Investigators

August 22, 2016
 
Dear Family,

Pretty great week, full of work.

So Cool story, Amy, a less active that has been attending the Vineyard church for some years now, has been meeting with us for about two months now, and recently she just started dating this guy from her church. Last week he told her that he wasn't happy at that church and she had told him that she had been meeting with us. At this time they are both, together, going to be looking for a different church to go to, and Amy is already planning on coming to church next week and says that she will ask him to come to check it out and introduce him to us! Also, she has an eleven year old son, Eric, who came to church with her a few weeks ago and loved it.

We had it set up for four of our investigators to attend church, rides and all for those who needed them, but sadly none came. You always get your hopes up for that moment when they walk through the door, but nope, didn't happen, again. But we are focusing on not giving up, and helping them make it there. I mean, church is every Sunday, it's not like they will run out of opportunities to go.

Another less active that we are working with, Rob, hasn't really gone to church since he was a deacon. He has been diagnosed with MS in the last year. Because of his trial I think he has thought a lot more about his salvation. This last week we were going to teach him about marriage sealing because he always, every time we are over there, talks about how much he loves his wife, who isn't a member. And right before we started the discussion, he stopped us and said, I know what you are going to talk about, but I want to share something with you first. He said, "I was sitting here this morning and just thinking about a lot of things, and one thing that randomly came to my mind was, how am I going to get sealed to my wife?" It was so amazing so we used the new family and temples pamphlet to help him understand. The spirit definitely testified to him of temple work.

We were going through some old records of people that may be interested in the church that had come in contact with missionaries a few years ago and we had planned to visit a lady named Tracy. She is from China and was very nice. We started to talk to her about her experience with missionaries in the past but throughout the conversation she kept referring to the church as "our church" so we were like wait, are you a member? and she was like yeah. Haha this whole time we were in there thinking that we were going to start teaching her as an investigator but turns out she was a lost member. The ward couldn't find her so they took her name off the ward list and she hasn't been to church in a long time because she works on Sundays. How unexpected was that? Members turn up when you least expect it.

We also helped a member do some weeding and gardening. I'm going to be a professional gardener by the time I get home.

Love now until forever (Tarzan)

Love Elder Ray

Stopped by the gas station to fill up, and we saw this in the machine, a mormon.org card.

Much Hard Work

August 15, 2016

Dear Family,

This week was filled with much hard work.

On Tuesday we had a zone conference in Moncton and at this point I didn't know a lot of the missionaries because the big summer groups are coming out so a lot of them are new...starting to feel old here, haha. But the conference was great. Our mission is focusing on familysearch.org and bringing it to the people as a way of helping people find their ancestors, and also to find people to teach. You'd be surprised how many people are interested in it, of almost any age (not just old, uh I mean, experienced people).

We found a few people to teach this past week. Matthew is a former investigator that was taught in the past but he had some experiences that caused him to stop meeting for a while. But then one day on facebook he reached out to us wanting to meet. He does seem a bit odd but super humble and kind, though his outward appearance doesn't show it, tattoos and piercings galore, but on the inside, completely different than what you think you would expect. Prime example of Don't Judge Others! He is very understanding of the gospel and was basically teaching himself, also he has never been baptized and wants to work towards being baptized in October.

A few weeks ago our Book of Mormon class was a flop, there were two people that came, one wasn't all there, and one was blind...but for our class this week we set some time aside to call people and invite them individually and we had almost twenty people at the class this week. We studied and discussed Nephi breaking his bow and his families need for food. It's amazing how much you learn from the scriptures, and when you study it with other people, things get brought up that you never would have thought about, it's so cool.

We met with Amy this week, a less active, at the library to review the Plan of Salvation, and while going over it, this guy, who overheard our conversation, came over to "discuss" some things, almost turned into bashing, which I don't like. But the coolest part was that Amy totally backed us up and threw down on him for trying to get us to think negatively about religion, someone who doesn't even believe in God or Jesus Christ, and she was so awesome. She was deflecting everything he had to throw at us with pure doctrine that she remembered from what she learned in her past. When he left our table I looked at her and said, "Amy, that was really cool what you did, defending your Faith, and also you got a little sneak peak as to what we do as missionaries everyday." She was amazed at that and felt more appreciative of us as representatives of Jesus Christ, to defend the Faith.

  #peopleareawesome
  #defendthefaith

Love You all, Have a great week!!

Love Elder Ray

Happy Birthday!

August 8, 2016

Dear Family,

Thanks for the Birthday Package!! It was awesome!

I can't even believe I am 21. On Friday before games night, some of the Cosman's, the Crilley's, and the Wetmores had a birthday dinner for me at the church, it was so cool of them.

On Saturday we were doing a lemonade stand and then all these people started showing up for the gay pride parade downtown that we didn't know was happening. It got pretty awkward for us so we packed up and left. Haha.

Amy, the less active we are working with, and her son Eric, made cupcakes for me when they found out it was my birthday. People are awesome. Also Eric liked what he learned at church and we are going to start teaching him now. Woohoo. Probably the youngest investigator I have ever taught. He turns 11 this week.

Love You!!

Love Elder Ray

Red skies

When four Elders are hungry and can't wait to make things one at a time.

Amy and Eric + cupcakes!

Talk in Church

August 3, 2016
 
Dear Family,

This week has been pretty crazy with what is happening this new transfer. Instead of a companionship of Elders and a companionship of Sister here in Saint John, there will be four Elders. So, Elder Maughan and I are both staying in the area, but not as companions. He will be living in the other apartment and is going to train a new missionary, Elder Hoole. I will be serving with Elder Portellano, who I don't really know, but I believe he is from France.

On Friday and Saturday we helped two people move, it was nice because I haven't helped someone move in like three months, so the time was overdue, but moving couches and beds can wipe you out.

Sunday was missionary Sunday and so Elder Maughan and I spoke, as well as our ward mission leader, brother Cosman, and Theresa, the newest recent convert here. It was really good.

We had a less active member that we are working with, and her son, come to church. I think they really enjoyed it.

We taught our investigator, Paul, who asked us on the street how to join the church. That surprised us, and we taught the Restoration. He had lots of good questions.

p.s. I'm pretty sure that I have eaten pizza at least once everyday this week.

Love You!
Love Elder Ray

Elder Smith!

A little snippet of parts of downtown Saint John