Dinner with the missionaries

...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

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)

Pictures of Creston

(This is Brother Vicklund. He was our Ward Mission Leader and was very funny and had great insights to the gospel! Always willing to help our missionaries and amazing guy)

(This is Brother Banman! He is hilarious and help us a lot on the mission out here as well. He is an amazing photographer as well and takes amazing pictures. Maybe I will send you a postcard that he gave to me from Creston)

(This is Bishop Falconer and Sister Falconer! They were extremely hilarious as well and always made me bust out my hilarious laugh! They will be one of the people I will miss the most! I love these people so much)

4th Transfer!

HEY FAMILY AND ALL THAT READ THIS,

I am getting transferred!!! OOOOO MAN!!!  This is cray-cray!! This will be so different than my previous area! GAH! All I know is that I will be transferred somewhere in the south of my mission which is by the U.S. Border. I wonder where I will be transferred! I won't know till tomorrow. I am probably going to say goodbye to all the people in my area today and also pack for tomorrow! GAH!!! So CRAZY!

It was great to talk to my family. It felt like I was physically there at some points during the conversation. It was nice to hear everyone's voices and updates on how there life has been going. My Christmas was fetching long since we had multiple dinners! We also kinda got bashed by a Born again Christian at one of the dinners, but we had to go so we didn't get into it much. Good thing or I would have unleashed my fury on him!! JK!

People here in Creston have been telling us what has been happening back at Utah kinda regularly because it comes up. All I have to say to what is going on is a quote that makes me feel at peace. It is by Jeffrey R. Holland and it says something like this: "We all know what the scoreboard will show at the end of our life or when the Second Coming comes. What is so odd is that we are still down here choosing which jersey to wear." 

Sorry I cannot email a lot today, I have so much to do and so little time to do it. Next week I will let you know all that is going on and where I will be going! Love you all and stay safe!

(This is the gym we went to last monday)

Pictures

I haven't sent you much pictures so here you guys go!

Elder Millies and I:

The Simons and Me (Adele, that cute girl I was talking about is on the very right. There is one other kid also, but he was playing somewhere else)

Hello! First week in Creston!

Well I have been here in Creston for 5 days I think! 

OOOOOOOOO Man! The first 4 days just were brutal! I came here expecting missionary work like in those district videos they showed in the MTC. O that is not quite true! Here you have to do many things and it is very hard work. The first 4 days we were here we were just going tracting and street contacting most of the time and kept getting rejected and rejected and I got so freaking tired of it. I remembered I kept thinking to myself, "This is what I am going to do for the next 12 weeks and perhaps more? I don't think I can do this! I don't want to do this! I want to be relaxing most of my time here!" It was a negative feeling and I hated it and I wanted it out! The mission is intensely hard. There seems to be a pattern here. Everytime you go somewhere new on your mission, whether is be the first time at the MTC, or the first time in Canada, or even your first area like Creston, you always have a very difficult time getting used to it. 

So as I was thinking these negative thoughts, I kept saying to myself: "Keep going. You are not a quitter! Keep pushing on." But the question of "How?" kept coming back and kept dragging me down. One night I got on my knees and ask our Heavenly Father to help my attitude to improve and to help me to serve him with all my strength. I prayed that not only I would feel better, but the many missionaries out here will have peace in their hearts. I also prayed for other things. As soon as my prayer was over, again as I shared in my sacrament talk, my heart was lifted and didn't feel like it was heavy anymore and I had a more positive attitude about it. This is the Lord's work! This is not my work or your work, it is His! 

Since then, my attitude on this mission has been much better and I enjoy the people here. Speaking about the people here, everything here is backwards! What I mean about that is that the old people here act like little kids and it is hilarious and I love it! The teenagers and young adults here however are stubborn and don't care much about life. It is one of the few times where I enjoy being around these old people HAHA! They do say "eh?" quite a bit here, but I don't think I will pick it up here. Maybe, maybe not. 

Church here is really fun also and super fast! Yesterday was the fastest church I have ever been to, but it was also very spiritual and I learned many things! I always look forward to church just because I feel comfortable being there and also the people here are very supported. We learned more about the Law of Tithing Sunday and it made me think about it in a new way. If we are WILLINGLY to pay our tithing and not begrudgingly, the windows of heaven will be open and pour out blessings on us. It was amazing!

I don't have a picture of my new companion quite yet. I don't really plan to till we want to really. I am weird! Ha, but my companion is Elder Mackay and he is from Las Vegas, Nevada. He likes helicopters and hopes one day to be in a army. Great...my first companion is training to be in the army. -_-. He is going to push me hard! But he is a great companion and has helped me to get into missionary work. He has the movie "The Testaments" memorized and we quote it from time to time and it is great.

I will send pictures of my old companion and other ones where I feel like I need to send though. I will probably send my old district pictures and a picture of Creston from my house. We are living in a members home and it is nice.

Well, i got to go! Got lots of things to do today and so little time to do. Love you and here some pictures!

-Elder Justin Perucca