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