"One cool thing that happened is that the Hawkesbury elders had two baptisms this past saturday and we were asked to sing at their baptism. It was fun because Elder Freeze and I put together a rendition of Nearer, My God, To Thee accompanied by his ukelele. So I think that that is a first of it's kind at a baptism... well I guess maybe not in the polynesian islands... but at least up here in Canada.
"We ended up having to teach an English class that night. Ha I gained a lot of respect for teachers of languages. I can speak english without a problem... teaching it is another story! Ha it wasn't too bad thankfully and the guy we were teaching understood english very well. He really just wanted to talk, so we did a lot of that.
"For some reason, people here really like this green pepper and mushroom pizza and they get it all the time. So it was nice to have a quality and inexpensive little caesar's pizza. Ha It made me really happy. There is a Little Caesar's close to the Chapel in Kirkland (where we have our district studies now) and I think that buying a hot-n-ready pizza for the trip home to Valleyfield is going to become a weekly tradition.
"It was super neat this week because we have wanted one of our investigators (the non-member husband of a part member family) to teach us spanish. So Elder Wright and I went by their house on the way to unsplit and we were able to just talk with him for about an hour. We didn't learn any spanish but it was really good for him I think, to get to know us just that much better. I am hoping that Alma 17:29 will apply in this scenario."
Alma 17:29 says, "Now they wept because of the fear of being slain. Now when Ammon saw this his heart was swollen within him for joy; for said he, I will show forth my power unto these my fellow-servants, or the power which is in me, in restoring these flocks into the king, that I may win the hearts of these my fellow-servants, that I may lead them to believe in my words."
****
Sharing the gospel is a personal matter I am glad to see that he and his companion understand that to effectively teach they must have a common bond of trust that unites them to their investigators.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Monday, January 21, 2013
Belated Christmas Post
Now that it's the end of January, I am getting to writing about talking to Travis at Christmas time!
We all gathered around the computer Christmas day at my parent's house to see and chat with Elder Mortenson. It's probably because I am a known sentimental shmuck, and on top of it a sensitive pregnant woman, but my heart felt so happy it might burst! I stayed glued to the computer the whole 2 hours we got to talk to him.
He was able to see all of his nephews and nieces, including his newest niece Leah who was born the day before. She just couldn't wait to have uncle Trav see her, so she made her debut early (lucky us)!
Elder Mortenson looked great. He was his usual cheerful self, and was easy to talk to. He told us more about his companion, gave us a view of his apartment via pictures he showed, and showed off some of his French.
It was so nice to hear his voice and see his face. I've always felt very protective over my baby brother, so it was nice to see how well he is fending for himself, and nice to hear that there are loving members and comps who are watching out for him.
We sure are blessed to have our missionary out there in Canada. He's growing in ways he couldn't if he had stayed here. It is nice to hear that he is finding joy in the service and continuing to develop a testimony of God and His gospel.
Love,
Jessi
We all gathered around the computer Christmas day at my parent's house to see and chat with Elder Mortenson. It's probably because I am a known sentimental shmuck, and on top of it a sensitive pregnant woman, but my heart felt so happy it might burst! I stayed glued to the computer the whole 2 hours we got to talk to him.
He was able to see all of his nephews and nieces, including his newest niece Leah who was born the day before. She just couldn't wait to have uncle Trav see her, so she made her debut early (lucky us)!
Elder Mortenson looked great. He was his usual cheerful self, and was easy to talk to. He told us more about his companion, gave us a view of his apartment via pictures he showed, and showed off some of his French.
It was so nice to hear his voice and see his face. I've always felt very protective over my baby brother, so it was nice to see how well he is fending for himself, and nice to hear that there are loving members and comps who are watching out for him.
We sure are blessed to have our missionary out there in Canada. He's growing in ways he couldn't if he had stayed here. It is nice to hear that he is finding joy in the service and continuing to develop a testimony of God and His gospel.
Love,
Jessi
Week 17 in the Field
"Probably the most exciting story this week is Sophie and Tristan (her 12 year old son). I'm not sure if they have ever had a baptismal date and so elder freeze and I decided to try and commit them this past lesson that we had with them. it was a really cool lesson that we had - we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and used the burning tea bag as an object lesson and then watched the mormon message 'reclaimed' with them. Then we committed them to baptism and they accepted and said that they would pray about it. That was super neat! So then the next day tristan had a hockey game and so we went to that to support him. His team really isn't very good... I'm not sure if they have won a game actually. But anyways - it was cool because tristan was playing defense and unfortunately they were down 2-0. Then one of the kids on his team scored a goal. Anyways - it comes down to the third period and almost at the end of the game when tristan steals the puck and has a break away and scores the equalizer. It was awesome. Elder Freeze and I definitely jumped out of our seats (then we had to remind ourselves that we were missionaries and that we needed to keep our composure). Then the game ended in a tie and as tristan was walking with his team back to the locker room we gave him a high-five and then I looked up at Gary (his dad) and he gave us a thumbs up. The reason why that is so cool is just because we've only met Gary like twice. And So I felt like that was a time that we gained a lot of his trust. It was funny too because then we went up and talked with him and tristan and gary said 'what, so you guys so up and he scores a goal!!?' ha it was awesome.
"This week was filled with a lot of knocking. We definitely had a couple days where that is all we did. Hopefully that will change this week as our potentials turn into investigators and the investigators that told us to come back in a couple of weeks become more interested. Some good door experiences came when this one lady saw that we were super nice, so she asked for our names and numbers cause she had 2 daughters! Ha Another awkward experience was when we asked this one lady if we could share how the family can be together forever... to which she told us 'thanks for the message. Bye' Super awkward. One guy let us in and talked with us and he thought that we were JW's. As he was asking us questions he found out that we were actually the mormons and then he found out more of our beliefs to which he said, 'you know, I think this is the first time that real Christians have knocked on my door.' We were pretty excited with that. Unfortunately he wasn't too interested in anything else. Oh yeah, one guy offered us jobs when we knocked on his door and talked with him for a little bit. That was really cool.
We're really excited for this coming week and hopefully a lot of our potentials become investigators."
"This week was filled with a lot of knocking. We definitely had a couple days where that is all we did. Hopefully that will change this week as our potentials turn into investigators and the investigators that told us to come back in a couple of weeks become more interested. Some good door experiences came when this one lady saw that we were super nice, so she asked for our names and numbers cause she had 2 daughters! Ha Another awkward experience was when we asked this one lady if we could share how the family can be together forever... to which she told us 'thanks for the message. Bye' Super awkward. One guy let us in and talked with us and he thought that we were JW's. As he was asking us questions he found out that we were actually the mormons and then he found out more of our beliefs to which he said, 'you know, I think this is the first time that real Christians have knocked on my door.' We were pretty excited with that. Unfortunately he wasn't too interested in anything else. Oh yeah, one guy offered us jobs when we knocked on his door and talked with him for a little bit. That was really cool.
We're really excited for this coming week and hopefully a lot of our potentials become investigators."
Week 16 in the Field
"So dearest family, transfer calls came and went... and not a creature in valleyfield is stirring. And by that I mean that Elder Freeze and I will both be staying in Valleyfield for at least another six weeks. That will be a lot of fun because Elder Freeze is a great comp.
"We've had a lot of fun this past transfer just trying to be creative in the things that we do and the ways that we approach missionary work. [W]e took E Freeze's ukelele with us a couple of times as we either went tracting or caroling and had a good time using that to sing songs. We've also just placed 2 snow shovels in the back of our car so that no matter where we are we have them at our disposal. Last week we made cupcakes to give to less actives in our english branch. We've worked a lot with the youth in having them come tracting with us and trying to have them come teaching with us. We've taught a seminary class. And we've tried to be creative in how we present our lessons to less actives/part member families. It is also exciting too because President Cannon gave us the suggestion to try and get this one non-member in this part member family to teach us spanish. So that should be exciting to do.
"This week was another tough week in that another family we were excited about essentially dropped us. But it was cool also because we found the wife of a less active member in the english branch and we taught her and she was answering the questions perfectly and even accepted a soft commitment to baptism. She didn't accept a date though. Ha and then when we tried to set up a return appointment for later that week she declined that for one a couple weeks later. But still, she is super cool and we are excited about her.
"This week Elder Freeze and I were in charge of the meal for our district study - and we went all out on it. We made some enchiladas... that turned out to be burritos but they were really good. Then we also had crepes. It took a fair amount of effort but for sure it was worth it! I think more now than before have I realized how nice it was to be at home and having mom's dinners that were always so filling and complete. Ha thanks be to the members for their dinners here."
"We've had a lot of fun this past transfer just trying to be creative in the things that we do and the ways that we approach missionary work. [W]e took E Freeze's ukelele with us a couple of times as we either went tracting or caroling and had a good time using that to sing songs. We've also just placed 2 snow shovels in the back of our car so that no matter where we are we have them at our disposal. Last week we made cupcakes to give to less actives in our english branch. We've worked a lot with the youth in having them come tracting with us and trying to have them come teaching with us. We've taught a seminary class. And we've tried to be creative in how we present our lessons to less actives/part member families. It is also exciting too because President Cannon gave us the suggestion to try and get this one non-member in this part member family to teach us spanish. So that should be exciting to do.
"This week was another tough week in that another family we were excited about essentially dropped us. But it was cool also because we found the wife of a less active member in the english branch and we taught her and she was answering the questions perfectly and even accepted a soft commitment to baptism. She didn't accept a date though. Ha and then when we tried to set up a return appointment for later that week she declined that for one a couple weeks later. But still, she is super cool and we are excited about her.
"This week Elder Freeze and I were in charge of the meal for our district study - and we went all out on it. We made some enchiladas... that turned out to be burritos but they were really good. Then we also had crepes. It took a fair amount of effort but for sure it was worth it! I think more now than before have I realized how nice it was to be at home and having mom's dinners that were always so filling and complete. Ha thanks be to the members for their dinners here."
Week 15 in the Field
"I find it really funny to me that you guys are a lot colder than me. So many of you told me just how cold it was there and while it has been cold here... I feel like winter is colder there and with more snow. Granted the snow has stayed and has piled up a lot. It's the worst when people don't shovel their walks and so there is knee-deep snow that we have to walk through to get to the door (and mother... skip on to the next section) with just normal church shoes. ha It's all good though.
"So something really cool that we found out this week - the river freezes here and there are people who take it upon themselves to build a golf course out on the ice. Ha so we are having a district activity today and we are going to go golfing out on the ice - apparently christmas trees mark the holes.
"So the other day (the same day we learned about the golf) we were tracting this street and it really was nice that day. The sun was out and it wasn't snowing or anything. Anyways, it was cold enough to make our ears red... but that was nothing for us young elders - so we just went tracting with our coats and not gloves, hat, and scarf. As we got down to the last house on the street we saw this elderly lady walking out in her yard and we started up a conversation - she was like "Who are you" then without waiting for a response she read our tags and said "Jesus Christ... (simply stating it - not swearing) Oh you need to be in your house taking care of the women." So we were like "yeah, well we're missionaries and we're trying to help everyone - maybe by shoveling snow or something" "Yeah there are people that need help shoveling snow but not from people like you - they need help from people who wear tucs and scarfs and gloves" ha needless to say she didn't accept our offer to help - but it was funny to us.
"Another funny thing that happened .. well yesterday. This was the first time that somebody actually slammed their door on us. ha All we understood was "Pourquoi (Why)?!" And then a bunch of french we didn't understand and then the door.
"It has been really neat lately because I feel like the youth are starting to want to do missionary work in our wards. one YW has changed her mind about serving a mission. She always wanted to - but she was telling us that she was gonna go when she was 21 (nothing wrong with that) but then last night we had dinner at her family's house and she said that she was for sure gonna go on a mission... and even at 19 now."
"So something really cool that we found out this week - the river freezes here and there are people who take it upon themselves to build a golf course out on the ice. Ha so we are having a district activity today and we are going to go golfing out on the ice - apparently christmas trees mark the holes.
"So the other day (the same day we learned about the golf) we were tracting this street and it really was nice that day. The sun was out and it wasn't snowing or anything. Anyways, it was cold enough to make our ears red... but that was nothing for us young elders - so we just went tracting with our coats and not gloves, hat, and scarf. As we got down to the last house on the street we saw this elderly lady walking out in her yard and we started up a conversation - she was like "Who are you" then without waiting for a response she read our tags and said "Jesus Christ... (simply stating it - not swearing) Oh you need to be in your house taking care of the women." So we were like "yeah, well we're missionaries and we're trying to help everyone - maybe by shoveling snow or something" "Yeah there are people that need help shoveling snow but not from people like you - they need help from people who wear tucs and scarfs and gloves" ha needless to say she didn't accept our offer to help - but it was funny to us.
"Another funny thing that happened .. well yesterday. This was the first time that somebody actually slammed their door on us. ha All we understood was "Pourquoi (Why)?!" And then a bunch of french we didn't understand and then the door.
"It has been really neat lately because I feel like the youth are starting to want to do missionary work in our wards. one YW has changed her mind about serving a mission. She always wanted to - but she was telling us that she was gonna go when she was 21 (nothing wrong with that) but then last night we had dinner at her family's house and she said that she was for sure gonna go on a mission... and even at 19 now."
Week 14 in the Field
So this week was a bit tougher than mosts when it comes to our investigators and our work. For awhile there people were pretty nice to us and things were going really well with people that we were excited about... then on thursday we were told by 2 of our most promising families that they didn't want to talk to us anymore and to 'step back' or 'let them go.' So that was tough wanting to respect their agency! but that is ok - we'll move on and hopefully they will find the gospel in the future.
"So this week we went to St. Lazare (english) and that was fun. We had prepared a song to sing during sacrament meeting because the primary president wanted us to. It was a Sally DeFord arrangement of Abide With Me. It turned out really nice and we were excited that it went as well as it did! Then later in church we taught part of the 3rd hour lesson - it was combined YM/YW/RS/Priesthood. It was about our branch mission plan. And again that went well. Ha it's good practice because now we have been asked to give a training at our Zone Study this wednesday! Good times.
"Ha some funny word slips this week - So I was explaining the great apostasy and I ended up saying that "les apotres ont tué" which is to say "the apostles killed!" ha I quickly corrected it to "les apotres ont été tué" - the apostles had been killed. Ha thankfully we all laughed. and then also in french there are 2 ways to say "I know" - savour (which is stronger and more intimate) and connaitre (to be familiar with) ha and if you say that you know somebody you have to use the connaitre form or else it means something a little more serious. Ha well... Elder Freeze ended up explaining in a spiritual thought that "Dieu nous sais" ha as in "biblically" knows us. which he quickly corrected too!"
"So this week we went to St. Lazare (english) and that was fun. We had prepared a song to sing during sacrament meeting because the primary president wanted us to. It was a Sally DeFord arrangement of Abide With Me. It turned out really nice and we were excited that it went as well as it did! Then later in church we taught part of the 3rd hour lesson - it was combined YM/YW/RS/Priesthood. It was about our branch mission plan. And again that went well. Ha it's good practice because now we have been asked to give a training at our Zone Study this wednesday! Good times.
"Ha some funny word slips this week - So I was explaining the great apostasy and I ended up saying that "les apotres ont tué" which is to say "the apostles killed!" ha I quickly corrected it to "les apotres ont été tué" - the apostles had been killed. Ha thankfully we all laughed. and then also in french there are 2 ways to say "I know" - savour (which is stronger and more intimate) and connaitre (to be familiar with) ha and if you say that you know somebody you have to use the connaitre form or else it means something a little more serious. Ha well... Elder Freeze ended up explaining in a spiritual thought that "Dieu nous sais" ha as in "biblically" knows us. which he quickly corrected too!"
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