Finding and Teaching

April 27, 2015
 

Dear Family,
 

Well, the Canada Halifax mission is one of the hardest missions in North America, so I have been told, and at this point can see. The church up here is pretty small, my friend Elder Algar, who is in the Grand Falls area has about eight people that come to church. A lot of the missionaries in the areas hold callings in their branches, luckily I am in a ward right now and it is unnecessary for me to have a calling. That would be cool though. I have learned a few weird facts here though. Jack Dawson, the character from the Titanic, is buried in Halifax, along with many others. When the Titanic went down some of the ship and many bodies washed up on shore here. 

Now that Alex is done with school, he was able to come to church today. It was a hour and a half broadcast over a big part of the country. I don't know if it is something you saw. During the broadcast many of the things that were said I had moments of, "Alex really needed to hear that" and "The ward definitely needed to hear that." Anyway, with Alex we finally taught him the Plan of Salvation but are not sure how much he got from it. The biggest thing that happened for him this week was that he finally prayed with us. Even though he started the prayer by saying, "Hey Lord how's it going?" it was still a great prayer. He is starting to take leaps of faith and keeping the commitments that we ask him to. With Steven, we taught him on Wednesday and Saturday. He has time to meet more than other people do because he is not in school and is looking for work. Our first meeting we just talked to see where he is at and why he wants to meet. With the reading twelve pages a day of the Book of Mormon that our mission is doing we committed him to do it with us, and he said he would, so that's great. Giving him that commitment also makes it so I have to as well. We found a new investigator named Carmil, she is from the Philippines. We were going to meet with her again but she had to cancel so we are not sure how solid she is. But the first time we met her and she let us right in to teach her my thought was, Is it this easy in the Philippines? They just let you right in? It was a cool experience seeing as how we almost never get into people's houses.
 

Elder McGuire and I were late to President Leavitt's birthday party and missed the surprise part because the line at the grocery store took forever. We still got some ice cream cake though. Also, I bet you that I will finish the Book of Mormon before you. I won't do that with Steph because I think she finished already and I just started. Thanks for keeping me updated on mission calls. Kaleb Schnepf is going to Idaho, that's awesome! Also Kaleb Strong, I think it would be great to go to North Carolina, that's exciting. 

So because it is transfer week sister Sharp and sister Ward are home now and the new Cole Harbour sisters are sister Shannon and sister Hull. Both will definitely help the Cole Harbour area progress. On Thursday we got to go to the temple, which happens every transfer day. I learn something new every time I go. Doing family history I have found a few names to take to the temple but have not done so yet. There are good and bad days but I will continue forward. Love you and miss you so much. 

 

Love, Elder Ray 

Do we go this way or that way?

The gangs all here

Continuing the Work

April 20, 2015

Hi Family,

It's transfer week! Yesterday we got an email with all the areas and the companionship's for the new transfers. It's like getting a mission call every six weeks. Are we staying here? Who is my companion? Am I changing areas? Fortunately I get to stay in the metro area longer because I am staying in Cole Harbour with Elder McGuire. He is stuck with me for another transfer. Elder Wilson who has lived in the apartment with us, companions with Elder Blum, is being moved to Cornerbrook up in New Foundland. Elder Blum's new companion is Elder Tauffer, who came out in the same group as I did.

The fact that there are I think four cousins getting ready to go on missions around the same time is awesome. It would be so cool if one of them went to Halifax, but out of 402 missions there is a slight chance.

Most of our investigator appointments cancelled this week, which was a bummer. We haven't had the chance to meet with Steven yet but will be this week. Also Alex was working on a project at school at the time we usually meet. And we were going to meet with Greg, who we just met, but we think he wasn't sober enough to remember that we had an appointment. On Thursday we helped the sisters move their apartment from the fourth floor down to the first floor. The building does not have an elevator. Picture this, moving tables, chairs, desks, couches, and beds down four flights of stairs. Everyone was so exhausted after, yet the day wasn't over. We should be moving our apartment in the next couple of weeks from the ninth floor to the first floor, and luckily we have an elevator. The elders and sisters live in different apartment buildings.

It is starting to warm up and there are a lot more people walking and running outside now, it is easier to talk to people. One place that I enjoy talking to people is on the board walk in Eastern Passage. It is right on the ocean and lots of people are there. We also get to enjoy the ocean, it`s awesome. Yeah so Friday evening was Dave Lake's baptism, which was huge because this mission doesn't see too many baptisms. Our whole district had a part in his journey to baptism at one point or another. I guess I could count him as my first but he was the other elders investigator, I was just there to help teach a lesson once. There were eleven missionaries at his baptism, and we all sang Amazing Grace for it. Dave picked the song. As a missionary if you have the slightest musical ability with singing or an instrument you will be involved a lot.

Today we will be going to the mission office for a surprise party for President Leavitt's birthday. It will be different when they leave in a couple of months and then we get President Pratt. That's another big reason I like the areas near the mission home and office, because you get to be involved in fun and important things. I get to go to some meetings that others don't and do things like throw a party. Anyways, much love.

Love, Elder Ray

Not Transferred yet.

Dave's Baptism and all the missionaries involved.

We got our pictures and info up in the church
building, so everyone can know that we exist.

This is how we weekly plan, so focused.

The Miracle of Paying Fast Offerings

April 13, 2015

Dear Family,

Cole Harbour is interesting, it's like the land of the voice-mails, no one picks up their phone. It's weird, some days I don`t have to wear a heavy jacket, other days I do. It did reach 15 Celsius yesterday (Sunday). The weather here feels so amazing right now and I am told that everything gets beautifully green in the summer. Our investigator Alex is coming along, I think. We taught him about prayer on Saturday and committed him to pray throughout the week. He shared a personal story that was really intense and brother Moses (our ward mission leader who taught with us) shared a insanely powerful testimony to him. Let's just say there were no dry eyes. We now know that he needs to learn the plan of salvation because of this. Lessons like these remind me of why I am here and it helps me to keep going.

In the past week, though some days have been rough, my testimony has been strengthened. We were not having success in finding people to teach. I thought: Do I not have enough Faith? Am I doing something wrong? Then I came across one of my favorite scriptures during personal study, Proverbs 3:5-6. Take the time to look it up, because it changed my attitude. Saturday was our rough day in the week. We were getting discouraged that we couldn't find anyone new to teach, even after all we had done. When Sunday rolled around I was excited for church. It was our fast Sunday because Conference was last week. When we paid our fast offerings, which we hadn't in some time, everything seemed to change. I felt happier, and by the very end of our week, in the last hour, we found someone to teach. That experience strengthened my testimony on fast offerings, which is new because I have never paid them before, seeing as how Dad does it for our family. The person we found to teach is Steven, he is in his twenties and lives with a less active member. He attended the YSA ward yesterday and told us that he would like to join the church if he knew he was staying in Cole Harbour, he lives up in Labrador, where there are about three LDS members.

I can't believe the musical is already over, what are Stephanie and Stephen going to do with all their time? Do homework, yeah right. (When asked why he was cutting his hair in the ladies room in the picture last week) The ladies room. There are two washrooms in our apartment, one for each companionship, why they have signs on them I don't know. But the ladies room has the tub and the men's has the shower, so I'm guessing that's why. Let me tell you, cutting your hair by yourself is one tough cookie. Unfortunately I did not take any more pictures this week but there will for sure be some next week.
 

The Dartmouth Elders (the ones that we live with), have a baptism on Friday and we are going to attend. His name is Dave and he is awesome, I helped teach him once when we went on exchanges a few weeks ago. Things will hopefully pick up as we go into the summer. You are all in my prayers. Love you. 

Love, Elder Ray

General Conference Weekend

April 6, 2015
  

Dear Family,
 
It has been a great week, though we are struggling to find new investigators to teach. The package came on Thursday, that was a lot of candy, but the Elders I live with enjoyed it too. So thank you, it made my week. Well, it's April yet the snow keeps falling, I think Spring will be here by June. Right now we are teaching Alex, and in our lesson on Saturday he said maybe to baptism, he needs time to think. It's not a no, so I am hopeful. We are using different ways to find people to teach to see what works best, experimenting. For conference we went to the sessions at the church. It was really great, I got a lot out of it. And if you did not get the overall message of Saturday sessions it was marriage and families, they made that pretty clear. It was hard to get up Sunday because the priesthood session ended at eleven so we didn't go to bed until almost twelve. For the Sunday afternoon session President Leavitt and Sister Leavitt invited the area missionaries to the mission home for dinner and to watch the last session of conference. Someone joked about wanting to get a picture with the prophet so we googled him and, hence the picture. Every week Elder McGuire and I visit the Thompson's, they are preparing to go to the temple for their endowment. Hopefully I will be there for it. Also brother Thompson gives us great health tips and now Elder McGuire and I are going to start juicing, maybe I can lose some weight. Also the amount of dogs that come at you when knocking doors is funny. There are so many big dogs here and it seems like everyone owns one. I saw my first raccoon on my mission, Elder McGuire was telling me about how a less active family served him raccoon for dinner once, it was roadkill and they cooked it. It is a lie that you eat a lot of seafood up here, I haven't yet. I have eaten a lot of lasagna though. Now that the snow is starting to melt, I am seeing spiders all over the place. Apparently there are almost more spiders in Atlantic Canada then there are in Brazil. The learning I am doing here will never end and the experiences I have will be with me forever. Stressed, yes, but happy. How is the ward doing?  I am happy to hear what's happening at home and all the great things you do. I love and miss you.

Love, Elder Ray

Easter Dinner and Conference at the Mission Home

Elder Ray giving himself a haircut

Cat Loving Companions

Ready to Work