Summer Time

June 29, 2015

Dear Family,

The summer here is beautiful, though it rains a lot. Every day is different, one day it would be sunny and hot/muggy, and others it would be cold and rain all day.

It was funny, yesterday at church it was like an English invasion. We have a couple of families from England in our ward and between two of the families they blessed the sacrament and three of them gave talks. It made me feel like I had to talk with an English accent. I did want to go to England for my mission but this makes up for it, haha.

Earlier in the week we helped brother Jack, who is also getting his house ready to sell, by taking apart the wood frame of his garden and building a brick one. We forgot to take service clothes because we went straight from a lesson to his house and so we had to use some of his clothes and I looked pretty weird for wearing an oversized button up shirt and gym shorts, along with big boots.

This week we have been teaching Owen, who is doing pretty well but doesn't want to attend church, which is hard because that is our next step for him. We also started teaching Melissa, who we have to teach very simply because of her ADD, and constantly review what we talk about. She put herself on date to be baptized, and it will take her time to actually be prepared for it though. She was on date a while back but wasn't prepared then, so hopefully we can help her get to that point by the end of August.

Love you all and hope things continue to go well.

We're Missionaries, it's an occupational hazard!

Love, Elder Ray

When you see something like this driving on the
highway, you just have to stop and take a picture.

Honestly though, the things you find in Nova Scotia.

When a member tells you to do something,
you do it, even if it means having a little fun.

Just a quick pic of this beauty.

Everyone Goes at Different Speeds

June 22, 2015

Dear Family,

It has been a very interesting week. We did quite a bit of service this week which was good trying to keep us busy from all our appointments falling through. We spent a lot of time looking for people to teach and we have many fun conversations, but people don't talk about religion much around here. We go street contacting down by the ocean and there is a group of protesters that we befriended protesting about job pensions and we were talking to this guy named Clark.  He took a book of Mormon from us and when we saw him protesting a couple days later we followed up and he said he started to read it. He may become an investigator. It may be a slow process but that is okay, everyone goes at different speeds.

Friday night was President and Sister Leavitt's farewell and because I am still in the metro area I got to go to that. It was a fun thing and sad to see them go even though I have only been here a couple of months. President and Sister Pratt arrive next Monday and the Leavitt's leave the following day. The Leavitt's have left a big mark on this mission.

Shoutout to all the Father's for Father's Day. On Sunday they had everyone eighteen and older stand up to be given a candy bar for father's day and it was kind of weird because one, I am on a mission, and two, I am not a father, but I'm not going to turn down chocolate.

Love you all and miss you always!

Love Elder Ray

 

Overloading

Pricing Clothes for service

Tearing down barns for days

At President and Sister Leavitt's farewell

Signature Pose

Wait! Gotta get my good side

It's so Fluffy!

Service in Sackville

June 15, 2015
 

Dear Family,
 

Sackville has been great, although it is different only living with one other person. This week we picked up four new investigators, What?! One of them is named Sarah, she is a super busy sports mom, and doesn't have much time to meet but we managed to do a quick visit, let's just say that is the fastest I have ever taught the Restoration. Then we also have Christina, her daughter Cortaya, and her boyfriend, Matt. They have many questions about religion and we are going to give them a bible along with the book of Mormon so they might stop reading the Jehovah's Witness Bible that they have. We haven't gotten in to see Wendell because he is really busy getting ready to go to Hong Kong for a month and is getting married. Owen is our man at the moment, he completed the Book of Mormon but hates all the war in it. He prayed about it but hasn't gotten an answer. We taught him about the Holy Ghost and he said he has never felt it in his life but we helped him to realize that he has. Now he is going to pray more and hopefully he will recognize an answer now.
 

We have been doing a lot of service lately. We volunteer at a thrift store and get to price and hang clothes. We also helped tear down an old barn for a member.
 

So, it is going to be just Elder Sortomme and I in Sackville starting this week because one of the sisters is going home, so the other is changing areas. Agh! Things are going to be busy more than ever.
 

Love, Elder Ray

Say hello to Elder Sortomme! Members make good food,
even when they can't have you over and make it for you still.

Cleaning chalk off the church building. Someone would have
gotten away with it to, if it wasn't for you rotten kids, and you dog too.

Get a taste of how green it is here. Take that Arizona. We took
 this picture at 9 p.m. The sun wasn't all the way down yet.

When doors won't open, use a window.

Welcome to Flip Burger, home of the Flip Burger can I take your order?

Per person it cost $28

Today we did something called the flip burger challenge.
So, you had to eat this huge burger, and a side of large fries,
in twenty minutes to get a prize... and satisfaction. It had to be
done within twenty minutes and no missionary has done it yet,
 until today. No, not me, but Elder Hansen. I feel accomplished
because  I did finish the burger but feel like throwing up even as
I  write about this.

There it isn't ladies and gentlemen, because I ate it.
Notice Elder Sortomee's reaction, I thought he was going to die. Haha.

Change is Good

June 8, 2015
 

Dear Family,

So as you know transfers happened this week, and going to Sackville is a big change for me. I spent the first three months of my mission in Cole Harbour and it was a great first area but it is time to move on, It was sad to leave but I am needed elsewhere. 
 

My new companion is Elder Sortomme who is from Washington state and he has been out for fifteen months.
 

I ended my time in Cole Harbour with a bang. The morning of transfer day we had two lessons in a row, both with single mothers, and they both became new investigators, have fun with them Cole Harbour missionaries.
 

After going to the temple which you know by now we do every transfer if you are in the Nova Scotia part of the mission at that time, and since the temple is in Cole Harbour, I got to go the past three times. Said goodbye to Elder Hansen and we changed companions. It only takes about forty minutes to drive from Cole Harbour to Sackville so it wasn't a bad transfer. I was in the Nova Scotia North Zone but am now in the Nova Scotia South Zone.

My first couple of days in Sackville were hard because yet again everything is new, but once I went to church everything changed. The ward is so awesome and everyone is so nice and friendly, I am super excited to work in this area now.
 

Right now we are teaching Wendell, who is in his sixties and he is investigating the church because of some things that happened in his life and is looking for change. We are also teaching Owen, who is in his seventies and he is almost done reading the book of Mormon, that is so cool!
 

Change is good, I think. Proverbs 3:5-6
 

Love and miss you all!
 

Love, Elder Ray

Goodbye photo with the infamous sister Voisey and Steven

Elder Hansen made the brave decision to cut his own hair

Second area - Sackville

A Crazy Week!

June 1, 2015

Dear Family,

It has been a crazy week. On P-day, right after emailing last week we helped Brother Nelson, who is on the temple presidency, clean the baptismal font. How many people can say that they have cleaned a temple baptismal font? It was pretty awesome for doing work. On Tuesday night we traveled to Truro for an exchange and I spent Wednesday with Elder Bate who is serving in New Glasgow. We spent a big chunk of our day doing service sorting big rocks from small ones from a huge pile of rocks and putting the small ones into a pathway, it was exhausting. Then we had to go back because we had to exchange back and a lot of the day was spent traveling. Elder Bate is awesome though, he is from Kanab, Utah, and is the tallest one in our mission at six foot nine.

On Thursday all of our appointments went through, which was a miracle since that almost never happens. We visited a recent convert who is in the hospital for her back and she loved it when we came to see her. Saturday, second exchange for me in one week before the transfer is over. I spent the day with Elder Blum, who lives with us, so we didn't have to travel. We did another lemonade stand and it was funny because the sister missionaries did an exchange too so we had two missionaries from Cole Harbour and two from Dartmouth. What was even funnier is that the other missionaries were also doing a lemonade stand at the same time, but in Dartmouth.

Regarding Steven, he says he doesn't have much desire but likes us coming over, so that is where we are at with him, he enjoys learning more and said he would commit to being baptized on July 18th, but feels like he won't be ready.

Welcome, welcome Sabbath morning, when transfer letters come out and suddenly I am being transferred to Sackville on Thursday. Well, Cole Harbour was a great first area and I loved the people here but it is sadly time for me to go. I have heard great things about Sackville though so I am excited. Elder Hansen and I only got to be companions for five weeks, not even a whole transfer. He was so fun to work with and hopefully we will get to again. It is weird to move because this is where I have been my whole mission and I thought I would stay at least one more transfer but I guess not.

Love Elder Ray

Elder Blum and I talking to people at the beach

This is brother and sister Moses. He is Cole Harbour's ward mission leader
and they are so awesome. I am going to miss them.

Elder Hansen playing a mean game of table tennis against sister Voisey.

Moving Apartments, Cancelled Appointments, and Bugs!

May 25, 2015

Dear Family,

Well this week was kind of a struggle. It didn't help that we spent almost two days of our week moving and cleaning our apartment. We live in a tall building and moved from the ninth floor to the first floor, luckily there was an elevator or we would have had to take everything down nine flights of stairs, not gonna happen. I would of just thrown everything off the balcony. The pros to the new apartment is that it is new, and missionaries have been living in our old apartment for almost thirty years. It is easier to get to the downstairs gym in the morning, and outside to our car. The cons, our beautiful view is gone, and we don't have carpet.

Most off our appointments that we had set up for the week didn't happen, but we did meet with Steven and Sister Voisey twice this week. We have been teaching Steven the discussions and he is progressing quickly, and with Sister Voisey we study certain topics in the scriptures with her. We blew her mind with the Good Samaritan Allegory, which symbolizes the plan of salvation, it is so cool. Now we have been studying with her the twelve tribes and patriarchal blessings, mostly Ephraim and Manasseh though.

We found a really good street to knock but it is really long so it will take us many days to do, the only problem is that there are so bugs and gnats swarming everywhere and you practically eat them when talking to people at the door. People probably think I am crazy when I flick my head from side to side trying to get them out of my face while talking. In the last hour of our week we found two new investigators, they are a Filipino couple and we had the wife as an investigator but we lost contact for a while and dropped her. But now we met with her and her husband this time and they want to learn more. The Lord works in mysterious ways and we are merely instruments.

Love, Elder Ray