What Can I Say?

There has been a couple things on my mind in this past week and a lot of it has been on home. Now, it still doesn't effect the work. I make sure of that. I am sure every missionary goes through this when the end of his mission is coming pretty dang fast. I have about 6 1/2 weeks left. The whole "day feels like weeks and weeks feels like days" is really coming to effect now. I am still focused on the work.

My companion is pretty cool actually. I have met him before when I was in his district in South Calgary. He is one of those people who doesn't like to "pile". I admire him for that, but the way how he fixes it I don't agree with and it usually is tracting. I don't want to spend the entire time of my last transfer just tracting. I hope to give him a couple of more ideas of how to do more effective work. The attitude is the same throughout the whole zone. I hope I can somewhat change peoples mind about it.

Elder Poulter is from somewhere close to Spanish Fork. He lived in Dallas, Texas before. Elder Poulter has been out for 18 months and he is still going strong. He is chill at most parts, but he likes to keep his mind focused on the work. He is not a fan of socializing much, but he still wants to work.

So our area is quite big actually. In fact, it's the biggest area I think I have covered. We cover Med Hat 1st ward and a little town closer to Lethbridge called Bow Island. From what I understand of how we do things here is that 2 days per week we go to Bow Island and do some work there. The rest of the week we mostly spend in Medicine Hat. From what I have seen, Bow Island is pretty dead for missionary work. Everyone there is fixed in their own religion and does not want to change. It is however a very nice town. People are always willing to say hello and all that. I haven't seen much in Med Hat though. From what Elder Poulter has told me is that the members here are super sweet. They take care of missionaries and help in any way they can. However, Med Hat is kinda dead in the missionary work as well. I believe, so far from what I have seen, is that we need to help strengthen the members by teaching the missionary discussions so that it can keep their mind on missionary. I don't want to go on a rant on how much I hate tracting because in the end it doesn't really matter.

We only have like one "potential investigator" in Bow Island, but we haven't really brought up the gospel to her yet. The missionaries before have been doing quite a bit of service for her so that has broke the ice in that relationship and we have been talking a lot to her. I don't know when it will be a good time to bring up the gospel with her, but I will see what will happen.

I have seen all across facebook with the gay marriage stuff. It is kinda not hard to miss. It is pretty interesting to see. Sure, gay people can get married. They can do that and that is between them and God or them and whatever. However, I don't believe that is the happiest way. I believe a marriage between a man and a woman is the happiest marriage. But here is the problem. I can defend gay marriage all I want, but what really the question is will the ones who support gay marriage defend my beliefs? The answer to that is no. I am glad the church put out that response that their doctrine has not changed about it and it will never change. People need to see that just because some laws have changed in the land, you can't change the church's doctrine.

That is all I have to say about that because it is a very sensitive subject to all because many know others who are going through same-sex attraction. My companion is having a hard time dealing with the fact that this just happened. All we do is still stand up with our beliefs, but don't get into a endless fight with others about it.  

I feel like this transfer will be the slowest transfer out of all my transfers. I don't think I can make it seem fast no matter what. People say that if I work REALLY hard then time will go by fast. My experience is if I work REALLY hard, time goes as slow as ever. I just got to find some enjoyment in working here. I am still trying to find a way since my companion loves to go tracting, but I will do my best to find other ways where we can both enjoy the work.

I would normally not ask this, but if you could, could you pray for me to just get passed this one last transfer. I believe this will be a pretty tough one and it will take a lot of work to keep my mind off home for sometime and focus on where I am now and what I can do to help people here. I do plan on staying out here till the end, I just need the motivation to do so. Thanks for all your support and can't wait to see you guys soon! It is pretty sweet that I am just about done with this 2 year mission. It has been a glorious time, a terrible time, a spiritual time, a physical demanding time, and an emotional time all at once. Love you all! Here I go! One last transfer...

My companion is the one who is wearing glasses in this picture.

Last week WASN'T the best week ever...however, this week may be

So some big news is going on! Elder Hulse got a training call and is training someone for his last transfer and I just got a transfer call saying I am going somewhere south of the mission. Whether that be Lethbridge, BC, Medicine Hat, or Carston I don't know. Those are just the possibilities of the last area I will serve in my mission. To be honest, I couldn't be happier! I was kinda done with this area because we did all we could for it and still nothing progressed. Now whether it be because of the area or the ward members, I am not exactly sure. But what I know is as missionaries, we did all we could to help the ward here. Now it is time to move on and go somewhere else.

This new area may be a tough one because for the most part, I am going to think a lot about home and college life. I really don't mind which area I will be in instead of Carston, but I don't think the area really matters for me. I think all that matters is that I get a cool companion who I can relate with and get along with. If I do get one of those, then this next transfer should sail quite smoothly! In the end, it is time to get ready to go home soon.

Elder Hulse isn't too happy about what is going on seeing that he is training his last transfer in this difficult area. I am sure he has a plan however to get the greenie he will get on track.

So in preporation of this greenie coming, last week on Friday we went to a trainers meeting where President gave us his last training on the mission before he leaves on the 30th. It was pretty interesting to be at this meeting seeing that this was my first time going to this kind of meeting. We mainly talked about controlling the greenie fire that the new missionaries get when they come in. I think that is very important to talk about becuase lots of missionaries don't know how to control that sort of thing. Plus new missionaries get frustrated very easily and trainers need to know how to control that sort of thing.

This week will be pretty straight foreword. Today we will enjoy our P-day, then tomorrow we will take a whole day to drive up to Calgary to go to go to the greenies fireside and after that is done we drive all the way back to Coaldale with Elder Hulses greenie and show him around coaldale, although mostly it will be just my goodbyes to everyone I like here. Plus I need to pack all my belongings. I think this will be the time where I start leaving some clothing behing like garments and all that junk. I don't think I need to pack heavy for going home. WE'll get to that part when it comes.

I don't feel like ranting on what happened in ward council on Sunday because I don't have to be there anymore so no rant today. Sorry to disapoint you. Jk!

Alright now it's question time!

#1 Have they told you for sure that your release date and flight home is August 14?

We got a trunkie call from the office telling them where we wanted to go when we flew home. I said Salt Lake and they told me that they would call me when I have a month left and that they would email you guys all the flight imformation. That is my understanding from it. They will give me all the details of my flight soon.

#2 How will Canada Day (July 2) affect your work on Coaldale? Does it affect the whole week of just from July 2(Thursday) through the weekend?
I am not quite sure. It all depends on the area I will be in. I assume it is just a normal day. They haven't said anything otherwise. 

#3 Is it hot up here?

Oh yes it is very hot up here! It can get up to 36 degrees up here! It will be a hot next transfer! I don't think it will cool down until I get home!

Well, that is it for this week! I will for sure tell you where I am and who my next companion is when I get him. Be looking for those emails. Love you all! Take care!

Trunkie Week #2 plus some terrible frustration

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH BOY! This week was just utter chaos! It doesn't help that the ward is not helping you in any way or doesn't care if you get investigators or not. Plus people invite us to come to their house so that they can just kick us out as soon as possible and being a jerk about it.

You remember the ward I was in when I was with Elder Corning and Elder Larson? I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I believe I said that it was the worst ward I have ever served. Let us change that to this ward. I am not saying this because I haven't tried to fix it or I just came in and the ward was like this. But recently, the ward has just become...aweful.

Now don't mistaken this as there isn't any work in Coaldale. There is plenty of work and we are grateful for that. However, we don't get any support from it or appreciation. For example: Remember those 3 investigators that we found while doing service? Yeah, so we reported them to ward council yesterday, and they didn't care. They just nodded their head and simply moved onto the meeting just telling their-selves how great they were in observing the sabbath. We keep asking for help, but they give none and are not happy with any results we report. It is just so...FRUSTRATING!!!

Ok, so now that we got that out of the way. Let us talk about the great stuff that happened:

Well, we participated in a food drive this past week. It was actually pretty sweet because it reminded me of how we did it at home. Problem was that we did it in the dead heat of the day which was around 2:00. We were dead tired after leaving bags on doors for 2 hours. We had to go back and take a shower. On Saturday, we went to pick them up and that wasn't bad. The people didn't donate much, but I am not complaining about it. The food bank was overwhelmed that our church did this and they thanked us so much for all the food they had received.

The Tinney's weren't home this entire week and our investigators weren't responding so this really wasn't a investigator or teaching week. It was more like service like lifting things in trucks, helping move branches, etc. It is just getting to that time of the year where it is spring cleaning.

It is pretty hard to see whenever I get on facebook the people who are home or announcing they are home. It is not like I am dying of trunkyness, but it just makes me a little homesick to see them. It is not a big deal though. I knew I would probably see those kinds of post now and then here.

Alright now it is question time:

Question #1: What types of things happen in your current district meetings held probably each P-Day?  Do you practice teaching, resolving concerns, etc.?

First off, district meetings are not held on P-day. They are held the day after P-day or if it is on transfers the day before P-day. You can't ruin the sacredness of a P-day! Anywho, what we learn about in district meetings kinda depends on the District Leader. I have had district leaders who include role playing in the meetings and I have had those who don't do role playing in district meetings. Usually, the mission sends a subject list of what to teach in district meetings and sometimes the choice is the district leaders. We usually report our area, go into training, role play (if wanted), and close. It is that simple.

Question #2: Do you attend each of your assigned ward's Ward Council Meetings of just some of them?  Are you and Elder Hulse invited for the whole Ward Council Meeting of just part of the meeting?

This is also depended on the ward. But in this ward we are invited to everything and we stay there for the entire meeting. Sometimes we don't know why we stay there because they usually don't turn the time to us at all so we have nothing to report and it is a complete waste of time.

Question #3: How did the missionaries get volunteered to help with parking at a demolition derby?  That seems a little different or outside what could be termed "missionary service".  Was the rest of your zone helping you with this as it sounds like from your e-mail?

When I was serving with Bench, a random guy called asking us to help him with the demolition derby. He said that missionaries have helped there before. We just decided to take it. It doesn't matter what kind of service it is as long as it is service. I love doing service because of 2 things. 1) It fills in our time and 2) It gets us noticed in these events. I guarantee that more people know who we are because we helped here with this demolition derby. Our whole Zone participated in this event.

Question #4: What activities is the ward having in June?

Every 3rd Friday of the month our ward has a games night where people who come bring the board games they like to play with others. There is also refreshments there and everyone has a great time. Lots of non-members come here so it is a great way to find people I guess.

Question #5: Are you doing any kind of an exercise plan?

Heh, nah. There hasn't really been anything to motivate to do so. Basketball in the morning was a motivator, but since I am not in that area anymore and there are not many Elders that are close to us, they is kinda off the table.

Now as for Andrew Boyle's talk, yes I completely agree. People email me and ask me here  all the time, "What is the best experience on your mission? Any big huge ones?" You guys know it. Mine is Kade's conversion. But I haven't really had any big spiritual experience. However, I have had little experiences here and there to help me grow up and become a man my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I may seem the same, minus the weight gain, but I have grown. I am still me, but I understand more of the world and of Heavenly Father's plan. I don't really believe a persons complete attitude will change because of his mission. People are called out on a mission to be THEMSELVES, not anyone else or some completely different version of themselves. So what Andrew said I totally agree on everything he said.

Now there will be those times where a big thing effect your mission. But I think it is the little things that count. Small and simple things are great things come to pass or something like that. I also afraid to speak in sacrament. Large groups I suck at speaking at. But the mission has helped me with the attitude of if I am asked something, I just do it. I have a plan, but if Heavenly Father tells me something different, I do what He asks. That is basically my guideline through my life and mission.

Sorry, I don't want to ramble. Hopefully, this week will be a lot better than this previous week and hopefully our ward leadership will show us what they want us to do and how they can help. If not, we can't really help with this ward. Love you all! Thank you for your support! Welcome home Andrew!

Trunkie Week

Whoo! This week went by slow and fast. But the entire time was thinking about home or college. It didn't helo that there wasn't too much to do during the weekdays, but we tried to visit the members that the ward council dumped on us this last meeting. Lots of them did not answer or gave us that "we'll call you" and never called us back. You do get used to it however on your mission as you are told constantly the same thing. It seems these part-members or less-active members just don't want to be found out here. They just want to keep going on there lives the way they are already are. But hey, what can you do.

We have actually been doing a lot of service this week for the Tinneyès next door neighbors, Robin, Stewart, and Alex. Robin and Stewart are a couple and Alex is the 15 year old kid. They recently cut down 3 trees and we helped them load up the branches in a trailer and dump them somewhere else. They actually really appreciated it. It was pretty awesome because the begining of the second day that we were going to load the trailer up Robin came up to us and said, So what is the process of joining your church because I am pretty interested in it. She also expressed that Alex had not been baptized in her church and thought it would be good for him to start coming to our church if that is what he wants. To be honest, Elder Hulse and I were kinda taken back and astonished by this because we never expected to hear this from them. Things were going down the drain, but because Brother Tinney was being a good neighbor and inviting us to get involved, this happened. That was an awesome day! I have never had someone come up to us and express that before.

We have been "meeting" with them from now and then. Brother Tinney still invites us to come to BBQs and they are there and enjoy us being there. I think what got them comfortable with us was 1). We kept doing service for them with no ask in return.

2.) We acted like normal people.

People say that we missionaries have to act holy all the time no matter what. Yes, I agree. However, don't let it take over your humanity. Don't become a robot like I have expressed before. You are still you and you can relate to a lot of people the way you are. If you are just a robot going through the motions, then I could just easily replace you with a normal robot. We come on missions to improve our testimonies and to understand what the world is really all about. People are different everywhere and I have seen that.

We also helped with this demolition derby this Saturday with all our zone. It was...fun at some times. We were mainly part of the parking of this event and it was BUSY! Oh my goodness! Plus people were getting super pissed at us because we "weren't doing good at our job". This event was fetching busy! We had to go to many parking spots that people did not like, but that is what happens when you arrive 30 minutes late. Our zone thought we were kidding about our area being prideful and people being mean to everyone. Well, now they know how bad it is here and they never say a word about it again. We were just basically done with people at the end of the day. The event wasn't too bad. It was fun seeing cars crash into people at some times. It was a nice get together of the zone.

As for the college thing: Thank you! It is a lot to think about right now. I had some classes I do want to narrow down. The Book of Mormon class looks sweet. I do want to go to raquetball and probably Math 101 or whatever you had on the paper would be good for me I believe. That is all I narrowed down for college so far.

Question Time:

1#: Do we teach any lessons on Sunday? 

No, we haven't since the time I have been here. We did give a talk last Sunday in Sacrament meeting, but the talks were so short that we had to base it on, that we only talked for 5 minutes.

Well, that was it for this week. There should be a couple of piano videos coming soon this week so hopefully I can get those uploaded pretty quick! Thank you so much for your support!

10 Weeks Left!!!!

Fun weekend and P-day

Whoooo! This week was a better week than most of the times that I have been here. The work has been progressing pretty good. Not really for investigators too much. But more like through members and all that. The 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric gave us a lot of members to go see to help the ward become more unified. That is what I think we will be doing most of the time here in Coaldale. Mostly member work and some missionaries don't really approve of this because they think it is just about bringing non-members to Christ. To be honest, I just shut them down out of my head. Everyone, not just some people, but everyone needs to come unto Christ whether they be active or inactive. Member or non member.

This Saturday, Brother Tinney invited us to have a BBQ at his house. He invited quite a bit of non-members and we have been talking to them for quite a bit. The parents kinda show a bit of not interested, but the 15 year old is showing a bit of interest to what we do and what we believe. That is a good start in getting introduced to the gospel. We don't have to just jump into a gospel discussion the first time you meet them or any of that. You just have to introduce yourself and tell them what you do. If they want to learn more, they will ask. If they don't, try telling them what you do in the church, but don't attack them with it. 

I am still figuring out all this college thing, but I am pretty excited about it. I don't know how this works, but I will let you know what I think will work. There are so many options to choose and such so little to do so. We will see what happens.

So this P-day my companion and I and the Stirling Elders who are Elder Sumsion and Elder Reynolds went to Waterton which is this super sweet park. You can see the pictures that I got there on Facebook. We had a blast and couldn't have gone with better people than the Elders that I did go with. It was probably one of the best P-days I have ever had on the mission. 

Question Time:

Question #1: What is the one or two things you would like to accomplish in the next few months before the end of your mission?

Well, this one isn't really important, but perhaps witness a baptism that I helped with. And the other, probably finish my copy of the study Book of Mormon.

Question #2: How is the reading of the Book of Mormon going for you?

I am in Alma 37 in my study form of the Book of Mormon and I am happy to see it progressing so well. I like the way the Book of Mormon looks.

Question #3:  Of all the discussions you have taught during your mission, which has been the most spiritual/wonderful/memorable and why?

That would probably be Kade's first lesson that we taught him because that felt so good! It was so focused on family and seeing how close that family was it just felt awesome! It was like that missionary lesson that you think about before the mission. I loved that member and continuely talk to him. 

Well, that was mostly this week. Sorry if it is a little short. I did get my "trunkie call" they will call my back later to give me my flight information but I am leaving on the 14th I believe. They will let you guys know. Love you all! See ya!

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-Elder Perucca