General Conference week!

Today is Sunday, April 7, 2019

Wasn’t General Conference a feast?!! It was thrilling to sit in our lovely Mission Home, at the feet of our beloved leaders, and savour the inspired words of our Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, the twelve, and, all the General authorities. And now, it is all over for another six months, and we have our work cut out for us as we go over the instruction and challenges we all received to try a lot harder to make and keep our covenants more fully. I have a pretty long list of my to do’s!!

The first thing I’m going to do is to record some of our highlights of this past week. 

Meetings seem to occupy our time, but it is a big deal to teach, train, and motivate so we meet, and plan!! 

Our Zone Conference Preparation is complete, and we are excited to travel to Moncton tomorrow for Tuesday meetings. Thursday we will have our Nova Scotia ZC, and Saturday will be Newfoundland, of course with travel days in between. Preach My Gospel is our go-to handbook and we love to train right from it. This week our trainings include spotlights on apartment and vehicle cleanliness. I’m excited to show some slides submitted by our missionaries on ‘before and after’ shots of their apartment cleanliness!! 

Dad and I also have a fun activity to promote ‘Energized, Joyful, Focused Finding.’ Easter eggs filled with candy, and a little acting out assignment they will do in small groups we hope will be fun and effective. Often our missionaries have only a minute to share a quick message so we are having them practise how to make that minute powerful…not just saying..would you like a Book of Mormon. So here is an example… You are on a bus…one companion teaches for a minute about the Book of Mormon..and her or his companion teaches for just a minute about the Plan of Salvation…a challenge to make teaching concise and powerful. Good practise for all of us… We are excited, and will report next week!!

Occasionally we have a missionary that comes with a crazy family history, and doesn't have a clue on communication, or kindness with a companion, or anyone for that matter, and so we have to help teach that. So, another Zone Conference training is on Companion Unity. Preach my Gospel has an amazing chapter on Christlike Attributes…look it up..such a great resource for teaching missionaries, and your children!! The worksheet at the end of the chapter will hopefully be effective in helping changes happen with our challenging companionships….

Tuesday night, Sisters Keller, Moyes, and Long had me in tow as we headed over to Woodlawn Library to Knitting Club!! Who knew knitting with a gaggle of grannies and cute sister missionaries could be so much fun?! I giggled so much at these ladies who talked about everything; their dogs, kids, and even their snowblowers!! One sweet lady taught me how to do the rib stitch, so Richard’s grey Christmas ‘sampler’ scarf now has rows of rib stitch too…I think it will be ready for Christmas in Montreal!! We love the creative finding our missionaries are always trying to do…and Knitting Club is one of those clever ideas. Oh and one cute little grandma with multi coloured hair was such a chatty new friend...she kept looking at my name tag and finally said to me "I knew someone from your church...her name was Norma Silverstein." Now we don't know that many people in Nova Scotia BUT we DO know Norma!!!!..she is our rug-hooking friend in Sydney..the one who with her husband 'Shel' raises a herd of exclusive alpaca especially for their wool! It was so fun to be able to say I KNOW NORMA!! Hopefully I will get to go back to Knitting Club, and visit again!!!

I am not bilingual, but am happy to report that French is going pretty well…I do wish there were enough hours in the day to spend an hour everyday practising…oh well, not yet!! Tuesday, Brooke, my French tutor taught me to bear my Testimony, and I was overcome with emotion when she actually had me bear…I could do it!!!!, very simply, but she could understand, and I knew what I was saying!! That was definitely a highlight of my week!! I am being blessed!! Brooke always tells me that my accent is great, so that keeps me going. 

Watercolouring is our favourite relaxation activity..Richard’s skies and ocean vistas are amazing, and his lighthouses are coming along. I love painting my flower gardens…yesterday I painted my first barn with trees, and a climbing rose vine. We are loving this wonderful, creative outlet!! 

With our time zone being three hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time it meant the ten o’clock session of Conference didn’t start until 1 pm Atlantic time, so when we looked outside, and saw a perfect calm, spring day, we decided a Sunday stroll was exactly what we needed to do.  Signs of spring keep popping up…Mother Robin was listening for worms on our back lawn, our next door neighbours Mike and Denise have tulips poking their heads up, and crocuses blooming in their front lawn! Some shrubs around have a slight greenish tinge which makes us think buds are right around the corner, fishermen were even making their way down to the lake to throw in their line, and of course hundreds of folks enjoyed their own walk, run, or bike ride around Lake Banook. If people don’t have children, they all have a dog, and we see every kind..greyhound, golden retriever, black labs, beagle, etc. etc. One woman this morning had her fluffy white dog in these little rubber dog booties!! 

Another wonderful week in the Canada Halifax Mission!!

Hope you enjoy the change of font…I looked at all the options, and thought it’s about time I changed it up a bit… (this is American Typewriter!!)

And now it is 9:30pm and time to make a few phonecalls to our Moms!

Have a wonderful week!!

Keep Smiling!!CTR!!

Much love Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle