Transfer Calls!

So first things first, we got transfer calls on Friday, and they're kicking me out already! I was so mad. The assistants called us, and when they gave me mine they told me that they needed my leadership. It's sad to hear that the mission is so desperate. I will be a zone leader in Saskatoon. But I will be companions with one of my former district leaders who I really love. I will be in the Wanuskewan Ward. It's the same ward as Kevin Willoughby I believe. So that will be pretty neat. It's a bitter sweet transfer call....mostly bitter. It's been sad saying some of the goodbyes. I said goodbye to the Palmer kids yesterday. I was about to cry.

 

Anyways, this week was really great. The Cypress hills are beautiful! It was so fun going out there last week. The Iwaasa's are the best. Turns out that Bro Iwaasa served his mission with Anthony Esplin's dad. Small world. Bro Iwaasa might be emailing you did get their info because they'll be heading south in a bit.

 

We had a pretty busy week. We got invited to eat supper with a less active member and her husband. Marvan and Craig are so funny. She's actually from Blackfoot. So we get along really well. I think we've had about 30 minute conversations about potatoes. It's the best. It was so great eating supper there. We had a very spiritual message with Marvan. She's a great lady.

 

We had exchanges with the zone leaders this week. It was so fun. I was with Elder Wilson. He is in my MTC group. It was great to be able to work together. We've been waiting for a while for that experience. He's a funny guy. We were laughing quite a bit. They had us do a teaching evaluation. It was an eye opener. I've got a ton more things to work on than I had thought. We've been working on teaching simply and focusing more on people as a result of that evaluation. It was very helpful.

 

On Saturday, we got to volunteer at one of Swift Current's biggest events. It was the summer wind scape kite festival. It was an amazing opportunity. There was a junk load of people. We were actually the greeters....well I was actually directing traffic, but Elder Shepherd got to talk with almost everyone that came to the thing. It was pretty fun. Tons of people were thanking us for volunteering and what not. Good experience....too bad they're kicking me out.

 

That's about all that I've got for now. I will send my SD card home next week when I get settled into Saskatoon. I've taken a ton of pictures here, but have never been allowed to send them with an email. I hope you enjoy them! Love ya!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

6/17/13 Whoops! I blinked!

So this week was another quick one. We had some great experiences though. We've been working very hard to make sure that we are doing our best. We've learned a ton in the last month. It's been incredible. Pres Thomas came to breakfast with us last week, and he asked us if we thought we could split Swift. We said that we could. He called us Wednesday and asked us how we wanted to make the new boundaries. Yeah...that was crazy. So there's going to be 2 more missionaries here in the middle of nowhere. So we've been pretty stressed.

 

We went to Moose Jaw again this week. District meeting was good. It's interesting because all of the elders in our district are in almost the exact situation I was in a year ago. The challenges and trials they are going through are the same trials and challenges that I had. It makes it quite easy to relate to them. I just hope that I'm helping them. It was actually during exchanges while we got the call from Pres Thomas.

 

We had an investigator at church yesterday! Betty came to hear me speak...whatever gets her there. It was good. I think that she had a positive experience.

 

This week I got to know a member family a little better. The Iwaasa's have two boys. One on a mission and one at home. They are so great. They made us a seafood feast, and yesterday we had a ham. It was so good! They're going to be taking us somewhere today for a p day activity. It's called Cyprus hills. I'm not sure what it's all about. But I'll take my camera :)

 

That's all I've got for this week. I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

 

ps. Mom, I got your letter. Thanks!

Running on Empty!

This week I have been the most tired I have probably been in my entire life! We did quite a bit of traveling this week. We went in to Regina to go to the temple as a zone and to have a zone meeting. So what happened was this: we drove in Tuesday evening to Regina (about a 2 1/2 hour drive). We woke up at 4 Wednesday morning and went to the 6 am temple session. We had a 3 hour meeting. Then we drove back. That was most likely the worst drive I have ever done in my life! Driving by braille is not fun!

 

The rest of the week was pretty interesting because we were so tired. But it was a good one none the less. On Tuesday, we went to stop by a former investigator, and well, a pretty common occurrence, the guy had moved. But we talked with the young guy who answered the door, and we set an appointment to come teach him on Thursday. It was a really great lesson. Hayden is just searching for a relationship with God. He was so excited to learn how to pray. It was so great...even though we were sleep teaching. Unfortunately he has a bit of opposition in his family. Hopefully he can come out on top.

 

I made chocolate chip cookies last Monday, and we gave them to a few people. We gave them to our investigator, Betty, and she really liked it. Then we gave them to a family in the branch to thank them for inviting a nonmember into their home to be taught. They have 3 little girls, and they were just going nuts when they saw the cookies. It was so funny Sister Steed just looked at them and said, "it's okay to get excited, but don't get crazy." I think that's some good advice for 3 other little girls I know :)

 

This weekend was pretty good. We ate supper at the branch president's home again. It was so good. The Palmer's are just so funny. Elder Shepherd and I have ties that look like Slytherin and Griffindor colors. Clearly I'm Malfoy, but we didn't know who Elder Shepherd was. Apparently they watched Harry Potter, and they say he's Sheamus (no idea how to spell that). It's so funny. We're recruiting members to be on our teams. One of the Palmer boys, Diego, is on Griffindor, and he wore his Griffindor tie to church. It was so funny. We wore our ties to a branch breakfast on Saturday. So funny.

 

Other than that it's been a pretty slow week. Investigators have been sick/busy. But this week should be great! Love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

June, so soon?

This week has just flown by! I can't believe that it's already June! I just love it here in Swift so much! It's been an amazing past few weeks.

 

Last Monday, I decided to show Elder Shepherd what deep fried mars bars were like. So I made some. They were so good :) The thing is, we ate them about an hour and a half before we were going to eat supper at a member's home....yeah, we weren't hungry for supper. But they had a BBQ, and so we ate so much! I thought I was going to explode! Elder Shepherd and I were hysterical. He was like, "if that's not a sin it should be....I just want to die." It just reminded me of Wascana ward, so I was OK. Ha ha, just makes me think that I should work on my foresight a bit.

 

We had some really good teaching appointments this week. It's been really fun. Elder Shepherd tells me we're finding and teaching more than he ever has here in Swift. So it's good to know the area's doing well. We just want to keep it up. So this week we taught a few first lessons, but just didn't set any return appointments....yet. We are close to finding some new investigators, so we should find quite a bit this week. We also taught a lady who Elder Shepherd taught before I came. Her name is Betty. It was one of the best lessons of my entire mission! I didn't really get to teach much. I felt like I wanted to talk several times throughout the lesson, but it was hard to know when I could insert my comments because I didn't know her well enough. At one point in the lesson, she expressed that she has a hard time feeling like her prayers are answered. She asked me to say the closing prayer, so I did. At the end of the prayer, I looked up and she was crying. Apparently I prayed for help for things she needed that her husband doesn't even know about. I thought it was just a normal prayer, but it was a huge testimony builder to me that Heavenly Father knows us and that we are His hands in this work. I know she felt the Spirit, and it was amazing!

 

Yesterday, we taught a Korean lady in a member's home. Sister Steed invited her to English Class, to church, and to learn more from us. It was really great! There was a language barrier, but it was neat because she asked how she could feel close to God every day. The Spirit was there, but it was definitely one of the more challenging lessons I've taught. The Steed's are really great. They have 3 of the cutest little girls in the world! It was great to be in their home!

 

That's about all that I've got for this week. I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder C. Lyons

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