Machetes and Charity (?)

12th June 2017



Hi everyone!

 Sister Bolander had her first Canadian POUTINE YAY

Wow the sun is shining brightly on Montreal today. It's hoooot outside. 30 degrees celsius with 90% humidity. And our apartment doesn't have air conditioning, but it's okay because it just give us more motivation to get outside and work. 

This week has been so fun! We've been really busy, visiting a lot of people and trying to better ourselves as missionaries.

 

 

developing charity for others by walking around and trying to talk to them

 

We were able to spend lots of time outside talking to people as well. While walking around on Saturday we ran into this old woman who was outside gardening. We went up to ask if we could help and she said, "how much will it cost?" And after we reassured her it would be free, she let us come and help her start weeding. After a few minutes of talking we learned a lot. Her name was Hazel, she was from Jamaica, and that the missionaries were actually supposed to visit her, but never showed up, almost 11 years ago(!!). She had one heck of a sense of humour and was cracking jokes the whole time we were there. But I think my favourite part about the whole encounter was that she was using this foot long machete to dig up the weeds. And ya know, when in Rome, do as the Romans right? so we started using it too. And it actually worked pretty well. She also gave us a quick course in weeding 101, and helped us learn which things were flowers and which ones were weeds. Sister Bolander and I grateful for resumé building experiences like those we get to have as missionaries. 

it's easy to have charity for cats when you have such natural connections with them

We also had a few of our friends at church with us yesterday. It was really wonderful, one of our friends, Marie, is so smart and picks up everything so quickly. We had a talk in Sacrament meeting about Charity, something Sister Bolander and I have been studying recently and it was so good. The speaker, Brother Feth, used both scriptural discourses on charity in the Bible, (1 Corinthians 13) and in the Book of Mormon (Moroni 7), it was so perfect and both Marie and Nicole really enjoyed it. It was a special moment we had as we explained about how Charity, and the way we define it in the church, isn't giving a large sum of money to some organization, but how it is a deeper way to express the word love. It's a perfect love, a love only parallel to the love Jesus Christ has for us. Charity is the pure love of Christ, and is something that we have to work very hard to have for others around us. To love others the way that God and Jesus Christ love them, and to see them for the potential they have to become something more. It's not easy to obtain such a gift, but a prophet in the Book of Mormon tells us how we can start,
''Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." Moroni 7:48 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/7.48?lang=eng)

Sister Bolander and I have been working on this, to pray and ask the Lord for help to have charity for those around us. It's yielded wonderful results, and we know that it will continue to do so as we try and acquire more divine gifts. 

But I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you can remember to be more charitable to those around you, because "Charity never Faileth."

you can never have enough cat encounters

Until next week,

Sister Thomas