This week has been much better last
week. We finally got a car again on Wednesday. Sister Pratt was kind
enough to give us her car. So now we can drive again and we are
back on track with the work. But it came at a price. Because of the
accident I have been banned from driving for the rest of my mission. This week we learned that the second
counselor in our mission presidency has been called to serve as the
mission president in Edmonton beginning July 1, 2016.
His name is President Pattison. He is from Hampton. I got to have
dinner at his house every week when I was there. The way he carries himself is very business-like. He is
similar to President Leavitt in that regard. He has a lot of the same
ideas and perspectives as President Leavitt did. He loves missionaries.
He has a good sense of humor. He cares a lot about people. He`s
outgoing and passionate about the gospel. He'll be a good mission
president for the Edmonton Mission. And who knows maybe sometime when I
go to Edmonton, I`ll stop by and say hi.
Lately my companions and I have been doing a new knocking approach; the
missionary who`s not knocking says a keyword right before the person
opens the door and then the missionary knocking has to incorporate that
keyword into the contact. If they don`t incorporate the keyword into the
contact, then they lose. So on Monday we were knocking in a trailer park
in Wileville and we did this new approach. It was my turn to knock so I
knocked and then the person begins to open the door.
Elder Quinton: Steps.
Me: Hi, how are you doing today?
Lady at the door: Good.
Me: Well yeah my friends and I are actually missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Lady at the door: I have my own religion actually sorry.
Me: Oh okay well before you go I like your steps; they're nice and easy to walk on.
Elder
Evans and Elder Quinton burst out laughing after she closed the door.
They got a pretty good laugh about that for a while. I was
desperate to get that word in and she was about to close the door so at
the last second I blurted out something about steps. We have had
other funny experiences like that as we've done this new approach. This
new approach has made knocking sessions more exciting and its made our
contacts a whole lot better.
Wednesday:
We had zone training in Kentville. The training in the morning was from
the Sackville Sister Training Leaders. They gave a training on Spiritual Self Reliance.
For the training they had us each answer these 3 questions: Has there been a time on my mission when I have seen myself or another missionary show spiritual self reliance? Have there been times on my mission when I needed spiritual self reliance but couldn't provide it for myself? What has the atonement done for me? The training concluded with the
STLs sharing with us how in those times we feel weak spiritually or
unmotivated in our missionary work to Remember, Remember. Remember those
spiritual experiences you've had in your life and draw strength from
them. It was a very powerful training. I felt the spirit very strongly. I
almost began crying has I pondered the last question.
Thursday: We picked up a new
investigator. He is a former that I taught
when I was here last time. He is 18 years old. He is
Christian. He has very similar beliefs to ours. His whole family has met
with missionaries before. We feel like he has a lot of potential.
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder O'Brien (the older)
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