30 Below

Another rough week. I was sick last Tuesday and Wednesday. I was in the apartment with my winter coat for a while but thankfully it didn't last too long. That Thursday we went into Montreal again (They should just send me on Island we are going back tomorrow for a day) for a Zone training and interviews with President Patrick. In the Zone training President Patrick quoted the latest Start Wars movie. He was talking about how to listen to the spirit and teaching with it. The quote was from Han Solo saying "That's not how The Force works"  but replacing the word 'The Force' with 'The Holy Ghost'. That was the high light of the week.Anyway the interview was great.. We talked about Star Wars for the first five minutes (he brought it up not me) then we quickly transitioned into the real stuff. Don't worry, Pres Patrick is great and is very serious. Most of the time. 

We did a lot of service due to the fact that it was super cold this week. It makes contacting really interesting. The Town becomes a ghost town after 12:00 o'clock. No ones was outside. On the bright side it makes knocking actually effective for getting in their door. We just take our hood off before we knock and by the time they open the door (just a small crack and all you can see is one eye) we look frozen. They either tell us that we will get sick like this (hmm...) or they let us in because they feel bad. We don't get too far when we get in though. It's easier to share the first message but return dates don't hold. 

Our recent convert Anna was just called to teach primary. We wont have to teach as much now but we will be helping out for a while till she is used to everything. She's still doing great.

We have been starting to work with a less active recently. His name is Clement. We finally got into his house last week. He's super smart and loves to talk. Especially about neuroscience, sociology, physics, astrophysics, and religion. So basically a copy of me except he's less-active and is mildly autistic. He loves technology so we told him about the church app 'gospel library' to get the conversation rolling into something more important. After many side conversations (all related to some degree to the main topic) 30 minutes we got it on his iPad. Then we spent 15 minutes using it. He loves it!! Lessons are always hard because he's mildly autistic (It's like talking to some one who has ADD but he trains on and on about side topics instead) so we have to try and keep it gospel related. At the end of what you might call a lesson, we asked him if we could leave with a word of prayer. He didn't want to choose who so he told us to do rock paper scissors to find out who would say it. After coming up with the same thing three times in a row we looked at him and said :clearly we aren't supposed to say it, will you? So he did. Totally unplanned but thankfully it worked out.  Probably one of his first prayers in a while. After he looked up and said "I know I need to come to church." It was like music to our ears!! Completely worth the hour plus spent with him. 

We each have a work to do. If we strive to be where we should be each day then we can do that work. It's so rewarding to relies that your in the right place in the right time! No matter what situation we are in we can help someone else. Heavenly father knows us and what we are able to do. If we strive to have the Holy Ghost with us we will be able to do that work! As a missionary that's just about all we think about, being in the right place at the right time, saying the right thing to the right person. It sounds pretty hard but all we have to do is have the Holy Ghost, know what we need to do and do it. It's tough and takes practice but it's so rewarding. Though that's why we are here on earth right? Fight the good fight. Take the higher road. “This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

The prophet Mormon said “For we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.” The early Church leaders and pioneers of the past pressed forward with heroic courage and determined faithfulness to establish the restored gospel and build temples where ordinances of exaltation could be performed. We must also press forward in faith, “to labor in the Lord’s vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.” Gordon B. Hinckley taught “How magnificent will be the future as the Almighty rolls on His glorious work … through the selfless 'service' of those whose hearts are filled with love for the Redeemer of the world.” Don't stop the daily fight! The Lord loves you!

Thanks for everything! 

Another week done. We finally got in contact with Alexis one of our investigators. Turns out he was in the hospital for a while and that's why we couldn't get in contact with him.  He's basically ready but he just can't get a ride to church. He lives an hour away from the building. It's a little sad that no one is willing to go and get him every other week. Though a lot of the people here don't have cars and need rides anyway for the winter. We also don't have many members in this branch and the ones that can drive are picking people up. Aaah perks of living in the middle of no were! Thankfully on the good side Alexis (Pronounced AlexE because he's a guy not a girl) is doing great! Like I said before he's ready for baptism. We went over the importance of the sabbat and how he can do a little more to make his Sundays devoted and a set apart. He was able to get Sundays off from work!! It made me wonder how hard we are working to set apart to the lord our Sunday. I never thought of how tough it would be if I was the only one around that believed in the same things that I did. It really is a blessing to be able to go to church once a week and partake of the sacrament!

The next big thing that happened was Anna (the investigator) really made a great strive to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it! She read about 90 pages!! that was easily the high light of the week! Beats the fresh baked Quebecois flat cinnamon roles with maple syrup easily!! She's on track for her baptism on the 26th of March. She had only two questions from her reading. It was which church is 'the devils' church and why it has described with such terrible feminine words 1 Nephi 14: 9 and 10. Thankfully I remember my Dad talking about those very verses so I was able to respond without a problem. I had to stumble through some french vocabulary that I haven't used before but it worked out. Sadly she didn't come to church this Sunday (she was out of town) but were working with her on that!

So glad I have this occasion to help the diverse people of Quebec! It's easily been the most rewarding time of my life! I hope that you all can find some time to serve your fellow brothers and sisters! It's one of the most rewarding ways to spend time!

Driving about to some other towns and townships I was able to find a cool old windmill!

Keep on working hard! Thanks for everything!

This week was a little rough but all in all it wasn't too bad. Man I love being a missionary but its not easy. 

Yannick and Marielle dropped us last week. They said they did not have time anymore... Such an annoying phrase. Both of them work all day and they have a new born but still. We had a great first two lessons but they just didn't keep any of their commitments. thankfully another door opened up (HA! tracting joke!) and we were able to restart teaching an old investigator and start teaching her room mate. their names are Anna (Just about everyone here is named Anna or some version of Anna which really strange) and Marianna (point proven). We went into the lesson with our branch mission leader (An awesome member of the church. He's just epic.) intending on teaching Marianna and her family. Her family wasn't there but Anna was (Not our recent convert Anna) Anyway due to time I have to cut it short. Basically they have a baptism date and we have another lesson tomorrow. So despite being dropped by two people we found two other people.

So we teach primary in our little branch which is interesting but great! We had a great lesson on the tree of life! I'm amazed at all the none missionary things I'm learning on my mission! (aside from things like living on your own/staying with my companion all the day long for two years) Like parenting. 

Anyway, the internet isn't loading and our P-day was messed up. We were moving someone so our only time we had for emails was right now for about 20 minutes. We 

sorry!! I'll have to respond later to everything later!

"The field is white..."!! :)

The Proper Penguin Padding

Have you had a good taste of snow? I heard that the US was hit with two snow storms. We received about 1 cm from 'the storm'... Though the wind has been pushing cars of the auto root.

So it's tradition for the Quebecois to send the guest home with desserts when someone comes over. Lets just say that missionaries are not an exception.  For a prime example last night we were given a two layered chocolate cake. It's been really nice but terrible at the same time. Quebec desserts mostly consist of maple and other forms of pure sugar. I now understand how they get through winters here...Extra padding... Lets just say the only thing we buy for food is vegetables. I understand why they push morning workout in this mission... :)

Anyway, the World Wide Mission Conference was great! it had all the usual faces for missionary work. Members of the 12 etc etc. it was entitled Teach repentance and baptize converts. We had a Zone training after focusing on the same things that the broad cast did but in more detail. it's was one of the last Zone training's with Pres. Patrick. WOW he's awesome! His grasp of the gospel is outstanding. Lets just say we are all waiting for him to be called into the 12. Anyway he leaves around July and we get our new Mission President. The new one is from Meridian Idaho by the last name of Phillips. 

This week was rather slow. More finding and going to Montréal a ton (the wind makes that interesting especially with traffic and the wind is pushing the car on a bridge). We are starting to get Anna (our recent convert) into Family History so she can do baptisms for her ancestors. She's great!!! 

So our Branch President had us over for supper. We found out he is a really good artist (he showed us some of his pieces and I though it was a picture at first) and sells his work on the side. He's also randomly a body builder. He invited us to go ice fishing some P-day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that! That would be sweet! 

Everything is fine here in the 'great white(ish) north' !

Keep the faith! Don't give up!!

Thanks!

-Elder Sorensen