**First Week in the Mission Field!!! French Speaking to Mont St Hilaire (near St Hyacinthe), Trainer: Elder Rosenlof " I just have the reassuring thought that its not about me and Heavenly Father needs me to do this work. To be where I am."

I have been working out.. hehe..!  (last of the MTC pics)

My administry card is in french!

 we had a devotional and I made everyone cry!! I led it and it was the greatest thing ever! I love my elders

 they put shaving cream on my face while i was packing..

this is our teacher!

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Area: Mont-St-Hilaire (near St Hyacinthe), Quebec, Canada 

Trainer: Elder Ross Rosenlof (from California/Utah)

Language: French

Je suis ici ma mere. I already know you are going to freak out when i tell you everything that has happened this week.

The long awaited email.. WOOHOOO CANADA!! Oh my gosh.. this place!! this is almost the new love of my love but Elder Miller will always be number 1! Wow I cant believe I am here this has been the craziest week of my life.. So I will go through what happened! so wake up Tuesday morning at 2:30 so that we can clean the room and get ready for the bus that leaves at 3:30. We got ready and we were there like 5 minutes early we put out things on the bus and just waited! the other elders and sisters that were coming with us were like 2 minutes behind us which was just enough time for them to wait there for 20 minutes wondering where we were.. oops! Elder Vanaquer and I felt so bad but we all made it and all was well.

 We got to the airport we got to call home and it was so nice to here my families voice I could feel their warm and I am thankful for this opportunity!   Then we got on the plane. I had only gotten like 3 hours of sleep  because I couldnt sleep AND on the plane right from salt lake city to Detroit I was surrounded by missionaries so I didnt really have to much reason to stay awake so i passed out and just slept most of the way. I wanted a missionary opportunity but being surrounded by missionaries makes it kinda difficult to do that. so we got there and we had an hour to get to our connection flight and our connection was literally the farthest possible connection away so we like sprinted there and we made it in time so no worries. this time I sat with Elder Vanaquer.. haha so no preaching on the plane but we talked for the short flight about our excitement and we practiced our spanish. We got there and it took us like 3 hours to get out of the airport! First everyone was freaking out because they were so happy! Everything was in French and there were so many people and we were all just so happy to be there! Some members saw us actually and we got to talk to them then I realized how much of my French  I had forgotten I had no idea what was going on haha.. especially because for the last 6 weeks my entire life had been in Spanish! But all is well. we got our visas and all that and obviously there were some flaws like an elder got a visa for 22 years haha.. we fixed it so no worries!

Then we saw the AP's and the mission president for the first time! We gave them big hugs and just sorted things out then started our journey to the mission home! the traffic was terrible and the drivers to be honest were pretty crazy... Montreal is beautiful!! it was also raining super hard and this brought the comforts of home. The first time I remember being in Newberg it rained and so it seemed fitting that my new home would be raining when I arrived as well.

We had an amazing dinner and Elder Baldobinos!!! WHO I LOVE SO MUCH! We worked out because we hadnt worked out in like 3 days and we had just stuffed ourselves then we went to bed and little could  have prepared us for the next day....

Wednesday.. So we got trained and we were all just so excited to be there and ah we were all happy and ecstatic to be missionaries! so we go to transfers.. so slowly everyone starts getting called with their trainers and I am like the last of 3 and I noticed something. Out of the 6 Spanish missionaries - only 2 had been called in Spanish so far. 1 - who spoke the least English got called English speaking, Baldobinos got called English speaking and the 1 sister that spoke Spanish and English fluently got called French speaking. Then he called Elder Rosenlof and he called Elder Masse'! and he said we were going to Mont St. Hilaire and we were speaking..... FRENCH! Boom! so i am a French elder AND in my area.. guess what the closest town is? St. Hyacinthe. Yes. The lord works in mysterious ways.  I cant believe it. It is pronounce alot differently in french though! Saint Hyacinthe sounds like

 "saint ee a saint"

(Mom's note: our Masse ancestors are from Saint Hyacinthe Cte and its surrounding towns -parishes- and I was secretly hoping he would go there at some point on his mission... who knew it would be his FIRST area!?!)

There is a big river that runs right through it. there isnt any snow right now there are mountains. There are farmlands and stuff in between but there are cities like this spotted around. St hyacinthe is the biggest city and it is sooo cool. There isnt a million people there but there are a lot of buildings and its pretty compact and beautiful I cannot wait for it to snow! sorry for mistakes I am typing so fast!

So yeah life is amazing here I have met alot of members and I have no idea how to teach the gospel in french but I am working hard! our apartment is soooo nice! We have weights and a nice kitchen and a washer and dryer! the kitchen even has a dishwasher.. I think we have one of the nicest apartments in the mission! 

We have a car and just everything is perfect! it has been between 2 degrees and 11 degrees Celsius - so like 32-50 degrees Fahrenheit so it hasnt been that bad! but french is pretty craazy! and the quebecois accent is soo hard to understand it sounds like they are just talking with there nose all the time haha.. This is mainly in the older generation though so I am adjusting to that but it is just so perfect here! It smells so fresh and clean and it reminds me of home alot. just colder haha.

Elder Rosenlof is my trainer and he was born in California moved to.. It starts with an M I forgot and now he lives in Utah he has been out for 6 months almost 7. His French is super super good he speaks very well and he is an excellent missionary! He is 19 and is about my height with black hair and glasses! He is an amazing trainer! 

I am emailing from the church building that isnt too far away our area is pretty big though.. I havent been to church yet really because of general conference but I am told we have a decently sized ward.

My area.. I have no idea i just know that its big haha.. next week i will give you exact measurements but it is just on the outside of Montreal. We went to almost the top of our mission boundaries to visit some people and it took like 45 minutes so.. yeah also kilometers! that was a change haha it was pretty funny. All the signs being in French and the metric system. I gave a blessing too! There was a young mother from France and she was having a really hard time and before we did some service for her she asked me to give her a blessing and I had only met here like 10 minutes ago! It was so cool and I was thankful for the opportunity to serve it also was a witness of how the priesthood works. It wouldnt have mattered if she had known me for 10 minutes or 10 years because It was a blessing from God not elder masse' This was a very cool experience. I have not met any Masses but I am constantly asked if I am from here and I have been told numerous times that people recognize my name and that they know some other Masse's So thats cool I hope to come across some! My ward is the Mont st. Hilaire ward I think.

I dont need anything as of now! I have everything I could possibly imagine! well.. actually because i was called in French i dont have any French materials.. Well i got all that i needed but i dont have a nice french book of mormon or bible but I think that i could just get a decent one from the mission office other than that I am fine for now. I will just buy protien stuff from the store and yeah life is perfect!  I got the package and that was so useful it was so funny too thank you so much and I am sure that i will use that hood at some point haha so thank you for sending it!

Umm my biggest surprise was definitely speaking French I was not ready for that at all but I know it is something I need to learn and this is the most efficient way to do it so for the next 12 weeks I am a French elder! I often add in Spanish words now so i am trying to work on that haha..  so how transfers work is any language that you speak you can be called in so I could be called into English, french, or spanish anytime on my mission haha.. this is the greatest mission ever! isnt that so crazy??

 When Elder Holland gave that talk at General Conf I started crying and all I could think about was you. You are why I am here mother. Never forget how much i love you and what you mean to me.

Love Elder Masse'

email to grandma:

The living circumstances are far better than i expected and I am truly blessed to be where I am! there are only 2 of us and we have a washer and dryer and a dishwasher and all that we could ever need we live in the basement of a couples home they are an older couple. But we are so blessed! Yeah i did end up watching all of the conference in a church building. You will be happy to know that well 1 - I am extremely happy and I am speaking french here! It is beautiful and I love it i have truly been blessed. Thankyou so much for your love grandma! I wrote a lot in my weekly email about this weeks events so make sure to look at  that! 

-elder masse'

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Dad I love you so much. 

I am strong and of good cheer because I was taught by my parents. I know the storm is real. I have seen it. There is difficulties out here but I made a promise to myself that I would smile everyday as often as I can. Everytime I leave the apartment I have a smile and everytime I go back in I still have the same goofy smile. You are doing great things dad I love you so much.

I felt your love as I watched the priesthood session. I want you to know that. Even though I wasnt there I knew exactly where you were and what you were doing and I could feel your love. I take great comfort in the fact that Heavenly Father would never ask me to do something that I couldn't do. This single sweet thought has gotten me through everything in life. Because I knew there was always a next step. I knew that I was being watched over and loved and I knew no matter how hard it got that I could keep going. I have had thoughts of home. Of doubt. but after each one I just have the reassuring thought that its not about me and Heavenly Father needs me to do this work. To be where I am. I love you dad.

- Elder Masse'

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mont-st-hilaire

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his companion!
http://elderrossrosenlof.blogspot.com/

April 27, 2015:

“My first area that I've been assigned to is Mount-Saint-Hilare! It's
just a little east of Montréal. The city itself is pretty cool.
There's a mountain thing just outside that looks super cool. There's
also a river that flows in between the city of Mount-Saint-Hilare and
Beloeil. We live in Beloeil, the church is in Mount-Saint-Hilare. We
have a pretty big area, it goes up about 55km north and about 25km
east and west from here. We have a car though which is nice.

There's a ward here that's pretty big and strong. All the members are
super friendly. We got an apple pie and a jar of beans from members
our first Sunday haha. They're a lot of less active members in the
area though so strengthening the ward is going to be one of our main
focuses here.”