March 16, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Mahone Bay

This week has been very eventful and busy. I thought that spring was on its way but it has been cold here all week. Church got cancelled again yesterday because of another snow storm. So we had to stay indoors. We got about 15 cm of snow. Hopefully this was the last big snowfall we get for a while. I'm hoping by conference all the snow will be gone. That's only 3 weeks away by the way!

Last Monday Night, we went to family home evening with the Nillsons. They invited us over and had us help teach the lesson which was "The Plan of Salvation". Aisha taught it. She is the youngest in the family. They have a tradition where they have missionaries put their handprints on their wall. So I put mine in red paint. While we were over there, Brother Nillson mentioned that their son just got transferred to Lethbridge. He's in the Sharon Park, Mountain Heights ward. So if you see him around say hi to him for me.

Wednesday, we went out to Lockeport. Lanie reached out to us and invited us for lunch with his friend from Cole Harbour. He said he has been reading the manual, pamphlets, and Book of Mormon but has a hard time understanding everything but he wants to believe that it is true. We were going to teach him about the Plan of Salvation but we felt prompted to teach him about the Gospel instead particularly "Enduring to the End." We were also going to put him on date for baptism but felt like it wasn't the right time to do that yet. It's cool how sometimes you go into a lesson with a set lesson plan but end up deviating from it because the Spirit tells you to. After that we went to Liverpool and did some knocking which proved to be ineffective. It was actually nice out on Wednesday. 

Thursday was transfers. It was fun as always. I dropped off Elder Nielsen at the Mission Office at 6. Then I went with Elder Sortomme for the day until after the temple. Going to the temple was amazing as always. I got to see Elder Bodine and Elder Torrie there. Every time I go to the temple I love it more and more. There is such an amazing feeling when I go. A feeling of incredible peace and happiness. There's not a feeling in the world than when I'm in the temple. At the end of the temple session, Elder Torrie embraced me and said something that touched me. "I love ya Elder O'Brien. Work hard, have fun, keep smiling, no regrets." I loved Elder Torrie. He was one of the first missionaries that took me in right when I got into the mission. He cared about me and I could tell that I meant a lot to him. We had some fun times in the apartment in Halifax. I have now been able to go to the temple 5 times on my mission and I feel very blessed that I have gotten go there quite a bit. Every time I go, after the session is over all the returning missionaries give each other hugs. I've wondered what It would be like to be getting ready to go home. Is it hard? Is it bittersweet? What is it like? It gives me motivation to one day go to the temple with all the missionaries I came out with and hug each other saying, "We made it."  I love the inscription on the temple "House of the Lord, Holiness to the Lord." That really stuck out to me this time. It is the Lord's holy house. LOVE THE TEMPLE. LOVE THE SPIRIT THAT'S THERE. Elder Bodine was excited to see me. He gave me a hug right when he saw me. He looked really happy to be going home. He said that Hampton misses me and that every time he's at the Downey's for supper. Kaylia asks if the tall, really skinny elder is ever coming back haha. I miss Hampton. It seems like forever ago now that I was there. 

Friday we gave service at the the Lion's club in New Germany. It was a service referral we got while knocking a while ago. We helped clean and put away dishes mostly. That lasted for about two hours. They gave us dinner as our reward. We also visited Brother Tidd so Elder Beckmen could get to know him. Elder Beckmen is very missionary minded, works really hard, and is a forceful missionary. Being the senior companion has been good for me. I'm developing more confidence in myself. It's helping me grow.

Well that's all I got for this week. 

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

March 9, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

It has been a good week. We have getting warm weather all week. It has been up to plus 6 degrees. The lowest was -11 with barely any snow. The signs of spring are here. Yesterday we got transfer letters and I am going to be staying in the Bridgewater Area with a new companion. Elder Nielsen is getting transferred. My new companion is going to be Elder Beckman. He is from Chandler, Arizona and he has been out for about 4 months. So I am now going to be in charge of the area and the older missionary in the companionship. So I'm going to be the senior companion. I was a little caught off guard when I read that Elder Nielsen was being transferred. I felt positive that we would both be staying. But I prayed for a spiritual witness that this decision was inspired and I got a confirmation that it was. I'm a little nervous about being in charge of the area and taking the lead. But I know it'll be a good experience for me. It'll give me the opportunity to take more responsibility and leadership. I know that the Lord will help me through it. I'm also nervous about driving the truck. I haven't driven in a while so I'll be rusty.

Some exciting news came out this week. The new mission president has been announced and his name is President Pratt. He is from Orlando, Florida. He is 57 and he is a big lawyer in America. He is going take over June 28, 2015. So in three short months President Pratt will take the reigns from President Leavitt. There is now a nervous bug beginning to go around the mission with President Pratt being announced. It's going to be quite the summer.

Funny Story. While we were out knocking this week. I knocked on this one door when a lady answered who I thought was a teenager. So I said "Are your parents home?." Then she said "Uhh, I'm the home owner." I felt so embarrassed after that. I swear she was a teenager.

Tuesday, we went out to Mahone Bay and tried visiting a former investigator but we didn't have any luck. So we street contacted instead but didn't have any luck. There was hardly anyone around. Then we had dinner at Brother Murray's. He has us over for supper every Tuesday. Mahone Bay is the celebrity capital of Nova Scotia. It is very beautiful. Lots of tourists come there in the summer.

Wednesday, we had District Meeting in Sackville. I gave the doctrinal discussion this time. I did it on the Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel. I chose the Christlike attribute of diligence. I used the example of the Prophet Joseph Smith being diligent in searching for the truth. Then I had everyone read a scripture and then relate that to being diligent. It went well. At the end, I tied it all together with consistently working hard day-to-day. There was a line in Preach My Gospel where it talked about diligence meaning "to work hard consistently and to persevere." If we are diligent we will see miracles. The focus for this district meeting was "Our purpose as missionaries." We talked how some missionaries go out on missions just to impress their girlfriend and their family and to have a RM sticker on their wall when they go home. Those missionaries aren't really motivated and don't understand their purpose. We used an analogy of a player playing on a football just to look good in-front of everybody. They aren't motivated. Where as a missionary who came on a mission that wanted to serve the Lord, their motivation goes up and they want to work hard. We had dinner at the Caulfields later on. Brother Caulfield is the Ward Clerk in the ward. He is about 6 foot 8. He is really tall. Sister Caulfield knows a lot about Alberta. They were asking me about basketball in Stirling and who we played. That sort of thing.

Thursday, we began giving service at the hospital. We got orientated and got shown around the hospital. We found out about the service through Irene Hirtle. She works there as a nurse. We'll be doing mostly paperwork I think. We got dropped by David in the morning. He didn't directly do it himself though. He got Brother Tidd to tell us for him. He felt pressured into reading the Book of Mormon so that's why he dropped us. We were disappointed. We felt like we weren't pressuring him. We think that if he's not willing to read the Book of Mormon he's not that interested. 

Saturday, we had to go to Canadian Tire because our front right tire was low. So we were there for about two hours while we waited for them to fix it. It ended having nails in it. Then we went out to Liverpool. We street contacted for a little bit and then visited Peter. He is still upset that no one offers him a ride to Church. He doesn't get a lot of social interaction so we need to make it a priority to visit him every week. He is lonely. Elder Nielsen was very subtle but direct with him. He shared a scripture in Mosiah where it talks about "God is not a God of miracles." We can't ask him for something if we're not willing to do our part. Unfortunately, we don't think he got it. It seemed to have went over his head. Then we went back to Bridgewater and met with Lisa Li. We watched the Restoration video with her in Mandarin with English subtitles. She had a hard time understanding why Joseph Smith was wondering which Church was right. 

Sunday, was daylight savings and I was very tired and it was ward ward conference. Brother Dorey was released as second counsellor in the bishopric and the Brother Hunt was called in his place. He had been serving in the bishopric for about 4 years. It was a good ward conference. Bishop Fraser gave a talk on becoming like Christ and not just copying him. How copying him isn't going to get us as far as working to be Christ-like. It was a good talk. Then the stake president President Evans gave a talk on fitness and mental health. He talked about the need for us to be physically fit and spiritually fit. My favourite part of the talk was when he said "It's not your fault you have anxiety, depression, or a mental health issue. It wasn't your choice. The Lord knows you have it and wants you to learn from it." I just thought of myself and how I have anxiety/autism. I didn't decide to have them. I didn't want to have it but I do. The Lord wants me to learn from them and accept that I do have some mental health issues. So It hit home for me. It was a really good talk. We had lunch at he Rawding's after church. They are very missionary minded. They are actually flying to Salt Lake for conference in April. They are pretty excited about that. We watched the Biography of President Hinckley with them. They are really nice people. Sister Rawding is a convert to the church. She originally said no to the missionaries but then they kept trying and eventually she asked to be baptised. We gave Sister Donaldson the sacrament and had supper with them. Sister Donaldson's husband is an atheist but is really nice to missionaries.

I'm got gonna lie I'm a little stressed about being in charge of the area. But I know that as I rely on the Lord, He will help me through it.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

March 2, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

It has been a interesting week. There were no snowstorms this week but it has still been snowing, then warming and then freezing. Yesterday was really icy. Both me and Elder Nielsen took our share of tumbles. It's hard to believe that general conference is only a month away. It doesn't feel like that long ago I was listening to last conference. Maybe by then all the snow will be gone. One can hope at least. We're supposed to get more snow today and Wednesday.

Tuesday, we went to Lockeport with Brother Gidney because he had to do some home-teaching and we go out there rarely. So we went and helped him home teach a less active couple. Then we finally met with Launie (our investigator that's hard to get a hold of). He has been reading the Book of Mormon and Gospel Principles manual. He has a issue with modern-day prophets adding on to what bible prophets and Joseph have already written. So we committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to see if it's true. All we can do there is just encourage him to pray about it himself. Then Brother Gidney drove us back to his house in Liverpool. Liverpool is an hour away from Lockeport and 45 mins away from Bridgewater so it was a day trip. He fed us dinner at his house and then we had another dinner appointment in Bridgewater with the Harlows after. 2 dinner appointments in one day. I was really full by the end. Brother and Sister Gidney are a really great couple. They are so nice and funny.

Wednesday, we went to district meeting in Sackville. The zone leaders and STL's were there so it was a full house. It was another district meeting on following up. This time it was about following up with commitments we leave investigators. How following up shows that we care about that person. Most of the time we don't follow up it's because we're lazy as President Leavitt put it. After district meeting I went on a exchange in Kentville with Elder Funa. Elder Funa has been out for 10 months. He is from Lethbridge and went to Winston Churchill. He is polynesian. He played high school basketball for Winston. He says he's 99 percent sure he's seen me at basketball games before back when they played in Stirling's league. He also says he remembers playing Bradee Perrett and him being a "handful to deal with." He graduated in 2013 as well. Anyway so we went to Windsor and gave a less active a blessing before her surgery. Her and her husband have an issue with the Church's home-teaching program. Then we visited one of their new investigators. He knows that there is a God and wants to know more.

Thursday, I was still on the exchange. We volunteered at the Food Bank in the morning. Then we met with Brother Collet at McDonald's for Lunch. He was excited to see me again. I could tell he really liked me. Then we helped shovel Sister Redden's driveway. After that we visited the older Bond's. They were also excited to see me again. After that we met with a former Investigator and helped shovel his driveway as well. He is more into the philosophical part of the gospel; he's not into the spiritual side of it. We had dinner at the Beckwith's in Windsor. They said "Welcome back." It was bittersweet going back to Kentville. I very much enjoyed seeing all these old faces and some new ones.

Saturday, we met with David again. We gave him a large Book of Mormon and he told us that he would try and read it. He didn't give us a definite for sure I'm going to read it. So that's a bit discouraging. He wasn't at church yesterday as well and he usually comes every week. We also met with Damon. He has had a very good week since he went to church. He asked for a blessing so Elder Nielsen did that. He feels good that the church is part of his life again.

The theme of testimony meeting was the beauty of the earth. Quite a few people talked about how underneath all the snow there is flowers waiting to blossom and grass waiting to turn green. They related it to our blessings and the love the Lord has for us. It was a beautiful metaphor. We picked up two new investigators in the afternoon. Burland is a former investigator and Jazmine is his wife. They actually had us over for dinner. They both seem very interested in what Mormons believe in. They met online. Jazmine is from Turkey and Burland is from Nova Scotia. They have a 2 year old son named Jason. So that was exciting. We're going to see them again this Sunday. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom because they were curious why we don't drink tea or coffee. Then we gave Sister Donaldson the Sacrament. She is doing much better. She is now 6 weeks ahead of schedule on her foot since I gave her the blessing. She was very thankful for that. It was very humbling.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

February 23, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

It has been a very tiring week. We have been doing quite a bit of shovelling. Luckily today we aren't confined to our apartments all day and we haven't been snowed in this week. So that's been nice. On Thursday we got about 5 cm of snow but yesterday we got rain during the day and then snow at night. That helped the snow melt quite a bit. Many people were out shovelling on Saturday because it was plus 3. I guess they figured to take advantage of it while we have it.

Tuesday, we shovelled a less active's roof for 3 hours and then had dinner with his family. He is a rough and tumble kind of guy. He does a lot of hard labor. His wife isn't a member. He has a rule that his children can't get baptised until they're 12 because he thinks at 8 they can't really make that sort of decision. He has two daughters. One of them is already baptised and is 16. The other one is turning 12 in March. So we're going to be keeping our eyes on that.

Wednesday was a good day for us. At district meeting we talked up taking the things we learn from our district meetings and zone conferences and implementing them in our missionary work. That has been a big focus lately from President Leavitt. Sometimes we go to meetings and learn all this great new stuff but then we don't do anything about it. So he wants us to follow up more on the  things we're trained on. We picked up a new investigator named Brenda while we were out knocking. She was out walking on the side of the street and then we stopped her. We talked to her for about an hour teaching 10 different principles and then we prayed with her in the middle of the road. She has a strong belief in God. She has a mother who is dying that she is taking care of right now. So she wants to know more about the Plan of Salvation. Really sweet lady. We set up an appointment with her on Saturday at Tim Hortons but that ended up falling through. So we're going to re-contact her tonight and see if we can set something else up this week. We're hoping to meet with her somewhere that's less distracting. Then we got a call from Brother Tidd saying that David is considering moving his baptismal date up. That was wonderful to hear. We had a teacher's training seminar that night. They talked about how as teachers we need to engage our investigators/students in our lessons. That it's okay if we go off topic occasionally as long as it's prompted by the Spirit. Sometimes teachers are so set on their lesson plans that they forget about what the students need. After that we had Ward Council. They mainly talked about less actives the whole time. It's cool to see that on a mission you're able to see how different wards work and how different bishops function. In this particular ward they have a focus on helping individuals. They don't talk a lot about the auxiliaries.

Thursday, I went on a exchange in Sackville with Elder Sortomme. He has been out for about a year. He is really nice and is really energetic. He is a very fundamental and smart missionary. He does all the little things right. Like instead of going street contacting when there was no one around we contacted potentials on Facebook. Then we made a set lesson plan for a less active that he would follow-up on on Saturday. I was very impressed by him. Even though he isn't the best with words, he's smart.

Friday, we shovelled Sister Rhondeizer's snow bank because she couldn't see over it while backing up. So we did that for an hour and a half. Then we headed over to the church for Games night.

Saturday, we had a special ward council breakfast. We made a ward vision for the year and a vision statement. Some of the things they talked about was temple attendance, missionary work, and membership. Later on we visited a less active. He actually called us on Wednesday saying that he wants to have the church in his life again. He feels good when he comes to church. He seems to have a sincere desire to get back into full activity. He has some things that he needs to work out with the bishop first though. He has a pattern of wanting to get his life back on track but then not show up up to church for 6 months. I hope that he sticks to coming back this time. I could feel the Lord's love for him as we were visiting him.

Sunday, we had Church again! It was so nice. I don't think I could go another week without Church. Because the roads were still icy because of the rain on top of the snow, the numbers were smaller then usual. In sacrament meeting the main focus was on temples. Sister Shannon actually spoke first. Which kinda scares me because she got here the same time I did so they might ask me to speak next. She gave a good talk. She talked about experiences she's had going to the temple in Toronto. She mentioned how the temple has such a peaceful feeling when we go there. It made me think of when I went to the temple the first time to now. I feel a lot more comfortable than I did the first time. It feels more and more familiar each time. I love the temple. We gave Sister Donaldson the sacrament in the afternoon and I gave her a blessing as well. She misses church and wants to go back so badly. She asked us if we could ask the ward council if it would be possible to skype into Church. She especially misses the camaraderie she feels at church. We had dinner at Bishop Fraser's that night. At dinner Bishop Fraser says "Let's get our second cousin Elder O'Brien to say the prayer." Haha. Then their kids were trying to figure out how we're related and what they are to me. Sister Fraser finally says "We're just related." Their kids are funny. They have a picture of Uncle Bob hanging up on their wall by their fireplace. Sister Fraser asked me if I could see the resemblance between him and Papa. I can definitely see the resemblance. At the end of the dinner appointment, Bishop mentioned that I am definitely a Wood. He can see it by my mannerisms and some of the things I say. I asked if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He said "It's just a thing". That was a good dinner appointment.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien

February 16, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

We have been snowed in our apartment since Sunday morning. We just barely dug ourselves out. Brother Hirtle has been plowing the snow all day. We can still email now even though P-Day is over since we were stuck inside all day. Three quarters of the way down our hill, the tractor couldn't lift the snow. So we had to shovel the rest of it out. We tried to make an escape for it last night but the snow was up past my waist and halfway up the hill we ended up stuck in the snow for about an hour. So we had to get Brother Hirtle to come rescue us. It was quite the adventure. Elder Nielsen's ears were frozen and they couldn't even bend. My hand got frostbitten. We weren't really using our brains when we decided to make a run for it. It was a bad decision. Church got cancelled yesterday so we had a zone conference call testimony meeting instead. Originally I was supposed to go on a exchange in Kentville on Saturday night to Monday morning but because of the storm they cancelled the exchange because it wouldn't be effective if we couldn't actually go out and work. 

Tuesday, we met with Brother Chase and Sister Donaldson. Brother Chase hasn't been to Church in two to three weeks. We couldn't get in contact with him so we were a little worried about him. When we met with him he said the reason he hasn't been coming to Church because he heard a member saying bad stuff about him. But he had a talk with Brother Nillson and now he says he's coming back to church. So we resolved his concerns there. Sister Donaldson just had her leg amputated. There was a tumour in her leg. She is less active but only because of her health. She is in a wheelchair right now and can't really get out much. She is a great lady. She has been through a lot and it has helped build her faith. She is a very valiant woman.

Wednesday, we started setting up for the ward valentine's supper on Friday night. They didn't have a Christmas dinner so this was supposed to replace it. Sister Harlow was in charge of it and she goes all out. After being sick for the past couple weeks, Bishop Fraser was back. So we had bishop's correlation with him and then ward council. He approved our Easter concert. March 29th. 

Thursday, President Leavitt came to our apartment for personal interviews. In his interview he said that being a quiet missionary is just as bad as being disobedient because the other companion ends up doing everything. But it came across very loving. It took me until after the interview to realize that he was being bold with me. He said that there is no such thing as a quiet missionary. I have this tendency to drop into the background in lessons sometimes so I think that's what he was referring to. That's something that I do need to work on.Then we went to Liverpool for the day. We met with a less active named Peter. He stopped coming to Church because he didn't have a ride and no one asked him if he wanted a ride. But he hasn't actually asked for a ride. So he's been feeling unwanted. But in order for people to reach out to him he needs to reach out to them. So we just encouraged him to do that. 

Friday, was the Valentine's supper. We had to be there at 5 to help. It was a good turnout; there were a equal number of members and non-members there. A total attendance of about 100. There was a photo booth going on outside the dinner which was quite a success. Lots of people had their picture taken. There were all kinds of props that they could use. The Bridgewater sisters ran it. David came to the dinner with Brother Tidd and he seemed to have enjoyed himself.

Valentines Day, we met with David again. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. He seemed really receptive. He has really opened up to us lately. He is progressing really well right now. I'm starting to get my hopes up for him being baptized. We met with Lisa again and she said that she believes the Church is true but wants to wait for her mom in China to get back in three years. So things kind of hit a bump with her.

We didn't get a lot of proselyting done this week because of the Valentine's supper and being snowed in for the past two days. But we did search for service and we got in contact with the library, hospital, and old folk's home. So now we're just waiting to hear back from them. 

Have a great week! Hopefully the weather is better this week.

Love,

Elder O'Brien

February 9th, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

It has been another cold week here. We got some more snow this week which made it interesting to drive in. We skidded on the road a couple times and had some close calls. But we're still alive; don't worry. We drive a white Colorado truck. The winter has made me grateful that I came out on a mission in the summer instead of the winter. For example, Elder Willoughby's parents made it so he would fly to the Lethbridge airport from Calgary. instead of just picking him up in Calgary. Whereas when I go home in the summer we don't have to worry about snow storms or icy roads. The only thing we have to worry about is a thunderstorm.

There has been a rumour going around this week that the new mission president has already been chosen. He's a lawyer from Florida. He's 57. Since he hasn't asked his firm if he can be away for the next three years yet, he hasn't been officially announced yet. We heard this from President Wentzell. He is the second counsellor in the mission presidency and he is in the Bridgewater Ward. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

On Monday, when P-Day ended President Leavitt made us stay inside again because it was snowing quite a bit again. That's two snow days in the past two weeks. But this time we were only confined for 3 hours - not the whole day.

On Tuesday, we picked up a new investigator. Her name is Lisa. She is Chinese. Her son is a recent convert of about a year. His name is Johnny. She goes to Church once  in awhile with Johnny. She says that every time she goes to Church she feels happy and she's noticed that it has made Johnny happy as well. So she wants to learn more of how it makes her happy and how it makes her son happy. So we're pretty excited about that. She seems really receptive.

Instead of having ward council on Sunday the ward has it on Wednesday night. In addition they have Priesthood Executive Council and a family history class. So Wednesdays are our busy days. It was nice doing family history again. I haven't been on it in a while so it was nice. These family history classes are weekly.

On Thursday, Sister Rhondenizer wanted us to us to help shovel a path for the mailman to a member's house. That took longer then expected. The snow was quite compacted and deep.Then we tried to visited Launie in Lockeport. It's about an hour and a half away. So we drove all the way out there for him not to be home. It was pretty disappointing. We tried contacting him but couldn't. We go down there once a week. So instead we knocked there for an hour. Then we had a dinner appointment a the Harlow's. They have 9 dogs. Sister Harlow is really energetic and talkative.

On Friday, it was zone conference. President Leavitt trained us on the different methods of finding and how to work with members. In the training on finding, he said that in the MTC 70% of what they teach you is teaching investigators and they spend 10% of the time teaching you how to find investigators. Whereas in this mission, you spend 10% of the time teaching and 70% of the time you spend finding. So we're at a disadvantage when you come to this mission. He gave 11 methods of finding people to teach:

1. Less Actives

2. Talking to Everyone

3. Street Contacting

4. Knocking

5. Referrals

6. Former Investigators

7. Service

8. Unbaptized children

9. Part Member Families

10. Media

11. Potential Investigators

Then in the training on working with members, he said that we need to keep records of our dinner appointments with members by using the member book. He said that we are to strengthen and help the members in the ward. When we go to a dinner appointment we need to have a plan on what we want to accomplish and then follow-up with them. We need to keep more information about these members so we know how to best strengthen them. He gave an outline on how to do that:

1. "Information leads to revelation"

2. Plan

3. Execute

4. Record what we did

It was a good training. It made me realise that dinner appointments aren't time off from missionary work. At the end of zone conference, President Leavitt went around and asked every missionary what he learned, how they felt and what they're going to do about it. What I got from zone conference was that I need to set more goals. President Leavitt asked if we said anything about that and I said, "no." Then he responded, "The Holy Ghost is the teacher not me, That is how we receive personal revelation." I felt inspired, I felt happy and I felt the spirit. I'm going to set more goals now. Then we had a testimony meeting. Usually the missionaries going home bear their testimonies but since there was only one missionary from our zone going home, they chose other missionaries to bear their testimony. I was one of them. So I did. I have now borne my testimony 3 times in the last two weeks. It's been very humbling. I'm on a spiritual high right now. At no other time in my life will I get to bear my testimony as much as I do on my mission. Be very excited about that Chris. Overall, I enjoyed zone conference. The Yarmouth sisters actually skyped into it because of the weather.

On Saturday, we went to a young child's baptism. So we went over to the church and helped fill the font. The water started out being really hot then turned cold. So in the end the font was cold. I felt bad for the boy. He was shivering.

We have been planning a Easter Concert for the ward with the sisters on March 29th. Involving other faiths and other members. We're hoping it will be a good missionary opportunity. It's not official yet but we're getting the leg work done for that right now. So we met with the music chairman on Saturday as well. That evening, we got an investigator on date for baptism on April 11. His name is David. He is a Jewish man. He has a French accent. He is afraid of his family disowning him if he gets baptised. That is his only hang up. But he wants to learn more and wants to see where he's at by April 11. So we're pretty excited about that. He has a friend who is less active. 

Favourite Quote from Zone Conference: "Information leads to Revelation"

Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder O'Brien