Baby Showers are different then I imagined

Hey everyone! This week was quick but had a bunch of really fun events. I’m really enjoying this transfer and all the fun I’m having with my fellow missionaries.

On Thursday Elder Tuvell and I teamed up with Brother Andrew Bassford and Brother Joe Kubetz to go to Portland High School and help build parts of the set for the school play. They’re doing Frankenstein’s Bride and they had a spinning book case that Elder Tuvell and I were working on. Then needed a stove on one side which we made the body of and then we also made shelves. It was a ton of fun working with my hands again.

At some point in the week I started practicing piano again. With any luck maybe I’ll be able to play again by the time I’m back home. 

On Friday and most of Saturday we had exchanges with the Portland English Elders so Elder Taylor and I got to be companions again.

On Saturday Chancel invited us to his wife Mary’s baby shower…turns out that’s for relief society haha. We ended up shoveling snow around the church building. Then at 1 we cleaned the Church building for Stake Conference.

Yesterday after the stake conference our ward had a linger longer which was a ton of fun.

That’s it for this week hope you all are having an amazing week! I’ll catch you all next time!

Oh, I forgot to mention two things! Our toaster was smoking so to prevent the fire alarm from going off I opened the three layers of window and put a fan on it to blow the air out!  The other thing was that I woke up one morning and thought to myself why does the carpet feel wet under my feet, turned light's on and boom! Because of the winter storm we had water pouring in from the upstairs apartment. After coordinating with the Landlord (Chuck) and his wife (Rachel) we found out that the roof of our duplex was leaking and water was pouring through all three layers of our building. Upstairs apartment, downstairs, apartment, and basement.

Il y a beaucoup de neige

 Translation: There is a lot of snow.

Portlands been equal parts buried in snow and washed with rain. Although the frequency of snow is increasing so it might just be snow pretty soon. Because the city needs the roads cleared they issue out parking bans during bad storms a couple nights this last week Elder Tuvell and I had to park in specific parking lots you're still allowed to park in and walk 20 or so minutes back to the apartment. On paper that sounds bad but the walk isn't bad at all so as long as we can find a parking spot I'm ok with it. 

Our friend Paul is starting to get really desperate to learn English as quickly as possible. He can already speak well enough that we don't speak any French with him but he understandably wants to be fluent. He signed up for a class here in Portland that helps him learn more. The school gave him a national geographic book that's really good. It pushes his English and tests his limits.

I think I mentioned him in my last weekly but a man named David showed up to church last week after only being in America for a day. This week he brought his two kids and it was cool. Apparently he was baptized in South Africa and wants his family to join the church as well which is awesome. We're trying to find his membership records but so far no luck.

Yesterday we were invited to the Johansen's household for dinner. They're an awesome young family with a cute little girl. It was awesome to get to know them better since they're one of the first families I met when I came into Portland.

I can't remember when but at some point during the week we helped with Bishop's storehouse which was a ton of fun. I really like doing service and the Bishop's storehouse is an awesome service opportunity.

Oh, I also finished that puzzle finally! It only took me a transfer and a half.

That's all for this week. I'll be back again next week. Have a great week everyone and thank you so much for all your love and support.

Attempts at French Translation (languages are hard.🤣)

This week has been pretty fun. For my final Tuesday with Elder Funk our District gathered together at this pizza place called Otto’s it was pretty good, and the district had a good time together.

On Wednesday we went to Lee’s house and had a really good lesson. It’s really hard to teach Lee because he’s gone through a lot of things in life and has no filter when he’s speaking but I kept pushing harder than normal and taught him more about how to listen to the voice of the spirit and that men are accountable for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression.

Thursday we hilarious because a storm messed up transfers so instead of having transfers on Tuesday, we had it on Friday accept not really because the AP’s sent out a bunch of travel plans so Elder Tuvell and Elder Thulin drove here to Portland Thursday night and Friday morning Elder Funk and Elder Thulin drove to transfers and Elder Tuvell and I just stayed here since he was my new companion. Also because of the schedule change we had a virtual district council on Thursday, and it was hilarious because we kept having technical glitches or difficulties.

Friday was interesting because half the day was waiting for two of the Elders to leave and the other half was a normal day. We went to Welles house and had a very good lesson with him. We read Moroni 10 with him and testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that they truly are the words of God. We asked him if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true and he said that he does because it contains the same message and principles of the Bible. It was amazing to see somebody else recognize that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are equal and together both contain the words of God. Speaking of Book of Mormon though! This Elder is about to finish his first read through cover to cover. I’ve read from the testimonies of Joseph Smith and the 11 witnesses in the front all the way through Moroni 9. I have one chapter left and I’m going to finish it today. Chapter 9 really left an impact on me because of the wickedness it described in the chapter. The people of the Nephites and Lamanites had been, just as Mormon and Moroni put it, a delightsome people, and within a few years they had turned away entirely from their God and became to perform the most wicked and abominable acts. Their civilization was completely destroyed because of their sin and unwillingness to repent, the same exact thing happened to the Jaredite nation as well. I would like to invite all, if you have any sins or iniquities that need to be repented of, start the repentance process now. Turn to your Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ, the Prince of Pease. The Healer and the Redeemer. Hearken to his voice and come unto him. It is never too late to return to him.

On Saturday Elder Tuvell and I went to the Lighthouse to get some pictures and it was insanely cold because it was windy. Also, there was this crazy huge wave that hit the shoreline and it was so beautiful to see. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch it on video. We also went shopping and I stumbled upon a mug of a certain character I really love...

Yesterday something really cool happened at Church. Friday night we got a message from a random person named Emmanuel and he said his father had just came to American and that he wanted to come to church. We sent the address and yesterday David came to church. He came to America two days ago after 2 years of being seperated from his family. He showed us a video of his reunion to his wife and children, and it was so beautiful to see. He wants to start bringing his entire family to church which is so awesome but unfortunately, they don’t have a car. However, we’re going to try to coordinate with the Elders in Saco to help them attend the Saco Ward. it was so awesome though because in the middle of Sunday School a member wanted to contribute to the lesson and started speaking French. Elder Tuvell and I were doing our best to translate but as it would turn out, there’s a difference between understanding and translating. I was only getting 3/10 words out and I was struggling. Suddenly I hear a voice to my right speak up as David begins translating! I didn’t know he knew that much English at the time, so it was really shocking and such an amazing experience. I’m so thankful for David and I hope he continues to come to church with his family.

That’s it for this week! I’ll catch you all in another 7 days. God Bless you all!

 

Actually though, what does a fox say?

Wow, as it would turn out, time flies! These past two weeks have been a blur. I honestly don’t remember very much so here’s a bunch of random things that happened recently.

I just got the transfer doc and I’m going to be staying here in Portland, but Elder Tuvell is going to come to be my companion. I’m very excited because I was hoping to stay in Portland for another transfer.

Elder Funk and I helped a brother in his ward move two giant pallets of pellets and filled up his entire trailer and that was a ton of fun.

Susan expressed a desire to be baptized which was awesome however it might still be a while because she still has a lot to be taught also because she just wants to be baptized because we’re a good Church and we want to make sure she’s fully able to continue making progress on the covenant path once she’s baptized.

Our car finally got the oil change it deserves so now it’s healthy and ready to go unless it’s out of gas.

We had interviews with President this week and they went really well. President is an amazing and very kind person and I’m honored to be serving under his guidance and counsel. 

Went on exchanges with the District Leader and also on Exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Satteson and I ate at a sit down Mexican restaurant and it was so good! I haven’t had authentic Mexican food since my time in Nashua so it was pretty nice. While on exchanges with Elder Heath we visited the Garmin company's globe dubbed “Eartha” It’s the biggest spinning globe in the world (or at least it was at some point, there’s a world record plaque on a wall). As were finishing exchanges we saw a fox running across the parking lot which was insanely cool to see.

At some point in the past two weeks our district held a district finding activity. It was a ton of fun. Initially we were planning on setting up a hot chocolate stand, but it was raining and below freezing so there was nobody around so instead we partnered up on mini exchanges and went street contacting in random directions. Something pretty cool that happened was that Elder Murray and I accidentally ran into Elder Funk and Elder Taylor and as we were talking with them about our progress so far, we saw a man crossing the road. We invited him to learn about the gospel and he said his name was Emmanuel and that he wanted to and seemed really excited about it, so we ended up talking with him for about 10 minutes. He speaks really good English, but his main language is French. So that was a pretty cool experience.

Overall, the past 2 weeks have been good and also quick. I can’t wait to talk to you all next week. Goodbye for now!