Bonjour tout le
monde!
Hello from Rimouski!
So first off I'll get to the questions from my dear, sweet, lovely Mother! I
love how they all start off with "wondering".
Wondering how each day
is going for you, Haha! That is a very subtle way to remind me to kick the bad
habit of writing poor emails! Patience, you'll see soon enough! :)
Wondering how your new
companion is (Does he speak French? Where is he from? Easy to work with?) Well... I'll just put
it like this! I had no idea that in the past six months while I've been away
that the field of technology has advanced so far as to be able to make a
"Human Replicator 3000". His name is Elder Ruby but his original is
known as Elder Sam Norton. They are the same exact person. He speaks a
tiny, tiny bit of French. He's pretty funny about it because he'll think of the
whole sentence for a few seconds and then say it as fast as he can. I just feel
kinda bad because the accent up here is so incredibly thick that it's
all up to me for the next little while to figure out what's going on up here.
He's from Colorado Springs and has 14 brothers and sisters. He's the fourth
youngest.
Wondering if you are
you the only missionaries in Rimouski. Yup! We're the only missionaries within 360km
of here! (Sorry, I don't know how many miles that is...) I'm not gonna lie.
It's tough. After being in the middle of the whole mission living in the same
building as four other missionaries and seeing other black tags every day to
isolation is kinda taking a toll on me. My roommates and family will know what
I'm talking about... but I'm not exactly the easiest person to live with...
It's a good thing I'm in the middle of learning how to live with another person
24/7 right now. I need it. I won't sugar coat this one. After 5 days of living
with him this is going to be a challenge for me. But what's life without a
little challenge, eh? (Ha... did you see that? I totally Canada-ized that!)
Wondering what
Rimouski is like. Rimouski is... a legend in this mission. Everyone here is
slightly crazy in their own way. They are all really nice! Super nice! Just a
touch on the "isolated-from-the-world-and-it-shows side". It's a
really small town with a lot of other smaller "5 house towns" leading
up to it. Basically the best way to describe it is a town that was 150%
Catholic 50 years ago and is 150% against religion today. In fact, they've gone
so far as to turn all of the religious words into swear words. Baptism and
Sacrament are the two major swear words up here. It'll be fun teaching them!
Wondering what the
weather is like. SNOW! Tons of snow. It wasn't super cold this past weekend but
we got quite a bit of snow in the past two days. It snowed all day yesterday
and then rained last night so all of the snow is super wet and heavy. We've
been carrying snow shovels while we knock and clearing people's driveways and
porches so they'll give us a chance when we talk to them. It's been
interesting! And our truck handles it all without any problems!
Wondering how church
went with just a small branch (Dad said there are 12 members! Lots of
opportunities for growth---and to speak in church :)) So... On Sunday there
were 6 people at church. That's how many were there when the Church started and
now it's pushing the double-digit millions! With that in mind we'll have to
rent a bigger apartment to hold church in on Sundays! So yeah, we meet in a
rented apartment (that's where we're doing our emails) that has a few rooms
that serve different purposes. Yesterday was pretty rough, though. We had Fast
and Testimony Meeting which went alright. The branch is all women except us and
one other guy. The Branch President is only here every other week so that makes
it really difficult. One of them brought their 2 little kids and we were put in
charge of watching them with Mathieu (the other adult) in nursery while the
Relief Society met. They decided to just go for two hours since the Sunday School
teacher was sick so we ended up babysitting for two hours while keeping our
distance from the kids so as to live by the missionary rules. That's not going
to cut it once we find someone to bring to church... I'm pretty worried about
it actually. I can imagine what Joseph Smith must've felt like at the beginning
of the Church.
 |
| This is Vicky and Mathieu and their two kids Gab and Penelope (the ones we watched at church) |
Wondering what the
members are like (New converts? Long time members? How long the church
has been in Rimouski?) They've all been members for around 10 years. There have
been missionaries here since 1993! Apparently a few years ago the last mission
president discontinued all work up here (except for the Rimouski area) and this
is the remaining group that has stayed active since then. I'm trying to stay
positive as I learn more about the area but it's difficult. There are some
knocking maps in the apartment and apparently every single door has been
knocked 12 or more times depending on how the area has changed over the years.
It takes 4 transfers (6 months) to knock the whole area.
Wondering what your
housing is like….going from a big apartment building to what? It's a pretty nice
sized apartment. It smells pretty rank, though.
Wondering how your
eating situation is (Do the members feed you…or are you putting your cooking
skills to use?) We don't have much food but we're going shopping in a bit!
Hopefully we get a dinner appointment sometime soon! We've been making pancakes
and pasta for the past few days.
So there you have it!
I'm training a new missionary who doesn't understand a word that anyone has
said in a remote little city that hates religion, is buried in snow, and loving
it!
Picture time!
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| Saying goodbye to Phil. One of my best friends! |
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| Peace out to the YSA! |
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| I love the Howards! |
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| Transfers |
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| Saying goodbye to Elder Reid |
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| We helped someone make a snowman scene and talked about the importance of religion. He told us he's the "atheist version of us". It was fun regardless. |
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Some doors are impossible to get to...
|
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Elder Ruby (Sam Norton)
|
Je vous aime!
Avec amour,
Elder Ellis
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