Bonjour mes amis | 25 May 2015

This was a great week and my email today is all about the Book of Mormon! This transfer we had a challenge to finish the Book of Mormon. I finished it Sunday. It was the fastest, most thorough, most helpful read through I've done. Read it!

We had another split so I got to go to Granby for the day. It's even more in the middle of nowhere but with a "downtown" type area, kind of like St-Hyacinthe which I talked about a little while ago. It's a cool, weird little town. The missionary work there is awesome! They just formed a new branch and are the Elders are teaching a ton of people. One lesson I went to with Elder Brooks (Elder in Granby) was with a man named Alain. They've been teaching him for a little while now, he has a baptismal date at the end of June I think. Anyways, they had left him some reading and questions to do in the back of one of the brochures and he did it. He talked about how he's always read the Bible and liked it but he said "The Bible, that has the questions, but the Book of Mormon and these brochures, they have the answers." Wow! He could teach Sunday School at their branch, they probably don't have a teacher yet. But it's true, the Book of Mormon is so clear and simple and it has so many answers to questions we all have.

Thursday we had a zone conference. It was awesome. So much wisdom and counsel from our mission leaders. Our mission president, President Patrick is the best, he knows exactly what we need to focus on and change. He talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we should focus on using it with everyone! I really tried to do that the rest of the week. I feel like the lessons we taught where we didn't really use the Book of Mormon were kind of unfocused and not as effective (not just for that reason though) but the ones where we just read the Book of Mormon with them and invited them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon were the best! Sunday we had a couple lessons back to back in St-Hyacinthe. We had been trying to find a member to come with us but couldn't. First we taught Jacques, he's just a little older than us, born in the church but really hasn't been to church for about 8 years or so. We've been meeting with him for the past few weeks and are trying to help him regain his testimony by rereading the Book of Mormon. Our lesson went well (we were in a park and talked at by a Jehovah's Witness who didn't agree with us though :( ) and we just asked him if he wanted to come to our next lesson with us. And he said yes! The lesson was with Kevin and Marilyne, young couple with a few kids, have been meeting with the missionaries for the past few years but haven't really progressed. With them we read from the Book of Mormon and discussed it, trying to help them see the importance being baptized and making changes in our lives. We were just about to end our lesson and Elder Deakins asked Jacques if he wanted to share anything. Jacques gave a really great testimony about how his baptism was one of the best things he's done and even though he's kind of fallen of the iron rod (he talked about the iron rod!) he wants to get back and knows Kevin and Marilyne can change too! It was a great lesson. After he told us how the things we were teaching Kevin and Marilyne really helped him too. We all benefited from that lesson I think :)

This week really helped strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is the word of God, another testimony of Jesus Christ, and was translated by Joseph Smith. I love the Book of Mormon and things we learn from it. I know great things come from reading it and praying about it. I invite you all to read it and pray about it, I know it will bless your life! Have a great week! 

Elder Rosenlof

p.s. We hiked Mont-St-Hilaire this morning. It was great! It really reminded me of St Louis. For those of you in Missouri, please go on a hike/ride/run along at Al Foster trail, Castlewood, Babler, or any park or trail along the Missouri or Meramec rivers! Didn't get any good pictures, I'll try harder next time!
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Great Week! (and a picture) | 18 May 2015

Tout le monde,

This was a great week! I think I talked about last week in my last email, but this week was different. Last week we only had lessons with 4 different people, but this week we had lessons with 12 different people! And we got 20 lessons total! Woohoo! The difference I think was our faith to do all these things. We really worked hard to see as many people as we could and never doubted it either. It really payed off. We've still got a lot to improve (time management, working with members, etc.) but missionary work here is really starting to pick up! We're still working with a lot of less actives and recent converts as opposed to investigators -- hopefully we'll find some new people to teach, not that we don't like working with less actives, there's just a lot of people who can benefit from our message! I can't really think of any good stories about the people we're teaching still. It seems like every missionary has crazy stories about people they teach and stuff like that but I don't! Pas encore, j'éspere!

This week we had a meeting for the missionaries who came in this transfer and their trainers. It was at the mission office in Montréal. I don't know how I didn't realize the first time I was at the mission office, but I'm in love with Montréal!! The mission office is in this hip neighborhood and everyone there dresses well and is beautiful and the architecture is awesome and there's tons of cool churches and everyone rides bikes and there's people from all over the world and I could go on! We ate this trendy poutine place (I talked about poutine last week -- we got it twice this past week...whoops! It's too good!) and we were sitting by the window so I just people watched. It was a beautiful day so there were tons of people walking around. Then "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees came on the radio and it just fit the scene perfectly! Montréal is a timeless city! Visit sometime!

The training meeting itself was really great, better than the worldly streets of Montréal haha. One thing we talked about was finding a personal purpose for doing missionary work. A verse I find fits that for me is 3 Nephi 5:13 -- "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." Missionary work is truly of eternal significance. The message of the Restored Gospel can not only change your life, but your life for eternity! So as missionaries, we've only got two years set apart to help as many people as possible to receive "everlasting life!" No time to lose! And this work is a work of joy and love so as missionaries we've got to have joy and love for the things we do and the people all around. Missionary work is great! Ayez une bonne semaine! Je vous aime!

Elder Rosenlof

this picture is the first poutine we got this week. I only ate half, don't worry :)

Salut! | 11 May 2015

Dear all,

These past two weeks have been great!

Last week we taught 11 lessons total, which is our highest yet! We were really busy and saw all our investigators and lots of less active members in the ward. One cool miracle we had on last, last Saturday was with a part member family Patrice and Karine. We've been trying to get in contact with them since we got there but have never heard from them. That day we were driving around, verifying the ward directory and meeting people in the ward. We went by there house just to see (we had called the day before but no one picked up) and they were! They said, "We've been trying to respond to your messages but we haven't had time! Want to come over for dinner and a lesson later?" (it wasn't exactly that but kind of). Nice! We had a really great lesson with them and Patrice (the nonmember husband) really seems interested and like this is what he wants for his family. There was even another member friend there from another ward who helped. It was awesome! I even got to go to exotic Granby, QC on a split! What a week!

This week we kind of assumed we would have the same success as last week so we didn't really try and do more planning or verifying or having good back up plans. Then, when a lot of our plans fell through, we didn't have a good idea of what to do, mostly resorting to knocking. And because we were frustrated that we had to resort to knocking, we got even more frustrated sometimes! I feel like all that frustration could have been avoided if we had planned better and had a better attitude. It's inevitable that lessons will fall through sometimes and sometimes miracles will happen, but no matter what, having a good plan for the whole day and back up plans for the whole day too. And if there's nothing else to do than go door to door, we've got to do it! Often if something falls through, we spend too long thinking of what we could do instead when there's really no other feasible alternative than knocking for a little bit. 

Despite our difficulties meeting with our investigators and less actives, we really got to know a lot of the members of the ward. Saturday we had a fun little trip going up to the far places north up to Sorel (where the boots get their name?). We met all the active members that live up there and they were so welcoming! I love seeing the strength of the members of the ward and how welcoming they are to us. I've seen so many great examples of the type of missionary, (and down the line) ward leader, husband, and parent I want to be from these members here. Working with members in missionary work is key!

Other than that, nothing too special or exciting to tell...Some cultural differences I've noticed here though:

So many cats! It may be the nature of the people we work with most (older, lonely, often single people :( ) but everyone has cats! And I'm allergic :(

So many bikes! Motorcycles and velo bikes. After my mission some autumn, I'm just gonna come up here, bring a bike (velo), and ride around and eat at poutine places. Ahhh

Canadian food is the same as American food I guess. At our dinner appointments we've been served authentic Canadian dishes such as spaghetti, hamburgers, and lasagna. But poutine is something else. I've had it twice already, maybe again today. I probably shouldn't... For those of you who don't know, poutine is french fries, cheese curds, and this gravy-like sauce all mixed together. I can't really describe it in words that well, you just have to make it because I don't think anywhere in the US sells it as good as here. Just make sure the fries are crispy so it doesn't get soggy. They're probably a good number of youtube videos on how to make it. Do it!

Anyways, hope you all have a great week! I love you all! Read Moroni Ch 7, especially verses 40-48. Bonne Semaine!

-Elder Rosenlof