Zarahemla Week 19

My new companion - Elder Landetta

This week has been awesome, and I'm so happy that I am able to stay in Zarahemla! My new companion, Elder Landetta, is a BEAST at missionary work. I've been learning a ton from him already, especially in Spanish. I'm so glad that I have another native Spanish speaker as a companion, my language skills have really improved with him (but his Spanish is a little different than what I'm used to). I'm starting to dream and think in Spanish which has been so crazy! But, anyway, this is how this past week has been.

I'm very proud of myself!

Last P-day was mainly focused on getting Elder Durgante all packed up, which took a while. I converted him to use vacuum bags, the same as Elder Colunga did to me. We fit what he had in 2 large suitcases and 1 medium suitcase into only 1 large and 1 medium. I was very proud of the accomplishment. After P-day was over, we headed over and had another great lesson with Issac y Laura. They have such an amazing little family, and the lesson we had was super spiritual. They have so many sincere and meaningful questions, that lessons are always very focused. They're so nice!

Nicole got a polaroid camera and gave us the pictures!

 Wednesday was spent making sure that all our transfer plans were set and getting everything ready for Elder Durgante's trip on Thursday. We were able to see Hermano Mendoza to share a little message, take pictures, and say goodbye. He's such an awesome guy. We then went to a dinner appointment with the familia Diaz from Chile. It was SO good, they are super nice. Shared a little message with them, then left to visit Nicole so Elder Durgnate could take pictures and say goodbye. She got a Polaroid camera for Christmas, and we took a few pictures.

Saying goodbye to Elder Durgante 

Thursday was transfer day, so everything was a bit stressful, but it all went smoothly. We took all of Elder Durgante's stuff to the bus station, and said goodbye to Elder Durgante. It was fun to be with him for a transfer! Short, but great! Then I went with another Elder to the mission office to wait for my new companion, Elder Landetta. At the mission office, I was able to see a ton of missionaries I came in with that had been marooned out in the barren wasteland areas of the far north. It was so great so see them! After a while we went back out, and I picked up Elder Landetta at the bus stop. He had a bag that weight about 42 Kg that I took home on the metro and busses. It was so awful having to take it through the snow to our house, and it ended up breaking. He didn't care though, since this is most likely the last time he is being transferred (he only has 2 transfers left). We did weekly planning so he could be updated on all the new things in the area. He's so excited to be back! After we finished, we left to go visit Marcela, but there wasn't another man in the house so we couldn't teach her. We might be passing her off to Sisters so that it's not as hard to teach her. We did some tracting the rest of the night, and we found a couple of good people!

Friday was really productive. I'm so grateful to have such a seasoned missionary helping me learn! We had District Meeting in the morning, which went well, and then went home to do some transfer planning for a little bit. We set some goals that we want to accomplish this transfer, and we are shooting for 2 baptisms this transfer. It's realistic; we will just have to work super hard! Then we headed to Francisco, and had a pretty good lesson with him. We had a lesson planned, but when we showed up he wanted to read a passage in the Book of Mormon and discuss it. The lesson went about an hour long, and we only went through the introduction and three verses. At least he likes the Book of Mormon! Then we went to pass by a couple of people that Elder Landetta remembered teaching that were really solid. Went knocking a little bit in a Spanish area, then went home.

Saturday was also really busy. Planned for a little bit in the morning, then left right away. Went to visit Guillermo, who last Sunday just randomly showed up at church and really wants to be baptized. Had an awesome lesson with him, and have him committed to be baptized in the next couple of weeks! It's so amazing that there are people that are so prepared for the Gospel, it's very humbling. It makes you want to try so much harder to find the people who are just ready to listen. They're for sure out there! Then we went and visited Jesus and Yeni, who are doing great. They still are struggling with the same legal problem, but that should change very soon. When it does, we hope they will be able to be more focused on the gospel! Did a few other things, visited Roy, a potential Elder Durgante and I found, but he sadly wasn't home. We then went home, and started calling our investigators to invite them to church the next day.

Sunday was super awesome! Went to church, and when the meeting started, only one of our investigators, Eddy, showed up. I stressed out about them for a while, but when it was time to take the Sacrament, I knew I should just focus on that and forget about the other things occupying my mind. When I did, Jesus, Yeni, and Guillermo all showed up! It was so amazing! Jesus and Yeni haven't been to church together in so long! It was such a blessing. After church we went straight to visit Hermano Mendoza and give him the Sacrament, and shared a message with him. He's doing awesome, still improving little by little. After that we went to visit the Mayta family, whose son served his mission in Washington DC! I talked to him a bit about it, it was so cool. He really loved his mission.

Monday was really busy as well, and we got a lot done. We completed our studies in the morning, ate some lunch, then left. Passed by Mauricio, who set up an appointment with us but wasn't there. We had a block of about three hours free, since it was Monday and we couldn't set up any appointments, so we decided to go street contacting in an area that Elder Landetta remembered being super successful. We went, and it was like we were in South America (except for the fact that it was FREEZING cold and SUPER windy)! We kept finding tons of Hispanics. Cubans, Mexicans, Chileans, Peruvians, Guatamalans, Argentinians, it was crazy! Almost everyone you saw was Hispanic! It was so awesome. We then walked about 7 kilometers to pick up food from a member, got lost, and got there super late. But we still got it, and everything was good. Walked down to the metro station, and it was so nice to be somewhat warm again. We were outside for about 3.5 hours straight! It was rough, I couldn't feel or move my face by the end! Went to visit Issac y Laura again, and had another great lesson. They have been super interested, and super warm and open. Then we went home, and ate the food the member had given us. It was such a great and busy day!

Goodbye pizza (sorry it's blurry)!

I've had such a great week, and again, I'm so grateful that Elder Landetta is my companion. He's so great, and has been teaching me a ton about missionary work. My Spanish is improving so fast, which is great! I was really worried about not getting it polished off a little bit before serving in French, but I've been doing so much better! It's really been so cool. I'm definitely going to savor the little time I have left here!

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

Elder James

Zarahemla Week 18

Our last District Meeting together

Family,

Los cambios están aquí, y voy a permanacer en Zarahemla! Elder Landetta esta viniendo, y él empezó su mision aquí tambien. Él es de Ecuador, y estoy listo para practicar mi español consigo. Le quedan dos cambios, pues va a morir (terminar su mision) aquí probablemente. Estoy súper emocionado.

Well that's all the news regarding transfers, again, I'm super excited to stay! It's probably going to be my last transfer here in Zarahemla, so I'm going to make it count! But anyway, here is how my week went.

We are bats!

Last P day, after emails, we decided to go to the Biodôme! It was super cool, and it was funny to think that the only zoo they can have here in Canada has to all be indoors since it's so cold! It was really amazing though. There was a huge room for tons of different environments, and one of the coolest ones was just like a rainforest in Brazil. Elder Durgante felt right at home and loved it!

Sister Sanataria is dying (leaving the mission for home)

On Wednesday, we had the last district meeting of the transfer, and it was really nice. Took some funeral pictures for the Sister that is going home this week, which turned out hilarious. After that we went to pass by a few potential investigators. We had looked up their addresses at the mission office on Google Maps to know how to get there, but for some reason when mapping things out all of the house numbers are switched on the Avenues in Montréal. For example, on the north end of the island, on 1e Av., the house numbers should be around 12000. Google maps was showing them as 1000. So, we were completey flipped around which messed up most of our day. But it was fine--we learned our lesson to be more careful when looking up addresses. We ended off eating dinner with Hermana Piña which was awesome as always.

Thursday was fun, we woke up and got into service clothes to help move some stuff out of one of the missionary apartments. The Montréal North zone leaders (who I used to live with in the 4 man) were going to come to pick us up. For some reason though, they went on exchange, so Elder Colunga was with Elder Tueller! It was so weird to all be together again, but it was awesome to see all of them. We moved everything out of this apartment on the 4th floor (no elevator), which took a very long time. Afterwards they gave us some money and Subway coupons, so we ate there together. It was so much fun to see them again! They then took us home and we did some studies, did some contacting, then went all the way to the east tip of the island to give a Book of Mormon to a media referral. It took over 2 hours to get there! That basically took up most of the day, but it was cool.

Elder Durgante is Home!

Friday was a really successful and busy day. We were able to get some studies in, then we went to see Francisco. We decided to show him a video on his phone, and he was able to understand a bit better with a visual aid. He really wants to be baptized, but he has things he's working through. But, hopefully we'll be able to figure out how to teach him well! We then went to Hermano Sanchez, and had a good lesson with him. He had lots of questions that we were luckily able to answer, and he was super happy! He really is doing well, but he still has some issues with certain commandments that we're trying to help with. But he's still awesome, we just have to work with him patiently. We then were able to have Family Home Evening with Nicole, which was really fun. We taught her about Family History, why we do it, and what we do in the Temples. The spirit was super strong, and she is excited to go to the temple soon! We then played a little game together, and she had tons of fun. Next time, she is planning it for us!

Wedding of Hermano y Hermana Trinidad

On Saturday, we helped the Sister Missionaries in our ward get ready for a wedding/baptism that night. They have been working with a part member family from for a while, but the parents were not married, which they have to be in order to get baptized. The mother was baptized, but less active, but the father had never been involved in the church. He's really amazing, and it's so clear to see how much the Gospel has improved his life. He's tons happier, a lot better of a father and husband, and he's just improved so much. On Saturday, they had their wedding, and then immediately after, he was baptized! It was really great; the members were so awesome in decorating the church and bringing tons of food. It was such a special experience for him! At home we got our transfer calls from the zone leaders, which I was really nervous about. I thought for sure that I would be transferred, but I'm so happy I'm not! Elder Durgante isn't too sad he's leaving since he hasn't been here for too long, but he is sad he has to pack again haha.

The Olympic Park (where the Biome was)

Sunday was fairly typical. We had Ward Council early in the morning, which is always great to coordinate efforts with the ward. During church, two random guys from Guatemala came in, and I sat with them and talked to them. They are super excited about the Church! They have only been here for a little bit. They are brothers, and one was baptized in Guatemala about 8 months ago, but the other is not a member. We helped them during the meetings, and will be working with them a bit in the coming weeks. They were really nice! We then had the opportunity to meet with a few families that we had contacted in the past week and had awesome lessons with them. One in particular was Luis and his family, who came from Mexico only recently. We taught them the Restoration, and they were super interested! It was awesome since it's hard to find families to teach over here.

We are hatching!

Monday was fairly chill, we didn't have much to do. Hermana Piña had an operation the other day, so we stopped by and visited with her to see how she was doing. Stopped by the church to do a few things we needed to do on the computer, then spent some time contacting then had dinner with some members. They made some really traditional food from Spain which was super good!

Anyway, this week was great. I'm again so glad that I have another transfer here in Zarahemla. I will have spent exactly 1/4 of my mission here! I will make sure to live it up while I can!

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

Elder James

Monkeys were just roaming around everywhere!

Piranhas

Elder Durgante refused to look at this!

Zarahemla Week 17

Elder Durgante has been DYING in the cold! 

Hola de Montréal! He estado trabajando en mi espanol durante gran parte de los ultimos dias, porque los trasferencias son el proximo miercoles y me temo que quizas no voy a estar aqui nada mas. Pero tengo fe que sirviré en una otra area en espanol mas tarde en mi mission! Ojala que yo pueda!

Anyway, this week has really been awesome! We've been very busy which is always a great thing. We saw tons of miracles finding this week, which was super cool. Here is what we've been up to the past week.

Banh Mi Sandwiches - our new favorites

Last P day, we weren't able to do much since we had to do emails an hour and a half away from our house (all the libraries were still closed for New Year’s). But we had the opportunity to shovel some snow of a member, and he gave us these super good Vietnamese sandwiches called Banh Mi. They were SUPER good, and only $4! We ended up getting it again later—they were amazing!

Wednesday was spent mainly passing by some of the former investigators that we found in our records the past couple of days, and we've been seeing tons of progress from that already. We passed by three former investigators, and two of them were there, and said they would love to see from missionaries again! We passed off a couple of them to other companionships, as we have been finding a lot recently. It's been so amazing! We also were able to eat at Hermana Gregoria's house again, who makes amazing Peruvian food. When we got there thoug,h her son had not yet come back from work, so she invited some random Dominican man to eat with us so that we could go in the apartment. It was so funny! Had papas con huancaina from her again, which was so good! Two weeks in a row!

Thursday was awesome! We were pretty busy and got a lot done. We left basically right away to go to a hospital an hour and a half away to give a blessing to a Hermana in our ward. It was a special experience; it's always so amazing to be there for someone who needs help, and be able to brighten up their day. It really is super humbling. After that we went to district meeting, which was great as usual. Then we went La Banquise (we weren't going to eat dinner so we decided to eat something very filling) for my second time, but this time I did NOT get a large order of poutine. It was still extremely filling though! We then went and passed by a few formers and got a decent amount of contacts. We passed by one former, who wasn't home, but we felt that we should knock on the door right next to his. Turned out it was a young Mexican family, who eventually invited us in! We shared a great lesson with them, and they were super interested and wanted us to come back! It was really a miracle. Then we ran to Nicole, who we were fairly late for because of the unexpected lesson. We taught her about Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening), and she is now going to take the initiative to do it every week with her family! She is going to be such a help in working with her parents.

Friday was a VERY cold day. Since we were busy on Thursday, we decided to do our weekly planning on Friday, which was lucky since it was so cold outside. But we still left later in the afternoon, and were able to pass by a couple other formers. We had a bible bashing session with one of them, but luckily Elder Durgante actually knows a lot about the Bible, so we held our own! We then went to Francisco's for a lesson, and he had a friend over that we were able to teach as well. It went really well, and now his friend is a new investigator as well! That night after the lesson was incredibly windy and cold; about -38 C (with wind). We walked around and passed by a few other investigators, which was interesting with the cold. But it was fun!

Saturday was difficult. We had a lot of appointments set up, but sadly most of them fell through. We went to visit a new investigator, but he wasn't home. Then we went to visit Victor, who was too busy to see us at that time. Tried to go by Mauricio, but he was too busy to see us as well. Then went to a family that we had an appointment with, but they weren't home either. Sometimes we just have those days, but it's important to keep trying and know that you are doing your best! We were able to have a lesson with Jesus and Yeni, which went really well. After visiting with them, we passed by a former nearby who wasn't home. So, we did the same thing, and knocked nearby to see if they knew her. We found a family from Guatemala, and they agreed to see us again too! They also told us a few apartment buildings that are ALL Hispanic, which is basically gold for us. We're definitely going to be passing by soon.

Sunday was good, and fairly busy. They were going to change the time of church to be an hour earlier, which would have been awful since it's about an hour away from us, but luckily they didn't! We had a great time at church, and were able to coordinate a lot with our members. This next week might be my last in Zarahemla, so we tried to get a couple more dinners arranged before I leave! We then went home and ate, and went with a member to visit Hermano Mendoza in the hospital again. This time we gave him the sacrament, which he was so thankful for. A lot of times people take the sacrament for granted, but it is such an amazing blessing. I have been able to see how much it means to someone who hasn't been able to come to church for a while. We should always remember what it means, and how wonderful of a blessing it is. We then went and started an exchange with the other Elders.

Nicole gave us slippers as a late Christmas present
(it's an inside joke and hard to explain) 

Monday was fairly busy, as we were out basically all-day long. I was on exchange with Elder Drysdale, which was fairly fun. We tried to pass by a few formers again in the morning, and ended up shoveling a lot random people's snow who needed help. It wasn't very cold, but it had snowed all the night before, and all day, so there was a good couple of fresh inches of snow on top of the other stuff we had already gotten. TONS of people were having trouble getting out of parking spots, so we helped a lot with that too. We got really dirty! We were also able to have an awesome lesson with Mauricio; we could totally tell he could feel the spirit. We really want to help him, but he is very poor and works so much that it's hard to get him to come to church or see us frequently. He's really awesome though, and still calls us his Hijitos. We were also able to see Eddy, who is still doing great, but we're really trying to work with him to help him commit to baptism. He thinks he doesn't know enough, but he's basically already a member. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what he needs to progress.

Anyway, it's really been such an amazing week. As I said before, we get transfer calls next Saturday, and I don't think I will be staying here in Zarahemla. I really hope that (and probably will) be able to serve again in Spanish, because I absolutely love these people. It's been so amazing to get to know all of them and work with them! Whatever happens though, I know it will be for the best. My French is not very good right now, so it will be a great opportunity to work on that as well. I'm definitely going to make this next week count, though!

Love you all so much, and I hope you're doing well! Have an amazing week!

Elder James