December 10.2012

Hey Guys!!

So, Goodness, transfer week when you get transferred is just crazy! We hardly got anything done! But that also might be because we spend so much time in transit walking or on the bus because we don't have a car... =( 

Life is super good though. I live in Ste-Foy with Elder Wright. He is from Alaska and has been out for one transfer. I shall include my address at the bottom because I just know that so many of you are dying to send me letters and packages and presents and such. =) 

Uh, not a whole lot to say this week, other than the weather here just turned super sour. lots of snow, lots of wind, lots of ice, lots of cold. Grocery Shopping was going to be brutal walking to the store and then walking home with the bags, but we were able to sneak a ride with the Zone Leaders, so we didn't have to carry anything. =D So happy... 

We have a baptism on wednesday, so that will be awesome! His name is Rémy and he is 18 and just awesome. Super glad to have gotten the chance to meet him! Other than that really the only big thing is just how small I feel here in Quebec. There are so many people!! And in Alma it was so small! Haha, but that's OK, I mean, I am kind of short so.... =)


Anyways, I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Austen Oviatt

December 3, 2012

Well Hello there. Hi. Hey. How's it goin'? Hi...

Well, Big news coming your way!

Transfer calls! Saturday night we got a call from.... President Cannon!!!! That means a leadership change! Assistant to president/Zone Leader/District leader/Trainer. So we were both a little... Uhhhhh... What on earth is going on!!

I am leaving Alma :'( Elder Beaumont in staying here and he is training a new missionary!!!! I'm so happy for him!!! =) =) =) He is a little freaked out though. I am super excited for him, he is going to rock it up here in Alma  So much is going on, We have a baptism here at the end of December, and with Brad, things are just going super well!

But that being said, I'm headed off to Quebec City, to Saint Foy. I will be "training" a new missionary. He has been here one transfer, but technically until you have been in the mission two transfers, you are still in training. So I'm companioned with Elder Ryan Wright. =) And with that, I am also the District leader. In my district is the Zone leaders, and the sisters who are in Quebec zone. I'm exicted, but I have to go. I still don't have an address, so if things must be sent, they need to come to the mission home. otherwise, I will have the address for you guys next week.

I love you all, and Hopefully I don't die in a car accident this week because it has been raining the past 2 days and the roads are completely iced over. It's brutal out here!!

Elder Austen Oviatt

Here is one of the family's we are friends with up here in Alma.   Paul and Renée. And their kids Marie-Louise and Philippe and Albert.

Nov 26, 2012

Bonjour mes amigos! 

Goodness, this week was just an all around good time!

We got a text from our zone leaders at the beginning of the week saying that as a zone, we needed 20 more new investigators to make our monthly goal (our month ended this week. I don't understand why a month isn't just the same as a regular month, but that's OK... I guess...). so they needed us to really go hard. the break down was for every companionship to find 3 new investigators. Which, individually isn't too hard to do! But to have every team in the zone do it simultaneously, that is where the difficulty level increases. So we had a big zone fast, and ended up finding 35 new investigators this week! That is incredible  Elder Beaumont and I found 5 new investigators this week! WOW! That is incredible for us! Super huge faith builder. Fasting is so powerful, for some reason... But hey! Who are we to fight against something that works?! 

We did splits this week! It was tons of fun! I got to drive around Chicoutimi! Man, the layout of that city is a little... wonky... =) I was with Elder Thia, so I got some hardcore French Lessons again, which was grand, because there is only so much that you can correct on your own when you don't know what mistakes you are making and how to make them better. 

Saturday we did another little trip around the Lake. Well, not around it at all, but just to a little town called La Doré. There is a man who lives there, who was baptized 10 years ago in Southern Alberta, who is Less active, so we decided to go out and visit him! What a fruitful visit it was! We had his address, and so we went and knocked on his door, and a man came to the door, opened it about 3 inches, said, I'll pass on my turn, thanks, and shut the door. I knew that wasn't our man though, because he spoke french Perfectly, and I had talked on the phone to the guy we were trying to find, and I knew that he had a very thick English accent, so I decided that we were going to knock on his door again. And again. And again, until he came back and we could talk to him. So I think we knocked about 6 or 7 times. And it was terrifying. After every knock I was certain that he was going to come to the door with a shot gun or something! But finally he came to the door, threw it open and was about to start yelling at us, but I got in faster with a large string of  "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYWEDONTMEANTOBOTHERYOU!" That caught him off guard, and he paused, so I had time to get in a "We are just looking for our friend Brad" And luckily our man knew exactly where Brad lived! He directed us to his house just a few streets (Ok, just around the corner, the town isn't big enough to have a few streets, there were 2ish...), and off we went. The guy Brad is super cool thought! He is from BC, Lived in Southern Alberta for a long time, working the summers in Waterton and stuff, specifically the Prince of Whales hotel!!! We had a nice little chat about that, since I have been to Waterton countless time! He was super nice though. Has a 7 year old daughter, and his wife is awesome too, and they were super excited to have us come back too! He met his wife in Waterton, they both worked in the POW Hotel for a summer. She is originally from La Doré. 

Like I said in my last email, time is flying by. This week I will officially hit my 6 month mark! BUT, Pres. Uchtdorf asked missionaries to always think like we are in the middle of our missions, so I'v actually been out for a year! 

Transfer Calls are this Saturday, so that will be insane! I hope to stay in Alma for the next transfer (Christmas!!) but whatever happens, happens! Next email you get will contain big news! If I stay I will spend at least 7.5 months in Alma, and if I leave, well that is just cool news!! But with that, Dont send me any mail to my apartment for the next week please. If I go and I don't get my mail before I go it will be like a month at least before I get the mail after it arrives in Alma... =) 

Anyways, I love you all!! And can't help but laugh at all the snow you guys have out there right now! We still have none. A little skift here and there, but other than that none! 

Elder Austen Oviatt

1. Remember how I told you we bought a lot of Chef Boyardee? Yeah, well, we made a pyramid out of them... =) 72 can exactly. Minus all the ones we already ate. 

2. We bought even more bananas this week. Like, 42. Hahahahah, needless to say, we finally have enough left over bananas to make banana bread! 

November 17, 2012

Well Hello there! 

How has life been these last few days? Can you believe that it has only been 7 days since my last email? I know I can't. There is this song, called the Canada Montreal Mission song. written by missionaries in the Canada Montreal mission, recorded on the mission (With permission from the mission president of course), and there is a line in it that goes "Days felt like weeks, weeks felt like days, two years felt like a dream" Well, I can totally tell you that yes, days feel like they never end. Transfers end and it feels like you just started them. I Can't believe it has almost been 6 months that I have been out here! 6 WHOLE MONTHS! Where has the time gone?!!? Anyways... 

This week has been a good one! We are always super busy, but we have tons of fun along the way. Elder Beaumont and I just seemed to get along super well since we first met each other, and the last few weeks we seem to be doing even better! Our personalities are the same enough, but different enough, you know? I know that I probably wouldn't be able to stand me if I wasn't me, or if there were two of me, and I've seen the opposite of me, and it's just... too opposite, I don't like that one either. So Elder Beaumont is a great mix of me and opposite of me. A composite you might say. Kind of like a fiberglass hockey stick. Light, and way overpriced. He is mostly me, but with enough opposite to keep me from punching him in the thyroid gland. And if I did do that, he would then have thyroid problems, and to compensate for his damaged thyroid, he would have to eat coconut oil for the rest of his life. Because, As I always say, We all know coconut oil is good for the thyroid gland! (Thank you Soeur Bouchard).

En Tout Cas, Yesterday we met a man who was part of the "Rose Croix". Now, I don't know if that translates into pink cross, or into rose cross in English, but irregardless, their beliefs are... Way out there. Something that did appeal to me in their beliefs, however, was that Humans origionated from Dragons. I WANT TO BE A DRAGON! But alas, we have lost this form, and now are doomed to walk the earth in these gravity-enslaved bodies... Haha, no, he was a super nice guy, and had probably was the most easy to understand person who has spoken to us in French ever, so that was awesome. I literally understood every single word he said! It was beautiful. 

We also did the Tour do Lac this week! We drove all the way around the Lac-St.-Jean! It was tons of fun, we met a whole bunch of people and actually have a few return appointments, so we will be doing the tour du lac again on the 24th! But, it is not pretty anymore, because everything is gray and dead, and the sun goes down at like 4:30, so we can't even really see anything after that either... But we will be making a trip out to a little town called La Doré, where a Less Active lives. He moved here and has never been to church, because he lives like 2 hours away. But we are going to go and re-activate him and his family (if he has a family? We don't really know anything about him). We are also going to visit a family called the Awashish. They have met the missionaries for a loooong time, have had all the lessons, want to get baptized, know the church is true, but live an hour and a half ish away from Alma, and she works on call at the hospital, so she can't ever make it to church, which sucks! But apparently her job is more stable now, so she may be able to make it out to church, which means that she could be baptized! So we are über pumped! 

We had our branch bowling activity too! We had invited a whole bunch of our friends, but only three showed up, and they called us half an hour before the activity started to see if they could still come. They were... HILARIOUS! they had never bowled before, and man, they were a great show! 

Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. I talked about Light. I rocked it. I think... I'm a little biased though... It's a little different giving a talk out here than back home though! First of all, it's in French... so that is nothing like talks in the Park. And second, because there are so few members, only one person talks so that they don't have to do a talk every 3 or 4 weeks. So I talked for like 30-40 minutes about Light. It was super awesome. I got to tell the Horse Camp Story. Yeah, I worked that in. Every one needs to know about the Horse camp. And Tex. R.I.P. Tex, You tasted dilici...no, disgusting, Sorry, you tasted disgusting. I love this town so much, and they people who live in it. I would love to stay here for the next year and a half even. This experience is one of a kind, and I highly suggest that EVERYONE DO IT. Sisters, Elders, Yung'ins, and old fogies too! It is amazing. Just... GAH! Amazing!

I love you all, and I hope you have an amazing week! This week should be jam packed for us too, we have splitz and another trip around the lake! =) 

Love you all!

Elder Austen Oviatt

Ecclésiaste 11:7

La lumière est douce, et il est agréable aux yeux de voir le soleil.

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.

This is just a super awesome scripture I found whilst looking up stuff for my talk. I like it a lot. However, this does not mean that you should stare at the sun for long periods of time. 8]

This is a typical breakfast here in Alma. You could say we eat like kings. Oatmeal.... Mmmmmmm....

 We recently had a stainless steel door installed in our apartment. I think it is super cool. 

 This is a picture of all the bananas we bought this week. We had planned to make banana bread with all the extras, but we ended up just eating them all... all 27 of them. 

We have a Google Plus account to to our district studies online, because we live to far away to do them in person, and everyone has a funny profile picture. This is ours. We thought it was prime, so we thought we would share it with you! 

November 12, 2012

Goodness Gracious Sakes alive! 

It has been FOREVER!! Like, 14 whole days! Life has been absolutely ridiculous lately!!

So, sorry I didn't write last week, we went to Quebec for three days, but we had to leave early because we took a back road that takes us about... 2 hours longer, and we stopped at all the little towns on the way down to buy "Epinglettes". Every town in Quebec has a "Town pin" and it is kind of a missionary tradition/contest to get as many pins as you can. Then nice thing about serving in Alma is that our area is so huge and has so many little towns in it that we can get so many epinglettes! Prime!

Quebec was super fun though, we were there Monday for our Zone activity, and we had a barbeque and played games in teh gym, then Tuesday we had zone conference, so President Cannon and Sis. Cannon came up and gave us a training, and the Assistants, and the Office missionaries (All the senior couples), and then Wednesday was zone study, where it was just us as a zone giving trainings and stuff. I had to talk on teaching less active lessons. Which was ridiculous for me, because I have never taught a less active lesson in my life! But I think I handled myself pretty well. All who know me should know that I kind of have a knack for talking about things that I have no clue about.

Oh! Hehehe, on the way down to Quebec, we hit a bird. That brought my total up to 3 animals hit in the truck. 2 birds with Elder Heder, and a bird with Elder Beaumont. And then, on the way home on Wednesday, it was dark out, so I asked Elder Beaumont to say a prayer to ask for safety as we drove back home, and AS HE WAS SAYING THE PRAYER, I ran over a rabbit. =P My bad! The animals were craazy that night though, I almost hit a second rabbit, AND, two cats! I hit the brakes in all 3 cases, and if I hadn't slowed down, I would have gotten them. But there was no ice on the roads, so we were OK.

We had a cool experiance this week, Sunday evening we went out to go knock on doors, and we decided to go knock this one street, and Elder Beaumont asked me where I thought we should start, so I pointed to a house, and we knocked on the door, got invited in, and were there for like an hour and a half! It was crazy! That never happens! The Lord is watching out for us. He knows that we are working hard and that we are trying, so as such, he is placing us in the right places at the right time. 

The weather here is weird. We recieved about 1/8th of a centimeter of snow yesterday, and it was melted by noonish, and the snow that wasn't gone, melted when it started to rain at 4:00. I don't know, chez nous, we always have snow by halloween, so I'm having a hard time believing that it is actually November. I think it's a lie, and that it is really just Early Octobre. Like, today I could go out with just a short sleeved shirt on! 

This week Elder Beaumont and I are going to take a trip around the lake! We are super excited, going to do missionary work in small little towns with crazy names, like Petite-Riviere-de-Sainte-Francois. =) I appologize that this is not a longer letter, but we have so much stuff that we have to do this week, since we completely missed our P-Day last week. we have two weeks worth of shopping to do, and two weeks worth of cleaning to do, and two weeks worth of letters two write! I love you all, and I hope you have fun in the Snow!! Because you have snow and we don't! 

Elder Austen Oviatt

We passed by the biggest Emu Farm in Canada. They probably have like 6 Emu's because I can't imagine that there is a large competition for that title in Canada... And I have no idea why that Chef hat sign is there, Maybe you can eat Emu too?

This picture was taken specifically for Eric Behr. This is a Korg Piano. Like your "Korg the Destroyer". Eric, I don't know if you read this, so if you don't, ask Deanna to show it to you. The guy said he bought it in the late 70's, early 80's. I thought it was prime! 

October 29, 2012

Bonjour mes amis! Comment-allez vous aujourd'hui? 

Look at me, typing in French, I'm so good hey?

So, first off, I heard there were some natural disasters this week, and I have no idea what happened. My companion who is from BC didn't get any news either. Anyways...

Lets see. We went bowling last week! On Monday, it was super fun! I suck! Hahaha, BUT, Elder Beaumont and I each got a strike, only one. We played two games, but each strike was caught on camera! I happened to be videoing his go, and BAM! STRIKE! Then, much later I told him, OK, I need a video too, get me, and then BAM! STRIKE! Haha, I didn't even bowl over 100. That is not that good at all. But it's OK, we had tons of fun.

We had kind of a rough week this week, not a ton of success, but that is OK, because we laughed a lot. We kept ourselves in good spirits. Elder Beaumont and I have a very similar sense of humor. It's really strange. We get along well, but most eeryone else thinks we are just crazy. =D 

We made a cake though, and brought it out to our friends. It's amazing how quickly people open up when you bring baked goods to their house! =D mmmmm... Cake and whipped cream! So delicious! 

We got a crazy phone call this morning though! Haha, we knocked for like 3 hours last night, and the sun went down at like, 5:30, so it was dark out all evening long. But lots of the time, people get mad when we knock on the door after like, 8:00 because it's "Soo late". Ridiculous. it's not even 8:30. =P Anyways, we like to leave pass along cards at all the houses that don't answer the door! And we put our name and numbers on them, so if people want to call us, they can! Well, this morning this man calls for "Monsieur Beaumont" And then starts chewing him out because when we came to his door it was already super late, and he was in bed so he didn't answer the door, and that when we pass by so late out people might think we are coming to break into their houses and they might answer the door with weapons, and so we were like, thank you sir, but may we ask what time we passed by your house? Thinking that because we tracted from 6 till 9 that we must have got him around 8:30, 8:45ish, but no. He said "Oh, it was at 7:30"  Uh..... Really? Hahahaha, it was so funny! People around here live a  "To bed with the sun, wake up at noon" kind of lifestyle. It's funny. 

But that's about it for this week. The next week will be a better email because We have splits planned again for this week, and then... Oh, actually, it will be a super fast email. Because NEXT week after that we are headed down to Quebec. From Monday till Wednesday. That is so long. Haha, But we are super duper excited!!!

Anyways, I love you all, and I shall try and actually get some pictures sent this week!

Elder Austen Oviatt

Not just the Hobbit, but the Hobbit in FRENCH.

 

 Fire Alarms in Quebec. Safe or not? It's up to you to decide

 Oops...

 Happy Birthday to Frere Ouellet!!

This is possibly the most embarrassing signs I have ever seen in my entire life... 

October 22, 2012

Dear Everyone. In the world.

How is it going?! Goodness, I sure hope life is as awesome for all you as it has been for me this week!

1st, We have eaten terribly this week. Not in that we haven't been eating well, but in that we just have so much food in our cupboards that we kind of just had to make space. Last monday after we did our shopping, we needed space in the freezer for the stuff we bought, so we had corndogs and french fries for lunch, with Red Champagne to drink (a Lac-St-Jean special, sparkling apple juice sort of deal), and then finished off with some Banana Split Ice Cream. Yeah you are all jealous. I don't know how we are doing it, but we are steadily acquiring an increasing amount of food. And we still have plenty of our monthly budget left over too? I don't know, but I aint going to complain!

2nd, we had splits with Chicoutimi. Again. It seems like we are doing splits every stinking week! But it is ok, because it is so much fun! Elder Christensen and I were together up here in ALma, and Elder Beaumont went down to Chicoutimi  with Elder Thia. We rocked socks. Elder Christensen hadn't met any of our investigators in Alma, so I scrapped our plans for the day and we went to try and introduce him to as many investigators as possible! He met Pierre and Sophie and Kevin and Celine, and Bertrand and a few others too. It was a great day. Elder Christensen and I talk very well together. He is also ridiculously insane. So that helps. 

Uh... Thursday we were out doing knocking and we came up to a door and there was someone standing in a doorway, and I thought to myself "oh great, these are always super awkward..." THen I noticed that he had a bible in his hand (he was looking away from us, so he didn't notice us) Then he turned around and saw us and his friend came out from the doorway too and they said "Hey! Were Jehovas Witnesses and we had a meeting here with these people, but it doesn't seem like they are here!" We then stopped and had a super quick conversation with them, but they had to leave. All in all, it was super cool, because I don't know how often you ACTUALLY run into TJ's doing their prostelytism. And also, it was comforting to know that we aren't the only ones who get smurphed (Stood up). =D

Then Saturday we made a pie for our Pentecostal friends and we gave that to them. They are pregnant. What a strange saying. They are pregnant. No, THEY aren't. She is, and he isn't. But what ever... Idioms. The recipe said to cook it for about an hour, and we had it in the oven for almost 2... so we were a little worried that it would be all burnt on the bottom, but it just wasn't done being cooked!! But then after 2 hours the top burnt a little (Surprise) so we made some whipped cream to cover up the burned spots. And I wasn't paying attention and I whipped the cream a little much and almost turned it into butter. It started getting a  little chunky. =D Chef Oviatt and Beaumont here, ready to take your order! But they said they really liked it, so that was good. 

Then Sunday we had supper out with our Branch President and his wife. And it was delicious..... It's nice to eat food that takes longer than 30 minutes to prepare. And Bless, Blueberry pie...

But here is our crazy spiritual experience for the week. Are you ready?

Saturday night we had a lesson planned with Pierre and Sophie. We had spent about an hour preparing for this lesson, which is ridiculously long, normally we spend 15 -20 minutes prepping a lesson. So we were so ready to go, and were ready to commit them to baptism and all that good stuff, but then Pierre and Sophie had friends over, so that blew those plans. THEN, Pierre invited us out back to his swing set (everyone here has 2 things. A pool, and a gliding swing set) to "talk" with his friend. It was super weird, Pierre was being super dark and like, not himself. He then started talking to us about conspiracy theories and the evil in the world and how EVERYTHING is evil, even when we are happy and good, that is evil, because there are so many poeple in the world who are suffering and... He talked about the Illuminati, the Free masons, (or stone masons?), the 9-11 attacks, the earthquake in Hatie and Japan, and it was just not an uplifting experience at all....  I just kept on trying to keep things as positive as I could, and testified about prophets and how important it is to have someone who has the light to guide us in such a dark world. Someone who was called by god and speaks the words of God for us specifically today. We ended up having to leave (Thank heavens) for transfer calls, but we left feeling totally sad, that Pierre was thinking of those things, and that we didn't get to invite them to church or to baptism... But then Sunday after church we got a call from Pierre, but we were in meetings so we couldn't answer the phone. Then we called him back, and his wife Sophie picked up the phone and said that Pierre got up at noon today because he stayed up really late. We were thinking "Oh great, now Sophie is going to think that we fed his conspiracy theory ideas and hate us..." But she said that he was up late reading that one book that we gave him. That one book would happen to be the Book of Mormon. He had read a little bit of it before, gotten a bit through 1st Nephi, but we hadn't had a chance to talk to him about it yet. But anyways, she gave him the phone and we talked to him, and he said that last night he just oped up the Book of Mormon to a random page (somewhere in Alma) and started reading and ended up reading for a few hours. He said that the things he read were like they were written yesterday for today. And that he doesn't know why or how, but that he just knows that this book is true. We were so excited we almost couldn't even speak. We may have felt like our "lesson" that we had with him was brutal, but it obviously flipped some sort of switch in his head that made him even more prepared and open for what he was going to read. We plan on going and meeting him as soon as possible, but he is out of town unfortunately for at least 2 days. I know that the Lord is preparing people here to recieve this message that we have to share. He is preparing people to accept the truth. "There are many people kept from the truth only because they know not where to find it." 

Doctrine et Alliances 84:85

Ne vous souciez pas d'avance de ce que vous direz, mais amassez continuellement dans votre esprit les paroles de vie, et la part qui sera attribuée à tout homme vous sera donnée à l'heure même.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:85

Neither take ye thought beforehand what ye shall say; but treasure up in your minds continually the words of life, and it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that should be meted unto every man.

I know that because Elder Beaumont and I took the time to prepare for our lesson with Pierre and Sophie that when it came down to it, even if we didn't know what we should have said to Pierre at that time about that specific subject, The Lord gave us at that very hour what we should say.