Fall into the Great North

Salut mes amis,

This week we had exchanges with Tracadie again.. Elder Woodbury, a Georgian with the most southern english french accent I'll ever hear, came up to Bathurst with moi. It was a pretty good week. We have two investigators now:) no fireworks but one of them with the way things are going will probably end up being dropped which is a bummer. BUT we did find a super cool guy who just happens to like baseball, biking, and wrestling.. I don't like wrestling, but we have the others in common and he has a son down in Moncton who plays amateur pro baseball. Pretty cool. He believes very strongly in Christ and everything but doesn't like the churches because of what they teach. He goes to the Catholic church with his wife because she is catholic. It's weird there are so many things about this guy that make him just perfect for the gospel. So we met him Tuesday night and gave him about half of the first lesson (restoration). He has un Livre du Mormon and is reading. He asked a lot of questions when we were teaching him which is good.. so we are excited about him:)

 

Weather here is just phenomenal. I don't think its not rained once in the 5 weeks I've been in Bathurst haha. It's super funny because when fall comes, everyone and their dog start going into overdrive to get ready for the -45 degree winter. Every single house has a pile of wood in the garage and just outside so that they can have a fireplace to keep the house warm because I guess the heating here doesn't quite beat the cold.

Next week is transfer week. How nuts is that?? We are getting 3 new french missionaries. A Belgium, a France and a Quebecer. I'm stoked because we have been told they are all coming to the 2 French cities which means I'll be surrounded by frenchies:)

 

We met three people this week that I thought were interesting.. you will too.

1) A middle aged couple who don't have kids at home.. (all at college) who adopted 2 kids from somewhere in africa, I forgot the place and are foster parents for I think it was 5 other kids. We talked to them for about 30 minutes and it was the coolest thing I have ever seen. The couple are both full time teachers for the high school here and when they come home they take care of 7 kids, only 2 of them being theirs and then they take care of 3 other kids who are at college. It was incredible to me and honestly I want to be a foster parent in 45 years that'd be so cool. They also had a dog that looked like jango but entirely black. So cute.

2) We knocked a door to find a guy in some underwear who invited us in to talk to him because he has mormon friends in hawaii... hahahahahahaha

3) Last night we met a lady who does spirit healing. We still aren't sure what that is even after she explained it to us. sooooo yeah. She also hugged us before we could get away... but we didn't know so we aren't apostate. only in canada?

4) Last thing, I gave a 20 minute talk in church. I felt like an apostle. It was awesome and only a few people fell asleep (2)

uuum I think that's all. Missions are incredible, absolutely marvelous and I'd recommend it to everyone. It'll change ya.

je vous aime

Elder Argyle

Happy Birthday - I'm Canadian!

Today, I inducted myself into the official Canadian league of Canadians. I have eaten Putine, which is french fries with gravy, I have tried the "real" maple syrup, it's not that great. I have cut down trees like a real Canadian, and today.. the greatest of all -I was asked if I play hockey. Bam bam - I am Canadian. Oh yeah and I have used the word "eh." That word turns anything you say into a question. For example, "Wow, lovely weather today, EH?" Then the other person says, "Eh." Bienvenue - I'm a Canadian.

So this week was an interesting one.  We met a few people with some really neat/insane stories that I'm not going to share. The coolest story of the week was one that my parents did.  My bday was Wednesday. I ran out of shaving cream Thursday morning, (oops) but I had an interview with President Levitt that night and he gave me a package from my parents. Inside of that package was some more shaving cream. Mom, dad, you guys saved my mission obedience.

                                                       Cody opening his birthday cereal

Ok, my story of the week is one of heroism. Saturday, the branch president asked us to help him and another member chop down a few massive trees for a member in Camelton. It took literaly the whole day and man do I have a whole new appreciation for lumberjacks. So our branch president, President Morais, is a literal gorilla. He is 65 years old and he climbed up a 40 foot tree by hugging the bottom and like scooting his way up because the branches were all at the top. If we cut it down with a rope pulling to a certain side, it would land on the house. He climbed this tree in about 15 seconds. Not only would that be incredible for a professional tree climber, but this guy is 65 years old. During this experience of cutting big trees down, someone got hurt:( It was my camera. I had it in my pocket and it got smashed by somthing:/ The place we went to cut trees down was in camelton which is right next to Quebec. Top 3 most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's a big ocean bay with rolling hills, a dormant volcano, and millions of trees with all sorts of colors. Couldn't take any pictures though:( I haven't mentioned this in the past, but something about canadians is.. they drink and buy milk in gallon bags.. like plastic bags. Things are starting to pick up here in Bathurst a little though! We finally found some people who want to learn more! We have an appointment this Tuesday with a young couple with no kids. It'll be great. Oh yeah, today we went to Tim Hortons, which is Starbucks but way better. They sell good sandwhiches. And a couple of older guys came up to us and asked us if we were professional hockey players hahaha.. I guess they dress in suits all the time.

Well fam, its thanksgiving here. I bore my testimony in front of all 17 people at our church about how much i love you guys and I constantly brag about how talented you all are. I have parents that look and act 30, a brother who is a genius, a sister who runs slow;) and a little brother who is already smarter than all of us with anything technology. So love ya'll.

With my interview with the president, he told me that in the next few transfers we are getting 5 new French speakers. thats double what we have now. That means a lot of new zones will be opening up. 3 come this next transfer, one from France, Belgium and Quebec. He told me to get ready and study French every second of the day because the French Training leader is leaving to be a zone leader soon and I need to speak French the best I can when that time comes.. He also told me, I will most likely be paired up with one of the new French speakers because they don't speak any English and because my companion is English called and will be finishing his mission in an English area. So get ready for the stress level to raise!

 

In Alma 60: Moroni is angry at Pahoran because his soldiers aren't getting the supplies they need while they protect the Nephites from destruction. There are two lessons in this Chapter that I have noticed so far.

1) you never know what people are going through so don't judge/criticize people ever. The spirit of contention is the spirit of the devil. Moroni destroys Pahoran in a letter, later to find out that Pahoran has been kicked out of his own city by some revolts.

2) in verse 11 it reads--

 

11) Behold, could ye suppose that ye could sit upon your thrones, and because of the exceeding goodness of God ye could do nothing and he would deliver you? Behold, if ye have supposed this ye have supposed in vain.

 

Don't sit on your throne and think you can do nothing and all your problems will go away. There is a cool story in the movie Other Side of Heaven. They are stranded on a boat and they need wind to get to the next island for this elder to teach someone. they waited for wind and it didn't come. Later one of the sailors gets the elder in a row boat and says "sometimes you got to make your own wind" and rows the elder to the very distant island.

 

Anywho everyone read the Book of Mormon. Go see that Meet the Mormons movie because its probably good, love one another. eat veggies

love ya

 

Elder Argyle

General Conference Week from the North

Well, this week has been one for the books. I'm not sure what book but it was definitely an interesting one. OK. This week we spent most of our time working with members and less actives. One of the less actives we have been meeting with is the most jacked man I have seen and ever will see in my life. He looks like the actor from the movies, The pacifier and Fast and Furious. You know the bald guy - I forgot his name. Alright so anyways, he is huge, bald, and super cool. He is currently waiting for clearance to be a Paramedic and Fire fighter because he blew out his knee and shoulder a while back doing police training. He wasn't able to come to conference at the church this week because he was sick, but he has said he wants to come back to church. Our other less active that we taught a few times this week is also incredible. He hasn't been to church for I'm not even sure how long, but he came again the first few days I was here AND he came to General Conference at the church:) He is struggling with poverty right now and he lives all alone.. His family is all Jehovah Witnesses and he told us a story that happened recently. Before he started talking to us and coming to church again, his brother would tell him about his view of other churches and his brother doesn't know that he has started to come back to church again. His brother recently started asking questions about our beliefs. Because he came back to church less then two weeks ago, he was able to answer his brother's questions, which he hasn't been able to do ever in his life. He is starting to do Missionary work!!!!

Something funny happened this week as well. After spending the entire day in Moncton, an area that is closed now for zone training. We came back to Bathurst and got some Mcdonalds:) It was amazing. I love Mcdonalds. It is so much better than my cooking.  So anyways we were there and a group of girls in maybe low 20's, late teens kind of stalked us while we were there.We then left to do some knocking and we ran into them again. They followed us. hahaha.

My scripture of the week is Heleman 5

Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Heleman are imprisoned and are about to be killed, but in (verse 23) Encircled about as if by fire, the guards feared that they would be burned if they touched them. Then all this crazy stuff starts happening like walls started shaking because of the power they had.

28) And it came to pass that they were overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them.

29)And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness, saying: Repent ye, repent ye, and seek no more to destroy my servants whom I have sent unto you to declare good tidings.

30) And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul-

Verse 30 shocked me when I read this. The scriptures teach that God is the same now as he was in the past and he will be the same forever, but for some reason I always thought that when God spoke to people in the Nephite times that it was not by the spirit. Verse 30 describes the Holy Ghost, who spoke to these guards who were about to try to kill Nephi and Lehi. Heavenly Father uses the same ways to communicate with us now, as he did before. Don't ignore the feelings or thoughts you get from the spirit. It's God trying to tell you something.

Love ya'll bunches, passez un bonne semain! Mangez vos l'egumes!

Elder Argyle