Londonderry Chapter 9

Merry Christmas!!!

Holy cow this past week has been crazy. A lot of things to do. All in anticipation for Christmas.

Monday

Well It was a pretty regular pday. The ZL's were going on exchanges right after pday so it was a little hectic. We ended up picking up some pizza's from Bro Palmer, changing and then going to the church for the weekly lesson with Sister Stamp. It was pretty cool on the way to Bro Palmer. Some one had lost control of their car and ran into the snow bank by a right turn lane. We went parked and went to help him. We were all in shorts and Elder Ladd was in sandals. We were coming back from Basketball. We were able to help push them out and met the two guys at a coffee place for a quick hot chocolate. They were super nice and we shared a mormon.org card with them. Pretty great.

Tuesday

Well Tuesday morning we went and helped out at the Food Bank. I don't really remember what we did that afternoon, but we went over to the Higgins for supper. We were able to have a good time with them again. It is probably the last time that we will see them until after Christmas, for a lesson at least. That pretty much was our day. We also got picked up from St. Paul. They were staying at our apartment for Christmas Conference.

Wednesday

Today was a really good day. We started off the day with Christmas Conference. It was really amazing. We had a training/ council with President Manion about a successful missionary and QGC's. It was really inspiring. We then had lunch provided by the Ed North Stake Relief Society. We then had the talent show. It was really good. There was a lot of talent. Their was a special musical number of Silent Night that Sister Manion organized. It started with two sisters singing in some polynesian language and then a verse sung by a small choir in German and then joined by everyone else in English. It was a special song to President Manion since he served his mission in Germany. Oh course I joined in. Who knew that after taking two years of German in High School would actually help. :) After the Talent show they passed out the letters. Thank you so much for your letters. It was really special. I was supposed to end at about 3:30, but as does everything with missionaries, it went long. We didn't end up leaving until about 4:30. We had supper with the Conrad's. Had a QGC on the bus ride there. Went to Bro Duckworth's after that and then rode the bus home. Had another QGC back home. Really amazing day.

Thursday

Well we did mormon.org in the morning. I did a little bit of family history again. I can know say that it was my last time until I get home. We had some questions and asked President about it and he said that "Our work is for the living. Unless it is to help an investigator or LA, you probably shouldn't do it." It was so great. Oh well. That just means I'll have a lot of work to do when I get home. We then got a lot of things organized and then headed up on the bus to the Fixsen's. Had a good time there. Bro Theissen picked us up to go to Sis Hernandez and it didn't work out so we helped him with a secret Santa. Pretty fun. He then dropped us off at the church. The CD1 elders needed to get in and get somethings, but were going to have a lesson there, so we stayed. It was with a new investigator Cody. He had called them the night before and had a lesson with them that day with the ZL's. He is super solid, the only hang up is going to be where he is going to be and where he is going to be baptized. He works in Edmonton, but goes to Calgary for family quite often. His girlfriend, who is LDS, Lives in Lethbridge. Crazy situation, but he will get baptized.

Friday

Well Our day was a little scattered. We had a lesson with Anette in the morning. It went pretty well. She gets distracted a lot. We then came back and had weekly planning. We left and went to stop by Dieter. He wasn't home. We caught a bus and went to supper at Ewing's. After that we had another lesson with Cody with the ZL's. Man I can't wait to be able to meet with him again after the holidays.

Saturday

Well today was a lot of waiting for nothing. We went and helped Bro Stelfox move some material from his basement to his garage. He had these boards down in his basement and needed to move them to finish the renovations. Super great guy. We went back and changed and then went to the Graus Baptism. It was a part-member family. The 8 year old son was getting baptized. We went there to support. We then came back stopped by Dieter again. Sister Hunt called and said her husband got stuck and she was going to go wait with him until the tow trunk came, so we weren't able to go over for supper, but she would drop something off for us. So we had to hurry back to our apartment. Well she didn't get there for a while. Then we had supper. We then were going to caroling as a district. Well teh ZL's got caught up and so us and CD1  played some basketball waiting for them. Nothing happed so we just went home. A lot of nothing.

Sunday

Well today was pretty busy. We had coordination first thing. We then had Ward Council. That was a little bit of a problem. They other elders had to leave and we really didn't have much to present to the Ward council. A bit of a gong show. We had brought some lunch and heated it up in the kitchen. We then had church. We taught GP and it went really well. Wasn't exactly how we planned, but got a good discussion going in the class. We then went to change to prepare for later in the day and were called by Sis Stebner if we could give her husband the sacrament. We ran up and did that and dropped the other guys off to change. we changed and picked them back up. We all had supper with Calkins and Massey's. We then went caroling to some of their neighbors with them. It was a lot of fun. We then stopped by the Palmers. That concluded the night.

Monday

So Today has been pretty eventful. We didn't get a chance to email until now. We went shopping and did the usual. We then went to the office to pick up all of the packages. There were a lot and most of them were for me. Thank you. I can't wait to open them on Christmas. We then dropped off all of our stuff at our apartment and changed to go sledding. Higgins took us sledding. It was a ton of fun. The other elders got me good. It was pretty quick into it when I found that I forgot to zip up my coat pocket and lost the keys. I was freaking out. It had our apartment keys, the car key, the church key all on it and I lost it. I was freaking out and tried to look for them. I couldn't find them anywhere. The others were getting on my case, but just kept saying "lets keep sledding and we'll look later. We walked over to another hill which was much better. Once we were done Higgins left and we walked back over to search for the keys. We had gone over by the river to do some business and that is where I thought I had lost them. Elder Ladd had the idea to go to where I thought they might be and we all kneel down to say a prayer. We kneel and say a prayer and open my eyes and the keys were right in front of me. The other Elders had found them quite a while before and were joking with me the whole time. They even got Sister Higgins in on it. It was one of those pranks that I had had too much fun and it was way to well planned out that I really couldn't be mad. It was really well played out.

Well that was my week. Can't wait to talk to you on Wednesday. I'll email you about the details.

Merry Christmas,

Elder O'Neill