"PERFECT practice makes perfect." - Elder Bednar

Hey everyone!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! (a day late). It was SO much fun..I just love this holiday! We spent the week making cookies and valentine's and delivering them to our less actives...we have some really interesting less actives. It was the first time I'd met most of them, and they are an odd group...none of them are really interested in coming back to church or in talking with us at all really, but they were nice. There was one man, Frere Ouellit, and his wife who we stopped by and interrupted the end of their dinner and they invited us in, fed us, and then talked with us for a LONG while. He has some interesting ideas...I guess he recently wrote a book in which he re-wrote the 13 Articles of Faith and added a few and mentioned a lot of slightly off ideas. So he was telling us about those. I missed most of it since I can't speak the language, but from what I heard, his "truths" are not really in line with the truths taught to us in the Bible or the Book of Mormon or by anyone really. So it was an interesting visit.

But Valentine's Day itself was wonderful! On Saturday we had a valentine's day themed English class and we all wrote poems and made valentine's, which was so fun. Then on Sunday I woke up and Sister Pearson has this tradition in her family where each year her parents cover the ground in the hallways and on the stairs with hearts that each say soemthign about one of the children and then each of the children has to go through and find the hearts relating to them. So she did the same thing for me and cut out like 20 hearts and wrote something nice on each of them about me and scattered them all over the room. It was so sweet! I just love her :) Then we made cinnamon rolls and the elders called to wish us a Happy Valentine's Day. Gabrielle from Montreal called and wished us a happy valentine's day as well, but I missed her call because we were out knocking doors and I wasn't able to call back, but it was so sweet to know that she was thinking about me! It was So much fun...I just love Valentine's Day :)

So anyways, the rest of the week was wonderful as well. Last MOnday we went and drove around Ile D'Orleans which is this cute agricultural island near Quebec City in the St. Laurent. We invited the elders, but they didn't want to come, so we just went and we had SUCH a good time. It's definitely a place that you should visit during the summer and fall time (apple picking season) and most of the attractions were closed since it was the middle of winter, but it was still fun and so pretty. We took a million pictures out the window as we were driving down the road and they all look pretty much identical, but it was still fun. I loved it. Then on Monday evening we had an appointment with a guy we had met doing our 10+ on Saturday, Patrick, and it went so well! We just did the follow up for the Restoration to make sure that he understtod everything, and then we committed him to be baptized by the end of February and he said he would! We've taught him like 3 more times this week as well and it's just gone so well. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he got SO excited. He was really worried the other day because he only has one kidney and he was terrified that his other kidney was going to stop working at some point and he would die. So then when we shared with him a scripture about the resurrection and our bodies would be restored to their proper and perfect frames, he almost started crying. And he asked if he could put one of the scriptures up on his wall on Facebook because he just loved it. It was great. Except we realized that we might have to push his date back, so we'll see how that goes...but it'll work out :)

Also this week, it was so funny...I was making the sugar cookies and I went to take them out of the oven and I guess the towel hit the bottom part that gets really hot and caught on fire. I saw the flame and it was just little so I followed my first instinct and tried to blow it out. It didn't work. Ther fire started spreading and blowing wasn't working at all so Sister Pearson turned on the sink and we put the fire out that way. Ironically enough: the smoke alarm didn't go off. It's gone off like 3 times this transfer when there's been even the slightest amount of smoke, and the one time there's really a fire it doesn't go off. Kind of funny. Then the next day i was making navajo tacos and I was frying the bread and I didn't think about it too much, so I just dropped the dough into the hot oil, the oil exploded out of the pan, and burst into flames when it touched the burner. It was really neat to watch, but probably NOT the best idea for keeping our house in order.

Oh, and another thing for this week: we met the funniest woman the other day. We knocked on her door and I started off the contact in French and she interrupted me in English and said "yes my dear, but did you know it's suppertime?" and then invited us in to eat with her. WE went in and talked with her for awhile and she was investigating the church back like 30 years ago. She wasn't interested in learning more now, but she was a cute woman and just hilarious. She was a doctor with 3 specialties that I can't remember, a helicopter pilot, on the police force, and she paints. It was pretty impressive. So much fun :) Then also: we met a family yesterday! We didn't get to teach them because they were in the middle of dinner, but I guess they'd met the missionaries once before they were married and it didn't really go anywhere, but they said we could come back, so we're going there tomorrow to see them. I'm way excited...they're so cute! We'll see how it goes :)

Then for the rest of the week, we're actually not taking our p-day today...we're just doing e-mails. We're having a zone activity on Thursday which will be SO fun, followed by our zone interviews on Friday. So it'll be a good week! I'm really excited for it. Oh! And one of my investigators from montreal, Elena, came to church here yesterday! She's from Germany and we were teaching her in Montreal, but she's just traveling across Canada right now and not really staying in any one place for too long, but she and 2 of her friends came to church yesterday. It was so fun to see her again...I loved it. But anyways, I have to run...e-mail time is just about over and we're heading off to teach Patrick! yay! Have a wonderful week everyone! :)

Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey