YSA: a place of nightmares

11/28/17
   ah man so cool this week! starting to feel a little bit more comfortable with the new area and the buses and the people and everything so its awesome! the people are actually so different here compared to Longueuil. theyre so nice. but yeah its been so awesome here! and cold. like so cold what the heck i didnt think it could get any colder and its not done yet how ah what canada. the giant canal should be frozen over soon so we can go on it with all the people that skate to work on it and everything! some guy was talking to me about it and i thought it was a joke the entire time but apparently its real. so thats cool.

had some cool experiences this week! us and the mandarin elders had the opportunity to help with a young mens activity and elder carter and i dressed up as investigators and the mandarin elders taught the young men how to teach the restoration and then took them into a room with us where they taught one of us in their little group and they actually had no idea we were missionaries haha which was fun. i was Drew Dalton going here for school from the states. love ya Drew. but yeah in the middle of the lesson they were giving this one teacher was doing so awesome teaching great principles on faith and saying such awesome things about praying to know the truth and i was like so youve prayed about all this and just know its true? and he was like oh no im not a member im like you i just learned all this like ten minutes ago. haha elder cannon in the room and i just looked at each other like what and went on and he gave the closing prayer to teach me how to pray and we finished and we had no idea we had a non member friend of one of the other teachers with us and that was his first time praying haha. now he wants to come to church and learn more. fun little surprise telling him i was actually a missionary. but yeah, that was fun! we road the buses and traveled dressed like everyone else and that was weird. 

ah man it got SO cold one night and we were out waiting for our bus for forever cause all the buses kept getting messed up in the snow and we were standing out alone in the cold and this random guy came up with these oranges and gave them to us and ran away haha super random but it was super sweet. this time of year is SO awesome, and it was cool to be on the other end of seeing how just a small little act of kindness could mean so much and super cheesy but i felt a bit warmer after that. i hope you guys can all find little things like that to do for others! it really does mean a lot, even if it doesnt seem like a huge deal. 

sunday was super cool! haha all the mandarin ladies still call me their cowboy for some reason. but theyre super sweet. apparently i have a thick accent to people here. one lady thought it was a texas accent after i said the prayer and another thought it was a french and then everyone else says its a california. soo yeah arizona accent i guess is actually just everything. but ah the ward here is so sweet. so many moms that want to take care of us. i forgot gloves sunday so my hands kinda got wrecked and this sweet old lady held them and warmed them for a while while giving tips on how to stay warm haha. and they all want to feed us and its just been so sweet to have these wonderful people wanting to take care of us. i love this ward so much. 

after church there was this face to face for YSA with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard that we were asked to go to with the YSA ward. super cool experience! the face to face was awesome! but ah man YSA ward. everything about it jeez i yeah i dont know man, maybe its a special feeling that comes with being a missionary or something like that but man i wanted to get outta there haha what the heck everyone is like young and wanting to get all married and talking about it and asking me about it and i was like sweating. i dont know but jeez YSA wards man, it was nasty spooky business i did not like it. we boogied outta there so fast. 

the buses have been super cool! ive been able to meet so many different kinds of people! like i heard some guy speaking Arabic so i was like hey where are you from and got to learn about Ethiopia and before he left he was like do you have a card so i can call you haha id totally forgotten we do that so yeah he wants to keep in touch. the other day we were riding and i was trying to decide who to talk to cause Elder Carter and i split up on opposite sides of the bus to talk to more people and i was gonna talk to this one lady across from me but looking back i saw this guy crying, like weeping uncontrollably so i walked down the seats and sat next to him and was like hey you okay and he told me his grandpa had just died and then asked for a hug and i was like oh yeah of course man and he got up haha and we just hugged for a while and he just cried and then he finished and thanked me and i explained to him the plan of salvation and how he'll get to see his grandpa again and how right now his grandpa must be so happy to be in such a better place and all that and it was so cool to see how something we know by heart and hear almost every sunday be so new to this guy and man the difference it made to him was incredible. we've got such an incredible message with all of us. its been the best opportunity to be here and literally see the changes that occur in people when they learn of the principles of the Gospel and receive the hope and peace and joy and every other blessing too. 

so yeah its been super awesome here!! our investigators are all doing awesome! one is waiting for the approval to be baptized, might be a while but hes so excited! and we've got three others that we will be giving dates to soon! two of our investigators are helping me learn arabic which has been super cool! still only a few phrases and whatever but im hoping itll get somewhere! its always interesting to say something to someone speaking arabic and theyre like what the heck is this white kid doing speaking arabic. its a good conversation starter. but yeah, everything couldnt be better!! i love it out here so much!! even though its SO cold! but i love it. everyone is waiting for me to say its too cold after me saying from the pulpit how much i love the snow but its probably not gonna happen. i love this weather. even if the snot in your nose does freeze and make it hard to breathe. love you all so much!!!

-Elder Halliday

my disguise for the young mens activity. pretty convincing i think. not very warm though. bummer

proof for the stinky canadians. i DO love the snow. 

every year people tell us oh we HAVE to do a play on words with our last name and our christmas cards. so yea here ya go. merry christmas ya filthy animals 

some sick graffiti we found. 

Awwww, she held your hands to warm them? That’s such a sweet grandma/mommy thing to do!!!!!  I absolutely love that they want to take care of you. ❤️ crazy story from mutual-how funny that you were pretending to be a non member and he was being a missionary...that’s too funny!!!  So no ysa wards?  That’s ok, your home ward is pretty awesome. We’d love you to come with us. :)-mom

hahahah yeah it was so sweet. so many sweet ladies here. the asian ones are so funny hahaha youd love them. but yeah it was so fun being an investigator! super funny outcome of that with the kid TJ not being a member. but yeah ah YSA wards hahahaha ah that was so funny. these girls are SO flirty!!! ah it was hilarious. and scary at the same time. hahaha oh my this one girl made me die ah it was like kennadie super. we were eating food and at the table to get the food she was like oh my you need to try these buttertarts theyre like the best or whatever and kept talking and my flirt tools are still at home so i was like oh awesome yeah cool or something as nicely as i could haha like just get thee hence or whatever and then she found me again while i was cleaning things up and i was taking this tray back to the kitchen and it had another buttertart on it and she was like oh my you need to eat that one and i was like okay hold on to it for me for a sec please? and she took it and i went in came out grabbed it thanked her and she was surrounded by all these other YSA girls and she was like "ah yeah here oh i was just telling them im waiting for a missionary thatll be coming home soon but this isnt actually his home or something but i dont know im just gonna stop talking i hope the buttertart is good..." hahahahahahhaha oh my i was dying. super nice girl hahaha