Week 53 - Happy Camper!

Hi!

This week was awesome!! Our investigator, Winston, read all the way up to 2 Nephi in about 5 days!! We were so pumped because the commitment we left him was 1 Nephi chapter 1, and he read more than that!! It was a good blessing. We're doing a church tour with him this week, so hopefully that'll help him get comfortable with church and things like that. It's nice to finally have someone to teach again because teaching makes me such a happy camper. 

This week I'll get to see a lot of my mission friends because we'll all be going to a leadership conference going on here at the Cole Harbour church Thursday and Friday. I get to be with Elder Ablett (the elder from England who used to be in my apartment) for the majority of the week. He's flying down from Newfoundland, and we're going to the conference together. I'll also get to see Elder Ipson at the conference, so that'll be great as always. 

That's about it for this week. I'm grateful for this Gospel. I'm grateful for my Savior and the love he has for me. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It's so cool to be able to finally say with conviction that I know all those things haha :) YAY!!!!

Love you all!

P.S. I didn't take any pics this week, so here's a golden oldie taken almost a year ago in Newfoundland with my mission dads, Elder Hovey and Elder Larson. I love them!!

--  Elder Haslam

Week 52 - Success at last!

Hi Y'all!

We finally picked up an investigator this week!!!!!!! Took me 15 weeks to find him, but he's here. His name is Winston, and he's a 76 year old war vet. He let us in because it was completely pouring rain, so he pitied us. After we taught him a bit and bore testimony, he told us we could come back. We taught him again a few days later. He's very apprehensive to change, so we're going to have to work with him a bit. Hopefully, he's not just meeting with us to be nice. We'll see if he keeps his commitments. 

Other than that, not much has happened this week. We did our exchanges this week. I was with my buddy Elder Cox, and we went hard. We actually found a young family that said we could come back another day, so hopefully that all works out. We still did a lot of finding this week, so that was good. It was a rewarding week.

The past little bit I've really been pondering the principle of obedience and how crucial it is not only in missionary work, but for our own personal progression and well-being. Sometimes it's hard for us to wrap our minds around, but if we are obedient to something God has asked us to do, God has NO CHOICE but to bless us and provide for us. When God gives us commandments, it's because he wants to give us blessings and give us what we need to progress so we can become like Him. I hope we all have the faith enough to simply obey, and I know that if we do, we will all see miracles in all parts of our life. 

Love you all. Thanks for the support!! 😀

-- 

Elder Haslam

Picture caption: Cheesy-missionary-tag picture

Week 51 - Training a New Missionary

Hi Everybody!

I'm short on time, so this one will be a bit brief!

This week I had to say goodbye to Elder Warner, which was hard because he's such a stud. Now he gets to enjoy Utah again. :) My new comp's name is Elder Swainson. He's from Alberta, so I have a native Canadian companion again!

We've been doing a lot of knocking this past week, and we'll be doing more of the same this week, so hopefully we can start seeing some success. Some lady let us in this week, and we were pretty excited, but all she wanted to do was bash and argue with us so we left. 

Today in studies I read a scripture in Alma 26:22 that says:

Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.

I read that and I thought that this scripture is a formula for how we can share the Gospel with everyone. As we live the doctrine of Christ and use the tool of prayer to obtain God's will, we will be able to bring happiness into the lives of others.

Hope you all have a great week!

-- Elder Haslam

[Pics: Me with Elder Warner for the last time :(   and Elder Swainson and I watching the eclipse with our special glasses.]

Last Day with Elder Warner

Solar Eclipse in Nova Scotia

My First Greenie - Elder Swainson

Week 50 - Training My First New Elder

Hey Everyone!

This week was great! Since Elder Warner's heading home, I tried my best to make his last week a good one. Although we didn't find anyone to teach, we had some cool conversations with people about God and religion. We'll try stopping by to visit with those people later to see how it goes.  

This week was transfer week, and I'm going to be staying in Cole Harbour for a 4th transfer, which means I'm going to be spending 1/4 of my mission here! I'm glad though because it's a great area to be. Also, I'm going to be training a new missionary named Elder Swainson who's from Alberta. I haven't met him yet, but I will tomorrow. I'm pretty scared about being a trainer, but I think it'll be fun.

Love you all! Hope you have a good week!

Elder Haslam

Found out he is cousin to both of us! What's the chance?

Elder Warner is Going Home this Week.

Last Few Hours - Heading Home!

Week 49 - Baptism & Peggy's Cove

Hi Everybody! 

This week really flew by! Elder Warner and I had a ton of fun. We still haven't found anyone to teach, but we talked to a lot of interesting people. We'll be on the search again this week. The weather has been nice though, so that's a plus.

Saturday I had the opportunity to baptize the Cole Harbour sisters' investigator Debbie. It was a really amazing experience. She was the first potential investigator I found in Cole Harbour while knocking, and the sisters did a great job teaching her from there on. It was awesome to take part in such a special moment for her. 

Today we went to a place called Peggy's Cove. It was amazing. I'll attach some pics for you to see.

Have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Haslam

Debbie's Baptism

Debbie and the Missionaries

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove

Week 48 - Great News!

Hi!

The best way to sum up our past week: we did a lot of finding haha! We had fun though. We couldn't find anyone to teach, but we have a couple people who we can follow up with. 

We went on exchanges in New Glascow. Every Friday the branch there plays ball hockey and invites their non-member friends to play. So we got to participate in that, and that was a lot of fun! We ended up giving a few BoMs to folks up there, so we did have some success!

I do have some really good news! When I got here to Cole Harbour a few months ago, my first day in the area we got this potential investigator named Debbie. She's a widow, and she lives alone. Because she was a single sister, we gave her contact information to the Cole Harbour sisters. Turns out this Saturday Debbie is going to be baptized! I interviewed her last Saturday, and in the interview she asked me to baptize her, so I'm really excited about that! I'll let you know how that goes.

Talk to you all next week! Have a good one!

-- Elder Haslam

Our Apartment Building

Hi

Elder Haslam & Warner's Rap Album Cover!

Week 47 - Split in Halifax

Hello Everybody!

This week went by pretty quickly!

Wednesday we had district meeting, and I gave a training on teaching the Restoration simply, quickly, and powerfully. It went really well! After, Elder Warner and I went knocking for 5.5 hours, and we talked to a lot of really nice people, so that was good. 

Thursday, we called this guy we gave a BoM to a couple weeks ago and he told us that he read the entire Book of Mormon! We were super pumped. So we stopped by his house and visited with him. We sat down and he slapped down a bunch of anti articles onto the table and started going through them with us. It was pretty annoying haha, but it was also fun because we addressed everything he brought up and used the scriptures to back it up. He was pretty closed off though, so I don't think he really listened to us. We're still not sure if he actually read the BoM. If he did, he certainly didn't do it with an open heart. Oh well. 

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I served in Halifax with one of my trainers, Elder Larson. His companion was needed someplace else, so I was his companion for a few days. I got to attend the Halifax YSA ward on Sunday and that was awesome! Some of the YSAs had us over for dinner too. I had a ton of fun, and it was really nice to serve with Elder Larson again after all these months. It was weird being in such a big city though. 

The other day I got to go on exchanges with Elder Ipson! We went knocking and had a ton of fun. He and his companion are traveling the mission to give some basic training to all of the missionaries. So they gave us a district meeting, and it was really awesome! I learned a lot and Elder Ipson killed it!

Hope everyone is doing well! 

Elder Haslam

Future Missionary (age 5): Elder Tyler Haslam

On a split with my "Mission Dad" - Elder Larsen