Volume 62: Just Let Me Shovel Your Driveway

Saaluuuut,

 

 

It feels good to be outside lol, until I can't feel my body cause it's -30 everyday. Luckily we are on lockdown, well I guess its definitely bitter sweet. I don't hate social media work cause I've seen lots of great stuff come from it! But it's also nice to be outside, but also not when it's so cold. Ya know I don't know what I'm saying but it's just overall not horrible! Always good vibes.

 

 

Welcome to Alma! I can now say I served in a place named after a prophet, and I'm not even in Utah, now that's a flex. The whole time I've been here I've just been like, dang I'm actually here in Alma, it's just weird cause I've heard so much about it and how it's just so bizzare for anyone to come here. Here we are now. The rumeurs are true, we have 5 active members here in this lovely branch. All of which are over the age of 70, and 2 of them cannot drive. The Branch President who is 81 is a g and drives them to church each week. They are the best couple him and his wife. They know everyone here and have given us many names to check up on already! I pray everyday for their health, we need them here that's for sure. The French here so far isn't horribly bad to understand, I mean some people it's worse, (like when some random lady sent me a lifestory over voice recording, and I found out later that she wants to show me around Alma...) but then you have people who are from France and I'm like why are you here, you can't understand this language lol. Also what's kinda cool is that my new district leader is from France and he doesn't really speak English so now all our missionary stuff is in French cause hes the leader lol, that's kinda cool.

 

 

Another interesting thing about this place is that we are the first missionnaires in like 2 years to be here actually in the Town. It was covered over technology by missionnaires this whole time, and now we are pleased to be here. So the last time missionnaires were actually here, technology wasn't really a thing. So now as I've been trying really hard with that I've seen some great success that I hope will continue to grow! It's been very important for me to have the faith that there are people in this area that are searching for something. As I've switched my perspective to that, I've seen a difference in the people I talk to and my desire to text and talk to everyone! It's quite cool how the Lord can help you in those little ways. President Nelson said that our faith can move mountains. So we need to be ready with a shovel, digging our hearts out. Blessings will come.

 

 

So, as I've been here the big 2 things that have been apart of our work is social media and shoveling snow. Social media is pretty self explanatory and I guess shoveling snow is as well... but there are some things that I've noticed as we've done this. Let's start with social media. I've been trying to make some friends by putting some little posts in the groups that are relevant to my area. It's been great, and people are mostly nice. I have been hesitant to just quickly jump and put some ads for the Book of Mormon or the Bible in them because there are not very many groups here and I don't want people to hate me fast lol, or people to recognize me like what happened in Victoriaville lol. So I decided to put in a post offering help to shovel snow. It was going good, I mean kinda but everyone just likes saying "wow that's so nice", and don't actually ask for help. Better then nothing lol. But then you get this one person who decides to roast the church and then the whole village of Alma starts going off. So let's say my post has lots of comments, with no one who actually what's help. Yes. Now we have snow shoveling. Since it snows every day here, people don't like shoveling their own snow so they pay the town to do it for them. I would do that as well lol, it's smart but then people get mad when you shovel their snow when they already have it payed for lol, so we definitely avoid those houses. But when we find those few houses, people are nice usually! We also also blessed to have the opportunity to talk to people on the street while we do it so that's a blessing and we can do 2 in one. These old people are cold blooded, it's -30 and they still be walking outside for fun.

 

 

My companion is great, and we get along great. He is going home in March so catch me killing off a 3rd companion whohoo! Jk I mean it's not horrible unless they are annoying about it. We will see when he time gets closer. So far we chilling.

 

 

I've finally had the chance to start reading this book called Atomic Habits. It's so good and I'm only on page 30. It's crazy how much we can relate gospel principles to the principal of changing by 1% each day. Can't wait to lean more! Something that touched me was that our habits need to persist long enough to break through the Plateau, the Plateau of Latent Potential. If you feel like the habit you are trying to build or break isn't doing anything. Then you haven't crossed the Plateau yet. Once you break that Plateau, you begin to recognize all the hard work you did in the past. All the hard work that has helped you to break or build a habit, and become who you are now. You feel good, and you feel accomplished. But you will only recognize that once you overcome that Plateau. It's crazy how I've already seen this small principal be a big part of my life as missionary. I've seen it most with French. Learning a language is hard, and it truly is hard to see your personal progress when you feel like you are constantly messing up and not getting better. But looking back now, I know exactly when I overcame the Plateau. It wasn't 1, 2, or 3 months in, it was much longer than that. That's why creating habits are so important! They will pay off when we create them and stick with them!

 

 

Well I hope that rant made sense. There's your something new learned for the day! Go take a nap now! Just kidding. Anyways, I hope y'all have a great week and decide to not give up, but break that Plateau!

 

 

God loves you!

 

 

398 Rue Price Ouest, Alma, Québec, G8B 4S4

 

 

Elder May