"So this week was pretty good! Unlike last week, we were able to have our Baptism! It was a super neat experience that I had to baptize Chelsea myself. She is a great girl and when she came up our of the water she was just beaming! Her little sister and her little brother were both just so giddy and happy for her throughout the baptismal service! It was really neat because the font wasn't warm... it wasn't cold, but it was a long shot from being warm, however when she was asked if it was warm she was like "yeah, totally." ha Thank you for the spirit!
"First off, to Aunt Linnie and Grandpa I wish a happy birthday! It was really funny having my birthday yesterday. Ha first one away from home! So some funny things that happened were among these: I had saved the cards that I had received during the week and opened them up at 6:30 after I woke up. I opened up the big one from mom and dad only to find beach music playing. haha it scared my comp on the couch and also reminded him that it was my birthday. Ha it was such a funny card! Ha the only mention to my birthday/happy birthday he gave me was around 7 am "Hey birthday boy, are you gonna take a shower first?" hahaha And then everything else was normal. It was really fun because at church, Soeur Pace showed up since she had servec in Hochelaga too. That was a fun time seeing her and her mom again. Then in the English branch I gave a talk! Ha it was way fun. I made my talk about covenants with the intention of it being for Chelsea... but she didn't show up. Oh well. It was still fun. As I was contacting on the metro after church, somehow the fact that it was my birthday got brought up with this one lady and she was incredulous that I would be working on my birthday! Ha "you should be taking it off! it's your birthday" Ha to which I said, "uh.. I guess, but I'd rather be doing this work anyways!" ha so that was good. Then we went up to Sister Battani's house where we found out at the house that we were going to be eating there. It turns out that one of the Recent Converts, Mary-Lisa, in our branch was there too and it was her birthday as well! Ha so we got to celebrate my birthday with Kus-Kus and a "heart" cake. Ha as we cut the cake, mary-lisa said "you're breaking my heart" almost simultaneously with me singing "don't go breakin my, don't go breakin my heart!" ha so that was for sure a funny moment.
"So this experience actually happened last week, but I forgot to mention it. Last Sunday Elder McMurrin and I decided to pass by one of our investigators and as we got of the metro at Pie-IX, apparently a football game had just finished or something because there were about 3-4,000 people in the metro. Ha so an STM worker started clearing a path for us to walk through the crowd and it felt so awesome. Picture just so many people on both sides of you, and then you're in a suit wearing the tags saying that you're a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and every now and again people are razzing you or saying something at you which you just ignored and kept on walking - ha oh man! It was like I was about to step out onto the football field or soccer pitch or even like the battlefield against satan and get things started! It was awesome!
"Elder McMurrin and I are trying to pick some [Creole] up. Also, one of our investigators is a foreign exchange student from germany and it was really neat giving her a book of mormon in german yesterday at sister battani's. ha I love the saying "dem wahren shonen guten." I wrote it in my planner. "To the true, the beautiful, the good." so yes, I have been trying to pick up some german now too. Ha granted, I can not communicate with anyone in German, Creole, or Spanish, but it's fun to be able to say something and get them to laugh or like you a little bit more than they did before. Haitians love it when you speak creole with them."
Monday, November 26, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Travis' Birthday and Address
Hi all! Travis' birthday is this coming Sunday, the 25th. If anyone would like to write to him you may do so at the following email:
Travis.Mortenson@myldsmail.net
You can also send a handwritten letter through the post office, but it takes a week for letters to get to him and the postage is over 80 cents. Still, if you would like to do that, I'm sure he would appreciate getting letters in the mail. His address is:
Elder Travis Lee Mortenson
Canada Montreal Mission
470 Rue Gilford, Suite 300
Montreal, QC H2J 1N3
Canada
If you send an email he can get that within the week. We love getting his letters and look forward to them each Monday morning! We received a phone call from one of the men who helps the missionaries teach English up there in Montreal. It was such a wonderful surprise to hear from someone who actually works with Travis on a weekly basis. He told me to not worry about Travis because he was watching over the missionaries and they would be alright. I wanted to cry and to hug him all at once!
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He sent us these pictures a couple of weeks ago. They look like they were taken on a computer. WE think he looks GREAT!
love,
Anne (mom)
Travis.Mortenson@myldsmail.net
You can also send a handwritten letter through the post office, but it takes a week for letters to get to him and the postage is over 80 cents. Still, if you would like to do that, I'm sure he would appreciate getting letters in the mail. His address is:
Elder Travis Lee Mortenson
Canada Montreal Mission
470 Rue Gilford, Suite 300
Montreal, QC H2J 1N3
Canada
If you send an email he can get that within the week. We love getting his letters and look forward to them each Monday morning! We received a phone call from one of the men who helps the missionaries teach English up there in Montreal. It was such a wonderful surprise to hear from someone who actually works with Travis on a weekly basis. He told me to not worry about Travis because he was watching over the missionaries and they would be alright. I wanted to cry and to hug him all at once!
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love,
Anne (mom)
Monday, November 19, 2012
Week 10 in the Field
"we have a baptism planned for this saturday! I feel confident that Chelsea will be able to get baptized this saturday! Again, the interview is tonight and so we will have to see... my fingers crossed! She came to church again yesterday! She really is dedicated and just is so awesome!
"The other day we were over there teaching Chelsea and then they fed us Greole and plantains! Some good creole food for you! Ha I've been trying to improve my creole for them! Sak pase? Ha it always makes them laugh when we try to speak it with them! Ou Fut means - You're crazy. Ha As does Tu eres nueces in spanish and Tu est fut in french! Both of the sisters who we share Hochelaga with speak spanish and so "Tu eres nueces" has become a joke between us.
"We really have a high number of people committed right now! It is crazy. I'm not so sure if every baptism will go through, but there are those that look really promising - like Chelsea and Jackson. So that is always exciting and makes us happy to see how willing they are to take these steps and follow Christ.
"Ha so a couple of funny things happened this past sunday. The first being that in french sacrament meeting, it was nice and warm... I was relaxed and kind of tired from trying to comprehend everything in french and so I sort of slipped into sleep. Unfortunately for me I had a dream where I had accidentally fallen on somebody and so in my dream transitioning to real life I jumped a few inches off the bench and threw my hands in the air with a sharp intake of breath! Ha it was "slightly" embarrassing to say the least! Ha the bishop saw it on the stand and was laughing.
"It was interesting this past week. We taught this one Haitian lady with a Quebecua member here. The lesson was going well, and then she asked "why are there so many qua's that don't believe in God?" To which he was really passionate and sincere about. He told us that really, they do believe in God, they just are hurt by all the things that the catholic church has forced them to do or has done in general in the area. He personally had been raised catholic and his family had been asked to have more kids than they wanted (more than 8) and because they refused to do that, his mom wasn't forgiven of her sins. It was really touching and just made me grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.
"Today we are playing dodgeball and volleyball for our zone activity. And Soeur Pace (my MTC teacher) is in town and so I will be able to see her today too! It's exciting for sure!
"Oh - another fun thing was that on wednesday Sister Arhets (a senior missionary in the office) asked for help setting up her Satellite TV (like directv) and so I was able to render some service and set that up for her! Ha it was fun to mess around with cables again! "
*****
There is nothing in life that brings greater joy or happiness than seeing the people you love most grow and prosper. Life is full of challenges, and it fills me with pride to see my brother courageously stepping up to the plate to face them.
My heart is grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who carefully watches over us and our loved ones. It brings a great measure of peace and hope to my life. I am also thankful for the sincere inspiration He grants us to help us reach out and help our family members. Speaking personally and in confidence, my heart has been overwhelmed by the sweet spirit that has directed many of my letters to Trav lately. It is a beautiful, precious experience to know that God is so mindful of my baby brother that He will inspire my mind and pen to orate His specific message and love to a boy in Canada. Truly our God is a loving God who knows and remembers all of his sheep- wherever they are.
Love,
J.
"The other day we were over there teaching Chelsea and then they fed us Greole and plantains! Some good creole food for you! Ha I've been trying to improve my creole for them! Sak pase? Ha it always makes them laugh when we try to speak it with them! Ou Fut means - You're crazy. Ha As does Tu eres nueces in spanish and Tu est fut in french! Both of the sisters who we share Hochelaga with speak spanish and so "Tu eres nueces" has become a joke between us.
"We really have a high number of people committed right now! It is crazy. I'm not so sure if every baptism will go through, but there are those that look really promising - like Chelsea and Jackson. So that is always exciting and makes us happy to see how willing they are to take these steps and follow Christ.
"Ha so a couple of funny things happened this past sunday. The first being that in french sacrament meeting, it was nice and warm... I was relaxed and kind of tired from trying to comprehend everything in french and so I sort of slipped into sleep. Unfortunately for me I had a dream where I had accidentally fallen on somebody and so in my dream transitioning to real life I jumped a few inches off the bench and threw my hands in the air with a sharp intake of breath! Ha it was "slightly" embarrassing to say the least! Ha the bishop saw it on the stand and was laughing.
"It was interesting this past week. We taught this one Haitian lady with a Quebecua member here. The lesson was going well, and then she asked "why are there so many qua's that don't believe in God?" To which he was really passionate and sincere about. He told us that really, they do believe in God, they just are hurt by all the things that the catholic church has forced them to do or has done in general in the area. He personally had been raised catholic and his family had been asked to have more kids than they wanted (more than 8) and because they refused to do that, his mom wasn't forgiven of her sins. It was really touching and just made me grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.
"Today we are playing dodgeball and volleyball for our zone activity. And Soeur Pace (my MTC teacher) is in town and so I will be able to see her today too! It's exciting for sure!
"Oh - another fun thing was that on wednesday Sister Arhets (a senior missionary in the office) asked for help setting up her Satellite TV (like directv) and so I was able to render some service and set that up for her! Ha it was fun to mess around with cables again! "
*****
There is nothing in life that brings greater joy or happiness than seeing the people you love most grow and prosper. Life is full of challenges, and it fills me with pride to see my brother courageously stepping up to the plate to face them.
My heart is grateful that we have a loving Heavenly Father who carefully watches over us and our loved ones. It brings a great measure of peace and hope to my life. I am also thankful for the sincere inspiration He grants us to help us reach out and help our family members. Speaking personally and in confidence, my heart has been overwhelmed by the sweet spirit that has directed many of my letters to Trav lately. It is a beautiful, precious experience to know that God is so mindful of my baby brother that He will inspire my mind and pen to orate His specific message and love to a boy in Canada. Truly our God is a loving God who knows and remembers all of his sheep- wherever they are.
Love,
J.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Week 9 in the Field
"It's odd here in the fact that no thanksgiving isn't on the same day as it is in America. Ha it is actually in October. A few weeks back we had a Thanksgiving dinner for our zone activity. I'm glad that I was born in America for the simple fact that because of that, my birthday falls on a holiday!
"That's super exciting to hear that Cole Phair got ordained to the office of a deacon! He is just so great! Great family and great person!
"Jackson is now only a few days away from his baptism! Tonight is the baptismal interview with the DL. It is great to see him make progress!
"This past week we went over to Adelard and Marie-Claire's house and they served us Fu-Fu! it was really good actually. Ha my first Congolise dish! I think that they are really taking to the gospel but the fact that they haven't been coming to the church is the only thing keeping them from truly making progress! Hopefully that can be remedied in the upcoming weeks.
"We've had zone conference and zone study this past week. Both were great. Ha elder mcmurrin and I were asked to give a training in zone study about Less Active work. It was definitely good to get our thoughts organized on how we ourselves want to work on LAs. The training went pretty well. (It just so happened that that was the day after the elections and I was needless to say not in a good mood that morning... until after the training). Zone Conference was the next day and it was really cool because we talked a lot about KALDT. Know the Person Ask inspired questions Listen Discern Teach. This really helps us as missionaries get down to the problems and it is such an important thing. I really feel like if the youth in the church understood this principle before going out on their mission - they would be so much further ahead and just that much more prepared. The way we break into the spiritual realm is by asking questions that get them to reflect and give a response that can be highlighted by a gospel principle."
"That's super exciting to hear that Cole Phair got ordained to the office of a deacon! He is just so great! Great family and great person!
"Jackson is now only a few days away from his baptism! Tonight is the baptismal interview with the DL. It is great to see him make progress!
"This past week we went over to Adelard and Marie-Claire's house and they served us Fu-Fu! it was really good actually. Ha my first Congolise dish! I think that they are really taking to the gospel but the fact that they haven't been coming to the church is the only thing keeping them from truly making progress! Hopefully that can be remedied in the upcoming weeks.
"We've had zone conference and zone study this past week. Both were great. Ha elder mcmurrin and I were asked to give a training in zone study about Less Active work. It was definitely good to get our thoughts organized on how we ourselves want to work on LAs. The training went pretty well. (It just so happened that that was the day after the elections and I was needless to say not in a good mood that morning... until after the training). Zone Conference was the next day and it was really cool because we talked a lot about KALDT. Know the Person Ask inspired questions Listen Discern Teach. This really helps us as missionaries get down to the problems and it is such an important thing. I really feel like if the youth in the church understood this principle before going out on their mission - they would be so much further ahead and just that much more prepared. The way we break into the spiritual realm is by asking questions that get them to reflect and give a response that can be highlighted by a gospel principle."
Week 8 in the Field
"This week has been a crazy one. No doubt about it. So we had the intent of really focusing on less-actives this week. All of our key indicators were low and we had a really high less active number. Ha Turned out that this week was the opposite of that.
"So we started out the week by teaching the varne (with the accent mark - so varnay) family. They are great. That's the family from the bahamas and most all are members except for the two oldest daughters. They became new investigators this past monday and we set up another appointment for this past friday. In this last appointment chelsea accepted a commitment for baptism on the 24th of this month and Tainia almost did too, but she wants to think a little bit more on it. I seriously love this family. Gary is 12 and he is just so much fun to be around - is really funny, and just seems like my little brother. Ha so as we left their house on friday I gave gary somewhat of a hug and then his 11 year old sister wanted to give me a hug too.. ha so I awkwardly gave her not really a hug but a hug back while stammering (more to myself than anyone in particular) "uhh... I can't.. uh give you a hug..." ha it was super funny and 'slightly' awkward. We have an appointment to see them tomorrow night. They didn't make it to church like they said they would, but I hope that changes this next week.
"So obviously we still have to respect the agency of the people here and there is a chance that all [investigators] fall through. But I am excited to go forward and try to help these people on their quest to come closer to Christ and receive his gospel.
"So we have planned a fireside for this thursday and the topic will most likely be the restoration. I am way excited for it! It will be a little tougher trying to give the lesson in french.. but the french isn't actually too bad. I've had a couple lessons where I have been excited afterwards about my french!
"Hurricane Sandy - I heard that we were supposed to get rain and the aftermath of it... but really it was like a drizzle if anything. However it is getting colder here and you know it is winter time because all of the "Qua" Shacks are up (kind of like car ports).
Oh - and President Cannon said that our mission is estimated to double very soon."
"So we started out the week by teaching the varne (with the accent mark - so varnay) family. They are great. That's the family from the bahamas and most all are members except for the two oldest daughters. They became new investigators this past monday and we set up another appointment for this past friday. In this last appointment chelsea accepted a commitment for baptism on the 24th of this month and Tainia almost did too, but she wants to think a little bit more on it. I seriously love this family. Gary is 12 and he is just so much fun to be around - is really funny, and just seems like my little brother. Ha so as we left their house on friday I gave gary somewhat of a hug and then his 11 year old sister wanted to give me a hug too.. ha so I awkwardly gave her not really a hug but a hug back while stammering (more to myself than anyone in particular) "uhh... I can't.. uh give you a hug..." ha it was super funny and 'slightly' awkward. We have an appointment to see them tomorrow night. They didn't make it to church like they said they would, but I hope that changes this next week.
"So obviously we still have to respect the agency of the people here and there is a chance that all [investigators] fall through. But I am excited to go forward and try to help these people on their quest to come closer to Christ and receive his gospel.
"So we have planned a fireside for this thursday and the topic will most likely be the restoration. I am way excited for it! It will be a little tougher trying to give the lesson in french.. but the french isn't actually too bad. I've had a couple lessons where I have been excited afterwards about my french!
"Hurricane Sandy - I heard that we were supposed to get rain and the aftermath of it... but really it was like a drizzle if anything. However it is getting colder here and you know it is winter time because all of the "Qua" Shacks are up (kind of like car ports).
Oh - and President Cannon said that our mission is estimated to double very soon."
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