No Letter only pictures with captions

Hey all no weekly for this week but here is picks!

Scarborough and my new comp!

This is my comp and Harmon, he is an awesome member who came from India! He was baptized here.

all of us at our new fav place Tim's!

Well even in the city there is forest!

Here is the sky line!

My family loves me and sent me a camel package for my hump day!

Transfer 9 Week 3: One Year Hump Day

Hey Everybody!!!

Well here it is. So my week and last week was long. We have been teaching A LOT of people and the members are so awesome and willing to come out teaching with us. So Tuesday last week was pretty good as we have a standing dinner appt at the Stiels every Preparation Day. But before that we went to Zone Sports. It was awesome to see the whole zone and chat with a ton of other missionaries. We had a fun time playing chair soccer. I had never played this before but boy was it fun! You have a chair that is your goal and the ball cannot touch it. So everyone is against everyone! It was a lot of fun! In the evening we had  some spaghetti and well most of you know How I feel about that haha. It is interesting the family we eat at is vegan  so the food there is always something different! After that we went and did some bus contacting. 

 

Wednesday we had Zone Training and it was a very Spiritual meeting. We were able to study the attributes of faith, hope, and charity. I love these Christ-like attributes. They honestly are what we must strive to have and obtain. As we develop these we will increase our love for the people we serve and are around. My faith in God and how he answers my prayers has grown sooo much. My faith in that what I am doing touches the lives of many. I have great faith in that I am a son of God and that I have a knowledge that my testimony has grown from what it once was. I know that a mission progresses you in your conversion and will if I let it turn me into the servant that God needs me to be. I felt the Spirit so strongly at this meeting and it re assured me of all that I am doing. I have cherished growing the love for all the people we meet and just feel such a strong connection for them that I do desire their salvation just as Alma and Amulek of old. I am still working on becoming like them and need to work on identifying the Spiritual promptings I receive and following them! 

 

After the meeting we headed back to our area. We went and tracted some apartment buildings and OYMed on the street. It was a lot of fun. I still love talking to so many different individuals every day! In the evening we went and dropped by a Part member family the Duffey's and it was nice to be able to see them. We invited her kids out to our basketball night. We hoped to see them there. Thursday was slow. Friday was filled with a lot of finding time! It is not to much fun to find but what changed finding for me is how when you find instead teach! Right from the moment you meet someone begin to teach and bear witness of what you are sharing with them. Doing this makes finding a lot easier and can help you to help them to feel the Spirit. Testimony is one way or skill the always invites the Spirit into a conversation. 

 

Friday I got to go on an exchange and well it was a lot of fun. I got to go with Elder Fjeldsted from Utah. We had a blast talking to so many people and we even got to teach a few people. We taught one of their Part member families and he was so tired but really wanted to find out if what we were sharing was true. He has had no religious background at all so we have to work from the ground up to help him recognize and discern the Spirit in his life. It is hard trying or attempting to teach new things to people who have never felt these promptings before but we really helped him I believe. We were able to also help him set a goal of October 25 to pray about Baptism. Later on that night we also had an amazing lesson about the restoration of the priesthood. We bore strong powerful witness and our recent convert Harmon joined with us and we brought the Spirit into the home that the lights went out haha. It was a huge rainstorm. Saturday we had Marius and Anita and than we had basketball again. It was another good day!

Now to skip to this week! So we have been having a lot of problems helping out invs attend church. We have been having such a hard time and I cannot figure out why. All we can do is continue to teach and pray that investigators will come. Greshan, our investigator from Sri Lanka was supposed to come but was not able to as his ride, his friend which he invited to come with him did not show up. It destroyed me. I felt like I had so much hope and faith but I collected myself and was determined to get him out this week. So we tried having contact with him and getting members to call him and invited him out and what not. We prayed all week that he would come. Tuesday we did not have a chance to met with him but we will later on in the week. 

 

Tuesday for dinner we were over at the Burn's. They are a family from the Caribbean and  one other place. They are sooo funny and made the day a whole lot better. Jason is actually going on a mission soon to Mexico. Than we have another guy in our ward, Helaman who is going to BC! It is so awesome seeing these young men prepare for service haha. Their families are always asking us questions, I love it! Wednesday we went and did service for Sis. Bell and helped fix her fence and what not. We were also with a member Bro. Brigdalal. It was actually a lot of fun. He served a mission in Guyana and surrounding area. He has so much knowledge and was fun to hear some stories from his mission. Service was good, I helped out a little and just jumped in when the Elders could not figure out what to do haha. We teased Elder Fjeldsted a lot about lacrosse. Even Sis. bell joined in. The rest of the day was spent doing drop bys and tracting. Plus the rainy season is back! So we went and dropped by Bro. Brigdalal and he gave us some cookies! He has such a huge collection of books! I have never seen so many lds books in my life! He even has copies of the Book of Mormon when it was like 1927 and other rare writings. He shared a spiritual thought with us. He shared a quote that talked about categorizing God and how we have to take him and acknowledge him in all his forms. I love this idea and concept. God is so much and has so many attributes we sometimes only focus on a few but really we have to develop as many as we can.  

 

This week has been particularly week but it has been nice for a change instead of heat. Friday was good as we had District Meeting and we discussed more on Faith, Hope, and Charity. I would encourage you all to pray for these gifts and than to set goals and make plans to increase/ develop them as this will greatly help you! District Meeting was about helping investigators accept baptismal dates and then set goals and make plans to work towards them. It went really well. We had a competition that was seeing how many people we could invite to be baptized every day and total it up at the end of the week. We ended up getting the most as a district at 115! It was a great feat and really cool to see the miracles that came from that challenge. Saturday came and all our appointments fell through. So we did some tracting in the morning and than we taught a french lady named Ijay. She is Pentecostal and was really nice but LOVED talking haha. We finally got to see Greshan today too! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We also got him a Book of Mormon in his own language, of Tamil. It literally looks like a bunch of scribbles haha. It was so cool to hear him pray in Tamoli and read in it. It is so neat how the Spirit will still tell you something is good even if it is in another language. So we invited him out to church again and made sure he had his alarm set and everything. Than we departed and carried on with our day. That Sunday unfortunately nobody should up at church. It was really heart breaking but I know that if God wants them there he will make it happen so we will be patient and just keep inviting. This week was good and I hope you all had a good week too!

I am so excited though we got a referral from the Sister's in Hawaii at the Temple and there is this family Bong and Mae who we will get to met with! We r so excited to teach them and hope all goes well!

Well Bye love you all!

Transfer 9: Week 1

Hey Everybody!

Well this is my first email from the Burrow. I got transferred to the burrow. I am in West Scarborough! I am so excited to be here! So on Monday I took Elder Tinney to Brampton and dropped him off to the departing missionary meeting. I just hung out at the BSC waiting for my ride. It turned out that my ride was full and so they took off and were supposed to find me a ride. However they failed to talk to the people they said they would and so I was left there stranded without a ride to my new area haha. So I hung out with the new missionaries and trainers and than went and chatted with some of the dying missionaries. A lot of the missionaries I served with in districts now are all dead haha it is truly a sad thought. Time is literally flying by and I do not like it one bit. So I finally got a ride with Elder Gunnell and Elder Call his new greenie. We jamed all of us into the car and fit three peoples luggage into there two! I was literally buried under the seats haha. When we got into Toronto I could not see out the windows but once we got out of the car buildings literally grew to new hieights and it was the CITY. I have never been so happy to see apartment buildings in my whole entire life. We unloaded there stuff than headed over to met up with my comp and the other Elder's. We ended up getting into a dinner with the other missionaries. After that we went to ESL and than off to our area. We went out with 15 mins left and met a guy named Mathal! He is from the Caribbean! We will be meeting with him again! I did my thorough clean of the apartment and got everything all tidy! It is now liveable. Man I miss the smell of apartments haha, we get a nice whiff of some weed every morning! This place is so cultural diverse and really nice. I love apartment building tracting and that is what we have been doing. Wednesday came and we were abck at it working out butts off and walking all over. We are on buses down here and boy is it a riot! I love it! We have a few invs we are working with, Marius and anita, Hugh, Erika, John, Mathal, Juwahir, and a Doct Kunj. we have a ton of invs and are busy every day! I really am unsure how to report on all these people but ya. They are all awesome and I will update you on the most progressing ones or anyone that we have a good experience with. Weekly planning took 5 days to complete haha cause we are so busy. We accidently let our bus passes expire so we had to go and walked a bunch yestorday to go and get new ones. The ward is awesome here! There are so many nice families! I finally get to do District Meeting every week and I am one of the oldest in the District. I have really enjoyed imparting my knowledge and seeing the fire behind these new missionaries. After District meeting we had a funny encounter with a place that we went for lunch. Some drunk guys were there and they loved how nicely dressed we were. It was a good time! We have a member named Eleanore. She is extremely nice but does not want to come back to church. She is so awesome in just helping us out and what not! I have enjoyed chatting with her and all that hse does for us. One more quick story! This week i buried my first dead cat. A member called us and asked us to come and help so we did and ended up almost getting caught by one the cops and two some little kids haha I think it may of been illegal but shhh oh well. She wanted us to come back and do it but I said no and we finished burying it and than had to take the bag of misleading dirt to her apartment. I swear we do the crasiest things sometimes. Well this week was awesome! So much to tell but not enough time! I love you all and Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Sopal

New Transfer: Scarborough, Ontario

Well it looks like Elder Joe is moving to a new area.  Owen Sound has been an amazing area for him.  He has spent a great deal of time serving and learning patience and humility.  I (Elder Joe's mom) am grateful for the kindness of the members there and for the lessons he has learned.  As he goes back to the big city, I hope new adventures will come to him.  Can't wait to hear from him.  He moves on Wednesday. 

Transfer well ya know haha week 10/5

Sorry all that this did not send earlier. Things came up but here it is. Well here we are at another week's end! So on our Monday we did not see to much action but just enjoyed out day. Tuesday was a little bit better. We went out to see bro. Bullock and visited with him. He is still doing awesome and plus we finally got him his triple combination.  we introduced it to him and help him reading from the doctrine and covenants. It was fun showing him our favorites verses and going through it. Then we traveled out to Sable Beach for physio. We are finally seeing the doctor on Monday! I am so happy for elder Tinney and hope that we will be able to get him better.

We had dinner at the Ripley's. It might be the last time that we get too. The had their cousin and grandma over from Chatham. Elder Tinney enjoyed seeing them all again and brought back memories of Chatham. The Ripley's are an awesome family and their examples will serve as a reminder to me of the type of family I wish to have! I taught elder Tinney some new object lessons and he practice the atonement being applied with the cup and sucking up water one! It went really well and he did great job. I was proud :).

Then we took off to Barrie! We slept over at the cooks town place. Elder Tinney had also served here so we felt right at home. We slept well and had a good work out with elder Kiser and Munoz. Wednesday we got up early to go to New Market for the day where the district leader specialty training was at. It was such an awesome meeting! I learned so much and we discussed the importance of our role in missionary work. We learned about how to use this awesome book called 'adjusting to missionary life'. It is given to missionaries to cope with the stress of the demands of being a missionary. I found after looking through it I had done a lot of these things like writing in my journal which has kept me relatively stress and worry free. We talked about how we must love every missionary, be an example to them and follow the example of the savior, and strengthen them. We are essential in helping them become and stayed converted to the gospel. In simplicity we are there to help them in their salvation. After that it was Elder Ellis and my turn to give our instruction on helping invs to have. Kneeling prayer and to be specific in everyone. We did a way better job than I thought we did. The APs called this past Tuesday and complimented me for all the work that we put in and it really helped them in their area. I thought that was a pretty nice compliment. I have come to find such an appreciation for instructing and training missionaries! I love it. Being a teacher is fun for now.

It was nice to see president Clayton and sister Clayton. We had subway for lunch and the cookies were still as good as ever! If you ever want to bribe me get me subway cookies. After that we went into President Clayton's instruction he talked about how the attention span of the world has gone down and so he taught us about using the pamphlets more! For any of you who have not read the missionary pamphlets I would strongly encourage that you do so and study them! Plan FHE activities with them and use them. They are so simply that a child can understand them. I love this quote, " it is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand."  when we teach simply and this goes for all types of teaching whether be of the gospel or of life skills or academics we each simply and than we can help those who do not know know more. We ended off the meeting with a testimony meeting. This is where the Spirit really came into the meeting. I didn't know about this but I was asked to bear my testimony so I did. I was so overcome by the spirit I was so happy about this growing testimony that I heard myself speak. I have never felt the spirit work with me and help me to feel that strongly. Everything I testified about I felt the Spirit confirm it's truthfulness again to me. I am so grateful for experiences like these to thank my father in heaven for all that he has taught me. I love my mission and I love my Savior. I know that is it only through him we can return to our father. I know that is through the atonement of Christ which we can partake of by following His gospel. I have felt the power of the atonement constantly help me to become better and become the instrument the lord wants me to be. Without this ultimate sacrifice the world and all mankind would be lost.

 After the conference we drove back home. Longest trip ever! Thursday we went and did some tracking and contacting which was fun! Friday we had to spend all day at the dealership. When we were coming back from Barrie our car tire popped and so we hung out there till our car got fixed. Than we went to a members place for dinner. This member has been trying to make her studies more effective and spiritual. She has always struggled with being able to seek revelation from the scriptures and applying them. So we invited her to look at preach my gospel in chapter 5 at questions of the soul. We had her use one of these questions to start her studies and to read over the reference and then seek to answer the scripture and try to apply it to yourself. So we helped her to try an example one. We then left her with that and prayed that she would have a good experience.

On Saturday we went to the Cepada's and had to fix the trucks! The white one has blown the water pump and needed a new fan belt and plus the black one need repairs to the brakes. We shipped off the white one to get it fixed and focused on the black one. Haha They really can never have both trucks on the road at the same time as they always break when one of them is fixed. So President Cepada and I put the brakes back together and we both "think" we did it right. Hopefully we did and they turned out alright. So than they finally had a working truck. That day their family came over cause it was Sergio's bday. It was a really really fun evening. We had a ton of laughs and I won't take up too much space on here. It was nice to be able to mix with their family and chat with them. I love the Cepada's honestly one of the sweetest families ever. Sergio and Ali and I went driving around to in the new truck and we had a good time. Man great memories.

On Sunday at church we had an awesome experience where that member came up to us and thanked us so much for what we taught her and encouraged her to do. She had an amazing Spiritual experience that helped her understand how to study more effectively. It was one of those moments I just praised God and thanked him. It is so cool to see promises you make as a missionary come true in the life's of people you teach. This was my week! Another decent one for the books!

Love you all!

Elder Sopal signing off.

Transfer 8 Week 4: Shelving and Small Miracles

One of my fav zone leaders and prev comp! Elder Adam's

Well I look decent in the mornings haha

Well this week was slow investigator wise. But we were able to see other successes. On Monday we went over to the Cepada's as we had our prep day moved and so we worked on their house! It was actually a lot of fun. In the morning we went out for breakfast at the quaint little cafe. Than we went and put up electrical boxes in the house and cleaned up some more. Plus as usually we had some delicious food. I feel like this transfer I have gained all my weight from the Cepada's haha.

My working outfit for the house! I think I look pretty good with a tool belt. We failed with the taking of it

That evening we went and dropped by some people by not to many were interested. Oh well the life of a missionary :). Tuesday was our Preparation Day as we had a holiday on Monday. So we got a lot accomplished. For dinner we went over to the Thomas's an awesome younger family in our ward! They are super cool, he had served his mission in Calidonia and she was a convert to the church. They have a cute little guy who is 18 months old! They both speak french and she is from Montreal so she has a huge accent. I honestly really like the language of French. It is something that I want to learn to speak one day! I don't think I could ever pick up the accent haha I am awful with accents.

Then we had to drive out to Barrie! A three hour drive and it got quite dark here quite fast. So Elder Tinney and I settled in for some long car ride tunes as we usually do! We were heading to Barrie for Zone Training. It was nice as we got to stay with the Zone Leaders and have a sleep over. Elder Orr is one of our zone leaders and he came to sleep with me out in the living room. He kept me up all wayyyy too late haha. As a missionary you learn to treasure sleep. He is actually from Alberta so we pulled the do you know game.

Zone training was an awesome experience. We went over 'How to begin teaching' out of PMG (Preach My Gospel) and also just how when we start off in our appts we can use this tool to teach about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Some of the bullet points and what we share is how the Gospel and following Jesus can improve the quality of your life. It is so true that as we pattern our lives and live the gospel it will help us overcome any personal concerns or problems we may have. Our message that we share as missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is centered in and upon Christ. His Atonement is what makes everything possible.  I have gained great appreciation and love for the Atonement. It has carried me this transfer and for the past year of my mission. It has helped the people I teach receive forgiveness for their sins and mistakes. I love testifying of the Atonement because I have felt its redemptive power and healing power. I know anybody who wishes to remove feelings of guilt and shame will be replaced with forgiveness and peace. I love my Savior and am so grateful for the sacrifice he made for all of us.

Our zone!

At Zone meeting we tried to get a good picture of all of us but it failed several times haha. We gave up and just did it with two cameras. Missionaries and their pictures haha. Than we travelled back home. Longest drive EVER. That evening we went to the Ripley's place for dinner. They were having a youth BBQ. It was good as we got to met a less active youth named Ashley. She ended up coming to church the following Sunday! I love activities where you get people who do not attend regularly and than you invite them and they start to feel the love and come back. That evening we had an appt with a new invs Mitch but he had to cancel sadly. :(oh well.

This is what I did all Saturday!

Thursday we went and did service for Bro Dunning. We taught Elder Tinney how to use drills and to put up shelves for food storage. It was a fun time getting to do some more service. I miss building things missed doing service for the first part of my mission. These last two areas have been HUGE for service and have helped me to just get to work and go into my do not stop till the job is finished mode. I guess I have been blessed with an ability to serve hard haha.

Friday was slow and we did a lot of phone calling and visiting a few people on our potential list. Saturday was a good day. We went back out to the Cepada's we were asked to come out at 9 but we did not have breakfast till 12 haha. We went and got there truck and helped get lunch ready. Then we also finished putting in the electrical boxes and set up a ton of the wiring upstairs! It has been awesome to see the progress on the house every week. Sergio, Ali and I have a ton of fun fooling around and working hard. It was overall a good day. Sergio is still planning on coming out to Alberta haha. He joked about buying a ticket and coming home the same time as me and coming off the plane with me! So we might just do that haha. I LOVE the Cepada's they are like another family too me!

Sunday was good. I always enjoy going to church and feeling the Spirit. I got to pass the sacrament which I have not done since I was like 15 haha. FOREVER ago. It was an awesome experience and brought back a lot of good memories. We had a full class in Gospel Principles of members, less active and recent converts and sadly no invs :( maybe next time! We talked about charity and at the end of it I realized I had treated it as a District Meeting and gone into District leader mode in the class. The RM Josh laughed and pointed it out at the end. We all had a good laugh. I left them two commitments which I will leave to you. First, follow these steps; pray and look for opportunities to serve, then just do it when you see it. Second, is to study the live of Jesus Christ and all the instances where he showed charity towards his brothers and sisters. I promise you if you will do this you will develop the attributes of Charity and become more like the Savior in this.

These are the shelves we built at the dunnings

One more interesting note from this week! So early on in the week I had an impression that I would have to help out in some way at this Special leadership meeting next week and lo, and behold, come Thursday after we left Bro. Dunnings we got a call from the Assistants and they asked for me. All I have to say is that the Spirit is real and God does talk to us! Elder Tinney and I looked towards the heavens and was like wow that was cool after the cool haha. It was a funny had to be there moment. Anyways :) lesson is to always follow Spiritual promptings.

Well everyone I love you!

Have an awesome week! Peace :)

Transfer 8 Week 3

Hey ya!

Well this week has been actually not to bad! I have enjoyed the beautiful weather and loved every day I get to wake up and clip on my name tag. It is the best feeling clipping that name tag on your white shirt and putting on the tie. It has helped me soo much and to find a greater purpose. Through serving almost a year now, I have come to know that I have been called of a Prophet of God to come here. I would not come or have chosen anywhere else. I love Ontario dearly and all the people here. I have been reassured that this Prophet and what I am out here doing is what God wants me to do. I have come to be able to notice God's hand in all that I do. As I have encourage you before I would invite you again. Start keeping a journal and record what happens in your day and how you have seen God's hand. This is an excerpt from President Eyring's talk, Oh Remember, Remember. This illustrates the importance of record keeping and shares some of the joys that can come from it. I have gone every day without fail and have been so blessed for it.

"I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened.

My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done. You remember that song we sometimes sing: “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

I love this talk as it has helped me to learn what to write and what I can do to help my posterity and myself.

So this week was pretty good. Wednesday was an awesome day. We got to go to Pizza Hut for lunch with the Cepada's. Then we went and did some drop bys and than went out to visit a less active member named Bro. Laurin. He is an older gentleman who lost his wife a few years ago. We have been able to met with him a couple of times and he has started coming back to church and we are slowly building a good relationship with him. Then Cyndie our other awesome member who we are working with left to Alberta! We are going to miss her sooooo much! We stopped by on Thursday and just chatted with her and said good  byes and taught her one last time. She gave us one last parting gift which was some delicious Zucchini with pineapple and  bananas! It was soooo good!

Early on that morning we had District Meeting over the phone. In all honestly it was so weird talking and teaching the phone. I hate conference calls haha. But it was good as we discussed How we help our invs understand the role of the invs in their lives and even in our own. It is so important that we prepare ourselves for the Holy Ghost and strive to make sure we are doing all we can to increase its influence in our life. Then it will be brought in more through your testimonies, sharing experiences, and using the scriptures. This is how we help people experience and to become converted is by helping them feel the spirit.

 Then that afternoon we had physio and went out to the Ripley's. They are still an awesome family and I love the Spirit at there home! Such an example to me for what I want things to look like when I get home. Than we had an awesome drive home into the sun! Thursday we had gone over to the Kuezak's place and had some really good chili. After for the Spiritual thought we discussed how we can increase the influence of the Spirit in our lives and so I challenge you to do that too! Find a way to help draw the Spirit into your life and keep on doing it. For me it was recording what I learned in my studies from the scriptures!

Saturday We went out to the Cepada's. Our job was working on the i beam and so it turned out that everyone ditched and it was just me scrubbing it and cleaning it off. It took a long time to do it but finally it was done. I was so tired but it was worth it! Now it looks as good as new! Sunday was church and that was spent hanging out with the Dunnings. Bro Dunning is AWESOME. He told us A ton of stories about before he was a member and boy after a hard week it brightened my day!!! It was a good finish to my week. So this week we had two cool experiences. The first one was we were out tracking and we had not yet found any invs this week so we said a prayer and we then proceeded to walk down the street. A guy and his girlfriend called us over and started to talk to us about their lives and religion! It was an awesome experience to be able to teach and testify to them of God's plan and how they can strengthen their relationship through the Gospel. It was an answer to my prayers.

Then the second was a result of District Meeting. We were out talking to people and we came to this one person who was not really interested but as I bore my testimony to them of the Restoration we saw their heart soften right in front of us. It was a very spiritual moment for me and the person was touched but did not want to learn more. It really helped me more than anything. A mission is for helping others but most importantly yourself. I know this is true and I love my mission! I would not trade it for anything else!


Love you all and have an awesome week!
Love
Elder Sopal