FORTY-THREE

Bonjour tout le monde!

Well this is odd... I'm writing you on a Tuesday! It's just as good as the day before, just a few hours later. Yesterday was Québec's version of the 4th of July, "Fête de St-Jean Baptiste", only supercharged with alcohol and crazy parties. Needless to say, since stores were closed and the setting sun brought with it the invitation for the wild ones to come out of the woodwork—it was not an ideal day for mormon missionaries to "prepare" for the week. So we're doing that today—President's orders. 

In nearly the same way that any worthwhile novel closes with it's paragraphs packed to the penultimate punctuation with precious passages of paciferous palabra—this week had quite the peroration.

Oh great... now I have to keep that up. Well, en tout les cas, I don't have a lot of time for my email today because the elders from Chicoutimi are crossing the river to join us in Rimouski for a few days. C'est-à-dire: I'll be brief. This week in pictures...

During our studies on Tuesday morning we received an unexpected call from the Cannons. Sister Cannon had phoned to inform us that they would be arriving in Rimouski in a matter of hours for one last visit to the "Rimouski Genius Bar." (They'll be leaving for home this Saturday after spending three years as the Mission President (and wife) of the Canada Montréal Mission. From the first day of my mission to last of theirs, I've been their "go-to tech guy.") They spent two full days with us on a rare vacation to the Gaspé. During those two days we managed to dine with them twice, we had steak at a bar (I had quite the filet mignon!), and salmon à la Maison du Spaghetti, hours of talk of life and the Gospel, dipped ice cream cones and shared one last Rimouski sunset. 

I could not have asked for a better way to spend time with my mission president and his wife before they go home. I was able to use my skills to help them one last time with their iPhones and in turn... well, I got an iPhone.

kinda...

Among other things during the week...

I got back to some of the basics and started practicing cursive again in my spare time.

Learned how not to eat. (Hot dogs stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, covered with mashed potatoes, smothered in gravy, and drizzled with JDawgs sauce.)

I did a lot of dishes. Do people ever complain about a pile of clean dishes?

Got some good reading in.

One of the books I'm currently perusing is God, Man, and the Universe. President Cannon has given me permission to open my library a little more.

Invented a "blind" variation of chess...

Had a root beer float in an ice bowl...

And managed to take a very blurry photo.

Oh, and tons of missionary work. Yvan is making progress despite the stressful fact that he'll be losing his bike shop shortly. He surprised us with two bikes that he put together for us after hearing that we've had to walk everywhere for the past month.

We've been teaching a new investigator named Richard about the Restoration and found two new investigators, an older couple, yesterday afternoon. I was sad to see Louis move to Québec City but the Lord is watching out for us and blessings us for our committed service.

I pray that all of you were able to tune into the broadcast on Sunday night. It was, as aforementioned, quite the capper to an action-packed week. We truly belong to the Church of Jesus Christ and are led by divinely inspired leaders. What an exciting time to be a missionary!

I'm sorry this email was so short and focused on just about everything but missionary work, but I've got to get going. Have such a great week!

Avec amour,

Elder Ellis