Grey Skies and Thunder Thighs!!

This week it's really cooled off a ton. It's starting to get colder. It's exciting! I love the fall.

Anyways, this week was so insane! At the beginning of the week, we went out to a town called Yorkton. It's northeast of Regina about 2 1/2 hours. It was a unique experience actually. I thought I had just about seen it all, but Yorkton and Melville are pretty nice places to serve. We had some good exchanges. We learned a lot and provided some timely training. It's been neat to see how much we all can learn from exchanges when they're done correctly. Anyways, Melville lives in a house! They have a house all to themselves! And they have a piano! It's crazy. There's about 5-10,000 people in Melville. I would love it there! The church building they use is a little different. I think it's the basement of a business or something. It's so amazing!

This week with transfers...to be honest I think I lost my mind! We are literally the middle ground of the mission, so everyone passes through us. Coming and going. We had to billet 13 missionaries in Regina on Wednesday night! Every apartment had 3 additional Elders. It was a headache. And of course, the train is never on time. All the missionaries didn't get here until about 10:15 PM. Then, we saw them off to Winnipeg at 5:30 AM the next day. It was a long day on Thursday. We had to send them off Thursday evening to Saskatoon. It's always a mess.

Let's see....for lesson this week, we were able to teach Mike and his family again. Mike is a great guy. He is super excited about church. He just wants us to help him to change. They had us over for supper again. They are so nice. It's been a miracle teaching them.

Something super embarrassing happened yesterday. We were eating supper at the Terry's. We were sitting out in the living room, and I was about to sit down on the couch. I was making my descent with ice cream cone in hand. Then the unspeakable happened, there was a gunshot like pop....and I blew out my crotch. Yep, it happened. And to top it off, the sisters were sitting across from me. One of them saw the whole thing, so she completely lost her composure. That made it difficult to keep the matter on the down low. So, yeah, there's now about a 2 inch hole in my pants. Never going to live that down. Pretty dumb. I didn't even think that I had thunder thighs!

That's about all that I've got for today. My head's gonna explode. Love ya! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Transfer Calls!

So this week was absolutely insane! I can't hardly remember what's happened. But anyways, as the title denotes, this week was transfer calls and.....I finally get to stay!!! Elder Wilson and I both get to stay together. We're super excited to have another transfer! And it works out with transfer travels that we'll get to see my mtc companion. All the group's together again! Alright! But yeah, we're stoked about transfer calls.

Early this week, we got to eat supper at the Hamon's. This is a highlight because they are just about my favorite family in the ward....OK, I'm not supposed to choose favorites. But they're my favorite. It was so fun to be at their home. They have 2 kids that are both under 2 1/2 years old. They have a boy named Kasper and a daughter named Elsa. They are so cute! They pretty much speak their own language. I can't understand a word they say. But the Hamon's love good missionaries. So they love us :) They volunteered their home for us to teach. It's a pretty big deal. They're amazing.

Also, this week we got to go out to Bishop's farm to help him out. We just went as a district. We pulled a junk load of weeds! Their kids were out helping us. They have a daughter named Vivian, she is 4 years old. She is so funny! She had us laughing the entire time. She's a lot like Natalie. She asked us what our names were, so we told her. I was with Elder Campbell at the time. She said his name like Elder "Camel", so she asked, "why do you both have animal names?" She's such a doll. It was so much fun to work on the farm! The Walter's have bees that make them honey. It was super good! Yeah!

We also got to teach the family from BC this week, Alicia, Mike, and Gord. They invited us over for supper. It was really good! They even had some more friends over that were not members. After supper, we taught about the Restoration. Mike is a champ! He's been investigating for a year solid! He loves the church, but he just hasn't gotten his answer yet. But he is so close! We can just tell.

We had another baptism for our ward this week. Our ward is on fire! There are so many people being brought into the fold! It's really neat to be a part of it. We also had supper with our ward mission leader and his parents. Bro Hawkes and Sis Hawkes and their family are so great. They are really involved and active in the gospel. They are so helpful and loving. It's the best!

Well, that's about all that I have for this week. Just remember that I'm staying here, so get ready to here some more amazing miracles! Love ya! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Shower of Blessings!!

This week was probably the most insane week of my life! We had exchanges early on in the week. We went out to Carry the Kettle ( I know you'll appreciate that name) to bale hay (which was an amazing experience). We prepared and presented a zone training meeting. We went to the temple. But, most importantly, We went to Weyburn to BAPTIZE! It was the best day of my mission. When Hedley and I saw each other, we were just speechless. I teared up a hundred times that day. Standing in the font, I had one of the most powerful feelings I've ever had in my life! I will be a changed man forever! Hedley has changed so much! I could just tell by looking at him that he was ready. So amazing. And Elder French came from Alberta to be there. I have never been more happy in my entire life!

So I would like to tell a little bit of a back story that will help you understand how much this baptism means to me. As you could probably tell, Saskatoon was a bit of a trying time for me. So at the pinnacle of my struggles, I prayed to ask if what I was doing on my mission was even helping the Lord at all. I prayed that I could be done with mediocrity and accomplish miracles for Heavenly Father. Shortly, after that prayer, I was transferred here to Regina. There have been many miracles that have happened here since that day. But the biggest one, of course, was being able to be close enough to Weyburn to participate in Hedley's baptism. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of me. He has heard every prayer I have ever offered. I am so thankful that he has magnified my meager efforts in order to help His children. This is truly the Lord's work!

One of the miracles that happened this week was that we came in contact with a family that has moved from BC. They have been searching for the church for months.  Alicia saw the APs at the A&W where she works. She gave them her info, and we contacted her. Her husband, Mike, is not a member. Her father, Gord, is a member. And they have an 18 month old boy named Gabe. And they all came to church! We are going to be teaching them! In addition to them, just about every investigator we had texted us yesterday morning to tell us they were coming to church. We had a total of 9 investigators and less active members at church! It was insane! It was such a good day!

That's about all that I've got time for, but I sure love ya! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Elder Chris Lyons, Hedley, and Mason French

Cowboy Elders!

Elder Lyons, Hedley, Elder Reay, Mason French

Good News!!!!

This week was pretty crazy. We had a ton of meetings, and we did a junk load of traveling,too. But it was great. I got to back to Swift! It was so much fun! We went on exchanges. And it was amazing! I got to see a few of the members. It was a good time. We were walking most of the day. At one point in the evening, it just started pouring! We were drenched. As we were crossing this bridge, the missionary I was with (E. Jones) turned to me and said that it would be his dream to get picked up in some ones car, so we could teach them. No lie, seconds later, this car pulled over, and the driver told us to get in! We were both so shocked! The guy was so nice, but we only had about 30 seconds. So we hardly even recovered from the shock. It was so crazy. That evening was so good. Just miracles happenin'! It's the best.

Pretty much other than that there was a baptism this weekend. It was the sisters'. It was for these 3 kids, 2 Filipino kids and 1 other kid. Anyways, the sisters conned one of the Filipino kids named Ruby to ask Elder Wilson and I to sing at the baptism. So Ruby called and asked Elder Wilson. All he could say was, "how do you say no to a 10 year old girl?" Anyways, we were so nervous. We had only an hour to practice, and I sang alto and Elder Wilson sang melody. It was rough. Yeah...it was a good baptism, though.

This is a short email because I forgot everything when I got a phone call a few days ago: here's how it went down. The Weyburn elders called me and said that there was someone who wanted to ask me a question. Well, it was Hedley. And he asked if I could baptize him this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! I have permission from President to go. So I'll be in Weyburn this weekend. Yeah! And Elder French is coming from his home in Alberta to be there, too. I'm so excited!

So...yeah. That's all I've got. Love ya! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons