The one with Thanksgivings

Bonjour à tous! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week. This week here in Nova Scotia was another doozie. I'm am currently not in Bridgewater anymore. I am in Halifax working with the YSA elders because Elder Lee got his Visa and left for San Diego yesterday. I will be spending the rest of the transfer here. That puts this transfer as the craziest one yet. I spent the first two weeks in Sherbrooke, two weeks in a members house in Bridgewater, two weeks in our own apartment, and now two weeks here in the city of Halifax in a trio doing YSA. That puts me at 5 companions in this one transfer as well. Any way ahah, let's get right into this quick summary of the week. 

Last Wednesday we had district council in Halifax. Our council this week consisted of 14 missionaries which is bigger than the New Brunswick zone aha. We have a big district but it makes life fun and they are all great. After the council we drove back to Bridgewater and did some work there. I don't remember a whole ton of what we did but it was fun. 

Thursday was pretty good. We got out and tried to be creative while we contacted and tried to find. Not much was worked for us that day but that's why we get the next day to try again. Downtown Bridgewater is so small we kinda walk around it twice in about half an hour if we don't stop to talk to anyone. Later that night we went to our ward mission leaders house for a dinner/correlation meeting. We always take our shoes off here as missionaries because its respectful and that's what people normal do here but these members have 6 dachshunds that just run around and do what they want aha. About 10 steps into the house I stepped in a puddle of dog urine but I didn't want to say anything to them so I just waited the hour through and then took my sock off as soon as i got into the car ahaha. We had our French classes after that and I taught without shoes or socks on ahah. We had the same three people come to class again so that was fun to see them again and watch them progress. We also just sneak as much gospel related topics into our class as possible. It's been good. 

Friday was Shayne's Birthday! Happy birthday! We found a opportunity to do some service in a clothing bank for the hospital so we went over there after our morning studies and helped out. All the ladies there were so happy to see us there because the elders used to go there but haven't for a while because they were taken out. It was nice to be there and help out but we were not sure if it would be helpful to our missionary work to be actually doing that. Well God blesses us and helps us out when we have doubts or questions because right after that we had two ladies stop us in their car and gave us referral. They had a brother or a friend who had recently had a stroke and was looking for God so he reached out to the Jehovah's witnesses. They reached out to us because they said anyone is better than them ahah but because they said they know the church a bit and like what we teach better. After that we met with a sister in our ward who is the mom of about two families here but they are both less active and it really hurts her to see her children and grandchildren less active. She is such a strong member though and she goes the temple every week and prays for them. For all of you who might be in a Situation like that were you have a family member who is less active or has fallen away, just keep praying and have faith that one day you can be an instrument in their return to the gospel. I know it can happen. Even if you are not in that Situation, still find someone you know who is less active and pray for them. The power of prayer is so real. After dinner that night we had volleyball with the youth in our ward and we had a less active show up and play. It was super cool. 

Saturday we started like other Saturdays here so far with our awesome little French group in Liverpool. We are realizing that everything that we do here is with all these ladies over 75 years. They are all super sweet but they are all set in their religions. After French class we went back home and changed and then went over to a less actives house to help then stack wood. They had about 4 or 5 quarts of wood. I didn't know how much a quart of wood was until I got here and 1 quart is about 4' ×4' ×8'. Its a good amount. They were super nice and said that they would try to start coming back to church. After that we went back and changed and went and visited another couple families. 

Sunday was really good. We had a fast and testimony meeting which was good because we had conference last week. Priesthood was good too. We practiced what to say to non members about what we did during the weekend. Trying to involve the church in our everyday conversation. It was really good. After church we visited a couple more people so elder Lee could say goodbye. After that we had Thanksgiving dinner with two member families. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October for some reason but they celebrate it all weekend long. it was really nice because I missed both Thanksgivings last year in Quebec. After the dinner we just went home and packed up and called it a day. 

Yesterday was good but kinda sad. We got up and did a little studies and then drove down to Halifax. We got some lunch and then picked up Elder Thacker and Elder D'eon and went to the airport to drop off elder Lee. It was kinda sad to see him go after just a short time but it was good. After that we went and street contacted in downtown Halifax and then went to our YSA branch Thanksgiving dinner. And that kinda finished off the day. 

Its been a weird week but an even weirder transfer and we are not done yet ahah. I'm excited to see what happens. Keep being awesome and going to the temple and what not. I love you all! A la prochaine

Elder Beckstrand

 Me, Lee, D'eon, Thacker

 Back row, Burton, Rhodes, Mcullum, Wang, Hsu, Lee, Thacker, D'eon, Me
Front, Mcullum, Mavy, Prudent, Bates, Clark