Monday, August 31, 2015

August 24, 2015 - Woodstock, New Brunswick




Dear Family,


After I posted that picture of our family on Facebook, I have been receiving comments from the members here on what a "good-looking family I have." I have told quite a few people that Chris just went on a mission and that our family won't have been together for 3 years by the time he gets home. People recognize the happiness in our family and that was very humbling. It made me really grateful for our family.

It has been a long week. This week it was the hottest it's been all summer with temperatures getting up to 30 degrees Celsius. On Thursday we spent most of the day in the sun. In between street contacting and knocking for an hour and a half, I felt out of breath so we took a 10 minute break just to get some liquids in us and I took some Ventolin as well. I guess Chris is going to have to get used that type of weather where he's going. The big difference is he'll have to deal with dry heat where I have to deal with wet heat. 

So yesterday we received transfer letters and I am staying in Woodstock with Elder Evans for another transfer. This didn't come as a surprise to me but I can never feel completely secure. The only time I'll feel totally comfortable going into a transfer will be when I go home :P. As for the Houlton Sisters Sister Trouter is being transferred to Amherst and Sister Deberry is staying in Houlton and will be training a new missionary from the MTC. My birthday will fall a week (6 days) before transfers next transfer.  This upcoming transfer will consist of: a CES devotional, zone conference, general conference, and my birthday so it should be a pretty eventful transfer. 

Wednesday we had district meeting in Caribou. We got trained on district unity and holding each other accountable. Each companionship had their own goals for the week and Elder Thompson had us follow-up on each other with each of our goals. After District Meeting we went knocking in the backwood's of Island Falls. There were a bunch of nice cabins there and none of the people were really receptive and didn't feel like they needed the gospel when they already have a beautiful view and a nice cabin. So that ended up being ineffective.

Friday, we picked up a new investigator. He is 23 years old and is the owner of a bookstore in downtown Woodstock. He isn't religious but is very open minded, He has a old copy of the Book of Mormon in his bookstore. He is really cool and super nice. We taught him the Restoration and felt like the lesson went well. 
Saturday, we decided to mix things up a bit and do a Popsicle stand instead of a lemonade stand with the Sisters. It worked out pretty well. More people came and talked to us so it was nice.

Sunday we had a really cool experience in the evening. After we had dinner, we decided to go see a sister because she had another surgery today. So we went there and she was sleeping so we didn't end up seeing her. Then the thought popped into our heads "Maybe we should visit this other family so we went by their house and all their lights were off. So we decided to drive around the block and call and make sure it was okay for us to stop by. We called and they told us we could come by. So we did and when we got there the wife told us that her son who is about 5 years had been in pain not wanting to move and had been lying in bed all day. So she wanted us to give him a blessing in his bed. After we give him a blessing, he started playing with his toys. She said he was in so much pain before that he didn't want to play. She was amazed. He was still in a lot of pain and was favouring his right arm. Her husband was still in Saint John so they had no priesthood in the home. It was a strong testimony to me of the power of the priesthood. It was a very humbling experience. 

Have a good week!

Love,
Elder O'Brien (The older)

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