Innisfail Chapter 2

I'm trying to come up with subject titles, but this is the best I got.

Besides the 30*C weather and the 60% humidity it is wonderful. (question what is the stupid C to F conversion???) All I know that it is hot and humid up here. There are a lot of trees around, but they are kinda spread out, since around here is a lot of farmland.

Oh sorry, that I wasn't able to email yesterday like I normally would. The first Monday of each month or sometime in that first week is usually some Canadian holiday so we can email the next day. Yesterday was Canada Day (like July 4th) and I'll hopefully be able to talk more about it later.

Well I wanted to pretty much give a run down of my week. I'll probably forget some details because there is a lot that we do in just one day. I could probably spend a couple hours talking about just one visit, but I'll try to keep it semi short.

Tuesday

Studies this morning were interesting because we had to get some tire work done on our car so we had our studies inside Kal Tire. It was kinda interesting trying to practice teaching inside of a business with people constantly walking around. Well later we got to meet Tayden and his cousin Charles. Elder Marsh and Elder George ran into him on the street and he wanted to know more. They met us at the church and we gave them a church tour and tried to answer all of their questions. We hoped that they would come to church but that didn't happen. We then had correlation with Bro. Day the ward mission leader. He is such a great guy. I could really spend hours talking about him and what he has told us. He is such a funny guy. He is one of the 4 dentists in town. 3 of them are mormon. It's pretty funny really. We then went to dinner at the Teskey's. We had a hot dog roast outside. Ya campfire in a shirt and tie. Strange to me. After dinner we went and I finally got to meet Jeff. WOW. That's about all I can say is WOW. He has such an interesting story that he got to spend that night telling me. WOW

Wednesday

Oh so I don't think I mentioned it, but Elder Marsh LOVES birds. He went bird watching with one of the members before I got here. So that will be important later. Anyways, So we had our studies and then had mormon.org time. After that Elder Marsh had an impression to go see Bro. Ellis. I wish you guys could meet him. He is so awesome. I love spending time with them. I might have mentioned him. He is the one living out of his trailer, behind his house that he is building. So they were working on the molding in the basement and when we came he showed us around. We then went out and were sitting on the deck. One of his friends came by and poked his head around the back of the house. There aren't stairs off the deck yet so he had to come around and in. To keep it short, we are going to go to the Ellis Bird farm (no direct relation) some time with the Ellis' and their friends the Beckwoods. It is about 20 minutes east of Red Deer, so out of our area, but we got permission to go since we would be going with some non-members and being able to share the gospel with them. We then got to go talk with the Blanchards. I can't tell you how amazing the members are up here. Anyways we talked to them about some possible lessons in the future at their house.

Thursday

Today was fun, because we had district meeting today. Our district consists of 4 missionaries. Us and Rocky Mountain House (Elder McFall and Elder Coombs). We had a meeting at the church and then got Subway and went to our apartment. (FYI Dad the Subway card doesn't work. Something about US to Canada). It was really fun to get to hang out with them. We then helped Kerry move some of his stuff. He is moving to a house farther out of town. Can't remember why. We do a lot of service work out here. Anyways we went to the McLean's for dinner and it reminded me of Grandma's cooking. (Their Wheat salad=Her fruit cocktail salad).

Friday

Today was super fun because we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. Since Elder Marsh is the District leader we have exchanges with the zone leaders. We had weekly planning and had to break for lunch. We met Bro. Day and Garrett at Boston Pizza. Garrett is thinking about going on a mission and we met for lunch just to talk with him. Bro. Day is super nice and paid for all of us. He called it a business lunch. We then finished up planning and went on exchanges with the ZL's. I went up to Red Deer with Elder Vega. He was awesome and so much fun to get to know. There are a few wards in Red Deer so the ZL's meet up with dinner sometimes with other companionships. So we had breakfast for Dinner at the Tuckers with the Elders from Sylvan Lake. They were a great family and were very sarcastic.

Saturday

I slept over at there apartment because exchanges are 24 hours. So I was there for lunch with Elder Vega. He apparently doesn't read cooking directions very well. We were going to have a Calzone. He read 350 for 15 minutes. It was really 350 convection oven 400 for a conventional oven. So we were running a little late that day. He was supposed to have an interview with me at the end. They usually go to the church and do it in the chapel, but since we didn't have time, we had our interview in the car. I'm making some great memories. We met back up with our companions and took some great pictures. I'll probably save those for myself. We had to hurry and leave to go back and change so we could go to the Teskey's and do one of my favorite things in the whole world (saracasm). WEEDING. Ya we have actually been doing a lot of that lately. Well we also had dinner at the Woodruff's which was special. Saturday was Elder Marsh's birthday so they had cake and presents for him. I love how thoughtful this ward is.

Sunday

It was a pretty normal missionary Sunday but the cool thing was the tracting that we did that night. So after our dinner appointment, we went to drop by some less actives or formers. If they aren't home or are busy we do 3x3. Tract 3 doors on the right and 3 doors on the left. We kept getting shut out or they weren't home. Granted it was a holiday weekend so most people might have left...but someone HAD to be home. We decided to say a prayer about where we could go. I picked out 44th street in between 50 and 49 Ave. We started just flat out tracting the left side. The first house the guy was out smoking and abruptly sent us away. A few houses down there was a Lady from New Zealand. We tried to talk to her but she 'wasn't interested in the least'. We kept knocking on doors but nothing. the last house, we heard people in the back yard so we knew they were there. It was a Phillipean family that was setting up for a party. We talked to a 22 year-old guy that was very kind. He invited us in for some water. We were able to sit down and talk to him about his past and share some of our beliefs. He is strongly Catholic so I don't think it will really end up with much, but we gave him a mormon.org card. His aunt is LDS and we urged him to go to the website to find out more about our's and his aunt's beliefs. It was really a cool experience.

Monday

Well having a Canada Day Ward Party on P-day was great. It was supposed to be from 2-6 or 7 and well Mormon Standard time applies everywhere. We got there a little before 2 to help set up and no one was there. Probably around 2:30-3 some people started to show. We decided that since it was p-day we could not wear our pros (proselyting)(shirt and tie) clothes so we went and changed into shorts and had a great time.

Well I don't think I'll have much time to tell you much more about my week. But that will just mean I have more awesome stories to tell you about.

Well I've got to go. I love and miss you all.

Elder O'Neill