A Whole New World 🚘

February 14, 2022

Bonjour à tous!

J'espère que votre semaine s'est bien passée! I’d say that this week was a pretty good start to a new transfer. We had some fun times and cool experiences so I’ll get right into things!

I mentioned our friend Robert Plante last week, and last Monday we were able to have another lesson with him! Before I get into the lesson though, we also had another cool experience on the bus ride over to Robert that I want to share. When we got on the bus it was pretty crowded, so instead of sitting in the front, like I usually do while Elder Felix sits in the back, we both ended towards the back of the bus. I was looking for ways to start a conversation with someone around me when I noticed there was a younger guy sitting in front of me who wasn’t wearing headphones and as I did so I also noticed that he had a tattoo of a cross behind his ear. We got to our stop and I hadn’t said anything since he was facing away from me and it would be awkward to force him to turn all the way around to talk to me. I stood up for our stop and said hi to him as I walked past and figured that would be that, but it turned out it was his stop as well so we walked down the street with some other people. I still had the feeling that I needed to talk to him so I eventually mustered my courage and just stopped him and told him point blank that I had noticed his tattoo and asked if he was “croyant” (basically if he was religious). To my surprise he very nonchalantly said yes and that he would be interested in hearing our message! We exchanged phone numbers, and while unfortunately we haven’t been able to get in touch with him since then it was another example of a tender mercy from trusting the Lord and following the Spirit. But back to the lesson with Robert. We walked in and things started off in a rather entertaining way since the first thing he did was off Elder Felix and I some Budweiser. I guess the legal age to drink is lower in Canada than in the States haha. It was clearly a well intentioned offer so we politely declined and eventually explained that we don’t drink as a way to protect our bodies and respect God, and Robert accepted that. Overall the lesson went really well, and miraculously Robert was able to understand pretty much everything I said this time haha. The best thing was that he read a little bit of the Book of Mormon every day, just like we had asked him to! That was seriously a miracle, and to top things off he said he would come to church with us on Sunday!

This Tuesday we got to participate in another activity for young adults and this time we walked around a park where there was also a loop for ice skating so some of our members and friends went ice skating while we all chatted together and generally had a really great time. One of the members is actually from the Congo and one of our nonmember friends who came is from France, so neither of them had actually ice skated before so they both got to try it out and it was definitely an adventure!

We also got to service at the thrift store again this week, although we had to cut it shorter than usual so that we could get back in time for a surprise meeting. Things ended up being pretty tight with the bus so Elder Felix and I had to run for the last little bit to get home in time, but I managed to join the meeting one minute late at 10:01, fully dressed with my suit coat, white shirt, tie, and a pair of blue jeans… thankfully the meeting was over Zoom though so no one could see haha

Probably the biggest miracle of this week though is that Elder Felix and I ended up getting a car!! As much of an adventure it has been to take the bus and as grateful as I am for the opportunities it has given me to practice French and invite others to hear our message, now that we have a car I’m never looking back again haha. To make things even funnier, something I forgot to mention last week is that Elder Felix and his previous companion have the tradition of opening a kinder egg  before the start of each new transfer to try and predict what will happen in the coming transfer and lo and behold, inside of my kinder was a car! Pretty funny how that worked out so we’ll have to see how accurate they continue to be in the future haha

This week we also were finally able to have church in person for the first time in six weeks and it was a really awesome experience! Not only did Robert come like he said he would, our friend Martin who has been MIA since his trip to Mexico six weeks ago also showed up out of the blue! That was seriously an answer to our prayers. The Sister missionaries in our ward and I were asked to give short talks so I chose to speak on the importance of recognizing the Lord’s hand and the small miracles/assurances he gives us each day. It’s been a topic that’s been on my mind frequently throughout my mission, and I realized that it’s an important lesson that the Lord is trying to teach me. Because our life on earth is ultimately meant to be a test, not everything will work out exactly how we want it to. In fact, most things in our lives probably won’t end up going as we had planned or anticipated. The truth is that life is not fair, but the wonderful news is that our loving Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ most certainly are fair. Our Heavenly Father sent His son into the world to perform the Atonement so that through Him everything that is unfair about this life will one day be made right. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and by obedience to the principles and commandments taught in His Gospel, we can have peace and hope regardless of our circumstances and in spite of whatever setback we encounter. That’s not to say that this knowledge and His sacrifice will remove all of the obstacles from our lives, but they will bind up our broken hearts and open our eyes to the truth that our lives truly do have meaning and that there really is hope that everything that truly matters in this life can last forever. 

To end the week off right, we got to have dinner with the Corona family Sunday night! They are a younger family with two daughters, and they were a ton of fun! Brother Corona was born in Quebec City but his parents are from Salvador and Sister Corona is actually from Mexico so I once again got to dust off my Spanish which is always a treat! Brother Corona also speaks English pretty much fluently and his wife is wanting to practice more herself so in the end our conversations ended up being a crazy blend of French, Spanish, and English and I have to say it really was a beautiful thing haha. They also made some delicious tacos, and I have to say that was the first time I’ve had good Mexican food since I got to Canada. Definitely a tender mercy!

Love you all,

Elder Jackson

Here some photos from last week at Carnaval as well!