Southgate Chapter 5

Well this week seemed to go by pretty fast. Things are starting to pick up for us. It was a great week.

Tuesday

We had Pday. We shopped emailed. Had lunch and then went and played some basketball and frisbee. We had supper with the Piepgrass'. It was a pretty quick supper since they had to leave. We then tried by some people and then went to see the Raaflaub's. They needed some extra help.

Wednesday

We were in the office in the morning. We then went to the church for lunch before ZTM. We made homemade Poutine. :) It was good. Took some of Elder Dodson's Chilli Cheese dip and put it on top. It was more like Chili Chesse fries, but still good. ZTM was great too. Learned a lot. We then went on exchanges. I was going to be in Soutgate with Elder Liu. It was fun. We tracted a little bit before supper with the Byam's and Munsters'. Bro Byam was still in Red Deer that day, so Munsters' came over. We then tracted some more.

Thursday

We were in the office again that morning. We then took off for lunch. We ate and then exchanged back. We tracted for a bit and then had supper with the Bennett's. We then tried formers and tracted. Lots of tracting since we don't have munch going on.

Friday

We were in the office all day. We had to give up our temporary car today. We drove it to the office. Then some other elders took it since their car is getting sold. We were in the office that day and then to my surprise at the end of the day Elder Pratt asked as we were heading off, "would you elders like a car for the weekend?". I was sooooo excited. I wasn't ready to bus again. We then had supper with Draycott's. After supper we stopped by Justin Lee.

Saturday

Today was chaos. We got up and did the usual. We did a little planning and then had lunch with Tagalog. We then went on splits. Elder Wilson and Walker went and did a passover lesson in which we have a new investigator. Elder Ustare and I went tracting. We then waited for them and then when they finally came out we went on another split to passover Marcel to the Mt. Pleasant elders. Elder Dodson and I tried by some of their potentials and tracted. We then got back and we went to the stake center for the child of record baptism. We gave a little message as they were changing. We then went home and had supper. We then went to see one of Elder Wilson's and Elder Jackson's old investigators who was supposed to be in the hospital for a surgery. We drove up to the Royal Alex and she wasn't there. Finally got her number called her and she was home already. So we went to the Raaflaubs.

Sunday

We had ward council. We then had church. We were having lunch and then got a text that coordination was cancelled. We then had to pick up Elder Liu from the Whyte Ave chapel and bring him down to the Bearspaw chapel since they went on splits for ward councils. We then finished lunch and had studies. We then stopped by Josue and some others. We had supper with the St. Aubin's (St. O-bay). We then just tracted the rest of the night.

It was decent week. We've gotten some new potentials and new investigators. Things are picking up. It's great. :)

Love, Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 2

Well this week was very uneventful. I think it's going to be that way for a while.

Tuesday

We had p-day. We emailed, shopped and went to the church. We had supper with the Folston's. We then went and visited the Monteith's. They are a fun couple.

Wednesday

We did service at the Ronald McDonald house. We then went and had ZTM. Leaned a lot. We tried by some people and then had supper at the Byam's. We go there every Wednesday, so it's going to be fun. :) We then stopped by the Raaflaub's.

Thursday

We were in the office all day. We then had nothing that night. Nothing really exciting at all.

Friday

We were in the office again. We then had supper with the McMullin's. We then had another lesson at the Raaflaub's.

Saturday

We did weekly planning and then we tried some potentials and Less-actives. We had supper with the Raaflaub's and then we went and played soccer with Bro Lee. It was fun. Building a good relationship with him.

Sunday

We had Ward Council. Well Elder Low and I shovel the church while ward council was going on. We then had church and coordination. We had supper at the AP's apartment. We then were going to to a pass-over lesson with the YSA elders, but it fell through. We were all going to the same place for supper so we went on a sort of split. It was a bit of a disaster, but it worked out. We then had supper at the Hardy's with a bunch of the YSA. We then visited with Monir. Then went to the Habings.

It was a decent week. The office is getting better learning what I'm supposed to do. Week's are pretty boring, but still having fun. :)
Love, Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 4

Wow I almost forgot to write my weekly email. :) It was such a crazy week. It's been a long and eventful week too. Which is good. :)

Tuesday

Well we started the morning by going to the temple. :) It was great. We then had Pday. We emailed, shopped, then we went to a park for the last little bit. Elder Wilson played some soccer with his new cleats that he bought. I just took some pictures and tried to draw. We had supper with D and M Allred. There are two Allred's. They are brothers and live in the same house, one upstairs and one in the basement. I was confused for a bit too. It was fun. It then started raining and so we went home and got jacket and tried by some people.

Wednesday

We were in the office until lunch. We then went on exchanges. I went with Elder Bergeson and Elder Wu. They are the Mandarin Elders in the area. It was an interesting exchange. We just tried by some potentials. We had supper with some members in Lakewood ward. We then went to the last little bit of English class at the institute. We then taught Joyce. She is an investigator of theirs'. She has been difficult in the past. I tried to help as much as I could with only being able to speak English. They said I was helpful.

Thursday

We had District Meeting and exchanged back. We then went back to the office for a few hours. We went to help the Master's move some boxes which they thought were going to take an hour or so, but took like 10 minutes. ya.... We then went to Habing's and brought some stuff in for her and she gave us supper to take home. We then ate. We got called to go help some family move. We then went to the Raaflaub's for a quick lesson, making sure they were going to watch conference. We then tried by Justin, but he wasn't home so we did FB

Friday

Well we cleaned the apartment for a bit and then did our planning. We went out and tracted and found some new potentials. We then had supper with M and L Allred, which ended up being a huge sibling Easter dinner. I don't remember what else we did that night.

Saturday

GENERAL CONFERENCE! It was amazing. We watched the first session at the Stake Center. We then came back had lunch. We then went and met with Josue. We tracted into him yesterday. It was awesome. We went in and had a really good talk. Just quickly went through the restoration. We shared a card with Because He lives and asked him about it. He told us that one of his friends already sent him a Portuguese version before. It was awesome. He's really great. We then went to the Raaflaub's and watched the second session. We then had supper with them. Home-made Poutine. :) First time of home-made poutine. We then went to the Stake Center to watch Priesthood. It was all so good. :) We then went to DQ after.

Sunday

We went to the Bateman's for Breakfast and watched conference there. We then went home and had lunch. Mt. Pleasant came over. They got locked out of their apartment. We then went and watch the last session at the Stake Center. We then drove Mt. Pleasant home and then went to the Habing's for supper. They had an Easter supper with some friends. It was fun. Didn't do much the rest of the night. We went in and then the other elders called. One of the sisters in the ward called them for a blessing. They picked us up and we went over there. They dropped us off again and then Mt. Pleasant called us. They couldn't get into their apartment and the landlord was in Ontario. They ended up staying with us for the night.

Monday

We dropped Mt. Pleasant off at the Whyte Ave chapel and went to the office. We were meeting Tagalog North to switch them cars, since their car was called into the shop. We then had lunch with them at Subway. We then went tracting. We knocked the first house he was atheist and sick. We knocked the second house and ended up talking with the lady for an hour and half. It was fun. She actually lives in Slave Lake and was down visiting her mother. It was great. We then tracted for a bit more. We found a cool part of our area. It's right by the river and the houses are super nice. We then had supper by ourselves and then had FHE at a park up the road with the Raaflaub's.

It was a great week. Looking foward to this week too. :)
Not much time left, better getting working harder. :)

--

Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 3

Well this week was ok. Nothing really remarkable happened. It was still just a good week.

Monday

We had Pday. It was fun. We gave the Mt. Pleasant Elders a ride since they don't have a car. We did the usual, email, shop. We then went to the Millwoods Stake Center to play some games. We were told they were going to play soccer which got Elder Wilson excited, but when we got there they had the volleyball net set up. We ended up playing volleyball. It was a ton of fun. We had supper with Sis Fairbairn. It was great. She had one of the other Elder's investigators, Pat, over as well as Evlyn, who we are working with. It was a great supper. We then had FHE at the Raaflaub's.

Tuesday

We did studies at the office and were there all day. We had supper with the Habing's and then we were going to have a lesson with Kelly and Thomas, but they cancelled. :(

Wednesday

We had district meeting and lunch. We then went in to the office for the rest of the day. We were supposed to have supper with Byam's, but Bro Byam wasn't back from Red Deer yet. Sis Byam just gave us some money to go get something. We went to Soutgate mall and got New York Fries pulled pork poutine. Best stuff ever. :) We then had some money left and were going to get some DQ, but as we were walking over some kid working at one of the stores started walking and talking with us. He lives in Spruce Grove. It was random. He ended up buying the Ice Cream. It was cool. We then went and tried some people.

Thursday

We did studies at the office again and were there most of the day. Don't really remember what we did that night. Probably some stop-by's.

Friday

Well we were once again in the office for most of the day. We left a little early and went on exchanges. I went with Elder Duncanson to Bearspaw. It was fun. We went and checked Facebook. I went through some of my Heritage Tours pics of the church history sights with him. We then had supper with the Jones. Sis Jones is Bro Palmer's, from Londonderry, sister. It was crazy. We then did some tracting and tried by some people.

Saturday

Well we got up and did the usual. We were asked if we could come set up some chairs at the stake center at 11. We got there at about 10:50 and right as we are pulling into the parking lot, we get a text saying they were playing basketball in the gym so we couldn't set up chairs. We then drove back to the area and did the interview. We had lunch and then did Facebook and then tracted. It was a fun exchange. :) We then exchanged back at the office. We then tracted for a bit. We had supper and then went back out. We tracted some more. We then met the other elders at the office and planned out our portion of the 5th Sunday lesson we were giving.

Sunday

Well we got up and got ready to go to PEC and when we got to the church, no one was there. Since it was the 5th sunday they didn't have any meeting and no one told us. we just helped set up the chairs. We had church. For the 5th sunday lesson it was combined RS/Priesthood/Youth. It was talking about the Ward mission plan. Our part we talked about using Social Media. We also introduced #BecauseHeLives to the ward. We then had out lunch hour, but it was fast Sunday. :) We had coordination then did studies. We had supper at the Kastendieck's. Yes more Kastendieck's. I had to ask. They are brothers. :) They are a fun family, just like I thought they would be. We then were suppossed to have a lesson with Kelly and Thomas, but it fell through again. :P

Monday

Well we were in the office. We opened and closed. It was good. We had supper on our own and then we had FHE at Raaflaub's. :) It was a great night.

Well that was my week. We were able to go to the temple this morning which makes it all better. :D Excited for Conference :)
Love, Elder Colin O'Neill

Southgate Chapter 1

Well a new book of my mission. It's sure been a roller coaster of a week. Lots of new things. New area, new companion, new responsibilities. It's all sorts of fun. :)

Monday

Well we had P-day. We got everything done as quick as we could and then we went to the church and played some soccer. It was awesome. We had supper with the Rusnells. We then went and said goodbye to the O'Bray's and then the Olsen's.

Tuesday

We had a lesson with Nahia in the morning. It was a great last lesson. We then found a Fort McMurray pin. We then had lunch and packed. We went and saw Bud and Dan. We then stopped by some other people. We had supper at Goetz. We went to try and say goodbye to Fitzners, but they weren't home. We then went to Diggles.

Wednesday

We drove down for transfers. We then had transfers. It was hard to say goodbye. We then had to drive a car back to the office so we used to talk my stuff back to the apartment and to get some groceries. We then took it to the office. We then had supper with the Draycott's. We then went and visited with the Lowes.

Thursday

Well we had District Meeting. We then had lunch. Then we had an adventure. Both Elder McMullin and I's companions had to go to the District Leader meeting. Well we were both new to the area as of yesterday so we really didn't know where to go. We went and got on FB. I then got us close to our apartment and we tracted for a while. We then were going to stop by the apartment, but we didn't have keys. :( We then went to McDonald's and got a shake. The meet us there and we picked up supper from Sis Fairbairn. We then all had supper. We then went and stopped by a few people. We then met with Monir.

Friday

We had our first day in the office. Learn how to do referrals and entering baptism records. We had supper with the Carter's and then went and met the Raaflaubs.

Saturday

We did weekly planning and lunch. We went to see our investigator Monty and when we showed up he handed us back all of the books and dropped us. It was a sad day. We then went and met with the Arrisons. We then had supper with the Deppe's. We then had a baptism interview with some of the Zone Leaders investigators. They are sweet.

Sunday

We had PEC. Elder Low and I just sat outside. We then had church. We had lunch at the AP's apartment. We then met with a few people. We were supposed to have a lesson with some investigators with Bro Henday, but they weren't home. We took him to some other people and finally got a lesson with Marseille. He is from Rwanda. He is awesome. At the end of the lesson he said "I think I understand prophets now". It was awesome. We then had supper with the Munoz. They are fun. We then stopped by some people.

Monday

We were in the office all day. I was learning financial stuff. We then stopped by the Raaflaub's to help move their daughter move out, but they didn't come. We then had supper with the Cahoon's. We then went back to the Raaflaub's and had FHE. It didn't end well. Got a migraine. Not a fun night. Great night sleep though. :)

Well that was my week. It was a roller coaster, but it's going to be fun.
Love, Elder Colin O'Neill

Fort Mac Chapter 24 final chapter in this area!!!

Well it looks like it's the end of the road for here. I'm getting transferred to Southgate Ward in Edmonton. It will be an interesting experience. My new companion Elder Wilson and I will also be working in the office. One of the office couples is finishing their mission and there is no one to replace them yet, so we will be filling in. It will be different. Now for the rest of my week.

Monday

We had P-day and then had supper with Christine and the Lamoureux's. It was fun. We went and said goodbye to the Schmidt's and Grant's. Sr. Bro Schmidt is moving back to Idaho. Jr. Bro Schmidt is moving back to Virginia and at least Sis Grant is going back home to South Africa. We then went over to see the Jackson's.

Tuesday

I don't remember what we did. :) I think we just tracted and tried potentials. We had supper at the Irmen's. We then went on exchanges. Elder Walker came with me. :) We went and stopped by some people and then we went to see the Roy's and say goodbye. :)

Wednesday

Elder Walker stayed over night and the other Elders came in the morning to exchange back. We had a lesson in the morning with Malinda. Sis Beaulne and Fitzner came with us. Great lesson. She is just super busy. We finished studies and had lunch. we didn't have much that day either. We picked up supper from the Eric's. We went back and ate, then went and saw LA Olsen's. We had a good chat with them. I enjoy them a lot. :) We then went to the BFC Bible study again. It was great and a lot of great people. :)

Thursday

We had District Meeting and then lunch. We had the rest of the food from Eric's. We then tried by Mihaly, but he wasn't home. We then changed and drove out to Anzac. We all got haircuts and then had supper with Kidd's. I'm going to miss them. We then came back and had a lesson with Diana. It went pretty well. :)

Friday

We did Weekly Planning we also cooked a really good lunch. Chicken with roasted veggies. :) Best cooking I've done so far. :) We then went and did Facebook. We then just tried some people. Don't really remember. 

Saturday

It was a long day of tracting and potentials. We had supper with Diggle's and then went and saw the Simpson's. 

Sunday

It was a pretty good day. We had Ward Council and church. It was pretty good. Mihaly came and we talked to him a bit afterwards. We were talking in the chapel and Bro Fitzner came in and just remarked it was nice to see him and told him that what he was feeling was the spirit and this is where he was supposed to be. He started crying. Mostly it was Elder Merica and Walker in that conversation, but it was still really powerful. We then went home had lunch. We went and tried by some potentials. We had supper with the Beaulne's. Then tried people the rest of the night. 

Well that was my week. Forgot my planner so the details are a little spotty. Going to miss Fort McMurray, but that's life as a missionary. :)

Love, Elder O'Neill

Fort Mac Chapter 23

Dear Family and friends,
Wow. This week was a bit crazy. We were in Edmonton for almost 3 days and then just trying to catch up and meet with people who aren't home. :( It was interesting.:)

Monday

Well we did as much as we could. We emailed and did laundry and packed then headed to Edmonton. Elder Nielson drove to Grasslands then gave me the keys so he could sleep. I drove to Fort Saskatchewan and we had Mucho Burrito for supper then drove to the Mission Home. Stayed over night with St. Paul. :)

Tuesday

We had interviews with President. We then had Zone Conference. It was great learned a lot. :) We then ran to the office, because the other Elder's were getting a different car. Still a subaru, but just a different one. We then drove to the temple. It was so amazing. It felt great to be able to go. :)

Wednesday

Well we got up and went to Generations Bookstore and then to this book binding place. It was pretty cool. They do custom book binding. Looks awesome. Made me laugh a little too. Their main customers are the Elders and the JW's. :) We then grabbed lunch at Wendy's, drove to the north side, filled up and then headed out. The whole time I was driving in Edmonton. Elder Neilson drove to Grasslands again and then Elder Merica finished the drive. We had supper with Nate and Bailey, then we went and visited the Roy's. 

Thursday

We had District Meeting and then we went to see Bud and Dan. We are trying to get them to church. :) Hopefully. We then went out to the Kidd's for supper. We got a picture of the temple for them to help them remember their goal to get back to the temple. 

Friday

We had Weekly Planning and then lunch. We did mormon.org time and then we went and tried potentials. We had supper with the Lamoureux's and then tried some more potentials. 

Saturday

We did studies and lunch. We then went and saw Bud and Dan. Trying to work out details for getting them to church. Doesn't look like it's going to happen. We then tried some potentials. We had a lesson with LA Olsen's with Bro O'Bray. There is some progress with them. We then had supper with Bro Turner at Mucho Burrito. :) We then went and tried some people and then went and visited the Simpson's with Bro Swainson. Invited them to church. The kids were already going to come. Bro Simpson is probably coming next week since it most likely will be my last week. 

Sunday

Well we had church. The whole Simpson family, except Bro Simpson, came as well as Bro Kidd. It was awesome. :) Testimony meeting was really powerful. There were a lot of tears and emotions. We were trying to get Nahia to come and we are sort of glad she didn't. She has a hard time when people bear their testimony with an accent and when people cry. Well everyone that had an accent bore their testimony and lots of people were fighting back tears. :) It was really powerful though. We had coordination and then changed stopped by some people and then tracted. We had supper with the Stewarts. We then went and met with Eddy. He is awesome and super willing to learn. He told us that he has been getting some resistance about trying to read the Book of Mormon, but he still wants to find out what we are about. :) He is so sincere. We then just tried some other people.

It was a good week. A little low on the investigators, but that's Fort McMurray. :) :( I don't know which one. haha :)

Well hope everyone has a good week. Don't have much time left so I got to get working hard. :)