P-Day 56 - Transfers, Plenty of Work to do and Preparing the Sacrament with Potato Chips and a Soda Lid to a Member in Need...

Killing Off Elder Toly. His Mission Is Complete
and He's Returning to Alberta, Canada

This week has been a busy week. I have been doing so much that I am completely tuckered out!

We had food orders for the Bishop’s Storehouse, a District Meeting while helping other missionaries in the process, an interview with President Shields, a Ward picnic, multiple appointments and teaching through a phone for translation. As you can see it’s been really busy!

After our District meeting, I met with President Shields. He asked me what my attitude towards French work was and I told him I will do whatever you and the Lord want me to do. I think he may send me back up to the Val-d’or/Ryoun Noranda, Quebec area. We’ll see…

Parents Note: We found a funny video of Elder Perry and crew. Click HERE to watch...Enjoy!

At the Ward Picnic, We could barely sit down. We helped get all the tables from the church loaded into the back of the truck. Helped unload the truck. Got all the food loaded and unloaded in the truck. Helped with the pinata and played catch with an investigator.

Transfers are tomorrow. I am staying in Downtown Hamilton and not moving. I am so thankful I don’t have to pack my stuff. I am going on exchanges with a Mandarin speaking elder tomorrow. That should be interesting. My Mandarin is non-existent. Since Elder Garrett is transferring, I am now the guy who carries the phone. Everyone calls for this or that, it’s hard being the phone guy! Elder Garrett will still be our District Leader, so my new companion will be a regular missionary. That will be good.

We have a baptismal interview on Saturday for our investigator. Last week, he didn't come to church because of asthma so we had to push it back a week.  Pray that all is well for him this week.

Sunset over Hamilton, Ontario

Our 19-year-old reactivating member is doing good. She is moving this Friday to St. Catherine. We will be helping her with that and we will transfer her over to the care of the sister missionaries there in St. Catherine.

We also went to the hospital with a member yesterday, so we weren't at church. We helped her into an SUV and gave her a blessing before we went in. We then sat and waited with her because she wanted us to. She wanted the missionaries with her, so it was good we went. We don't know what is wrong with her yet. We got authorization to do the Sacrament for her. Her brother in law who drove her has to have a high amount of sodium and it got low. He went and bought a bag of potato chips and a soda.

When he came back, we got into a place where we could do the Sacrament more privately and used potato chips with a paper towel for a tray and a bottle cap for a sacrament cup. We did this because she had come to church and then started to have problems. When she was going to be taken to the hospital, she made the comment that she was looking forward to the Sacrament and was sad that she wasn't going to be able to take it. She felt strongly that she needed to partake of the sacrament.  I heard that and said to her, we can fix that. I then called and  talked to the bishop and got authorization to do the sacrament for her and the people that were going to be with her. Problem Solving 101!    

For the rest of P-Day, we are doing sports. We then have a dinner appointment and are moving a stove, fridge and freezer to another house and then unloading it. Then we are packing up Elder Garret for Transfers tomorrow.

Well, that is my week. I now understand why missionaries sleep the first 2 full day’s they come home, I’m tired!

Love You and remember, I pray for you every night and day!

Elder Perry

Hamilton Ward

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day 55 - Zone Conference, Record Keeping and Do Your Home/Visit Teaching!!!

Zone Conference - August 2017 - Hamilton, Ontario

This week has been a busy week for us. We have been working really hard on helping the Ward with retention and on updating records. This gives us a really good opportunity to open our mouths to people in the Ward.  This week we were able to look at our referral manager and found that we had five non-contacted referrals or they were contacted and the system was just not updated. We have been working on getting the referral manager updated so that we can use the manager effectively. From all this work, we were able to find a new investigator this week. We went to a name from the referral manager named Cory. As we called him on the intercom, he answered and in talking to him, he had expressed interest in meeting with us. I knew all the hard work would pay off in some way. I am also seeing the importance of records keeping because when the records are kept up to date, then people are able to pick up where you left off but if they are not, then someone has to update them. We have made a lot of progress with the referral manager and helping the Ward. We also were able to give a blessing to a member of the Ward this week. When we left, he seemed not fully healed but feeling at peace. It is a big blessing to serve a mission.

Zone Conference - August 2017 - Hamilton, Ontario

I am doing good. I have been a counselor for a member in the ward who has been dealing with some anxiety. She has been having problems and when she does, she calls me and by the time we are done talking she is calm and ready to face the challenges. She asked yesterday while we were talking “could you be a little more serious” and all I could reply was “no, if I was serious then something would be wrong!” HAHA!

Elders Perry, Garrett, Trump & Toly with
 Hamilton, Ontario in the Background

I have been running the area and getting things set and doing all the paperwork. It has been a long busy week.

I have found that it is important that the members do more in missionary work. The Missionaries need your help.  The other half of missionary work is of the records keeping and has been with the Ward list and we have found about 35 people have moved from the current address and some don't have numbers to contact them. When people don't do home teaching and visiting teaching, then people fall through the cracks! I challenge everyone to do your Home Teaching and Visit Teaching, It really helps!

Remember I Love You & Pray for you Every Night & Day!

Elder Perry

Hamilton Ward

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada Toronto Mission   

P-Day’s 53 & 54 – Lots of Work, The Missionaries Moving Company and Visiting a Battleship...

Elder Perry, Hamilton Ontario

This week has been a busy week for us. 

We have been working on our Ward list and trying to reactivate ward members so that when we bring investigators, the ward is ready to retain them and fellowship them.

President Monson was true when he said "The work of reactivation is no task for the idler or daydreamer. Children grow, parents age, and time waits for no man. Do not postpone a prompting; rather, act on it, and the Lord will open the way."

SO, Let Me Take You To The Gun Show

We were able to meet with a sister who hadn't been to church in almost a year. We were able to give her mom a blessing.After the blessing the Spirit filled the room and tears were flowing and the next thing we knew this older sister grab us and was hugging us.  (Guess the Spirit forgot the rules Sisters don't hug the Elders)  We will be trying to get in contact with some members who we met with last week and we will hopefully be able to start working on getting them back to church.

We have been teaching some members about dealing with stress and helping them overcome challenges in their lives.

Wanna Take the Discussions? Your Place or Mine?

This week as been the week of “drop ins”. We have found over 25 changes that need to be made to the Ward list because they have moved and they have to be contacted at the new addresses. We are trying to do reactivation work with them too. We have about 200 inactive members and we have hit about 40 of them.

We had something great happen this week. We have this investigator who has been having a hard time believing in prophets. He came to church this week. As we talked he said that he had had a "feeling" and he believed in Prophets. If all is well with the other questions, then we can get him on to a baptismal interview. We had taught him about Prophets 6-7 times before. It was good for him to finally get it. The Spirit is amazing.

Elder Perry in the Radio Control Room...

We were able to talk to a family who is inactive and the member was really nice. She brought us to the backyard to meet their whole family and we got to visit with them. Her son did Scouting before they moved to Canada and it was awesome to talk to him. We walked back and the garage was open and inside were two Lamborghini's. It was awesome! She said maybe in a few weeks we could return and ask her husband for a ride. (Pray that that promise transpires. What missionary doesn't want to ride in a Lamborghini.) 

We also have a Ward member who has a Mustang Bullitt. He gave us a ride and drove it like he stole it...FUN!

We stopped by a Sister’s home who was on our Ward list. When we knocked on the door, she opened and explained that she was hoping that someone would come and give her mom a blessing. She is going into a long-term care facility and we were able to set a return appointment with her. 

We have also been able to make big strides on helping the members with Missionary work and giving them commitments that we will follow up on. We also have been able to teach some of our investigators and had one come to church. We were able to teach him the plan of salvation and it was clear to him. He felt the Spirit.  We hope to be able to see him this week and share more about the gospel with him.

While we were visiting members, we were able to meet a new investigator called Madeline. We talked with her and she was looking into other religions. We were able to talk to her about the Restoration of the Gospel. She committed to come to church and read the Book of Mormon.

We have also been giving blessings all over the place for people who need blessings of comfort. We gave a blessing to some sisters in our district and also to a couple members.

Home, it’s called the Bat Cave. 

We have three places in the mission designated by names. The Bat Cave, The Mansion and The Ice Castle. They were named due to the Batman Trilogy being filmed nearby. I have had the fortune of staying in all three thought my time on the mission

Sister Stahler lives in the downstairs (1^st floor) part of the building. We have the second and third floors for the house since we have 2 sets of Elders here. Sister Stahler has done the laundry for all the Elders ever since I’ve been here. We get them back washed and folded. She is a true Missionary Mom and we appreciate her so very much!  The Lord loves his missionaries. 

Zone Conference was good. We mainly just talked about using our time effectively and setting goals.

We loaded an entire shipping container full of stuff for a lady. I had to lift the heavy stuff because Elder Garrett has a hernia. She was getting a divorce because the husband was abusive. As we were taking apart stuff, he would be rude with nasty comments and gestures and continually say "Don't scratch the floor" ( we weren't even scratching the floor). I finally looked at him and said "It's Ok, we won't scratch your floor" and he just walked away. I am so thankful that the Lord blessed us by having him walk away.   It was good because we also got to talk to her about the Gospel. She asked us to stay longer because she felt safer if we were there and she wasn't alone with her soon to be ex-husband. So, we got to be bodyguards and "keep the peace". That project made me sore for 4 days. She was very nice though and we may be helping her this week with the rest of her things. She isn't in our area so we would have to pass her off to one of the other Elders and they would have helped her move. But the elders in the other area can't because one of them has a hernia or stomach pain also. The doctors can't figure out what’s wrong with him. ( please pray for them) This service project is from a local city group that gets volunteers from the community and gives people aid, it isn't affiliated with the church. However, It’s a good way to find investigators.

I Want To Be That Guy....

So, Elder Garrett and I got to see a Battleship. Yea Buddy, it was pretty cool. Every time I saw the big cannons and where the gunner would sit I would think, “I want to be that guy”. The ship was cool though and we got to see some torpedoes and big shells. It was free since it was Canada’s 150-year anniversary! Just the right price for missionaries.

I got your box this week. Thanks to Brother Jordan for shipping it. The candy didn't go to waste between us 4 elders, Ohhhhhh Yesses. There was definitely no problem with the chocolate. The chocolate didn’t melt.

Everything else is great. I am doing good on all my clothing and I have enough thermals to supply a Mormon Battalion in the Winter.  I am not complaining one bit. The winters can be brutal up here.

Skeet Shooting Anyone????

Elder Garrett is doing great. He is still trying to figure out the District Leader assignments, so I am helping him the best I can.

We got to see the BUY-I Dance Alliance and watch people dance and tell stories to cool music that we wouldn't normally be able to listen to. That was really fun. 

So, in summary, can you tell we’ve been pretty busy? I don’t think we could have done any more in the 2 weeks time we have been given.

Love You and remember, I pray for you every night and day!

Elder Perry

Hamilton Ward

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day #52 – It’s Hump-Day! Niagara Falls and Operation Desert Eagle…

Elder Perry(L), Elder Trump, Elder Toly
& My Companion Elder Garrett(R)

One year in the books, one to go. I can’t believe it’s been a year already.

We have started what we call Operation Desert Eagle. We have shifted our main focus on reactivation and retention rather than bringing in new people and having them become less actives. This has led to a lot of time in the Family History Center where we have spent a combined total of 15 hours in updating records and putting the records onto our “dot map”.

This in turn has not allowed us to go and contact very much. We were able to help some of the members though with service and we were able to put up some dry wall in a member’s home. It took a lot of work, but we were able to get the pieces out of her car and able to get the job done. I think we are starting to gain the trust of the members and hopefully we will be able to get some referrals from them.

We also were able to move a couch for a member and give a blessing to another in one event. We went and moved the couch into a car and then went to give a blessing to another member. We then went to the other member and unloaded the couch for him. It was a pretty busy day but we were able to multitask and get everything done.

We have been working hard and we met with a less active Sister who said that she may come back. We will have to meet with her some more. We will continue to work to reactivate members and help with retention efforts.

A Hershey's Kiss for Mom

On P-Day we did a bunch of fun things. We went to the Hershey's store and went to Niagara Falls and Bird Kingdom of Niagara Falls, a Bird Sanctuary.

Niagara Falls from the Canadian Side

Thank You to Grandma & Grandpa Gibson, Dave Western and Jeff Cheney for writing to me. E-Mails are fantastic and a bit of home goes a long way. 

The NASCAR from Days of Thunder

I’d like to give a very special shout out to Brother Dan Jordan for shipping my Hump-Day box from my Mom and Dad. I haven’t got it as of August 31^st because it was in customs, but I know it’s coming! I’m sure Mom and Dad stuffed it full of treats!

Thanks Mom and Dad and remember...

I pray for you every night and day!

Elder Perry

Hamilton Ward

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada Toronto Mission