clay all day: FORTY-ONE

Bonjour tout le monde!

Well, well, well! Changes are ahead! We received our transfer calls last Saturday and... well, I'll let you find out once we get there!

Monday was pretty packed! We had to get all of our normal stuff (like laundry, cleaning the apartment, grocery shopping, and letters) and then finish preparing our training quickly in order to leave for Québec City on time. We didn't do so well... We ended up leaving a little late because of a few mix-up's and got to Québec a little after 9. But as we say in French, tout est bien qui finit bien! We stayed at the St-Foy apartment downtown with a three other companionships. It was so great to see them again... Granted it had only been two weeks! We've been traveling like crazy the past few weeks! Chicoutimi for splits, then to Québec for Zone Conference, then to Montréal for Stake Conference and the temple, then to Québec for Zone Study, and now to Québec for transfers... oh wait, did I just say that? :)

Tuesday! I woke up a little early to finish preparing everything for our training. We were asked to give a training on "Contacting in high density areas at the right time." It was a pretty fun training and in true Elder Ellis Style I went a little overboard but it turned out quite nicely!

We made street signs using the names of missionaries in our zone for our training. It would take a while to explain how it worked out... but it was cool!

The training, along with the whole zone study, went quite well! The theme of the zone study was "Contacting". So the zone leaders split us up and sent us off with a new companion to contact as many people as possible. They turned it into a competition which I didn't necessarily like but we did it anyways. I was with Elder Chacon from El Salvador and we decided to go as deep city as possible to street contact like crazy. I love deep city work! I learned a lot in Montréal and was kinda missing it in Rimouski! After the sun started setting we went and got some pizza then went knocking around the campus areas—it felt like I was home! Oh! I took a picture with a pig! I would never have one as a pet but it sure was cute!

Me and the pig

Wednesday morning we all met as a zone again to go over the results of the "Contacting Extravaganza" and give out prizes. It was weird to see prizes for missionary work... but I got the real prize at the end: mail! Thanks for all of the letters and love you all sent my way! And I got my package! Thanks for sending me my iPod (finalement! :) ) and the black licorice and the JDawgs sauce! And the head scratcher! And the new scarf! I've been putting all of them to good use! We were back on the road for Rimouski a little after noon and arrived home safely at around three. We went directly over to Eric's to read with him. He's not doing so well—he hasn't been working for over five years now and is getting desperate. As a 45 year old he passing up some prime years of life and spending all of his time in front of the TV. We thought that reading the Book of Mormon would help him change—and it has—but he just doesn't want to find the motivation to improve his situation! It's sad sometimes seeing him just sleeping in his chair at two in the afternoon! I love him but he's got to start making some changes! Anyways, afterwards we went to go drop off our stuff and make some dinner at the apartment. I got right to work with the JDawgs sauce!

JDawgs sauce gravy on pork with steamed carrots, broccoli cheese rice, and asparagus! Elder Ruby made basically all of that...

After dinner we passed by Catherine to ask if her family would be interested in retaking the missionary lessons. She said she'll get back to us. I really hope they do! I met her dad once and he seemed really nice. They met with the missionaries for a while until they saw what was happening with the FLDS church in Texas. Hopefully we'll be able to get a few minutes with them and explain the differences. Then we went over to Chantale and Yvan's. (I'm pretty much out of time... I got quite a few emails from other missionaries today...)

Thursday we had service at the Friperie and it was one of our last times there! (But whose...?) After lunch and studies we went over to Louis' for a lesson. It was fantastic! We finished the Plan of Salvation with him and started introducing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He had a lot of questions and as we answered them he slowly put the pieces all together! It was amazing! We talked about the Spirit for a while and how we can receive answers to our prayers. We were so close to committing him to baptism again! He understands what it would imply and he just wants to make sure that he is ready to make that kind of commitment. We'll be helping him along the way. Then we had a lesson with Msr. Mathurin. He is such a nice guy! A little bit confused about a few things and very certain about others but nice! We taught him the Restoration and he loved it. We weren't able to set up a return appointment because he is going to Québec for a while and didn't know when he would be back. Then we had dinner with Eric and Sheila. They are the funniest people. I wish you could meet them. They have just completely removed themselves from all communication with the outside world and tell us how horrible things are becoming out there. What would a little positive attitude do to them? Miracles! Anyways! The food was delicious! German meatloaf and sweet potatoes! Oh! I also wore a short sleeved shirt for the first time in forever!

Friday we had breakfast with the Ouellet's and held a hedgehog, did our weekly planning, found a couch, hung up a cool old "welcome" sign from the Church in our apartment and did tons of walking and knocking!

The sign, the couch, the nerd.

Chester the hedgehog

What a fat little ball of spikes...

Here's a slow motion video of him in action. And one at normal speed.

Saturday we tried to stay as busy as possible to keep our minds off of transfer calls. We had a lesson with Louis, we drove out to Mont Joli to see Debbie and Cécile and then came back to Rimouski for lessons with André and Yvan! Then we got our transfer calls... drumroll!!!

Elder Ruby will be shipping out to my old area: the YSA in Montréal! I'm so stoked for him! We've become extremely good friends and I'll miss him!

As for me! I'll be staying in Rimouski and receiving Elder Bangerter! I know next to nothing about him but I'm excited to get to know him! Pray for our success as a companionship!