End of Summer. Yessss!

Hey! How's life?

So school is starting up soon, huh? Have fun! Study hard! Do well! That's what I've been trying to do too, but I have to do it 24/7, 365 days a year for 2 years straight! Fun, huh? Life out in the mission isn't getting any easier, but the days seem to be going by quickly. Last week it was Elder Tingey's birthday so on Monday we went with the Zone Leaders to some restaurant called Hillbilly Haven. It was a BBQ place, and the food was really good, but I ate too much. We also got haircuts by one of the members in the ward. I pretty much told her to take it all. Through the week, people thought a new missionary had come in and I had left. That was pretty entertaining. Then on Monday night, I headed downtown with Elder Lee for travels. A lot of the lessons I didn't understand since they were in Chinese. Elder Lee is a little upset because many of the members they meet with are less-actives that were baptized but then never really heard from missionaries again. He's upset because now it's his job to bring them back to church and to teach them all the discussions since many of them actually haven't heard them. He says it's like the missionaries who baptized these people just went around saying "He has two legs and a brain! Baptize him!" Elder Lee is quite entertaining. Tuesday, I was still with Elder Lee. We did a lot of walking. First a 10/15 minute walk to the park. Then we realized he forgot his nametag. We had to walk back home, then to the park again. Then we had to walk across town to go to a certain area. We realized that we went the wrong way, so we had to walk all the way to the other side of town. Then we had walk back to the west side again because we had stuff to do there. We then caught a bus to the next city over (Dundas) to do some stuff there. When we were finished, we went back to Hamilton and had some Toonie Tuesday at KFC. Then we had one more appointment that night which went well. I went back up the mountain. Wednesday, many of our appointments fell through, but at one member's house we went to, we had BBQ and cake for Tingey's birthday. We also came across a Jehovah's Witness and talked awhile with her. We seem to run into them a lot around here. Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful, and very tiring. It's really hot over here. Thursday we got to teach a recent convert's daughter (age 20). They both haven't really seen each other in years. Her name is Charmayne and she wants to take the discussions and rekindle her relationship with her mother again. We're going help them both out and see where God takes us. After that, we went to go visit Beverley to teach her. Currently, she has gone 8 days without smoking after 57 straight years of it! Awesome! Unfortunately, she won't give up the coffee just yet. She has one cup a day and she drinks it because her friend makes it for her every morning and Beverley doesn't want to tell her no because her friend is in bad health. She is afraid of upsetting her. Instead, she's waiting until her friend moves into her retirement home in the middle of September. Other than that, she's doing great! She's given up smoking, tea and alcohol! Awesome, huh? After her, we went to a Spanish member's house for dinner (which was really good)and then taught them. We did a lot of contacting for the night. Friday, we finally got to meet with Jacob for the first time in about 2 1/2 weeks. He's been canceling every appointment we made, so this was good. We talked with him a bit and tried to set a baptisimal date with him again, but he refused to set one. Turns out his main concern is he's worried what people will think once he get baptized. I was so tempted to tell him to get over it, but I held my tongue. After teaching him, Sis. Brower (The Mission President's wife) came and picked us up and took Elder Tingey and I out to lunch with her and President Brower to a place called the Stoney Creek Dairy. Apparently, it was President Brower's favorite place to go when he served his mission here, and he hasn't been back until he took us. He told us it was a historical moment. Then he took our picture with Sister Brower and sent it to Elder Ballard (of The Twelve. He's Sis. Brower's dad). Turns out this place was also one of Elder Ballard's favorite places to visit as well when he was the Mission President here. It was fun to get to go eat and talk with them. After that, we met the Bishop (he's an awesome guy. I love him!) at some house to help a new family move in. We waited, and waited, and waited. After a hour and a half of talking, sitting and eating fruit from off the trees with the bishop, we decided to leave since no one came or called. So after that uneventful event, we went to have dinner with the Ticas family (El Salvador family). Their son gets home from his mission in a month, so they are pretty excited for that. After them, more walking. Saturday was pretty good. We did planning in the morning and then we went to visit Beverly. After her, we went to go visit this potential with a member named Bro. Baeta, but the potential never showed up. Instead, Bro. Baeta took us to get some souvlaki and gyros at some Greek place. It was good. Then we talked to him about his concerns and about his endowment coming up. He's a good guy. He's been in the church for about 4 years and he's been doing really well. He has a really powerful testimony. After meeting with him, we did more contacting and teaching on the streets. Sunday, we got to go to church. Beverley and Jacob showed up and some random lady came in. Turns out, her son in Edmonton hated church, but the missionaries found him one day and he loves the discussions. His mom decided to come to church and figure out why he likes it so much. She actually made it sound like they are brainwashing her kid. She's coming back next week though because she said she finds it very interesting and wants to learn more. After church, we went to this family's house with Leslie and her son (our recent converts) and had dinner and family home evening. It went very well and Leslie is doing great in the church! Leslie is an awesome person. After the Gravis's, more walking and teaching. I almost got bitten by a dog and I think I'm catching a cold. Fun, huh?

Well, that's about it for my week. I'm glad summer is almost over, because that means a few things. First, this heat wave should end soon (it picked up again today). Second, fall is just awesome. Third, I want cooler weather. Fourth, the crunchy leaves come out. I love stepping on crunchy leaves. Anyways, I hope you all do well with whatever you do this coming school year, whether you're in school, at work or preparing to serve your own mission! I hope you all do well and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Best of wishes,

Elder Stubbs

Hide and Seek Anyone?

Hey everyone, how's life?

This past week has been pretty good. A little slow, but still good. On Monday we went to this all you can eat sushi place called 'Sushi Star' for Elder Lee's birthday. I hate sushi and fish. Luckily, they had beef, chicken and pork on the menu so I didn't have to suffer much. It was fun. Then later in the day, we got to go to a part-member family's house where the member is less-active, for dinner. She really wants to come back to church, so she came the Sunday before and Sunday this week. She's a great lady and her family is fun to be around. Her husband is Catholic, but he doesn't like organized religion because he doesn't like it when one religion tells another that they are wrong. We'll work on him. Tuesday I got to go downtown again with Elder Plunkitt. It was a good time, and we had a lot of appointments to go to and we did quite a bit of contacting. Contacting at Jackson Square is pretty entertaining. Thursday was mainly a teaching day. We met with one of our investigators named Milan. He's a gypsy from the Czech Republic. He's a great guy, and he's just absorbing all of the information we are giving him. Then we got to meet with the part member family again. (They are the only ones who have signed our dinner calendar this month). After we had dinner with them, we were going to teach a lesson, but the husband excused himself. When their daughters asked where he was going, I told them that he's playing hide-and-seek with the missionaries. If we find him and baptize him, we win. If we can't find him, kudos to him. Thursday was a slow day. We had our weekly planning session, then many of our appointments had to cancel. We did a lot of walking that day. Friday we had District Meeting and Schwarma pizza. The pizza was good.

Then one of our investigators canceled on us today. He was doing really well, but lately he's been canceling on us so much. Unfortunately, he ran into a run of Anti-Mormon literature awhile back and he's assured us that nothing is wrong and he still wants to meet with us but he's just been so busy lately and sick. He helps out with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team as a water-boy, so he's been busy lately. Then later that day while at the Mall's bus terminal, we saw an older lady fall of a curb into the middle of the street. She had troubles moving and was in pain, so we called an ambulance and waited with her. The paramedics said she should be okay, but they wanted to take her to the hospital because she hit her head and wanted to run some tests. Saturday, I went downtown again because my companion and one of the downtown Elders went to the Temple for a sealing of someone they both taught before. So I got to play baseball with the Elders Quorum. It was fun. Elder Lee played really well as this was his first time playing baseball. After that, my companion and I went back up the mountain. We were headed towards a baptism on the bus when Tingey saw a girl that he met awhile back while I wasn't around. He talked with her and she came to the baptism with us. She really enjoyed it and is going to take the discussions. Sunday was kind of gloomy. It started raining the day before so it was a pretty overcast day. Church was good, but Jacob didn't show up for some reason. Then later in the evening, we went to go visit the part-member family again. Luckily, today someone at church noticed our dinner calendar was empty, so it got passed around, and so we have a few more appointments this week. Some of the Leaders in the church (like the bishop), tried to make people feel guilty for not feeding us or even meeting with us.

All in all, this week was pretty good. I can't believe that summer is almost over! I hope you all are making the most of the rest of your summer, and have a great year coming up! Hope to hear from many of you soon!

Elder Stubbs

Sorry This Took So Long!

Hey everyone, how's it going?

So I'm sorry that I didn't send a blog post last week. I was transferred to Brantford for a few days, and the mission decided to cancel P-Day for the week because some missionaries had a leadership meeting or something. Anyways, the last two weeks have been decent. We are teaching a lot more people now. We have about 9 people in our teaching pool. 3 have baptismal dates, one is thinking about a date and the rest are steadily progressing. Pretty cool, huh? We've met a lot of people while walking around here. We meet people from all around the world everyday! Oh! We also had a baptism on the 8th. The family wanted us to teach their son, so we went through all of the lessons with him and set up the baptism and such. It went well, all up to the point where we realized that he didn't have an interview with the bishop! The bishop was pretty busy that day and said he couldn't do the interview, but then he was able to get a few minutes, so Maxwell got his interview and was baptized. Then on Monday the 9th, I headed to Brantford, the city of God, for three days. It's nicknamed 'The City of God' because of all of the churches there. There are so many! It was ridiculous. I lost count of churches after awhile and decided that I wasn't going to bother anymore. We got to do a lot of contacting and tracking on Monday (seeing as P-Day was canceled), and we got to teach a few people. A person I found there now has a baptismal date! That was pretty cool, but I won't get to see the baptism since it's not in my area. Then, around 8:40, we found this man crying in the park, so we went and talked with him and tried to help him feel better. We then headed home and started planning for the day ahead of us when around 9:20, we heard a knock at the front door. We checked the windows and peep hole, but no one was there. We heard it again, and checked again, but again nothing. Then we heard a knock on the side door, then the window. It was a little freaky. We saw that it was Cameron, the guy from the park. He followed us home and said he still wanted to talk, but it was about 9:30 and this point and we felt a little uncomfortable, so we had to send on his way. We went to his house the next two days, but he wasn't home at all.

So my time in Brantford was pretty enjoyable. We got to teach a few heathens and harlots, so that was productive. Then we headed back to drop me off in Hamilton at 4 on Wednesday, but the other elders never showed up until 8, so we did some more contacting for a few hours until they showed up. The next few days consisted of a lot of walking and quite a bit of teaching, so we've been pretty busy. All in all, my life out here has been really busy and very tiring. Some days go by quickly, so go by slowly. The slower days suck but hey, such is life. Anyways, that's life for me in the mission. Hope to hear from you guys and have an excellent summer!

Elder Stubbs

Transfers come and gone and I'm still in HM

Hey, what's up?

So this post is a little late since yesterday was a holiday, so the library was closed, and I was out of town at a ward picnic for the day. The picnic was a lot of fun. We had a baseball game at the beginning, the old men versus the young ones, and unfortunately, the oldies won by 1 point. We also played volleyball, had lunch, then a pie eating contest, which I was forced into as sort of an initiation. The guy sitting across from me (James Smith) and I had a fight during it where we were butting heads and I knocked his pie off of the table. It was fun, but he and I ended up with pie everywhere. In our hair, ears, nose, down our shirts, etc. Then after we got cleaned up, we played some Gatorball, which was really fun. It's a mix of football and soccer, and it's really fun to play. Then everyone went home, so we got cleaned up, then went out for the rest of the night to contact. We met a Portuguese family and taught them for a while, and they want to hear more, so we'll be continuing to teaching them.

The rest of the week (last week) wasn't as eventful. Transfer calls were Sunday night, but I'm still in the Hamilton Mountain area, which is good because it's a great place. The ward here is awesome. Monday was P-Day, and the senior couple in our area took us to The Mandarin, a Chinese buffet chain over here which was really good. Then we had to drive to some town that begins with a b (I can't remember the name) because Elder Tingey had to visit the mission doctor there. Tuesday was just filled with appointments, which I prefer over contacting or tracking, so that was good, and we had PEC meeting, which was quite entertaining. Then Wednesday was pretty much just a busy day filled with contacting and tracking, so I didn't enjoy that day as much.Thursday many of our appointments fell through, but we did have dinner with a Nigerian family in our ward who fed us some Nigerian food. IT was interesting. It was this doughy substance made from yams, like how you make mashed potatoes, except it was a bit stickier, and you use you fingers to grab it, then stick it in this saucy substance and chicken, and you eat it. So that was an interesting experience. Then on Friday, one of appointments fell through and the other didn't work out since the male member we needed couldn't show up. Then for dinner, we ate at this El Salvador family's house for dinner, which was good. Saturday, we went done to the Good Shepard to help out there for a few hours, then we got dinner from an African family in our ward, then we had hockey, which was a lot of fun and a good workout. Then Sunday we just had church and a bunch of appointments, but it was fast Sunday, so I was pretty hungry the whole day, so it wasn't one of my favorite Sundays, but you can look at it as 3 fast Sundays down, 21 to go.

Anyways, that about sums up my week. Hope everyone is having a great summer!. Enjoy the rest of it and I hope to hear from you in the future!

Elder Stubbs