Zarahemla Week 2

On the top of Mount Royal

This week has been awesome! So many cool things, I don't even know where to start!

This week was focused mostly on finding investigators. We don't have a car, so we walk, bus, and metro a lot. I've been struggling with finding a little bit, mostly because it's sort of scary to talk to random people who seem like they want to avoid you, especially in a different language. We try to talk to Latinos when we run across them, but most of our contacting is in French. My trainer is super good at French though, and is fluent in Spanish, so he's really been helping me a lot. For language study, I read the Book of Mormon in French aloud to him, and he corrects me when I make pronunciation mistakes (which is probably the hardest thing in French). He's really great.

Elder Tueller and Elder Brenchley are in our apartment, but in a different zone.

We also have had quite a few lessons, and we have a few people we're trying to get baptized who are pretty close. We have been teaching this family, Jesus and Yeni and their kids, and they are really close. They have some issues that need to be resolved before baptism though, but none of their problems are within their control so it's frustrating to just wait. But when everything is resolved I'm sure they're going to be baptized! When we taught them earlier last week, they took us out to a Haitian restaurant which was SUPER GOOD. I had never had Haitian food before, but it was amazing. The restaurant was a bit sketchy, of course, but it was super authentic. There are a TON of Haitians out here, especially in the areas that we usually teach. Their French is hard to understand, and a lot of the older Haitians only speak Créole. But they're all awesome and super friendly (and of course make AMAZING food).

The cinnamon muffins I've made (three times) - they're a hit!

We also are teaching the husband of a member, Daniel, who is also pretty close to baptism. They had us over for lunch the other day and they are super nice. They're both from Mexico, as is my companion, so they love each other. It's funny being the odd gringo out, and a lot of investigators and members joke around with me about it, which is funny. They're all super helpful and patient with me learning Spanish.

One amazing thing about living in the Spanish area is having all the food appointments. They all LOVE feeding the missionaries, and it's always super good, authentic food from tons of different Latin American countries. This week we're eating at a Mexican's, Honduran's, and a Dominican's house, and I'm super excited to try their food. French areas usually only get one or two dinner appointments a month, so we're super lucky to get a ton. I hope I don't get fat!

The exact spot that I took a picture with my family a few months ago-crazy!

Everything is going super well. I'm loving Montréal, it's so diverse which is awesome. I'm loving my trainer and my other roommates, and we all get along well. Although it's really hard and tiring sometimes, I'm so happy to be here.

Love you all so much, hope everything is going well.

Elder James