Easter

This week has really flown by. Most of the week we have been working on contacting some of less active families the ward has given us to contact. We have talked with nearly all of them, and we gave the report back to the bishop. He seemed very impressed. I feel that we are really starting to gain the trust of the ward. I had several really neat experiences as we were contacting less active families. One of them was on Wednesday evening. We were told to contact a less active man named Israel, but he doesn't have any information in the directory. So we called his parents in another ward to get some info. They told us to stop by their daughter, Amanda, who is also less active.So that's what we did on Wednesday. The neat thing was that it was even our plan to stop by. Our primary fell through, so I felt that we should stop by. Ha ha, the first thing she asked us was, "who sent you?" She is super funny, and we set an appointment to meet with her and her nonmember husband this Wednesday. She also has to little boys that are very active. It's going to be really great meeting with them. On our way out she looked at her son and said, "Grandpa has been saying we need to go back to church." I'm excited to help them do it.

 

There are several other less active members that have told us to try back and have also set appointments with us. One of them we met yesterday. Also not our primary plan. But I felt it would be a good time to stop by. Brother Ruiz let us in. I asked him how his day was. He told us it was very bad because his wife passed away only four months ago. We will be meeting with him later this week to help him feel the peace and comfort that only come from our Heavenly Father. He is preparing people. The ward is really helping us find them! We are going to do all we can to help the ward with their own missionary efforts. That's the only thing that's been working for us.

 

English class was really interesting this week. We had 2 Chinese people there this time that did not speak hardly any English. I didn't teach them. But they were really friendly. So humble, too. I would never be able to do what they're doing. We also met with one of our investigators who has been really busy lately. His name is Jeremiah. He's from Ethiopia. He's really great. The entire time that we read from the Book of Mormon, he was connecting it to verses in the Bible. He's really going to start progressing soon. I can see it!

 

This week we had a meeting with the zone leaders and Pres and Sis Thomas. It was for all of the missionaries in training. It was very helpful. We had a portion of the meeting where trainers and trainees split up for discussion. It was comforting to hear that the other trainers are having the same difficulties as me. Yeah...training is the hardest thing I've been asked to do in my life! But the meeting was really helpful.

 

I'm pretty sure that's all I've got. I love you all! Happy Easters!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Hold on!

This week has gone by really quickly. We've been getting a lot more appointments set up and things to do. This week we will be really busy! It's really exciting. It's been super tough to get to this point, but I'm glad that we got here! The ward has given us a few names of less active families to work with. I love working with less active members. I think that's my favorite thing about serving a mission. I had a really neat experience as I was calling a family in a different ward to get some information on their son who lives in our ward. I guess that they have a couple of kids in our ward that are less active. As I was thanking her for the information, she said, "no thank you for helping us bring our children back to Christ." It was humbling for sure. Every once in a while I get those wake up calls. Keeps me focused. I like it :) We have plans to contact one of the families this week with our assistant ward mission leader. I'll let you know how it goes.

In addition to working with less active members, we have made a lot of progress with an investigator named Tara. She really loved the last missionaries, so it's been tough for her to adjust. But we've been working on her! She came to a baptism on Saturday, and now we will be working on setting a date for her own baptism. She also had a pretty crumby day on Thursday or something like that. So we brought her jello ( she really loves it. I told her she should move to Utah). Yep...I used my baking skills. They worked. She likes us now :) Well, it wasn't just the jello, but still.

Let's see....what else happened....we've been trying to contact all of the former investigators. Especially those who stopped investigating because they were busy. And they are truthfully busy. But we got in contact with one more of them. He's the last one that we will try, and he's still interested. So that's pretty great! We also ate at a family from Guatemala's house. It was super good. They are a funny family. I was laughing the entire time. Picture a Hispanic Cox family. That's basically them. It was like walking into a real life Nacho!

We also got to serve at a homeless shelter with the ward this week. It was the same place we were at last week, but we didn't different stuff. It was really good. We got to know some more of the ward. And it's a really great place to serve. I guess one of the ward members overheard some of the volunteers talking about Elder Burnett and I. I guess they like us. Woo! Probably cause we're clueless. It was basically like the first day of school. I was pretty confused. But apparently good things happen when I'm confused.

English class this week was really neat. We had 3 new students show up! One of them didn't speak a lick of English. It was out of control! I wasn't teaching him though. He was an older Chinese gentleman. I was teaching a man from Korea, a few ladies from India, and one lady from Sri Lanka. Yeah...it's really diverse here. Oh yeah, and there was a member of our ward there to. He's Filipino. If you want names here they are: jimbau, bhupinder, kulwinder, komodu, and Bro Aquino. Now you know why names are tough for me, ha ha. It was a super neat class.

Sunday was good. Tara was at church. So was James. He's the recent convert we've been meeting with. There's really some great members in the ward. Pretty solid week. This week should be good too. Have a great week. Love ya!

Love,

Last night in Weyburn!  Boo Hoo

Downtown Winnipeg

Elder C. Lyons

This week was another tough week. We've just got our work cut out for us. And of course a healthy amount of the pressure's on me, so I've just had to learn to deal with it.....story of my life, ha ha. But this week has been a pretty good one. I've sorta been turned into a freak so far on my mission. I have a new pet peeve: I hate walking into a room and not knowing everyone. It's the worst. Mostly applying to like church and missionary meetings. But it really bothers me not knowing everyone in the ward. After 7 1/2 months in Weyburn....yeah I knew every one's pets' names! So the biggest stress for me has been getting to know everyone. But it really seems that the ward is warming up to us. We have quite a few meal appointments, and we've been able to talk with several members at church. So...we're getting there :)

 

One of the most exciting things that happened this week was that we were able to teach a new investigator! His name is Jeremiah, and he is from Africa. It was very reassuring for me because we really need to build our teaching pool. It definitely gave me some hope. Jeremiah asked a ton of great questions, and he's very interested in learning more and being committed. It was very exciting. Only thing is that he lives in downtown which is very far from the church....and he doesn't have a car. Very small issue in the long run.

 

I was a little sick this week....only for one day. But it was bad enough that I had to fold and buy some baby wipes. That probably gives you more of an illustration than you wanted :) But that put a damper on things a little bit. I had a new experience this week that was pretty interesting. We were able to go to ARP with an investigator. It was humbling to see all these people who sincerely wanted to change, and some who had really hit rock bottom. Definitely made me appreciate the hand that I've been dealt.

 

I went on exchanges this week with an elder I served around in Saskatchewan. That was really fun. It was good to be with people I knew! We had a few good experiences finding service opportunities and what not. We volunteered at a community center, and I had to lift this box with hockey junk in it way over my head to put it on a shelf all while I'm standing on a ladder. Pretty great...I've changed a lot, but I still sorta have noodle arms. But I did it!

 

It's been really something to see Elder Burnett gaining his confidence in teaching. Hopefully as we continue to work, he'll get even stronger. I know it was tough for me to be trained, so I hope that he finishes training with a healthy dose of confidence. I don't have much else to share today. Hopefully we can keep getting to know the ward, so we can serve them the best that we can. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

So this week has still been a little confusing. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a thousand tickets. It's ridiculous driving here! Thanks for taking me from a town of 10k and putting me into a city of 750K+....thanks! Yeah, I'm starting to learn my way around.

 

This week we've started to see are hard work start to pay off. One of our investigators named Tara was really torn up that the other missionaries left. But she's been warming up to us lately. We were even able to have a lesson with her last night. It was incredible because...well let's just say that the lessons we had this week were the hardest to set up of my entire mission! I've had to work my tail off! But we were also able to meet with a recent convert named James. Another recent convert also joined in for the lesson, and her name is Penny. So we're starting to be able to meet with investigators, but we still haven't found anyone new. It feels like these are all new investigators, though. We were able to get a hold of some former investigators and set up lessons. And we had a lesson with some other Chinese investigators: Shengtou and Amy. That was a pretty good lesson. We just taught simply about Jesus Christ. Elder Burnett is still terrified, but he's steadily coming along.

 

This week we've also been able to get in contact with some of the members. We're slowly beginning to get to know everyone. There's some really great families in this ward. We sat behind one at church. The little girls kept making faces at me. They were adorable. When they first sat down, sis smith turned to her mom (the grandma) and said, "it was really terrible of you to make cookies right before fast Sunday!" So that's how we met them. That was a funny conversation. It's still a bit overwhelming, but it's starting to come around. I still really hate driving here though. It's pretty much the worst. As far as I know that's all that I've got. We got to teach English class again. That was fun. My student even started teasing me. It was some good comic relief. Well, I sure love ya! Have a fantastic week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons