clay all day: 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