Final Countdown!

Last week was a lot of things. It was probably the most extreme ups and downs I've seen! Not necessarily in myself, but in the work and so on.. Last week we started by driving most of our Monday down to Edmundston, it was about 7 hours of driving haha.. Our tasks while we were down there was to find an apartment for the missionaries who would be going there in a few weeks, meet with as many members as we could and tell them the church was being organized there and scout out places where church will be held. We slept at a members home in the woods, it was super cool. He is a doctor so the house was basically a mansion cabin in the hills of Maine near the boarder of Canada. I've got some pics don't worry... One of the nights we slept outside in hammocks, that was sweet, but super cold so we ended up going back inside in the middle of the night haha..

Some of he miracles that happened while we were there was meeting all the families, there have been three families who recently moved to the area, which is one of the major reasons there will be a church there, and it was cool talking to one of them when they talked about moving they said, "watch there will be a church there right when we move." And sure enough within two weeks we knock on their door and tell them haha.. After the whole day we had 22 different people who had committed to come to church every week. HUGE BLESSING. Another miracle was finding an apartment, with school starting in a few weeks we thought it would be really hard, we checked online for apts that fit the budget and were safe and the first one we met with was not only the cheapest, but it was just renovated and hadn't been lived in yet, fit all the standards of the mission as to contracts and so on, right in the middle of the city so transportation would be easy, and it will be within walking distance of many members! The whole time there was awesome. We were up there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...

Wednesday night we drove into Fredericton (our old shipyard) then Thursday morning we drove to Moncton for a "special zone conference" which was just in the middle of a transfer which made it special, we trained on planning and it went well... Thursday night we drove back to Halifax with another elder, Elder Penney, who is a visa waiter and leaves Wednesday to Columbus Ohio.. Friday we did another special zone conference for Nova Scotia missionaries and had exchanges with the Kentville zone leaders, Saturday we had exchanges with some more zone leaders and then we drove back to Moncton to pick up another missionary who would be leaving Wednesday as well... So we spent a lot of time traveling hahaha.. BUT through all of this we still had an awesome week. Three investigators came to church and a family of four who are potential investigators came :) so there was a solid group!

This week I've been able to see how God makes sure his work moves forward. His hand was easily seen while we were organizing Edmundston. He was still doing his work within the hearts of the people we teach and come in contact with so that they would continue to repent and keep commitments even though we weren't in our area the whole week... God is a God of miracles!:) this will be my last full week in the field, and my last week of proselyting because next week is transfers.. Which means we will be driving, planning, training and preparing. I love my mission and this will be the best week yet.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Elder Argyle

Seven Hour Road Trip

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Currently elder Allsop and I are driving 7 hours to a nice little city in New Brunswick.. We will be opening Edmundston next transfer :) we are driving down for the next three days to find an apartment, meet with the stake president to help organize a place for church to be held .. It's going to be crazy! It's a French community as well, so elder Allsop will practice listening for a. Few days hahaha .. Now we are driving back to Halifax because I left my passport.. Good thing we only drove 15 min hahaha.. I haven't changed in that area.. We need our passports because we will be sleeping at a members home in Maine tonight.. 

Last week was awesome though... One fun experience we had was street contacting in downtown Halifax.. We ran into a massive wedding group and one of the families approached us and I was thinking, this has to be members... Actually Catholics from the states.. But they were pumped to see us. The husband works in the FBI and started recruiting us hahaha.. He said, "you do something that is very hard as Mormons, you preform non confrontational interviews. That's what the FBI is all about.. " and he went on for like 15 minutes giving us all the pre requisites and telling us what to do to get a job there Hahahaha.. Turns out 30% of the fbi is Mormon... :0 

We had our MLC in Moncton last week and that was sweet.. Our training was on "counselling together" it went awesome. Everybody seemed pretty excited after all the trainings.. I did have a freak out sesh on Friday though when I realized that spenny was home.. We took a "creme en Diego" (breather) so I could vent about it Hahahaha ..We also sung the French national anthem because our mission covers a French island, so that was neat...

Ivebeen reading a lot of talks and re reading the Book of Mormon, some cool things I've found were:s

"A third principle is this: we must counter the natural man’s tendency to procrastinate, to put off, or to give up." - Randall k Bennet 

I've never recognized that the "natural man" was not just the sinful man but the tendency we have to follow the path of least resistance

Second thing in 2nephi 4.. 
"28 Éveille-toi, mon âme! Ne languis plus dans le péché." 
"Awake my soul, no longer droop in sin"

In English the word droop is used which I had thought would be to be lazy or relaxed.. French languish is used which is to attend to with impatience, or to not focus your energy on it.. What I learned from the verse was 1) don't be patient with sin and don't be impatient with yourself 2) put more effort and energy into fighting against it

I love my mission! The last few weeks are getting harder that's for sure, but the harder the better :) I love you all, Canada rocks! :) 

Elder Argyle

Miracles and Pday Caps

We had a lot of fun things happen this week with tons of tiny miracles too. The first one I want to share is one of our investigators who had previously been on date but didn't make it due to a few different difficulties texted us one night after following up with him.. He said something like, "I need to get baptized soon, I feel like God is waiting for me to make the leap of faith." It was pretty cool to see the text because we had been working super hard to find people that we could teach before we finish and it didn't seem like it was working! We were already teaching him, and have been since I've been here, but this was a miracle because it just came out of he blue! 

Pday Caps

Some other fun miracles.. We ran into members from all over the place when we were downtown doing a booth and giving out some lemonade.. One family from Farmington! I had no idea Nova Scotia was the place everyone wanted to go on vacation to..  

This next week is going to be pretty awesome, we have an exchange with the Newfoundland zone leaders and then an in person MLC in Moncton.. I can't get away from there :) the Acadians are just way too cool to leave for more than a transfer. 

Some other big miracle news.. The French area I was working on while I was in Fredericton will be opening at the end of this transfer:) the stake president gave permission to hold a sacrament meeting there, so sometime in the next few weeks we will be driving 10 hours to go visit the members there, find an apartment and help get the place organized for the new missionaries :) 
This is exciting, I started talking to president Pratt about it a year ago and it'll be thriving as I leave:) This is a big blessing for the members there as well.. There are a few families there that have to travel across the US boarder and do an hour and a half traveling one way for church, now it'll be held in their own city:) 

Some sad news, elder Hart, our third, went home this morning with an honorable release. The guy went through the craziest mission I've heard of, his nickname was "the million dollar missionary" for two reasons, he was always getting hurt by random things and he was a rock star he just didn't stop. 

We went to Peggy's cove with him before he went home.. It's a tiny lighthouse with a bunch of rocks. It's super cool, I'll send you pics:) 

I made a promise that I'd share my testimony with you of how much I love the church. As you know I love my mission, it's been super hard, definitely the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's been the best two years. I love the church, we were sitting in a lesson and the investigator we were with spoke of how disgusted he was with religion. He recognized the need for a prophet to fix all of it and I can testify that Thomas S Monson is Gods living prophet on Earth today, his counsellors and the 12 apostles really do receive instruction for us daily. We had another investigator talk about how he wanted scripture speaking of today, for our time. How blessed we are to have this not just in general conference twice a year, but on a daily basis! It is comforting to know that although the world is crazy and it will likely get even crazier, God is still leading his people and His strength is greater than all. You cannot fail when you are on the Lords side! I love you all! :) 

Je vous aime
Elder Argyle

Free Lemonade Day!

My Companion is True

He might be trying to hold my hand

Pictures from the North

Back Up Camera on Car!

Surprise Guests! Our Next-door Neighbors!

Fun story for you to start it off... I'm blessing sacrament yesterday and I notice sitting right in front of Elder Hart is this couple who looks identical to the Wilkes from next door.. So I continue on my way doing my duties and stuff. After we were dismissed to our sets sister Wilkes waves to me and the confusion and shock poor right in! They are up here touring around and they dropped in to my church! So crazy! They told me garret gets home August 2.. So I left a month before him and he beats me home hahaha.. Funny stuff

Last week we had a lot of good fun.. It was zone trainings, so we got to to to New Brunswick east where the French areas are and I got to see and take a picture with my descendants of that zone (there are a. Few others scattered abroad) it was an awesome meeting.. The Zls started with asking us the question, "what causes us to not believe that God will trust our effort?" It brought up a huge discussion on how we have inadequacies or weaknesses that we believe will stop us from being able to see success.. It was an awesome discussion and we all left feeling pretty excited to do the work:) we did an exchange with Moncton right after it, so I got to work in my old area:) it was fun hearing chiak again (French/English)

Wednesday was one of our normalproselytizing days, we taught a few lessons and tried to resolve some concerns that an investigator had after he looked up all sorts of fun anti.. Anti is so lame.. You'll find it for football even, it's just the stupidest excuses to have doubts and attempt to justify them.. A less active we are working with said this, "I use to look up anti because I'd get mad at the church and want to justify my anger" which is true in most cases.. The best way to learn truth is to learn if from the God of all truth and pray! . Friday we were in the Canada day parade, it was awesome! We handed out tons of cards and it felt so awkward to have a rock float in front of us and a pizza store behind us, both blasting acdc. We then had another zone training for Nova Scotia where a few of us were able to bear our final testimonies.. That was awesome. There were 6 missionaries of the 14 going home In our zone and each time one of us went up it was like watching a friend go in their mission again.. I'm not excited to end my mission.. I hope you all know that. It's like being torn in half. I love the people here, and the missionaries I've served around have become some of my best friends and my dearest family. Of course I miss you all in the promised land and I'm not going to stay here forever like mom dad and dusty may think.. But I honk you get the point. The mission is awesome. 

Ensign Wall

I've been reading a chapter every night before I go to bed in French, and it's been awesome to see how God is blessing my efforts to keep the language. I run into people from all over the place every day and many of them speak only French.. I ran into a few sailors, a few businessmen and some tourists! One was from Montreal and started of by saying, "I am sorry my English is not very good" so we started speaking in French and he was shocked I was from the US haha.. He thought I was actually French:) so that got me right excited. 

I love you all:) I hope you have a good week and happy fourth! I'm missing my favorite holidays for the last time :) I'm missing Pioneer Day 3 times though which makes me sad.. And shark week... 

Je vous aime 

Elder argyle 

Notice the names on the bottom of this rock... I'm French as it gets