The Yellow Canary

 Saying good bye to Honeyhead and hello to Sister Lopez

 Applesauce party:) With Nadia and Pascale

 The last family photo:(

The apostate Sister and the White Handbook Sister

Hey little pumpkins!

Sorry for the uber downer email last week. But sometimes life is hard, even for servants of the Lord:)  Don't worry though. Everything worked out, because that's how the Lord works! It was a gorgeous fall week. And blessings were everywhere, sometimes it's easy to forget how blessed we are:)

This week was my little Honeyhead's last week on the mission. It was hard to see her go. I love that little chica so much! I haven't cried that much in a long time, but I know that the Lord allowed me to spend one more transfer with her as a huge tender mercy. I've been super lucky with the companions I've had! Sister Lopez is a doll. She has been helping me a ton with my Spanish/French/English:) Yeah. My English has gotten pretty bad the last few months. I don't know why but I speak like English is my second language or something. I'm a weirdy. Sister Lopez is also really funny and she thinks I'm funny...which is really good because I think I'm pretty funny too;) 

This week we did a lot of running around teaching. It was a really good week. We also spent a lot of time helping out with our ward Halloween party which was a lot of fun and we got three referrals so that was really good. Sister Lopez and I had about 3 dollars each for our costumes so we went to the dollar store(which weirdly enough in Canada are like super amazing) and we were looking for costumes and Sister Lopez had the idea that we could be a devil and an angel or rather a white handbook missionary and an apostate missionary. We thought it was really funny until after we bought everything and then Sister Lopez was like "Hermana why did you let me do this?" She was dying. But our ward thought it was funny and so did our investigators...so there:) 

So, I'm like permanently exhausted. Yesterday I fell asleep in sacrament, gospel doctrine, and relief society. It was really bad. I have no idea when I turned into an 85year old man but for some reason the second I sit down I'm a goner. I even called Sister Cannon to see if she had any solutions. She said, "Yeah. Sleep in one morning." And I said, "Yeah no." I hate breaking the routine. I thrive on routine. We'll see. Mostly I'm hoping that my body will just keep up with the level of insanity I put it through every day:) 

This week Sister Lopez and I went to visit this old Haitian member in our ward and she talked forever about everything under the sun.....I actually fell asleep a couple of times. But I just kept saying "Oui, c'est vrai." And smiling. Then we decided to sing a song and she started singing really loud and off key. I forgot to prepare Sister Lopez for Haitian singing and Sister Lopez, bless her little heart started laughing super hard. And the member kind of looked at her like "are you okay?" So I just kept singing and then at the end Sister Lopez said, "Desole, I'm a really bad singer." So then we said good-bye and afterwards walked out and as soon as the door was shut behind us we both started laughing super hard and Sister Lopez said, "Is that normal?" And I just smiled and said "you have no idea". Another favorite thing of mine this week has been introducing Sister Lopez to everyone as the cousin of Jennifer Lopez. Everyone here believes me:) I'm so funny, 

So this week the big apple service project was still underway. Sister C and I made applesauce with the member for a couple of hours and all of the while I kept thinking about the parable of the vineyard in Jacob 5. Sometimes I can't believe how blind I was to the amazing love of heavenly Father. But peeling those apples was a reminder to me that he loves us so much. You can't deny that as you peel a big juicy yellow apple. There is nothing quite so lovely. But even more the words of Jacob kept echoing in my head. The Lord of the vineyard remarks 7 seven times "it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard." That phrase really hit me.  What also hit me was thinking about everything the Lord goes through to save His trees. He doesn't just give up after one season, but He keeps working on them. He keeps showing love and patience. Sometimes I find myself being so hard on people, hard on myself. But think of the beauty of that phrase. We are important. Each one of us is like a tree that has been cared for by  the Lord of the Vineyard. It would grieve him to lose one of us. I love the scriptures. Like I've said missions are not easy, but everyday I feel like the Lord is there telling me something that gives me that much more energy to keep working hard in His vineyard. 

I hope you have a beautiful and Happy Halloween! Eat lots of treats! Have lots of fun! And be oh so safe!

I love you!

Bisous Bisous!

Soeur Perkins