...wow I just drew a blank

You ever have those moments where you are about to say something or emailing something to a person and you just totally forgot what you were going to say? Yep, that just happened right when I was about to open up this compose email box. Now give me a minute to think about what I need to type...

Oh! I got it! This week went by pretty fast. I think I remember telling you that there wasn't any exchanges because of the Elder Packer thing and all the confusion that was going on. So, this entire week I was spending time with my companion! Surprise surprise! Whoo hoo! Well, let me think. I am slowly thinking today just give me a couple minutes. Oh, we visited most of out potentials and, again, the appointment always falls through and we couldn't meet with them. Seems like it has been that way forever, but you get used to it after a while being a missionary.

But something pretty cool happened this week. Me and Elder Konietz were planning on asking one of our promising investigators a question like, "Why do you think it's important to be baptized?" When we went to church and saw him there, we asked him that question and it was cool because he told us that he was also thinking about that as well! It was freakin awesome! We are meeting him this Thursday and hopefully will be able to put him on date. If this follows through, it will be my first official baptism. I don't really count the one that I had in Calgary seeing that I really didn't do anything. 

I have been taking a lot of pictures lately and I got to say I really like doing it! Now that I take my camera everywhere, I can look back on the pictures. They are sweet! I always had a fascination of cameras and how they work.

Today I am going to to go to Clareshome on exchanges with Elder Allredge until Wednesday. It is going to be a fun time. Thank you for sending the package! I hope I will be able to get it sooner or later. Love you all! Bye Bye!

-Elder Perucca

September 23, 2014

Oh, how I find enjoyment of being a DLB because I love going on exchanges with other people. Unfortunately, I cannot go on exchanges this week since this week is all crazy with meeting a general authority and P-day being on Tuesday rather on Monday. Which reminds me, THIS TRANSFER IS 5 WEEKS! Not 7 weeks! That is next transfer. 

Anywho, yesterday a General Authority came to our mission. It was Elder Packer. Not the 12 apostles packer, but the seventy Packer. He taught us how to teach effectively. Many people out here think that all they have to do is be obedient and they are automatically great at teaching. However, you can see the difference because usually, obedient missionaries solely rely on the Lord to do their teaching, which is wrong in my opinion. Elder Packer said that the most effective teaching is usually asking direct questions and helping them how to know the church is true.  You need to do your part in order for the Lord to do His part as well. It just makes sense and I can testify that it did happen. We have two promising investigators at the moment. I didn't talk to President. It went well. We mostly looked back on how much I have grown in the past year. 

Another thing that bothers me so much is this: I have learned how to deal with certain kinds of companions. Sometimes, I think missionaries out here don't understand fully on what missionary work is and I know they learn throughout the mission, but there is one thing that makes missionaries not happy at all. It is when their companion forces them to do something. I have seen and experienced missionaries forcing their companions to do certain things they like just because they want to do it. The other companions says his opinion, but the other missionary ignores it and wants it done his way. That feeling of having someone not listen to you or ignore you is completely frustrating. When missionaries do this, you can see their area and them failing so bad. What I feel these missionaries need to do is not through what they think or what they know down their companions throat. 

That is what deeply frustrates me and I am glad that my companion right now is not doing that because if he did, I would not like it at all. 

Other than that, we have been trying to talk to our investigators so that we can get back with them, but most of them have not answered so we can't really meet with them. It is a bit frustrating, but we just have to be patient. 

Anyways, that is all I got and there hasn't been any questions this time in the letters. So, yeah. Also, I will be now emailing on Monday from now on...I hope. So just like you to know that. See you guys! Love you!

-Elder Perucca

Our district is now different...but still great!

Hello! Sorry for the late email to you all. Things were a bit confusing this week because President came and interviewed us on P-day which through our whole P-day off. Plus, we were going to email after our district meeting on Wednesday, but someone signed up to feed us lunch this time instead of dinner so we had to leave early from Fort Macloed. 

Now here I am emailing you all finally. I am not quite sure the exact day me and my companion have decided to do emails this week. Like I have done before, we usually do them on Wednesday, but this next week is going to be quite crazy! We have a special mission conference where one of the seventy comes down and talks to our mission. This time it is Elder Packer, not the apostle though. But he is probably going to give us some guidelines of social network proselyting. We are still not quite sure exactly when are getting iPads now because Sister Nicholas told us that we won't be getting them for a bit still. This is frustrating me a lot. Not for not getting the iPads, but they just don't tell us anything about it. We ask and ask when we are going to get them and they don't say anything or give us a time estimate. It just bugs me!

Anyways, as I said in my last email it was transfer week. Two people have come into our district and I am happy to announce that I do know them both! It is fun to be out for so long and know most of the people in our mission. Anywho, the one who got transferred to Clareshome and is Elder Allredge companion is Elder Bennett. He has been out the same time as I have. He was in my first zone when I was in BC. He was in the Cranbrook area when I was in Creston. It was crazy though! After he got trained, he was called to district leader and also had to train a new companion and he was going through a ton of stuff! But now he is ok, I think. He seems a lot more calmer than he used to be. 

The one who got transferred to Parklake and is with Elder Campell right now is, and I am so excited about it, it is Elder Robinson! My former companion is now here in our district! I was super happy that he got transferred here. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a really good companion. Well, that is my opinion, but he is really struggling. Thing is that he has had great areas and fantastic companions his entire mission so far...until now. He has gotten a bit better though that he has talked to President. It does help when you do talk to President! But Elder Robinson has been out for 10 1/2 months and is getting pretty close to his year mark. 

Oh! I forgot to tell you! This transfer is going to be super weird! You know why? Well, instead of a 6 week transfer as usual, this is going to be a 5 week transfer! I was pretty surprise myself when they announced it. Also, that is not all. The transfer after this one is going to be a 7 week transfer to make up for the lost week in this transfer. I think the reason they told us is that our Mission President is going to a President seminar and he would like to be here on transfer week. I still haven't estimated what is going to happen on who is going to get transferred where at the end of this transfer, but everyone seems to think I will leave. I don't want to leave because I love this place so much!

Now our area is doing good so far! It is pretty funny how every area I have gone to, the entire focus on what we missionaries do is to strengthen the members to do missionary work. But not just to do it, but how to do it. A lot of members out here are very excited to do it. Some are willing to do it, but need to be shown different ways on how to do it. It seems like that has been what I have been focusing on my entire mission as of now. Haven't been really teaching a ton of investigators, but members and less-actives I have taught a ton!

My birthday is coming up, but that seems so far away. Here are a few things that popped into my head as for now: Instant Breakfasts  and lots of ties!

Alright now! It is question time! You ready?:

1.How was the cornbust? 

The cornbust was actually pretty fun and also I got really full from it! The thing is though, around this time we get fed a bunch of corn! I am pretty sick of corn at the moment, but I will still eat it if necessary. But there were other foods at the cornbust too like tons of desserts and sloppy joes and hot dogs. Unfortunately, the people we invited didn't show up at the Cornbust. This tends to happen and you get used to it after a while when no one you invite comes. But that's all you can do really. 

2. Have I taken the attribute self-assessment test in Preach My Gospel? 

Yes, I have more than once actually. It is one of my spiritual messages that I leave with people when we eat dinner with them. 

3. Is Cornbust something that is done throughout all of Canada and is it a national holiday or something else?

From what I know, this is a yearly thing, but I don't think it is a celebration of some kind. This, from what I get, is done yearly around this time because this is where the corn is done or grown. It is really a get together and it is usually done by the Church up here. I don't know if they do it all throughout Canada, but from what I hear they mostly do it here in Alberta. 

4. Is that the missionary car you are standing next to in the picture from last week or is it a member's car?

That is our mission car. It is a 2012 Subaru Impreza. I don't really like it because it doesn't have the USB port to play music. I have to just use my CD, or an AUX cord. But it is alright!

5. For the iPads that we are going to get, they will probably be iPad Minis and not full size iPads correct? 

From what we have heard, yes they will be Minis.

6. Specifically about the iPads is if they have church missionary apps on them to help you with the missionary work.

We have been told that the Church will add things on them so that we may able to do missionary work on them like reporting our numbers, emailing, facebook, schedule appointments, etc. I don't know the whole thing about them quite yet. Regan Lewis told me some things since she does have the iPad in here mission and tells me that it helps a ton!

7. Are the grades in pre-college schools similar to the USA school grades?

I haven't got a complete verification on that one, but I do believe so.

I guess that is it for questions! You guys sure like to ask a whole bunch of questions and I am willing to answer them . ^_^ I hope Jayne had a wonderful birthday and I wonder if you guys still say in your prayers, "Please bless "so-and-so" that they will grow up". Heh, I remember I used to say that a lot! 

Alright I think that is everything I got for you guys! Love you all and I have plenty of pictures to send you guys! Love you all!

(We decided to write mormon.org on the side of the apartments we live on. It was pretty dang sweet!)

(I did a little ice bucket/jumping in the snow face first challenge and I will probably show you that when I upload it online. This was the imprint we made)

More Pictures

Transfer Week #9

Sorry I didn't tell you guys this earlier, but we are emailing on Tuesday this week since P-day is on Tuesday this week. It happens every at the end of every transfer so usually on Week 6 on the transfer. I just wanted you to know so that in the future you can be able to email me the questions you wanted to ask.

Anyways, this week as I say in my subject is transfer week. However, neither me or my companion are getting transferred which makes us both very happy! We love our area and serving with each other. I would say he is getting very close to be my favorite companion. Two Elders in our district are getting transferred however. Elder Olsen, who lived in American Fork, and Elder Keith are both going to the north part of the mission which is Calgary. So we will be getting two new missionaries in our district. It is going to be pretty interesting to get used to the new elders. 

This week it has been a lot of working with the members with referrals and their missionary work. The people we try to visit can't seem to hold up on their appointments with us so we can't usually meet with them. Also, today actually, is our wards Cornbust. Now, I don't know if you remember, but I believe my very first week in the mission was when the Cornbust in Creston was and I had a blast there, so hopefully this one will be sweet as well! There should be a whole lot of people coming to it and hopefully some promising investigators. Only one problem with the Cornbust however is we can't have it outside. You wanna know why? Here's why:

​And it still snowing as we speak. They said that it will snow until Thursday when it will return to be sunny. Canada weather is really weird. Sometimes even weirder than Utah weather. I do like snow though, just, not at certain times. So we will be having the Cornbust inside so that will be pretty interesting. :/ Also, you may also see that I have a new jacket. Remember when I told you when I went on exchanges in Fort Macloed? We were helping a United Church do some back to school sorting of their clothes, and I found this new jacket and they said I can keep it. I may not have to buy anymore clothing for my mission since I keep getting more and more free stuff here and there. 

We have also heard that we are getting Ipads around the 22nd of September. If you haven't read the article, it explains what is going on. It costs $400 to get it. Now I don't know if that will come out of our home flow or mission funds. That hasn't been told to us quite yet. So, we shall see.

I do have some pictures of last week with me so here they are:

Sorry for the second picture. You may have to turn your head to read it, but we found this at a restaurant. 

Another thing that has happened though is that school has actually started here! It makes me miss those days of school. Awe man do I miss school. But I got a year left for that so no worries. Well, I think that is all. Hope you liked my talk that I sent last time and sorry for the early email. There will probably be a lot of questions for me to answer next week! See ya! Love you!

Board Week!!!!!

If you don't know what Board week is, that is when the Mission President gets out his "board" and arranges around the missionaries for transfers. It is also the time where we could get training calls or leadership calls as well. Although, I don't think that is going to happen to us. 

Anywho, let me think what was going on this week. Hmmm, we got a ton of potential investigators. Now my opinion about potentials are that for me they rarely keep with their appointments. Every time we have had a "potential", we go over to the place they want to meet and they don't answer the door or are too busy for us to come over so that is usually a result for a dropped investigator. But we have over 15 potentials here. How many are solid? Well, we will just have to see when we go and visit them. 

We also gave our talk in the Pincher Creek ward this last Sunday. It was pretty sweet how everything was this Sunday. EVERY THING  was about missionary work. The talks, Sunday School lessons, and the Priesthood lesson was all about missionary work. For my talk this time, they gave me the talk called, "How to Be a Good Member Missionary?". I was thinking about my talk when I was preparing it. Usually when someone announces that their talk is going to be about Missionary work, the congregation sighs and doesn't want to hear it because they heard it so many times. They don't like to hear that we need to go up to people to share the gospel and all that. So I decided to change my talk a little bit and talk about another form of missionary work, Being an example to others. 

I will send you the little draft I made of my talk. I didn't say everything that I wrote down on it. I added little parts in here and there. It was pretty awesome to see everyone's response to it and how much they paid attention. It was also sweet how well my talk went because I usually don't speak that well, but the words came with such easiness it was cool. My companion followed my talk on why we do missionary work. It was a coolSunday!

We also had a lesson out in the Pass with these two people named Jen and Adam. Jen seemed into it, Adam was kinda there to contend. They are very spiritual people, but one of their concerns is that they are afraid to ask a specific question fearing that it will interfere with God's will. Next time we see them, we hope that we will answer that question and that they will more understand what they need to do.

I just got off this last exchange with Elders from the Parklake ward. I was with Elder Cambell here and Elder Konietz went with Elder Keith. Elder Cambell and I came out at the same time. We talked about our memories in the MTC and he also served with my mission dad and told me how he was doing. The exchange went well. He had different views of what missionary work was than I did, but we did well.

Ok, now it is time for your favorite time for the emails. Question time!!!

1. Was the session the missionaries attended only for full time missionaries or were there other non-missionaries in the session?

I only saw 3 non-missionaries that were with us during the session. When it came to the prayer circle, they just asked the temple workers to come in and do it. We missionaries couldn't do that since the rule was there.

2. What exactly did that family and maybe you and your companion write on the shirt?

All I wrote on the shirt was, "Elder Perucca's 1 year Mark." My companion didn't write anything else on it. The Ludwigs however went all out on the shirt. There was a couple of Justin Beiber lyrics on there. There was quite a bit of Burn Baby Burn lyrics on there. Also they wrote their names and drew stuff on it. They just had fun scribbling all over the shirt. :)

3. Whether on most exchanges if you stay overnight in the area you go to or do you go back to your regular area at the end of the day?

Usually, exchanges last for only a day, but since we are so far away, we exchange at the end of P-day and don't exchange back until on Wednesday at 10 where we do district meetings. So, yes we do stay overnight when we do official exchanges. Sometimes we do little exchanges here and there and those don't stay overnight. It's just for an hour or two.

4. Do you and your companion switch back and forth on what ward/branch you attend when you have multiple wards/branches you have responsibility for?

It depends on how far away the ward/branch is from where we live. The only two times where I have had two wards/branches was now and in Creston, but the wards are pretty dang far away. In Creston it took about an hour and a half to get to the meeting house and here it takes about 45 minutes to get there. We only have a certain amount of clicks so we can't go out a ton. We have only gone out twice to the Pass and the rest was in Pincher Creek. 

5. Whether you as a missionary are encouraged to keep a gospel study journal?

We have been encouraged somewhat. I have seen missionaries who do that. I don't do that usually. In my Preach My Gospel, I usually just write on the notes on the sides. The scriptures I write in my scriptures of what I thought. Maybe when I run out of space in my Scriptures, I will have to get a study journal.

6.Did you know that Jayne will be having her 1st birthday a week from tomorrow?
Yes, I did know that and I am sad I get to miss it. :(. I do see videos of Jayne here and there on facebook and she is adorable and...hopefully she will be friendly to me when I get back. 

7.How many total missionaries are now in your mission?  Do you know how many are elders, how many are sisters, and how many are senior couples?

I thought I answered this question already...but, there are about 250 missionaries here. I don't know exactly how many elders, sisters, or senior couples are in the mission, but I heard the percentage was 80% for elders, 15% for sisters, 5% for senior missionaries.

8. Does your mission have missionaries to go the doctor on a yearly time frame to have a physical, etc.?

I don't know. I haven't heard anything about that or if we have to. :/

9. Are the members in Pincher Creek good at feeding the missionaries?

I also thought that I answered this question as well...but somewhat. If we don't have anyone to feed us, the Ludwigs volunteer to feed us. 

10. How often do you go on splits?

It depends on who you are with. If you and your companion are just regular missionaries, it is about 2, so that the district leader can go with both companions. But since my companion is the district leader, we go on exchanges with all the elders which there is 3 companion-ships other than us. We went weekly this transfer, but it may change this next transfer.

11. How often do you have District meetings and how many are in the district?

District meetings are on a weekly basis. Every Wednesday for us. There are sometimes Zone Training meetings which usually are two times a transfer. There are 8 of us in this district which is pretty big.

12. Is Pincher Creek like Creston?  Same size? By the mountains?

Pincher Creek is very much like Creston. Small town, stores close at the same time as in Creston, and they are by the mountains as well. Creston is surrounded by mountains, here they are just off to the side.

13. Do you help play the piano at church meetings, or missionary meetings?

I didn't really start playing the piano for church meetings really till I got here. I somewhat play the prelude music of sacrament meeting here. I play until the organist gets there. Missionary meetings usually yes I do. But there are certain Hymns I cannot play though so that kinda holds me back with that. 

I think that is about it with the whole week! Sorry no photos this week though. :/ I forgot my camera this time :/. I will try to bring it next time! Love you all and take care!

-Elder Perucca