September 24, 2012
Dear family and friends,
This week was pretty good. We didn't quite meet all our goals but we worked hard. Last Monday night we visited a former investigator who was in our area book. He's a member of the "Community of Christ" aka RLDS. It was interesting. We had to resist the urge to just ask him about his beliefs cause we were curious about how that organization came to be haha. It didn't take long to see that he wasn't interested so we didn't stay for very long. On Wednesday we had splits. I went with our district leader Elder Odle who goes home in 4 weeks. It was a good split. On Thursday we did service for a part member family. She grew up in Utah and is pretty active but her husband isn't a member so right now we're working on developing a good relationship with them. We helped them stain their shed and I think we'll be going back to do another layer this week. They're a cool family. On Saturday we had pretty much the whole day for knocking, so we went to a complex where the doors come in sets of four on each building. We spent about two hours there and estimated that we knocked about 100 doors and only talked to about 10 people. Apparently no one is home on Saturday afternoons. We did find two new investigators this week though. One thing that has been surprising about contacting people is that the older they are, the less interested they are (generally). This week, however, our 2 new investigators were both over the age of 70. A couple weeks ago we helped a family move who weren't members because a member in a ward knows them through work. Last night we had dinner at that member's house. His friend had given him to give to us gift cards to the movie theater as a thank you. I think I'll just put it in my journal. Things are going well in Fallowfield. Still searching for those who have been prepared.
Love,
Elder Oxborrow
October 1, 2012
Dear family and friends,
First off, shout out to my brother Clayton on his call to the Mexico Puebla South Mission! Congratulations!
I can't believe it's already been 4 months! I've been on my mission longer now than I was in Alaska last summer... That feels weird. Fall is starting to fall and everyday Canada gets more beautiful. The members we live with have a lot of property with large trees and a river flowing behind so it's very beautiful, especially this time of year. Transfer calls come again in less than three weeks. I'm hoping I stay in Ottawa. Quebec will be cool though when I get transferred east.
It's been an eventful week. On Tuesday we had splits again, only this time I stayed in my area and Elder Messinger who has been out as long as I have came into the area. We were mostly knocking for the day. After our dinner appointment we continued knocking and found a new investigator.
On Wednesday after we unsplit we had more knocking (we were low on kilometers since it was the end of the month), and we found two people we were able to teach a quick discussion to. One of them, however, was very drunk haha. He probably doesn't remember much of what we talked about, but maybe he'll remember feeling the spirit.
Thursday was district study, which means it was the day we go get our free subway! Then we had a lesson with Myrium. Can't remember if I've talked about her before. She's haitian and has a great spirit, but has some family problems holding her back. She met with the bishop though and is doing pretty well. That night we went home teaching with brother Norman to a less active lady. She didn't let us in but we talked for a while at her door, and she came to church yesterday so that was good to see.
By the time Friday came around we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel with kilometers, so after weekly planning we had no choice but to ride bikes to our lesson at 5:15. It was a 16 mile round trip. My legs were tired. It's scary riding bikes on main roads with on ramps. That night we had a lesson with Mark Kaiser, who is a former investigator whose information we found in the area book. Elder Rasmussen talked to him on the phone for quite a while a couple days before, and it sounded like he had had some good experiences with the missionaries, so he wanted us to come over when his two kids were at his house. We went at 7:30 Friday and just tried to get to know him for a while and follow the spirit. His kids, Matthew and Zoe were really cool, but a little shy. I think they warmed up to us quite a bit the longer we were there. We ended up giving them both a Book of Mormon and testified of how it can help them. Mark seemed pretty open to us teaching them. We were able to set up another appointment for 2 days later (so yesterday).
On Saturday after studies we did more bike riding, this time not quite as far. We went to Richmond which is just south of our apartment. We knocked there for quite some time since we didn't have anything until our dinner appointment.
On Sunday we had two investigators at church. We were able to teach one of them after church. His name is Marco and he is a friend to a 19 year old in the ward named James. He's used to a church with preachers so he said he was a little bored haha but still enjoyed it. Our dinner appointment that night cancelled, so when brother Potter (the member we live with) saw us come home he invited us over for dinner. It was a much better dinner than we would have had otherwise haha. After dinner we headed to the follow-up lesson we had set up with Mark, Matthew and Zoe. Matthew wasn't there but we taught Zoe and Mark. We talked about prayer, and I shared a personal experience with the Book of Mormon. It went off course from what we had planned, but we both felt good about it. We also taught Steve, our recent convert.
So it's been a full week. Looking forward to conference next weekend! We're planning on going to the chapel a half hour early to catch music and the spoken word. Since we're two hours ahead here, priesthood session will start at 8 and end at 10, so we'll have to hurry home after. Enjoy the colors of fall!
Love,
Elder Oxborrow
