April 28

My week was pretty good! Was pretty hectic but good, I'm very settled in, it is good here except we live in an apartment with almost all Indian people (People from India) and so they make really nasty smelling food which leaks into our apartment so sometimes we come home and find it smelling like rotten fish and sometimes it smells like B.O. mixed with rotten fish or curry or tacos. It's pretty gross but I can't complain. I just got word that right when I left they made some major changes to the trailer in  Weyburn so I am happy for the Elders living there! 

There are 18 missionaries in Regina and four out in Yorkton and Melville (that's our Zone) 

This week was pretty crazy. I don't have too much time or too many things to tell. Basically we spent a lot of the week planning out the coming transfer and had to take care of some other things and make sure that things start running smoothly and back to normal now that everyone is back in their areas. Some things were left behind here in Regina and we had to get everything back to places all around the mission.

Monday was P-day and we helped some members move a fridge and other kitchen appliances and had a lunch appointment and dinner appointment.

Tuesday we had district meeting and met with the Stake President and had lunch with him and discussed some stake business and other things pertaining to us going out onto some reserves and had dinner with The Burgess' who is in the temple presidency, and then met with a less-active member.

Wednesday we went to some of the other district meetings and sent some stuff off in the mail, visited with C, had dinner with the H family and home taught them, met the S's, one of our home teaching families. (in our ward the recent initiative is for members to have only one home teaching family so they can focus more on the one family so the missionaries are the home teachers for the active families so we have 7 Home teaching families).

Thursday we focused a lot on prospective Elders and other things and Sister C and Dr C took us out to dinner.

Friday we planned for the transfer and for our week and met with R and a few other people.

Saturday we had a pancake breakfast put on by the ward mission leader who we helped out and were able to bring quite a few people out to that. We contacted some referrals and other Less Active members and had dinner and went on Facebook.

Sunday we had church and C and C came, which was good. We saw a few other people, gave a priesthood blessing, and stopped by some more LA and prospective Elders and had an appointment with the Spanish speaking guys but that fell through. We had dinner with the Stake President and went to another of our home teaching families.

I got the package with the cookies from Grandma and Grandpa last night! Tell them thanks and that I love them! You are right, I don't think that there would be much point to freezing them...

Some missionaries burn ties on their 6 month mark, some burn shirts on their year mark, some burn a pair of pants on their 18 month mark and then some burn an entire suit on their 2 year mark. But I don't think I will do any of that because I personally think that it is stupid to do that, and also as you know I am super stingy and cheap so I don't know if I could bring myself do do that....

For my year mark I just happen to be going out for lunch with Ali'i Lafontaine so I guess that is what I will do for my anniversary!?

But I love you you take care and take it easy!

-Love Elder Shane Dola

April 21

This week Monday we took the car in and found out that the recall on the Cruze's affected our car and that it has a hairline fracture in it so it will have to be fixed soon. We then e-mailed and went bowling with a recent convert from Saskatoon and her boyfriend who is a return missionary. 

Tuesday we went and visited D one last time before I left and then we went out to Carievale and said bye to C and K and helped put up his new garage door only to take it down, had a good message shared with them and then came back to Weyburn to have basketball night, which got cancelled because the church scheduled something else that night.

Wednesday we were pretty busy and later saw K and helped them put together some book shelves and talked a bit more about the experience he had with his father the other day. Then we went out to Francis and said good bye to the L's and K's and had a great dinner and lesson on mormon.org with the L's. Then we visited G at A&W and had a good chat with him; he can always feel the spirit stronger when we are around he always says.

Thursday we spent most of the day packing and preparing to go into Regina for the mission conference and picked up my suit from the dry cleaners (got it dry cleaned for the first time) then G took us out for dinner and Brother Morrissette was there so we ate with them (Brother Morrissette's wife is out of town in Calgary watching her grand-kids for like a month and ever since she has been gone he just eats out at least two sometimes three times a day! It's pretty funny, reminds me of what Grandpa Schultz would probably do :) ) Then we visited the J's and had a good meeting with them following a good lesson with P and A.

Friday was crazy day. We left and drove up with Estevan elders to Regina and went to Subway and right after that, since almost all of the members in the entire mission were in Regina this weekend because of the Priesthood leadership training, or because there was a huge Winnipeg Stake temple trip, so one of the members who elder Dillon and Elder McGregor knew insisted that we all meet them at East Side Mario's and we ate another meal.... Then we went to the church and it was crazy. I saw so many missionaries there that I had never before seen in my life. Around 4:30 all of the missionaries in the whole mission showed up and then we ate again and then we had a good conference together to prepare for the visit from the Apostle. Then we drove around all night taking luggage places and different missionaries to their billets.

Saturday morning we left the 6 elders in our apartment and had a breakfast appointment with a member family and got a call from a lady who had a card form Elder Beacham a few months ago and asked us to help her so that was good. We then went to the church and waited and studied our scriptures until Elder Christofferson arrived. When he did you could just feel his presence as he walked in the Chapel, it was amazing. He had us all sit down and then everyone in the entire mission got to go up and introduce ourselves and tell him where we were from, then we got to shake his hand along with Elder Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Spackman, the area seventy who lives in Calgary. It was a super great experience. We then heard from Sister and President Thomas and then Elder Spackman and Elder Soares followed by Elder Christofferson speaking and then he opened up about an hour and a half for the missionaries to ask questions. The talks were super good. Elder Christofferson is super funny too. It's really interesting to see General authorities when they aren't at general conference. They are completely different. I remember when I saw some at the MTC they are different than when you see them at general conference. They are super funny yet extremely dignified and can go right back to powerful doctrine just like that.  Too many things to choose from to talk about. The thing that stood out the most was what Elder Christofferson said. How he considers us his companions and that he would hope that he and the Brethren would never do anything to disappoint us and he hoped that we would do the same. He was super humble about everything, that definitely was one great attribute you could see in him. You could just feel their true and deep love that they had for us the entire time. The spirit was so strong the entire time. Definitely a superb experience! He is such a great scriptorian as well. Every question that anyone would ask him he would only have to think for a few seconds and would through out a scripture or a few relating to the topic. He bore the most powerful testimony I have ever heard before. His simple yet very powerful testimony of Christ and that he lives was so powerful, you could literally imagine and see and know that Christ was a person and that he lives. I can't use words to describe how powerful it truly was. After that the mission dispersed and all headed back to their areas and we made sure that everything was taken care of then Elder Christofferson had a four hour meeting with all of the Priesthood leadership in the Winnipeg and Saskatchewan stakes. Wish that we could have sat in on that but we weren't allowed. We then went to lunch with the Assistants before they headed back to Winnipeg and then met a few members and then we went to meet some potential investigators and later had dinner and met C, our 73 old man who is going to be baptized soon, I can just feel it. He wants to, just has to get a few things sorted out with himself.

Sunday was pretty crazy. We studied and went to church early to welcome people. We are in the Wascana Ward; there are three wards in Regina. But the first person I saw when I walked in the Chapel was Ali'i Lafontaine, but he is in the new ward, Sunrise. We had a good sacrament meeting and two people were confirmed, a child of record and a man who just got baptized on Friday. C came and went to all three meetings which was super good. He is such a great guy. It was weird being in such a big ward, even though there were only like 125-150 members it was the biggest I had been to in a year, and it was weird going back to 3 hour blocks because in Weyburn they only had 2 hours of Church.

But yeah, so after that we had lunch and stopped by a few other people, and we also had a lesson with two guys that speak almost 0 English and only speak French and Spanish. They are from Colombia and were working in Quebec before they came to Saskatchewan, so that's why they speak French. We brought a Recent Convert  with us and he is from Cuba so he translated for us. It was super funny because he kept forgetting to change languages and would sometimes speak to the other guys in English and then us in Spanish. But it was super good we gave them all copies of the book of Mormon and the pamphlets in English and Spanish and had a prayer with them and A translated that and it was super powerful, you could totally tell that they felt the spirit. We then had a dinner appointment with the C family, who used to live in Medicine Hat 1st or 2nd ward, I cannot remember but I recognized their faces and they did mine and had a good conversation of things back home.  So yeah anyways I literally have slowly been moving closer and closer to home, saw tons of people from Medicine Hat. After that we had some other appointments but they fell through so we stopped by a few other people before going home and collecting indicators.

Was a pretty crazy week but I loved it, looking forward to serve here!

-Love Elder Shane Dola

P.S. We don't have a car to drive anymore....all we have is a 2014 brand new Chevrolet Silverado with 2400Km's on it to drive around

April 14

Well transfer calls were this week and I have been released from being exiled to the Weyburn Trailer. It has been all right but I will have finally escaped!

This week on Monday A called us and told us about this experience he had while he was at his deceased father's place cleaning up and getting it ready to sell. He told us how the whole time he felt the presence of his father and that it was really calming. He said that where he was at there was no cell service and that he had just left his phone in the Truck when he looked at it next, a few hours later, his dads number who he hadn't called for almost a year showed up and right underneath it was our number who he hadn't called for over 3 months (we communicate mostly through text). He said it was the weirdest thing, That it was not possible that anyone could have input that into his phone and is still trying to figure our what it means and said he is having progress. 

Tuesday we visited D and then Estevan Elders drove us to Moose Jaw and we finally got our car back, which we hadn't had for exactly a month. That was great then we got back and had a good basketball night. We had 11 people show up.

Wednesday we had our district meeting and the Zone Leaders were there and then we helped G's friend clean up her place and helped out by cleaning up a garage sale ran by "The family place." Then we had dinner and went to the "Church of Christ Bible Study."

Thursday we got transfer calls I'm heading even closer to home.

Friday we stopped by a few places for service and J came into town and bought us lunch and we had a good meeting with him before he headed back to Ontario. We then weekly planned and went to HTM then we helped B and H take apart their truck so they can continue to paint it pink. Then we saw G again and he was doing pretty rough. He had been off his meds for a few days and his Schizophrenia was hitting him pretty hard and he asked for a priesthood blessing and afterwards called us that night saying that he felt as if though his Schizophrenia had almost been healed. He felt better that he had in a very long time which was pretty neat experience.

Saturday we helped the Salvation Army with their Trade show for quite a while then helped the old people play bingo at Tatagwa View then took down the Salvation Army thing. Then we met with K and C and S at McDonald's. They got us dinner and we had a bit of a discussion on what happened the other day with his dad and what not, then we stopped by a few referrals.

Sunday we had Church and A came for the first time in like 4 months which was great to see! The talks were on Eternal marriage and that is what she needed to hear. She said she enjoyed it quite a lot. Later we stopped by a referral and saw G. Then had lunch at 2:00 with the A's and Brother Morrissette and shared a message with them and sister A's mother who is not a member who just got here from the Philippines. Then we went and tracted a bit and contacted the rest of the Former investigators then we went out to the Regnier's and had dinner with them and brother Morrissette and shared a message then came back.

Today we visited with P at A&W and had a good discussion and then we went to Welsh Kitchen and visited with P and D. Then we went and took the Cruze into the shop because all Cruze 2013 have a recall on them because apparently the front axle could just snap in half at any time. It has a hairline fracture but it is all good for now, at least they say, still will have to order in the new parts and now we are e-mailing.

Take care.  Love Elder Shane Dola

April 7

Our week was not too bad, we did get to watch all of conference, which was really good, and yes it is warming up pretty good. It was 15 degrees on Saturday after we left the church from the morning session. No we have not received our car back yet, it is fixed and we will get it back on Tuesday! Not too else is new really.

Monday was P-day so we prepared for the week and then had an appointment, which unfortunately fell through.

Tuesday we walked to D's home and shared a message with him and focused on Alma 13. Following that we made our way back home and stopped by the Salvation Army before getting home and eating. After that we made the trek up to Hill Top Manor and helped the old people play cards. Then we walked home and phoned a few people looking for some ways to volunteer in the community building a house, which should be fun to get involved with. We got home and had dinner and then we embarked back into town and stopped by a referral but he wasn't home, only his daughter was so we continued on to contact a former investigator to set up an appointment with her and then we heard of the great experience that Elder Dillon and Elder McGregor had with C by answering his prayer that the Book of Mormon was true. It was probably the most spiritual experience I heard of and experienced on my mission so that was really powerful. We then walked home only to see that the lights were on and that the carport and the door to the trailer were wide open. Looked like someone had broken in so we went in and the whole place was torn apart, completely thrashed with stuff everywhere, it looked like someone ransacked the place. Then we went back and the bedroom and the bathroom were the same. But then we found Elder McGregor and Dillon in the back room. They played an April Fools joke on us which was actually pretty good.

Wednesday we went to the church and had our Zone Training Meeting over Skype, which was pretty good. Then we went for lunch and started our exchanges and Elder Dillon and I were left to walk around town all day and then we went to basketball, which was pretty good and J gave us a ride home. He’s a super great guy, just hope one day he will soften his heart towards the gospel.

Thursday we walked into town again and did some things on mormon.org and stopped by a few others. We were on our way back when we met this man named who we started talking to and as we walked back he invited us into his shack and he made us each eat 2 full cans of Campbell's Chunky soup and like half a loaf of bread each. We eventually escaped and ran into G while we continued on home, and helped him out a bit as he is really going through a hard time still.

Friday we completed our exchanges and everything else fell through but we were blessed to be invited to the Morrissette's for dinner and had KFC, which was good, and we got to share a message with them.

Saturday we were busy all day with Conference, which was super good and we tried to get everyone there that we could.

Sunday we watched conference again and had a really long discussion with G following conference. We got invited out to the Regnier's for dinner and Brother Morrissette took us there and back, which was nice of him. Later that night I got a call from Elder Elliott telling me that J was going to be making his way through Weyburn this week and that he has been going through a hard time with some things and wants to stop and meet with us here, so that was pretty exciting. Also we got the news that our car is fixed so we will be able to go and pick it up on Tuesday. So we had a pretty good weekend with some really good conference addresses.

Today we studied and now are e-mailing.

But it's good to hear from you again. I love you. You take care.

-Love Elder Shane Dola