Today is February 17, 2019, and it is Jonathan’s 30th Birthday!!!
Happy Birthday Jonathan LeRon!!! And Happy Birthday to Janice Louise who will celebrate her 62nd on Friday, February 22nd!!
Another exciting missionary landmark announcement Friday, where missionaries can have weekly contact with family using any method of communication including phone, or video chat!! We are thrilled, as are our missionaries, and know it will be so helpful to many of our team, who currently are struggling with emotional issues. Families generally are the best cheerleaders a missionary has, so getting to visit with loved ones every week, if they choose will be just wonderful, and just what the Doctor - or Prophet ordered!! And…. our sisters can visit with their loved ones wearing pants!!
Monday meetings are always a highlight….having close connections with our office group is wonderful. Transfer week we don’t have our Senior Couples Zoom call. Sister Arnold’s farewell party was Monday night, and we loved eating, laughing and visiting. I have already expressed my fear and trembling about being the designated Mission Nurse, and my concerns are still valid!! Sister Goldie Vay, a local member is working on her mission papers to hopefully receive a calling to serve as our nurse…and is so willing to assist me with anything I need. This week my calls have been pretty simple, and my homespun remedies have included drinking lots of water, eating oranges, having an hour nap, and taking an Advil! We have an area medical advisor named Elder Gatrell (living in Philadelphia) who is my first contact person. I also have regular email contact with him.
This is what I wrote to him this week:
“ I feel pretty inadequate adding this to my responsibilities BUT, one of our sons is an internist, another son is a Dentist, we have three daughters in law that are nurses, another daughter in law that is a radiation therapist, another daughter in law that is an ultrasound tech, and our youngest son was the Mission Medic while serving in the Chile Santiago North Mission….SO maybe their medical knowledge will rub off on me!! Actually, I think my years on the front line being a Mom will be what will get me through!!!!…and his phone number!!”
Weather has such a bearing on travel to and from Atlantic Canada, and of all weeks for storms to rage across the continent, it challenged all our Week 6 - Transfer Week cycle!! New missionaries that normally arrive Tuesday evening waited in SLC all day in the airport, and after their flights were cancelled, eventually were transported back to the MTC…can you imagine that letdown? Wednesday their flight was again delayed, which made them miss their connector flight in Toronto, but thanks to Church Travel they rested their weary bodies at the Hampton Inn.
We were very frustrated when WestJet sold their seats for the final leg of their journey to more aggressive travellers anxious to come to the big Scottie curling championships in Sydney, NS. Elders Hillyer, and D’eon, two of our eight did get seats for a late afternoon flight, and arrived around 8:30pm. President, and Elder Olsen and Elder Benson, collected the other six - Elder Brown and Elder Clifford, Sister Bromley, Sister Rhodes, Sister Wall, and Sister Schultz and arrived home around 2am.
Add another layer to this day …Thursday was our Farewell Dinner and Testimony Meeting for our departing five - Sisters Nelson, Gillett, and Crowley, and Elders Bringhurst, and Willoughby SO you can imagine the goings on leading up to that!!! Office seniors always celebrate at our farewell, and this week our CES couple, Elder and Sister Livingstone were included in our goodbye party. I know food is boring to report on, but in case you ever wonder….cream chicken, wild rice, fresh rolls, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, spinach salad, jello salad, and turtles cheesecake were on the menue. Sister Majeran brought her delicious lemon broccoli salad…obviously…we never go hungry!!! Farewell testimonies always are the highlight of the evening, and these five were top shelf. Their missions have changed their lives! We know they will be great leaders, and are excited to track their lives, and see ‘Oh the places they will go!!’
Teary farewells at the Stanfield International Airport Friday morning are usual…it gets harder the longer we have to know and love these dear ones. Depending on the security crew…sometimes we can walk way up the queue line and crane our necks as far as we can to
catch the last glimpse of each of them…most often they are watching for us and wave back…
Back to the Mission Home to find our eight new recruits obediently studying, ready to head to the Office where we, along with our office staff fed and oriented the enthusiastic new group. Taco soup that I had made for Tuesday tasted just fine although it was heated and cooled so many times…(like everytime we thought the group would be arriving!!) After our welcome supper, street contacting with our metro missionaries was the evening activity, followed by a sweet testimony meeting. Saturday morning the Mission Office was the hub for many of our transfers, including all of our enthused new group. It is a miracle that all the connections happen. Moncton, NB was the other hub for transfers, so several companionships met up there. Three missionaries didn’t fly to Newfoundland until 9pm and arrived around 11pm. Our assistants check and recheck logistics, and everything worked our perfectly, (including weather!) We might be concerned about logistics when our Mission joins the Canada Montreal Mission!!! Look at a map of Canada, and you’ll know why!!!!
Dartmouth Sacrament Meeting today had a Missionary theme with two of our recent converts; Kathy Eldershaw and Stephen Creelman who were baptized in December and November sharing their conversion story, as well as the Ward Mission Leader Brother Macmichael speaking. Also Josh a 12 year old young man who was baptized yesterday was confirmed. So wonderful to have wards and branches that are becoming missionary minded!! We love when members catch the vision and become part of our ‘finding army!’ Are you part of the finding army??
So it goes in the Canada Halifax Mission!!
We continue to LOVE our service, and can’t imagine doing anything else!!! It is dawn to dusk challenging hard work, but oh so rewarding!!….and now Richard declares that I should cap this report, so I will!!!
Love to all!!
Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, and Richard and Gayle
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX…Keep Smiling
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