Montréal East Week 13

Visiting Sister Peggy, Lolade and Busola with Taiwo 

Joyeux Noël! ¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas! It's been an amazing week; one of the best! We had so many miracles the past couple of days, and it's been so humbling! The Lord guides this work!

Christmas eve and Christmas day were amazing. We were able to visit so many cool people! One of the members (Costa) gave us a lot of toys, movies, books, and other stuff to give to some of the recent converts and people we are teaching who are struggling. We were able to wrap it all up and give them to some families that didn't have anything to give their kids for Christmas. It was a very tender experience. The kids were all so happy, and the parents were even more grateful. It was special. 

Visiting Chris and Sara

We also ate WAY too much food! Every time we visited someone, we got a new plate of food. In the span of 4 hours, I had eaten more food than I had probably eaten in the past week! Jamaican food, Nigerian food, Dominican food, French food, Venezuelan food, more Nigerian food, etc. It was so much fun! It was awesome to be there for a lot of people who are usually fairly alone for Christmas. It made my Christmas one of the best in my life; one I will always cherish. And it wasn't about any of the gifts I had received, or the family I was able to see, or the food I was able to eat, it was simply being able to spend time and do little acts of kindness to others and lifting up their spirits. Through those acts, we were able to become conduits through which the love of Christ was able to touch those around us. It's a very humbling experience, and also allows us to remember the love that Christ has for us. It is indisputably the best feeling in the world.

Visiting Sister Sang, her sister, and one of her friends 

I hope you had an amazing Christmas filled with gifts, family, and food (of course!), but most of all I hope you were able to taste of the true spirit of Christmas as you spread His love to those around you. And, if not, it doesn't have to be Christmas to be able to do that! Christ's love is infinite and exists at all times of the year, not just during Christmas. I invite you to keep spreading His love through little acts of kindness every day, and the same wonderful spirit we all feel during the Christmas season will remain for the rest of the year. I love you all so much, and again I wish you a Merry Christmas!

Elder James

Montréal East Week 12

Merry Christmas from Elder Clark and Elder James!

We had a very interesting week! It was very busy, we had zone conferences and transfer planning every day last week, as well as transfers these past couple of days. It's been busy, but it goes to show how much the Lord helps us as we do our best with the time we have! It's amazing!

Montreal Ward District 

Olamilekan has not been able to be baptized yet, since he's been working in Québec city 6 days out of the week, coming back sporadically. It's been hard to contact him, but the Lord took care of that. We had contacted a couple outside on the street, and helped them carry some stuff into their apartment. We talked to them for a little bit, got their information, then went back down to exit the building. I realized as we were going down that we were in Olamilekan's building, and he happened to walk out of his door right when we walked by! He wasn't even supposed to be home! He had called us saying he couldn't see us that morning, but he had gone back to his apartment to get something briefly, then we ran into him as he was going back out! We were able to walk and talk with him for about 20 minutes! It really was a miracle since we haven't even been able to call him for a long time. His job will be done in January though, and he wants to get baptized! It'll be cool!

On Mount Royal with Elder Clark

Elder Clark got transferred yesterday, which has been sad. We got along really well! He went to Petawawa, which is an area pretty far away on the other side of Ottawa. He's training a new missionary, then he'll go home in 3 months. It's pretty exciting! My new companion is Elder Smith, who is super cool. He's been in my zone before, so I knew him a little bit before. He's from Colorado and has been out one transfer more than me. He's awesome! We're going to have a fun transfer together.

Brother and Sister Alika's baby, one of the cutest in the ward 

Well, I hope all is well. I'm excited for Christmas, It's going to be awesome to spend some time with those who are struggling and alone. Easily the best Christmas present I can get! I love you all so much, I hope you have a merry Christmas!!

Elder James

Montréal East Week 11

Elder Clark likes taking pictures when I'm not aware. 

  He's too artsy. (But Elder James' mom loves them!)

Hello! Another great week has gone by here in Montreal, and things are going well as always! We had a lot of work to do this past week; we had a couple of exchanges which were fun, and had an overall good week! Here are some highlights.

We spoke enough Haitian Creole to merit a dinner with one of the
Haitian families in the ward. It was delicious! 

Last Wednesday we had a pretty cool experience with the Lungu family, who I believe I talked about last week who gave us delicious Galuşte. We connected with them really well, so they wanted us to meet and start teaching their friend who is also from Moldova. She loved food, so we were invited with the intent of teaching them how to make tortillas. But, the whole time we were making tortillas we were able to talk about God and teach. It was awesome! It was a good example of how we need to really connect with people before they will be open to learning about the gospel. You can't find everyone just by knocking. If we knocked into her door instead, she probably wouldn't have accepted to learn more. Preach My Gospel talks about using every way of finding possible rather than sticking to one method, and it really is true!

Exchanges with Elder Kunzler

We got to go to Ottawa on exchanges last Thursday which was super fun. I had never been over there besides zone conference, so it was cool to get a better feel of it! I went on exchanges with Elder Kunzler, and we had a great time. I learned a lot from him, which is the great thing about exchanges!

Two Nigerian girls stole my camera and toon a bunch of pictures. They're adorable.

We also got to go on exchanges with the Montreal Est Elders, and Elder Purahui came with me to our area. He is from Tahiti and actually came into the mission with me! He is super cool; I've come to love all the Tahitian missionaries over here a lot. I have to visit now! It was an awesome day. We hadn't had a ton of time to do work in our area, but the Lord made up for it! We were able to get a lot of work done. We found lots of people, got to teach a bunch of lessons, and we were busy the whole day! It was awesome! It was definitely the Tahitian faith.

The cellar of the Fromagerie

On Monday we went to Quebec City for zone conference. In Montréal there's a few inches of snow, but up there it was almost 3 feet in some places! Crazy! On the way down, we took our dinner time and stopped at a really good Fromagerie that is one of President's favorites (he is a really big cheese connoisseur). It was delicious! We got two really good kinds of cheeses that are some of the best I've ever had in my life. Some French missionaries serving in this mission have said that the really good cheese here is actually comparable to the stuff in France, so it's the real deal! I'll attach some pictures of the place. It was awesome!

We got to try some of their best cheeses that they make on the property 

Well it's been a great week again, things are great. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to email any of you this week, our p day was cut very short since we have to prepare and drive to Ottawa tonight for zone conference there tomorrow. I do love all of you though, and I hope you're doing well!

Elder James

Montréal East Week 10

An awesome Nigerian family we taught
who insisted on taking a picture after the lesson

December is finally here! Which means it's getting colder and colder, but also closer and closer to Christmas! We've already been doing a lot with the Light the World initiative, and it's been cool to start bringing some joy and happiness into others' lives at Christmas time. We started out on December 1st (designated as the day of service) by cleaning out an elderly couple's apartment. We went all out, and they were so appreciative! It was fun just to be of a little help. We don't have to do something big to make a difference in someone's life; doing service really is simple! I love Christmas in the mission!!

Exchanges with Elder Jeronimo    

Last week, I got to go on exchanges to Kirkland with Elder Jeronimo! It was fun to be together again in our area; it felt like nothing had changed. One of the families that we found together got baptized, and I was able to see them again. It was super awesome! Our ward mission leader Brother Parsons also took us out to eat which was fun. It was good to see him again. It was so great to just do missionary work together again! I've missed Elder Jeronimo; he's a great one!

Last Friday, I had a really interesting experience with Elder Ramos Chen, a newer missionary (whose mom is Chinese, dad is Mexican, lived in Mexico for a third of his life and China for most of the rest, fluent in Chinese, Spanish, English, and French). Neither of his parents are members, and he got permission to call them via skype and teach them, and I was able to join since his companion only speaks Chinese. It was such a tender experience to teach his family. It was special for their son to teach them about the importance of families and how families can truly be together beyond this life; it made a big impact on them.

Exchanges with Elder Myers in Longueuil
(City south of Montréal)    

We've been working a lot with Taiwo and our other recent converts, and they've been doing really well. Taiwo has been out teaching with us a few times already, and he's great! He's going to get the Priesthood this upcoming Sunday, and I'm super excited for him. We're also hopefully going to go to the temple with him pretty soon which will be fun. All of the recent converts are doing great!

It's been a wonderful week—things are going amazingly well over here. I'm excited for the Christmas season, and I hope we make the best of it! I hope you all have a great Christmas season, and remember to Light the World!

Elder James