Dear Family,
On Tuesday we had dinner with brother Shumate and we had like the best tasting salad I have ever eaten. Anyways, he told us one of his first missionary stories that he had where he went to the MTC for almost four months and was trying to learn Spanish but was having a hard time with it. All the other missionaries seemed to be picking it up pretty quick. In his group at a small foreign airport, they tried to take one of the American passports from one of the Elders, but "Elder Shumate" made them give it back and was speaking their language with ease and could understand them. But for some reason no one else in his group knew what they were saying. He said, "Come on guys we have been studying Spanish for months now." Another Elder said, "That wasn't Spanish, they speak Portugese here." What?! Gift of tongues I tell you, he didn't know any Portugese. I just thought it was a really cool story.
This week, because of Le Tour de Faith, we did a crazy amount of tracting and talked to as many people as we could in this little town of Bethlehem...I mean Montague. There was a challenge in the mission for every day of the week, Monday was how many investigators and less actives you have at a FHE, but unfortunately we didn't hold one that night. Tuesday was how many baptismal invites, where we invited to people but nothing yet. Wednesday was most creative way of finding people to teach. I can't even remember what Thursday's was. Friday's was how many books of Mormon passed out and we made it to five. And Saturday was how many invites to church. Overall, between the Elders and the Sisters, the sisters won, but this week has definitely shown what everyone is capable of.
We were knocking one night and this family from India answered, and all four of them came to the door. We tried talking to them but they couldn't understand us, I think all they got out of it was when we said servants of God. They just stared at us in confusion. It was actually kind of funny but pretty awkward all at the same time.
Sunday we had our Joyful Sounds Choir Performances which took up a big chunk of the day after church. We had one performance up in the town of Souris (pretty much pronounced like sorry) and then in the evening at the Hillcrest United church. It was so fun and had quite a few people there. Everyone in Montague knows who the missionaries are now, we talked to many of the people there.
P.S. It's really cold, and the people here say that this is nothing yet... I'm going to die.
Love You!!
Love, Elder Ray
Joyful Sounds Christmas Concert. |
Just got these pictures, it was back with Elder Shambrook. The Dourtes have been raising these for months and we are going to eat one this Friday for the Branch Christmas dinner. |