Montréal-Est Week 4

Sushi Buffet!

Another great week has gone by! We were pretty busy, but, as always, it's better that way!

Last P-day after doing some chores, we went to a Sushi Buffet. It was actually fairly cheap, and super good! They had a little iPad on the table that you can use to order food, and then they bring it out to you. We ate SO MUCH... We ordered exactly 100 plates of food split between 4 of us. We were so full! I hadn't had sushi for months, and it was so good!

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Webb, Elder Amichia's new companion. He trained Elder Luedtke, who was in the MTC with me. It was a super fun exchange! He only has a little under 2 months left in his mission. It was awesome to go out with such a seasoned and experienced missionary!

We also got to visit the Laval district meeting on Wednesday, which was awesome. We stayed last Tuesday night with the Elders from Saint-Jerome, and we were going to have exchanges with them, but something came up that we had to do later on Wednesday so we had to go back to Montréal. But, we will go again today for the exchange which will be fun!

We had a dinner with the Alfaros on Friday, which was incredible! They fed us pupusas, which was amazing! They also referred around 25 people to us that night which was so awesome. They love helping the missionaries! Since Elder Sorensen speaks a little Spanish, they only spoke Spanish to us the whole night which was awesome! I miss it SO much sometimes. And luckily, I'm not losing it very badly! It sometimes takes a couple minutes of speaking to switch my brain from French to Spanish or vice a versa, but once it's switched it's totally fine! We are very blessed while we learn languages, it's been absolutely insane to see and recognize how much help we receive!

Anyway, things are going great! Sorry this email is super short; we don't have much time left. But, I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Elder James

Montréal-Est Week 3

Exchanges with Elder Cash

We had another VERY busy week, but it was super fun!

After P-day last week, we went on Exchanges with the Laval Elders. I went with Elder Cash, who used to be an Assistant and actually drove me from the airport to the mission home when I just arrived in Montréal! It was cool to see him again. He talked about how great it is to see the "before and after" in some missionaries. He says that we've already changed a lot! It was a super fun exchange though; he's an awesome missionary. We had an amazing miracle during the exchange. We had an appointment with an older man, but he was not there when we arrived. We walked outside of his building, and sat there and I asked, "Why does the Lord want us to be here?" Immediately thereafter, we saw a man walking on the other side of the road. Elder Cash, in response, just said, "Him!" We went and talked with him. He was a super cool Greek man, who has had a pretty tough life recently. He said that life lacked purpose for him. We were able to talk to him for over 20 minutes in the light rain, and we talked to him about why we are here. He was very interested and asked if we could teach him more another time. It was really incredible! It was a great example that sometimes when plans fail, the Lord just needs us somewhere else!

We have an investigating family from Burmah, and they showed me 

how to write James in Bengali. It looks so crazy, but has the exact same pronunciation!

During the week we had two very big meetings, one on Thursday with a few missionaries from around the mission, and then Zone Conference on Friday. It was a very spiritually uplifting two days! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and its power in changing lives. We talked about how it can help solve any problem we have in life, and we found many examples. It was super powerful. It helped me understand the importance of knowing the Book of Mormon well in order to connect it to people in teaching and contacting.

Also, after Zone Conference, we had exchanges with the Assistants. Elder Brenchley was with me in Montréal East! It was so awesome to see him again, especially since I thought I'd never see him again after last transfer. We had a great exchange! We saw a super cool miracle as well. A couple of weeks ago, Elder Sorensen and I went to go pass by a potential. When we went to the address and knocked on the door, someone completely different opened the door. The potential had given us a fake address. But, we took the opportunity to talk to this person. Her name is Lindsay, and she's super legit. We tried to see her a couple times, but she's a student and has a super busy work schedule. We finally got to see her on Saturday though! She was super cool, and even got us pizza for the lesson! I realized after teaching her the first time how crazy of a miracle it was, since she is super receptive. We're really excited to continue teaching her!

Anyway, it's been an amazing week, and full of miracles as always! I'm loving every second of it here. I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder James

Montréal Est Week 2

Exchange with Elder Alejo​    

This week has been pretty crazy! We've had lots of appointments and business to attend to. I've said it before and I'll say it again, keeping busy is the best! So I'm happy!

Last Tuesday, after P-day, we met with Canje again. And he fed us one of the best meals I have ever had on the mission. It's called "Mais Moulure" in French, "Mayi Moulen" in Haitian Creole. It was so good, but also one of the fattening things I've ever eaten. They had a mix of a bunch of cooked marinated meats, and you use the grease from that to pour over the Mais Moulure to add extra meat flavor. It was so good, and he will be making us more food tonight!

Mayi Moulen ak Vyann (Creole)

Mais Moulure avec de la Viande (French)

We also had the opportunity to visit lots of district meetings this week. On Wednesday, we visited the Repentigny (an area east of Montréal) district, which was super fun. It was awesome to see Elder Cortez, Elder Alejo, and Sister Stanley, who all were in the MTC with me! The next day we went to to Laval (an island just north of the island of Montréal) as well. In Laval there is a restaurant called Le Poutine Bar that reputedly has (among missionaries) the best Poutine in Quebec. I was not disappointed. It was the best poutine I've had! Then the next day we had our own district meeting in Montréal Est. It was very busy, but super fun!

Also on Friday we had exchanges with Elder Cortez and Elder Alejo. Elder Alejo came with me to Montréal Est, and we had an awesome time! It was cool to catch up with him after not seeing him for so long! He has been in Ottowa for a few months now. He's doing great! We had an awesome miracle that day as well. We had an appointment with an investigator, but when we got there, he was not there. So we left and as we were about to go downstairs, someone coming up stopped us and asked if we were the Mormons. We said yes and asked how he knew, and he said that he had had visits from the missionaries a long time ago, and still had a Book of Mormon and everything! He said he was still interested in learning more, so we got to teach him right then in his apartment. It was so cool to see the Lord guide us to meet him! Sometimes when we miss out something we plan or count on, whether it be an opportunity like a job or in our case an appointment, at first we may feel unfortunate, sad, or even angry. But, sometimes, the Lord guides our lives to bring us something better! All we need is to have faith and ask the Lord to guide us to where we need to go! It was great to be able to share that miracle with Elder Alejo.

Le Poutine Bar

The work is going great, and I'm loving my life here in Montréal. I realized, as we were leaving the island to go to district meetings, that I had stepped foot off the island for the first time in over 8 months! Then I realized how much the time has passed by and, even though I have a lot of time left, it made me a little stressed out! I already don't want to go home! Being out here in the mission field and being able to serve others is the best place I could possibly imagine. As you lose yourself in the service of others, you really do find a lot of joy and happiness in your life. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for [Christ's] sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder James