I invite all of you to read over the Family Proclamation this week and ponder what you could maybe do to better follow the guidance it gives us. I know that doing so you will see slight but wonderful changes happen in your own lives :)
On to the week!
Monday the 15th:
It was pretty sweet because right after I finished emailing, I struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to me. All I did was ask if he was an author since I had been observing him for a while and then it ended by me giving him a Book of Mormon and some other materials. Amazing! :D
That evening we stopped by the Bentancur family to give Sr Bentancur a blessing. It was a sweet moment to see them trusting us enough to ask :) We shared from 3 Nephi 17 with them when Christ heals those among the Nephites because I had studied it for Marisela. It was great!
Then we visited Sr. Mingione. She had been a little confused and instead of reading 3 Nephi 18 she had read from 3 Nephi 17. So we finished it with her and really talked about the power and love of our Savior. The Spirit was very strong and when we asked her what the next step for her was, she committed to read the Book of Mormon every day. So awesome! :D
And to finish out we stopped by and saw Marisela who was pretty sick and we shared 3 Nephi 17 again because that,s what we had planned for her. Too good! :D
Tuesday the 16th:
We got caught in a snow storm on the way to Zone training meeting in Montreal so our 30-40 minute drive took 2 hours... But we made it and all was well :) During the meeting the snow turned to freezing rain which was fun :)
But the meeting was just wonderful. President focused on consecration some more and following up with us and the other trainings were very Change oriented in helping us change and keep changing. I loved it! :D
We went to the Mascouche chapel after having raided the Mission Office and there we found an ice rink for the parking lot haha :)
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| Frozen parking lot from our church |
Frozen Parking Lot Video
(see it on the blog)
We had a super quick and inspired study there before heading over to dinner. We had dinner with the Fonville. He's in the stake presidency and she's just the sweetest woman! They fed us a 4 course meal telling us that they only give the best to the missionaries. It was heaven :) But afterward we taught them about missionary work and set up another family mission plan with them. The names just flowed from them and they're going to do it all themselves in inviting these people to come closer to Christ. It was beautiful!
Then we visited Sr Casavant for the first time. She's Haitian and has a bit of a problem with the Book of Mormon. We asked her straight up what her concern was with it and she told us. Problem solved! So next time we're addressing it. Then we went on to read in 3 Nephi about Christ ministry because they, her and her daughtetr, weren't too familiar with it. Too good! :D
Wednesday the 17th:
We taught Mahmud again. Sadly he hadn't read so we read with him but then we focused on authority in the restoration. He doesn't have much of a Christian background as we're finding but he's learning quick which is great!
Then for dinner we were with the Vallejos family who are from Honduras. It was 90% Spanish and I felt so out of it haha! I'm going to learn some by listening but I'm very far from understanding cohesive conversation. But it'll come with time! The cool connection is that Fr. Vallejos works in Granby! Small world eh? :D
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| messing around with our infinity scarves... :) |
Thursday the 18th:
We went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders in Montreal which was fun. I went with Elder Oswald again. First we taught their investigator Fritz. He was pretty adamant about getting baptized in 5 years from now but during our lesson we tried to figure out why. We testified of the blessings of baptism so much and at one point the Spirit was so strong that I felt like he would for sure accept to be baptized sooner. But in that moment he opened up. The reason he couldn't be baptized soon is, in his own words, "I have multiple wives." Well I think we have a winner! So I had no idea what to say to that so I asked, "So what's the next step for you?" "To have one wife." I thought that was a great idea. But I was amazed how the Spirit worked on him and helped him open up to us.
Then we hit the bus system. That first bus ride I was frozen by inexperience and fear. I tried talking to some people but no one said a word back to me... The second bus ride though I got talking with a younger guy and ended up getting his phone number! It was a great victory :)
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| Elder Oswald |
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| Elder Hunter from my first district |
Friday the 19th:
We got back to our own area by lunch time in time to do weekly planning. We got a call from the Bentancurs during it cancelling our lesson for that night. Their reasoning: The boys are going to the chapel to help clean it and then they have an activty after. Then they also needed to go get new church clothes for the 12 year old because he grew out of his old ones. It was probably the best cancellation call I have ever had on my mission. Then we got out to pass by people and we got some good things done! New phone numbers and more faces are now known!
Saturday the 20th:
We got to teach Fr. Bienvenue's mother in law again. It was beautiful! We taught her the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong during it! At one point she asked if she would have to be baptized in the US when she goes back if she gets baptized in Canada. That question gave me a lot of hope. We invited her to a specific date but she isn't too sure. We'll keep working though because she's open and progressing well! I love teaching her because we say something very simple to Fr. Bienvenue and then he repeats it to her in Creole and expounds a little as inspired by the Spirit. So awesome :)
In the hour following we got three lessons set up with new investigators for this next week. We're super excited to see how they turn out :) Then we had dinner at Amir, a lebanese restaurant that I love for its shawarma and shish taok :) When Elder Barreiro took his first bite he looked at me and said, "What are you doing to me? It's so good!" Then I replied, "I'm turning you into a cultured man." Haha I love the food out here :)
We passed by a former investigator right after and he, Arnaud, let us in. We got talking and he had some good questions for us about why we're serving and what he get out of it. Then he went on to doctrinal questions. One he had was where did John the Baptist learn to baptize? He said other religions had never answered this question. I loved it because I knew the answer. I turned to the end of Moses 6 in the Pearl of Great Price and recounted how Adam was baptized and that baptism has always been a part of the gospel. He was impressed because he'd never heard that before obviously. But it's assuring to know that we have all the answers and that the Spirit testifies to us that it's all true :)
We then visited the Bentancur family which was amazing. All the boys had gotten haircuts and were looking super sharp. We started with our plan to talk about the family and eventually move into a goal of getting sealed. We worked from the Family Proclamation and it was just clockwork. Then as we talked with them it came up that the Bishop had been over recently and they had the goal to get to the temple as a family. It was the happiest moment. The keys really felt aligned and then we got to testify of the sealing power and eternal families. They are wonderful! They're all on track and said they would come to church the next day. SO HAPPY! :D
Sunday the 21st:
We had a great correlation before church and got some good things set up for the week. Then we had a special ward council with the stake leaders for Ward Conference. The Stake really has the vision of doing the work of salvation right. I enjoyed actively participating in the conversation too. I'm not really shy when it comes to councils haha :)
It was so sad though when the Bentancur family didn't show up for sacrament meeting :( It was the first big disappointment for Elder Barreiro but I told him that there's always next week and that we can't control people's agency or what happens in their lives to stop them. (Later that evening we stopped by to see what happened and it turned out an employee needed help at work so they had to go.)
But after the third hour where we got trained on the purpose of priesthood quorums, our Elder's Quorum President took us aside and said that he's mixing things up a little bit with the way he's running things. He's been reading Handbook 2 and he says he's going to do it "Utah Style." I loved it haha!!! But really he's doing it by the book which is awesome :) really excited to see what comes of it.
Then we had dinner with the Blondin family which was great. They had a folder for their Family MIssion Plan which was awesome :) Then we finished the night passing by some people such as the Bentancurs and Sr Casavant where we met her other son. Life is good!
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| Snazzy Sunday Selfie :) |
Things are really picking up here! The Lord is blessing us abundantly and I am so excited to see what's next!
I love you all so much!
Love
Elder Brooks :)
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