Crazy Tired!

This week has been pretty draining. We traveled in to Regina on Tuesday and had meetings most of the day on Wednesday. 2 things that just exhaust me. But it was a good time. I got to see Brother and Sister T and Pres Walton from the Wascana ward. I also got to stay the night Tues at the old apartment! Elder Call is still serving in Wascana, so we had a good time laughing about our past transfers together.

 

The meeting with Pres and Sis Thomas was great. They're really excellent people. I can just tell they care so much about us. Anyways, like I said it was a great day. And to top it off, we had a great meeting with George in the evening. We met at the church, and we talked a bit about the Atonement. George has had a rough life, so he really just needs comfort. It was an amazing lesson as we were able to use the Book of Mormon to teach about the power of the Atonement. A member family, the Regnier's were also with us. They did a great job helping George see how the gospel can bless his life. He now has a baptismal date for October, and we are meeting with him again tonight. 

 

This week we found out that Matt and Mona are moving again. They'll be moving to Saskatoon. But they stopped by in Weyburn before they left. We met up and were able to say goodbye. I guess Matt found a better job, so they decided to move to where there's more people. Lampman's pretty small. It was weird to say goodbye for the second time.

 

Saskatchewan Sunset

Leaving Regina

Saskatchewan Prairie ( Looks Like Idaho)

Matt and Mona

Mancakes! yum

I've been asked a few questions about the branch here. The branch is amazing! They love the missionaries! The owner of our trailer park is a member. His name is Bart. He and his wife Missy give us food all the time. Super nice. The Regnier's live out of town in McTaggart. Their sons Nathan and Curtis play sports with us on Mondays. They have us over for dinner a bunch. They're crazy about missionary work. They'll help us with anything! It's just amazing. Most of the members live out of town. But they're all super great. It's a really strong branch. 

 

I have to say, I'm pulling a huge blank right now. I don't really have too much more to write. Sorry, I'll make up for it next week. Anyways, I sure love you all! Have a great week :)

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

August 20th 3rd Sunday in Weyburn

I can't believe that yesterday was my 3rd Sunday in Weyburn. This week flew by. And I'm pretty sure this week will go even faster. We have specialized training in Regina (which is like an informal zone conference with a lot of practice). And we also have a pretty good amount of lessons set up for next week.

 

So let's start with yesterday. We didn't see Matt and Mona at church cause they couldn't get gas until today. It's about an hour and half drive from Lampman to Weyburn... Yeah, and they're in our area. Anyways, long story short they couldn't make it,and we couldn't make it out to them. But we did have potluck after church cause we had some high council people and the stake president from Regina at our meeting. There was some great food.

 

After church we started tracting on the hill by the church. We met this man named George. He is an older man who has lost his wife, brother, and parents to cancer. Clearly, he has had a rough life. We testified of Christ and the Book of Mormon. We will be meeting with him at the church on Wednesday (it was a little noisy at his home cause his grand kid and family were running around). Very great man. At one point he asked, "so what do I gotta do? I ain't moving to Utah."

 

Then, let's see...Saturday was pretty neat. We were knocking on this door, and we were turning to leave when they pulled up in their big truck. I pretty much hate when that happens cause it can get super awkward. But Elder French played it off well. They opened the doors to get out, and he said, "looks like we've got great timing, caught you right on your way home." The guy laughed and opened right up. But...he wasn't interested. Then, all of sudden this guy with a killer accent just says, "what is the Book of Mormon. I've never heard of it before. I'm from South Africa. I'd like to hear more about it." Apparently, he was sleeping in the back seat when they pulled up. We talked to him for about 10 minutes, and he was just totally prepared. He just kept saying, "I believe it, I believe it." He even said, "I knew there was a reason I needed to talk to you." Unfortunately, he lives in Regina. But we look forward to hearing about him. We gave him the YSA elders info. He actually lives near where the YSA ward meets.

 

Pretty much the rest of the week has been a lot of walking. We've been really low on K's. And it was a little interesting because I caught a bit of the flu on Thursday and Friday. So I didn't eat much. And it was pretty hot, so I was a little out of it. But we found some great potential investigators. This one had a little 2 or 3 year old boy. He answered the door and all he said was, "wanna see my yo-yo?" Almost before we could answer he tore off in search of the thing. When he left, we could see the yo-yo sitting right next to where he was standing. He came truckin' back, picked up the yo-yo, and played it off like he had just found it in some far away place. He continued to show us all of his stuff while we were talking with his mom. Then he asked, "you wanna see my squirt guns?" "Sure, buddy!" He just looks at us with no emotion, "I don't got any." Funny little guy.

 

Well, this week is sort of a blur, so that's probably about all I've got. Hopefully that answers some questions. Mostly, we're starting from scratch, so we don't really have too many investigators that have met with us more than once or twice. There's about 2 or 3 from last transfer, but that's it.

 

I'm having a great time in Weyburn. It's an amazing place! I hope that all of you have a fantastic week. I love you all!     Elder Lyons

Trailer Life

So it's a little weird emailing again when it's only been half a week. So let's see, what happened. Okay, I think the biggest thing was Saturday. We went out to Kisby and Carlyle. I went on splits with Bro Brown and we went to Ocean Man ( a native reserve), and Elder French went with Bro Earle to Carlyle. We were working with some of the less active members in the branch. We were inviting them to church because once a month there is a meeting in Carlyle, which is significantly closer for some members than Weyburn. Well, Bro Brown and I started off, and we had about 3 possible appointments. They all fell through, so we had 4 hours and not many ideas of what we could do. Bro Brown made a bunch of phone calls, and we ended up meeting with his neighbor in Kisby. We taught about the Book of Mormon and invited her to church. It was pretty good, but I don't think that we'll be teaching her again cause she lives about 45 minutes from Weyburn. She's in our area, but we have limited K's.

 

But, anyways, we ended up knocking doors in Kisby to invite everyone to church. We only planned on being out for 30 minutes, and our 30 minutes were up. But I felt like we should knock one more door, so we did. We talked with this guy for a while, and he said he would like to go to church. It was pretty neat.

 

After that, we went to Lampman to meet with Matt and Mona. It was so weird. It was the most spirtual lesson I've had with them, though. It was amazing! Bro Earle came with us, and he invited them to church. They drove to Carlyle to go. And they want to go to Weyburn as well. It was good we were able to learn about some of their concerns. We also learned that they want to be baptized! It's just going to be rough meeting with them because they're so far away. We might have to meet via skype or something.

 

The branch here in Weyburn is great. It's pretty small, so I was asked to speak. They get pretty excited when there's someone new. I suspect that all missionaries are given the opportunity to speak. Anyways, the members are super strong. They are amazing at fellowshipping! I'm convinced that a branch is the best place to join the church. You can get to know everyone if you come to church once! ha ha..it's been great serving here. I've really enjoyed being with the Regnier's. They love missionaries. Bro Regnier comes to appointments with us, and his sons come and play sports with us on p-days. It's a lot of fun!

 

Oh! here's a neat story. We were tracting on Thursday, but then we left to go to an appointment. Afterwards, Elder French had the idea to go back to the street we were on before our appointment. It wasn't in our plans, but we decided to go back. About the 3rd door we knocked on, an old lady answered. We talked for a minute, and then her husband walked up. I admit, the thought may have crossed my mind that he was going to cut us off and send us on our way. But he smiled and said, "we're not doing anything important. Do you want to come in?" So we told him, no we're busy. No, of course we went in! I guess he had seen us when we were around earlier, and he felt neglected that we didn't stop by! ha ha. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and read in 3 Nephi. The Spirit was so strong! The man kept saying, "We're quite comfortable with our religion." Yet, he really wants to learn more. We'll see how they feel when they begin to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon daily.

 

OK, I think I covered it all. I hope all of you have a great week. I love you.

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Miracles in Weyburn

Elder Lyons in front of Moose at Moose Jaw

Elder French and Elder Lyons

The Trailer

So I know everyone has a bunch of questions, but that will have to wait a second. I have to tell you about something amazing that happened last night. We were sitting in a lesson, and the phone kept vibrating in my pocket. I had to silence it like 4 times. I couldn't figure out what was so urgent. I look at the phone after the lesson, and we had a few missed calls from an unknown number and a new voicemail. We're in the car with the phone on speaker listening to this voicemail. It just says, "hey this is for Lyons, could you give us a call back. Thanks" Elder French was just confused. The look on his face was priceless. He had no clue who it could be. But I DID! I was just like, "no, that can't be Matt."  So I called them back. It was Matt and Mona from Prince Albert! They had moved to the Southeast corner of Saskatchewan a while ago. Elder Zohner told me they would be moving when I was in Regina. Somehow Matt and Mona talked with the missionaries while they were in Regina yesterday who referred them to the Weyburn elders cause THEY'RE IN MY NEW AREA! They must have been so surprised when they found out they had missionaries by their new home, and that it was me! It's just so crazy cause the one regret I had when I left PA was that I felt that I didn't do all I could to help the investigators I taught. Especially Matt and Mona. I get a second chance! They said they want to come to church in Weyburn, and go figure, we had planned to be in Estevan on Saturday which is really close to their home! Everything has just fallen into place. It's incredible to really see the Lord's hand in my mission! I love it! Not only does He care about the people, but He cares about me and about what I feel. The crazy thing is when I first heard about Matt and Mona moving, I was still in Regina. But I wondered, who's area is that? I'm sure it's in the CWM. It would great to get to teach them again.

Anyways, you probably want to know about Weyburn, Elder French, our amazing trailer, and the little branch here. So first things first, here is my new address: PO Box 1424

                          Weyburn, Sk S4H3X6

So I will send pictures of our trailer. A picture says a thousand words. And they're good words, too. It's amazing living in a trailer.

Ok, Elder French is from Raymond, AB. He is my first Canadian companion! He is a goof, and it's been great serving with him so far! He makes mancakes! Pancakes the size of the frying pan! haha...remind you of anyone? It's just been nothing but a good time finding and teaching with Elder French!

So Weyburn is a tiny little town with about 10,000 people. Most branch members have to drive about an hour to church. There's a lot of farms and some amazing homes. There's only one hill for miles, and of course on top of the hill is the church.

One of the investigators we have is the husband of a member. I guess the Griffin's just appeared at church last transfer, so Elder French started teaching them. Brother Griffin was the one that decided they should go to church. And on Sunday, we set a baptismal date with them for the first of September. Super solid! In the first week of investigating, Bro Griffin read the first 16 chapters of 1 Nephi!

We have been finding and teaching and setting up appointments more than I have for a while! It's incredible to see all these people who have been prepared by God. People are just coming from nowhere and landing in our teaching pool. People like Matt and Mona. Elder French just got an email from his family about someone they know in Weyburn that they would like us to teach. It's so amazing to see all these miracles literally just coming from nowhere.

The members are great. We spent most of the p-day playing sports with the Regnier's. We played tennis, soccer, Frisbee, ping pong, and volleyball. We ate dinner at their home. It was fantastic! Oh, and traveling to Moose Jaw was fun yesterday as well. It's just been crazy!

So if you haven't gathered it yet, this transfer is going to be amazing! I can't wait to be a part of all of these miracles! I hope that answered some questions. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Transfers!

Alright this week was insane! First off it was Pres. Thomas's first transfer calls. I'm actually getting transferred to Weyburn. I will be with Elder French. Weyburn was just reopened this transfer, so it should be interesting. I was completely surprised that I'm getting transferred, but it should be great. I get to live in a trailer!

Okay, what happened this week? All start with the temple on Wednesday. It was a really good trip. We had all 10 of the missionaries, or 11 actually, there in the session. Pretty much the whole attendance was missionaries! The ward members there were really impressed by how many missionaries there were at the temple. Oh, man! I had pictures of us outside the temple, but I forgot my camera. Oh, well.

On Thursday and Friday we helped Sis Lappa in our ward paint her fence. It was a ton of fun cause we don't really get too many opportunities for service. By the way, I'm still as awful at painting as I was when we painted Bishop's ceiling. Luckily, I didn't make as big of a mess. So we didn't finish on Thursday cause we had another appointment with Carol. The appointment went really well. We finished the Plan of Salvation, and talked about baptism. It was really neat because our fellowship, Bro Mason, is a convert and he works at the temple, so he was able to answer her questions. She said that she had already been baptized...twice. Bro Mason just said, "Me, too!" We were then able to talk about priesthood authority. At the end of the lesson she just said, "I know that you people are good cause you've answered all of my questions. Before I had doubts about you, but now I can have you sit at my table and I have no doubts." It was incredible. We've really seen hope come into her life. When we first met her she was really at the end of her rope. The only thing is that was my last lesson with her. It is a little frustrating that we get an investigator like Carol, and then I have to leave! But I know there's more people out there like her, so it's OK.

On Saturday, we went to the Svenson's for dinner. Their family is so funny. They have 5 kids under 7 or 8 years old. The youngest daughter, Hezia, came out and ran up to us when we pulled in. I told her I liked her dress. I didn't think she heard me cause she bee-lined it back to the house, but at dinner she just says, "Mommy, HE likes my dress." I think she is 3. She's adorable. During dinner she also randomly says, "Mommy, I don't even know what his sisters' names are." She's just a doll. She and her older sister Hannah told us that their little brother likes balls and what sounded like "boards". Elder Call and I were like, "what?" And they repeated, "boards". "What?" They just kept saying it with their eyes getting bigger and they were just laughing at us. Finally, Sis Svenson said, "birds." "Oh!" So funny. Oh, Sis Svenson knows Bro Hill in Pocatello. They grew up in the same town in Alberta. Small world.

Let's see, Sunday was pretty good. We ate at the Noblet's. They're from France, so they were really excited to talk about France when I asked. I think they talked about cheese for at least 20 minutes. Pres Noblet is the stake president. They are a great family as well.

Well, today I will be saying a few goodbyes cause I leave for Weyburn tomorrow afternoon. I will be saying goodbye to Kerry this evening. And Elder Call and I are getting companionship unity ties! wooo! I don't think I was supposed to email about anything else....Oh! we met with Cole again. He was an investigator we found. We set a return appointment with him, but it's tomorrow evening. He really just wants to know that God is there. It's been neat to teach him the little I have. Should be an interesting week. I sure love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder C. Lyons

Zone Conference

So on Tuesday, we had surprise exchanges with our district leader, Elder Ronald. Elder Ronald and I were tracting, and he asked me how often I made phone calls. Apparently not enough cause we stopped tracting to make some. We didn't set up any appointments, so we continued tracting. We tracted into a Filipino lady. She answered, and I started the approach. She was acting almost like she didn't understand us, but then another guy walked up to the door. They started whispering to each other, and then she turned to us, "Come in." Elder Ronald and I didn't hesitate at all we were so stoked. I guess the guy, Aly, met missionaries in the Philippines. His cousin, Irma, actually lives in the house, and I guess it was a miracle we got them both there at the same time cause they are both super busy! They were very receptive, and we set an appointment with them for tomorrow!

On Wednesday, we traveled to Saskatoon for zone conference. Zone conference was on Thursday morning. It was incredible! President and Sister Thomas are amazing! We had a testimony meeting at the end, it was incredible to hear all the testimonies of the missionaries in our zone. It was a great experience. I'll write about it in a letter.

We traveled with the zone leaders. Elder McDaniel told me to give him a fiber one bar, so I did. I asked Elder Perkins if he wanted one, and he said he did. A while later when he took a bite, he pointed at it and said, "huh, bird seed?!" He started laughing uncontrollably. He was like, "this is bird food, man. Come on." When he had about one bite left, he was like, "this is actually pretty good." So funny.

I think that for sure the highlight of the week was our lesson with Carol on Friday. She doesn't have a phone, so we have to drop by to set up appointments. She said she was available at 5 and it was about 2. So we had to scramble to get fellowship, and we didn't really have a lesson plan. But we found fellowship 10 minutes before 5, so we were in the clear. We were going to teach the Restoration, but we started teaching and plans changed. We started teaching about the plan of salvation. It was a brief lesson, but maybe the most spiritual lesson I've ever been in. Every time Elder Call would begin to introduce a scripture, I was already turning to it. Without any communication from him. We both knew what scripture to share. It was amazing!

I think that's good for email. I can't really think of anything else. It was really a great week. Definitely built me up a whole lot! I love you all and hope that you have a great week (some of you a great week in France!)

Love,
Elder C. Lyons