The Hills Are Alive!!!

First off, Swift is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire mission! There are hills, beautiful trees and grass, and rivers. Ah, it's amazing I love it. Equally as amazing is my new companion, Elder Shepherd. He's from Lehi, and basically, he's the best ever. We've had so much fun in the last few days. I don't think I've ever laughed so much on my mission. The best description I can give of him is that he reminds me a lot of Troy Bell. We both tease each other a bunch, and it's just so much fun. Well, you know the drill when I'm in the middle of nowhere, so here's the new address: 7A Jenmar Development

                                        Swift Current, SK S9H 3X6

                                        Canada

 

To back track a little, E. Burnett and I finished off the week really well. Our last night, we taught Shengtao and Amy. We got their info, so we'll keep in touch. It was a ton of fun teaching them. Most of the early week was packing, and to be quite honest, I can't even remember most of it.

 

Thursday was a full day of driving. It was ridiculous. I was so tired of sitting! But I got to see some friends and former companions, so that was good. We were supposed to go to Moose Jaw on Thursday, but the transfer train was late. So we stayed the night and left in the morning. On our way to Moose Jaw, it was just me and E. Allred who is in MJ now. But, anyways, on our way, our tire was having troubles, so we had to stop at this dinky town to fill up our tire. Ha ha, I mean we stopped at a mechanic garage that was just run out of this guy's personal garage, ha ha. The town is called Pense, if you want to look it up. That's just one of our adventures for the day. We finally got to swift, but we realized that we left our phone with E. Allred in MJ. That was not a fun drive to make. We had to call our phone from a pay phone, and I think the best part was when the mj elders told us, "hey you forgot your phone."...thanks.

 

But we are all settled in now, I hope, and we're off to work. We will be walking a ton thanks to the hole in the k allotment, but that's OK, we're learning. I love this branch. I love the people, it's just going to be a ton of fun serving with Elder Shepherd. We're going to tear it up!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

 

PS. I would send pics, but this computer hates me!

Transfers/ Mothers Day!

Get Drugs Here!!
In the Ghetto

Mr Big Bar Ice Cream!!

Way better than a Croissant!

So first off, it was super great to talk to all of you yesterday. It was pretty funny when little Bobby tried to come and beat me up, ha ha. That little guy's great. He was taking a nap in the next room over....I may have woken him up, whoops.

So like I said yesterday, I am getting transferred to Swift Current, Saskatchewan. I love Saskatchewan! And I love trailers! I'm excited, but sad that we will be leaving Shengtao and Amy. They are doing so good. We gave them a church tour on Saturday, and then Shengtao came to church yesterday! I think Amy is still concerned about her kids misbehaving at church. Shengtao stayed for all 3 hours as well. He knew the investigator that the ap's are teaching. Allen is taking some of the courses that Shengtao teaches at the university. So they were excited to see each other. They pretty much fellow shipped each other. It was so great! At the end of church, they were handing out flowers to all the mothers, and someone gave Shengtao a flower for his wife. He was standing next to one of the ap's, and he turned and looked at Shengtao. Shengtao just looked back at him and said, "it's not for you!" It was so funny. We'll be meeting with them one last time before we go.

We've been contacting and teaching a bunch of less-active members. It's been really great to get that going. Most if not all of these members have nonmember relatives, so the work will really progress if the next elders are diligent. It's nice to feel that I'm not leaving the area completely dead, ha ha. But it is sad. It's almost like someone came and kicked my Lego tower over. (ha ha Meagan remember when you did that to me when we were little? thanks)

That's about all I've got for this week. We had some pretty good meetings, and there's a ton of change going on in the mission. Hopefully it will just help us get better and stronger :)

I love you all so much. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Bust out the short sleeved shirts!

So first off, those pictures are great! You all have changed so much.... It's sorta weird actually. But I sure love ya all!

 

OK, secondly, I'm not sure what time that we'll be able to skype. I have a rough estimate. I think at the earliest it would be around 3:30PM your time. Which makes it a little rough for church, I know. But if you miss me, I will leave a message with our skype address so you can accept my call after my companion takes his turn. I don't have that address right now, but I'm pretty sure you're not going to be having a ton of people skyping you, so we'll get it figured out. So the time frame will be around 3:30-4:30 your time.

 

This week was really fun. We had our first ESL class in downtown on Wednesday. It was really great. On our first class, we already had 3 people. It's been pretty crazy getting a bunch of phone calls from people who don't speak the greatest English. But I think we've been able to work it out for the most part. It looks like we'll have a lot of Indian, Chinese, or even Korean and Filipino students. Super fun. I love teaching English.

 

We had a good week working with less-active members. Meeting with less-active members is possibly my favorite thing about a mission. We have quite a few to work with. We just starting meeting with a less-active lady named, Colleen. She has a great testimony. I can't wait to see her start to take steps to coming back to church.

 

A really neat experience we had this week happened on Friday when we decided that we wanted to try tracting for a little bit. We pulled up to the street, and we saw a woman working in her lawn. We offered to help, and she declined. I could tell she wanted help, so I just started helping. We helped for about an hour, and we just talked. She's super nice, and she told us that we could come back any time. Just a reassuring experience to know that we are led by the Spirit to people who are prepared.

 

That's about all that I can think of. I'll talk with you all Sunday! Love ya!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Spring???

Pictures at the Royal Canadian Mint!

The Royal Canadian Mint

So this week was a little slow at the start. We did some spring cleaning in the apartment (much needed), but it was not that much fun to do while being sick! I still felt pretty terrible on last Monday, but I was on the mend and pretty much recovered by Wednesday. I was a little tired on Thursday, but I feel that since that time I'm back to myself. So there's the update. Yes I did buy some medicine at the pharmacy. I would have used my allotment card, but I lost it a few weeks ago. So long story short, I finally got the replacement card last Monday, but it only worked once. I called and asked if I had any money. I had plenty, but the card had been reported as lost/stolen...again. So I am again without a card for another 2 weeks. And, needless to say, with just E. Burnett's card....we were low on money. But we've received some extra money, so we should be good for the next few weeks. Just a mess though.

On Wednesday, we ate supper with a member family, the Smith's. They have 2 little girls and one little boy. Abby is 5, Natalie is 3 or 4, and Jared is 18 months. And they are adorable! Natalie was sitting next to me, and she would just look at me with her big blue eyes. Oh, man! If I have daughters that cute, they will have everything they want! There's no way I could say no to that face! Anyways, sometime during supper, Natalie scampered off. Apparently she had gone to the washroom cause we just hear this faint yell, "Dad?"......

"What, honey?"...."Will you wipe my butt?"

"you can do that on your own, honey"...."But I want you to do it."

"What if I don't want to do it?"......"Mom?!"

It was super funny because I've gotten into the habit lately of teasing E. Burnett any time he's in the washroom: Mommy, will you wipe my butt? And it was even more funny cause who did I get that from? Nobody but our very own Natalie. All sorts of back stories there. So I was dying. Hopefully Bro and Sis Smith were not embarrassed. They didn't seem to be. But seriously, their kids are the best.

Most of this week we've been advertising for an English class we're starting tomorrow in downtown. We actually just got a call this morning from someone who's interested in coming. So all of our flier placing and inviting is paying off! Oh, which is some of the money I spent. It was for packing tape. Some, well, most of the pharmacies here are combined with post offices. But it was fun walking around and talking with everyone in downtown. It was super warm! It even got up to the...60's I believe. If my conversion is accurate.

Zone Conference was fantastic yesterday! Elder Foster is a really nice guy. Of course, cause he's from Idaho! But it was a very instructive conference. It was mostly about working with members. He provides some very timely advice and counsel. We are already putting it to practice. We'll see how it works!

Also, something that you may be interested to know, we ate supper at another member's home yesterday: the Crowton's. Brother Gary Crowton is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' offensive coordinator. Bro and Sis Crowton are very, very nice people. Bro Crowton served his mission in Korea. I even got to eat with chopsticks again. I have to say, I'm starting to get alright with chopsticks! He sorta intimidates me though. At one point during the conversation, he got very animated and slammed his fist into his palm. The whole table shook! And I was starting to wish I had some brown slacks ;) Very good members, though. It will be exciting to get to know them more.

I can't really think of anything else. I love ya! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Sick Again!

This week has been pretty rough for me. I've had a wicked, nasty cold all week. This is the first time in a long time that I can remember losing my voice. I couldn't even talk all day yesterday. So you can imagine how easy it is to do missionary work when you don't even have a voice. Pretty frustrating. But it gave E. Burnett ample opportunity to talk and teach more.

 

Well, when it rains it pours, and on top of being sick, we've had a family that we've been working with drop us. So this week has been a little difficult that way as well. To be honest, I've been pretty frustrated lately. But I keep my head up and keep working. One thing I've learned on my mission is that whining does not accomplish a thing! I don't want to do it, and I sure don't want to hear it! So I'm not going to dwell on any of the negatives this week.

 

We've had some positive experiences teaching some less-active members. There's really a ton of potential in this area. So many of the less-active members we've contacted are just waiting for the help to come back into activity. Also, on Saturday, we were able to help a nonmember in our area to move into her apartment. She is related to a member family in another ward in Winnipeg. Apparently as part of the deal for us helping, she has to listen to us. She they're going to call us and set up an appointment. She seemed like she wasn't actually being drug into it; however, she did inform us that she is an unlikely convert. Very nice lady. We'll see what happens.

 

Well, other than me trying to teach without a voice, that's about all that I've got for today. I love you all, and I will email on Tuesday next week....I think. We have zone conference on Monday. Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Rollercoaster! April 15,2013

This week has been another crazy one. Last Monday Elder Burnett sprained his ankle pretty good. I didn't think it was going to be that bad, but then he showed me....yeah, it was pretty gross. I've got some pictures :) The poor guy landed wrong when we were playing basketball. So he's been pretty sore for the last few days.

In the last few weeks, we've really been focusing on contacting and meeting with as many less-active members as we can. We've had quite a few positive experiences, and we've met several families who are interested in meeting with us. We met with one man from Chile this week. His name is Bro Ruiz. He's a pretty funny older guy. He's got a very thick accent, so it's hard to understand him at times. I look forward to meeting with him in the future. We met a few others this week, and hopefully we can help them take the steps to coming back to church.

We had a good appointment with Shengtuo and Amy. They're both way too smart, so their questions are difficult to answer at times. If there wasn't a bit of a language barrier, I'm pretty sure it would just be ridiculous to teach them. They are super nice, so hopefully we can help them strengthen their understanding of the Restoration.

Our English class was really fun this week. A Chinese family came. They had the cutest little boy. He was shy, so he'd just stare at you. We would move around, and he would just follow us with his eyes. I'm pretty sure he was just thinking, 'crazy white people.' It was pretty funny.

I got to give a talk on Sunday about missionary work. It was pretty interesting. I've given a talk in every area I've served in. I just can't get away from it for some reason. It was a good opportunity for me to learn. I was feeling to well on Sunday, though....I seem to be doing a bit better today, though. Also on Sunday, this guy just walked into church. His name is Vincent. It was pretty incredible, one of the assistants and I both talked about how people are prepared to receive the gospel, and in walks a total stranger to everyone. Pretty neat. He stayed for all 3 blocks, too.

I'm pretty sure that's about all that I've got for this week. I sure love you all! Have a great week!

Spring in Canada!

Fried Rolo's

Elder Burnett's ankle

Rotten Eggs??

This week was actually a really busy week for us. We had transfers this week, so that means that 15 new missionaries came into the mission. One of them is Miss Idaho. I didn't meet her, but apparently she's from Ammon. Another is 18 years old, but he is 6' 9"! I barely make it to his chest! But the most exciting thing is that I met the other Elder Lyons for the first time! He looks absolutely nothing like me. I'm actually referred to as the Blondie Elder Lyons....anyways, he's a great guy. He served in Weyburn, so we had a good chat.

We also met with a part member family this week. Amanda is a member, but her husband is not. Currently, he is not very interested. But they have a 9 year old son who is a champ! He has a strong testimony, and he is asking his mom a lot of questions. Which is why she's decided she wants to have us over. We had a great lesson about prayer and our Heavenly Father. I'm really looking forward to working with them. They are a great family.

We've also been contacting and hunting down a ton of less-active members! We have been able to contact quite a few of them, but many of them have moved. We met with a member who hasn't been active for quite a while. He's expressed a sincere desire to make changes in his life. I'm excited to keep working with Robert. It's been exciting to contact and work with less-active members. Many of these members have friends and relatives who are not members, so it's clearly where we need to be spending our efforts.

Conference was really great! I love the counsel I receive every time without fail. So in between the Saturday morning and afternoon session, we ate lunch with our Chinese investigators, Shengtuo and Amy. They made very, very authentic Chinese food. They're Chinese and they made food. It was really good! But there was this ominous looking dish that looked like a pile of white cubes with black chunks and green spots. They told us it was tofu with eggs. Sounds pretty normal... wrong. The eggs had been buried in the ground. Then, after they take a nice dirt nap, they go digging for them and cook them! And I ate it! Let me but all myths to rest, it was disgusting! I don't want to be rude, but it's the truth. The funny think is that it wasn't the flavor. The texture was just off. It's solid in your mouth for all of a second, then it's instantly peanut butter! So I'm eating this tofu (if you want a good picture of what happened think of Robert eating the tofu turkey in Everybody loves Raymond), and I played it off like it was no big deal :) But other than that, the day was not that out of the ordinary. 

That's all I've got for today. I hope all of you enjoy the nice weather down there. I love looking at the shots of the conference center. It always surprises me, "wait it's spring?....Oh yeah, I'm in Canada. That's why it looks nice down there." Have a great week, and I love you!!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons