Bonjour!

Chere Familie et mon amis!

Commet ca va? This week has gone by so fast! I can hardly believe how quickly the weeks go by...days are another story. Conference was amazing here at the MTC! The spirit was incredible. I felt like everyone was hanging on every word being spoken. It was unreal! I basically cried through the first two sessions. I lost it when they announced the SECOND temple in Provo! I'm so happy that building will not be torn down. That building was gorgeus in it's day and it served the people in Provo so well for years. I was only in it a couple of times but I felt like it had a soul. It was definately a worthy servant of the Lord. At times I think we're all kind of like that building. We work really hard and feel torn down and like are efforts are in vain. But the Lord always has a plan.I feel like that building will stand as a testimony that the Lord has great things in store for all of us. Now it will be a holy house of the Lord. The means by which many people will be sealed as families for the eternities. Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives! I also really loved President Uchtdorf's talks. I'm pretty sure the Lord knew what I needed to hear and when I needed to hear it. Conference is such a spectacular event and I hope you all loved it as much as I did.

Dad, thank you so much for your letter! The language is rough. I struggle through most of my lessons, but I feel certain that the Lord is on my right hand and on my left hand and his angels are constantly round about me. Especially when my body is exhausted and my brain is completely spent, He always provides more support. This week I've been thinking a lot about Alma 29:1-2 "Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart! That I might speak witht the trump of God, and cry repentence unto every people!" The wish of my heart is to learn French. Especially to learn to love it. That is a work in progress:)

This week we finished teaching Stephan (the "investigator"). In our lesson we were teaching him about baptism and he asked us if he could be baptised in our church. Like i said my French is not so gurd. So in my little head i thought he was asking us if he could baptize himself, so I emphatically responded "Non,non, non!" and he said "Non?" "NON!" And then after I realized the look of confusion on his face I felt like a big fat goober. Then I said "Ohhh! OUI!" After this gem he asked where he would be baptized and my companion couldn't remember the word for water or font so she said "en une.....bath." At this point none of us could keep a straight face...buy hey we comitted him to baptism:)

Thank you for your letters! they are like prized gems here in the mish. I love hearing about everything you're doing and seeing pictures. Also, thank you for the package! I took the taffy to conference and the Elders in my district loved it. I felt like the mom, because they kept saying, "Soeur Perkins, can I have some taffy?" And I would say "this is the last one!" and it almost never was, because I am a push over.These Elders are great. They are the best little brothers ever. Sadly, this week one of our elders went home. My heart was broken, but I know the Lord has a path for all of us and I just keep praying his will lead him back to a mission.

I'm so happy to be here! This is the hardest, but most edifying thing I have ever done. Some days I feel like I've grown so much. And other days I feel like I still have so much to learn. I'm so grateful though. All through out conference I kept thinking how lucky we are to have the gospel in our lives. How lucky we are to know that our lives our not endless streams of chaos, but there is a path and there is a guide. I love the Savior. I love His gospel. I know that He loves me and I know that He loves each and every one of you. He knows your needs and the desires of your hearts. You are in my prayers. I love you so dearly. Remember "All these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good."

The Savior loves you. I love you.

Soeur (pronounced sur NOT sewer!) Perkins

P.s. You should really write me letters!

P.p.s. Randy? RANDY! RANDIE! RANDIE! Randy?

P.p.s. Write me:)

P.p.p.s. J did you get your letter?

September 27th!!

Ma Famille e mis amies!

Comment ce va? Yes it's true. I am speaking FRENCH! I got here on day one and they put my missionary tag on me and it said "Soeur Perkins". I said umm this is supposed to say "Hermana". They informed me that while I'm in the MTC I will be learning French and only French. This is the part where I beg for you to pray that the gift of tongues kicks in soon:) French is weird. For some reason, they don't pronounce the entire word if it ends in a vowel unless it is followed by a vowel. I'm pretty sure I sound like a French caveperson. This causes problems for when I read things in English, because I no longer pronounce any vowels at the end of words. Also we had our third lesson last night with our "investigator" Stephan. Stephan is evidently already converted because his BOM is marked and he has a CTR ring AND he wears garments. Oh Stephan, don't you try to fool us! We're on to your tricks! All joking aside it's been really....humbling teaching him. I realize every time we teach him that my French is atrocious. At first I was really discouraged but the other night while I was brushing my teeth (best time for revelation) that I don't need to speak French perfectly I just need to speak enough French to preach the gospel. The MTC is great. Aside from the wonderous food that is. Okay. The food isn't so bad it's just got nothing on mom's cooking, or J's stir fry, or Benja's, or Monica's pumpkin rolls.. mmmmmmm PUMPKIN ROLLS!

We've had some awesome firesides and mission conferences this past week. It really is a great time to be serving in the MTC. My companion's name is Soeur Ellsworth. She is from Michigan and I love her stiinking guts. All of them, even the guts that only want to eat cereal every day. She is easily my favorite companion:) So funny! Really she is a blessing. Our district is also really great. I feel like I have been blessed with 8 little brothers. They even call me "big sister". I love them a lot even when all they want to do is talk about video games.

So this is a real surprise but I miss you all a lot. Some days I have to force myself to NOT think about you. Really. Especially those of you who are so close (you know who you are!) It get's difficult, but then I remember that there are souls in Montreal that I love so much. I'm not quite sure who they are but I do know i love them and I do know that I want nothing more than to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. On sunday night Brother Stephen B. Allen came and spoke to us about how badly satan wants us to go home and give up on the mission. It was a really inspired talk. He said so many things that I know I needed to hear. The Gospel is just so amazing.

Another amazing thing is I have seen soooooo many people I know. For you doterra-ites I see Brittney Stirling like 456 times a day. Which is awesome because a Hermana Stirling is basically awesome. Man I love that girl.

There are so many things that I can't wait to share with you when I get home. And there are soooooo many things that I still need to learn. French being at the top of the list.

Oh! funny story. So for some reason the place where you take your trays in the cafeteria after you're done eating is smells disgusting. It's like stinky garbage steam. Just what you want to smell afer you eat. So my companion and I hold our breath every time we go through, which works great when there isn't a line. But not so great when there is. The other day there was a traffic jam and my companion Soeur Ellsworth couldn't handle the smell so she basically threw her tray on the conveyor belt and ran, yes RAN, out of the room. I was laughing so hard i almost peed my pants and then I almost threw up because I wasn't holding my breath anymore. Oh the MTC.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission. I pray for you. I love you so much and I look forward to hearing from you all.

Con toda mi amor,

Hermana/Soeur Perkins

P.s. if you send your emails through dearelder.com I will get them the same day AND I will be able to come up with a response to your letters on my P-day! so please, please, please! email me through dearelder.com while I'm in the MTC! Also you should know it's FREE! Yes, FREEEEE!

P.p.s. my mailbox number is 82 so feel free to send me cookies, letters, cookies, edible things, letters:)

Human. Kind.

I don't blog about my job for various reasons.

A. It's not very interesting.

B. I try to leave work at work.

C. Work is not meant for this little corner of my world.

However, the other day I had an experience at work that left somewhat of an impression on my heart.

A little background: I work in the product store for a locally based MLM(that's a multi-level marketing company, for you newbs). I deal with people from all walks of life. From the hippie tree hugger to the beauty queens of Northern Utah. Every day is a new adventure.

Last week, we had a particularly snarky crowd come through our product store.

People who sometimes forget that we little worker bees are humans too.

Humans with slow fingers, tired brains, and fatigued bodies.

I called for the next customer in line and a very small woman came forward.

She was donning a "Hot n' Ready" t-shirt from Little Caesar's.

"I talked to the bank and they said my card has enough money on it."

"Okay." I tried really hard to smile sensing that this woman had some sort of disability.

I ran her card for her small purchase and proceeded to pull her order.

I was halfway across the product store when she yelled across "My neighbor has lupus. I'm going to sign her up so I can help her with her lupus."

"Oh that is so great." I tried to feign excitement.

"Are you proud of me?" she asked sincerely.

My answer was lodged in my throat as I tried to choke back tears.

"Yes. I'm very proud of you."

Sometimes I am lost in my own little world of worries and troubles.

I was grateful for this reminder that we are all fighting our own battles and it is oh so important to let those we come into contact that we are so proud of their effort.

If no one else has told you so today, know that I am proud of you for fighting whatever battle you fight.

xo

Called

On Friday my family drove to Utah county with a big white envelope from the Church headquarters.

I was not nervous about the next 18 months of my life until I saw it.

I worried about a lot of things once it was in my hands like:

-what if I couldn't do this?

-what if I couldn't adapt to the culture/food/people?

-what if's

I even joked about driving to the church office in Salt Lake handing them my envelope and saying "Changed my mind."

But surrounded by the most important people to me (some via cell phone) I opened my mission call and read the following words:

"Dear Sister Perkins: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint. You are assigned to labor in the Canada Montreal Mission. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

With those few words I became all sorts of emotion.

Mostly shock.

Then came joy.

Then absolute gratitude.

I can't possibly explain how but I already feel a love for those people in the Montreal.

I can think of no other explanation than that of the love of Christ which stems from His Gospel.

I am so grateful for the testimony I have of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that the atonement is real. I know that Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son and that he restored the true and living gospel. I know that man will know no great joy than coming unto the Savior.

And that is what I plan to share with the people of Montreal.

xo

FHE Mama

I have a pretty good track record of not attending FHE since I've moved away from home.

If you are unfamiliar with FHE, it stands for Family Home Evening.

FHE is held on Monday nights and it's a time for families in our church to spend together.

College wards, like the one I attend, have little FHE groups and I was lucky enough to land a calling as an FHE mom.

I know this is karma paying me back for the past 3 years of avoidant behavior.

Tonight was my first go at being an FHE mom.

Lucky for me I was paired with another FHE mom and we decided to play games and she volunteered to bring a watermelon.

* it should be noted that I had a dream last night that I learned how to carve watermelons like you would carve a pumpkin at Halloween. So you can imagine my excitement?

We did the usual

.Prayer, spiritual thought, etc.

Once I had sufficiently dominated everyone in Mad Gab we decided to slice the watermelon open.

I'm not going to lie I was pretty excited.

I. Love. Watermelon.

My dear roommates began slicing the beast open and like opening flood gates the watermelon spewed water all over our counter top.

Then we split the beast open and the insides reminded me of the turkey on Christmas Vacation. See image below.

It was sad indeed.

I had to send all of my little FHE children home without watermelon.

Luckily, one of the children made this wonderful watermelon carving.

See image below.

Behold! The waterbeast!

xo

P.s. I am still craving watermelon.

Decision.

I have been wrestling with two really big "somethings" for a few weeks now.

Both somethings could make me very happy.

I think that's the hardest part.

If I at least knew which "best" was a little less best I wouldn't be in this pickle.

Maybe I should flip a coin? kidding!

Happy Monday!

xo

P.s. I realize the squirrel has nothing to do with this post, but isn't it funny? He reminds me of someone I know....but who?

Because who is really "over" the royal wedding?

Precious.

xo