Salut! (and a picture!) | 27 April 2015

Family, Friends, and Others,

First off, sorry my email last week was pretty lame, I forgot to prepare what I wanted to write so it was just kinda rambling and boring. I don't blame you if you didn't read it. But this week's will be better!

Things in general are going awesome here! We're starting to get the hang of everything and we've been talking with lots of people and have a lot planned for the upcoming week.

About 20 minutes after I sent last week's email began a very stressful adventure. We do emails in the church genealogy room, which is locked. We have a key though. We had to run to the restroom real quick so we just ran and did that and just left our stuff in there, keys phone, coats, etc. When we came back from the restroom the door had closed and locked our stuff inside! :( We spent about an hour looking through the church trying to find a phone number to call using the phone in church here but we couldn't find any. We didn't know what else to do so we walked from Mt-St-Hilare across the bridge to Beloeil where our ward mission leader Fr. Barry lives. It was about a 4km walk in the rain. It wasn't too cold though. But he wasn't there. So then we went to a recent convert who lives on that street, Denis. He said he didn't have Fr. Barry's number so we walked back to the apartment complex where a member Sr. Petit lives. She called Fr. Barry who said he didn't have the keys to that room. The only people who had keys was the clerk (wouldn't be back until 8pm) and the bishop (lives about hour and a half away, works). So we figured we could just wait at the church until 8 because we didn't know what to do. Denis drove us over to the church and waited with us for a bit. I'll talk more about him later, he's so funny. Then Denis wanted to get us some poutine because we didn't have lunch. So we drove to some place about 20 minutes away that he know but it was closed, so we had to find another place. We got it and brought it back and then we called Fr. Barry just to see if he knew anything or anyone who could help. He said that the high priest group leader might, so we drove to his house. He had a key! Drove back to the church, opened the door, and got our stuff about 6 hours later. We didn't have time to do anything else that p day... Denis was definitely the hero of the day though and that poutine was amazing even though it was like 2 hours old when we finally ate it. Lesson learned, keep your stuff with you!

Denis is our most recent convert in the MSH ward. He's about 50 and has some memory troubles I think. But he can talk for ages. He has the craziest stories and just goes on and on. This Sunday we had a broadcast stake conference and beforehand they were showing videos of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing. In Québec, the french word tabernacle is a really bad swear word, along with some other religious terms. We were sitting with him and a young couple who speak English and French, They were trying to explain to him about the name Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Denis was just kind of shocked. He's so funny haha.

There's this town in my area called Saint-Hyacinthe. There's something strange about it man. I don't know how to describe it. It has a little bit of everything it seems. I've noticed three things in particular, it has a lot of immigrants, churches, and food processing plants. There are a lot of people from Colombia and Nepal and all over really. I've been keeping track and we've talked to people from 10 countries so far. And we're in the outskirts and country! I don't know why they're some many immigrants in St-Hy, it's about an hour outside of Montréal in the country. Also, there's tons of old buildings and churches. There's a cool little "downtown" area. And I'm like 90% sure one of the TALL pictures is of that area. Only people who were in the MTC recently will know what that means, but one of the pictures was entitle "Quebec Town" and I'm pretty sure it's St-Hy. Random! On the south end is where all the factories and such are. It's spooky, who knows what goes on in there. It would be a good town for a horror movie, it's just a little too big. And isn't Saint-Hyacinthe a creepy name? Also there are certain times is smells like chocolate fudge there. And it's at random times and random places... Can someone look up and tell me if there's some creepy stuff that went on there! I know there must be! But it's cool, I like it there.

Last night we were in St-Hy and we talked to this one guy on the street. He had a long gray ponytail, circular wire frame glasses, a flowery scarf, and a blazer. He was kind of crazy! He started going off on some crazy beliefs he had. I can't even explain, it was in English though. Then he was talking about how we take all these things around us for granted (which has some truth to it!) and how in the Old Testament there was a man who sold his inheritance for a bowl of lentils (Esau?). Then he was talking how people are like Esau and he said something kind of flustered like and said (I think) "and we say billy-bong diddly-doo and a bowl of beans" and he just kind of looked at us, staring for a couple seconds. It made my night. Then he was talking about how he "used" to be a hippy, but he hasn't really gotten older, I don't know how to even explain it. So many interesting people that you probably wouldn't meet unless you were a missionary trying to talk with everyone...

Something we've been doing a lot this week is contacting former investigators. We had a really cool experience with that. We knocked on the door of a former investigator named Nemesi. She was taught a little bit in 2012 but dropped because she wasn't interested, or seemed that way according to the Elders then on her teaching sheet. She told us she was still interested and we could meet the next day. Our lesson went really well. We went over our purpose as missionaries and got to know her and her religious beliefs. She really opened up to us. We asked about prayer and she told us that she's been praying a lot more recently, trying to find direction in her life. And then we came and knocked on her door! Wow! We closed with a kneeling prayer that she offered. She gave a really great prayer, got really emotional and the end and couldn't really finish. She just said "Amen," stood up, and went to the other room. Elder Deakins and I weren't really sure what to do but I know we all really felt the Spirit there. We have a lesson with her this Friday, hope it will be just as good! That's something I really thought a lot about before my mission, finding people like Nemesi who are ready and have been prepared by the Lord. I truly hope we can help her and I hope I can find more people like that and be an instrument in the Lord's hands to bring them back to Him. Hope you all have an excellent week, love you!!

Elder Rosenlof

Elder Deakins, me, President Patrick, and Sister Patrick

Au Canada et Oh Canada! | 20 April 2015

Dear all,

Last week in the MTC was good, sad to leave friends there but I'm in
Canada now! I love it here!

My first area that I've been assigned to is Mount-Saint-Hilare! It's
just a little east of Montréal. The city itself is pretty cool.
There's a mountain thing just outside that looks super cool. There's
also a river that flows in between the city of Mount-Saint-Hilare and
Beloeil. We live in Beloeil, the church is in Mount-Saint-Hilare. We
have a pretty big area, it goes up about 55km north and about 25km
east and west from here. We have a car though which is nice.

My companion is Elder Deakins. He's from LA area. He's really great
and has taught me a lot already! He's been out for six months and this
is his first French area. We're both new in this area so that's been a
little hectic figuring everything out. Elder Deakins is like a total
Californian though. He said he would always go to the beach and play
his guitar and surf with friends in high school. Also his dad is an
actor and played Jesus in the Lamb of God church videos. I always
wondered what the people who play Jesus in church videos are like in
real life...

Canada isn't that much different from United States in apperance but
everything is in French here! It's weird! And the accent here is
something else. There are times when I can't understand a word that's
being said. I can't even explain it. There have been a few times I've
almost laughed out loud at people when they talk. I mean that in a
good way! It's really different than what I learned in the MTC! It's
been hard for me to speak it too. I've just got to be better about not
being afraid to make mistakes! I'm glad I'm in a French speaking area
though, it's such a cool language! And I can really testify of the
power of the gift of tongues!

There's a ward here that's pretty big and strong. All the members are
super friendly. We got an apple pie and a jar of beans from members
our first Sunday haha. They're a lot of less active members in the
area though so strengthening the ward is going to be one of our main
focuses here.

It's fun to be somewhere where you don't know anyone! There are some
kind of crazy people though that we've met already!

It's been kind of overwhelming at times with everything new and
different. I've still got a lot I've got to get used to! But I know
I've been blessed a lot by the Lord! I'm so grateful for this
opportunity to be a missionary, it's really an amazing experience!
Love you all hope you have a great week!

Elder Rosenlof

Joyeuses Pâques and General Conference! | 7 April 2015

Bonjour tout le monde!

This week was great! Especially this weekend!

Before that, we've been preparing our "amis" Victor and Patience for
baptism and right now we're teaching them the commandments. It's so
hard to teach commandments! And it's kind of a rush to teach them as
much as we can before we leave. I wish we could teach our teachers
forever! One funny thing that happened this week in one of our lessons
was with Victor. Victor is played by our teaching Fr. Dicou. Just
before our lesson he taught us the word "boîter" which means to limp
because he got hurt in a soccer game last night. Then in our lesson
one of the things Victor said was "sorry I'm limping (je boîte) I was
playing soccer..." or something just as a joke. Then Elder Paredes,
who I guess was kind of confused, said "oh you said you drink?" which
in French is "je bois". Sister Calderon and I looked at each other
like uhhh. And then Victor said something like "haha no but I drink
water...and sometimes on the weekend I drink alcohol just for fun."
Sister Calderon and I just started laughing. Ok that doesn't sound
very funny or doesn't make any sense but I thought it was funny
hearing our teacher say he drinks on the weekend for fun. Alright, I
need to get better at telling funny stories, sorry everyone. Hopefully
I'll have some funnier stories in the real world.

Anyways! We got a new district in our zone this week. It consists of
Sister Winter, from Cypress, CA going to the West Indies French
speaking, Sister Driggs, from Scottsdale, AZ going to the same
mission,  and Sister Davies from Montreal (!) going to St. George
French speaking! She'll work in the visitor's center there. Sister
Davies has taught us a bit about Montreal which has been helpful!
Mostly about how to withstand the cold... :( ça va... They're all
great though. I don't know why the church doesn't just send sisters,
they're always so much better prepared then Elders it seems haha...

Conference this weekend was awesome!! So many great talks and counsel.
Here are my very favorite talks:
President Eyring's first talk. The story of the Sierra Leonean woman
paying her fast offering for those who are "truly poor". Wow. I have
so much stuff and I can give so much more than I do! Really humbling
hearing the stories he told.
L. Whitney Clayton's talk about getting through the spiritual
wilderness by following the "Light".
Elder Christofferson's talk about the Plan of Salvation. Really put
things in perspective. Also made me feel like I should get married and
not serve a mission! Just kidding but a couple talks kind of made me
feel that haha...
Elder Wilford W. Anderson. What a great metaphor!
President Monson's priesthood session talk about knowing the power of
the priesthood. I wish he had talked more!
Bishop Caussé's talk about finding joy in the gospel and not tiring of
it. I wish he spoke in French!
Elder Brent H. Nielson's talk about his less active sister and how we
are all like the prodigal son, lost and needing to be found!
Elder Holland. We're meant to be happy in this life, not suffer! We
can always changer and get better! Those three talks in a row were
great!!
Elder Anderson about the saints in those areas that temples were
announced. There's so much more I can do!! Really inspiring. Cool that
those places are getting temples. And two French speaking (or close)
temples

I love conference so much. So much inspiration and counsel that
applies to me despite the fact that the speakers messages are to the
whole world! The Spirit really testifies to us! I could go on for a
long time about it!

Easter Sunday was great! Nothing really special (no easter egg hunt :(
) here at the MTC but there doesn't need to be. Listening to
Conference and having time to think was enough! They did have a Vocal
Point concert in lieu of a devotional which was good but I can't
really take a capella music very seriously. Also it was awkward
because we weren't sure whether to clap. Still nice though!

My only complaint on the weekend. Why was there no MTC choir! What are
the odds of being in the MTC on conference weekend and there not being
an MTC choir! Seriously could someone do the math. I don't know if
they release data on number of missionaries in the MTC at certain
times but this is the slow season. Oh well!! I probably would have
done something embarrassing if I was on camera.

I leave to Canada on Monday!!! Crazy! Next email I send will be there!
I'm pretty excited!

Je vous aime!

Elder Rosenlof

One Month! | 31 March 2015

Hey all,

Things are still great here at the MTC! Just the same old schedule with our two teachers and two investigators. Crazy it's been about a month here, in 13 days I'll be off the the Great White North!

Our little district of three is still teaching together and working with our two amis, Victor and Patience. We've been getting better at teaching in unity and teaching them simply. Teaching simply is one of the hardest yet most important things to do here! You want to tell them everything but you can't really do that and not overwhelm them. Also, we've learned the importance of asking inspired questions to really get them to open up and think about the things we're teaching. It's so important to stop talking and listen to them and to the spirit to help them! Our amis both have baptismal dates that we've set with them, April 11! They're still just characters played by our teachers but it's cool to see them progress

The teachers here are great. They're all great examples of the missionary I'd like to be! Some of the teachers who went to Montréal have been getting us really excited to head out! They've told us about how cool the Mission President is, the best poutine places, how many -40 days they had (each just had one, phew!). I feel bad for the missionaries who have to be here longer than 6 weeks, It's starting to get kinda monotonous! At least it's been warm here!

The French has been coming along well I feel. I'm just afraid of the accent! Tomorrow we have this activity where we skype members who are native French speakers and teach them a lesson. We're going to be talking with people from Québec! Hope I can understand haha. I'm glad I had a base for my French learning here, that's really helped me a lot. But learning languages here is pretty amazing. Sometimes, I'm kind of jealous of the missionaries learning hard languages like Mandarin or Japanese or Russian, because probably never again will we have a month of two of just language learning of having the Holy Ghost to help! But I'm still really glad I got called French speaking. And I'm pretty sure I'll have to learn Spanish in the field, talking with some of the Montréal RMs. And the fact that I have Spanish nametags. Mi llamo es Elder Rosenlof. That's all I know. And I don't even think that's right. Hope I'll do ok with that haha...

I'm super excited for this weekend with General Conference and Easter!!! Hope all of you have a great weekend. I challenge all of you to go into conference with 3 to 5 questions you've been thinking and really ponder on the messages shared. I know if you do that, you'll find answers! I'm so glad we have a living prophet and other church leaders who share so much great counsel! A la prochaine tout le monde! Je vous aime!!

Elder Rosenlof