SPRING is in the Air!!!

Today is Sunday, February 23, 2020, 

  Tomorrow Aaron celebrates his 42nd Birthday!!!

And Mom Low blows out 93 candles on Thursday!!! Happy Birthday to you both!!!

Do the weeks seem like they are ticking by more quickly? We are convinced that Eastern Standard Time is out of sync, and somehow our clocks move at a totally different pace than they did at home!! Anyhow in my minds eye, I just barely reported to you, and here it has already been another week!!

With Longueuil Sud/Mount Royal combined, and Montreal Zone Conferences on Monday and Wednesday respectively, and MLC on Thursday, we have completed week five. Five hours of teachings, with powerpoints, discussions, and role-plays on the following subjects: 

    on Baptism, 

    on being knit together with members, 

    on planning and goal setting, and 

    on finding, by talking to everyone; keep everyone engaged, and motivated to ‘carry on, carry on, carry on!!’ 

It is sort of like a fun big Primary sharing time, complete with a delicious meal at lunchtime! Another highlight of the day is an amazing musical number by one or more of our gifted missionaries. 

Tuesday and Friday we completed our interviews - the last of the 194!!  Missionaries with emotional baggage always require extra counselling time, so our schedules get adjusted, and re-adjusted as we visit. We love to have that one on one time,  or for me - small group interaction. Our new handbooks have added that as a Mission Leader (as I am now called) it is optional for me, when invited to sit in the President’s interview.  I was excited to have two missionaries invite me in!!  Many of our missionaries come with notebook in hand prepared with questions, and ready to record impressions, and answers to those questions. I am so inspired by their ‘I am ready’ attitude. 

Tuesday night we were thrilled to have Jennie’s dad Jack Payne and her sister Brooklyn come for an overnight visit. Supper at the Portuguese restaurant ‘Galo,’ right here in Mount Royal, and a dessert stop at our favourite ice-cream ‘Chocolat Favoris’ joint made for such a fun night! Wednesday morning Brooklyn who is marrying Connor in April, had her fiancé visa interview at the US Consulate. We were so happy to hear she passed!!

My new MTC French tutor Evelyn Maeser is helping me get a better grasp on conversational French vocabulary. I can understand more, and more, but when it is real Quebecois, with heavy twangy accents I hardly understand a word.. like yesterday at the Jean Talon market!! A little bit of sad news…I get two more lessons with Evelyn before she  finishes at the MTC.  Don’t know who will be my new teacher???

Elder and Sister Stewart joined us for our Friday night date to the renovated ‘Forum’ where we watched the Jack London movie “The Call of the Wild.” We so enjoyed the spectacular Yukon scenery as well as great acting by Harrison Ford.  Digitally created dogs were so realistic…a great movie!!

Richard has been battling a nasty cough and cold, so having P day Saturday was a perfect time for him to relax.  Most of the day we spent right at home, but we did venture forth to wash the salty Highlander, and to visit our favourite Jean Talon Marchee!!  It is so fun pretending to be local French folks as we selected our fresh fruits, vegetables, and baguettes!  Some clever farmers have platters of freshly cut chunks of cucumbers, tomatoes, oranges, mango, kiwi, etc., etc…for hungry shoppers to sample!! 

Sanding on our big 1/4 sawn oak chair has been on my P day to do list since before Christmas,  and Saturday, I actually did get some sanding done, removing lots of old stain and varnish. I’ve left the old red velvet fabric on the chair temporarily, but am anxious to get the sanding finished and recover it in new fabric or leather. It is not a priority but surely a fun diversion!! A great relaxing day!!

Sister Boyle, our dear friend, and Office Secretary who with her husband Elder Boyle moved to Montreal from Nova Scotia with us last June,  was feeling so sick last week. Richard suggested that Elder Boyle should take her to the Dr., which he did ….took her to the Jewish General Hospital, and it ended up she had a bowel blockage, and had surgery… she will be away from the Office for probably a week. We are so grateful she was fixed so quickly.

Our speaking assignment yesterday was an hour and a half away in Cornwall, Ontario. We usually love map quest, and almost always it gets us to where we are trying to go …except yesterday,  when it defaulted, and took us to the centre of town…..10 minutes away from the Chapel. It was 9:25, and church started at 9:30 so we sped like the dickens, and did not notice the speed trap in front of Home Depot…I tried to talk the Officer out of the ticket, but to no avail….he did have mercy on us though, and rather than give us a $350 ticket, he wrote us up for $52.50….and we were so grateful we were on the Lord’s errand! 

Driving home to Montreal, rather than taking the 401, and Highway 20, we opted to take the spectacular, scenic route along the St. Lawrence, and the Ottawa Rivers!  What a sight we came upon when we spotted hundreds of little fishing huts scattered on the ice as far as our eyes could see!  Apparently these keen anglers scout out their favourite spot as soon as the ice is safe, and then basically fish all winter long. $8.00 fee for driving out on the ice. We only went as far as the paying booth, and then turned around. We are still scratching our heads trying to figure out who owns the river?, and who is making the money…Spring is in the air so we guess that next time we head that way the ice will be gone along with the fishing village.  

Someone at Church told Richard that the maple syrup is running…so we are excited to experience a sugaring off one of these next p days. 

And now it is Week 6 again!! Tomorrow our group of 15 new missionaries arrive and transfer week is in full swing!! Wednesday is Orientation, and our Welcome meal. Thursday new missionaries, as well as missionaries with new assignments head off to their new areas, departing missionaries arrive here at the Mission Home for a special Farewell dinner, and temple session. Friday Morning, we deliver the first five - Sister Edwards, Sister Bates, Elder Holman, Elder Anderberg, and Elder Tran, of our eight departing to the airport, and bid teary farewells. Sister Allen’s parents from Casper Wyoming are coming to pick her up, and Elder Bonny and Elder Tekiatapu fly home after supper.  These goodbyes get harder every time we head to the airport. 

And on that teary note…I will submit this weeks edition, and send it with much love…

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

CTR!!!

Shade is getting Baptized February 29th!!!

Today is Sunday, February 16, 2020, and 

We are celebrating Charlotte’s 7th Birthday!!!

and…tomorrow we celebrate Jonathan’s 31st!!!

Wearing name tags with the Saviour’s name right next to our names has been one of our favourite perks of being missionaries, but, with the wearing of our name tags, we are targets for Bishops or Branch Presidents who might be looking for last minute speakers!! Today, we were about ten minutes early for Church, and you guessed it…Richard was approached by the Bishop who asked if we could speak!! When we first arrived in Atlantic Canada and were asked to speak impromptu, I must say I was pretty nervous, but with almost twenty months under our belts I don’t think I shake nearly like I used to!  It is actually fun!! We have so many incredible experiences it is hard to choose what to share!!

Shade and her son Joel were grateful to have us pick them up for Church and we were so happy to interact with them again!! A watershed day in the LaSalle Ward (in Lachine)….Joel received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a deacon, along with his buddy Victor.  And Shade is ‘on date,’ to be baptized Saturday, February 29th!! Because it is transfer week, we will be in Montreal and will get to attend!! We are excited, but you can imagine how excited Sister Vargas and Sister Wdaa are!!! Last week when we attended the same ward, there was a buzz in the ward with talk about ‘The Game.’ Elders Peterman and Croft created this ‘motivational’ ward game where every member of the ward is either on the Nephite or the Lamanite team, and every week they work diligently trying to earn points for their team. Everyone has a game card where activities are listed with number of points possible to earn. For example performing a musical number in Sacrament Meeting would give you 25 points…Bringing a friend to Church or taking the Family History Class could net you 10 points each. I would probably fine-tune the point system, but there is excitement in the ward, in fact the Bishop wants the activity to go on for three months, at which time, whoever has the least points is in charge of preparing and serving a meal for the winners! Every missionary activity earns points for your team! So in addition to helping create ward unity, focused missionary work is being emphasized!! We are excited to see how it goes for the next two and a half months!!

I realize I forgot to share this experience…Since receiving hockey game tickets for Christmas, we had been excitedly anticipating our February 1st P Day where we had ‘legit’ tickets to watch a live matinee Montreal Canadiens hockey game!! We parked our vehicle at the Villa Maria Church Building, hopped the metro across the street, and travelled down to the Bell Centre to watch the famed Canadiens play (and beat) the Florida Panthers (4-0)!! Richard was anxious to get to the arena early so he could buy a matching Canadiene jersey for me!! It was so fun to join with the 21,271 other fans almost all decked out in red, white and blue, and cheer for our local heroes!! Every hockey game we watch from now on we will proudly wear our Canadiene jerseys, because we probably won’t ever get to another game!! Also with matching jerseys, we are ready for every Halloween costume party for the rest of our days. Our seats were second row from the top of the huge arena, and amazingly we could see everything!!! We were entertained by the great hockey, but we also loved listening to the two little four or five year old French boys all dressed in their Canadiene garb who were sitting behind us!  It was a treat to hear them jabber away in their cute French!! They kept saying ‘Oui… Oui…’like our kids say ‘Yes…Yes!!’ Such a perfectly relaxing  P Day activity!! 

Monday Office Meetings were inspirational like always. We marvel at the lovely miracles that our Senior couples report on, and are thrilled when our young missionaries also give an accounting of their tender experiences. 

Along with the sweet… we had plenty of bitter this week; a senior sister missionary was diagnosed with cancer Monday, an Elder returned home because of belated confession….(he will be able to return to serve), another Elder returned home Friday with severe depression, and yesterday an Elder returned home with severe PTSS, depression and other challenges, and was immediately admitted to the Hospital. It was a particularly emotionally challenging week.  Because we were so focused on our Zone Conferences in Ottawa, and in Moncton, Richard had to take care of all the dozens of phonecalls away from home or the Office; in between interviews, or zone conference breaks, and, we were not here to deliver departing missionaries to the airport, which was hard for us. Fortunately we have zone leaders or assistants who will fill in for us. Sometimes our missionaries get totally overwhelmed, and just ‘crash.’  We are always trying to intercept this happening, but mostly it happens suddenly and so quickly. Area Medical and Area Mental Health full-time senior missionaries work with missionaries with any distress, or challenges, and mostly their counselling is just what is needed, but when missionaries get in the red zone, and can’t get out, we must send them home immediately.

Part of our hearts go home with these missionaries whom we love. 

After our Monday office meetings we hopped in our vehicle and made the two hour drive to Ottawa to spend both Monday and Tuesday nights. Richard had scoped out Rideau Canal ice skating and so, Tuesday morning, we headed to Lansdowne Park where we laced up our skates, and joined the hundreds of other skaters gliding on the worlds largest skating rink, the 7.8km UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rideau Canal.  Next time.. I will bring a chair or will rent a sled to push, and will replace ‘too short laces’ on my $5.00 Beacon House thrift store skates with long enough ones!! It was just a perfect day to enjoy the fresh winter air, and to relax!! Although my skating skills are very, very rusty, and I was concerned that I’d fall on my shoulder, we loved that little diversion!! 

Ottawa Zone Conference was great! We keep saying we hit the jackpot with our missionaries (and not just the Ottawa Zone!!) They are smart, well-read, obedient, good-listeners, effective teachers, humble, cheerful, and converted. We thrill as we watch their conversion transformation. English, French and Mandarin speakers are in this Ottawa Zone, and they love reporting on their finding, and yesterday they happily reported that Jeff ? was baptized. 

Sister Booth’s ham Valentine feast was delicious!!

Home Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning we ‘Zoomed’ in with our ‘newish’ missionaries for an Adjusting to Missionary Life discussion. Adjusting to Missionary Life is a wonderful companion booklet to ‘Preach My Gospel,” and we are so grateful for the inspired counsel that every missionary is to read from this daily. When we have our zoom meetings we highlight suggestions right from the book along with our own suggestions. I have been promoting watercoloring after 9pm, and Sister Lee (who has been serving as our Area Mental Health Counsellor and living in Philadelphia for almost two years and is going home next week) concurs that watercoloring is one of the best ways for missionaries to unwind at night! So we continue to suggest this wonderful creative unwinding activity!! 

As soon as our zoom call was over we hopped in a Uber van with our Assistants Musallo and Nally,  and headed to the airport bound for Moncton. Everytime we fly to New Brunswick we are delayed for a variety of reasons, and it happened again, which makes Richard’s interview schedule get skewed, but missionaries were all in great spirits…they love to see each other. That New Brunswick Zone, which also includes PEI,  is so huge…our missionaires from Rimouski drive over 6 hours to get to Moncton for Zone Conference…so you can imagine how much they love getting together! Zone Conference Friday was wonderful, with great teachings that inspired everyone. Oh how we love to be with this(and every other zone) army of committed saints! 

Sister Taylor and her crew of eight helpers provided a delicious Valentine feast for our entire hungry crew. Maybe I mentioned that she is the second generation meal coordinator for Zone Conference meals. When we approached her and told her of the directive that we are not supposed to rely on ward or branch members to provide meals, she emphatically replied that she doesn’t want to stop. They love the missionaries!! Meatloaf with all the bells and whistles, including fresh homemade cinnamon rolls to take home filled us to the brim!!

Upcoming this week…Mount Royal and Longueuil Zone Conference tomorrow, Interviews Tuesday, Montreal Zone Conference Wednesday, MLC Thursday, and the final interviews for this six week cycle on Friday. It will be another great, jam packed week, where we will get to interact with many of our dear missionaries.  

Hope all is well with all of you!!!We are so grateful for your prayers on our behalf, and on behalf of all our dear missionaries. Thank you!!!

And now I will close this epistle, sending love to all,

Keep Smiling, and CTR!!

Happy Family Week, Teacher’s Convention, or Winter Break..whatever you have!!! 

Much love, 

Richard and Gayle, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma

XOXOXOXOXOX..

SNOW, SNOW and more SNOW!!!!!

Today is Sunday, February 9, 2020

   This week we sing Happy 14th Birthday to Isabelle on Tuesday, and we sing Happy        

38th to Jennie on Saturday!!

What a wonderful Sabbath day!! I called Shade Oluwasegun the other evening and invited she and her son Joel to come to Church.  She was truly ecstatic this morning when we picked the two of them up. Shade’s husband Sammy came to the door to bid them farewell and I asked him if he wanted to come too, but he had made other plans…maybe next week!! Watching the sweet folks sincerely welcome Shade and Joel has motivated me to do a better job reaching out to members and friends alike…it was ministering at its best!! LaSalle ward members understand how important it is to reach out and envelope new friends… Joel was baptized in December, and Shade is still being taught by Sister Vargas and Sister Wadaa. How I wish we could take them to Church every week!! Joel had an interview with the Bishop and will be ordained a deacon next Sunday!!

Paraphrasing ‘Oklahoma,’ where we sing; ‘the corn is as high as an elephants eye….’ we sing  ‘the snow is as high as an elephants eye!! Actually higher….it is just like all the winter photos we have seen!!! And these Montrealers are snow wizards…removal is amazing.. There are these crews with trucks, and huge machines that look like right out of a Dr. Seuss book…(actually it would be so fun to write a Dr. Seuss rhyming book about all the snow around here)..It is totally magical…the only thing missing are a bunch of kids and grandkids building a massive quince on our front lawn….and then sleeping in it!!! Seriously the piles are absolutely incredibly huge…in our subdivision there are beautiful boulevards between the lanes of traffic, and in the spring and summer there are magnificent annual beds laden with colour-themed flower beds, but now those very beds are heaped with massive piles of snow, and it is almost impossible to see the cars heading the other direction!!! Years ago they dumped the snow in the St. Lawrence River, but the salty junk they throw on the roads mixed with the snow, altered the eco system so much, and killed fish that they outlawed that! Piling is the only solution, and that is what they do….everywhere there are massive mountains of snow!!! Parked cars along side streets are entombed after the snowplows do their job, and then it takes several hours of hard hand shovelling to free their vehicles from their frosty white blanket tombs. The Church contracts out to NICKY to clean our driveway, and this is where we know they have not perfected all snow removal!! A Massey Ferguson tractor with this spinning attachment pulls up on our driveway and the swirling discs start spinning and shooting the snow over to the sideyard. The crisp knife edge snowbank looks sort of tidy, except that the heavy tractor has packed the snow down real hard so rather than nice clean, dry, paving stones, we have a 2-3” hard packed snow base. We have tried using ice scrapers, and shovels to clean the driveway, but our little snippets of shovelling time are pretty useless, so we keep packing it down as we drive in..As you can imagine this does make an OCD person a bit squirmy…

By the way…the snow removal in Newfoundland as you have seen is like nothing we have ever seen….BUT there, they HAVE had to dump the snow into the Atlantic!

Longueuil Nord (Quebec), and Nova Scotia Zone Conferences two weeks ago were inspirational, and we felt motivating! We do teaching, and then have zone leaders, and STL’s both do teaching as well. Our Canada Montreal Mission theme: 

“One in Christ…Go Forth with Faith” 

is perfect for so many sub topics..like talking about Baptism,, and effective planning which is what we are focusing on this transfer cycle. Elders Foster and Alley who are incredible planners, and great teachers, videoed themselves in a daily, and a weekly planning session and we loved showing their video. We KNOW that effective planning is one of the keys to being an effective, successful missionary. One of our missionaries questioned us teaching about planning AGAIN. We know planning is absolutely essential now, and in their futures…Sometimes I feel a bit like a broken record when we remind our missionaries that what they learn now, the habits they establish now, will bless them their whole lives. Patterns of prayer, scripture study, pondering, journal writing, and planning are some of the essential skills that we love to teach!

Quebec City was winter wonderland at its best, ready to host Winter Carnival later this month! Sisters Roux and Rollins showed us cute photos of them visiting an Ice Hotel about 20 minutes outside the city, so as soon as interviews were complete we ventured forth! Tourists actually spend $400.00/night to sleep in this giant igloo!! Preformed ice blocks assemble this one story hotel which is open January through March. 42 guest rooms are available , and an icy chapel complete with fur on the ice benches is actually a wedding destination!! About half the rooms have intricate carving in the ice creating ‘theme rooms’ - piano room, a jungle room, or a circus are some of the themes. No bathroom facilities of course, so if need be, you’d have to cross a large icy courtyard outside, which was not any warmer than in the hotel. I did try out the long icy slide!

A fun little diversion!  You could google Quebec City Ice Hotel to see this marvel!!

Of course we love our Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Zone Conference, and we never tire of driving past, and stopping at our vacant Mission Home. When no one answered the doorbell, I went exploring, found my hidden key right where it always has been…did not use it, but peeked in all the windows across the back and noticed a little child’s chair, and  a ballerina doll, which makes us think the home has been bought by a family!! Being right by our lovely Lake Banook, we worried the buyer might rip it down and build a big mansion, so were so happy it is still there!!

Our dear friends, the Wilkinson’s who have served eighteen months in Sydney, Cape Breton joined us for a farewell supper in Halifax where we reminisced of their time here as missionaries.  How grateful we are for their service, and incredible example of cheerful ministering even, no, especially when it is hard! How we love them. 

Our Senior MLS missionaries write their own ‘handbooks’ for their Mission service, and how we wish we could publish what they do!! “We have been changed for the better!”(from Wicked!) Monday mornings at our weekly Zoom meetings we often are in tears as these Seniors report on their highlights of the week! They pray, study, work, serve, and minister every day! If they have young missionaries where they serve, they are so good to minister to them too. We have learned so much from practically perfect Senior role models, we are thinking an MLS mission is next on our list!!! 

New Brunswick Zone Conference was scheduled for this past Thursday and Friday, but with severe weather warnings we had to reschedule, so our extra pause days were a welcome breather for us. It means though, that this week will be full with Office Meetings, as well as Ottawa, and New Brunswick Zone Conferences! 

We have had a few watercoloring sessions, and I don’t know if I have promoted this wonderful relaxation activity enough!!! I think Richard’s landscapes, and seascapes are almost good enough to sell, although he never would because I want all of them!! My flowers are ok, and I love my new youtube tutor…Shayda Campbell. We find we need the unwind that painting gives us both. 

Speaking of tutoring…Evelyn Maeser, my new MTC French tutor gives me new hope every Monday afternoon. Her Parisian French is beautiful, and I dream of speaking just like her!! 

 And now I will close this epistle sending love to all!

Keep Smiling!

Love Richard and Gayle, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma XOXOXOXOXOXO…