Wednesday 29 July 2015

Transfer 16 Week 5

Hey everrybody!

Well I have gotten to the point where I have lost all joy or having fun while emailing haha. I actually rue it but that's okay because I love you all I will continue to write! This week was pretty good. So you all remember Jean the Baptiste! Well he came to church this past sunday along with a great guy named Bro. Calendar. Elder. T has been loving talking with Jean as they both speak fluent french and Jean's English is decent but he cannot express himself as much. Yesterday morning we had the opportunity to go and pick him up for church. It was really fun travelling to church with him. While E. T chatted with him I went to work on the bus contacting. On our second bus I got to talk with a guy from Peru. He tried bashing with me in Spanish and kept telling me that the bible was all we needed and how John wrote about that. I love that verse, people must note a few very fine details. In English it is a easy concern to deal with haha. It specifically refers to the Book of Revelation and along with that this exact reference is found in several other places.  However my skills in Spanish are not good enough to explain that so I just simple testified of what I did know and what it meant to me. It was a really neat experience. I saw the Spirit calm the man down and he listened to me struggle to keep on testifying. I am so grateful for the Spirit which helped me to accomplish that. Monday we hung out at Ossington and played sports. Than on Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with E. Wehi, my grandson and also E. Oviatt. We had a great exchange as we worked hard and played hard. We taught quite a few people and had some great moments. I got to visit with one of the invs from last time I had met, Ed. He loves me for some reason haha. At church he follows me around like a puppy dog. He is an older man and quite interesting. We spent most of our Priesthood class outside talking with him trying to resolve his concerns. It was nice as we talked simply and boldly the Spirit was ever presented and testified of the truth of what we were saying. I love being able to feel the Spirit. On Wednesday we had a celebration for Sis. Gayle whom is turning 90 years old! We had cake and everything. It was great.  Wednesday we had an answer to a prayer! We have been trying to visit this LA member but could never catch him home. He is from Syria and a doctor. We went and knocked and thought he was not home but we knocked on a window and he ended up answering! He is the nicest guy you would ever met! He welcomed us in and gave us ice cream. He talked about his conversion and why he has not been at church. He told us how much he missed going to church. I think that would be so hard. To be forced not to go to church so that you could be able to practice and do what you did back in your home country. His courses go till October and so he will not be back till then. It is a part member family too and so man it just makes me wish that we could help them to have a miracle. I am excited to work with this family and get to know them more. This week we had a lesson with Chan and her family. It was great to visit with them and chat with them. She is now calling us her sons haha. She is so cute. It is so amazing the relationship you develop with people out here in such a short time. 

 

This week was just another good week. No really notable things but just little miracles here and there. I love seeing how God is one of miracles. We are so blessed to be missionaries at this time. Transfers is next week and well I feel like it will be interesting the last phone call! haha. Hopefully I get to stay! I have come to love a lot of the members here. They are so awesome and I just have come to love them dearly. I hope you all have a great week. Be grateful for the people around you and remember to treasure the moments you get to spend with them. There is  new Mormon message! Check it out its called building families! Love the message! I love you all my friends and family and look forward to all the more memories we will create together! Love you all! 

 

Sis. June Tomkin - the "missionary grandma"  She looked after the Elders and fed them every week. 


 

Transfer 16 Week 3

it is amazing how young I look as a missionary compared to how old I am in the mission :P or wait when was this taken haha. Cute pic of me
hey Errbody!
Well another week has come and gone! So cool story to start off we meet this really nice and awesome girl whom took us out for Dinner at Mongolis grill. She is the one whom wants to interview us! She is really sweet and really kind. I really do appreciate people whom are so kind and generous towards us. It goes to show that there are still good people left in this world. I love Charity. If everybody in this world was more charitable to one another a lot of the issues we see around us today would become easier to deal with. It always come back to love. I think the young people in the early 1980s had it all right. Its all bout the love! 
 
esta familia es impresionante! The Paz family.
last week some of the Highlights were seeing one of the Families in the ward finally have one of their son's get baptized. The Spirit was so strong at the baptism and so special. It is so amazing to think that now another family can be sealed together and be able to receive the blessings of the Temple. If you ever want to help someone feel the Spirit invite them to come to a baptism. I promise you they will be able to feel the power that comes from that ordinances. I got to go on exchanges with E. Lasley this last week. We had a pretty good exchange and taught a few people. We found this one super nice girl from India. She just recently moved her and has been looking for a church to attend. Sadly she did not come to church but it was cool to see how a prayer to find someone new worked. You know I had an interesting thought. It is true that with Faith anything is possible and even to move mountains. I think that Christ was not necessarily referring to actual ones but the mountains within our lives whether they be challenges or trials we face. It is so true everything comes from Faith. We cannot progress or go anywhere if we are bereft  ourselves of faith. Wednesday was good. We have been working with this older guy named, Jack. He is this funny little old man. He has a lot of issues but we love him still and will continue to do all we can to help him. He has been trying to stop smoking and has failed all the times before. Now he has gone down to but a few a day and it is so exciting to see him progress. He is a lil bit crazy but hopefully all works out with him. We did not even have to much time for weekly planning haha cause we have been teaching a lot of people this week. it has been nice to be busy. We had a lot of appts bomb but it has been nice to have people to work with. We had skills and interviews this week. I was so excited for it. I love having interviews with the President Clayton and his wife. They are such an amazing couple and truly inspired. I know that he is truly her on the Lord's errand and there is going to be so amazing things start to happen in this mission. I am saddened that I may not be here to see a lot of it come to pass but I am so glad that I have gotten to contribute to that vision and further the work here in this part of the Vineyard. I do not have to much to write this week. I just really do appreciate oppertunities to help people out and give service. We have been really able to bond with one of our families we are working with and it has really grown their trust of us. We had a lesson with them last night and the Spirit was so strong. I hope and pray they will be able to find the gospel and find out what God really wants for them. 

Love, 
E. Sopal


good ol albions. Still my fav restaurant nothing else will ever beat it!


Transfer 16 Week 2

hey all!
This week was really good. We might have a really interesting opportunity we may get to do a interview with a new tv show that is coming out! Showcasing all that Toronto has to offer and about the different people in Toronto! It will be cool we are jusst waiting on permission from the President. That evening we had Family Home Evening. It was really nice to teach at it and we taught about the Plan of Salvation. I LOVE the plan of Salvation. We met a lot of people who have had trials in their lives this week along with people passing away. It has made me so grateful for the knowledge I have that I can be with my family forever through the sealing power of the Priesthood within the Temple. Than on Tuesday we had Zone Conference. I woke up that morning with dread in my heart haha I did not want to get up because I that means that I would be one step closer to going home! I hate it and the thought of going home. Honestly I love Toronto and I love the mission. Elder T had to drag me outta the house haha. Zone conference was really such a spiritual experience for myself. I really felt the Spirit bring to y memory all the times and experiences I have had and the peoples lives I have seen change. I have loved serving the Lord these two years. I was sad when I had to give it yet I was still a ways from September haha. It was another last there will not be another zone conference to attend sadly. We had a delicious ham and scalloped patato meal. We sang our thank-you, Called to serve. It is so amazing the Spirit that descends upon a room full of missionaries as they sing called to serve! It is truly special. We did not end up getting back into our area for a really long time but that was okay :). We had a fun time contacting with the YSA sisters back down to ESL. We ended up teaching both classes again and man I still love ESL haha. Wednesday nothing really crazy happened but we got to see Chen again and visit with her and Sis and Bro. Gayle. Sister Gayle testified to her of the importance of relying on the Savior and it was a great lesson. She also once were driving hom efrom the appt said that next week she wants to come with us and ask Chen why she will not just get baptized already haha. I love her boldness it is so cute. thrusday it started to pour! From Thrusday till Sunday it poured. I have now gone through 5 umbrellas haha. Oh the joys of walking and trying to do missionary work in storms haha. I love it. Thrusday we had a great FHE with the Bunsee family. They are so sweet. We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have determined we need to learn better how to teach children with very very short attention spans. Elder T and I have committed ourselves to get good at it! Maybe that will help for the future. Friday was good as we had our weekly dinner at Junes place. It was pretty good. I could not complain. She made us breakfast for dinner. Than after we taught her along with Demitri one of our friends we are working with. He seemed very dis-interested but today we found out June talked with him and said that we could lay off for awhile but he said that he wanted to keep learning and progressing! I am so happy! I am over joyed haha. We found quite a few people this week just from talking with everyone again. The member referrals are not yet coming but we will continue to do what we can and find on our own till we get the help of the Members. Now members invite those individuals to come with you to activites or church or FHE. Just anything! It is our job as members to invite :) I promise you blessings. We had a cool experience with faith and I really came to see that God in in our work. We had gone to a building and it was pouring outside. EI had tried the door but no luck it was locked. With a pause Elder T went to the door and pulled it open. It was amazing. We went in and found some cool people and testified a lot of the Plan of Salvation. It is so neat to see how God places us and will help us get to where we need to be. I love this gospel and I love how God is always watching out for us. I would encourage you all to look for how God is working in your life! I love you all :) bye! Peace and blessings

Transfer 16 Week 1

Well Hey ya,
So another transfer yet again. You know they just do not seem to slow down. If anybody knows how to stop time or freeze it please let me know. This last week was our transfer and so Monday we went to Ossington to sign the journals and play some sports. It was a good time and I was chatting with Elder Fischer and was like man they just need to send you over to hang out with me for your last week. Lo, and behold we got a call from the Assistants in the evening and found out that Elder Fischer would be staying with us! YAY!! I was so happy. The Spirit of Prophesy is true haha.

So Tuesday we got together and we just started working hard. We hit the ground running this transfer. We found 6 new people to teach and work with and have just been on fire. Elder Tuahivaatonohiti has language study so I will be taking advantage of that and working on my Spanish. Plus getting some good reading done! We had a good English class as we go to have class C with us too. I love teaching English. I have learned that it really can be hard for people but as they put in the effort it becomes a lot easier. It is fun to give them assignments to read over from the friend, ensign, or the New Era. We went over to visit Chen one of my fav people! She is a great lady from Trinidad. Her grand daughter, Sudhana was there and it was awesome as we got to chat more with her and re visit with her when she was taught by the missionaries. She accepted to begin to reading the Book of Mormon again. She is awesome and is a cool girl. I do not think that she will progress very fast but she knows what is important and has a desire to learn to see what it does have to offer which is great. Elder Fischer loved visiting with Chen and chatting with them as he LOVES people from Trinidad. By the end of our time together he had gotten us a dinner appt for Friday haha. I was excited. We also found a cool Portuguese girl whom we passed of to the Port Elders. Hopefully they are able to met and help her. She was sweet! It is so much fun having three people just contact everybody on the bus haha. Wednesday we met with Julius whom is a wonderful young guy from the Philippines. He has gotten away from the religion within his life but as we talked with him he made a decision to try to see how our message could help his relationship with God. In the evening we finally got to go out with President Depat to go and visit the Mejia family! I was so happy to finally go out with someone from Ward Council. We had a great lesson just sharing experiences of how the gospel can help us as individuals and as families. We also taught Dimitri this week too! He is sweet guy from Russia. I love his accent haha it is so sick. He has shown a lot more interest and desire now that we have talked with him more openly about our faith. He agreed to read the Book of Mormon and even to come to church! We were so excited. In the appt June started getting all excited and set up a return appt for the following evening haha. He will be one that needs some work but it is a pleasure to teach him and discuss the Gospel with him.

On Friday it was a great time eating some yummy Roti. Esther was also there and so we visited for a long while just talking about her concerns and you know its hard when someone does not want to progress or has felt the Spirit and yet holds off on those blessings. I know she had felt the Spirit and she had known it to and yet she still just could not accept it. I hope and pray one day though that she will remember that Spirit and continue with the gospel. I have come to love Chen's family so much they are so kind and great people. It is interesting on how the mission we meet so many people yet we do really develop amazing friendships for the short time we spend with these people. I do not feel that these bonds or friendships could be created if this was not the work of the Lord. Saturday we taught Jean the Baptist haha. I pray that Jean will receive an answer to his prayers that our message is true so we could say that we baptized Jean the baptist haha. It would be sweet! He is a nice guy and Elder T spoke french to himm! It is amazing how the Lord knows his work and the people that we work with and how he places certain people to be taught by certain people. On Sunday we had Sudhana and Dimitri at church! They enjoyed it despite the length. We were so close to standards this week! SOOOO close haha. 

I loved this week. I have felt the Spirit in a lot of our lessons and I can feel my testimony continuing to grow stronger as I study, teach, and testify more of the gospel. I find our lessons getting more spiritual and the person shows that they can feel something is there and is different. It is so neat to watch the Spirit work with somebody. Missionary work is the best when accompanied by the Spirit! Well all I hope you have a great week. I love you all!

Transfer 15 Week 6

Hey Errbody!
   Welll Elder Muirhead and I have had a good run I guess. We are now getting transferred. I will be staying here serving with an Elder from Hawaii, his name is super long haha, Tuahivaatetonohiti. He seems pretty cool and has been out for awhile. E. M is off to St. Thomas. I am so sad to part with him haha. We have so many random inside jokes and things that we do haha. I have come to love E. Muirhead as my brother. I really hope that we hang out after the mission and stay in touch. We have a lot of good memories together and have helped one another grow. I will miss him dearly. 

So I have an issue in PMG we only have about 14 spaces for companions haha. I have now exceed those space and other white spaces for names of comps whom I have served with haha. So I am at a lost haha. 

So here is a quick recap on last week! Monday we had a cool Zone against zone sports day. It was Ossington against North York haha. We won :P. We taught at FHE on Monday night and had 5 people out! We are growing haha. Met a cool guy named Larry he is a truck driver and reminded me a lot of one of my Dads. We taught about loving one another and it went swell. Than Tuesday came. We had English class and well our students are awesome! We have a wonderful Sis. from India whose name is Sunita, Krittaya from Indonesia, Samson from China, and a few other randoms haha. We have grown really good relationships and have started becoming like actually teachers grading homework and helping them as any good english teacher would haha. It is neat I am grateful I paid attention to what my teachers did to help their students and also watching the example of my Mom helps too. Wednesday E. Lasley and I went on exchanges finally. We had a great time. We visited with some Recent converts, returning Less active members, and also a few invs. It was fun to be able to teach them all and have cool experiences with them. In the evening we were just heading to one of our invs Joan and the heavens opened up and literally was like a tropical storm was happening. It was crazy! We ran outside the street car and got soaked to the bone haha. Literally only being outside for 30 seconds haha. Than in our lesson we bore a strong and bold testimony of how she could come to know what we share is true by reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. No one can know if what we share is true if they do not act or even read the Book of Mormon. She talked about how she was too entrenched in her church and so we discussed whom we should follow. It is interesting to me on the mission a lot of people say I have my own church or I am Catholic or Pentecostal. But yet are we all not disciples of Jesus Christ. Should we all not try to follow his foot steps and make sure we are following the rights ones? She was prompted by the Spirit and called us later saying that she wanted to follow Christ and would consider baptism. It was pretty cool! So the South Elder's apartment was absoulelty gross. I do not know how missionaries can live in those gross conditions haha. I am glad I have kept my desire to be cleanly close haha and have not lost it. Thrusday we exchnaged back and I was sooo excited to come back to our apartment haha I literally felt sooooo happy. I love my own living area. That evening we had Sydney come with us and we had Family Home Evening with Kon Kong's family. They are the sweet returning members in the ward. Her kids are sooo cute. We talked about the Gospel and her kids knew all the answers. Literally there was nothing we could ask that they did not know haha. They tried to compete with one another to answer our questions or read our thoughts haha. It was a great evening and a lot of fun. I love FHE! On friday we had a cool experience too! We had dinner with June and one of her new student Dimitri had been eating with us for three weeks and we had not brought up too much about religion but this time after dinner he walked down with us and outside and asked us questions about what we do. It was so cool to hear how interested he was in our beliefs. We got him a russian bom and will see where it goes. Oh the great blessings we recieve. Than on Saturday we had a baptism! It was for the South area of a Dad baptizing his 13 year old son. It was a wonderful afternoon and the Spirit was strong there. I got to play the piano and I am getting better! I am so happy and just feel de stressed whenever I play. I hope one day I can be as good as Elder Whitney or somebody like that haha He is really good at it! This week was pretty good! I have been study the live of jesus Christ and to be simply I love him! He is such a interesting person to study and there is so much more to him than meets the eye! I know that He lives and loves everybody! Have a good week! Loves

Transfer 15 Week 5

Hey ya'll,
Sorry about last week. We had a pretty cool opportunity to go and visit a Masonic Temple. It was actually a pretty cool experience. We learned a little bit more about what they do and who they are. I was quite impressed with how involved they are and how they have caught the idea of giving to others and imparting of their earthly substance. They are really good at charity and are really great people. Indeed they do have many similarities to our symbolism and teachings within. Sis. Tompkin set it up for us and we all had a ton of questions for the guy haha. I have come to the conclusion though that I do not want to be apart of that organization.  
 
We had a sweet experience this last week we had been calling up on some of the old potentials and formers from the past years and we found an awesome guy named Paul from Guyana whom we are starting to work with and teach. We had been having trouble finding people but God will continue to bless us as we talk with everyone and help those whom we are unable to find be found. I have a strong testimony that God has a hand in everything we do. The work of the Lord will continue to move forward by small and simple means will the Lord bring about his great work. We had Family home Evening on the Monday and well to say the least it is taking awhile to get going but I am so excited to attend FHE and do it more regularly back at home. They are sooo important in our spiritual progression. 
 
After Coordination on Wednesday we got to go out to lunch with Bro Lim. I got introduced to a dish called Congee. It was quite interesting haha. It is like soup rice and will taste like whatever is in it. It did not fill us up so we went and got milkshakes after they left haha. I love the members here they are honestly so kind and loving. We got to eat with a wonderful family on Saturday evening. The Gonzalez's is a awesome family. In their home they speak like over 5 languages haha. Dinner was delicious and dessert too. It was a neat lesson as the whole time we just talked about the Gospel and discussed Gospel topics. The Spirit was present through all of it and I did not want to go as the Spirit we all were feeling was so calming. They are a great family and have really come closer to the Lord not as just individuals but as a family. I think that the world has lost that a lot. I would encourage you all to stay in touch with your family, spend time with them. Let them know you love them and care about them and it will be amazing the type of relationship you will have. I love families haha. Anyways this week was good we talked to a lot of people and have met a ton of really sweet people. Not a lot of them have expressed interest but that is okay. We have some awesome potentials to work with. Well I do not have much time but life is good. Love you all and continue to thank God for everything. I know that I praise him err day! I love out here and being able to help families learn of the Gospel. I do apologize that my thoughts are all over haha. I have been sick for the last week so that is my excuse haha. Anyways have a good one! 
Loves!

Transfer 15 Week 4

Well Hi ya!
Life is going great out here in the mission field. I have come to love this area. It is so amazing how God can help us with anything that is hard for us to do. I have been so blessed on the mission to see how God can help individuals who are submissive and humble and faithful to become stronger and better than they could ever be. God has helped me overcome my fears and my stresses. This last week was a lot of reflecting on how without a shadow of a doubt I know that God is there. He loves me and knows me personally. I know that God loves each and everyone of you. I know that as we pray to him you can see your life change. I would invite you all to work on seeing how you can involve God more in your life and use the tool of prayers and scriptures to help in improving and becoming a disciple of Christ. This week we actually found some sweet people from Venezula and they are attending our ESL program. Really nice people. We gave them a chapel tour and it was a really spiritual experience for all of us. As we entered into the chapel after sharing about how Families can be together forever the Spirit descended upon us all. I love how often we feel the Spirit on our missions. It is something that I feel sometimes I take for granted. I will try not too. This week was really quite hot and humid but nice weather no complaints. We got to teach Steve too! He is such an awesome old guy and is just trying to figure out his life. I really hope that he acts on our message and continues to grow and will get an answer to his prayers of the truthfulness of what we share. We also had a specialty training with president. It was a really good meeting and really inspired me so much. They should a couple whom had been less active and the wife was not a member. She said she would never join the church but they were seeking to have God lead to them another one. They had been through a ton of missionaries and had many of them out. Than this senior couple came over and shared with them the Plan of Salvation and how they had a message from God. This couple loved them  unconditionally and showed them so much love that they were loved into the gospel. It was so cool to hear how they progressed and how his wife was praying and starting to finally take the discussions and agreed to be baptized! The Spirit was so strong at this meeting. We learned how we can be more effective working with the ward council and also with the the ward. I hope that we can be able to fulfill the vision and the goals for the missions and the wards. I look forward to hearing from all of you next week! 
Loves! 

Transfer 15 Week 3

Hey y'all!

So this last week was Elder Muirhead's bday! It was awesome! So I have enjoyed these last two weeks in Don Mills. Since it was his birthday and also the other Elders love going to buffets here we have made a commitment to eat the food we have and not to eat out again haha. I wonder how that will go! Great news! We have started finding love bots here! Elder Muirhead has become love bot crazed haha. I enjoy collecting them as we go and finding them. So some funny experiences from last week. On Tuesday we were dropping by a family and they were not home so we went to tract the apartment. We went to the first door and had a great conversation, however she was not really interested. Than we went to the next one and Elder Muirhead grabbed my arm as I went to knocked and pointed down. There on the floor was white powder that you use to kill bed bugs. EWWWWW we made a rule that if we see signs of bugs we do not go tracting there haha. I have come this far on my mission and do not want to deal with bugs lol. That evening at English class we only have a few students but it is growing. We were teaching about Colloquialisms. One of the Idioms was "Holy cow". The student in her accent than asked I have heard people say, "Holy S***" on tv does that mean the same thing. We laughed and taught her about swearing. She and the class committed not to swear which is awesome! She than that evening practice and made us laugh as she tried using holy cow haha. I love people who are learning english. 
Birthday meal with Elder Muirhead
We had our first District meeting this week where I did not have to instruct! I was really thrilled to be able to sit and listen and also be able to be more open to the Spirit as I did not have to instruct but could just listen. I was so excited and this really made my day! I learned a lot! Friday was sweet day as we got to give service to our ward mission leader. I have missed doing service and helping people out as people in the city do not want or need help haha. Even though we volunteer. We got to help him clean up his garden and enjoy the beautiful weather. 
   Church was really nice! I have come to already love some of the members and it is sweet to see some of the YSA at the building too. Every Sunday I see people from old areas and get to met more people. So Harmon one of my good friends back from Scarborough left on a mission this week! I am so proud of him and so glad to see him go. He is a recent convert of only 4 years or so and has been a shining example of the gospel. I pray that God will bless him. Sunday evening we took dinner late and ended up talking to a really sweet lady. So we continued on past our house and ended up at the church. They were playing, 'Meet the Mormons'. I LOVE that movie! We got to see the last 15 mins of it. I am always just so touched by the Spirit that that movie gives. It really does depict who we are to the world. Any body whom has yet to see it please watch it! It is a great movie and you might end up feeling really happy by the end actually I promise you will come away smiling! I got to see some of the Poulin's too who came to the movie from Niagara. That was neat to see so many people I have met over the course of my mission. 

oh my weird companion haha (Elder Muirhead)
Alright now onto invs. So we are working with this PMF, The Meija's. Bro. Meija is not a member of the church. They are an awesome young family. They are Filipino of course. Plus they also speak Arabic. Something cool about them is that they used to live in Saudi Arabia! She shared some crazy stories from there with us. We had a great lesson and watched the Restoration DVD. I have that movie memorized haha. I can quote it all off by heart now :P. I think I have seen it too many times. We are also working with this lovely Sister named Jenny. This week we were unfortunately unable to see her but she came to church and surprised us! We are hoping to help her accept a baptismal date this coming week! We also have this sweet brother named Steve. We saw him on Sunday eve and he is sweet! He used to be a roman catholic. He was actually reading the Book of Mormon when we came over and during the lesson he was feeling the Spirit and asking all these golden questions! He is sooooo solid! 
This week Elder Muirhead and I have been talking to so many people that people are starting to talk to us! haha I met a nice guy named Anthony who wants to know more about the book of Mormon and also this young girl on the subway caught us off guard and was like you teach about Christ right? I want you to share with me what you have to say. We were dazed and amazed haha. I love people and love being able to have people contact us haha it makes the job easier. 
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! This week was swell for me and what not!

I now love sushi!!!!!


Gotta have my A and W

Just randoms of my companions. Elder Paul, fischer and myself haha

Just randoms of my companions. Elder Paul, fischer and myself haha

Just randoms of my last companions. Elder Paul, fischer and myself haha

Just randoms of my last companions. Elder Paul, fischer and myself haha

Just randoms of my companions. Elder Paul & fischer

Transfer 15 Week 1: Transfer to Don Mills

Elder Muirhead & Elder Sopal
Hey!
Hope every one had a wonderful Mothers Day! I know I did. In my new ward we sang to all the Mom's. Everybody I hope you did something special for your Mom or helped her out somehow! Our Mom's have done so much for us and we cannot let that go for granted. I know I will never espically when I get home. I owe a lot to my Mom. Our parents  have the most influence in our lifes and our up bring. I am so grateful that my mom raised me in the gospel and helped me to grow my own testimony. 
So my new area is Don Mills. It is the middle section of Toronto in-between Downtown and Scarborough. The population of here is mostly people from the middle east which makes our job preaching about Christ a lot harder. I have enjoyed really testifying of the Savior and His Atonement though. It has helped me to firm my testimony of the Atonement and it has helped us to touch many people whom otherwise would not listen. We have a few people that we are working with and they are all awesome. The ward is great and I will enjoy getting to know them more. This week we had a neat experience with a person from the Islamic faith. He was interested in what we had to share and we bore a strong witness of Christ as our Savior and the son of God and as we taught him about the Book of Mormon and refrained from bashing with him he was confounded and sought for questions to stump us. I know that it was because of the Spirit that we were able to touch that brothers heart and help him to accept our message a bit. he still rejected us but we know that we fulfilled our purpose. 
I am serving with elder Muirhead whom is one of my friends from back home! We went to High School together and had some similar friends. So it is a great joy to be able to reminisce and see the change in one another. Oh how we both miss Alberta! I love you all and hope to talk with you all again soon. Just so everybody knows in the mission there is a new rule we can only email for 2 hours and we cannot email back and forth but only respond the proceeding Monday. I apologize for inconvenience that this caused. I will talk freely to you all when I return till than I know that I must obey as we receive blessings when we do. I love you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Sopal

Writing letters home

Transfer 14 week 6

Hey ya'll.

Well this week ended off with a shock. Once again I am leaving the area to go to Don Mills. I have come to love the city sooo much! It is such a great place here and I will miss downtown dearly. It is true what they say you will have some areas on your mission that feel just like home. This was one of them. Sometimes I feel like maybe I give my love and trust too freely. Maybe I do, maybe I do not. It is hard to leave this place that I have fallen in love with. Be grateful for what you have in your life before it leaves you. Because the adage that you do not know what you have till it is gone is so true. Hold onto the good things you have in life and treasure them. For the day might come when they disappear and you will you could have it back but it cannot... 

Anyways so this week we had met with some pretty cool PI's and had some fun days. We met with Dennis one of the RC in the ward and we have finally helped him to receive the Aaronic Priesthood. He is also getting started with his Family history work. Wednesday was pree good. We had exchanges and I got to go work with E. Landgren for the day. He is one of the Elders whom came out with me. He is in Portuguese work. We found them an awesome new invs and found a couple of potentials. I learned a lot from him and we had a lot of fun on our exchange. It really helped me to see him going and talking to people. It brings me joy to see missionaries fulfilling there purpose. We both worked hard that day. We both have a list of books that people have told us that we need to read when we go home haha. We compared lists and a lot of it is the same. That evening we stopped by a LA member. His name is Ian. He is a sweet guy and sooooo awesome. He used to be sooooo active until he had some things come up. He has a strong testimony of the church and wants more than anything to come back but it impeded by a few things. We listened and just showed that we cared. It really taught me the important of just listening and being there to testify of what truth he did say. It was interesting how the Spirit helped both of us to just listen and to know what to say and not say. 

District meeting happened on Thursday and on Wednesday we went and have a blessing to a wonderful sister. It was a really nice blessing to be able to serve her in that way. Friday we had some things go down and unfortunately we had some missionaries go home to take care of some things. I love them dearly and wish them all the best. It made me grateful for a lot of the GOOD choices I have made in my life. I am so grateful for the chance to serve and for the chance to be able to see missionaries want to strengthen themselves so they can become better missionaries when they return. I am so proud of them and have so much respect for them. So Friday we went and got Elder Paul again! Bring her up for 2! haha. Than Saturday we had ESL and our ESL party. They were great turn outs and I was happy to be apart of those programs while I was here. I had come to love those ESL students A TON! It is so much fun to teach English to people! I never really understood how hard English is haha. 

Sunday was a good day. Thomas our invs came to church and once again enjoyed it but could not stay for a the rest of it so he had to take off. That day we ran all over the city and ended up being late for our appts due to some unexpected transit delays. We had an amazing dinner with the Haddocks! They are a sweet family and so kind and loving! They are from Utah and have a boy out serving right now with the others in school at BYU and UVU. Probs my favorite family from this area. I love the Toronto ward and will miss them dearly. They have my heart! 

Well I hope you all had a good week! I love you all and will talk to you later! 
-Elder Sopal


Transfer 14 Week 5

Hola Ustedes!

Well my Spanish this last week has gotten a lot better. I am well on my way to becoming fluent. I decided since my family back at home can speak it so should I. I am doing well with learning words, phrases, and conjugation-ing haha. My accent is what needs the most work! I have had a strengthened testimony of how God will help us as we set worthy goals for ourselves and as we pray for help he will help us. I know that the Gift of Tongues is real and that as we study and pray for help God will help us remember what we need too. This knowledge and process of studying does not only work for the gospel but also for secular pursuits as well. God gave us a commandment to gain knowledge while in this life. As we do so we are becoming more like God. I know that if you are struggling with anything turn to God and go to him and ask how you can achieve your desire. Than make plans and go out and DO THEM! We still must act. This last week as I set this goal we did not find any news for our area but found a lot of news and potentials for the Spanish, Portuguese, YSA, and Mandarin missionaries. It is so cool how when you pray to God for help to learn something he gives you chances to practice. 

So this week was nice. Monday night we had dinner at the Wilson's. Sis. Wilson made some delicious Indian cuisine! Mmm soo good just remembering back to it makes my mouth water haha. We talked to them after dinner about Faith, Love and Charity. They are three eternal attributes we need and are like a stool. If we do not have all of them we cannot bear the weight of our trials or the adversities of life. I love developing these attributes. They are soooo important and help us to be more like Jesus! Tuesday was a fun day. We decided to try a new finding technique and went to one of the Subway stations and had a guitar and played and sung hymns. We had a few people stop and listen to us. However, the planning behind it has been poor so we want to do it again when it is warmer at a better time and a place with more people. I love playing guitar and singing. I wish I had a better voice. Elder Fischer has a great voice! I love him for it! haha 

Wednesday we had the Barker's for dinner. They are a sweet family. he is a well off business man and has done well for himself. He gave us an awesome discourse on windows and how to become successful in the business world. He is a sweet guy and super stellar at following the direction of the Lord. He showed me that serving a faithful full time mission is soooo important. If we do than we may be well blessed after we return. If we let the work of the Lord change us than it will be so much better for us after. That evening we had FHE which went swell. Elder Fischer and I had to come up with some sort of game to play so we made charades. I love creating so many fun and good memories. That is what life is all about! Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show. Do not be confined to what you think you can not do but do what you think you cannot do and live. 

This week we did not get Albions till Saturday! I was soooo sad. I love Albions so much and it always taste sooooo good! It was weird I had mcds for the first time in a few transfer and I got super sick after eating it haha. I do not think I will be ever eating mcds again :p YAY no more bad food lol. 

Thursday Elder Fischer went with the Assistants to go and do his visa papers. So I hung out with the Zone leaders all day. It was a fun day as we contacted a lot and drove around quite a bit. I really enjoy talking with people and sharing the gospel. It was so cool with YSA people they actually stop so you can talk to them no matter what you have to share whereas the people we commonly work with are a little less nice to us haha. I love YSA work haha. Than Sunday was a good day. We wrapped up our week with a broadcast. Elder Anderson, Hales, and Elder Kacher and Sis Reeves spoke to us. It was a nice session and was interesting as there really was no theme to it. I enjoyed being able to see once again people from all my old areas. I miss them so much and love them all so much. I pray for them each and everyday! This week was good. I love you all and I love serving the Lord. 

Have an awesome week
Sopallll!

Transfer 14: week 4

and my gloves after winter!





Transfer 14 week 3

I love Toronto!
elder Johnson leaving me :(
Well everybody this was an interesting week! So to start off with Monday. We took Elder Bowman up to the mission home and got him on his way to the Airport to go and get things taken care of for his knee back home. So now there goes another one! I loved serving with Elder Bowman. He helped me get back on track and realized what more I could do! I just have to continue to press forward and preserver. I came to love him as my brother! I hope and pray that he will be able to get back out here soon! Now on Monday I got to met up with Elder Johnson whom is from Utah! The factory itself! He is a great Elder and has been out for 8 months or else 8 transfers haha I cannot member. He is from a small place and lived on a farm. He is a small town boy. Man we laughed a ton and had a lot of fun! He stayed with me till Thursday morning than we got picked up and taken to Brampton.There I got a new companion. Elder Fischer! He is waiting for a visa to go to The West Indies. He is a singer and is really into the Dramatic Arts. I have really enjoyed getting to know him the last few days. Elder Johnson helped me to get back to being optimistic and positive. He always had something funny to say or helped the situation. He helped me to continue to improve my talking with everyone and just really was a nice change.

we are doctors now!
Than Elder Fischer and I have been working like dogs! Thursday we did weekly planning, it was sweet to get back into it and help him get back into the swing of missionary work. We than went out to get some food but it was pouring and the bus took forever so we just got pizza and got to know one another more! That evening we went outside and got soaked! Oh the joy of missionary work! We got to teach Densel and helped him get started on his own family history! It literally got me so excited! I was freaking out haha. I love family history work! So Friday was our first full day. We went tracting and got into a building we shortly found out that it was all people from Sri Lanka and that they were all Hindu haha or not interested or they did not speak english. Than we went traveling downtown and got splashed by cars in the rain but had fun doing some more contacting and tracting. I found that in the rain people just do not wanna talk at all haha. That evening was a lot of fun. I am proud of myself as I have been able to really learn the principle of being on time and dependable.Than Sports night was awesome as Jeff and the crew came and joined us! It is so cool that after we started showing mormon messages at Sports night Jeff and some of the less active members in the Spanish ward have started coming back out to church! Saturday we got to help out with ESL and boy is it fun! I wish we had more students but we had a small class. I love teaching esl! It is so much fun to hear them get better in their understanding and pronunciation. So we took Elder Fischer to Albion's for the first time and he LOVED it! I have never met anyone yet whom has not liked Albion's lol. We have been getting a lot of potentials which has been nice but it is still taking awhile to find news! But we know it will come! Sunday was a great day! We got a lot of food from the members! The ward is so awesome! Unfortunately we did not see any of our invs come out to church. But hey there is always next week! We found one new this week! his name is Liston and is from Guyana! He accepted a date and will hopefully come to church next Sunday! Than we finished off the evening teaching at a wonderful members family home. The Wilson's. Both of them are originally from Alberta! I was so excited and they have family in Lethbridge too haha. Elder Fischer knew the family so we went to go and visit them. It was a good visit and he did a good job his second time teaching. We had a lot of laughs and felt the Spirit. I am so grateful for all that has happened even though it has been hard! I have come closer to the Savior because of it and become a better missionary too. I am so blessed. I love the song, Count your many blessings name them one by one! So I invite all of you to pray tonight and just thank the lord! Always try to have 80% for thanks and 20 for asking!

Love you all have a good week!


I ate this! It was soooo big!!!

beautiful Toronto from a plane! Elder Bowman took this pic don't worry haha

Transfer 14 week 2

If we don't try we are just Latter Day sinners.
If we don't persevere we are just Latter Day Quitters
If we don't allow others to try we are just Latter Day Hypocrites.

My favorite quote from the conference! I loved this last week session! I do not have much time. I loved conference I was able to receive so much good tips and revelation. All my questions were answered. I am so grateful for the Spirit that I felt. We had one old pi that showed up to Conference. His name is Junior! He is sooo sweet. We taught him right after and he was accepting everything! He is solid! I am so excited to see him progress! He will be at church next Sunday! Elder Bowman has left to go home and get his knee fixed up. I am now with Elder Johnson! YAY another comp! That is comp number 15! I will write more next week. I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! You are all amazing! Listen to conference if you missed it loves! 

Love, 
Elder Sopal!