Whoa! 4/30/12!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!...on Friday. You're going to be a
teenager. Gross! Don't worry, I'm a teenager, too.

I think it's great that Ryan's going to Africa. I'm still kinda geekin
out about it. Ryan, you should look up 'Israel, Israel God is Calling'
by Alex Boye. It will probably be your African theme song!

This transfer has completely flown by! I don't even know where the
time has gone. Oh, before I forget, I got your letter today, Mom.
Thanks! I love the picture, too. You guys are "goofy". Ha ha, get it?
Anyways...what was I talking about. Oh yeah, I can't believe I already
get to talk to you guys in a couple of weeks. So far I have no idea
what the plans are for the call. I have to say, I am terrified to end
training. Mostly cause it's one step closer to training someone else.
Yikes.

Let's see...what on earth happened this week? I've sorta been sick. I
have one of those zap your energy colds, so that's been no fun. Oh, we
taught Mary Ann again. We gave her a Tagalog Book of Mormon. Sometimes
she doesn't completely understand English, but she understands the
Spirit! She accepted the invitation to get baptized! Woo hoo! Now she
just needs to get off work, so she can come to church. She is a
fantastic lady!

What else...I got to listen to the area authority of central Canada.
That was interesting. One day, we get a call from the zone leaders,
"hey Elder Terrence C. Smith wants to meet with you and the Saskatoon
missionaries." So our first thoughts were, 'look I'm workin as hard as
I can. I don't really want to get slammed right now!' But the first
words out of Elder Smith's mouth were, "I'm not here to critique you."
Whoo hoo, I don't have to feel like a pile! Well, it was a great
meeting. We talked about the difference of being convinced and
converted and true conversion. Good stuff. Very enlightening.

We did a bunch of traveling this week. We had exchanges in Saskatoon,
the meeting in Saskatoon, and we went to church in the Melfort branch.
(We have an investigator in Melfort.) Haha, yeah church was funny. We
had to give talks, and the branch was so grateful to hear someone new
speak! I think they might have 10 people. It was crazy!

Well....I can't really remember anything else. I'm glad all is well,
and Natalie is married? Weird! our family is old. I hope little
Natters gets feeling better! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons

Baptism!!

Shicona Thomas and parents

Elder Zohner and Shicona

Me at an Elk Farm.  Going for the oriental tourist look!

So turns out setting up a baptism is a ton of work! I'm exhausted! But
seeing Shicona's smile as she came up out of the water made it all
worth it!

Just to remind y'all. The Thomas family lives just outside of PA.
Sister Thomas is a member, but Brother Thomas is not....yet. Yeah,
basically we hope he decides he wants to hear the discussions more
because he was very encouraging for Shicona, but he wasn't able to be
at most of the lessons cause he works 2 weeks on 1 week off. Wow! that
was a long sentence! Anyways, he's pretty much a champ! They have 2
kids: Tayven and Shicona. One day Sister Thomas called the church and
said that she wanted her kids to be baptized. Tayven is only 7, but
Shicona is 11. So we taught the lessons directed towards Shicona, but
it was really for the whole family!

We basically were just scrambling the entire week to make sure
interviews, talks, musical numbers, and all that stuff was set up. It
was wild! I was a nervous wreck. I just hoped that the family was
ready, and that it would be a good experience for them. Oh, man! It
was bad! And then, they asked me Sunday to be the one to confirm
Shicona. I was thankful for the opportunity, but I was just praying it
wouldn't be a train wreck! Hopefully, it went well.

Oh, we did go to President Fowler's to teach a ward member's friend.
Mary Ann is from the Philippines. She seems really interested. That
could turn out really well. We'll see if we can meet with her again
this week.

While we were there, we did get a tour of the elk farm. There's
another Canadian stereotype for ya. There's reindeer in people's
backyards! ha ha....anyways, that's what the pictures are from. It was
pretty interesting.

Well....I pretty much can't remember anything else that happened last
week. I sure love you all. I hope you have a great week.

Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons

Zone Conference!

So this weekend was my first zone conference. We had to travel to
Regina, and we almost got to go to the temple. The first counselor in
the mission presidency, President Fowler, lives in PA, and he stayed
with someone in the temple presidency in Regina. President Fowler was
our ride down, and he was meeting his host after a temple session. So
we almost got to go to the temple with him, but no dice. Oh well, it
was worth a try.

Zone Conference was incredible! I learned so much! Basically, we need
to be studying Preach my Gospel way more! haha, I even got chosen "at
random" to give a talk about personal and companion study. We had
gotten a text about how all missionaries were supposed to prepare a
3-5 minute talk. I had no clue what on earth the zone leaders were
talking about. After all it's my first zone conference! Fortunately, I
was the last of 3 missionaries to speak. The Elder's talk before me
was in a nutshell, "Well, Elder Ronald shared some great insights, and
I'm sure that Elder Lyons will have some great insights; so I don't
have much to add." Yeah, no pressure. No worries, I was only preparing
my talk on the way up to the pulpit. No big deal. President's just
gonna judge every single word that comes out of my mouth. No, I wasn't
nervous. It was only 3-5 minutes. I'm just always the lucky one that
gets chosen for things like that.

Interviews were great. President and Sister Paulson are amazing! My
interview with President was really short. Pretty much all he said
was, "I enjoyed your talk. Get ready to train." What?! I know! I'm not
even done BEING trained! I'm still green! But out of the about 56
missionaries that will be out in August over 20 of them will be in
training. Yeah, I bet President's pretty nervous right now. But it's
okay. He'll just hand off the green mission to a green mission
president. haha! The mission's basically getting purged or something!

You may have guessed, but PA is sort of an outlying area. I don't know
very many missionaries, so it was pretty great to meet all the
missionaries in the zone! Great weekend!

Well...we are going to have a baptism this weekend! The baptismal
interview is tomorrow. Hopefully it goes well! Shicona Thomas is 11.
Her Mom called the church one day and asked if her kids could get
baptized. Tayven is 7, but we've been teaching Shicona since I came to
PA. Sister Thomas is a member, but she's lived on reserves and has not
been able to go to church for most of her life. Brother Thomas is not
a member, but basically, he's a champ. He just retired from RCMP.
They're just a golden family! I just love to go to their home!
Hopefully, the baptism will happen. But it will be a crazy week of
planning and hammering out the dents! Pretty exciting!

I love you all! Good luck on your missions Dallin and Alex! Pretty
sure Alex is going to the same mission as Alan. I hope everyone has a
great week!

Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons

Yea Easter!

Hello!

Well about half of this week was walking. It was nice to see what other elders have to go through, but I am very thankful that I am in a mission where every companionship has a car! 

It's good to see that you guys had fun at Disneyland. The pictures were great! Easter dinner sounded delicious. So funny story, we actually did not have a dinner appointment when we went to church. Sister Camche asked us if we had an appointment. We sorta dodged it, but we said we didn't exactly have one. She basically told us that was unacceptable and to follow her home cause she was "throwing us a meal together." Yeah, we had ham and potatoes and all this delicious food! "Threw it together" And we got a bag of candy, of course! 

The Camche's live in Arizona in the winter, so I guess Bro Camche learned how to make didgerydoos, or however you spell it. We got to play them! It was so much fun! 

Oh, we went to Tisdale to teach someone out there. They got 9 inches of snow! It was crazy! There was so much snow! It was nice when we were walking, though. Actually, I got sunburned. Yeah, it was HOT. I don't know if it was just a comparative thing or what, but I was sweating.

Well...I'm getting a pretty bad writer's block. I think Dallin wanted to know about the transfer train. Yes, you do get transferred in pick up trucks. And Meagan, good luck at Highland Idol. Natalie, good luck in your play. Rachel, have fun at track and stuff.   

Crazy Week!

I'm a little short on time. We just dropped our car off at the shop
for the week, so I'm emailing at a member's home that is within
walking distance to our apartment. Yeah, we're going to be walking!
Conference was amazing! I really liked Elder Hallstrom's talk. He
talked about being active in the gospel and in the church. It's pretty
interesting, he's the authority over Idaho and Saskatchewan. Pretty
crazy!
So, did anyone hear about mission calls? If so, I would love to hear about them!
You got my letter, eh? ha ha....I had fun with that one. Pictures just
explain my experiences so much better. My favorite was when E. Zohner
and I fell asleep in the car. ha ha...that was so funny! Oh! and the
giant crows! Those things are crazy! And E. Harpole always wandering
off at the MTC....ha ha. Good times!
Priesthood session was still a little weird. I even went to Dairy
Queen with the ward. But it's just not the same as going with Dad and
going to Cold Stone afterward.
Conference was good. It really made me feel like I can work even
harder! Conference always provides so much motivation! I love it! I'll
write some letters this week. Love you guys!
Love,
Elder Lyons

New Investigator! March 26th

So Dallin and Alex are both getting their mission calls. That's great!
I can't wait to hear about it. Of course the CWM is the best mission.
But I'm sure wherever they go will be blessed with their presence!

Oh, also, I think it was Ryan Castillo's birthday last week. Congrats!
The big 19!

Yes, we did actually have someone answer the door who actually
listened to what we said. We asked if there was a time we could come
and teach him more, and he just said, "Like today....I'm not doing
anything." So we came back later that afternoon and brought Robert
along with us. We set up a return appointment, but he had a job
interview. So we didn't get to meet with him. His name is Harlen, and
he wants to have a belief in God. But he just doesn't know how. We do!

Later, the same day, I think it was Saturday, we met a young guy named
Cole, and we set up an appointment with him. We've had door contacts
like that, but it's been a few weeks. So it was a great day!

Yes, we got transfer calls. I'll be staying in PA with Elder Zohner.
Actually, our district is the only district that didn't get changed at
all. We've still got more to learn I guess, ha ha.

Well, it's been a great week. I'm mostly excited about having new and
potential investigators! I can't really think of anything else to
write, so I hope that everything goes well at home. Love you lots!

Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons

Home

Just curious, How much editing do you have to do on my emails? Ha ha,
I bet a lot! Anyways, the less active work was mostly tracking down
where they live. There are people moving all the time. It's been
pretty tough to schedule lessons with them, but I told you about
Robert. He's just great! He's really progressing, and it's been great
to be a part of.
Mom, I love you so much. I really have felt you and Dad's prayers. No,
I haven't got the letter yet. I think the mail is pretty slow, but I
don't know if it's come yet. I might still get it today. Hopefully. I
have sent a letter home, though. I hope that you'll enjoy it when it
comes.... in the next month. Ha ha...sad but true.
It's exciting to hear about Meagan. It's weird to think I was there
just a year ago. Pretty crazy stuff. I love you lot's, Mom. I'll let
you know when the package comes.
Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons

Wow! Time flies March 19th

Wow! time flies! It's already almost the end of the transfer. Crazy!
Don't worry. I'm staying in PA. (pretty sure I am, anyways). It takes
12 weeks to be trained, so I don't think there will be any changes.

Now for the food portion of the email. Sorry I gotta put in my bit.
Anyways, I was on transfers with Elder Leavitt in Saskatoon on
Tuesday. We were tracting the streets of Saskatoon, which was kinda
unfair cause we talked to more people in 30 minutes than we do in a
week in PA! Back to the story. We were walking and talking when Elder
Leavitt asks, "have you eaten perogies." Okay, my first thought was,
'that doesn't even sound edible!" But apparently they're like a
missionary staple cause they're cheap and filling and DELICIOUS. So
basically, to make a long story short they're like this ravioli thing
with potatoes and cheese inside. They make Canadian missionaries fat.
Which, turns out is the reason Elder Zohner hadn't introduced them to
me yet.

Believe it or not, we do work very hard! I just choose to talk about
food for some reason. Anyways, transfers were amazing. Saskatoon is
really nice! It was weird tracting in neighborhoods that like had lots
of people. I think the best way to describe the difference between PA
and Saskatoon is to go to hardcore downtown Pocatello and then go to
Satterfield. It's about like that contrast. Sort of. Minus the LDS
population of Idaho, though.

By far my favorite part of the week is the lessons we have with
Robert. He is a reactivating member who is just on fire! He is so
great! I have really seen him progress since I've been in PA. You can
tell by looking at him that he's a completely different person. He
missed church yesterday, and we were sorta upset. But turns out he was
babysitting a friend's kids because she had gone out on St. Patrick's
Day and partied until 6:00AM! He's just looking for people to help,
and he's even come to lessons with us!

Yes, Elder Zohner and I both wore green ties on Saturday. We got
complimented for them by some stranger. It was funny. After wards,
Elder Zohner was all, "Little does she know, she just made our entire
day."

Finding continues to be a struggle, but we are working harder and
harder every week. Actually, when we were tracting on Saturday, we
found this guy who had an Iron Man Hawaii hat on. I had no problem
talking to that guy! After I told him the model of shoe he was
wearing, he asked me if I was a runner. I said, "for sure." And he
said, "you've got the lanky runner build." Woo I'm still skinny!
Anyways, unfortunately, the man, Perry, was his name ( I know,
'Where's Perry?') didn't' become a new investigator. :( But he did have
member friends who talked to him before, so we're ready when he's
ready!

This week's been pretty tough, and I have a few bruises from the
"Humility Stick". I just made that up. You can use it if you want to.
Anyways, I have been humbled. Which turns out is vital to missionary
work, so hopefully it will run much smoother now. I love you all! Have
a great week!

Love,
Elder Christopher Lyons