Well hey y'all!!

Yeah, that's right. I just greeted you in "American Hick". You thought I was learning French? Well you were misinformed...

Life is awesome up here in Alma!! It is beautiful and gorgeous and stunning! Let me tell you a bit about this past week and a half!

We didn't end up going out to Rimouski last week, our plan got cancelled at the last minute by President Cannon. Which really isn't a huge deal, but we had already finished our shopping for the week, and had only bought a half a weeks worth of food... And our P-Day this week was on a Wednesday, so we had half a week of food for a week and a half of time. But we had some miracles, so we were all totally fooded up this week. We had a brunch last Saturday,with the Branch, it was our Branch Brunch, it was awesome! We had 6 investigators there! That was crazy awesome! But, one of our miracles was that all the extra food left over after the Brunch we got to take home and eat, so we had plenty of sausages and eggs and beans. And butter.

It has been so hot these last few days! The humidity is still killing me... About a week ago, I was sitting at my desk during study time and I thought to myself "You know, it's hot out, but it's not that bad. I can handle this, I must be getting used to the humidity!"! I was excited! But then this weekend I realized that I wasn't getting used to the humidity, there just was no humidity, and when the humidity came back, I died. It is just such a gross feeling to go to bed at night, sticky from the humidity, and wake up 8 hours later, stickier then when you went to sleep because it got more humid as the night went on. Not a good feeling...

There was a parade and some fireworks here in Alma a few days ago, and the fireworks started after our curfew, but luckily, we could see them from our windows in our apartment, so we took a break from planning and watched the fireworks.

Our investigator Roger is doing great! He had his baptismal interview yesterday and our district leader said he was good to go! So we will be preparing the baptismal service for the 28th in Alma here!! We are so excited for the ward to have a new member! And Roger is loved by all here in the ward! Hopefully his baptism will help our other investigators to see the blessing that baptism is and keep on the path of righteousness! We have met some people from some crazy places though! We had a guy from Sengal, and a family from Mali, and the branch presidents wife is from Belgium! Lots of diversity here, it's not like Sherwood Park at all...

We had splits this week, so Elder Stanley, our district leader went out with Elder Heder and I yesterday and that was super fun! It was great to get a chance to learn from other missionaries! Elder Heder said that splits are good for a few things, one is to learn things from missionaries that you want to do, and the other is to learn things from missionaries that you don't want to do. And to appreciate the things about your companion that you love. Check, check and check. I mean, I loved splits, but I will stick with Elder Heder thank you...

Today after we do all of our shopping and stuff we will be headed out with the Bouchard family in our branch to go pick Raspberries. I am so excited. The raspberries here are super famous, Lac-St-Jean region has lots of fruits. In 2 weeks the blueberries are ripe too. And the blueberries here are much more famous than the raspberries. One of the things that the Lac-St-Jeanians are super proud of their raspberries for is that they are blue all the way though. Not like store bought raspberries that are like, white on the inside. To be honest, I don't remember what the inside of blueberries look like, so for all I know they could be completely lying to me, but I trust them. For now. =)

I have gotten a few letters from people, and I will try my hardest to reply to them as soon as I can! I promise I haven't forgotten about you!

I think I will be starting to leave these emails with a spiritual thought. Just a little tid-bit of goodness and joy. Who can say no to a little more goodness and joy in their lives, right?!

3 Néphi 5:13

Voici, je suis disciple de Jésus-Christ, le Fils de Dieu. J'ai été appelé par lui pour annoncer sa parole parmi son peuple, afin qu'il ait la vie éternelle.

3 Nephi 5:13

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

I love this scripture. It applies so well to myself as a missionary. Well, all missionaries really! Whenever it gets hard to wake up at 6:30 every morning and exercise and study for four hours a day, and keep working every single day, I read this scripture. I have been called of God to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life. Yeah, I made a personal choice to come here and work, but truly, I have been called of God by a living Prophet to serve and to declare his word, to help people find everlasting life. That is why I am here as a missionary. Yes, I am here to help people in any way possible, but my main goal as a missionary is to baptize people. Why? Because it is only by baptism by immersion by those who hold the priesthood authority from God that anyone can be accepted into the courts of God and find everlasting life. What greater help can I give?

Is it just me, or does that firework not totally remind you of something starwars!?!

That one I just think is cool looking, and it reminds me of a green algae we studied in Biology, called Volvox. It was probably one of the coolest looking things we looked at. I suggest googleing a "volvox algae" and then comparing the pictures of the algae against the picture of the firework.

Oh, did I forget to mention in the email that Tinkerbell visited us this weekend? It was kinda cool, we flew off to Neverland for a few days, met the lost boys, fought some pirates... But we kept all the missionary rules, so it was OK!

This is a sunset here in Alma. Not the best picture, because there are a lot of houses that are in the way... But you kind of get the idea. I'm going to send a picture that Elder Heder took of a sunset in Chicoutimi. It's National Geographic good...

What? He actually sent some of the pictures he kept promising?

There are so many washers and dryers at the MTC. This is half of them

A picture I took on our Sunday Walk at the MTC. It was one of the few times we were allowed to leave the MTC boundaries, so we took advantage of it.

This is a friend we made in the MTC. His name was Elder Sanchez from Mexico. He is super cool, and super awesome, and seriously, just a straight up exemplary dude.

So we have these ID cards that are like our debit cards too at the MTC. Our weekly allowance was put on in, and we had to swipe it to enter any building, and to eat in the cafeteria. And... I may or may not have gotten mine stuck in the roof. A few times. But to be completely honest, it was always an accident! I never did it on purpose! Also, sometimes it fell down the heater in the classroom, so I had to wait for the teacher to leave the room, then I had to take the heater apart to get it out... I hope it works again come wintertime! =P

This is a picture of my district at the MTC. I used this picture because it is such a terrible picture of all of the Elders. The Sisters are fine. From left to right we have Elder Coulombe (from Chicoutami Quebec. I have met his family a few time actually!) Sister Hunstman, Elder Oviatt, Sister Hoover, (Tall one) Elder Baker, (Short one) Sister Gallego, and then our teacher Brother Matthews (I believe...)

President and Sister Cannon! Welcome to the CMM (Canada Montreal Mission)

My first moments meeting Elder Heder!

This was my first experience with Quebec Poutine. IT WAS ENORMOUS! All the missionaries said don't get a medium, you can finish it, but you will feel gross after. No. It's impossible to finish a medium. That was insane

The hail storm we had left so much hail! That picture only shows a very small spot on the lawn.

OK, that is how big these pieces of hail were. Like, ice cube sized! It was actually kind of scary, we were worried it was going to dent our truck...

Elder Heder and I made our own Poutine to celebrate Canada Day. It was good! But without cheese curds, it just wasn't quite right...

This is the view into the Quebec bay from the bridge over the waterfall.

The steps to the bottom of the waterfall.

Two of our Elders standing at the bottom of the waterfall. It was wet down there...

Like, everyone was soaking wet

These are the ice cream cones. I have already eaten a large portion of my cone, and Elder Heder got a small.

This is a sunset here in Alma. And to be honest, this is really not that pretty of a sunset. Usually they are bright red and orange and it looks like the sky is literally on fire... Ahhhh... I'll see if I can get a good picture here in this next week!

This guy is long winded

Ah! Bonjour mes amis! Comment ca va?

Man, it's a whole lot easier to speak in French then it is to write in French. Not that I can still really speak that well in French, but it's coming! I guess...

Let us see, what has happened in the last week? Well, last Monday Elder Heder and I drove 45 minutes to a town called Chicoutami, where we carpooled with the Elders there down to Quebec City for a Zone Study. There were 18 missionaries there and we spent the day at a big waterfall in Quebec, and then we played Ultimate Frisbee and went to a place called "Chocolate Favori" where they have these chocolate dipped cones that make DQ cones look like trash. The largest size (which is like, 6 bucks, but totally worth it) is like, 8 inches of ice cream above the cone, then dipped into your choice of milk or dark chocolate. And the chocolate they use there is so good. You get a nice thick coat of chocolate, and tons of ice cream. I got a medium and almost didn't finish it, just because the chocolate is so rich and the cone is so huge! I'll send some pictures of that.

Then after that we helped some missionaries move, then we slept over at our zone leaders apartment. That was not so fun. There were 6 of us, all piled in this room, because rules say you have to sleep in the same room as your companion, and we just had a whole bunch of mattresses on the floor. None of us slept that well that night. Then we had our Zone study the next morning, and President Cannon showed up after a three hour drive from Montreal that he would have had to leave at 6 AM to have made it on time to. Man, he is an awesome President! Then we drove home Tuesday afternoon and did more missionary stuff in the evening. We had a few lessons and did some more tracting. Good times were had by all.

I had my first Dinner Appointment last night! Elder Heder and I went to our Branch Presidents house for supper and to talk to him about the branch and stuff. He lives about 40 minutes away, so it was a long drive, but it was super pretty. This whole place is just gorgeous! The sunsets here are absolutely amazing, like, you don't even understand. Life is good here though, Elder Heder and I are spending lots of time teaching lessons and finding people, and the French here is super funny. Sometimes at doors where an elderly person lives, they will start to talk to us, and Elder Heder and I will just look at each other and neither of us will have any idea of what the person just said. So we just say yes then bare our testimonies of something. 8] We still have our investigator who is preparing for Baptism, and he is still trucking along, doing very well!

Oh! This next week, I need to tell everyone now or else I will forget, I wont be sending my email on Monday, because we are having a special district study where President and Sister Cannon are coming up to talk to us, it should be good, but we have to move our P-Day to Wednesday just so we don't miss any email time because the meeting is going to be on Monday. And this week should be exciting! Tuesday we are going on exchanges with our district leader, who lives in Rimouski. Which is about 6ish hours away from here, so we will be leaving Tuesday morning. At 4 AM at the latest. Because we have to catch a ferry and that leaves at 9, and we have to be there at or before 8:00 as the parking space on the ferry is a first come first serve basis, and we need to get across the great waters. And so that means that today, we have our P-Day, and then we have a dinner appointment at 6, then as soon as we are done with that we will be coming home to go to bed. We get to mess around with the mission rules a little bit! Hehe, were such Mauvais Garcons (tough Guys)!!

Anyways, I Love you all, and am trying my absolute hardest out here to be obedient and to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength! I love hearing from everyone, so if you feel so inclined to send me a letter, I would love that! I mean, I'm not saying that I am going to cry myself to sleep if no one sends me anything, because I sure hope that I am over that stage of my mission... But seriously, I'd love to hear from everyone and anyone!

I love you all, and you are all in my prayers!

Bisoux,

Elder Austen Oviatt

A Wet Week

Hey all! How's life back in Not Quebec? I was kind of sad this week thinking about everyone not in Quebec when no one here did ANYTHING for Canada Day yesterday! It was sad to not see any kids running around with their faces painted with not so quality Canadian flags and maple leafs... But, to celebrate, Elder Heder and I made a home made Poutine Saturday night. It wasn't actually too bad! And Courtney, Both of our hands are completely unscathed. The Poutine here in Quebec is insane though... I have a whole bunch of pictures that I need to send you guys, but I keep forgetting my camera cord. Oops! This week has been crazy! We have been having Super hot moments ( an hour, or just 45 minutes) Then Thunderstorms for about the same about of time. For the past 4 days it has been like this! Just sun, then rainstorms, then sun, then thunder, then sun, then HAIL!! I was in the biggest, longest hailstorm of my life! It was so cool! The storm came on instantly! We were out doing service for a member in the ward, then it started to rain, and by the time we walked from the back of his backyard to his house, it was a torrential rain, and we were almost soaked. Then, like 30 seconds later, it started to hail. Just small at first, but then huge hail! It got to the point where the hail was as big as an ice cube! I have pictures of that too. And it was raining so hard! And the water was flowing in the gutters about 3 or 4 feet from the sidewalk, and then, almost instantly, it was stopped and the sun was out and the water was gone and the hail had melted... it was so weird! Anyways, life is good here, we have been teaching a lot, and tracting a lot. Elder Heder is a good trainer, and has been making me do lots of the talking, which is super hard, because you have to use very formal language when speaking to people you don't know, and so instead of saying 'Tu' Which is 'you' you have to say 'vous' which is basically the same thing, just polite. But you have to conjugate everything to Vous instead of Tu, so that changes everything about how you speak. I still have major issues remembering to do the switch over, but that's OK. We have an investigator with a baptismal date of the 28th, so hopefully he follows through with everything! He is a super awesome guy named Roger, and everyone in the branch loves him and is super excited for him. Oh! Tell Brittany that I have joined Ted's side, and Nylon is quickly becoming my favorite... If she doesn't understand that, tell her to email me. But she should know. Oh! They have the most amazing sunsets here in the world. You should all be jealous! Uh, what else. Oh! Today I'm headed down to Quebec City for a zone study, we will be coming back tomorrow evening, so hopefully that is fun? I have no idea what to expect though, so it should be good no matter what!

Anyways, thats about it for this week!

Love y'all!

Elder Austen Oviatt

People Actually Live That Far North?

Okie-Dokie! It's Weekly update time!! Let me tell you all about the life of Elder Austen Oviatt!

I arrived in Montreal about 4PM on Tuesday, and spent the night at the Mission home with the 5 other missionaries who came in with me. They are all super awesome people, but none of us were ready for the humidity here. WHOA! The second we stepped off the plane, BAM, we were just all, humid and sticky and gross. Anyways, Pres. and Sis. Cannon are super awesome, and I'm glad to have gotten a chance to eat their food between the MTC and our own missionary meals. Then, Wednesday, we had our orientation meeting and President went and picked our areas.

I have been sent to Alma Quebec, the furthest away area in the mission. I had to take a 3 hour bus ride from Montreal to Quebec, then a 3 hour drive from Quebec up to Alma. The people here are 100% French. I have met 1 or 2 people who speak English, and then it's broken English. I am able to understand them all, minus a few old people who talk to fast and with such slurred French that I doubt most of the people who speak french can understand them. But It's super fun here. The weather has been super hot and humid, but with a nice light breeze to keep us cool as we tract.

My Companion is named Elder AUSTIN LEE Heder. Crazy, right!?!?! What are the chances of that!!?? He is from Pleasant Grove Utah and has only been out on his mission for 12 weeks, or two transfers. That is basically the minimum amount of time that a missionary can be out before he is allowed to train, and even then, he is basically still a greenie himself. We are doing well though, eating well and working very hard. I'm falling asleep all the time, still trying to conquer the habit I started for myself of sleeping in class. I totally got busted on Sunday by the sister teaching the Sunday School Lesson. It was funny...

I am starting in the same area that Elder Kastendick started, so all the members here go crazy when I tell them that I was friends with him before we were both out here. And as for members, there are only 10. 10 members in a branch that covers basically the entire northern half of Quebec. And they are slightly old too... I believe the youngest member is about 60, 65? But there are lots of investigators and we are working very hard all day every day getting out and knocking on doors and teaching lessons. Everyone in the branch is super awesome though.

Last night we had to be indoors by 6:00 PM because it was Le Fete de St. Jean-Baptiste, which is like Quebec's own national holiday, so we went to the Bouchards house at 7 after teaching some lessons, and they "made us a snack" and I think we ended up eating more than we did at supper. But the Bouchards are super awesome, and basically are the ward mission leaders, they have investigators over every chance they can get to help us out. I think that have been on... Sis Bouchard has been on 4 and Brother Bouchard has been on 3? But two from each were with each other as a couple. OH! Best news of all, our mission has a car. Actually, that's a lie. It's a truck! A little Chevy Colorado, short bed truck, midnight blue. It's pretty awesome... I don't know if it has a name yet, but Elder Heder and I will probably name it here soon.

Back to the mission. It is super hot here. And with the humidity it's even worse. I've never been a person who has sweat drip down my body, but it does here. Alot. It's gross. Trust me. I can't believe I have already been gone for almost a month! Isn't that a bit crazy?! Time flies when you're serving the Lord I guess!

Oh, everyone here has a swimming pool. Everyone. It's ridiculous considering in the winter they will get like +5 feet of snow! But it also makes things a little awkward at doors, lots of times (because like the ward, the town is populated by a mostly older people. There are still lots of young people, but mostly older) people will stand with only their heads showing out the door because they are in their bathing suits. Or even worse, sometimes they just open the door. It just works really well for making things awkward, a nice, older, well sized woman in a bathing suit... I am glad I am up here though, because one of the missionaries I was talking with said that his first area was Chicoutame (just about 40 minutes away from us, and where Elder Coulombe was from), and he never saw anyone he was attracted to, then he got transferred to Montreal and he said there are attractive women everywhere. I think it would be super hard for a new missionary to have to learn how to be a missionary while having to deal with lots of hotties who are all scantily clad thanks to the temperature and the humidity.

Anyways, The time has come to go shopping, so I must say farewell! I have lots of pictures and will send them next week, I just forgot my cord for my camera today. Friends, I have things to tell you, write me.

I love you all so much!

Elder AUSTEN LELAND Oviatt

Back in Canada

Hey Guys!

I'm safe and sound in Montreal!! We arrived at around 5 their time and we are just meeting with President and Sister Cannon right now!! Love you all!!

Elder Austen Oviatt

Short but Sweet

Man, life sounds awesome out in good ol' Ca-nay-duh!

Life is good here at the MTC though, I got to host the new missionaries this week, which means, show them where their classroom is and their residence. it was fun, but I skipped a class to do it and my teacher wasn't super impressed... =) Oops! I saw Mark Hillman, and Sean Court and a few others that I know well! it's weird seeing all thses people at the MTC!! But so good to know that there are still so many good elders out therre. My companion actually had Elder Joe Kastendick as a missionary in his ward before he shipped out! I tought that was pretty cool!! Anyways, I am out of time!! I love you all, and thank you for your prayers and your letters and your thoughts!! And know that I am thinking about you all in my prayers!

Bisou,

Elder Austen Oviatt!

(Austen is leaving the MTC on Tuesday so if you have sent him any letters that may arrive after that date they will be forwarded to his new address. Once I get his new address Ill let everyone know)