Week 91 - Apple Blossom Festival Time

Hi Guys!

Had another great week here in Nova Scotia! Hope yours was great too!

Wednesday we had district meeting in Greenwood, and we spent most of the day knocking and following up with our list of potential investigators 

Thursday we had leadership conference and it went all day long. They had a bunch of pods we rotated to where we received training. I learned a lot. The main take away I had was that we all are agents who act not objects who are acted upon. Although we sometimes make ourselves into objects and blame our actions and attitude on our surroundings, we have the power to be agents ourselves--beings who act and work to change situations and make improvements. Too often we blame our poor choices or lack of effort on our surroundings. This is foolish. We have to power to change things if we act and are living according to God's will.

Friday we finished up the rest of leadership conference. At the end of the conference I was asked to give a 30 minute schpeel on having faith to find. I had a bunch of notes for it and felt like I should scrap them so I was pretty nervous, but I followed the spirit and it seemed to go alright. After that, President and Sister Pratt did a Q&A session, and it was awesome. They just answered any questions we had and were very insightful.

Saturday there was a parade in downtown Kentville, and we signed up to have a family history booth set up around the parade. We started at 8 am and it went until 5 pm. It was long, but we got about 30 people who said we could deliver a family pedigree chart to them! So we'll make those and try to deliver them soon. Hopefully, we can eventually teach some of those people. Everybody in Kentville was drunk to the moon and back Saturday evening because of the annual Apple Blossom Festival. So we talked to a lot of drunk people. They were all nice though!!

Sunday was frustrating because our investigator Judy slept in and missed church!! So that was a let down. This is the second time she's done that so we're gonna try and crack down on that!! Other than that, we spent our Sabbath knocking!!

Monday we had a bunch of meetings over Skype. That took up the bulk of our morning and afternoon. We did have dinner with the Drennan family, and that was awesome (as usual)! We had a couple of lessons fall through in the evening, but it's all good.

It was a packed week!! Next week is transfers, and I'll probably be bounced out of Kentville. We'll see where I'm heading. Elder Olsen and I are praying for a reunion :).

Love you all!!!


Pics

Me and my homies

a sweet picture my companion took while we were walking across this bridge in Kentville 

Week 90 - This Week Was Beast!

Hey Everyone!

This week was beast. 

Wednesday we had district meeting in Annapolis Royal and afterwards we drove to Yarmouth to go on exchanges down there. It's a cool little community with a lot of fishermen. We knocked into a lot of lobster fisherman down there.

Thursday we spent mainly driving back from Yarmouth and at our correlation meeting. Also, we got to teach our investigator Judy a lesson. We watched the restoration DVD for most of it, and she really enjoyed it. She said it was "powerful" and we were like "amen." 

Friday we had the Halifax Elders up here for an exchange and I was with....ELDER OLSEN!!! It was nice to back with him again. It was like we were back in Amherst all over!!! We had a lot of fun together, and we spent a lot of time reminiscing together about the good times we had. We spent most of the day knocking and we worked so well together!! It was like we had never split up. So, Friday was a beast day! To top it off, Elder Bringhurst taught our investigator Judy a lesson and it went really well. 

Saturday we went knock-biking around the rural highways in the area because we haven't really talked to many people out there. It was a lot of fun. Not a ton of people were interested, but the weather was nice!! :)

Sunday Judy and LaDavian came to church! We had some good talks on the priesthood, so hopefully they learned a lot from those. We spent the rest of the day knocking in the pouring rain!! We were soaked haha! We also got to Skype our recent convert Troy all the way from China. He's doing really well. He's still reading the Book of Mormon and progressing well on his own. 

Monday we had a ward activity put on by our ward mission leader and us. We did a photo scavenger hunt and everyone had a really good time. Judy came and she had some laughs with some of the members. It was a great!!

Anyway, the days are ticking away, so I'm trying to make the very most of them. 

Love you all!!!

Elder Haslam

Re-creation of the 1st vision

Yarmouth sunset

President Pratt's Gater Socks

Week 89 - Final Skype With My Mom on Mother's Day

Hello!!

Holy cow! The weeks are flying by. I feel like my last p-day was yesterday!! I want to start off by telling you all how much I love my mom. It was awesome to get to see her and talk to her this week. Love you, mom! 

In other news, Wednesday we had zone conference, and Elder Bringhurst and I gave a presentation on car maintenance. Kind of dull subject matter, but it it went pretty well. No one fell asleep, so we'll call it a win! Overall, it was a really good conference. We talked about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it directs us to Jesus Christ. I don't think I'd have much of a testimony of Jesus Christ without the Book of Mormon.

Thursday we contacted a former media referral named Kaitlyn, and we picked her up as a new investigator! She's awesome. She's a music major at Acadia, but she still lives in the area even though it's summer semester. She said she'd like to find out if The Book of Mormon is true, so that seems pretty promising!

Friday we weekly planned and taught a lesson to Mare. We taught her all about the after life, and she loved it. She's doing really well!! She loves the Church. After that we went knocking, and we met some interesting people, but those are stories for later.... 

Saturday our investigator Judy went to our ward relief society breakfast and really enjoyed it. We taught her afterwards and put her on date for June 9th. She's awesome! We're just trying to make sure  she understands everything that we're teaching.

On Sunday all of our investigators couldn't come to church because they already had Mother's day plans, so that was kind of lame. But I did get to Skype the family for the last time on my mission, so that was pretty cool!! 

That's about all for this week. I hope all the mothers had an awesome Mother's day on Sunday. Again, I love you mom and don't know what life would be like if you hadn't reminded me to wash my face and brush my teeth every day for the first 18 years of my life. Love you!

Elder Haslam

Week 88 - I'm a very blessed Individual

Hey Folks!

This week was great! Elder Bringhurst and I had a lot of fun and we worked really hard. We didn't see a lot of fruit from our labor this week, but the missionaries around us had a great week so we know our faith is contributing to the work elsewhere!

Wednesday we had district meeting and Elder Bringhurst and I gave a training on retention. We also had interviews with President Pratt. I love that man, and I'm going to miss him a lot when he leaves the mission in the next couple months. We talked about the Jazz for like 10 minutes at the beginning of the interview. Go Jazz!

Thursday we had a couple lessons fall through, but we taught our investigator Judy and she's doing okay. She didn't end up coming to church and hasn't gotten back to us since the lesson. So we're pretty worried about that. She is currently on date for May 26th, however,  but that may change if we can't get a hold of her. 

Friday we went on exchanges with the Bridgwater Elders. They were up here in Kentville, and we spent the majority of the time finding. We weren't able to find any new investigators, but we had a lot of fun together.

Saturday was all spent knocking on doors except for one hour for our companion study. It was a beautiful day, so we had a lot of fun.

Sunday we had church, and we taught our investigator LaDavian. We taught him about the doctrine of baptism. We invited him to be baptized and his only concern was that he didn't feel like he was going to be able to keep the covenant he'd make at baptism. We explained the sacrament and he seemed less hesitant after that. He's such a sincere kid. We feel he'll get baptized eventually.

Monday we spent some time preparing a presentation we're giving in zone conference on...... CAR MAINTENANCE!!! Pretty lame, but someone has gotta do it. We made the presentation pretty funny though.

It was a good week! I'm a very blessed individual. I love you all! 

Week 87 - Loving Life Right Now!

Hi Everyone!

Hope everyone is doing well! Here's what happened this week.

Thursday we volunteered at the Food Bank and our job was to help people carry their groceries out to their cars. It was raining a ton, so we got soaking wet, but it was a lot of fun and people really appreciated our help. We did a lot of finding that day as well and we got even more soaked. We taught this lady we knocked into about the Church and many of our beliefs. She wasn't too interested, but we did clear up a bunch of misconceptions she had about the church.

Friday we had a lot of Skype calls that we had to do with the district leaders to discuss the upcoming transfer. We also did our weekly planning and after that we spent the day knocking!! We didn't get any potentials but we had a lot of fun.

Saturday was a grind day. We had a ward priesthood breakfast in the morning. After that, we spent the whole day finding! We busted out our bikes for the first time this year and went knocking on some houses along some of the highways. We biked up some HUGE hills!! At the end of the day we were exhausted. We weren't able to find any new investigators, but the reassurance we had from the Spirit after working so hard that day was worth it!

Sunday was awesome! We had both of our investigators there! Judy and LaDavian both loved it. Judy especially had a great time. When one of the members drove her home, she told her that this was her favorite church she's been to! Judy is so awesome. She's on date for May 26th, and we think she'll make her date! We also had dinner with the Morrisons on Sunday and that's always fun.

Monday was good. We had call ins and our district leader had a Skype companion study which was a lot of fun. We talked about having faith and the "But if Not" principle. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, you should listen to the talk "But If Not.." from April 2004 General Conference by Dennis E. Simmons. 

I'm loving life right now!! The Church is true!

Hope y'all have a good week!! 

Elder Haslam