September 26, 2016
Dear Family,
On Tuesday we drove to Fredericton for a zone training and a lot of it was focused on being more consecrated and becoming spiritual giants. It was sweet. Also a lot of the missionaries there were new or fairly new and I barely knew any of them. I looked at the last transfer list and very few people that I knew towards the first half of my mission are not on it anymore, they are all home. That's crazy, the mission is a whole new place now...I think I'm getting old.
On Wednesday we had a couple of lessons in the afternoon and Jake was planning on coming with us to them, but they both fell through. So Jake told us that three cruise ships were in right now and with him and the other Elders we went downtown to the square and set up a lemonade stand. There were so many people down there. It's hard to find people to teach because they are all from away but we passed out lots of church materials to people so it was awesome.
Our investigator Theron missed the Book of Mormon class this week but he did make it to Institute on Thursday, and we also invited him to General Conference, which he says he wants to go to because now he can since it doesn't start until 1 p.m. We also met with him and taught him some of the commandments, and we knew that he smoked so we were preparing ourselves for his answer to our commitment on the Word of Wisdom, and when we did he said that he quit smoking last week! Miracle! Already started! So we promised him blessings and will help him along.
It has been a crazy week where by the end of it I am just so exhausted, and we went from teaching six people and are now down to one. :(
Elder Sulzen is awesome though, he is learning and progressing so fast, it's crazy. We work hard but both love to joke around. It will be sad when he has to go to Utah.
The phrase "Do not be Afraid" is written in the Bible 365 times. That's a daily reminder from God to be fearless everyday.
Love You! Love Elder Ray
Logan Picture
I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me;
yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. Alma 29:9
Training Again
September 19, 2016
Dear Family,
For P-day on Wednesday we spent the day in Moncton with the missionaries there before transfers and we went to a place called Hopewell rocks, which has a lot of cool rock formations and it has the biggest tides in the world. Pretty sweet place.
So I show up Thursday morning to transfers and all the new missionaries get off the space shuttle (transfer van) and I'm looking at all the name tags to see which one is Elder Carlson, and none of them were him. In my mind I was like, ok I guess I'll just not have a companion. And then Elder Sulzen comes up to me and says that I am his trainer. Elder Carlson got changed to Edmunston because he is learning French and that is a French area, so I get to train Elder Sulzen. He's a great guy, we already get along well. He is from Vancouver Island but the sad part is his mission is actually in Salt Lake East... yep he's a visa waiter, my second one. Hopefully he stays a while though.
We stopped by Matthew just to see how he was doing and while we were sitting in his yard with him his cat and this squirrel were playing together, rolling around and stuff right next to us, it was so cool. I've never seen that happen before.
Took Elder Sulzan out to talk to people on the street and helping him learn how to talk to people, and we ran into this couple who was on vacation, and they originally speak French but knew some English. So I tried to say something in French and also say Jesus Christ, but I said His name in Spanish by accident, whoops. They looked at me like, what? and then I corrected the name in French. Luckily Elder Sulzen knew enough French to carry on a conversation, haha.
On Saturday we taught our most recent new investigator, Faisal (pronounced Fy-Sell). He is YSA age and he is from Afghanistan. He moved from there to India for two years and his dad died there, and then they converted from Muslim to Christianity before they moved to Saint John. He was super understanding of our message about the Restoration and he said yes to baptism, but then he asked, would it be okay for me to get baptized in my church? So we focused more on Priesthood authority but I'm not sure if he quite understands it yet, but we will work on that. Solid guy though.
We had an Elders quorum activity where we played Bocce ball, but our investigator that we invited didn't show. Oh well. Still had fun.
Remind someone of their worth!
Love You All!!
Love Elder Ray
Dear Family,
For P-day on Wednesday we spent the day in Moncton with the missionaries there before transfers and we went to a place called Hopewell rocks, which has a lot of cool rock formations and it has the biggest tides in the world. Pretty sweet place.
So I show up Thursday morning to transfers and all the new missionaries get off the space shuttle (transfer van) and I'm looking at all the name tags to see which one is Elder Carlson, and none of them were him. In my mind I was like, ok I guess I'll just not have a companion. And then Elder Sulzen comes up to me and says that I am his trainer. Elder Carlson got changed to Edmunston because he is learning French and that is a French area, so I get to train Elder Sulzen. He's a great guy, we already get along well. He is from Vancouver Island but the sad part is his mission is actually in Salt Lake East... yep he's a visa waiter, my second one. Hopefully he stays a while though.
We stopped by Matthew just to see how he was doing and while we were sitting in his yard with him his cat and this squirrel were playing together, rolling around and stuff right next to us, it was so cool. I've never seen that happen before.
Took Elder Sulzan out to talk to people on the street and helping him learn how to talk to people, and we ran into this couple who was on vacation, and they originally speak French but knew some English. So I tried to say something in French and also say Jesus Christ, but I said His name in Spanish by accident, whoops. They looked at me like, what? and then I corrected the name in French. Luckily Elder Sulzen knew enough French to carry on a conversation, haha.
On Saturday we taught our most recent new investigator, Faisal (pronounced Fy-Sell). He is YSA age and he is from Afghanistan. He moved from there to India for two years and his dad died there, and then they converted from Muslim to Christianity before they moved to Saint John. He was super understanding of our message about the Restoration and he said yes to baptism, but then he asked, would it be okay for me to get baptized in my church? So we focused more on Priesthood authority but I'm not sure if he quite understands it yet, but we will work on that. Solid guy though.
We had an Elders quorum activity where we played Bocce ball, but our investigator that we invited didn't show. Oh well. Still had fun.
Remind someone of their worth!
Love You All!!
Love Elder Ray
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| Hopewell Rocks |
 |
Baptismal Interviews
September 14, 2016
Dear Family,
Last Tuesday we traveled to St. Stephen and I did a baptismal interview for the sisters investigator,Chris, who passed with flying colors and was baptized this last Saturday. Then yesterday (a different Tuesday) I interviewed the Hampton Elders investigator, Gary, and he will be getting baptized this Saturday. My district is doing awesome right now, the other Saint John Elders will be having a baptism in this upcoming transfer for Mandy. Now if only we could have someone placed in our path, which we may already have. Theron and Matthew are doing pretty good but there are many challenges for them that hopefully they can work out.
At our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday we had four non-members come, it was sweet.
We spent Thursday on exchanges in Fredericton with Elder Evans and Elder Harris. It's Elder Harris' first transfer and he is already good at contacting people, I was surprised. We did a lot of talking to people all day because they didn't have any appointments.
We set up baseball game Saturday morning and invited some members and then some less actives to work on fellowshipping with them, and to have a little fun playing ball of course.
Funny story, yesterday we were walking back to our car from a lesson and then this lady yells to us to come over and asks us if we could give her a ride home (she was drunk, and it was also mid afternoon Haha). She was like, Oh you are gorgeous, and when I told her I was from Arizona she asked if she could marry me, then she tried to give us a hug and we had to run away from her because she chased us down the street. Yep, Saint John never ceases to give me stories.
Well, turns out I am staying in Saint John for another transfer and will be training Elder Carlson, who I know nothing about because he is brand new.
Have a great week. Love You!
Love Elder Ray
Dear Family,
Last Tuesday we traveled to St. Stephen and I did a baptismal interview for the sisters investigator,Chris, who passed with flying colors and was baptized this last Saturday. Then yesterday (a different Tuesday) I interviewed the Hampton Elders investigator, Gary, and he will be getting baptized this Saturday. My district is doing awesome right now, the other Saint John Elders will be having a baptism in this upcoming transfer for Mandy. Now if only we could have someone placed in our path, which we may already have. Theron and Matthew are doing pretty good but there are many challenges for them that hopefully they can work out.
At our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday we had four non-members come, it was sweet.
We spent Thursday on exchanges in Fredericton with Elder Evans and Elder Harris. It's Elder Harris' first transfer and he is already good at contacting people, I was surprised. We did a lot of talking to people all day because they didn't have any appointments.
We set up baseball game Saturday morning and invited some members and then some less actives to work on fellowshipping with them, and to have a little fun playing ball of course.
Funny story, yesterday we were walking back to our car from a lesson and then this lady yells to us to come over and asks us if we could give her a ride home (she was drunk, and it was also mid afternoon Haha). She was like, Oh you are gorgeous, and when I told her I was from Arizona she asked if she could marry me, then she tried to give us a hug and we had to run away from her because she chased us down the street. Yep, Saint John never ceases to give me stories.
Well, turns out I am staying in Saint John for another transfer and will be training Elder Carlson, who I know nothing about because he is brand new.
Have a great week. Love You!
Love Elder Ray
 |
| This is on the wall in the Moncton Elders apartment |
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| Saint John District |
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| One of these things is not like the other |
Leadership Meetings
September 5, 2016
Dear Family,
Another week filled with driving and sitting, but fun and uplifting.
This past week Elder Portellano and I were mostly separated because of a leadership conference I went to in Dartmouth from Wednesday to Friday, it was long but really good. We talked a lot about the missions goals and how we are going to reach those by the end of the year. It seems we are a bit behind but it is definitely still possible to accomplish them. Then the zone leaders and district leaders broke off and had our own meeting within the meeting, meetingception. And in the district leader meeting we discussed how we can improve our district meetings to make them more spiritual and helpful to our districts. While I was there Elder Portellano was with Elder Iacoupucci in the area of Edmunston, which is a French area and he has always wanted to serve there so he loved being there for a few days.
Something funny that happened, well, we kind of did on purpose, but driving home from the conference we had the sisters following us so we could take them around where you have to pay the toll and get by for free. So before we got there they got in front of us but were still going where we were, so Elder Beckman turned on his turn signal as if to get off on the ramp, but he didn't leave the lane, but the sisters saw that and so they went into the lane to get off and we watched them drive off the wrong way, haha it was so funny. Luckily it only took them about five minutes to catch up to us again.
We didn't really meet with many people that we are working with this week seeing as how we were gone for a big part of it but we did meet with Theron and he said yes to baptism, so now the challenge is having him come to church.
I can't believe the transfer is almost over again. But with Elder Portellano going home I feel like I'll be staying.
Love You!!
Love Elder Ray
Dear Family,
Another week filled with driving and sitting, but fun and uplifting.
This past week Elder Portellano and I were mostly separated because of a leadership conference I went to in Dartmouth from Wednesday to Friday, it was long but really good. We talked a lot about the missions goals and how we are going to reach those by the end of the year. It seems we are a bit behind but it is definitely still possible to accomplish them. Then the zone leaders and district leaders broke off and had our own meeting within the meeting, meetingception. And in the district leader meeting we discussed how we can improve our district meetings to make them more spiritual and helpful to our districts. While I was there Elder Portellano was with Elder Iacoupucci in the area of Edmunston, which is a French area and he has always wanted to serve there so he loved being there for a few days.
Something funny that happened, well, we kind of did on purpose, but driving home from the conference we had the sisters following us so we could take them around where you have to pay the toll and get by for free. So before we got there they got in front of us but were still going where we were, so Elder Beckman turned on his turn signal as if to get off on the ramp, but he didn't leave the lane, but the sisters saw that and so they went into the lane to get off and we watched them drive off the wrong way, haha it was so funny. Luckily it only took them about five minutes to catch up to us again.
We didn't really meet with many people that we are working with this week seeing as how we were gone for a big part of it but we did meet with Theron and he said yes to baptism, so now the challenge is having him come to church.
I can't believe the transfer is almost over again. But with Elder Portellano going home I feel like I'll be staying.
Love You!!
Love Elder Ray
 |
| Got to see my old comp at the leadership conference, Elder Kleinkopf! |
 |
| There was no male at our dinner appointment so we all ate on their trampoline |
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| England |
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| I think my district needs to learn how to park better. |
Continuing Progress
August 29, 2016
Dear Family,
We met with Matthew this week and started the stop smoking program with him. He is anxious to stop smoking and other things so we are doing all that we can to help him.
With our investigator Therom, with his situation right now he can't come to church but hopefully soon. But he did come to our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday and really enjoyed it, we even gave him a church tour so now he's at least familiar with the building and some more of the members.
Also, we got in touch with our investigator Karen, who we had lost contact with for about a month. She was starting to avoid us and not answer the phone or return calls, which was weird of her to do because she was really good at that before. I was thinking that we might have lost her but I didn't want to give up on her. So when we stopped by her apartment, you have to buzz in and they let you in, and luckily she did. She expressed to us that when she went to church a few weeks back that she felt welcomed, but maybe not as much as when she had come to the church many years back. Her expectation was that she was thinking it would be the exact same as before, but a lot happens over the years, things and people change. So we resolved her concern and she is willing to continue meeting with us and try again. Hurray!
On Saturday we had a ward activity where the primary had their games and other summer activities outside while the ward deep cleaned the chapel together, all the jobs that rarely get done. We called it our "Spring Cleaning." Then after all the jobs were done we had a BBQ outside, so much fun.
Love You!
Love Elder Ray
Dear Family,
We met with Matthew this week and started the stop smoking program with him. He is anxious to stop smoking and other things so we are doing all that we can to help him.
With our investigator Therom, with his situation right now he can't come to church but hopefully soon. But he did come to our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday and really enjoyed it, we even gave him a church tour so now he's at least familiar with the building and some more of the members.
Also, we got in touch with our investigator Karen, who we had lost contact with for about a month. She was starting to avoid us and not answer the phone or return calls, which was weird of her to do because she was really good at that before. I was thinking that we might have lost her but I didn't want to give up on her. So when we stopped by her apartment, you have to buzz in and they let you in, and luckily she did. She expressed to us that when she went to church a few weeks back that she felt welcomed, but maybe not as much as when she had come to the church many years back. Her expectation was that she was thinking it would be the exact same as before, but a lot happens over the years, things and people change. So we resolved her concern and she is willing to continue meeting with us and try again. Hurray!
On Saturday we had a ward activity where the primary had their games and other summer activities outside while the ward deep cleaned the chapel together, all the jobs that rarely get done. We called it our "Spring Cleaning." Then after all the jobs were done we had a BBQ outside, so much fun.
Love You!
Love Elder Ray
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