Soeur May and yours truly in Vieux Quebec
Scary!
if you ever wanted to know what a heart attack waiting to happen here it is:)
We still have snow!!! Everywhere. On Friday we got like 200 feet of snow. And on Saturday we got another 400 feet of snow. AND on Sunday we got another 700 feet of snow!!!! That's over a thousand feet of snow. Where is spring?
In other news life here is gooood! Oh I love this little area. It's a gold mine. Everyday is jam-packed with tender mercies. They are everywhere and they are oh so beautiful! Even when we are trudging through thousands of feet of snow up and down hills chasing after buses and being splattered by cars, it is oh so good.
This week we decided to get to know some of our less active members. The Relief Society president gave us a pretty substantial list of people who she wanted us to work with. Two of them being older women who live in assisted living homes. On Tuesday we visited a little lady named Colombe Benoit she just celebrated her 110th birthday. That's a lot of candles, right? She was as cute and as frail as you would expect someone of 110 to be. When the nurse introduced us to her she said, 'MORMONS! I used to go to that church. But now I'm here. I guess you came to look for me?" She said this with a very accusing look on her face while she wagged her little frail finger at us. We explained(actually we had to yell about 1 1/2 inches from her right ear, because let's face it she's 110. Things stop working after a while.) that we just came for a visit. She didn't seem convinced. So after yelling a million questions we asked if we could sing her a song. She was really excited so we yelled/sang "Repands le Soleil" she was so happy and seeing the grin on her face when we finished made me realize we were the ones who benefited.
Then on Thursday we went to visit another member Soeur Laflamme she is in her 80's and also lives in an assisted living center that looks like one of those old 1920's mob boss houses. Sister May and I were in awe as we walked around. I guess the nurse assumed we knew were we were going because she abandoned us. We knew her room number so we made our way there. When we got to the floor that the room should have been on we realized that it wasn't on that floor. So we tried to go down the stairs but there was a big steel door with a security pad on it and unless you know the code you're not going anywhere. So we ask this cute little man if he knew the code and he said "I have no idea." So we're trapped on this floor for like a solid 15 minutes. Finally, another little old man walks by and says, "Do you want to go down?" We were so relieved to find out the code was 3456. Brilliant. So, we're still on the hunt for out less active and we run into the same nurse who let us in and she looks at us like marbles are falling out of our heads. "Oui?" Us: "Yeah. We never found her." Then she tells us that she is in the dinning hall eating dinner and that we can wait in the "sitting room". We had to parade through the dinning hall and all of the old timers are looking at us like "Who are you?" and finally Soeur Laflamme sees us and yells "MORRMOOONNS!" We explained that after she finished her dinner we could talk to her. So we went to the sitting area that was complete with Louis XVI armchairs and cages full of little yellow canaries. After a few minutes Sister Laflamme found us and we all went to her "apartment" for a lesson. We got ourselves situated and started asking questions . Where were you born? Do you have any children? And then halfway through answering she fell asleep. So in my brain I'm thinking "Uh-oh!" So I say really loudly "CAN we sing for you?". She was also really excited. For some reason I thought "You can Make the Pathway Bright" was a good idea. It wasn't because A)it's longer than I remember and B) Sister May didn't know it C) Sister May can never read French Hymns she always gets lost. So for the first verse all was well until we got to the chorus and Soeur Laflamme decided to join in. This is where Sister May and I both lost it because we sounded like three very distressed cats. By the end of the song there are tears streaming down both of our faces and Soeur Laflamme says, "That was beautiful!" In the middle of asking if there was anything we could do she fell asleep again. And then all of the sudden she woke up and said, "Let's sing again!" She chose "How Great Thou Art". Once again all was well until she joined in during the chorus. By this point Sister May and I are both sweating bullets from laughing so hard. It was so pitiful but Soeur Laflamme just loved it. I can't wait for this weeks appointment:)
So once again, we knocked a lot. Normally we've found that most people are very kind (we found a gorgeous couple from Colombia this week!), but this one particular night everyone we knocked into or street contacted was teetering more towards not super nice to really really mean. Both of us feeling very, very discouraged, I broke down in tears.I kept thinking "Why are they rejecting us? They don't even know us? We didn't do anything for them to be so rude." We kept knocking tears and all and wouldn't you know it, it kept happening. I'm ashamed to say I let my faith falter. And then slowly but surely so did Sister May. By the end of the night we were discouraged, cold, and brokenhearted. Our apartment that is usually filled with laughter, chatter, and guitar picking was silent. We planned, brushed our teeth and went to bed. That night I laid there throwing a pretty impressive pity party. "Why were they so mean to ME?" Then as if someone was sitting right next to me I heard, "They weren't rejecting you, little one. They were rejecting me." I felt so selfish and sad. Ever since I've been thinking about the scripture in John that says" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He is my Savior, Redeemer and Friend. Being scoffed and looked down up, having people yell and swear and slam their doors in our face are just menial compared to what He did for us. And because He loves them too we can never give up.
I hope your week is warm! Sunny! Full of laughter and something yummy like baked oatmeal, Sister May and I are obsessed. I'll make it for you when I get home:)
I love you!
Bisous Bisous!
Soeur Perkins
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