Zarahemla Week 32

Old Town Montreal with Erick and Alan

We had an awesome week! Alan got baptized on Saturday! It was amazing, one of the most spiritual baptisms I've ever been to. Alan bore pure testimony, and invited everyone to do missionary work. It was so cool! He's amazing! It was very ironic, we had a first lesson with him a little under a month before his baptism. We invited him to be baptized, but he just said, "how do you expect me to know that this is the true church in one month if I've been searching for 7 years!" And, fast forward (less than!) one month, and he gets baptized. It was such a miracle. We are going to play basketball with him and Erick today. It'll be fun! But here are some cool miracles we had this week!

Alan's baptism!

We taught Horacio a few times this week, and he is progressing well! We taught him the Restoration, and he understood the message very, very well. He's doing awesome! We gave him a baptismal date for the 20 of April, and he should be very ready by then. If we keep seeing him as frequently as we are right now, he will be great! He absolutely loves church, and was even inviting other people to come as well! It's so cool, he's such a cute old man. It's his birthday tomorrow, he's turning 81, and we found out the other day that he really likes chess. So, we bought a chess board for him and are going to go play some with him for his birthday tomorrow! He doesn't have any family or friends here, so he's pretty alone, so it'll be awesome to help him feel loved and have some fun celebrating his birthday together. It'll be awesome!

Ate Poutine in the Old Port with Alan and Erick

Leonardo is also doing amazing! He could totally be baptized this week, but we have Stake Conference then General Conference, which means we are going to have to do it the week after. He's doing amazing though, he loves the church. He's been making many sacrifices to be able to follow the gospel. He also came to Alan's baptism and really enjoyed it! He was asking lots of questions and is very excited for his own! The Lord really has been blessing us with lots of success, it's clear to see how much His hand guides the work. We do work hard, but all the results we see don't come from us at all! It's amazing!

We have been continually learning more about faith recently. It's so interesting and subtle, but when you feel your faith is at a high, you just see miracles all the time. It's so crazy! It's clear to see in finding, we work hard but then people just show up! Like Alan, we had a lot of faith we would find people who were ready to be baptized, and it wasn't any of the people that WE found, but he just showed up at church! It's very interesting, and exhilarating. We are excited to see the miracles the Lord has in store for us during the rest of the transfer!

Well things are going amazing! Things are starting to warm up now that it's spring, even though right now it's roughly -7 degrees. But we are hopeful that it will start warming up! I love you all so much, have an amazing week.

Zarahemla Week 31

Accidentally ran into Elder Clark in the mission office as he was
going home. I'm going to miss him a lot!

We've had another amazing week! Lots of miracles, and lots of work to be done! Alan, who we've been teaching for the past 5 weeks or so, is getting baptized this Saturday! We're super excited. We are going to be going to the Old Port with them today which should be fun! Here are some cool miracles we saw this past week!

Us with Alan and Erick!

We had a super cool miracle on Sunday, which really showed how much God loves all of us. We had a few appointments on Sunday evening, but many of them fell through. We went to a member's apartment to give a blessing, but he didn't answer his phone, so we decided to walk around and do contacting (we were in the Jean-Talon area where there are lots of Latinos). We were walking around, and we stopped a Latina woman to talk to her. We happened to stop right in front of the apartment building door of someone we are teaching. After a few seconds, he came out of the door. After the woman left we talked to him, and we could tell that something was off. I can't forget the look of sadness and loneliness he had on his face. We asked him what was wrong, and he just kept telling us that he was having bad thoughts, and that he just barely wanted to go outside to get a fresh breath of air. We stopped right in front of his door exactly when he went down, and he saw us and walked out. It was the perfect timing, if we had been a few seconds early or late, we wouldn't have caught him. We asked if we could go up to his apartment and talk for a little bit, so we went up. We talked for him a little bit and he just poured his heart out to us. He talked about how he had wanted take his own life. He from Columbia, and is very old. All his family is in Columbia and he is all alone. We were able to talk to him and help him feel much better. He was certain, as we were, that God had sent us to help him. He was very grateful. It was amazing to see how much the Lord cared for him that he sent us at JUST the right moment to be able to talk to him. It was a really cool miracle.

Made pizzas at one of our investigator's pizza restaurant!

Leonardo as well is progressing very well! We are going to have to push his baptism forward since he is so ready! He has felt so much peace in learning about the restored gospel, and is so excited and willing to make the necessary changes in his life to live according to what he's learned so far. He is the best!

Everything is going well, I love Zarahemla and I love Montréal. There is lots of work to do which has been the best! I love you all so much as well, and I hope you have a fantastic week.

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 30

The Zarahemla District

Transfer calls are in! Elder Toledo and I are staying together for another transfer! We're very excited to stay together, we are going to have a great harvest this transfer!

We had lots of cool miracles this week, especially with Alan. Alan has been looking for the truth about religion and God for a long time. He has been loving the gospel, but hadn't yet received a spiritual witness that it is true. But, he had never prayed and asked. We had focused on that a lot and he finally asked before one of our lessons that week. He prayed, asked if these things were true, and if he needed to be baptized, and everything. After, he had a very clear prompting, "Mateo 7." He tried to read it, but was too tired and fell asleep. But, the next day we saw him, and he told us the experience he had, so we read it together. It was EXACTLY what he needed. It talked about praying and asking God, it talked about being baptized, and also talked about knowing prophets (Joseph Smith) by their fruits (Book of Mormon). It was exactly what he needed! He took it as a clear answer and ever since he has been preparing to be baptized next Saturday. He is ready!

Celebrating Leonardo's birthday with him!

Leonardo as well has been progressing very well. He is pretty alone here, so he has been very thankful for our visits and friendship. We celebrated his birthday with him the other day, and it was really sweet! He's a great guy. We saw him at church on Sunday, and had a lesson with him after, and then saw him yesterday evening. During that short period of time, he had read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon, and watched the Restoration movie! He understood everything so well! He is very prepared, he is getting baptized very soon as well. We're again happy to stay together to be able to see these baptisms!

Eating Poutine with Elder Toledo at Le Banquise!

Well things are going great as usual. Again, I'm very excited to stay here in Zarahemla for at least 6 more; we are having so much fun! It's been awesome to be here in the Lord's vineyard of Montréal. He has been blessing us with so much success so far! and we have faith that he will keep doing so!

I love you all so much, and I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 29

With our friend Luis

Another amazing week! The work just keeps getting better and better, and seems like it's never going to stop improving! Which is fine by me, of course! We have a LOT of people that are preparing to be baptized, which gives us a lot to do. This Saturday we have our transfer calls, so I'll let you know what happens! But I'm hoping we get to stay together so we can keep tasting the fruit of our efforts!

Went on Exchanges with Elder Alejo! Ate in the Indian part of town. 

We started teaching someone named Leonardo this week, who is completely prepared. The first lesson we had with him he was very open and comfortable with us, and we were able to connect with him really well. The most important part, was that we were also able to connect the gospel to him very well. The time was right, and we invited him to be baptized! He really wants to change, and he is excited to move forward with the Gospel and make changes in his life. He came to church the day after and absolutely loved it! Last night he sent us a text and thanked us for all that we were doing to help him with these changes. It was awesome to have us give gratitude, but HE is the one making the changes! We invited him to read a couple of things on Saturday before our appointment with him today, and he had read ALL of them and MORE before he came to church the next day! He is very prepared. It's awesome to recognize that the changes that take place in the Gospel all depend on personal commitment; as long as we put in the efforts, we will see the changes! It's always cool to be taught by those we are teaching. I feel like we learn a lot more than we teach!

Our faith in getting people to church last week (which was cancelled) finally payed off! We got David and Gaby to church as well, and they LOVED it! Also, Alan came to church, and we were able to teach him with his friend Erick. It was another great lesson, he is so prepared. We're teaching so many prepared people, the Lord has been blessing us so much!

As already said, things are going amazingly. This work is the Lord's. And it's the best! He reminds us of that every single day! I hope you all have an equally great week, I love you tons!

Elder James