Transfer 8 Week 1 & 2

Looking Smart as an Elder

Hey ya'll

Soooo sorry I did not write last week. I forgot to click the send button so I have included it in this week's letter. So last week here are some of the highlights! So Tuesday we did a little bit of finding. Then we went and had lunch.We then went and visited Bro. Riche. He is doing okay but is struggling with just being in rehab and is struggling to gain hope that he will recover. I dislike this situation because there is not much I can do about this and I still have trouble handle situations that are out of my control.

Then we called a bunch of people when we got home and set up a few appts. Sadly most of our appts bombed this week. It was another slow week. Then came Wednesday and we had to tidy up our appt and do a deeper clean than we thought as we always have people coming to look at our apartment! It is getting a little annoying but helps us to be clean.

Another pretty picture for you all to enjoy

Wednesday morning we finished our studies at the church and went to go pick up Ken to go take him to Cyndie! It was another great lesson. We discussed her concerns and showed her www.lds.org  and mormon.org. We gave her a few videos to watch and a few things to watch. We had a really good time discussing how our next prophet is called and talked about Joseph Smith. Along with talking about forgiveness. We found out that after we left and the day after she actually spent all day watching a ton of the videos and had an awesome experience with them.

Our wonderful member Cyndie had the real sword from Robin Hood! We held it and played with it! I have a new respect for people that carry huge swords on movies. They are heaveyyyy!

After we took off to Sauble and Elder Tinney did his physio. Then we did some tracting and contacting out in Southampton and Port Elgin until dinner with the Ripley's. It was a fun night as their kids are super energentic. That family understands their roles as missionaries! It was so awesome to see them with a family plan to share the gospel and a working names list that every family home evening they would make assignments and goals to help these individuals learn more about the gospel! I was sooooo impressed! It made me cry a little :) I cannot wait to be like them in my missionary efforts when I get home. I cannot wait to help the missionaries back at home haha. For all you families and friends reading this. Strive to share the gospel, set goals and make plans to help you do so. Then re-evulate and re visit your list every so often. Always try to think of people you can share with!

Thursday we had dinner with the Martin's and it was fun talking with them. Than we also weekly planned and had lunch at Bro Bullocks again!

Friday was a bit of finding, finishing off weekly planning and that was honestly about it. It has been a rather slow week and we were able to teach some people which I will talk about at the end of this update :). Saturday we have been on pause with building the house and become a farmer. We saddled up the baler and hooked up the trailers and went out into the fields. It was so much fun chewing my grass and just enjoying the beautiful weather. Plus Sis Cepada ALWAYS give us some amazing delicious food so all the work we do is well rewarded. We picked up bails and than had dinner and ventured home.

Sunday was really good as we found out that this Friday both of our converts are going to the Temple and we get to go too! It was actually really funny Curtis one of our invs showed up for church but first we had to go and rescue him as he could not find the place. That was yet another first for me. Than we were back at the Cepada's for dinner again.

Yup that was our week!

Old picture from Canada Day chilling with some of the best members ever!!!

Well now onto what is fresh in my mind!  Monday was sweet! We got to go over to Cyndie's for some delicious southern fried chicken with some delicious mushroom friend rice!!! Mmmmmm! It was awesome to also get to met with Mike her husband. They told us about how they met and are working on strengthening their relationship because of the messages we shared with them and the videos they watched. Mike is a non-member and we hope one day to be able to teach him. It was nice to hear some of their love story! I love old married couples!

After that appt we than had to travel out to Collingwood to met up with the Zone Leaders for exchanges. Elder Adams came to Owen Sound with me! Our exchange was spent reminiscing about the past times in Niagara and Windsor. Tuesday was our work day! We went out tracting and contacting in the morning and met some awesome people and got a ton of potentials. We met this one guy named Dane who is super awesome! We had an appt set up with him but he got called into work! Erg silly work.

Then we went out to Port Elgin to go teach Sidney and Whitney a daughter and mother who is less active and we hope to help her daughter get baptized! We brought Adam a youth and he was awesome! We have been bringing him out a lot with us teaching and he has enjoyed it a lot I think. It has been nice being able to have youth who have not to much experience teaching with the Elder's and training them to do it. They really follow the Spirit and teach from the heart because they cannot do to much else! I love listening to the thoughts and ideas they share with the investigators. It was an awesome lesson and they both committed to church. After that we went and did some more tracting and found more ppl. It was such a productive day. After we went and found a nice old guy named Rick who was super awesome! We love teaching him. He was really nice and sincere so we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and he wanted his wife to hear about it too.

After we got to met another YSA recent convert who was in our phone and we had no idea who she was. So we met up and found out she was from Kitchener and she told us about herself and her conversion story started with, "Hey I like your backpack!" I think that is the best start to a conversion story! There is a lot more to it and some giving up of chocolate along the way to only find out we still eat chocolate but she got baptized! It was fun to chat with her. After we went to the Laivio's. Dinner was delicious and we got more free ice cream! Their daughter works at Chapman's ice cream! That evening we took Elder Adams back home and boy it was a sad evening. We wanted it to last a little while longer. At least I did. Wednesday we had our weekly physio appt where I sit happily in the waiting room and read a book or write in my journal. I have been quite pleased with myself as I have written everyday of my mission so far except 3 haha.

working away with Bro. Cepeda

So this pole is an i beam for holding up a house! It was black before I started. Now it is nice and clean!

Then we went out to lunch with the Cepada's. After our late lunch it was time to go met Aaron at the Family History center. We were going to teach him about family history work. It was cool to get him all set up! He loved the idea of it and was excited to get started so he can take family names to the temple. Thursday came and we had an awesome morning. So Josh an RM who just recently got back came out with us to do splits. So Elder Tinney and Bro bullock went to go teach Cyndie while we went finding. We found a few more potentials and I got to see an RM in action! He is sooooo awesome at contacting and talking with people. I was glad to see he still had it and it was funny as he first introduced himself as Elder Kuezak but then he remembered he was released. After that morning of some good solid work we met back up and took everybody home and were back to weekly planning. That evening we got to go have a picnic with the Kuezak's at Harrison Park. It was a lovely little Park and really nice too! It was fun to visit with them and hear more about their lives. They are soooo awesome and than the boys showed up and we all chatted back and forth.

After our time in the Temple we got with Bro. Bullock and Aaron and took a Photo!

Friday we went back out to teach Sidney and Whitney sadly Sidney was not able to be there so we just taught her mom. But it was another solid lesson and they were still good for church. We got to met with Rick too but no wife yet :(. Than after we got home we got into the car with Aaron our RC and ventured up to Brampton to go to the Toronto Temple!!!! I was soooooo excited to go to the Temple. We had both Ken and Aaron there. We arrived a little bit late but got to do some Temple work for people and then just sit quietly in the House of the Lord. It was such an amazing Spirit and time. I MISSED the Temple sooo much! For all you who are at home! Always strive to go to the Temple as much as you can! I am so jealous all of you can go when you want. I treasured that night and felt the Spirit so strongly. It was a nice spiritual boast that enabled me to come closer to my Father in Heaven. It was one of the happiest moments of my life seeing my converts in white! :). Good day!

None other than the famous golden arches with Silken and Aaron and my wonderful comp!

After that we drove back home after getting McDs and went right to bed. Saturday we were back at the Cepada's doing bailing and fixing a bunch of things around the farm! It has been a reall educational day every saturday as we always do something different. Sergio was not here as he was at a YSA conf so we hung out with President Cepada and Ali. Plus in the morning we got to go on an adventure to visit the Amish! It was cool to go and meet some of them and get to know these families a little more. It is so neat how a lot of the people out here buy stuff from their neighbors instead of from the store. Whether it be pies, veggies, fruit, eggs, they just get it from one another. I like this way of doing it a lot better and it tastes a lot better for ya. Plus you do not have to deal with all the additives the store puts in! EWWW.

Sunday came and we had unfortunately no one at church :( ppl who said they would did not show up and it killed me. Erg oh well I always got next week! We will just try that much harder. It saddens me when people we teach do not keep commitments but helps me to just try to help them that much more. We got to have dinner at the Buttineau's and boy was it good. Last night after dinner we went to visit our Ward mission leader and chat with him and his family the Cepada's again. We have spent a lot of time with them lately haha. They are pretty much family! Elder Tinney left us with a great Spiritual thought which the Cepada's asked him to teach to their kids Sergio and Ali and me haha. It was about marriage and marrying in the covenant. He just helped us to understand the importance of it haha We all had a good laugh after. This week was good as we got to teach a little more and found some more people to do so with. We hope this week and the ones to come will just keep getting better. I am still loving it out here and every week I feel like I have taken 100 steps in the right direction! I am so excited for what this next week will hold as this past week was awesome! Def an awesome experience the temple was the highlight!

Well everyone I love you all! have an awesome week

Elder Sopal.

Transfer 7: Week 6

Hey all!

Well here we are at the last week of the transfer. I have enjoyed my time serving in the Sound so much that God has blessed me with being here for another 6 weeks.

So on the Monday we just hung around and chilled. So this week I am going to re count the high lights of the week. Not too much to report on. Tuesday brought a little more fun! It was pouring and we lost a piece of our car on the road so we went back to find it but could not! haha it had disappeared somewhere  and was no wear to be found. So we came back and knocked a few doors in the rain before heading back for lunch. We taught Cyndie again today and had an awesome lesson with her! It was so cool to help her recognize how the Spirit works with her and how she can receive and recognize her answers that God has given her. She was so grateful for us and how she realized her answers. We had two lessons like this and she now wants to really dive into the Book of Mormon and do her part to find out if it is true! We had lessons with Lishui too this week. We were able to teach with Bro. Kuezak. It was sooo nice to have a member who knows his stuff and could teach with us instead of just ask them questions. It made our job easier and helped us to team teach haha. We went to the Laviove's for dinner on Wednesday. We had some really good Chili. We even got some delicious ice cream too! So for the past few nights I have been having a midnight snack. haha Its bad but man it is soo good!

Anyways we did an awesome Spiritual thought involving a scarf and you have to tie it and you cannot let go of it! The principle is how prayer can really do anything and how through prayer anything is possible.It took them awhile to figure it out but they did. It is truly amazing how prayer it and how simple it really is yet how it really does work. I have a strong testimony of the power of prayer. I have been delivered from the states of loneliness, depression, confusion, temptation. I am so grateful for the time I have to pray each and every day and for any of you who struggle or are lost I would invite you and exhort you that ye would kneel down and pray to your Loving Heavenly Father for the help that you stay in need of. The help that He wants so badly to give you. We had gone back to the hospital several times to visit Bro Rich and he is still not doing so good. We hope he will recover and become the jolly old man he was! Elder Tinney went and finally got an x ray and some tests done. he does not have cancer. Yet he still is in a lot of pain haha so we are confused about what exactly is going on with him haha. We hope to get it figured out soon! We are going for a MRI soon!

Thursday was exciting as we got to met our new mission President. President Clayton and his lovely wife. It was awesome to get to know them some more and chat with them. President Clayton is really nice and pretty chill. I am excited to see what he will bring to the mission. We got to see a slideshow of some of the things that make them who they are. I will make sure next time. i get a picture with them!  Than we had a Zone meeting and ended up getting home around 9 haha. Super long day! Then Saturday we were at the Cepada's building the house. We finished doing the soffit and fashia and got her all done! Ya no more crawling on scaffolding lol. I am glad that now it is inside work to be done. Well this week was good! We had transfer calls last night and i found out I will be staying in Owen Sound for one more transfer with Elder Tinney. Guess I have some unfinished business. :) Well love all of you! Have an awesome week!

Transfer 7 Week 5: Strep Throat and Scenery

This is one of the spots in the national park up by Cyprus Lake called the Grotto! Absolutely Gorgeous area!

beautiful rocky shores of the Georgian Bay

beautiful Tobermory!

 Well this is the 2nd last week of this transfer! It has been fun and really good! This week we had a little too much fun maybe! haha. So this week we went up to Tobermory! And visited the Grotto. Once again Ontario has overdone it self and has beautiful land formation! It was quite a beautiful day and ended up being a fun adventure. So our invs Curtis we went to go and see him. We taught him with Aaron our recent convert! Curtis is from The Church of Christ. For all of you who do not know there is two main break off of the LDS church or our church. The RLDS church was started by Sydney Rigdon, after awhile another man broke off from that church named William Bickerton. He started The Church of Jesus Christ. So we get to help him learn of the Prophets after Joseph Smith and how the succession of the next Prophet took place. We are excited to have him start reading from the Doctrine and Covenants and learn of there truth for himself! We hope that his prayers will be answered and the greater light of the truth will enter into his life.

then we also stopped by Aldu, Aldu is a funny one, she is soooo busy and we can never catch her but yet we can catch her only when we need to set up an appt but than we have no body we can teach her with. Erg it is frustrating to not be able to met with her! Hopefully we can finally see her this week! Kalyn and Sam are doing awesome! they are reading from the Book of Mormon and have a lot of questions so we hope we can met with them later on this week and be able to talk about it with them! We taught our recent convert Ken about the Priesthood and just hang out with him and gave him some needed company. This happened Tuesday morning.

Oh ya! so i was suffering from Strep and all that great stuff too. This morning we drove out to Wasaga beach and had District Meeting. My 2nd one! We discussed Finding New people to teach! It was good as i wanted to have missionaries in the District share their experiences with the ways of finding new invs. Now I will say this that for finding people to teach it is the job of the members and us to SHARE the Gospel. To invite people to come to church, or check out mormon.org, or to come see the Temple, or to come to a church activity. This is our role and responsibility. It will be my duty and role to invite all who I have association with to learn of the restored Gospel. We do that through simple commitments extended with love and also we be the Example we have been taught to be. I am so excited to do this when i get home with people that I know rather than total strangers haha. The members are soooo important! For all you missionaries reading this use your members!!! they are there for you if not help them to be there for you! WORK WITH THE MEMBERS. Anyways but ya so I took the strain off my voice and we had a great meeting! We were all able to achieve finding two new this past week! Bro and Sis Leinonin addressed us too and we were glad to have had them do so. They reminded us of the best way to Find. Plus they talked about having activities that members can bring their friends too! In your wards push for activities you can bring non-members too! Use the resources that you have!

Fireworks with Paul

That afternoon it rained and poured while we drove back and taught Ken. That evening it stopped and today was of course Canada Day! I thought I would not get to see the fire works and that i would not get to celebrate it. but we had a BBQ with Chris and Megan. The Cepada's came, and the whole Kuezak Clan, and than Megan's parents and Rob a friend of Zack. it was really fun as we all talked about mission stories and different experiences we remember from their missions. It was weird to discuss as i was still on mine haha. Than after a delicious meal we went out to the fire works! I got them on film and it was really nice to be able to still celebrate Canada Day. let me say I was sooo tired that morning haha. Fireworks always tire me right out. Than We had Sis Cepada on Wednesday morning. We took in our car to get fixed as we had lunch. We drove it around for awhile with the brakes sounding like metal dragging on the ground haha. We were so happy to get them fixed! Lunch was good as Ayla Kuezak was also there with her baby :), Hailey! She is soooooo cute! We ate at East Side Mario's. Glad this one had not closed as the one did in Lethbridge. Then we did some drop bys and PI but not too much luck with that. We had dinner at Sis. Cuttings and we used cool Invite bars that are a rip off of Twix bars and so you have to share it with someone! or invite someone to learn about the Gospel before you can eat it! We were shown this by the Leinonin's! it was really a good idea! Thursday was weekly planning and we had dinner with the Martain's. After we went to go visit some of our members in the Hospital. We have several ppl who have fallen ill and we go there quite often to visit. You know going there so much makes me want to change what I go into cause I am beginning to feel like the hospital is where I spend a lot of my time haha. Friday we spent a lot of time finding so that was good.

 

Working at the Cepada's! I got a tool belt finally hahah

\Then Saturday we went out to the Cepada's to help with their house again! We are almost all done the outside for now! Only 2 more sides to finish and than the windows. We were there for awhile and ended up meeting some of their non-member friends. They were really nice but spoke little English it seemed haha. Sunday was awesome, both ken and Aaron received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was cool to also see them get up and bare their testimonies. It is soooo cool seeing the progression of your invs! I love it. Than Sunday night we went out to Wiraton area to go have supper with the Dunning's. Bro. Dunning is awesome and that is all I can say about that haha.

The next pic is the scaff holding we climbed up and down sorta the leaning tower! haha

That last one is the basement which Bro Cepada and I figured out and did!

 

Well this week was good. I have been contemplating about a lot of things and I am so grateful this week for prayer as i have been drawn to my knees a lot this past little while as notions clouded my head and caused me to lose focus and also not be able to sleep. prayer has given me some relief to which I am indebted to my Heavenly Father for granting that sleep and clear mind to me. Well this is all for this week! cya! 

Transfer 7 Week 4: Roofs and Rough Patches

Well everyone Nephi was right! If you do not understand look at 2 Nephi 28:7-9

The most healthiest/ delicious desert i have ever had!

Worlds largest chair in gravenhurst Ontario! Would you not like to have this chair in your yard!

Selfy on the shore with Elder Tinney

Well this week was another interesting one. Monday we ended up going over to our invs brad's place and spend some time with him. He is going through some rough patches with some illnesses and relationships. So we ended up going over and i ended up playing counselor between him and his girl over the phone. it was not a fun experience as I was stressed out. But I learned some very important things from that whole experience which I will not elaborate on. Number one, to keep calm and relaxed in  all situations and take a few breaths to allow your mind to clear and to start processing. Number two, listen carefully and apply the principles of listening and asking inspired questions to understand both sides of the opposing parties. As you do this you will be given by the Spirit as to what to say. Than help to resolve concerns and come to a compromise as to what best suits both parties if no agreement can be reached. Third, stick to the plan and agreement. In this situation and in others make sure you take care of yourself first and than worry about the other party. This step was not followed and I hope all goes with well him as he is now gone back to Orillea. It was cool that even in this situation which had some gospel relevance the principles I have learned on my mission pay off and are sooooo helpful. Brad was awesome and had a lot to work through but he will one day repent and be baptized to receive a remission of His sins. That has been really sticking out in my mind lately.

We have been focusing on the Doctrine of Christ and how through baptism by the proper authority we can be forgiven of all of our mistakes and be cleansed through the atoning blood of the Lamb. It is only through baptism by proper authority that we can progress and follow the foot steps of our Savior. Imagine you are in a room with out a door to be seen and your are on a chair and on the walls, are written all the mistakes you have ever committed in your life thus far. How would you feel? Would you wish to stay or try to get out? The way and the process to get out is only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. by first faith in Jesus Christ than Repentance. These two principles prepare us for the first ordinance of the gospel which is Baptism. I know that all that you have done wrong in your life can be fixed and washed away by baptism. I have felt the power of the Atonement in my life because I was baptized by the same authority by which Christ was baptized. I know that the only way we can access the full power of the Atonement is through Baptism. This is not all, for there are two parts two a baptism, baptism by water for the remission of sins and baptism by fire for the purification. We receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands through this proper Priesthood authority. This gift of the Holy Ghost will be promised to always be with us to guide and comfort us as long as we are worthy of it. Something else that we have focused on more recently too is the topic of Light vs. Dark. Now how does this tie into the Gospel sense. Well in our every day lives we make choices that either bring us closer to more light or towards the Darkness. the Prophet Joseph Smith said that, "once we have been baptized there is no neutral ground or going back." This is so true after we reach the age of accountability we can start to discern from the light and the dark. In this world it has made evil things seem good and good things seem evil. it has caused the mist of darkness to be set over our eyes to try to blind us from the things that will bring more light into our lives. For example marriage, now they are not using marriages anymore but calling it, a civil union. The world once acknowledged marriages is between a man and a wife but now in this modern liberalistic and darkening world the commitment of a "marriage" and the ideas behind it have become lost. This is due to Satan's power to influence the way that this world will go by influencing the people therein. I would encourage you all to study these topics of light and dark and to learn what brings the light more into our lives and what moves us into the darkness. Some of my other findings of these topics were interesting. I would pose two questions to ask yourselves, "What do you do that brings light into your life? and What do you do that takes you away from the light?" When we are stuck in the grasp of the darkness and seem no way out do the small things to bring light back into your life. You cannot and should not process in the dark but step out into the light and evaluate your situation. Always remember our divine destiny and divine potential as this will help you to realize why you need this light and what the ultimate goal and having this light is. 

So Tuesday came and we had some rain storms and all. We did a lot of drop bys and seeing old potential invs but little to no succes. We had dinner with Sis. Lindsey who has not been able to come to church due to work. We were exited to finally see her and we also got to eat and teach her daughters who are non-members afterwards! We had a really good lesson. Elder Tinney and I are finally starting to teach more in unity too which is def helping a lot! That was the fun event of Tuesday teaching Kayln and Sam. 

Wednesday we had some appts but they all bombed! So we tracted for awhile! Than we went to lunch with Sis Cepada at Pizza Hut. She really does love us as it is a weekly thing we go out and eat. After eating there we than went to go see Bro. Bullock. We helped him cut up some of his tree and clean up around his house. Than we went to Sis. Lang's house the R.S. President! She is super nice and really kind! Her husband is a non-member and she asked Elder Tinney to share some of his talk from Sunday with him and so we had an excellent dinner than settled in for Elder Tinny's discourse. It was interesting but not quite what Bill needed.So we did a poor job at teaching and helping him feel the Spirit. it is so interesting being able to observe the different times in teaching where the Spirit is there and when it is not. It is such a contrast! I would rather teach with the Spirit than not! i such at teaching on my own! haha 

President and Sister Scott on their last day! :(

Thursday we had our Zone Conference all the way up in bracebridge! This drive was 3 hours too long haha. We had to get up at 4:30 am to be ready to go. Not a cup of tea on a mission schedule haha when you have to get up early it kills you! i have to say this about getting up early, "the thoughts of getting up earlier than 6:30 are indescribable, nevertheless i do not feel to murmur." I must saw the drive was rather nice but i did almost fall asleep a couple times. :) Whoops. So we got there and this was President and Sis Scott's last Zone Conference with us! It is crazy that he is leaving! We talked about the light vs dark and about the sources from whence it comes. Once again i encourage all to study these topics! Than we also got taught about helping invs find and change what hinders there progression in obtaining more light and talked about how to use the Spirit to help them identify what is drawing darkness into their lives. We had lunch there and everything. Plus I saw my sisters Grandpa and Grandma, Elder and Sister Simon. it was so nice to see more familiar faces! The end of Zone Conference came and we got to hug President and Sis Scott.they have become some amazing role modules in my life. I love and adore President and Sis Scott. It is hard dealing with changes every transfer as friends leave and new friends come haha it still causes me grief these changes. After we traveled back and realized that we would not get home till 9 because of the long drive so we settled down and turned on some tunes and enjoyed our drive back home into the sunset! 

This is the roof we were on!  the other is just me!

The girl beside me is Sis Scea's daughter, Angella, she was my shingle passing buddy for the day!

Friday was a service day! I got a little more tanned and we finished up helping the Rawlings with their fence! it was fun to build this fence and help out! We had gorgeous weather for it too! I drank so much water that day. Than Saturday came and this was the one of the hardest days of service we have had. We volunteered to go help the Scea's put new shingles on their roof. We thought lots of people would be there but nope not really. It was Bro. Rollins, Angella, and Dan, and than me. Elder Tinney is on leave from all service haha so he got to read some books will I worked on the roof. So I had to overcome my fear of heights super quick as i was the one who was voted to do the shingling on the steep roof. So into the harness and tie down I went. It was scary and hard at first but we got quite a bit done. Plus I am not scared of heights anymore haha. It become fun after awhile. I just worked and worked and we all did it together. It got super hot and we all died haha. We had to get hosed off a couple times as the weather was scorching hot. 

Our work projects/service project!

Well once again Elder Sopal has killed himself and is dead

Sunday we got to confirm Aaron! It was sooo awesome! This will be a remember-able experience! The Spirit is so strong when you perform the first ordinances for someone. Well as for some other things to note. Our car brakes are dying they started going on Thursday and sound like two rocks grinding together! So we will have to deal with this annoying sound till Wednesday. Than I have been sick for the past couple days too so not to much fun stuff in that department! 

Well everyone sorry for the length haha Love you all bye!

Transfer 7 week 3

Baptism of Aaron Niccols! An awesome and amazing Guy!

Well this week was not too bad! This week we had a busy one. Tuesday we spent much of our time doing drop bys in the rain as it literally poured down upon us. We played some detective work finding lost members and people whose addresses were wrong. it was actually quite enjoyable. It was a hard day though as a lot of our appts cancelled and I was just feeling a little home sick I guess. Weird how it started almost a year out haha. We had no dinner so we went to taco bell! Good cheap food. haha not actually good for you but it brings temporary joy. We found out that there was a tornado in Angus a little ways away from here and destroyed a bunch of different things. We were lucky we only had crazy thunder showers!


Wednesday rolled around we went to Montana's with Sis Cepada and Ali. It is always fun as they all get the same thing every time and theni decide to mix it up. I was going to try to liken this to a principle in the Gospel but my mind is not working as effectively as I would like it too haha. Any how we had our appt with James tonight one of our solid potentials and low and behold he evaded us. You know on your mission you really learn to take rejection good. We have so many people that tell us to get lost or else are like "sure come back we would love to talk later" haha. But we just went tracting and some drop bys.

Our Thursday  was a lot better! We started our morning off by teaching a less active sister named Cyndie. She is super awesome! She has some memory troubles because of an operation but we are helping her to remember her testimony and all the things that she has learned in the last little while. She knows that this church is true but she is not sure why. So we are re teaching her everything and helping her to learn it all over again. It was fun as elder Tinney talked the whole time and literally gave a whole synopsis of the Book of Mormon and the Bible for 20 minutes. We ended up staying a little bit longer than we wanted but it was good. After that we went to go and teach Lilly. She has an interesting living situation which should be interesting when this comes up but she lives with 7 guys! We are unsure of how to get around this but we will find out haha. She is super awesome and listens soooo well. It is nice when you can teach and testify and they ask questions that they are prompted too and the Spirit just gives you the answer! Oh man it is honestly the best! haha. After seeing Lilly it was yet again time for weekly planning! YAY :P. I really do not know when i will ever get bored of weekly planning haha.

Any ways than we went to go get Bro Bullock to come to our appt with Lishui. He has such a special spirit about him and he made our lesson a million times better as he lightened the mood and connected really well to Lishui. We finished up the Plan of Salvation and it really hit her! She agreed to pray and ask God if this was his plan for her and she was amazed how it answered so many of her questions that she has been struggling with recently. Other than those noteable events our Thursday all in all was not to bad.

Yup I love my sun! Got a little too much of it well building a fence.

Friday we went to Bro. Rawlings to help him and his neighbors do there fence. We worked outside all day and it was so hot! I loved every second of it. I felt right back at home just working no breaks and it being nice and sunny. i ended up with a great tan and plus an awesome feeling of doing service for people! i ended up seeing a little too much sun and got a little bit burned. Oh well. Only happens once haha. We had a BBQ and just worked all day. i got to use the nail gun on the fence posts and man did i enjoy doing that. I am starting to get pretty good with them too. That evening we went over to the Priebe's for dinner. They were a super nice family and we had a great spiritual thought of how to put Belief into action and turn it into Faith and have a result or the action allow us to become more converted unto the Lord. It was a really good one. The next day was working at the Cepada's again. This time we finished the insulation and put in the Radiant heating system. We were discussing how much piping we needed and i used some of my awesome Math skills and created and equation that calculated how much we needed compared to the number of loops we had to make! I was glad that I paid attention in High School. That afternoon we did not do to much and just did some contacting and drop bys. We also went and visited with Bro. Bullock.

Sunday was an awesome day! We got up and found out Brad, one of our newer invs, came to church! He was pretty excited to be there. he really enjoyed it. Then we also had Aaron there and it was his big day for Baptism! Aaron came and he brought some friends with him too! We had the most YSA in any ward that i have been in there. It was so awesome! So after church we had the baptism and he was soooo happy to finally in his words, "One of us, one of us" this was his funny little chant when we hugged him haha. He is so prepared and will do wonders for the kingdom of God.

At church I got to teach Gospel Principles and we had an awesome lesson about the Spirit and discussed, How to recognize it and how we can learn about it. The last little bit of the lesson it was like a wall of the Spirit. We had four non members and other members it was a full class and man was it ever awesome! The Spirit was so strong as we had a mini testimony meeting and allowed these people to understand what the Spirit is like. One of them commented after church how she felt so peaceful and just felt really happy while at church. it made my day! In Sacrament meeting we got to give talks! I had to shorten mine to 7 mins as elder Tinney gave an awesome talk on the Seven deadly Heresies and how it relates to commitments! I got to speak about first obtaining the desire to share the gospel and than Inviting people to make different commitments and sharing the gospel with them by 10 simple ideas! It was really effective! The ward was super motivated and loved our talks and showed a little more drive for going out and being member missionaries. 

Well maybe next week i will let you all have these steps and you can become amazing member missionaries! But for now I invite all of you to first increase your desire to share the Gospel by building your own testimony and coming to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, in the words of Lehi, how great of an importance is it to make these things known to the inhabitants of the Earth. I know as you do this you will desire this great gift we have to be shared with others! I promise you, that you will be better prepared to share the gospel with your friends as you do this. 

Well everyone that is enough out of me for today! I love you all and have an awesome day! 

Adios!

Beach Day Babe!

Transfer 7 Week 2: Sunsets and Sauble Beach

Hey y'all,

I am so excited in about two weeks-ish we will have a new mission President, President Clayton. President and Sis Scott. Have been so awesome! I have loved being able to get to know them both really well! its cool how I have only met them a few times but I feel like they are my mission parents! I only wonder how the mission dynamic will change with a new President! Oh the mysteries that lie ahead. So I must apologzie for the last two weeks and explain as to why my letters were so short. Well the first Preparation Day as you have all maybe seen or if you have not email me and I will send you the waterfall pictures! We have created a new Preparation day activity, waterfall hunting. So that is what we did all day on preparation day but we had to drive up to Hamilton. We were gone till 430 pm and than we went to the church to exchange pictures and we had to get back to St Cats for a dinner haha. So we only had 5 mins to let our family know at least we were alive. The last preparation day. The computers here were not working so great and so we just gave up and went shopping haha. Today they are working great so you will be able to have a nice report on my week. 

So for the past two weeks I have been enjoying being a District leader. As a District leader you get a bit more responsibilities. It is nice to have such a small district and only have to call and follow up on the other companionship in my district invs. So in my district we have Elder Tinney, Sister Waals, and Sister Noker. We have the smallest district but yet the biggest areas to cover! We only get to hold a district meeting once a month! So this past Tuesday was my first District Meeting. I wanted to focus it on our zone goal of getting member present lessons. So with the help of the Spirit we discussed and I instructed on how we can prepare our members for teaching in our member present lessons. i was so nervous doing this for the first time but than I got a little help from the Spirit and it went great! For all you members out there who are reading this! I would encourage you first off to go teaching with the missionaries! Let them know your schedule and go out teaching with them or tracting! My next tip is to study and learn about the lessons missionaries share. get yourself a copy of Preach My Gospel! It is going to be my job when i get back home to find you ( you being my friends and family) who do not have one and get you one! Study these lessons and pray about how the Spirit can help you teach about these principles! Than be that amazing fellow shipper! be there for the invs whether is be offering them a ride or exchanging numbers to answer any questions about what they are learning. I know this will help us to keep up to our Heavenly Father who is hastening the work every day! We just need to keep up! Any how this area has had problems with MP and getting close to Standards! But I am pleased to inform you that our district is hitting standards together! We are helping and working hard to make this area successful and become more stronger. We are finding more people and teaching more people every week! We have built up some awesome momentum and hope to continue to move it forward! 

this is all who attended my first District meeting. The senior couple is Elder and Sister Leinonen, Elder Williams is from Cardston AB and is our Zone Leader, Elder Legault is our other Zone leader and is from Edmonton AB, Sis Noker is from Nebraska, and Sis Waals is from Norway!

Our area is sooooooo big! It is crazy we cover from Collingwood drawing a line straight across to port Elgin and that is our area! There is parts of this area that missionaries have never even touched haha. I will say this though this area is beautiful! This past week we got to be in Wiarton, port Elgin, and Sauble Beach. the beaches here are white and sandy and some of the beaches even have clear blue water. We enjoy going contacting on the beach and walking the shore line. I have been getting some awesome pictures of the land here. We have been able to work hard and work smart. My comp elder Tinney has been having some back problems and other health issues which cause us to loss work time by going to the doctors or ER but when we do have time we work our butts off and he is usually dead by time 930 rolls around haha. I have gained a new appreciation for the ER and am beginning to possible think about going into med school. but than i am reminded about the crazy hours and the long schooling and so I think I will stick to my Dentistry. 

Well as for the work and some of the great blessings we have seen are that Aaron our most golden invs ever! Is getting baptized this coming week! He has also know made it a goal to serve a mission! It is sooo sweet. Than our other invs from Portugal is Aldu and her family! she has been sharing the gospel So now she is bringing a whole bunch of people to church with her next week! So we hope to be able to baptize this wonderful Portuguese family! We have a couple of awesome potential invs set up for the coming week so we hope those go well! 

Even canada has nice beaches!

As for the other aspect of missionary work! I have now learned how to build a house! Some of the jobs being framing, shingling, insulating, flooring, wiring, and a few other odd jobs haha. We have been having a lot of fun! We are enjoying all this service we get to do as we get a nice little break from door knocking. ya haha the service projects we do is great! lol by the time i leave this area i will know how to build my own house from the ground up haha. I have now done framing, shingles, wiring, dry walling, insulation and more :P. haha  I have also been working on my tan! I am slowly starting to get my tan back! Also because of this service and the physical exertion it takes, we have been able to keep off the weight we would have put on as this area is another awesome one for food! the members love feeding the missionaries here! 

Well there is a few updates on How I am doing, the work is doing, the members are doing, and ya haha I think that is everything for now! So now i will just let it go and be one with the wind and snow haha. 

Love you all have an awesome week, 

Elder Sopal

This is Elder legualt who I went on exchanges with.

the food we get at our Ward Mission leaders place is amazing!

another sunset alll the way from sauble beach

Once again another amazing Sun Set from Port Elgin! Over Lake Huron!

3rd Area: Owen Sound Ontario Transferred June 9 2014

I got transferred to Owen Sound, Ontario.   Elder tinney is my new comp and I am a district leader! haha. Ya it was super hard leaving that area :(My new area is sooooo big! and i am still trying to learn to love it :/

 

Well here is the report :) haha. my new area is not too bad! It is literally the biggest area in the mission! We do not keep in the a lotted amount of ks haha. we can go 2 hours or so in every direction lol and its still our area. We cover from the tip of tobermory to the blue mountains and kind of like a cut off haha hard to explain. but our area is big. It is not a bad community but everything is just so spread out. i have yet to wonder around much but have been all over the place visiting different members. The ward count is about 80ish average. Our Ward mission leader is actually pretty awesome! He is a rm and had to come home early for back problems! Its fun on the weekends we actually go over and become construction workers! I am learning how to build a house from scratch! haha. :P that might be against some rules but oh well i love climbing scalfholding haha So elder tinney is my new companion. He is from Red Deer but originally from Chillowack BC. He is 20 years old and a bigger guy. I got to serve with him in Windsor for exchanges. He is a pretty goood missionary and really knowledgeable! So I was nervous about my comp but he is turning out to be pretty awesome! Yes I know Tavis is in my Zone haha. I hugged him last Friday! Oh guess what I am a district leader now! 

 

 

The dynamic trio!

Our waterfall hunting group!

Our waterfall hunting group!

selfie!

Elder Cowley and I

Well Grandpa is finally dead! "grandpa" is Elder Joe's first companion who trained him.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is "Dead" now because he is going home

This was our first greeting party in the Sound! He almost bite my finger off and i do not think turtles are slow anymore.

Just gotta love the sun sets! 

 

 

Well Elder Cowley, Elder Izzth, and I were pretty crazy on this one! It was fun hanging off the edge! haha