Innisfail Chapter 17

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Today at 2:07 PM

Happy Thanksgiving!!! (yesterday)

Well I'll get back to that later. This week has been just INSANE. This past week has been quite a roller coaster. So much happened. This was the most exciting week of my mission so far. Don't want it to ever be more. This isn't going to be a short email.

Monday

Well I told you about playing pool. It's very fun. I'm a righty but play pool and drive lefty. It's fun. Well later on we went and played basketball with some of the youth. We moved tuesday night basketball to monday afternoon so we don't have to play in pros. Well then we went and had dinner with the Propps. Bro Propp isn't a member and so our lesson was teaching him about the Book of Mormon. We might start teaching him soon.

Tuesday

Well we started by helping Mary drain her water barrel. Well it was about 5 C with a pretty strong wind. We had to take a bucket and fill it and dump it in the garden or on the dry spots on her lawn. It wasn't the warmest activity in my life. Well the rest of the day was quite boring. We had supper with the Ellis'. Later that night we went with Bro Ellis to go look at Lori's house. She is wanting to put in a wood burning stove and Bro Ellis has taken it upon him to oversee the job. At least he knows what he is doing. We went over to look at the situation and figure out what needs to be done.

Wednesday

Well we had district meeting today. We had district lunch afterwards and we made egg mcmuffins. It was really pretty good. We then went on exchanges. Well Elder T can't drive so I had to drive out to Rocky. It seems like a longer drive out to Rocky that the time I drove up to Logan even though it's only like an hour. Well we went out there and meet with some people. We ended up having supper with the Michele's. I actually already knew them. Sister Michele is the oldest Motley girl from my ward. They were living with her family over the summer and I got to know them then. Well I guess they moved out to Rocky about 3 weeks ago. It was fun to see them, because Bro Michele is super super sarcastic. I think I'm the only one who thinks he is even slightly funny. We then went to go to another member lesson. Well it was out on a range road. Well I'm driving and don't really know where I'm going. We are looking for 8-4A. Well all that I'm seeing is 38-5 38-4 38-3A. Well I thought maybe whoever wrote it down wrote it wrong so I'm trying to find 38-4A. Well it apparently doesn't exist. I guess the range roads don't make too much since and if you keep going the road curves and then there is 8-A. A little weird.

Thursday

Well we tried by some potentials and formers and went tracting a little and then had lunch and drove back to Innisfail. Well we had supper with the O'Connell's. We took some advice that Sister Manion gave us in the last mission newsletter we got. We had called them a few days before and asked them to invite a non-member friend over for supper. It worked. They invited Bro O'Connell's sister and we had a good talk with her. We still haven't quite figured it out, but she lives in RD so we might start teaching her at the O'Connell's or RD1 is going to start teaching her. It was way cool that it actually worked out. Well then we went and had a lesson over at the Herbert's with Lori. The Wolfes were busy and we decided to call the Christensen's since they are ward missionaries. We had a great lesson with her. We started teaching her the Plan of Salvation. We were teaching her out of the scriptures like she has wanted. We really broke through and we could tell that she was definitely feeling the Spirit and was starting to understand out message. At the end of the lesson we asked Lori if she would say the closing prayer. SHE DID!!! It was the first time that she had prayed out loud in front of us. It was amazing. I was at a loss for words.

Friday

Well today we had weekly planning. Not much else exciting happened. We had supper on our own. Kind of a boring day overall.

Saturday

Well today we did a lot of service. We started by helping Sister Kinder rake up some leaves and help her pick up her yard for the winter. We then went up and helped Lori. We were going to go with Bro Ellis to lay some tile before trying to install the stove, but Bro Ellis wasn't going to be able to make it. Well we helped her clean out her garage instead. She had moved some things so that we could get to the stove and pull it out. We helped get down all of the pipes that were necessary. She then wanted our help moving this big deep freeze. Well we had to help clear everything out of the garage so we could move it out. Well that thing was just toxic. It had food in it from 3 years ago and the best part was that it has been unplugged for just as long. Words can't even describe the horrific smell that was smelt. We didn't open the lid and we were gagging on the stench. We finally got it outside, but needed to move it over just a little more. Elder Sorensen had a dolly on the back trying to pull it back a little bit. Meanwhile I was on the front going to push it back. Well I didn't push low enough on front. I went to push and I pushed the door open. In about half a second I had realized what happened let go and started to walk away. I'm glad that I held my breath for a split moment. The toxic stench could be smelt to a gagging level within about 20 feet of the thing. It took a moment before we could resume. It was horrible. Well we went back and changed and tried by some potentials. Well not long after Bro Day called us and asked us to come help one of the Ellingson's move. They were moving out to her non-member parents house. So we went back and changed again and went to go help. We finally got back, and had supper on our own again. It was really good Elder Sorensen made a pork roast in his crock-pot. It was delicious.

Sunday
Well we met with the Sister's early that morning. We are going to try and meet once a week to try and coordinate a little better in case we find someone the others could teach and talk about lessons with member that we might both see. We then had church and we had to teach GP again. The lesson was rough at the start, but definitely got better. We went tracting a little before supper. Well it was pretty fun. Monday (yesterday) was Canadian Thanksgiving. Well a lot of people got together as a family Sunday for it instead. Well we were able to talk to one guy and actually were able to have some what of a lesson with him on his porch. He finally came to that he had worked for so long to free his mind from any type of bias and that his mind was soo open that he wouldn't take a Book of Mormon, because it would just close his mind to much. The logic that some people have utterly astounds me. Another lady we talked to saw us coming and ran to the door because her son was sleeping. She then goes on to chew us out about how this is a horrible time to be knocking on doors, and people are going to be busy with their family. I just love how frustrated and upset she was that she didn't know what to say. "This is a horrible time to be doing this. Just go home, just go...do....something" as she is waving her hands and shuts the door. We had a laugh about that one. In reality it is a perfect time to go tracting. Families are going to be home and together. We also held back that Thanksgiving is tomorrow not today. Tracting can be really funny sometimes. We then had supper with the Wells again. We then went over to the Blanchards. They are back from their trip to California. The whole time they just raved about how they love the PMG member lessons and now that they are home they really want to continue. We also went to the Woodruff's and they taught us the Restoration. It was a good lesson. Finally someone is ready for Lesson 2.

Monday

Well it was a pretty great day. 3 things. It was P-day, Thanksgiving, and Elder Sorensen's Birthday. Well we went over to the Ellis' that morning to do laundry. They had told us to come back about noon for lunch. Well we went shopping and then went back to the apartment for a little while. The Library was closed so we didn't have much else to do. Elder Sorensen had a headache and so we both took a nice nap. Well we woke up and went over to the Ellis' for lunch. Well we got there and Sister Kinder and Sister Coull and Tanner we just getting there too. We thought it was a little strange. Well they had a birthday party for Elder Sorensen. His mom had been in contact with Bro Ellis and she had ordered a birthday cake. It was super cool. Bro Ellis' brother was in town and was there too as well as the Blanchards. It was so much fun. We talked and a lot of them had left so Bro Ellis took us down and we played some more pool. I won two games again. I'm not a bad lefty. We then went and changed then went up to meet with Bro Joseph to go up and play basketball in Red Deer. It was a ton of fun. We had thanksgiving dinner with the Millers and Sister Kinder. She had a very missionary day. She was at the Ellis', then went with the Sister to the Mower's, then was at the Miller's with us and then later on we just stopped by the Ellis' to get a picture and she showed up a little while later. It was pretty funny. We then just hung around our apartment. We were supposed to be in our apartment by 6 unless we had appointments. It was a really good day.

Wow. See I told you I had quite an action packed week. It was utterly insane.

Life never stops for a missionary

Love ya

Elder O'Neill