Zone Conference Adventures, Teaching, Knocking and Having Fun

This week was a great one! We had zone conference in St John's so we got to fly again! Because of snow we had to spend an extra day there and it was a blast! Here's how the week went down 

Tuesday- we spent a long time shopping for Christmas presents. After we finished  shopping we went to the church and played a board game with Gillian. It was a sports trivia game so I won. That night we watched the Christmas devotional with the young men and the rest of the branch. 

Wednesday- we spent the morning cleaning the church with the Shenfields and then they took us to lunch. After lunch we went knocking for awhile and nobody was home. That night we were supposed to have a lesson at the church but we waited and waited and the guy never showed up. It was kind of a rough day.

Thursday- we got to fly to zone conference again! We were on one of the tiny planes again but there was no wind this time so it was less sketchy. We got to St John's and hung out with the senior couples for like an hour until the other missionaries in the zone got there for dinner. After dinner we all went out and worked in St Johns. It was a blizzard and St John's streets are super confusing, so driving was interesting. 

Friday- today was a party! Because of the blizzard president Low's flight got cancelled so we had to move zone conference from Friday to Saturday. That meant we had an entire day with 8 elders together! In the morning we shoveled snow. There was lots of snow so we decided to bury one companionship's car. It was fun to watch people's faces as they drove by. Next we did weekly planning and then made some pancakes for lunch. After lunch we did a huge comp study and then had to go uncover the car. At first we tried to just uncover the back and have them climb in through the trunk and back up, but the car couldn't move. Eventually we had to take off all of the snow so it could move. After we cleared the car we all got shovels and went around helping people clear their driveways. After that we had pizza with the senior couples and then split up into our districts and went to an event where a bunch of boats were decorated with lights for Christmas. It was the 20th anniversary so they also had fireworks. It wasn't as cool as the pictures on the ad but it was still super fun. When we got back to the apartment Elder Groneman and I decided to dive into the huge snow piles. It was a super fun day! 

Saturday- we got up and went to the church. We had our interviews with President Low and then had Zone Conference/ Christmas party. It was a good time and the Lows did a really funny puppet show in the talent show. We went straight to the airport from zone conference and waited for our flight. Our plane got delayed for 2 hours because of maintenance so we hung out in the airport and had a video chat lesson with Brianna. 

Sunday- it was a good routine Sunday. We had church, lunch, sang and talked at the senior center and then had comp study and zoomed with the Whites. We had dinner with the Sheppards and then went knocking for the rest of the night. 

Monday- we did call ins to start the day and then helped out with an open door soup service at another church. The guy that told us he was God last Monday was there eating soup so he talked to us for awhile again. Haha he is a funny old man! Later we taught Harold and Stephanie the couple that we found and then baked a cake for Hayley for her birthday. Hayley, Harold and Stephanie all came to FHE and we celebrated Hayley's birthday with cake and ice cream. It was a great night! 

This weekend in St John's was the funnest part of my mission so far! It was a great time being in a missionary frat house for a couple days! 😂 I hope you all have a great week this week! 

Love Elder Tait 

Miracles, Blessings and a Whole Lot of Crazy Adventure...

It's been a good week. I can't believe its December! This week we had exchanges and got to be in the city parade! We also found some people to teach! 

Tuesday- we had a nice lazy morning and then went and got groceries. After that we went to the church and played a trivia game called Super Quiz with one of the members named Gillian. It's a super old game so most of the questions were about movies and things I've never heard of, but it was still fun. That night for young men's we helped the Butts cut and stack wood in their basement.

Wednesday- we drove to Grand Falls and had district council. I gave a training about finding people to teach. It went pretty well. After district council we stayed in Grand Falls and had an exchange with the Grand Falls elders. I went with Elder Groneman first and we went knocking. He's from Riverton and is pretty cool. We went to this ghetto apartment and talked to a guy for a super long time. He didn't  think we knew what we were talking about cause we're just kids. Near the end of the conversation I had an experience I'll spend the rest of my mission trying to forget. I looked down and saw that his zipper was undone. I also saw that he wasn't wearing underwear. I'll leave it at that, but it was not something I ever needed to see haha. 😱 

After dinner we zoomed into branch council and then to end the night we had a lesson with a guy named Darrel. We read Mosiah 18 with him. He's a really nice guy.

Thursday- I went with Elder Mcarthur. We went knocking and were going to teach a lesson but the lady cancelled on us, so we just kept knocking. Nothing super exciting happened. We went back and had lunch and then Elder Call and I drove back to Corner Brook. We had dinner and then went knocking again. It was raining but there was snow on the ground the wind was blowing so it was just a cold wet mess outside. We got to one house and they let us in! It was a young couple with a little boy. We talked for a little bit and they told us that they had each talked to missionaries in the past but it had been awhile. On Wednesday the day before, they had talked about maybe getting in contact with missionaries again. And then the next day we showed up! That's insane! We were guided to their house for a reason no doubt. After we met them we went and had a lesson with Brianna.

Friday- we had weekly planning in the morning and then had lunch and correlation with the Shenfields, after that we went to Stephenville. First we stopped by Matthew. He wants to have us for Christmas dinner so he can make us scrunchins. They are a Newfoundland thing where you cook a ham or something and then take the fat and the skin and bake it till its crispy and eat that. He also told us his plan to by an RV and then live in the church parking lot so he can come to church. He's got some... interesting takes on things. He told us that God controls his TV and that God likes Bart Simpson so the Simpsons is on a lot. 

Later we went knocking in Stephenville it was horrible. Stephenville is such a wack place. Just being there gives you a weird vibe. Whenever we go there its always a funny time though. There are lots of interesting people to meet. 

Saturday- most of the day we spent at the parade. We had a float and we dressed up as shepherds and walked along side it handing out Light the World calendars. Lots of walking! There were tons of people there and we handed out everything we had so it was a success!

Sunday- it was a usual Sunday. We went to church, taught gospel doctrine and priesthood and then had lunch with the Butts. We zoomed the Whites and then had dinner. That night we had a lesson with the couple we met. Harold and Stephanie. They are awesome! We were there for a long time answering their questions. Harold had some deep questions like "what is the universe expanding into?" It was a fun night!

Monday- we had call ins in the morning and then did some street contacting. Met some interesting people. One guy told us that he was God so I thought it would be good to ask some of Harold's questions. When I asked he said "I'm not God, I'm a Newfoundlander." He said he's not Canadian cause he was born before Canada joined Newfoundland, haha. Later we knocked and Elder Call got a parking ticket. Talked to some more interesting people. Its pretty amazing the things some people tell you when you just show up on their door! Then we did comp study and had dinner. After dinner we had a lesson with Brianna about the law of chastity which is always a joy. 😬 Then we had FHE and played mad gab. 

This week was full of interesting people! I guess the cold brings out the weird in people! Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Tait 

Sent from my iPhone

Bean bag toss fun, A really great week, Remember to Light the World!!

Hey everyone! How bout the Utes! Playing for the Conference Championship! Also, another win over BYU which means the streak has now reached the age of accountability and is old enough to be baptized. Haha, anyway it was a good week here! We got to shovel lots of snow this week. Here's the play by play...

Tuesday- we just hung around in the morning waiting for transfer news. We went and helped fix the lights on the church and then went and got groceries when we found out we were both staying. We had dinner with the Shenfields and then had young men's. We played a game called Coup with the young men at their house. 

Wednesday- we had 4 lessons set up today so that was exciting, but then 3 out of 4 fell through. The one lesson we had was with Hayley and it went well so it was successful day. We did some finding in Stephenville. Stephenville is just a weird place I don't know how to explain it, it's just weird. We drove back and had dinner then had branch council that night and talked about Light The World. 

Thursday- Happy Thanksgiving! We did some snow shoveling in the morning we had around 1 foot of snow. For lunch we had turkey sandwiches in honor of Thanksgiving. Then we went and helped with the bean bag toss at the senior center. It was an all time classic! Nelly is usually the winner for bean bag toss but today was different. Underdog Tursh jumped out to a big lead at the start, but then Nelly came roaring back with a couple 500 point throws! The crowd was going crazy! It came down to the last round and Tursh came up with a clutch 100 point throw and edged out a 25 point win. He took home the toothpaste this week. Exciting times at the Mountain View Retirement Center! When we got home the power was out so we did comp study and had dinner in the dark. We played orange juice pong and then later that night we had a lesson with Brianna. We are working on some things with her but she is doing great! 

Friday- we did lots of planning today. There wasn't very much going on. Elder Call is the driver now and is still getting used to driving in the snow so driving is an adventure! 

Saturday- we spent awhile making a Light The World float for the Corner Brook parade with a couple members. The Sheppards fed us all lunch and we had caribou soup. I was expecting it to be really weird but it wasn't bad. That night we went to president Sansome's house. We talked and he gave us some Cod fish soup and canned chicken sandwiches. It was an interesting food day! 

Sunday- Sunday was great! We had our usual schedule of church, lunch with the Butts, senior center singing and zooming with the Whites but this time we also gave brother Hicks a blessing. He's a member of the branch and is really old and sick. His son was visiting so he asked us to come helped give a blessing. That night we were visiting people and met a really cool guy. We talked for like 30 minutes and he was interested and we gave him a Book of Mormon. 

Monday- it was a really good day! We didn't do anything really special but it was just a great day! In the morning we had call ins and then I worked on a training I'm giving. Later we had a district comp study where we got to meet the new district. Both other companionships in our district got whitewashed which means both companions are new to the area. It was fun to meet them and talk for a bit. Later we went knocking and had FHE that night. For FHE we got some things ready to pass out during the parade.

Transfer #3 is off and running, it should be a good one! Make sure all of you do Light The World this year. It's gonna be sick! Find a way to serve and do it! Hope you all have a great week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Tait

Kissing a Cod, Knocking in the Cold, Orange Chicken and another great week...

Transfers! Elder Call and I are both staying in Corner Brook! I'm excited to keep going here, we're starting to gain some traction. We didn't end up flying this week but there were still some good times! 

Tuesday - in the morning, Elder Shenfield came over and inspected our apartment and car. We passed then we got ready and went to get some groceries. We got home, put our groceries away and then went and got haircuts. After our haircuts we were going to make orange chicken, but we didn't have cooking oil so we had to go back to the store. Lots of trips to the store today! We finally got back and had everything we needed so we made orange chicken. We used a deep fryer so I had some fun with that, I deep fried an oreo. It was good! It probably would have been a lot better if I didn't use orange chicken batter, but it was still good. There was a small problem with the wok and we found out that our carbon monoxide detector works so that's good. After we made the orange chicken we had dinner with the Shenfields and then had young men's. We split in 2 teams and tried to make the best dessert for under 10$. Ethan and I made root beer floats and the other two made pudding with gummy worms and oreos. We definitely won. 

Wednesday - we got up early and drove to Grand Falls for district meeting. We had the meeting and ate lunch and then went to the airport to fly to Halifax. There was a blizzard that day so our flight got cancelled after we waited in the airport for a couple hours. We drove home and had dinner, then we went knocking for the night. It was pretty sad that our flight was cancelled but we got over it.

Thursday - most of the day we spent zooming into leadership conference. It was awesome to be a part of, even though we couldn't be there in person. That night we went knocking. Not much success but we did see a Newfoundland dog which was cool. 

Friday - in the morning we went to the church and helped a member make chili for the chili cook off that night. We also had member lesson with her and talked about member missionary work. After that we did some planning and then that night we had the branch chili cook off. It was really great! Our chili got 2nd place. We lost by one vote! At the end of the chili cook off Elder Call and I, the Shenfields and President and Sister Low got screeched in - which is kind of an initiation to become and honorary Newfoundlander. First we had to kiss the cod. It was so gross they've had it for 5 years and just put it in the freezer in between events. It definitely smelled 5 years old haha. After that we drank cod liver oil and purity syrup, ate a purity cracker and bologna (the driest cracker I've ever had it was like saltine crackers times 5) we also had a Newfoundland candy and said some phrases. It was a fun experience! 

Saturday - today was a really busy and good day! In the morning we had a lesson with our friend Brianna. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and it went well. After our lesson we helped the Sheppards shovel the driveway. There's a guy who plows every house on the street except for the Sheppard's, because they are members of the Church. After we shoveled, we drove an hour to Stephenville. We met with a less active member and read the Book of Mormon with him. He loves us and is really nice so he cooked us up some food. He lost most of his fingers to frostbite so it's hard for him to do things so that was really nice. My instant potatoes weren't cooked so they were still really watery, but had to finish all of them. Not my favorite meal I've had. After that we met up with a guy named Arnold. We got to know him and talked for awhile and then taught him the restoration. He is going to read the entire Book of Mormon which is great! We finished the night knocking. In between houses we talked to a girl and she was interested! We got her info and then kept going. It was snowing really hard and we were about to leave but decided to knock on one more house. No answer. But when we walked back there was another person walking down the street and she was also interested! Trying just a little harder really pays off! It was a solid day! 

Sunday- church was super cool! Gander became an official group of the church which is the smallest organization. They can hold their own meetings now and don't have to zoom into us. Our branch zoomed into them this week to watch that all happen. After church we did the usual schedule of lunch with the Butts, comp study and zooming with the Whites. That night we took the sacrament to a sick member. Then we walked to a potential's house. We walked pretty much across the city it was so cold! 

Monday - we did call ins in the morning and then did comp study. It was sad that it was the last time seeing the district! After lunch we had a zlc and then visited a less active member. We got talking about sports and he turned on sportscenter and I saw Alex Smith break his leg. Sad day. Then he changed the channel and we saw a bit of hockey. The meeting was more than just watching sports but those were the highlights. Later we went knocking and then had a dinner appointment with the Sheppards. That night we taught Brianna and then had FHE. For FHE we played a game called Doubles and then Phase10. It was a good night! 

Another good week! Hope you all have a great week and Happy Thanksgiving!! Love you all! 

New Missionary Conference, Staying at Lindsey’s old apartment, Pong with Prune Juice...

Hey everyone hope you are all doing well! This week was crazy but really fun! We spent a lot of time out of our area this week with new missionary conference and exchanges. All the travel and things going on make the weeks go by fast! Thankfully our plane to Halifax was bigger than to st John's. It's getting colder and starting to snow instead of rain. It's so humid that when it's under freezing temperature there's little ice balls in the air. 

Tuesday- for pday we had another lazy day where we mostly just napped and cleaned up a little bit. Later we went to the mall and looked around and I bought some postcards. On our way out we walked past Boston Pizza. The Jazz vs Raptors game was on at Boston Pizza, so I watched through the window for a little bit. That was amazing! We got groceries after that and then emailed. That night we had young men's. We went to the Butt's house and played a game with them it was super fun.

Wednesday- we had district council over zoom (zoom is pretty much the same thing as skype) in the morning. We knew we had New Missionary Conference on Thursday, but at this point we still didn't have our travel plans so we weren't sure what we were doing. We did lunch and comp study and then finally got our flight info, so we could plan the rest of our day. We went and tried to find a soup kitchen to help at or any kind of service we can do. Then later we were going to have zoom a lesson with Matthew but he didn't get on.

Thursday 11/8/18 - today was an awesome day! We woke up at 3:30 am,  got ready and drove to the airport. Our flight left around 6:00. We got to Halifax and went to the church for the conference. It was sick to see all the new missionaries! I got to see my MTC companion elder Atkins, so that was pretty cool. He's a stud. We had lots of great trainings and I learned a lot. In the afternoon we all got to go to the temple. It was awesome! Later after the temple we had interviews with President Low and then went on an exchange with the Cole Harbour elders. That night we slept at their apartment which is where Lindsey lived when she served in Cole Harbour! It was a really spiritual day! 

Friday- we got up and got ready and then went to the mission office. We waited there for awhile and then the APs took us to the airport. We flew back to Deer Lake and from there we went to Grand Falls on exchanges. We got to Grand Falls and I went knocking with Elder Jones for awhile and then we did a Book of Mormon read with 2 of their members which is half of their little group. 

Saturday- in the morning Elder Jones and I went knocking again with no success. We met back at the apartment and had lunch and comp study with the other two. After that elder Benson and I went and did some more knocking. We met these two guys, they wanted us to climb on the roof and help them fix the chimney, but when we tried they said they were kidding so then we just talked for a little bit. They had some great thoughts and are really funny. After dinner Elder Call and I drove back to Corner Brook. It was snowing pretty hard so it took extra long, but we made it. 

Sunday- church was good on Sunday. We didn't have to teach any of the lessons this time. That was kinda nice. After church we had lunch with the Butts again. This time sister Butt gave us some Turkish food. We had this thing called yogurt soup. It was interesting to say the least, hot yogurt with rice and chicken bouillon cubes for flavor. I had to psych myself up for every bite. Not my favorite thing I've eaten haha. After lunch we went to the seniors home and did our hymns and talks. After that we met with the Whites over zoom. That night we went knocking in the snow. Knocking in the snow is better than in the rain, at least for now. After that we went to teach a first lesson with a guy, but he wasn't home or just didn't answer so we did digital finding instead. At 9 we played pong with some unsweetened prune nectar that we found in the back of the fridge. I won because Elder Call quit after throwing up. Moral of the story prune juice does not taste good. 

Monday- in the morning we had call ins and then did weekly planning we missed on Friday. Later we did comp study and had a ZLC about how we can use the things we learned at zone conference to help the zone. That night we had FHE. Brianna came and brought 2 people! We played minute to win it games and everyone got into, it so they were really fun! 

The highlight of the week was flying to Halifax for the New Missionary Conference. That day was full of spiritual experiences and one of the best days of my mission so far! We've got one more trip to Halifax this week so it's gonna be another unusual week! Have a great week everyone! Love you all! 

Elder Tait 

Crazy flight to and from Zone Conference, Signal Hill, A Fast and Great Week

This week we had Zone Conference, so we spent a couple days in St John's on the other side of the island. It was a really fun couple days and that was probably the highlight of the week! 

Tuesday- we relaxed in the morning and then I got up and worked out. We cleaned a little bit and then went to the store. After that we emailed and then had dinner with the Shenfields. For young men's we were supposed to do something called rainbow loom but the Butts forgot to bring it, so we played Kahoot.

Wednesday- Halloween! In the morning we went knocking and we went 45 minutes before the first person answered! After that we had lunch and then comp study. We were supposed to teach our friend Brianna but she canceled. We walked around and knocked on some doors. At 5:00 we had a ZLC meeting over zoom about Light the World. After that we had to be in our apartment because of Halloween so we made some good Alfredo and studied and ate candy.

Thursday- in the morning we went over and had a lesson with Hayley. She is doing the Book of Mormon challenge to read by the end of the year so we talked about what she has read so far. We also read 2 Nephi 31 with her. It's a really good chapter! Later that day we did service at the senior center. It was a lady's 90th birthday so she had a party with bingo and cupcakes. We helped make sure they could hear the spaces being called and then handed out cupcakes. We also did weekly planning since we were leaving on Friday. 

Friday- we got up at 5:00 and drove an hour to the Deer Lake airport. From there we got on a plane and flew to St John's for zone conference. The plane was so small it was crazy! There were only 18 seats total, no flight attendant, the entire plane was about 5 feet wide and 6 feet tall. We landed in St John's and Elder Schow, one of the senior missionaries there picked us up. We took the long way home and got to go to Signal Hill, and the furthest east point in North America. We then had to run some errands with Elder Schow and then he took us to lunch. After that we met up with the St John's elders and set up the church for zone conference. Then we had comp study and went to the Schow's house for dinner. After dinner I went with one of the St John's elders, Elder Musgrave and we taught a lesson. After the lesson we met up with the other two and all four of us went and visited a recent convert named Moses. He is from Nigeria and has an amazing life story! He's trying to save money to get his wife and son over here. I learned so much from him, he's amazing! Later that night the APs got to the St John's apartment, so we stayed up and talked for awhile. It was a fun day! 

Saturday- on Saturday we had zone conference. The conference was great and we also had some good food. After the conference we got flu shots and then went back to the apartment and had dinner. It was Elder Call and I, the St John's elders and the APs all there so we did a three way exchange. We went and helped some people move for a little bit and then went knocking. After that we went home and hung out and then went to sleep.

Sunday- we had to wake up at 4:30 and went straight to the airport. The weather and winds were crazy! It was another tiny plane so we got tossed around by the wind. When we were trying to land they said they would try once and if they weren't able to land we would have to fly to Gander which is 3 hours away. The plane was out of control. It was like on The Bee Movie. We were able to land on the first try! Elder Shenfield picked us up from the airport and we went to church. Later that day we went knocking and then taught our friend Brianna. There was another guy there we invited to join the lesson and he just wanted to argue, so that was frustrating but it was still good to teach.

Monday- on Monday we did call ins and then lots of knocking. That night we had dinner with Gillian one of the members and then taught her at the church. After that we had FHE and played scategories.

It was super fun to fly to St John's this week and spend some time there for zone conference! We were pretty busy so it was a fast Week! We get to fly to Halifax this week so it should be another fun Week! See ya next Week! Love you all! 

Elder Tait 

Sent from my iPhone

Grandma’s cookies, The never ending song and Some great experiences...

It's been a great week and it went by super quick. We had an exchange this week which was super fun. It's always a party to have 2 extra elders in the apartment! Our mission is doing a social media fast for a little bit so we did some extra knocking this week.

Tuesday- it was a nice relaxing 

pday. We got some extra sleep, went to the store and got some groceries and just hung around most of the day and didn't do anything super exciting. That night we had dinner at the Shenfield's with the whole district and then we all went out knocking. It was a successful night. We found a few people that might be interested! The Grand Falls elders stayed with us that night so that was fun. 

Wednesday- on Wednesday we got up and had district council at the church and then we all had lunch together. When we got back to our apartment we started our exchange with the Grand Falls elders. Elder Benson and I went knocking for awhile and it finally stopped raining! Instead it got cold enough that it snowed haha. While we were knocking we got to a house that said "grandma and grandpa's house, warm hugs and cookies and milk." Grandma answered the door and she wasn't interested so I said we were actually there cause we saw the sign and wanted hugs and free cookies. She didn't think it was very funny so we left without any cookies. Maybe next time haha. We met back up with Elder Call and Elder Jones and had dinner at the apartment. After dinner Elder Jones and I went to branch council. There was lots of good ideas for the branch. 

Thursday- Today we continued the exchange. Elder Benson and I went knocking and then we're going to teach a lesson. The guy we were teaching wasn't home so we left a note and then left and knocked some more. After that we went back to the apartment and had lunch. We decided to try the jar of pork from President Sansome. It made an interesting lunch. We had it with rice and tried to put a bunch of sauce on it but there was still a different taste and smell that we couldn't get rid of. We all survived and nobody got sick, then we talked about the exchange and the Grand Falls elders left. Elder Call and I did comp study and then went and helped at the senior center. This time we did bowling. They have a modified version and they are all really good at it. Later we visited a member. We felt like we should talk about the plan of salvation with her. We went with it and it was exactly what she needed that day! It was super cool that we were prompted to talk about that because usually we talk more about how the members can help with missionary work. That night we went knocking in Pasadena. It was dark and foggy. I felt like we were in a horror movie.

Friday- Friday was a good day. We got up and then had some solid weekly planning. We went over to the Shenfield's for lunch and a meeting. After that we were supposed to meet with our friend Hayley, but she canceled so we prepared for young men's. When we got back to our apartment one of the people that was interested from Tuesday texted us. We went over and taught her the restoration and it went really well! After the lesson we knocked on some doors in the snow. Later that night we had young men's because we couldn't do it on Tuesday night. We played some minute to win it games and then their mom brought us pizza. It was a great night! 

Saturday- on Saturday we drove down to Stephenville. When we got there we ate lunch and had comp study. We were supposed to have a lesson with a less active member, but he didn't answer our calls, so we walked around and knocked. One lady let us in! She was really nice but she was absolutely crazy! We're going to give her some time before we go back haha. Walking back to our car some random guy stopped, rolled down his window and yelled "Hey Mormons!" We said hi and then he drove away. It was funny just because it was so random. For dinner we ate some pb sandwiches in the car in the parking lot of the beach. The sun was setting and a group of high school aged kids came by. I thought about the situation and was like "it's not what it looks like!" After dinner we drove back to Corner Brook and then helped some people move. 

Sunday- it was a busy day which was great! In the morning we went to church. It was freezing raining which is kind of like hail but worse. It piled up all over the roads. I tried to make the very first turn and the car didn't turn. We slipped off the road a little bit and found a ditch, then I found the AWD button and we made it to church safely. We had church and President Gallant from the mission presidency came and spoke. Our friend Brianna also came! After church we had lunch with the Butts and then went to the senior center and did a church service. We sang some hymns and Elder Call and I spoke. I was leading the music and we sang How Firm a Foundation. All 7 verses. The seniors sing about half speed so my arm was tired by the end. After that we went to the church and had comp study and then Skyped with the Whites. After that we had dinner with the Sheppards. That night we went knocking in Pasadena which is about 20 minutes away. It was pouring rain that night and the roads are so bad at getting water off. It's literally like there are waves on the road when it rains hard and is windy. 

Monday- we did call ins in the morning and then went knocking until lunch. After lunch we did comp study and put some things in our area book. Later we were going to meet with our friend Brianna and then she canceled and then like 5 minutes later she asked us to come over. We went over and had a short lesson about the plan of salvation. Then we had dinner at the church with a member named Gillian and then did some family history with her. After that we had FHE. Both Brianna and Hayley came and we carved pumpkins. It was a great activity! 

It was a really good week! We are starting to have more success here! We're gonna keep working hard and hopefully we continue being blessed. Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Tait

Lots of rain and thankful for the sun

Hi everyone! It was a good week this week, but it was a little bit boring. We did a lot of knocking but not very many people answered. 

I've seen more rain this week than I ever have in my life! 

Tuesday- we napped in the morning and then went and did some grocery shopping. After that we drove to Cox's Cove for the funeral of a less active member's brother. The funeral was a little different than I was expecting! There was a folk band that played all the hymns. After the funeral we got to meet Dennis the less active guy which was great! He really appreciated us coming! After that we drove back to Corner Brook and emailed. We made spaghetti for dinner. I was in charge of the sauce and did my job by buying a bottle of tomato sauce. Elder Call made the noodles. I guess he didn't put enough water in, so some of the noodles ended up burning. I'm not really sure how. Eventually we got some good noodles and had dinner. 

For young men's we played kahoot. I got smoked when we did Harry Potter book trivia but got my revenge on NBA trivia! 

Wednesday- another district meeting in Grand Falls, so we spent lots of time driving. We had a good meeting. My district is Elder Call (District Leader), the Sister Training Leaders and the Zone Leaders, so I learn lots in district meetings! When we got back from Grand Falls we ate dinner and then went and met with our friend Hayley. It's hard to have lessons with her because her daughter takes a lot of attention but it was still a good meeting. She is going to do the challenge from the women's session of general conference and read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year! 

Thursday- in the morning we did a little bit of planning for young men's and then went knocking for awhile. I talked to one guy who is a big Raptors fan. There aren't many basketball fans up here so it's really fun to talk to them when I get the chance. We kept knocking and got to one house where a kid answered the door. We asked if the parents were there and he said he would go get his dad. The dad came down the hall and as he was walking said "how's it going?" I was thinking "This is the young family the branch needs! This is going to be great!" Before we could even answer he got to the door yelled "not interested!" And slammed the door. it was sad, but the first time I legit had the door slammed in my face so that was cool I guess haha! Elder Call was struggling with a little bit of sickness so we had to stay around a bathroom the rest of the day. We had a really good dinner with the Sheppards and later that night had a lesson with one of the members.

Friday - we did weekly planning and then went to the Shenfield's house and had lunch and then a long meeting. That night we set up so the women in the branch could watch the women's session from general conference and then we went knocking with no success. After dinner we saw the sun for the first time in like 9 or 10 days! it's been raining nonstop, so it was awesome to see the sun peek out! 

Saturday - we did lots of knocking. We talked to a couple people and one guy said we could come back. Later that day we were supposed to have a lesson over zoom with a less active guy named Matthew. He never got on tho so it didn't end up happening. In the evening we went over and visited with President Sansome. He is the best! He gave me a Corner Brook pin and a jar of pork! Last time I went with Elder Hatch he gave me a bottle of beef.

Sunday- not really anything exciting happened today. We went to church and taught gospel doctrine class about Isaiah chapters 50-53. I probably knew the least about it in the class and was one of the teachers so it was probably not the best. After church we had lunch with the Butts. We had "tacos" they didn't have salsa and there was no taco seasoning on the meat. Instead they use ketchup, the tacos are pretty much a loose meat hamburger on a tortilla. They were different but still good! Later we Skyped with the members in Labrador City.

Monday- we went knocking and it finally stopped raining! But the only reason it stopped raining was because it was so cold. There were still flurries coming down and cold wind. We went back over to the guys house that said we could come back. He talked to us for a pretty long time and told us his whole life story. He's a nice guy but he might just be wanting people to talk to because he lives alone. Him and lots of other people here do the Nova Scotia suck - when they say "yeah" instead of actually saying it they suck air in. In the evening we had a lesson with a member at the church and then had FHE at the church. Nobody came except for us 3 but we still had fun playing headbanz! 

This week wasn't the most exciting week but there were still some good times! One thing I've learned is to be thankful anytime the sun is shining, don't take that for granted! Have a great week! Love you all! 

Elder Tait 

New Companion, New Car, Meeting a Big Dog & Apartment Key Adventures

This was a super good week! I spent a couple days in Grand Falls with Elder Jones waiting for our new companions. I'm the designated driver this transfer so I'm the only one that can drive our car. I've already done lots of driving and have gained a testimony of Cruise control. I hadn't used it until now but it is life changing! I also have been trying to learn how to make balloon animals. I'm slowly getting better, I'm hoping to be able to make a pirate sword this week. 

Tuesday- we napped in the morning and then went over to the church and waited for our new car. When we got there we saw a bunch of yellow stains on the sidewalk. All of the eggs from our FHE activity were splattered across the sidewalk. We got some soap and water and scrubbed and scrubbed and finally got the cement clean. After that our car still hadn't been delivered so we were going to go to Gros Morne a national park here. Right as we were leaving we got a text and found out Elder Hatch was being transferred, so we ended up not going to Gros Morne. Later we got our new car and then went and got haircuts. The rest of the day was mostly just packing and emailing. That night we played clue for young mens and Elder Hatch said goodbye to Logen and Ethan. 

Wednesday- Elder Hatch and I got up and packed a couple last things, we went and he said bye to the Shenfields and then we drove to Grand Falls. When we got there he went with Elder Pitcher and they went to the airport and I stayed with elder Jones. Elder Jones and I got right to work, we did comp study and then visited a bunch of people and set up some lessons. We also visited a senior home. We talked to one lady for about 15 minutes, she kept telling us the same story so we just had the same conversation over and over. We finished the night knocking in a trailer park.

Thursday- in the morning we went to a town called Badger. Right when we got there we met a guy and helped him stack some wood. Then we knocked and visited some potentials. One house had a dog chained to the porch. It was a good sized dog and really loud and energetic. It was a person that was potentially interested so we had to try and talk to them. Elder Jones got it to come down and distracted it while I snuck behind the dog and knocked on the door. I knocked and waited and there was no answer, then I knocked again and still no answer. By that time the dog wasn't very interested in Elder Jones anymore and turned around and saw me and the chain was pretty long so it was around 10 feet away from me. It started running back to the porch at me so I jumped off the porch and ran the other way! I had to go around the whole yard but I made it out safely! Later that day we were going to teach a lesson but the lady we were going to teach was sick so we knocked around the neighborhood. That night we did some digital finding and to end the night we had a little nerf war.

Friday- We got up and ate breakfast and then our companions came! They came inside for a couple minutes and then Elder Call and I left. He's from Idaho Falls, Idaho and has been out for 17 months. We made the drive back to corner brook and went straight to the Shenfields house and ate and had a meeting with them. After the meeting we went to the church and Elder Call worked on the training plan because he's the district leader. It's his first time so it took a little bit. We went home and it was really cold outside. The apartment was locked and I had never asked which key we used to get in. We have 6 keys on the keychain so it had to be one of them. We stood in the cold for a solid 30 minutes trying every key at least 5 times and none of them worked. The lock on the door is broken so you have to try really hard to unlock it anyway and we also didn't know the key that should've worked. After 30 minutes we went to the car and prayed that we would know which key to try and that it would work to unlock the door. We got out and the first key I tried went right in and unlocked the door! It might seem like a stupid thing but it was a legit miracle! I had tried that key so many times and it would not even go in the lock. Prayers do get answers, and miracles happen if you have faith! Right after we got in I made sure to mark the apartment key lol. 

Saturday- Today we went to Stephenville. We went to the Rocky Beach and did comp study and then went over to a less active guy's house. He lives on welfare but he made us a turkey dinner and even sent us home with some leftovers! Really nice of him! We also taught him and a couple of his friends. Later we knocked on a few doors and then went back to Corner Brook. It was brother Sheppards 70th birthday party at the church so we went there for dinner. We ate and then they had a band come. They played some Newfie music and a bunch of people got up and did a jig. We left there and went to this art festival downtown to talk to people. 

Sunday- Sunday we had church and then went to the Butt's house and had lunch. After that we went to the senior center and sang hymns with them and I gave a talk. They were very disappointed we didn't have music for amazing grace. We'll have to get that for next time. After that we Skyped with the members in Labrador, the Whites. They are really cool! After dinner we did digital finding. 

Monday- in the morning we did call-ins. It was weird cause Elder Call was the guy doing call ins. After that we did weekly planning cause we didn't get to on Friday. After lunch we had a district comp study. Then we went knocking for awhile. That night we had FHE with Gillian and Robin a couple of members. We played telestrations it was really fun and there were lots of funny moments due to our bad drawing! 

It was a really good week! It feels good to have 1 transfer done! I'm excited for this new transfer! Hope you all have a great week! Love you all! 

Elder Tait