NOTHING is better than a Nova Scotia Autumn

A few of the Young Men, my companion and I were asked to dress up and come into primary to be "Eye Witnesses" of Jesus's Miracles. It was pretty fun :D

Well... My letter is going to be pretty short today, I don't have my old planner, so I don't remember much of what has happened... I am terrible. My memory is so shot it isn't even funny anymore.

Well, here I am in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Back in good old Nova Scotia South (That's the Zone I'm in). It's beautiful down here, and I'm super excited that I get to be in Nova Scotia for the Fall. NOTHING is better than a Nova Scotia Autumn.  I guess I didn't tell you all too much about my companion or the area, so I will do that this letter, and then I will make sure to update you later about what we have been doing. 

So, my new companion is Elder Keaton Ashby, he is from Bountiful, Utah. (That makes 7 out of my 9 companions from Utah...) (also, I only have 3 more lines in my Preach my Gospel for companions... I am running out of room!) He has been out for just over 10 months, so he came out about two transfers after me. He is a good guy, and we have gotten along pretty well so far.

The area is a lot different than Charlottetown. Yarmouth is small. It's probably the smallest area I have been in so far. The Branch has bout 40 active members and like 20-is of them are children. We meet in a stage one building, which is basically a "Chapel" (it's about the size of a Relief Society room in a Utah church), with a couple of tiny class rooms for the the kids, some washrooms, and a baptismal font... When I first saw it I thought it was the Alton House... It's that small! Well, just a little bigger, I will have to take a picture for you. 

The city itself is really small as well. We have a couple of stores. I think we have two Tim's. A couple of restaurants, and best of all A TACO BELL! It's not the same as as American, but that's okay. It's still Taco Bell. 

I have a slight confession, and I guess this is the time to do it. I have a tie addiction... I am up to about 53 ties. I got a new one from a member as I was leaving Charlottetown. It's beautiful.. It's a Canadian flag, and it's so cool! But... Yeah... Ties... I love them....

I think that's about all I have for this week, I'm sorry my letter was so whimpy! I hope you all have a great week

Hockey Hockey, Moose Moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?

Elder Nielsen

COMPLETELY INSANE FOR THE MERITIMES!

Hello Hello!

Sorry, this is the only picture that I took this week.. I'm a worm.... I surprised everyone with a selfie :D

Well, I guess I will start off with the big news, this being Transfer week and all. I am being transferred off the Island, and back to Nova Scotia. I am being sent to the most southern tip of NS, a little place called Yarmouth. I asked one of the Sister Missionaries here in the area who served in Yarmouth back when it was a Sisters area, and she says that it is a little branch of about 30 active members, but there are days when there can be as many as 50 that show up, so not too small at all. Yarmouth is about 3 hours from Bridgewater, which is the second closest missionary area around, so It's just going to be me and my companion for like 250/300 km.... That's so strange... Oh, and also, I've been released as a District Leader, so I'm going to be a normal proselyting missionary down there. I think that's about everything that needs to be said about transfers. 

Yeah, so as for the rest of the week...

I don't have much to talk about this week because ALL (and I'm talking Every.Single.One.) of our appointments fell through this week... So it wasn't all that exciting.

Monday: Hot... it was the first day of the heat wave that hit here. They say that with the humidex, the temperature was like 42C which is like 107F, which is COMPLETELY INSANE FOR THE MERITIMES! This is the kind of weather that kills people in this area because they aren't used to it. It was super crazy and we had to drink tons and tons of water. We had supper with an awesome family from the ward, and then worked for the rest of the night.

Tuesday: Hot.... We dropped off a Bible to someone who requested one online. She didn't want to set up an appointment to meet again, but we gave her our number and contact info so she could get in touch in the future. Other than that, we did a bunch of knocking and street contacting. We did have supper at a members home. It was super funny, they had forgotten that we were coming over, so when we showed up, she shot out and bought a pizza and it all worked out. I love the people here!

Wednesday: Hot.... District Meeting. Same ol' stuff. After District Meeting we had some lessons set up, but they fell though, so we, again, ended up doing a lot of finding for the day. We finished up the night with Ward Mission Correlation. 

Here is the picture from District Meeting that was taken of Elder Algers Camera. I thought you might all like to have it :D

Thursday: Our afternoon appointment fell though, so we ended up street contacting before going in to work at the Soup Kitchen. I love working at the Soup Kitchen.  We had supper out at a members house. They were hosting an achievement days thing for the primary (achievement days is for the boys and girls here...) and we got to tag along for "Dads and Dogs". Campfires and Hot Dogs, it was pretty fantastic :D

Friday: Weekly planning. It is always weird planning for a week that you don't know if you are going to be around for. But, hey, we do it anyways :D Again, lots of finding hours put in... Not much more to say...

Saturday: Saturday we had a ward fireside, so that was pretty fun. It was all about Treck, and the youth here telling their stories about Treck. I enjoyed it. All the young men from Summerside came down, so it was pretty awesome to see them again. We stopped in on a less active couple after the fireside, and we did get to meet with them and read the Book of Mormon. I love those two, they make me so happy. So I guess not all of our Meetings fell though...

Sunday: Transfer Letters. Also, the Stake Presidency was here to speak to the ward, so that was fun. There was a linger-longer after church, and there was at least a little food :P. After that, it was back to finding, right up until YSA Family Home Evening, which was a discussion about the Halifax YSA Conference that the missionaries aren't attending, so we basically just sat there.... #awkward

So yeah, that was pretty much our week. Nothing overly exciting. 

I hope everyone is having a great week. Love you all

Hockey hockey, Moose Moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?

Elder Nielsen

That place is so grungy and greasy that you can't help but love it!

Hello again!

Here is a picture of me in the most dramatic pose I could think up... The glasses are my companion's...

Again, I am doing the wise thing and writing this letter first so that I don't end up forgetting and being cast into eternal fire by my mother :P Just kidding, she loves me and wouldn't do that! I guess I will try my hardest to scrounge together some interesting stories to pass out to people.......

They say that 'MURICA is bad? MURITIMES!

Monday: Yeah, last Pday was pretty boring... We had the Montague Elders here, but we couldn't think of anything exciting to actually do... We ate at a little downtown restaurant called Cy's. That place is so grungy and greasy that you can't help but love it! It's one of those nasty hole in the wall kinds of places. Other than that, we couldn't think of anything super exciting to do... We went to Value Village and I bought a bright yellow tie... I counted up my ties, and as of that yellow tie, I now have 52 ties.... and most of them are hideous... I might have to make a donation to a thrift store here... I love having lots of ties, I just wish they all looked good. Ugly ties are not the fashion in CHM (Canada Halifax Mission).... Yeah... That was about it for Monday.

A candidly snapped photo while taking our Facebook cover photo...

Tuesday: We had an awesome lesson with our Chinese investigator. I love that man so much! We are still looking for someone who speaks Chinese so they can check for understanding, but he speaks English pretty well, and was able to draw out the Plan of Salvation and explain it back to us, so we are thinking he gets it. After that, we had a lesson with a Recent Convert, and then went knocking in his neighbourhood. No luck there...after that we went out street contacting. and then had a lesson with a member. That was pretty much our whole day.

Wednesday: District meeting. Always super exciting. After that we went to a lesson with the Sister Missionaries, and we ended up picking up their potential as a new investigator. He is a great guy, and we are excited to work with him. We then had a lesson with some returning members, and then some less active members. We had supper with some awesome members, who are both from Boston, so AMERICA!!!!!! We finished out he night with a lesson with one of our other investigators, and then our weekly ward missionary correlation meeting. 

Burning my 1 year shirt

Thursday: We had a lesson with our new investigator early in the afternoon, and then went and did service at the soup kitchen for most of the day. I love working there, but the people don't really like us... It's such a weird thing, you would think they would be nicer to the people who are feeding them... but whatever, that is their decision. We had supper with some members way out in the boonies, and then finished off the night trying to hunt down some Less Active Memebers.

Elder B. Burning his 6 month tie.

Friday: Weekly Planning, always a blast. Right after weekly planning we had a lesson with our Chinese investigator at the church. In our last meeting he asked if we could start meeting in a place that is less distracting, and if he could have two hour lessons so that he can learn more. We are happy to oblige! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the bible videos on LDS.org in Chinese. The spirit was AWESOME! He is going to be working towards getting baptized on October 10!  After him, we had a lesson with a less active member at the University. After we went street contacting, and then had some supper. We finished out the night by going to they YSA bonfire and burning our clothes, haha! Good stuff! (We are required by the Mission President to attend all of the YSA activities, so we weren't being apostate!)

Saturday: Saturday all of our appointments ended up falling though, so that was a bummer... We did have supper with some members (again out in the boonies) and they are great! Other than that, not much happened on Saturday. 

Sunday: After Church, we actually ended up spending most of our day working on a presentation for the 5th Sunday lesson that we just got volentold to do.... we are a bit peeved about that, but it's going to work out fine :D We had YSA Family Home Evening at night, and that was about it.

So yeah, that's about tall that happened this week. Just so ya know, it is anticipation week, so I will let you know what happens with transfers next week! 

Love y'all!

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, eh?

Elder Nielsen

 

 

Elder Batley stole may camera (Also photoed: Kelvin J., Sister Moore, and Kayla Fraser)

 

One of the sisters took a picture of me and my comp during a correlation meeting... I don't know what's going on, but neither of us look very happy about it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a completly unrelated note...

Okay, I am going to write my weekly letter first this time because I am a slug and forget to do it if I don't...

Here, I took a picture so you could actually have one of us for this week :D

HI! How is life anywhere that isn't Atlantic Canada? Hopefully just peachy-keen!

It's been an interesting week. Nothing too special, but I will see if I can think up something interesting to write about so I don't bore everyone to death... That wouldn't be too fun.

Monday: Pday. Nothing too interesting... I took a nap. I'm an old man... Naps are about all that sounds fun on a Pday now... I am just the life of the party now. After my nap, we went out and knocked, and then visited some Former Investigators. And then we posted on Facebook... And yeah, that was about the whole of our day.. Super fun stuff.

Tuesday: I had an exchange with the Zone Leaders. So I was with one of them here in Charlottetown. He was in my MTC district, so we spent a lot of time being all weird and nostalgic about the last year... Nostalgia is gross. One of the Sister's investigators invited us over to start teaching her Husband, so he is now an investigator! That's pretty cool. He works a ton.. So it's kinda rough to pin him down for a time, but at least he wants to lean. I can work with that. (We also performed 3 blessings in a two hour time period... all to different families and people... that was crazy...)

2 year guarantee, Missionary grade shoes? I think not.... Haha

Wednesday: District meeting. It was a good district meeting... Or at least I think it was... I enjoy the meetings, but that might just be because I don't have to listen to my own trainings :P We had a lesson with a recent convert. He is such a great guy. And then we did a lot more finding though the day until it was time for the Ward Missionary Correlation meeting. 

Thursday: We spent a lot of time working at the Soup Kitchen. I love that place. The people who come to eat don't really like us, mostly because we are Mormon, but that doesn't matter, because we get along with all the other volunteers really well. After the Soup Kitchen, one of the volunteers (who also happens to be the same recent convert that we met with on Wednesday) took us out for Cow's Ice Cream. If you are ever in PEI, you need to get Cow's Ice Cream. Forget about Green Gables, just get the Ice Cream. Other than that, we just went out knocking.

Friday: We helped a less active member move his stuff out of the storage area in his apartment building's basement so that he can move out this Wednesday. That was fun. We got to talk to his brother, who was a member but is a Baptist now, and we are going to go meet with him sometime later on. That's pretty awesome. We had this really awesome experience when we were out knocking. Some guy ran up to us and asked us if we teach the Bible, and we explained to him the Bible and The Book of Mormon, and he asked us to teach him. The language barrier is a little hard, but he is a great guy. He is from China, and has only been in Canada for about a Month, but he is super sweet, and really want's to learn. 

Saturday: While we were out Street Contacting we ran into our Mission President who just happened to be visiting PEI with his wife and some of the office couples from Dartmouth. We talked to him for a minute, and he asked if he could come to the lesson we were headed to, and we let him come along. The lesson bailed on us, so we took him street contacting instead.It was his first time ever going out contacting with the missionaries. It's so awesome having a greenie Mission President. I love that man so much! We got to talk to him for a long time, and he asked our opinion about a lot of stuff he is thinking about doing in the mission. We shall see what happens. (Charlottetown might become a Biking area...)

Sunday: President and Sister Pratt spoke in church. They are awesome. Again, I will say that I love those two so much. On a completly unrelated note, there was a huge fire downtown that destoryed a couple of apartment buildings, and killed a couple of people... That wasn't so good... We fiished the night out with YSA Family Home Evening. 

So yeah, That was basically our week. Good Stuff, eh?

Well, I love ya'll, and I hope you's have a great week! 

Hockey hockey, Moose moose, Maple Leaf, Sorry about that, Eh?

Elder Nielsen

Oh! And PS, I got a package from Mum! She is the Best! There was actually a really cool story about that package. I was going to pick it up on Wednesday, but I decided to wait because we didn't have time. Thursday Morning we got a call from the Bishop asking us to go hunt down a Less Active member who had posted a Suicide note on Facebook. So we go to hunt him down, and after about an hour we get a call saying that the police found him and took care of him. On our way back home, we stopped in to Shoppers Drug Mart to get my package, but they said they didn't have it in their system. As we were leaving, who do we run into? The Less Active member that we were looking for! It was a small miracle, but it was awesome! We were able to set up an appointment with him, and teach him the next day. Also, the next day when we stopped in to try again for my package, it was there with no problems and they said it had been sitting there for about a week. I thought that was pretty cool.

okay, goodbye for reals this time :D