March 30, 2015

This week was pretty slow as well. It basically goes like this for most of the week. In the morning and afternoon times, people can't really meet with us because they are either at work or they are home without a priesthood home so we cannot really visit them. That is usually what happens in every single area I have been in and it is pretty tough to find stuff to do during that time that is still effective. Tracting is out of the question since this area has been tracted out a billion times already and everyone already knows who we are. However, what seems to work, as always, is to work with members. 

We met with Jordan this week and dropped the Law of Chasity bomb with him. Surprisingly, he took it well. He understood what we were talking about. However, we don't believe that he understood the steps he needed to take to get to baptism concerning the Law of Chasity. Next time we do meet with him, we are going to put an emphasis on him and Seline to be legally married before they get baptized, or to move out and get baptized. By the way Jordan is cancelling most of the appointments we set up with him, it will probably be a while since that will happen.

As for the piano videos, the purpose of the video is to help link people back to the church website or anything the church websites. However, I will consider what hymn(s) would be well known with others. The thing is as well is that my missionary facebook doesn't have any non-member friends so it wouldn't be too much help yet. 

Our transfers are next Thursday and they changed it back to whether we will know on Tuesday if we get transferred or not. That way, I will be able to tell you guys whether or not I or my companion will get transferred or not. We both think that we are both staying this next transfer. If not, well, I will be disappointed, but will still endure. My companion and I had so much fun together and we hope to continue that fun-age.

I am still holding on to 265 pounds. If I remember, I was this weight around my senior year of high school. I believe I am making good process, but I am starting to slow down on the P90X and focus a lot more on the basketball thing. Speaking of basketball, I have improved so much on my basketball skills here on the mission. Remember how I said missionaries have different nicknames out here? Well, one of my nicknames that I just got this transferred because the way I play basketball is "White Ninja". Apparently, I am not really noticed and get the rebound out of no where and put it back up. Whenever I do this sort of thing, the team I am one always yells, "WHITE NINJA! AND HE VANISHES!" because I am only noticed when I get a rebound or put back. So, instead of Perucca or Parooka, it is now White Ninja. 

I am sorry these letters are getting shorter and shorter. I seem to notice that the more I am out here on my mission, the smaller my letters get at home, and it doesn't help when you guys can see what I am doing on facebook most of the time now. 

It is now question time:

Question #1 for you, do you watch all five sessions of General Conference at a Stake Center near you?

Yes, that is usually the default choice. However, there is another option and that is to watch it at a members home if we so choose, but usually members go to the stake center.

Question #2, do you try to bring investigators or less active members to attend and watch with you?

Well, of course. It gives them the opportunity to listen to prophets and apostles to figure out if they are called of God or not.

 Question #3, I believe the question was: do you think that family history work would/should count as missionary work?

Well, in a way, yes. You are giving the opportunity to people in the spirit world to learn more about the gospel and be able to accept those ordinances. Do I believe family history should be just classified as missionary work and that's it? No. I have had many members here whenever I ask them to start doing missionary work or invite others to church activities, they usually respond with, "I am already doing family history work so that is missionary work." That is a bit lazy. I am not saying that family history is bad. It's not. But substituting it for missionary work is not a very good thing. 

Well, that is all for this week. Love you all and can't wait for conference and talking to you guys on Mothers day soon.

-- 

-Elder Perucca

Slow week and possibly will continue

This week was not very good for us because appointments keep falling through. But we still tried to meet with several members here and there to keep them updated on the ward mission plan. Speaking of which, what is our current wards mission plan? I have always wondered if that was ever part of our ward. 

We did meet with one of our part member family however. His name is Alex Currie. We showed him the Lord, I Believe talk from Elder Holland and he liked it quite a bit. It lead to a discussion where we talked about acting on the faith we do believe. This led him to bring up that he was lacking on his reading of the Book of Mormon. We suggested that we would read the Book of Mormon with him so that if he had questions along the way, he could ask us and it would help him understand more of what he just read. He hasn't contacted us on whether we can start or not. We don't know if he is ignoring our phone calls or just trying to avoid us all together. 

Like I have said in the previous letters I have sent, we are trying to strengthen the ward members based on Richard G. Scotts talk last conference. We are kinda helping the young men do a mission prep class. Sound familiar? :). It is kinda what I did before my mission, but not as long. It is a good idea and gets the young men excited for missions.

My current weight now is now 266. It sucks however when a member tries to feed us and it is my favorite food and I usually pig out on it. I usually control myself more if it is not my favorite kind of food.

Sorry I didn't say much in this letter, but there is not much to report on like in my last area where stuff happened like crazy. But I will now move onto the question part of my letter.

Question #1: do you get very many questions or interaction from people who are not members of the Church right now on Facebook?

Only if I have people that are not members of the church on my facebook profile and I don't have any so far because I can't find them quite yet. No one has really asked me questions yet so I am just waiting for that anyway.

Question #2: how do people you do not know "friend you" on your missionary Facebook account to allow the gospel discussion to take place. 

I usually look up their mutal friends to see if I really know them and then if I add them, I ask who they are. If they don't respond, then they are not interested or not available. There are some people who I do not know who keep adding me and they seem to just want to be friends with missionaries

Question #3: Did I get my package?

Yes I have and I have not opened it quite yet since you told me not to open it till easter.

I really sorry this letter is short. But there is a video I posted on facebook of me playing piano if you guys wanna check it out. Love you all! Take care! 

Online Proselyting

Hello one and all! As you could have guessed, we got approved for facebook for missionary purposes like sharing the gospel or talking with our investigators. If you have any questions about my facebook account, you can read the status on both my missionary page and also my regular one. If you still have questions about stuff, I am available for chat on my facebook and can answer questions whenever. It is also pretty cool because I can see what is up at home and in greater detail like Braden at the Jazz game. That was pretty epic.

This week we only met with Jordan once. Seline was up in Calgary so we only met with Jordan once. We read the beginning of the war chapters with him and that got him really excited to read more about it. He told us he was going to keep reading more after we left since it was kinda late. We haven't heard much from them since, but we are still trying to keep in contact. Hopefully sometimes we can Skype in Seline so that she doesn't miss out on certain things.

Other than Jordan and Seline, we have been working with less-actives and members. The goal is with members is, and I may have mentioned this before, is to help them to follow the ward mission plan which is to strengthen them spiritually so that when the time comes for them to share the gospel with someone, they can do it simply and easily. That is the main focus with members. We are also trying to help find through members which means find people to teach from referrals from members. Lots of people have people in mind. But I am not sure that they will be in our area. Oh well, we do what we can eh?

We have been hearing a lot about movies here especially Cinderella. I have the Soundtrack of it on my mp3 player here and the music sounds awesome. It will probably be on my watch list when I come home :). Other than that I will have to do my research to see what kind of movies I will go and take a look at. 

My weight is now 274. I was a bit lazy to work out today, but that is not the only reason. There has been a horrible sickness going around in Lethbridge and Calgary. I just barely got it Sunday, but other missionaries got it throughout last week. They kept cancelling basketball in the morning. So we didn't play much basketball in the morning. But I did good maintaining my weight by not eating as much this week. 

Question time!

Question #1: Do they have any training as to what to put on facebook?

They had training on it last transfer and told us the basic. It is basically don't do anything stupid on it and keep everything focused on the gospel. 

Anywho, that is this week and it was a pretty short week. The mission gets more and more faster each week. Before I go I got one more thing to announce: Prepare for a lot more piano videos. :) Take care!

Pretty Slow week...but still happy!

Hey ya'll! My 19th month mark is coming up pretty fast and I am super excited. The mission is going so fast and it is hard to answer someone sometimes when they ask what we did on a certain day. Sometimes it is a bit awkward when members see us forget some things we did. The members of this ward are very chill for missionaries and are very willing to help. But here is the problem with that: The ward that we cover is pretty small compared to the rest of the stake here and the people they want to share the gospel with are outside their area and when they report that they did for missionary work, it is usually outside our area and the it benifits other missionaries. I am not saying that it is bad that other missionaries get the results for member missionary work, but it doesn't give us the investigators that the members are working with. However, me and Elder Bienz feel great when we extend a commitment to someone for missionary work and they get really excited for it and follow through with it. I don't expect to have too many investigators to work with here in this area. There are plenty of less actives and members to gain trust from and plenty of them do already. 

We tried to work with Seline and Jordan this week, but they kept pushing back the appointments from day to day. We are not sure why exactly. Elder Bienz told me that this is not normal for them to do. Seline was going up to Calgary to take care of her mother who just had surgery for her brain tumour and she will be gone for about a month I believe. So it will be mostly Jordan for quite a bit. But we plan to skype Seline in when we get approved for Skype or a member brings a device so that is possible so that we can teach the the Law of Chastity. They haven't learned it quite yet and that needs to be discussed before they get baptised. It seems that they are very comfortable with the ward and don't want to leave. They just wanna find an answer for themselves so that they know exactly what they are doing. 

 My companion and I are getting along super well. We always have something to say to each other and it is like there is no silence between us. We love everything the other persons love. We have tons of laughs and it is awesome. He could possibly be my favourite companion. I may get two transfers with him which I will be happy to do so. 

As for my working out progress, it is going great! Every other day I do P90X in the morning and do basketball every morning with the Zone Leaders and the APs. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the APs are in our zone. Anywho, guess how much I loss this week? ;). 5 pounds! Whoooo! I am 265 pounds and if this continues I will be pretty fit when I come home. My companion is a good motivator for that and so is the rest of the zone. Because we share a car, we walk a lot more than I have previously so that will help my work out routine. I am pretty pumped about it!

Alright Question time:

Question 1: Did Kade, the boy in your last area, get baptized?

As far as I know, I believe so. I will ask people in my last area/zone. 

 Question #2, do they do do Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time there in Canada so you have to go through clock time changes twice a year as well?

As far as I know, we do all except in Creston. I am not quite sure about the other times, but I am guessing that yes they do the same.

Question #3, how long has Elder Bienz been serving in the area?

This is his 2nd transfer here so about 2 months.

Question #4, how do you "work with the unmarried" to get them married before they can be baptised?

What we usually do is teach them lessons 1-3 and if they bring up that they want to be baptised, we suggest ways to prepare for that. Sometimes the next step is planning the wedding or to move out and get baptised then. It all depends on the person and what the situation is like. Lesson 4-5 discuss a bit about the Law of Chasity.

Well, I think that is all for this week! Hopefully appointments will not fall through as much this week as they did last week. Love you guys and see you next week!

Back Home...in Canada

So Transfers just happened last Thursday and I did explain the process of it last time because it changed. SoWednesday I got a call that I was going south of the mission which is like Lethbridge and anything south of that basically. So Thursday morning I packed up and headed out. I was not very happy that I was leaving that ward, not just because I got close to that ward when I was there, but, again, I wasn't able to witness another baptism that I was able to help out with! This happens every single time which frustrates me. I am still mad about that a bit, but not much. However, I do love the south of the mission more than the north of the mission. The members are more willing to do missionary work and the people are a lot nicer which I love. So at transfers when they announced it, they announced the zones that I thought I was not going to be at last. One by one, the zones I thought I was going to be at kept leaving and being taken. Fraser, who drove down with me and was my previous zone leader, were very confused on where we were going to go. Then it got to the last zone which was Lethbridge West which if you remember was about my second area. I got put with Elder Bienz who is a sweet kid and I was now in the Copperwood Ward which is RIGHT NEXT to where I previously served and lived! I was freaking out because I could visit the members I have previously served around and say hi to them and see how they are doing. Copperwood is a family ward, but it is a whole bunch of Newly Weds. That is pretty sweet I think because young people when they try to teach the gospel to others they do it more simply other than most old people who teach deep doctrine to people. But that is why we are there I guess. 

My new companion is Elder Bienz as I have explained before. He is from around Mesa, Arizona and, guess what, HE LOVES SONIC AND NINTENDO STUFF LIKE I DO! I am starting to see a trend here. Whenever I am in Lethbridge I have nerdy companions. Except this one is not as annoying as Elder Smith was. He is pretty chill and let me tell you, he is a great teacher. When he stays on topic of the lesson he is an amazing teacher and he is not even year yet. Plus he and I totally agree how to do work here. We are no longer in leadership. Just regular missionaries and that is just how I like it :). 

The weather is very different down here than in Calgary. IF you remember, it is very very very very very windy! And plus it is still in the winter so the snow comes often and it comes with force! That is why we do Hot Chocolate stand on Friday. We did that this past Friday and I had a great time doing it. We went crazy giving people Hot Chocolate to people. They kept asking what it was about, and we just responded that we wanted to warm their souls and that Jesus loves them. People are really happy down here than Calgary. It was so much fun to do it with other missionaries who know what they are doing as well.

We have two main investigators right now. They are on date somewhere in April, but we feel that we are probably going to push it back because they have to be married to be baptized. They still haven't had an answer for themselves quite yet, but we are working with them. I only remember one of their names and that is Jordan. We will give you guys an update on them later on in the transfer. :)

We do have a scale here to that I can measure my weight over time when I lose wieght. My current weight is 270. I will update you guys weekly on that.

Alright, question time!

Question #1: During transfers, do you travel to you new areas with other missionaries who might be going to the same zone, district, etc.?

All the missionaries that go to the south of the mission go on a bus or the vans that APs drive. There are times however where missionaries drive cars down there that need to be down there and sometimes I ride with them. That is what me and Fraser did.

Question #2, how would you rank the areas you have served in as far as affluence and humbleness?

Hmmm, well that depends on members because some are different than others. But if I had to rate from 1 - 5 with 1 being the worse and 5 being the best.

Creston - 3

Westbridge - 4

Parkland - 1

Pincher Creek - 5

Bow Valley - 2

Copperwood with what I have seen - 4

Well, that is all for this week. I will see you guys next week! Love you all!

Transfer Week #13

This is now the beginning of the transfer week. But for some odd reason things have changed on how transfers will go this week. You noticed that this week I am emailing you on Monday which is supposed to be on Tuesday. However, they changed that because of the different schedule for transfer week. We now email on Monday and that is our P-day. Then on Tuesday it is our regular day where district meetings are held and regular proselyting hours are in play. Then on Wednesday, we wait around the afternoon time and we wait for a call from the Zone Leaders to see whether or not we get transferred. I do not like this new way because it doesn't give us enough time to say goodbye to everyone we want to in our ward. It is very short notice and it is something I am not used to.  

Anywho, this transfer is the transfer where my mission dad is going home. Pretty happy day for him I would say. He has been talking about it every time I see him when he comes to visit. For his coming home Present, I bought him some movies for him to watch when he gets home that he hasn't seen. I think he will really enjoy those when he gets home. I love my mission dad and I am happy to say that I am the missionary I am because of how he trained me and how he was around me. He was a very chill missionary who knew the emotional struggles of missionary work and knew how to deal with it. I would have probably gone home if he did not train me right which I believe he trained me right. He is awesome!

This week was the same old week as it was last time. More service and some lessons with Kade. Our lesson with Kade went pretty dang well...until the ending again. Not because people had a problem with the end point which was enduring to the end, but they started talking about other things that were not related to the lesson at all and it got so off track that they forgot what we were talking about at all. I believe Kade got the best of it though and he got what we were talking about, but the others not so much. We have a lesson with Kade again today and it is going to be on lesson 4 which is the commandments and the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. This is the lesson we  fear is going to conflict the others in believing. We hope that Kade's family will not have a problem with this point and be able to continue in the lessons. He does want to be baptized on the 7th of March and it seems like he is ready so far. I am a bit sad that I might not have the chance of seeing the baptism or be able to witness it. This happens every single time in my area and it really frustrates me that I can't be able to see the next step of the people I worked with and got so close to. I am sick and tired of it and I don't want it to happen now. This will make me super mad if I do get transferred this transfer and I won't be able to see Kades baptism.

This last week as well, we went on exchanges with eh AP's. Elder Kelly, who is English, came with us and we did our normal work as usual. Elder Kelly is a sweet kid and he has only been out for about a year. But he is old age wise. He is a convert and he knows much about the church. We met a couple lost sheep people and visited the people that Elder Kelly wanted to go see that he knew. It was a good exchange and me and Elder Wiser liked it very much.

We have also been teaching this member family who the mother of the family expressed that her faith was fading and she wanted to gain that testimony that she had back. So we have been teaching the missionary discussions with her and we believe we nailed down her concern. She doesn't understand the necessity or how to use the atonement. We gave her an invitation to read and pray about that certain subject. We just gave her the basic steps to know what the atonement is and how to gain access to it.

Also, two random individuals came to our church this Sunday just because they said that they were curious about our church. We showed them around and took them to Sunday school and the last hour classes. They told us that they were really happy throughout the meeting and liked it a lot. So much that they invited us to their church this Friday. So...we do plan on going, but we weren't planning on that invitation. But also, one of the individuals that showed up asked me what I was going to do after my mission. I told him I wanted to go into music or if that doesn't work computer stuff. The problem that I told him is that I don't know what the next step into music that I should take. He told me that he would email me a video that explains what I can do or classes I can take to get more into music. I gladly accepted this advice and hoping that this video that he shares will help me figure out what I want to do after my mission.

That exercising plan sounds great. Only one problem, I don't know exactly what my weight it now since I don't have a scale. But I will gladly accept that challenge and I will let you know what my weight is and what it will be in the future. Love you all and take care!

That Golden Week/Lessons every missionary thinks of before their mission

Hello one and all! Sorry for not emailing you on Monday. Apparently here in Canada it was a long weekend because of Family Day which is why the Libraries were closed so that is why we couldn't email. But I am here now and so now I can email you freely.

Oh boy, oh boy! Where do I begin with this week? Well remember last time I emailed you and I told you that more and more investigators are coming in. Well, that didn't stop! We got even more now and it is so much that sometimes I forget who we have for investigators. Isn't that crazy? Now I will tell you of the lessons that we had this week as well for we had plenty of them. Some very good, some bad.

First off, Kade. President Stephans finally came back from his trip and we could finally begin to teach Kade. We began teaching him actually on Sunday. We taught him basically around 2 which is like right after church. We taught at his grandmas house and all of Kades family came as promised. His Grandparents, his mom, and his stepdad. They are came to the lesson because they wanted to make sure Kade knew what he was doing and they could see what we were all about. The thing is that this first lesson was just...perfect. The spirit was super strong and everyone understood what we were talking about. The Spirit was also very strong when we recited the first vision. We invited all of the family that was there to start reading the Book of Mormon and pray while they read to see if it is true. All agreed surprisingly! And they set up another lesson with us on Monday which was yesterday. We taught about the Plan of Salvation then and it went pretty good until the end where people were questioning the different degrees of glory. We gave our back up for up and asked them to study for themselves of the plan of salvation and the pamphlet that we gave them. They agreed and so they have a little task for themselves before we come back this Saturday where we will teach the 3rd lesson. I for sure hope that they do this so that they can understand more of what we will teach next time.

We also had a lesson with a women named Saxon. Well...it wasn't really a lesson. It was more of a bible bash session that got us no where. She wants us to come back, but I don't want to come back because there is no point to. It would just be another bible bash session. We are hoping if we do meet her again, that she will agree with the lesson order and we can teach her those.

The members are getting better and better at missionary work! We don't have to do the inviting usually. It is them who do it and it turns out great! I love it! We were helping move this family out of our ward and they were giving stuff to another person who was not a member. When we did move everything in to her home, the member that was with us extended the invitation for us to start teaching this woman and she accepted! That is amazing! Missionary work is not hard! Members just make it hard on their selves to do it so that they believe they can't do it and they complain to ward leaders and missionaries. To those kind of members I say to them 
to grow up and trust in the Lord more.

Now there being a DLB in the mission, I have many opportunities to see leaders of the mission like Zone Leaders and APs. However, I can see a bit of corruption in our leadership as a mission. Every Zone Leader doesn't give there honest opinion. When they do say something, they say whatever pleases President hoping that President will like them to be and AP. They are all power hungry and it is just terrible! I don't like it when leaders do this and it doesn't help me to trust them.

Well, I got to get going you guys. Got to start this 6 months of exercise so that I can be fit when I get home! Bye you guys! Love you!