I've Seen Those Things Pick Up an Elephant!!!

June 25, 2018

Well we started off the week pretty good. We got to teach a few lesson right after pday was done, one to an older guy named Ray and well we got to visit a bit with another guy named Rob.

Ray he let us in and we talked for a little about how the world is changing and how bad it is becoming, talked a bit about where he grew up and how the town is no longer there anymore (he's 83) the family had a farm out there and he told us how they would run milk into Weyburn 6 days a week and it was kinda cool to listen to some of his story's he had. We shared the restoration with him but by the end he wouldn't commit to reading the book of Mormon more we think just cause he didn't want to try something new or take the time which is sad but I mean we can't force anyone to read if they don't want to, all we can do is invite.

Rob he was super nice. He doesn't believe in God really but he was kinda interested it seemed and he even let us in for a few minutes for a drink, so we talked with him for a bit. Found out he was in a band and they were getting back together for a show in Prince Albert on July 1st and a couple other little deals around that time. 

Did more tracting and found more people this week that said we could come back so that was sweet! Lots a good things are slowly turning up here in Weyburn, only took about 6 months! It's nice though to finally see the area picking up.

The areas not the only thing that's picking up though, the bugs are getting super bad now... I call it the Mosquito dance when Elder Hornburger starts getting attacked and he's trying to get them all haha

Had a good lesson with a lady named Ceta, she's from the Caribbean and her husband is from Jamaica but he wasn't there so we had Pres. Regnier come along.

We taught the Restoration and it all went good up till we brought up Joseph Smith and prophets cause she doesn't believe that there is just one prophet on earth cause then how would everyone be saved. That would mean everyone that thinks they are doing the right thing like being baptized by their priests is invalid because they don't have the authority. We tried to help her catch the idea of how the prophet isn't the only one with the authority to do that stuff and that that authority is passed down throughout the church to the worthy men in it. That's just a sum of what we told her.

The book of Mormon was another hard one for her. She doesn't believe it to be a word of God and she doesn't believe that there is any one true church/religion, she believes there is one true God and she has found him and that's all she needs.

When we first introduced the Book of Mormon to her she seemed to think that if she read it then she would have to be converted to our church, which in a sense is kinda true but that was the main reason she didn't want to read it because she doesn't think there is one true church. We finally got her to say she'd try it out by the end of the lesson and even if she was to read it she didn't have to become a member but that the things in the Book of Mormon would help her in her life and bless her even more. Even got a return appointment after!

Did some service out at the church this week with Bro Shugart helping him pull up the old bushes around the building. We got destroyed by Mosquitos there, down in the bushes where I was hooking on the chain was bad it was like a cloud of them in there. Once we got all the bushes taken up the Mosquitos had no places to hangout so they took on the grass and when we were carrying the bushes off to the truck to haul away you would scare them all up and man it was bad, there were thousands of those things! Bro Shugart was like "careful I’ve seen those things pick up an elephant before."

Had exchanges this week with the sunrise elders so I got to go back to the sunrise area for a day and night with Elder Robinson!

Exchanges where pretty good in sunrise we did some stop byes with people that I worked with when I was there and we visited some LA’s, and even got dinner with the Moores! 

Had some drunk guys yelling at me and Elder Robinson asking what we were selling but we were a little busy talking with an investigator to answer them. Eventually they figured we must be potato sales men haha

Formered Albert this week sadly.... We went over to talk about the plan of salvation but ended up having a big debate on God having a body of flesh and bone, the book of Mormon, the afterlife and all that. 3hrs later we walked out after not getting to far with him and Elder Hornburger and him getting kinda heated again over stuff. We finished on a good note but it finally came down to Albert saying he wasn’t going to read the Book of Mormon ever because it was false and that we needed to pray for our eyes to be opened to the truth and hope God would lead us in the right way so yeah it was good... Maybe the next missionaries will have better luck.

Had a pretty sweet branch party this Saturday, did a waffle/games night with everyone that wanted to come member or not and it turned out pretty good. We had way too many waffles though...

Met a lady that told us she loves Satan and that she was okay with him and didn't need God so Hornburger asked "that's okay, do you want to talk about it?" haha she's like nope I'm good with Satan! So that was our fun experience this week I'd say for weird people at the doors. 

Church was good yesterday, I gave another talk here on member missionary work so that was good!  

Got caught with President Regnier in a rain storm when we came out of a less actives place.  From the house to the car running as fast as we could in our suits haha we looked like we had jumped in a lake it was coming down so hard.  It was only a 50 yrd sprint too.  The best part was seeing Pres Regnier jump a 4ft wide little river running down the road to get to his car haha we all had a good laugh once we got in the car and saw each other all wet.  

Well that's was pretty well our excitement for the week here!  It was a good week and this next week's gonna be another good one.

Love ya all, talk to ya next week! 

 

 

We are not failures till we quit trying.

June 18, 2018

to start off the week we had a bunch of super long meetings for district leaders and trainers but they were good. 

Did some more service, this time for one of the members in Estevan (the woodruffs). We helped them put up some sides on their trailer they just got and by the time it was getting close to us needing to leave bro Woodruff was like "you guys can't leave I need you" we tried to use we don't have our toothbrush or anything so we could get home and sleep at our pace but that didn't work. He said "oh not a problem we'll just make run to Walmart and get what you need there!" never again will I go shopping with bro Woodruff, he was so bad in there. He was running the cart into the corners of the racks and making stuff fall off there hooks but at least he'd pick it all up after. At one point he left his cart and was pushing a cart full of fruit that was for sale.... He was doing it all on purpose! At Canadian Tire he took the workers to do list and was going to add a few things to it!... Luckily the guy came back in time. Supposedly bro Woodruff used to work there for a bit, but still! Haha it was bad.

In the end we stayed the night and finished the project we came to help him with so that was good.

Said our goodbyes Wednesday to everyone and had one last feast at the all you can eat KFC here in town, then off to Regina! Picked up Hornberger and we stayed the night at sunrises apartment along with Elder Perhson. 

Thursday I got a call from Fowler while we were out tracting in the rain and he said Abadicio came out of the bathroom the night before and was like that idiot put numbing paste in my toothbrush again! Hahaha I had to do it one last time just so he'd remember me ;)

Hornberger is way quieter than me and Abadicio were. He's from Calgary so that's nice and he just got done serving with elder Berry up in Saskatoon. He's been out 6 months so still pretty new. 

Did lots a tracting the last bit of the week and even find a couple people that might work out we hope. 

Had a 3hr lesson the other day with Albert... It was pretty good lots a thing talked about and I think we finally came to some common ground by the end again. Talked about prophets, priesthood, church organization, and the Book of Mormon along with lots of other little things here and there. Most the talking was done by Hornberger and it was a very round and round lesson meaning albert would bring up something and Hornberger would end up back to trying to commit albert to read and pray everyday. By the end of the first hr. Albert was getting tired of this whole loop back to the book of Mormon thing and Hornberger I could tell was getting frustrated by at all too but for some reason they kept going on. Finally after 2 and a half hrs. I was like alright well we best be going now, is there a time next week we can get back together and continue this. We talked for a little longer after that and we all got kinda refocused on what we were all doing and finished the lesson off on good terms and everything so yup we'll go back there next Friday and see what we can do for him then. Good lesson I just felt like we were stuck in one spot and getting nowhere right now with it so I figured it best to finish up and come back later when we had a better idea in place then what we were doing.

Had a good end to the week. Spent most of it tracting and walking around stopping by people, the last 2hrs on Saturday were the best I'd say.

We were tracting down a street along the way home and we came across this guy Dave who was pretty open to taking with us even though he doesn't have much of a faith in God but knows there is something more seeing as everything is so organized. So we stood on his deck for a bit with him and talked about this with him and talked about what he does for work and all that stuff. Turns out he in a gamer and he gets paid to do it...! Has 2 kids a 9yr old and a 3yr old, his wife we don't know much about but she is the one that works out of the house and he's the stay at home mom he says haha

Super nice guy. We got taking about church and he said he'd see about coming this week and it kinda gave him some motivation when we told him there'd be food after so we'll see. We nicknamed him gamer Dave. 

A few houses down from him the next ones to answer was a lady names Stephanie and it was my door so I did the usual approach and added a few different things here and there and she let us in! She said just a second I'll get my husband he's putting the kids to bed. So we came in and they switched off and she finished putting the kids to bed and we talked with Dave for a bit while she did that. 

We talked about the book of Mormon and what it is and why it's so important as well as the Bible. We told them about Joseph Smith and what role he played in all of this. Then Stephanie asked the question "this is kinda silly but I'm just wondering, why you don’t drink coffee?" so we pulled out D&C for them and showed them there what God told Joseph Smith and everything we talked about they loved and took with open minds. By the end I think we had them really wondering what we had just gave to them (in a good way) Stephanie said "I have a friend back in Calgary who about a yr. ago texted me and said she met there two boys from your church and they thought me some things." she said "this is what I have been looking for! I gave finally found it! I should have known earlier cause my last name even sounds like it!" her friends last name in Mooreman haha so it sounds like Mormon. I think Stephanie was very curious as to what we are sharing that her friend had been searching for so long and now she had the chance to see. They both said they would read the book of Mormon and yeah it was super good. 

On the way home we had a lady named Carla chase us down the street wanting to talk to us haha She said "I know you guys, my ex is a Mormon and so I know what you guys do." Sadly before we could really get to talk with her friends managed to take her away... So we didn't get a number or anything for her. Hopefully we see her again and we can meet with her.

Sadly Dave the gamer didn't show up to church but we did get to talk with him on his deck for a hr. n a half after church. Talked about politics (well he did) and kids, then finally got to teach him some stuff about the restoration. He even asked us for a book of Mormon after we got taking about it, he’s like "you don't happen to have an extra one of those do you?..." so yup it was good. Hopefully he works out good.

Got a lot of dinner appointments here for the coming week, like 3 days in a row! So that nice but kinda bad at the same time cause they are all out for Weyburn so that means less k's to go see Eoin and Jessica later next week but we'll make due.

That just about does it for this week though. It was a good kinda long week but lots happened so that's alright.

Well love ya all! talk to ya next week! 

 

Stake President Noblet and new comp Elder Hornberger

 

We are not failures till we quit trying.

 

Staying In Weburn, Sask

June 11, 2018

Guess who's staying in Weyburn another transfer!!?
This elder is! Me and elder Hornberger are working here now, and Abadicio is going to Neepawa! We are both pretty excited about what happed for transfers.
So it was a pretty great start to this week working out at the Crowther’s helping them get their place all redone on the outside. We built a deck in the backyard and then we put up finishing around the outside of the roof and messed around with their kids for a bit. They got 3 girls Keah who's 12, Sam who's 11, and Mica (mouse) is her nickname that she get called all the time and she's 3, then the one boy Hedley who's 1. Mouse decided she could use me to help her get everywhere she wanted. She would hold my hand as we built the deck and have me help her walk her around the steps and all the tools then once she got to where she wanted she'd let go and turn around n smile and laugh at me. Super cute kid.
Eventually she even got me pushin her around in her mini cooper toy car, sister Crowther was like "looks like you've done this stuff before!" haha I said "nope I actually wasn't like this back home, well not very often anyway."
It was a good full day’s work out there though! I kinda wish I was in a service mission that would be sweet, but we do a decent amount of service out here so I'll be okay.
Went to a museum here in town with an investigator the other day. We stopped by him to see how they were doing and he's like hey let's go for a drink so on the drive to DQ we passed the museum and he's like hey have you ever been there? We said no so he turned into there and we went through it! Saw I think it was the largest silver collection in Canada! Most the stuff in there was like a first doctor’s office or music store in Weyburn type thing so it was cool, got to learn and see some of the history of the town.
Walking around passed the school by our place we passed a house and it had a girl standing in the door way smoking but as we got closer she tucked herself back inside the door a ways so all you could see was her hand and smoke, and as we went passed she cat called to us haha Abadicio thought it was me and I thought it might have been him but nope, so it had to of been her. That was the strange moment of the week for us.
Helped out Kevin (friend with missionaries. Not official investigator yet) this week cleanin up some trees that were hanging over his fence, spray painting some garden animals, setting up a little party tent, and helping water his flowers n what not. Had me up there cuttin the trees down guess everyone figures since I'm a ranch kid they can trust me to do any cutting they need done. Also helped him clean out a rental place of his out in Griffin for an hour or so the next day, even got some teaching in during it!
On Friday we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators Albert. Albert is a 7th day Adventist who talked with missionary’s a long time ago in dauphin Mb but from what we can tell they didn't share much with him. We have met with him a few times now and I think Friday was the 3rd or 4th time now. The first few times was spent talking about the Bible and faults prophets but Friday we finally got somewhere with him! We taught the restoration to him and we had a really good talk with him and he brought up some good points and questions for us. He said something I though was kinda cool and I wish I could remember exactly what he said but I can't so this is a rough idea of what it was he said "We have Christ so all we need to do is work through today, and let him take tomorrow." he was saying we shouldn't worry too much about tomorrow but we should worry about what's going on here and now and be doing the things we know are right and let God take care of the future and we'll be okay.
The rest of our week was spent tracting and trying to find some people we could talk with but we didn't get to much luck.
Got to 35 one day and man that as hot tracting on the houses with white doors and siding.
Sunday we gave talks in church and they went pretty good it seemed.
Had 5 people in Estevan church counting us.... But it was still pretty good.

Well love ya all, talk to ya next week! 

Elder Abadicio is getting transferred....Elder Nelson is staying😊
The Regniers take great care of the missionaries!

 

Drawing On The Powers Of Heaven

Drawing on the powers of heaven

Drawing on the powers of heaven is a little book that President Craig has made into some slides for us so that we can better use our time out here in the field and it is basically all about how we can better involve God in our life choices. 

To give you a bit of a background on the book it says "No amount of knowledge or skill can compensate for the absence of the powers of heaven in your life. With the powers of heaven to assist you, you can be successful in this mortal life in spite of the weaknesses because, in a very literal sense, the powers of heaven compensate for human weaknesses. Of you learn to call down the powers of heaven, your limitations- background and physical characteristics- become insignificant."

President Benson said "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that he can make a lot more out of their lives then they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up their friends and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life to God will find eternal life. "

 

Faith. 

Powers of heaven are governed by spiritual laws. Faith is needed to seek miracles unless you exercise sufficient faith, you dent the lord the opportunity to help you in the course of your daily life, and to bless you with miracles. 

(Ether 12:8) The lord’s hands are tied until you exercise faith. Faith is a principal of action and power, and is the key to excellence. 

The powers of heaven cannot be controlled or handled only upon principals of righteousness. "Faith is a gift bestowed as a reward for personal righteousness. It is always given when righteousness is present, and the greater the measure of obedience to God's laws the greater the endowment of faith." said Bruce R. McConkie. 

There are many steps to obtaining faith and how we can use that faith properly to draw on the powers of heaven in this book and I'm not going to put out everything it says in the sections but I'll give you the headings and you can determine the meaning of them. 

• Righteous desires and faith. 

• Righteous desires and paying the price. (What will you do to obtain what you are seeking?)

If you truly desire something you will have the necessary motivation to pursue your goal thoroughly. By contrast, if your goal is not a sincere desire, you will not be inclined to pay the price required to achieve it. 

 

Principals that govern faith. 

1. Selecting righteous desires

2. Plead your case before the lord

3. Exert yourself mentally

4. Sustained effort

 

Goals.

We must have goals to make progress, encouraged by keeping records... As the summer or the jumper or the runner does.

 

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates." 

     –President Thomas S. Monson

 

Goal setting.

1. State your desire

2. State your resolve

3. State help needed from the lord

4. State your commitment

5. Measure your actual performance and revise goals under inspiration

 

Goals should be means, not ends.

Goals are not the end result; they are simply milestones that lead us to set and accomplish other goals. For example going on a mission is not an end goal; when we get there we set other goals.

 

Seek the gift of the spirit. Generally your ability achieve goals will be greatly enhanced if you first seek the gift of the spirit.

(D&C 46:8)

Gifts of the spirit include power to recall renewal of body, etc.; they are virtually unlimited. 

 

Exert yourself mentally. 

The thoughts process itself is the key to exercising faith. To a great extent we accomplish what we think about. In other words, what you think about today, tomorrow, or next month will mold your attitude and determine what you will accomplish during your life. Your life is influenced more by your own thoughts than anything else. 

A quote I like that goes along with this is 

“The mind is like a field, you will harvest whatever you plant and nourish."

In here it's says "do not confuse the preoccupation of worry and anxiety with the preoccupation involved in exercising faith. When your mind is prone to dwell on the adverse consequences of events which you assume you have very little control over, that is worry. In contrast, if your mind dwells on the possible consequences of various courses of action which you will control to a great extent, you are exercising faith. "

(Moroni 9:27)

 

Control your mind.

1. Train yourself be conscious of your thoughts.

2. Learn to scrutinize your thoughts to determine if they add to or detract from your faith.

3. If thoughts detract from your faith, replace it with thought that is based on faith.

Another quote I like that goes with this is "starve your distractions, feed for focus."

 

Sustained effort. 

Be willing to pay the price! Your faith will be tried. Maintaining faith in the face of opposition (Alma 36:3 D&C 58:4)

 

How to enhance your faith.

Express gratitude.

 

The summary of how to exercise faith to draw on the powers of heaven.

1. Have a clear understanding of faith as a principal of power.

2. Have a realization that the powers of heaven are governed by individual faith.

3. Live righteously.

4. Prayerfully select righteous goals (desires).

5. Specify when your goals (desires) will be obtained.

6. Specify your goals (desires) in writing.

7. Plead your case before the lord, telling him what effort or sacrifice you are willing to make to achieve your goal (desires).

8. Consistently think about [and visualize] your goal (desires).

9. Use all of your willpower to think positively about [and visualize happening] your potential to achieve your goal (desires) with the lords help.

10. Consistently remind yourself that the added power and strength from God that is now at your disposal is based on individual faith.

11. Remember the lord is anxious to grant your righteous desires if you will but qualify yourself.

12. Make your specific goal (desires) a matter of constant prayer [specify the specific blessings you will need from the lord which will require you to draw on the powers of heaven]

13. Pray that the lord will enhance your ability to exercise faith as a principal of power.

14. When you face a situation that causes you to doubt your ability to achieve your goal (desires), learn to offer a mental prayer to request the lord’s help, then exercise faith that he will help you, remembering that if you lack faith you deny the lord the opportunity to assist you.

15. Repeatedly reflect on the promise made by the savior: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matthew 7:7)

16. Recognize at the outset that your faith will most likely be tried.

17. Make certain you do your part in your efforts to achieve your righteous goals (desires).

 

Caution

There will be times when you will begin to exercise faith in a desire that is not approved by your heavenly father. When this is the case you experience a stupor of thought and it will be virtually impossible to be able to focus on your mind on your desires. When this happens you should cease your effort to exercise faith regarding that desire and make every effort to prayerfully determine why the desire was not appropriate. 

 

 

 

 

Happy 20th Birthday!

June 4, 2018

So to start out week off we had a lesson with a guy named Mike right after pday ended. We went around doing our stop byes and he was one of them he was the only one on his block a week ago when we knocked it that answered his door. 

So we checked up on him to see how he was doing and when we could meet with him. Turns out he was home alone for the evening and he was more than okay with us coming in for 5-10 min to talk, that 5 10 min talk turned into 30min haha but he didn't seem to mind he was the one asking all the questions. He's pretty open to what we shared and didn't seem to think on any one thing to hard. He asked where these plates where now so I told him what had happened and he went "oh okay that makes sense, I mean if we could see them then I guess that wouldn't be true faith right." usually that question and answer makes everyone kinda like yeah I don't know about that, this all seems very convenient that a "angel" came down and took these plates after he was done. But nope not Mike thankfully!

He said he'd read the B of M and get back to us on what he thought about it all shortly. 

After we got out of the lesson with Mike bro Dudragne called and was needing some service/help with loading some dirt in his truck for Thelma's garden boxes so we finished off the night there helping him out. May or may not have got to drive his truck a quarter mile...! haha

Rained a decent amount again this week most of Tuesday rained but it was still hot! Got to visit with Kathy and Jeff my ranch taking friends so you can guess what was talked about there for the most part, that was nice. They said they might have to take me out to their ranch before I leave here if I do get transfers next Monday!

Had our last interviews with President Craig this week.... That was sad but it was also really good. Had lots of wisdom to share with us all. He said "elder Nelson as dying man last words to you I hope you understand what I'm about to tell you...." and went on to tell me a bunch of things and how I'll be seeing a bit of him after the mission. Gonna miss President Craig but he said he thinks I'll like President Hitchcock just as well so I guess we'll see here shortly.

When we walked into the church for interviews and district meeting after (it’s just the 6 of us elders) I saw Elder Pehrson’s face and asked what happened to you?! Haha his one half of his face was all cut up around the eye and the eye was pretty close to being swollen shut. I asked did elder Fowler beat up on you!? He said no I got bit by something while I was sleeping...

I have no idea what kinda small creature would have inflicted that kinda bite marks on his face without him noticing but it did. He looks a little scary so I can only imagine what looks he gets while knocking doors haha. President Craig said sister wise our mission nurse said he'd be back to normal by the end of next week... Poor guy.

Pretty well the rest for our week has consisted of rain and more rain so we got lucky and one of our less-active family's was needing some help doing some things on their place while Hedley (the dad) was home for 10 days. So far he's not too happy with the weather cause he was hoping to get the outside done while he was off but the rain has told him otherwise and we've been working on the inside the last couple days. It's slowly coming together so that's good.

One of our investigators text us the other day after we asked if he had read the book of Mormon and he said "no I couldn't really get into it guys but I did find another good read it has lots of history in it, it's a relaxing read." then he sent us a picture of a bottle of whiskey we assume he had been drinking outta haha went in to say after "it doesn't taste to bad either."

So my guess is we'll have to get back to him another time when he's done studying history. 

Then we have Eoin (Owen) who when we asked if he was able to read lately he said "yeah I'm planning on reading it later tonight with Jess." I told him something like "that'll be good cause she'll be able to answer some questions that might come up." to which he said "yup, but what if she has a question?" "Oh you got it. Haha no I'm just kidding you can text us and we'll see what we can do." he said "Good cause I think we might need and ark to get to Tim's place (Jessica's dad) right now if we were to ask them!"

He was in a goofy mood that night it seemed but it was good. At least he was going to read. 

Prank of the week. I put some tooth numbing paste on Abadicios toothbrush the other night and the next morning he comes walking out of the bathroom and looks at me and I was like "what?" (I totally forgot about it) he picks his flip flop off his foot and starts throwing them at me haha he's like "you suck." he was laughing though so that was good. 

Sunday was spent most all day with the member’s at church and their homes. The Regniers had us over for a birthday dinner and party so that was fun and made me tacos so I was happy!

Then after them the woodruffs had us over quick before 9 and they sang happy birthday to me and we had some DQ treats so it was a good day. 

Got up this morning and got ready for the day and when I walked in the bathroom to brush my teeth I found a nice note on the mirror and it said HAPPY BIRTHDAY "STUD" HEART BREAK"! :D then he wrote Happy 20th birthday on the inside of the toilet seat haha so we got a good laugh.

Opened up all stuff that has been sitting in our coat closet for the past week!!

Found some pretty good stuff in there so thank you all for everything! 

Well that's the week for us!

Love ya all, talk to ya next week!

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes.

(Still a teen at heart) 

 

Rain Drops

May 28, 2018

Started off the week with some service at the Jones's place before pday was even done helped them pull up their rock strips along the driveway. Once we got that done we got packed up for exchanges in swift. Just as we were about to leave we got a call from the Saskatoon elders and they said they wanted us to take a baptism for them in our area. The guy that they had been teaching named John had been coming to our branch more than he was in Saskatoon so they figured it best for him to be baptized here. Nothing about the baptism was planned yet so we told them we'd have to figure stuff out when we got back from swift. Seemed like this was a last minute kinda thing moving the baptism here but I'm not complaining!

Exchanges were pretty good this time around up here in swift. We helped clean out their font in the church, did some service with bro Montez cleaning out more rock from old yard ideas he had.

The whole time him and Fowler were giving each other a hard time, because Fowler kept breaking all our tools. By the end of this project his nickname was the destroyer. Guess the last time he cut down the wrong tree in their yard and tried fixing it by twisting hangers around the trunk to hold it all together. Haha

When we got home these gifts were all dead from doing 2 1/2 hrs. of service with him! They tried to say well I was shoveling and pushing the wheelbarrow around full of rock the whole time, that was a long time to be doing that haha I just laughed at'em and thought how they'd be if they had to come spend a day on the ranch.

So we found out when we got back from exchanges that our baptism wasn't going to happen this week but hopefully next week! Guess he's got a little bit a learning to do still. 

Not a whole lot happened this week after exchanges. Rained a bit throughout the week so that was good for everyone! 

The rain inspired me and Abadicio to write a song haha it's called raindrops and it's based on a myth that missionary have where some believe that the more raindrops that fall on your tag the better looking your spouse will be after the mission haha so yup it's a pretty funny song. We sang it for the woodruffs last night after church, they thought it was pretty good/funny.

Did lots a walking and dying of heat most days trying to find new people. Got to 34 one day.... I miss the wind back home! There’s no wind here to kinda cool you off.

Things have been good here the last little bit despite the lack of people we are finding. Long as we are doing our part that's all that matters soon enough we'll be findin where their hiding!

Well love ya all talk to ya next week! 

Endure, and you shall triumph

May 28, 2018

Jesus Christ said "he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

To endure means “to remain firm in a commitment to be true to the commandments of God despite temptation, opposition, and adversity.”

 

Even those who have had powerful spiritual experiences and have given faithful service could one day go astray or fall into inactivity if they do not endure to the end. Keep in your mind and heart the phrase “This will not happen to me.”

 

When Jesus Christ taught in Capernaum, “many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

“Then Jesus said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?”

Many of us have made sacred covenants with Jesus Christ and he may ask us, “Will ye also go away?”

The response Simon Peter said when this question was asked I hope would be ours: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Be faithful to what you believe and know. If you have not been living according to that knowledge, change. Sinners who persist in their sins, and do not repent, sink deeper and deeper into filthiness, until Satan claims them for himself, significantly jeopardizing their opportunity to repent, to be forgiven, and to be blessed with all the blessings of eternity.

No one will be able to make excuses before our Lord, Jesus Christ when that time comes.

When baptized, we make covenants with the Savior, agreeing to “take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end.”

Sacrament meeting is one way we can evaluate your determination to serve Him, and the growth of your faith in Jesus Christ. Others are daily, pray and read the scriptures. Weekly, partake of the sacrament with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Pay your tithing and your monthly fast offering.

And throughout your whole life serve in the work of the Lord.

 

In Elder Zivic talk he tells a story, it says. 

Several years ago, while on vacation, I wanted to go kayaking for the first time. I rented a kayak, and full of enthusiasm, I launched into the sea.

After a few minutes, a wave overturned the kayak. With a great deal of effort, holding the paddle in one hand and the kayak in the other, I was able to regain my footing.

I tried again to paddle my kayak, but just a few minutes later, the kayak tipped over again. I stubbornly kept on trying, to no avail, until someone who understood kayaking told me that there must be a crack in the shell and the kayak must have filled up with water, making it unstable and impossible to control. I dragged the kayak to the shore and removed the plug, and sure enough, out came a large amount of water.

I think that at times we move through life with sins that, like the leak in my kayak, impede our spiritual progress.

If we persist in our sins, we forget the covenants we have made with the Lord, even though we keep capsizing because of the imbalance that those sins create in our lives.

Like the cracks in my kayak, the cracks in our lives need to be dealt with. Some sins will require more efforts than others to repent of.

 

We must strive to obey the commandments and pay close attention to those that are hardest for us to keep. The Lord will be at our side, helping us in times of need and weakness, and if we demonstrate a sincere desire and act accordingly, He will make “weak things become strong.”

President Craig always tell us in ZC when he talks about obedience "obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles" exact obedience to God's commandments will give us the strength to overcome sin.

 

I know as you do your best to overcome the hard things in your life that the lord will not leave you comfortless, he will help you through anything you struggle with.

Enduring to the end is sometimes as hard as it sounds but I know as you keep and follow the commandments that making it to the end won't be as hard as it would have been had you not followed the teachings of Christ. "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles." I know each and every one of us can make it home again. Whatever our personal situation may be, I know heavenly father and Jesus Christ are there beside you helping you every step of the way saying "I am with you, you can do this." 

 

Till We Meet Again

May 21, 2018

This week has been pretty good. Did some driving around with zone conference and all that. It was President Craig and Sister Craig's last ZC.... They took all the time during it. Usually there are portions from the Zls, STLs, and the APs but not this round they took all 6hrs. 

It was really good. Learned lots about how we can better ourselves and our areas we are in. Did lots with drawing on the powers if heaven that's a book that President Craig has made into slides for us to study out of to help us better the work. 

Near the end of ZC out zone did a musical number with "God be with you till we meet again" and we started out with just a little piano solo of it then after about 2min we all stood up and started to sing it. Needless to say we got them and a few of us crying. I could even feel a few tears wanting to come out but I stayed strong haha the mission is going to be so different with them gone. They are what makes the Can Win mission the best. But they gotta go I guess and we will have a new president- president Hitchcock who shouldn't be all too bad we hope, maybe he'll be even better then P Craig who knows.

Been doin some tracting this week. Haven't found too many new people yet but they are coming I can feel it!

Helped out at Kevin's farm again this week putting some tires on his tractors getting ready for farming so that was nice.

Got my hands a little dirty finally with more than just the paint off the old doors we knock. 

Went out to the Buchanans on Saturday for the day. We helped Eoin (Owen) and Jessica set up a fence around their rabbits, then we went and played around with the horses, cows, pigs, and ducks. Abadicio pet his first bull and steer.

Cracked the bull whip a bit. We played a game called hurl or Hurley or something like that we can't remember the name of it. It's like a cross of hockey, baseball, and lacrosse it was pretty fun. 

While Jessica and Eoin were making dinner the kids decided they liked me and their little girl Bella she's 7. She sat by me on my chair and told me all about her DS and the game Mario something 3d as she played it. After about 30min of this her mom tried to use the old if you don't leave the missionaries alone or behave they will teach you a lesson trick on her to try and get her to leave me alone for a bit, but when Jessica tried that Bella just looked at her then me and got a big smile on her face haha that's when Jessica leaned over to Eoin and said I think Bella has a new crush... Haha sure enough she did cause later she was hugging everyone and when she got to Abadicio she thought about hugging him but she decided against it. Then she got to me.... She decided I looked nice enough she could hug me haha so she did. 

A bit later Ben their 8yr old son he decided I wasn't too bad either so he showed me his pictures of when he went on a truck drive with Eoin. I had both kids sitting around showing me different things for a little while. Eoin and Jessica were like well I think we know who their favorite missionary is! 

After dinner we sat around and visited for a bit while the kids went back outside to play. Shortly after they left Ben comes to the door and yells in "elder Nelson do you want to come watch me skid!?" so I went out and watched them run up and down the drive on their bikes drifting around. 

Once we finally got outta there we stayed the night in Estevan with bro and sis Woodruff. Had a fire and played guitar all night (till 10:30) and yeah it was a good day.

Not a whole lot else happened Sunday just the usual tracting and stop byes. Had lots a people at church had 25 I think!

Today we were in a weird mood it seemed haha during the hymn for Sunday school we sang hymn number 225 and it's like a marching hymn and so us and bro Woodruff started to do a little march while singing... Haha yeah we are a couple a goons.

Mailing things is a lot nicer now that I have a personal mail man that goes to Ab every so often. Had him take some stuff down this week for me. He's a member from Ab that is moving up here for work shortly so he still travels here and back home every so often. 

Bro brown had us come over last night to visit him. When we got there the first thing he said was hey guys I’m going to Catholic Church now, I don't want you guys coming around so much anymore. I hope you understand.

He was having one of his days were his skits is kicking in a bit partly cause he went off his pills for a few days, so I wasn't too worried when he told us this. Soon enough he'll be coming back to church again. He told us also that one of our members was Satan haha said that he was brought to our church by him and couldn't leave till now. He told us he was told to save us and bring anyone else to the Catholic Church that he could. It was an interesting visit to say the least. Anyway that concludes this week for us. All in all I'd say it was a pretty good week. 

Love ya all talk to ya next week!