This is my past week:
Monday we had p-day.
Tuesday we stopped by and met a few of the people
that we help and serve, including this pastor lady from the Salvation Army and
she basically opened up and told us her whole life's story about all the
horrible stuff she has gone through including her son committing suicide out of
no where, and her other son attempting twice, and all else and what not, and
how she knows the only thing that has kept her through it all was God. She
expressed how it was still hard not knowing for sure where he is at though and
we invited her and her husband to sit down with us sometime and she's considering
it. After that we went to a restaurant named the Welsh Kitchen, owned by a less
active member whose daughter recently left on a mission. Anyway she never has
the missionaries pay so we eat whatever we want for free and we also were able
to talk to some guy a bit about the gospel while we ate, and then
we set up an appointment with the lady who owns the restaurant. After that we went to this old folk's home called Hill Top Manor and we helped
the old people read their cards as they played a bingo game. It’s super sad to
see that this literally the easiest game I have ever seen and these seniors in
their conditions find it super hard so that's what we do is help them out with
that. After that we had a lesson with a guy (was supposed to be his
whole family but they were sick) in his printing press shed in his back yard.
We then had dinner and met with a recent convert but now less-active member and
his wife and kids and got to meet them. They recently lost their infant child
on Jan 1 and the baby was only 1 month 13 days old when it passed. So things
have been super hard for them and they are pretty bitter towards God right now
and the father isn't too overly fond of me because I am from AB and AB
drivers and people are cocky. But I am sure that will change soon enough...
After that we went to the Know Presbyterian Hall where we have our Basketball
night and we had 12 people come and play basketball, which was great. It was
weird, it was the first time I played basketball where it wasn't too serious
and physical, everyone was super nice and sportsman like, not your typical
experience in AB or in Church basketball. But besides that we also were able to
talk to one of the guys that came out, who is Christian, and gave him a BOM and committed him to read it
and he accepted. We’ll follow up on that the next time we see him! Over all it
was a pretty good day though.
Wednesday, the Estevan Elder's drove in and we
had our District meeting lunch and then we went to the Old Folk's place again,
after meeting another Potential lady, and we helped out with their Hawaii
party. We then went to the Library and made some pass-along card things to hand
out to people and then we went out to McTaggart and tried contacting a referral
and ended up tracting a bit and were able to place three copies of the Book of
Mormon (one guy chased us down and gave it back, he ended up being a Catholic
Priest and decided that he would have none of that) and met some people who
already had a copy, but one guy seemed super great. He's Christian and accepted
the invitation to read it and told us to come back later whenever his truck was
there and we could teach him and his family. We then came back into town and
had dinner and then went to "THE CHURCH OF CHRIST" and participated
in their Bible study, which was super weird, but still pretty good. We were
able to add our insights and opinions; everyone there was super nice.
Thursday we went out to Kisbee (about an hour
east) and met with a member and his family. We taught the Plan
of Salvation to the kids using an object lesson and those are the smartest kids
I have ever met. Seriously one was 2 years old, and he was telling us the importance
of keeping the commandments and praying to receive answers to what is true and
what is not and the other who is 6 (she only goes to school for gym class and
recess because "I am just ahead of everyone else") answered all the
questions we had for her and can read the Book of Mormon without pausing at any
words (better than lots of investigators) but that was good and after that we
were so far out we decided to venture out to the White Bear Native Reserve and
stopped by some investigators and less-active members houses but no one
was home. We escaped and stopped in Carlyle for lunch, then headed back to Weyburn
and saw K & C and went to their house to "practice
teaching" and we taught them the Plan of Salvation and had a really good
discussion and K without us saying said. "In order for me to know
Christ more and understand Him better I am going to have to study his
word" so he committed himself to read the BOM. After that we had the
appointment with the J and we watched “Come Join with us” with them. Sister J loved it and
expressed how she intends on becoming fully active before her daughter gets
back from her mission so she has 18 months to do that! And Brother J liked the
talk until Pres Uchtdorf was telling people to come back and Bro J said he
has no intentions of ever coming back. "I have taken off my tag and am
more comfortable that way, just happy living my life, still am a believer and
always will be you just don't need church," but just wait, he will
eventually put aside his pride.
Friday we weekly planned and helped the old folks again with their birthday party and then finished the cards. Then we had
dinner and followed up on a referral for a former investigator from a member.
We then stopped by the Youth center to see if there was anything we could do to
help out and offer service and the guy ended up being a Pastor and told us
straight out he didn't want anything to do with us and didn't want us around the
place so we left. Pastors I have met so far here aren't quite as nice as the
ones in Dryden.
Saturday we did a ton of former investigator and
potential investigator contacting and stopped by G and gave him some soup
because he has been dying from the Flu and also gave him a priesthood blessing.
We then stopped by the Church to print something off and Bro Regnier was there
doing some clerk stuff and he was just finishing and took us out to Subway.
After that we went out to McTaggart again and I decided to try a new finding
idea by seeing how many people would stop and help us out if I got stuck in a
rut near the ditch when I tried to turn the car around at the end of a street.
One guy came and tried to help us out and just decided he would jump in our car
and drive forward and reverse until he eventually dug us deeper and we slid
further into the ditch, then got out and went home, saying "You're just
going to have to call a tow truck." And since I didn't want to call a tow
truck and have the mission have to pay for that I said a prayer asking that we
would be able to get out without having to get a tow truck. So we sat there and
called the only member out there, brother Regnier, to see if he could help us
and he said he would try to get some people together. Mid conversation a man
drove up next to us in his car and said he was going to go get his truck and
pull us out. Before he could get back however, another two young oil-rigger
guys in a truck (the last two guys you would think would help out) came and offered
to pull us out and did. In the mean time, the other guy with the truck showed
up and was happy that we got help, then we saw brother Regnier and his family
drive up in their car and they don't have a truck, but were going to try
and push us out. It was seriously humbling to see the kindness of the people
here, always trying to help out. Miracles of Prayer, I asked for help and the Lord
sent 2 trucks and an entire family to help us out! After that we were able to
contact the less active member who is super nice, but told us she has no interest in coming back.
Sunday we got up and we shoveled the
snow at the church, and had a great fast and testimony meeting and ward
council. The members here are super great! After that we went to the Morrisettes
and they had dinner for us, which was fantastic. We spent the rest of the day
with former investigators and gave out a few Book of Mormons to new people we
had never met!
But I Love you and hope that you continue to get better!
-Love Elder Shane Dola
