Transfer Week

Hi everyone,

How did your week go? How is school and work going? I hope you all have a great fall break. They have fall break out here for a whole week for the students, haha I was pretty jealous ;).

Transfers are this week. Me and Elder Henshaw will be staying together here in Chardon. Henshaw is our new district leader.

It has been a great and amazing week! We had training visits up in Kirtland from Tuesday to Thursday last week, and I was able to go out with the district leader, Elder Kamerath and go explore the city of Kirtland and mentor. We went over to lake Erie, and were able to see the waves and he said that on the other side of the lake is Canada, so that was a cool fact I didn't know.

We did service for a guy in Kirtland on Wednesday. He had built a basketball court, and wanted to extend and expand his court. So we helped him level the ground, pour a lot of gravel rocks down, and then put dirt on top of it. It was a good little workout to say the least. We also went to a gospel principles class in the village by Newel K Whitney's store on Wednesday night. We read from the gospel principles book and had a really good discussion with the other members of the Kirtland ward that were there.

Thursday we had district council and wow! It was the best one yet. We talked on the atonement and the importance of making it personalized to each of us so that we can teach it better. We then went around the room and we each bore our testimonies about the atonement of Christ. Two sister missionaries had their 6 month mark last week so they made homemade oreos for everyone. Mom, yours are still the best :) :).

On Saturday we went knocking doors all day long. It was quite an adventure. We went to a trailer park in the morning and one lady told us that we couldn't be there because there was no soliciting. I then proceeded to tell her that we were going around talking with families about religion and she should listen to our message. :) People are so interesting when it comes to listening for 5 min and having a conversation . . . oh well. We also called 3 referrals that we had got last week, but sadly 2 of them are no longer interested and the third one didn't answer his phone, so we will need to try back another time.

On Saturday afternoon, Burton was having their city fair so we stopped by and walked around the booths and tried some maple sugar and maple cream. It was super good! Everyone was drinking who was there, so we decided to head out afterwards.

Sunday was so cool! It was Fast Sunday and so I got up and bore my testimony. I also helped bless the sacrament and we had our 2 mtgs in the morning for branch mission and branch coordination mtg. After church we went back to the apt and ate lunch, and then went to visit a member who isn't able to go to church because he lives alone and is deaf partially and blind partially. It was so good! A very fabulous Sunday :)

Monday the 14th, we helped Brother and Sister Hartman winterize their yard and make sure it's ready for the cold temps. It is getting pretty chilly here, especially with the humidity. They took us to lunch as well. We went to Brother Mclellan's house on Monday night and helped him make a small oven

out of mud. That's what he does for his job is makes houses and huts out of mud (newspaper with glue, the mud then goes on top). It was super cool! A very time consuming job too. it took us 2 1/2 hrs to finish it.

Tuesday the 15th, we went out knocking doors and finding members who we haven't met yet. We are really trying to push the emphasis of getting member support in our branch so that we can cover more ground. We really want this branch to become a ward, so we are trying our very best to get everyone excited for it.

We were able to teach the YM on Tuesday night about mission work and seminary. Hopefully they are able to start preparing now. I know that that definitely helped me to prepare well in advance.

We have a mission broadcast on Saturday this week up in Kirtland. Elder Ballard and Christofferson are speaking to us via internet, so we will see what they will talk to us about.

I invite each of us to reflect on the goals we currently have in our life. Are we making every possible effort to achieve those goals and improve towards them? And then I want each of us to write down 2 or 3 goals that we are going to start doing today. And make them a part of our lives and who we are. I promise that when we focus on Jesus Christ and ask him for help everyday to achieve our goals, we will find that He is always there for us, and we will be a different and more Christlike person.

I love you all, miss you all, and pray for you all so so much! Its so crazy that I'm at the end of my first transfer. Time is going by so fast, and the work is hastening.

I love you all forever and always!
Elder Dylan

P.S. Momma -- I would love to send the white shirts in my closet with Matt to Havana. Will you please get them to him? I hope they are able to help all the kids down there :).