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Lovin' the sugar shack.

Slacker Parents #76-#83

#83 April 4, 2016
"Short But Sweet"

I hope you all are doing well and happy with life and such and I hope you all had a great week!

This week was a little slow. Elder DiReda and I were back and forth with not feeling well and just little bugs that come with this time of year. But we're doing ok now and we've got some plans to shape up this week and work a little better.

We've been able to visit a few less-actives and one who is has been returning to church for a while now opened up to us a bunch and expressed her desire to get her patriarchal blessing and go to the temple and what is holding her back. She has a plan to get ready and we just need to help her along the way and it'll be great!

Probably the biggest thing this week was the same as many of yours. GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!

So many good talks and so much spirit was felt, even if the people downstairs were blasting crazy party music. We only felt the bass, but when I only focused on the talk, everything sorta melted away. It was great. 4 of my favorite talks were Elder Nelson's and Elder Uchtdorf's from the Priesthood session, Elder Christofferson's from Sunday Morning, and Elder Holland's from Sunday afternoon. So many good things on life, fatherhood, the priesthood, the truthfulness of the church, the wonderful power of the Atonement, and loads more. President Monson's talks may have been short, but they still left an impact. Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong. If we are faithful, we will have rest, but for now, we've got to push and pull and work to earn that rest.

I hope you are all doing well and I hope you will all read and re-read these conference talks.

I love our prophet and I know he is the mouthpiece of the Lord in our day. I know that what he, his counselors, the apostles, and all the general authorities say is true and right and that if we abide by them, we shall earn our great reward.

Elder Perkes

#82  March 29, 2016

"Sugar Rush"

Hello Everyone and I hope you had a wonderful Easter week! Ours was pretty good.

On wednesday we were able to meet with 2 of our investigators, Sarah and Noemé. They are friends of a recent convert, Mark, who currently lives in Texas but grew up here. They're pretty cool, but I haven't really seen them too much to give much more info...

Saturday we went to a Cabane à Sucre (sugar shack, for you anglophones) and it was SO GOOD and then SO BAD. Mark came up to visit his family and he loves missionaries (and he already knew my companion from when he visited during Christmas) so he took us to his mom's cousin's cabane à sucre. We get there, hang for a bit until we get our pallets, which were basically little wooden utensils that look like chisels. Then the people set up these tall troughs filled with snow. Then, the people come and pour hot maple taffy into the snow and you stick your pallet into the taffy, roll up and stuff your face. It was so good and they just kept coming back. My companion decided to stop after a little bit, but they people kept coming and so I kept eating. Then, after they cleaned that up, we all went inside the cabane and they handed out plates of maple butter, and we just ate it like that. The cabane itself smelled so much of delicious maple that I could feel getting a sugar high just walking in. And then eating the stuff was just delectable. After that we started our way home. I lasted for about 10 minutes before my stomach finally realized that I probably shouldn't have eaten so much maple sugar. But it was worth it.

It is currently snowing and is quite windy. But, not super cold. It's actually been pretty nice temperature wise.

A fun thing that I've started doing is scripture trees-chain-things. Basically I take one scripture, write a brief, one-line summary and look at the footnotes. Then I take those, and do the same. I repeat for a 2-4 layers until I don't have any room on 1 sheet of paper to fill them. I've received some cool insights from it. So, if you're bored from reading one day, I suggest trying it.

Other than that, not much. Just doing our best to work hard and find people to teach.

Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Perkes

"Stupidity is to grab what you can. Intelligence is to grow so much, there is no need to grab anything. That is intelligence. Stupidity is greed. On a broad enough scale it becomes evil. If you ever wondered what evil is, it is stupidity on a large scale." Billy Mo

"Oh! ayez de la sagesse! Que puis-je dire de plus?" Jacob 6:12

#81 March 21, 2016

"Goin' Way up North"

Hello everyone! How're y'all doing?

So, this week was a bit crazy. Lots and lots of travelling. Tuesday was filled with good-byes and packing way to late than I should've been. Wednesday we were supposed to wake up at 5 but the alarm didn't go off so we woke up at 5:30, rushed out the door so we could be in Kirkland by 7. From Kirkland we met up with our Zone leaders and Elder Harter and I took a train to the metros, each of us carrying our own luggage. Fun stuff. He got off one stop before me and so I had to get through the metros with my 2 giant suitcases, a carry-on, and my ukulele (you know, the important stuff). Thankfully I had some people helping me getting up and down stairs and such. After arriving at Berri-UQAM metro station, I waited a bit for my bus. There were 2 other missionaries going up to Quebec, so I didn't feel totally alone on the 2 hour and 50 minute ride up. We arrived in Quebec and I met my new companion, Elder DiReda from Kaysville, Utah. He's been on the mission for about 6 months. We stayed in Quebec city that night and went on spits with our District leader and his companion, Elder Noorda and Elder Morris (I went with Elder Morris, of Texas). It was a fun night. The next day we went to district meeting and then to Chocolats Favoris. For those of you who don't know, Chocolats Favoris is SUPER GOOD. I Ordered 2 ice cream cones (just normal vanilla soft-serve) dipped in a delectable chocolate fondu. One was Crunchy Hazelnut and one was Maple Vanilla chocolate. SO FLIPPIN' GOOD. I will be going back. Then Elder DiReda and I got to make the 2 hour drive up to Rimouski. We have a lovely little branch of about 10-15 active members, who are super solid, and a whole lot of work to do. It's going to be an adventure up here in the north.

Elder Perkes

#80  March 14, 2016

"Off to Never Land"

Bonjour à tous!

So, this week was not super exciting, but it had some fun moments.

We had our Zone Training Meeting on Wednesday. It went well. President Patrick gave a good training on how faith is our duty or loyalty to God and Jesus Christ, and that faith is action and power. We also discussed about how to see the vision, make plans to acheive the vision, and set goals based on those plans. We also were able to watch the new Easter Initiative, #Hallelujah. It's another great video set up by The Church. Afterwhich we went out to lunch with Cedric, Elder Navarette, and Elder Shumway. We were originally going to go to burger place that Cedric had told us about, but then he suggested a chinese place that was closer. It was SO GOOD. We each ordered a plate and then everyone shared what everyone got. We had fried rice with shrimp, noodles with chicken, lots of yummy sauces and vegetables. It was delightful. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, so I'll have to steal the picture from Elder Shumway.

Saturday we got a call. It didn't come completely unexpected. It comes every 6 weeks. That's right, you guessed. Transfers. And guess who's leaving? Yup. After 6 months of being here in little ol' Hawkesbury I'll be shipped off to the great north to a little branch called Rimouski. I've heard they have lovely sunsets. I've also heard that I'll have an extra month of winter. And that in the summer the sun will set around 10 at night. It's about 2 hours northeast of Quebec City, which is about 3 hours northeast of where I am right now. So I've got a long ride up. With only 4 and a half months left, I'm assuming that I'll be finishing my mission up there. It'll be an adventure.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity to serve here. I've learned a lot. I have a new appreciation for everything I have been blessed with. My family, my friends, my health, my toys, my home, my talents, my heritage, my hair, my future, my memories, my trials, my happy moments, my life, my Savior, my Father in Heaven. I don't know why I've been so richly blessed, but I become ever more thankful for it everyday. The age we live in is wonderful and the knowledge we have of this plan is precious. I hope we all can be quick to remember our God and for the miracles he has performed. I'm so thankful for the Savior, for his love for us. I'm thankful for the power of the priesthood and for the temple. I'm thankful to be a missionary, though at times I don't see how much I really do.

Thanks for your love and support and I pray you all will have a wonderful week!

Ciao,

Elder Perkes

#79 March 7, 2016

"Praying for Spring"

This week has been quite tiring. Monday night we had to help a member move out, which was no fun with a little bit of snow and we were the only ones able to help out. Thankfully the truck was big enough and it only took around 2 hours. After that we had to help shovel Mike's mom's yard, which was a pain because it mostly icy snow that was quite heavy. The next day we had to help ANOTHER guy move, but this time we had to move him out and in because he was still in our area. It took between 4 and 5 hours. And again, we were the only ones able to help out. Both nights I was very happy to go to bed. The next morning, being Wednesday, we had to help the guy move a little bit more because we weren't able to finish it all the night before, and then we had to drive straight to District Meeting. After that, we went on exchanges. Elder Keller stayed with me and Elder Sorensen went with Elder Harter. It was quite a day. Half the day was spent shoveling different driveways. But we had a pretty cool experience on the way to a lesson. We had scheduled a lesson with an investigator who lives almost and hour away by car. About 10 minutes out, I remembered that we had wanted to start calling right before we left because sometimes he had forgotten our appointments and we drive down and he's not there. So we call and. . . He's not there. So we decide to call back 10 minutes later, just to see if he's in the bathroom or something. We call and. . . He's not there. So I think to myself that it's probably the best idea to turn around. But then Elder Keller suggests that we say a prayer. So he prays and the whole time I'm thinking that we should turn around. But as soon as he's done, we both had the thought to move forward. So we did. 10 minutes before we arrive, he calls us saying that he had just gone to the store and that he hopes that we're still coming. It turned to be a great lesson and the Spirit was very strong. So thankful for prayer.

That's the biggest story of the week. There have been a few other members who have been having some struggles that we're doing our best to help out with. It's pretty warm and it's supposed to get really warm the rest of this week. I see signs of an early spring here in Canada.

Have a great week!

Elder Perkes

#78  February 29, 2016

"Don't go scuba diving with King Noah"

Dear People of this Universe and Aliens who may be reading in,

This week wasn't too out of the ordinary, but I do have few stories that I'd like to share.

First one happened during District Meeting this last Wednesday. I had assigned Sister Shaver to organize a role play that she had done before on her mission. I didn't really know what to expect, so I just let her run with it. I turned the time over to her and she started off by giving each of us a small slip of paper that had a number between 1 and 3, if we were the investigator or the missionary, and some instructions that we were to reveal to no one. I was the missionary and I had the job of teaching the first lesson by using a scuba diving analogy. I was paired up with Elder Keller (the number 3 determined our pairing) and I started in without any preparation. As I started to relate the Restoration to Scuba Diving, I started to realize that he felt uncomfortable. I asked him if he was ok and he said that he had had an experience that didn't make him feel comfortable about talking about water. Feeling nervous, I related how Prophets are like instructors who teach how to dive safely and that our gear is like the tools we have to follow Christ and stay safe in this world. The mood changed and the short, 5 minute role play ended ok. After, he revealed that his paper said that he had had a near-drowning experience that left him with a terrible fear of water. I thought I did pretty well for the situation, but when he was asked how he had felt at the beginning he said, "I was freaking out!" It was pretty 

Story number 2:

So, we've been working with this old less-active member who is very old, has a bit of Alzheimers, and is pretty catholic in her ways. We've been reading in the Book of Mormon with her and we were in Mosiah where they start talking about Kind Noah and his wicked priests and their wives and concubines. After reading, she started going off on how they should not have printed it and that if they did it back then why are they saying it don't do it now and this and that and it was all very confusing and we were trying to explain to her that this was a BAD example. That these were BAD people so we know what NOT to do. We even tried explaining that it's kind of like learning about Hitler! It was a bit frustrating so we did our best to explain and then the conversation kind of trailed off. Whew. So tiresome sometimes.

The last story I'd like to share is our new investigator, Lornie. He's nice old fellow who we had contacted on the street a week or so ago. He got his number and address and were able to meet him in his apartment. He's a religious man who's not affiliated with any church, believes in Christ and His teachings, and likes to pray. We tried our best to teach the first lesson but it was very hard to stay on topic. We were able to stay on gospel related subjects, we just don't think he understood it all. But he accepted a Book of Mormon and said we could come back as long as we teach what Jesus taught. He's nice. I hope it all works out.

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed those stories for the week and I hope that you're all doing well. Remember who you are, read your scriptures, go to church, say your prayers, be safe, love thy neighbor, etc. etc. and have a great week!

Elder Perkes

#77 February 22, 2016

"Swampy Winter"

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope your weeks have been good and warm-ish! Because the weather here has been crazy. It snowed several times this week and most of them ended with rain. We had to shovel 2 or 3 times this week and when we did it at night, it was basically shoveling the swamps of the arctic. Heavy, wet, gross, and icy underneath. So...fun...

Anywho, our first grand excitement was our splits with the Zone Leaders. The missionary council people up in Salt Lake decided that splits would be better if the leaders always stayed in their areas and the other team would come to theirs. This means that both Elder Sorensen and I went to Kirkland and stayed the night for our splits. It was quite the adventure, especially when, as we were driving to Montreal, they called us and said they had locked their keys in their car. [face palm] Thankfully they got them out when we arrived, but their car was covered in ice from the freezing rain. It ended up being a good split. Nothing too exciting. We visited this one lady who had a cat with those weird opposable thumbs. Yup. At district meeting the next day, it went well. Nothing to exciting there. Sister Shaver showed us how she can play Called to Serve by dialing on their phone. Who needs apps when you've got a Rugby?

We've been doing some contacting and we've got a few potentials that we're excited for. We also went to this tiny little restaurant that our branch mission leader recommended. It's this super small mom 'n' pop restaurant called Chez Marie. Super good fries, awesome burgers, and all for a decent price. We'll be going back soon. We even got to talk to the owners a bit and got to explain a little bit about what we do. They asked us where we're from, why we're here, how long we're staying, do we have girlfriends, etc. I don't know why that last one always seems to come up when we start explaining who we are. [shrug] After eating there we had b-day party for one of our recent converts. It was nice with cake and ice cream. Plenty o' sugar to keep me up half the night.

So, we're truckin' on through this odd month of February. But spring will be here soon. That'll be nice. Winter is fun and all, but we could really do for more sunshine.

Have a great week!

Elder Perkes

Article of Faith 9:  We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

#76 February 15, 2016

"Sick and Frozen"

So this week started off with Elder Sorensen getting sick on probably one of the worst days to get sick. He wasn't feeling Monday night, so he went to bed early. Tuesday was basically a day full of service. Every Tuesday we volunteer at the food bank from 9-12 and there's always something to do there. Right after that we drove to move some wood for one of our investigators and that was a pain because a lot of the wood was frozen and so we had to hit it with an ice pick to get it unstuck. Then we went to Chad's sister's house where we did a little bit of service for her and her boyfriend. They were very nice and we talked with them and Zak, the boyfriend, asked lots of questions and complimented how down-to-earth we were for being so... I don't know... Religiously active? anywho, as a little thank you he gave us each a fancy salt and pepper shaker. After all that, Elder Sorensen was pretty worn down. So we cancelled just about everything else for the day so he could rest. The next day, he was still kind of... slumpish. So he rested some more. We did, however, help Elianne shave Prissy, one of Ann's 5 cats, later that day. She...looks...so... ...different. But, we got it done. And just in time for Ann to come home! Yay! She has been in the hospital since the end of November and now she is finally back with her cats. It has been quite an adventure with her but we hope that it will all be good for a little while. Friday we had our Zone Training Meeting in Montreal which was quite nice. After, Elder Sorensen and I were able to get our interviews with President. It went well. We had a nice little chat and we found out that he has seen the new Star Wars. 3 times. Yup. And our Valentine's day was spent frozen. It got down to -24 C (-11 F) and a ton of members had car problems getting to church. But we still had a nice Sunday. A little after church, we went to Brother Keith's house, where we played pool with Chad and had mac n cheese and chicken strips for dinner with fortune cookies for desert (his wife is out of town helping their family in Florida). One of my fortune cookies had 3 fortunes in one cookie. They all said 'spoil yourself a little'. I then had 3 more fortune cookies.

Nothing much else this week. Have a good one!

Elder Perkes