Today is Sunday, November 3, 2019
Happy 11th Birthday to Lucy Jeanne Thursday, November 7th!!!
The last week of October zipped by, just as our weeks usually do!! Meetings, more meetings, French tutoring and Mission Leadership Council were highlights of our week. Gathering our Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders from all over the Mission for MLC was awesome. It is a big deal organizing travel for missionaries to fly from Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and our Sister Boyle is the master of taking care of that. I will rave again about our Office team, our senior missionaries who administer to all the needs of this massive mission! Because they take care of all the logistics, we never worry a minute.
Leading trainings, and discussions at MLC is delightful. We give our Prepare to Learn assignments early in the week so everyone has had a chance to read. Elder Marlin K. Jensen’s talk from years ago entitled “ An Eye Single to the Glory of God,” was the springboard talk I used to lead a discussion, and Richard led a discussion on President Oaks “Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts” talk from a worldwide missionary fireside. Every meeting, whether Zone Conference, MLC, or Zoom meetings we are consistently impressed with the knowledge, and testimonies of our army. They are prepared, converted, and enthused, and we always feel like we have learned way more than we even present or teach. It is certainly stimulating, and we just love every interaction with our CMM Missionaries!
Torrential rains hit Ville Mont Royal Thursday, so Halloween was postponed until Friday night. That was great for us because we got to take our banana bread loaves to both sets of neighbours; Michel and Jennifer and new baby Zoe live on one side, in fact their home is the mirror image of ours but, they have totally modernized and renovated it. On our tour, we kept trying to figure out which room we were in!! Michel is a pharmacist and owns his own Jean Coutou pharmacy, while Jennifer is a Family Doctor. Joanne and her tiny terrier Gloria, live on the other side of us. Joanne’s husband Prudent is somewhat of an inigima…we have never seen nor met him!!
Throngs of trick or treaters first knocked on our door Friday at 4:45pm, and the knocking didn’t stop until around 7:30pm when we turned out our lights because we were totally out of treats…can’t think of anytime that’s ever happened!! After exhausting our chocolate bar supply, every other possible goodie was distributed…ritz cracker and cheese snacks, packages of Kirkland trail mix, Welch’s fruit snacks, and an entire box of Fruitsations!! Children in the Ville de Mont Royal dressed as unicorns, witches, princesses, goblins, little black rainclouds, and every possible costume, actually have police escorts as they run around the neighbourhood collecting treats, in fact at the end of the evening, we counted at least six police cars, lights flashing all gathered at the other side of our Darling Park!!
PDay on Friday was an adventure!! Taking the subway down to Old Montreal is always so fun. With winter right around the corner many of the businesses have been winterized and closed. It was our lucky day when we found a creperie upstairs in a 300 year old stone building that is open year round. My lemon crepe will keep me dreaming for weeks, and Richard adored his shrimp crepe….both were scrumptious!! My favourite little shop which is also open year round features lovely little 'Made in Quebec' souvenirs. I feel very French wearing the fox pompomed red floppy toque Richard insisted on buying!! Our metro ride back home was right at rush hour and so we were really crammed in the train car, BUT we avoided all the vehicle traffic above, and arrived home so quickly!!
Yesterday and today we attended Longueuil Stake Conference (French), and we were in awe of the reverence of the Saints, the music, and the messages. They are faithful members who love the Gospel, each other and the Saviour. We loved being with them. Richard shared the Vaillancourt conversion story of 45 years ago. Joslyn Vaillancourt and his family were there so it was so sweet!! Many people were so thrilled to meet and visit with us - especially when they realized Richard had already served here!! Bearing my testimony in French is getting easier, because my mouth is starting to cooperate. Gutteral r’s are still a big challenge, but Lavender is helping me.
Because we have Elder Bassett from our Area Presidency next week for our Mission tour and Zone Conferences, and there will be no time for interviews; sooo this week we travel to Quebec City, as well as to Halifax so Richard can do his interviewing! We enjoy so much our visits with these great missionaries, and look forward to every interaction! It will be another wonderful week!!
And now it is time to head to bed!
We’ll send this off with much love,
Richard and Gayle, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma
CTR and Keep Smiling xoxoxoxo…
Always enjoy reading your news. Love .... Bob
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