The traffic during our 4 hour drive to zone study the other day...the guy in the car next to us facing the wrong direction is the one who contacted us, haha
It snowed a lot and we have to brush all the snow off of the tempo (the driveway tent thing) but it wouldn't come off because it was piled too high on the sides so I had to climb in the snow and shovel it away from the sides of the tempo so that we could get it off the top. It was DEEP. I was literally up to my waist in snow,...crazy.
Again, shoveling snow...oh Canada :)
Me, Sister Palmer, and Elder Foster with the cake we made him
Me and Sister Palmer in front of the temple a little while agoHey everyone!
This week was an interesting week...the weather changed midway through and went from huge snowstorms on Wednesday to sunny skies and above freezing on Saturday and Sunday...so nice! We did get a TON of snow though on Wednesday. We left our house at about 10:15 to go to our zone study in Mont St. Hilaire which is usually about a 30 minute drive, so we decided we'd be just a little bit late. Then we got lost and started going the wrong direction, turned around and the road disappeared in this huge whiteout, but we finally found the right interstate and started heading down to our zone study. At the beginning we were about 10 cars behind this row of snowplows (3 of them slightly staggered so they could plow the whole thing at once) and we were crawling along at about 40 km/h when the speed limit is normally either 80 or 100 kmh. But we were grateful they were plowing the roads, so we didn't complain and just called to tell the zone leaders we would be a bit late. Then somehow we were right behind the snowplows and they came to a complete stop in the middle of the interstate. We waited behind them for about 20 minutes without moving and then people started trying to pass them so they moved over and set up a whole blockade so no one could get through. Then police officers and about 3 ambulances went zipping down the side of the road and a bit later the snowplows all turned around and left. There was a huge gap in between us and the cars that had been stopped in front of us (they must have been there awhile because most of the cars were turned off and covered in snow) but a fireman came down and told us not to fill in the gap but to wait where we were and that it might be another 2 to 4 hours sitting in the traffic before they got everything cleared up. It was crazy. Cars started turning around and goign the wrong direction down the side of the road to try and get off so for awhile there were cars turned every which way on the street. We finally turned around and they redirected us to another road and we decided it wouldn't be worth it to go to the zone study (they had put us on a conference call and we were listening to the trainings over the phone) so we tried following the map to get back home (by that time it was about 1:30 so we'd been in the car for 3 hours). We were driving along, had no clue where we were, and then turned a corner and there was Mont St. Hilaire. crazy. So we met the elders and had lunch with them :) Then they gave us directions to get back but with traffic and bad directions we ended up taking another 2 hours to get home...so we were in the car for a total of 6 hours that day. It was insane. Probably NOT the most productive of days.... :) But we did contact a guy in the car next to us (or rather, he contacted us) and we got his number and then he scraped our windshield. Pretty funny.
But then also this week we taught Joseph twice and it is just such a sad situation. He wants so much to get baptized and come to church, but his wife won't even let him come to church. And he's worried about the safety of his kids and of himself, so he's trying to get out of the marriage and out of the house, but he needs custody of his kids first so it's not considered kidnapping, and he's not sure if he wants a divorce or not. But he does want to get baptized and soon. Except we talked with President and he looked up the rules and either Joseph has to get permission from his wife to get baptized or he has to have signed divorce papers, which Brother Gonzalez was telling us it takes a year of separation before you can get a divorce. Crazy, huh? So we're going to keep working with him and try to help him not get discouraged. And prayer always helps...the whole ward is praying for him. And God has a plan..it'll all work out :)
On happier news, Denis came to church again this Sunday! We hadn't talked to him all week because he wanted that time to read the Book of Mormon, so we left him alone, but called him Saturday to invite him to church. He didn't answer, but then on Sunday he just waltzed right in and made himself at home! It was so great :) He stayed for all 3 meetings and LOVED them. We watched the Restoration DVD in Sunday School and the Spirit was so strong...he was really touched. He didn't quite understand why we separated into Relief Society and Priesthood and none of the 15 different explanations we gave him really helped, but he still liked it. Then at our church after church each Sunday there's free bread from a bread shop here in town that just gives to different organizations their leftover bread from the night before, so someone picks it up each Saturday night and brings it to church. We were explaining that to him and he said "Free bread? I MUST be in the true church!" So funny.
And we had interviews this week. it was a bit strange...instead of going to the chapel, President and Sister Cannon came to our apartments. Since we only have the two main rooms (the bedroom, the living room/kitchen area), there weren't very many options for where we could have the interviews. So Sister Cannon stayed with the one not being interviewed in the living room and President came into the bedroom to do the interview. It was a bit strange sitting on Sister Palmer's bed and having him sit on mine. He started out the interview "I see you have your straightener there, and Sister Palmer has her straightener set up over on that little table....glad to see you have enough space to get ready each morning." Just a little different. But it was good; I enjoy talking to them both. So overall, it was a good week.
OH, and I almost forgot: on Saturday we did some door knocking and we met the most interesting people. We had one lady in the first area ask if we had permission to proselyte there and we said yes. She wanted to see our cards so we gave her the ministerial ones that were given to us that say we can proselyte in the province of Quebec and she said we needed another one for Boucherville and she was going to call the police on us. We left the area, but then after-wards we both felt kind of guilty for running away and wished we would've stayed. Oh well. Then we moved to a different area where a man answered the door and he was STRANGE. his name is Andre and he was interested, but it'll be an interesting lesson. We told him about the Book of Mormon and he said "I love Christ. I love to read. And I love the color blue." The book was blue, so we gave it to him. Then he invited us in, but not upstairs where his friends were since it wasn't his house. Instead he invited us into the unfinished basement where he laid a piece of carpet on the floor and wanted to talk to us there, but we weren't really comfortable with that, so instead we got his address (which he whispered to us) and then left. His friends upstairs kept asking what he was doing and he kept saying "just talking!" like a 17 year old who's annoyed with his parents asking what he's doing, and they said he could talk upstairs and he just rolled his eyes. But he's married with a little boy...it'll be interesting. Then we kept knocking and met a guy without a shirt who was nice but not interested. He like shut his door and we were halfway down the sidewalk and he opened it back up and said "but one thing I do love about the Mormons is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" and then shut it again really fast. Bizarre. Then the next lady asked if we were Temoins and we said no, we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and she started screaming at us to get off her property and we smiled, said ok, and wished her a good day as we were walking off and she responded with "NO! Get off my property!" We laughed at that one. Then another guy a little while on was really nice and talked to us for about 15 minutes about Quebec politics and how they should separate from Canada and different things and then told us about some great cabane a sucre's that we should go to, and then as we were leaving his wife came out with a plate of fudge that she had just made and asked if we wanted any. I just love being a missionary :)
Anyways, I hope everything is going well back home. I love you all! Thanks for your support! And happy early Valentine's Day :)
Love, Sister Nicole Lindsey
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