P-Day #82 - The Lady on the Dock, Finding Old Records to Enter and Lots of Pics...

This week, we have been working on our records.

We thought we were done entering our records into the Area Book Planner APP, then we found a hidden stack of teaching records. So, we have been working on going through that stack and entering them into the app.

 

We have been working on contacting potential investigators in our area and in the Walkerton Branch area that we now cover. We have been able to make some good progress in both areas and have been updating the app the best we can.

We were able to help teach a man about the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. He is going to be baptized in the coming weeks. He seemed to understand and he said he did. It was good that we were able to help him in the process and I think it will be an awesome opportunity for the Sisters who have been teaching him.

We weren't able to meet with our investigator this week, due to illness, but we will be contacting him and checking up on him this week.

We were able to talk with a lady on the dock of a harbor. We were able to work over in the outskirts of our area and she had been searching for the “true church”. We told her about what we teach but, she wasn't interested. We were able to share a mormon.org card with her which she seemed to appreciate. Sometimes we just plant a seed or two.

Elder Gutierrez and I have been visiting a few vista’s and overlooks on our p-day. I’ll include a few pics we’ve taken…

Things are good! Sharing the Lords Message Daily...

Love You, Mom and Dad, and remember, I pray for you every night and day!

Elder Perry

Owen Sound Ward

Barrie Stake

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day # 81 - The Walkerton Branch, Teaching the One and Expanding our Boundaries....

Elder Gutierrez(Spanish Fork, UT) and Elder Perry(Vernonia, OR)
At Inglis Falls,Georgian Bluffs, ON

This week Elder Gutierrez and I were able to visit the Walkerton Branch for the first time. We are now covering the Walker Branch and this increased our boundaries so much, we are now covering 1/8^th of the entire mission. Now all we need is more car kilometers to cover it.  The Branch is a phase one of three phases.  Including us, we had 20 attendee’s this week. The branch was small but the members were mighty in testimony. 

It was awesome to see them fellowship our investigator who came to church for the first time. He really enjoyed the services. We were able to meet the Branch President.  He was very happy to see us Elders. He has only been the Branch President for a couple of months so, we will be learning about the branch together, and we are his new recruits. 

Inglis Falls 

We were able to have a lesson with one of the investigators from the Branch. We will be teaching him all the new member lessons. The lessons went great and I think we helped him feel the Spirit. He has quit his smoking and is staying off of it. We have been teaching him for a while and he was dating a member then broke up with the member.  But, he still felt that this church is right and that he wanted to keep meeting with us. I speak to him in “computer language” and he understands things pretty well. He is doing great and is on track for being baptized. Please continue to pray for him.

We were able to teach another investigator using Skype. He has been doing well and he is on the path to be baptized. So, we will keep teaching and praying for him.

Elder Perry on a Bridge at Inglis Falls

We have also been inputting our records into the area book app which has taken a lot of time. It’s slowly but surely getting there.

I have a quote for all those missionaries out there… 

"Some blessings come soon, some come late and some don't come until we reach heaven but, for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they come!" - Jeffery R Holland

It’s been a good week.

Love you Mom & Dad and Remember,

I Pray for you Every Night & Day!

Elder Perry

Owen Sound Ward

Barrie Stake

Canada Toronto Mission 

P-Day #80 - Rejection, Transfers and a New Companion...

Elder Perry Singing at District Meeting

Hi Mom & Dad, 

This week has been a lot of driving due to multiple appointments being far away. We had to take our car in to have the brakes looked at and then replaced. It was a long day.

We had the opportunity to do some service and move some frozen wood rounds next to a fire pit. It was pretty hard to do because the logs had frozen to one another, so we had to take the back of an ax and break them free from one another.  We were able to move the rounds of wood and the member was very happy that we were able to help.

We met with our investigator this week and taught him about faith in Jesus Christ. He understood it really well and then we received a phone call from him saying that he didn't want to take the lessons anymore. He had a bad experience happen in between our meeting with him and the phone call. We tried to explain that we could still meet with him but he was insistent that we should not meet anymore.

Elder Perry At His Happy Place....

We were able to teach the Restoration to a man and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon. He then texted us a couple days later and through the course of the discussion, we found out that he didn't want to meet with us anymore because he had read some things that were not true about the church. He wouldn't believe us either and refused to meet with us again. 

On a happier note, we had our Stake Conference this week and got to listen to Elder Arnold speak about putting trust in our leaders and about how, we as members, can do missionary work. He had some good advice about family councils as well, and how to make decisions as a family rather than one man running the whole show.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Bertagnolli, a missionary who was finishing his mission. Elder Bertagnolli and I were companions during my mission. It was a good exchange and we were able to talk to a couple people about the Gospel.

We had transfers this week. Elder Gutiérrez is my new companion. Elder Stringham is getting sent to Napanee (where i just came from), so that’s pretty cool.

Love You Mom and Dad. Remember I pray for you every night & day. 

Elder Perry
Owen Sound Ward
Barrie Stake
Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day # 79 - A Baptism, A Moose and the Parable of the Donut...

Barrie Zone Conference

Hi Mom & Dad, 

This week we had a baptism and it turned out great.

I was able to make the programs for the Baptism. My comp, Elder Stringham, did the Baptizing. I was able to also run the music from my new phone because we couldn't find a piano player and we had to speak. Everything went great! The next day I was blessed to be able to confirm him a member of the church and give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was great to see him smiling from ear to ear and to see him so happy. He also shared with us that he used to have a very persistent headache, but after the baptism, he hasn't had any headache since. Miracles do happen when we put the Lord first in our lives and choose his path.

On Sunday, we got to see our Ward in action. We had a man come in who wanted to find the true church and has been seeking for it. In Sunday School, all of his questions were answered by members and it was like they were teaching him the first discussion and they were able to share the first vision with him. He came to Priesthood and was laughing with the other Priesthood brethren that were there. At the end of the hour, he gave us his contact information and wanted to meet with us. Members really do make a difference in the teaching environment. Echoing the words of President Hinckley, "Every Convert needs a friend".

Elder Stringham and Elder Perry
Cleaning the Font

We were able to teach a man about the church and also tell him what I have come to know as the “Parable of the Donut”. He was taught, by his former ecclesiastical leaders in another church, that when his priest at his former church takes the wine and bread for communion…that it covers the whole congregation and that it literally turns into Christ's flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. We were able to teach him this doesn't make sense with a Boston Cream donut.

Quote: “I have here in my hand a Boston Cream donut. It feels like a donut, it smells like a donut and it even tastes like a donut. When this donut enters my stomach, it doesn't turn into cheese. It is still a donut.”

We’re still working with him, but I don’t think he sees the symbolism in the Sacrament. Were working on this one.

Elder Perry in Cabala's
Proselyting a Moose....

Remember I pray for you Every Night & Day,

Love,

Elder Perry

Owen Sound Ward

Barrie Stake

Canada Toronto Mission

P-Day # 78 - Speaking Computer Language, Falling in the Snow and "Who's Your Admin???"...

This week has been a week of miracles for us.

We were able to get new tires on our car this week that has made a huge difference in driving up here. We feel pretty safe on the roads with all the extra grip.

Elder Perry & Elder Stringham
Owen Sound Ward, Barrie Stake, CTM

We also were able to get our new phones and they have made a world of difference in our missionary efforts. It’s really nice to be able to pull up a video and teach with Elder Holland giving a portion of the lesson. I also find that the videos can explain things better than I can.

Dad, remember all the time you spent teaching me about computers? Well, it paid off. We were teaching a man this week and he had questions about how to make sense of spiritual promptings. We were able to share a video from Elder Bednar about discerning the light that our Heavenly Father gives us. You could tell that he understood but wanted more proof. After watching that, I was able to relate an analogy using computer terms to him; Guess who promoted me? The Lord of course.

I was able to explain that he had a “malware source code” deep in his main frame that would be activated by the malware's Admin (Satan) and fight the defenses that are weakest in his coding. The Spirit was very strong. “Throughout his life, he went from Windows 7, to Windows 8, to Windows XP to a Windows 10 Operating System and we just helped him recognize how the Lord (his Admin) was just upgrading him without his system knowing (ACKing or NACKing). The upgrades were happening in the back ground with no checksum errors. All he could say was “this is weird because it makes sense now, wow!” 

I thought it was pretty funny because my companion and the investigators girlfriend, a member, didn't have a clue what I was saying and they looked at me like I was speaking a different language to him. But the Lord caused the Spirit to burn within him. He kept saying WOW I get it.

We got a call today that he had prayed for someone to explain what he was feeling and thinking in a way that he could understand and he said that we were an answer to prayer. The Spirit was definitely in that lesson. Now, if we could only get the Church to make a commercial to ask the question like…. 

“What’s in your wallet”, but make it..."Who’s Your Admin?” With President Russell M. Nelson smiling and holding up his Temple Recommend. 

I am starting to see things fall into place a little more day by day. I think the Lord needs me. Right here, right now.

We have a Baptism scheduled for February 3rd. Remember when I wrote about a "Golden investigator"? He is it. 
Keep him in your prayers!

We helped a member cut some more fire-wood for their home and helped them set up a pool table in the process. They were grateful we were there to help them move it into the house and of course we had to give it a try….

We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week and we had a great time tracking even though.. I slipped and fell into a snow bank. You know that it’s funny when you are able to laugh at yourself for slipping into a soft snow bank.

Overall, it’s been a good week.

Tell everyone "Hello" for me, and remember, I pray for you every night and day!

Elder Perry

Owen Sound Ward

Barrie Stake

Canada Toronto Mission