Hampton - October 20, 2014

In Saint John, New Brunswick

Dear Family, 

It is a cold brisk morning here in New Brunswick today. The temperature right now is 6 degrees Celsius. As it is starting to get pretty cold and the signs of winter are here, I am going to need to get winter clothes pretty quick. So don't be surprised if you see a charge from New Brunswick on the credit card in the next two weeks!

This week was a busy week for me. I had two exchanges and visits with the Saint John sisters as I mentioned last week. It was fun. I got to go street contacting again which is something I haven't done since Halifax. I was a little rusty at first but once I got going it became easier. One thing I am learning from street contacting is the art of small talk. That's one of the main things I learned from exchanges. Sometimes I would just offer them a pass-along card, introduce myself, and then tell them about our message. Whereas I need to talk to them a little bit first like, "Are you from Saint John?," "Are you just visiting?," that sort of thing instead of being like a salesman. There are a lot of tourists in Saint John since the Bay of Fundy is like right there. We see big cruise ships every time we're in Saint John. It's pretty cool. Anyway, I got to see some of the people that the Saint John Elders are working with. On Tuesday, when I was with Elder Quinton, we saw a guy named Brenden O'Mahoney. He has been in and out of the Church for years. He has some major anxiety issues. He met with the Saint John Elders before but he stopped meeting with them because he didn't like one of the Elders that were here before. He sounds like a bit of a rough investigator. I think the Saint John Elders have their hands full with him. He said that he goes to a different church but still strongly believes in the doctrine of the Church. He doesn't go to the Ward in Saint John because he doesn't like the ward. So those two don't go hand-in-hand with one another. You can't have a testimony of the Church but go to another Church just because you don't like the members. Later on that night we went over to the ward mission leader's house for dinner. He is a really nice ward mission leader. His name was Bro. Cosman. They have a family of 10. They had a son who just got back from his mission in California. Then they have another son who's out on a mission right now. I really enjoyed working with Elder Quinton. He seems so focused and hard-working, 

Then on Thursday when me & Elder Allsop worked together, we got to do a family-history booth in the mall for two hours with the Saint John Sisters. It was cool. We had quite a bit of success. There were quite a few people who were interested in their family history. We had this one lady ask us about one of her ancestorsand then we showed her how to look it up. Now she's going to look more into it. It was great. 

So yesterday we started the stop-smoking with Andy (Rhonda's husband). So if he does stop smoking, then he can baptize Rhonda. That would be amazing if he could do that. He has been smoking since he was 11. So it's going to be a little harder for him but I have faith that he can do it. Were going to follow-up with him every day to see how things are going. At church yesterday we had a potluck. The Kennebecasis ward holds a pot-luck right after church every other month. It was really good. They had mainly finger-foods and desserts. 

Last Monday night, while we were at the Downey's, Brother Downey offered me a wool suit. He wore it on his mission. So I tried it on and it fit pretty well so I took it. The pants are a little loose but I'll just have to wear a belt. 

Tell Papa thank you for the birthday card! It got here last Tuesday.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien