Week 9 - Transfers Completed

Hello everyone!

This week was really busy with transfers and stuff so I don't have too much to talk about. Elder Hovey and I said goodbye to Elder Larson this week and that was pretty sad. But we're excited for this next transfer! We're going to get some work done! We also got news that there will be a new senior couple coming to work in our area this transfer. So that'll be a big help because we do everything for church on Sundays. 

I love the people in this branch. They're soo funny. I don't know if I've mentioned this in a past email but they all call me "Foxy" because of my hair. Whenever someone says it they can't stop laughing because they think it's so funny. 

Well that's about all this week! Hope you all are doing well. I know this Gospel is true and I also know that it's the true way to find real happiness in the world. Thanks for the support! I don't have any pictures this week. Sorry mom. 

Love Elder Haslam

P.s. I almost hit a huge coyote while we we're driving this week. I swerved and missed it barely. It was nuts! 

Week 8 - Transfers

Hi Everyone!

This week we did a lot of traveling. We drove almost all the way across the island to go on exchanges in St. John. It was almost 10 hours of driving round trip and I drove most of the time so that was a blast. I got to see a ton of the island though and it was pretty cool. We also got to go to the only Wendy's on Newfoundland so that was wonderful. This place is so beautiful! It's awesome. I tried taking pictures but they weren't that good because the car was moving really fast. 

On a sadder note, the promising potentials we got last week turned out to not be that promising. They either changed their minds when we called them or they just wouldn't answer or respond to texts. Some of them wouldn't even answer their doors even though we knew they were home. We'll find more people though. We're starting to get more and more potentials each week so eventually we'll find someone to teach. 

Well that's about all I have this week. Sorry I don't have much. 

Thanks for all your support! I love it here! 

Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Haslam

Week 7 - It's Getting Cold!

Hi everyone! Not much happened this week so I'll be pretty brief. 

We've gone knocking a lot this week and we've gotten a few people who seemed a little interested and took a BoM. We plan on following up this week with them so I'll let you know if anything cool happens with them. Hopefully we can start to see a little bit of success!!

Anyways, it's starting to get cold here. I bought my coat and I wore it a few times this week. Also, on Thursday Elder Larson was talking about how he wanted a shake from McDonald's so he was trying to convince us to go. We wouldn't go because of the contract that I sent you a picture of a few emails ago (see below).

When we went back to the apartment we read over it to look for loopholes. However, we read and we saw that one of the points on the contract was that we couldn't try to convince others to go to McDonalds. It also says that if one person fails to meet the contract then all of us get punished haha. So, basically we broke the contract.

 The contract says that if we break the rules, then the next day we can only eat a head of lettuce and water. So, on Thursday we had our "last supper" at McDonalds before our lettuce-cleanse. Then on Friday we ate just lettuce. For each meal I would just put a bunch of lettuce on a plate and eat it with a fork. It was actually really funny.

Well, I hope you all had a good week. Sorry for not having any cool stories this week. Hopefully there will be more next week! Just remember to love everyone like Christ did! Thanks for your support!

Love,

Elder Haslam

Week 6 - Contacting

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty eventful so I'll get started.

On Tuesday we went door knocking in Bishop's Falls which is a town about 15 minutes away from Grand Falls. We knocked on this door and a lady named Julia answered and she let us in. She disappeared into the back of her house and grabbed her Bible. My companions and I looked at each other and we knew that she wanted to "Bible bash" with us. So we sat there and listened to her rip on us for about an hour and half. The whole time we just smiled and laughed, but in a respectful way. We would try to defend ourselves and she wouldn't even let us talk. She was basically just telling us that we were such cute boys and how she's depressed that we're going to hell and how we all should become Pentecostals. She and her sister asked if she could pray with/for us and we said yes. So they grabbed our hands and started praying for our salvation hahaha. They were bawling and shouting "hallelujah" and "praise Jesus". So after listening to her rant for almost 2 hours (!!!!!!), she said how she was sorry for ranting and she invited us over for a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (FYI, Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and not in November). So we ended up eating dinner at her house Saturday night! It was just a really strange situation but it was fun.

Then on Thursday night, we were out knocking and a man answered and told us how he and a few members from his church were having a Bible study and it just barely started. So they kindly let us in and we were able to study with them. It was really fun and the people were really nice. It was refreshing considering what had gone on earlier with the other lady. I think we're gonna go back and study with them this week too!

On Friday, we went knocking in a town about 30 minutes away from Grand falls. Some guy let us in and wanted to bash with us, just like the other lady. He told us how none of the religions are true and how he's starting a new religion. His new religion basically just follows the Law of Moses. He also told us that we're cursed because we celebrate Christmas, and how Christmas was established to worship Pagan sun Gods. So that was cool!

Elder Larson was telling me how he had bashed as much this week as he had during his whole entire mission up to this point. We all started commenting as I've experienced more bashing sessions than actual restoration lessons. The bashing isn't really common but my companions say that it'll happen every once and a while.

Further up that same street, we knocked and a lady let us in. She was really sweet and she told us how she always tries to be welcoming to people out sharing the word of God. We taught her a restoration lesson and left her with a Book of Mormon and a first vision DVD. We told her we'd be back in town later this week and she told us to come stop by. So hopefully we can keep teaching her and hopefully she reads!!

So that's about it! Things are starting to pick up and the weeks are going by quick!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Haslam

Images on our way to Bishop Falls:

Week 5 - Success!

Hello everyone!

This week was awesome! I ended up doing a lot of work in the Corner Brook area while we were on exchanges. I got my very first potential investigator while knocking there this week! It was awesome. I'm a little bummed that I don't get to see it all the way, but it still felt good.

We left Corner Brook Wednesday afternoon and were driving the rest of that day. Since my companions went to Nova Scotia for a Zone Leader Conference, they picked up a new car for some Elders on the other side of the island and drove it back to Newfoundland via the ferry. We had to drive about 6-hours to the Bay Roberts area, passing through our area while doing so to exchange cars, and then we had to drive 4 more hours back home. That was a really long day, but I got to see a TON of Newfoundland...and it's amazing. There are so many lakes up here. We passed about 20 of them while driving.

Once we got back to our area, we went contacting and we got another potential investigator! He told us to come back again sometime this week so hopefully we can start teaching him. We also received a referral from one of the members here. His name is Zhivago (pronounced Shervago..???) and we contacted him and invited him to come to conference on Sunday. We were kinda bummed because he told us that he'd think about it and we assumed that was just a polite way of saying no. But he actually showed up and watched with us! We were really excited. We also invited him to family home evening this Monday, which is just playing games at the church, and he accepted! So hopefully we can finally start teaching people this week.

Well, I hope you are all doing great. I miss you all a lot. Heavenly Father loves you very much.

Here a some pics from the week...

[Cathy Borden is a member and she really likes pills. She just really likes taking pills. So we basically police her pill consumption. She knows when she's being bad, so whenever we ask her for her pills she gives them to us. We keep all of her pills in this bag - haha.] 

[Fog]

[Eating Cucumbers for snacks during Conference haha!]

[Contract we all signed because we were going to Mcdonalds too much. The bottom print is too small to read but it basically states that if we go to Mcdonalds, the next day we can only eat a head of lettuce and water. ]

[Twewve! Nuff Said!]

Love you all. Have a great week​​!!!

    Elder Haslam​