had a great conversation and I ended up teaching her the plan of salvation pretty briefly.  She was interested in meeting again so I got her contact info, and throughout the week sent her a few messages. We scheduled an appointment on Saturday but it fell through, and we rescheduled for the next day right after church. They (she brought her boyfriend, Jordan) missed their bus to church that morning so they walked 30 minutes to church!  They got there right before it ended and we gave them a quick chapel tour, pulled in some members to our lesson, and taught them a great lesson, they felt the Spirit super strongly the whole time and recognized it. 

Apparently Rita was very intrigued by the idea of eternal families when we talked about it earlier in the week and felt like she needed to find out more. They both committed to be baptized on October 21st! It was super cool, when we invited them Rita kind of whispered to Jordan with a smile, "That's why I came here." They are so prepared!!! Pretty classic missionary story.  Its so humbling to be able to participate in someone's quest for spiritual guidance and be an instrument in the Lords hand. I'm super grateful He allows me to. :) We have another lesson with them tonight and we are super pumped!   

This email is super long so Ill be done.  In other news Lellow is still progressing rapidly.  I could go on and on about how amazing she is.  Definitely the most golden investigator I have ever taught on my mission.  Her baptismal date for the 21st of October is looking pretty solid!  Ray is doing well too! He hasn't smoked in a week!! That is amazing progress for him.  Well, a week full of miracles is what its been.  This next week will be my last real week as a missionary and then its transfer week.  I'm SO excited to see what additional miracles come.  I'm going to work my tail off that's for sure.  

I love being a missionary and I can say confidently that these 2 years have been the happiest two years of my life  :)

E. Bonny   


Weekly Scripture: 2 Nephi 33:6-7 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell. I have charity for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgement-seat.  Pics:

Week 102, 9/13/17

Well this week was full of adventures!  Remember last week when I said there was no time to write, only ball? Well yeah like 30 minutes after I sent that I sprained my ankle worse than I ever have in my life.  It hurt pretty bad lol, and still hurts. I wont be playing ball today unfortunately.   

We had Zone Conference the next day and everything went pretty well, besides me being on crutches.  Never thought I was going to be on crutches while giving my departing testimony haha.  Learned some great things there though!   

Typical Edmonton Sunrise

The other highlight of this week was teaching our investigator Lellow. She was referred by a member of the ward and we taught her for the first time last Sunday and it went alright.  We had some great, productive contact during the week over Facebook and then it translated over to our lesson on Sunday as well.  It went great and she is now very excited to read the Book of Mormon and committed to be baptized on October 21st!  We are super excited about her.   

Well thats pretty much it for this week.  We were involved in a bunch of other things as well but I wont bore you with those details. Hope you all have a great week!   

Weekly Scripture: 3 Nephi 9:14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.  

Week 101, 9/09/17

Morning jog with a couple of hairy APes

Hello friends.

This will be a really lame email and I'm sorry, got tons of stuff to do, including lots of bball (update - sprained my ankle super bad playing hoops :(   )

I love being a missionary because every week is awesome.  Ray is doing
well.  We also had a decent amount of time to find some other people
to teach as well.  Had some great experiences. :)

This next week is zone conference so we have a bunch of missionaries
from outlying towns staying with us right now.  It is quite the party!

Proof of all my experience doing contacting on Public Transit

Doing some serious SERVICE!

I also got sick again this week and it is super annoying...

Yeah that should suffice for this week. Love you all!

Weekly Scripture: Moses 1:39
For behold, this is my work and my glory; to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life  of man.

North Saskatchewan River - flows east, down from the glaciers of high Canadian Rockies

 

Week 100, 8/29/17

Well I don't have a whole lot to report on this week but the small bit that I do have to talk about is pretty dang awesome!

Our long time investigator Ray is on date for September 23rd (my two year mark!!), which in itself isn't that big of news because he has had countless baptismal dates.  The big news is that he is moving out of his house on Thursday!  Through a series of small miracles and super kind, Christlike people, its actually finally going to happen.  This is so huge for him because the home that he has been in is a TERRIBLE environment for his word of wisdom issues.  He really wants to quit but just cant quite do it in the place he has been.  Having been over there a bunch, its honestly super understandable.  Now he is getting out of there and is so excited to get back on the right track.  We have seen more change in him since he knew he was moving than ever before. It is awesome!

In other news we were walking and busing for most of this week because we are stretched super thin on KMs for the month.  The beginning of the month will be blessed.  Renewed KMs, data on our phone, allotment for the month, etc.  Its a good feeling to be temporally renewed, but even better than that is being spiritually renewed by partaking of the Sacrament with a repentant heart each week.  I have a testimony that renewing those baptismal covenants each week with faith in Jesus Christ will help us become something that we can't become on our own. 

Hope you all have a real good week. :)

Weekly scripture: D&C 68:8

Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Pics:

1) Tracted the most ghetto townhouses I have over seen on exchanges :)

2) Exchange Selfie with Elder Lian from Taiwan 

3) selfie with the office from the bus stop

4) BMW i8

5) Weekly mcdonalds breakfast pday run:)

6) Temple this morning was epic:)