I never thought I'd meet someone who believes in

Odinism? I`m not sure if that`s what it`s called in English. But you all know Thor, right? And how he`s a god in some different religion? Yeah, well... I found it.

Let me start from the beginning though. This past week was kind of rough because we just don`t have people to teach right now. Actually, it sounds like the whole mission is going through kind of a slump. But we did have a couple of really cool experiences! One of them was with this woman - let`s call her Jane. Jane is a former investigator (from 4 years ago) who only stopped receiving the missionaries because her family was against it. Recently, they gave their permission for her to do what she wants, and she decided she wanted to come back to church and be baptized. The problem was that she is elderly and can`t get around on her own, and she didn`t have a phone number for the missionaries or her member friend, so she had no way of doing this. So she prayed, and waited.

Meanwhile, we were in the middle of making phone calls to our current investigators when Sister Davis thought it would be a good idea to call a couple of random numbers that just happen to be in the phone from who knows how long. We called Jane, set up an appointment, invited the member who had introduced her to the church (without realizing it) and had an amazing lesson in which she expressed her desire to be baptized! It was such a huge miracle!!

Also, last P-day we went to Cap Rouge with the Ste Foy sisters, which was fun. :)

On Saturday night, we "lost" our car key. It actually broke and we dropped the important part in a hole in the car under the emergency brake and have no hope of retrieving it.  SO we were carless for a couple of days. On Sunday we walked to the nearest person we teach.

It took an hour each way. So... c`est ca.... As a result, we had a surprise trip to Montreal and back yesterday to get the spare key from the mission office, which is why I`m emailing today instead. Oopalay. It was on the bus ride to Montreal that I was sitting next to a French man who believes in Odin. It was a really interesting conversation. I taught him the Restoration and he taught me about ancient runes from Odin and the German word for butterfly. I`ve also decided that 3 hours on a bus is too long to talk to a stranger. 

Meanwhile on the bus, Sister Davis was sitting with a Colombian lady who had previously prayed that God would send her someone who could speak Spanish and help her use the metro in Montreal (which we did), then later on took Sister Davis` Book of Mormon in her hands and said, "God, please help me read something that will strengthen me and help me." and then opened right to Moroni 10:3-5! So, I guess we lost our key for a reason! :D

Hasta luego!

Soeur Shaver

Monsieur Monique

Happy Monday, everyone!

This past week I hit the 100 days mark of my mission! And in three weeks, when this transfer is over, I`ll be 1/4 of the way done already! How???

This week was great. :) We went on exchanges which was really fun and also had a zone training meeting. Something our mission president really focused on was how the understanding of true doctrine changes behaviour. It was really interesting - when someone doesn`t want to keep a committment or follow a commandment, it`s because they haven`t understood something fundamental about the Gospel. So, our approach should change from, for example, "You don`t want to quit smoking? Let`s discuss the word of wisdom." to "You don`t want to quit smoking? Let`s re-explain the nature of God (or the Plan of Salvation or the Atonement or the Restoration) because you must have missed something." So, for those of you at home, if there`s a commandment you`re struggling with, there`s something to think about.

Also, we had more crazy miracles!! There`s one investigator that we have who was actually a former investigator who referred herself back to us a few weeks ago by emailing her member friend and asking for the missionaries back. When we first met with her though, she seemed pretty iffy and didn`t really want to commit to anything. She just wanted to talk about God. BUT last time we saw her she held up the Book of Mormon and said, "I know that it`s true." and said she`d pray about a baptismal date and let us know on Sunday. !!!! We are SO excited!! She actually forgot to ask someone for a ride to church so she didn`t come yesterday, but hopefully we`ll have that conversation with her soon! :D

One day we were chatting with the residents of an old folks home (where we visit a less-active) when two women got a little upset with each other and one of them said, "Excuse-moi, Monsieur, mais..." (I forget the rest of the sentence) but the point is, it turns out that she thought the other woman was a man this whole time. I`m not sure how long they`ve both lived there, but.... it`s been a while. The other lady was quite upset. All those years of drama games where we have to learn to suppress laughter paid off.

Have a wonderful week, everyone! :)

Soeur Shaver

There`s this prank where you fill a container with water and hold it up to the ceiling, then get someone to apply pressure using a broom handle so that it stays on its own - then you let go and they`re stuck there, knowing that if they move, they`ll get water dumped on their head, but they can`t do anything about it because it`s too far for them to reach. Mwahahaha.

This is the greatest work!

Hey! 

Sorry this email is a little long. It`s hard to keep it short when the Lord has blessed us so much!

So this week has been GREAT! I got to see some of my relatives, the Zumbachs, this weekend because they were in town for a wedding (SO good to see them! I love them so much!), we had a crazy miracle in sacrament meeting, AND, perhaps the BEST part of this week, we invited a family to be baptized and they said YES!!! It was a little scary but so rewarding to look someone in the eyes and ask, "Allez-vous suivre l`exemple de Jésus-Christ et être baptisé par quelqu`un qui détient làuthorité de la prêtrise de Dieu?" and then have them respond positively. They have a ways to go before they`re actually ready, but I am so excited for them, and for the ward if it works out! They have 5 children, so it would be a huge blessing to the church here in Québec! 

 With the Zumbachs!                 Me and my cousins!               Avec ma Tante Cheryl!

That whole lesson was a miracle, actually. It started out kind of awkward, but as we started reading the Book of Mormon together, the Spirit took over and guided the whole thing. By the time we actually made the invitation, it just made so much sense. It was perfect. :) 

And then there are the times in missionary work where we knock on a door and get a surprise 10-minute lecture on Islam. Oopalay. 

But then there was the miracle in sacrament meeting! The week before we had decided to ask a few members to share missionary experiences in testimony meeting, to kind of get the ball rolling and get the members excited about missionary work. Last week our mission president spoke in stake conference about members and missionaries working together, so we thought this would be a good opportunity. There was one member in particular who had come to a lesson with us that we wanted to ask but we were just never able to get ahold of her - and then she got up in testimony meeting and bore her testimony about the EXACT thing we were hoping she would! She was clearly following the Spirit. And there were so many testimonies about missionary work! (Including one from Uncle Alain. He`s the best.) The Church is so true!

Tatjana, Moi, Jasalie 

I think that`s all I have to say. Have a great week, everyone!

Soeur Shaver

Finally eating poutine!!!   

 My mission countdown calendar so far!

 (My mom is crazy)

   

Chuck. (Pronounced chook. I guess it's a Belgian thing?)

Dear friends and family.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, my companion has decided to teach herself German. This is Day Three of listening to Church videos in German on repeat in our spare time. Please send sourcrout. Um, I mean help. Please send help.

This transfer is off to an interesting start! Our district has two new Elders; one from Utah and one from Vegas. Neither of them was serving in French in their last area, so I`m sure they`re having a wonderful time right now picking up Quebecois. Actually, another one of our Elders is Belgian, and he was telling us the other day that by the time he gets home, he`ll know at least three or four languages; English, Spanish, French, and Quebecois. 

We had stake conference yesterday! Sister Davis and I were asked to do an English translation. That meant that we sat at the back of the room and took turns speaking into a headset so that others could hear us through headphones. It wasn`t as bad as we thought it would be! But it was definitely a different experience - we had to listen, interpret, translate, and speak all at once, because if we stopped listening while we were speaking then we wouldn`t hear the next sentence and there were big holes in what we were saying. There were only about 10 people who needed the English translation though, so it wasn`t TOO much pressure. :) We were also in the choir though, so we had to run all the way up to the stand and back a couple of times to sing. Good times. 

We`ve also seen a TON of miracles lately. We had the BEST lessons with new investigators yesterday with members present! I seriously don`t know what we would have done without those members! They`re the best! 

On a completely different note, we have a less-active who likes to practice putting eyelash extensions on us. So, that`s fun.

And here`s a picture of our new planners we made for each other :) 

Mine is the one on the right, and I made the one on the left.

Have a great week, everyone! :)

Soeur Shaver