Three cheers for Jean-Francoise

My area

Oh what`s up fam?

The keyboard is still weird, so please excuse the weirdness that might occur in this email. Also, you might be proud to hear that I have not bitten (is that a word?) my nails since before the MTC, and I haven`t cut them once either (hahahaha) but it also makes it hard to type... so sorry about accidentally nails hit extra keys, mistakes. Anyway, I have yet to read your emails, but I will do that after I give you a cute lil`update on my week. Haha I felt the extremes for sure. Ok, let`s do this:

So Monday (pday) was cool. We did the email thing then went to Costco. They have Costco in Canada!!! But we had to go with some elders because they were the ones with a Costco card, so it made the trip really stressful and whatnot. I don`t like shopping much anyway, so I was happy when we finished. The we went to this place called Chocolat Favorit or something like that and got some super sweet ice cream cones. They dip them in this really delicious chocolate. But it was so so so rich that I couldn`t finish it then felt sick for the rest of the day. Oh well, it was worth it fo sho. Then we visited with Veronique and Romeo. They are super cool investigators. I really love talking with them. Even though by talking I mean just sitting there and smiling while they all talk. I need to try more to speak... But it`s hard when you can`t quite follow. It`ll come! Then we had a family home evening lesson with a family in the ward whose son hasn`t been coming to church as much. But, it`s really cool because apparently since the missionaries have been working with them he`s been coming back! Woohoo you go Jean-Francoise! We talked about Joseph Smith. What an incredible man. I love the song Praise to the Man, I have a lot to thank him for. Then we visited another investigator Michael. He is really cool too. He smokes though, and it`s been hard because he doesn`t like to be pushed with it so he doesn`t want us to ask him about it and all that. But he has a baptism date coming up... so he kind of needs to stop. I feel so inadequate in trying to help him with that. But, the Lord knows how to help him, and I trust that he will.

Tuesday we kind of lost some time because our car had a flat tire and we had to get it fixed. Luckily it turns out that we did it just in time before it got really bad. Tuesday night was really funny because we went to teach one of our investigators, Roxanne, and she is like 11 or something. It is hard to just teach kids. Some of them don`t have great attention spans, but its all good. Three of her little friends came though and listened, so that was cool. And one of them was really interested and she answered all of our questions. After we prayed with them and took some pictures. THey were all really cute, hopefully I can send some. That little experience was really good for me. I don`t know if anything really came out of it, but I just felt really happy to be there in that moment, so that was nice for sure.

Wednesday was weird.. I can`t remember why exactly but just that it was weird. I learned some things that day. I put them into little phrases, so here they are, ``You only fail when you fail to try` ``Success is consistently doing what you are afraid of`` «You have to lay down your life every single day for those we teach and find» «Loving unconditionally means loving always with no conditions» That last one seems like, well yeah, no duh, but sometimes we put conditions on it without meaning to. Like by thinking, I don`t love them, I don`t even know them. Well, that is a condition, and we can`t have any of those. So I am trying to work on that. When I find that I am struggling I just look at the person and think, they are a child of God, and he loves them more than I can comprehend, so I should love them that much too (maybe not that much all of the time, but just a lot, but not a creepy amount). We have ward council on Wednesdays. We do splits for those so we can be more effective. I stayed for the council, and kind of followed what went on. When I really needed to know something though someone made sure to say it in English for me. I feel bad I don`t understand, but it`ll come with time. I just have to do what I can.

Thursday we saw a bunch of people and handed out flyers for a party Saturday. We had our first dinner appointment with a family and two ladies who are less active. The food was pretty good but my problem is I haven`t been eating much because I am stressed and all that cute stuff, so it felt like I was eating soooooo much. But it`s all good. No barf or anything.

Friday was probably the worst day I have had so far. I had a real break down. I think everything just caught up to me and I kept thinking how long 18 months is and I felt no motivation to work or do anything and I just was crying and it was really embarressed and I was pretty ashamed. But then I read in Preach my Gospel how we are accountable to the Lord about how we feel about our calling. That hit me pretty hard and I decided that I had better shape or else I will be in some trouble later for being negative. But, I realized too that obviously we are going to be upset sometimes, I just have to do my best to not let it totally get me down to the point where I am being a bad missionary. Because I truly am so blessed to be here. And I have loved it. I`ve not really liked some parts too, but overall I can see that things can and will get better if I just stay happy and positive. We went to visit Elie and Eliathia, the way sweet family. And they were asking us abut their baptism and how to set up the program and all of that. It was soooo sweet!!!! They can really do this! They have changed so much and are just so awesome! The Lord knows how to prepare his children, and I am so pumped and thankful that I just get to see it. Oh man, that night after the lesson was just pure joy. I haven`t felt like that before.

Saturday was the ward party thing. It`s a tradition in Quebec to eat corn on the cob or something.. So we made a ton of corn, did a treasure hunt thing in the rain for a few hours and talked with people who lived in the neighborhood about the gospel. It was way sweet! Some super awesome people came. Also there was cotton candy, that is always good. We were there for seven hours though... and after my comp and I did almost all of the dishes, so we were pretty tired by the end of the day. But it was so awesome. The members here give so much time to the gospel, I feel like they do more than me, they are such great examples.

Sunday was sweet. I could feel the spirit so strongly and it was just a testimony to me that the spirit is the universal language. Because even though I couldn`t understand much, I still felt blown away by the Lord`s power. It was awesome and motivating for sure. We contacted a bunch yesterday too. All of the people we talked to were really nice. No one was really interested, but our job is to get the word out and bring others closer to our Savior, and that is what we did. We saw some kids walking down the street throwing a football, so we ran over to them and I waved to have them pass. It was fun, and luckily I can still throw a decent spiral pass type thing, so I was happy about that. They were from Africa and were all nice. But they kinda were like, ok.... we`re going to go now, haha so that was awkward and funny.

And now it is today and I am here just stocked to write! I took pictures of your emails so I can read them later. But thank you thank you a million times over for writing. I love you all so much and hope that you are well. School probably starts soon! Oh, I also sent a letter home. I may or may not have been in a bad mood when I wrote it, so sorry about that. I`ll be better for next time!

Anyway, hope you feel caught up and all that good stuff. Until we write again!!

Much love, like always,

Snoop Dog

P.S. Like my email title? I couldn`t think of anything good, so that is what I named it.