October 26, 2015

Home Sweet Home on the 7th Floor of The Elizabeth

My new address is 90 King Street East Apartment #707 Stoney Creek,  Ontario L8G 1K7.   My new companion is Elder Thurgood. He is really easy going and a good guy but we don't have that much in common. When I arrived at my new apartment I was told that we have cockroaches. I soon learned that this was true. Once I unpacked we went out and swung by the people that I would be working with. They are all really friendly. Over the course of the week we taught several lessons and contacted and tracted a lot. The people here aren't as friendly as they were in Weston. I usually only say a few words before they say that they're not interested. But that's okay because the ward makes up for it. They invited us to the ward Halloween party with music and games which was a ton of fun!  The people here celebrate Halloween way more than the people in Oregon.  Everyone decorates their house and gets into the spirit of Halloween. The ward is a really tight knit group. Also they are really supportive of missionaries and feed them a lot so I'm excited. Something that I have to be worried about this transfer is getting fat. The ward is always giving us candy and feeding us which is good but I'm in a car and don't get as much exercise as I'm used too. So I have to be careful of my weight. I wasn't able to go to Niagara Falls this week but hopefully sometime in the next 5 weeks I will be able too. Elder Ditty Brother Darlington Mabunda, Stoney Creek Ward Mission Leader, sent these photos their first day in the area.   Kyle's response to my "About that hair" comment: "I am starting to cut my own hair now haha. It's a learning process but its actually pretty good. The pic just made it look really crappy."

October 19, 2015

I'm getting transferred to Stoney Creek. Its by Niagara Falls. I forget my new companions name. I will meet him tomorrow. I don't know what my address is or what ward I'm assigned to yet. I will find out tomorrow. I have got all my stuff for winter. But the new area I'm in is like a bubble from the cold. It's a lot warmer then the rest of Toronto. It snowed the first time a few days ago. Love you



Thanks to Wikipedia for filling in some blanks, and giving us a preview of Elder Ditty's new area.

Stoney Creek Waterfront

The community of Stoney Creek is located on the south shore of western Lake Ontario, just east of Hamilton. As of the 2006 census, the population of Stoney Creek is 62,292. Stoney Creek is 92.72% white (European), (of which 55% had British or Irish origins, 16% Italian, 21% Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Ukrainian etc.), 3.0% South Asian, 1.0% Black, 1.0% mixed race, 0.6% Chinese. Due to the temperate environment on the western end of the Niagara Peninsula, the Stoney Creek area in eastern Wentworth County was and still is known for fruit growing. In recent decades, as the quality and reputation of Ontario wines grew, Stoney Creek became part of the fringes of the Niagara winery region.

 

The most scenic waterfall in Hamilton is Webster's Fall.  May be a future P Day visit.

October 13, 2015

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is celebrated on Columbus Day in America

 

This week was crazy. We had a ton of service projects that kept us busy. Also I had to go on several exchanges, one of them being with Spanish elders. So I sat in on lessons while everyone was speaking Spanish.

You can tell that it is Fall because all the trees are different colors which is awesome. The weather for the week was sunshine. Which is weird because the last couple weeks had been cold. But overall the weather is getting a lot cooler. 

Coming in November the mission should be getting Ipads which I am pumped for.

We had Thanksgiving this week. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the bishop and the food was delicious. All the normal thanksgiving food. To celebrate the holiday we went to President Clayton's house and played football and soccer so it was a ton of fun.

This Sunday is the end of the transfers, so I'm exited to see what will happen!  

Elder Ditty
 

Fall in the Weston Zone

Day after Canada Thanksgiving Day! Weston and Brampton Zones over to the Clayton's for the second annual Turkey Bowl

!

October 5, 2015

Kyle's Zone

Sorry I didn't write a recap last week. I was really rushed on time. But the last couple weeks have been good. The weather is getting really cold, so I'm having to buy a lot of winter gear. It hasn't snowed yet but the wind is picking up. Every Sunday the Zone has a sleep over which is pretty fun. Me and my companion are good. In two weeks I will probably have a new one and be done with training which I am pumped for. One of the investigators that had a baptismal date dropped out because he said the devil was tempting him to and he couldn't handle it. So its kinda frustrating. Sorry for not emailing last week and the short email this week. Again I am really rushed on time. The reason why is because of the sleep overs. It really messes up our P day schedule.

Elder Ditty

Note:  I commented that his hair seemed even whiter than usual, and he replied that he's been in the sun a lot so it's sun bleached.   Wow.  There's blonde and then there's Kyle blonde!

September 21, 2015

I'm doing good. I'm learning so much from my experiences out here and trying to constantly self improve. I might be training a new missionary in a couple weeks so I need to make sure I have all the rules and responsibility's down.

So for this week we were able to get 3 people to commit to baptism. They are all super great people. The first one is a 9 year old boy.  His family is less active but we're working with them to become active. In our lesson with the family we invited the son to be baptized and he accepted. We're working on a date still because the father wants to baptize his son. But he has to talk with the bishop about some things. So we are going to have to wait until that gets cleared up.

The 2nd is a man that is 31 years old. We got a call from him at 1 in the morning leaving a voice mail saying he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. Why can't all investigators be that easy. The date for his baptism is October 18th.

The 3rd is a girl in her 50's who we met a few weeks ago. She is learning about the church and feels that it is true. She will probably be baptized at the end of October hopefully. 

My week has been good. I had another sleep over with the zone leaders and went on another exchange,  so I'm getting to know the people in my zone pretty well. The weather is getting colder but it feels really good. It's far better then the hot humidity of the last couple months.

September 14, 2015

So over the course of the week, me and Elder Moffat were able to contact some returning members. They were super friendly and I am excited to see them in the future. But for the rest of the week we had a lot of appointments that have bombed on us.

My trainer is also the district leader now, so that means I will be going on exchanges every week of the transfer. So for the exchange this week I was with Elder Frenadez. I was in his area and he is a Spanish speaking missionary. So for the lessons I just sat there while everyone else spoke Spanish. When the day was over we went back to the apartment and there was a huge carnival right next to us so that kept us up awhile but it was nice hearing normal music for a change.

Also for this week it was stake conference. It was pretty cool because we had a member of the seventy there. Also the mission president gave a talk too. So the talks that were given were awesome.

The weather is starting to get cold. It's been starting to rain a lot.  It is finally starting to look like how I pictured Canada to be. I'm super exited for the colder weather because the last month has been super hot and humid.

Elder Ditty

Septembe 8, 2015

We were able to go to the Toronto Canada temple this week. It was awesome being able to attend it. I had a great experience being there. The night before we went to the temple we had another zone sleep over. All the Elders that fell asleep were pranked. Some of the pranks were getting slapped with a handful of saving cream or getting a ton of ice cold water poured on you.

It was also the last week of the transfer. So everyone was making predictions where everyone would be going. Me and my companion are staying in the same area. However, about half of the zone is leaving. So we're going to have a lot of new faces. Also because of it being the last week of the transfer we were able to go downtown. The skyscrapers were huge and CN tower is awesome. We then went into China Town and it was crazy seeing all the different stuff they were selling for food. It was bizarre. After that we went back to the apartment and prepared for the new transfer.

Elder Ditty