Whack-a-Mole - Letter 12/30/2013

HEEELLLEEEEEWWWWWW!!!! <-- To be said like Mrs. Doubtfire.

Christmas was so good. We had lunch AND dinner at a member's house on Christmas Eve (two separate families though), and then we went caroling. SO MUCH FUN. We went with the two other sisters and the four Elders from our district.

As you all know, we were at the Tiemans for Christmas. Their son-in-law, Brother DeLeon, is the ward mission leader. After I got off the phone with you guys, they let us chill out and do pretty much whatever. They were playing Bananagrams so I joined in, and after we got sick of that we all played apples to apples. I felt right at home; Bananagrams and Apples to Apples Christmas day? Don't mind if I do.

That night we ended up teaching a lesson about the restoration to our neighbor upstairs. She had come in the door the previous day with a big printer so we carried it upstairs and offered to help her set it up the next day. She then said the Elders who had lived there before gave her a DVD of the Restoration but she didn't know how to work her DVD player. We set it up for her, taught her the first chunk of the Restoration, and then watched the DVD with her. The spirit was really strong! We made an appointment to come back and teach her again but we got a note from her Friday saying that she was absolutely not interested in learning more. That was kind of a bummer deal but we still love her!

Friday we had a big trainer/trainee meeting in Cleveland with everyone who came in this last transfer. So what I'm saying is, I got to see all my sisters from my MTC zone!! INCLUDING SISTER O'BANION! Gosh I just love her, she's so great.

This meeting was so good. I can't get over how dang inspired President Vellinga is, like I can't even handle it. He is great. One thing that he said to us, jaw clenched, pointing at us (not in an upset way but in a mockingly upset way...) "DON'T. BE. A LAZY. MISSIONARY." Me and Sister Beaudoin have tried really hard to make it so, even down to putting our shirts right side out in the laundry hamper. Everything President Vellinga says just makes me want to try so much harder to be a better missionary, which I guess is probably why he is the Mission President.

We went out tracting for like 45 minutes when we got back and we found some real gems! There was one guy who we told where we meet, asked if he wanted to meet with us more, and left a Book of Mormon with and he was like "yeah, we're new to the area so we're looking for a church to go to. We'll come sometime!" He didn't come. But still, exciting.

We went tracting again the next day and met soo many nice people! There was a guy we met named Ron and we're really excited about him too. He seemed really interested in the Book of Mormon and coming to church.  That night we went and met some of the less-active families in our ward. They were all SO nice. I'm excited to work with them! THEN we taught a lesson to Brother Clapper. He is so sweet. Poor guy has been inactive pretty much his whole life, and missionaries have been working with him for months to get him to quit smoking. He wants sooo badly to get the priesthood and be able to go through the temple, but he needs to quit smoking and come to church!! So we talked about things we can do to help him be more motivated, and he said if we called in the morning before church to make sure he was up that would help. Five minutes before we were going to call him, he calls US and says "Okay Sisters, I'm up, I'll see you at church!" We get to church and he walks in with a PURPLE SUIT that had a corduroy suit jacket with it and this huge smile on his face. Best BEST person to see coming in those doors!! We want to see him get the priesthood before Sister Beaudoin finishes training me. Prayers and faith will do it!!

Last night, we finished tracting and came home for dinner. We looked at our plans and realized that we had made plans to stop by some potential investigators in Vermilion, but visit a sister from the ward at 8:00 in Amherst. Amherst and Vermilion are like 20 minutes away from each other and we're trying not to use a ton of miles... So we're like "well, maybe we need to re-do our plans." Sister Beaudoin was a genius and said we should pray about it. While she was praying, I had one of the potential investigator's names come into my head that we planned on visiting in Vermilion. Her name is Pinky. Well, not really but that's what she likes to be called. We had tried to meet her a couple nights before but nobody had been home, but the Elders said to REALLY follow up with her. When her name came into my head, it wasn't like a fleeting thought... It was like an overwhelming feeling. I can't even explain how powerfully it came into my head. I caught myself thinking "Okay, okay! We'll go see Pinky!!"

I told this to Sister Beaudoin and she was like "Huh, okay! Let's go see Pinky!"

About a half hour later we get to her house and it looks completely DARK. So I'm thinking "great, she's not even home." We were about to just pull back out of the driveway but Sister Beaudoin was like "Well, let's go knock just in case." We get to the door and WE CAN HEAR THE TV! Her husband came to the door and, long story short, we were able to teach both of them the restoration. (I recited the first vision for the first time... AHH!!) At the end of the lesson, we asked Bill how he was feeling and he goes "Uhh... Well.... Where do I go after this life?" 

:O

They had just come home from Florida, cause they own a house down there and they're trying to sell their house here. BUT. When we were talking about the Holy Ghost, Pinky told us that when she was in the shower like ten minutes before we came over she heard someone say "Don't sell your house yet." And then we came over. And she goes "I bet you think I'm crazy." No Pinky. That is the farthest away from what we think.

I don't know if you're getting the vibe yet, but Pinky and her husband Bill are TOTALLY PREPARED!!! We are so excited! They said they'd come to church and then we could decide on a time to meet them again.

We got out of that lesson and Sister Beaudoin and I were like... Shocked?? Like I was just grinning like an idiot and she just kept saying "Oh my gosh. OOHH MY GOSH. What just happened. Oh my gosh." We are so excited about them.

Well, I guess that's it for this week. I love you all so much, late Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year to everyone! The Gospel is so true. I have never felt so close to my Father in Heaven. Alma 26:35-36 is about how I've been feeling since Pinky. LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Sister Perrenoud

I Want Cookie Now! - Letter 12/13/2013

So, Sunday was indeed awesome as everyone says. We got to watch Music and the Spoken word with all the sisters, then Sister Mariott from the general relief society president came to speak to all the sisters. Then we had a new sisters orientation, which was pretty much the same thing we've been hearing every day since we got here (aka dress code) pfffft boring. So then we had sacrament meeting at 2 as a zone which was cool but the COOLEST part was watching a video from a devotional that David A. Bednar gave to missionaries Christmas morning. It was like a punch in the face, like they don't distribute it to the church because it's so blunt that half the church would probably leave. The best thing I got out of it though was he said that sometimes we're too much like the cookie monster:

"I WANT COOKIE NOW! I WANT BAPTISM NOW!!"

Bahaha. So me and Sister O'Banion have had an awesome week for teaching this week. We taught a fake investigator who isn't our teachers acting like investigators. Our first time teaching her, she asked about things like polygamy and hard questions like that. Every time she asked her to read a scripture from the book of mormon she wouldn't even touch it. So our goal for the second lesson was for her to read the introduction from it on her own. AND SHE TOTALLY DID! We all took turns reading paragraphs of the introduction and then we left the book of mormon with her. AND SHE KEPT IT!! BOO-YAH!!

In other news, we decided that our district leader looks like Andy Bernard from the Office. Hahahahahahahahaha.

Gosh. I wish I had more dang time. I just don't!! But our zone is awesome. We're only going to Cleveland with four other sisters, and every one else is either going to Canada or Las Vegas. 

Elder Lusk and Elder Bird left on Monday!!! I was so excited for them! We took an awesome picture of them with their arms around each other and me awkwardly standing to the side so that's fun.

Also, we had in-field orientation on Thursday. Which went from 8 in the morning till 5:30 at night. It was fun till about 4:30, and then I got really tired and sick of sitting that I wanted to be done. Then, the kid that said the closing prayer took another 9 1/2 hours to say it so it's all good. 

ALSO!!! OH MY GOSH! Elder Christensen from THE DISTRICT videos TOTALLY CAME!! I was freaking out! It was like a freaking celebrity came to the MTC!

Okay. Well I'm hoping and praying that the computer won't kick me off before I get to send this.

Oh. And, on Tuesday, Elder Quentin L. Cook came and gave a Devotional to us!! And me and most of the people from our Zone sang a musical number in a choir and I was TOTALLY ON THE SCREEN. It was zoomed out a lot but still cool. 

P.S everyone, the food is good for the first like two meals. And now it's just not. But, despite what everyone else said I would do, I have TOTALLY lost weight. Mostly because I've ran like four miles this week and two miles last week and walked all over kingdom come.

Anyways. My Zone is awesome. And I'm excited that I'll be going to Cleveland, but not excited for us to be split apart.

I love all you guys so much. SO MUCH! You're the best. 

Love, Sister Perrenoud 

Meeting up with friends Elder Tanner Lusk from the ward and Elder Taylor Bird

Sister O'Banion

It's the map .... it's the map ... it's the map!

Love this picture!

 

Long days!

 

Temple was closed - Didn't get to do a session :(

Woooorrrrrddd - Letter 12/6/2013

Hello!!

Wow. Well, I actually have time today so I'll try to summarize everything that has happened to me without it becoming a novel. So when we got here they kind of just directed me everywhere; into one building through a maze to get my badge and keys and then out, taken to another building to get stuff from the bookstore, taken to another building to do something else (I don't remember...), and then to my dorm room to drop off my luggage (which I had to carry up the stairs, by the way cause the host sister didn't know how to work the elevator... turns out you just have to swipe your key card to make it work. It's a pain in the butt so we just go up the stairs.) Anyways. I felt like I was being squeezed through a tube. 

So then we got to my classroom and I met my companion, Sister O'Banion. Her name does rhyme with companion so that's fun... Anyways. She is AWESOME! She's hilarious. She likes to quote movies and likes music and all sorts of stuff like that. Also she likes superhero stuff just as much as I do so that's really fun. She and I have matched for the last two days too, not even on purpose... So that's fine. Anyways she has such a strong testimony of the gospel. She is seriously so sweet to everyone, just talks to everyone around her and has this awesome laugh that you can hear from the other side of the cafeteria. We really are a lot a like, it's very cool. OH and she's from Billings Montana. She's 23. Aaaaaand she joined the church when she was 17! She has so many great insights on the gospel. Also, she just said "right meow". Meow. She and Kam would get along just fine. OH! And she LOVES HARRY POTTERRRR!!! She's a Hufflepuff. We screamed for like four hours when we did that. She also made an enemy our second day here cause she saw someone who looked like Draco Malfoy and she went up to him and told him that and he didn't appreciate it. 

We have nine people in our district altogether. There's me and Sister O'Banion. Then Sister Shurtliff and Sister Clifton, who we room with and are both from Canada and going to Toronto Canada. Then there's Elder Watters (who's 6'10" and has to duck for every door), Elder Mitchell and Elder Ayres (pronounced Airs) and they're all going to Toronto, and then Elder Vang and Elder Wilsher (WHO HAS A SWEET BRITISH ACCENT CAUSE HE GREW UP IN ENGLAND!) and they are also going to Toronto. So we are the only ones in our district going to Cleveland, but there are four other sisters in our Zone going to Cleveland as well. We also have four other Elders in our zone going to Las Vegas West, so I told them to look for Elder Parker and Sister Ofiu. One Elder's name is Elder Crabb so me and Sister O'Banion call him and his companion Elders Crabbe and Goyle... (HP reference.) Everyone here is awesome, I love them!!

So yesterday was tough, I was pretty much in tears by the end of it. Satan is really working hard on me out here!! Holy moses! But today has been much better. Last night it helped because we had a meeting with our branch president, and before that we did an introduction thing and talked about why we wanted to come on a mission and bore our testimony. Afterwards he interviewed each of us and in my interview he asked if I was doing okay and if I needed anything, and then he was like "Well, just from what I've seen and felt talking to and hearing from you so far I can already tell that you are going to be an amazing missionary. You already are. In fact, I feel privileged being able to sit here and talk to you today." That was cool.

Today we were able to teach an "investigator", in other words our teachers portraying someone that they taught on their missions. It was a way cool experience. Cool to feel the spirit working through you. I honestly love everyone here!!! I'm with everyone right now and I can hardly type cause we can't shut up. Love these guys.

Also, I saw Elder Bird (from high school) and Elder Lusk!! Totally cool kids. Elder Bird like chased me down first day, I'm walking towards my dorm and all the sudden I hear some psycho yelling "SISTER PERRENOUD!!!" And I forgot that was me so I ignored him for a bit, and then I realized it was him. Haha love that kid. Anyways, I have this feeling that I'm out of time and I think the computers might kick me off here in a bit but I will try to write a more detailed letter to you guys while I'm doing laundry. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Sister Perrenoud

P.S. I did get my makeup bag and I about cried from happiness. Love you guys.

MTC Companion - Sister O'Banion from Montana

Using those talents I paid for!

MTC District

Worrying that she would be hungry or need a bedtime snack I told her to take some fruit or muffins to her room from the cafeteria ~ not going to happen!

Elder Taylor Bird a friend from High School - Headed to California

Elder Tanner Lusk from our 10th Ward - Headed to Russia 

AAAHHH!!!

Holy moses. Welp, it's coming up! 15 more days until I report to the MTC! I found out my MTC report time, my mission plaque is hanging up in the church, and most of my shopping is done.... Wow. Here it comes.