Thursday, February 28, 2013

HELLO OUT THERE!

Mom, Dad, do you remember that one time that Travis and Brittany and I (it could have been different siblings) took the phone, and recorded as our family answering machine message the E.T. ``E.T., Phone Home!!!``? I don`t know why I just thought about that, but I decided to share it.

Anyways, we had transfers calls on Saturday! It is a good thing that I didn`t give you an address to write me a letter, because I`m headed out! I, Elder Oviatt, have hereby been called to serve in Longueuil, Montreal! That is on the Rive Sud. So the South River. I am not technically on the island of Montreal, but on the shore south of the island of Montreal. I`m super excited. I am going to be with Elder Garcia. He was in Rimouski when I started up in Alma, and I got to split with him once before. He is awesome, and a native spanish speaker, so I plan on ``fine tuning`` my Spanish skills with him (when I say fine tuning, I actually mean, learning more than 2 sentences)! I will be Junior companion! Woot! I love that good ol` junior companion position! Elder Garcia is the District leader, so I will still be enjoying The Sunday night calls. I like those. My district is going to be very similar to the one I am coming from. We have the Zone Leaders, and we have the Coordinating sisters. The Coordinating Sisters are the ones who go on splits with the sisters all over the mission because, for obvious reasons, we as Elders can`t split the sisters missionaries. So I mean, with that, I still will have no extra splits like mist district leaders get, but that is OK. 

Longueuil is actually the Stake Centre, and that is where the Montreal Quebec Temple is located. I am extremely excited to be serving in this area. But I am sad to be leaving Elder Oxborrow, and my new apartment  with my new mattress, and my new pillows, and my new blender and my new toaster. =) 

This week was Good for us though! We had 3 DA`s! Which was amazing. Lasagna at one, BBQ`d Pork Ribs at another, and Mexican food at the last. So good. We Welcomed the new Sister Missionaries into our area, and had to sit down and give them a rundown of the area. It`s going to be awesome to have Sister Missionaries here with us. They bring a whole different outlook to Missionary work. It`s great! And they do everything that we do as Elders, but in a skirt. But with the new announcements for the age change, we have had 8 sister missionaries come into the mission in two weeks. As Sister Cannon said. "The Women are coming". This is a weird keyboard. to do a question mark I have to press Shift+6 and to do quotation marks, I have to press Shift+2. I digress. But, we took Rémy out to knock some doors with us Friday afternoon, and it was great. We didn`t have a single lesson, but we did meet a member... How does one meet a member you ask? Well, good question! We were walking down the street and this guy gives us a funny look, and we go "OK, he is going to contact us for sure, I just wonder what he is going to say". So we walk past us and he see`s our tags and says "Latter Day Saints! Mormons! Nephi, Utah!!!" Elder Oxborrow and I look at each other out of the corner of our eyes and go "uhh... what on earth?" He than looks at us and says a little more clearly "I`m from Nephi Utah, look at my CTR rings!!!" At which point Elder Oxborrow and I both, at the same time, audible say "Uhh.... What?!" His name is David Brown. He is from the Ukraine but was adopted by Mormon Parents in Nephi Utah. He went to work in France for a company and we recruited to work for a different company here in Quebec. We don`t know if he speaks french (we assume so, I mean, he worked in France, and here in Quebec), but he hates that people here in Quebec don`t like him because he is English. He works every Sunday, so he was never able to make it out to church. Guess how long he has lived in Quebec for! A YEAR AND A HALF!!! He told us that we were the first mormons he has ever seen here. Poor Guy! =) It was fun though. We got his address and his phone number, and we will be visiting him this week. 

Anyways, that is about it for me. I will try and get some pictures of me and my new companion next week! I don`t know what the computer situation will be like though.

Love you all!!

Elder Austen Oviatt

P.S. For letters, just send everything to the mission office, I'm a lot closer now, and it will just be easier that way!


                                             
Awesome sign I saw It says "ATTENTION!!! We hit Solicitors, Sellers of Gadgets, Evangelists, Missionaries, Gurus, Ware-wolves, Garou ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garou_(singer) ), Hippies, Hipsters, ETC. Knock at your risk and peril" 

The view from our apartment at night. Gorgeous... Good bye beautiful Quebec...

These are some of the kids at Ste-Foy. 
From Left to right we have François-Alexandre Betchi, Sameul Leber, Moi, Alan Leber, Ana Leber. Awesome kids, going to miss them.

Monday, February 11, 2013

February 12, 2013


OK, Lets do a little update!

My life has been crazy lately! Elder Oxborrow and I have been tearing it up.
Last week we went to the ice hotel. It was super fun! Man, when I come back from my mission, and make a comfortable sum of 2.36 billion dollars, I will stay in one of those rooms. =) We had zone conference after that, and met with President Cannon and Sister Cannon and the AP's, it was great! We had 10 missionaries sleeping in our 1 bedroom apartment. we made them sleep 3 people to 2 mattresses. =) It was so squishy. And then we had to shower all 10 of us as quick as possible. I think I had a 3 minute shower. It was not totally effective. 

The Search for a new apartement is over, we got one, and were planning on slowly moving our stuff over to it, so that we would have a week to paint the bedroom in our old apartmemnt for the sisters, but then President Canon called us and said that instead of the Sister Missionaries coming in to the area Febuary 27th, on the transfer with everyone else, they would show up Febuary 18th. A week and 2 days before transfers, and 10 days earlier than we were expecting! So we have to jet to get ourselves moved in time. Oh how this transfer has been a little bit of a gong show. =D 

We had our baptism Saturday! Constance. She is awesome. She knew the church for about 5 years, but only decided to get baptised about 2 and a half months ago. She is loving the support and the friendship from the members, and can't wait to go to the temple on March 2nd for the ward temple trip! She is on fire, and loves her life. We have seen some big changes with her even in only the past 4 weeks. It has been increadible. The Gospel really does change peoples lives, and I can't beliebe that I have the chance to bring this into someone's life. 

I love you all, and I hope you have a great week. Transfer calls are next week, on Saturday. I can't believe how fast the past 12 weeks have gone... Goodness... I may have to leave Ste Foy... =( But we will see. Love you all my friends! 

Elder Austen Oviatt

We went to the Army base for lunch, and while we were there we met the only guy in the world who makes the hats that the royal guards wear. He let us try one on. It was super cool. The lunch was increadible too. 4 course, fine cuisine, We had smoked eel as an appetizer! 

Crazy ice sculptures!

Ice-Fire. Bet you never thought you would see one of those!

Just a super cool room. I think we decided that this was the coolest room.

Elder Oviatt, frozen in ice.

We play hockey with the branch every 2nd week. I sucked, but now my slapshots are getting a little bit more power behind them. Sorry Frere Carpentier!! =) 


Baptism of Constance L'Écuyer!! Super cool!!!

Companions

Me and My UKE!