Christmas

December 26, 2016

Dear Family,

Merry Christmas!!

On Tuesday we had an exchange with the Montague Elders which was pretty successful, Elder Burggraaf and Elder Phillips are awesome. So Elder Burggraaf is really good at beat boxing so we might have a hit coming to you soon, haha, I rapped to his beats it was pretty sweet.

On Wednesday we went to an old folks home with the youth and sang a bunch of Christmas carols for them there, fun thing to do especially this time of year.

For one of our Christmas weekend activities we went to Canadian Blood Services in Charlottetown and I got to give blood for the first time. Kind of nervous but it wasn't bad at all, wish I could say the same for the guy sitting next to me who looked like he was ready to pass out, haha.

Christmas Eve was fun we got to spend it out at the Cutler's and had a big turkey dinner and shared the birth of Christ story, talked about family traditions, all that fun stuff.

Christmas was pretty relaxed, it was nice. Elder Wynder and I read about Christ's early life for our studies and then we opened gifts afterward, by the way thank you so much everything is awesome!

We spent the afternoon and rest of the day at the Veitch's and we played card and board games and just had a good time. Don't worry I loved skyping home too! :)

Love You's!

Love Elder Ray

President Pratt gave everyone "i-pads" for Christmas

Winter Tracting

Christmas Zone Conference

December 19, 2016

Dear Family,

Wish I had time to write more last week but plans changed. We were supposed to leave Charlottetown Monday night at six to get to Moncton for our Christmas zone conference the next day. But then a huge snow storm was coming in and our whole district had to leave the island before it hit so we left at noon and spent part of our P-day driving. If we didn't there was a high chance of us being stuck on the island and not getting across the bridge if it was shut down due to the storm. But we made it. The weather did get nasty though, a lot this week. It just kept snowing. So we spent our P-day in Moncton and helped set up everything for the conference. Then after, since we had time, we went to visit the Mollers, who lived in Montague while I was there, and now live in Moncton. So because many other missionaries didn't want to miss the conference because of the storm, other companionship's drove up early as well and so in the Moncton apartment there were fifteen elders! Oh it was crazy but fun. Showers in the morning was a gong show though, haha. No one wanted to miss this conference because it was the looked forward to one all year, a devotional, many special musical numbers, a talent show, and a gift exchange, it was so good.

Then right after the conference we stayed in Moncton to go on an exchange with the zone leaders and I'm pretty sure we spent most of the time knocking apartment buildings though. We definitely saw both both sides of the nice/not nice scale.

Second storm of the week hit Thursday evening and we worked through that but it was starting to get worse and it just went downhill from there. Friday morning we were getting calls saying not to go outside and literally no one was outside, even the RCMP were telling people to stay inside. Those days are the worst because you can only do so much missionary work from your apartment before you run out of things to do. So in the afternoon we decided to try to go out and we bundled up, but it didn't matter how much you put on it still pierced right through you. 100mph winds, our car said it was minus fourteen Celsius (7F) but with a wind chill of minus thirty five (-31F). Let's just say we weren't outside for very long. With the mess outside all of our plans were shot and the ward Christmas party that was that evening was cancelled. I think by the end of the day we were starting to go a little crazy. Oh Canada.

We are working with a member, Michael, who is struggling with our church and his old church, but he expressed that he wants to do baptisms at the temple and get his patriarchal blessing so we are planning to teach him more about those this week. Other than that the people we are trying to work with are either out of contact or too busy this time of year to meet so for now it's looking for new people to teach.

Elder Wynder and I also started doing this thing where instead of asking people if we can shovel their driveways and then them always saying no. We just do it and then knock on their door afterward, talking about light the world and how they can do service for others too. It's been way more effective, and my back is getting stronger. Haha.

Love You!!

Love Elder Ray

Squad Up, from last transfer

Service and More Service

December 7, 2016

Dear Family,

For Worldwide Day of Service on December 1st we went as a district to Summerside and we helped move a big ol piano from a members house to the church building. The moving process may or may not have taken a small chunk of my pinky with it. Then we went to a used clothes kind of place and helped sort and hang up clothes, shoes, purses, etc.

We taught Khaleb this week, he is a YSA age guy from Rwanda. He is super excited to learn more and has come to church a couple of times. Wants to continue coming but his work schedule is preventing that right now. He really does have intent though, he takes notes and writes down the scriptures that we share so that he can go back to them later. He's concerned that if he gets baptized then it will replace his baptism in Africa though.

On Friday we helped Mckenna at the soup kitchen serving dinner, always fun.

Theron who I taught in Saint John was baptized this past Saturday!! Woohoo!

Also out of the five missionaries in Charlottetown, I am the only one staying. They are all leaving and we are getting three more missionaries here. Which means I will be on the island for both Christmas's. My new companion will be Elder Wynder, who is from McGrath, Alberta. Who knows, he could be my last one.

Love You!

Love,

Elder Ray

Merry Christmas from Chester the scary elf