Hard at Work!!

This week has been so tiring. We are working so hard! And it is so much fun! We have really been focusing on finding because we don't have much of a teaching pool. So we've been trying very hard to talk with EVERYONE. We really kick ourselves when someone walks by and all we say is 'hi'. As we've been doing this we've been blessed with people to teach. This week we found an older lady named Elaine. She is a former investigator who stopped meeting with missionaries because she was in the hospital. She is really funny. Our fellowship, Austin, just got home from his mission. She was teasing him about finding a wife. He told her he was still fishing, so she told him to make sure to throw back the blood suckers cause they're no good! She can't believe that there's women out there who don't sew or cook or clean. Boy will you love the relief society! She's really great. I'm looking forward to helping her resolve some of her concerns and start progressing.

 

We were also blessed this week to find a young man named Jessy. He's an amazing guy! He is very well versed in the bible. He's smart and he really wants to make sure that what he does is what God wants him to do. We found him by tracting. He let us in, and he shared some of the questions that he has with us. We tried to help him answer some of those questions yesterday as we met with him. Man! He just makes us think, and in turn we try to make him think. We're really excited to continue meeting with him. I hope he just continues to make an honest search!

 

It's been so much fun trying our very hardest to find people to teach. We've been talking with so many people, and it's been so amazing to see that we can be guided by our Heavenly Father! Teaching this week has also been tiring! We are teaching a Mennonite pastor named Brian. He asks a bunch of questions like Jessy does. We've really, really had to use our brains this week, ha ha. But it's incredible to me to see that every single time I honestly search out these questions, my testimony of the restoration is immensely strengthened. Nothing has ever made me doubt the truth of the Restoration. It is true, and I know it's true. But I'm tired from all the effort we've exerted to help others to know it's true! That's for sure, ha ha.

 

Our first district meeting....it was a mess. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to start, I remembered that I only new how to join an online meeting. I had no idea how to start one. So long story short, we finally got help and started our meeting....30 minutes late. It was good when we started though. I've evaluated and made plans on what I can do better. But on the plus side, I learned that the district is very patient...thank goodness.

 

A funny thing that happened while we were tracting was these 2 kids in a wagon. The little boy saw us standing there on the sidewalk and he asked, "...hey, who are you guys...?" Then we were moving towards the next house and towards him. He then proceeded to say, "oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness,"  as we got closer and closer. I'm afraid we scared the poor little guy. But it was still super funny :)

 

There are some great families in the branch. We ate supper with a couple of them, and oh man, their kids are so cute! The Palmer kids ran up to me at church and started to talk with me. It made my day:) We even had Thai food for supper on Saturday. It was excellent. It was just a great week.

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

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