Surge Week

January 18, 2017

Dear Family,

We did what our mission called a Surge week, kind of like the Purge, at least that's what I wanted them to call it. Basically all meetings for the week were cancelled and unless we had lessons, which weren't too many this week for us, then it was constant finding, looking for new people to teach. Typically President Pratt wants us to do a minimum of fifteen hours of finding a week and this week everyone had to hit at least thirty. What hard work but the miracles that were shown throughout the mission this week were incredible. As a mission we found over a hundred new people to teach. Elder Wynder and I found three throughout the week, which is pretty great. Everyday there were different challenges like teaching short five minute Restoration lessons to as many people as would allow you to in the day or extend the baptismal invitation. It sure was a great way to motivate us more to be able to share the gospel with others in a fun and creative way. One of the challenges was to come up with a creative, effective contact. So this week we went down to the boardwalk and we tried what we called picture contacting. I held my camera and when we tried to talk to someone who turned us down right away, we would just ask them if they could take a picture for us. No one really declined doing that and what happened is it gave us a window of opportunity to talk with them while they took the picture, pretty effective, and we got a couple of good pictures out of it.

We served at a soup kitchen this week and put out a small stack of each of the pamphlets for the first three lessons. The fruits of that came on Sunday. We were sitting at the church when the doorbell rings, and we go to answer. An older gentleman was asking if our minister was here and wanted to talk to him about being baptized the proper way, saying that in his church they did it by sprinkling on the forehead. But he was reading a pamphlet that he picked up (the gospel of Jesus Christ) at the soup kitchen and read about baptism by immersion and felt that it was the right way, so he went looking, and what do you know, he runs into just the people he needs to talk to, the missionaries. We invited him in from standing out in the snow storm and only had about fifteen minutes before getting to another appointment. Quick lesson on baptism and authority! Miracles! We worked our tails off and prayed hard, and God placed Michael in our path to as he says, "Make sure he does it right so he can be saved." I know that this is God's work and that if we work hard, he can trust us.

We made a list of people who had met with missionaries before but stopped. But there was one where we had an address for it but we couldn't find the house. One day we were knocking near Bishop's house before dinner and ran into this guy named Raymond, sounded familiar to me. We talked for a bit and shared about the Book of Mormon and he said, "I only like studying from my Bible, it's a beautiful book, here I'll show you." Then he goes to a drawer and pulls out a large print copy of a triple combination, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. What! my eyed got so wide, it caught me off guard, thinking it was going to be some old looking Old Testament or something. He said he had another one that he kept in his car. We went back to follow up on a chapter we left him to read and he didn't understand a thing. He's not very comprehending and just agrees with whatever we say, even if he has no idea what's going on. Haha hopefully we can teach super simply and he can understand something, or maybe he just likes the company, who knows.

Had a lesson with this guy named Paul, who said we were welcome any time. Aaannddd, it turned out a little differently than I thought it was going to. We barely got to teach because he spent the whole time asking us questions, which I guess were good but a lot of it didn't pertain to anything. Nice guy though, gonna go back once more and see if we can teach anything this time, haha.

Transfers are this week and we just got our letters, the last time my name will be on it. :( I will be finishing my mission on... PEI. Yep I'm staying in Charlottetown with Elder Wynder and will be "dying" here, on the island, which is pretty sweet because I love this place. By the time I leave I will have spent almost eleven months, close to half, of my mission on this little Island, love it, will miss it hardcore, and the people here. You grow to love them, even if they are crazy! (I hope some of them read this)

Hope this week has been as awesome for you as it has for me!

Love You's!

Love Elder Ray

How many eggs and milk my comps and I have had
over the last three months, we saved them up just to see.

PEI street lights
red=squares
yellow=diamond
green=circle

Learning

January 9, 2017

Dear Family,

On Wednesday we had a mini zone conference in Moncton where we learned more on Obedience and also what the new years mission goals are.

We had a powerful lesson with our investigator Konrad, who is a members father. We talked a lot about the Godhead and Jesus Christ to help him with his concerns. It will take some time teaching him but he is great. Right now he doesn't understand the scriptures at all which doesn't really motivate him to try but we committed him to it still. He can't go to church because of physical injury, and he won't pray in front of us, only by himself. All the basics that will change over time the more he meets with us. It always happens, just takes one step at a time. What I like about him is that he has so much of the same beliefs, but he's not afraid to tell us when he thinks we are wrong, haha, makes for some great questions and discussion.

Not a big week, except for the snowstorm we had yesterday which caused church to be cancelled and us staying inside the majority of the day. No church as a missionary, what is this?

Love You's!

Love Elder Ray

That moment when you are walking down the sidewalk in PEI

We shoveled a walkway into the church

Happy New Year

January 2, 2017

Dear Family,

Happy New Year!

I remember the time when I thought 2017 was so far away, and now it's here, just like that. Seems to happen that way quite a bit.

Wednesday I spent the day in Moncton on an exchange and we taught a few lessons to their investigators.

We had to be in our apartment by four on new years so we weren't out and about when all the crazy parties were happening. There were some early fireworks that we could see from our window but that was about it. Went to bed at ten, Which was actually nice, but got woken up to a bunch of noise and pounding, looked at my watch and it was exactly midnight, typical.

On Sunday there weren't a lot of people at church, probably hung over, haha jk but most likely sleeping. Didn't have to teach the lesson though in second block because no one in our class was there to teach. Nice break I guess.

We did teach our investigator Jordan, who is progressing pretty quickly and is looking forward to baptism. His understanding of the gospel is really good, it does help that his girlfriend is a member and they talk it quite a bit.

Love You's!

Love Elder Ray

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

Light the World

November 28, 2016

Dear Family,

The Watson's had us over for American Thanksgiving Wednesday evening and it was really good, oh it sounds good right now. And Elder Browning shared a message about the Atonement and giving thanks for the gift that it is.

On Thursday we had an exchange in Montague (it was cool to be back there) and we spent a big chunk of the day moving all this guys stuff from one house to another. Then had dinner with Jennifer and James, it was so good to see them again, they go to church fairly regularly now, as often as work will let them.

On Friday morning we did a #lighttheworld booth downtown because it was bumpin with black Friday shoppers. #Lighttheworld is the churches initiative to help people do service for 25 days in 25 ways up until Christmas. It caught a lot of people’s attention, plus we handed out free hot chocolate.

Saturday was a big day! We were a part of, with some members in the ward, the Charlottetown Christmas parade. We walked through the town for just over an hour displaying the light the world poster and a poster for the wards live nativity they do. It was so sick, just about the whole town was there lining the streets to see all of the floats, it was really fun. Our float was a mini nativity where the Arsenault and McGuigan families dressed up as Mary and Joseph, a shepherd, and their kids were the angels and the babies were dressed up as little sheep, so cute.

Right after the parade we booked it over to the church to sing You Raise Me Up at Alan and Kristy's wedding reception, they are both RM's and asked us to sing with them.

Love You's!

p.s. there is about four inches of snow so far and it is still snowing outside. :)

Love Elder Ray