Londonderry Chapter 13

Well this week has been pretty crazy honestly. With transfers and everything that is going on, it was a gong show again. I think I live in a continuous gong show sometimes. I'm really learning patience and charity.

Monday

Well we had pday. It was pretty nice. We had the car to ourselves. We went and played basketball with Bro Thomas in the morning. One of the games was really great. It was all about if I could make the 3 point shot. Well a few shots later the game was over. It's really cool to see what I'm good at in basketball and really using those skills. Never thought I would have basketball skills, but I do. We then followed Spanish and helped Poulins (housing coordinators) move things from storage into a new apartment for the Forest Heights sister. We then went to their old apartment and helped them move some other things. Finally around 12 we were done. We continued on with the rest of P-day. We went over to Calverts for supper since 3 of them were leaving. We then went to a lesson with Cody to fill him in on what is going on, and kinda fill me in. It was a really good day.

Tuesday

Well most of today was finishing up what we didn't get to on Monday and Elder Phillips packing up. We went to lunch with LD1, Spanish, CL, CD2 at Pizza hut. It was pretty fun. We went to supper with Thomas that night. After that LD1 dropped us off at Higgins and Sis Higgins gave us a haircut and Elder Phillips said goodbye. St. Paul picked us up and we went back to our place.

Wednesday

Well today was transfers. We got up and got ready. CL was going to transfer meeting for leadership training so they came to help haul Elder Phillips' stuff. Then we went to transfer meeting. I met Elder Hentunen. He is a pretty cool. I told you a little bit last week. He is from Finland. He has been on his mission for 3 months. He is ready to get work done. Well we had to wait until the leadership meeting was over to get a ride back with CL1. So that took a while. We had supper with Dorrey's and then went over to Thiessen's. Bro Thiessen was going to come with us  to a lesson, but we never made it there. We went to pull out of the parking lot and got stuck. It has been incredibly warm for January and so most of the snow has been melting. Well we got the car stuck. We finally got it out of the way and got it stuck in another snow bank. We saw some others were stuck so we went down to help them. After some anger and colorful language we got them out and they came to help us. We finally got the car so it could go again. By then we wouldn't be able to make it down to where we were going and back it back for a lesson with Cody so we just went to the Church to wait for Cody. We ran into some of the members while we were there. It was mutual. Well Bro Bonnell was there. He served his mission in Finland so him and Elder Hentunen went off in Finnish. Later we found Bro Forsyth who also went to Finland. Elder Hentunen has made more connections than I have. We had a really great lesson with Cody and the sisters. Then walked home. We are now in a car share with CL1. This isn't going to be as easy as it was with the other Londonderry.

Thursday

We had district meeting and then District Lunch. I don't know why things are so much different then they were before, but they sure are. We then met with the sisters so I could tell them some different things about the area. We then went back and changed. Then we went to see Bro Guinard. We had a good visit with him. We have realized the couple of things keeping back from coming to church. One his health. He can't walk around very well during winter. Another is Sis Guinard, she is not too keen on everything we don't think. Well we then went to Senuk's for supper. It was crazy. Their kids are little balls of fun. Elder Hentunen really gets along well with kids. Well we were there for a while so we wouldn't be able to make it to Sis Stamp. So we walked home and talked to some people. Tried stopping by Alosious. and then went home.

Friday

We had a lesson with Annette in the morning. It went really well we were able to help resolve some of her concerns. She accepted the baptismal invitation. When she knows it's true she will be baptized. It's exciting. We then went back and had weekly planning. We discussed about a lot of things. We are going to get a lot done. We then went to see Bro Duckworth and introduce him to Elder Hentunen. We had supper on our own and then we traveled down to Joe and Sheena. We got there and I'm pretty sure they forgot about it. Joe and his dad had just gotten home from work so we went in and just chatted for a little bit. Next week we are going to start teaching her for sure.

Saturday

Well we had service with Dave. It's been a while since we've done anything with him, but we are helping him move things around in his garage. It's a weekly service project. He then took us to Tim Hortons for doughnuts and hot chocolate. We then went back and had lunch. We went to the library to create a form for ward council next week. We then went to the Palmer/Calkins baptism. It was really cool. Lila Calkins has down syndrome and so she doesn't need to be baptized, but she still wanted to. It was a really cool experience. We then had supper with Thiessen's. They are super awesome. They are so ready and willing to do missionary work. We challenged them to pray for missionary oppurtunities and they are going to be the first people that we have a date to follow up with them. Following up with members really pushes them to get things done. It will be really good. We then went to David's for some more African drumming. It was similar to what Elder Phillips and I did last week, just learning basic drum patterns. Still super fun. We are going to see if David will play for a mutual some night or see if we can get it approved to have him drum for a musical number and have us sing.

Sunday

Well we had Church, then coordination. Bro Palmer has some great ideas so after we were done talking with the auxilaries he brought lunch and then we talked about what we want to get done in the ward and talking about ideas for like 2 hours. We then went back home. That was interesting. The sister took off for a lesson with Kenneth. Well we were walking home and Sister Brimacombe was going to go to the lesson with them and stopped to ask if it was us she was going to a lesson with. Nope. So she kept driving, but turned down our street. I knew something was up. We ran down and saw the sisters waiting for Sister Brimacombe at the door. They were going to meet with Ken Chen, our LA neighbor. Not a good sign. We ended up going to the lesson with them and we are going to start teaching him. His story is crazy. Oh the fun of crazy. We then went to our apartment and had supper and studies. We then went and contacted a referral from ZL's and are going back Tuesday. We then found out how crappy public transit is on weekends. We waited around for a while to catch the bus. Which didn't go where I thought it did. So we ended up bus hoping until we were close to where we needed to be. While we were waiting on a bus to leave, we did run into Alosious. Told him where Elder Phillips went and talked to him for a little bit. We were supposed to teach Son english, but we were like 50 min late. We stopped by to say that we will be back next week. We then went to Palmer's. In hindsight we could have probably taught english instead. I wasn't thinking. Oh well.

We had a pretty good week overall. Everything went well. Considering. It's different when half of the zone is brand new to the area. I'm just going to be stronger.

Love you all,

Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 12

 Sorry Folks I missed posting this last week. It was a crazy week, with not much pc time. So you get two this week. ENJOY! Sheila

 

Hey there,

So this past week has really been quite interesting. It has been a lot of prep for transfers. We already knew that a lot was going to happen in our zone, but I'll tell you more later.

Monday

It was p-day, it was pretty good. Did the usual things. We went to supper at Tanner's. It was Ukrainian Christmas I think. So Sis Tanner made a bunch of Ukrainian food. Perogies, sauerkraut soup, and lazy cabbage rolls. It was all pretty good. Reminded me of the little bit of what I remember from Ukraine. Lots of cabbage. We didn't do much else that night.

Tuesday

Well we had Interviews with President. We drove out to the mission home and got to talk with President. It was really cool just to be able to sit down and talk with him. He did tell Canfield, Bowles, and Philips a little what could be expected from transfers. Didn't really tell me much, but it sounded like I was going to the only one left. We then went to lunch at 5 Guys. We then went back and dropped the others off and went to our apartment to wait until exchanges. I went on exchanges with Elder Shettell. It was definitely interesting. We had supper at Fixsen's. Well as we were heading to supper we realized we had both areas phones. So we had an adventure trying to get it back to them. Luckily they were having supper with CD2, so we could call them and find things out. We gave them the phone back and then went and picked up Canfield and Bowles to give them a ride. We were heading to Bro Duckworth's when they called and asked if they could have the car for the night. Crazy confusion. We ended up bussing to Bro Duckworth's and teaching a short lesson so we could catch the next bus. A bit of a gong show.

Wednesday

Well we met with Annette and Marie that morning. Marie isn't doing really well. She apparently has so many kidney stones that it looks like a mass in her kidney's. The doctors call it a gravel pit. So the lesson was interesting. We read through Alma 32 and talked about faith. Bro Massey was there too. Bro Massey asked Marie if she would like a blessing. She denied and Bro Massey pushed a little hard. That's what really made it interesting. Craziness. Well we went back and had lunch then tried by some people. Well we were going to exchange back at 3:00, but some of the other elders went to the food bank for service that morning and went to a stake house for all-you-can-eat ribs. Pretty much they all ate until they were sick. We finally caught up with them and everyone was dead. Elder Shettell hadn't been felling well so really I was the only one that was good to go. Well after that we had supper. The others were too excited. We had supper with Shaw's. It was really good. Canfield and Bowles ate a little bit. Elder Phillips didn't really eat anything. Kinda a weird supper. We didn't really have much, so we turned in early since Elder Phillips didn't feel that good.

Thursday

Well we started with Mormon.org, had lunch and then went to ZTM. We weren't too excited, because it was going to be the other ZL's and the leadership went to their heads. The Sister's training was the most inspirational. After that we got a chance to talk with everyone. PS people really like the Peanut butter cookies. We then went and stopped by Alosious. He said that Thursday was going to be a good day for him. When we got their though he was busy. We went to Poon's for supper. It was really good. They are a great couple. Just a few stop-bys after that.

Friday

We had Weekly Planning as usual. We then went and watch Alosious play basketball. His school was playing in a tournament and he asked us if we could come. It really meant a lot to him that we showed up. We stopped by some others then went to Thomas' for supper. They are great. After that we went to David's for some African drumming. It was A LOT of fun. It's funny to go over and visit with them. David is a LA who knows pretty much exactly why we go over, meanwhile his wife doesn't really know. One day soon we will get him back to church and her taking the lessons.

Saturday

Well we literally did nothing today. We walked around and tried stopping by as many people as we could down south. We ended up walking around China town for a bit and then walking back to the LRT and riding it back and forth for a little ways until supper. We didn't have anything to do. We had supper with Skinners. They are such a great couple. So missionary minded. We then stopped by this family that the YSA sisters tracted into. They are this Vietnamese family that their son, Son, wants to learn English. So we went by to teach him English. Well the rest of family didn't know about it and they were having supper. Well we are going back Sunday.

Sunday

Well we went and had church. It was really good. I really enjoyed seeing some of the people that have been gone for the Holiday's back in the ward again. Well after church we had our usual coordination. That was interesting. The other Elder are leaving and we are getting sisters. Elder Phillips is also likely to be leaving. So pretty much it was whatever needed to be done in the ward is up to me. I had a lot of notes. We then went back to our apartment and had lunch and our studies. We had supper on our own and then did stop-bys. We met the sisters at Son's. It was really interesting teaching English to someone. It's going to be quite an experience. We then went to Palmer's for our weekly visit. They are pretty great.

Well that was my week this last week. It's slowed down since everyone was anticipating transfers. Well so ya transfer calls were this morning. We pretty much had it right. I'm staying and getting a new companion, Elder Hentunen. All I know about him is that he is from Finland. Pretty unique. Elder Phillips is going to Camrose. It's outlying like he was hoping. The Sisters coming are Sister Galovich and McEwan. Pretty weird that I came out with both of them. It is definitely going to be interesting.

Love you,
Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 11

Hey there everyone. This past week has been super fun and super crazy.

Monday

Well today was kinda a boring p-day. A lot of the zone was doing different things so we really didn't get together. We ended up hanging out with the ZL's and Spanish at Londonderry chapel. It was pretty boring. We went with Spanish to Nobert's for supper. They are so great and fun to visit. On the way out the front right tire was stuck in a hole. Well you had Simms, Phillips, Shreeve and me. It wasn't too cold outside, so we got it out in no time. It was pretty awesome. That was about all that happened.

Tuesday

Well we went to the Food bank and did service in the morning. It was a little weird. We got a ride with the ZL's but they set up an appointment at 12. We didn't get there until like 10:30. So we got a ride with CD1. We went to Kingsway mall for lunch. After they dropped us off we went to see if we could get in with Sister Allen's mom. Sis Allen said she wanted us to go visit her mom. Well so far we just have awkward conversations through the window. Still haven't gotten in. We headed back home and ran into Alosious who we were going to go meet up with to play basketball at the church. It was a small miracle. He had to get new glasses so couldn't make it. We met up with the other guys and went to supper at Sister Forsyth's. It was a little awkward. It was a supper with her, her roommate, her old roommate and her old roommate's husband. Pretty strange. It was like having a YSA dinner, but we are serving in a family ward. Strange for us. Oh well. We then headed back home. We were supposed to be in by 6. So we played chess, uno and nerts until we were bored. I went to bed the usual time. I didn't stay up this year. Whatever.

Wednesday

I don't remember what we did that morning, but at noon we met the other elders and played basketball at the church with Alosious. We went and picked him up and walked to the church with him. It was really great. We played some Basketball and then took him on a tour of the church. He is really anxious to learn, but won't come to church. We went to the Calverts at 3 for fondue. It was pretty good, but really long and slow. Too many people to do fondue. There was probably 12 of us all having fondue. Gong Show. After that we went over to Bro. Duckworth's. Crazy day.

Thursday

We had district meeting. We then went to Red Robin for district lunch. It was really good. I like being in the city for that reason. We get to go to cool places for district lunch. We then had mormon.org time. We then went to try and stop by Bro Guinard, but he wasn't home. We ended up talking with his neighbor. He is a really cool guy. We then stopped by some other people. We had supper on our own, because supper was supposed to be a 6 but we had another appointment then so we couldn't go. We went to David's. He is the LA that is into african drumming and thai chi. Pretty interesting dude. We might go back sometime next week and play some drums with him. It will be super fun. We then went to Sis Hernandez. We were finally able to meet with her since our many attempts since before Christmas have fallen through. It was good. She got us a 4-in1 extendable backscratcher/pen/magnetic pick up tool/ ball rolling massager. It is pretty cool. We've unscrewed the backscratcher and put on the magnetic part as a pen lid and use it as a cool extendable pen. She is so nice.

Friday

Well we had some time today, so we had to clean up. We got a letter saying that the managers were going to come inspect the apartment again so we had to clean up what they had asked and just cleaned up period. It was good. We then had lunch and then did weekly planning. Bro Bonnell came by around 5 and helped us take our couch to Bro Duckworth. We finally got rid of it! It really opened up our apartment. Now we just have to get rid of our coffee table and we'll be good. We had supper at Branco's with everyone. All 6 of us. ZL's, Spanish and us. Cramped but fun. We then had a lesson with Joe. We were hoping to start teaching his sister, but she was kinda in and out. We taught Joe about PMG and next week we are going to go back and Joe is going to help us teach her lesson 1. It will be great for both of them.

Saturday

Well we did some stop-bys in the morning. We then had lunch. Went and stopped by Bro Guinard, not home again. We were going to play basketball at the stake center with some LA and investigator in Castledowns, but we had a lesson with Alosious instead. We then went and had supper with Laubman's at 3. Sis Laubman's mother isn't doing well so see had us over early so she could go back to the hospital. We then stopped by a few people and then went to Spanish's baptism of Marisela. Part member family in our ward. They have been teaching her for a while and she was finally baptized. It was really cool to go to. We were asked to come so Elder Phillips could play piano and I could lead the music. We probably would have gone anyways. We didn't really do much the rest of the night.

Sunday

Well we were moved to the 9 o'clock church time. It is different, we usually have studies before church, but now it's going to be in the afternoon. Well we had a interesting experience going to church. Pretty much I hit a pretty big snow pile going to church and popped the tire. So after church we had to put the spare on it. Then we had coordination. Bro Palmer wanted to talk to us after coordination. We were there until 3. We then went to stop-by some one that Barrhead called us about. They told us about a LA that was taken to the hospital the night before for premature labor. She had her baby 6 weeks early. We went to stop by and couldn't find her. We had supper with Hoag's and then went back to the Hospital. She was in under her maiden name. She and the baby are doing well. We then went and picked up the others and went to Palmers for P-day eve. They are super great.

Well that was our week. Gong show at most times. This week might not be much better. Just craziness all around. Hopefully things will settle down when transfers come next week.

Love you all,

Elder O'Neill

Londonderry Chapter 10

This week has been pure chaos! Getting everything ready for Christmas and the whole holiday season was entirely too busy.

Monday

Well I told you most of went on last Monday. We went to Branco's for supper. We were going to go caroling to Dave and give him a Book of Mormon, but when we went he wasn't there. We had a busy night so we left. Apparently right after we left he pulled up and the sisters were able to talk to him. We picked up the others from their supper. We ran around and collected the wrapped BOM's that we handed out to the YW. That was pretty much out night. Gong show. :)

Tuesday

Well we had an adventure today. We went with the other guys to deliver some gifts to the Ft. Mac missionaries. We drove up to Grasslands and met them at a gas stop. We then drove back. Along the way we stopped and took some pics for a Christmas card that we were going to make. As we came back into the city, we stopped at the Sikh temple. That was an interesting experience. We walked in and took off our shoes and stood there not knowing what to do. finally some people came in that spoke english. They took us around. It was very different than any other Christian Church. After the tour, they took us down to the cafeteria and we had some Indian food. Still not my most favorite. We then left and went to pick up some stuff. We met Claireview at the Chapel, so Elder Canfield could give them haircuts for calls home. We played some ball in the meantime. We then took off for supper. We went to Dorrey's while the other elders went to the Hunt's. I really love the Dorrey's. We have really become pretty close with them. It was awesome, we had steak and potatoes. Delicious. While we were having our lesson with them, Bro Dorrey was telling us about in all of the times we have come over he has really seen us grow and be more comfortable in lessons. It was really cool to see in less than 3 months people can really see a change. We left the Dorreys and went to the Hunts'. They wanted to do a Christmas Eve FHE with all of us. Well by the time we got there they were just finishing supper. We had the lesson with them and then left. Sis Hunt kept trying to get us to stay, but we had way too much going on that night still. I always say 'some people are persistent, missionaries are more'. We were trying to get a hold of Claireview to give them some of their mail, but they didn't answer. Instead we drove around trying to find a Catholic church for mass. We finally found the Ukrainian Orthodox church. We were a little late, but we just came in and sat down. It was interesting being there. Afterwards we were walking around looking at some of the paintings and were able to talk to quite a few people. It was a really good way to talk to people, more like for people to talk to us. It was quite a day. We didn't get home until like 10:30. By the time we got everything done for the night it was already 11:30, so we just stayed up until midnight to open the presents. We didn't know when we would be able to on Christmas day, so we thought then would be the best time. We then went to sleep

Wednesday

About 5 hours later we woke up again to start our Christmas day. Spanish and us went to Calvert's for Breakfast. It was good, but missed the baked eggs. They got all of us stockings. We opened them up. Just as we were going to leave we got a text from Ladd and Canfield saying they were on their way. So we stayed there for a little bit, until they got there and opened their stockings. We then went to Palmers. They got us some huge stockings. It was some fun stuff. We then went to Thomas'. We got there and Skyped. It was great time to be able to talk with you. It really was hard to hang up. We then had lunch with them and hung around. We then left and went to the other Palmers (ward mission leader) for supper. We weren't hungry at all. They made Brazilian food. The other Elders stayed up as well, but Canfield made the whole night and day. He was like a zombie and Bro Palmer could see it. It was like 7 and Bro Palmer said "Well we are going to put our kids to bed, looks like your pretty tired so might want to leave." Pretty funny. We then didn't really have anything else. Stebners texted and said we could come over. So we went over there and ended the night there. It was a really fun day.

Thursday

Honestly Thursday was a complete blur. We had district meeting and had a really good time there. The sisters and Spanish had leftover turkey and potatoes and let us come join them. We told them we would take care of the clean up. They only thing else that happened that day was we went back over to Thomas' for supper. We had curry fried chicken. So good. It reminded me of Bro Joseph's curry chicken. It was super good.

Friday

Well we were going to try and catch up on some of the people we weren't able to visit, but that didn't happen. Elder Bramwell ended up getting an ET to Whitecourt. Don't know the whole story, but he was leaving that morning. We ended up going to lunch with Claireview and Elder Vega, before they took off. Elder Vega's new companion was who Elder Bramwell was replacing. It was super awesome to see Elder Vega again. We then went home and cleaned up the apartment. It was a super mess from earlier in the week. We would come home put stuff down and go to bed. We needed to clean up. We cleaned and had weekly planning until supper, which was on our own. Something was going on and so Elder Ladd was also leaving that night. They picked us up and went to their place to say goodbye. Too much going on. not a fun day.

Saturday

We really did play catch up. We did mormon.org and then had lunch. We went up and shoveled Stebners walk for them. We then went to Lopez to tell them that Elder Ladd had left. He was close with them. We then went down to see Bro Guinard. He was just heading out, but we got to chat for a minute outside. We then went and the other guys picked us up for supper at Anderson's. They are a really sweet older couple. He is the stake patriarch. Mom you would be jealous of her chicken collection. The others dropped us off at Alosious, who wasn't home. We grabbed some stuff from our place and went to Bro Duckworth. That was our day. Still got a lot done.

Sunday

We went to coordination. We then came back to our place for lunch. We had some perogies. Most of the time was doing the dishes we hadn't done yet. We then went to church. It was super cool after sacrament. A little boy came up to me. "Do you know Elder McMullen?" "Yes I do. Are you his little brother because you look just like him?". I think I told you that Elder McMullen's grandparents are in Londonderry. Well the rest of his family came for Christmas and were at church. It was really cool to meet them. She took a picture of me with his little brother to send to him. The rest of church went really well. Oh Shanon came to church. She had called the Skinners the night before and asked for a ride. They were out of town, but we found a ride from Sis Brimacombe. Just out of the blue she shows back up. We had dropped her like 2 months ago. It was really awesome and she had a great time. After church we went to try by some people. We were picked up by the others and went to supper at Brimacombe's. We took them down to Graus and stopped by some others. We tried contacting a referral, but could find his address. I hate when that happens. According to the address he lives in the middle of a field. So much fun. We then picked them up and dropped them off.

It was a truly crazy week. It felt really good the last couple of days to be able to get back to regular missionary work.

Well hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year,

Elder O'Neill

PS. I'm really bad at remembering my camera/ cord so pictures will come one day.

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

Londonderry Chapter 8

So this week was really pretty crazy. Everything is so different as a missionary during Christmas. It is going to be a different experience. I'm kinda excited. The Members just love the missionaries. I don't know if we will have time to visit all of the houses. Good thing that we don't have to do anything  that day. Anyways let me tell you about my week now.

Monday

So last Monday was a pretty crazy day. We had to ride around with Spanish because the ZL's had something else they had to do. Well everything took longer that expected. Well pretty much that happened until we finally got to zone sports. After that we went to the Laubmans' for supper. I was really pretty good. I really liked it over there. Sister Laubman had just got a new computer and was having some problems playing the videos. All that needed to be done was the flashplayer needed to be updated. It felt really good to be sit down at a computer and fix something even as simple as that. It's amazing the small things that you miss and the simple experiences that make you feel like your doing something good. We then went to the Branco's to have a lesson with Sister Stamp. She really didn't say much there as she does at the church. Pretty crazy day overall.

Tuesday

Well today was good because everything got planned out for us. We went that morning to do service at the food bank. It was a lot of fun. We just started to assemble the basic food box that they would give to someone. It was much different up here in the city than it was in Innisfail. It was pretty much our whole zone and some of the other zone. We all went to Wendy's afterwards. We then went back and did some stuff and then went on exchanges. I was going to be in Londonderry with Elder Cook. Well that was the first time I was over the area. It was interesting. Well we were supposed to have a lesson with Davin, but that fell through. We then had to meet Poulin's (the housing coordinators) because they had some furniture for us. Well we haven't found anyone to take some of our other stuff, so we are pretty cramped. We had to bring all of that up and then we did some stuff around the apartment before we went to supper at the Johnston's. It is always super fun over there. We then stopped by some people and then went to see Bro Duckworth. I found out that day what stress and coke does. Some members gave us some coke and cookies for p-day that we didn't eat. I was having a hard time staying awake in the morning so I drank some coke. I was wound up and my head was spinning all day. Coke is not good for me. I was think about you that day Dad.

Wednesday

Well we went to stop by some people that morning and then had lunch. The apartment managers were coming to inspect the apartment sometime between 12-1. There are only 18 apartments and we had to leave at 12:40 and they still didn't come. Crazy. We got a new investigator Annette. She was a former that was still interested in learning more. We had a lesson and brought Bro Massey with us. He is amazing in lessons. Well there were a lot of distractions. It is going to be another tough investigator, but I can't wait. We then went and exchanged back. We had supper at Higgins that night. Trevar is doing pretty well. It is hard to keep him going. We then stopped by some people. We went over to Stebners with the ZL's to pick up a present for a LA. We had some hot chocolate. Hot chocolate has become one of my favorite things ever.

Thursday

Well Thursday was pretty fun. It was all pretty much ZTM prep. The ZL's lost their keys last monday and asked us to go to the stake center to find them. Well we didnt' have keys to it so we were going to take CD1. Well Found out someone had picked up the keys and taken them home. So we ended up going all over for nothing. We went to Londonderry mall for lunch and ran into the ZL's and Spanish. Well all of us, but Spanish had ZTM. so We all piled into one car. I was driving. Good thing it wasn't too far. SHH. ZTM was pretty hilarious. We had a small insight last night of what was going to happen, but the ZL's still kept it a pretty good secret. It was a ZTM about finding and QGC's. They did a roleplay that was really funny. Elder Shreeve is an interesting man, I'll leave it there. Anyways after ZTM we went home to change. We went to the Dorrey's for Supper. We saw Jeff again. He isn't interested anymore in taking the lessons. One day. I don't really remember what else happened.

Friday

Well we had weekly planning. Got a lot discussed. We then went to meet with Bro Guinard. Our lessons with him are very border line. It is just getting him to talk about something gospel related and saying a prayer. Very informal. We then met with Davin. It was good to be able to met with him again. We then had supper at the Tanner's. They are pretty great. We went and had to pick up some things from Bro Duckworth and that was our day.

Saturday

Well today was supper fun. We went over in the morning to Higgins. Jessika was having a craft party with her sisters. They all pretty LA. We went over and made Christmas decorations. We each made a couple of ornaments. Mine are pretty cool. We then were going to go to our place for lunch, but instead we went with the ZL's to the Flea market where one of their investigators works for lunch. It was pretty fun. We then came back had a small Mormon.org time and then took off for the Stake Christmas Concert. It was really cool. They had a choir and orchestra at the Stake Center. It was really cool. To bad none of our investigators or LA's came. It was still really good.

Sunday

Well we had correlation and it went really well. We were able to have a good discussion with the EQ pres, HP councilor and RS pres. We were able to get a lot of referrals from them. The work is starting to really pick up. We then went back to our place for lunch then to church. We hadn't gotten a single QGC so before supper we went and rode a bus down to the LRT and rode the LRT for a little while trying to talk to people. Well the LRT only ran so far for a little while so it kinda threw a wrench in our plans. We ended up walking to 118 and catching up with the ZL's and went to supper. We had supper at the McLean's. It wasn't too bad this time. With the 4 of us the kids weren't as wild and the food wasn't too bad. Cranberry wings aren't too bad. Not the best though. We then went down and were going to meet with Robyn. Well when we got there he was in the shower, but we got to talk to his son Ricki. They would be a really cool family to teach. So far they are just potentials. We are going to try and do Bro Palmers idea of a home bible study. It will be really good for them to start off with. Talking to Ricki also gave us a QGC. No 0's this week.

Well that was my week. Probably one of the better weeks that we've had lately.

Love you all

Elder O'Neill

PS. With Regards to Christmas, I hope to be able to know more by next week. We are probably going to be Skyping from the Thomas'. I will find out more about when. I would love to be able to talk with Sean, Em and the kids. I miss them too. And possibly Grandma. TTYL

PPS I have pictures to send, but can't from this computer. Next week.

Londonderry Chapter 7

Well this past week has been really quite interesting. A lot of things happened that we just didn't expect. Really pretty crazy.

Monday

Well we had P-day. I really enjoy being able to ride around with the zone leaders. It was pretty strange because Elder Kinghorn was leaving. We had P-day and then we had to pick up dinner from Conrads'. They had signed up, but Bro Conrad was out of town. Sister Conrad was nice enough to get a pizza for us. We then got picked up for the scripture study class. We tried to get through it as quick as possible so that Elder Kinghorn could say goodbye to some other people.

Tuesday

Well we went to see Bro. Duckworth. Those visits are usually the same. Interesting guy. We then went home and had lunch. We needed to do some cleaning and did that. Couple hours flew by and then we went to supper at Higgins. We really needed to clean up and we really got organized too. The apartment looks so much better. We had a really great lesson with Trevor. He is really starting to understand things and he is asking really great questions. Elder Kinghorn and Ladd were there to say goodbye and were a huge help to us in the lesson. We then went and saw Bro Guinard. We had a good time with him and actually had somewhat of a lesson. It was a really productive day.

Wednesday

Well we had mormon.org time. It wasn't the best since my headphone jack wasn't working. I could hear the music for the videos and music on mormonchannel, but I wasn't able to hear the voices. I know it was just the plug in. We had lunch and then headed south for some stop-bys. Stopped by some potentials and formers and then headed back up for supper with the Palmers. Well there are 3 Palmers in the ward. This was Jim and Barbara. They are an older couple who are super nice. It was really cool too. They have a grandson on a mission in Halifax right now. I asked who it was. Elder Brenton McMullen. I was in the MTC with him. What are the chances. He is from Calgary and I'm now serving in his grandparents ward. Crazy. The Mormon world is pretty small sometimes. We then stopped by Alosious and a miracle happened. He was home and not busy. We have stopped by and talked to him just about every week this last transfer, but never had a lesson with him. So it only took 6 weeks, but we had a lesson with him. He is super awesome, just busy.

Thursday

Well we had district meeting and district lunch. Oh that was great. Elder Phillips had slipped on a huge snow pile as we were going to Alosious Wednesday. He thought it was more solid than it was. It was pretty much all powder and he just stepped right in and fell. Super funny. So he had to buy doughnuts for the district. We stopped at the store and all they really had were some cookies. Well Elder Cook had slipped too, so we had doughnuts and cookies. Sweet. It was probably one of the best district meetings we've had up here. I'm talking the spiritual side too. We went to the mall for lunch. We had a thing set up with some of the youth in the ward to come for lunch and bring a non-member friend. That really didn't go that well. Pretty much no one showed up. After lunch we had the car so we went back down south. The car is super nice. We got a different car at transfer meeting. We used to have a Chevy Cruise. The mission was trying to put a lot of the cruises in the city since they only have 2 wheel drive. Well we kept getting stuck, so we asked for a different car. We now have a Subaru Impreza. It is all wheel drive and so much better. We came up and had supper at the Dorreys'. We then had a lesson with Sis Hernandez. It went really well. We had a great lesson about the Tree of Life. We left and went to stop-by Josh, Sis Chemko's grandson. We kinda got the cold shoulder from his mom. We went and just asked if he was home. We hadn't seen him in a few weeks and just wanted to see how he was doing. He mom just said "oh he's busy doing his own thing right now". It was strange. We were heading back home and about to get gas when Spanish called. They were stuck in the snow. Well we drove over to help them. They went to make a U-turn and got high centered on a snow pile. They tried everything. We got there and tried to help break up the snow underneath, but didn't help. They called a tow truck. Well it was going to be a while, so we drove them back to their apartment to wait. We then drove them back. The tow truck was delayed, but they told us to go ahead an leave. We had to switch with the Zl's since they had MLC the next day to we picked them up and drove home. It was a late night.

Friday

Well today was even more chaos. So we got up early and went with Claireview to Seminary. The Seminary students had invited us to come and play a scripture mastery challenge with them. It was a lot of fun. You had your teams and 3 people from a team went up in each round. You had to pick up the BOM and find the scripture mastery that the teacher was reading. Then the 3 people on the team had to race against the other to get Tic-tac-toe by sitting in chairs. Apparently it was a tame game with us. I guess they are usually more aggressive and picking each other up or pushing each other around. We really can't do that. so it was a lot more tame. We then went and played some basketball with them too. It was still kind of our exercise time. We then went back and since we had a late night and an early morning, we decided to take a quick nap, before weekly planning. In hindsight it was a bad idea. We slept a little too long. we then had lunch. We were going to start weekly planning and realized we left the phone at the church. so we had to walk over and get that. We came back and we had a call from the Housing Coordinators. They were in the area and wanted to come see how our apartment was doing. So we had to do a little clean up. They came and checked out everything. As soon as we get rid of our couch and coffee table (very inconvenient) they are going to bring us some chairs and a microwave cart. It'll be way better. Well we then had Weekly planning. We got a call from Spanish and Sis Bonnell needed some help moving things. She said it would only take like 30 minutes. GONG SHOW! Service like that never takes 30 minutes. It was helping her get her late husbands electric scooter out of her truck (out of the cold) and upstairs. Well the wheels of the scooter needed air as well as her truck. So we had to follow her to somewhere with an air hose. Filled it up and then go back to take it out of the truck and upstairs, where there really wasn't anywhere to put it. It ended up taking like 3 hours. We both missed our supper appointments. Luckily Angells were nice enough to leave the Chili on the front porch. We stopped by and picked it up and then went home. Didn't really do a whole lot the rest of the night. The ZL's gave us the car back. That was it. Pretty much Friday = GONG SHOW TO THE MAX!!!

Saturday

Nothing could have been as bad as Friday. Well we did the usual morning routine. Then we helped Bro Anderson move some stuff. Crazy situation, but he is moving back in with his wife and kids. So we went over and helped him pack up the rest of his things and load up his and Bro Dorrey's Truck. We stopped at Burger King for lunch. and then went over to unload things. After we were done. Sis Anderson made us some hot chocolate. We talked for a little bit and then went back home to change. They gave us a little 3 foot Christmas tree as well. Now we have a Christmas tree. We are still planning on making one out of our lamp. I'll send pics when we get it done. Well we took the rest of our lunch and finished up our Christmas Packages. We then ran over and shipped them out. We then stopped by some people up north and set appointments. We then went and picked up the ZL's for supper at the Theissens. They are super awesome. They are so willing to help us out with anything and are reaching out to some LA families and friends by themselves. Such amazing member missionaries. Neither set of us really had anything so we thought about who we could stop by as the four of us. We decided we hadn't seen Sis Chemko for a while. Well I still have mixed feelings about going there. The first little while we were there was her chewing us out about how we stopped by to see Josh and how her daughter felt like we weren't getting to know them, but shoving religion down their throats. She was also saying how she didn't feel like we trust her because we have to have the right numbers of people. All in all, we probably won't ever be going back to help her or her family. They were too used to some disobedient missionaries back in Manitoba years ago that they don't like how we are trying to be obedient. It is going to really be up to the Ward now. There isn't anything that the missionaries will be able to do. Sad, but that's how it is.

Sunday

Well we had our usual Sunday morning. Correlation, Lunch, Church. After church we went to Doug Palmer's for a visit. We were going to go back to our place to have some spaghetti for supper before the Christmas Devotional, but we were invited over to the older Palmers again for supper. We were very grateful for it, even though we had to eat and leave. We went to the Devotional and none of us really ever watched it before. We all thought it was 2 hours long. Well we then had an extra hour. We went and stopped by Hancock's. Then went home.

Yep this past week has been a pretty crazy week. A lot of things happened that probably weren't the best. That is what the Atonement and this life is for it to learn from your mistakes and improve. This next week is going to be better.

Love you all
Elder O'Neill