Hey how are you doing!
But this was our week:
On Monday we had our P-day and were able to stop
by a few former investigators. One let us in and is a super great guy with a
great family, from the Philippines, and will have us over. We have had a few
appointments with him that got cancelled because he is always super busy but
that was still good, just got to keep trying until it works out with his
schedule.
Tuesday we went to a special care home and
talked to a few old people. ) Then we went to Francis and met the L's and the K's at their
"Ziggy Mart" (convenience store/ restaurant) and picked up a pizza
and went over to the L's home and were able to have lunch with J and teach
him one last time. It was really good; he was super understanding and was sad
because he didn't want to have to go home yet, but we will have to see how
things go. The last lesson went great and he committed to continue reading and
praying and his aunt showed him where the church is near where he lives, so we
are going to send off his teaching record over there and have to leave the rest
up to him and the Lord. We then came back into Weyburn and went and helped the old folks play their Bingo card game. It was super sad, this one lady was
super upset after we were leaving and kept asking us when she could leave the
Residence there and go home. She was super confused and sad but that's life;
happens when you get old. But after that we went and gave blood, which was
great. When the guy who stabbed me with the needle stabbed me, blood squirted
up my arm, which was pretty gross. I said "You almost got me there"
(almost got on my shirt (when I took my shirt off that night there was a small
blood stain in line with where the splash of blood flowed)) and he was shocked
and said "Sorry, I didn't even think that there was that much pressure
there." But after that we came home and had dinner and then went and
played basketball for our basketball night. I almost passed-out like 3 times
because of the loss of blood, but that was okay it still went pretty good.
Wednesday we had District meeting, and then a
branch correlation meeting with our branch mission leader, which was good. Then
we went to the Welsh Kitchen for lunch and stopped by a few potential
investigators and formers had dinner and went to the "Church of Christ
Bible Study" which was better this week. Then we had to go get water from
Pharmasave so we could drink again. And G called us telling us how well his
new job has been going, which was great.
Thursday we had a lesson with a less active and had president Tieffenbach come with us, which was
good. He is doing well. Then
we went and stopped by the "Family Place" seeking for service
opportunities, and then we stopped by the police station and had a good chat
with the Chief of Police who is going to have a bunch of service opportunities
for us in the future! We then had lunch and went to the library and tried all
we could to find more info about all of the less-actives in our branch. It took
a long time and we didn't have too much success, but got some things in order a
bit. We got our transfer calls and I will be staying here and get a different
missionary named Elder H, another guy from the Mother-ship of Utah!
Then we stopped by and tried to contact this one lady who wants nothing to do
with the church and so we were trying to let her know how she can get her
records removed so that missionaries stop stopping by her place, but she yelled
at us to go away through her intercom system, so we will just have to go back
another day until she lets us talk to her, or maybe just drop off the sheet she
needs with the info on how she can remove her records. Then we had dinner,
stopped by the J's and Elder S said goodbye, then we went and had an
appointment but ended up just helping with folding their giant
mountain of clothes with them for almost an hour then came home.
Friday we stopped by a few other people for
Elder S to say goodbye, then we had lunch and drove to Midale and met with
the Elders there to go on exchanges and it was like -45 then. It was super
cold, so couldn't really do anything, but I went with Elder M and we
decided to drive down this random road and saw this huge house as we passed by
and then drove a bit more down the road and I felt prompted to stop by and
knock on the door, or we just wanted to see the huge house, but anyway it was super
good. We met this super nice lady who is catholic and basically let us in
because she thought we were ridiculous for being out when it was super cold.
She made us hot chocolate and kept bringing us more and more food, all the
while we taught her about the church and taught the restoration and the BOM.
She is super strongly catholic and was going to be a nun once but got married
instead, but was super open to new things and said that at the time and during
all of her searching and pondering that she knew the Catholic church to be
true, however she is a strong believer of The Lord showing her new ways and new
light so she accepted the Book of Mormon we left her and said she wanted to
read and find more about it. She seemed very confounded and was very appreciative
because she said she learnt a lot she didn't know before, even though she has a
few Mormon friends that she really adores. After that we came into town and
Elder McRitchie had to stand there in the blistering cold and fill up the car
with gas. Then we came home and had dinner and then later we went to "Warm
Welcome" the homeless shelter and taught the different volunteers there
more about the church and they were all super receptive and interested, we
shared some of the CES Devotional titled "The Blueprint of Christ's
Church" and they all seemed interested. So yeah that was good. For the
second time I taught people at midnight in another church. Was super good. Then
we ran outside to our car and luckily it started so we drove home and went to
bed in our freezing house.
Saturday we woke up in Estevan and it was -56 or
something around that so we really didn't leave the house until noonish and had
nothing else we could do so we went to the leisure centre, because that is
where everyone goes on Saturday and almost every other day of the week, and
walked around a bit and walked over to the Curling rink and nearly died because
it was so cold walking that short distance. We eventually just sat in the
library looking up information on the Church Website and other things. Then we
had to make our way back to Weyburn but just went straight to McTaggart and had
dinner there with the Regniers and the other missionaries and had a small
birthday party for Elder S then came home. It was still super cold.
Sunday we had Fast Sunday, which was good. We
had a good dinner with the M's and read the Book of Mormon with them
for like an hour and a half and then we did some planning and then met with the
S's and Elder S said his goodbyes, then we stopped by a former
investigator and we are going to
come back later this week and try and teach her family. We then went and
visited with B and H and Elder S said his goodbyes. Then we came
home and slept.
Today we said goodbye to the Abads and then
drove back to Estevan and Elder D and I had an interview with the
newspaper about the Elders being in Estevan and talked a bit about the ARC
program that we are going to try to introduce to people here and that's it.
Love you, take care, and continue to have your
back heal!
-Love Elder Shane Dola
