Update | 29 June 2015

Mes frères et soeurs,

It's been a long time since I've done one of these emails, sorry! I love getting emails from you and responding in detail so that takes up a good chunk of my time. Here's a quick recap of the last 3 weeks!

Had a really good zone training. One of my new favorite Preach My Gospel quotes is on page 19 (or look it up on Gospel Library, ch 1 maybe?). Read it! Then read the rest of Preach My Gospel!

I played piano in sacrament meeting. The regular pianist wasn't there I was the only other person in our ward who could play somewhat. I find that hard to believe. But it was my first time doing that. I only played the upper notes because I was too nervous haha. Next step, playing the organ at General Conference!

We have a new bishop. He's really cool, and really focused on MISSIONARY WORK! Some good changes should be coming soon! He said he wants to talk to our mission president to ask for us to stay in the ward for at least 6 months...we'll see!

Hiked the Mont again. Everything's green around here. It's also really hot and humid

We've received 4 different maple products from members, 2 cans of maple syrup, 1 container of maple butter (more like taffy), and 1 jar of this caramel maple stuff. All basically just pure sugar. I hope I don't lose any teeth while here...either from syrup or a errant hockey puck

Had a minor car accident, a problem with a wheel bearing, and an oil change, which have lead to 2 trips to Montreal with at least 3 more in the future. I'm grateful we have a car though because one, it's hot, and two, our area is really big. 

Did a split in Granby again. Splits are fun because you get to work with other missionaries and learn from them, and it's like going on a trip!

I cut my hair. I tried to use scissors on the top and trim the sides like I normally do but I really messed up the top so I just buzzed it. It looks ok

Celebrated St-Jean-Baptiste Day, or la fête nationale (but it's only celebrated in Québec) which wasn't as crazy as I expected. Sang some traditional Québecois songs with some old members of our ward. They all had to do with snow and cold. This week is Canada Day which isn't really celebrated in Québec haha. Happy Fourth of July to those in the States!

Teaching wise, we don't have very many investigators who are progressing unfortunately. A lot of less active work still. Seen some good progress with those people which is nice to see! I can't really sum up missionary work as in teaching very well so if you're curious ask me specific questions :)

Things are great here! I love you all and love hearing from you! 

Go Cards! On dry ground, not in the water.

No mo flow :( Our church building

Good Week | 8 June 2015

Mes amis,

These past two weeks were great! Busy, busy, busy! We're working with a lot of people and have very little unplanned time. Taught 21 lessons last, last week and 20 this week! And we had about 8 that we planned that fell through. I'm very grateful for our car, we're working all over in our somewhat large area. It's also been pretty hot and humid. I might have to break out the short sleeve shirts soon! 

I'm just going to try to summarize one day last week, probably our busiest. It was in St-Hyacinthe.

6:30 - Woke up and did normal morning routine

8:00 - Personal study as usual. I restarted the Book of Mormon. I'm in 2 Nephi 2 today, where are you?

9:00 - Étude en équipe (companion study) as usual too. One of our investigators who has the most difficult schedule to work with called us and said we could come over in about 30 minutes to teach her because.

10:45 - Taught our ami Nemesi. Started the Plan of Salvation, elle a bien compris

11:30 - Language study

12:00 - Lunch. called "dîner" here. Dinner is "souper"

1:00 - Started driving to St-Hyacinthe. Made some calls in the car like usual. Called a man (Jamal) we met on the street a week or two ago but hadn't had further contact with yet. Set up a rendez-vous for 3:00 that day

1:30 - Met with our good friend and less active member Jacques. He's come teaching with us a few times. I think I wrote about him in past letters. I hope I didn't mention his last name, I need to be better about that! He hasn't been to church in a long time nor meeting with missionaries. We started meeting with him regularly and he's really improved a lot. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon, two chapters a day, and he's kept on pace! 

2:15 - Walked around "downtown" St-Hyacinthe. Really the only place in our area where people walk around outside so we contact there a lot. Lots of cool looking buildings too, too bad it's kind of a poor area. Got phone numbers from two people who were interested in hearing more! 

3:00 - Went to teach our ami Jamal. Knocked on his door and someone answered who was not Jamal. The man (forgot his name, hard to understand when people say their name because they're not really actual words!) was from Haiti and was reading the Bible when we knocked. We talked a little bit about missionaries at the door. I asked him "How's it going" in Haitian, don't remember how it's spelled but the answer to that question translated is "I'm burning!" Haitian is funny. He let us in but said we had 5 minutes. We taught him the Restoration lesson and testified of the Book of Mormon. He tried to convince us the Bible was enough but we were insistent and he took a book. Who knows if he'll read it but you never know!

3:30 - Called Jamal because the person who answered the door didn't know him. He lives in the basement of the house. Got to know him a little bit. He's from Morocco and going to school here. By the way, I've met people from at least 16 countries already, Québec is very different from Missouri in that manner. Taught him the Restoration and it went well. Have a return appointment for this week.

4:00 - Taught two less actives in a row with a member of our bishopric. He's so cool. We had a plan for our lessons but he kind of took a different direction, the right direction probably! He was a stake president in Switzerland for a bit, called as a temple president too! Hope I have as much wisdom as he does in the future...

6:00 - Souper! Didn't have a dinner appointment so we got poutine.

7:00 - Called a family that lives in town to see if we could share a message, they said yes. It was great! Going to start helping their daughter prepare to be baptized. On Sunday, the father bore a great testimony, talked about how much he like having us in his home the other day! It was great to hear some direct positive feedback like that.

8:00 - Had a lesson with an ami we taught the first time the other week. No one was home and he didn't answer the phone though. Saw some people sitting on their porch nearby and we asked if we could share a message with them. They said yes. We started with a prayer and then opened our Books of Mormon to read something and right away, one of them got really mad (see 2 Nephi 29:3) and told us to leave. 

9:00 - Returned and planned for the next day.

Kind of a depressing end, but it was a great day! Things are great here! Great people and it's really beautiful. Also, Elder Deakins and I may be in a documentary about Mormons in Québec one of our new amis wants to make. I'll keep you posted! Have an awesome week!

Elder Rosenlof