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…
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