This week has been a big change! I still have to pinch myself every so often that I'm serving in Montreal! It's super cool and a dream sometimes :) Some info about the Area as that we cover about a third of the actual island but mostly we are in Mount Royal, downtown, LaSalle and Verdun :) We have a nice 2015 Chevy Equinox to drive and all but yeah :) I'll fill you in more as I go on :)
Monday the 17th:
After emails and all we visited Angie and Drake briefly and ate lunch with them. They're just great :)
That evening we had dinner at the Guerards one last time and had a wonderful discussion afterwards. As we talked about the Plan of Salvation it was said that "He's got a plan and it has your name on it." God really does have a personal plan for each one of us and to know what it is we only have to ask him about it :) Then we got to visit Brother Lytle which was a joy. We had a good lesson but then he asked us for a priesthood blessing which was so amazing. I really tried to pray for Elder Spencer who was pronouncing the blessing and I could literally feel the power of the priesthood tingling in my fingers. It was amazing and Elder Spencer gave a very inspired blessing :) Such a great experience :)
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| Angie and Drake |
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| Us and Brother Lytle :) |
Tuesday the 18th:
Tuesday we did a lot of moving things around and getting apartments ready. It was so hot too which wasn't too good. But we were able to visit Annalee again and she is just awesome and her family too :) Jared made my name in pipe cleaners and also wrote me a note. Then Annalee shared an experience with us that she was having doubts one night but as she looked off into the night she saw some lights which reminded her of the Tree of Life in 1 Nephi 8. Then she pushed forward and got past her doubts. So cool :) They were really sad to see me go which was bittersweet :) She's so close to being baptized! :D
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| Jared |
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| Angela and her family :) (Note the Family Proclamation on the wall.) |
Then in the evening we got to visit the Browers and the Schuberts :) I'll miss them a lot :) At the Schuberts we had a delicious dinner and then for our lesson afterward we talked about ways to prepare spiritually to do missionary work followed up with setting up a Family Mission Plan. I was super surprised about how much their little 11 year old son was involved in suggesting names of people they know :)
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| The Brower Boys |
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| The Schuberts |
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| A Large Chocolat Favoris cone :) |
Then for the rest of the evening I packed and got things all ready to go. I read Jared's note and one point and just about cried. He thanked me for teaching him about Jesus and the gospel and said that he would pray for my safety. Wow. So amazing the change in him from someone who didn't know much about God to having his heart changed :) That's why we do missionary work. The gospel changes lives :)
Wednesday the 19th: TRANSFERS
Friday the 21st:
Transfers was just crazy. We had our bus ride out to Montreal leaving pretty early in the morning. It was pretty relaxed at the Mission Office for a while. We were just waiting around for the assistants and President to arrive with the new missionaries. Then as they walked in the door it was Go-Go-Go. I jumped in asking how I could help and soon we were running around getting the van ready and getting people where they needed to go. We talked to the new missionaries some and they seem like a solid bunch :) But right after we had finished we rushed off with Elder Mataoa to get him to the airport for his flight heading home to Australia. we barely got him there on time which was a miracle! Then that evening we spent some time at the mission home with the departing missionaries before we whisked another missionary off to the airport. It was fun talking with them and asking them advice and what not :) We finally got home and soon after hit the bed. Exhausted :)
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| Elder Hunter and Elder Pilling from my first district :) Elder Pilling went home. |
Thursday the 20th:
In the morning we went over to the Mission Home to make breakfast for the departing missionaries. Then we loaded up the van and got their luggage to the airport :) Then it was back to regular missionary life with District meeting and trying to visit people :) We had some ward meetings that evening. These members are awesome and I'm excited to serve with them :)
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| Elder Pesquiera :) (Elder Pesquiera is from Orem) |
Friday was a regular day in all means :) We had a full study morning and then weekly planning in the afternoon, planning for zone conferences this transfer as well as all of the exchanges we have to do. It's pretty exciting and really busy :) that evening we had Fr. McKinlay with us and we tried to visit a lot of people and in the end had a lesson with Jamond. Sadly though he is moving but it was good to talk about the Book of Mormon :)
Saturday the 22nd:
In the morning we got to help out a less-active clean out his apartment some because he's moving soon. But midway we went and taught a lesson to a man who wasn't too keen on changing but we left on good terms :) We also got to meet Frère Esteve from Haiti :) We talked about prayer and had a great spiritual lesson together :)
For dinner we were over with the Morice family :) We set up a family mission plan with them and it was all things that are going to happen in the next two weeks with us involved :) Super exciting :) In the evening we took Matt, a 17 year old Haitian priest who is awesome :) We visited Phil, an ami and talked about how the Spirit changes our desires and ultimately our heart. Phil has a lot of health problems and so his heart is in the right place but his health makes it difficult. He wants to be baptized but is still blocked by his limited capacities.. We gave him a blessing though and we could tell that he was doing a lot better then :)
Sunday the 23rd:
It was a jam packed day :) Before church we got to visit Kaspar, an ami from Haiti. He's pretty much a regular rasta looking guy but has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We read from 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's vision and discussed the analogy it is for our life. Sadly he wasn't coming to church because he doesn't feel comfortable with the clothes he has to wear so we're going to work on helping him get some Sunday clothes from members and such :)
Then we had Ward Choir. We were doing some hymnplicity haha :) It was kind of funny though when our accompanist was having some trouble so they asked if anyone played piano and Elder Lund volunteered me and I was able to sightread the piece. So now I've been labeled as the musical missionary even here already haha :) But I'm ok with that :) It's a chance for me to share my talents.
I got to be the youth speaker for 5 minutes which was fun :) I spoke about 4 things we can do to better feel the Holy Ghost which turned out to practically be President Young's 4 S's. I used 1. Knowing how the Spirit talks to us, 2. Praying for the Spirit, 3. Studying the Scriptures, and 4. Doing good :) It was great :) The rest of our meetings were just great and the Spirit was very strong.
After church I got to meet more of the members and then one of the counselors in the bishopric invited us to the kitchen for dinner :) The Narcisos (originally from Brazil) are fantastic and now they've given us a standing invite for dinner every week. So awesome! :D
The ward is really great though and they are really catching the mission of the work of salvation :) That evening we got some things set up but much fell through last minute. It was a little miracle though when we were able to set up a visit with a less active family at the last minute for 8:00. We visited Soeur Florian with her two younger boys accompanied by Fr. Guenin (a returned preach my gospel missionary :) ). We talked about sharing the light of Christ and the Spirit was so strong! It was just where the Lord needed us to be :)
So there's something of a look into my life this week :) Now things are going to continue being crazy for a couple weeks with Zone Conferences and trying to keep things running. This is going to be a great opportunity to serve others and become more Christlike.
Thank you so much for all of your love and support! I love you all so much and wish the best for you :)
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| Me and Elder Lund in the Office :) |
Love,
Elder Kennen Brooks de Montréal :)
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