June 8, 2015 - Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

Dear Family,

It has been an interesting week. It rained for 60% of the week and on the days that it did rain, it rained hard and was very difficult to work in. But we did get some sun and got some on my face as well. I think I may need to buy some sunscreen today.

 

It was a bit of a rough week for me personally as I have been down on myself lately because I don't feel like I have been living up to my full potential. Yesterday I fasted for my temporal and spiritual welfare and strength to help to get me through the next 6 weeks. It will be an emotional roller-coaster for me. As you know, I am a very emotional person and I have grown quite close to President Leavitt. It will be hard on me saying goodbye to him. I have been praying for emotional strength to help me through it. 

And so it begins.. President Leavitt's final transfer. 3 weeks now until he goes home.This will be the most significant transfer of my mission so far. One that sees my current mission president go home and a new one come in. This week is zone conference. My final zone conference with President & Sister Leavitt will be on Wednesday in Dartmouth. It will be a combined zone conference with both zones in Nova Scotia attending. It could be a very emotional zone conference. All the missionaries in the zone have been asked to prepare a 5 minute talk on the Book of Mormon. I have a feeling that they might pick me so I am on my toes.

Wednesday, it rained again but not as bad. In the morning we had a mini-district meeting and went over the trainings from the transfer. Then we went to a cooking class at Superstore. It was a referral from the Nillison's. The same group of people go every week and they thought it would be a good way to talk to people. There was a chef that demonstrated how to cook sweet potatoes and then cooked it for us for us to eat. He also showed us how to make apple pie taco, then he made us some and we ate it. It was interesting. We spent the afternoon in Luneberg and ran into this one guy who was Presbyterian and invited us in. He really admires what we do and has a great deal of respect for our faith. 

Thursday, the sun was out and there was no rain. We had a transfer plan for the upcoming transfer. We went over the less actives. members, part-members that we want to work with. We also planned on where we want to tract in all our areas and we had also planned how much time we want to do doing family history. We were very thorough with it. That night the sisters were coming and they actually ended up getting lost and didn't end up getting to Bridgewater till 11 at night. We had their keys so we had to stay up and wait for them to get here. That's the latest I've stayed up on my mission. It was a very eventful evening. So we gave them their keys and then crushed that night. The new missionary from the MTC is Sister Killback. She is from Idaho. Her and Sister Hughes are both really kind sisters. Sister Killback seemed so innocent though. It reminded me of when I first came out. I didn't know what I was doing and was lost.

Saturday, it rained all day again. We spent the morning doing phone calls. Then we went to Liverpool and thought we could do some stop-by visits. While we were in Liverpool, the GPS took us on a dirt road that was very rocky and rough. We were on this road for about 30 mins before we decided to go back and take another road. The car took quite a beating. It was quite the experience. 

Love,

Elder O'Brien