Letter #17

25 November 2014 @ 11:50 AM

 

Bonjour tout le monde! J`espere que tout va bien cette semain!

So, couple of things that happened this week:

I`m just about done with winter shopping! I got boots that are pretty nice and I think I just have to worry about sock and thermals now.

We`ve had a few good lessons this last week. We`ve gone through our area book some and we decided to try out some Former investigators. Most of them are pretty difficult to contact but we did start teaching 2 of them. It`ll be a little difficult but one is super open and willing to learn. We just need to work with his Schedule. His name is Richard and he has 4 kids that live with him every other week. He is really nice and open.

We passed by a potential this last week named David. He`s a boxer for the Canadien Olympic team which is sweet. We finally had a lesson with him (he travels a lot) and taught the Restoration. It went really well. We`re pretty excited for him. And we walked out of his appartment to a brand new layer of snow. It was really pretty. I wish I had had my camera.

Saturday we went to wedding! It was really small but really nice. It was at I played the piano prelude and postlude music so that was fun. They are a super nice couple and we`re just trying to help them all that we can.

Yesterday we had our Zone Conference. It was so good! We had lots of good trainings on using Familysearch and empowering each other and those around us. Also, they introduced the Christmas Initative! It`s called He is the Gift and it starts Nov 28. On Dec 7 the Church bought the Youtube Homepage banner to advertise it. It`s going to be so great!

I love you all and I hope you ar doing well. Sometimes, it`s hard to change. One thing I`m going to work on is finding things to change so that I can become better. It`s not easy or comfortable, but it will be for the best.

 

Elder Perkes

Canada Pride with Winter!

Canada Pride!

Pizza Canada Pride!

Halloween with the Bishop!

The snow has begun!

Letter #16

17 November 2014 @ 11:58 AM

So, some exciting things happened this last week. Monday I had cake for three meals (not just cake, but cake was involved). Not doing that again. But, Monday night, we aranged a new baptismal date for Patricia and Mylène! Unfortunately it is the same day as the Montréal Flashmob. But that will be ok with some awesome planning skills.

Tuesday we had trainer/trainee meeting. It was awesome! President Patrick and Sister Patrick gave excellent talks and testimonies. Mostly, we talked a lot about using the resources we`ve been given. The Church and Heavenly Father has given us all these resources (scriptures, pamphlets, videos, manuels, etc.) And they have been given to us for a specific reason.

Wednesday we taught the Restoration to Milena. We watched the video as well and she loved it! She has such a strong testimony of God and prayer. Hopefully she`ll stay on that right track.

Thursday we were driving home from an exchange (which went ok, except I am not the best at planning at the moment) and we saw 3 70ish year old ladies raking leaves. So, Elder Hunter pulled over and we got out to ask and she held out the rake and just kept saying «thank you! thank you!» It was pretty cool. We talked a little after about her. She takes care of this big yard for an old person hospital. We got her number and hopefully we`ll be able to teach her soon!

Friday we woke up to a couple of flakes of snow. Saturday we didn`t see too much.

Sunday, we were going to a Bishop`s fireside for the youth, but we stopped to help an older lady with her bags. At first she was a little hesitant but when we started helping her walk, she talked to us about her family and where she was from and different things. When we arrived at her appartment she said that we could come back some time and share the good word! cool stuff.

Then we come to today. It is snowing. A lot. Not blizzard and 2 inches of snow, but it is snowing and we are getting our tires changed today. Should be good.

One thing that I learned this week is to appreciate the little moments. The little acts of kindness. The Sunset. The city lights at night. The first snow flakes. And little moments with people. Yesterday I threw away some garbage for an old bent over lady who could barely walk. She just said, «nice boys» as she walked away, but felt so good to just do a little act of service. When life gets you down, look back on the good moments and what God has given you.

Hope all is well and that you`re staying warm (we`ll be trying)

 

Elder Perkes

p.s.

So, p day this next week is going to be on Tuesday because of Zone training. So don`t freak out when there`s no emailmonday. Just to let you know.

 

Also, last thing, this morning while we were doing some grocery shopping, guess what I heard? Christmas music. It`s beginning to look and sound a lot like Christmas here already

Letter #15

Monday, 10 November 2014 @ 11:38 AM

So, I`m trying to focus on some more spiritual things in my letters. It`s hard for me to write EVERYTHING that goes on because I look back on the week and it think, «Well, I was just doing missionary work. All these things are normal.» the hardest part is that they`re not. Anywho, spiritual things:

I realized how simple the gospel is. Heavenly Father truly does work by small and simple means to bring about great things. Satan just likes to throw in complications to confuse the honest seeker from the plain and simple truths right in front of him.

Wednesday we had our district meeting and the Zone Leaders came. It was fantastic. We talked about how the Lord really is hastening his work and that honest and sincere prayer help soooo much. After, we went to a little neighborhood and met Philip. He was getting out of his car and we stopped him and said he`d listen while he waited for his friend. We talked to him about the Restoration and he said that he was a little curious. Then his friend showed up and we said hi and bye and he left us with his number so we could set up another time. That night we had a little lesson with Patricia and we read throught Moroni 10 and just discussed what it talked about. She has a super solid testimony and we will be setting up a new baptismal date tonight! Exciting stuff!

Thursday we had delicious lunch at our stake president`s house (he lives in our ward). We had scallop potatoes, chicken, and a delicious salad. Then we had sorbet that came in the frozen shell of what flavor it was (ex. orange sorbet came in a frozen orange peel). American Joke from President Pirlet: What do Americans say for «Bon appétit!» ? 

«Good luck»

We had a good laugh about that.

Sunday we had ward conference. It`s still pretty hard for me to understand what is being said, but I get the general idea most of the time. In Priesthood we talked about missionary work, and how we feel when we do it. It was a little odd, but hopefully we can use that to spark more inspiration for members to do missionary work. There was a great big pot-luck after and I ate way too much food. I need to work out more. Then, that night after we had supper at Frere Lane`s house, we visited this family Samsons. Elder Williams, Elder Hunter`s trainer, knew their son and they had contacted them before and had supper there, but last night we talked and had a restoration lesson and scheduled a return date. They were very active in the conversasion and we are excited to teach them.

So, one thing I forgot to mention, for some odd reason everyone thinks that Elder Hunter and I are siblings. Not entirely sure why. But, it`s getting dark around 4:30 here and it is just getting colder and colder. We`re buying around 1 or 2 winter things each week to prepare. Next week we are going to change to winter tires. But we still bought some ice cream today. Sometimes good things do come from cold.

Elder Perkes

Letter #14

Monday, 3 November 2014 @ 11:59 AM

Quick burst of the week:

Last sunday I forgot to tell you that I did play the piano in sacrament meeting, and let`s just say I need some practicing.

Tuesday we made catapults with the one Young man who came and had a little party with him because he moved on Saturday. We launched a couple of candies and had a competition. I lost with 200 points and Pradel (the Young man) won with 700. That day we had gone tracting around an awesome family neighborhood and two Young kids coming home from school came up to us and said ``Qu`est-ce que vous faites?`` which means what are you doing? We showed them some pics in the front of the BoM. We just thought how awesome it would be to bring them to Primary, so we`ll definately go back.

Wednesday we met Akim, a guy from Africa who just took a BoM when we offered it. He left to Québec today, though, so we might not see him for a while. But we planted a seed. Thursday we had an awesome District meeting and we talked about how Good, Better, Best applies to Docterine, Principle, and Application. Knowing the Doctrine is good, understanding the Principle is better, but actually Applying it to your life is the best. Then, that night we had a lesson with Milena and commited her to a date for Baptisim! and her mom wants to start coming to Church and get the family involved! We`re super excited for them.

Friday was Halloween as well. We had to go in a little earlier because trick or treaters starting going out. Turns out, halloween is pretty big here. I saw quite a few houses with a LOT of décorations and we had an awesome party with the ward. And I ate too much candy. Good stuff though. Saturday we helped a family move ad then went to stake Conference. The Book of Mormon Musical is playing in Montréal and since it`s not really a Church function, they came out with some new pass-along-cards saying things like «the book is always better» and they are doing a flashmob near it as well. Unfortunately we are too far to be in the flashmob, but there will be videos and such. Also, they`re doing a big push in getting social media to spread the gospel, so that`ll be cool to get Rolling.

So, that`s that in a nut shell.