June 30

Sorry I don't have much time today we are really busy!

This week was alright. Monday we had our P-day. Tuesday we went to Melville on exchanges, Wednesday we came back to Regina and went to other District meetings, visited C, watched a church video with X and H, and taught them the Law of the Chastity. Thursday we taught J like 3 lessons, did some other stuff, and then we went out for dinner. Sister C took us to Red Lobster. So we were there and I was talking to Elder Wiltse about a meal that looked really good but I said it was too much money, to which sister C overheard me say and said "Elder Dola, there is no such thing as too much money, You order anything that you want!" So I did....it was great! Friday we we had MLC cancelled so we went and taught a man who was on our Perspective Elders list who had no recollection at all of ever being a member of the church or never had even heard of the Book of Mormon so we went and taught him the restoration and he is going to read the Book of Mormon so that was really interesting. Later that night we went to the temple and did baptisms for the dead. Saturday we had MLC and our ward picnic, we got to BBQ and then we got some more rib-eye steaks, moved two pianos, stopped by a bunch more Perspective Elders. Sunday no one came to church because it was raining. After Church we helped President N clear out some water that was flooding his home and then we had dinner and then we stopped by our new investigator that we found the other day and he cancelled our appointment so we visited a few others and then collected K's

Take care! 

-Love Elder Shane Dola

June 23

Hey!  If there is room in the package could you please send those Dockers khaki pants that I wore while I was at future shop! That would be great thanks!  Also as always I always always need more ties that are paisley or floral or plaid. It is a definite need! ;)

Week was pretty rough, not gonna lie...the sisters in our district had one of their investigators pass away due to drug OD, our most promising investigator won't respond to us whenever we try to contact him, and our Ward Mission leader, who lives a few blocks away from us, had his house broken into, (the police believe that it is gang related) and had his iPad, wedding ring and car keys and car stolen...

but...

Monday we had p-day and had to plan our portion for Zone Conference and also had to make the programs for Zone Conference.

Tuesday we had a meeting with my District Leaders, had Zone Conference, had dinner with a member family who are here from Alberta just for the summer, and had a few referrals that we stopped by.

Wednesday we were able to give the sisters a blessing and helped a member take some stuff to the dump because we had a nice big truck; we get to help out a lot. Taught a new investigator who is from Alberta at a Tim Hortons, stopped by a few others, and had a meal appointment with some members. Taught a lesson online. Started our Exchanges with Lewvan.

Thursday we tried to contact a referral who owns an ice cream shop but he wasn't there so we just ate ice cream at 10:30 in the morning went and did some online proselyting. Tried to contact a less active  but we got kicked out of the apartment complex by some building manager because he thought we were just punching in random numbers before he could even answer the phone. We visited with J and then with M and then had dinner at some fancy Italian Restaurant named Luigis Pasta House with sister C and some of her family. There is one pasta dish there that is 3pounds of pasta 3 pounds of sauce and half a loaf of garlic bread...So I might have to try that next time, because if you can eat all of it in 1 hour you get a $50 gift card and your name on the wall of fame. But we had to leave before dessert and we were able to teach H and X the restoration and watched the Restoration DVD with them in Chinese, which was quite interesting. Then we picked up brother S (he is the one whose house got broken into so he no longer has a car) and went to the church where we had an appointment that got launched so we took him back home and then ended our exchanges.

Friday we weekly planned and helped Sister T move some stuff into a moving van that they were taking to her daughter who lives outside of Selkirk and she gave us a ton of food for no reason, which was great! Spent the rest of the night stopping by and visiting less-actives and referrals and doing online work.

Saturday we had a missionary co-ordination meeting with our District at brother S's. Following that we had lunch, had our lesson with J, which was great. He is getting baptized on the 12 of July and a lot of his family has been coming back into activity in the Church to support him because of it. After the lesson we gave his mom a blessing for her headache and she texted us later and told us how she knows that the Church is true and that she didn't have a head ache at all right after and she had had them for weeks straight, so that was a miracle for sure. Then we did some online work, had dinner, and visited some more referrals and prospective Elders.

Sunday we had church and C came again; he's a Less Active we haven't seen for a very long time. C came again as always and has been super great! Then we were a little disappointed because F and J didn't show up for their church (they are in a different ward) but then a few seconds later, they showed up and J's dad, who previously told us he wasn't coming, showed up too and they also brought one of their little grandsons! So that was great; they really enjoyed it. We later did online work, visited with C, which went really well, and then had dinner and stopped by some more Less-actives. We have been cleaning up the records a lot if you can't tell... then we collected indicators and that's it.

But it was great to hear from you. Sounds like you have some fun weeks ahead of you! Love you, you take care :)

-Love Elder Shane Dola

June 16

This week:

Monday had p-day had a good visit with some of our new investigators, then we went on exchanges.

Tuesday we had district meeting, had lunch, visited with a ton of less actives we hadn't met before, had dinner with the B's and were enlightened by their great conversion story and their great testimonies, then we went and stopped by a few others, and then ended our exchange.

Wednesday we had the other district meetings, met a less active member who happens to live across the street from us, which was a super spiritual experience. He wants to come back to church now. Had a lesson online, taught H and X again, and then brought R with us and taught the Plan of Salvation to J, who now has a baptismal date on July 12!

Thursday Elder Petersen was sick so we went on exchanges again and met with our friend from Korea who we met last week. He just sat there and told us how much he loved going to church and how much more comfortable it was than his previous church and how much he loved the idea of Fast offerings and fasting before we even were able to talk about it. He is super great and told us that he has a few addictions that he is trying to overcome and we introduced him to ARP to which he agreed to go before we could even invite him and blocked off that time every week now so that he can go! Super great guy. He then took us out to a really good sushi place and we had a good lunch and a good conversation with him. We saw Kendall there too. After that Elder Wiltse and I were very full but we were able to go out to Gray and help the H's rip all of the shingles off of their roof and started to prep it for the new ones, which was great and super fun!

Friday we were super busy. Kendall took us out to breakfast again. It was great to see him again before he left Regina the next morning. We did some on-line work. Then had lunch at Sister T's and were able to give Brother T a blessing, as he is feeling very sick. We then had a few lessons, one with M and the Book of Mormon. Later we went to Sister M's and had dinner and helped them move some rocks into their yard from another member’s yard across town. Then we went to the temple and helped out with our ward temple sealings. 

Saturday we went back to the temple bright and early and went through a session with the Assistants, and then went on exchanges with them and taught a lesson to a less active recent convert. Then we went back, did some on-line work, weekly planned, and went to a Philippino BBQ, which was pretty good. Following that, we stopped by and visited a lot of less active members and prospective Elders. We had a really spiritual experience with C where he told us of his newly gained testimony of prayer! Then we had dinner, stopped by a few others, and did some on-line work.

Sunday didn't exactly go as planned. We had 16 people who had committed and were going to be at church, but only one of them actually ended up coming, which was too bad. But he had another great experience as he listened to the father’s day talks and he ended up staying longer than he had originally planned again. He is really progressing very well. After church we planned for our portion in Zone Conference. Then we had dinner with the T's, took indicators, and took care of some other things.

But I love you and hope that you have a great week! Take care!

-Love Elder Shane Dola

June 9

This week was pretty good. We received 5 new investigators, which was good.

Monday was P-day and all of the missionaries in Regina went out to a Brother T's house and just had a good party/ get-together where we played pool, ping pong, Foosball, ultimate frisbee, other games etc. Was a good time. They had a pig roast where they dug a pit and threw the pig in there. It was a really big fail however. The pig wasn't nearly close to being cooked. It was still bleeding and it smelt really bad as it was just sitting there for 14+ hours outside in the ground on top of some coals. But that was good. We later stopped by some LA members and had FHE with the YSA

Tuesday we had district meeting and then went to BP's for district lunch. Pasta is half off on Tuesday. Contacted a ton of people and had dinner with the C's and took C with us to a member's place and had a good visit.  C loved it!

Wednesday we had other District meetings, stopped by a ton of Perspective Elders and had dinner with the T's. Then we had a lesson with H and his friend. X  joined in and it was super good. It was X's first introduction to religion and he was super interested and wanted to learn more! 

Thursday we had a coordination meeting with our district and a man walked up to the building we were using and wanted to take a look at it and ended up coming in and we taught him about the church and he expressed how he was looking for more in his life and was looking for a different church and wants us to continue teaching him. Then we had a lunch break and a random member we don't know was at Subway and bought all 6 missionaries their lunch. We then stopped by J and N and set an appointment with them and stopped by a referral from a lady who we helped move and met a really great couple and their kids who are now investigating the church and said they really wanted to become better and overcome their problems. It was a great day. We then had dinner and visited a few more people that night.

Friday we had weekly planning and met with a few other people and met with R and had a really interesting discussion with him. Then sister C took all of us to East Side Mario's and stuffed us with food! Then we went and volunteered at the Philippians Pavilion at "Mosaic" Festival which was really neat and good opportunity to serve and get our image out to the public. Then Brother C had us eat more food, so felt pretty sick that night.

Saturday we went to the temple and did baptisms for 2 hours, then yard work on the grounds for 2 hours, then we had lunch at Bro. S's home and had our missionary coordination meeting. Then we volunteered at Mosaic again had a lesson with one of Elder Petersen's friends from back home on Facebook.

Sunday we had church and C was there again. Unfortunately none of our new investigators showed up but just before sacrament started, D showed up. He loved it I was sitting with him and could really tell that he felt the spirit! Then he stayed for Gospel Principle and took a book home and is going to be meeting with us again this week. Was a super great experience to see him and him express how at peace he was at, and how he committed himself to study things out in the scriptures and to pray about it without us even having to invite him to do so! After church we stopped by a few others, had dinner, and had another lesson on Facebook followed by battling with our dinosaur computer and fax machine so we finally go our indicators off to the assistants.

Overall it was a great week and we witnessed many miracles, blessings, and answered prayers this week! Hopefully we will continue to see more as the transfer goes on!

Love you! You take care! 

-Love Elder Shane Dola

June 2

This week was pretty crazy. Monday we quickly e-mailed and went to "I Love Sushi" for lunch which was pretty good. Following that, we went to the Golf Tournament and sat at a Hole-in-one prize hole from 1:00-6:00 to see if anyone got a hole in one. No one ever even got close but everyone who came up that talked with us thought they were really funny and that we should tell the organizers that they got a hole in one and if they did they would let us borrow the truck for a month (the prize for getting a hole-in-one was a 2014 GMC Sierra, or so we thought until later we realized that the prize was actually pretty upsetting as it was only a free 1 year lease.... which only upset the people more. So really we sat there for 5 hours straight getting sun burnt and attacked by mosquitoes while everyone told us we could take off our ties and some were nice and knew who we were and others were jerks and wanted to argue with us later but were too afraid to confront us later or something so they didn't. But yeah it was not too bad. Got a lot of people to know who we were and heard from some members that their friends at the tournament saw us there and thought it was really nice what we did. So that was really good. After that we ate dinner with everyone else at the clubhouse and had a few people try to buy us some shots. But it was a good service activity overall! After that we got taken out for ice cream by a member family and shared a message with them as they said their farewells to Elder B.

Tuesday we picked up Elder B's PMG and had District meeting then we went to Boston Pizza with Brother F one last time. Visited C, and did a bunch of other stuff, then we got stuck in traffic for an hour so we were late for our dinner appointment with the M's but got there. ate, and then went and had another dinner at the Burgess' which was super spiritually uplifting. President Burgess is in the Temple Presidency so every time we go there he uplifts us way more than we do him. Following that said a few goodbyes to a few others.

Wednesday we had District meeting and then Sister T took all the missionaries in our District to Costco for lunch and then took us shopping and tried to make me let her buy my GPS. Then we went on Facebook, and then visited with C one last time.  We couldn't make it to Tony Roma's that night with Sister C because we already had an appointment with the S's. After that we went to the temple and had an endowment session with 49 missionaries who were all in the city for transfers and the temple has a max of 40, so that was pretty packed, but it was a super great experience. After that we set up billets for everyone else for the night.

Thursday was transfers. We sent some Elders on their way, stopped by to say bye to the T's and she ended up feeding us. Then we saw the W's and then had dinner at the M's again and shared a message with them. Then we moved a lady. Then we went to the church and assigned other billets for people that got back.

Friday Elder B left and we finished up the rest of Transfers in Regina. Elder P and I went on our way and took care of a few things and some luggage and then we planned our portion we had to give in Stake Priesthood Leadership meeting the next day, took care of some more logistical things, and then had dinner, went back to the Temple and did ward baptisms.

Saturday we had a baptism from Yorkton district which went well, so that was all morning, We then had lunch and had to mow the Sister missionaries lawn, if you could even call it that. It was more like a dandelion patch. Then we rushed home, changed, and went to the Priesthood leadership session, which was good, and gave our portion which went alright. Then we went for dinner and came back for the Adult session which went pretty good. C came.

Sunday we had breakfast and missionary coordination meeting at Bro S's home, then went to Stake Conference and C was there, which was great. He enjoyed it.  Then we took stuff down and helped clean up then we planned a bit,  had dinner with the M's, and then came home, planned some more, had to take indicators and month end K's...

Long week, super stressful and disappointing as not much actual missionary work was done.

But I love you, you take care!

-Love Elder Shane Dola