Wednesday, October 3, 2018
So much to report!! Another whirlwind week in the Canada Halifax Mission, and our heads spin as we keep up with all the needs and demands from here in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to Cornerbrook, Newfoundland, from Summerside, PEI, to Presque Isle, Maine; we love our service, and daily feel incredible invigoration, and growth in our testimonies. I hope I have raved enough about the blessings of serving missions?!
Missions revolve around a six week cycle…week six being ‘Transfer Week,’ probably the busiest of the cycle, although as I write that, I realize every week has us keeping a pace we never dreamt of!! Weeks one through five are filled with wonderful interaction with our missionaries, both young and old!! Zoom meetings with our seniors, Office, vehicle meetings, and meetings with our Assistants, and STL’s fill every Monday! And then, every week we travel to attend one of our ten District Councils. As I have mentioned our Mission is expansive and includes Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, a bit of Maine, and, as of last week, a tiny bit of Quebec, so we travel a lot. Some weeks we have what we call ‘out and back,’ days which means we get up early, drive to our destination, and then return home the same day. Other weeks we travel about four hours, stay overnight, meet, and then travel to another spot. When we have Newfoundland councils, we always fly. Taking the ferry would be an adventure, but we feel we would be wasting so much time…Anyway, those are not out and back days!! Last week, which was Week 4, we visited the wonderful New Brunswick East Council in Moncton, New Brunswick, and were inspired by the young leadership who are doing so well implementing all the trainings we, and the MLC (Mission Leadership Council) have been presenting. And that is the rule…we have such strong, obedient missionaries determined to follow counsel, and ‘find the elect.’ They are exceptional, motivational teachers, and we always come away so inspired!! It is so fun!!! While Richard is having interviews before the council meeting, I love to take a companionship with me to get our indoor picnic lunch supplies..sometimes we go for Mary Brown chicken, or Pizza Hut, but my favourite is to head to the grocery store, and let them choose!!
Anyway, hopefully you have an idea of our weekly activities!
Richard has many meetings; with Stake Presidents, Area Presidency monthly meetings via web Ex, Coordinating Council, interviews with potential converts, and many interviews with missionaries. His steel trap brain continues to amaze me!! He remembers everything, and is an incredible Mission President. I love to serve as his companion!!
Our Mission Home is a home away from home for so many, and finally we realized we needed a Guest Book to record all our new, and old friends who come. Last week we hosted our dear friends - Brendan’s parents, Brent and Kim Kearl, and we had such a fun time laughing and being together. They have already been travelling around Atlantic Canada for over five weeks. When we bid them farewell on Monday morning they were on their way to hike the Cabot trail in Cape Breton.
Sister O’Coin, Brother Spinney’s new FM assistant, was excited to take me on a new towel and sheet shopping spree, but the spree pretty much ended there, so with Elder Boyle’s approval I headed out on my own the next day and had fun at Ikea and Bed Bath and Beyond updating our spare rooms; just in time for our weekend visitors!!!
Our new dear friends the Wilkinson’s - Elder and Sister (John and Pam) from Pleasant Grove, Utah who are serving in far off Sydney, NS, spent two nights here, and attended several temple sessions with members of their branch. Sister Wilkinson grew up in Winnipeg, and actually met her husband when he was a young Elder Wilkinson!! They both understand the dynamics in a small branch of the Church, and are so keen to help unite and build the Sydney saints. Such amazing examples to us. I think I told you about them…they are the couple that are going to spend the next ten years serving missions!!! What a legacy for their family!!
Elder and Sister Smith (Richard and Camellia) the newlyweds from Utah are serving in Gander, Nfld. and brought Dorothy Collins and Sylvia White to attend the Temple for the first time. We loved watching their enthusiasm, and were grateful to have them stay with us. Ricks and Sandra Smith from Magrath were such dear friends to these good sisters, and did so much to help prepare them for this experience! It is our goal to help all our new converts to get to the Temple!! Our goal, and our missionaries follow through with so much ministering, and teaching to help achieve that goal!!
Saturday we hosted a Mission Presidency ham dinner, and loved getting to know these amazing saints - counsellors - President and Sister Gilbert Smith, and President and Sister Gallant, Stake President Glanfield, Sister Glanfield their two children Nikki and James, and Elder and Sister Boyle all came, and we enjoyed wonderful visiting.
Sunday we had another fun feast with a bunch of Albertan’s! We bumped into Shane and Cheryl Bowden at the Temple last week and had invited them, and Shane’s sister Margo and her husband Norman, as well as Shane’s brother Tom and his wifeTracey for Sunday dinner. Then after Sacrament Meeting I found a group of eight Albertan’s visiting Halifax for an Accountant Conference - Jason and Lisa Comin, Daylyn and Jocelyn Wynder, Ryan and Brooke Vadnais, and Kyle and Zoe Stone. I thought they needed a place for dinner so before we knew it we had two tables full of guests!! I served cream chicken, potatoes, carrots, rolls, and banana/strawberry cream pie, and Cheryl brought creamy caesar salad…we were well fed, and had such a great time visiting!! We were all thrilled to make connections!! With Brent and Kim Kearl joining us, our tables totalled 18!! Cooking for a crowd at home really prepared me for this calling!!
I do spend a lot of time preparing meals, cooking buns, and cookies and so enjoy doing it.
I did have two experiences in the past few weeks where I almost threw in the baking buns towel….first time I accidentally tripled the kosher salt..and the second time I used old flour that we had inherited, and they turned out like baking powder biscuits!! After both those failures I came close to buying buns for ever more, but after some encouragement from our missionaries I attempted again, and had success, so I am back baking buns at least twice a week!! By the way the failed rolls are going to make it into the turkey dressing this weekend!!!
The most challenging of all our experiences is when a missionary decides he or she wants to go home, and again this week, one of our Sisters thought she was being guided, and needed to return home. Oh my goodness…we prayed and prayed, Richard counselled, and counselled with her, our Mental Health specialist Sister Waterbury counselled with her, she talked with her anti, unsupportive non-member Mom which really confused her, her companion, and former companions encouraged her, her District leader called a district fast, and also encouraged her. All our hearts were so heavy as we thought what might happen if she did return home….the happy, happy news is that after all the fasting, prayer, and counselling, she had this amazing outpouring of love that she felt, and..we are happy to report that we saw a very real miracle and she is staying!! Her entire questioning has reversed!! Truly a MIRACLE!!!
We have loved getting to be involved in ‘people being taught,’ and Steven Creelman is our new friend that we have had for dinner and discussions twice, and he is so excited about his own transformation. He has attended meetings three weeks in a row!!, has almost quit drinking coffee, and last night he accepted our challenge to quit smoking!! Our quit smoking program involves cinnamon mouthwash, grapefruit juice, gum, and lots of willpower!! Cinnamon mouthwash is only available in the USA so our Maine missionaries bring it to us. We are praying for him, and you can too!!
And today we get to count the hours until our three twelve year old’s arrive!!! Isabelle, Berkley, and Claire hop on the plane tonight in Lethbridge, and arrive here tomorrow morning at 6:49 am…just in time to come participate in our MLC!!! They each have prepared talks and we are thrilled to get to show them our life here!!! Our missionaries are going to LOVE them!!! WE are SOOOOO excited!!!
Incredible to realize we have been here more than three months!!
Hope you are all well!! Thanks for your love and prayers…..
Until Sunday…..with our love….It doesn’t get better than this!!
Richard and Gayle
