P-Day #64 - From 0 to 6, Putting On The Miles and Finding A Special Letter...

Elder Perry...Out Standing In His Field...
In Napanee ,Ontario

This week has been a week of miracles.

We started off the week with no investigators and decided that the best way to find new investigators is to get out of the apartment and go talk to everyone we see. We decided that we would try some of the towns that are out away from Napanee so that when the winter hits, we or the next elders won't have to drive in winter conditions out into the country side.

We started by going to a town called Denbigh. It’s a very small town but we find that if you are willing to work for it, the Lord will bless you for your efforts. We started knocking on every door we could find. We have been able to find some potentials in the area and as we knocked on a door we had passed by earlier, a lady came and opened it. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and were able to set up a return appointment with her. 

Standing on A Dog Sled in the Off Season...

We were able to visit some other towns near there and were driving by a long drive way when we felt that we needed to stop and knock on a specific door. We knocked and were able to meet a man who was going through a rough time in his life. We were able to talk to him about trials and faith. We were also able to set a return appointment with him and we will be seeing him this week.

We have had the same kind of spiritual experiences with four other people.  We will be trying to set up another appointments with them or already have appointments.

The last experience we had that really touched us is; we were driving by a sky viewing point and I thought that it would be cool to just stop and check it out. I didn't get any bad feelings or any indication that we were just wasting time. As we looked around and were about to leave, we looked inside a box.  As we did, we found a note of a man who wanted to know about the signs of the coming of Christ. The letter had his address and contact information. He lives in one of the French areas, the Quebec/Val D'or area were I first served when I arrived here in Canada. We were able to pass on the information to the Elders serving there now. When we take the time to slow down and listen to the promptings that are given to us, that is when we can be effective disciples of Jesus Christ. The Spirit speaks to us.  We just need to listen and feel the promptings.

On Sunday, I taught Elders Quorum and played the piano. It's like I am back home.  

Elder Perry by One of the Lakes in His Area...

Over the past week, I think we have driven far enough to go to Idaho one way from Vernonia. We have a very big area. I found out that we have eight French speakers in the mission so I don't know if I will be going back to French in Quebec or not.

We have heard a rumor that we will be getting smart phones in November but it’s just a rumor. Sounds like the church is picking up the pace on technology in the mission field.

Today, we had to go shopping and wait for laundry to be done. We were then going to email but the computers were in use so we had to wait until now. We drove thirty minutes to Kingston to realize that Elder De Vries forgot his wallet that he needed to by a new sweater for missionary work. We stopped into a Columbia Outlet store because I had never been in one of those before.  I thought it was a lot like REI. We thought it was pretty cool. We drove back to grab his wallet, had lunch and then drove back to Kingston to play sports as a zone. We went to Costco to get the sweater, had  dinner and came back. It's been a very busy day!

Elder De Vries and Elder Perry

We went from teaching no people to now we are teaching six in a week. We have been truly blessed this week. The Spirit is amazing.

Elder Perry

Napanee, Ontario

Kingston Zone

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day #63 – District Conference, Getting to Know Nepanee, Ontario and "The Big Woosh"...

This week was a lot of driving for us.

We had District Conference this week and I thought that the talks were great. It’s funny that they started talking about the children in the church and how we are supposed to teach our children the Doctrine of Christ. I was sitting in the congregation and before those talks were given, I knew that the following three talks were going to be given on teaching children and that they would be changed talks from the ones that were already prepared. I also enjoyed our Mission Presidents talk on forgiveness. We had a Seventy come to the District Conference and he gave some training to all the Branch Presidents and I was able to attend the same meeting. I thought it was pretty funny, a lot of the questions that the Branch Presidents were asking could be found in Preach My Gospel. This tells me that a lot of leadership haven't even read it. It really blew me away.

If you really want to find out what we teach and what we are taught to do with Ward Leaders and as a missionary, read chapter 13 of Preach My Gospel. Most people assume that its only for missionaries, but it's really for everyone families included. A lot of answers can be found in reading the lessons in chapter three. 

The area is a lot like Vernonia. We met with the Branch President and he is great! We helped him move the first full day we were here and a couple of days after that. I think we have a really good relationship with him. We talked to the First Counselor in the Branch Presidency and he filled us in on what we typically do in the branch. He gave us a lot of good advice and some things that he would like to see change in the branch. He’s a good guy also! 

We were able to set some goals on what we would like to see happen to our area. We will be traveling to different areas to work and see what the most effective places and area's will be to work in.

We were able to meet with a member this week who was very helpful in helping us understand the area better.  They also gave us some insight on what he would like to see change in the branch. We will be working closely with the Branch President to help implement some of those changes. I think we will do a lot of good in this area and that we will be able to help the area progress.  Almost just like home.

Funny Story…. On P-Day, We had a hard time starting the grill and then, when I put the lit piece of paper near the burners… the thing went in a big fire ball…it was just a big whoosh of flames. Unknown to me, my companion had opened the burners all the way and the gas had built up. This whoosh, scared the crud out of me! We were able to grill the hot dogs and then we went to the church and played basketball and Ping-Pong with some sisters in our district.  Glad I still have my hair and eyebrows. I know the Lord protects his Missionaries. 

I am happy to have the Nissan Rouge back. I fit into the Rogue much better than the Subaru we had. One of these p-days we will be going fishing. We found two fishing rods in our apartment with gear and the salmon are running up river so it should be fun. We also have some and some light houses along the lake shore so that should be cool to see.  We will be doing some more driving tomorrow and we are going to be seeing what is in our area and finding out where the best places to tract and teach are too. Due to District Conference we haven’t really been able to get to know our area much yet, but we’re on it.

Love You and remember, I Pray for You Every Night and Day!

Elder Perry

Napanee Branch

Kingston Ontario District

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day #62 – Transfers, Saying Goodbye and The Blazin’ Challenge

Elder Perry, an Investigator and Elder Bertagnolli

This week has been good for us. We have been working really hard on working with our investigators to progress them toward baptism.

We taught our investigators this week, the Law of Chastity, which can be weird because normal people generally don't bring it up in conversation. I thought the lesson went very well, for how it could've gone, and we were able to meet with them again and teach them the Law of Tithing.

We worked with an investigator to get him a baptismal interview with our District Leader. Unfortunately, some things came up and he was unable to come to the meeting. We will be working to prepare him for another baptismal interview. 

Killing-Off Elder Trump, He's Going Home!

Transfers went very well. I was transferred to Napanee, Ontario.  My new companion is Elder De Vries from Alberta Canada. His is a very cool guy! He’s been out just under a year. We had to go and get a GPS because we could not find our way back to the area. We were able to get one and stopped for a quick bite to eat before he headed back.

During our pit stop to eat, Elder De Vries and another companionship of Elders decided to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings, and take the “Blazin' Wing Challenge”. For $12.00(US), you get a dozen of the chain's chicken wings, slathered in their signature “Blazin'” sauce, the top end of the heat scale in the Buffalo Wild Wings array of sauces. The challenge? Eat them all, in less than six minutes. If you win, you get a t-shirt! I decided to eat a hamburger and watch the “flames burn”.

They all did meet the challenge….but it was painful(& funny), even to watch!

Elder De Vries......VICTORY!

After a long drive, we managed to find our way to our apartment and met one of the residents there. He was very helpful in helping us get our bearings and where are apartment was. We took a quick drive around town and as we drove, all I could keep thinking was this town is just like my home town. It's small, with a little Main Street, and swimming hole in the middle. The library is small and so is the church building. It is a “phase 1” building like when we moved into my hometown of Vernonia, Oregon. We will be trying to meet with the members this week and establish what our goals for the area will be. We will find out how big the area is and what parts we will be visiting to establish where we can find the most people to teach. We did get a Nissan Rogue to drive, so there’s a bonus!

As we were leaving yesterday we got a text from an investigator who said that her dad told her that she couldn't get baptized and that she couldn't talk about church in the home. She could still attend but not talk about it. We gave her comfort as I was leaving. 

My New Companion Elder De Vries from
Alberta, Canada and Elder Perry from Vernonia, Oregon

Before leaving I decided to stop and say goodbye to a special family. I really connected with them. One of the members said that they loved me and that just broke me. We had Canadian Thanksgiving dinner on Monday with them. The kids were all over the place but they are still good kids. When I had to leave, one of them started to cry which almost made me cry. They really didn't want me to leave and I really didn't want to leave. This will make it my 6^th area and 5^th zone. Most missionaries only do that their whole mission, if that.

I also had a good and bad experience this week. I was doing self-defense training to work out this week and as I was practicing, I dislocated my shoulder. It rolled around the socket and then popped right back into place. It swelled later that night and it is still a little sore. I was practicing a backhanded slap and as I whipped forward, it popped out. I won't be trying that for exercise time again. 

The Ever Famous Elder Perry Selfie!

We will be meeting the Branch President tonight because he needs help moving. We also have a dinner appointment tonight so it will be a good opportunity to meet some of the members.

We may also be trying to work on an Indian Reservation. We would just have to talk to the Chief and get his blessing.

Well, we have laundry to do and a dinner appointment to get ready for.

I Miss Hamilton.  

Love You and remember, I Pray for You Every Night and Day!

Elder Perry

Napanee Branch

Kingston Ontario District

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day # 61 - Setting Up for Conference, Possible Baptism and Teaching the Word...

Dundurn Castle

Hi Mom & Dad, 

This week has been a good week for us in terms of Missionary Work.

We have been working diligently with our investigators on progressing them to Baptism. We were able to meet with two of our investigators this week and talk about the Word of Wisdom. They understood it and accepted to live by its teachings. We also had the opportunity to move a member family this week. They had a lot to move and were very grateful that we had come.

We learned about having fun with the work, joking and games that we would have with the members. This teaches that serving others can be a joyful experience and that the work is only as fun as we make it out to be.

Albion Falls

Our newest member asked us to walk him home after Priesthood Session Saturday night because he is in a scooter and an easy target for thugs. We set it up with our DL's and they were good. We returned and helped with cleanup and all went well!!!

We were able to get a member moved and it felt good to help him with his project.

The English Class is doing very well. We have only had a couple classes and we already have five students.

We also had a meeting with a member this week who we are helping with things in her life. We think we made a decent amount of progress.

General Conference was great! I especially loved Jeffery R. Hollands talk from the Saturday Morning Session called “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually”. I believe that it has great council for all.

We also got to go to the temple this week. It was nice to be there again

We have been busy with helping the members with things. It was good because one of the members has started feeding missionaries again. We helped them and they trust us. A previous missionary had an attitude so they stopped but with us being here and helping them they are starting to trust us missionaries again.

Classic Direction Sign 

We are still on deck for baptism this week. Pray for our Investigator....

We have been stretched thin and wide.  We are very busy guys!

Love You and Remember, I Pray for You Every Night & Day!

Elder Perry

Hamilton "Downtown" Ward

Hamilton, Ontario

Canada Toronto Mission