Our first General Authority visitor!!

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Another amazing week in the Canada Halifax Mission!!  I wish we could transplant you all here to experience the joy of our service!! Let me share with you some of our week!

Wednesday afternoon we held our MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) at the Dartmouth Chapel with our visiting General Authority Seventy and his wife - Elder and Sister Haynie. The Haynie’s just finished a three year Area Presidency Mission in the Philippines, and now he is serving as second counsellor to Elder Rand Bennett in the North America North East Area. We along with our missionaries were SO excited to have a General Authority visit us!! MLC includes all our Zone Leaders, and our Sister Training Leaders (STL’s)from the entire Mission. To have our entire MLC here requires flights from NFLD, and long drives from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI.   Thanks to our Office Secretary Sister Boyle who makes all travel plans; everyone arrives, and everyone gets back to their areas. The MLC is amazing and such incredible training ground for our missionaries, and for us!! Richard and I got to give some training. I taught about Christlike leadership attributes., and shared some of the lovely stories about President Henry B. Eyring from this months Ensign. Richard conducted a general miscellaneous discussion, and then we were off to the airport to pick the Haynie’s up who were delayed in Boston.  Elder Haynie is a master teacher and began teaching as soon as we arrived back at the Stake Centre.   Around 7pm our trainings were complete and we collected our bag lunches made by the office staff, bid our MLC farewell and the four of us made the  quick 2  1/2 hour drive to Moncton, New Brunswick. We loved travelling and visiting!! Thursday we held our Moncton Zone Conference again with Elder Haynie presiding, and were grateful for his inspired training which he called ‘Finding, Finding, and More Finding.’ Traditionally, knocking and tracting have been hallmarks of the CHM. Many, many missionaries would spend upwards of forty hours a week obediently tracting day in, day out, week in and week out, with limited success. Elder Haynie’s inspired teachings on ‘finding’  using a variety of finding methods was exactly what we needed. 

He repeated his great presentation for the Nova Scotia North and Nova Scotia South Zones, and gave similar training in Newfoundland.

Sister Dalling found ‘Little Louis,’ a delightful French gourmet restaurant in Moncton, and we loved eating and visiting with the Haynie’s, and senior couples Dalling’s, and Bremners, both of whom are serving their FIFTH mission!!! They have both celebrated their 50 plus anniversaries, and I think all four of them are 75+. Japan, Florida, Iceland, Romania, and Nauvoo are some of the places they have served. INSPIRING!!! 

Elder Bremner told the inspiring story of his conversion as a young 21 year old. Missionaries came to his apartment looking for someone who used to live in his apartment and he told them that the person had moved;  the missionaries thanked him, and walked away.  As they were walking away young Brother Bremner called after them asking them who they represented, and what they were doing!! That began his conversion!! He joined the Church shortly after. The Bremner’s lived in Minnesota almost their entire married life - other than the four other missions they served, and after retiring from Hormel (he was pretty high up in the processed meat SPAM company!)and the six months of the year they spent in Arizona. They are doing lots of Family History work since his roots are from PEI, and we are waiting for approval from SLC to set up an official Family History Centre.  The Dallings are from Rexburg where Brother Dalling was a High School physical education teacher, and Coach. They have made contact with several less actives in Montague PEI, and have befriended a family that their deceased son-in-law knew on his mission! Small world. 

Friday night we hosted a Senior Missionary meal for sixteen at our home, and were so grateful for Sister Livingstone who prepared the entire delicious Cafe Rio meal! My only contribution were dinner buns, and Grandma Low’s Raspberry dessert. We just love being together, and it was especially fun to have the Haynie’s join us and get acquainted with our dear friends. Assistants Elder Boardman and Elder Sawa Sawa popped in to deliver sound equipment and they arrived just in time for supper so we added two more chairs,  and they joined us too! 

Our hour and a half flight to Newfoundland Friday night had us in St. John’s by 10:30pm,  and we were raring to go early Saturday morning, with Richard starting interviews at 7:30am.  Schow’s, Jagoda’s, and the Smith’s served delicious taco salad, and squares. 

Newfoundland Zone is our smallest, with only twelve young missionaries, and eight seniors, all who were in attendance except our newest couple - the Shenfields from Rocky Mountain House(Sister Sheffield is Margo Lamb’s sister!!) who are enroute to Cornerbrook 

We have had such wonderful Musical numbers at each Zone Conference; first with Elder Ball on the piano and he along with Elders, Juaroc, and Giebel sang; Sisters Crowley and Degraffenried sang a wonderful arrangement of ‘Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd’; and Sisters Schow, Jagoda, Smith, Nelson, Hawkins, and Powell with Sister Davenport on the piano sang ‘Peace in Christ.’ Our missionaries can sing, and they do…Called to Serve, and Hark all Ye Nations are some of their favourites - ours too!! 

NFLD Zone Conference ended around four, and after a quick tour of downtown St. John’s  and up to Signal Hill, and a little stop at Nonia’s to buy some NFLD mittens,  we zipped out to the Schow’s where they hosted a delightful homemade meal for Elder and Sister Haynie,  the Jagoda’s, the Smith’s, Jonathan and Jordan and Dad and I. Sister Schow totally transformed her Living Room into a Dining Room using two long Church tables stuck together which formed a big square, and then covered them with two white tablecloths, clever! Meal looked beautiful and tasted even better: green salad with strawberries, wild blueberries(they had picked!!), nuts and yummy pink dressing, fresh rolls, Newfoundland baked potatoes with the best topping…sour cream, grated butter, and cheese all mixed together, carrots and  lemon chicken with extra lemon sauce, and dessert to die for…homemade grasshopper pie ..Thank you Sister Schow!!!..you can be sure I will be running on Monday!!

I’m afraid to say FOOD is big part of this calling…everywhere we go there is MORE delicious food!!! 

One more great story..Sister Arnold (our nurse), from London, Ontario,  shared her conversion story.  As a young woman her goal was to take her Nursing training…she recounts that she promised the Lord if He helped her get her RN she would serve a mission.  When she completed her nursing she was good on her word, and checked with her Pastor about opportunities to serve a Mission, but there were no openings anywhere so…she got married. She says that she prayed the missionaries to her home…as a young mom with one son, when the missionaries came a knocking on her door..she was skeptical, but interested….was invited to attend Sunday Meetings, and in her very words said; “as she entered the Relief Society room…she felt like she was home.” She joined the Church 41 years ago. Her husband who never did join the Church passed away 11 few years ago, and this Mission is her payback to the Lord for getting her RN. Her son David and his wife have her six wonderful grandchildren and all are active in the Church, with her oldest grandchild preparing for his Mission.   Sister Arnold also added that she reunited about 15 years ago with one of the Sisters that had taught her.  She is sure that they were friends in the pre-existence, and when Sister Arnold knew she was coming to a nonmember home…this sister missionary promised her that she would find and teach her the Gospel, which she did!!! One of Elder Haynie’s little statistics he shared with us that in the Canada Halifax Mission for every three people we get to attend Sacrament Meeting…one of them will join the Church!!! Sister Arnold’s story confirms the power of attending our meetings!!

We continue to love this incredible experience…our missionaries are the BEST!!! We are so blessed to be here.

Thanks for your prayers…we feel the power that comes from you praying for the missionaries.

Love to you.