Last Christmas in Canada

Hope everyones Christmas was wonderful. Mine was. 

Last week was one for the books as always... after the week was over, we had had about 2 days to work in Fredericton... So it wasn't the best week as far as meeting with the b'ys (investigators) or finding goes, but it was still an awesome week.

We sat down with Yan and taught him the Law of Chastity and some of the Christ-like attributes.. That went really well and we had him read Moroni 7 and Ether 12.. His exact words were, "Wow, i read those chapters and they are like very meaningful, it helps me a lot. I think after, oh all the good stuff is in the back and in the middle so i need to get done with the story to find the good stuff" We thought that was funny.. He is finishing up 2 nephi right now.. so he has had a tough time understanding all the Isaiah chapters hahaha.. He loves it though.. 

the good news is it has snowed again and it turned into winter in a matter of a couple of hours.. its now -15 and we got about a foot and a half of snow. Church was about 20 minutes long yesterday because the bishop wanted everyone to get home safely, so we took the sacrament and that was it. From here on out it should be nothing but white fluffy powder and massive Tractors moving snow until the end of May! Woo! haha

Saturday we had a neat experience. President called us and asked us to attend a baptism because he couldn't personally be there.. They baptized the guy in a lake. and the lake had about half an inch of ice on top of it, so they broke ice and moved it as the walked into the water.. man was i glad I wasn't in there haha.. looked cold. But it was an awesome experience too, we have a couple pictures of them jumping in and walking.. there are some really good facial expressions, make sure to check them out:)

The rest of Saturday I got to spend in Edmonston (the potentially new french area) We went around with a member from a nearby ward and visited some of the inactive members there.. by the end of the trip, we had 9 who said they would come to church every week if we were to bring missionaries up there to start a church. one of which was a high priest and two others were Melchizedek priesthood holders... Another awesome part about it all is there are still 15ish names that we didn't have time to visit.. so the place has so much potential!!!!! We called president after the day and its quite likely that this place is opening up:) President and I will be going up sometime this next month to meet with those members again and I've been asked to write a letter about the experiences up there so we can get a church going.. :) I'm super excited about it! 

love you all.. 

John 17:3

Je vous aime la

Elder Argyle

Cheers to a Canadian Crazy Christmas!

Cheers to a Canadian Christmas

That describes the next few weeks for us here... and last week. Last week was awesome. Monday night we got permission to bring Steven out with us to do some missionary work. We went to a family home evening, contacted a media referral and taught him then returned to the university and taught Steven there. Good way to start the week off on Pday! Tuesday we woke up bright and early and traveled down to Moncton for the New Brunswick Christmas Conference. I got to see most of my French posterity, minus Elder Darche and Elder Portellano who are out in Nova Scotia.. That was nice. We took a French picture.. you'll get it dont worry. The devo was awesome though, it was tons of music, testimonies, talks and a really unique talent show. We performed the missionary version of "the candy man can" but it's "the president can."  It was pretty lame because we had about 1 minute to get it all prepared. Wednesday we were visiting Woodstock and Houlton (Half in Canada and other half USA) It is always a joy to see those American flags and faster driving speeds, but man Canada definitely has nicer drivers hahaha.

Holiday Leg Warmers

We had a couple cool experiences down there. One was we had to take their car to get its tires changed so we walked to the local McDonald's to call some potentials and this guy sat by us and we ended up teaching him. He was just firing out questions and it was awesome. 

 

Thursday we were in Fredericton. We met up with Yan, who is doing awesome by the way. We taught him more about Jesus Christ's life and the Christ-like attributes which was awesome.. He was absolutely amazed with the miracle of Christ healing the man born blind. It was cool. We used a few of the Bible videos to do it.


We are teaching two other people who are working towards Jan 30 to be baptized. We need to get them to church is the only problem which should be solved now:)


Two Funny stories for the week for ya...

My Comp with Epic Hot Chocolate Spill

Numero 1: Saturday a huge gust of wind came and blew over our 5 gallons of hot chocolate for our stand... it was crappy but very funny too... Who knew wind could be so strong!

Numero 2: I got super pumped up for missionary work this week last night as I was watching the Joseph Smith movie. I especially noticed his example that he set through tribulation. He was tarred and feathered, his kids died, he was thrown in jail on a regular basis, his own friends would betray him, and he would witness all the persecution. What amazed me in watching it was how he never doubted. I was reading in Alma 17 as well where it talks about the afflictions of the sons of mosiah and alma..

"Yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."

 

 

Sometimes we go through hardships and trials to set an example for someone else. Those early saints sure set a good example for each of us, and one that is used to defend the church and strengthen our faith. I promise this turns into a funny story. So, I got super amped up about all this stuff and I knew what I needed to do to help the zone and I just ranted for like an hour or so. Elder Allsop was trying to go to bed and he tried to keep up and not be mean and fall asleep but after 45 min or so he fell asleep, I had talked my comp to sleep hahahahahahahaha. Pretty awesome. 

Feelin' Festive

This next week will be nuts. We will be in our area working for only one day.... keep us in your prayers! It helps:) May the force be with you.

Last thing, A member asked a missionary to go visit the Edmonston and area around it members.. so the missionary called president to see if it'd be ok and president said, "I want Elder Argyle to be there." I even talked to president about it. I'm like 110% sure that I will be opening it soon:) maybe in 1 or 2 transfers is my guess:)

Je Vous Aime Tous!

Elder ARgyle

Le Tour de Faith

Le Tour de Faith was awesome. It was such a fun week... The competition was Sisters vs Elders.. and the Sisters won, we are not sure how hahaha.. Somehow they did it. The week was awesome though, because it would have been impossible to get any of the standards and teach the people we are.. we had to skip most of our meals and ended up eating a super big meal once a day instead of the small scattered stuff. We saw tons and tons of success! There was one day where someone just started texting us(we write our numbers on the cards) and was interested and we were trying to find otu who it was without asking them haha.. couldn't find them in the area book and we ended up street contacting him later that day and he was like, "Ya I texted you two this morning!" we then walked a few kms to the church sat down with him and taught him the restoration.. It was super cool. Talk about right place right time.

We had a few other awesome experiences, we did a hot chocolate stand downtown (like usual) contacted a guy who didn't want hot chocolate and he then said he had lost his faith the past few years.. we got his contact info and went and taught him and he accepted the baptismal invitation. We also got a media referral who was a kid that the sisters had given a card, we talked to him on his door and he was like "yeah i talked to some missionaries on the bus today, I just felt like maybe there is a god, so i asked for missionaries to visit me." These are just a couple of the miracles, in all seriousness there was like 5 or 6 of these everyday. 

We also met a big native man named tony, we didn't sit down with him but we did invite him to church and he was like ya what time? this happens like all the time.. but he then came to church.. He loved it! We are going to be meeting with him this week:) But it was awesome because there is another native fellow here who actually was running for chief who saw him and after the prayer just sprinted to him to talk to him.. after church ended he came up to us and was like, "We need to get him baptized, that's a lamanite" ahahahaha.. it was awesome. 

Yan came to church this week, it was a fast sunday (duh first Sunday of the month) and he just loved it.. it was his first. afterwards he was like, "wow I need to come at least once a week because that helps me a lot." Steven and Liam are best friends now.. which is cool because they totally met through us.. they were in Moncton all week, but saw the missionaries there hahaha. Victor is working towards church, he committed to live af ew more commandments so that he xcan be baptized, we are moving his date back because he still hasn't came but he still wants to be baptized:) We got 30 hours of street contacting/knocking last week, it was so fun.. surprisingly, usually those things are a little bit dreaded especially with this weather but we did it.. it was awesome. The whole zone is just like a butterfly.

Weather: snowy! We are getting to the point where thats just what the weather will be, so the next few months will be full of shoveling, just enough to get us all buff or break our backs

OOO one more thing.. Last week we had a day where we pretty much just invited people to be baptized on contact and it was so weird but awesome.. we planned out how we get to an invitation naturally in studies and practiced it with a few other missionaries during comp study and it went awesome.. Between the two comps in the area we invited over 50 people to be baptized in one day and there were actually a solid 5 or 6 that accepted just in a 5 min contact. Of course we will see where it goes from there:) But MAN TOUR DE FAITH WAS SWEET! We all have such greeny fire hahaha

Almost forgot.. we rented a guitar and a violin and did a street concert last week too.. that was awesome. We had a bit of success from that too:)

I met a french guy... and a german guy thought i was french because of the way i said "Poutine"

Love you all:) My ponderize scripture is for Christmas 

Luke 2:11-12

"To pity distress is but human: to relieve it is Godlike." Horace Mann

"If you judge someone you have no time to love them." Mother Theresa 

by the way.. if you haven't checked out the new christmas videos.. they are awesome.. the Alex Boye one is my fav

Elder Argyle

Zone Conference

Last week was awesome. We had our zone Conf up in Moncton and I got to see a lot of my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. One of them has been out for only one transfer and he is about as fluent as it gets in French... So cool. Gift of tongues to the max. During Zone Conf, president Pratt showed us all "Le tour de Faith" it's a blitz week for the mission. He set some awesome goals for the mission this week to get 30 hours per comp of finding (knocking, street contacting etc) which is a crazy amount if you have a teaching pool, but we are finding ways to get it this week. We are super excited. So this next week, the entire mission will be going nuts on finding. It'll be awesome and we are really excited to see the results that will follow. Elder Allsop and I are going to make a "le tour de faith" t-shirt. I'm getting the yellow jersey. During le tour de faith we aren't doign any exchanges.. and we will be visiting Edmundston next week to see if its missionaryable:)


Playing guitar for testimonies

We had some really awesome lessons last week with our investigators. Victor, is now getting motivated to come to church, which is super cool. We just need to find him some car seats for his kids so they can hitch rides with some members. This is a big change because our first lesson with him about a month ago he said that he needs time before he makes the commitment to come and now he is making it. Liam and Steven both were overbooked with school and studies... so we only met with them once. We read Alma 32 and talked about the seed of faith. This is Liams favorite chapter and Steven at the end was like "I can do this" because he was super stressed with school and church stuff. So it was awesome to see the scriptures motivate them. Yan, had a bad day last week as well, and after the lesson he was just shining. It was amazing to see the difference the gospel can make in under an hour.  The work is going great! We also met with Bruno from Paris France.  He wants to be baptized but he wants to know a few more things first. Its amazing, all of our investigators are just so solid hahaha.  

Cool things that happened last week: a guy came up to Elder Allsop and I while he was carrying his groceries and we talked to him.. He had a long walk to do and no gloves (it was really cold) and elder Allsop just handed him his gloves.  that was awesome. the guy didn't ask for them either we just contacted him

We had a big miracle with a Recent convert who went Less active.  We had been trying to meet with him for the past 7 or 8 weeks and couldn't pin him down.. Finally we asked him to if he wanted to go to lunch and we got him:) We ate some wendy's came back tot he church and had an awesome lesson. His gf and her family are not supportive of him being a mormon and have repeatedly asked him to take his name off.. so he has been struggling pretty bad. when we talked to him about it he left pretty motivated, and he called us this morning and his gf wants to be taught! WOOOO! talk about a change wrought in the hearts of men(or his gf) by the atonement of Jesus Christ! We are hopeful to meet them both this week and see where things will go:)

My scripture this week is Matthew 6:33

Love you all:) Here is a pic of the Fredericton missionaries and the zone:)

by the way.. I'm getting a haircut sometime soon. maybe today. I know my hair is a little too long haha

I was blind, but now I see

Last week was awesome. We ate some more Chinese food with all of our Chinese investigators, including bamboo.. stuff is weird hahaha. Last week we read through Alma 36 with Liam. It went really well, our point was showing him how repentence makes us happy in hopes to help him muster the strength to stop drinking.. It doesnt even seem like a problem for him because he does it maybe once every two weeks, but he won't commit:( thats tough.. He seemed to understand very well after though, he shared his own testimony and how he has loved his experience here in Canada and how he will always believe in God now. He expressed his desire to continue changing.. This was all good news:) Steven is doing good as well, Liam came to the lesson with us to help him with understanding words that we couldnt translate into chinese for him haha.. Yan, is doing incredible.. he keeps connecting dots on different principles of the gospel and is just soaking everything in. He has been reading everyday and it was really funny, he expected us to be dissapointed when he said he was only reading one chapter per day. We were actually pretty excited about it as you can imagine. He is asking great questions and he is applying the gospel into his life. He was asking us on Saturday how he can get God's advice on what he can do for his project in comp science.. he has a very strong trust in him. its incredible to see the change in his life already. Victor is doing just dandy. He had a custody battle last week in courts for his two kids.. He is really poor and wasnt able to hire a lawyer or anyone and said a prayer before that he would be able to take care of his kids instead of his ex gf.. She had weeks of preparation and a lawyer and he ended up winning full custody. This is a huge miracle. His ex was not supportive of him bringing the kids to church.. but now he has legal permission to do what he thinks is best for them and will be able to start coming:) He also is now in the middle of 2nd Nephi with his reading. He is just flying.

 

Last week we watched the Montreal temple rededication. It was a very special experience and one I wont forget. Unfortunately they put English translation over for everyone so I only could catch bits and peices of French but it was still amazing. At the beginning I felt a really strong prompting that I needed to study more in depth the french language, even though I am in an English area and will likely be there for the next few transfers. Then later on, President Eyring said that many of us have already felt God teaching us and motivating us to improve in some aspect and we are to follow that prompting.. Never before in my life have I ever received direction and then a confirmation on that direction so fast. It was an amazing experience!

 

Right now for the zone we are trying to find different ideas that will help with self motivation to get away from the aspect of everyone having to be managed instead of lead. After lots and lots of prayer, careful study, and talking with the other leaders we have came to the conclusion that it all starts with our studies.. (a big duh I know) This is the same for everyone whether missionary or not. Without daily prayer and a sincere study spirituality and a love for God will slowly step by step diminish and your life in turn will follow suit. Make sure everyday you read and pray! Heleman 3:29 "Yea, we see that whosever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked.. 30 and land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heave, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out."

 

Love you all! By the way.. got my glasses.. I never knew how blind I was hahahaha, not sure how I played baseball! First thing I noticed was the grass (which is gone now it is snowing) you can see the blades from so far away! love you all be safe, read and pray:)

 

Elder Argyle

Transfer letters

We got transfer letters yesterday, Elder Edge is going to do some lost sheep search and rescue in PEI. I will be holding down the fort in Fredericton with Elder Allsop. I haven't met him yet, the mission is kind of huge, so there isn't a lot I can tell you about him yet other than he was serving on a native reserve for quite some time and did some really good things there:)

Last week was awesome. I went on exchanges down to Woodstock NB and Houlton Maine. It was great driving on a freeway that was fast! 121 KM compared to 100! We had some awesome contacts and found quite a few potentials to teach and the Woodstock elders did some awesome follow up and are now teaching a few of them:) By the way, If you didn't realize it.. Last Monday and Tuesday I was in the USA. Felt good <3 miss that place

 

 a members very funny dog.. he sits on the couch like this

 

Some fun things that happened last week.. played basketball with the YSA and our investigators, who knew Chinese people loved basketball so much? We did our hot chocolate stand and met a bus full of German students who are touring Canada.. That was really interesting they were very curious about what mormons believe haha especially about the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. The sisters, as you know from previous letters, crashed and totaled their car a few weeks ago.. so they have been sharing ours.. We had two lessons scheduled at 7 and 8 PM and the sisters were about 30 min out of town and couldn't get out of the door for whatever reason.. So we literally ran across town (its a big city) to get to the lesson.. We were 30 min late but it was still pretty awesome. They gave us the car right when we got to the bottom of the hill where the church is.

 

Our lesson with Yan (24 computer science from china) went so good. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he was like, "Oh that's easy I don't like any of that anyways." He loves learning the different "Rules" because he knows that its good for him. We also asked about his prayers and he had a super powerful experience. His mom was in Paris this past week and he wasn't able to get in contact with her. He prayed she would be safe and she was able to get the last flight out of France. He said it was God protecting her and he also said "I love you" to Heavenly father during his prayer at the end. It was so awesome. Also he connected the dots with the apostasy and restoration and said, "So what do we do with all the other churches? Do we destroy them?" hahaha of course we told him we don't destroy them but it was funny. 

Steven and Liam are doing great as well. They both came to church and they are feeding us tonight :) super excited. We made Crepes for a lot of the members and all the investigators yesterday after church and it was really funny.. All the Chinese investigators (three of them) wanted to try making them and did a good job.. Liam  made his a Christmas tree. So my previously learned skills are coming to good use! 

Je vous aime! Il n'y a pas beaucoupe de francais ici mais je practique chaque journee!

Elder Argyle

 

November 9th - Elder Glasses

Last week was nuts.. literally crazy frantic driving around New Brunswick. Last Tuesday the assistants came in and Elder Edge and I split with them to go cover two different areas to help the District leaders. Literally the minute we got back to Fredericton we got a call from the Sisters who had crashed and totaled their subaru 45 minutes out of town. I'll find the pic its a good one. So we had to play search and rescue and head down to them. They both were completely fine though, it's a huge miracle.. they both fell asleep and drove off the road into a ditch, pulled out a few fence posts, hopped a creek, knocked a few trees dodged a few boulders and landed in a nice pile of dirt and grass.. didn't roll once just skidded on its side. They both had literally no injuries not even a scratch. Once again Elder Sortomme's wise words he told me in Corner Brook , "God is merciful to idiots." aren't we so happy he loves us haha:)

Fredericton is doing great. Only two of our investigators showed to church this last week... Yan (24) China and Steven (20) China. They are progressing really fast. They don't feel quite ready to pick a day to make a covenant but they are working on it:) Liam (24) China couldn't come. He had a lot of things pop up.. but it's ok we will forgive him this once he did make it 11 times in a row. Victor hasn't been to church yet but he is literally feasting upon the Book of Mormon.. He loves it. We are helping him resolve a few concerns about church.. 

News.. went to the eye doctor and he had a good laugh. He was very surprised I had never had glasses before and said, "You have been missing out on a lot!" Also he said, "You are two weeks late, you would have seen all the leafs." I definately needed glasses.. Haven't bought any yet but I did learn what I need to get. It was nice being able to read the letters on the wall instead of guessing hahahaha

One of our investigators has been asking us to teach him all the commandments first because one of our other investigators said we don't smoke,drink etc etc.. He sent us a message on facebook and said, "I want to learn more about your rules because I know that they are good for me." He also talked about how he has been praying everyday and has felt a big difference in his attitude and hasn't been getting angry. So we have been teaching him the commandments, law of chastity, word of wisdom and so on and he loves them. God knows his sheep!

This week i'll be down in Woodstock/Houlton Maine.. So I'll be in the usa for just a moment #USAUSA󾓦

love you all:)

Elder Argyle

This last week I've been studying a lot about missionary work.. and of course a lot of the best examples are in Doctrine and Covenants.. I'll be ponderizing D&C 68:6 this week

November 2nd

Last week was miracles. We went on exchanges, so I served in Fredericton with a missionary from another area while Elder Edge went with the DL.. It was pretty fun. The Missionary I served with was.... Elder Gardner! (this is for Dennis) he is good. He was a fun missionary to serve with because he had previously served in Corner Brook a few months before I had served there.. It was fun talking about the work and area. We had a couple of really awesome miracles while we were on the streets.. We went to a former investigator's house who had moved and talked to the guy who moved in. It was a 24 year old computer science student from China. He was super interested and we ended up teaching him on Saturday and he then came to church Sunday. After church, he said, "So how do I come back next week? Do I need to walk?" And we asked him how he enjoyed it and he absolutely loved it. Steven and Liam both came as well! they are doing super. We will be inviting Steven to be baptized this week. We first need to teach him what it is though because the only background he has is what he has done with us haha.. He will accept it though, we are quite certain:) We also contacted a referral from the Bishop named Victor. Victor is a single dad, the mother had some big issues that could have effected the family so the dad packed up the kids and got out of there. His mom was a member, but passed away  a few weeks ago.. He had wanted to be baptized for 3 years.. but was unable. He has now given up smoking, drinking, and coffee so he can be baptized before we even met him! He is on date to be baptized in December so keep Victor in your prayers:)

 

Halloween went good. We spetn our time planning while we cooked some poutine in the oven. Poutine is the worlds greatest food and if nobody starts a poutine restaurant back at home then i will. It's gravy and cheese curds on fries.. <3 what more can i say.. I also listened to a lot of French talks/church movies.. nobody knocked on our door:( probably because we have a picture of Jesus on it and the guessed it was missionaries.. or it could have been because we were in an apartment building. 

 

Funny story for you.. people still can't say Argyle.. the bishop's kids keep calling me R guh Lay.. it's fun. 

Another funny story.. One the YSAs here went to weber and his roommate was a dart... he also lived in Alberta and went to the same ward as one of the sister missionaries now serving here.. they were friends before the mission and now shes on a mission in the same ward where he is going to school... talk about weird stuff..

My ponderize scripture is D&C 121:45,46 love you all:)

Transfer to FREDDY TOWN

What a week! Wednesday night I got on the plane and flew back down to the mainland. Thursday morning I hopped on the transfer bus and was taken down to Moncton to meet the New Brunswick missionaries and then we drove down to Fredericton! We are about one hour away from the boarder of the US in Main.. the place is beautiful. all the trees are turning right now and it is a very colonial looking city with a great river running through it... super super cool. Love at first sight.

My new comp is Elder Edge! he is from Lindon, Utah and he has been out for about 19 months. It's been a really fun couple of days, very packed and busy.. We have been planning conferences, exchanges and who knows what else. We were in a trio for a few days as well with an elder from Oregon named Elder Alger.. we look like brothers. I'll have to get you a picture next week. He looks like a mix between Elder Cook and I. We actually got called twins a few times... good stuff. We are teaching a few people, one named Liam from China. He could be baptized any minute. We are working on him getting over drinking. We just need him to commit to living the word of wisdom and then he will be baptized that Saturday. He has been to church the past 6 weeks and its really really amazing. He started off with no belief in God. Now he where's bracelets and other things that have different quotes on them and he is reading and praying and it is so cool. He is 24 by the way and he will be heading back to China in a few months after Christmas. 

"Prophet" drawn by investigator Liam

 

We picked up a new investigator last night from Cameroon! It was super cool and a testimony to myself that I was supposed to be here in Fredericton. My comp does not speak anything other than English, but I speak French and this guy was a potential from many years ago. We called him and set up something. went over and taught him and it was weird! I did all the teaching of course but it was really amazing to just show up in an area and find a French speaker just waiting for us! We are meeting him again tonight:)

 

We had a few really funny experiences last week as well. We went contacted next to the university here and it became like a congregation. We had people stopping and joining in in our contacts as we were talking to other people. At one point I think we were talking to 5 or 6 people at once. We picked up 18 potentials in about an hour and a half and it was absolutely incredible. The spirit is working super hard on these people. We even had a lady who started swearing at us from inside her house.. so we knocked again and she came out and set up a time for us to come back! The spirit had been leading us all week and it was touching the hearts of the people we came in contact with. It was incredible. 

 

Fredericton is not a French community  but with the universities and the tourist attractions. I have met a whole lot of frenchies:) They are always super super shocked when I speak to them! The ward here is awesome, small but powerful. There are like 4 or 5 young families so its weird hearing babies cry in sacrament.. feels like Utah. Here is my new address:

 

270 St Mary's Street
Apt 10
Fredericton NB E3A-2S4
CANADA 

 

By the way, the (birthday) cake was good. My comp elder Edge ate most of it. He is a piggy but it was still a great breakfast for like a week hahaha. We have been running all over. There are 24 missionaries in our zone, none of which are French, but I am getting a great grand son this week. The son of the elder I trained is training a new Frenchy from Utah.. so all in all there are 7 missionaries that were trained by me or my sons! pretty awesome:) I'm like Abraham. We will be on exchanges quite often.. probably once a week with different areas. At some point I'll be in the usa (main) so we will be in the same country! As for when, we haven't planned but we will see soon:) love you both thanks so much! the bug looks great! aubs sounds awesome and g is really 5'5? He will be taller than me when I'm home..... I'm only 5'9. Stop feeding him.

 

love you!

 

elder argyle

 

Transferring to the big city!

First I'll start with the transfer.. I'm moving to Fredericton which is a city of 60,000 or so which will be a blast. It also has a ward... #CHURCHBASKETBALL. My first ward <3 its only 1/4 French population though, but it is an increase from Corner Brook which had maybe 2 people who spoke French. I feel like my mission is acting as real life right now. I have to study so much in French and still say prayers and whatever else I possibly can so I don't loose it!

The mission is a blast. Last week, we were teaching Franky who wanted to move his baptismal date up, so we did. We can't find him right now though but we have been searching every Tim Horton's (coffee/hot chocolate shop) in town to find him and it's only a matter of time. Paul and his family, another investigator, are doing super. He has cut down on smoking from 15 to 4 cigarettes a day and is on his way to be done for good:) After that there is nothing left that'll stop him.. He told us he believes Joseph Smith to be a prophet, loves the church, loves the members, and believes in the Book of Mormon too! He is a stud. Pretty excited for him.

Last week, an older member of 84 years old called us and asked for us to come help him dig out a pipe. We figured that it would be like a tiny little hole.... but it was a 6 foot deep hole to get under the foundation of the house. It was too close of a dig for the city to get a tractor to do it and refused.. so we spent a solid few hours digging. Oh man, it felt like back at home shoveling dirt for the grass and plants. ooof. picture will be included. I was covered in mud.

In between conference sessions on Saturday we went out finding. We went to a potentials house to find his younger brother and sat down with him and taught him instead and it went really good. Elder Sortomme and his new comp will be meeting with him on Saturday. He has another brother out west who just joined the church as well! Super cool stuff.

 

Yup...I'm a Zone Leader

Dennis and the senior couple took us out to bottle cove last pday.. many pics will be attached :) 

 

So I am now a zone leader so I will need extra prayers. Me and my new comp are leading New Brunswick West zone which is 26 of the missionaries and 1/5 of the areas in the mission.. Big stuff! I will leave on a plane Wednesday night and be in my area Thursday afternoon. I do not know my address yet but you'll know next week:) 

Digging a hole

Thanks for all you do for me:) the package was great.. the socks are awesome, and the hat, beenie cereal gift cards candy and CHEEZ ITZ oh man those are good. love you both greatly:)

God is Merciful to Idiots

Elder Sortomme said that to me after I ran a read light by accident hahaha... It was ok though nothing happened.

Last week was a super week. I know last weeks letter was kind of garbage but we didn't have too much time to email and I was really anxious to get driving! So my apologies :) Last week though.... incredible. So many miracles I can't even describe. We were out of our area for 3 days because of Zone conference.. but we got back and worked probably the hardest I have every worked in my life because we needed to catch up with everyone else. The miracles that followed were amazing. I'll share a few with y'all.

One miracle was we felt that we needed to go knocking.. we don't do too much knocking anymore because it is a less affective finding tool, but we felt to knock.. at 8PM.. two things that just don't go together haha.. the first house we knocked on that answered was a younger dad who instantly just spilled out his entire week to us and how worried he was about his kids going to school because people were telling them there is no God. We taught him about families and the church and met with him the next day. 

Second, we had a lesson where an investigator didn't show up and we felt, lets go walk to these former investigators house's.. so on the way we met an 18 year old and a 15 year old who were super interested in what we share.. They were actually deciding that day to go to church on Sunday. 

and the last one I'll share was on Saturday, we had another lesson fall through (happens) and we felt to go visit a few different Less actives.. we ended up getting to sit down with three that day, which is a lot because of how spread out everyone is.. its a rare thing to find some many at home at the perfect time.. We really felt the spirit leading us all week long! We met so many great people, one who we will be teaching tomorrow whose brother married a Mormon out west in British Columbia and is now a baptized happy family member of the church. We ran into a few different families, both partially member and completely non member who were inviting us back, not us setting up the appointments. It truly was the best week of my mission as far as hard work and miracles goes. Super amazing.

 

Ecclesiastes 11:4

"He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." 

the way i read this is.. Don't make excuses and just do it! love you all!

Plan O Salvation - Minon Style

Today is going to be a crazy boring day. We have 8 hours of driving to do right after this.... :o

problems with massive missions eh? We are driving down to our zone conference with a 70, Elder Perkins. It'll be really cool but man what a drive! I saw three moose last week as well driving for exchanges... Big boys.. that's for sure. Moose hunting season started Saturday as well, so everyone in the branch is telling us "Drive safe, all the moose will be on the road instead of in the forest" I guess moose are really grumpy too and if you see one, you can't stop or he will charge your car and hit you hahaha... 

 

Plan of Salvation - Minon Style

 

Last week was fun, and good. I was on exchanges with Elder Hardesty (California) whom I was serving with sort of (same apartment) in Moncton/Dieppe many moons ago.. That was awesome. He has the same personality as a younger poppa jon except not a raging love for vws but for chavelles. 

Michael, our investigator who came to church and bore his testimony.. dropped us. hahaha.

We went over to teach him and he was just apologizing the whole time about how "he doesn't have the desire to know if god is there or is real" It was a very strange experience.. He is extremely agnostic, but loved church, loved its teachings, loved the people but didn't want to be a part of it. All his difficulties would have been fixed by it as well.. sad stuff. So, the search goes on for the one:)

Last Saturday, the branch went to a massive fundraiser for Cancer and we were invited.. It was really cool. They set up a track and there were different "teams" that signed up. At least one member had to be on the track at all times for 8 hours! We had billboards set up for the church with all sorts of hand outs and we would go talk to other people on the track because they can't run away :) hehehe. It was a really cool experience and we met a lot of people.

pics.. Brianna (member) made me a tiny hat/braid

 

Newfie Phrases & Tie Exchanges

There is a newfie phrase for you... it means we're the boys.

the next one is.. "I DIES AT YOU" or you make me laugh/you're funny

This week was superb me duckies. (another newfie phrase for my duckies which is a term of endearment) We had a long drive down to the middle of newfoundland for a zone conference with president Pratt as well as the elder who is charge of the health department.. It was awesome! I learned something new about flossing... makes you live 6 years more!

 

On a spiritual/missionary side though week was great. The zone conference was focused on improving our studies and working with members which was well needed because to be frank our mission sucks really bad when it comes to members. We started applying what we learned as soon as we got back and it turned out for the best.

Cool experience... Last Wednesday we were out visiting potentials/formers which is our favorite finding tool. On our way back down to the car we met a man named Michael, who we taught that Saturday and he came to church that yesterday. The man is a diamond in the rough. He is 62, grew up catholic, has two kids who live in Toronto and he has quite the education as well.. he has a PHD in psychology.. fun stuff. Anyways he came to church this last Sunday, and bore his testimony! It had only been a solid 24 hours since we first taught him and he asked me "Am I aloud to go up there if I'm not a member?" and we said yes duh and he went right up and told everyone how great missionaries are and how we (the missionaries) didn't know it when we were walking up to him but he was a "willing target" hahaha it was awesome. He really enjoyed church too.

 

 

We have been meeting with David, another investigator, he is working towards baptism in October. We will be meeting with him again tonight and he will be at church this next week.. we will make sure of it:) (he only lives like 3 houses away from the church)

French Fortune

 

 

2 kings 5

 

Love you all like crazy. I'm doing great, my areas are doing awesome, the mission is fun and difficult which is exactly what it needs to be otherwise we wouldn't change or grow! My beard grows in just a few minutes now instead of hours.. Something you'll need to try if you ever get up into canada is putine.. its french fries with cheese and gravey all over and its glorious. Love you all:)

 

 

 

Tie Exchange

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prophets are Cool

 This week was nuts.

 First off, the weather here has been wonderful  here the past few weeks... Its been like 18 degrees all day everyday.. talk about heavenly.. nice ocean breeze, occasional cloud, sunshine etc..

 The past few weeks have been super cool, mostly because everything we study and role play each morning turns out to be exactly what we would be doing a few hours later.. We have met tons and tons of people. One I am going to share just because the experience was so amazing.

We were making our way downtown on a road called Humber, visiting potentials and former investigators from the past 5 or 6 years.. we had seen this one guy walking around a few times but he was always in a spot where it would have been illegal,dangerous, and bizarre for us to get to him to talk to him.. (traffic laws and traffic in general) By the end of our list of people to stop by, he was on our side of the road.. HALLELUJAH.  He was in a gang while he was in Toronto, had two kids and needed to leave.. He was getting in huge trouble and did a lot of jail time. He was only 27 as well. We met him and started talking to him and it lead to us sitting down on the ground and just testifying to him about Jesus Christ and his divine mission. The spirit was insanely strong and it was just another moment when you feel how much God loves people. The whole time I could just see him at church in white.

The past week I studied a lot about prophets and authority. There were many many cool things I learned that I'm not going to share because you may think I've gone a little crazy and Dusty may not hang out with me when I get him because I'll be too weird.  BUT I was learning a lot about the different signs that God gave to prophets.. For instance Moses with his Leprous hand and the snake staff. I finished the book of Mormon again in French this week (even though I'm English now but hey maybe some day I'll rejoin my brethren in the new brunswick land) I'm not going to tell you anything but the scripture references and you can figure it out on your own..

Moroni 10:27, Isaiah 29:4,10-14) JSH 1:64-65
If you know the scriptures.. you'll know that there is a certain church that we are a part of that is fulfilling the prophecies left by prophets hundreds and even thousands of years ago.. cool things :) love you all

Elder Argyle

Pictures.  Elder Mcguire.. Arizona, we were with each other last week because our comps went back to nova scotia and our newbs weren't here for a few more days.  The corner brook missionaries before the transfer and some cool scenery.. or angels coming down, you judge

Driving the Mormon Mobile on the Rock

This week was pretty solid! The first half of the week I was on exchanges with Elder Mcguire from Arizona.. He is the Newfie "captain on the rock" That was pretty fun. We had a few different experiences with finding solid potentials including one that was just a guy who was parked in his car on the side of the road. Funny thing I just remembered, we were putting gas in the car and when we went to pay the lady said, "ok $50 for the Mormon Mobile." She turned out to be someone who had met missionaries out west and is still in contact with them. We hope to be meeting her soon I think she wants to be Mormon.

We got our transfer letters as well. Elder Wilson will be leaving and Elder Sortomme, who was in the same district as me when I first came out, will be my new comp. Also Elder Hardesty (California) is leaving Moncton and Coming to Newfoundland #woopwoop. He is solid. 

We have two conferences in the next month.. Which is not a usual happening, but we have a seventy member coming to meet us. Pretty stoked, we only have to drive 8 hours.

 

Some cool stuff that happened this week, we found a few people who wanted to learn and two of them are on date to be baptized. It was originally three but the third we did a stop by to follow up and he told us he wants to keep drinking and smoking and didn't want to change so he is no longer there. 

One of them we were street contacting our way to a former investigators house and he was a first contact so we walked with him and taught him sat down committed him to be baptized and set up a day to come back! Its amazing how god prepares people and if you are willing to listen puts you in the right place at the right time. 

 

This Morning I studied in Alma 26, as well as ether 12. I'll share a little bit of it with you all... In Alma 26, Ammon is pretty stoked about the success and joy that they have in helping the Lamanites come to Christ. They had helped in the conversion of the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's.. In vrs 23-24 he talks about the Nephites and their attitude towards him and his brothren going to preach to them, but regardless of what they thought they knew they went knowing God prepared souls to receive them. verse 22 is a good one.. check it out.

Love you all, hope its a splendid week chez vous! 

picture is me with Elder Edward's (senior couple) glasses on

Corner Brook at night from across the bay

Becoming an Official Newfie

 

 

This week was super splendid. Not only was the weather awesome all week (above 20 degrees so like 70ish in america) but we were blessed with some huge miracles... and Some of the elders in the area became "official newfies" and I'm one. :) thanks to some awesome members.. I have a video of it.. but it'll have to wait a year before it makes it to theatres. 

Last week we had some really really awesome experiences. We have been focused this transfer on faith and diligence, breaking down each week into different focuses to help with those.. last week was prayer and studies. Making your prayers and studies a part of your day.. So for instance if you study about baptism, well you better invite someone to be baptized or your study wasn't applied. We had an awesome experience with that, we did some roleplays on putting someone on date and a few hours later went and visited some formers and put one on date! His name is David, so keep him in your prayers:) he is great. 

Another really cool experience was we were finshing knocking a road, and there was a younger guy sitting outside of a house on a door we had previously been by and we thought to just go talk to him. He had just moved back from Alberta and was going through a lot of really difficult things. His dad was murdered, his twin was in really bad drugs and even he himself got involved.  It was amazing to see how fast he accepted each thing we taught. There are certain times on your mission when you just feel how much God loves certain people and that was definately one of the times where you could just tell that he was brought back for this specific reason. 

We had plenty of other experiences that happened as well. Elder Wilson (companion) turned 25 last week although he looks younger than me. I'd say actually probably not I look 16 still. But the senior couple went and decorated the appartment for him when he got back. It was pretty cool. It's amazing what you can do for someone that'll show them that you love them.

 

Celebrating 1 year out

Fun: We had  a branch activity up at this small waterfall.. There is where we had to become newfies, which came by kissing a Cod fish (coincidence?) drinking a tiny thing of cod liver oil (really gross one missionary got sick hahaha) and then some fruit punch and newfie songs and sayings while in fishing clothes..  

Newfie song:

"I's the Bys that builds the boats

and I's the Bys that sails er

I's the By's that catch the fish

and Takes em ome to liza"

translation ( We are the boys that build the boats, and we're the boys who sail them, we're the boys who catch the fish and bring them home to Eliza)

 

Ether 1:42

love you all

Elder Argyle

Seal flippers and friendly squirrels

Hi family and friends,

This week, as most weeks in missionary life, was a good one:) 

We started it off with our typical Monday night, family home evening with the branch and meeting with a superman recent convert. He lives a solid 50 km away from the church, but he drives down here 3x a week for activities and church.. cool guy:) 

 

We had a few really cool experiences last week, one of which included visiting some potential/former investigators from a few years back. We had planned to visit one in particular, who ended up not being home but we knew we were in the right area. So we felt we needed to talk to his upstairs neighbor and when we did, a younger guy in his 20's opened and was like "Missionaries!" It was really strange because that threw us off a ton.  But he had been reading about the church online (good things) and had requested a Book of Mormon, but it never got to him. So we set up a time to stop by him (this Wednesday) . It was really cool because that isn't where he lives. He was just babysitting for a friend. We knew that we had been lead by the spirit to go to that former's house even though he didn't work out, just so we could be in the right place at the right time. 

I got a letter from a recent convert this week as well telling me how much he appreciated all that we were doing to help him with church. I had let this brother read my patriarchal blessing so he would not be so terrified of getting his own in a few months down the road, and his letter was just him telling me how he understands now why we believe and do so much because of what we are promised. 

 

I read through Alma 37 again this morning which is my favorite chapter in the BoM. What stood out to me this time was in the first few verses.. Alma is teaching his son Helaman about the records that had been kept since their fathers (lehi's family) had left Jerusalem. He commands him to continue this calling of recording the history of this people. In verse 6 Alma then says, "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." In verses 8,9, and 10 he explains what these records that they have been keeping accomplished and will yet accomplish.. "These records and their words brought them unto repentance..... they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer." I'd encourage all of you to read through Alma 37:1-10.. or the whole chapter if you have the guts. and think about how powerful the scriptures, both modern and old, are. Ponder what writing your own records can do for you and your family as well... Mosiah 2:41

love you all! :):) 

 

oh by the way.. seal flippers is because a member wants to feed me some.. I'm so excited I hope it happens. The friendly squirrels part is because you can almost pet them.. wow Canadian animals are almost as nice as the people!

By the way.. a member showed up from who knows where.. her Fiancée is a French African.. He is the reason I'm here I know it! He comes in September.. so stoked to have a French friend

I don't remember if I sent some of these or not... but I am handing a BoM to a squirrel right here.. and that's a cruise ship from Boston, some sunsets, some squirrel and our branch!

 

 

 

elder Argyle

je vous aime, meme jango

By why you so stunned?

We had our week of summer! it was over 20 degrees for like 3 days straight haha :)

 

Last week was a fun one. Its really weird being in an area with sister missionaries and a senior couple. We see each other on the streets and its a little awkward because they have talked to everyone in the direction they want to go and vise versa. Needless to say we are going to get a little more organized, haha. 

 

We met a few people that were very solid last week. We will be visiting them this week and are really excited. One in particular is an older lady who openly said that she doesn't believe in any church because they aren't doing what they are supposed to. She believes God has a body and is like us. She also had a dream about the plan of salvation pamphlet that we share.. very cool. 

 

We had a branch activity this saturday for the branch presiden'ts wife, who has Cancer and is going in for surgery this week, that turned out super. People brought her stuff that she could have while in Montreal for the next month and it reminded me of how our ward back home helped Davis Cox, and how the whole community jumped in. During the activity, we got called to help someone move who just got evicted and had nowhere to go. Within 20 minutes the branch president had 10 preisthood holders and 3 trucks and they were moved within the hour! It was so cool to see how fast it all happened and there is nowhere else on earth except in the church that you will see such charity.

Cool experience for you.. Elder Wilson and I were out visiting some potential investigators and we had the strongest feeling to go to a specific door nearby. We went to it and met this girl who the sisters will now be meeting with! Such an awesome experience! And just a few minutes later, Elder Wilson had the same thing happen which led us to finding someone who really really needs the church and is investigating. 

James 1:27

Love you all:) Newfy phrase of the week for you... "By why you so stunned?" Translation - Boy why are you so stupid?

 

hehe

 je vous aime encore

 

Elder Argyle

Transferred to the ROCK!

The votes are in America... and I've been transferred to......

Moncton from a tiny trail of Dieppe

Corner Brook Newfoundland! *cheers/claps/woops

It is 100% official... I am going to be a Newfy. I am no longer a French missionary, which is a bumber but I'll make sure to make time to keep time for the French language in studies. So this Thursday, I take a plane with another Elder and a sister to Newfoundland. Can't tell you how excited I am! 

This week however, was a fun one.. Our investigator decided he was going to stay Catholic, even though he doesn't believe in the church and gets upset if he is called Catholic. His concern he kept bringing up was that he wouldn't see where his 10% went if he payed tithing. More or less we believe that was a pretty lame surface concern but that's all he would really tell us after we answered all his questions. So we are back to level 1 of finding all the time haha.. which is still pretty fun except for the fact we are running really low on Book of Mormons and the next refill will be in 2 weeks... 

We did, however, teach quite a few less active lessons this week. In one in particular we read Alma 36 with a mom and her son who is 24. During the lesson you could see the scriptures having a massive affect on the son as he thought about the story of Alma and his conversion. The mom was very touched by the message and made comments throughout about how it's so nice to get back from work and sit down and relax and learn about God and Jesus Christ.

We also are assigned home teaching and we had a lesson yesterday talking about the early saints and what helped them cross the plains. We talked about Compassion, Hard work, and Optimism and I couldn't help but to share Elder Davis Cox's story. If you haven't read the first presidency message for this month, do so.. it is quite powerful if you let it be.  Also met a dog named Jango, but it was Django after the movie... but still!

 

Our funeral for elder Erickson (my trainer)

 

Je vous aime,

Elder cody Argyle

"Regarding one's testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses..." - President Monson