Week 23 - Zone Training in Quebec

Sorry I'm late to email! On Monday we had to go to Québec for Zone Training on Tuesday and we didn't have a lot of time to email because of other stuff we had to do, i.e. food shopping, laundry, packing, all that fun stuff. 

This past week we had a missionary-wide broadcast training for the first time in over a decade I believe.  It was really cool! One of the biggest things I took from the training was that I need to have Christ's name always on my lips. With our members we have been focusing lessons on increasing our faith and obedience and repentance. However, Elder Anderson said that we need to always have His (Christ's) name on our lips.  I realized that in my recent testimonies that I have shared I hadn't said a word about Christ. My testimony focused on the blessings of faith and how I've seen it help me through difficult times, on how obedience brings blessings, and on the importance of daily scripture study and prayer. But I forgot the center point of our message and our gospel - Christ. 

After the training, I changed. In all the lessons I bore testimony not only about what we had just learned from the Holy Ghost, but also bore testimony of the Merciful Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He is our Savior and Redeemer. Although they were short testimonies and I struggled with my French grammar, I felt the Spirit so strongly as a confirmation that no matter who we are teaching and no matter what we are teaching, it is always necessary to testify of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

This week we helped the Dupont's repaint their kitchen and after we finished we went on a snowshoeing hike with them on their property which encompasses many many acres. We had a bonfire and hot chocolate. It was so nice to make a bonfire again! 

Church this week was really good. We a member from the Stake come and speak along with his wife. They gave amazing talks on forgiveness and letting go of grudges and loving everyone as much as we can. During the lesson a member went out in the hall and came back and said we were needed in the entryway of the local (our branch). We went out there and met what I can best describe as a nomadic hippie. Haha 

He was a really nice guy who just needed a drink, a place to rest for a bit and get warm. We talked to him a bit and he told us his story about how he travels and he loves being free to do what he wants and how he was trying to get to Gaspé which is the tip of the Gaspésie Peninsula 5 hours from us. He told us that he would've made it there but he met a woman and got together with her and spent all the money he had trying to help her. She was a bit mentally unstable so he left because it wasn't safe for him with her. It was funny though because he was talking to us and he said something like, "I know I gotta think about me sometimes and take care of myself, but I'm a man and I'm weak in the flesh. When I see a beautiful woman it's just uhhh (grunting noise) you know?" He was hilarious. He went on his way and during Branch Council the member of the Stake told us we would be losing our local (branch) in a few months because we don't have enough priesthood holders and tithe payers to qualify for the building we currently use. That was sad for us to hear, but it'll only make us work harder. 

We had an amazing Zone conference on Tuesday. We did a lot of role playing which was great for me because I am still struggling with talking to people in French. We worked on extending commitments, discerning needs of the people, and teaching repentance. After Zone Conference I went on a split with Elder Noorda who's serving in Ste. Foy and we were the walking team which was great because it's been a while since I've walked since we have a car. The downside was it was a freezing rain outside so although I was plenty warm my head was drenched haha. 

When we got back I looked like I had just showered. Oh, I FINALLY GOT MAIL!!! Letters/packages I've been waiting anxiously for since Christmas!!! "It's like I don't even care what happens the rest of the day!" 

Love you all!! Stay safe, stay faithful! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Week 22 - Walk on Water

This week was slower for Elder Shaw and I because we both were battling colds all week. 'Tis the season I suppose. We've started reading the Book of Mormon over again with all of our members. We are taking it chapter by chapter leaving them with commitments to read and pray. It's been amazing. In the past, commitments were forgotten or they simply weren't a priority, but since we've been reading the Book of Mormon over from the beginning our members have done so much better.  They remember to make the time to read. There is real power that comes through diligent prayer and study of the Book of Mormon! 

Our member Chantale's mother is still in the hospital and they called us to come and give her a priesthood blessing. I had a feeling she was going to ask me to give the blessing so the whole time we were talking with her and Chantale, I'm fighting off nerves, trying to stay calm, and praying for help. I've been struggling a lot with understanding and speaking the language the way I would like. I'm okay with the language when it comes to prayers and lessons because I pray and teach so frequently that I am able to quickly learn and fix my mistakes. 

When it comes to blessings, however, I find myself overwhelmed with fear. Fear that the person seeking the blessing needs to be blessed with something I don't know how to say. Fear that I'll be so focused on how to say things that I won't follow the Spirit completely. Fear of inadequacy. 

Well I was right and she asked for me to give her the blessing. I honestly was shaking a bit and had to take 2-3 minutes before giving the blessing to calm down and to memorize the words to start the blessing. From there the Lord took over. I was able to give the blessing completely in French and although I can't remember a lot of what I said, I felt the Spirit and the love of our Father in Heaven so strongly and all my fear fell away. D&C 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 shall be meted unto every man." 

Church this week was really powerful. In the lesson we learned about peace. How we obtain peace, how we feel peace, and where we find peace. What hit me about this lesson was the picture at the beginning of the chapter where we see Christ pulling Peter out of the water when he had begun to sink and and was overcome with the fear of drowning. Jesus Christ is the source of all peace. When we come across times when the sea is tossed with waves, the wind is boisterous, our faith is questioned, and we feel ourselves drowning, we must strive to walk towards Christ while the sea around us swells.  As we do so, Christ will save us. "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his  hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" Christ will always save us. We need not ever doubt if we are following Christ and walking towards Him. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.



May we have the faith to walk on water, to perform miracles, and to change lives. I love you all! Have a great week! Stay strong, stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda 

Week 21 - Singing and Coffee

Bonjour à tous!

J'espère que vous allez bien! This week one of our members called us and said that their mother was in the hospital and needed a blessing. We were able to talk with her, laugh with her, and give her a blessing. It was a humbling experience as you are surrounded by those physically afflicted and in pain and you realize that you are blessed beyond belief with health and so many other things. 

This week for some reason Elder Shaw wanted to play guitar and sing for people...so we ended up making cookies and singing for Sylvie Dupont's mom on her birthday, and for Dora and Ruud when we visited them. Both times we sang "Deep in the Meadow". We didn't crash and burn so that was good :). I really don't like singing for people so of course I have a companion who loves to. haha. 

I may or may not have broken the Word of Wisdom this week...so while we were at Dora and Ruud's they gave us some cookies from the Netherlands. They were called Café Noir (Black Coffee) which should've made me suspicious, but I didn't think much about it and figured they would just taste a bit like coffee. After eating 5 my companion whispers to me, "Hey I read the ingredients and it says 'instant coffee' so you probably shouldn't eat anymore". Who puts coffee in cookies?! 

Anyways lesson wise we had a good week. We were able to meet with Kathleen and her dad André and started reading the Book of Mormon with them from the beginning. They kept a commitment and read Alma 36 between our visits!! Nothing makes us happier than hearing they had kept the commitment they had made. Nothing makes us happier than when we see the gospel start to change lives. 

We said goodbye to our friends Mark and Mimi this week because he is returning to Texas for school and she is going to Australia for school. That was hard after getting to know them really well and meeting a lot of their friends. It was my second experience with what Elder Shaw says is the hardest part of the mission, saying goodbye to amazing people we meet and grow to love as our family. 

One chapter in the Book of Mormon I encourage you all to find some time to read is Alma 29. What hit me about this chapter is how poetic it begins. Alma is bearing his testimony and the word choice and metaphors he uses are incredible. I love how powerful the testimonies of the prophets and missionaries are. Specifically I love verse 10, "And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer, yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me." We felt this when we heard that they had kept the commitment to read and I feel this when I hear from back home and hear about all the amazing progress occurring. Friends with mission calls, friends preparing for mission calls, friends engaged to be married in the temple, and friends going through hard times and emerging with even stronger testimonies. 

I pray that we all can look for the good in each other and watch for the progress of others. When we take time and turn away from ourselves and look at others, we will see the Lord working miracles in their lives and our joy will be full as we reflect on the steps they are making and their great examples. 

I love you all!! Stay safe, stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Week 20 - Bonne Année

Last Monday I had a great experience with a member that came to visit us. He was baptized last year and my companion Elder Shaw was one of the Elders who taught him so he likes to come and visit us every once and a while. He struggles with social anxiety and he wanted to get more comfortable talking to me since he doesn't know me as well so while he visited he asked to talk with me. 

During our conversation, he shared his written testimony with me that he had also shared at his baptism. As he nervously read it to me, the Spirit that I felt was incredible. It was so sincere and the things he's been through that he spoke about left me speechless when he finally finished. You never know the power a simple testimony can have. You never know how much good you really do sometimes. Although I tried to express how meaningful his testimony was to me he may never know the full impact it had on me. Never be afraid to share your testimony no matter how simple you think it may be.

This week we were also able to shovel snow for a member who we haven't seen for a few months. That may not seem like much, but what I have found is that a lot of the times people feel like we are only interested in baptizing them and that's it. However, when we take the time to give service, even if they aren't interested in the gospel at all, we show them that we truly care about them, love them, and are willing to take time to serve them with WHATEVER they need with no expectations. 

We've shoveled, painted, raked, remodeled apartments, scooped dog poop, fixed patio doors, and helped people move. Anything they need we are there sharing our love for them through our dedicated service. Service shows charity which is the pure love of Christ. Is there anything stronger that we can share with people than the pure love of Christ?

New Years was crazy busy for us. It was fantastic!! We had a lunch appointment with our investigator Kathleen, her brother, and father, which is the first meal invite from them since Elder Shaw arrived in the area 6 months ago. Awesome! We played a card game with them afterwards called Avalon which is a card version of the game Mafia. Nothing is funnier than watching a people throw each other under the bus and turn against each other (in a truly humorous way) with joking accusations haha. I know it sounds terrible for me to say that, but those who have played games where a bit of deceit and trickery is involved know how funny it can get as the deceitful plans are exposed and the trickery is revealed. 

After that we had a dinner appointment with a part member family, again for the first time in 6 months, and it was great to be able to visit with them, talk with them, and share a message with them. After that we went to Mark's home and played board games until we needed to go home. Gotta love New Year's Eve with a curfew ;).

We also went up to the Dupont's this week and Vianney showed us around his 100 acres of land. It was cool to see giant trees that he had planted with his children when they were young. To me it was another example of the Law of Increasing Returns. (If you haven't already read this talk, I encourage you to. It is an amazing talk by Henry B. Eyring). After that we played Scattagories with him, his wife, their son Benjamin and his wife. I quickly realized how little french I know haha. Scattagories in a foreign language might be the hardest/most stressful thing I've done especially since there is a timer and you have to think fast IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. It was so fun though. Vianney consistently put random things down that no one had heard of so while he laughed hysterically and tried to justify his "made-up" words and why they qualified, his son would be googling them to check their accuracy. I love that family so much they are amazing!!

Our church meetings this Sunday might have been the best yet since I've been out in mission field. Mark came and brought his friend Mimi which was amazing for a number of reasons that I am grateful to the Lord for. 1) He brought her to church which in and of itself is a great thing! 2) It was fast and testimony meeting so she was able to hear heartfelt testimonies that both Elder Shaw and I could tell touched her and 3) the Sunday school lesson was on why the Book of Mormon is important to our religion. It could not have been a more perfect Sunday for an investigator.

We had a great week with a lot of tender mercies from the Lord. I love you guys so much!! Serve and testify with all your heart, might, mind and strength and follow the Spirit in everything you do.  As we do this I know that we will find ourselves accomplishing things we never thought possible.

Have a great week! Stay strong, stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda.

With the Elders in St. Foy

Home of the Duponts

On the Road to Montreal

Planet Poutine with the St. Foy Elders

The Canadian "White House"

Service at the Duponts

St. Laurent

Week 19 - Cette semaine était fou...

This week was NUTS!!! We knew we had a mission wide devotional on Tuesday in Montréal so we were planning on driving to Québec City Monday and spending the night. However, for some reason the AP's told us not to drive down Monday which meant that we would have to drive straight through (7 hours) and leave by 4:00 am on Tuesday if we wanted to be there on time. So on Monday we were emailing in Rivière-du-Loup (RDL), which is halfway between Rimouski and Québec City, and since the AP's had instructed us not to drive down on Monday we didn't have any of our travel stuff with us or the suits that we needed. 

Halfway through emails around 4:00 pm we got a call from our Zone Leaders telling us that since it was snowing A LOT we needed to drive down to Québec City that night after all and spend the night. So needless to say we booked it back to our apartment to get our stuff then turned around and drove all the way back past RDL to Québec City and spent the night. 

Tuesday we drove to Montréal with the Ste. Foy Elders while also carrying 4 tires for the Québec Sisters who didn't have room for them and a big microphone stand for the Trois Rivière Elders. Needless to say we were pretty crammed for a good 3 hours. The devotional was great. I saw everyone from my MTC District as well as Elder Carr, Elder Bird, Elder Rouché, and Elder Rudolf (all from Kaysville UT, except E. Carr who grew up there until High School). 

There were a lot of musical numbers, scriptures read, and a really good lunch. We all received our packages, we dropped off the tires at the Mission Office then drove back to Ste. Foy. Once we arrived in Ste. Foy, we went caroling which was really fun! We sang for a member's family who directed us across the street to one of their friends whom they said would really love some Christmas music. So we went and sang a couple verses of "Venez tous, fidèles", "Les anges dans nos campagnes", and "Au loin, dans l'étable", which are "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "Angels We Have Heard On High", and "Away in a Manger" for a super nice old woman and her son. 

Afterwards she hugged the sisters and when she came towards us the new Ste. Foy Elder extended his hand to shake hers, because we aren't allowed to hug, and she grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a hug. She then proceeded to hug each of us, including me, and gave the shorter Elders a kiss on the neck.  The Sisters were laughing hysterically and all of us Elders laughed because of how uncomfortable we felt haha. 

Afterwards we went with the Ste. Foy Elders and ate poutine at Planet Poutine. 

FYI, on Tuesday my older sister was married in the Salt Lake City Temple!! 

When we got back to Rimouski on Wednesday we ate dinner with a family in our branch and had a game night with them which was really fun. Christmas Eve we went to the Dupont's for dinner, exchanged some gifts and then came home.

Christmas was amazing!! We spent the day with Mark Parent, a recent convert who is from RDL.  Mark is home for the holidays and is working on his masters degree at the University of Texas at Austin.  Mark and his family invited us to their home in Rivière-du-Loup. We skyped/face-timed with our families which was awesome! It's so great to see and talk to my family after 4 months of not being able to see them and hear their voices. We ate dinner with Mark and his family, played board games (Life and Payday), then drove back to Rimouski.

We shared the new Mormon Message with Kathleen and her dad on Saturday and had a few lessons with some of our members on Sunday. It was a crazy busy week but it was incredible. One of the presents my family sent me was a small plaque with a quote from Winston Churchill that says, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal; It is the courage to continue that counts."

I love you all! Happy New Years!! Continue in faith, hope, charity and love with an eye single to the Glory of God. Continue with courage to face and overcome whatever comes your way! Stay safe!

Love,

Elder DiReda

FaceTime with the Family

Mark's Family - Christmas Dinner

Mark Parent and I - Christmas Day

Christmas Day

Christmas Day - The Game of Life

Branch Christmas Party

Week 18 - Joyeux Noël!!!

Salut à tous!! Joyeux Noël!!! C'est fou que c'est Noël déjà!! Comment va la vie? Man vous me manquez beaucoup!!! 

This week was really good. Mark, a recent convert, who attends school at the University of Texas, Austin, but is from here, introduced us to 2 more of his friends when we all went out to lunch together.  We had a really good lesson with them on who we are as missionaries and what we do. They expressed interest in learning more so after the holidays and finals they want to meet with us and hear more!

On Saturday night we had our branch Christmas party.  We had 2 part member families, 2 investigators and almost all of our members come!! It was so awesome to have them all together eating and talking and creating friendships!! Since it was the week before Christmas it was harder to meet with people.

In a BYU Devotional talk by Elder Holland that I listened to recently he talks about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. Elder Holland said, "...everyone, including (and perhaps especially) the righteous, will be called upon to face trying times. When that happens we can sometimes fear God has abandoned us, and we might be left, at least for a time, to wonder when our troubles will ever end. We identify with him when he cries from the depth and discouragement of his confinement:O God, where art thou? . . .
How long shall thy hand be stayed . . . ?
Yea, O Lord, how long shall [thy people] suffer . . . before . . . thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them? [D&C 121:1–3]
That is a painful, personal cry—a cry from the heart, a spiritual loneliness we may all have occasion to feel at some time in our lives."
When in these troubled times we must remember what Heavenly Father replied to Joseph,

My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes. [D&C 121:7–8]

We will all face trials and pains and times where we may even question the existence of God. I pray that when we face these times that we will rely completely and fully on the Lord. The Lord will not forsake us.

I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. [D&C 84:88]

I love you all so much and am so grateful for everything each one of you has done for me!

Merry Christmas!! 

Love, 

Elder DiReda

Week 17 - Blessings!!!!!

So there is a recent convert who lives in Texas but grew up in Québec and he's visiting for the holidays so after emails last week we met him in Trois Pistoles which is a city about 40 minutes away, because he lives an hour and a half away. So anyways he's 25 and speaks perfect English because he has lived in the U.S. going to school for the past 4 ish years. It was so nice to talk to someone near our age, who is a member of the church, in English. Love the Québecois but English is great. English class in LR was great. One of our members who lives in La Rédemption planned the activity which was a fill in the blank for a song off of Michael Bublé's Christmas CD. It was so nice to listen to Michael Bublé Christmas songs because French hymns and French versions of Christmas songs aren't the same. Haha.

We had a good week of lessons. We met with several of our members and with our investigator Kathleen and shared the Christmas video and talked about the birth of Christ. There is a powerful Spirit that is present when talking about the birth of Christ. It's amazing!! Our member André, Kathleen's father, is hilarious!! So as a joke he hacked into Kathleen's laptop and changed the desktop picture to this picture.

While laughing at the picture, he said to Kathleen, "You look so much like your mother." Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be funny, but because Kathleen's parents are divorced I thought it was pretty funny. Haha. 

Chantale needed another blessing this week because she has an ear infection and she can't hear at all because she's completely deaf in her other ear. In any event, it was giving her a lot of pain so she called us. Giving blessings is fantastic. It's stressful in another language but it's worth it to see people being blessed almost immediately. On Friday we went back to La Rédemption because one of our members needed help finishing the framing around his patio door. It took us a good 4 hours but it was so fun to learn things about carpentry and they fed us lunch and dinner which is always a bonus! Saturday we went back to Trois Pistoles to meet with Marc again and he brought one of his friends. In the space of a few hours talking together we taught his friend the first two lessons and had a scriptural based lesson with Marc. Marc could not have come at a better time. It took so much stress off of me to be able to talk to people my age who are open to the Gospel.

Preparing for a talk in French

Sunday was great too. Elder Shaw and I had the privilege of speaking in church. I spoke on "The Parable of the Sower" by Dallin H. Oaks from General Conference in April. Elder Oaks taught about 3 of the types of ground. The stony ground, thorny ground, and the good ground that brought forth fruit. For the stony ground he talked about how important it is for us as members to help recent converts, investigators, and even members because the stony ground is they who accept the Gospel readily and excitedly but when trials arise they lose their faith and fall away. Elder Oaks talked about how we as members need to do everything we can to strengthen one another and to support one another. The thorny ground represent those who are caught up in the pleasures and distractions of the world. He talked about how we need to focus less on the worldly things like games on our phones, sports games, and things like that and spend more time with our families, serving others, and doing the simple things to increase our faith. He ended by talking about how our goal should be to be the good ground bringing forth good fruit.

I love you all and hope you all have a great and safe week, that you remember the Savior as Christmas quickly approaches and that you seek for ways to serve others. I know that if we sincerely have a desire to help someone, Heavenly Father will place people in our paths.

Love you all! Stay safe, stay faithful!

Love you guys!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Week 16 - MY DAD'S ALMOST 50 YEARS YOUNG EVERYONE!!!!

I thought my email heading would give you a laugh ma ;)

Winter is here hooray!! (said no one in Québec ever!)

Snow has begun to fall and temperatures have been dropping to -10 or so and it will get around -40 before winter is through. Pray I don't freeze! 

On Tuesday this week we went to Dora and Ruud's and helped them clean the tops of their cupboards. So much dust!! I love going over there though because they always feed us and we always have funny conversations with them. 

We also had our biggest turnout to English Class in La Rédemption which was awesome!! The rest of the week was slow because hardly anyone was around so we went contacting around nearby outlets. Since the temple is reopened we were allowed to go with our stake because Elder Shaw was going through with one of his recent converts for the first time so Friday we drove to Québec and for the 3 hour drive we listened to talks that our former Branch President put on a flash-drive for us. 

Let me tell you that is now my new favorite thing to do during long car rides. Nothing is better than arriving at your destination spiritually edified and feeling the Spirit so strongly. I encourage you all to try that during your next long car ride because it's amazing. 

The temple was an incredible experience. To be with someone receiving their own endowment brings the Spirit so strongly.  There is no better word to describe it besides captivating. It was so great to be back in the Lord's house away from the evil of the world and the temptations from Satan. To be able to sit in the Celestial Room and feel nothing but pure peace and love, there is no better feeling in the world! 

I have 2 spiritual thoughts for you all today. 

The first of which is to GO TO THE TEMPLE!! There is truly no greater place on earth to be closer to our Heavenly Father and to receive personal revelation. To have a temple so close is a blessing I took for granted before I left. Although Rimouski is 7 hours away, the trip is so worth it.  So don't take for granted having one within 15 minutes to an hour away. There are so many blessings awaiting us if we will take the time to go. 

The second I want to share is some advice a great friend gave me this week. To be honest, I have been struggling recently. It's been hard for me to be patient and feel like I'm being successful when the people we visit don't seem to be progressing. I realized this week that my problem is that 1) I am fighting for and expecting people to be converted within such a short period of time because I feel it as my responsibility to convert them before I leave and 2) I'm not focusing on loving them and just being friend. This great friend of mine lovingly put me in my place and I'm so grateful for it because it helped me realize things that I should've been focusing on the whole time. 

The email/letter read,

"You're out there to convert people, and that should take a lifetime! So don't worry if they're not ready yet. I promise that by being their friend, you are pulling back the veil bit by bit to let God's love shine through on them, even if they don't realize it yet. Your job is to spread the gospel, and that's love. There's few words I can think of that describe Christ better than "friend.""

I know that in each of your lives there are people you are helping through hard times or sharing important truths of the gospel with. I hope in so doing you are all smarter than I have been and recognize that the Lord has a plan and everything happens according to His timetable.  So for us it is important to focus on love and friendship. Thank you all for your love and friendship towards me and I hope and pray you share that same love with others. 

I love you all! Have a great week! Stay safe, stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Week 15 - Thanksgiving and Fondue

Happy Late Thanksgiving Everyone!!

I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and stayed safe during the always chaotic Black Friday. It was a slower week this week, but still a lot of good things happened. Elder Shaw and I gave two more priesthood blessings this week to one of our members and her non-member husband.  It was cool because that was the first time he asked the missionaries directly for a blessing. It's so amazing to be able to give a blessing, to feel the Spirit so strongly, and to be led by the Spirit to say what our Heavenly Father would want us say on His behalf. 

We called a few former investigators this week one of whom is an older lady named Raymond. Here is how the beginning of the conversation went:

Raymond: "Oui" (hello)

Me: "Bonjour c'est les missionnaires ça va bien? (hello it's the missionaries how are you)

For the next 5 minutes she spews french at me and from what I was able to understand she had been in and out of the hospital. However, after a few minutes of me just listening, she asked, 

"Est-ce que tu comprends le français?" (Do you understand french)

Me: "Un petit peu." (a little bit)

The rest of the conversation was her speaking to me in broken English which was leaps and bounds better than my french. She spoke to me about her health problems, her family, her trip to the United States with her son, and about the many problems of the world.  Sadly, all of this lead up to her telling me that due to her being in the hospital she wasn't sure when she would meet with us. Nonetheless, it was the most interesting and funniest 33 minutes of my mission. 

I also learned an important lesson. Even if we don't have the opportunity to teach every person we come in contact with about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just being there to listen and to be a friend brings them closer to Christ. 

One of the families in our branch is going to Utah for a few months so we made them a little collage quote book. Our investigators were busy this week so we weren't able to meet with them which was sad, but we were able to meet with one of our members who is the father of one our investigators. We taught a great lesson about temples using a really cool video that explains what temples are and why they are important and sacred to us as members of the church. 

I know I talk a lot about food, but this week I had one of the best meals ever! Since the Worners (my former branch president and his family) are leaving for Utah, they invited us over for a Thanksgiving/Christmas/going away dinner with them and two other families.  We fondued! Have any of you ever fondued moose and partridge? Cause I have and it was sooo amazing!! 

Fun with Fondue

Mooooooooose

More Fondue Fun

No More Partridge in a Pear Tree

As we were making the book of quotes for them I came across one I really liked in the memoir to Boyd K. Packer.  Elder Packer said that from a young age he decided to give back to God the gift we all have possessed since before our earthly life which is agency. That struck me because he didn't say that he would use his agency to follow Heavenly Father's commandments, but rather he said he would give his agency back to Him. When we come to a point where we humble ourselves and give our agency back to God and submit to His will, we truly begin to be better built line upon line, precept by precept, and grace upon grace. 

To be so familiar with the Spirit that we can receive, recognize, and act on a prompting immediately is where I hope we can all aspire to be and what we can all work towards achieving. 

I love you all and hope you had a great holiday and enjoy the Christmas season which is just now beginning. I encourage you all to go to lds.org and follow the main link to the Christmas videos. They are amazing and I hope you can all find opportunities to share a message about Christ this Christmas season with someone. 

I love you all. Stay safe and stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Here is another pic!!!

Pumpkin Pancakes (thanks grandma for the mix)!!

Week 14 - Training in Quebec

So this week we went to Quebec for Zone training and for the Montreal Quebec Temple re-dedication. Before we left Rimouski for Quebec, we taught a few lessons with some of our members about taking upon ourselves the name of Christ and about the importance of making and keeping covenants. 

While we were in Quebec we taught several lessons and participated in 2 priesthood blessings for the sick and afflicted. There is a special spirit present during those blessings! 

Zone training was really good. President Patrick taught us about the importance of temple work and family history work for our members and recent converts. Our zone leaders reminded us about the things Elder Golden taught us and encouraged us to do such as finding a family a day and setting goals and plans to baptize at least 1 family per month. The sister missionaries who were responsible to train us taught us on planning and how we need to be more specific in terms of aligning our plans and goals more closely with God's will. 

In Quebec, we went contacting in Old Quebec, which is a beautiful part of the city that has the architecture, set up, and feel of old France. I'm so grateful to have a temple now in the mission again. It is such an amazing place where I feel closer to the Lord than in any other place. This week I read a talk by Elder Caussé entitled "For When I Am Weak, Then Am I Strong". He talked about 4 points that can help us receive strength to overcome the challenges of life. 

1) Build Upon Our Strengths

  "Our problem is never that we have no strengths; the problem comes when we do not recognize our strengths and build upon them. 

  

  "With a humble and honest heart, seek to identify, develop, and apply for good those gifts that the Lord has given you."

2) Recognize Your Personal Limitations

  "God is not the God of superheroes, nor of people without weaknesses. Such beings do not exist! God helps people like you and me, those who recognize their limits and the weakness of their condition and seek for His help and guidance. Failing to recognize our limitations will block our progression. On the other hand, accepting them humbly lays the foundation for eternal progression."

3) Rely on the Lord

  

  "True wisdom includes recognizing our dependence on our Creator and His son, Jesus Christ, to reach our full potential...Where pride says, "I am the one who did it," wisdom prefers to recognize, "God empowered me to be able to do it.""

  "Recognizing our personal limitations does not mean that we should put ourselves down and wallow in our weaknesses. Accepting our limitations is not an excuse to limit ourselves. On the contrary, as disciples of Jesus Christ we aspire to that which is better and more elevated. The goal of our existence is to be raised to a level of perfection that will allow us to return to live in the presence of our heavenly Father."

  "The Lord often places His servants in situations with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In this manner he pushes us to humble ourselves and to rely solely on His strength. He makes us instruments of His miracles and the manifestations of His power and compassion."

  

  "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ."

4) Qualify Yourselves to Receive the Grace of the Savior

  "Grace is spiritual knowledge and power that changes how someone sees himself, increases his capacities, and magnifies his ability to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord."

I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that through His grace and mercy, if we humble ourselves, He will make our weaknesses strengths. 

I love you all! Stay safe, stay faithful!

Love,

Elder DiReda

Week 13 - Semaine 7 à Rimouski

So this transfer is already 1/5 over...where on earth does the time go? As winter is quickly approaching we have more and more service pop up. This week we spent 8 hours helping a family move apartments. Needless to say we are pretty exhausted. 

Also, I've almost mastered the refined chocolate chip cookie recipe! We've made them three times to take to other people and we are taking a break from them for a while because we end up eating too many. 

We visited Dora and Ruud again this week and she knitted me a scarf! We had a lot of good lessons with members this week. Some of which were from Liahona articles, from the 5 lessons, and some were from Preach My Gospel. It's really frustrating when you teach great lessons with a really strong spirit to some of the less-active members and they still don't come back to church. 

We do however have a really amazing member who is working several hours from Rimouski so he isn't able to come to church but we call him three times a week and read the scriptures with him. He is such an amazing member. Every time we read with him I find myself learning more and thinking more deeply because he will occasionally have deeper questions for us to answer. He has such amazing faith. I hope I get to meet him one day. 

We taught our investigator Kathleen about the Plan of Salvation and she was involved and understood what we were teaching her. She is making great progress! It's incredible because she has known the missionaries for 3+ years, but now because she's older she's listening to the lessons for herself and is keeping commitments. We can see her faith greatly increasing! 

We had our Branch's Primary Program yesterday which was really good, but since we only have 2 primary children, it was a shorter program. Also, since we only have 2 primary children they needed help filling some of the time. So, President Worner and Sister Worner asked us to sing.  Now for those who have heard me sing you understand why this was a bad idea.  For those who haven't heard me sing, count yourselves lucky. We did it nonetheless and it was a good program. 

This week I found myself reading and listening to more talks from BYU Devotionals and General Conference talks. One of which was by Elder Eyring in a BYU Devotional where he spoke on "A Law of Increasing Returns". He talked about being examples of Christ and the trouble we have in our lives is that we can't see the seeds we are planting so it's difficult for us to know if the seed has yielded all it will yield or if we should continue working and waiting. 

He shared 2 Peter 3:3-4 and posed questions that I really needed to ponder this week because it was a harder week for me. Elder Eyring said,

"You are believers, not scoffers. Yet the scoffers can be helpful, because they encourage you to get an answer to this question: What am I willing to keep giving heart and soul for, when neither I nor the scoffers may see returns for a long, long time? And when we decide there are potential rewards worth that commitment, you'll want answers to another question: How can I keep myself working and waiting if the scoffers are loud and the delay long? There are spiritual crops that require months, years, and sometimes a lifetime of cultivation before the harvest. Among them are spiritual rewards you want most." 

For me this was powerful because the people in Québec, for the most part, despise the idea of Christ and God.  It's demoralizing to see them shut the doors so quickly on the thing that will bless them the most in their lives and in the life to come. It's heartbreaking to realize that with each door slam or swear word or dropped appointment/commitment that people are rejecting Him.  To think that if Christ were here Himself they would do the same thing to Him destroys me inside.  Yet, I realize that as it says in Ether 12:6, "...I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." 

Elder Eyring goes on to say that, "The prettiest flowers I've ever seen were among rocks near the tops of mountains. That must have been partly because I worked so hard to get there, for something else. And then, suddenly, there they were. By looking at them and at the blessings around you, it will be easy to do what King Benjamin suggested: O how you ought to thank your heavenly King." 

It's hard for me and will continue to be hard for me to witness the hardness of hearts and the hatred towards God and Christ, but I have a stronger testimony now than ever and I know that if I keep working hard with all my heart, might, mind and strength that I will find those prepared who are searching for something more in their lives, who are searching for the truth. 

I hope you all continue working hard in everything you do and never give up your faith because some of the blessings we desire most and seek after the most are the ones that take the longest to achieve. D&C 58:3-4 

Love you all! Stay safe, stay faithful, stay strong!

Love, 

Elder DiReda

We Have Snow!!!!

What Else but SNOW ANGELS!!

Cheese! Glorious Cheese!!!  

Week 12 - Staying in Rimouski

First transfer in the mission is already over!! Wow time flies! We are staying in Rimouski for at least another transfer so that's good because I'm good friends now with the people we visit and I'm getting a lot better at understanding them. 

This week was up and down. It started off really slow as far as appointments and lessons, but it picked up towards the end. We made some cookies, mom's recipe, and took them to some families we haven't seen for a while. 

Mom's cookies made by Me

One of our visits turned into a dinner appointment with an Italian family which was awesome! I've been doing salad dressing all wrong. Olive oil and salt is the way to go. Anyways, I think you'll enjoy this story. So we took some cookies to Ruud and Dora and it was a bit chilly so I was wearing my dad's long, wool, dressy overcoat and Ruud let us in, looked at me and said, "That is a sharp look!!! Dang man you look like stuff's about to go down." (He didn't say stuff though.  Use your imagination.  Another word that begins with S). Haha it was hilarious! 

Elder Shaw has been having me take the lead on the lessons and spiritual thoughts in order to help me work on my french and it has helped a lot. It's still choppy, but I can really feel the support and strength of the Spirit. 

Recently, I shared about the Sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger being the vilest of sinner's and then turning into powerhouse missionaries because of their conversion.  It is a testimony to me of how our trials prepare us to help others who are going through the same challenges and difficulties. 

I also shared Jacob 3:1-2 about how praying with all of the energy and effort we have will bless us as God helps us get through our afflictions and trials. 

We had an amazing lesson with Mélanie on Friday!! Mélanie is the referral we received from the Sister Missionaries in Saint Jean and she's the one who wants to be baptized. We met with her along with our Branch President and she has 5 kids, 3 of whom are over the age of 8!!! She was raised Catholic, but has had some issues with its teachings, mainly the baptism of infants. She expressed concerns about that practice because, as she explained it, infants don't make the choice to be baptized. We taught her about the Restoration and she was attentive and focused and asked good questions. We helped her understand what we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches about baptism and other topics and she's super excited. 

She was going to come to church and bring her 5 kids, but she lives an hour and a half away and she looked at her budget and realized she couldn't afford it this week :( 

She's still super excited and so are we so we'll see what happens!! Church was great especially since our investigator Kathleen came to our meetings. 

Kathleen is the daughter of a less-active member and is 14 years old. Anyways, she loved church and especially loved class because it was interactive, open to comments, thoughts, and feelings as opposed to her current church where it's more of a lecture the entire time. 

Afterwards we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she told us that prior to coming to church she wasn't sure if there even was a God, but now she has renewed faith that God lives. She's progressing so much, but I guess her parents talked with her and said they want her to wait until she's 18 to make the decision to be baptized. That's a huge step because initially her mom was completely against her being baptized at all. 

I love reading the testimonies of Ammon and Alma. It truly opens my eyes and teaches me what my attitude should be.  In Alma 28:9-10 it reads, "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

When I see the wonderful people we visit becoming stronger in their faith and making progress and when I read from home the strengthening testimonies of my family and friends, I am truly filled with joy and overwhelming peace.  More importantly, I remember all the tender mercies the Lord has shown me and how He hears and answers my prayers. Oh how wonderful it is that we can all be instruments in the Lord's hand by following promptings of the Spirit and being Christlike.

I love you all! 

Elder DiReda

Here are some more pics!!!

My Birthday - Thank you Sis. Worner for 
the moose burgers & my birthday cake!!!

Called to "Serve" (Before)

(After)

Beautiful Rimouski