What a week! Especially compared with our last one, this week was a world of difference! We got to see miracle after miracle which is the best feeling ever! :D
This week President Patrick shared with us the "Faith Ladder" from a general authority who came to visit recently. I'm going to skip over the first 3 levels but level 4 consists "I'm good enough and I will succeed by following the Spirit." A big change to level 5 though is this: "The Lord is good enough and I can be an instrument in his hands." We have really focused on that mentality this week and it changes everything! But really like many have said, the Lord is hastening his work and we are simply trying to keep up the pace so that we can partake in the blessings. When we let go of the reins and rely on the Lord instead, he always makes things better than we could have on our own. I hope you will be able to see how this mentality affected me this week in the work :)
Monday 9th:
That night we visited the Gasniers planning to just start reading the Book of Mormon with them but when we arrived they were prepared with questions. So for an hour we answered questions and it was awesome! It showed us that they really want to learn and are worried about doing things right. Most of it was all Plan of Salvation based too so it was great to teach them some pure doctrine :)
Tuesday 10th:
Tuesday we had a huge thaw! It was +7 C! (45 F) :D There was so much water everywhere haha! We had a great lesson with Mara reteaching the Restoration. She shared with us that she's had a little voice in her head telling her how to do things and everytime she followed what it said, things turned out great! It was so cool to hear her explain how the Holy Ghost works so simply and how she's already seeing massive blessings in her life :) That night we gave Sister Kosta a family mission plan. At the beginning she said that missionary work is way too hard but at the end she was pulling out names of all the people that are practically ready to accept the gospel! We ended with seeing Gustave. We talked a lot about how to receive answers to prayers. In the lesson I was impressed to share Alma 5:45-46 which was planned at all. It was so inspired because it spoke about fasting which he had never heard of before so now he's going to try fasting out! So cool!
Wednesday 11th:
We had the zone leaders with us at District Meeting which was fun. Elder Regnier, one of the them, shared a comment he had about when he heard about us being dropped so much last week. He said that Granby better watch out because Elder Noel and I were going to be bring some fire haha! Watch out Granby! Then that night we went out knocking and had miracles! We've been very selective with knocking which is how I feel it should be. But in just an hour we had success! One of the houses we knocked on, I could clearly smell some pot and the first thing I noticed about the guy who answered was that his long wavy hair was pretty much tie-dyed. Pretty rad! But after explaining some things he let us in and we had a lesson! Inside he had tons of pictures of Christ all over, covering the walls which was cool. His name is Mathis and he's actually trying to quit smoking and turn his life around. Perfect opportunity for the Atonement to work some wonders!
Thursday 12th:
We were able to go back and see Mathis again and review the Restoration. Then we talked about baptism a little more and committed him to a date to be baptized! Woohoo! Sadly later our entire evening fell through which included 3 scheduled lessons. But we were able to spend an hour and our dinner time at Tim Hortons helping Fr Boulanger get his iPad set up. Then we went back to the same street as Mathis but knock the other side and we had awesome experiences! First door we knocked was a Jehovah's Witness super nice and had a good gospel discussion but she wasn't interested. Then the second door the man let us is in! His name was Reynold and he loves praying, all the time, morning, noon and evening! But he actually doesn't know how to read or write (he's in his 60's or 70's) so we taught him with pictures. We shared the Restoration and then talked about baptism showing him a picture of Christ and Jean-Baptiste and he replied "well if Christ was baptized like that then everyone needs to!" He was down and we committed him to a date as well! Then a little bit further down the street we talked to a guy about the Book of Mormon without saying the title and he knew what it was! He said that missionaries had given him one 7 years ago! Crazy world! People were truly placed in our path!
Friday 13th:
We helped Fr Donovan paint his basement all morning which was fun :) But recently his sister in law moved in with them and so we got to meet her.
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| Painting get up :) |
After all was done, Fr Donovan asked for a blessing and we did it in front of the sister in law. She was crying by the end of it so we offered her one too and she accepted. It was such a touching experience! After she said she felt a warmth flow through her during it. That's the power of the priesthood! It comes straight from God.
That afternoon we met with Nannette with the Fremonts and read through Alma 32 with her. She really liked it because she worked with plants a lot once. But at the end we talked about baptism and how we feel she is ready to take the step. Then we committed her to be baptized and she accepted! Woohoo! :D Later we also got to have a little lesson with "Le Mage Martial" who pretty much is a wise old man/wizard who loves God and has written "the Ultimate Testament". He's probably one of the most interesting people I have ever met haha but super cool! :) His advice for us was to keep the spirit/mind free! (Spirit and Mind can be the same word in french...) We celebrated Gustave's birthday with him a little too :) Knocked a little and found a super open woman named Charissa. After we had talked a little at the door she asked, "so what do I do?" So we committed her to read and set up a lesson! :D Then we had our best lesson yet with Manuel and Melanie talking about authority. His questions at the end lead perfectly into the Restoration so we're finally making progress!
Saturday 14th:
We went walking down Principale a lot which is always interesting to see who will be placed in your path :) But while we were waiting for the Lévesques later for a lesson, Charissa who we met the day before drove past and called out "See you tomorrow!" What a great sign that was for us :D We had a great lesson with Reynold then. Whereas the lesson before he said he had never received an answer to his prayers, when we asked him about praying he said he prayed about us missionaries and then afterward there was a warmth that came. He said he feels like he's on the right track in his life finally finding the truth :D I love the Holy Ghost! :D We had another lesson with Mathis right after and called him to repentance which is great :) It's going to take some work but where there's a will there's a way! Later that night we stopped by Mathis again and gave him a white shirt and tie we had kicking around for church tomorrow :D
Sunday 15th:
Such a fantastic day! At church we had Marquis show up for the first time and he was in a slick suit! So awesome! Then Nannette showed up with the Fremonts. And finally right before 9:30, Mathis showed up in his shirt and tie with the Lévesques! :D It was awesome! The meetings were great and in Priesthood Marquis and Mathis participated! :D Afterward they both told us they really liked it :) Marquis even said he'd be back the next week! :D Right after church we had a mega correlation meeting of getting down to business and getting the work hastening with members in the ward. So cool to see Fr Boulanger taking charge :)
That afternoon we went and had our first lesson with Charissa and Fr Donovan. She is just naturally a good person which is so refreshing! She loves reading and already started the Book of Mormon and talked to us about it some :) So we taught her all sorts of things for her questions and the Restoration too and at the end we committed her hard core to read and pray to find out if it's true because the Bible could be just a good story to her too. But she'll get her answer if she really asks :) That night we taught Adrianna and Jeffrey the Plan of Salvation. It went well but during the closing prayer I had an interesting experience. One of the cats jumped down on me from behind and was perched on me during the prayer. I couldn't help but snicker a little but then the cat fell off and tried to catch on to stop itself which ended up with the cat sinking it's claws into my shoulder... yeah that didn't feel good... But hey! The body is temporary! ;)
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| My battle wounds from a prayer... Cat got me with all 4 claws! |
So there's our week! :D I have seen so many miracles this week because God took care of it all! When we had nothing to do we went out and he placed people in our path and led us to people as well. He is the one doing all the work here and we're just along for the blessings and the ride haha :)
Today we stopped by the Chocolate Museum in Bromont for Elder Noel and to do something fun for P-Day haha :) Later we're going thrifting! Who knows what we'll find ;D
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| Back at la Musée du chocolat de Bromont! |
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| Just to clarify in case you thought that Quebecois is the same as Canadian ;) |
I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and don't forget to thank God for all you have!
Love,
Elder Kennen Brooks :)
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