Fort Mac Chapter 5

Well this week was interesting for sure. Lots of craziness. It was a bit of a struggle as well. Things just didn't really work out at all. I guess that's how life goes at times. Can't always be sunshine and perfection. Speaking of sunshine though, snow is in....:P Hopefully it doesn't stay, but you never know. GO CANADA...not :) Monday Well we had Pday. It was actually pretty crappy. Things just kept falling apart for me. I tried to change the format of some of my music so it would play in the car and it didn't work. Elder Barber printed out pics without a problem. I went to print mine, no one was around to put in the code. Then when they were printed, they all left before I could pay. Really?! I was having a bad day. We went tracting at Gregoire Lake Estates and ran into a really cool guy. He opened the door and was excited about the Book of Mormon in my hand. It was really cool. We then had supper with Spirig's. We then went and stopped by the Kidd's. We are getting serious about Bro Kidd stopping smoking. Tuesday We tried by potentials and formers downtown for a while. Then we had lunch. We went to have a lesson with Grandma Jean, but Mendoza didn't show up, so we rescheduled. We then went on exchanges. I was with Elder Kriesel. That was interesting. We did a lot of potentials and tracting. We had supper at Christine's, then went to LA Olsen. We had a really good time there. Really got to know them. It was fun. That night we also got picked up by the other Elders and got to see the northern lights. IT WAS AMAZING. We really didn't see too much. The pictures I got are actually better than what we saw. Wednesday well we ended up being on exchanges for an extra 4 hours. The other elders weren't ready to exchange on time and then we were supposed to have a lesson with and investigator that moved into their area, so they stayed on exchanges until after the lesson so they could do a pass-over lesson. We then had supper at Olsen's (active). It was a lot of fun. We also had the other Elder's phone. They called us from their supper and we told them where to meet us. Well our lesson with Davis' fell through. We had to wait around until they came to get their phone. We then tried some potentials. Thursday We had District Meeting. We played a little dodgeball for an activity and then went to Subway for lunch. We then tried by a potential we had a lesson with, but they weren't home. We then went changed and travelled to Anzac. We went and helped Bro Spirig with their salon. I edged the drywall so they can start painting soon. We then had supper with Kidd's. We then drove back and helped Simpson's move. Their daughter is moving back in with them. We helped them out and then talked with them for a bit. They ordered pizza and we stayed for that. I wasn't too hungry, but can't deny it. Friday We had weekly planning, lunch, mormon.org time and then we went to see Bud. We then went and tried some potentials in Gregoire. Haven't been out there till then. We then went and helped set up for the Ward Halloween party. When it was supposed to start very few people were there. Very few people were there period in my opinion. It was still good. We then left after a little while and went to stop by some people. Saturday We went and helped Roys move some couches around. We did it quicker than they thought so there wasn't much for us to do. We talked with them for a bit. We then went and had lunch. We changed and went to Dwayne. He is cool. He was a potential and we set up a time to met with him. We had a pretty good lesson. Wasn't the most focused. We then went to Jeff and they had to cancel. We then went to Al. Well Al is a very closed. He let us in and bashed with us. It was  a bit frustrating. We then tried some other potentials. We had supper at Macpherson's. It was pretty cool. We then tried more potentials. Sunday We had Ward Council. We didn't get much of a chance to speak. We then had Church. I guess it was the Primary Program everywhere. It was cute to watch the little kids. We had Simpson's and Roy's at church. It was great. We then had lunch. We tried by some potentials, then had coordination. This ward as a plan for everything. It's amazing. We then went to supper with Galenzoski's. That was funny and weird at the same time. We then tried more potentials. Well that was my week. I know this week is going to be a lot better. I don't know how it could really get any worse. :) It wasn't a terrible week, just a lot of lows. This week is going to have a lot of highs. I know it will. :) Love,  Elder Colin O'Neill

Fort Mac Chapter 4

Oct 20 (6 days ago) to Family, Garrett, me, My, Regan Wow it seems like it has been forever since I last emailed. This week has been super long and tiring, but full of wonderful miracles. Tuesday Well we had an awesome lesson with Nahia with Sis Fitzner and Sis Lokhorst. It went super well. It was a bit short, but it was powerful. We then helped a family move some stuff and then had lunch. We then emailed. We had a few potentials that we tried by and tracted. We then had supper at our apartment and waited for the ZL's. After they came we went on splits with them. Elder Stewart and I went to see a potential that said we could come over later. We came and she was busy and her husband sent us away. Not too solid. We then tracted for a bit. We ended up getting in a little bash with a BornAgain. It was interesting. We then met at Fitzner's and went with Bro Lockhorst to see a few people. We met with the LA Olsen's. It was a very interesting lesson. I learned a lot more about them than I knew before. We then went to Swainson's and extended a challenge to them. It was a great night. Wednesday Well we started by helping at Heritage Park. We once again took out the garbage and helped clean up. We then ended up by helping catalog some old ship manuals. We then had lunch. We then did Mormon.org time and then went to Bud. We are trying to help him regain a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but he tries to argue with us. We then tried some potentials and tracted. We had supper with Beck's and Sister Beech. It was pretty good. We then tried some other's. We ended up at Jackson's that night. They are a young couple who just had a baby. They are pretty cool. Thursday Well we had ZTM. It was definitely more relaxed than any of the other ZTM's I've been to. It was good. We learned a lot of things. We then had to leave pretty quickly to get to our lesson with Tiffany. We went with Sis O'Brey and Sis Beck. It was a pretty good lesson. Something from it seemed off. We realized that it was because we haven't really done a lesson like that for a while. It was when we go through 1 Nephi 1 with them. I haven't done it in a while and Elder Barber hasn't ever done it much. It was rough. A lot of improvement. Tiffany wants to get her husband involved. It's awesome. We then went back changed and went out to Kidd's. We helped them out a bit and then we had supper. We had to leave pretty quick to get back to Diggles. That was an awesome lesson. The Diggles know everything. It was the start of the new member lessons and they already know it so well. Friday Well we had Weekly Planning. We then tried Georgina and was able to talk with her for a bit. She is just so crazy busy trying to sell her house it's hard to meet with her. We then tried some other potentials. We had supper with the Diggles. It was so much fun. We then tried some other people. We ended at Simpsons. We were acutally able to catch bro Simpson at home. They are hilarious. It was so much fun. Just need to get them to church. Saturday Well we helped collect food at the Food Bank for the Food Drive. We brought in almost 7,000 pounds of food. It was a lot. We then had lunch and went to Jackson's to help with their fence. We helped mix concrete to make the footings for the fence posts. That was a lot of work. We then tried potentials and tracted the rest of the night. Sunday Well we had Ward Council. The Stake President came up too. He didn't have any comments at the end. This ward knows what's going on. We then had church. It was pretty great. After Church was amazing. The Diggle's received the Priesthood. :) It was so amazing. We then had lunch and tried potentials. We had coordination and then supper with Fitzner's. We tried by the Davis Family and He was outside. We ended up having a lesson with him out there with his son. It was great. We then tried other potentials and tracted for the night. It was a super eventful week. It seemed like it was soo long too. Crazy. :) Oh well. That's life. :D Love,  Elder Colin O'Neill P.S. from MOM----Sorry ya'll I have been out of town and had no internet. So these didn't get forwarded. Until now. New one coming tomorrow, also! Love to all! Sheila

Fort Mac Chapter 3

Wow this last week was crazy. Quite a Gong Show. :) It was still pretty fun.

Monday
We did laundry at Fitzer's and then we emailed. We went shopping and printed out some pics. We had to go pic up some stuff from the Dry cleaners. That was an adventure. Well they have been doing some construction on the bridges from Downtown to Thickwood and Timberlea. Well the car in front of me slammed on his brakes and so did I so I would hit him. Well the car behind me wasn't as quick. She was going to hit us so she swerved into the other lane. Well in doing so she hit out bumper. She got into that lane and then merged back over and took off. Hit and Run. It was interesting. We couldn't do anything. Well luckily it just scratched the paint a little. Still had to call Elder Pratt about it. That was an interesting call. We went on with our day. Looked around the mall and had supper. We went to Jackie's but she forgot we were coming. Well we decided to go then to the RCMP station to report it. The guy at the counter really didn't know what to say to me. We then drove to Tiffany. We were a bit early so we tracted. We got in and talked with this Indian couple. They were the most open Hindu's ever. They were cool to teach. We then went to Tiffany about an hour late, but she still let us in. Her husband isn't really interested, but he just went into the kitchen. It was a really good lesson. We weren't really getting much response from her, so we taught a really short and simple lesson 1. It was one of the greatest lessons ever. It was amazing. It was a really good day over all. :)

Tuesday
We did some potentials and then we had a lesson with Nahia. We took Mendoza with us. It went super well. She is a student and the college and is studying philosophy of religion. She has taken her desire to know the truth to an extreme. It is sweet. She is so open. It was great lesson. We then had lunch. Mendoza took us to Fatburger. :) We then went to our apartment and then we went on exchanges. :) I was with Elder Hentunen. :D. That was fun. We did a lot and got a lot of work done. We did a lot of potentials and tracting, but time flew by.

Wednesday

Well we were supposed to have a lesson, but she wasn't home. We had out interview and then had lunch. We then went and met with Russell. He was a former, who in the past really tried to ignore the missionaries. He is more open this time. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was amazing. Such a good lesson. We then went and exchanged back. We went and saw Bud and Dan. We then had supper with Sherry Kidd. It was all for of us for numbers. Well the other elders tried to leave right before the lesson. They were trying to walk out as we were all strongly hinting they couldn't. We then went to the Simpsons and met with the boys and their sister.

Thursday

We had District Meeting and lunch at Wendy's. We mostly did some finding. We went and were going to the Kidds to help  them out and have supper. We ended up leaving late, since all four of us were going and the other elders were a bit late. We drove out there and had a fun time out there. We helped haul some wood in and then worked on the wolf trap with Bro Kidd. We had supper with them. We were going to go to Anzac and tract, but that didn't work out.

Friday

We had weekly planning. We got a lot organized so it took a while. We tried by people and tracted. We had supper and that night we went to the Doonanco's. It was a little awkward. While we were there their daughter confessed to ruining a blanket while there were visiting some old missionaries about 10 years ago. Well they thought it was their other daughter. Sis Doonanco got pretty upset and left the room. Awkward for us.

Saturday

We mostly did some potentials and tracting in the morning. We had lunch and then went to LA Olsen's. We shared a message about the Book of Mormon that really got them thinking. It was incredible. We then went and visited with Bud and Dan. We were there for a bit and were about to leave when Bud asked us to stay for a bit longer. We told him we could stay if we read some scriptures. Well we read some and had a great conversation. We were trying to leave when Bro Fitzner came in. We finally said a prayer and left. It was a long visit. We then tracted a bit. We had supper at Lokhorst's. It was fun. We then went to Roy's. It is so much fun over there.

Sunday

We had Ward Council. It was ok. We then had church. The Roys came. It was awesome. We were actually in the lessons too. :) We had lunch and then tracted. We had coordination. We then had supper with Stewarts and Lemays and the Diggle kids. Bro and Sis Diggle are out on site. It was great. So much fun. :) We then went and met with the Swainsons. Such a spiritual conversation. It was amazing.

Monday

Well we did our shopping and did what we needed to and then went to Fitzner's. We did laundry as we played shuffleboard and croquet. We also had Canadian Thanksgiving. Well we weren't supposed to go tracting and we didn't know what else to do, so we stayed there for FHE and played some games. It was a great Thanksgiving.

Well that was my week. It was Crazy, but a lot of fun. I'm loving it up here. This week is starting to be just as crazy. If we can keep our heads on straight it will be a miracle. :)

Elder Colin O'Neill

Fort Mac Chapter 2

Wow. That's all I can really say right now. It seems like it has been forever since I last emailed. This week was so amazing. It was incredible. So many things going on. I'll try and share what we did. It may not seem like a lot, but when you put your full heart into the work, you get work done. :)

Monday

It was p-day. We emailed then went shopping. Didn't do a whole lot. We went to Fitzner's to do laundry and then went back and had supper. We tried by potentials and tracted the rest of the night. 

Tuesday

We tried Potentials and tracted. Had lunch. We then tried formers and potentials and tracted. We had supper. Then we picked up a member who used to be a missionary here. Mendoza. We picked him up and then we went to have a lesson with Fred, Raj and Shuma, but no one was there. It was a bummer. We went and helped Bro Soares with writing a letter for Sunday School. English help. Strange. We then went and talked with the Olsen's for a bit. 

Wednesday

We were going to do service at Heritage Park, and they needed help at the Marine Park. It was cool to see it. It is a Marine Museum. They have a couple of boats that you can walk around. We were there to help them close down for the season. Our job was to take out the garbage. The outside one :P. Well it's been raining a lot up here so all of the trash cans were full of water. It was very pleasant. It was still cool. We then had lunch. We were supposed to go to some potential to teach them and the member called about 5 minutes before and cancelled so we had to cancel our lessons and move them. Frustrating. We did mormon.org time. We then tried some Formers. Mendoza took us out to Montana's for all you can eat ribs. Two Beef ribs and I was done. It was so good, but way to much meat. :P We then just tried by more people. 

Thursday

We had District Meeting. It was pretty fun. Elder Hentunen came up with a board game based on our planner. Every space there was something to do and to practice. It was cool, because we practiced different situations and played different roles. We then went to Mucho Burrito for lunch. We met with Bud and Dan. We then went out to the Kidd's. They live by Anzac about 30 min southish of Fort Mac. We had supper with them and then (since we didn't have service clothes) we watched Bro Kidd build up his wolf trap. Ya he is making a wolf trap. :) We then went into Anzac and met with the Spirig's. They are awesome. We told them that we were going to try tracting in Anzac and Sis Spirig drew us a map of where there were some houses. It was very helpful, since we knew nothing about the lay out of Anzac. We tracted this one cul-de-sac. We actually found a lot of success. It was awesome. We then had some fun driving back. I turned the wrong way out of Anzac and started driving. After about 15 minutes when we passed an oil camp we realized we were going the wrong way. We turned around and made it back to Fort Mac. We were almost out of gas as well. We should have filled up earlier, but didn't. Not doing that again. :)

Friday

We had Weekly planning. We decided to divide up the area into sections, so we can focus our finding on one section at a time. We had lunch. We tried by a lot of people. We had supper with Diggles at Stewarts. That is pretty common to have them both. It was fun. We then tried some other people. We went and met with the Simpson boys that night. 

Saturday

General Conference. We started and went to Stewarts for breakfast with them and the Diggle's. Before conference started. We went with Bro Stewart so he could switch with Bro Diggle at Canadian Tire selling raffle tickets with his girls for a fundraiser, so that Bro Diggle could watch conference. Their First One. We drove back to Stewarts with Bro Diggle and watched the first session. We did miss the first part. In between sessions we went and saw Bud and Dan to make sure they could watch conference. We then watched the second session at the church. After that we ran home to grab a bit to eat and then were supposed to meet Audrey at the Church. Well she nor anyone we asked to come showed up. We watched Priesthood and then went to A&W with the ward. It was fun. 

Sunday

Well we watched the morning session at the church. We then had lunch and tracted a bit until the afternoon. Watched that at the church as well. We went back and had supper. We then went and tried potentials and tracted. We taught two people last night. neither of them are going to go anywhere though. one was an Indian man, who didn't really understand what we were teaching. Language. The second was a lady who was struggling to understand why there has to be something added to the Bible. We know that if we would have said the right thing, the Spirit could have touched her heart, but we didn't know exactly what it was. She started to be more closed off as well. 

Overall it was a really good week. We have a lot of appointments for this upcoming week that hopefully will happen and go well. I'm enjoying my time up here . It is getting cold, but the Spirit is warm. :)

Love, Elder Colin O'Neill