Transfer week is here, And I don't know what is going to happen!

Hey all! Things this week were pretty busy. We visited a lot of potentials, well I should say try because they weren't really home or they didn't answer their door so ya. That happens quite a bit out here though. People say, "Sure come on back!" And then we come back and they either say they are busy and to come back later or they do not answer the door. People are too nice to say no here. It is sometimes annoying because you want the straight foreword answer. This is one of the reasons why I do not like tracting all that much. Like I have said before, I think members showing us there friends is the best way for us to get real investigators. But most of the members say they want to help, but they do not do it. It's alright though. I have been working on my patience with them. 

Congrats on Kyle on going to the MTC. I hope he enjoys the MTC. At first I enjoyed the MTC at first, but after a while I wanted to actually get out in the field. The MTC kinda gives you an idea of the mission field. But in the end, to really experience it, you need to go out to the mission field. I am not saying the MTC teaching is bad, it just isn't the same as the real mission field.

This week was two birthdays of someone in the ward. Anthony and Stephen. I got Anothony some Big Bang Theory Dvds. He loves that show. I got Stephen a Regular Show DVD since he loves that show. I kinda go all out on Birthdays to make people happy. They are some of my favorite members.

Now it is Question time:

1: Where is my companion from?

My companion is from Logan, Utah. I do beleive he did say he was born in Houston, Texas, but I need to double check on that.

2. What do we do as a Zone together?

We play lots of things on P-days. Usually it's scatterball which is like dodgeball, but it is with a raquetball. We also play some volleyball also and basketball too. If our zone is a bunch of nerdy kids however, I join in with the game of Dungeons & Dragons. 

3: Do I plan activities with the ward mission leader to get investigators out?

Each Ward Mission Leader is different. Some actually get into the missionary work. Some just tell the missionaries what to do. Ours tells us what to do mainly. He doesn't do too much of his own missionary work. We usually plan activities with other missionaries and plan to do a combine ward activity. We are planning a movie night on August 10th for every investigators.

4.Do I wear my retainer?

...yesssssssss. :/ 

5. Do we teach lessons on Sunday?

If you are referring to Sunday School lessons, that depends on the ward. In Creston, we did that a couple of times for Gospel Principles. My companion and I now usually split up the second hour of Sunday School to cover more ground in the ward so that we can earn the wards trust. We haven't taught any Sunday School lessons here as of yet, but that can change.

If you are referring to other lessons like after church in peoples houses, then yes we still do that. It says in the white handbook we have that tracting on holidays and Sundays are the best time to do so. I disagree. I have done that a lot and it usually comes out to no success. The others days are way better to do that. We usually like to visit members at this time so that we can have something to do on these days.

6. What is my favorite thing about serving the mission?

My favorite thing? Hmmmm, that is a toughy. I love to go to less-actives houses and also members houses to help increase their faith and also to get to know their children. Once the members trust you, the work gets much easier here. I also love the memories I make here with other missionaries. We have so much fun here and it's funny the words we use here out here. Like Pile, chode, posterity, etc. I would honestly say my favorite thing is hanging out with members because that is where I find myself the most effective is to help others with missionary work. 

7. What is my favorite thing to teach people about?

Favorite thing to teach...hmmmm. Well, I haven't taught a lot of the discussions as shown in Chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel to others. I have taught a lot of little messages after dinner or when we go to members homes to teach them. I usually love to teach people the description of prayer that Phil told me. Also, as well as helping people role play missionary work. 

8. What is my favorite thing about Canada?

Ummmmmmmm, let's see. It depends on where you are in Canada. I do like how they use "eh" here. I use it quite often now and I still can't see how last time I talked to you that you think I was saying things wrong. I can't really recognize it. I am sure next time you talk to me you can pick out what I say weirdly.

Well, thank you for all the questions! I love answering those because it gives me something to talk about and helps keep my letters long! Love you all! Stay safe! I will let you know if I get transferred this week!

(From Left to right: Elder Jacobs, Elder Poulter, Elder Hafen being held, Sister Almeda, Sister Stuki, Elder Larson (my companion), me) 

I just came to say hello

Hello, everyone! This week went by speedily quick. Then again, this whole transfer has been going insanely fast. I have come to the conclusion that when you are having fun during your missionary, time goes by fast and is very enjoyable. Some missionaries think if they are having fun out here, they are doing missionary work wrong. Also, there are a number of missionaries that think that success is depended on numbers. How wrong can they be? It is more annoying when these missionaries are your leaders. 

This last week was when everyone was starting to come back from their vacation. It was yet another tough, but yet fast week. Now members are coming home and we can visit them more and help them with their missionary work. Things have been going well with that. Something else we did this week was blitz in our area. All of the missionaries in our zone came to our area and decided to spend two hours to find new people. While me and the Elder I went with didn't find any, I did find a lunch and dinner appointment for us. Haha! Not exactly what we looked for, but I will take it. Turns out that others found 2 investigators for us and tons of potentials. Hooray! At least we have some this time in our area. Like I have said before, whenever I go finding for us, I always find someone who doesn't live in our area that is interested. Weird!

I realize that I haven't shown you a picture of my companion. Here!

​Actually this is my district. This is the order from left to right. Elder Poulter, Elder Hafen, Sister Almeida, Sister Stuki, Elder Larson (my companion), and me. Yep, this is my little district. I don't have a picture of our entire zone quite yet, but I will see if I can get it and then show it to you. Now here are some other photos. 

Piggy Road! That isn't my companion in the picture. That is Elder Treseder who me and him totally like to hang out! We have so many interests its awesome! He loves Sonic, I love Sonic! He loves board games, I love board games. He hates tracting, I hate tracting! It's awesome! 

This transfer is coming to a close. Only one more week left and then it will be transfer week. I don't think I am going to get transferred, but there is always a possibility. I hope I don't get transferred. 

Turns out all my stuff got deleted from my flash drive. That means all my music, pictures, videos, etc. :( But thank goodness I saved all of it on my big passport that Mom gave to me before I left home! Thank you mom! Good thing I didn't lose everything. 

I am so glad I was an example and also a very fun guy back home. It seems like I left a big impact on people back home and they seem to do things I did. Apparently, the "good morning, orning, orning" thing was only done at the last campout that I went on before my mission. They just found it so funny and decided to start doing it. I hope Dallin Cornell is doing well in the military and I can't wait to get that letter from him. I hope he does well in the army. 

Now to answer your guys questions. This will be something new I will start so please ask away:

1: Have I seen Elder Shumway?

Actually, the first time I saw him was at Zone Conference in June. Ever since then I have only seen him once, and that was today while we were somewhat emailing in the Library. He and I just had a cool hello and wondered what was up with people. He is in the Zone right next to me so he is pretty close. 

Well, I got to get going! Love you all and hope all is going well and may everyone of you have a "Good Morning, orning, orning!" 

-Elder Perucca

Another slow week

So, this was another week of the Stampede in Calgary and people are not home like most of the day. It is pretty dang discouraging when you don't have much to do. This week just was...meh.

However, with the people we did see, they couldn't stop talking about the world cup and then after church we went to a member for dinner and then somebody told us about the final results. It was funny to see peoples reaction on what either team did in the game or how people down there think that Soccer is their religion. No one was really at church on Sunday. They were mostly gone. We just did a family history class. There is going to be a ton of service this week actually and it is freakin as hot as ever!!!! My companion and I are getting closer together and playing some sweet games so that we can get closer!

Our investigators are gone on vacation so we won't be seeing them for a while. 

I did get the package from you and thank you so much for it! I got plenty of instant breakfast packages now! I will be well fed for breakfast lol! Yeah, it is pretty hard to see missionaries in Calgary with all the people around and how big it is and all that. 

It makes me happy that people are asking about me and caring about me. Makes me feel like I did something back in our home ward. I am glad I held people together. I kinda see what happened when I left. People kinda just fell apart in two groups. Kinda odd. I know the priest quorum stayed together, but from my other friends many of them just split off and went their own way. Maybe that happens usually after High School. I don't know. 

There is nothing else really to say. Other than our zone is getting closer together...well, certain parts of our zone. We are trying to build Zone unity, but people have other plans and do stuff that make other not really like them so....I don't know.

Well, love you all and I hope this week will be great and actually be able to do something and Happy 11th birthday to me and also Happy late birthday to Joce!!

Everything is AWESOME!

This week was another pretty dang busy week! We did a ton of service as usual, but also we taught a lot of members the discussions seeing that we don't have any investigators quite yet. We are trying to build trust with the members in our ward still and it is quite expanding, but it is hard to get a lot of members trust when you don't have a investigator pool. 

That is until this Sunday! We recently got two new investigators! One of them was a potential and we stopped by quite a bit, but he wasn't there. Then finally we stopped by and he was there and told us to come over next Friday evening so that we can share our message! Sweet Sweet! His name is Doug. I guess I really had to have patience for this to happen. The other one was pretty sweet too. There was a family that was on vacation and left their special needs kid behind. A teacher was looking after her and they both came to church. We sat next to the teacher during sacrament meeting and explained all that was going on and got to know her. Her name is Erin. She is a very nice lady. We asked her if she like to listen more to our message and she said she is kinda busy now, but gave us her phone number and told us to give her a call later in July. Whoot whoot! Pretty dang excited!

Apparently, we are also hearing that we ARE getting iPads pretty dang soon. They say it is as early as Fall and as late as the beginning of the next year that we are going to get them! I am so flippin excited for that. Lots of missionaries here are not because they don't think our mission is prepared for them. Are you kidding?! This is going to help us a ton! The people who tell us they are not ready for us are a whole bunch of "try-hards". This can really help us and it could really help me in my last area but whatever. I really hope that things will look up from here with the iPads.

I did not get the package quite yet. We do get mail today sometime so by next week I will tell you all that will go on. Tons of my young friends have not emailed me which is understandable because they are probably on vacation or busy with family around this time of year. Can't wait for Kyle to start getting going on his mission! He will soon understand what true missionary work is. Andrei is going to also have a great time.

The work here is pretty dang rough though. This last week was super dead for like street contacting and trying to get in with members regularly because of vacations and stuff and it will probably be like that during this week. That's a toughy. But I guess we do what we can!

Thank you for sending those pictures of Jayne! Those were pretty dang funny. I wonder how she will react when she sees me. She probably doesn't even know who I am. Oh, well. President interviews are this week. Sometimes it's scary to talk to President. 

I think that is all I have to report on. I hope all is going well back at home! Thank you so much for the updates! Love you all! See ya!

New Comp!

Transfers was last Wednesday and my last companion left down south somewhere and my new companion is Elder Larson. I am in the same ward that I was. My comp has been out for 13 months and he is freakin sweet. I like him a ton.

We are still working our hardest with members since me and my last companion street contacted and tracted everywhere in my area. We are trying to get the members to get the confidence to share the gospel with their friends. Now for what Kiana said. That is probably true where he was, but there are different missions and different things work in different areas.

If Dawna wants to know, I am on the south part of Calgary. If she knows where Deer Run Community center is or where Lake Bonivista is kinda is, that is my area. We usually walk around to our appointments to fill the time and maybe get a little street contacting in. She may see me around the Wal-Mart and with the Co-Op next to it. I usually pass that place a lot. So if they are looking for me, I should be around that area.

Yes, I read that article that you have sent to me and that is kinda what we are trying to do with our ward here. The ward gives us assignments and we go out and do them and also gain their trust. I am a firm believer in working with members and strengthening their faith for missionary work.

We are trying to doing some do-or-die lessons with our potential investigators. They are either into the message we share or we move on to more important things. That is our main focus.

Well, that is all I have to report! Love you all and stay safe at home! Thank you for all you do!

Whew...the transfer is over (almost)

This week went by pretty quick! I am surprised. I think the reason why it went pretty quick is because we had stuff to do. Time goes by SUPER SLOW when you are just tracting and street contacting all day. I like to get in members houses when I can. That is usually where we can get more people to teach and more trust from the members. As you can probably tell, I am not a fan of tracting...at all. Street contacting is more natural to me so that I can stand, but tracting I do not like and I have had absolutely NO success in it. The members here feel the same way and they are trying in every way they can to help us find people to teach or to get in members houses to help with our teaching. We are currently working with the Ward Mission Leader on trying to get into members houses and so far it is responding positively. Working with members is usually the best place to go.

Now that is just one of my few opinions I have on missionary work and what works best both from experience and companions who have told me. Maybe I can tell you more as I go later on.

I hit my 10 month mark on Saturday. I am now in double digits! Sheesh! It has been that long?! Holy Freak! I am almost halfway..sheesh. It is kinda scary that in about 2 months I was getting dropped off at the MTC. O, the greenie days haha! Those were, interesting days. 

The Hike that we went to last Monday was super sweet! We ate with the family and went on the hike. It went swell! We got along really close and also got to know a non-member. We are pretty close to the Nelson, who we went on the hike with. They come regularly, but we are trying to work with the father because he wants to get his family to the temple and be sealed but is struggling. So we are working on that with him.

4 missionaries are leaving this week in our zone for home and it is making our entire zone super trunkie! Especially me on Wednesday! I kept thinking to myself, "I am just doing this entire rotation of missionary work for another year and some...and I am getting sick of it." In some ways it is pretty true. That is why we try to spice up missionary work sometimes by playing games, working as a zone, and all that so that we can still be engaged in missionary work. But it hard when your current companion doesn't want to do that sort of stuff and wants to do missionary work the old ways by just tracting all day...I am trying my best to tell them their are better ways to do missionary work than just go around tracting all day. I lose my patience quite a bit with him and it won't be long until I go crazy so...hopefully he will get transferred.

We have a member missionary class during Sunday school which helps members as well.

We also went to the temple on Thursday as you can probably see from the pictures. It was a swell experience. I didn't see the new temple film, but oh well. 

Well, I will report back and see whether I got a new companion or not. Love you all and take care!

(Departing Missionaries)

Well, this week just flew by

This week just cruses by and I love those weeks! Weeks that go by so fast bring a smile on my face because not only does it show that we were busy, but that I got through another week on the mission with a happy mood. 

We do ask members for referrals, but not too often. We don't like to bother the members to much by asking for referrals so much. We do however help them be able to do missionary work on their own. It helps them a lot. 

We hang out as a zone every P-day. That's how close our zone is. If you remember in BC we were so far apart so we could only do P-day with our companions which we kinda liked but not too much. I like zone pdays a lot better so that we can do stuff with eachother.

We didn't go on the hike last week. We are actually going on it today. Turns out the schedule wasn't right for them so they decided to do it today. It will be fun and i will be sure to send some pictures of the hike and family that we went with. Speaking of that family, we went over on Thursday this last week and I got my hair highlighted by them. I love it so much! It is not like out of the ordinary highlighted. Just a bit! But I love it! It is so sweet! I will send you some pictures of it. 

This transfer is almost over. We only got one more week for this transfer. The thing that sucks is that 4 people in our zone are going home this transfer so they are really trunking us out right now. It is going to be a long last week of transfer because they won't stop talking about home. Oh, well. I will do what I can right?

Our investigator pool is still at 0 since our last investigator just dropped us. Oh well. We are trying to find new ones through members and also anyone we see. Hopefully we will find some. 

Well, Love you all and I am so jealous that you got to go to Hawaii....then again, I am in Canada ;). Love you all!