Yeah that line was brought to me by the good ol' man from the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra :) SO good! But just to give the heads up, we have to use a different library today and next week and I found out that they don't like my camera so no pictures from here :( Maybe I'll be able to find some wifi and send them home! But hey! Christmas is this week! :D I'm so excited!
Quick little spiritual thought today comes from the fantastic book of Nehemiah which I just finished today. (More than halfway done with the Old Testament! :D) But in Nehemiah 6:3 it reads:
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
But when I read it this morning I remembered hearing it before and just applied it to what I'm doing right now. I have a FANTASTIC work and I cannot come down in any way. It is so interesting for me to see how I am living now as compared to before my mission in that I am not willing to let myself compromise in this battle for fear of losing the Spirit. It's amazing what a mission can do. So for you, read this verse and ponder how you can withstand temptations and find the great work that you can be doing now. :)
Now for the week! :D
Monday 15th:
After dinner and our p-day activities we went and had Family Home Evening with the Kostas, Tania and her boys, and the Levêsques which was awesome! But we also learned that FHE's need to be short when kids are involved and that you shouldn't read long passages of scripture... Like I did.... Oops. Well we learn every day! :D But we watched the Joy to the World video after and it smoothed things out a bit :)
Tuesday 16th:
We started our new exercise program. We live on the third floor of an apartment building so we're taking advantage of the stairs...Hardcore. We have a goal to lose 5 pounds by the end of the transfer and we are making big changes for it. But this week we had the piano at the apartment and I was so grateful because I got to practice tons during our lunch hour and also when we would come home at night. It's great to be able to use good practice technique and build up my piano chops as one might say :)
That night we had an awkward occasion... We were passing by one of our amis and then as we were walking up to her door we see a car pass by and it's her but then she drives away a little.... then comes back... and gets let out... so we're sitting on her doorstep waiting for her to come talk haha... But it was all good! She was happy to see us and we set up a rendezvous then and there for later!
Wednesday 17th:
Finished 2 Chronicles! I'm just blazing through the Old Testament and learning so much about all of the standard works. To understand Isaiah you really have to understand all of the context before and around him so I'm excited to get there in a week or so! :D But at District Meeting something clicked for me. We have really been focusing on working with members and it sometimes felt like we were beating a dead dog... but then the importance of it just clicked in my head for the first time of this magnitude that for the work of salvation to truly hasten we need EVERYONE. Not the missionaries but the members will be the ones to truly hasten the work. So share with your friends and if they want to know more then get the missionaries over there!
I went on an exchange in Mont St Hilaire after that with Elder Pilling. It was interesting because going into an area where you don't know anyone, you have to work so much harder to listen to the Spirit. In a lesson I shared D&C 82:10 with a less-active and he later said that it really spoke to him. I attribute it totally to the Spirit because I didn't know this guy at all but the Spirit did. Then later we had planned to go knocking but on the way to the area to knock, Elder Pilling saw someone shoveling so we got out the shovels in the car and went over to ask but then she wasn't interested so we walked back to the car a ways only to be addressed by the woman who's house we parked in front of. So we went up and talked to her and turns out she went to the Montréal Expo in 67 and learned about the church some but never heard anything since. Before we left, we gave her a Book of Mormon and pamphlet that she asked for. Miracles! Then that night I blew a member's mind trying to explain past tense in english class... oops haha :)
Thursday 18th:
I read Alma 36:24 that morning and it explains my reason for going on a mission so well. Seriously, the joy of the Atonement and repentance is what drives me almost more than anything else. I took advantage of having access to a computer and watched videos from Hastening the Work and was pleasantly surprised to see just how much our mission president is in them! He was a stake president in Florida and got spotlighted in them many times! So if you see a stake president in them with white gray hair sticking up a bit, it's him :) He is so fantastic! :D We're so blessed to have him for our president because he knows what he's doing :)
At a lunch appointment we had a member go off on a rogue tangent of somewhat false doctrine but I brought it back at the end brought the Spirit back in before we had to leave. Then Elder Pilling complimented me on it but I didn't really feel like it was too big of a deal but I guess it might be a gift of the Spirit to be able to do that! The Spirit upholds me so much sometimes! When we got back to Granby it was go time. We had appointment right after appointment and none of them fell through! One that I really enjoyed was teaching Karrisa. We talked about experimenting on the word from Alma 32 and how she can gain a testimony for herself of the Book of Mormon and committed her to read. She's doing so well! Then to end the day we got to do Family History work with Kalila! :D So much fun! :D At the end of the day we had 5 lessons which was crazy awesome :D
Friday 19th:
That morning we were crazy and took a run outside. We hadn't run for ages but we did it anyway and realized on the way back home that it was quite cold and I was only wearing sweats, a t shirt, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes... Yeah next time we do that I'll be wearing a bit more haha! But don't worry... the cold never bothered me anyway ;D
I really enjoyed reading Alma 37:33-37 which is counsel to sons from Alma. Super good for me :) I also finished the Book of Ezra in the O.T. :) For lunch Elder Losee made us a Ham & Noodle casserole look alike which was awesome :D Thank you mac and cheese box recipes :D Later that afternoon I got a haircut at the same place that I did back in October. Boy they were impressed by my French! Even after only 2 months I've made a lot of progress. It was a nice confidence boost! I can understand people really well now but just now I need to strengthen my vocabulary and using the less common tenses of verbs. But I know it's all thanks to the Gift of Tongues that I am able to do it :D Gifts of the Spirit are the bomb! :D
That night we taught Robert the Plan of Salvation by drawing it out and using scriptures. He had trouble understanding it at the beginning but then when it was all drawn out it clicked for him which was so cool to see! At the end he asked us if we prepared that for him and we didn't really know how to respond but then he said that it came from God and that he had some personal things he needed to fix. We haven't even talked about repentance too much with him yet so this was so awesome! Then we rushed over to help Kalila with a new aquarium and so we talked to the guy who was delivering it. Turns out he's a baptist pastor so we had an awesome discussion on Christ and the Gospel. We were all really happy to have the most part of things in common. Cool experiences!
Saturday 20th:
I studied D&C 138 for my language study and I had what I call the "Alma Desire Syndrome". Alma has a chapter where he talks about how he wants to preach as an angel with the voice of a trumpet and how he should be satisfied with what he's doing now but wants to do more haha. When I read 138 I wanted to just go to the spirit world right now and start being taught by the prophets and everything else in there. But I was very touched by verses 55 and 56 speaking of the Noble and Great ones. I felt like it was talking about me and it reminded me of the great responsability that I have as a blessed member of the church to share the gospel.
That afternoon though we moved Pauline into her new apartment. She moved into the 3rd floor... Yeah and there aren't really any young bucks around here in the church so the Missionaries were the brute force haha. But little miracle there was that we moved everything up even the big appliances and we were pretty spent and we saw the last thing that remained... The washer. We thought we were done for. But then a man passed by and offered his help. God sent! We got it up there are were only extremely exhausted and sore haha :) Had a lesson after that and miraculously it was decent haha :) But Alphonse had trouble accepting that the Fall of Adam and Eve was known to God beforehand. But he's serious about reading the Book of Mormon and we want to help him out!
Sunday 21st:
Such a fantastic Sunday! Miraculously we actually had something of a Christmas program. I was able to practice playing hymns during the week which was good because I played 7 Christmas hymns in sacrament meeting. I loved it! We also had the Clarks with us for the first time who just returned from their mission to Russia. He was stake president of all of Quebec at one point! We're really excited to work with them! After all our meetings we had a party put on by the Fremonts with food and decorations which was just fantastic! :D I'm very optimistic about the unti becoming a branch because all the members are doing fine again! Church didn't have any emergencies :D For dinner that night we tried a recipe from a book we had and I made oven roasted potatoes. They were so good using just a onion soup envelop and some vegetable oil. Reminded me of the potatoes Mom makes! :D Then that night we got to go around spreading the joy of Christmas which is just the best! :D I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK because it's just talking about Christmas all year long :D
So now for this week we have lots of plans! Even for tonight we're going to Longueuil for our Zone party and Zone meeting in the morning. Should be fantastic! Sorry again for no pictures this week! I'm pretty sure there will be some from my Skype call on Thursday! Can't wait to see all of you! :D
I love you so much! Have a wonderful white Christmas :D
Joyeux Noël et aussi souvenez-vous que le vrai raison est le Christ :)
(Merry Christmas and also remember that the real reason is the Christ)
I love you!
Love,
Elder Kennen Brooks :)
The Flash Mob that Kennen's stake did in Montreal on Dec. 6 was written about in this Mormon Newsroom Article.
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