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

May 26

This week was pretty good. Sorry I don't have too much time to write this week, as we will be busy all day with a service project at a golf tournament.

Monday was p-day. We saw President and Sister Thomas. We had a district meeting on Tuesday and helped a lady move her daughter and some other stuff all day. Wednesday we took the truck in because there was a nail in one of the tires. We had another district meeting and stopped by a few people. Thursday we helped a lady move her stuff into a storage unit, had lunch with Ali'i and his brother and his daughter at a buffet and he made us keep eating unil we almost died but it was really good so it was alright. He is a great guy! We had another meal appointment later that night. Friday we went to breakfast with Kendall and some of his friends from work and then weekly planned. We were at the archives with Bishop Dilts and were busy doing other stuff all day! Saturday we were at an EQ service project all day and helped destroy a shed, build a shed and a little bit of a fence. They fed us lunch and we saw some other people afterwards. Then we had two meal appointments back to back. Sunday we had church and a baptismal interview and met F and J in the park and had some guy come and try to bible bash with us. He got all up in our face and started swearing and saying that we deny the Deity of Jesus and then quoted a scripture to try and make his point but then he messed up the reference and Elder Beacham corrected him and then we ignored him but he kept getting in our face and swearing and getting all mad but I thought it was funny because of how crazy he was. Then we had two meal appointments back to back and saw S and T. We had like 5 other dinner appointments throughout the week too. So yeah, a pretty good week. Elder Beacham got transferred to Meadow Lake and this will be a really busy week!

I love you and hope that your week goes well!

-Love Elder Shane Dola

May 19

Our week was pretty good.

Monday was P-day and we just took it easy.

Tuesday we went to Yorkton and went on exchanges with the Elders there, which was pretty good.

Wednesday we came back from Yorkton and we went to a district meeting and went to Pizza Hut and had our district goal setting. We then stopped by a few people and helped out the T's who then fed us dinner. We then were able to contact two people.

Thursday we went on Facebook and searched for some less active members who we couldn't get a hold of, had lunch, saw a few other people, including C and watched a video with him. Sister C took us out to Tony Romas for the second week in a row so that was pretty rough... then we stopped by J and N and went out to the H's and took a large load of garbage from their yard, and roasted smores, and had a good time with the young men out in Gray. Then the Assistants arrived.

Friday we weekly planned and exchanged with the Assistants, taught this one guy on the street. Did some Facebook and visited C before we went out to Pense and had a good Dinner appointment with the T's and helped them move some of their patio furniture.

Saturday was crazy. We had a teaching assessment with the sisters and the Assistants and then the 3 wards in Regina all got together and we cleaned the whole parking lot and everything else around the chapel. I spent most of the time pruning trees and bushes with Brother H. Then we had a BBQ and I almost burnt off my hand but didn't so it was all good. Then it was 1:00 and I walked by the Relief Society room and realized that I didn't hear any water flowing and our ward mission leader forgot to start filling the font so we did that. C was there for his baptism half an hour early and it started over an hour late, but we had a good turnout and the Baptism went very well. After that the T's took our district out to a Buffet for dinner, which was good, and then we went and worked on our service project doing some yard work.

Sunday was crazy. The people we were contacting had wrong numbers but eventually it worked out. Kendall and his friend showed up randomly, which was great. C was late 10 minutes to church but it was all good. He still was able to get confirmed and asked me to do it and it all went smoothly. We had a good gospel principles class and we taught the young men's class, then we went and visited Sister B in the Hospital and Bishop D came later and we were able to administer the sacrament to her and had a mini sacrament meeting with them. Then we went out to Gray again and had dinner with the H family and shared a home teaching message/ discussion. Then we came home and took indicators.

-Love Elder Dola 

May 12

Elder Dola did not write much this week as we got to Skype with him yesterday for about 2 hours.  Here are some pictures he sent.

My dog friend.

Qu'appelle Valley in the background.

First mosquito of the season!

Hills in Saskatchewan!

Horses.

May 5

Our week was all right. We were really busy moving other missionaries to their new apartments and what not, but still had some good experiences.

This week was pretty busy we had spring cleaning and p-day. 

Monday we had dinner at the C's followed by us giving  a priesthood blessing and then we went to the FHE held by the YSA aged members and played basketball.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and then we spent the rest of the day moving the 2 Sunrise Companionships from their old apartments into their new ones followed by us having a dinner and HT appointment with the F's and then we helped finish moving the other Elders.

Wednesday we went to the other districts in Regina's District meetings and then went on exchanges and visited a LA member and then went to Swiss Chalet for lunch with some ladies that I had met in Weyburn, followed by us going to our online training meeting and then we stopped by and visited with a LA member who is dying of cancer before we went to East Side Mario's for dinner, compliments of Sister and Dr C.

Thursday we went on Facebook and went to Ranch Ehrlo where we are going to volunteer. Following that we had lunch and stopped by some referrals and prospective Elders, visited a Less active member in the hospital and gave him a blessing, and had a ward missionary coordination meeting and dinner with our ward mission leader and his family. Then we went to the C family and picked up the package you sent; they wanted it out of their house so the kids wouldn't eat it and we got invited to the temple. 

Friday we had Missionary Leadership Conference over Skype and then we had lunch with the S's at some restaurant called Bocados and spent the rest of the day helping a member family take some stuff of theirs, including a swing set, to the dump and then we set up a trampoline and had dinner with them and finished the trampoline and then we went and had a Home teaching message with the W family, then we went to the Temple and helped with a sealing session.

Saturday we went on facebook and then we visited D in the hospital again. Then we had lunch and had to take the truck in to get the tire fixed. Then we visited with C and he set a Baptismal date for the 10^th. Then we left and the tire was even worse so we filled it up and contacted a bunch of prospective Elders and filled the tire again and then went to a member’s house and her husband helped us change our tire because we had no tools and then she insisted on feeding us dinner.

Sunday we planned a lot for going out to the reserves and had church. C was the only one who actually came and he didn't tell anyone he wanted to be baptised so we are postponing the date. We planned more for the reserves and then we had dinner at the T's and then we had the highlight of the week; we went and visited with our Spanish investigators and brought our ward mission leader with us to translate which was good. We couldn't understand what was being said but the spirit was so strong that it didn't matter.

Today and tomorrow we are going out to some surrounding areas and reserves.

But it's good hearing from you! Hope that all is well! Love you too! Take care

-Love Elder Shane Dola