These were all of Travis' companions up until a couple of weeks ago. Now his companion is Elder Bangerter.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!
Hi All! We received a photo stick with pictures from Elder Mortenson (Travis) recently. I'm going to post quite a few since we don't get them very often. Enjoy!
Elder Mortenson, Elder Foster, Sister Hill
Elder McMurrin (Travis' trainer), Elder Cowling, Elder Mortenson, Elder Freeze
These were all of Travis' companions up until a couple of weeks ago. Now his companion is Elder Bangerter.
Elder Echeverria getting a push from Elder Mortenson.
Elder Cowling, Elder Echeverria, Elder Bangerter, Elder Mortenson. These 4 missionaries share an apartment. Elders Cowling and Echeverria work in the English speaking branch now, and the other two work in the French speaking branch. Travis says it's nice having a foursome.
We get these pictures with no explanations about where they are or what they are doing. I wish I had some cool stories to tell about the photos, but I just don't. I have to enjoy them at face value!
These were all of Travis' companions up until a couple of weeks ago. Now his companion is Elder Bangerter.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Week 28 in the Field
"The newest of new news for me in the CMM [Canada Montreal Mission]... I didn't get transferred - I get to welcome in the 5th transfer in St. Lazare starting on Wednesday. Ha it will be interesting and fun. I really like this area. We're working with some really neat people for sure.
"So metro contacting definitely created some interesting stories! We had the Hawkesbury elders with us too and we went down in to the metros. So we went from Laurier and had to transfer at Berri-UQAM and then ride until Viau. So I told the other 3 that we had 3 stops until we needed to transfer. Me and E Cowling got into one metro car and the Hawkesbury elders got into another car. I took one end of the car and left elder cowling to do the other side. So I started contacting people and it was going along just fine - elder cowling just started talking with one person and then moved to another person when the first person left. By the time we got to Berri, I was talking to this one lady who was fairly interested and he was still talking to someone else. So I got off with the lady since that was both of our stops and I was assuming that elder cowling was watching me and would get off too. Well I walked to the stairs with this lady and asked for her number but she didn't want to give it to me, so I gave her a mormon.org card and then went back and talked with the Hawkesbury elders... who had the wonderful news to tell me that they tried getting elder cowling's attention but failed in that attempt. Yes, a country boy from Idaho in his first time riding the metros was now lost. haha So we thought he might recognize that we weren't on the metro and get off and wait for us at the next station - so we boarded the next train and got off at the next station - then reboarded and got off at the next - and one more time we did the same thing. Ha all to no avail because he wasn't there. So then we go back to berri and call Elder Neff to alert him of the situation - he told us to solve the problem quickly - we went to the metro cops to see if maybe they could page elder cowling over the loud speaker, but since he was not a minor, they couldn't do that. The cops told us to go to the destination and gave us a number to call if he wasn't there. So we went back down to the platform and were waiting for the metro when we got a call from Elder Neff telling us that Elder Cowling had been found by the Chinese East elders and that they were at the biodome waiting for us. (Keep in mind that we had spent about 45 minutes looking for him already) so we get on over to the biodome and learn what happened with Elder Cowling. Ha turns out that he just went passed berri because he wasn't paying attention to me - but then after a couple stations he thought that I had gone to the next car and he mistakenly saw a guy in a white shirt and thought it was the hawkesbury elders in the other car - so he stayed on. Then he got to thinking... wait, I shouldn't be on this long and they aren't around afterall... (after like 10 minutes) and so he asked somebody how to get to the biodome - they told him to just go 2 more stops and then switch lines. So he did and about halfway back on the green line he saw a group of missionaries on the platform waiting to get on the metro - and so he just booked it to them. They were super shocked to see him - but they got him to the biodome safely. Ha And they got there before we did! It was ridiculous, but it was also really funny. The Hawkesbury elders and I were laughing pretty much the whole time.
"[We did splits, and I] I was with Elder Neff for the night! It was super cool because the last house Elder Neff and I knocked on let us in and were just these amazing potentials! At first we talked with the husband and he was pretty interested but still kind of mellow about it, and then a little bit later his wife joined us at the door - and so we asked if we could come back and then he said, 'I don't know, what do you think?' to his wife and she just shook her head yes!! Ha so then she started talking with us and she was super interested and so she invited us in for a second and we gave her a book of mormon and asked her to read 2 ne 2 and she wanted to come to church that next sunday and we asked if she wanted to meet Sister Pacas (a member about the same age - they are younger, like early 30s) who lived just a few houses down and have sis pacas give her a ride to church and she said yes and it was just way cool. Unfortunately, they speak french. And so we had to try and pass them off. Also unfortunately, she didn't come to church. However, sister pacas did go over to pick up Kamilia but it turns out that that morning she had been called into work at 11 - so sister pacas then just talked with Kamilia for awhile (because Kamilia asked her to) and they became friends and they're going to try and set something up this week for Kamilia to come to sister pacas' house and the missionaries to meet her there. So awesome.
"As a final point - it was really cool when we were helping this family get ready to move and they were taking some boxes of old things to the local charity here in St. Lazare - so we get there and Sis Macfarlane told us to go through the books and see if there were any we wanted - she had this huge fre-eng and eng-fre dictionary (3 part dictionary) and also a french thesaurus and a french sticker book that I took for language study and they are awesome! Ha Hopefully I can take advantage of them while I'm in this area because I don't know if I can take them with me to my next area!"
"So metro contacting definitely created some interesting stories! We had the Hawkesbury elders with us too and we went down in to the metros. So we went from Laurier and had to transfer at Berri-UQAM and then ride until Viau. So I told the other 3 that we had 3 stops until we needed to transfer. Me and E Cowling got into one metro car and the Hawkesbury elders got into another car. I took one end of the car and left elder cowling to do the other side. So I started contacting people and it was going along just fine - elder cowling just started talking with one person and then moved to another person when the first person left. By the time we got to Berri, I was talking to this one lady who was fairly interested and he was still talking to someone else. So I got off with the lady since that was both of our stops and I was assuming that elder cowling was watching me and would get off too. Well I walked to the stairs with this lady and asked for her number but she didn't want to give it to me, so I gave her a mormon.org card and then went back and talked with the Hawkesbury elders... who had the wonderful news to tell me that they tried getting elder cowling's attention but failed in that attempt. Yes, a country boy from Idaho in his first time riding the metros was now lost. haha So we thought he might recognize that we weren't on the metro and get off and wait for us at the next station - so we boarded the next train and got off at the next station - then reboarded and got off at the next - and one more time we did the same thing. Ha all to no avail because he wasn't there. So then we go back to berri and call Elder Neff to alert him of the situation - he told us to solve the problem quickly - we went to the metro cops to see if maybe they could page elder cowling over the loud speaker, but since he was not a minor, they couldn't do that. The cops told us to go to the destination and gave us a number to call if he wasn't there. So we went back down to the platform and were waiting for the metro when we got a call from Elder Neff telling us that Elder Cowling had been found by the Chinese East elders and that they were at the biodome waiting for us. (Keep in mind that we had spent about 45 minutes looking for him already) so we get on over to the biodome and learn what happened with Elder Cowling. Ha turns out that he just went passed berri because he wasn't paying attention to me - but then after a couple stations he thought that I had gone to the next car and he mistakenly saw a guy in a white shirt and thought it was the hawkesbury elders in the other car - so he stayed on. Then he got to thinking... wait, I shouldn't be on this long and they aren't around afterall... (after like 10 minutes) and so he asked somebody how to get to the biodome - they told him to just go 2 more stops and then switch lines. So he did and about halfway back on the green line he saw a group of missionaries on the platform waiting to get on the metro - and so he just booked it to them. They were super shocked to see him - but they got him to the biodome safely. Ha And they got there before we did! It was ridiculous, but it was also really funny. The Hawkesbury elders and I were laughing pretty much the whole time.
"[We did splits, and I] I was with Elder Neff for the night! It was super cool because the last house Elder Neff and I knocked on let us in and were just these amazing potentials! At first we talked with the husband and he was pretty interested but still kind of mellow about it, and then a little bit later his wife joined us at the door - and so we asked if we could come back and then he said, 'I don't know, what do you think?' to his wife and she just shook her head yes!! Ha so then she started talking with us and she was super interested and so she invited us in for a second and we gave her a book of mormon and asked her to read 2 ne 2 and she wanted to come to church that next sunday and we asked if she wanted to meet Sister Pacas (a member about the same age - they are younger, like early 30s) who lived just a few houses down and have sis pacas give her a ride to church and she said yes and it was just way cool. Unfortunately, they speak french. And so we had to try and pass them off. Also unfortunately, she didn't come to church. However, sister pacas did go over to pick up Kamilia but it turns out that that morning she had been called into work at 11 - so sister pacas then just talked with Kamilia for awhile (because Kamilia asked her to) and they became friends and they're going to try and set something up this week for Kamilia to come to sister pacas' house and the missionaries to meet her there. So awesome.
"As a final point - it was really cool when we were helping this family get ready to move and they were taking some boxes of old things to the local charity here in St. Lazare - so we get there and Sis Macfarlane told us to go through the books and see if there were any we wanted - she had this huge fre-eng and eng-fre dictionary (3 part dictionary) and also a french thesaurus and a french sticker book that I took for language study and they are awesome! Ha Hopefully I can take advantage of them while I'm in this area because I don't know if I can take them with me to my next area!"
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Week 27 in the Field
"After about a week of good weather and thinking it was spring... we got some more snow. But for the most part it has melted off now and we're just back to spring. Last monday the four of us elders had some fun with the hockey net the yard of our apartment. We were playing some hockey and soccer with it and it was a lot of fun to be out in the sun and just playing at least some variation of sports. Also that same day we found out that there was a bakery near the walmart where we get groceries, so Elder Echeverria and I bought some dessert and got a free loaf of baked bread. As always, it was a little bit on the expensive side, but it was definitely worth it.
"The other day it was really cool because we were trying to contact a referral that we had given a book of mormon to, but she didn't really want to talk with us much more than that. As we were walking up to her house, there were a whole bunch of kids out playing on the street and one of them was 9 yr old Ellie who is a member - so she came over to talk with us and then all of the kids followed and were surrounding us and just talking with us for quite some time. One girl was trying to show off on her roller blades and tried showing us how fast she could go - some other boys had a skate board and they were trying to show us some tricks. Ha it was a lot of fun seeing them and just talking to all of them. Then we went and talked with Deb ... - the referral - and we were able to make a really good contact with her. We were able to figure out why she wanted the book of mormon in the first place and it was really cool because there is a quote by elder holland in preach my gospel that goes something like 'more important than speaking is listening... As you listen to people I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a principle of the gospel of which you can bear testimony' and that was really true as we listened to her story. We were able to talk about the gospel and it opened the door for us coming back another time. Hopefully this week we'll be able to see her and talk with her and her family.
"This week Elder Cowling and I were asked to give a training at the zone study that we had on Wednesday. It was really fun because we gave a training on baptism. We talked about what baptism is just in general terms, what makes it valid - or what gives it authority, then we talked on a more spiritual note about what baptism is - why we make the covenant of baptism, we then went on to talk about committing people to baptism on the first and also just bringing up baptism at any contact - following the spirit and listen like Elder Holland advised us to. Two of my favorite parts of the training were 1. A talk given by Elder Oaks about why we do missionary work. One of the things I like most about his talk was when he says something to the effect of 'we don't baptize people just for the sake of adding to the membership of the church, we baptize them so that they can return tothe Celestial Kingdom and live with God. Other Churches cannot do it. Good Christian living cannot do it. Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has that authority.' I wish I had the talk in front of me so I could quote it exactly. 2. Elder McMurrin told me of a zone study that he went to in which an Elder asked the question 'How many of you feel the insatiable need to baptize on your mission?' That question is a tricky one - ha I remember when Elder McMurrin asked me this question - I didn't answer right away because I wasn't sure what he was getting at. Then the elder continued 'You better feel that need to baptize because that is the only thing we have to offer!' I thought it was really cool. Also a third favorite point of the training was when we talked about the different forms of baptized - Elder McMurrin was talking to one person at a door with Elder Resek and then they handed him a book of mormon which the guy accepted and then paused and said, 'wait, this isn't how you baptize people, right?' Ha not quite.
"Last night to end the day we decided to stop by Anna and her family. They let us in and we talked with her and her two daughters for quite awhile. We showed them a bible video and a mormon message and then we were able to really talk about the book of mormon. It was really neat because of a couple reasons. 1. We had tried teaching about the book of mormon before and about the restoration but I don't think anna fully realized the importance of it until yesterday. 2. Alexa, Anna's daughter, is one that is really into philosophy - and likes to argue just for an argument's sake. But we asked her to read Moroni 7 and I totally expected her to try and start a discussion about it, but she said that she liked it and that it made sense to her! That was cool. It was also a really neat feeling for me last night as I was trying to find a reading assignment to give to Alexa and Chiara, the daughters, and as I thought and prayed about it during the lesson a couple chapters came into my mind to give to them that I feel will really help them in their understanding of the gospel and that they will like them."
"The other day it was really cool because we were trying to contact a referral that we had given a book of mormon to, but she didn't really want to talk with us much more than that. As we were walking up to her house, there were a whole bunch of kids out playing on the street and one of them was 9 yr old Ellie who is a member - so she came over to talk with us and then all of the kids followed and were surrounding us and just talking with us for quite some time. One girl was trying to show off on her roller blades and tried showing us how fast she could go - some other boys had a skate board and they were trying to show us some tricks. Ha it was a lot of fun seeing them and just talking to all of them. Then we went and talked with Deb ... - the referral - and we were able to make a really good contact with her. We were able to figure out why she wanted the book of mormon in the first place and it was really cool because there is a quote by elder holland in preach my gospel that goes something like 'more important than speaking is listening... As you listen to people I promise you that something in what they say will always highlight a principle of the gospel of which you can bear testimony' and that was really true as we listened to her story. We were able to talk about the gospel and it opened the door for us coming back another time. Hopefully this week we'll be able to see her and talk with her and her family.
"This week Elder Cowling and I were asked to give a training at the zone study that we had on Wednesday. It was really fun because we gave a training on baptism. We talked about what baptism is just in general terms, what makes it valid - or what gives it authority, then we talked on a more spiritual note about what baptism is - why we make the covenant of baptism, we then went on to talk about committing people to baptism on the first and also just bringing up baptism at any contact - following the spirit and listen like Elder Holland advised us to. Two of my favorite parts of the training were 1. A talk given by Elder Oaks about why we do missionary work. One of the things I like most about his talk was when he says something to the effect of 'we don't baptize people just for the sake of adding to the membership of the church, we baptize them so that they can return tothe Celestial Kingdom and live with God. Other Churches cannot do it. Good Christian living cannot do it. Only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has that authority.' I wish I had the talk in front of me so I could quote it exactly. 2. Elder McMurrin told me of a zone study that he went to in which an Elder asked the question 'How many of you feel the insatiable need to baptize on your mission?' That question is a tricky one - ha I remember when Elder McMurrin asked me this question - I didn't answer right away because I wasn't sure what he was getting at. Then the elder continued 'You better feel that need to baptize because that is the only thing we have to offer!' I thought it was really cool. Also a third favorite point of the training was when we talked about the different forms of baptized - Elder McMurrin was talking to one person at a door with Elder Resek and then they handed him a book of mormon which the guy accepted and then paused and said, 'wait, this isn't how you baptize people, right?' Ha not quite.
"Last night to end the day we decided to stop by Anna and her family. They let us in and we talked with her and her two daughters for quite awhile. We showed them a bible video and a mormon message and then we were able to really talk about the book of mormon. It was really neat because of a couple reasons. 1. We had tried teaching about the book of mormon before and about the restoration but I don't think anna fully realized the importance of it until yesterday. 2. Alexa, Anna's daughter, is one that is really into philosophy - and likes to argue just for an argument's sake. But we asked her to read Moroni 7 and I totally expected her to try and start a discussion about it, but she said that she liked it and that it made sense to her! That was cool. It was also a really neat feeling for me last night as I was trying to find a reading assignment to give to Alexa and Chiara, the daughters, and as I thought and prayed about it during the lesson a couple chapters came into my mind to give to them that I feel will really help them in their understanding of the gospel and that they will like them."
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Special Message
My parent's were sent this picture and text message from Travis' mission president:
"We are in interviews here with Elder Mortenson and he is doing great! What a joy it is to have him here! He is truly a wonderful, faithful Elder and we love him! He is also a happy, obedient missionary as well! Thank you for raising this remarkable young man who we appreciate so much! He honors your name in every way. Love, the Cannon's CMM Canada Montreal Mission
P. S. he sends his love!"
I just have to say how much I appreciate this mission president and his wife! They are so considerate in sending little images or messages home to reassure us all that Travis is doing well. I blame it on being the hormonal pregnant sister, but each time we get something like this my eyes water a bit and my heart grows in love for the people who are watching out for my brother. The Lord really does take care of His children, wherever they are.
Love,
Jessi
"We are in interviews here with Elder Mortenson and he is doing great! What a joy it is to have him here! He is truly a wonderful, faithful Elder and we love him! He is also a happy, obedient missionary as well! Thank you for raising this remarkable young man who we appreciate so much! He honors your name in every way. Love, the Cannon's CMM Canada Montreal Mission
P. S. he sends his love!"
I just have to say how much I appreciate this mission president and his wife! They are so considerate in sending little images or messages home to reassure us all that Travis is doing well. I blame it on being the hormonal pregnant sister, but each time we get something like this my eyes water a bit and my heart grows in love for the people who are watching out for my brother. The Lord really does take care of His children, wherever they are.
Love,
Jessi
Week 26 in the Field
"So it is kind of crazy to me to think that a year ago I was at BYU watching conference... 6 months ago I was in Montreal... and now another 6 months has passed and I watched conference in St. Lazare. It always seems like so long in between the conferences, and yet it flies by. I have now watched 2 of the 4 general conferences that will be shown during my mission. That's a crazy thought.
"This week was really cool in that we worked with Brother Stothart (the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency) to use his ipad and projector and speakers to then stream conference live at our little building. On Saturday we didn't have very many people come (just a few members) but on Sunday we focused on inviting our investigators and some member families to the sunday morning session. It was super cool when we ended up having about 12 members there, 4 missionaries (us and valleyfield), and 3 of our investigators! Andre and Elizabeth came and they had a hard time concentrating on understanding the english for the 2 hours, but they enjoyed the messages about the family - they want to come to the activities put on by the church now and just just church! It's crazy. I hope we can start teaching them seriously! Manny came too, he was a little late, but he said that he connected with a couple of the messages that were given and that he was going to review the part of conference that he missed! That was really neat. He wanted to meet just the next sunday at church, but we talked him in to the possibility of meeting during the week. It was awesome to see how the members just went over to the investigators and welcomed them, got to know them, and just included them. We were really happy with the turnout and reception.
"I learned an important lesson about not procrastinating this week! So each week we have a district study and we assign a team to be in charge of the district lunch afterwards. They then make assignments to the other teams to bring specific items. Ha so this week we were assigned to bring the dessert. We remembered to buy a dessert as we walked into the store on monday but by the time we were checking out, we had forgotten all about it. Ha Fast forward to wednesday morning right before the district study - elder cowling and I are hustling through the store trying to find a dessert and get to d study on time. Here's the lesson I learned - just because there's a picture of something on the box, doesn't mean that that is what you are actually buying! Ha There was a picture of this pie crust with a whole bunch of fruit in it - so I thought that it was those little fruit cups - so I bought two boxes of them thinking that that would be sufficient for our district. We then went to d study, and had great trainings and a great lunch. To my horror, when we went to get the dessert, we open up the boxes to find 4 pie tins with a dough placed in them ready to bake... I was so embarrassed that I was just laughing. Ha I promised to bring extra dessert the next district study.
"In terms of conference, it was just really good this time around. Like always. It was crazy to me when twice (in particular) I just stopped and stared because I felt a personal epistle just to me. I really can't wait to get the ensign and read over these talks again. I've been trying to write down the miracle of the day or the hand of god in my life as well as a lesson that I have learned throughout the day - and the hand of god was definitely in general conference.
"[While being on a split with the district leader,] We had a couple of miracles that night. When we were trying to buzz in to this apartment building, this lady came down and we waved to her, so she talked with us in french. It was funny because she was telling us that she didn't really want to hear us out and she didn't think that it would be a good idea for her to let us in because a lot of people there didn't like people knocking on their doors. So then Elder Neff asked if he had buzzed her apartment just to make sure he didn't do it again.. well she stopped and then said 'well I guess I can let you in this once!' Ha so she let us in and then we went up to the top floor. it was funny because we were trying to get a vibe on which kind of people lived in this apartment building - 1st door - People from India... no go. 2nd door - older quebecois man... no go. 3rd door - younger black man with younger white girlfriend... try back another time. 4th door - Mom and son from pakistan - Christians - Let us in and we taught a lesson on the restoration! Ha it was just funny how different those first three doors were and then really neat to be able to teach that mom and son. I hope they become investigators for kirkland soon."
"This week was really cool in that we worked with Brother Stothart (the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency) to use his ipad and projector and speakers to then stream conference live at our little building. On Saturday we didn't have very many people come (just a few members) but on Sunday we focused on inviting our investigators and some member families to the sunday morning session. It was super cool when we ended up having about 12 members there, 4 missionaries (us and valleyfield), and 3 of our investigators! Andre and Elizabeth came and they had a hard time concentrating on understanding the english for the 2 hours, but they enjoyed the messages about the family - they want to come to the activities put on by the church now and just just church! It's crazy. I hope we can start teaching them seriously! Manny came too, he was a little late, but he said that he connected with a couple of the messages that were given and that he was going to review the part of conference that he missed! That was really neat. He wanted to meet just the next sunday at church, but we talked him in to the possibility of meeting during the week. It was awesome to see how the members just went over to the investigators and welcomed them, got to know them, and just included them. We were really happy with the turnout and reception.
"I learned an important lesson about not procrastinating this week! So each week we have a district study and we assign a team to be in charge of the district lunch afterwards. They then make assignments to the other teams to bring specific items. Ha so this week we were assigned to bring the dessert. We remembered to buy a dessert as we walked into the store on monday but by the time we were checking out, we had forgotten all about it. Ha Fast forward to wednesday morning right before the district study - elder cowling and I are hustling through the store trying to find a dessert and get to d study on time. Here's the lesson I learned - just because there's a picture of something on the box, doesn't mean that that is what you are actually buying! Ha There was a picture of this pie crust with a whole bunch of fruit in it - so I thought that it was those little fruit cups - so I bought two boxes of them thinking that that would be sufficient for our district. We then went to d study, and had great trainings and a great lunch. To my horror, when we went to get the dessert, we open up the boxes to find 4 pie tins with a dough placed in them ready to bake... I was so embarrassed that I was just laughing. Ha I promised to bring extra dessert the next district study.
"In terms of conference, it was just really good this time around. Like always. It was crazy to me when twice (in particular) I just stopped and stared because I felt a personal epistle just to me. I really can't wait to get the ensign and read over these talks again. I've been trying to write down the miracle of the day or the hand of god in my life as well as a lesson that I have learned throughout the day - and the hand of god was definitely in general conference.
"[While being on a split with the district leader,] We had a couple of miracles that night. When we were trying to buzz in to this apartment building, this lady came down and we waved to her, so she talked with us in french. It was funny because she was telling us that she didn't really want to hear us out and she didn't think that it would be a good idea for her to let us in because a lot of people there didn't like people knocking on their doors. So then Elder Neff asked if he had buzzed her apartment just to make sure he didn't do it again.. well she stopped and then said 'well I guess I can let you in this once!' Ha so she let us in and then we went up to the top floor. it was funny because we were trying to get a vibe on which kind of people lived in this apartment building - 1st door - People from India... no go. 2nd door - older quebecois man... no go. 3rd door - younger black man with younger white girlfriend... try back another time. 4th door - Mom and son from pakistan - Christians - Let us in and we taught a lesson on the restoration! Ha it was just funny how different those first three doors were and then really neat to be able to teach that mom and son. I hope they become investigators for kirkland soon."
Week 25 in the Field
"So we busted out the bikes this week a couple of times so that we would be able to save some kilometers... and also to enjoy the good weather. However it was quite lame when we were coming back from a member's house and I hit something in the road that gave me a flat tire! So we had to walk all the way back home - probably 5-6 kilometers.
"So we've been asked as missionaries to give thank you cards to the members who feed us or do nice things for us, etc. Elder Cowling and I went over to Sister Rutledge's to take pictures for that and it was fun because we ended up with the idea to use some food coloring and then put it on the snow having it say "Thank You" and then we stood next to it and took some pictures. It was a lot of fun and just in time too since the snow has really melted these past few days! It has been really sunny and nice, but today it's raining. The rain is fun though! Free car wash, yeah?" (The perks from a missionary's perspective ;))
"A lot of the times when we go door to door, we'll talk to people and then ask them for referrals. Usually we'll say "hey, by chance do you know anybody in the area who might be interested in our message?" Ha and sometimes they tell us to go see their neighbor, sometimes they say that we just have to knock on their doors and find out, and other times they just say they don't know. So the other day we asked that same question and I expected just a normal response, ha but he said (in french) "I don't know, maybe you should ask Jesus and he'll tell you." Ha I'm not sure he understood that sometimes Christ works through people... like himself... to help other people, like us! Either way it was funny.
"Ha another funny thing that happened this week is when we were still sharing a car with the valleyfield elders . So we went to pick them up from their knocking session and they only had a few more houses left - so E Cowling and I decided to just help them out and finish the street. As we finished it and were walking back to the car and we saw this car come around the corner... slow down... and drive slowly - eventually working its way past us. As they drove past us we saw two older guys in shirts and ties. The four of us were joking around later and were saying "Hey did you all see how we totally stole the Jehovah's Witnesses' turf today? That's right! I'm sure they were thinking 'those dang mormons are multiplying! Now there are 4! not just 2!"
"Another cool experience came when we just stopped by a potential investigators' house. About 2 weeks ago we were out tracting and we saw these two ladies trying to move luggage into the car and so we just decided to help out. At first they resisted but then they agreed and we were able to eventually set up a return appointment with the one that lived there. Well when we went back at the designated time, she wasn't there. So we left a note with our number on it. Well fast forward, so the other day we went by her house again and this time she was there! It was cool because she said that she still has the book of mormon in her car and that she has our note on her counter meaning to call us, but just keeps forgetting. Ha another thing she said was that we were like her angels the night that we helped her move her mom's bags out to the car. Her name is Yandi and she is pregnant and so she couldn't really do any lifting, and her mom was really old and so it was hard for her to carry the things - so then came two 20 year old guys just offering to help. It was really special for her - and then for us when she told us!
"Another cool story this week was with manny - the cop who said he was going to come to church. Well he ended up not coming to church, but we did visit him after church and had a long chat with him. He told us that he had surgery on his neck on tuesday and was just still in a lot of pain and so that is one reason he didn't come. But then we were able to just hear his story - what his expectations were of us - and then we were able to give our expectations. It was neat because he said that he doesn't often let strangers in his house, let alone his office in his house, and yet he let us in both. He was saying "Seriously, you guys have an aura about you, God is with you!" It was way cool. And it was cool because we mentioned a little bit about the word of wisdom and then he was like "well I'll start looking for alternatives" and then at one point he asked "Do we believe in angels in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints?" It was just neat to see him including himself in that question. We invited him to conference this coming week and he said he's coming."
"So we've been asked as missionaries to give thank you cards to the members who feed us or do nice things for us, etc. Elder Cowling and I went over to Sister Rutledge's to take pictures for that and it was fun because we ended up with the idea to use some food coloring and then put it on the snow having it say "Thank You" and then we stood next to it and took some pictures. It was a lot of fun and just in time too since the snow has really melted these past few days! It has been really sunny and nice, but today it's raining. The rain is fun though! Free car wash, yeah?" (The perks from a missionary's perspective ;))
"A lot of the times when we go door to door, we'll talk to people and then ask them for referrals. Usually we'll say "hey, by chance do you know anybody in the area who might be interested in our message?" Ha and sometimes they tell us to go see their neighbor, sometimes they say that we just have to knock on their doors and find out, and other times they just say they don't know. So the other day we asked that same question and I expected just a normal response, ha but he said (in french) "I don't know, maybe you should ask Jesus and he'll tell you." Ha I'm not sure he understood that sometimes Christ works through people... like himself... to help other people, like us! Either way it was funny.
"Ha another funny thing that happened this week is when we were still sharing a car with the valleyfield elders . So we went to pick them up from their knocking session and they only had a few more houses left - so E Cowling and I decided to just help them out and finish the street. As we finished it and were walking back to the car and we saw this car come around the corner... slow down... and drive slowly - eventually working its way past us. As they drove past us we saw two older guys in shirts and ties. The four of us were joking around later and were saying "Hey did you all see how we totally stole the Jehovah's Witnesses' turf today? That's right! I'm sure they were thinking 'those dang mormons are multiplying! Now there are 4! not just 2!"
"Another cool experience came when we just stopped by a potential investigators' house. About 2 weeks ago we were out tracting and we saw these two ladies trying to move luggage into the car and so we just decided to help out. At first they resisted but then they agreed and we were able to eventually set up a return appointment with the one that lived there. Well when we went back at the designated time, she wasn't there. So we left a note with our number on it. Well fast forward, so the other day we went by her house again and this time she was there! It was cool because she said that she still has the book of mormon in her car and that she has our note on her counter meaning to call us, but just keeps forgetting. Ha another thing she said was that we were like her angels the night that we helped her move her mom's bags out to the car. Her name is Yandi and she is pregnant and so she couldn't really do any lifting, and her mom was really old and so it was hard for her to carry the things - so then came two 20 year old guys just offering to help. It was really special for her - and then for us when she told us!
"Another cool story this week was with manny - the cop who said he was going to come to church. Well he ended up not coming to church, but we did visit him after church and had a long chat with him. He told us that he had surgery on his neck on tuesday and was just still in a lot of pain and so that is one reason he didn't come. But then we were able to just hear his story - what his expectations were of us - and then we were able to give our expectations. It was neat because he said that he doesn't often let strangers in his house, let alone his office in his house, and yet he let us in both. He was saying "Seriously, you guys have an aura about you, God is with you!" It was way cool. And it was cool because we mentioned a little bit about the word of wisdom and then he was like "well I'll start looking for alternatives" and then at one point he asked "Do we believe in angels in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints?" It was just neat to see him including himself in that question. We invited him to conference this coming week and he said he's coming."
Week 24 in the Field
"...we are just trying to invite as many people we can to come to church and take book of mormons. It was a lot of fun this week in a couple different ways. The first experience this week that was crazy was when Elder Cowling and I were out knocking in St. Clet. We had book of mormons in the trunk in different languages and normally we carry just French and English bofms. Well there happened to be an italian one in the trunk and elder cowling accidentally grabbed it and forgot to put it back. He told me he had an italian bofm and I thought that we would see one tracting but then I just forgot about that thought. Turns out that a little while later we knocked on this door and started talking to the people at the house. We end up discovering that he was one of the few english people in that town AND an Italian! We were beside ourselves! Ha We were trying so hard to give him a book of mormon and he was trying so hard to refuse it. Ha it got to the point that he was so frustrated he just said 'A Bible! A Bible! I've already got a bible!' Ha no joke! Ha it was ridiculous and I wanted to show him 2 Ne 29:3 but then I just decided to not show him but use the next few verses from memory to form my next question. I ended up asking him if he liked the words of Christ to which he obviously said yes, but then I asked him why he was against having more words of Christ. To which he didn't really respond exactly to my question and kept calling the bofm a bible and we corrected him on that - alas he never accepted the Book of Mormon but it was crazy how he fulfilled prophecy and how God uses us to reach out to his children and just how mindful he is of us.
"Second cool thing that happened this week was this sunday when we passed by an investigator's house and were able to get in and talk with him and his family. It was Rob and Suzanne and their 3 boys Mackenzie, Robby, and Jesse. They are such an awesome family and it was really cool when we were talking to them because we were all in the kitchen and Suzanne was preparing some food and then the 3 boys were sitting at the center island by Rob and all of them were just talking to us and having fun as a family. It has been hard getting in touch with them because Rob travels to South Africa a lot for business and so they're just busy, but we were able to get in yesterday, share a spiritual thought about easter and then set up a return appointment for this friday! They seriously would be such an awesome family in the gospel.
"Third amazing story this week was when we tried passing by a potential yesterday. So about a week or so ago we knocked on this house and a kid around our age answered the door. He was bhudist and we worked really hard to get him to accept the book of mormon - we even said a prayer for him to want to take the book of mormon - eventually he did and we were able to then get his number. So we left and tried getting ahold of him a few days later, but we weren't able to contact him. So we just decided to pass by yesterday. Turns out he wasn't there but when we knocked on the door, another guy answered the door and said 'Guys! What's the good word? Come on in!' We ended up talking to him and he was just asking us about the church and told us that our visit was really timely because just the other day his wife and him had been talking about God and how they want to kind of start going back to church and things along that line and then we show up. It was funny at one point because Elder Cowling was doing most of the talking with him and I was trying to listen to them while also listening to his six year old daughter Everest as she was trying to get me to play with her and her puppets. Ha It was funny because then he, Manny, asked everest, 'everest what did we tell you to do when adults are talking?' To which she answered shyly 'to raise our hand' "That's right' And then she asked, "But, but you were talking to that one (pointing to E. Cowling) but I didn't think you were talking to this one (pointing to me)" Haha it was so funny and everyone was laughing. You've got to give her credit for her reasoning! Ha so then we kept on talking with Manny and he was wanting to know when and where church is. It was just an amazing story - turns out that the guy that we talked to before, Simon, was from nepal. The way they know each other is because Manny climbed Mount Everest and one of the guides on that trip became like a father to manny. So manny told that man that if he needed anything to let him know. So a couple years later he gets a call from that man and was asked to house his son Simon while Simon went to college. So manny said yes and now simon is apart of their family. We had given simon a book of mormon and so we mentioned that with manny and were able to give manny a book of mormon too! And Manny asked us if we had any specific assignment for him and so we gave him one and he committed himself to reading it that night! And he kept saying that we would see him at church this sunday! Amazing story. I hope it goes well. He told us to call him saturday and go from there."
"Second cool thing that happened this week was this sunday when we passed by an investigator's house and were able to get in and talk with him and his family. It was Rob and Suzanne and their 3 boys Mackenzie, Robby, and Jesse. They are such an awesome family and it was really cool when we were talking to them because we were all in the kitchen and Suzanne was preparing some food and then the 3 boys were sitting at the center island by Rob and all of them were just talking to us and having fun as a family. It has been hard getting in touch with them because Rob travels to South Africa a lot for business and so they're just busy, but we were able to get in yesterday, share a spiritual thought about easter and then set up a return appointment for this friday! They seriously would be such an awesome family in the gospel.
"Third amazing story this week was when we tried passing by a potential yesterday. So about a week or so ago we knocked on this house and a kid around our age answered the door. He was bhudist and we worked really hard to get him to accept the book of mormon - we even said a prayer for him to want to take the book of mormon - eventually he did and we were able to then get his number. So we left and tried getting ahold of him a few days later, but we weren't able to contact him. So we just decided to pass by yesterday. Turns out he wasn't there but when we knocked on the door, another guy answered the door and said 'Guys! What's the good word? Come on in!' We ended up talking to him and he was just asking us about the church and told us that our visit was really timely because just the other day his wife and him had been talking about God and how they want to kind of start going back to church and things along that line and then we show up. It was funny at one point because Elder Cowling was doing most of the talking with him and I was trying to listen to them while also listening to his six year old daughter Everest as she was trying to get me to play with her and her puppets. Ha It was funny because then he, Manny, asked everest, 'everest what did we tell you to do when adults are talking?' To which she answered shyly 'to raise our hand' "That's right' And then she asked, "But, but you were talking to that one (pointing to E. Cowling) but I didn't think you were talking to this one (pointing to me)" Haha it was so funny and everyone was laughing. You've got to give her credit for her reasoning! Ha so then we kept on talking with Manny and he was wanting to know when and where church is. It was just an amazing story - turns out that the guy that we talked to before, Simon, was from nepal. The way they know each other is because Manny climbed Mount Everest and one of the guides on that trip became like a father to manny. So manny told that man that if he needed anything to let him know. So a couple years later he gets a call from that man and was asked to house his son Simon while Simon went to college. So manny said yes and now simon is apart of their family. We had given simon a book of mormon and so we mentioned that with manny and were able to give manny a book of mormon too! And Manny asked us if we had any specific assignment for him and so we gave him one and he committed himself to reading it that night! And he kept saying that we would see him at church this sunday! Amazing story. I hope it goes well. He told us to call him saturday and go from there."
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