July 9, 2015

Bonnie: Today we left early to try to find some of our "lost YSA souls" in Mississauga. First, we had to meet two Elders and take them to someone's house to pick up two bicycles. It was quite a distance for them to take the bus, and we were glad to  help. Just after we dropped them off I returned a call to a Bishop in Utah. He told me that he was the Bishop of one of the young men in our mission and that his younger brother had just died in a tragic four-wheeler accident. It turned out to be one of the Elders we had just dropped off!. We called the mission president directly and he said not to say anything because he would call the young man himself. My heart goes out to him. You can tell he loves his family. I can't imagine the grief and pain he is going through.
After going to two places and not finding anyone home we met with two other Elders, the District Leaders, who have worked very hard at helping us in this assignment. We took them out to eat and talked about what to do next. Then, we made two more stops and found two young men and invited them out to the YSA activities. They both said they had been thinking about coming back. One is from a very active family. His mother is an author and she gave me one of her books! It's the story of a Turkish girl that eventually joined the church. It sounds like an amazing story. I can't wait to read it.
So, the last part of our journey today was to pick up two Elders and have them help us move two big chairs from the 5th floor in our building to our apartment. The chairs will stay here temporarily, probably until Saturday when they will be moved to another building. These Elders had had an amazing day talking to some young people on the street. The missionary work here is really going forward, and it is exciting to be part of it! It's been a wonderful day (except for the tragic death, of course.)
My love to all.
Love,
Mom/Bonnie

Bob: Bonnie covered about everything we did today. Laura, a service missionary who comes into our office 3 days a week to do special assignments, has been helping me with the text/phone report from Rogers (one of Canada's telephone providers.) She is a whiz on EXCEL so it wasn't much of a problem for her. We have the phone report done and I will tackle the text report by myself tomorrow. We will see how it goes.
I think we should have an 8 hour day tomorrow, but Saturday will be busy. Going to get 4 of the missionaries to help me inventory the storage shed starting at 8:30. After I get a good count I'm going to look for some outlets to get rid of it. Then we can try and keep it under control. Without many apartments closing in the future I think we'll be good.
I'm signing off early tonight. Hitting the sack for some much needed rest. Trying to get up early and walk around the block in the mornings. It's about a 31 to 32 minute walk.
Love,
Dad/Bob