Christmas Week Pictures

This is part of the collection of Legos we have been sending Tanner...something to keep his imagination working :-)

We assume this is the new church house where he is serving

 Scenery...

He finally sent us proof that he is REALLY in Canada :-)

Your guess is as good as mine...

Thieves! 

He loves sending us pictures which show the Canadian pride.

Missy was sooooo proud that he was actually out running!

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Thanksgiving Dinner...close up :-)

I don't think Tanner ever helped wash the car at home :-)

P-day soccer and Frisbee

Some Christmas cheer before he was transferred to Ottawa

Letter #21

22 December 2014 @ 11:58 AM

I would just like to start off by saying that it's hard to believe that it's almost Christmas, that it's almost 2015, that I just graduated at the beginning of this year, and that Heavenly Father has put so much trust into a young, fairly inexperienced and pretty awkward me. I'm so grateful for this time of year, for my family and friends who love me, for the amazing people in Ottawa, and for the greatest gift ever given to mankind: Our Savior and Redeemer, the Prince of Peace, The Son of God, and our Brother Jesus Christ. Friday and Saturdaywe were able to watch a live Nativity performed by the stake. This tradition attracted hundreds of people, many of which if not most were non-members. I forgot the cold as the many actors (varying from primary to. . . more experienced) depicted the prophesying of and the actual birth of the Lamb of God. It was a wonderful experience.

Earlier in the week we were able to visit some different members of our ward. We helped the Fongs move Saturday and visited them on different days (first for dinner, then to give Brother Fong a blessing, then again because I forgot my bag...). So the Fongs are a great family who love the missionaries. Brother Fong is half Asian, Sister Fong is half African, and their children are Ailen (looks more Asian), Seth (looks white), and Lily (looks more black). They're a fun family. I also met the Polynice Family, a recently converted Haitian Family. The youngest daughter we're trying to see if she's ready for baptism and we are working on helping the son receive the Aaronic Priesthood. They're pretty crazy, but we were able to have a good thought and eat some good Haitian food. 

Also, my District Leader who also shares our apartment wanted me to say Hi to you. His name is Elder Artica. He was born in Peru but his family currently lives in Provo. He's pretty great and crazy and is helping me work out better and play the ukulele.

Merry CHRISTmas to all of you and I hope you have a fantastic and fun-filled holiday season! Joyeuse Noel!

Elder Perkes

New pictures from his new apartment in Ottawa!

Actual beds...

 Bathroom...

New companion - Elder Bybee (and his messy desk)

Kitchen...

View of Ottawa from Steve's apartment

Letter #20

15 December 2014 @ 10:45 AM

So! Transfers. Fun stuff there. Monday was pretty normal p day. Tuesday was filled with good byes and a few pictures and then Wednesday was Transfer day. We were at the mission office early, around 10:00. The buses didn't leave until 3. So we hung out there for a while and I talked to some people and then I had to navigate through the metro with 2 large bags and one little bag and my backpack, so that was an adventure. They almost didn't let me on because I had too many bags apparently, but it was alright (there wasn't too many people on the bus). We didn't get to Ottawa until 8. So long day of driving and then just getting settled in. Stuff about our apartment: Elder Bybee and I live in a 4 man apartment with the Spanish Elders, Elder Artica and Elder Gonzalos. It's a little different. And a little messier. But it's fun. 

Our building has no 13 floor because the architects were superstitious, so that's cool. Elder Bybee is pretty cool. He dies (goes home) in August so he's been out a little longer than me. He plays the violin and was a model for Holister (he was a cashier and he wore Holister clothes and sometimes did photo shoots). It's pretty fun and crazy in a 4 man.

Thursday we went gift wrapping at the mall. People would come up and pay to have their gifts wrapped and all the proceeds went to charity. While there, a tv crew came up and interviewed the lady in charge and got a few shots of us wrapping gifts. 2 days later I had some members come up to me and say, "Did I see you on the 11 o'clock news last night?" So now I'm famous. . . Not really but it was pretty cool.

Friday we went and saw Meet the Mormons! (yes, it's here) We took a kind of inactive member named Steve. He lives in the same building as us so we visit him often. He's super nice but he just has some mental problems. But he came to church for the first 2 hours which was great and he felt great after Meet the Mormons. And we got Panda Express, which there is only 1 in Ottawa.

Saturday we played soccer with some non-members/investigators. They said I was a really good defender and I thought they were joking, but he meant it... Maybe I should take up soccer again.

Sunday was pretty good. I met a lot members and introduced myself in sacrament meeting. One guy, Brother Forsberg, said he had lived in Logan 40 years ago and a young lady, Sister Ericson, said she graduated from USU! Elder Bybee said there are actually a lot of people from Utah here. This new ward reminds me a lot of home. It's not a small ward, but it's not big, and everyone speaks English.

We'll see how it goes.

Elder Perkes

Letter #19

8 December 2014 @ 11:35 AM

So, this week has been pretty exciting, if I do say so myself.

On Wednesday we had a good district meeting where we turned it more into a cousel and we did our best to help all the missionaries in our district. After that we had an exchange! Except Elder Peery came to St. Jean and Elder Hunter went to Mont. St. Hiliaire... Which meant we had no car. Thankfully we had ride for the first part of the night. We taught a good lesson to Milena who`s right on track to getting baptised in 2 weeks. Then, after that lesson we walked... for 2 hours... in light snow... knocking on doors. Most everyone was nice-ish but no one really interested. But Elder Peery taught me how you can actually have a normal conversation at the door. So that was pretty fun. Got my exercise for the day. Then the next day Elder Hunter and I (after the exchange) walked Howie, the crazy dog that we walk each week. And we saw a car that looked EXACTLY like Herby/Herbie (don`t remember). We talked to the guy who owned it and gave his family a Il Est Le Cadeau pass along card. Then as we were walking back, he drove past us doing fish-tails on the snowy road. Pretty exciting.

Thursday was pretty great. We had the ward Christmas party. There was a lot of food and a lot of non-members there which was great! It was kind of awkward because there was one non-member there who we had invited her and her family, but her family was unable to come and she had NO idea what to expect. She was confused most of the night but we introduced her to some of the young women and they seemed to get along well. But it seems like many of our investigators are young women. Mylene, Milena, Alexandra... It`s really awkward because we are awkward 18 year old missionaries. . .

Saturday was pretty good as well. Elder Hunter and I decided to walk and visit one of our investigators and talk to people on the way. We walked for 3 hours.... Lot of walking this week. That night we had decided to visit a potential, but he wasn`t home. So we knocked around his house for a bit. We weren`t having much success but we had a few minutes left so we decided to say a prayer. I felt that we should go back. When we did, the potential was home! We knocked on his door and he let us right in. We had a great lesson that covered a bunch of basics and commited him to read the BoM and pray about it. His name is Alexandre and he has 3 boys that were running around asking questions about what we were talking about. It was fun.

Sunday Patricia was finally able to come to church after a couple of weeks of sick kids. After we were out tracting trying to find out if people had been on Youtube (if you didn`t see it, the He is the Gift video from the Church was the only advertiser on Youtube`s homepage on Dec 7, which was yesterday). We met this 88 year old man named Hebert but we both thought that he probably hadn`t been on Youtube. At first he said that he was too old to change and we were about to walk away, but I asked him about if he had done any geneology. He said he had and he opened up a little more and even let us in. He explained how his wife was sick and that his 5 sons came and visit to bring food and stuff. Then one of his sons showed up! And turns out that we had met his son`s wife at a store a few weeks earlier! Small world. We thought that we should leave and we gave Hebert our number and he said we could come back and visit if we wanted to and maybe mow the lawn in the spring time (we offered to do service).

Back to Saturday night. . .

TRANSFERS! Yes, that`s right. After only 3 months of being in St. Jean I am being transfered. To Ottowa. Where I will be speaking English (i`ll make sure to practice french still). It was kind of shock. And what`s even more funny is that Elder Hunter will be training another new missionary! So fun stuff all around. It`s been fun in St. Jean and I`ll be sad to leave it, but I`ll go where the Lord wants me to go. And if that`s English Speaking Ottowa, so be it.

sorry, Kind of a long Letter, but it was an eventful week.

Elder Perkes 

Pictures we found on FaceBook...

These were all pictures posted on Facebook by Pierre Nicole, 

someone from Tanner's mission who friended Missy. We believe that this was part of their "Social Media Splits" that they did last week.  He explains in his letter this week.

Elder Perkes and Elder Hunter making breakfast.

Elder Hunter and Elder Perkes on bikes...they had used up all their kilometres in their car :-).  We're curious why Tanner is wearing his suit and a coat with liner and his companion looks fine without anything else.  We hope Tanner doesn't freeze to death :-)

Elder Perkes and Elder Hunter praying for inspiration.

Elder Perkes and Elder Hunter discussing after a discussion.

Elder Perkes enjoying his missionary tag.

Elder Perkes serving breakfast.

Letter #18

1 December 2014 @ 11:45 AM

This week has been a little shorter than normal due to the Zone Conference on Monday and the P-day on tuesday, but it`s been a pretty good week too.

We were able to see the Samsons a couple of times this week. The lesson we had was a little rough, but we were able to save it in the end. Lise Samson (the wife) is pretty good at reading and she really has the desire to follow Christ. We`re still working on helping them receive a testimony of Joseph Smith, but they`re coming along. Thursday Morning we had our own Turkey Trot (that`s for you Mom). We ran about 25 minutes which to me seems a lot easier here than in Utah. Maybe I`m not running fast enough. Then we had a 2nd Turkey Trot that night. Sœur Hebert, a very nice lady in our ward, had made us some turkey, but we parked on the wrong side of her building. We were running late, so we decided to just run to the other side. She gave us the turkey and even said she had a friend that wanted to come to Church! so , we`re very excited about that, but still running late, so we «trotted» quickly back the car with the turkey in hand. Therefore, our second Turkey Trot.

That night we were supposed to meet a guy, but he was not home. So we did some calls and tracting for a bit and then went to English class. Unfortunately we didn`t do as much advertising as we had hoped, so the only one who showed up was Pierre Corriveau. To give a little background, Pierre met with the missionaries 25 years ago, but if he joined the Church it would have created conflict within his family, so he decided not to. Then few months ago he ran into Elder Hunter and Elder Williams and talked with them for a bit. He is super nice and into geneology. He already knows English but he wanted to help with the class. So, with no one else there, we decided to talk with him for a bit. We went Inside the the Church building and we just talked for a little bit about... a lot of stuff. It was so awesome to talk with him and really feel of his love for us and for Christ. He`s just a good guy who wants to help with anything. In the end he said, «I want you to succeed, I just don`t know why». He`s just fantastic.

So Saturday we had a thing called Social Media Splits. Three stakes here did it and the goal was to flood Facebook and Twitter and other things of such nature with pictures and videos of what Missionaries do from day to day. Kind of show that we`re normal people. We did some studies and some service and it was kind of a weird day, but we got through it. While we were preparing for this we watched a talk that explained how all technological advancements were created for the Hastening of the Lord`s Work. Social media is a fantastic way to spread the gospel. Sharing spiritual videos, uplifting pictures, favorite quotes and scriptures can all be shared with the world in seconds. It`s pretty amazing if you think about it. Can you imagine Moses or Néphi looking down on us thinking about this great tool we have?

Other than that, a pretty good week. We met some nice people contacting, Milena is coming along well with her testimony and Patricia and Mylène are continuing to grow in the gospel.

It`s sunny right now and the day is bright.

 

Love,

Elder Perkes

 

p.s.  I don`t remember if I mentioned this before but christmas.mormon.org has new video called He is the Gift. Check it out and Share it with #sharethegift