Londonderry Chapter 5

Now you are up to date. It sounds like winter has hit Canada: 

 

From Elder O'Neill:

So this week was pretty interesting. Things might be slow, but we are still doing all that we can and having fun doing it.

I might be a little sketchy on details. I usually have my planner open doing this but I left it Castledowns car.

Monday

Well It was a pretty crazy day. We finished emailing and then wandered around the mall waiting for the Claireview elders. We ended up just leaving and walking way down the road to Walmart. We shopped got what we needed and walked back. We dropped off the stuff and went to the church. Everyone else was coming there for sports. We went and played a little basketball. We then went to supper with the Ewings. We walked back to the church for the scripture study class and got a call from Bro Bonnell. He came and picked us up to go help with a blessing to a member from Fort Mac that came down to Edmonton hospital. She was pregnant and had severe complications. She ended up having the baby at like 24 weeks. Super early. We went and some friends had come earlier and given a blessing to her and her daughter. We were able to talk with her. she and the baby are doing great. She was able to get up and start moving around that day. She might be able to be discharged pretty soon, but the baby has to stay for a while longer. It was super amazing to hear her situation and how the Lord is really helping in every step along the way.

Tuesday

Today was a long cold day. I think the temperature was about -28C in the middle of the day. We ended up trying by a lot of LA and formers up north. Later on we stopped by Bro Guinard. We talked to him a little bit and asked if we could practice the lessons with him and his wife. He was fine with it, but was going to check with her. He is great. Didn't really have a lesson with him, but still a great visit. We had supper at the Higgins. We were able to have a pretty good lesson with Trevor. The basis was trying to see what we could do to help him progress. He has been an eternigator for a few years. We were able to see what he needs and how we can help him find his answer. He gave us a ride to our next place. We went to stop by the Nixon's. They are a LA family that we had stopped by before. We had called earlier, but they didn't answer. We went in and simply asked if there would be some other time that we could come by and get to know them a little better. Sister Nixon very abruptly denied us. "No were really not interested." Well that was a bummer. Luckily Trevor waited outside for us and gave us a ride home.

Wednesday

Today I really don't remember what went on. Like nothing. Must have been pretty boring day. :)

Thursday

Today was really a gong show. We had district meeting that morning. We left and went to the mall for District Lunch. I had my first Donair. It is really pretty good. They have some meat on big rotisseries. They slice it off and wrap it up in a pita with some veggies. We then wanted to grab some things and then went back to our apartment. We waited around there for a little while waiting for the other Elders. It was incredible. WE GOT OUR CAR BACK. We got the car and that's when the gong show started. We drove them up to there place to drop off some stuff. The were having a lesson with some investigators and the member they had fell through so we ended up going with them. We got out of the lesson kinda late. We were going to have supper with the Branco's but they had to go to a teachers training. So we drove the other elders to their supper. They went up and asked if we could join. The Christensen's were nice enough to let us. So we had supper with them. After that we were going to see Sister Hernandez again and we couldn't find anyone to go with. We drove them up to an appointment with another LA. We hung around in case it fell through and then they came with us. We had a great time at Sister Hernandez. We went over and made scripture boxes and decorated them with pictures from old ensigns and pamplets. Everything ended up working out. We just spent the whole day with them pretty much. It was fun.

Friday

We had weekly planning and then later on we went on exchanges with Castledowns 1. I knew it was going to be a crazy time. I was going on exchanges with Elder Shettell. I might have mentioned it before, but he is from AF. I went to High School with him. Ya now I'm going to be serving with him for a day. Insane. Everything went well. We had a lesson with a LA, Alex. We then had to stop at the church for a minute. We got a call from the other Castledowns elders. We went and picked them up and had A&W for supper. We went back to their place, ate and played poo. Sounds weird, but such a fun card game. We then went and stopped by some PM families. didn't get in with anyone.

Saturday

Well we got up and had studies. We went and picked up Castledowns 2 again and went to get bread. We were waiting at the Stake center. We waited in the car for a while and then went inside. Soon enough about there were about 12 elders waiting for free bread and treats. Yep that's what we do. We got everything and then went to exchange back. We came back to our apartment and dropped everything off. We then went and had mormon.org time. We were trying to figure out a supper for that night. We had called Sis Chemko and asked if she could feed us. She is LA, because she is on call 24/7 and often has to work. She said she would be able to feed us, but she pretty much lives alone. We called the other elders and finally got everything sorted out. We went down there for supper. It was really good visit. She lives in the basement. Her LA daughter lives upstairs with two non-member sons. We were able to talk to one of the sons who is potentially interested. (The other son is 4, not much conversation out of him). We then went and tried by some formers. We stopped by Dieter. We had had an appointment set up with him before, but he called and canceled. We stopped by and ended up having a really cool conversation with him. He is pretty anti-social and we were able to suggest some scriptures that he could read. We then went down and met with another former Robyn. He is a Figian man who is pretty religious. He goes to church at a number of churches, because he lives on 96 st where there are like 30 churches along that street. We can definitely go back sometime.

Sunday

Well we went to Ward Correlation and then we went to Ward Council. We were really able to discuss how the ward and the auxiliaries are able to help us. After church we drove the other Elders home and then went to supper at Brimacombes. After supper our lesson with Steve (LA) fell through. We stopped by Stebners. He had to have surgery on his hip. Younger family. His hip was formed right. The ball and socket weren't fitting like they should and it wasn't much of a ball. We went to see how everything was going. We then went and stopped by another LA Genie. We had stopped by before and she wasn't home. This time she was and we had a really good conversation with her. Not sure why she is really LA. We then had a lesson with Francis and Liz. It went really well. Still not sure if they are going to go to YSA or not. Liz seemed up to it, but Francis didn't. Craziness.

Well that was my week. We are able to do a lot more with a car. It's just so nice.

Love you all,

Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 4

Here goes number two: 

 

So we have finally come to a normality in this area. The only bad part is that the normality is called slow. oh well.

Tuesday

So last tuesday we didn't do much for the rest of the day. We went shopping and just hung out at our apartment. We had supper at the Dorrey's and then we went to Bro Duckworth's with Sister Dorrey to teach him about indexing. He can't get out much, because of his health, so he thought that indexing could be a way to have some purpose in life. The only thing was that he doesn't know his username or password or membership number to sign on. We'll be able to get it next Sunday.

Wednesday

Well today was pretty usual. We really didn't get much done in the morning. CD2 picked us up for lunch. We went over to the Northgate mall and got our flu shots. They are free if you live in Alberta. We then went to the Food Court. They dropped us back off at our apartment and we went around and tried to find some more LA's in the area. It's good for figuring out the area too. It was pretty good. It also doesn't help when we read the wrong address. Elder Phillips read one of the addresses and we wnet to find it. Well the street where it was supposed to be on dead ended at a lake (more like a small pond). We thought then it would be on the other side of the lake. We walked around the other side and couldn't find it. We rechecked the address. Just read it wrong. We were just right about where we should have been. Pretty big detour, but we had nothing but time. We were going to go over the Higgins, but I guess there was a conflict of schedule so we couldn't. We ended up going to a 7-eleven and using a coupon for a free pizza. It was good for supper. After that we made our trek down to Vernon's again. We got there and talked to him a little bit...outside of his window. He told us that his life was looking up again and that he was taking some time and drawing some pictures that he is going to sell to some people. We asked if we could come in. "Oh no I'm busy. I've got to finish these pictures". Well we told him to call us when he has some free time. It isn't worth it for us to go down every other day to be turned away at the window.

Thursday

Well we had district meeting and then district Lunch at the Londonderry Mall. We went back to our apartment and waited for Mission Hill 1. They are the French missionaires for the mission now. Elder Kalala and Elder Jennings. They picked us up and we went to a lesson with Queen and Beatrice. Well we went down there and Beatrice wasn't home. She is the one that speaks French. We had a lesson with Queen and towards the end Beatrice came home. We said a closing prayer and suddenly there was Beatrice. Elder Kalala went off in French with her. We are trying to pass them off to French, but looks so far like we are co-teaching. We came back and did Mormon.org time. I love the Mormon Messages. We then had to hurry and go to the Noberts' for supper. We were about 15 minutes late. Oh well. They are a great couple. They are both converts and are supper funny. We got a ride from Bro Nobert up to Sis Hernandez. We also had a great lesson with her. Got to know her and her family. Kinda a tough situation, but she is making the best of it. Next time we go over there we are going to make scripture boxes. It's going to be fun.

Friday

We had weekly planning and then tried by some more LA's. We were supposed to go to the Stewarts for supper, but Bro Stewart wasn't home, so we had to go pick it up. It was actually really good stew. We then went down and met with Joe. He is a RC. We had a good lesson with him and his dad who is LA stayed in the room for the lesson. It was amazing. We were teaching him about how to teach. Went really well. We rode the LRT back home. It was the first time in about a month that I've actually seen someone come around and check tickets. We also figured out what is stamped on the tickets. It is the time in a 24hour clock and the date. We couldn't ever tell before. Our tickets were like 10 minutes expired. We didn't really know and luckily they didn't really care. At least we had tickets.

Saturday

Well the snow was starting to come down Friday night, but continued pretty much all day today. We in total probably got about 2 feet of snow. We were actually told to stay inside that morning. It was a lot of confusion. The wind was really bad and the snow was coming down pretty hard. We were told to stay in and then a little while later we were told to not drive, but go out and work. While we were still inside we saw some women trying to get in their car. They locked the keys inside and were trying to get the door open. They were on top of the car and slipping everywhere. We went out and helped them get in their car. Well we really didn't have anything to do, so we spent about 5 hours shovelling sidewalks for some LA's and other people. We were able to talk to quite a few people. Being a missionary is really weird sometimes. We aren't allowed to take money from people. Well doing service all day and people are gracious to try and offer and you have to decline is just strange. We could have gotten about $50. They were persistent, but we are even more. We had supper at the Johnston's and then went and met with the Senuk's. We didn't know them very well. It ended up being a lot of interacting with the kids and trying to keep the kids focused that being able to get to know the parents. We'll try some other time.

Sunday

Today was really good. We had correlation in the morning. We went to stop by Alosious, but he was doing chores and really couldn't meet then. We said we would be back later that night. We went and grabbed a little bit of lunch and then went to Church. There were some really good lessons and talks given. I love being able to go and learn instead of teach. It was also pot-luck afterwards. It was great to be able to get to know some of the member a little better. The food was also really good. one of the Calvert girls is really funny. She has her favorite missionaries in the ward. Elder Ladd is #1, mostly because he is mexican, I'm #2, Elder Phillips is #3 and Elder Kinghorn is #4. Don't know why it is that way, but it is. We hung around and helped clean up. We then went to go to Alosious' again and he went out with his sister. We can never meet with him. Ugh. We then tried to meet with Aylissa (LA), but she wasn't home. We got a call from Bro Duckworth seeing if we had gotten his membership record number, which we did, and told him that we would be down in a little bit. We went and helped him figure out his account and then went back to met the Tanner's at our apartment. We usually drop off our laundry at their house, but there is no way that we could today with all of the snow that we got and us walking, so they came to pick it up.

Well that was my week. Pretty slow as usual, but that's missionary life.

Well love you all,

Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 3

Sorry folks I forgot to post the last couple. So you will be getting three posts today. Silly or crazy Missionary Mom!!! Now from Colin!

 

So I've realized something as I'm starting to write this email...not much is going on. We have had a lot of appointments that fall through and we spend most of our time walking around. Just keep that in mind as I tell you about my week.

Second, Yesterday was Remembrance day so that is partly why I wasn't able to email home and our P-day changed to Tuesday for this week for reasons I'll tell you later.

Monday

Well last Monday we had P-day. That was fun-ish. We ended up catching a ride to the stake center with Spanish. Well in the Stake center they have a closet with different sports stuff. Well half of the gym they were playing Basketball. The other half they were playing floor hockey. So I was playing floor hockey, because it is much more interesting than basketball. So we were playing and I was constantly going against Elder Simms. He is about 6' 4" and 320 lbs. Big dude. Well he is a competitive guy. Well went to go after the puck and totally smashed my thumb. It wasn't much fun, but I did ok. I didn't break it or anything, but there is still some bruising under the nail. Welcome to Hockey. Later on we went to the Calkins and had supper. Bro Calkins drove us to the church for a Scripture Study class that we are trying to start with our investigators and anyone else who might be interested. So far it's not a big turn out.

Tuesday

Well today was an interesting day. We went to Bro Duckworth's house, because he had called us and said he knew some people that were interested in his church. They wanted to change their life around and knew how happy he was with his church. So we went and started to teach them. Dwayne and Gailene. They are a really cool couple. They have had a really rough past but really want to change and get their life in order. We haven't been able to talk with them much, but they are also moving into Castledowns area so we won't be teaching them for much longer. We didn't do much the rest of the day. Stopped by LA's. We had a meeting with Bishop Greep that night and it was really an eye opener. Things aren't going as well as we had thought.

Wednesday

Well today we had ZTM. It was really different, because we see our whole zone pretty frequently. Our whole zone is Castledowns 1&2, Londonderry 1&2, Claireview 1&2, St. Paul, and Ft. McMurray 1&2. Well we usually video conference Ft Mac into ZTM, but before I got here someone broke in and stole the tv. so they weren't there. Everyone else was and the only people that I didn't know already were St. Paul. It is also very different than from RD. There are no sisters in our zone. We are the only zone in the mission without sisters. It is really pretty strange. Well at least to me. We didn't do much the rest of the night. We stopped by some members that we didn't know very well and that was about it.

Thursday

Well today the only appointment we had was supper with the Anderson's. We did a lot of street contacting, LA's, and tracting. A lot of walking. We were supposed to have a lesson with Jeff, but they cancelled.

Friday

Well today was the really bummer day. We had 5 lessons planned and didn't get a single one. We were supposed to meet with Dwayne and Gailene this morning, but he was called into work. So that didn't happen. We were going to have a lesson with Queen. She is one of our investigators and I have never met her. We were going to have a lesson with the French missionaries with her. Her mom Beatrice is also interested, but only understands a little English. We thought it would be good for the French missionaries to teach them. Well 30 minutes before She called and had to cancel. We went to supper at the Tanner's and we had prepared a lesson, but the other missionaries shared a lesson with them. It was in their area, but still. We got out of supper way late so we had to cancel our lesson with Vernon. We went to go to Trevor's and they weren't home. Didn't really get much accomplished.

Saturday

We again didn't do much. We were supposed to have a lesson with Shanon at 12. Bro Skinner was going to come with us. He lives in an apartment complex right behind her. Shanon wasn't home so Bro. Skinner asked if we would like to come over for some Hot Chocolate. We had biked down and it was snowing. We went over and had some Hot Chocolate. They also offered us Lunch. Did I tell you perogies are a big thing in Canada. Well we went back home and then tried more LA's. It was a long cold day. We also tried by Vernon. We got there and he had said he was reading again which was good, but was busy so we couldn't teach him. Life is life.

Sunday

Well we had correlation. After that the ZL's came over to our apartment, since we are pretty close to the church. We had lunch and then went back for church. It was really good. After church we went home and the went to the McLean's for dinner. Holy Cow. Words can not describe. Their kids were so hyper active. Wow. We then went to have a lesson with Francis. The YSA sisters wanted to come with since Francis is YSA. Well he wasn't home, but his two younger sisters left us come in. They had met with missionaries before they had moved and were still interested.
We introduce the BOM again and read the introduction. We were able to have 2 new investigators from it.

Monday

Well we didn't have P-day today so we had to have a normal day. Pretty much we went and met with Bro Duckworth to tell him about church, We tried by LA and found some active members we don't know very well, and then went to supper. We went to the Theissens. It was super fun. Supper wasn't quite ready, but while we waited he gave us a passion fruit. They are so weird to eat. It is like a pomegranate. You bite into it and then don't eat the outside. Inside is a mess of green goo with the seeds. You just suck it out and that is the passion fruit. It was really good. After we shared our message we sang some Christmas songs. It was super fun. We then went to the Scripture study class.

Tuesday
So for this week it was p-day today. Now I'll finally tell you it was moved to Tuesday because it was....TEMPLE P-DAY!!! We got to go to the temple this morning. It was super cool. It was also really cool getting there. Our car is still in the shop (making us mad) so since neither set had a car we got a ride from President and Sister Manion. They are so wonderful. It was cool to be able to spend the morning with them. Temple P-day is so great.

Well that was my week. Nothing really happened. Missionary life gets that way. I'll doing fine though. Walking everywhere really isn't fun, but it's what we have to do. We meet a lot of crazy people so it makes it interesting.

Love ya,
Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 2

Hey there :)

So let me start off by saying that I'm feeling much better. My legs are getting used to biking and walking around everywhere. I learned also how much just raising the bike seat can help. I guess I had it way too low for me and that was where most of the pain was coming from. So let me tell you about my week.

Monday

Well Monday was P-day. After we were done emailing we looked around in the mall with some of the missionaries in Claireview 2. They wanted to look for some things. I ended up finding a bag that can be either an approved sidebag or it can be a backpack which is much easier on a bike. I used up some of my leftover US cash. We then went and shopped around. We went to Walmart to get some groceries, but it was very little. We didn't have much room on our bikes. We then went and played a little basketball at the church. It wasn't much of a game. Clairview is on bikes as well and 3/4 of us were too sore to do much. We went to supper at the Johnstons. They are a cool family. They used to live in PG. probably right around where Patrick and Steph used to live just south of the Hospital. They were pretty fun. Our other appointment fell through.

Tuesday

Tuesday is when I raised the bike seat and things were going much better. We went to meet with a LA girl that we were finally able to set up an appointment with. We got there had a member meet us and she wasn't there. Kinda crappy. We then went and helped another LA Bro Duckworth. We went down to the southern part of our area and then went tracting. There wasn't much success. We met with Shanon. It was a pretty scattered lesson. Not much desire there. We then came back and had supper. We waited around for a while because we were supposed to go on exchanges with Castledowns 1, but they were running late and it wasn't going to work out. So we did a lot of stop-bys.

Wednesday

We went and helped this guy Dave rake leaves. It is a weekly service thing. We help him rake his and his neighbors leaves. It is quite a project really. There are tall elm trees all down the street with a lot of leaves. There were about 8 of us helping him. (us, Londonderry 1, Kingsway 2, and Spanish North). He then took us to Tim Hortons for Hot Chocolate and Doughnuts. Later we had supper at the Fixsens. They are a nice couple. She is really involved with helping a lot of LA.

Thursday

Well we had district Meeting and then we went to the Londonderry Mall for lunch. Most of us don't have a car so it is really close to the church and really close to our apartment which is nice. Oh and Yes Mom. Halloween exists in Canada. It was fun to see everyone dress up and walking through the mall. Little kids are the best. We then went and did some shopping. We need to get some stuff to fix the bikes up. We found a bike repair place and finally got in. We also bought some tools and helmets that we hadn't gotten yet. We later went to the Dorey's for supper. I know I didn't really say much about last week, but we were there last Thursday too. They have us over for dinner along with their LA daugther and her Fiance' Jeff. Jeff really wants to learn more about our church. He said "I'm marrying into the family, and this is such a big part that I want to learn more." He was very up front with us that he doesn't want to join, just learn more about what the family believes. It's going to be slow, but good. We were supposed to be in our apartment by 6 unless we had a specific appointment. Well we did so we finally got in about 8:00. We ended up playing UNO for a little while.

Friday

Well we had weekly planning and then we waited around for Castledowns 1 for exchanges. I went to Castledowns with Elder Cook. He was cool. He is from Bear Lake. We were with the other Castledowns Elders for quite a while too. We went and raked one families leaves, they weren't home so we did our best. We then went to go rake this older ladies leaves and we helped this lady that was raking the neighbors leaves. We helped her out a lot. We went to leave and she tried to give us 20 bucks. She was pretty persistent and tried to give it to each one of us. We were just more persistent in refusing. We then went back to their apartment and changed. We then went to supper with this member. He was strange. It was kinda a make your own pita with the random stuff that he had cooked. It was pretty good, but interesting. Not much else exciting happened that night.

Saturday

Well in the morning the bread truck came. Some members pick up the old bread that the safeway is going to throughout. Nothing is wrong, just been on the shelf. So the missionaries and some other people get free bread. We loaded up the car with what we needed and some for LA. We then went and rode the bus to Alex's. It was cool to visit him. He shares a message with us and we share a message with him. We then did a little tracting while we waited for the bus. We then went back had lunch and then CD2 picked us up to take us back to LD. We got back and we went down to try some people. We were pretty much riding around in the storm. It was little ice crystals coming down. Not too much fun. but we made it through.

Sunday

Well We had corelation in the morning and then we went to walk back to apartment. We were almost there and Elder Phillips left the keys in his coat at the church. We just kept going to Alyssa and then just walked back to the church. We had church. We then went to the Laubman's for supper. We went to Bro Duckworth to catch him up on church and then went to meet with another investigator Francis. He is super solid. It was a really good night.

Well that was my week.

Things are going much better. Still no car and there is now snow. Not the best, but I can make do.

Love ya

Elder O'Neill