On the Bonny, Bonny Banks...

Week 25

Well hello there! How are you guys? 

It's been a pretty great week, a couple of exchanges, a lot of amazing people met, plus a pretty solid roast in our gospel principles class on Sunday.

While doing service for the old folks day group, the lady in charge had the country radio station playing, so I got to jam out to some really great music for the first time in a while:D

We went on an exchange with the Mandarin elders again on Thursday after district meeting, and my  buddy Elder Howlett came out to Leduc. While we tracted with him, we had a ton of success, and met a lot of really solid potentials. One Indian lady opened the door and said, "come in, sit down, any message, any message, please." So we shared the Book of Mormon with her and taught a little bit about the Restoration. It was really cool, especially when we left. As we came outside, another lady was walking down the street and started calling us over. She asked if we were the ones who knocked on her door a few minutes ago, and then we told her what we do and set up a return appointment. Usually people don't come looking for the strangers who knocked on their doors, but this lady did. Luckily! 

We met a really cool guy named Mitch, who runs a big company, let us in and taught him a little bit more about our message. He has friends who are members and that little planted seed made him just a bit more curious, which is always a good thing:)

Saturday we drove into Edmonton so elder Johnston could do a baptismal interview for a kid the sisters have been teaching. It was great to see how well he knew the gospel and was able to tell us what he knows. Never underestimate kids. 

After that we went shopping for some shoes for Elder Johnston, and I saw the most fantastic crazy sock wall ever. It took all my power not to buy some of them. A lot of you know how much I love crazy socks, but they're not exactly approved to wear as a missionary... haha oops. 

I'm now officially a licensed driver in the province of Alberta. It's nice to finally be able to drive, but I'm really not excited to drive to Edmonton, because it's pretty crazy traffic. 

The other night, the High Priest group put on an activity called "Guess Who's Coming For Dinner" where there are several families from the ward who volunteer their home and their cooking, and 4 or 5 couples come over, but the host family doesn't know who's coming, neither do the individual couples. It's a good way to get the members together to share stories and learn new things about each other, and even see who we could be sharing the gospel with. We got invited to the fitzners, and then we shared a message focused on the His Hands firesides which the Canada Edmonton Mission has been putting on. After our companionship went to see it, I felt inspired to write a poem about Jesus Christ, and I was able to share it with the members who were there at dinner that night. I'll attach the poem to my email. Ive gained a much closer relationship with Christ since being out on the mission, and it's something I love and want other people to have. That is why I serve. 

Sunday night we had delicious dinner with the Jeffrey family, celebrating my main man, Russell's 21st birthday. He's a super sweet guy who's getting married this year, and served his mission in Idaho, so of course he's pretty legit. 

Yesterday I was on exchanges with the Zone Leader, Elder Bonny from Utah. (Hence the title of my email) we did a lot of tracting and had a great dinner with a family, who I shared my poem with. The Ellerslie area we were in is a little bit busier than Leduc, so there was more street contacting to be done. I went up and talked to a random guy, was able to give him a Book of Mormon, and even learn about what he believes. I usually don't do that, but with him, the spirit was guiding me. Super cool. 

Well, that's it for this week, y'all. Thanks for your support and prayers! I love serving and being Gods hands in this work.

 "Miracles happen once in a while, if you believe."

Love ya!

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Elder Wells

Pictures:

1. Alberta sunset featuring the heaviest filters I could use

2. Probably the biggest house I've knocked on

3. Feasting upon the word

4. The sock wall

5. "King me."

6. Only some will understand.

7. Another Alberta sunset

8-9 Selfies with Elder Bonny 

Videos:

1. Elder Woodruff bed flipped me 

2. Some fun while planning in McDonald's

3. Elder Howlett discretely videoed me dancing 

Brazilian Soup

Week 24

Hola mi familia! 

How goes it? This week was a lot more productive than last week I feel like. We were able to have a few lessons, and we got dropped... in the nicest way possible (including soup). I'll explain in a bit. 

So apparently, the Elders who were in Leduc before us met with a gentleman named Tony from Egypt like three times, but didn't bother to make a record for him, and forgot to tell us about him. So we found out some information about him and set up an appointment to meet. When we arrived, he told us his background and what not, and then we started our lesson. We explained the Book of Mormon a little more in depth, and talked about the priesthood and where it comes from. The spirit was really strong, he really wants to go to a family oriented church, and at what felt like the climax of the lesson, Elder Woodruff invited him to be baptised. We expected him to say yes, because the way the spirit had worked upon him understanding what we taught, and he said no. So that was a little disappointing, but we will still meet with him tomorrow to teach him a bit more. 

We had a sweet lesson with our buddy, Braydon, where we explained the big picture and the reason he should be baptised. I should have taken a picture of the picture I drew for him, but I forgot. Next week I'll send it. We told him if he wants to be happy, live with his mom and God forever, he needs to be baptised, because "strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to eternal life". He was still really squirmy, but he did say he wants to be baptised. He and his mom have been praying to find out a specific day. To be continued...

At our district meeting on Thursday, in a role play with the Sisters, I know the spirit was there. One of them had a question about why we need the Book of Mormon if we have a Bible. Out of nowhere, this analogy came to my mind, which I'd never heard before. Imagine you're standing on one foot. See how off balance you are? That's what it's like to only have knowledge from the bible. Now, if you have both feet, or in other words the Book of Mormon AND the Bible, you are able to stand, walk, run, jump, and do all sorts of things. The two compliment each other, they aren't used to find fault. So that was pretty cool. 

So now to the story of the drop. There is this amazing Brazilian couple who we have had a super hard time meeting with lately. The other night, we stopped in just to see if hey were home, and they were! The husband, Moacyr (MoyseeAy) invited us in and we talked for a while. He told us they are ok with their religion now, and they love us to death, but they just don't have time to sit and talk about religion because she has to go back to Brazil and he needs to find a job. So in a way he dropped us, saying they're not quite interested. The wife, Marcella came around the corner and talked and explained a little bit of of what he had said, then said she had been making some Brazilian soup and wanted us to have some. (We had just eaten a hefty meal of sloppy joes, but they wouldn't let us leave until we had some.) it was probably the best soup I've ever had. We ate soup, chatted with them, laughed a lot, ended with hugs, and then we left. That was the most upbeat drop in the history of dropping. 

This is going to be a long email, but at least that means it was a great week! Saturday we moved a bunch of belongings for an older lady from Fort McMurray, with The Nesom boys. They're the most redneck bunch of kids ever. I love em. In the process, we got a 15 passenger van stuck in two inches of snow, loaded up 4 vehicles with totes, took like 12 trips in the elevators to get the belongings up to the 7th floor, and then sister Nesom bought 8 pizzas and we ate basically all of it. 

Later that night, we went to a baptism for a man Elder Woodruff taught in his last area. Braydon and his brothers and mom were able to go to it, just so Braydon has a better idea of what baptism actually is, and that it's not so scary. 

Our mission has been doing these fire sides throughout this month and last, called "His Hands". It's a musical journey through the life of Christ. Through watching the missionaries sing and feeling of the special spirit there, I felt like I understood more of what Christ went through for us. Before we went to that, we had a lesson with Aaron, and he has been thinking a lot about baptism. He really wants to know the truth, and as soon as he knows, he wants to be baptized. As we answered some of his questions regarding the Priesthood, I felt the spirit tell me to say, "Aaron, you know you could hold this priesthood one day." That made a big effect on him. 

At one of our dinner appointments, the members dog, (huge German Shepard) chewed the crap out of one of my church shoes.... Sister Hinman said she'd buy me a new pair. Gotta love dogs. 

That's it for the week, I hope you all know that Jesus loves you! The church is true! Love y'all! 

-Your Friendly Neighbourhood Elder Wells

Pictures

Making Toad in a Hole for breakfast 

Elder Johnston cuddles

It's definitely 5:00 somewhere! (Zack Nesom's Ford Escape)

Another red bench

Relatives of Brandon Hosteen who were at my farewell!

My sweet haircut

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