First and foremost I want to apologise for my email last week because it was short and had no catchy subject title so I have already failed as a missionary...so this week I will do my best to please the needs of my fanclub(yes that's what I'm calling you). The title this week is just a joke that my district has been making all week because we all have been looking for ways to get into the Missionary handbook, and not in the good way. There have been a wide variety of things we've thought of including playing in the sprinklers, trying to capture a duck that sits on one of the fountains every night, chanting for our desired speaker for the devotional as we're being seated, or stealing the new missionaries mattresses on their first day. None of which we went through with of course but it's been fun to joke about.
But man oh man has it been a week!! So much has happened and I don't know where to begin and if I'll even get to it all. First of all Sundays are super cool here because sacrament meetings involve missionaries that are learning a language giving talks in their foreign language. I'm gonna eventually have to do that as well in a couple weeks which is terrifying but it'll be super cool! My whole district is in the choir which is awesome even though a lot of them aren't super comfortable singing. It's just great to be able to praise God in such a beautiful way. We sang Hope of Israel and our choir director told the whole backstory of Israel to us so that we can fully appreciate the song and it totally worked. The sunday devotional was from the first counselor of the MTC presidency and it was funny because they also taught about the history of Israel! It was about how we can use Joseph(coat of many colors Joseph) as an example for our missionary work. Afterwards, all of the new missionaries stayed and watched a devotional that Elder Bednar gave a couple years ago at the MTC and I gotta say. It was probably the best talk I've ever heard. I'll keep this spoiler free for all of you future missionaries reading this but it was about the Character of Christ and how we can embody Christ's example as we serve our missions. Tuesday devotional was by Bishop Fausse of the presiding bishopric! He's a french native which was cool but he didn't speak in french of course even though I wish he did. He talked about how to be a bold missionary and brought up some really good points and then to finish off he said he was going to be bold and he played an arrangement of Come, Come, Ye Saints for us it was really cool!
We taught our first couple of lessons this week! On Monday Elder Young and I got an email saying that we're teaching a woman named Madisyn on Tuesday and Thursday(in english thank goodness) and it was so exciting. My companion and I prepared a whole lesson about God's purpose for us because the email said that's what she was struggling with but when we started to teach her, we had to throw that out the window and just focus on how God loves us and the importance of prayer. We invited her to pray and on our follow up lesson she said that she prayed but didn't really feel any assurance from God. We then taught her how we need to have the faith that God does hear us and answers our prayers. We invited her to pray every day and have the faith that God will answer her.
The language is going pretty good actually! Considering I knew next to nothing about french when I came here, I'd say there have been improvements. I can more or less teach a full lesson in french and I can pray and bear my testimony in French! It was really cool when we first learned how to bear witness in french. our teacher took us to our branch room where we have the sacrament and had us all bear our testimonies in french and it was one of the best testimony meeting I've ever been to even though all we knew how to say were basic phrases. Our teacher, Frere Brenchley, then shared the story of Brigham Young's long awaited conversion in how it was the simple testimony of an unlearned man that finally touched him and converted him to the church. I know the Gift of Tongues has already had an effect on me here as I've been learning things so fast and I'm starting to fully understand my teachers when they speak in French! It's so exciting!!!!!
I honestly love my district so much. We all come from different backgrounds of gospel knowledge and french knowledge and we all help each other out with everything we need but at the same time we are having such a fun time getting to know each other! Elder Fiore is from Canada and he's teaching us all canadian slang like "Tryna reach that Jam?" which directly translates to "Are you coming to the party?" And so much more! Elder Pugh who also did theatre in high school and he's BYU famous because he's the crazy fan that always screamed at the opponent's server in BYU volleyball at every game and was on BYUTV because of it and he's hilarious! That's just two of the 11 amazing Elders in my district that I've come to love and appreciate so much!
I know that I am here in Provo for a reason. For those of you who don't know I was supposed to go to Ghana but I couldn't due to visa problems. But I'm so thankful that I am here learning how to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this church is true. I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he brought the restored gospel to the Earth. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve and to be an instrument in God's hands.
Au revoir,
Elder Perkins
1. Elder Pugh! The famous BYU crazy fan and we also both played Benny in In the Heights at high school which is crazy!
2. Sharing the donuts my dad sent me with my district!
3. The MTC finally hang up the Cote d'Ivoire Flag
4. Most of my district after we thought our second TRC lesson
5. Our study crib courtesy of the Samoans down the hall.
6. I had to explain the timeline and plot of Star Wars to Elder Fiore. Canadians am I right?
7. Really bad picture of the BYU v. Utah game from the top of our building. RIP the cougs
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