Happy Chinese New Year and other Adventures!!

Today is Sunday, January 26, 2020

and Tuesday the 28th we wish Happy 28th Golden Birthday to Megan!!

As we reflect on the past 28 years, we are so thankful for the blessing all our amazing children have been in our lives, along with their spouses, and this week we honour Megan!!! Each birthday we are reminded of the happiness of those milestone days so long ago, and we celebrate!!

Another week in the Canada Montreal Mission has flown by leaving in its wake lovely experiences and great memories!

Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, both Richard and I felt like real missionaries as we each got to go out with Elder and Sister teams. Because of the size of Montreal, and how spread out everyone is, it is a huge challenge to meet up, but, Tuesday night Sister Edwards and DeBarcellos organized to pick me up, and take me to visit wife Joseline(from Philippines) and her husband Rudy(from Nicaragua). The sisters have been teaching this cute couple for about a month, and they are so interested in the Church, but attending meetings on Sunday isn’t working for them, because in addition to holding weekday full-time jobs; for the next six weeks, on Sunday, they are attending school to learn how to run their own business.  At one point in our visit, Rudy was asking about the Holy Ghost….he said Ghost? So we testified of the power of the Spirit, and taught… I shared my profound experience where I listened to the strong promptings of the Spirit, and we were blessed to save Jonathan’s life! I never can share that experience without getting very emotional..Next to the Gift of the Atonement, I know the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift we ever receive! I was honoured to share my testimony of the Plan of Salvation. What a great visit!! Tai, our friend that was baptized in August lives upstairs in the same building as Joseline and Rudy, so after our visit with them, we made a surprise visit. Tai was really over the moon excited to have us pop in, and was so anxious to remind me of Malik’s baby blessing this next Sunday!! We will host a special dinner afterwards to celebrate! I loved my evening with Sisters Edwards, and DeBarcellos!!

Richard had a great evening with our Assistants - Elders Musallo and Nally, teaching and contacting! 

Again Wednesday evening we were with out with wonderful teams. Sisters Vargas, and Wdaa picked me up, and we made the half hour drive across the city to meet Shade (pronounced Shad - eh) and her son Joel. Twelve year old Joel was baptized several weeks ago and his testimony is just incredible!! We were talking about the power of scripture reading, and Joel reported that he had read the first two stories in his picture scripture book. His favourite was the one about Joseph Smith going into the forest and praying. I wondered how many times he had read the story because he knew every detail!! We watched the “Ask of God” short video clip which was a perfect segway from Joel’s scripture reading experience. Shade and Joel are also reading the entire Book of Mormon together, and she shared her sweet miracle... They are immigrants from Nigeria, and Shade’s work visa expired in December so she has not been working. Someone in her work place knew of her plight, made the necessary calls, and Wednesday she received word that her work visa has been extended, and she was to return to work Thursday. She knew this little miracle was because of her reading the Book of Mormon. I sure hope they made it to Church today. 

Richard got to go contacting with Elders Christopherson and Guerra, and also had a wonderful evening, teaching and testifying!

Maybe I have already raved about the devotion of members, and ‘friends’ (we used to call them investigators!) getting to Church. Most folks do not have cars so they bus and metro everywhere!! They just plan an extra hour or so travel time to get where they need to go…Church or wherever!! It is just what they do.  It has made us think about our luxurious little eleven minute jaunt from West Lethbridge to our Westminster Ward!! 

How can we consecrate more? We have learned so much about consecration from saints all across our Mission.  Lessons about unconditional Christlike love, about ministering, about sacrifice, about faith amidst adversity, about humility, about selfless service, and about not judging are some of our favourites. We know there are many more. We are so grateful for all we are learning, and the growth we are experiencing.  

Yesterday our friends Mike and Sandy Wong from Granby invited all 23 of our local Senior missionaries to be their guests at a Chinese New Year Dim Sum celebration!! Maybe you have been?! A huge banquet hall was packed with around 500-750 folks all seated (10-12) at each round table. White chair covers, lace tablecloths, snazzy chandeliers, and a big, beautiful red stage backdrop with Chinese lettering gave the room an air of elegance.  And then the food started;  waitresses wheeled around these little carts with bamboo lidded bowls with steaming hot fancy Chinese food - (nothing like the Mandarin or New Dynasty.) Both Mike and Sandy who speak fluent Chinese selected our dishes, and as the bamboo bowls were passed around, we would take our little sample, and pass the bowl along. It was a delightful culinary experience, where we ate pork, chicken and beef, and who knows what else!! It was delicious, and we came away stuffed!! 

P-day yesterday also included getting to enjoy a fun diversion and check one of our Village de Value shops!  I splurged on a $17.99 beautiful hand knit cream-coloured lacy afghan, which looks elegant across the bottom of our General Authority bed!! 

We also pulled out our aquarelles and relaxed with paintbrush in hand!! Richard’s PEI lupine painting is a masterpiece, and I’m still attempting my hand at flowers! 

Driving to Trois Rivieres this morning was like driving through winter wonderland because a fresh snowfall blanketed the earth, and the dense forests were magical! Highways were mostly clear so driving was great! About 40 attended the Sabbath meetings there, including Elders Gessell and Passe Carlus, who are obedient, hardworking, great missionaries!!   My temoignage is getting easier, and Richard’s twenty minute talk was wonderful! 

Great News..Evelyn Maeser my new MTC French tutor emailed me, and tomorrow she is going to help my gift of tongues kick into gear!!! Exciting!!

I am determined to step up my parlezing!! 

Richard just finished his LTP’s and here are a few miracles!! Enjoy!!

January 26 mission miracles

Sister Twitchell and Sister Atkins in Longueuil:

Thursday afternoon, after we got back to our area, we went out to try and contact a former who ended up not being there. As an act of faith, we decided to knock the rest of the apartments in the building to see if anyone was interested. The first door that opened was a lady that immediately invited us in and wanted to hear all about our message! She is from a Muslim country but she went against her family tradition and discovered that she believed in Christ. After we taught her and were about to leave, she told us that two days before the Elders had knocked on her door. She didn't invite them in, but she told them they could come back some other time. But that night, she kept feeling like she had send away messengers from God. She prayed for a second chance, and we knocked on her door the very next day! It was an amazing miracle and we got the opportunity to testify that God really does know her and hears her prayers. It was so amazing to feel like we were being used as an instrument in His hands. We taught her again the next day and we will see her again on Saturday.

Sister Lazo in Victoria, Longueuil:

During the HTBT we talked about what we do as missionaries then we received another prompting to share about the BOM. 

SO we ask her if she has heard about the BOM ??? 

and she kinda of look frazzled at that time and the she runs to a desk area of her roommates and she goes RUNS TO get A BOOK AND SHE SAYS THIS ONE ????? and it was a Book of Mormon !!! 

She said that she had just seen it that day . She was just crying and she said that last prayer crying . It was just so beautiful to hear and see !!!!! 

Made me think about if I am really following all of my spiritual promptings or if I am holding back . 

Thanks president low for all that you and sister low do !!

Love you both !

One miracle happened yesterday with sister McGEE, we went to La Chine(a part of our area) we went to a former that was in area book and we did not have success and then we went to another address that we found in area book, we went there and in that moment someone open the door of that building and it was a chance for us to enter and knock the door of this woman and she opened the door, saw our name tags and let us enter to her house, at the beginning was a little bit weird but then we sat down in her sofa and we asked how was her week, basically we asked about her life, we think that she trusted us and then we asked if we could say a prayer and she said yes! We said a prayer and we started talking about our message of Jesus Christ and about the book of Mormon and she felt confident to asked a lot of questions. We really felt the spirit we taught her about the book of mormon, Jesus Christ when he visited the Americas and about Joseph Smith, it was late and we has to go home but we fixed an appointment for next week and we asked her to read in the book of Mormon. That was super special for me and sister McGEE. 

Miracle from Laurier YSA Sisters Shaw and Remington:

This week has been so amazing and we have seen so many amazing things happen!! On Saturday we had a dinner at the senior couple's apartment with our friend Hemmy, and we had another appointment with someone who lived about an 30 minutes away by car right after. So knowing that our appointment was right after and that it would take us an hour by metro or 30 minutes by car to get to this appointment we decided that we needed to use the car. However, the elders had the car. So we ended up being about 20 minutes late for our dinner because we had to figure out how we were going to get the car from the elders. But, the timing couldn't have been any more perfect because while we were walking to the apartment building for dinner this man came up to us and literally contacted us. He used all the same tactics that we use as missionaries to start conversations. He started with a compliment, asked where we were from, and then he started asking us about the church, and told us that he was interested in learning more. We literally didn’t even have to say anything about the church. He walked up to us, saw our name tags, and then told us that he has heard of the church and that he was interested. It was so great. But then it gets better, so we get in the elevator right after talking with this man, and this lady starts talking to us. She said that she had seen missionaries before, and always wondered what they did. We talked with her about the restoration, and then got a return appointment for in a couple weeks. IT WAS SO AMAZING!! we were so worried about being late, but we ended up being right where we need to be!! Its great how Gods timing works!! His hand is literally in everything!! 

Submitting this with love from: 85 Henley Avenue, Ville Mont Royal, Quebec

Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle, Grandpa and Grandma xoxoxoxox…

CTR and Keep Smiling!!!