Halifax - September 15th

Dear Family,

I am feeling a lot better today. The toothache lasted for about 3 days until it went away. I had a fever for about two and a half days as well. I phoned Sister Leavitt on Tuesday because I felt like I was coming down with a fever as well. Sister Leavitt is in charge of the medical stuff. She told me to try taking some Advil and drinking some apple juice. So I tried that, along with getting some extra rest. By Wedensday, I felt fine again. So I didn't need to see a dentist or a doctor fortunately.

On Tuesday, we did exchanges with the zone leaders.I was with Elder Dupin; he's another missionary from Utah. So we spent the afternoon doing some knocking and street contacting. When we went knocking most of the people didn't answer because it was the afternoon. But there was one lady that did answer. She was Roman Catholic so she wasn't really interested but she did tell us that she was very grateful for our service. So it was neat to see that even though some people who belong to other churches aren't interested in joining our church they're grateful that we go around and share a message about Christ because they believe in Christ as well.

After the exchange, we had a dinner appointment with the Smith's. We usually get like one dinner appointment a week in our ward. So we have to make our own meals ourselves mostly. Elder Knowles does most of the cooking luckily but I do help sometimes. We have pretty simple meals like pizza, or chicken fingers with fries, grilled burgers, mac'n cheese, that sort of thing. I know that I'll probably have to do the cooking myself at some point but yeah I can do simple meals I think. So I don't think that'll be a problem when I do have to do the cooking. The Smith's fed us really good; they gave us taco pies for dinner and then a apple strudel for dessert. We actually have two dinner appointments this week with the Vanderput's tonight. They recently moved into the ward which we helped move in the first week I got here and Millie on Thursday night. She was out of the church for a year then recently came back. I don't know the complete story. But we'll have to find a priesthood holder to come with us on Thursday since she's single. But yeah we can get one more dinner appointment then we usually do this week so that'll be good. Less money we have to spent on grocries haha.

Most of the people that we ran into that are Catholic usually don't want to move. Catholics seem to be pretty set being that way. So we don't get much luck with them. We also have run into people where we tell them who we are and what our message is and then they tell us that there is only God and why does it matter what religion we belong too. Like with this Nun I contacted at a bus stop. She sat down, then I introduced myself to her and who we are. She actually said she's never heard of us before which I found very odd since she is a nun haha. Anyway, she said she wasn't interested but does believe in God and she said God doesn't want his children to fight. So I just told her that God does love all His children and that He wants us to draw closer to Him.

There was a experience that we had on Friday when we were going to bus-stop contact. There was three people who stopped us and said "Hey, maybe our mormon brothers can help us out." So we turned around and they asked us if we could pray with them because the guy that was there said he's been struggling with anger issues and wants help from God. So we said a quick little prayer for him. Afterwards, him and his two friends told us that wasn't a coincidence that we ran into them at that moment. They seemed to have a firm believe in God but don't believe in a particular religion. But it was interesting to see they recognized us and who we were and that they recognize that they can count on us to do something like that for them.

Yeah we ran into a lot people who say "There's only God, why does it matter what religion we're a part of. With those people we just encourage them and let them know about the restoration.

This weekend we had a ward activity "The Corn Boil" on Friday night at the Dingle. It's right by a big lake. It was a beautiful view. It was fun; we had hamburgers with corn on the cob, along with some flavored popcorn. It was really good. Although I did spill some of my hot dog on my white shirt so I'll have to bleach that out. How do I get bleach stains out again? Most of the ward was there and I got to know some of them a little better. The one's I know pretty well now are Brother Dent (he's the second counselor in the bishopric) Bishop Wentzell, the Nilead's (they just moved in during the summer from Utah). They're a family that came here for a year because Bro. Nilead is finishing up his dentist degree at Dalhousie University. Apparently Dalhousie has a really good Dentist program. They have a cute little baby that I really enjoy haha. Some of the other members I know fairly well now are the Worth's (we actually gave their son a ride to the corn boil), the Smith's who I talked about earlier, the Hooder's, Brother Smith who is a ward mission leader, Brother Palmer who makes me think of  Chris because he leads a orchestra haha, Brother Lund, and of course Jessica (Layton) Walker and her husband.

Oh, Fred Layton was up here visiting Jessica yesterday at church. So it was nice to see him. He came up to me right after sacrament meeting and was excited to see me. But yeah every Sunday after Church, we do choir with Sis. Hooder which I don't mind even though I'm not much of a singer. She's really into her music haha. But we do get cookies after every week. So that's a little extra incentive for me. I've started to become more and more acquainted with the ward. They seem really friendly and genuine. At the Corn Boil, the Morphy's came and they seemed to have really enjoyed themselves. Their two girls met some kids their age and seem to really hit it off. On top of that, they came to Chuch yesterday. But they only stayed for the first two meetings. Better than nothing though. So we're seeing some pretty encouraging signs with their family.

Anyway, I have to get going pretty soon here. I still have to do my laundry today. As far as other thing go, last week we got to give a mother of a sister of our ward a blessing . Her mother isn't a member of church but was okay with us giving her a blessing. She is in a coma, and is on a oxygen machine to help her breathe.

Yesterday all the missionaries in the Halifax Metro area went over to the Mission Home to watch the CES Broadcast. Some things I really liked from it was to be not ashamed of the Savior, determine to follow him everyday, make your whole life dedicated to the Savior. "For whoso loseth his life in the service of the others shall find it."

The fall colors are starting to come out. It has been really nice this week. People here were saying that it was snowing in Calgary this last week is that true? It did rain for a couple of days here in Halifax but the rain  is really weird; it's more like misty kinda rain. It's more humid. It's kinda foggy. Something that I'm not really used to.

So next week is transfer week. We will be getting our transfer letters (which every missionary gets regardless of whether things stay the same or things change) on Sunday; then transfer day is on Thursday. I'm pretty sure I won't end up getting transferred since I've only been here for about a month and the missionaries here have been saying usually you spend 3-4 months in a area in this mission before you get transferred. But Elder Knowles probably will be getting transferred since he's been here in this area for about 5 months now. But we'll see; ya never know what can happen. But Elder Knowles is the district leader so if he leaves I wonder who the new one will be. Since it's us, the Assistants. the YSA sisters, and the family sisters. And they can't call one of the Assistants to be a district leader, and they don't call sisters to be a district leader.  So yeah by next P-Day i'll know what's gonna happen. Things have been going really with Elder Knowles by the way. We seem to feel comfortable with one another now. Our personalities have started to come out. He does have a pretty laid back personality but he does do what's asked of him.

Talk to you all later!

Love,

Elder O'Brien