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

Happy Shark Week from up North

Last week was sick.. Lots and lots of adventures. Tuesday we spent the day making travel plans, calling missionaries to have their areas ready for whitewashes and visiting so,e recent converts for elder Hansen to say see you later to. Tuesday night we were at the airport until 4:30 am because the arriving missionaries were stuck in customs.

Elder Hart asleep AGAIN

Apparently they needed a different kind of visa and so president showed the security guards my visa and it turns out I have a work permit Hahahaha... I'm 100% CANADIAN apparently. But after getting it all figured out we took the new missionaries to the mission home and took a 2 hour nap and got ready for the next day of in field orientation. We had 12 newbies come in and one of them was a long snapper for the u of u.. He is huge hahaha like 6'5. We took them out street contacting for a few hours and took care of all their safety stuff so they could spend the next while focused on working hard. Thursday morning bright and early we took the team to their new areas and then Friday was where the adventure begins.. We had a pretty regular day of planning and finding, we were able to find a guy from shri Lanka? I think that's how you spell it hahaha.. He is absolutely swollen. I think he body builds. But he has never learned about Christianity and wants to learn more about it, so we are excited to be teaching him. His only issue right now is that he works

Elder Hart in Hospital

Sunday's during he summer... Friday night elder hart had an allergic reaction.. He is allergic to sea food and he got some cross contamination from McDonald's haha.. So he took a trip in an ambulance and we spent that night until 4:30 in the hospital.. We saw the sun rising on our way home to the apartment Hahahaha.. Pretty nuts. He is doing awesome now though! He has made a full recovery and is ready to kick butt. It's a fun trio, he is our district leader and then there is elder allsop and I..

We are super excited for this upcoming transfer.. It's going to be awesome. Yesterday we had two investigators at church and a couple of less actives.. Both investigators will be baptized as soon as we get them on date. One has to overcome some addictions and the other just needs to get a witness! Our friend Aji should be coming back from India really soon as well.. Fun facts about elder allsop and I serving together again, durintransfers everyone was coming up to me and asking how excited we were and then would say, "we are so happy for you" it was like we were getting married hahaha so the whole mission knows that his is the dream team reunited for a final world championship before retirement.

Congrats to my boy Doe for finishing a good one. You have 6 weeks to not get hitched. Coop and Jayd will watch out for you. 

One thing I want to testify of really quick just so this isn't a lame schedule of what I did last week.. God hears and answers every one of our prayers. On my mission I've come to know that if I listen and seek for him he will show himself and what he wants me to do in any situation. He cares about each of us to the point that he is willing to relieve us of our stresses and anxieties of we just ask. In fact he can do anything if we just ask. I love you all:)

Happy shark week... 🐟 this is my favorite week of the year.. Make sure to tell me if they found megaledon yet..


Je vous aime!
Elder argyle
My boi Troy

Transfers with Kittens

Hi everyone! So originally we were going to do our emails Tuesday but last night we learned Tuesday will be nuts and Monday would be the better day.. So here I am again

 
 

The transfers will be posted tomorrow, so mom that means you can't go blogging this email until after tomorrow because then people will know things that they shouldn't yet. Anywho, you are all right, I will be serving with elder allsop again. THis is pretty nuts because that means Halifax ysa will be getting whitewashed after us! Those poor aps Hahahaha ... I don't think that has ever happened in the history of the mission. And what better way to end then with someone you already served with and someone who will be going home with you? Pretty excited, actually on a scale of 1 - 10 excited it's a 10.0

So this week is the insane week.. Tomorrow we have transfer meetings and then making travel plans and training new trainers, district leaders, zone leaders and sister training leaders then we go to the airport at 1 AM to pick up the newbies. Wednesday we get to hang out with the new missionaries and teach them how to do missionary work all day, Thursday is transfers so we will be driving around the mission for the whole day and then Friday we are back to normal for just a few days. 

Some fun things that happened last week....

Had tons of tiny "finding miracles" with people letting us in doors and being able to teach on the streets and so on.. There was one day that we set up a few appointments from street finding for just a few hours. SOLID. we met with a guy named mark last week, mark is a young computer science guy who is looking for a closer relationship with God. It's been really cool teaching him already, we only taught him twice, but you can tell his intent is there which means he will get his answer. Johnathan has been inviting and texting him since they met.. John is such a solid member it's ridiculous. He seems like he has been a member his whole life when you see him at church.. 

We went down to a nearby town for elder hart last week, he had a recent converts husband call him asking him to come back and baptize him. SO COOL. the guy was in the strongest man competitions where they lift up cars and pull fire trucks and stuff... So crazy. I figured out I'm allergic to cats (not all the time which is confusing but often) after I played with a bunch of kittens...  

We had the French Temple trip last week too, so I got to be around my beloved children and speak some French la! 

Je vous aime! Passes une bonne

Halifornia Livin'

Salut mes amours! 

First off, Halifornia is Halifax being California.. It was warm enough once last week to be in just shirts instead of the full suit :) the other days it was either foggy or rainy. 

Last week was awesome. The district we are in killed it and the blessings are enormous! The other elders were able to help two investigators and a less active come to church in the family ward, and one of the investigators got up and bore his testimony. It was so cool. Then for the ysa branch we had over 45 people attend compared to the usual 30 ish. There were 3 investigators, 3 recent converts and 3 less actives all there:) it's soooo cool to be able to see the fruit of your labors. Just to clear things up, these weren't all people we are teaching, but the district. Super cool. 

Johnathan got up and bore his testimony on trials, it was awesome. One of the sisters investigators got up as well and it was equally awesome. Johnathan also got a calling as a branch missionary! He was ecstatic. So were we... Last week we had some big miracles happen, many of which were just investigators falling into our laps. So the drought is over! 

I had my interview with president Pratt last week, I will be finishing here in Halifax. He told me who my new comp will be but you will have to wait until next week before you find out:) I'm really excited and I'm sure you will be too. This will be a super busy week, we have a few exchanges and an MLC and starting Saturday we will start working on transfers which are next week. This weekend we will also be going to a nearby area for elder hart (our third) who was called by an investigator and asked to preform a baptism. There also is the French temple trip, which means I will be reunited with my frenchies for a few hours:) 

Hassan (invest) elder Har, me, Wayne (RC), elder Hansen and Hassan's friend

I was studying about fasting last week and I found some cool stuff. Isaiah 58: 3

 "Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?"

When I saw this scripture I thought of myself.. Sometimes I do things, the things God asks, then I feel entitled to blessings, or not having hardships and trials. I figured life would be easy or the work would be.. But in reality it is always hard we just learn to have peace in situations and trust God will bless us either now or later with his own timing. I really liked the scripture though because it is my complaints or murmurs in scripture, "why do I fast, when nothing happens after" "why do we endure living contrary to the world when it seems like the people who aren't living the standards are being blessed" things like that.. 

"If life were truly fair, you and I would never be resurrected; you and I would never be able to stand clean before God. In this respect, I am grateful that life is not fair."  - Elder Renlund

Next time I email will be Tuesday.. Our Monday will be spent doing travel plans and getting the transfer all figured out. 

Fun story for everyone... Sometimes I can't get to sleep, but both my comps pass out quick. And they both sleep talk Hahahaha.. So I mess with them. I got elder hart do make pig noises one night.. He would talk and I would answer with a pig snort and eventually he did them Hahahaha.. Elder Hansen woke himself up by sleep talking jibberish.. It was hilarious. My comps are just as weird as I am!  

Je vous aime! 

Elder Argyle
Elder hart fell asleep for a split second.. We have an album full of pics of him sleeping in random situations.. Like car rides hahaha. He knows though don't worry!

June Companionships

Raining in June

This week was awesome. There were a lot of things that happened this week that I will remember for the rest of my life. 

I'm not exactly sure what to write about, so I'll talk about how everyone is doing and see where it goes from there... Johnathan (got baptized a few weeks ago) is doing good. He is trying really hard to live the gospel and I had a long conversation with him about it. It was really neat to see and learn how much he has changed over the past few years and I have no doubt that he had been being prepared for years until he would come in contact with us. 

Our investigators are doing well as well, we don't have any preparing for baptism currently, but it's in all of their minds:) they are working on changing a few things and then they will feel like it's possible. 

Last Thursday we had the in person MLC and it went great. We were able to ask the temple president some questions and I left grateful for the sealing power and a desire to find out what it really is.. It's a tough topic to talk about because it also involves agency but when I know what I'm saying I'll tell you:) maybe next week.. The rest of MLC we did a presentation on our mission goals and got some feedback and ideas of how we can increase our productivity, it went awesome! There was mention of a lot of "missionary gossip" where everyone had this pre determined idea of who a missionary is based on their past and how that limits progression. 

Some super cool things: 

Elder Renlund came! He held a joint stake conference and I got to shake his hand.. So cool. He asked me if I

was a dart when I told him I was from kaysville.. So believe it or not he apostles know what goes on in Davis county... :0 

Last weeks highlight, and possibly the highlight of my mission was giving a 15 month old baby in the hospital a blessing last week. We received a phone call early one morning with someone asking for help and when we arrived, the spirit flooded the room. I've never felt the spirit so strong in my life. I know that God loves every one of us and he answers every one of our prayers, I know that God really did restore his power and authority on Earth today through modern living prophets and I love being a missionary:) 

Sorry my email is a bit bland, sadly, the weather dictates my mood quite often hahaha (it's rainy) 

Je vous aime tous:) 

Elder argyle

Elder Renlund
Yan, Iacopucci (one of my children) and I after elder Renlund