(There were no pictures sent this week.)
I heard that quote while listening to a talk this week :) When we work hard and use our time wisely, sometimes the days will feel super long but then when we look back we will have accomplished so much in a time that then seems small :) Use your time wisely! :D
So hello it's Tuesday and I'm in the library... weird... But I guess that's what happens because practically every holiday here is on Monday. Oh well! We make do :)
This morning I was reading in 3 Nephi 28 about the 3 Nephite disciples who asked to tarry on the earth until the second coming. I loved verse 39 which talks about the change made in them. It talks about how they were changed so that Satan could have no power over them because they had become truly sanctified. Pondering about that I found that it is the same for us. When we are truly sanctified and consecrating our time and energy to the Lord, Satan can have no power over us as well. I like that a lot because I'm super weak and like Nephi I am encircled by temptations that beset me easily (2 Nephi 4). But with the Lord and through the power of his Spirit which sanctifies us, we are invincible!! :D How's that for a promise! :D
So this week, seek the Spirit more each day in all that you do. But in practice 2 Nephi 32:9 and I promise that you will see that temptations will have so much less power over your. They may not go away but your back will be strengthened to bear the burden :) (Mosiah 24)
(Goodness I'm paraphrasing scriptural stories all over the place!)
Now the week!
Monday 11th:
I got my haircut and it feels good :) We got to teach Armand again and he had made it all the way to 1 Nephi 14! Amazing! Only after a week even! :D We also left him Alma 22 and he read it too!!! He loved it! :D He is hungry for the Book of Mormon as he put it :) But honestly he is praying every day and reading too which helps him have questions and then find answers through both mediums. He's a star student :)
Tuesday 12th:
I read the brunt of the war chapters that day and I think the biggest comparison I make in them is that it is a How-To guide for our spiritual war with Satan. We make our preparations and then we hold off on offense because it is sure Satan will attack us. But that is when we are strengthened by the Lord and we win every single time :)
We spent the afternoon with Fr Boulanger. First we taught Michon who needs a little more faith. He says he has faith in God but then nothing comes of it and he doesn't really believe God can do miracles. Then we saw Oscar and taught him the Word of Wisdom because he drinks a lot. He accepted it but might be doing it just to because we asked him too. We're still trying to light the fire in him! That night we saw Sylvain over at the Levesques. We watched the Restoration film with him and when we asked what he thought about it afterward he said, "Oh yeah I believe it". Haha too cool. But we encouraged him to seek further confirmation in reading and prayer.
Wednesday 13th:
I finished Alma and I just love it so much :) So many wonderful stories and examples of living the Gospel :) After district meeting I brought Elder Hulet of St Jean back with me. We saw Armand again. This time he was up to 2 Nephi!! Amazing! We went over Alma 32 with him and in explaining the analogy of the seed we asked him how we can nourish the seed in our hearts. He then went on to list the three things in the promise of Moroni 10:3-5. We then read that to show him that he had hit it right on :) Armand is the best! We also saw Sylvain. We were super surprised because he told us he had read a lot and when we asked where he showed us Alma 27...... He read half the Book of Mormon... Where do these people come from!!! Sylvain has all the right answers and has the right spirit about it all but he doesn't retain everything we explain so we review stuff a lot with him. But he knows he's on the good path! That night we had a rough lesson with a former investigator. Coming out of it I didn't feel like I had the Spirit but before we got out of the car again I prayed to get the Spirit back and it was amazing how subtily it came back and I immediately knew that it was :)
Thursday 14th:
Elder Noel came back from St Jean with a typewriter :) It's way too cool and fun :) We taught Père Marcel our catholic priest about the Gospel of the simple 5 things - Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. It makes me sad that for him it is so complicated and took years to learn about it in school. I'm so grateful for the simplicity of the Book of Mormon like how Nephi says he delights in plainness at the beginning of 2 Nephi 31. Later we got to teach Santino for the first time officially. He is the father of the African family who came to church a couple times. He's going to be a long term project because the language barrier is huge. But he likes church a lot and he is even trying to convince his pentacostal wife haha! :D
We had dinner with the Solomons that night of delcious crêpes :) Super quebecois :) Then right after we took Fr Solomon with us to teach Nannette which was awesome! He was all fired up because he'd been preparing some talks for the coming month and so he got excited to come teach with us. He was a champ though! I love working with members :) Then we passed by Sylvain before heading home... I was dumbfounded... He had spent 3 hours reading the Book of Mormon and highlighting so much. A crayon we gave him the day before was 1/4 gone... Crazy people here :)
Friday 15th:
We went to the dentist for Elder Noel which went well. We went to the one where Sr Gabriel works. (and later we found out it led to some missionary experiences for them!) Then we went out to lunch with the Wus at Casa Grecque (My third time there with them haha :) ) We had a good encouragement lesson with Michon from 2 Nephi 4. We're hoping he'll start making more progress because it's slow with him right now. Then we got to teach Armand. He had trouble understanding Mosiah 18 some. We talked over his question and he said that it came down to that he doesn't feel ready for baptism because he has some sins still. I like that a lot because he understands how important it really is but we assured him that we were here to help him get ready. He mentioned that his flesh is weak so we shared Alma 26:12 about Ammon. He said "THAT'S ME!|" I love when the scriptures come alive for people :) Then we committed him to 20 June! :D Woohoo! :D
As we were walking out of that appointment we saw a guy with a guitar on his back so we talked to him. I played a little on it and the guy felt my groove :) Then once I stopped the first words that came out of his mouth were "so what church are you from?" I felt so awesome! I felt like Ammon winning the heart of King Lamoni who used his talents of chopping off arms :) My talent wasn't as brutal or heroic but it was still a great opportunity! Then he showed us the bible he was carrying around and we gave him a Book of Mormon and got his info :) Too cool!
Saturday 16th:
It was such a physical day. To start, we did on-offs in the morning of sprinting between telephone poles and walking every other one. I loved reading 3 Nephi 4 about the huge war of wars between the people of God and the gadianton robbers :) Too cool with them :) Then in the afternoon we took a walk with Kalila and Lolo, played soccer with Ravi, and helped Oscar's mom set up a garage sale. I was so tired... Did I mention it is really hot too haha :) Living the life! But it felt good to help people out and create some ties with people like Ravi especially :) That night we got to have dinner with the Gasniers which was quite the treat :) We had bacon spaghetti :)
Sunday 17th:
Armand and Sylvain came to church again :) I really enjoyed the Gabriel's talks. They're a young hip couple and Fr Gabriel has a missionary fire still burning strong in him :) Sr Lassalle is leaving on a long vacation again so she said goodbye to me. She's the best and even offered her home to come back and visit in the future :) (Wink wink nod nod ;) )
After church we had hotdogs with Oscar for lunch :) and for dinner we were at the Gabriels. It was fun getting to know them some more :) That night we made a bunch of pass bys and got to meet a guy from the hoods of the US. We meet all sorts of people here in Granby which I really like. Then we talked to some people a little away who weren't interested at all at first. Then as we walked away they stopped us and asked a bunch of questions and really opened up, very impressed by what we do. They even were talking about how a lot of things were hidden from the world pertaining to religion. We showed them the Book or Mormon and it was so sad that they wouldn't take one because it explains the hidden things so easily!!! But everyone has free agency. We're are here to offer and not to force :)
Monday 18th:
So holidays are usually on Monday here haha :) We had a super busy day though. Right after studies we went over to the Solomons to help put up a canopy. Then we had lunch and talked with their friend they had over getting some good first contact in. We then taught Shelley out in Farnham about missionary work. By the end she had a Book of Mormon that she's going to give to her best friend :) So cool! We spent some time with Tania in the park, practicing my Spanish and her English haha :) We had another lesson with Santino which is just fun sometimes due to the languages haha. Then we taught Armand. He said he had some questions so we said a prayer and asked him what was on his mind. He asked why he needs to be baptized again so we explained authority and all even from D&C 22. He was sufficiently pleased which was awesome. Then we taught the second half of the Plan of Salvation which just went swimmingly :) He's a dream! :D
So today we finally got groceries again and Elder Noel got a haircut :) Life is going well :) We get some occasional rain storms, such as a huge thunderstorm last night which was cool :) But life is going well :)
This week we have Zone Conference on Thursday which I am pumped for! :D Then Saturday we have transfer calls... Anything could happen.... I've been here so long (almost 10 months). But whatever happens is for the best! :D
I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week :)
Elder Brooks :)
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