PEI - Bay of Fundy

Maybe Prince Edward Island IS heaven on earth?!! Seriously it is stunning..really stunning!!!Gently rolling hills with lovely big groves of mixed forests, fertile pink soil, fields of corn and beautiful fields and fields of perfectly hilled potatoes. We arrived at our Beach House Bed and Breakfast about nine thirty last night just a stones throw from the Cavendish beach and this morning after toiling over transfers, we went for a lovely run along that very beach. Tide was receding, so the sand was damp and hard which makes for easier running than the dry, loose sand. It was beautiful!! 

We haven’t been to Green Gables yet, but you can be sure everywhere we look I am craning to see places we saw in both Anne of Green Gables and Road to Avonlea!! I know I have raved about the flora around here, and I know I probably will our entire mission!! Anne’s wedding bouquet, if I had created it, would have been picked from the meadow down the road, and would have been brimming with pink, lavender, deep purple and white lupine, with mounds of lobulari, and garnished with delicate white daisies, all tied with ribbon and lace.

I keep saying to myself…we are not tourists, we are not tourists!!! Sorry if I sound like we are!!

Transfers are next week - we lose 14 missionaries, and only get 6 new - 2 sisters and 4 elders, which makes for a real challenge!! We are having to close three areas, and early this morning while working on our transfers which happen next week, we realized that that is our biggest challenge - being so in tune with the Spirit that we know where each missionary needs to serve.  Touring the mission, and meeting our missionaries has made the task of reassigning a little easier, but we are far from finished. There is this incredible program called imos on lds.org , for us that is actually a transfer board so it is very transportable and we can access it on a phone, iPad or a laptop. 

Visits today with Sister Youngberg (Idaho Falls) and Sister Anderson(Vernal, Utah)in Charlottetown were wonderful. We tried to explore ‘Relatives Near You’  in Family Search, because I’m sure Sister Anderson is some long lost relative!! (my Grandma Anna Leah Anderson Hamilton was born in Vernal, Utah). Unfortunately my family Search account was locked so we will have to try next time.

Montague senior couple Elder and Sister Dalling, from Rexburg, Idaho  serving  their fourth mission invited us for a delicious lobster salad lunch. Now that was a treat! FOUR missions…can you believe it? Sister Dalling said she would share her recipe so I think we will serve it at our farewell supper next week. They are working so hard to help reactivate members and are trying so hard with a totally less-active family that their deceased son-in-law had loved serving 25 years ago(when they were active). And every week they bring two little primary age children to Church hoping that their parents will eventually come back. They also hold family history classes, and have posted signs up all over town promoting their classes. Brother Dalling, a retired school teacher who coached sports for years loved when Dad suggested he go volunteer to help coach High School football or basketball! 

Visited with Elders Browning (Pocatello) and Elder Oler (Red Deer)  chatting and sharing testimonies. Montague has not had a baptism for over four years, but they are determined to change that! People in the Maritimes are so kind, and very friendly, but they aren’t excited to change their ways.

There are beautiful old churches in every city,  and all over the countryside, so maybe a generation ago, we think they were a God-fearing people. We chuckled at this cute magnetic billboard sign displayed in front of an old Baptist Church with this play on words: 

‘This Church has Prayer Conditioning’

Our Saturday, July 7, was a marathon day; visiting Miramishi Elders Anderberg (Babb), and Elder Hamblin(Sugar City, Idaho) who has a shrunken version of his family tree that goes back to Adam!!

Enjoyed a happy to drive to Moncton, a bustling city at the ‘crossroads of the Maritimes,’ and met our Dieppe Elders: Sawa Sawa (Congo - Calgary),Smith( Holladay ) Day (Edmonton) and Marsh (Holladay ). We have been so blessed to have such obedient missionaries -our Elders and our Sisters, and we are so excited to serve with all of them!

The Bay of Fundy is fascinating;  did you know that the force of the tide churns up the river turning the tongue of the river a pinky brown colour, and that the tip of the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world?

Sleeping in an old hotel in the Historical Acadian Village near Miramichi, New Brunswick Saturday night was magical, too bad we arrived just as the rest of the village was closing. The old hotel was almost vacant, so marching down the hall to our private bathroom wasn’t bad at all!

Yesterday, Sunday, July 8, we attended our meetings in the lovely Moncton Ward with a tiny congregation of about forty saints, and our missionaries had five investigators there. Dad and I got to speak. I didn’t use a single piece of paper…(just used my iPad!!) 

Our Senior couple in Summerside, the Bremner’s from Minnesota, also serving their fourth mission invited us for a very yummy pork roast supper. They had their daughter Lisa and her husband David visiting.  Sister Bremner served heavenly baked apples for dessert. 

We calculated we have been wearing Sunday clothes for 18 days, and we are enjoying it..sometimes though we have to can’t remember what day of the week it is!!

Life doesn’t get better than this!!