Montréal-Est Week 17

Exchanges with Elder Amichia

Another great week is gone! I've officially been out on my mission for over a year now, which feels extremely strange to me. Seems like it's been probably max 3 months since I entered into the MTC. Super crazy how fast the time flies! Here are some of the cool moments of our week!

Hump Day Celebration

On August 2nd, my year mark, I got to go on exchanges with Elder Alejo, who also came in with me from the MTC! We celebrated a little bit and went to Chocolat Favoris. It was nice to have some cold ice cream during this hot week! When I got back from the exchange we had a little pizza night with the other Elders to celebrate Elder Wilson and my year mark. It was fun!

Chocolat Flavoris with Elder Alejo

Things have been on fire in our area recently, there's been way too many things to do! Jean is still doing well, he's been very busy with his work though which has been hard to get him to come to church. His wife and three kids are living in the Dominican Republic right now, waiting to go over, so he's been alone working for them to hopefully send them over. There are a lot of families like that over here, where one parent is working up here and trying to get the rest of their family up as well. Some parents haven't seen their kids in years, which is super sad. It's been very humbling to see the faith and hope that they have.

Exchanges with Elder Alejo

We also got to do exchanges with the Montréal Sud-Est Elders, and I was with Elder Amichia again! It's always weird going on exchanges with him, but it was awesome to be his companion again, even if it was just for a day. He's such an awesome missionary! He's on his last transfer, so he's starting to get stressed about getting a lot done! He's taught me so much!

Anyway, we really did have an amazing week. I love the people here so much, they such great examples of humility and faith to me. And, of course, they make some of the best food in the world! We will get our transfer calls this Saturday, so we will see what will happen! Since I've already been in this branch for four transfers I'm assuming I'm leaving, so I will be making the best of this last week!

I love you! Have a great week!

Elder James

PS - We made Haitian Chicken last P-day, which was great!

Montréal-Est Week 16

Exchanges with Elder Lott (You can see how giant he is, even 

though he's on my back he has to lift up his feet to be suspended!)

This week has been awesome! We got a lot of work done, and had a ton of fun. Here are some highlights.

We had another lesson with Jean the other day, and oh my gosh... he's so legit. During the entire first part of the lesson he was just asking questions about how to share the Book of Mormon in a natural way, how to approach his family and friends with the gospel, how to talk to random people about it, etc. It was CRAZY! He's so solid, and that was only the second lesson we had with him. He is getting baptized for sure!

Elder Wilson's first Griot! (I took out so many missionaries 
out to Griot when they were in our area that 
I didn't realize that he'd never had it before! Long overdue!)

This Branch has been on fire recently. There were SO MANY PEOPLE at church this past Sunday, that there weren't enough seats for everyone to sit down! It's been cool to see progress, the district has been doing a great job, the work has been exploding! It's also been awesome to see time and time again that we really do nothing in this work. It's been super easy to see how much the Lord's hand is in his work; we do basically nothing and then see such cool results! It's so humbling!

Exchanges with Elder Teikiutapu

I also had the chance to go on exchanges with Elder Teikiutapu again. He's such an awesome missionary! It was fun to hear more stories about his life in Tahiti. He was talking about his favorite food from home, called Fafaru. You take a fresh fish, put it in seawater, then let it ferment for months. He says it smells super bad, but tastes delicious. Sounds kind of crazy, but he really made me want to try it! Maybe I'll visit him in Tahiti after the mission and he can show it to me!

We also were able to go on exchanges with the Assistants, and I went with Elder Lott. He's such a cool guy, and is extremely wise. It was great to learn so much from him. He's really good at being bold with people (which I absolutely love); I learned a lot. And, on that side of the island, I was able to do metro contacting again!! We only got to do it for about 2 hours, but it was so fun to be back in the metro!! It had been way too long, I missed it so much. I got to contact a lot of Hispanics! It made me miss home (Zarahemla, ha ha)!

It was an awesome week. As I already mentioned, it's been super cool to see the Lord's hand in everything we do. It really is His work, and He blesses us with lots of success as we try as hard as we can and work with our heart, might, mind, and strength.

I love you all so much, have a fantastic week!

Elder James