Suites - $500, Shirts - $200, Mission - Priceless

May 18, 2015

Dear Family,

This week went by pretty fast, and the weather is great. We are getting to the point where we don't have to wear suit jackets outside. Well, we found a new investigator, her name is Lisa, and she is from Labrador. She was a former investigator and we found her in our record book. We taught her the Restoration and she wanted us to come back, so that's a good sign. We knocked a street one evening and twenty four of the twenty seven houses we knocked answered, that never happens. Many people usually aren't home so that was a good time for that street. We also did a lemonade stand with the sisters this weekend out on the boardwalk. It was a long holiday weekend and there were so many people there. It was disappointing how many people did not want free lemonade, but it started to pick up after a while.

And then there is our awesome investigator Steven. In the last week we taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he understood and agreed with it all. Sister Voisey is always there and we do scripture studies with her. She is planning on going back to church and if she goes Steven will go, they are like a packaged deal. They are so much fun to visit and we have a really good relationship with them. Steven said yes to baptism but hasn't picked a date yet, we are so excited though.

Saturday evening was fun because our ward did a Meet the Mormons screening and the missionaries were in charge of the popcorn. The popcorn machine that we brought did not work and we had to get a backup...we had one job. And then the movie wasn't playing on the projector, we thought everything might not work out, but it did. I also got to see it for the first time, which is weird that I have not seen it when I worked at the movie theatre. It was really good and of course I cried, especially when they showed the missionary leaving scene. Loved seeing the people there. it was good to see Sister Ward there, who just went home from her mission three weeks ago but came back with her parents to tour her mission. She came with Alicia Kearley, who is getting ready to have a baby soon.

Also played some chair soccer on P-day with President Leavitt and some of the other elders in close areas, first time I played that game.

Suits-$500

Shirts-$200

Mission-Priceless

Love,

Elder Ray

 

Foggy picture fun at the beach

Elder Hansen and Elder Ray taking a selfie

Free lemonade stand at the boardwalk

This way or that way Elder Ray?

The distance between  houses makes for some long walks

Mother's Day

May 11, 2015

Happy Mother's day to all mother's, especially those who have children far from home. I hope it was a special day.

This was my first week with Elder Hansen. He is so cool and we clicked fast and I think that we work well together, so this should be a good transfer. I definitely had to step up and contribute more because I can't rely on Elder McGuire for the Cole Harbour knowledge anymore, I have to do things for myself. Yes, it makes me feel a little more stressed but now I feel like I am doing more.

We visited with one of my favorite families in the area, the Hatton's. We talked a lot about brother Hatton's motorcycle accident and he showed us his foot, which was just about ripped to shreds and he had to get it put all back together, it looks so weird but cool. I may have mentioned this before but I don't remember.

We were invited last minute to play softball with the youth for mutual because not enough of them showed up. We were too far from our apartment to change in time so we played in white shirt and tie. there is a first for everything. It was a great way to get involved with the youth and we had fun at the same time.

Every week we visit the Thompson's, who I love. I don't know if I mentioned but sister Thompson has MS and it is so amazing that they are going through the temple in the next couple of weeks. I am hoping to go when they go through.

I said once that I loved to talk to people on the boardwalk, seeing as how it is right next to the ocean, but we tried a new way of starting conversation by asking people if they would take our picture. Those that did were the ones we talked to the longest, and we got some fun pictures out of it.

We had stake conference over the weekend and the whole stake being there was about the size of our home ward in Arizona, before it was split. Many of the messages shared were focused on the family which always hit home for me of course.

I think by this point I am adjusted to missionary life, though every day is different.

I love and miss you so much and have you in my prayers and mind always.

Love Elder Ray

Traffic control for stake conference

Eastern passage photo opportunity

Daily workout

Wearing a glove turns your hand orange

Cheering on the other players

Elder Ray and Elder Hansen in the game

P-Day Percussion: Book of Mormon Stories

P-Day Percussion: Families Can Be Together Forever

P-Day Percussion: Nephi's Courage

Changes

May 4, 2015

Dear Family,

Skyping, that is a good question. I should be skyping at six p.m. which is like two or three o'clock for you. I may send a quick email later confirming this. It's sad that I miss everyone's birthdays, but that sounds like dad's kind of birthday. Wow, Nephi got a great place to go, he will be teaching a lot. Does anyone else already have their papers in?
  
As a mission we were challenged to read the Book of Mormon this transfer, and I am already on page seventy, so that is going well. This week has been very interesting. On Monday we were just going about our normal P-day and eating dinner. We got a call from the Misner's, one of the most missionary minded families I have met, wondering where we were for dinner. We didn't get the chance to see the meal calendar and did not know if any were scheduled that week. We changed quickly and raced down there, they were very nice about it and I ended up eating two dinners. Oh I was so full.
 
This week being the first week of the new transfer we had a zone training, and since my companion Elder McGuire is the zone leader, I was also involved in a lot of it. I got to be the music chorister and was involved in a couple of role plays. Right after the zone conference we went to help Heidi and her kids move. She was referred to us by the Misner`s. We spent a couple of hours moving boxes and furniture to their new house a few streets away. From doing this we got to know them pretty well and asked her if she wanted to take the missionary discussions. She said most likely, but after they get moved in, seeing as they are actually really busy. So we will be in contact with her in a few weeks to see where she is at.

We went to visit a less active one day, Sister Pretty, she loves to talk. She has had two brain anorisms in her life and has short term memory loss. She reads the Book of Mormon every night, but can`t remember much, so that`s why she keeps reading, which is good. We are going to try to visit her every week and get her back to church.
  
On Saturday we had exchanges again and I worked with Elder Taufer in Dartmouth today. Both of us are still new, and we didn`t have a GPS. Guess how many times we got lost? I want to say about four times. In the afternoon we helped Brother Ehler move out of his apartment. It seems like you move people all the time as missionaries. Then we taught Phillip, who I helped Elder Wilson teach once on a different exchange. We watched the John Tanner story with him and taught him about following the prophet, then committed him to stop drinking coffee according to the word of wisdom. He said yes to stopping coffee but not to cigarettes yet, he is slowly coming off those. Then we had dinner with the Lakes, Dave Lake being the one who was recently baptized. They are so awesome and I wish I could visit them more but I am not in Dartmouth. We were going to reteach Dave the Restoration but we were asked by his wife Tammy to teach him about tithing. That was awesome because in training that morning we practiced teaching tithing.
  
Our exchange day went a lot better than Elder McGuire and Elder Blum's day. They didn't tell us anything until we got back at night. During the day they were called by President and Elder McGuire had a meeting where he was released from being a zone leader, a trainer, and would be transferring to the Bridgewater area. What shocking and depressing news. He is relieved though that he has less stress now but we are not companions anymore. He is leaving today and my new companion will be Elder Hansen, who I briefly met once. It all happened so fast, and I am still kind of confused why, but we will adjust. It just made me more stressed because now I am the missionary in Cole Harbour the longest, the other three are new. Aah!
  
Along with that our investigator Alex dropped us and I wasn`t there for it. He talked with his parents and that`s all I know, so we are not meeting with him anymore. As for Steven, he is awesome but cancelled our visit with him this week. So today is my goodbye day to Elder McGuire. He has been my favorite companion, and has taught me a lot. Things are changing, they always will. I love you and miss being home, especially around birthdays.
 
Love, Elder Ray