Sunday, September 6, 2015

Letters #51-54 and pictures

Alvarez Family
 At Mount Royal with other missionaries

 Interesting sauce - complete will real mini bible
 Pictures at the Botanical Gardens


 View of Montreal!
 Elder Perkes with his companion Elder Shumway

 Ward Picnic
Wax museum - he met quite a few celebrities



Letter #54

31 August 2015

It has been a pretty long week with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns and even a loop-di-loop with a tunnel at the bottom. But, at the end of the day, the roller coaster keeps trucking along.
Last P-day we went to the Botanical Garden or "Jardin Botanique" for you francophones. It's basically a giant garden that features different types of gardens all over the world. Chinese and Japanese, Alps and Mexico, and all sorts of fruit trees and berry bushes and all that fun stuff. After that we had a nice dinner at our Bishop's house and a nice family home evening with their 3 daughters. We talked about how if we are good, we will all be together again in heaven. Then one of the daughters, with the wonderful imagination that could only come from someone between the ages of 3 and 6, said, "Maybe, in heaven, we'll be able to eat oranges with the peels on them!" I'll let that sink in for a moment.
.
Wednesday we had a nice District meeting where the Plumbs gave a wonderful training/family home evening on family home evening. The talked about how important it is to make sure that the home is a safe haven from the constant bombardments of Satan and his followers. They talked about how parents must send their children out with the daily strength of prayer of scripture study to help them in their daily struggles. It was a good training. Thursday we helped one of our members clean out his uncles apartment (who had recently died) and my goodness was it a mess. We had to throw away so much junk and it was so dirty and messy and ugh. It was terrible. But we were a big help, which is what I like to be.
Other than that, normal missionary stuff. Teaching, going to church, riding metros, eating, riding metros home, etc, etc.
I hope everyone has good week!
D&C 121:7-9
Ether 12:27

Elder Perkes

Letter #53

24 August 2015

It has been a pretty long week with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns and even a loop-di-loop with a tunnel at the bottom. But, at the end of the day, the roller coaster keeps trucking along.
Last P-day we went to the Botanical Garden or "Jardin Botanique" for you francophones. It's basically a giant garden that features different types of gardens all over the world. Chinese and Japanese, Alps and Mexico, and all sorts of fruit trees and berry bushes and all that fun stuff. After that we had a nice dinner at our Bishop's house and a nice family home evening with their 3 daughters. We talked about how if we are good, we will all be together again in heaven. Then one of the daughters, with the wonderful imagination that could only come from someone between the ages of 3 and 6, said, "Maybe, in heaven, we'll be able to eat oranges with the peels on them!" I'll let that sink in for a moment.
.
Wednesday we had a nice District meeting where the Plumbs gave a wonderful training/family home evening on family home evening. The talked about how important it is to make sure that the home is a safe haven from the constant bombardments of Satan and his followers. They talked about how parents must send their children out with the daily strength of prayer of scripture study to help them in their daily struggles. It was a good training. Thursday we helped one of our members clean out his uncles apartment (who had recently died) and my goodness was it a mess. We had to throw away so much junk and it was so dirty and messy and ugh. It was terrible. But we were a big help, which is what I like to be.
Other than that, normal missionary stuff. Teaching, going to church, riding metros, eating, riding metros home, etc, etc.
I hope everyone has good week!
D&C 121:7-9
Ether 12:27

Elder Perkes

Letter #52

17 August 2015

Hello everybody!

This week was a little slow, but we were able to do some good stuff.
Monday we visited the Notre Dame Basilica here in Montreal. It was fun and while the tour lady was describing how big the organ was, she talked about how it is really big, but there are a few bigger ones, one in Salt Lake City. Yup.
We were able to teach a few of our investigators. Hugo, a quebecois man, is doing well. He comes to church, prays, reads everything we give and more. Youcef, an Algerian young man, is great. He came to church, he reads from the Book of Mormon, and he wants to be baptized. We will be passing him off to the YSA, so we hope that he has fun there.
This week I have been reading and thinking a lot about our ancestors. They sacrificed so much so that we can the rights and freedoms we have today. Pioneers faced almost every storm in life, whether that came from nature or man. I have been reading their stories of faith, of perseverance, of long-suffering, and of joy in the Gospel. We can learn so much from their examples and we can push through life's challenges if we look towards our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And if we do so, we will the example for our children, and their children, and all of those who will come after us. I am so grateful for Pioneers, ancient, modern, and the pioneers of today. "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a stead fastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." 2 Nephi 31:20

Elder Perkes

Letter #51

10 August 2015 

Well, I've got less than a year left. Time flies. This week I was able to finish the Book of Mormon in French. I was able to read it in 73ish days. By the end I noticed how much more I understood, not just the language but the story and the concepts as well. On our year mark we had a Zone Training Meeting where we talked about our purpose as missionaries, and how as we focus on our purpose we are able to make better plans and therefore be more productive with the short time we have here. Other stuff. . . We have a new investigator from Algeria. He was introduced to the church by his friend and he called us up one day and said that he wanted to meet with us. I was a little shocked because that normally doesn't happen, but we were able to have a good lesson and he seems very interested. I have high hopes for him. Saturday we helped with a Single Adult activity which was INSANE. When we first got there we were just waiting around. We set up tables and put bread on all of them. Then they started filing in and we put salads on all the tables. Then they started to "order". Originally the plan was they would get chicken. The only exception is if they couldn't eat chicken, whatever the reason. But, the waiters would go up and ask "Lasagna or chicken?" As if they had a choice. Then the chaos began. Orders were flying everywhere and people were in and out of the tiny kitchen. Only half of the table was being served at a time and the numbers on all the tables were crazy so we had no idea where to serve. Then we ran out of lasagna and the people who needed the lasagna ended up with vegetables, rice, and extra salad. Oh, it was crazy. But, in the end, everyone was fed, and we went home with 2 extra Cosco chickens. So, it was pretty good week.

Elder Perkes