Monday, March 31, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 23

Wow this week has been a bit of a gong show, but it was a good gong show. In total we got 3 new investigators and dropped one of them already.
Monday
Well we had a good pday. Crazy thing happened when we were shopping. We were walking down an aisle and this lady asked:
"Hey are you mormons?"
"Well yes we are."
"How do I get a Book of Mormon?"
"Well, we don't have one on us right now, but we can bring one to your door."
"Oh never mind then."
She walks away. Elder H yells at her saying that if she sees other missionaries to ask them. We continue shopping and a few minutes later she comes back.
"Do you have a card or something? I really want a Book of Mormon. Could we meet somewhere?"
"We could meet at your home."
"No I'd rather not. Could we meet here tomorrow."
"Well this is a little far from where we live. We live next to Londonderry Mall we could meet you there?"
"Ok, see you tomorrow.  My name is Elizabeth by the way"
It was one of the weirdest experiences that kept going throughout the week. You'll hear the whole story slowly. It's crazy. Well the rest of p-day was good. We didn't play basketball again. Instead we played floor hockey. We ended up playing full court too. It was awesome. We went to Laubman's for supper. Some thing hit me while we were there. I thought it was I just got a minute to finally relax for a bit, but it kept up. Our lesson fell through that night, so we went back to do some phone calls. I was wiped out. We planned out the next day and I went to bed at like 9.
Tuesday
LRT and prep. I still had close to zero energy. We went and met Elizabeth at the mall.
"Thank you for the Book of Mormon. It is actually for my son. He is really interested in this right now and would like to meet with you."
"Ok well can we have his number to call him?"
"No he'll give you a call to probably meet with you tomorrow."
"Ok well our number is in the back of the Book"
So we went back to our apartment. We had studies and then we went down to Dave's to help him out a little for this week. After that we went and did mormon.org time. I was still wiped out don't know what was wrong. We were picked up by Kingway and we met Dan and Jen from Parkland at OJ's for wing night. They have Tuesday night wing night. 10 wings for $3.50. It was a lot of fun. Dan also, I'm pretty sure when he went to the bathroom, paid for us all. It was super nice. We then went back home and Elizabeth called us seeing if we were available to meet on Thursday at 3. We didn't know what was exactly going on on Thursday so we planned for Friday. I don't know what was exactly wrong, but when we went to OJ's I was just fine. It was weird I had zero energy. I wanted to go out and do things, but my body didn't want to move. Totally fine now.
Wednesday
LRT, prep, studies, lunch. We then went to Bro Duckworth's I haven't seen him in a while. We weren't able to go last week and the week before they went on exchanges. It was a good visit. We then rode the LRT for a little bit and then went back to our apartment to wait for Tagalog to pick us up for supper at Stebners. It was fun. We then stopped by some LA's in the area.
Thursday
Well today was all sorts of confusing. There was a big meeting in Sherwood Park where some one from the missionary department came to give some trainings on how to teach better. Well the thing was that not everyone was going. Only about half of the city missionaries were going. By half meant half of each companionship. So while Elder Hentunen went to the meeting I was with Elder Scheiss in both of our areas. Well they came to pick us up at 7:45 and then we dropped of our comps at the ZL's place so they could go to the meeting. We went back to their apartment for studies. We then we out to try LA's in Clareview. We stopped at 7-eleven to get drinks for the day. We then stopped by some LA's in Clareview. We then went to pick up CD2 to go to the Italian Bakery for lunch. We then dropped them off and stayed there for a bit. We then stopped by some LA's in Londonderry. By then it was time to get our companions back. We waited around our apartment for them. We then planned the lessons for the night, then went to Ewing's for supper. Supper was running late, so we shared the message first and then ate. We told our next appointment, Purnell's (upstairs), we might be a little late. We then went up and met with Bro Purnell. We then went home for some phone calls.

Friday
LRT, prep, studies, lunch. We then did a little weekly planning until we had to go meet Elizabeth and Alex at Indigo, a bookstore. We met them there. Elizabeth went shopping while we met with Alex. He was interesting. He had a read a lot online about us. He had seen a lot of the negative and really wanted to know what we were about. We taught him Lesson one. We were going to meet him at the church on Sunday. We weren't really sure how interested he was in changing. "I still want to wear speedos on the beach and drink wine and go to clubs." We then went to Annette's for supper. She has signed up once a month to feed us and once a month for the sisters as well. We went over with Josh from the ward. It was really good and we had a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon with her. Geordy had to work. Wish he could have been there. We then went back to finish weekly planning while we waited for CD1 to go on exchanges.

Saturday
Well We exchanged right before we had to be in so I ended the night in Castledowns. We went and played basketball in the morning. Prep, studies. Part way through studies Elder K wasn't feeling too good so he went to lay down for a bit. We waited for a little. He started to feel better. We were going to help this family move, but I didn't have any service clothes. So we went to get some clothes and then went to help them move. We then picked up our comps and met some others and went to lunch. We wanted to get together and go to lunch since one of the elders is going home in a week. It was so much fun. We went to this place where you build your own burger. They have different things that you can put on your burger. We had fun with our burgers. We exchanged back after lunch. We then headed to Higgins. When we got there they weren't home, so we caught a bus to head home. While we were waiting at Clareview, Higgins called. We asked if they could pick us up. He came and we went for supper. We didn't eat much, but it was still good. We then had an amazing lesson. We are going to start over with the lessons. We then went to a lesson which was amazing. We met Jonah at the bus stop on Friday on the way to Alex. We taught him the first lesson and challenged him to be baptized. He accepted. A new investigator and on date.
Sunday
Well we had church. We were hoping more investigators were going to show up. The only one was Annette and Kennedy. Church was really good. We then went home, had our lunch break, had a little bit of studies. We were talking about Alex and decided to call him to see if he was really interested in what we were teaching or if he just wanted the information. He said he was really interested so we told him we would meet him at the church at 3. Well we went to the church and waited around for a little bit. It was a little after 3 and we called him. Elizabeth answered. "You made it pretty clear you didn't want to meet with him"
"We just wanted to see if he was interested. We still want to meet with him"
"Well he thought you didn't, so goodbye."
That is the end of the crazy story. It ended in a little miscommunication. Too bad. Well while we were there we remembered about Sister Gillespie. We called Bro Skinner to see if he would go with us to give her the Sacrament. We went then he dropped us off at our apartment. We were picked up by Bro Branco for supper at there house. They are great. They are going on a trip this week so I won't be able to see them before transfers. It was a great time with them. We then went down to meet with Joe and Sheena. We finally met with Sheena. She already knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. May 10 is when.
It was overall a crazy week, but ended really well. 2 new investigators and 4 investigators on date. Londonderry is doing great. I'm going to miss this place. One week left. :(

--
Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, March 24, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 22

Hey there. I can't believe how quickly this past week went by. This week was a bit of a gong show. A lot happened and as a result I'm exhausted. We were working dang hard.
Monday
Well we had P-day. I'm tired of the drama involved with other missionaries. It would be so much easier if we didn't have to share a car. Anyways after p-day was over, we had to go help Sis Huff move some boxes. We had supper at Van Orman's. Bro Van Orman wasn't home when we got there so we had to wait in the car for a little bit. It was a nice break. We had a good time there. We then went over to Tanners for the night. Did a little bit of FHE with them.

Tuesday
Well we had Zone Conference. It was actually both Ed North zones. It was really good and we got really good insights and inspiration from it. It was long, but I always enjoy just learning. To have a little fun we played what we call fish bowl. It's kind of like Jeopardy. It was pretty fun. Pretty early on we picked the topic in Hymns/White Handbook. There were two people from each team. Elder H and I went from our team. We had to sing Behold a Royal Army switching words back and forth. We had a definitely better flow and tone, so we won that round it was awesome. We also had a training from our Zone Leaders about being prepared. We started off with an egg drop contest. They didn't tell us before hand. They had sent out a text saying be prepared, that was it. Well we were split off in districts to prep the egg. Well Sis M was awesome. She put the egg in her coat pocket and then wrapped the coat around it. Well at the end of it all of our districts saved the egg. Even the district who just put tissue packs lightly around it. It kinda ruined the lesson, because they were expecting our eggs to break. Pretty awesome. After zone conference we went home for supper. We were supposed to go to Dorey's but they never answered. We had just started eating when they called and asked if we were coming for supper. We just cancelled. We then went with Cody to Annette and Geordy's. We had a really good lesson. Annette is starting to gain a testimony It's great!
Wednesday
Well Wednesday was a gong show. LRT then we went to meet with Carl, someone Elder H knew from his last area. We then came home to study. We then went to the mission home for interviews. Well we knew interviews were going to go long. Our interviews were supposed to start at 3:40, so we got there at 3:30. We didn't have interviews until around 5. We also gave CD1 a ride so we had to wait until they were all done. We finally left the mission home around 7. We planned on not doing much that night. We went to Five Guys for supper. It is really good. Their cajun style fries are the best. We then travelled to drop off CD1 and went home.
Thursday
LRT, prep, studies Lunch, Mormon.org then helping Dave. We have decided we can't keep going over there. The sisters told us we need to find a member that could help him. Now we just have to find someone that is willing to help him. :P We then went home to change and to have supper. We then tried some LA's. We then stopped by and talked to Bro Skinner. It was great to just talk with someone.
Friday
This is the day I started to get tired. LRT, prep. Then we went to help a new family, White's, that are moving into the ward, paint their house. We were over there for a long time. They were nice enough to give us lunch. We then went home and quickly changed so we could go to a lesson with Savannah. It was a first lesson with her and also a pass-over lesson to the sisters. It was at Forsyth's. One of the Forsyth kids and one of the Bonnell girls are friends with her, so they were both there as well. It was pretty awesome. We then went home for studies and supper. We then had a lesson with Annette and Geordy with Bro Bonnell. It was good. We talked about what they still need to do before they came be baptized. They still have until June, but there is still a lot they need to do before then.
Saturday
I'm really tired from Saturday. We helped two different families move. We went to CD to help Dean and Ashley load their truck. They are moving into our ward. Ashley is LA and Dean is investigating. We were helping them load the moving truck with all of their things. We then went down to help White's move into their house. I'm so tired and sore from those moves. We were supposed to have a lesson with Wayne, but he fell through again. We went back to have a bit of weekly planning. We went to Angell's for supper. They are so funny. We then went back and continued our weekly planning.
Sunday
Well as of Saturday night we didn't have much going on. After church, we had a full day. We had Ward council in the morning. It went well. We then had Church. It was amazing Marie came by herself to church. Annette AND Geordy came. It was the first time Geordy had come. It was amazing. Church went well. We then went home for lunch. We then went down to the hospital. There was a member from Tofield that fell and broke her hip. We were meeting her HT/Branch Pres there to give her a blessing. We then went and had a lesson with Joe. We talked to him at chruch about coming at 3 to meet with him and Sheena, but when we got there. Their dad didn't know where Joe was and Sheena was gone. AHH! One day Sheena will be taught. We then went up to Pilisko's house for supper. It was miracle. That was the first and last time in 6 months that I've been there for supper. We then went to the Army base to Lee's. We had a family home evening with them. It was fun. We ran home for a bit and then went to Palmer's to do some coordination/ pday eve.
Last week was crazy, but I got through it. I've decided I will be able to finally rest in about 14 months. :)

Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, March 17, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 21

I was just looking at it and 21 weeks is a long time. I know this area so well. It's crazy.
Well my week was a bit of a gong show.
Monday
We had P-day. It was crazy we emailed for like 2 hours straight and I'm pretty sure neither of us were all the way done. We then went and did some shopping. Went to our apartment for a quick lunch. Then went to play some basketball. We went to Habing's for supper. We then went to stop by a few people and then went home to make phone calls.
Tuesday
LRT, prep, Food Bank, Lunch, studies. Food Bank was pretty fun. We have been starting to do the individual hampers. There will be a label with how many adults children or infants. Depending on the number of people depends on how many boxes of food to fill. It really feels more personally doing that. We then had a lesson with Jen and the sisters. She is so golden. Unfortunately the sisters haven't been able to meet with her since. We then went to Higgins for supper. We then had a lesson with Annette and Geordy and Cody came with and Marie was there. It was a really good lesson.

Wednesday
LRT with the ZL's. We did splits with the ZL's to ride the LRT and contact. I was with Elder Sorensen. He was big help that day for me. We had a lot of success that day. We then were going to have a lesson with Wario and he was asleep. we went back and did studies. We then went to help Dave. That was the most work that we have done in the 2 months we have been helping him. We really took a step forward. I was exhausted, but it felt good. We then had supper with Dorey's. We then walked to the church. We were supposed to go on split's with the priests, but only one of them could come. We went and he taught a lesson at the Moen's. It was really good.
Thursday
LRT, prep. District Meeting, District Lunch and then EXCHANGES. District Meeting was really good and district Lunch was fun. It was weird to go on exchanges with Elder Coomer because I still had to drive. It was fun. We went through a lost sheep list with the other CD elders and then stopped by a few of them. We picked up the others a little while later and went to the Italian Bakery for supper. We then stopped by a few more people and ended the night. We ended up having a late night just talking.
Friday
We woke up and did the normal. It was good to not have to hurry and get out the door. I tried making pancakes and I failed. We then went for our interview at the Stake Center. We then went to McDonalds for lunch. E Coomer had coupons. It wasn't too bad. We were really just taking our time. We went to exchange back, but they were waiting for Wario, so we just waited until the lesson was done. We then exchanged back and had Weekly Planning. We had supper at Thiessens and then really didn't do much else that night.
Saturday
I was exhausted by the end of the day. We helped a member move into our ward from Barrhead. It was a lot of boxes. It was the most organized move in the world though. They had every box labelled of what room it went. We then went home and had lunch. We then went on splits with Bro Thiessen and Bro Ewing. It was awesome. Bro Ewing and I went to visit Wayne, but he wasn't home. So we tried by some potentials. one wasn't home. We then went to try Cameron. Well he was actually home. It was also a really interesting visit. I didn't know anything about him before. He was just a potential. Found out that he was raised in the church, served a mission and then got in a debate with his brother and isn't sure if there is a god or not. It was crazy at how far and fast he had lost the truth. We then had a lesson with Don. We were able to answer some of his questions. He isn't going anywhere. He said we could come back in a month. We traveled home and spanish picked us up to go to supper with Andersons at fatburger. It was really good. It's like JCW's. We then went EQ games night. Dave was supposed to come but didn't. Oh well.
Sunday
We had church. It went really well. Did I tell you I had to teach EQ. It was a rough lesson. Luckily I only had 30 minutes. I know why we have companions on missions to help us teach. It was rough. After church we went to Goetz's house for a youth panel. They had written down some questions for the missionaries and we went to answer them. We had a really fun time. We then went home for studies. We went to McLean's for supper. We then went to Son's. We dropped him. He is taking an after school program to learn English and his whole family is Buddhist. Wasn't going to go anywhere. It was a really good day.
Well that was my week. Pretty crazy. The work is exploding in Londonderry.

Love you,
Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, March 10, 2014

Londenderry Chapter 20

Well this week has been a week of many miracles. We have really seen the hand of the Lord in everything that we do.
Monday
Well Monday was pretty great. After we emailed. We went with Kingsway elders and went to Costco. One of them had a card. We went to Costco and stocked up for the month. We then went and played B-Ball. We then went to Tanners for supper. It was really fun. They also had us stay for FHE. It was really good.
Tuesday
LRT, prep then Food Bank. We were around the corner from dropping CV1 off and our car freaked. There were a lot of messages going off. Service traction, engine power reduced. It was wierd. We crept along as fast as we could go to Kal Tire to get it fixed. They said it would be about an hour so we just walked around to the other stores near-by. We were going to go to Burger King when they called and said it was done. It was slick and the tires were spinning earlier. one of the tires was spinning more than the other so it tripped the computer and slowed down the engine. Well we went home and finally had lunch and then studies. We then went to Higgins. We had supper and then watch the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. We also got haircuts. :)
Wednesday
LRT prep. Then we met with our new investigator Wario. Yes his name is Wario. :) He is a guy we met on the LRT. He is awesome and really wants to learn more. We then went home and did studies. After Lunch we went to try Pricilla with the Sisters, but she didn't answer. We then went to the Lindbergs. I'm going to say it again, they are an interesting family. They need the Lord's help. We then went and tracted before supper with the older Palmers. We then had a fun night with the youth. They had an Iron Chef/Master Chef competition and we were the judges. It sounded fun at first but when we got there, we realized we got the short end of the stick. There were three courses. Salad, Kraft Dinner (Mac and cheese), and then Kiisseli (a finnish dessert). It was interesting. They at first had a relay picking up special ingredients to include in their dishes. Well we waited around for a little while and then the food came. Oh man that was interesting. The salads were interesting. I'm pretty sure one team didn't have dressing. Then the KD was by far creative. One team tried to appeal to Elder H by turning the KD blue. Well the color wheel worked against them on that one. Blue+Yellow=...Green. So we had Green KD. It was fine, it just didn't look good. The other was the better one, it had sausage mixed in. Then there were two different types of Kiisseli. Strawberry and blueberry. It is a fruit and gelatin dessert. pretty interesting, but good. It was a fun night. We also finally got pics with Cody.
Thursday
LRT prep, District Meeting. DM was fun. We had a really good time. We created our own Title of Liberty for our District. We put "In Memory Of..." at the top and then wrote some things we were grateful for and then signed our names. We then had district Lunch. Sis M made Idaho Baked Potato Soup. It was super good. We brought a Boston Cream Cake, with strawberries. It was also her birthday. We then met with A+J. They are doing so well. We then did studies. Sister G wanted to surprise Sis M with flowers so she gave us some money to get some flowers and we were going to surprise them at one of the gas stations they go to a lot. It was a great surprise for Sis M. We then went to visit Bro Duckworth. It was a longer visit, but it was good. We then met Cody at the church and he took us out for sushi. :) We were all super excited all day. It was really great too.
Friday
LRT prep PS, CS then lunch. We met CV1 at the Burger King right next to our apartment then went and did Mormon.org. We then walked back to pick up the car and we dropped them off. We then went back and did Weekly Planning. We had a long weekly planning and comp I. Part of it was there was about an hour where our phone was going crazy with phone calls and texts. We got a hold of a few potentials that we are meeting with this next week and also received a few more potentials. It was miraculous.
Saturday
Well today was a long gong show. We got up and did some studies. We then met with Wario with Bro Ewing. It was a short but powerful lesson. It was awesome. 20 minutes and that was it. We then went back and did some more studies then went to the Bread Truck. We came back and had lunch then went to a baptism for the ward. They asked us to give a presentation while they were changing clothes. We then went to meet with Wayne, but he wasn't home. We then stopped by some LA and tracted around. We had a lesson with Lucia. Part of the phone craziness was Lucia wasn't willing to meet with the other elders. So we had a passover lesson with CD1 telling her that we can't teach her and they have stewardship over her now. It was super good. We then drove to pick up supper from Pitzel's and they weren't home. We were almost home and bro Pitzel called. We turned around and picked up supper and then went back home. We had dinner and then went to bed. there was little time in between, but basically that was it.
Sunday
Well we had a ton of people at church. We had Annette and Wario. Sisters had 1 investigator family, French had a family and Tagolog had a person. A lot of non-members and 1 LA. It was good. We also helped teach Priests. They are coming out teaching with us on Wednesday so we helped them prepare the lesson. We had studies and then went to Calkins for supper. We met with Cody and tried to help find a place for a few weeks before he can move in to his new apartment.
It was a crazy week, but we got a lot done. We saw so many miracles.
Love you all,

--
Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, March 3, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 19

Well this week was crazy. A lot of ups and downs. We had to drop most of our investigators. So this next week is going to be a lot of finding. More than normal. We are actully excited about this week though.
Monday
We had P-day. It was good. We tried to get everything that we needed to do before sports. So I told you how it was transfers. Well I didn't know yet, but Elder Phillips was transferred to Spanish. Elder Marsh is also in a YSA ward now. A lot happened except for us. Well we had supper at Calkins. we then went to a lesson with Annette and Jordi. They are so awesome. They just have a few things to work through and they will be baptized.

Tuesday
We did our new usual. Pros, breakfast. Then Food Bank. We might need to find a new day to go. Tuesday isn't working out very well anymore. We then came back to our apartment and had lunch and studies. We had mormon.org then travelled to Calverts. We had supper there and then had a quick lesson with Davin. He needs some help. We then got a ride with Cody and went to a lesson with Lucia. It was so amazing. Cody has been a member two weeks and that lesson was by far the best lesson I've had in my whole mission. Cody was answering things just right and bearing his simple but strong testimony. Lucia was telling us, "I feel something so strong every time you come over." Cody " That is the Holy Ghost." It was so amazing. Lucia is so ready for baptism, but is now in CD. Still most amazing experience ever.
Wednesday
LRT, breakfast, studies, lunch. We went to Bro Duckworth's. We then went to Jacob. He wasn't there. We rode the bus to Lingbergs, but they weren't home either. We went home and made calls before going to supper at Ewings. It was a lot of fun. We then went to contact some referrals. Pretty boring day.

Thursday
LRT, breakfast and then District Meeting. Well it was MLC so we had a combined district meeting again. It was pretty fun. We then had lunch at the church and then went home for studies. We decided to do some weekly planning since we were going to be busy Friday. We then caught a ride with Tagalog to supper at Habing's. They moved into our ward about a month ago from CD. They are a cool older couple. We then tried the referrals and went home. Pricilla actually answered and we are going back on Wednesday.
Friday
LRT breakfast, studies, Lunch. We then walked to Rick's. it was really cold, but there wasn't a bus coming soon enough. We had a good lesson, we are probably dropping him soon. We are going to come back in two weeks maybe. We then got picked up by Kingsway to have a lesson with Suzie. She didnt' show up. We then went to a lesson with Jacob. He wasn't there. We aren't going back to him. He is always drunk. So we dropped him. We went back home for a little then caught the bus to Stebners for supper. It was really good and they sent us home with left-overs. Bro Stebner gave us a ride to John. He said he had good news, which was bad for us. He found his answer of the Sabbath day on Saturday and is sticking with it. We mutually dropped each other.
Saturday.
Well we went to the Bread Truck and then went to help Dave. We came back and had studies. It was too cold to go outside without a car or appointments so we just took a day in. Really kinda boring.
Sunday
Church today was so amazing. It was fast and testimony meeting and it was one of the most spiritual testimony meetings that I've been in. It was really multilingual. Sis Palmers mother went up and bore her testimony in Portuguese since she is still learning English. Translated by Sis Palmer. It was amazing. The Spanish missionaries went up and Elder H. It was really amazing. Gospel Principles was a perfect lesson on fasting. EQ we spent the whole time talking about the first few paragraphs of a talk. Church was so incredible. Too bad none of our investigators or LA's were there. :( We had supper at Johnstons. It was really good. Then we went to the Stake Mission prep to help out. It was fun. Way too many missionaries were there though.
Well my week last week wasn't the best, but this week is going to be so much better.
--
Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, February 24, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 18

Well so I told you how today was transfers and nothing really is changing. I'm staying here another transfer with Elder Hentunen. What's crazy though is that we are getting a new ZL. It's Elder Sorensen. :) I'm so ecstatic!
Well here is a run through of my week.
Monday
Well we had P-day. We had supper at Van Orman's. Some how we got on the topic of flowers and she was talking about how she has 7 rose bushes in the front yard. I was telling her how we used to have rose bushes in the front yard but we couldn't handle the weeds so we pulled everything out, planted bushes and covered it with lava rock. She wasn't happy that we pulled out the rose bushes. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. So I got a new nickname of rose murderer from her. :) We were supposed to have a lesson with a potential Jesse, but he wasn't home. Elder H had a headache so we went in so he could try and get rid of it before our next appointment. We then went to Tanners to pick up laundry and talked for a bit.

Tuesday
Well we went and contacted on the LRT. It is a great place to find people that we normally wouldn't be able to find. Then we went and did service at the Food Bank. We don't know why, but no one was there. It was only us and Sturgeon 2.  We came home and had lunch and studies. We then went and cleaned Bro Duckworth's floors. We then came back, changed and went to Thomas' for supper. We didn't do much else that night.
Wednesday
LRT contacting, breakfast, studies. We then picked up CD1 to help us help Lucia move some things. We went and taught her L3 then put her on date. She is going to be baptized April 12. She is moving to CD1 area that is why we invited them to help us move her. We then went back and changed and went to meet with Jacob. It was a little confusing. He was just coming from his friends apartment up a couple of floors. Well we started to watch the 20 minute restoration film. He ended up talking all the way through it. He also pulled out some wine and started drinking it. He had two small glasses and was gone. I think he got drunk at his friends. It was weird. We also got two media referrals earlier that day so after supper we went to try and contact them. Neither of them answered. We then went and met with Cody it was cool. He wants to start coming with us to teach people so we gave him a PMG. It's going to be awesome.

Thursday
LRT and breakfast. We then had District Meeting. Elder H made his Finnish Casserole for lunch. We then had studies. We then went to Rick. We were planning on dropping him, but we finally saw a change at the very end. He was talking about all of the struggles that he has been going through with his family and we really felt that we should keep meeting with him. It was actually pretty miraculous. The Spirit can really touch and soften peoples hearts. We then went to Thiessens. They taught us L3 like we were investigators. They were really good. It was exactly like they were missionaries again. We then ran home to have a quick supper so we could help Lucia move her big furniture. The Elder's Quorum really did help out. It was great.
Friday
LRT and breakfast. Then we had a lesson with Annette. We were going to teach L3 to Jordi, but he wasn't there. We ended up having a really good talk with Annette, trying to figure out the future and how everything is going to work out, so that she could be baptized. We then went home for lunch and studies. We then had Weekly Planning. We then went to Noberts for supper. We then were going to meet with Cody again that night. Well we had let some other elders borrow our keys to get into the library at the church. Well we hadn't gotten them back, so we couldn't get into the church. We try calling them to get our keys back. We tried calling the sisters, but nothing. We ended up calling Bro Purnell and borrowing his keys, since he lives close to the church. We were way late, but finally got in. Gong show.
Saturday
We woke up did studies, went to the Bread truck, then went and helped Dave. We are actually making progress in his cluttered garage. We then ran to go to a lesson with Kingsway, but fell through. We then had lunch. We then tried LA and potentials. We went to Hoag's for supper and we were actually out in one hour. We then went to try referrals. We actually contacted one of them, who was a mix up. He wasn't actually interested, but we talked to one of his housemates and he took a BOM. We'll go back in a couple of weeks. We then went to the EQ games night. We had invited a lot of people and went to see if any of them had shown up. No one did. Maybe next month.
Sunday
Well we had Ward council in the morning. It actually went really well. It was the best WC that I've been in here in Londonderry. We then had Church. It was really good. We got a new ward mission leader, Bro Palmer. Ya confusing right. I told you how there are 3 Palmers. One of the other Palmers is our WML now. We are sad to see the other one go. He was so good. It was like his eternal calling was to be a WML. Now he is a Stake Clerk. We went home and had lunch. We did studies and then went up to the Army Base to meet with a LA family the Lee's. They are the golden LA family. We were talking and Elder H just bluntly throws it out there, "So why don't you come to church"? I was shocked, but it was really good. We did the mousetrap faith lesson with the kids and commited them to come to church for the next 4 weeks. The kids don't really have an interest in church. So we promised they will find an interest. We then had supper with Davies and Sis Christensen from Parkland. It was a ton of fun. We then had lesson with Cody. We found out there really are more things that we can teach him. It was a pretty awesome day.

Well that was my week, and I'll be here for 6 more. :)
--
Elder Colin O'Neill

Monday, February 17, 2014

Londonderry Chapter 17

Well this week was...(I don't know what to call it). So many things happened good or bad, I don't know.
Monday
oh ya I already told you about Monday and most of Tuesday
Tuesday
Well the only thing new is that we had supper with Massey's. They are a great family. They were telling us about all of the missionary experiences that they have had in the past. They are so missionary minded and so willing to help out. It's awesome.
Wednesday
Well we went out and did some early morning proselyting. That is going to take some getting used to, but it is so much more effective than what we have previously been doing. After lunch we went on exchanges. I was in Londonderry once again. I realized I haven't left my area in two transfers. Oh well. We met Massey's at Lucia's, but she wasn't home. We were really hoping to have a good lesson with her. We then went to Rick's. We showed him the D&C video to really try and show him the beginnings of the church. He isn't accepting of much. We might be dropping him. He just isn't ready for the gospel. We then went to Bro Duckworth's. He was doing well. It was a good visit. We then had supper on our own. We then went and had a lesson with Cody. It was a bit of a rough lesson. I didn't know what to share with him. We were mainly waiting for the other elders. It was going to be the last time we saw Cody before his baptism. We then hung around. Some of the sisters needed a blessing, so regardless it was kinda long night, but very powerful.
Thursday
Well we had district meeting. There was a bit of chaos trying to figure out where to go for lunch. I have finally figured out that there are a lot of conflicting personalities and strong egos around. I'm trying by best to stay collected. We were supposed to have a pass-over lesson with the ZL's but it fell through. We moved it to Saturday. We then went back and since Bro Palmer is going to be coming to check the apartment later this week we took some time to deep clean it. Forsyth's had to cancel supper, but they dropped off a pizza for us. We then went to a lesson with CD1. Their investigator is in the military and they wanted Elder H to come and talk to him how to be a mormon in the military. It was a really good lesson. The 3 of us mostly just listened, while Elder H talked to him.
Thursday we also started a mission-wide fast to help us focus on our purpose more. It was really powerful.
Friday
We went early morning contacting and then came back and had breakfast. We went to a lesson with Annette and Jordi. We taught them the first lesson to try and get them on the same teaching plane. It was really cool to see Annette being able to share her testimony, even if she doesn't know she has one. We then came back, had studies and did Weekly Planning. We went to supper at Thiessen's. They were great. They made us a Valentine's dinner. It was Breakfast for dinner, but the Pancakes were pink. There were also Bacon roses. It was really cool. "As if Valentine's day doesn't make missionaries trunky enough". They were awesome. We then went to a lesson with Davin. It had been a while since we have seen Davin. He is really trying to change his life around. He has been going through a hard time for a while and wants a change. He has already seen a difference in the past few weeks when he has come to church. We shared the Faith mousetrap lesson. It was prefect for him.
Saturday
Well we had studies then went to help Dave. We came back and had to hurry and change to go to the pass-over lesson with the ZL's. It was a very interesting lesson. We walked in and it was really smoky. We then go into another room to have privacy for the lesson. Well we had a lesson on this dudes bed. Whatever works. We then came back and had lunch. We then rode the bus up to Branco's. We had called to see if they would feed us, but were busy, but wanted to give us food that we could take home. It was sweet. We then went back home and had supper. We then went and did more drumming with David. The chili for supper didn't sit well. We had to hurry home afterwards. :)
Sunday
Well church was really good. We ended up having a lot of people at church. Annette and Marie came. Trevar was there. Davin and Bro Lindberg also came. So 2 investigators and 3 LA's. Not a bad week. It was a little confusing for Annette. It was Ward Conference. The talks and lessons weren't really tailored to investigators or LA's. We then went back and had lunch and studies. We then went to McLean's for supper. We then went and taught Son English. It was a miracle. He was able to understand much more of what we were teaching him. He would read it once in english once in Vietnamese and then explain it back to us in English. There was some definite progress. We then went home and called Cody. He said that everything worked out perfectly. His girlfriend got him his own scripture set with his name on it. I can't wait to see him on Tuesday.
Well that was my week. Transfer calls come next week. I don't think I'm going to be leaving quite yet, but who knows the Londonderry book might be ending. :)
Love you,
--
Elder Colin O'Neill