Funnies from St. Jean

Yes, that is a unicorn lawn ornament

A «bumpy road» sign that someone taped a boat on (thought it was pretty funny)

Letter #13

27 October 2014 @ 11:48 AM

Quelque choses that happened this week:

I bought a nice big coat and a sweet hat last lundi. The hat was $5 but the coat was... a little more. Also, we had an awesome lesson with Milena. She`s been having some troubles and has been feeling kind of down, but she always seems happy to see us. We had a great lesson on obeying the commandments and how it will bless our lives. On mardi we had mutual night. Only one Young man showed up so he carved pumpkins with the Young women while Elder Hunter and i baked some cookies (unfortunately we had some left over cookie dough and when we cooked it later in the week, we cooked them for too long :( ). At the district meeting on mercredi we talked about our favorite BoM missionaries and their attributes. I chose Samuel the Lamanite because he was Bold and Courageous but also pretty Creative. They kicked him out or the city, and I guess the wall wasn`t technically «in» the city so BAM! preaching with power. One thing that I want to try applying more to missionary work is using my own talents to talk to, relate to, and find new people. We also went on an exchange with Elder Peery and Elder Pilling (I went with Elder Peery to Mt. St. Hiliaire). You know what is super good? Fresh pinapple and vanilla ice cream. But vendredi was pretty awesome. We help a geneology night for members and anyone else. We had about 11 people show up, 2 of which were non-members. Not quite the turnout we had hoped, but hey, those 2 people got a good night. Then samedi was pretty good. Except that it was nice weather all day and then we got a flat tire. We drove to Frere Nicole`s house and went to a lesson with Milena again (it was awesome. She`s been reading and praying and has had all sorts of awesome spiritual expériences and she wants to get baptised! Woohoo!) But when we returned to Frere Nicole`s, it was raining, and we had to change the tire. But it was a good experience. But we`ve gotten rain here almost everyday now so that wasn`t too unexpected. Unfortuneately Patricia and Mylène were unable to get baptised on Samedi. It`s not that they weren`t ready, but there were some complications and confusion and doubts and prayers and spiritual advice and way too much stuff going on that it was unable to happen. When we first told Patricia, she was very dissappointed. But later she text us and said that everything is well and good and Heavenly Father knows what he`s doing and when the time is right. So we`re planning on 1 or 2 weeks from now.

So that`s the week in the nutshell! I hope all is going well and I`m so greatful for the Gospel and for the comfort and guidance and happiness it brings! It`s just so awesome to see the change it makes in people`s lives!

 

Elder Perkes

Letter #12

20 October 2014 @ 11:45 AM

So this week went by pretty well. Monday was actually Thanksgiving here, so that was fun. The Canadien Thanksgiving is not like America. Everything was still open and it`s more just a long weekend and you have a nice dinner with family and friends. We went to the Montreuil`s house and ate lots of food.

We`ve been trying to visit more and more members because tracting is no fun. But I feel like we are getting a better Relationship with the members here, now we just need to work on helping them do their own missionary work. Have I already said that everyone things we`re Jehovah`s Witnesses? Because it`s true.

But, some good news: Patricia and Mylène are going to be baptised this week! I can`t remember if I explained this or not but Mylène is the 2nd child of Patricia and is 16. We`ve done some planning and a little more teaching of commandments and stuff to make sure they`re prepared. We were a little worried about Mylène because she wasn`t always at the lessons with her mom, but with some planning, studying, and a LOT of prayer, everything looks alright for Saturday and Sunday.

We`re also planning on a Family History night on Friday. We keep being told to use Geneology in finding, so we thought we`d give it a try. I`ll let you know how it goes.

We`ve had a lot of rain this week and it just keeps getting colder and colder. We plan on getting some good winter stuff this week so that we don`t freeze. We`ve hear from a lot of people that it is going to come early, fast, and cold. I`m excited for snow and take lots pictures and to NOT get frost bite. Yay, winter!

 

Elder Perkes

Spiritual thought:

So, in personal study one morning I was reading 1 Néphi 17 or 18. It`s when Néphi is commanded to build the boat to cross the many waters. Here`s my thought process: God commanded Néphi to build a boat. When He commanded him, Néphi responded with where can I find the ore to make Tools. He had to find the ore, which he prayed to find. Then he made the Tools (which he went into some detail with bellows and such) and then he built the boat how God wanted him to. Pray, find the ore, make the Tools, build the boat how God wants. You can take this in a variety of different ways, but I just wanted to share that small thought with you all.

 

Elder Perkes...again

Letter #11

Monday, 13 October 2014 @ 9:54 AM

So, last week we decided I needed a haircut. We thought about going and actually paying $20 bucks somewhere, but then we got a $15 razor at Walmart and did it ourselves. I`ll send a pic and you can tell me how Elder Hunter did. Also, on monday at Walmart, we met a lady from Australia! she was with her kids and they had planned to stay in the US for 6 months (long vacation) and she came up to canada for a bit! Monday night we ate at Frere Lane`s house (our ward mission leader). We had turkey and rice and cheesecake. Frere Nicole (ward family history specialist who comes with us to a lot of lessons) came with us. They were discussing something and Soeur Lane said `ban voyons donc` which basically means `you gotta be kidding me`. But the way I discribe the Quebecois way of saying it is like saying bow-wow-ow-don very nasaly like you`re immitading a banjo. Fun stuff.

Milena: super awesome 16-year-old girl. We had a lesson on monday and she accepted the invitation to be baptised! super excited about that. She even came to church yesterday and had a super awesome spiritual experience when Soeur Montrieul talked about the importance of praying all the time. 

We met this guy named Babu on wednesday. He`s from Banglidesh. I just thought Babu was an awesome name. Also, we had a lesson with Vincent. He has 1 daughter and we met him outside his house one day last week. It was my first first lesson and it went pretty well, explaining the restorations and such.

Thursday was Elder Hunter`s Birthday so what was the best thing to do? Go out tracting in the pouring rain! It was super cold and rain everywhere but we met a guy who accepted a BoM and then as soon as we were done, the sun came out and there was a super awesome rainbow. Soon after the rainbow we went and ate at the Montrieul`s with Patricia and her family. Soeur Montrieul is the YW president and Frere Montrieul is the 2nd counselor in the bishopbric. They`re super awesome. After some enchiladas Soeur Montrieul brought out a Pikachu Ice Cream cake from DQ (Elder Hunter is a Pokemon fan. Frere Montrieul is also and kept calling him Elder `Haunter` if you get that reference).

Saturday we went to `rebirthday` party for Michelle, a non-member lady who do service for every week. She was celebrating 1 year of being cancer free. She and her friends are Bahais (I think that`s how it`s spelled). Her friends had a lot of questions, but we did find out how similiar Mormons and Bahais are (except for a few details). Some even excepted a BoM and said we could visit another time and teach some more.

Patricia is still doing awesome and we set up some stuff for her baptism in 2 weeks.

 

Sorry that my emails are a little scattered. I`m still trying to organize my thoughts and what I want to say. One day I`ll figure it out.

 

Elder Perkes

Pictures from the week...

Canada Pride - I didn't know there was such a thing as "Canadian Oats"

Elder Perkes showing off his Canada Pride

A birthday dinner for his companion, Elder Hunter

Tracking in the rain rewarded them with a rainbow

We had hawaiian haystacks at home a couple weeks ago and we really missed Tanner (they are his favorite).  But we didn't need to worry because he made them on his own. Nice haircut too :-)

Elder Perkes eating "Poutine" - a local favorite...we'll try to get him to send a recipe.

Letter #10

6 October 2014 12:07 PM

So, conference was FANTASTIC! But I`ll get into that a little later.

 

Monday: After emails last week I got my own Canadien missionary bag! It`s quite fitting and now I look more the part.

 

Tuesday: For mutual, Elder Hunter came up with the idea to put questions in balloons as a get-to-know-you game. One Young man popped a balloon and then everyone answered the question. We had 2 Young men show up... We`re hoping to get others, but it`s kind of difficult with there only being like 5 in the whole ward. I did, however, play the opening hymn for everyone. I was really rusty and made a lot of mistakes so looks like I`ve got some practicing to do. After Young men`s we went to a Executive priesthood Council meeting where I understood the general idea of what was being said, but not really much else.

 

Wednesday and Thursday: Most of our plans fell through with lessons because of various circumstances with our investigators We tried some good old fashioned door-to-door tracting which was ok. We met some nice people but no one was very interested.

 

Friday: We had an awesome lesson with Patricia and Frere Steglitz (2nd councelor in the bishopbric). Her baptism is in 2 weeks and we are super excited!

 

Saturday: CONFERENCE!!!! actually, right before conference we visited the Beyney family. They had some cousins with them that just live down the road. They fed us an awesome breakfast of apple pie, raspberry and apple cobbler, crepes with what i thing were apples, and mangos. It was quite delicious. I also had a foam sword fight with their 2-year-old son. It was very intense with him climbing all over the sofa and both of us pretending to die every 3 minutes. After the battle, we had a nice thought on what we had studied that morning. I had studied the hymn`«I need thee every hour». Turns out hymns are awesome things to study. I mostly got from it how we need to give up our pride and act in order to receive the blessings that he provides. Now to some exciting stuff about conference: the satelite was broken, which was a dissappointment seeing how we saw them trying to fix it earlier in the week. But some nice members lended a computer to hook up to the internet and Elder Hunter and I watched it in the clerks office. After the 2nd session the Priesthood had a pizza and ping-pong party which was awesome and then we separated. the French session was in the chapel and the English was in the relief society room. The Granby Missionaries came too and we were all very excited to see that the MTC missionaries were singing! Did anyone else see David Morley singing in conference???? I would think all of the parents of those missionaries would be even more proud. And one thing about conference here: with the time change we have it 2 hours later. First session 12-2, 2nd 4-6, and priesthood from 8-10. Long night of so much spirit.

 

Sunday: CONFERENCE ROUND 2 (parts 3 and 4).

So basically most of conference was fantastic. Helping the needy, follow the prophet, good choices. I loved it all and it was weird to think that at the same time in different parts of the world my family and friends and other missionaries were all watching the same conference. It brought back good memories of eating a sugary breakfast and sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching it on the TV in my basement. A little different in a small chapel in St. Jean (which is where we watched).

 

Today: The highlight of this morning was the Poutine! It was so good. I might just have to by some poutine sauce (yes, it is a special sauce) to send home.

 

Being a missionary is crazy! I love it and I`m so grateful for Elder Bednar`s talk. He basically told the world exactly what were doing and why. It was suer great. I hope you all listened and took some good stuff home. In our Mission conference last week we had a little quiz at the end that consisted of 2 questions: 1. What did you learn? and 2. What are you going to change?

I hope you are all doing well and I pray for you. The mission is awesome! It`s rough and tough and weird buying groceries for ourselves but hey, it`s the life.

 

Elder Perkes

 

Sorry no pics, no time today.