"This week has been really good! My new companion is Elder Cowling. He is the normal age of 19 and he comes from Caldwell, Idaho. Ha It's kind of funny to have a companion from the states again. I like it though. He's a really great elder and I have had fun as I've started to train him. Ha I'm definitely learning a lot from him as we go along. The MTC really teaches them how to be good missionaries - and some of the things that we learn there get lost overtime in the mission field, so it is really good to be learning them again. He is eager to learn and to improve and that is awesome. Ha it was funny because I was standing at transfers waiting for him to show up and then all the new missionaries got there. Ha he came up to me and was like 'Elder Mortenson, I think your my new companion' - when that was confirmed he just busted out in some Creole with me 'eh sak passe!' Ha I hadn't heard creole from anybody since I was in Hochelaga - let alone from a missionary straight from the MTC. He's a really good elder though and it shows through his desire to teach people and find people. I hope I can train him well.
"One of the coolest things that happened this week was when we went over to the Roys house (the family that moved in about 2 weeks or so ago) and we had dinner with them. So that was saturday night. Also there were the dad's sons (who normally live with their mom, but visit their dad and step mom about every 2 weekends). One of them, Nathan, was pretty interested in the gospel and so we were able to set up an appointment for the next night to come and watch the restoration video with him. We also left them as a family with the commitment to read Alma 18 because we read Alma 17 together with them. So Sunday night rolls around and we go back over there for dinner and then we were able to watch the video with Nathan. We talked a little bit about the restoration and some background information that led to the restoration. Ha then we gave him a soft commitment to baptism and he accepted. ha and we also set up an appointment to come by tonight and teach the plan of salvation! We're super excited about teaching him. He's really a great kid and we hope that he read in the book of mormon last night like we asked him to and prayed about it! We'll find out though!
"This week we were also able to teach Andrea Wilde! She's been an investigator for a few months now and we've only been able to have one lesson with her since she has just been so busy! We've set up a couple but then they've just been postponed - or she just doesn't answer our calls. So finally we were able to have a lesson with her and it went pretty well! She is interested in the gospel and I think willing to act on the things that we are asking her to do - like read and pray. Her husband is less active and she has a 7 month old daughter and seriously it would be so awesome if we could help her to join the church and get the husband to come back to activity. We're going to try and bring some of the women in the ward to teach with us this friday when we see her - hopefully by so doing, giving her people to relate to and friends to associate with. It was really exciting when we were trying to suggest the time for our next appointment and she said 'oh maybe same time in about 2 weeks?' And then having to push aside my fears I suggested 'well maybe we could meet next friday instead?' And thankfully she agreed! Ha I feel like I have had to put my fear of rejection aside a couple times this week - and as I have done so, only good things have happend! Ha that was something really cool this week.
"Ha a funny story this week - So normally when we knock on a door, we'll give our little introduction and then we ask if we can share more. If no, then we ask for referrals. Whether they give them to us or not, we then ask them if there is anything we can do for them - maybe like shovel their walk or something. Ha Normally they say 'oh no- that's why i have kids. They're do that.' Ha so this week we knocked on a potential's door and the son answered. We asked if his mom was there - no - when she'd be back - I don't know - so we're like 'well ok, maybe we could shovel this walk for you?' (it had snowed the night before) Ha and then he was like 'Wait, like for free??' Ha 'Yeah' 'Ha uh.. yeah for sure! Thanks!' I thought that was funny just because Had we asked the adult, they would just have put the responsibility for that on their kids - but since it was the kid, for sure he was going to accept our service!"
****
I wrote Trav this week and told him I love that his P-days are on Monday; It makes Monday a happy day rather than a back-to-the-grind-stone day!
I am a sentimental shmuck, and all who know me just have to get over it or endure my endless amounts of mushy spewage ;) I get so giddy to hear from Elder Morty. Sometimes it feels like forever since the last letter, but even though we don't get to talk a lot I do feel our bond of friendship is still strong and our love as family is deepening. It is a definite blessing that comes from being on the Lord's errand. I am so glad Travis is my brother. I'm thankful to see his heart in the right place and his mind developing. I'm pretty sure all the other spirit brothers and sisters felt a little jealous in the premortal life because they weren't going to be apart of the A Team Family ;) j/k, I'm super partial to my family!
Only a few more months until Travis hits his year mark, and if it goes like Brad's last year Travis will be home before we know it!
Love,
Jessi
Monday, March 4, 2013
Week 22 in the Field
"So I think the biggest thing on your mind right now is what happened during transfer calls! It just so happens that you rightly guessed that I am staying in Valleyfield for the next transfer. However, Elder Freeze is being transferred to Alma... so that's way north and east from here. It's about 500 kms to get there... I am going to be training again! Ha except for this time it is with a green greeny - not like elder freeze and how he was a 1 transfer greeny. I actually won't know who exactly my companion is going to be until I show up to transfers on wednesday. Ha They only tell you that you are training because sometimes they make changes to who trains who after President Cannon has had a chance to interview the new missionaries on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
"So this transfer will be different just because it is 3 weeks instead of the normal 6 weeks and at the end of this 3 week transfer is when Valleyfield will split into two areas - so the two branches we cover will both have their own set of missionaries. I wonder what will happen in 3 weeks and if I will stay or go or what will happen... but that is 3 weeks down the road.
"A funny story for you all is something that happened last monday after I wrote you all. (not to mention that it is also funny that I am using hand motions and facial expressions as I am writing this story in the email) Anyways, we were at the mission office to hopefuly get reimbursed for some things (another story for another time) and while we were there I was talking with Sister Arhets - one of the senior missionaries that works in the office. When I served in Hochelaga/montreal east I was around sister arhets a fair amount and we became good friends. Ha so she said to me 'Elder Mortenson! I can't believe that you embarrassed me the other day!' Ha to which i was really confused. I thought it was because I had written her a thank you note for some things she had gotten me. Then she continued, 'the other day a missionary called and was like 'hi sister arhets! Guess who it is! It's your favorite missionary!' Ha to which she responded 'Elder Mortenson?!' Ha funny thing was... it wasn't me who had called. Ha so she felt a tad bit embarrassed.
"Out of the blue this week we received a call from a guy that we didn't know before and he started asking about the english class that we do. And then he also asked about church and what time it started and what he needed to wear, etc. Ha So we answered his questions and told him when church was and left it at that. We were in St. Lazare for church yesterday, so we asked Brother Brochu to keep an eye out for the guy at church. Ha he totally came!"
"So this transfer will be different just because it is 3 weeks instead of the normal 6 weeks and at the end of this 3 week transfer is when Valleyfield will split into two areas - so the two branches we cover will both have their own set of missionaries. I wonder what will happen in 3 weeks and if I will stay or go or what will happen... but that is 3 weeks down the road.
"A funny story for you all is something that happened last monday after I wrote you all. (not to mention that it is also funny that I am using hand motions and facial expressions as I am writing this story in the email) Anyways, we were at the mission office to hopefuly get reimbursed for some things (another story for another time) and while we were there I was talking with Sister Arhets - one of the senior missionaries that works in the office. When I served in Hochelaga/montreal east I was around sister arhets a fair amount and we became good friends. Ha so she said to me 'Elder Mortenson! I can't believe that you embarrassed me the other day!' Ha to which i was really confused. I thought it was because I had written her a thank you note for some things she had gotten me. Then she continued, 'the other day a missionary called and was like 'hi sister arhets! Guess who it is! It's your favorite missionary!' Ha to which she responded 'Elder Mortenson?!' Ha funny thing was... it wasn't me who had called. Ha so she felt a tad bit embarrassed.
"Out of the blue this week we received a call from a guy that we didn't know before and he started asking about the english class that we do. And then he also asked about church and what time it started and what he needed to wear, etc. Ha So we answered his questions and told him when church was and left it at that. We were in St. Lazare for church yesterday, so we asked Brother Brochu to keep an eye out for the guy at church. Ha he totally came!"
Week 21 in the Field
"In our french branch we have a lot of less active members who live really far south from us. They don't get visited very often because it just takes too many kilometers to go there. But we decided that we needed to just swallow the kilometers and visit them. So we made a day of it and went all the way down to the US border. It was really neat to visit with these people because one didn't know that the church was even near her, some others were excited that we had come and want us to come back more often, and others were at least nice to us. It was crazy to think that we were pretty much touching the United States this week when we took a picture of being at the border. It was cool because we visited a part member familiy that has 17 huskies. Ha they use them for dog sledding. Super cool. It was neat to be able to get to know them and teach the wife who isn't a member. We visited with this one family who has 10 kids and one car. So they say that it is hard to get everyone to church because of that...
"as we were finishing up our trip down to the states, we came back through valleyfield and were able to meet with one of our investigators - tristan. He was the only one there and we had a really cool lesson with him. We went outside and told him how the holy ghost can be like coke and mentos. if you relate how it says in 2 ne 33:1 that the holy ghost will carry the truth of the message unto the hearts of the children of men, but not necessarily into. That's where we come in. We have to open the door for it. Ha So we had a bottle of coke and then the mentos in a sleeve up top with a little stopper - so then we had tristan 'let the holy ghost into' his heart.
"This weekend we had a really awesome part member family move in. We spent several hours helping them move in on saturday and went back yesterday to help a little more and tonight we've been invited to dinner there. Ha it is cool because they live literally a minute from our house. The parents have been baptized for about a year and a half now. They're great. We're hoping to be able to work with some of their kids.
"This week we taught seminary 3 days and it would have been 4 but we had that trip to the [less actives] by the states. It was really fun to have to prepare the lessons and teach the seminary kids, but I am also grateful that it is over now too. Ha We had a lot of fun with that."
"as we were finishing up our trip down to the states, we came back through valleyfield and were able to meet with one of our investigators - tristan. He was the only one there and we had a really cool lesson with him. We went outside and told him how the holy ghost can be like coke and mentos. if you relate how it says in 2 ne 33:1 that the holy ghost will carry the truth of the message unto the hearts of the children of men, but not necessarily into. That's where we come in. We have to open the door for it. Ha So we had a bottle of coke and then the mentos in a sleeve up top with a little stopper - so then we had tristan 'let the holy ghost into' his heart.
"This weekend we had a really awesome part member family move in. We spent several hours helping them move in on saturday and went back yesterday to help a little more and tonight we've been invited to dinner there. Ha it is cool because they live literally a minute from our house. The parents have been baptized for about a year and a half now. They're great. We're hoping to be able to work with some of their kids.
"This week we taught seminary 3 days and it would have been 4 but we had that trip to the [less actives] by the states. It was really fun to have to prepare the lessons and teach the seminary kids, but I am also grateful that it is over now too. Ha We had a lot of fun with that."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)