Happy New Year!!

Today is Sunday, December 30th, 2018

What an incredible year 2018 has been!!! And 2019 is looking like it is going to be just as incredible!!

We have happy and sort of sad news….

Happy news ….this afternoon in Truro, Nova Scotia Trisha Eldershaw was baptized…our 100th Baptism of the year!!!!!

Sort of Sad news….we are leaving Atlantic Canada, our beloved Mission Home, and all our new friends here because we are moving to Montreal, Quebec where Richard will serve as the new Mission President of the combined Canada Halifax Mission and the Canada Montreal Mission, effective July 1, 2019.  You know that as a young missionary back in 1973-1975 he served in the Canada Montreal Mission so we are excited to return there together, and know we will find friends from long ago!

and now, it is a week later….and

Today is Sunday, January 6, 2019

Happy New Year to all!! 

Our big transfer news to Montreal, Quebec, and our added responsibilities are looming in our minds constantly. Elder Kevin Hamilton of our Area Presidency told us that the Church News will announce the boundaries, as well as the name of the mission January 12th, so if you are interested in that, check the Church News on Saturday!! We will too!!  President and Sister Phillips, the current President and companion, have been so wonderful and have answered many of our questions, but we have a bazillion more and will call them again soon.

Currently we have 65 young missionaries, and when we arrive in Montreal our complement will increase to 200, and they will reside from Cornwall, Ontario, to Cornerbrook, Newfoundland to Edmundston, New Brunswick, to Chicoutimi, Quebec, and everywhere in between!!  Montreal is a great hub for our travel, and there are wonderful direct flights everywhere..except to Cornerbrook, and Gander Newfoundland where we will fly first to St. John’s. Our road tripping  days are going to be limited now since we are no longer travelling out to District Meetings, and will not attend district meetings in our new Mission either. 

For the next almost six months, for two weeks of each month we are going to be focussed on learning (or brushing up for Richard) on FRENCH!!  Last year, Elder Uchtdorf told me the research they did,  had my French as a level one….I have no idea if they talked to Madame Glacier (my French 30 teacher)and she remembered that I just barely passed, but I know I have my work cut out. I am praying for the Gift of Tongues.  MTC tutoring begins Thursday. We are also looking for local tutors who will come to help. I can have a translator when we speak in Stake Conferences, but my goal is to speak French… Technology is amazing, and the other day when Sister Silvannoinen came for her final night before heading home to Finland, she gave me her iPad which is equipped with bilingual scriptures, and Preach My Gospel. It is amazing..divided into two columns…with one side in English, and the other in Finnish, but we changed it to be French. So after our tutoring begins, I will start the adventure of reading  the Book of Mormon in French, which will probably take me two years to get through!!

OK that is probably enough information about our transfer!!!  One kind of funny comment Richard made: he said “we really are a demolition crew”…”Think back to what happened after he was released as Stake President…our beloved Lethbridge West Stake was reconfigured and renamed, and now… the same thing is happening …our beloved Canada Halifax Mission  is being reconfigured and we think..renamed…”

Planning Zone Conferences,  Mission Leadership Councils, and transfers continue to occupy our days as well as counselling missionaries, supervising our Office missionaries, and visiting Branches on Sundays. We are pretty overwhelmed thinking about supervising almost three times the number of missionaries we currently serve with, so we are also planning how we can most effectively do this. 

Christmas in the Mission Field was wonderful, and we avoided homesickness by keeping busy, and having Jonathan and Jordan join us for a whole week; December 19-26! And we were grateful to include our Metro, and our Senior missionaries for parties here at the Mission Home Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Years Eve. With lots of food preparation, game planning and music, it almost felt like home!! All the handbell charts I made back in the spring were a big hit, and literally bells were ringing non-stop!! We loved it!! We also loved having Jonathan and Elder Pierson perform several amazing piano/organ duets..Hark the Herald, Joy to the World, and Angels We Have Heard on High.  Dartmouth and Cole Harbour Wards were thrilled to have some guest performers!! I wanted them to keep performing!!

Other December highlights included: teary farewells to Elder Miller, and Sisters Wood, Barlow, Hawkins, Soucie and Rodrigues who returned home December 14th, attending the Cole Harbour Ward Christmas party, helping at Beacon House - a thrift store and food bank, serving at another food bank, and attending our Live Stake Nativity (with our familiar Bruce Seely recording from home!!) complete with live donkeys!! 

Of course our conversations with each of our dear Moms, our children, and their spouses, and our grandchildren: Isabelle, Luke, Max, Charlotte, Jane, Peter, Claire, Lucy, Berkley, Walker, Hudson, Sadey, Porter, Tait, Solon, Haysten, Preese, Briar, Dottie, Vimy, and Macie, Aunt Nancy, and our brothers, and sisters were high highlights as well. 

As we evaluated all that needs to be done before we move to Montreal we realized we have 17 little branches that we haven’t visited yet, and we are determined to meet the wonderful saints in these far off places. Greenwood, which is only a two hour drive was our destination this morning, and we loved spending our first two hour block with the wonderful saints there. Elder and Sister Butler - the first senior couple ever to serve in Greenwood, are loving it there and are making a difference.  They are so loved!! Travelling back to Saskatchewan twice for medical tests wasn’t in their plan, and they were so happy to get back to their new people in Greenwood. After Church, we loved joining them, and our sweet sisters Advincula and Cobb for a delicious roast beef dinner. Wonderful, optimistic, hard-working, happy people.

16 more branches we get to visit!! To be equally yoked with these saints, they need to see us, and know that we love them. Attending their Sunday block sends that message. We also feel it sends a powerful message to our missionaries who are serving out in the nethermost parts of our vineyard!!

I know I promised I’d try and send suggestions for parents of future missionaries: 

1. Each Week prepare and complete the weekly ‘Come Follow Me’ assignments.

2. Use ‘Preach My Gospel’ as a supplementary FHE manual…there are amazing ideas that you could adapt for younger children.

3. Attend convert baptisms, and baptisms of children in your stake…help them remember their baptism.

4. Attend the Temple to do Baptisms. 

5. Teach your children to work hard, and to be finishers… (quitting shouldn’t be an option)

(I know I have suggested this before, but it is vital!!)

6. Teach them to say to themselves:  “I CAN do hard things”

7. Read the Friend/New Era stories to them or challenge them to read. 

8. Invite a Friend to a Primary or YW or YM activity. 

9. Get some passalong cards from your ward missionaries. 

10. Show by your own example that you are being a missionary now, and share experiences!! 

11. Teach your children to communicate with you and with everyone..people at church, at the seniors centre, at the grocery store etc. etc. Teach them to be friendly and look people in the eye. 

12. Teach your children to SMILE, and to be Happy!!

I should have saved some of these suggestions for the next letter..but I’ll probably forget!!

I must share a few recent miracles we have had in the Canada Halifax Mission. (as related by our missionaries!)

Miracle #9

“We found an investigator this last week! It was so cool because we were on exchanges and while the other elders were going to a potential lesson and then to do some finding, we decided to just go with them and find in an area close by so we could follow up on some potentials. We followed up with this one potential named Jeremy, and he was super excited, open, and curious about our message, and his girlfriend in the future might be interested as well! It was yet another testimony builder to me that #WeWorkGodBlesses, because as we do what we are supposed to and follow the culture (culture point 9 in this case) we will see the blessings!!”

Miracle #10

We also picked up a man named Fred this last week. His story was a miracle! He had been a potential a while back, but said he was too busy to meet up. On the 5th of December his wife passed, and we had no idea. It was a Friday afternoon and we had planned to do our weekly planning in the morning, but there was a parade going on that night, so we figured lets go street contact and look for a place to put our booth! As we were out this lady pulled up in her car, and said, "I've been out this morning driving and looking for you, I prayed to find you and here you are!" So we chatted and she was the lady's sister, and she had been told by the family that they wanted us at the funeral. So we went to the 1 hour service, and Fred, the husband stopped us after, and said, "You are welcome to come at anytime to teach me, but give me a few weeks" So we dropped in last Wednesday maybe, and we taught him God's Plan, and he committed himself to Baptism. he said, "As soon as I get over this Pneumonia, we will get that baptism done" We hadn't even invited him yet. But he's on board with it all! We didn't have the chance to meet with Mike or Terry but we will tonight possibly! That's all from Miramichi!!

Miracle #11;

Anyways, there have been a few miracles this week. We have 2 sisters in Summerside,PEI Antonia(15) and Olivia(13). We had the opportunity to teach them last night. Olivia was asking a lot of questions that she was really curious about. Some of them were really deep doctrine like 'what was my name before this life?' Honestly, we were all a little surprised at the questions she was asking. She genuinely wants to know the answers. The best part? Before we had started teaching her, she said she wanted to be baptized. Both her and her sister have come to church before too. They both really want to know the truth. The spirit was so strong in that room as we taught and testified. It was awesome!

The second one is a woman named Caroline. The Elders found her while we were in a lesson after we went carolling and taught her and got a return appointment. She is coming to church on Sunday too! #weworkgodblesses🛒 So in the last 24 hours, we have picked up 3 investigators. How awesome is that?????

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Missionaries include these kind of miracle  stories in their letters to the President (LTP),  and he has now started compiling them and including them in a general letter back to the Mission.  They love to hear the great success happening around the mission.
We know the Lord himself is in charge of this marvellous work and a wonder!! 

We are so grateful for this incredible opportunity to watch His Kingdom roll forth, as we serve!  Hopefully  you can feel the joy and excitement of our missionary life!!!  

Thank you for your love, concern and prayers. 

We send this off with love for you too.

Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle