MELFORT SASKATCHEWAN- Smallest City in Canada

Zone Conference- Saskatchewan Zone

Hi Family! This week has been super fun.  Elder Romeril and I get along super well and we laugh and joke a ton. We have been super good on one another.  I had tried to work out with Elder Gregson but he slept all morning which made it hard for me and he didn't want to do anything about it. When I got here I was like "we are working out" and it has been going well so far . I’ve feel like I have lost weight, I weigh like 160 now and its probably because I never ate anything with Elder Gregson cause I was so stressed.  We are going to start running sometime soon when it warms up a little. I've been having bananna fruit and milk smoothies every morning. I dont think i've ever looked at a nutritional value chart as hard as I have these last couple weeks haha. I'm trying to lose some belly fat so I have some muscles and the best way I've read to do that is avoid sugary sweetened drinks, [Basically Dr. Pepper :(] Thats Why I haven't been drinking my Dr. Pepper-- I haven't had one in a week and a Half so that's good.

We went into Saskatoon for Zone conference and we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Moore, he is 6'8'' and is a monster missionary. Oh, and we were driving a Toyota corolla! small, small, small. He taught me so much and helped me a ton! He gave me a ton of talks to study and showed me the ways of the force... I mean of missionary work. I got to do some street contacting and stuff throughout that day which was super fun. I want to be like Elder Moore.  We were going and we said hello to a lady and she says "no thank you" and Elder Moore says "no thank you to what? we haven't even said anything to you!” People don't know what they are missing out on.  Though that was pretty bold and funny. Elder Moore is also very friendly, we  went into one of his  investigators house, that he knows well and went into his room and woke him up for a lesson! it was crazy. He said im going to be a crazy good missionary, I really just want to do the best I can out here.

Anyways we had Zone conference this week and we studied about the powers of heaven. We are to study it in companion study too. We had a non-member lady this week named Carmen who was having a hard time so she prayed and decided to call her pastor and get some help financially. She somehow "accidentally" called our branch president 3 TIMES, instead of her pastor?  So she decided she wanted to have us bring some food over so we did and we taught her a lesson, my first real lesson! I was so excited about it! We talked to her about baptism and she said yes, and she was reading the book of Mormon as we left. When we came back later in the week, she said she now wanted to stay with her church. This is the trial of faith.  Hopefully she has the courage to move forward in the gospel. 

We have a Dairy Queen here!!  We have ball at noon like 2 days a week with the youth, so we do that and we play bingo at the old folks home and that is all I've done so far, this week,  for service.I did see that I am on week 10, so minus like the last five weeks of my mission, I'm 10% done….

Praying for miracles and praying for you guys, miss you guys alot and hope you are doing ok.

Questions from Family;

What classes do you go to at Church ? Is there a gospel principles class you teach?
Does your companion Elder Romeril snore?
Do you get to drive?
Are you cooking yourself food and healthy meals?
Would you like some lego for Pday or for kids there?

1. We do all classes in church- young mens, we had a gospel principles class yesterday with a less active and an investigator (sorta) we just taught the first lesson cause we normally dont have it. We also taught Young mens.

2. No thank goodness, i've been sleeping a lot better lately. Elder Romeril has a jeep back home too! 

3. No... but its ok!

4.Yes I am, I am going to try and make a butt-ton of cookie dough today.

5.Yes... ill just get some here, I was going to get some last week but I have no money (Tons of food dont worry, I just want to save some for next month) I literally have like 2 dollars on my card, but I have 60 dollars in cash back at home

Love 

Elder Sheen

Elder Sheen & Elder Romeril in their apartment, enjoying cookies

At the church in Melfort, getting the work done--They have touchscreen computers! 

Hello Lovely Family,

This week has been awesome. It started off with me and Elder Gregson on Monday, we got hit by a huge snow storm/Blizzard is what they called it on the weather station, and we had huge drifts and like 70-90 kph winds come blowing through. We tried to leave but our crappy pile of a car Subaru couldn't get over 6 inch drifts, cant tell you how much I wanted to be driving the jeep right them and just plow through all this snow. We ended up getting stuck in Estevan till Wednesday night. We had stayed overnight at a members home because we could not get to our apartment. We had to hang around and do nothing most of the time because of the blizzard. It cleared up Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and the road crews were out at 8:00 AM to clear out people and it took till about 1:00 PM to get everyone out. Super fun I thought but Gregson had forgotten his gloves and his winter jacket isn't the best so he almost died, haha. Mine however was like fire and I barely felt anything. We made it to Weyburn and I packed up said goodbye and we were off to Regina. I had purchased a lot of food earlier and so I had to take that with me when I transferred so now I have a ton of food and only bought eggs milk and a few other things today. i got to go on exchanges with Elder Burnett on Thursday and we had a blast. Him and I are bros from the MTC, we got to spend the entire day together in Regina which was freaking sweet. The next morning around 8:00 Am on Friday morning I hopped in a truck and off to Saskatoon I went, hooked up with Elder Romeril, and we went out to Melfort, which is about two hours away from Saskatoon, we arrived and unpacked and got to work. So I have only been in Melfort for a couple days now. 

Elder Romeril is the district leader out here so that's super awesome. I’ve been involved in leadership my whole mission so far. We have a couple of investigators and one is super good and he should be baptized. I am excited for that because I didn't get to see my other investigators get baptized. We have been fed by a couple members already and I met Brayden Gunneses Grandma!! its his dads mom, they are super nice.  I played club basketball with Brayden.  Its awesome to be able to talk with Elder Romeril about stuff that he and I both understand, like basketball and other things. He has 5 months left but still trucking hard. 

Its super nice to have one apartment and not be travelling around all the time, makes it feel more like a home rather than a apartment. I have a bunch of food, so im good and I got my Dr. Pepper!! Yee yee!

Could you guys send me the photos off my phone email and mail some physical copies to me as well. I got you valentines package and it was nice, already ate the hearts. Life is good, still not home and I've only been here a few days but life is good. I’ve got a new planner and I've started pimping the covers with cool landscape photos and stuff, its nice here. We have zone conference this Thursday and we have Elders like a hour away so we can have in person district meeting more frequently.

Sorry for another short letter I will try harder this week to actually do something noteworthy

Question's

Is there anything you would like us to send you? maybe a new tie?

How is your new companion and area?

Is it a branch?

Have you been fed this week?

Do you have a car in your new area?

Are there any hills where you are or just flat Saskatchewan landscape? Maybe you can’t see in all the snow? haha

1.just photo's off my phone, some of the family and of my rifle cabinet, and some of the jeep, weird angles and such. yah and a tie too, Elder romeril has a hookup with getting packages so i will figure that out and email you back

2. love it!! there are alot of members, young kids, young mens! it rocks!

3.yes it is a branch.

4. yes i have twice!

5. yes we do, we just got a brand new 2017 Toyota RAV4!

6. the drive in here is phenominal and lots of tree and small but noticible hills

Anyways thats all I have for this week, have fun and stay safe in all that you guys do, uhh... idk be cool.

Love 

Elder Sheen

Transfer to Melfort, SK-- Elder Romeril

Hello Family!

This week has been rough, me and Elder Gregson were not getting along very well but we were getting by.  Found out this morning I am getting transferred to Melfort, SK to serve with Elder Romeril. Elder Romeril is from Cardston area!   He is the one that drove me to Weyburn six weeks ago. Melfort is the smallest City in Canada, so another small place.   I probably wont get to drive anymore in my new area, but I am excited to be moving on. I am very thankful for the time I got to spend with Elder Gregson , even though we didn't agree on things (Most things) I still enjoyed his insights.  I'm going to miss Weyburn and Estevan but i am exited to see what lies ahead in Melfort. I'm going to miss the Woodruffs a lot and the Dudragnes, they were the most fun people to be around. I'm going to enjoy being able to have one apartment though, glad I just stocked up for the month on food (and Dr. pepper) Not! but I will manage. Gregson had told me that I have to do a lot of things his way because they were the right way, and I had determined that I was going to act like myself even if it isn't his view of how things work.  I guess now that we are transferring I don't have to worry about that.

Other than this exciting news this morning nothing too much happened this week. We taught one lesson to a Less Active man who would be active if it wasn't for his health. He loves really deep and involved discussions which was super cool. Church in Weyburn is at 10:00 am and we switched Estevan's to 1:00pm so we had 4 hours of church yesterday, (wasn't that bad) but Elder Gregson was dying because of his diabetes(makes him super thirsty) so he drank like a gallon of water at the Woodruffs for supper. I have made it a goal to bear my testimony at every fast and testimony meeting and i'm doing pretty well so far.  I'm at 3 so far and I want to do it every week that I can. It's actually super rewarding to do so and when you do bear your testimony, that no matter how small or insignificant you feel it is, it grows each time you bear it.  Mine has gotten a lot better I've felt personally as I've read The book of Mormon daily. 

I was reading the Book of Alma and I just got into the war chapters and I thought "heck yah the cool parts finally here!" and I was thinking about the fights and the wars and none of the spiritual side. But as I read I thought it was cool as captain Moroni had successfully defended his people, but in the times of peace he was constantly preparing for war, he built dirt mounds and on those mounds he built walls and on those walls he built towers and in the towers he placed armour and men. I thought that was pretty cool because I thought about how life is a war and how we can be constantly building our defences so when trials come we have those walls and towers to help us defend against the adversary. It talked about in the book of Mormon that THOUSANDS of lamanites were slain and not one nephite was slain in a battle where they attacked their defences. We can also build up our defences by constantly reading the book of Mormon and working and serving our fellow man.

That is my testimony for now, you can add some other stuff like the church is true! I am pretty exited right now. Not excited to have to deal with all the food I just bought but i'll manage. I will just return some and keep others and leave some behind for Gregson. I'm excited because ill be with Elder Romeril and I probably won't have to wear Earplugs anymore!!! Oh how I hated sleeping with those things, but now I have some if I ever need them again, hopefully won’t !   My new companion  will hopefully(PLEASE) be cleaner than Elder Gregson. Im gonna miss him, it was fun serving with him.

Shorter letter today i'm sorry I got carried away in finding where I'm going. I've found new motivation even though I'm going to the middle of nowhere, another nowhere, hahaha.  I cant wait to hook up with Elder Romeril.

Question's

How was your week?

Did you do service this week?
Did you talk to anyone about the gospel?
Did you get an exercise program going ?
Have you been able to work on patience and work it out with your companion?
How was church?
Would you like another journal and maybe stickers for some of the kids in your branch?

1.Week was just a slow week, excited now!!!

2. Yes! i've been pushing gregson to do some and we helped Rodney Sidlouski with some tree planting, (ill send Photos later) it was fun.

3. only one less active and no-one else

4. I Work out in the morning but havent been able to run yet

5.  A little bit, still irritated.

6. Church is the best, I always forget it is Sunday cause it feels like everyday is Sunday.

7. I would at some point but it is not urgent, there are no kids that would like stickers here,  so no thanks.

love you all, have fun and get better shayla! I love all of you guys and I cant wait to see your stop motion video brian!! Its going to be sweet. Have fun playing with the cat, I got to play with a members cat saturday and it played just like mittens!! have fun in your weekly events or whatever you guys do!

Love

Elder Sheen

Elder Sheen & Elder Grant

Elder Sheen, Elder Grant & Others at Zone Conference

Loving life--Dr. Pepper

Dinner with the Orr Family

Letters from Grandma Giles

Service for Brother Woodruff

WE LOVE ELDER SHEEN

Hello Family,

Slow week, nothing too much happened and as a companionship we didn't teach a single lesson. We did have exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Grant, it was super nice and an uplifting experience.  He told me I was being too hard on myself, but I dont think that I am.  I think that I can do better than Elder Gregson and I are right now. Being with Elder Grant was fun because instead of me making sure we are actually doing something he had plans and we had made plans to follow throughout the day. We went to the university and walked around and did some street contacting, we didn't have any luck with that but we were able to come into contact with a man named ei-pi? We set up an appointment with him for next week but I wont be there so that's fine. We also got to have dinner with the Orr's, it was awesome! We had egg mcmuffins (homemade of course) and fruit, he has two kids and one on the way now. We taught a lesson on Christ like relationships, which went well, after photos and a goodbye we went to another appointment with a few native ladies.They were super nice to talk to and are very interested in the church. Two of them are baptized and they are just less active, they do try just not every week kinda deal.  I also got some great tips from Brother Orr, like how the first transfer/companion is the worst, and that as long as you are working hard you will see miracles. He said something that really stuck out to me was that if we aren't working hard, we are not worthy to have the people we want to teach and so forth,we need to be working hard so we are WORTHY to find those people that are placed in our paths. 

I've been doing things to try and make the apartments feel like home. I'm going to print off some of the photos you guys sent me ( maybe some jeeps!) to hang up around my study area.I think also im going to buy some fake greenery/shrubbery to put in my personal areas to liven it up. This is one of the loneliest areas in the mission. Its one of two of the areas that are super secluded. We rarely get to see other elders around here, but because my companion is district leader I get to travel around a lot more than I would if I didn't have him as a companion. Nice thing is is when he takes off I may be the new district leader. Elder Grant said that he thinks im going to be a Zone leader soon, he said that im a good elder with a lot to give to others, and I was all like "Heck yah im awesome!” hahaha, but I had to chill and realize that's not because of me, but because of the best parent's ever!  Whenever i think of a question or a debate I always think " What would dad do?" and that has helped a ton, even when me and Elder Gregson argue about things and it goes against what dad or mom said I know it isn't right, and rather an opinion on a fact. 

We had church in Estevan this week and it was super good. I learned a ton from just the talks and the sunday school lessons. In sacrament a talk was given by brother Pippo on the light of Christ and just being a helping kind of person. Brother Pippo works in a coal mine so he talked about how when he first started he had lunch with the guys and they finished a bit earlier, so they decided to turn off their lamps and relax in the darkness. We had done this when I was in grade five and we went to Franks slide,so I could definitely relate to what he was talking about. The whole time Brother Pippo had his lamp off he said he was thinking "what if the light never comes back?" "what if i never see the light again!" "how will I make it back to the light" and I thought that was really interesting in relation to the gospel and how we should always have the light with us so we can see what is around us and where we need to go and if we need to turn around.  In Sunday school we learned about stumbling blocks from a talk given in general conference recently, i cant remember exactly when, but it was talking alot about how stumbling blocks are often seen as sin, but rather one of the bigger ones we face as members is extremism.  What it meant by that is holding one law above another, and how we shouldn't be making rules that are easy for you to keep seem important and that are difficult for others to follow and chastise and judge them for not keeping the same ones you are when we should recognize that we are all not perfect, and "take the beam from our own eye before taking the mote from thy brothers eye" or whatever that scripture is. This was a huge answer to my prayers, I had been praying that Elder Gregson and I would be able to work together better, and hopefully we will.

This week has been a slow and uneventful one. Not much happened. It's hard to do stuff because of my companion right now, he is getting more lazy and doesn't want to work. When I suggested that if we got up and got ready faster we could be out of the apartment by 9:30AM he basically said I was being disobedient to mission rules cause the schedule is from 6:30 to 10:00 so we should be out at 10:00. I have suggested that we get up and run every morning and im going to do it whether or not he likes it. He said if it is below 0 he isn't going to go out, panzy, haha I hope the next companion I get is a lot more motivating. I'm going to start working out to try and get moving in the morning we don't have many weights but im going to use milk jugs with water as weights. Elder Gregson doesn't like to fill up with gas whenever I suggest it so we left to swift current Sunday night with little over half a tank of gas and we BARELY made it. The tank wasn't registering for  gas and we couldn't start it the next day. Sooo we had to get a Jerry can this morning to fill it up and then the battery was dead so we had to get some jumper cables as well. I was pretty ticked off at him but it was super fun I thought.

I've started to realize that unless I do it, it wont get done. Elder Gregson hates talking to people and hates talking on the phone, so I've gotten VERY good at that. I was already very comfortable with talking with people but now im even better. I'm starting to make the appointments cause Elder Gregson wont. We are in swift current right now and the terrain is soooooooo much nicer out here, rolling hills and such makes it alot better. I saw a Medicine Hat sign and I kinda giggled thinking, “ I could be home in like 6 hours" haha, that would stink though, i could definitely serve out here i think at some point. We have one appointment with Greg from Estevan on Wednesday, he was the most promising investigator so far so we hope we can get in with him at some point.

We have transfers next Monday, Im kinda hoping one of us gets transferred but I HIGHLY doubt it, Saturday this week is my 2 month mark,  1 year 10 months left,  i cant wait to see some green around here!!

Questions from Sadie:

Sadie wants to know have you been getting along with your companion?
Sadie wants to know if you have had any interesting food?
Sadie wants to know if you want it to get warmer?
How is your teaching going?
Are there any 9 year olds in your branch?

1. Barely,we have been arguing a lot and he is very stubborn. I have managed to get some blinds open in the apartment without him closing them cause he is a vampire, the man hates natural light. He was getting annoyed at how slow the camera was at uploading the photos so we uploaded them to google drive and thats why you cant access them, so Im not going to do that anymore.

2. Yes! I have been eating macaroni and hotdogs and peas alot!  all of my favorite foods! other than the Balute (chicken embryo) nothing crazy though.

3. Kind of, I like the hovering Around 10 degrees range

4. Not many people like to hear about how they can live forever with GOD apparently.

5. There is one young family they have a daughter that is probably 8 or 9 (Pippo's)

Keep on keeping on! have fun at basketball and whatever else you guys do, I pray for you everytime I pray, I love you all a ton. XOXO

P.S. love the fat cat photo HAHA!

Love

Elder Sheen

The Orr Family-Regina

Brother Orr was Elder Sheen's Young Men's President in Lethbridge. Elder Sheen was excited to have dinner with the Orr's now they live in Regina.