TWENTY-TWO

Bonjour tout le monde!

This week was busy: surprise parties, -40° weather, bowling, a potluck, devotional, and a talk in church!

Monday we played Settlers of Catan and I barely pulled off a win! It was a great p-day—we got a lot done and had fun! (Totally made that rhyme.) We had FHE with the YSA (alphabet soup!) which was great as always. 

Tuesday was my 5 month mark! I didn't realize it until a few days later but it came and went! Elder Heder shared a quote with me once, I have no idea who said it, but it went something like this. "A good missionary has no sense of time. You're always in the middle of your mission." I've tried to keep that close to heart because sometimes it seems like a day will never end and then you start thinking about a week and a month and a year and suddenly you're overwhelmed and can't focus on what's important! Anyways—On Tuesday we went on splits with the Chinese elders to do a bunch of pass-offs and pass-by's. I went with Elder Riff, he's from Strasbourg, for most of the day. Brandon Wong, an amazing member of the English branch, came with us to see two of the investigators. We taught one a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the other about our relationship with God. The lessons went really well and we were invited back to see them again. We went knocking that night and taught some people at their doors but no one ever invited us back. We ate dinner with the Chinese elders at our apartment.

(Okay, I'm running short on time today... I'm going to speed things up a bit.)

Wednesday we started with district study. I was asked to give a training on "Faith in Jesus Christ." The training went well and I even got to use one of the great new videos from the Church off of biblevideos.org. It was the one about Peter and James healing a crippled man. We ate as a district and then Elder Osorio and I went looking for some of the less-active members that President Glowa had asked us to try to see. No one ended up answering but I still enjoyed trying to find them anyways. We texted almost everyone on our phone to invite them to sports night that night and got some interesting responses. Among them were two less-active members who asked us if we could see them the next day. That was a great surprise! Speaking of surprises—It was Sister Cantu's birthday that day and so after we cleaned the chapel we decorated the Relief Society room and threw her a surprise party. We had balloons and cake and I did some art on the whiteboard... well, if you could call it art. 

Thursday morning one of the members in the branch wanted to come knocking with us so we took him around to some of our favorite buildings. We were never able to have a full lesson but he had fun anyways. I love it when members come knocking with us. It's always a good time. Then that afternoon we got to see Matt, a less active member who can't come to church very often because of his work. He's a security guard and has to work long hours. He's very committed to his job—if only he could carry that same commitment to the church! Then Guy came and met us at the church and we had a great lesson with him. He shared the story of his conversion which was nothing but a miracle! He is an amazing member and has just been waiting for a little motivation to come back.

Friday we got to talk to the concierge of our building. We had our carpets cleaned last week—tough life, huh?—and we went to go pay him. He talked for a while and basically told us his whole life story. Cool guy and quite the talker! Amaru came knocking with us and, as always with her, we had a wonderful time! We taught a great lesson to a student named Adam (right when he introduced himself I told him "Hey! That's my little brother's name!") about the relationship we have with our family and the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. We used a great video, the most recent Mormon Message, to help teach. It was a very powerful testimony to him despite the fact that he is atheist. He wants to learn more and was impressed by Moroni's promise in the Book of Mormon. Samire came to have soup with us again before Institute and we shared a few stories from the Book of Mormon with him.

(I'm out of time...)

Saturday we knocked almost all day and didn't teach a single lesson. We have days like that but I try to stay positive the whole time! It was fun nonetheless. I finished preparing my talk for Sunday and then we went bowling with the YSA to celebrate President Glowa's birthday as well as the St. Laurent Branch anniversary. It was such a fun night. I bowled with Brother and Sister Turner. Brother Turner has become one of my very good friends here. I have nothing but great things to say about the branch presidency here. I love each one of them!

Sunday we had a lot of meetings and I gave my talk. It was probably the only talk I've ever given where I didn't want to change a thing about it after having delivered it. It went just how I had planned and I only have the Spirit to thank for that! I spoke on "sacrifice." We had a potluck afterwards and then watched the CES (re)Broadcast Devotional by President Uchtdorf called "What is Truth?" I highly recommend watching it if you haven't. 

Thanks for all of your love and support!

Avec amour,

Elder Ellis 

Bro. Turner and I

The cake that Sister Glowa made.  She is a cake maker.
(Sorry for the horrid angle.  That was the best I could do.)

Adrian, President Glowa, and I

Finally finished knocking this beast

TWENTY-ONE

Bonjour tout le monde!

What a week! A lot has happened! We had transfers, dinner appointments, lots of knocking and lots of snow, birthday parties and hospital visits!

On Monday I got the best surprise I could have asked for! Elder Howard, one of the senior missionaries who I've grown to love, asked me if he could speak to me out in the hall for a while. I thought something was up and he started off by giving me a big hug and told me, "That was from your mom!" He explained a bit and then it became pretty obvious what he was talking about! He had gone back to Utah for family matters and had the chance to meet my Mom! He gave me a package from her that had the best chocolate chip cookies ever and some nice letters. (Oh and a super nice backscratcher that I love! Thanks, Mom!)

Tuesday was Elder Baker and I's (I don't think that works in English... oh well—) last day together so we had a bunch of lessons planned with our investigators so that he could say goodbye to everyone that he wanted. It was planned that way... but, I've learned that often the only thing you can plan on is a change of plans. All of our lessons dropped us so we had a lot of knocking and didn't find much success. We had brunch at Tim Horton's. Okay, I don't know if I've ranted and raved about Tim's yet or not but seriously, if there is one thing that the States are missing out on, it's Tim Horton's. I absolutely love that place! It's like Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks but way better and really cheap! So we decided to eat out and celebrate the last two transfers that we had spent together. Then that night we had a dinner appointment with Phil and his mom. I always love spending time with Phil at his house for dinner appointments. They are so nice and always so welcoming. His mom only speaks Spanish and French so I have a fun time showing her how much I've improved between our visits. We shared the Family Proclamation with her and she loved it! I am so grateful for my family. I enjoy hearing what's going on back home and love getting little letters from my siblings.

Wednesday was a different day for me. So many emotions and so many things going on! First off, my brother, the other Elder Ellis (Austin) turned 21! I honestly cannot believe that he is that old now! So Happy Birthday to him! He is such an amazing example to me—both as a missionary and as a brother. He is so kind and sincere to everyone which has, I'm sure, brought him much success in Oregon. We had transfers today so I helped Elder Baker finish packing and I cleaned the apartment again for my new companion (so we could set a bar from the beginning!) I gave myself a haircut for the first time because I didn't exactly want the same thing that had happened last time! It actually wasn't too hard! I just imagined, "What would my mom do?" And the rest is history! At noon we took Elder Baker's bags to Berri-UQAM (a metro stop where all of the missionaries meet for transfers.) It was so great to see all of the missionaries all in one place. (I saw Elder Keenan (my MTC companion) again. That was fun and funny! He was a great companion and had so much energy, sometimes it was hard to match him! That morning his companion had bet him that he couldn't give him a haircut in under 5 minutes and he ended up shaving his whole head because he "forgot" that he didn't have a guard on. Oh Elder Keenan... Gotta love him!) A number of them have become life-long friends. I don't think I've written much about Elder Bell or not, but he has become one of my closest friends. He has been a true friend to me since the day I got here. He lived in the same apartment building as us and served as a Chinese missionary because he already speaks French. It was extremely difficult watching him get into the mission van and drive away because I didn't know what emotion I was feeling. It was sad but happy and confusing and I don't know... I've learned that missionary work brings men of God together like nothing else can. So I picked up my new companion, Elder Osorio, and we dropped off his stuff at Laurier and went to go get some poutine with the other elders. Elder Osorio was serving in the YSA my first transfer here with Elder Smith and then left to Lavalle. And now he's back! He is from St. George, Utah and speaks English, Spanish, and French. He is Latino and loves to cook! We're already really good friends! So after poutine we got a call from a member of the Lasalle ward saying that someone had asked us to visit her in the Douglas Hospital, a mental institution. It would take a while to get down there (it's on the southern shore of the island almost 45 minutes from where we were) but we decided that we needed to go. We got there and found Lourdine! It was so good to see her again! She kinda disappeared for a while and we weren't sure what had happened to her! We had a good visit and she asked us to come back for her birthday on Saturday. On our way back we missed the bus by 30 seconds and it wasn't coming for another 30 minutes! So we had to walk up this road for a while and tried to hitchhike to make our way back downtown for an appointment. It was a completely new experience for me! We finally got back downtown and met at Laurier to play volleyball with the YSA.

Thursday was my first full day with Elder Osorio. I'm so happy to be working with him! He has a lot of courage and is excited to talk to everyone in the metros. It is very helpful when you have a companion who supports you and encourages you to speak with everyone. It can get easy, working downtown being constantly surrounded by hundreds of people, to justify not raising your voice and talking to as many people as possible. But we aren't here to do something easy. I knew it would be hard from the start and so I'm glad I have someone who takes the hard work and makes it easier by throwing out all fears and adopting pure faith. He is great! We had district study and talked about the Light of Christ in our lives and in the lives of others. It is amazing what it is possible when you help someone realize that Light in their own lives. We had lunch as a district and then got a call from Sister Cannon. She needed some help with some of her pictures so she and President Cannon came to pick us up and took us back to the mission home. Elder Osorio said that he hadn't been there since he came into the mission a year and a half ago and was excited to go back. I told him that he would love being with me because we often get invited there! We had dinner with them and a great conversation about missionary work. I got everything straightened out with her computer and helped her figure out how she wanted to organize her photos better. It is pretty funny each time I help her because I honestly feel like I'm working at Apple again!

Friday! President and Sister Cannon came to our apartment to interview me and inspect our cleaning. They were very impressed with how clean it was! Elder Baker and I have worked pretty hard for the past few p-days getting everything really clean. I was glad that that they got to see our hard work. They loved my photo wall, especially all of the Christmas cards! Nicole sent me a picture of her with Sister Dalton from the General Young Women's Presidency which I have on my wall and they were very interested in the story! The interview went great—President Cannon is an amazing man! He is such a great teacher and an amazing leader. He has helped me to understand so much about missionary work and our role in the Plan of Salvation for others over the past few months. Weekly planning went well and I got to tell Elder Osorio about each of our investigators. This is the first time that I have a had a real companion change since coming out of the MTC so it was a bit a challenging trying to teach him about our area. President Cannon came by as well to tell me that I would have to be especially patient with Elder Osorio because he tends to forget a good amount of things that you tell him. It has been difficult but I am entering this transfer looking to learn and improve and develop my patience! It made planning a bit difficult because we covered the same things multiple times but I just kept praying for patience. We did a few pass by's to introduce Elder Osorio to our investigators and then came back for soup with the YSA. We invited our friend Samire to have soup with us. He's from Algeria and immigrated here a number of years ago seeking a better life but got into some things and lost all of his money. He was homeless for a while and then started selling magazines for a company called L'Itineraire whose objective is to get the homeless off the streets by having them sell their magazine about improving your situation in life and giving them commission on each copy that they sell. So he sells in the metro that we use and we always stop and talk to him for a few minutes each day. He was so happy to have soup with us and told us that it was the nicest thing that anyone has done for him. Institute was great, we had a wonderful lesson and Dustin came to listen. The message seemed to be directly geared for him and it really made an impact! He asked if he could come with us tomorrow and help us with whatever we had going on.

So Saturday we met Dustin at Tim Horton's. We bought some Timbits (doughnut holes) to take to Lourdine for her birthday at Douglas. We metro'd and bused all the way out there and the whole time Dustin and I had a great conversation about the Plan of Salvation. He likes to go pretty far out and talk about deep doctrine which I don't mind, but I wish he would understand that the point of all of the deeper doctrine is the application of simple truths in our lives. We are here to develop and to become the people that God knows we can become. That takes a lot of faith and extreme amounts of trust to let Him to take you and shape you best. He's reluctant to that shaping process and I figured the best way to help him understand it is by having him help us bring others into that process and back to the Church. We had a great birthday party with Lourdine and sang songs and talked about family and ate Timbits! I wish I could have taken pictures but my camera died that morning. We did a lot of knocking later that day and found some great new people to teach! I kind of had a numbers complex and got all stressed out about our numbers for that week for some dumb reason. We weren't doing so well on the number's side of things but had been working as hard as we could. I had a realization that sometimes it just isn't up to us. Everyone has their agency and can choose whether they want to listen to us or not. It isn't up to us. We can only do our best and then it's up to the Lord and the person on the other side of the door. 

Sunday was great! I have been trying super hard to get more help form the leaders in the branch lately and I brought up some concerns and we made some real progress in our Branch Council and correlation meetings. We invited almost all of our investigators to come to church throughout the week but sadly none of them came. We will just have to keep trying and finding ways to get them to come. In the middle of the Gospel Principles class, Samire walked in the church and asked if he could talk to me. Someone came and found me and told me that he was here to see me. So Elder Osorio and I went down and to see him. He said that he had prepared his best couscous for us and he wanted us to come over to his apartment for dinner. We left right after church because we there was a meeting for all of the priesthood holders that night at 7 clear over at the Angrignon chapel. We walked with Samire and talked to him and learned more about his story. He is an amazing man! He's brilliant but has been cheated out of so many opportunities and has been (in his words) "dealt a bad hand" all of his life. He was so kind to invite us over and we knew he had been working and saving all that he could to have us over to eat. His apartment was small and dirty but you could see that he had cleaned for us just so that we would be comfortable there. We huddled around his small kitchen table and offered multiple times to help him prepare the food but he insisted that we let him serve us. He kept saying, "Tonight you are kings in my palace!" I don't think I'll ever be able to show him enough gratitude for what he did for us that night. The rest of the night is dull in comparison to the kindness that he showed.

This week was wonderful! It was exciting and full of opportunities to serve! Look for as many chances as you can to serve others this upcoming week! Find someone who is in need and do everything you can to make them feel like a "king". I love you all!

Avec amour, 

Elder Ellis

Elder Osorio

Samire and me

TWENTY

Bonjour tout le monde!

What a week! We had a baptism, transfer calls, service projects and splits!

To follow up on Monday—pickle ball with Elder Heder and Elder Reid was awesome! If you haven't ever played it you definitely should! It was fun to be active again and run around. So remember a few weeks ago, sometime just before Christmas, when I wrote about a kid we met named Jon? Well, he came to Family Home Evening that night! He had a great time and got to meet a lot of new people. It was fun to see him getting to know everyone because he is super shy but tried so hard to get to know people. From talking with him afterwards I could tell that he had had a good time. I love working with the YSA because of all of the great activities that are available to us to bring investigators to. 

On Tuesday we went and got frozen yogurt at a place called "yeh!" with Amaru! It was a fun way to celebrate her getting her mission call to Spain. (Speaking of missionaries in Spain... Does anyone have Sam Norton's address? I need to write that kid so bad! And speaking of Sam... Kevin Fonseca! Kevbot, if your reading this you have exactly two weeks to get a letter in my hand or else... And speaking of Kevin... Kirsten! How do I not have your address? I need to send you a post card! As well as Gemma! Where did she get her mission call to? And Brynnley and Abbey! Basically everyone but Nicole and my family is failing at writing me! Oh and Alyssa, I just got your letter, I'll try to write back today! Okay... Sorry for the crazy paragraph of "speaking of's") Anyways... So. Frozen Yogurt. We went to this place called "yeh!" and the funniest thing happened. I totally felt like I was back in Utah. It looks exactly like every other frozen yogurt place in the valley! It was pretty good. Amaru came with us afterwards to meet Jon on McGill campus to teach him about the Restoration. The lesson went really well—we gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon and answered a few questions of his. He told us that he wasn't necessarily searching for anything right now but he was interested to see what kind of a perspective it would give him to learn about the Plan of Salvation. Later that day we went back to the office to finish making preparations for Caitlin's baptism on Saturday. I made a nice little program for her. I'll send a picture for you.

Okay so Wednesday we had district study. Our district is kinda funny because we have the AP's, the zone leaders, the district leader (Elder Baker) and then the Sisters. So the AP's and the zone leaders never come so we have to have our district study up in the office to have a chaperone. So this time we had our study in the supply room. We didn't have much time because we wanted to mark out all of our investigators and members and less-actives on a map (this is where iPads would come in handy...) and it was going to take a while. After we helped one of the senior missionaries with the zone leaders to move some new stuff from the mission home to the mission storage. There are a lot of sisters coming in soon so the mission has been preparing all of the new apartments. Right now there are 5 elders to 1 sister. By the end of May it will 2 to 1! Can you believe that! I am so excited to have more sisters in the mission—from what I've seen from working with Sister Lopez and Sister Nilsen they bring so much to the table that elders can't. After the service project we met Caitlin at Laurier to show her her baptismal program. She loved it! Then we helped the YSA clean the chapel and played some volleyball afterwards with a few investigators.

Thursday was one of my favorite days of my mission so far! I went on splits with Elder Heder which was just amazing! I am so happy that he is here to set an example for me. He is such an amazing missionary and an all around nice guy. He really helped me with a few aspects of missionary work that I didn't quite have set. I still have a lot to learn out here and I am trying my best to improve each day! I've learned over the past few months the importance of looking at every situation with an attitude of learning. We are given experiences that provide us with an opportunity to grow and develop into the kind of people that we aspire to. The greatest blessing in life is knowing that God is our Heavenly Father and that He knows and loves us perfectly. He knows our full potential and what it will take to get us there. Don't let any opportunity in your life pass without considering what your Father in Heaven wants you to learn from it. I was so grateful that He gave me the chance to work along side Elder Heder—I had a lot to learn! We passed by a few people and did quite a bit of knocking. I wish I could tell you about each experience that we had with the people that opened to us. Well, that night we watched "The Prophet of the Restoration" with Jon. He seemed like he liked it but didn't, even after our conversation, see how it related to him. We talked as we rode the metros home and he told me that he was going to come to church but that might be the last time we saw him for a while. It made me really sad to hear that.

Friday was great but mostly filled with weekly planning and nothing too exciting! We got a lot done that we needed to for a long time and set a lot of good goals. That night we had our last lesson with Caitlin before her baptism which was a bitter-sweet moment! I am so grateful to have played a part in sharing this Gospel with her. She will be a friend for life. That night we had institute and ate soup and baguettes with the YSA.

Saturday was one of the happiest days of my life! Caitlin was baptized and the day went without a single hitch! Our friend Guillaume was the one who baptized her and I couldn't have been happier! It is a miracle that she was able to get to where she is. Looking back a few months ago when we first started teaching her and her first baptismal date was approaching with all of the problems with her parents I was worried that I would miss this day. It was through fervent prayer and fasting in faith that she made it to this day. She asked me to share a few thoughts on faith and the Holy Ghost which I had a great time doing! After refreshments and chatting for a while we left to teach a lesson to a potential investigator we met the first week I came here. An engaged couple came to help teach with us—they are amazing people! The lesson went well and we discussed a lot of her questions. That night we had to be back in our apartment by 8 for transfer calls. I wasn't nearly as nervous this time around because I had a pretty good feeling thing that I would be staying at McGill with the YSA. Drum roll... I'm staying! Elder Baker is being transferred across the island to Zarahemla (haha, the Spanish Branch chose their name...) and will be speaking Spanish now! I'll be receiving Elder Osorio who used to be in the YSA. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. It will be so much fun working with him!

Sunday we had wonderful meetings! Jon came to church like he said and I tried my best to explain everything to him and help him recognize the prompting from the Spirit. He came with the wrong mindset and sadly that was just about all I could was try my best. He had a good time but told us that he would be taking a break for a while and that we could contact him in a few weeks. It broke my heart because he had made great progress and great friends! But Heavenly Father has given all of us the ability to choose for ourselves and He will never take that power away from us. But enough of that talk... Caitlin was confirmed and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost which was my absolute pleasure to do! She asked me to be the voice in the ordinance and for that I will forever be grateful! It was a great day through and through. We had great contacts at night as we knocked and taught some great people!

Thanks for all of your love and support as I work my hardest to find, teach, and baptize! I am so blessed to have this opportunity and I could not do it without your prayers and love! I feel so blessed to have amazing friends and a wonderful family who cares and supports me! Stay faithful and pray always!

Avec amour,

Elder Ellis

PHOTOS

I love this city!

Maple taffy sticks.  Pour it...

Roll it...

Bon appétit!

If it weren't for that car, this picture would be perfect!

Left to Right:  Sister Nilsen, Me, Elder Baker, Elder Shaver, Sister Lopez,
Elder Riff, Elder Heinzlemire, Elder Bell

Turbo boost

Doesn't' that just look cold?