...Except there's no snow here at all. Yeah the weather has been super weird lately but that's not stopping our glad rejoicings of singing along to Christmas music all day! So I've decided to put my spiritual thought at the end of my letter this week. If you want a good quick boost then just skip to the end for it :)
Monday the 7th:
So we had a little miracle that night. Raul was at the Jaeger's place when we showed up! :D Woohoo! We share the Christmas video with him and he loved it so much that we watched it again. He was pointing out phrases that he really liked and it was just beautiful. Then we kept it all going by reading from Mosiah 3. It was awesome :) He even committed to share the video with his family :)
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| Beautiful sunset after emails last week :) (It was like 4:00...) |
Afterward we went back up north and had our first lesson with Rosine. She's a 17 year old Haitian that we met on the street a while back. She was super prepared. She'd already watched the A Savior is Born video and really liked it and she had read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. It was awesome! With Fr. Rainier, we were able to help her understand our purpose and get her looking towards baptism as the goal in bringing her closer to Jesus Christ. It was great! :D
Tuesday the 8th:
We got to visit Fr. Esteve that afternoon. We went over the Restoration pamphlet with him and all of the questions at the end. It was great! He opens up a lot more when we really give him time to think and prepare for our visits.
With Francois we went over the organisation of the Church with him with elements from chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel. He just drinks it all in! He's a star student!
We had dinner with Sr. Loudin which is a pleasurable visit centered on the Gospel as always. But at the end we shared briefly from Luke 15 about the three "lost" parables. Then we asked her if there was anything we could do to help her with her Family MIssion Plan and she said one person came to mind but she kind of brushed it off. But we didn't let her :) We asked her who it was and were able to get their information and help her heed a prompting :) It was awesome! (The referral was English though so we passed it off.)
Wednesday the 9th:
So we had our last district meeting all together. Sr. Kinghorn goes home this coming week which is crazy because she came out at the same time as me. Things are getting real now. In lieu of that we took district pictures :) We had our cheesy hand on the shoulder one as well as a classic standing pose haha :)
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| S. Kinghorn, S Gammon, E. Evans, E. Critchlow, E Ritz, E Brooks |
But right after, the Valleyfield elders followed us over to Francois'. Then he had his baptismal interview. He passed with flying colors like a champ! He's the best! :D
We did some transfer planning that afternoon but it got cut by President's family duties. It's cool to see how he prioritizes things. :) But then for dinner we were at the Narciso's as usual. They love it when I talk about Brazilian food :) (Thanks Mom! :D) But for dinner Sr. Narciso tried out a Yaki Soba which turned out so well! But it's great to have a good relationship with our bishop. We're able to help him a lot more and really be a benefit and not a burden.
After that we got to teach Sr Lovell with Fr. Massena. It was awesome! We talked about expectations. Fr. Massena talked a lot about having the desire to do things and to make time for the Lord even with the craziness of life. Members are powerful in lessons. But from that visit we set up with her that we are going to call her every morning to remind her to read and pray. Hopefully we'll be successful in this!
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| Christmas from home! So awesome! :D |
Thursday the 10th:
We taught Martin for maybe the last time that day. He hasn't been progressing despite our all our efforts so this lesson was our last ditch effort. He says he knows the Book of Mormon is true but he has never truly prayer about it out of fear of something...We tried so hard during that lesson but he just wouldn't budge on trying to really find out. But we invited him to Francois' baptism the Saturday following to see if he could have a good experience anyway.
Later we had dinner with the Wegners which is always fun. They made Butter Chicken. So good! Seriously my taste for food has changed so much on my mission. As we say in French, on est bien gâté! (We're super spoiled!) Then we visited Francois again. I realized during that visit with him that we've gotten super close to him due to all the time we've spent together in such a short period and all that we've shared together. He's literally been taught more by the Spirit than by us. It's beautiful! He's already talking about how we need to keep in contact for the rest of our lives! He's awesome :) But in that lesson we taught him about Missionary Work and then the Temple. It was great because he went to the open house so we could make reference to things he saw such as the sealing room and rooms of instruction. So awesome! :D
Friday the 11th:
First thing of the afternoon we visited Artois, Sr Loudin's son. He was super receptive to the Christmas video as well. Then we linked it to the Book of Mormon. Somehow we got talking about commandments and he asked if there were more that he didn't know about... We started listing off the ones we teach and we landed on the Word of Wisdom. He wasn't familiar with it so we pulled out some pamphlets and taught it to him right there! He loved it because it just made sense to him. So we invited him to live it and he committed! So awesome!
Later we had our last lesson with Francois before his baptism. It was a joy. Almost like hanging out with a good friend and talking about a few last things to wrap up all of his learning. He was so prepared before we even met him though. But he also has such a strong testimony. His prayers are powerful and he knows that he's heading towards eternal life now. I love him so much!
Saturday the 12th: Frank's Baptism!!!
In the morning we had some time with President in the Mission Home to look over the transfer and plan for the next coming weeks. He decided that we're going to do a partial transfer this week and then at our mission wide Christmas devotional we'll do the rest of the Elders. Rest assured Elder Ritz and I are staying :) But we're so excited for this! President got special permission from the Quorum of the 12 to do it with the entire mission :)
Afterward we headed down to the chapel and got the font filling. Everything went super smoothly. Francois was there early to get a jumpsuit on and so we could prep him. The service was just beautiful. Members did everything except the actual baptism which I did. The talks were wonderful and it just led up to the ordinance itself. It was a privilege to help him down into the font and to perform this saving ordinance for him. While we changed afterward he said that he felt so good and that he really knew that he was washed of all his sins. He even said that a usual pain in his leg was gone. Blessings in all aspects!
When we got back out to the group it was Francois' turn to bear his testimony. He started out by thanking everyone for coming and thanking us for teaching him. I was a little worried it would be a "thankimony". Then he said, "But none of this would have been possible... without the Atonement of Jesus Christ." I was floored. He then shared a beautiful testimony like I'd never seen before from a recent convert. This man is one special guy!
After the baptism we had food together. Then who shows up but Martin! He missed the entire baptism but he got to talk with some members, including Francois, and they encouraged him to really find out for himself. How's that! Seeing your recent convert testifying to one of your investigators! :D He's awesome! But it was good for Martin and hopefully it helped him realize some things.
We stayed at the church for the rest of the day. We practiced with the ward choir for the big stake wide concert that night. It was a joy! It really reminded me of all the musical performances I did at home which helped me feel good :) We sang Premier Noël and there were only two tenors so my voice was quite prominent haha :) It was great!
Sunday the 13th:
At the beginning of Sacrament Meeting Francois received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Elder Ritz gave him a beautiful blessing. Then we had the pleasure of seeing Everett pass the sacrament for the first time! :D What a joy! During Gospel Principles we filled in and taught about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was one of the best lessons I've ever taught and I think it was all because I strived to ask really inspired questions to provoke conversation. I loved it! And Francois was just a star student as always!
After church we got to visit Fr. Rodier who didn't come. He was pleased to welcome us and we got to help him focus more on the spiritual side of Christmas than the commercial side of it all. It was great! And for dinner we were at the Levielle's with the Narcisos. Our former and current bishops. It was a delight and the food was wonderful! We read from Alma 7 and had a great discussion about how we can share this message with others. It was a wonderful weekend indeed :)
It's been strange for Elder Ritz and I though. We know it's almost Christmas but the only thing that's really changed for us is what music we're listening too. We feel like our focus was already on Christ so we love it! then what gets in the way are all the commercial things that the world tries to throw at us to distract us from the real reason. But that doesn't work on us! We don't even use Facebook! Take that Babylon! ;D But really we're loving to see how many people are much kinder at this time and that we're able to really help the Spirit touch lives.
So my invitation for all of you: Take time to step back and think of our Infant Savior after he was newly born. Take time for the Savior as President Monson asked us in this month's Ensign. I have been abundantly blessed in taking time to just think and ponder on his life and all that it has brought me in my life. I know that our Savior lives. He was born to his saving purpose. He died and rose again to bring us even life everlasting. :) I love the Lord.
Angels We Have Heard on High by Elder Brooks
(Go to the blog to see the video.)
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Brooks :)
Elder Brooks :)
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