Turkey Day!

So as you may have gathered, today is Canadian Thanksgiving. This ward is amazing, so every day so far this weekend we have had a turkey supper! And we have one tonight. It's the best! I'm going to be so fat.

Anyhow, this week has been a little tough for us as far as teaching goes. We've had a ton of appointments fall through, and investigators have just not been committed. Or they have moved out of our area. Or they are just no where to be found. So we gave it one last focused effort to contact and teach everyone this week. Now, we've decided it's just time to build up our teaching pool. It's sad to have lost touch with so many great people, but we'll keep trying with them. However, our focus will be on finding those who are prepared to act.

Well, that being said, we had a great week working with a less-active member named Cory. He just moved from Winnipeg, and he's amazing. He works doing drywall, and he reminds me a ton of Hedley in Weyburn. Teaching him has been incredible. I've had some of the most spiritual lessons of my entire mission with him. He just wants to change, and his life has been pretty tough lately. Great guy. We really look forward to working with him.

We also had some good success working with members this week. We volunteered to help Bro Cardona with his landscaping. He was really impressed and put us right to work. It was super tough, but a great way to spend a morning. Bro Cardona is an amazing man, and it was a great opportunity to get to know his family. They fed us lunch after, and well, they're Filipino. So it was amazing! Bro Cardona's granddaughter, Gabriana is a doll! She is 3 years old, and she is so funny. Apparently, she needed to change out of her school clothes. So when we first came into the house, she came up to Elder Wilson and said, "I'm gonna to go to my room, and I'm gonna get naked!" Elder Wilson told her that he would be staying right where he was, so she could go do that. Then she told him, "sometimes I run around, and you can see my butt!" Ha ha, Sister Cardona (her mom) was the best. She just told her to make sure that she didn't tell the missionaries all of her secrets. They're an amazing family. They are very missionary minded and just love to serve and help others. It was great to be in their home.

That's pretty much all that I have to report for this week. It was a challenging but good week. I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Numb Bum!

So this week was absolutely insane. We only had a day and a half in our proselyting area. It was ridiculous. I've never sat on my butt more in my life. OK, that's a lie, but still. By bum was completely numb by the time it was all over!

So this week we started off with exchanges in Moose Jaw. We drove out Monday evening and spent the day there on Tuesday. It was so much fun. I was on exchanges with a brand new missionary from Germany! His name is E. Frenkel, and he is my new favorite! He is so amazing. It was like he had been out a year! I was doing his training in the morning, and he was basically thinking 'duh' the entire time. It was so fun teaching and talking with people with him. They would ask where I was from, then they would ask where he was from. They didn't care about me from that point on, ha ha. But he's an excellent teacher, so he's going to do a great job. Plus, he's got an excellent sense of humor. The man is obsessed with fruit loops. Apparently, they don't have those in Germany. It was even the terrible, cheap Walmart kind that leave a wax coating in your mouth and a terrible aftertaste that won't go away no matter how many times you brush your teeth! But the man loves them.

So we got back from Moose Jaw, and Wednesday was zone conference. So began the butt sitting. There was a lot of it, believe me! But it was very informative, and we learned a lot about what we can do in our area...if and when we have time.

I learned so much from General Conference! It was amazing to see how much was focused on missionary work. I have been inspired to be even better and to step up in areas where I am weak. One thing that I loved is something that Elder Scott said. He said that weakness is different than rebellion. I feel I have mixed those two up a ton on my mission. I beat myself up a lot for the weaknesses that I have thinking that I am turning completely from our rebelling against our Heavenly Father whom I love completely. But really, these weaknesses are just a part of our mortal experience. Something that brings opposition that, If I humble myself and turn to God, will only make me stronger. This is much different to the view that I had previously. And it has helped me to feel a lot better about the challenges that I have. Conference always makes me feel so good! I know that our Heavenly Father speaks to us today! I love you all and thank you for listening to my ranting each week! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

Fiesta!

This week was a bit of a slow one as far as teaching goes. We had a lot to deal with, but that's no excuse. Elder Wilson and I have talked a lot about it. And we both feel that we are better than we've ever been on our missions. We've really been working hard, and my desire to serve is SO high right now! It's just been a little tough to fit everything in with all the responsibilities that we have.

We were able to go on exchanges this week in Swift current. I love that place! It was just pouring the entire time! We were so drenched. I was with a relatively new missionary named Elder Binning. He's a champ. We had a good time working. We were knocking a few doors, and we talked with this really nice lady. It seemed like an average contact to me, but after we were walking away E. Binning said, "Well that was the longest I've ever been able to talk with someone." He was pretty excited. That's my favorite thing about exchanges, helping missionaries do things that they don't even think are possible. It's the best!

Anyways, our investigators have insane lives, so meeting with them has been a challenge. But we have had some success this week working with members. We've really been making that a focus lately. It's really hard for both of us because we are the 'old school' type missionaries who like to knock on doors and let the members do their own thing. But there's a better way. We've really been making an effort to get to know members and see how we can help them to do  missionary work. Mostly we've just taught members as part of meal appointments. As a positive side note, we got fed Mexican food this week! Twice! It was so good. The Wood's are an amazing family. They are a young family, and they made us fajitas. And the Remington's are also a young family, and they made us Cafe Rio burritos.. yeah! It's been so much fun getting to know them and seeing how we can better work together.

This next week is going to be very busy. We are going to Moose Jaw tonight, and we will be there all day tomorrow. And Wednesday is zone conference. And then it's general conference. I'm excited for all of it, but I just might lose my mind!

I love you all! Thanks so much for your support! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

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