Week 57 - Having a Blast in Amherst

Hello from Amherst!

This has been a fun week! I love it here. It's a really small town, but I prefer that over a big city. We've been riding our bikes around town and talking to a lot of people. My new companion's name is Elder Olsen, and he's a stud! We're going to have a blast this transfer.

Conference was awesome! We watched most of it in the home of a recent convert here in Amherst named Howard. He was just baptized a month ago, so this was his first Conference experience, and it was an awesome one! He ordered pizza and bought ice cream for us to eat while we watched. It was a party!

There were SOOO many good talks from conference. My favorite was D. Todd Christofferson's talk. However, my favorite quote was from Elder Stanley Ellis. He was saying how "hard" is a constant in life, but the way we choose to react to the hard is a variable. We all choose how we react to our trials. God won't take our hard away, but he shows us how we can be happy though the hard. That's the whole purpose of the Gospel, and I love sharing it with people each and every day!

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all! Have a good week!

--  Elder Haslam

Week 56 - Off to Amherst, Nova Scotia

Hi Everyone!

Not much time today. After 6 months in Cole Harbour, I'm being transferred to Amherst, Nova Scotia, which is close to the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. I'm really pumped!!! I meet my new companion tomorrow.

Not much to report on this week. We did a lot of knocking and finding. We taught James once. He's a really cool guy. I hope he keeps on progressing with the new elders here. I counted last night and I've knocked 107 different streets in my time in Cole Harbour. 

It'll be sad to say goodbye to some of the Cole Harbour members.  I took a lot of pictures,  but I left my camera at the apartment, so I'll send them next week. I do have a picture of the temple though, so here ya go!

Love you all! Take care!

Elder Haslam

Elder Haslam and Elder Swainson

Canada Halifax LDS Temple

Week 55 - Transfers Coming Soon

Hey Everyone!

 

So our investigator, Winston, dropped us this past week. It was a huge bummer because he had been keeping all of his commitments and was feeling his faith increase. He basically told us that he doesn't want to pay tithing or keep the Sabbath day holy. So that's been tough to deal with, but I'm confident he'll accept the Gospel sometime in the future. 

 

We did, however, find a new investigator! His name is James, and he's been blind his entire life. We found him while knocking doors, and he said we could come back the next day. When we stopped by, he let us in, and we taught him. It was very apparent the whole time we taught him that he was blind (he was carrying around one of those sticks that blind people use), but, my companion didn't quite catch that memo haha. Towards the end of the lesson, Elder Swainson gave him a pamphlet and told him to read it if he had any questions!! It was so sad. I was trying to mouth the word, "NOOOOO" to him, but my comp didn't see me. Anyways, James went on to tell him that he couldn't read it, but he did it very politely. So we're teaching him again this Thursday. Hopefully, that goes well. 

 

Other than that not much else happened. The next time I email, I'll know if I'm staying here or not. If I do stay, that'll be 5 transfers (7.5 months) in Cole Harbour.

 

Love you all. Have a good week.

 

-- Elder Haslam

Week 54 - Goodbye Elder Larson

Hey Everyone!

Sorry, this one's going to be short.

We taught our investigator Winston twice this week! He's almost to the book of Jacob in the BoM!! He's definitely progressing, and he said that he feels his faith increasing! We've just got to help him come to church because he's a little afraid. Still, I'm so grateful for the converting power of the Book of Mormon. Anyone who reads it with sincerity and without bias, will ALWAYS feel the spirit. I think it's a really cool book. 

I had to say goodbye to one of my trainers, Elder Larson, this week. It'll be SOO weird not having him around anymore. I'm going to miss him a ton.

Anyways, hope all is well back home. I miss you guys. Bye!!!

Elder Haslam

Pic #1 Me and my mission dad, Elder Larson

Pic #2 My planner cover for this transfer, Grandpa Don by his new truck

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