Thursday, April 17, 2014

Date with the APs

Bonjour! Aaaah! Qu'est-ce qu'il fait beau! Spring is in the air! I've been rocking my styling rain coat from Simon's, the crisp breeze tangling my silken hair into tiny knots. Montreal is slowly coming back to life! It has been a fabulous, fabulous week. I just don't even know where to begin because my heart is so filled with gratitude for being a missionary and seeing all of these blessed, blessed miracles. How was everyone's week? How are things on the home front? I hear finals week is in your midst... ick. Good luck with that! Special missionary prayers are coming your way!

Alright, so let me first explain the title of this letter lest any of you fear that I will be coming home much sooner than expected. Haha. So. This week one of the zones Sister Sherwood and I are over had a big zone activity up at Mont Royal. Their goal was to take a zone picture together on Montreal's famous montagne (...hill...), and obviously the Sister Training Leaders needed to be in this picture too. Well. No one in this zone has a car except the APs, and then we of course have a car because we travel all over the mission and have to go to Ontario every few weeks. But that's not important. All of the missionaries were running late because they were traveling by bus, whereas us and the APs had no need of public transportation. So we get to the meeting spot. So do the APs. No one else is in sight. I'm just like... uh... well, since I'm like a SUPER awkward sister missionary right now, I'm just going to wait in the car. Unfortunately, my companion had already gotten out of the car and was chatting with the APs. We're just like, "Ehh. The rest of them should be here soon. We'll just stop and chat." Well, twenty minutes go by. NO SIGN of these flippin missionaries. Just us on our double date with the assistants. SCANDAL! Then one of them is like, "Well, should we just start hiking to the look-out spot?" And I'm thinking to myself.... "Hiking... the four of us... look-out spot... windy day... my jacket isn't going to be enough...." Hmmmm. Yeah. NO. I had a mini panic attack. So we all just kind of stood there awkwardly, and I realized that I forget how to make eye contact with boys. FORTUNATELY everyone showed up like ten minutes later, but I'll tell you what. I am going to be THE MOST awkward RM EVER. Oh gosh. Prepare yourselves.

So that was fun! In more spiritual news... One of our returning less active members just received her temple recommend for her ENDOWMENTS! I am BEYOND happy. We scheduled an interview with her and the bishop so that she could receive a recommend to do baptisms, and that night she came out with a recommend for her own endowment! Praise the heavens! We were screaming and crying and so excited! Truly, one of the happiest moments of my mission. This woman is AWESOME! She is coming back SO STRONG! Part of the missionary purpose besides baptism is helping people endure to the end. I'm more of an "endure to the end" missionary. Haha. Temple blessings over baptisms? Yeah, I'm all for it. 

Speaking of temple blessings... I got to go to the temple this week! There is a recent convert of about two years in our ward who went to the temple to receive her endowment on Thursday. Even though we don't really work with her (besides her helping us come out to teach), I just felt this strong impression that missionaries needed to be at her endowment. Her whole conversion story involved missionaries since the very beginning, and I thought, "This woman is seriously the coolest member to have ever joined the church. She can't NOT have missionaries at her endowment." So I told this to the mission president. And miracle of miracles... HE LET US GO! And we had permission to stay out past curfew! What?! It was the happiest day of my life. We drove to the temple with my FAVORITE member family of the ward (the Morales fam) and had a beautiful, special night at the temple with Lawanda and the whole ward! When Lawanda saw us in the temple she was overcome with joy to have missionaries there, and we just hugged and cried and tried not to be irreverent in the temple! Ahhh... mission memories that will warm my soul for a lifetime. After our temple trip it was SUPER late, but the Morales family really, really wanted to take us to McDonald's. Haha. No worries, we went straight home. But... there was a special McDonald's delivery on our doorstep that night at a an hour I won't disclose for fear of exposing my disobedience... haha. It was seriously the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. Don't worry, I received my punishment the next morning after my body reminded me that it is DEFINITELY not a good idea to eat Big Macs and fries and root beer past bedtime. ;)

THEN on Sunday all of the missionaries gave talks! And they were SO good! Gosh, this email is full of bragging! But I'm practically at the end of my mission, so I've earned my bragging rights. We were like celebrities up there, people waving to us on the stand, taking photos, posting them on Twitter! Haha only joking. We just got waved at. Still, I felt so loved. My mission is the BEST! Nothing tops the CMM. I used to be jealous of all of those missionaries in Paris, but I've come to love my Quebecois roots, and I wouldn't trade these blessed days for anything in the world!

Well, I hope you all have a dazzling week. I hope you all shrivel up in the heat! Booo. We'll probably be getting another snow storm tomorrow. Reeeerrr. CANADA! Alright, well, I'll let you all get back to studying and grading and working and everything else that normal people do. But remember! I love you all SO much and pray for you daily! Bisou bisou! Take care!

Love,

Syl

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