This week really had its highs and its lows.
Monday we just prepared for the week and taught
T and read with him some more out of Alma.
Tuesday we tried to meet with our new
investigators but they all launched us so we did some more street contacting
and tried to meet with some less actives but everyone except for one of them
wasn't home!
Wednesday we went to the soup kitchen instead of
Thursday because we weren't going to be there on Thursday this week. That was
good because they really needed people to help that day since there weren't
many people volunteering that day. After that we volunteered at the food bank
and tried talking to that one guy we shared a Book of Mormon with but he
was too busy so we went out and talked to some people downtown and later went
and gave blood again which was great. We were able to share a message with 2
separate ladies there before giving the blood! After that we quickly rushed
home, ate, and packed and headed out of Brandon for the first time since I
first arrived here. We arrived in Winnipeg and we stayed the night at the Zone
Leaders because we had a Multi-Zone Conference the next day.
Thursday was great. I was able to see two of the
missionaries that I served with in my district at the MTC (Elder O, Elder
M) and it was great! But most important was what we learnt and were able
to practice at the Zone Conference. We were able to learn from all the Zone
Leaders and from Stake President and from President and Sister Thomas as well.
All of the talks and testimonies that were taught and spoken were so great and
full of the Spirit! Afterwards the missionaries who are departing before the next
Zone Conference all bore their testimonies one last time and it was really
great to hear how much they have changed and to hear how their testimonies
have strengthened and how much they have improved. My favorites were from Elder
P (who actually was done over the phone and Skype because he is all the
way up in Flin-flon) and Elder M. They are such great missionaries
and have been such great examples to me and the spirit just emanates from them
whenever they are present and whenever they speak. But after the
conference was over, I was able to talk to Elder K over Skype and it was
great to see the great work he has been doing in Flin-flon and then I saw elder
S too. It was great to see all the missionaries I came out with doing so
great! After that we met with one of Elder M's old
friends/investigators that he worked with when he was serving in Winnipeg and
taught him a little bit and were able to see how he was doing. Then we went
home.
Friday we weekly planned and tried to visit with T again but she launched us again. We tried meeting with our other new
investigators but they weren't home or were busy doing other stuff and one of
them, we found out from her husband, is now in jail...
Saturday we cleaned the whole church and set it
up for a church tour and set up for the English classes we were just starting
up, but not a single person showed up, and we had invited quite a few people.
After that we were finally able to meet with a referral we had been trying to
contact and we share the restoration with him. He said he was going to read the
Book of Mormon, which was good. We got a new investigator! After that, we met
with another referral and talked with her for quite a while, even though she
said she wasn't interested. We still offered her service and had a really good
conversation with her and she was very kind and even gave us some food. We then
helped a bunch of Spanish people, 3 out of 5 individuals who all had the
name Lewis, move into a nicer house. Then we had YSA at the Bishop’s and had a
nice fire but sadly only two people came and we had invited over 20, which was
sad but still good. A random guy on the street came and joined us half way
through which was good too!
Sunday, no one that said they were coming to
Church actually came. After church, we tried
visiting all the people who said they were coming to church and find out what
held them back from coming. We then visited with T and a few others, had
dinner at the Bishop’s, and went home teaching with Brother A from our
ward. Then we did some street
contacting.
That is the basis of our week this week. Kind of
a downer because we had worked so hard all week and when we did our call in
report, we realized that we had only been able to teach one “actual” lesson the
whole week.
-Love Elder Shane Dola
