Dear Family,

 

Hey so good to hear from all of you this week. It's been a tough week. A bit of a struggle really but we will continue. We just got some devestating news that the 2.1 is closing down and they are splitting up the Elders. It's because of the missionaries going home before Christmas. So I've had to deal with 2 complaining missionaries this weekend. Not too fun. I was a also a bit frustrated because I liked having the larger district and and a 4 man flat now it gets smaller and just me and Elder Brown. I'm alright with it but I felt it helped me stretch myself further. But After praying about it and contemplating it a lot I realize that it's been a real answer to my prayers. One of the things I wanted when moving to Grimsby was to start learning all the lessons I needed to and that I could before I go home. I think these 4 weeks with these Elders has provided me with more opporunities to learn and now with them leaving I have even more to learn. So the Lord is just blessing me with more opportunities.

 

As I said though this week was rough. It was a bit slow but this week will sure keep u busy with taking over the potentials and investigators 2.1 had. Including the lady we found on exchange. They got back in contact with her because she didn't hold her next appintment but it turned out that her husband had a heart attack. She also has another friend in the hospital who's really sick. She is such a wonderful lady and has probably been at the hospital nonstop with everything. I hope we get to keep teaching her though and help them feel the peace and comfort of the gospel.

 

Elder Brown and I are going to be taking some pictures today and doing a bit of souvenir shopping. So i hope to find some things for everyone and send some nice pictures next week.

 

Well I got to keep this short so we can get the 2.1 elders over to the train station with all their luggage. It's a lot of stuff. I love you all though and send my love and Christmas wishes.

 

Elder DUDGEON

Dear Family,

 

It's been an ok week. We have had some hard times this week around the zone. We are having a hard time getting people to come to church which is not good. This last week though Grimsby 2.1 and us found 9 new investigators. Some of them are really good. Some will drop by the wayside pretty quick I feel if they haven't already but it's just neat to see how many people are here and willing to listen in this area. I went on exchange this week with one of the 2.1 elders. We knocked into a woman who was kind of standoffish at first but as I was persistent with her she said out of nowhere that we could come in out of the cold. (which was great because like 10 minutes later it started down pouring.) Well we hear how she lost her faith in God because of her old church and how the leaders of it treated her and her husband, She just had a lot of questions too which weren't answered. It was scary at first because the way she was describing her church sounded a lot like ours like word of wisdom qualities and law of chastity. Well. it wasn't our church though just another strange christian church. It sounded like the kept her from helping others because she wasn't a full member of their church nor apart of it's leadership. Well she was very prepared for the message of the restoration and the gospel in it's fullness. It's amazing to see how it can bless some one just to start receiving true answers and understanding the things God has told us to do. She prayed at the end which was amazing and she thanked God for sending us to help her renew her faith. The other elders are left to teach her this week and see how things progress.

 

Today I have to leave it short though. We are just getting back to grimsby at 5:00pm because we had a inter zone P-day. We played american football against the Sheffield zone and we whooped them. I scored the first touch down. One of the receivers tried to catch the ball under pressure and it just bounced off of him and into my hands and I was able to run it pass a couple defenders to the end zone. We then played a game of football and beat them there. I keep playing goalie and everyone asks if I played in high school or college. Nope. I just got a sense of what I am doing. So that was fun today to see a lot fo people. It was good to get out of the way because it took a lot of planning and things to get it done and so I am really tired. Oh well I move on.

 

I hope you are all doing well. I miss you. I hope things go well this winter with Myranda wrapping up school and Sarah too. I'm praying for both of you. I hope mom and devin start feeling better. And mom enjoys not being a disabled orangutan any more. Love you all

 

Elder dudgeon