Week 99, 8/22/17

Hello homies.  Not really feeling like writing a super long email today cuz I haven't had a real pday in 2 weeks and im desperate for ball time so here are some highlights:  Last week was transfers and we housed 13 missionaries for 2 nights in a row and it was a party!  However, I was awake for an average of about 20 hours a day from Monday-Thursday and that aspect of this week and housing so many missionaries wasn't a party.   

Thursday was MLC, my very last one!!  Elder Johnston and I a couple good trainings.  One in particular went really well, it was one of the stronger spiritual meetings I have been in for a while.  Saturday and Sunday I was super happy all day, because we pretty much got to focus on proselyting the whole day.  We received some definite revelation for our area during MLC and we had a really good planning session where we sat down and basically formulated a six week plan based off of our goals for the area.  I was already excited to work super hard and do the best I could do this last transfer, but now I'm even more pumped.  I really feel like we are going to see some serious miracles.  We took some cookies around to our neighbors to introduce ourselves on Saturday.  It was pretty awesome, we have some dynamite neighbors. 
   

Yesterday we unexpectedly got stuck in the office for a while.  Elder Johnston and I got asked to essentially be testers for this new "tool" that SLC has created for mission office staffs worldwide to use to make the referral assigning process much easier and more reliable.  We tested it out a little on Sunday night then Monday we had a conference call with SLC and offered our feedback as they took us through the tool.  It was pretty cool! 
    

Well I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that it is true because the Holy Ghost has confirmed it to me.  I have been the happiest I have ever been on my mission as I have really given my all to the Lord.  It's no coincidence!  I'm excited to find and teach some solid investigators this week.   

Love ya - 

Weekly Scripture: Mormon 9:15-16 15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles. 16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?   

Pics: 1) Posterity pic! Elder Sites is training.  He's my hero. 2)Bye Elder Kendall💔 3)Bye Elder Mejia💔 4) MLC

Week 98, 8/15/17

Hello beloved friends and family!  

We have had another chaotic week here in Southgate! Preparing for transfers and MLC always seems like it gets even more hectic every time around.  It is super crazy to think that I only have six weeks left as a missionary.... yeah let's not talk about that, that's weird.   

We have the awesome opportunity to have a couple of exchanges this week as well, which means FINDING!!😝It took me a while to truly love sharing the gospel message with people, but it is honestly one of my favorite things ever. As usual, we found a few people who seem to be prepared to hear our message.  We are preparing to have 13 missionaries, including us, stay in our apartment tonight.  Its gonna be fun 😊 

   

I honestly don't have a whole lot more to say that any of you will actually find interesting.  Plus I have zero time.  I was thinking a lot about the importance of the Spirit in our lives this week.  It is so crucial, especially as a missionary, to be in tune with the Holy Ghost always.  When we put forth the effort to do so, it doesn't matter what happens in our lives, we will receive Heaven's help and we will be given the necessary help to endure the trails we go through and grow from them. 😊  Have a great week everyone!   

Weekly Scripture: Alma 36:24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.  
  

Pics: One last IHOP date with elder Mejia before he heads home🥞✈️ Cool pic from last week I didn't send Sideways exchange pic Exchange vid Elder Griffin celebrated his birthday with IHOP 😍 yes we went twice...

Week 97, 8/8/17

Holy moly....  SO much happened this week.... Life is crazy right now!! This week was pretty much a week of all the hours of preparation and admin work that we have done over the past few weeks coming to fruition.   

Wednesday we had a 7 hour meeting where we trained about 75 missionaries on how to effectively use Facebook as a proselyting tool, and helped them to get started.  We also helped everyone set up their smartphones with the church restrictions.  It was honestly a long and brutal meeting but it was very necessary!  Setting up the phones was ABSOLUTE CHAOS but eventually and with the Lord's help, everything was good to go.  Thursday was awesome, it was Zone Conference and we just got to lay low and enjoy being trained and edified for a couple hours.  

I found out during the Zone Conference that my Papa Bonny passed away the night before.  He is such a great man and I'm glad he passed peacefully. I have been praying a lot and fasting for you awesome family members on the Bonny side that you can feel peace and comfort through this sad time in knowing that we will have the opportunity to see him again.   

 Friday evening we actually got to proselyte!! First time in a week and a half!! Oh my goodness it was so amazing, I love being able to invite others to hear about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We didn't find any super prepared people, but we did have a zombie (what we call people who are so drunk/high that they are essentially walkers from the walking dead, in their own world and everything) follow us to our car and we  from the train ended up having to quickly get in the car and speed away from him hahaha. Great day!   

Saturday and Monday was HERITAGE DAYS!! I dont know if any of you can remember from last year, but in Edmonton once a year they do a huge festival where a whole bunch of people who live here from a whole bunch of different countries set up huge tents with all sorts of cultural information about that country, souvenirs, performances, and especially FOOD!  It is basically a big cultural showcase for a ton of different countries.  It is super cool how many different countries there are and how they can actually pull it off!  Not to mention how much amazing food there is.  Anyways, as missionaries we volunteer for the Food Bank to help them collect donations at the event, so we got to organize how to provide them with 24 volunteers for 20 hours, and how to get everyone down to the event, and then shuttle them down in the swag vans to the park.  I probably drove the same route about 30 times over those two days hahaha. On Saturday and Monday we got a little time to go around and check out the festival and eat some food, and it was awesome.  It was pretty rainy for most of it but we still had a great time.  We also had a couple great gospel conversations as we were collecting donations. 

  

Well I can't really think of anything else that is worth writing about unfortunately.  Oh wait just kidding! We also got the legendary TIWI boxes at Zone Conference that track where you are, yell at you for speeding, aggressive driving, not wearing your seatbelt, etc. And report all the stats to the Mission President.  They arent really all that bad though.  It turns out that we are the last mission in the world to get TIWI!  And we are the  3rd mission in the world to get smartphones... wow we must be super cool or something.  Hope you all have a great week!   

Weekly Scripture:  Alma 40:11-12 11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. 12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.   

Pics: All heritage days Weirdest food I tried: Ice cream palda from Azerbaijan (ice cream with noodles and water), it actually was pretty good Best food I tried: tie between chicken shawerma at Egypt and Ecuadorean meat empanadas.

Week 96, 8/1/17

Beautiful EDMONTON!

Hello friends.   

This week was absolutely ridiculous.... we have done almost no missionary work since Wednesday.  We moved out of our apartment and into an awesome new townhouse, which we are super excited about.  IT IS SO NICE AND NEW!  It was such a great spiritual experience to dedicate the home, as some of you who saw my Facebook post may already know. Missionaries have been living in that old apartment for a LONG time. It seems like everyone in the complex knows who we are.  That is why I say its the end of an era.  It also seems like whenever an elder goes home he somehow manages to leave a pile of his crap he doesn't want tucked into some obscure corner or shelf somewhere, so we had A LOT of cleanup and de-junking to do. 

The new apartment

Thursday was spent de-junking and doing final packing for our move (we have been packing since last week), Friday was when we actually moved, and Saturday and, sadly, Sunday were spent deep cleaning.  We scrubbed every square inch of that apartment.  We thought we could finish it all on Saturday but we were terribly wrong and were still there cleaning at 9 on Sunday night.  That apartment is super musty and hot too which made it an even more memorable experience for all of us.  Luckily though I had Hillsong United, the words of modern day prophets and apostles, and my awesome companions to get me through with relatively little frustration. ☺️   

Return of Mega-bed

When we weren't doing stuff related to moving this week, we were mostly doing stuff in the office getting ready for smartphones and Facebook to be implemented mission-wide this week at zone conferences. Exciting stuff!   

Wednesday the Lord blessed me with a full day of missionary work, and it was the best day I have had in a long time!  I was on exchanges in River Valley with Elder Christiansen from Emery Utah.  He is a mega-stud and we had an awesome day.  We did tons of finding, taught a Southgate investigator named Gloria, and had a miracle at the end of the day.  We were stopping by to visit a potential investigator who he had talked to earlier and she said she wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon.  It turns out that she didn't even live at the house we knocked on, but an African girl answered the door and let us in even though they had no idea who we were.  We briefly explained that we were there to give a book about Christ to someone, and they led us to the living room, sat us down, and then the girl gathered 4 more of her siblings/cousins, and we taught 5 teenagers about the restoration of gospel of Jesus Christ! It was such a spiritual lesson, and they all acknowledged it and were super excited to read the Book of Mormon and go to church.  The one who answered the door (Hillary) gave one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard at the end of the lesson. Apparently a few of them went to church on Sunday and loved it!  The Lord definitely led us to that family.
   

Yes, we are wierd

This upcoming week is looking like a crazy one yet again.  I hope you all have some great spiritual experiences this week. :)   

Weekly Scripture: 1 nephi 4:6: And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.     

Typical...

Week 95, 7/25/17

Hello cuties!   

Man, this week has been another crazy one.  There is so much that happens every day but sadly so far this transfer the bulk of our time has been spent in the office doing administrative things.  There is so much going on and coming up in the mission right now!!  The highlight of this week was definitely getting Facebook access. As some of you may have noticed, I am on Facebook as a missionary.  Its pretty exciting, I think this will enable our mission to take a step up in the work.  People are so much more easy to keep in touch with and have daily contact with by sharing meaningful things on Facebook! So yeah, I'm pretty pumped to see how it goes.  

I had questionable luck contacting these Eskimo cheerleaders on light rail.  At least I got a good selfie. 

However, Ill be honest.  As I have gone through and cleaned up my account and unfollowed a bunch of people, it has made me think more about home than I have in a while😂 And holy crap, ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE IS MARRIED.  Anyways, its pretty annoying but I'm pretty much done cleaning up my account and now I will be able to focus simply on connecting with and helping those we meet and teach come closer to Christ.  I really do believe that the Lord has given us this tool to help hasten the work here the blessed CEM.  We also had another MLC meeting on Thursday to help the MLC (Mission Leadership Council for all of you who forgot what that stood for) set up their smartphones and we gave a training on online proselyting to introduce facebook.  

It honestly went a lot more terrible than we anticipated setting up the phones😂 Everyone was having a bunch of problems haha.  We finally got it figured out though thank goodness.  I can't really think of anything else that would be worth writing about this week sadly.  We did get to do some finding and as usual had some great conversations and taught people about the Savior and His restored gospel, but nothing has quite developed with those conversations yet.  

I am REALLY looking forward to next transfer when there isnt 3 million things to organize and we can give so much more attention to the Southgate area!  Well I hope all of you are doing great and at least working towards getting married, because if you're not it looks like you about the only one.  Sheesh..   

Cereal party with traveling APs

E. Hlavaty came and visited with his fam!

Weekly Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:19-23 > 19 And if they were all one member, where were the body? > 20 But now are they many members, yet but one body. > 21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. > 22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: > 23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.   

Pics: 1)My good homie and past comp Steve Hlavaty came and his family took us out to dinner:):) 2) Cereal party with the Travelling assistants 3-4)MLC pics 5) I tried to contact these Edmonton Eskimos (Edmontons CFL team) cheerleaders on the LRT as they were coming back from a parade hahaha. It was going well until I started shifting the conversation toward spiritual things, then they got all quiet and awkward :( I figured I would get a selfie with them though cuz its not every day you run into Eskis cheerleaders 😏 6) exchange selfie with the studly elder miller