Saw this outside of the Pentecostal church. I just thought it was too good to be true:)
Rainy days in Montreal. This is my THIRD umbrella. And it broke that same day. I really don't know why I have problems.
Hello Family and Friends!
How is everyone?! Can you believe we're almost into SEPTEMBER! How is this happening?! I can't keep up with the calendar pages. However, I'm pretty excited to experience my very first Canadian Autumn! I've heard it's absolutely gorgeous. I. Can't. Wait.
This week was pretty crazy...as usual. So, I guess it was normal?:) It was a great week. Let's see....we've been working with this amazing family that we met at English class and it's been incredible! It's a single mom and her three kids. The oldest is 20, Chloe and the two younger ones are 16, Cassandra and 15, Chad. On Friday we had this really spiritual lesson about prophets and how we taught them about President Monson. They loved it:) Then on Saturday Chole pretty much spent the whole day with us. We went to a baptism on the west side of IDM. It's about an hour on metro so we had a lot of time to talk. Then at the baptism, she kept asking things about it and if she could have a baptism just like the one we were at. That night their family invited us to a party at their church. This was my first experience at a Pentecostal church. It was pretty interesting to say the least. We kept crossing our fingers for a healing or something legitly Pentecostal. No dice. But it was quite interesting. Everyone avoided us like the plague. The name tag scares so many people:)
On Saturday we knocked into this Muslim woman. Muslims are either really kind and want to convert you or really grouchy and want you to leave. This particular woman was neither. She actually just wanted to ask questions about our culture. She showed us her prayer mat and robe and explained things like arranged marriages and the way they view woman in their culture. It was a really incredible conversation.It made me really wish that we could always be that open. There was this mutual desire to really understand each other. It was a beautiful thing and maybe it really helped me get over some old grudges:)
This area has really been interesting we've been able to work with a lot of really cool less active families. I love these families! Sometimes on the mission you worry that perhaps you'll never be able to love your last peeps as much as your new ones and then this funny thing happens and your heart expands in crazy ways. I love this area a lot. There is something about these families. I met this amazing sister who is battling cancer. We are like kindred friends. She loves almond butter and yoga as much as I do. Every time I see her I just feel like I'm with an old friend. There is another family that is very, very less active, but they love us. They know they need what we have, because they've had it before. Last night we spent some time with the Elders quorum president and his family. They thought I was like a celebrity because I was from Utah. It was pretty funny! They wanted to see ma ville so they google earthed everything in STG. They thought it looked so amazing! It made me smile.
This week I've done a lot of praying. Praying to speak French. Praying to understand. Praying to feel the strength to give my all. I feel like I've spent a lot of my life trying to get to a destination, not really enjoying the journey. Bad, bad, bad. So I was thinking about this process of learning. I love to learn. I forget that a lot. But what I've really learned is that the Lord gives us what we need when we need it. My French is improving. I know that. Every now in then I get these little glimpses where I just speak. It's pretty crazy. And sometimes I understand those really thick Quebecoise accents and my heart leaps for joy. And those days where I'm too exhausted to stand the Lord gives me strength to knock on one more door. This quote from President Uchtdorf better sums up what I'm trying to say, "Guided by the Holy Spirit, we will learn from our mistakes. If we stumble, we will rise. If we falter, we will go on. We will never waver, we will never give up." I have a testimony of this. We have this amazing gift to have a third member of Diety with us at all times. We can never truly be lost if we are living worthy of that companionship.
This was a beautiful week: I had fish tacos, knocked into a woman with my same name!, received the most gorgeous letter in the mail from someone in Paris, ate my first Timbit, hallelujahed at a pentecostal church and otherwise was just happy to be here. Have a beautiful week! Enjoy! Read your scriptures! Say your prayers! Remember I love you!
Bisous Bisous!
Sister Perkins
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