Southgate Chapter 12 The Last letter. And Final Chapter of the Book

Well this is my last email home. It feels weird and joyful at the same time. It's been a good two years and I'm excited for the adventures ahead of me. :)

Here is a run down of my last week.

Tuesday

Pday. Emailed, then shopped with the Assistants. Ran to Puma for Elder Wilson. He got his shoes that he couldn't since the power went out last week. We then went to Wal-mart and then dropped everything off and grabbed a change of clothes. Mailed some boxes home that weren't going to fit. Then we changed at the church and played Frisbee. It was great. There were a lot of us to play and it was great. We then came back and showered and changed. We then had supper at Habing's. We made our way home after that. We were exhausted.

Wednesday

We were in the office. Continued to train Elder Strong. We traveled back and we had supper at Sis Thompson's with the other elders. We then went on the computer and did Facebook then went home.

Thursday

We had District Meeting and then lunch. We finished passing out some flyers for the Mandarin elders for their ESL class. We then did Facebook at the church. We traveled and had supper at the Calverts. We then went to the Raaflaub's. They asked us to come over a couple of times this week.

Friday

We were in the office. Last day of training Elder Strong. We then traveled back and had supper at the Browers. Then just stopped by some people.

Saturday

Did some Weekly Planning/Packing. Then did Facebook at the church. We had to pick up supper from Sis Fairbairn. We were going to go to the other elder's apartment, but they forgot to leave the back door unlocked for us, so luckily we got a ride from the Mandarin elders, who we were lucky to see. :) We then had supper and went to Raaflaub's again.

Sunday

We didn't have any meeting that morning. We had church. Sacrament meeting was great. Bro Munoz stands up to announce the rest of the program after the sacrament and gets to the closing prayer.
"and the closing prayer will be offerered by...Elder O'Neill".
Elder Wilson leaned over and asked, "when did he ask you to say the prayer?"
"Right now. :)"

It was great. We then had lunch with the other elder and then had coordination. We went home and had studies. We then went to the McCready's for supper. They are a fun family. We rode the LRT for a bit and then went to the Habing's.

Monday

We ran to the office in the morning. We then borrowed a car. Yes borrowed. Elder Salter approved it. We then ran back and grabbed some stuff and took it over to the Coombs. They are taking some stuff down for us. :) We then met Manadrin at the church for Facebook. They were in between service appointment and didn't want to change. We then picked up supper from Byam's. We then dropped the car back off. We got a ride from the other elders. Then went home and had supper. We then went to FHE at Raaflaub's. Painted some cool pictures.

Well that was my week. Today is Pday then tomorrow is Transfer meeting then the next day I fly home. Love you all and can't wait to see you. Going to miss Canada. It's been a great 2 years.
--
Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 11

Wow I can't believe this is the last week of my mission. Where did the time go??? It's been so crazy. So many memories and experiences. Well here are some more from this past week. :)

Tuesday

We emailed and then borrowed the Ap's car to go shopping. We dropped of the car and then bussed to South Commons. We checked out some stores there. It was soo funny. We were in the Puma store and Elder Wilson had just made the decision to buy a new pair of shoes that were 60% off. He just made the decision that he was going to buy them and... the power shuts off. The whole South Commons power went out. We waited for a little while and continued to walk around, but nothing was open due to the power outage. :) I tried to tell him it was a sign that he shouldn't buy the shoes. :) We then travelled up to supper at Sister Merrell's. After supper we went to the Lee's.

Wednesday

We went into the office. Nothing too exciting. We got a ride to supper from the Ap's. We had supper with Sis Fairbairn, Bro Mackay, and Evlynn. It was great. We were told that Sis Hatch next door needed some help so we knocked on the door and she wouldn't let us help her since we were in pros. We then did Facebook and went home.

Thursday

We had an early lunch and then Mandarin picked us up for Mission Conference. It was so amazing. It was sort of weird for us that are coming home this next week. Elder Brent Nielson of the Seventy and Bro Mills, who manages the international MTC's, came and talked to us preparing the mission for Ipads. They talked a lot about how if we can learn to use technology effectively and to stay away from temptations then we will be better prepared for the future to help our future families stay away from the evil on the internet. It was a good mission conference. The whole mission was there. It was great to be able to talk to everyone again. I miss some of my mission friends already. Elder Walker brought down a frame that Bro Kidd made. When I was still up there we got him a picture of the temple to help remind him of his goal to get back. He made a frame for it and wanted all of us to sign it, so Elder Walker brought it down. It was awesome. :) Totally Bro Kidd style. :) We then got a ride back from the Ap's and then had supper with the Kastendieck's. We then just did some contacting.

Friday

Well we went down to the church and did some planning. We got some hints of what is happening with transfers so we were preparing for that. We were there for most of the day. We then had supper with the Herrick's. We then caught the LRT and were going to ride that for a bit and we rode up to the next stop and there was a man on the corner with a sign "Christ came to save the Sinners."  and "Learn of Christ and you will be saved". We decided to go and talk to him. We bashed a little, but he started being pretty rude. We then just rode the LRT again.

Saturday

We had some plans of things we were going to do, but they all got a little messed up. :( We were going to go to the Library and do some Facebook, but the transit was delayed. We were going to go to the church and get on the computer's before the open house, but by the time we got there, after getting on the wrong bus, We were just in time to help with the Open house. We were told that the missionaries had a little booth and we were supposed to stand there and if anyone had questions they could come talk to us. Well the whole time we were there the only people that would come over to talk were members and there weren't a lot of non-members showing up at that point either. It turned out to be really good afterwards. 26 people came for the open house of the church. Hopefully something will happen. We then went up to the library and then got a ride with the Ap's to our combined supper at the Raaflaub's.

Sunday

We had ward council. We then had Church. Nothing too exciting. Had lunch at the Ap's place and had coordination. We then did some studies and travelled to Speidel's for supper. Can't remember where we went after that, but we ended the night at Habing's. :)

Monday

Well we had to wake up early and Bearspaw came to pick us up so we could go help with Seminary. We were invited to help with the lesson about hastening the work. It was fun. We then came back finished preping then went to the office. I'm training Elder Strong on how to do the Finances so he can keep helping out when I'm gone. We then had supper at Byam's and FHE at Raaflaub's.

It's been a good week. Some crazy experiences, but that's normal.

Last week. Got to make it count. :)

--

Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 10

Well this week has been fun. It seems like it's been a log time since pday. Well it's been an extra day, since I forgot to mention that our pday's were changed to Tuesday. Some missionaries were taking Sunday night as pday eve. President Manion wants us to make the Sabbath more meaningful and has moved pday so we can focus more on the Sabbath day. :) So for the next few weeks I'll be emailing on Tuesday.

Well on with the rest of the week.

Monday

It was the last monday pday. We got a ride after emails with Rutherford to go shopping. They then dropped us off at our apartment. We then walked up to Whyte Ave. It's a shopping street. Tons of little shops all over. It was fun to just walk around. We went to head to supper and waited for the bus for 30 minutes. When it didn't come we just walked. We then had supper with Byams then FHE with the Raaflaubs.

Tuesday

We traveled to the church and did Facebook. We then just tried people and walked around trying to talk to people. We had supper with Draycott's. We then worked our way home. Not much that day.

Wednesday

We were in the office that day. It was great to be in the office that day too. It was snowing all day. It wasn't snowing too much by the time we were leaving which was good, but we enjoyed being inside for that time. :) We then got a ride from the Salter's back home and had supper. We the went to the library.

Thursday

We had District Meeting. We got surprised in the middle of it when Sister Manion walked in. She sat in for a little bit and then went to the other district. She stayed and chatted a little bit during lunch. We got a ride back to our apartment from the Ap's to drop off somethings. We then just travelled around and tried by some people. We had supper by ourselves again and then we just tried some more people that day.

Friday

We did some things at the apartment and then went to the office after lunch. I did what needed to be done while Elder Minaker was working on the training manual. We then travelled home. We had supper with the Browers. It was fun. We ate outside. We were sitting there eating and Sis Fairbairn, who lives in the same complex was coming home with groceries. Well Sis Brower invited her down to join us after she put everything away. They are great. It was a good supper. We then traveled around. We had to wait at Southgate station for the Greenfield elders for a bit. we brought them the referral bible they were needing and then headed home.

Saturday

Well we did some planning that morning and got some things resolved. We then had lunch and went to the church for FB. We then tried some people and traveled. We had supper with the Iverson's. We then were going to go over to the Raaflaubs. When we got there we went on a little trip over to the river area. There was a break up that occured so we became involved in the distraction from it by going to the river and taking a little hike. It was fun. :)

Sunday

We didn't have any meetings that morning due to Mother's Day. :) We had church and then we went back for lunch. We did studies and then went to the Cahoon's for supper. They invited us over after church since we didn't have a supper. We then went to the Stewarts and SKYPED!!! It was a bit crazy getting connected, but it was wonderful to be able to talk with Mom. :) Love you!! <3

Monday

We went down to the church for computers in the morning and then came back and had lunch. we then tracted and walked around. We talked to one guy who told us the history of St. Patrick, the origin of the word hello and that he should have been the next Pope...twice...He was a fun guy to talk to. We had supper with Byam's and then had FHE with the Raaflaub's. It was a good day.

Well the weather is beautiful outside. No more snow....I hope. Things are starting to pick up for us. Hopefully we will be able to finally see some investigators soon. :)

Love, Elder O'Neill

Colin O'Neill	11:31 AM (1 hour ago)
to Family, Garrett, me, My, Regan

Southgate Chapter 9

Well this week was interesting. We didn't have much, but we still tried.

Monday

We had Pday. Got a ride with Mandarin West. We played some frisbee and soccer with Lakewood and Spanish. It was fun we then had supper at Byam's and they were rushed and we were originally rushed, they just picked up McDonalds. It was still great. :) We then had FHE with the Raaflaub's at the Read's. It was a ton of fun. :)

Tuesday

We went and did Facebook at the church. We were coming out of the church to catch the bus and it drove passed. So we went back inside and had to wait for a bit till the next bus came. We then went up and grabbed clothes for later. We tried some potentials. We then had supper with Arrison's and then changed there so we could go help with a move down the street. It went alright. Nothing was packed as much as we had hoped. Bro Foulston then took us out for Ice Cream. :)

Wednesday

Well we had to go to the office for a bit. We need to pick up a key and then we helped Elder Salter with some things. We then went back and changed and went to Dean's house to help him move. He is the guy we went and helped paint a little while ago. Bro Coombs was there and we moved some boxes from his basement to his garage. We then helped him move some boxes from his storage unit to his garage. Well before our first trip to the storage unit we had to drop off something at Bro Coombs. He went around to the front to get in and told his wife there were two guys probably trying to sell something, don't answer. Well we pull around the corner and she called him. She did answer and it was the Spanish elders. It was super funny. They came with us and I'm so glad they did. It went a lot faster and went a lot better overall. Afterwards Bro Coombs took us out to Montana's. Wednesday is all you can eat ribs. :) I tapped out early. We also found out that the all you can eat ribs is only a rack and a quarter. I had the full rack. Bro Coombs had half and was taking another half home for his wife. The other three got 1 1/2 racks. Since the waitress was awesome and brought them another 1/4 for what we didn't eat. It was a lot of fun.

Thursday

We had District Meeting and then had lunch. It was just our district, our small district, at the church for lunch. We then did mormon.org time. We tried some potentials. We then had supper with the Cahoons. We then met with Justin Lee.

Friday

We were in the office all day. Minakers were gone so we had to fill in for everyone. It was a boring day. We then went back and had supper. we then went to the Raaflaubs and helped them out with some projects.

Saturday

We tried by Steve. He wasn't home. We did Facebook at the church, sort of. Internet was in and out. We then traveled up and tried some potentials. Stopped by Josue and he was waiting for a Skype call for his Father's birthday. We then had supper. We didn't do much else that night.

Sunday

PEC. Elder Low and I helped set up chairs and then stood outside for a while. It felt soo good. We then had church is was pretty good. We then were dropped off by the AP's at southgate and had to take the time to travel to coordination. Had coordination and got a ride from Kendricks back home. We did our studies and had supper. We then tried some more potentials after supper.

It was a pretty boring week. Not much happening. Trying to do the best we can.

--

Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 7

Well this week seemed to go by alright. Some ups and downs, but that is how life goes. :) Overall pretty good.

Monday

We had Pday. It was fun. We got a ride with Mandarin around. We went to a park and met up with a lot of the other missionaries. It was transfers too. Said goodbye to Elder Coomer, who is now home. We got a ride back and had supper on our own. We then had FHE with the Raaflaub's.

Tuesday

I can't remember what we did it the morning. After lunch we travelled down to the church to do Facebook. We then had to go get Elder Wilson some allergy medicine. He was dying. We then tried some formers and walked around for a long time. We had supper with Sis Merrell and her boyfriend. It was little weird. We then tried some other people, then headed in. Elder Wilson still wasn't feeling the best.

Wednesday

We were in the office. We covered while the rest of the office went to Transfer meeting. Elder Merica stopped at the office on his way up to High Prairie. Got to talk to him for a bit. Best news of all. Nahia was baptized!!!!!! I was so excited to hear that. Elder Merica told me that at her baptism she bore her testimony and said "I was Muslim, I was Atheist, I was Christian, and now I feel like I'm home". It was great to hear about that. :D I couldn't stop smiling all day. Well later at the office The Red Deer group that was heading down came in. Elder Phillips and Elder Nielson were there. Elder Phillips is now in a tripan for Spanish down there and they had to come and take our bunk bed for our apartment. Well so Elder Wilson jumped in with them and they all took off. I was still at the office. :( It was wierd. Still great to see them. Elder Phillips came back and we talked for a bit too. Well after they got back we were there for a bit more and then we left. We had supper with the Byam's and then Tagalog texted us some potentials that we tried by. Not interested, but still cool.

Thursday

We had District Meeting that morning. Our District is now just us, the Zone Leaders and the Assistants. It's pretty weird. We then had lunch. We were going to the Library to do mormon.org time and Tagalog called on the way and asked if we could go with them to a lesson. They picked us up from the Library and took us to meet with Cindy. They needed us for numbers and she was in our area. It was a good lesson. They dropped us off again at the Library and we did mormon.org time. We then went to the Raaflaub's for supper. Didn't do much else that night.

Friday

We did some weekly planning and then we went into the office. We were there for most of the day. Updating the training manual for the Financial Secretary. So much fun.... We then had supper with the Brower's. It was a fun supper. It was all 4 of us there. We then tried by some other people that night.

Saturday

We tried by Steve, but he wasn't home. We then stopped by the Raaflaub's. Sis Raaflaub had made cinnamon buns for us. :) We were there for a bit. We then came home and had supper. We then tried by some people.

Sunday

We had Ward Council and then church. We were asked to help out in Primary for the second hour. It was fun. We were just supposed to help with part of the lesson part. After church, we went to the other elders apartment and had lunch. We then had coordination and then went back home for a sec. We then went and had supper with the Speidel's. He's the bishop. It was fun. Bro McMurray picked us up after and we went home teaching with him to Sis Kaluzna. We then came home and had studies.

That was my week. It was crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Love,
Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 6

Well this week was interesting. Lots of craziness and random fun. :) It was a pretty great week.

Monday
We had P-day. Got a haircut from Sis Hardy. We then met the other zone at a park and played around. We had supper with Stewart's and Raaflaubs. We were supposed to go help the Lee's with their basement, but He wasn't home. We tried by some people and then tried back and he still wasn't home. We then tried some others.

Tuesday

We had to go into the office early that day for an audit. Passed I guess. :) Then we were just working on stuff their for the day. We had supper with the McMurray's. We then went to the Monteith's.

Wednesday

We were in the office again that day. We then left and had a lesson with the other Elders with Trish. She is a LA that was pretty sudden lesson. We then had supper with the Byam's. We then tracted and stopped by the Habing's for a bit.

Thursday

We had District Meeting in the morning. We then went on Splits with the Other Elder's. I was with Elder Low in the other area. We tried by some people, Tracted and then tried by some Part-members and Prospective elders. We then switch back at Raaflaubs for supper. We made home made pizzas :) We then did I don't know. I can't remember....

Friday

Well we did some planning we then went and taught Steve. He's a cool guy. Super willing to learn. Not much response from him though. We then had to go into the office again for a bit. We then left and tracted a bit, in the rain. :) We had supper with Carter's and then we went down to the church for Facebook. On the way home we met this guy who we had a cool conversation with. He is an Orthodox Christian and explained to us about what that is. It was cool.

Saturday

Well we had a lesson with Josue. We took a member from the YSA ward who speaks Portuguese. He didn't really help much... We found out more about his beliefs. He is Spiritus, which basically is a Christian who believes in Reincarnation. Strange... We then did mormon.org time. We went back to the bus station and met some girls from the Rutherford and Connor's Hill Ward. They were waiting for a friend they met the day before that is blind and wants to learn about the church. We then went into the mall and taught him a little bit more. He was previously taught by some YSA elders and that's where he is going to be taught. It was cool and random. We then had supper with the Woodruffs. We then just tracted.

Sunday

We had PEC in the morning and then we had church. We had lunch at the other Elder's place and then had coordination. We did some studies and then tried by some people and tracted till supper. We had supper with the Kastendieck's and then tried by some more people in between waiting for the buses.

Well that was my week. It's transfers and nothing is happening with us. It's going to by Elder Wilson and I to the end.

Love,
Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 5

Well this week seemed to go by pretty fast. Things are starting to pick up for us. It was a great week.

Tuesday

We had Pday. We shopped emailed. Had lunch and then went and played some basketball and frisbee. We had supper with the Piepgrass'. It was a pretty quick supper since they had to leave. We then tried by some people and then went to see the Raaflaub's. They needed some extra help.

Wednesday

We were in the office in the morning. We then went to the church for lunch before ZTM. We made homemade Poutine. :) It was good. Took some of Elder Dodson's Chilli Cheese dip and put it on top. It was more like Chili Chesse fries, but still good. ZTM was great too. Learned a lot. We then went on exchanges. I was going to be in Soutgate with Elder Liu. It was fun. We tracted a little bit before supper with the Byam's and Munsters'. Bro Byam was still in Red Deer that day, so Munsters' came over. We then tracted some more.

Thursday

We were in the office again that morning. We then took off for lunch. We ate and then exchanged back. We tracted for a bit and then had supper with the Bennett's. We then tried formers and tracted. Lots of tracting since we don't have munch going on.

Friday

We were in the office all day. We had to give up our temporary car today. We drove it to the office. Then some other elders took it since their car is getting sold. We were in the office that day and then to my surprise at the end of the day Elder Pratt asked as we were heading off, "would you elders like a car for the weekend?". I was sooooo excited. I wasn't ready to bus again. We then had supper with Draycott's. After supper we stopped by Justin Lee.

Saturday

Today was chaos. We got up and did the usual. We did a little planning and then had lunch with Tagalog. We then went on splits. Elder Wilson and Walker went and did a passover lesson in which we have a new investigator. Elder Ustare and I went tracting. We then waited for them and then when they finally came out we went on another split to passover Marcel to the Mt. Pleasant elders. Elder Dodson and I tried by some of their potentials and tracted. We then got back and we went to the stake center for the child of record baptism. We gave a little message as they were changing. We then went home and had supper. We then went to see one of Elder Wilson's and Elder Jackson's old investigators who was supposed to be in the hospital for a surgery. We drove up to the Royal Alex and she wasn't there. Finally got her number called her and she was home already. So we went to the Raaflaubs.

Sunday

We had ward council. We then had church. We were having lunch and then got a text that coordination was cancelled. We then had to pick up Elder Liu from the Whyte Ave chapel and bring him down to the Bearspaw chapel since they went on splits for ward councils. We then finished lunch and had studies. We then stopped by Josue and some others. We had supper with the St. Aubin's (St. O-bay). We then just tracted the rest of the night.

It was decent week. We've gotten some new potentials and new investigators. Things are picking up. It's great. :)

Love, Elder Colin O'Neill