Jan 25 2016

Joking around in the mission office

Last week we went on exchanges again with the other District Leader in the South, in New Brighton. New Brighton is one of the areas I served in months ago. It was wonderful to be back in an old area. I was able to help them with some less actives, potential investigators, and other people that we worked with, that were probably forgotten about because after I left, they put two missionaries in that were about to go home together, so not a whole lot got done... sadly. 

In New Brighton, after supper, we helped out with a move out in the ward. A lot of people from the ward were there, and they remembered me, which I thought that was really cool! They cover two wards now, as before it was just one. We had an appointment with a less active in the morning. He has been less active since age 15, and he’s now 50, so it’s been awhile. He had some concerns for a long time. He was not able to find an answer, and the answers he got from his friends he did not like and they did not make sense. They were mainly questions about the Plan of Salvation. The answers that we gave him and the scriptures that we used, he liked, and it made sense to him. Which goes to show how simple the gospel really is, so simple that a child can understand. And that’s how it should be. 

Later that day we contacted some less actives and some referrals. I was able to help with that because I knew where a few of them were in New Brighton. 

The whole day when we were on exchanges and even before then there was a member that I wanted to visit, and say hi. 

Right before supper we went to say hi. It was the old ward mission leader that we had, Kevin. They remembered me! We got talking and it turns out that he has a worker that works for him who said he wants to join the Church! Those were his exact words, "I want to join your Church, when my family gets here!" 

He is Filipino, and his family is with him right now, I believe. Kevin gave him a week off of work so he can be with his family. They live in our area so there will possibly be a whole family to teach! I’m glad that we went to their house, otherwise I do not think that we would have received a referral for our area.   

On Wednesday there was a missionary worldwide broadcast. Every missionary in the world watched it! Elder Bednar, President Nelson, and others. The last time that they did this was about 10 years ago. It was really fun to watch and learn. The topic of the broadcast was Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts.    

We had a lesson with Modest, he was just in a car accident, Someone rear ended him, and he is just recovering from it. We taught him lesson one. That went really good! He is a really smart guy! He speaks 16 different languages and almost received a doctor degree in Philosophy. Overall the lesson went great and there were not too many concerns. We were able to answer everything. We invited him to pray about what we taught, and he said that he would. 

Last time he invited us to pray about Adam and Eve. Good thing that we left off with the invite. :)  

        

Jan 18 2016

We went on exchanges on Tuesday with the APs. I was back with Christensen for the day. It was great, just catching up on old times. It was a lot of fun. 

We also went on exchanges with the one of the district leaders in the zone on Friday. We have really good missionaries in the zone. When we were on exchanges they did not have a car that week so we were walking everywhere, which I don’t mind, but it was really really cold. Most of the appointments fell through.

Elder Christsen

When we exchanged back I asked Elder Owens how his exchange went. It went really good. They visited a LA in the ward. Before the visit and before the exchange we were planning on what we should teach them. I had a thought that we should show a short movie, "Only a Stone Cutter".  Owens told me how that went. He said that it was what they needed to hear and see, because they were struggling.

We helped out with a move on Saturday for a LA member. It was not a big move. We were moving stoves, and fridges from one house to another, and from that house back to the old one. They had three industrial sewing machines. Those things are so so heavy! You can make bullet proof vests with these things!  It was like a piano. 

Lately it has been really hard to meet with our investigators. They are sick or cannot meet because they are busy. We will continue to keep in touch with them.         

Jan. 11 2016

We met with Fred this last week! He is doing really good! He has read 3/4 of the Book of Mormon! When I heard that I was happy, and shocked. I have not had an investigator that has read that much in so little time. We taught him the restoration that day and he accepted all of that. 

We have two districts in our zone. The same day we taught Fred we did district finding back to back for each district to help them in their area for new investigators. That was a lot of fun but it was not the best time in the day because it’s Calgary. 98% of everyone are not home. At each door I did some calf raises, so hopefully when I go home I will have thick ankles and calves. haha;)  

Once a month we have zone training meeting. This month it was a good one. We have a new "Standard of Excellence". Every mission has to have one. Our old Standard of Excellence was based on numbers that we never achieved and it was something that was on the wall that was neglected. This new Standard of Excellence is more focused on each missionary developing Christlike Attributes,  finding one new investigator a week, having 100% member present, and 100% to sacrament. I trained on how to achieve each of the 5 points of the Standard of Excellence and blessings from it. The training as a whole was wonderful. Everything worked out. 

This last week the temperature has dropped to -20. We got a lot of snow too. We found a neighborhood and we removed the snow on the walks.   We have a potential that we ran in to. It is a Filipino man, from the Philippines. 

On Saturday we had the opportunity of going to anther baptism in the zone. It was for the sisters in our district. That was one of the best baptisms that I have been too. It is so amazing to see the Gospel change the life of others. This guy gave up: drinking, smoking, drugs, and gambling, and is starting to be a better person. Those are some of the words that he wanted to say after he was baptized. He invited his non-member friends and family, and they came. President was there too. 

We are working on some more finding. Things have kind of slowed down. It’s harder to meet with some of our investigators.    

Jan 4th 2016

            We had a pretty good week. It is also a new year! I really think that this year is going to be a good one! It is going to come and go, just like 2015 did. 

This week was full of fortunate and unfortunate events. Our Tuesdays are really busy because we have two different district meetings to attend. I do not remember if I told you guys this, but they added a new stake in Calgary last year. We cover a new stake. A new stake means a new zone, so we cover a new stake and a new zone. So basically we cover two different sides of Calgary. 

NE, SE, and SW. The New Brighton ward is in our stake, and that use to be one of my old areas! I was really happy to hear that. The district meetings are really good. We have two wonderful district leaders. They are doing a good job! They make our role as zone leaders easier. 

There have been a lot of changes in the mission again. This time it’s from SLC. There will no longer be a departing fireside. A departing fireside is for all of the missionaries going home. They get to invite members and converts to it. There is a slide show and a testimony meeting of the missionaries going home. There will, however, be a testimony meeting just for the departing missionaries. 

A while ago we got a referral from someone in another stake. His name is Alphonse. We had to contact him by a member that speaks French. We got ahold of Alphonse this week. He said that he would come to church, but never did. 

On Monday, for Pday everyone did their own thing because of kilometers. We were home. I was getting some shut eye and the phone was right by me. The phone rang. I knew it was President because we have a different ring tone for him. I got up and answered it. When I answered it right after I got up I almost forgot my name! I could not remember it! It took me 5-6 seconds to say "Hey President Miles, this is Elder Condie." So that was kind of funny. He called because he wanted to invite our zone to have dinner at his house for New Years Eve! He had some family there that he wanted us to meet. That was really fun to have dinner at the Mission Home with President, the assistants, and President’s son, wife, and two kids. We were the only zone there. 

We had a lesson with our investigator Modest, It was our first time meeting with him. He has been taught 2 lessons before he was passed off to us. 

We have a new investigator! Her name is Amy. We were able to get in and teach her somewhat. Not sure on what her intentions are, if she wants to learn or if she wants to argue. We will see how it goes. She was found when we were contacting from a part members- less active list that we had. That list is about 7 years old. The person we were trying to find did not live there. That is how we found Amy. 

We contacted a referral that a member gave us. Right after that we told them how it went, and they gave us 6 more referrals! All of people they came in contact with. When we left, she said that it is good to know that we have dedicated missionaries here, because the last ones awhile back were not. That was really nice to hear.