CANADA Week 30-February 20, 2018-Salut les gens!

Les Boys! Futsal was awesome and the company was better. I learned some Swahili too!

I hope everybody had an awesome week and made some memories! Things are still cruising along up here in Sherbrooke. And heating up! We actually got up to like 7ish degrees and it was insane.

This week has been one of my favorites here in Sherbrooke. We have been trying lately to teach ALL of the family when we go into their houses... and some of our friends have MASSIVE families and their friends were over too, so we have had like 10+ people in our discussions which has been awesome. And the spirit of God is always so much stronger when a family is able to learn about Him together. The family is one of the strongest and most important units on the earth, and there is so much that we can do within our own families. I think that when Christ describes the beam and the splinter in Matthew 7 (I would give the direct quote, but I only have my Bible in French), it can also be compared to families. We should always do everything that we can to help out our families, because we have  been placed in our specific family for a specific reason. We just have to figure out what that is.

Elder Rossi literally does this on purpose so that I cant get out haha.

So I got him back... I am driving now because he hurt his knee haha.

We had a solid Valentine's Day here too haha. Some of our friends (Esperando and Annie) invited us over to eat with them so we went for it. When we get there they had invited another one of their friends named Alain over too, who happened to be a professional guitarist and singer, so he was jamming on the guitar the whole meal haha. Also, Esperando is vegan, so we ate a vegetarian poutine (which was surprisingly good), vegetarian pizza (don't ask about the pepperoni), and a salad. It was one of the most interesting and most fun experiences I have had so far.

Vegan foods.

And we FINALLY got the crew together for futsal at the church! We ended up having quite a few guys come, and we invited them all to come back Sunday for church, so we will see how it ends up working out. It was really fun though, and we made some good relationships with the guys. 

This is also the week of transfers, I think and hope I'll be staying here in Sherbrooke, but I'll let ya know next week. We will also be getting our phones sometime in March, so soon I'll be joining Facebook again, but I'll let you know more later as well. I don't know too much yet

I love ya guys, and I hope you make this next week awesome! Look for the good in yourself, and also in others! 

Elder Wilson

CANADA Week 29-February 13, 2018-Le diable mange les esperances

Mamie`s little brother, Moruba, drew me a picture.

Hullo! Another awesome week in Sherbrook flew by and a ton happened but I'll tell ya some of the most important parts.

Starting with Mamie. She is still doing awesome, but we had to move her baptism to the 3rd of March. We always say that God works in mysterious ways, but I think that the devil does too haha. This week Mamie happened to use all of her bus money on eating out, so she had to walk back from school. Which means she didn't get back from school until 9:10ish which is after our curfew, so we couldn't see her this week to finish off her preparations for baptism.  She really is ready though, and we will use these two weeks we have to help her out. 

The Bishop's son sprinted into our meeting, grabbed Elder Rossi's bag, and threw it into the trash while running out haha. It made my life.

Also, this week was a little rough for a lot of the members, because we had the funeral for Soeur Letourneau, one of the members in our ward. She had a stroke a few weeks ago. We went to the service (because we had to sing) and it was awesome. She didn't have many family members close, so most of the service was just the ward members. It was pretty incredible though, because all of us were comforted by the knowledge that we have of God's plan for us, and we knew that she had lived a good life. It was pretty eye-opening to see many of the other mourners at the funeral thinking that they would never see their loved ones again, and it made me even more determined to share with others the things that I know and let them see more of the light of Christ in their lives. There is always more that we can do.

Exchange with Elder Aalders. It snowed tons and driving was awesome.

I don't have much time today, but I wanted to include a sweet quote from a dying prophet in the book of Mormon directed towards his sons in his last moments, "Awake, my sons, put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." Don't let yourself be distracted and bound by things that aren't really important. Time is precious, so we should use it for precious things.

How Elder Eakins reads from the Scriptures.

Love ya all, and thanks for everything you do for me! Have an awesome week, and pray for my old Dad haha. He hurt his back recently and needs some love. Thank ya!

Elder Wilson 

CANADA Week 28-February 6, 2018-Le temps se passe vite

The zone leaders crashed in our apartment this week and they are awesome. Elder Gubbay is a literal giant and he loves soccer so we played in the morning.

Bonjour ma fam! I passed the 6 month mark this week and it literally feels like I just got here haha. But SO much has happened since I started. I am excited for the year and 1/2 that I have left, and I will certainly do my best to use it well. (It took me way too long to find the / button on this dumb Quebec keyboard haha)

Longueuil Sud Zone.

This week we saw pretty much all of our friends and it was so sweet! Literally we have been busy and rushing all week long, and it felt great. Nothing feels better than to be able to actually help someone with a genuine need. We just have to be on the lookout for who we can help.

Elder Rossi 1st ticket in Sherbrooke (Sorry ma and padre but I have to pay for it too, and my part will be like 70 bucks...)

This week all of the Longueuil zone fasted together so that our friends would be more open to come to church this week. I know that it doesn't always work out like this, but the results were immediate here in Sherbrooke. For the first time in FOREVER Sah and Finda came to church, Mamie and her brother cam (her mom had been forbidding him to come), and her grandma (Who we can't talk to because she only speaks Kissi) just decided to show up as well haha. It was awesome, and the ward members loved having them there. 

Tired Elder Rossi.

Mamie is still working hard to be ready to be baptized on the 17th. We taught her about the Word of Wisdom, and why it is important to treat our bodies with respect. She accepted everything without problem until we asked her to stop drinking coffee. She drinks coffee every single day, her family too, and she couldn't see a problem with it. She even explained to us that in Africa she used to grow her own coffee beans so she knows that they are natural. While we were trying to explain the reasons to her, the spirit must have cleared her mind more than we as missionaries ever could have. She suddenly stopped talking, looked at us, and said, "Don't worry, I will never drink coffee again" and that was the end of it. She is pretty incredible.

We also had a really cool experience with Bernadette. We were teaching her about Prophets, and we decided to show her the video of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. So she called in her son Rickié to help us start it, and he sat down to watch it with us. First time he had ever been in the same room as us during the conversation. After the film the feelings were heavy, and we asked Rickié how he felt at that moment. He said simply "I know that God exists because of the joy that I feel." That was one of the most powerful statements I have heard during my 6 months here, and I could see the conviction in his eyes. Love that kid. He is going to start coming to church with Bernadette every other week if he is free.

This poor motorcycle will be eaten soon by the snow mountain.

I saw the powerful effects of the spirit of God in the lives of those around me this week, and it helped me to realize how frequently I ignore them in my own. It is so easy to ignore a miracle when you forget to look for it. I hope you guys can all remember to look around and try to see life with a different perspective this week. (Lehi puts it better than I ever could... (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 1:2 . . . Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust.))

Love ya guys and I hope you have an awesome week! You help motivate me every single day, and I can never thank you enough. Enjoy your week!

Elder Wilson

CANADA Week 27-January 30, 2018-Ups and Downs . . .

The man, the myth, the legend... Papa Eakins himself.

Hullo my fam! This week has been fun and certainly enlightening. Jaime la mission trop! 

And Texas looks like another world ma. I haven't even seen the ground not covered in snow in like 7 years haha. But I am glad that Grammy and Pops looked so happy, and they are still livin the life in their camper. We will have to visit them again in Texas when I get back.

And Bogus (at least I think that was Bogus) looks magic! I miss skiing so Perr and Dad you guys are going to have to live it up for me and shred the mountain! And see if you can get ma up there ;).

This week we had zone conference so we carpooled the trek to Montreal with the other Elders which was fun. Elder Eakins has 1 transfer left and Elder Aalders has 2, so they told us all kinds of crazy and cool mission stories. At zone conference we talked a ton about smart phones and how to use them efficiently as a missionary. It really will open up a ton of opportunities for us. We will get them at the next zone conference next transfer.

One thing that I really appreciated from zone conference was one of the guidelines for technology we learned. It stated, DON'T TURN ON YOUR DEVICE OR OPEN AN APP WITHOUT HAVING A CLEAR PURPOSE IN MIND. I seriously wish I had thought about that before my mission, because so much of my time was used mindlessly scrolling, and there is always a better way to use our time, and when we don't have a purpose, we become more susceptible to distraction.

This Sunday was awesome and crushing because Mamie came and she is still preparing to be baptized, but Sah and Finda didn't show up even though we confirmed with them last night... Those guys are the worst haha. They always end up bailing last minute, and I love them so I want them to act and see the blessings, but so far it just hasn't happened. But Mamie has been progressing steadily, and every time we see her she busts out her notepad where she writes all of her questions and things that she has learned while reading the Book of Mormon. She loves it!

Things here have been wild this week, because it warmed up a little, so literally the world is a skating rink and it is impossible to walk. We have mastered the art of the slide though, and it is certainly a more effective way to talk to people on the go haha.

The first time I've seen the sun...ever. haha.

Love ya all, and have lots of fun for me this week! Stay strong and use every moment you have. You can do a lot more than you think you can. Fait que baaaannn luh luh (Favorite quebecer quote this week) (it's not even French)

Elder Wilson

(sorry Mudda the pics are weak)