More CMM Miracles....read on!!

Today is Sunday, June 28, 2020!!

Happy 15th Anniversary to David and Danielle on Thursday, July 2nd!!

Happy Canada Day on Wednesday, July 1st, and 

Happy Independence Day on Saturday July 4th!!

Today we celebrate our first year of living in Montreal, Quebec!! Last June 28th we flew from Nova Scotia to Quebec to begin the second year of our Mission adventure, which also means that today, we begin our final year serving as Mission leaders here in the Canada Montreal Mission!! We have so much still to do..but, who knows…maybe our service will be extended. We heard that  50 of the 120 new mission presidents called are not yet allowed to begin their service,  because of covid 19 restrictions…which means the current mission president and companion are extending their service indefinitely!!….maybe this will happen to us??!! 

Highlights of our week included Monday meetings, and call-ins, interviewing our Mount Royal Zone missionaries on Tuesday, Mount Royal Zone Conference  Wednesday, and MLC on Thursday. We have become accustomed, and very comfortable with conducting interviews, and meetings over ZOOM. Configuring our wheely office desk chairs beside each other, and centering the laptop just so, seems to work well. Technology is quite incredible, and even through wifi, the cloud, and ZOOM, we have been blessed to still feel the power of the Spirit. We all look forward to in person meetings though; where we can hug, visit one on one, and enjoy a meal together! No word on when this might happen.

Zone Conferences are a revelatory experience without exception. We have the same outline for each of our five zone conferences, but it is remarkable how each presentation is unique, and as the spirit guides, it is tailor retrofitted for that particular group of missionaries. And, of course all the participation is different, because it is a new group each conference. It’s sort of like our experiences at General Conference, where although we all hear the same message, we each receive inspiration just for us. Then the work begins…following through with the revelation we have been blessed to receive. 

I was so excited to receive Mother’s Day / Birthday money and ordered a 48 Mungyo paint pan set which took over a month to arrive from Toronto.  When it did arrive the metal pan was scratched and had a little dent, which sort of bugged me, since it was supposed to be brand new, so I called the ‘Above Ground Art Supplies’ and asked if they could send me a new black metal pan. The fellow was very agreeable, and said he would get right on that, which he did, and;  Monday another black pan set complete with 48 more paints arrived, free of charge, at the Office…so now we each have our own beautiful pallets!!  Watercolouring is our chosen evening activity, and these snazzy new brilliant pigmented pallets will keep us creating for years!! 

Yesterday morning we, along with our dear Senior Office missionaries, Sister Breckenridge, Sister Little and Sister Mecham loaded up for a Pday excursion. The Eastern Townships were surveyed by the British in 1791 and given to British loyalists to settle, with Sherbrooke as the Capital or the Queen! Richard’s service here in Quebec 1973-1975 emblazoned in his mind the beauty of this province, and the Eastern Townships might be at the top of his ‘must see’ list!! The two hour drive through magnificent hardwood maple and oak forests to Sherbrooke was picturesque, just like every drive we take. Walking around downtown Sherbrooke, a city of about 200,000,  we were in awe of about eight beautiful, two story wall murals we followed our guide (Richard) to see. Wall graffiti is really common around Quebec, but these wall paintings are not at all graffiti-ish!! Gifted artists have painted these to look 3D..without 3D glasses!! Incredible. 

Bakeries and deli’s have opened, and these French bakeries are something else…about eight different types of dessert croissants, and about fifteen different artisan breads, and gourmet sandwiches on any bread you want. Definitely an unforgettable lunch!! 

Coaticook, about a half an hour drive from Sherbrook was our next destination..to get ice cream for dessert!! Since arriving in Quebec, our favourite grocery store ice cream is Coaticook, so getting to visit the actual dairy was fun!! Cookies and cream for me, and Richard loved his double scoop chocolate mint chip!!

It definitely was worth the trip!! (Cream is the first ingredient listed on the label!)

Another half hour down the road we visited the Abbaye de Saint-Benoit-du-Lac, a hundred year old working abbey run by thirty Benedictine monks, whose motto is 'Prayer and Work.' The last recruit joined fifteen years ago, and the oldest monk is 98, so it seems that not many young men are interested in that lifestyle anymore.  Because of covid, only the gift shop was open..so we didn’t see a single monk or hear any of them doing their Gregorian chanting. We did buy bottles of peach and cherry spread, a woven dishtowel, a woven dishcloth as well as a maple charcuterie board, produced right there by these monks. The site is picturesque, with groomed beds, sweeping green lawns, and apple orchards boasting 3500 trees, all overlooking the stunning Lac Magog.  Autumn and winter photos showcased the beauty, and whet our appetite to return!! 

We see so many converted convents and monasteries into condos, restaurants, seniors lodges, etc, and so wish we could share the Message of the Restoration with those who used to live there. People used to worship... 

We feel so grateful that our missionaries are working so faithfully and diligently…read these beautiful stories….

Canada Montreal Mission Miracles: June 28th, 2020 

Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Elders:

Miracle time!! We started teaching a family in the Yarmouth Branch who have not been to church in a very long time. Anyways, one of their children just recently passed away which had brought such grief upon the family. We were able to share a lesson based around the family proclamation, and they stated that they want their two unbaptized children to start taking the lessons with us so they can be sealed as a family together forever. They are willing pt take the steps to return back to church, and to progress towards the temple. They inspire me so much. I am so grateful to be a witness to this change.

Quebec Sisters:

A couple of weeks ago on preparation day my companion (Sister Sanchez) and I (Sister VaughAn) decided to go on a hike to le Parc des Chutes-de-la-Chaudière. It was a wonderful time to have dinner and relax from our week of technology finding and video calls. Later on that day I realized I had lost my jacket name tag. We prayed to find it. About a week later one of our amis who was found by going through area book (Area Book Mining) was going fishing with his friend. He got into his friend's truck and noticed something on the dashboard. It was a name tag with VaughAn on it. 

He told us that he was looking for a sign before he could start to believe in God. Finding that tag was his sign. We picked it up and gave him a copy of the the Book of Mormon. Now we stay in contact and can't wait to start teaching him!

Richard recounting this: from our Tech Elders:

Experience of 23 yr old Albanian Man :

We had two very excited young missionaries call us two days ago to share a wonderful experience that they had. Two weeks ago, a young 23 year old Albanian man who was living on the South Shore, Montreal, contacted Salt Lake about getting a copy of the Book of Mormon. He had tried obtaining a copy about a year ago but the Elders tried several times and could not connect with him. This time, they were able to contact him, and deliver the desired book!  He loved it and called them back a few days later asking for a Doctrine and Covenants, which they also took to him. After teaching the first few lessons, they learned that he was raised a Christian, but that he did not feel he had the fullness of the truth so he began searching out world religions. This ended up with him converting to Islam, primarily because he liked the high moral standards that Islam professes, as well as the lifelong devotion expected of practising Muslims. His hungering and searching for more truth led him to our Church’s ComeUntoChrist.org website, where he was drawn (so he said) to the stricter (as compared to the world) moral code of our Church, and the expectation for member contribution, sacrifice, (of both time and money) and lifelong devotion!   He was also stirred by the principle of eternal families!   After having read the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants,  and two days ago, while he was being taught about the plan of salvation, he interrupted the elders and said : « Elders, I am so touched in my heart that I feel impressed to ask you the same question as the eunuch asked Phillip in Acts 8 : 35 namely what doth hinder me to be baptized? » Can you imagine that, an investigator quoting scripture to you, as a missionary, asking to be baptized!  Needless to say, they were floating on cloud nine when they called us!  So yes, we do have some water , like Phillip found in Acts chapter 8, and yes, Mohammed, you can be baptized!  His date is set for next Saturday, July 4th, a day he picked because he says it is Independence Day in the USA and for him his baptism will be his own personal spiritual independence day!  Cool miracles happening right here in the Canada Montreal Mission! 

We are so excited to host a Fireside tonight with Elder David F.Evans, and his wife Mary, who are grandparents to our Elder Isaac Johnson. Elder Evans is serving as President of the  Hong Kong Area, and was one of the team who created the ‘Safeguards for Technology’ handbook. You can imagine how phones and technology are suchamazing resources for us in this digital age…BUT also what a challenge it is for missionaries to manage all the distractions…good and bad on their phones. It will be awesome to have his first hand direction, and instruction!!

And…there you have the June 28th, 2020 report from the Canada Montreal Mission. 

This is an open invitation for any of you to visit us….we would love for you to experience Quebec!!! Time is a ticking!!

We feel so very blessed to have this incredible experience together. Life doesn’t get any better than this!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ, as restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith is true! What a great work we are about…it is ALL our responsibility to gather scattered Israel…let us do it!! 

Have a wonderful week!! We send much love…..

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

Below are photos from yesterdays adventure!!

Pont de Milby  1873
Sister Breckenridge, Sister Mecham, Sister Little 

Abbaye de Saint-Benoit-du-Lac

Sherbrooke Mural

Magog River ...behind is the Biltrite Rubber plant!!

Sherbrooke mural

Magog River

Sherbrooke mural

Living art!!

Old City Hall...now a Fine Arts Centre

Heart Mural

Old Theatre mural

Faith of our Fathers

Today is Sunday, June 21, 2020

Bradley James celebrates his 39th Birthday on Friday the 26th!!

  Happy Birthday Brad!!!

Today I am happy to pay tribute to all Fathers…but especially to Richard, and to our wonderful sons: Aaron, David, Bradley, Michael, Mark, Jonathan (his first Father’s Day!!)and Brendan!! These men are remarkable husbands, and incredible fathers, collectively parenting our 23 perfectly wonderful grandchildren, who we claim to be the most beautiful, most handsome, and the brightest!! We also feel so very blessed to be surrounded by an army of future fathers…our young Elders, who every day prepare for their roles as Husbands and Fathers, while serving the Lord as missionaries.  Happy Father’s Day to you all!

Reviewing our past week, past month, and past years we feel such gratitude for the blessing of serving!! This week we celebrate two years serving as missionarIes; first year in the Canada Halifax Mission, and this past year serving here in the Canada Montreal Mission, and truly we can say we have been on the adventure of our lives!! Twenty months we spent travelling all over our six provinces; Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and in a bit of the state of Maine, and kept connected to our missionaries, and members through in person interviews, zone conferences, and stake conferences. Covid did not, could not stop us from doing everything we can to continue teaching, motivating, and loving our Mission Family. So for the past four months evening devotionals, morning devotionals, one on one interviews, zone conferences, new missionary meetings, have continued, and ZOOM and Messenger have become the means by which we are able to connect. Great Zone, and District leaders, as well as Sister Training leaders have done such an amazing work keeping our teams enthusiastically engaged and focused doing missionary work ‘the new normal way.’ It is a big challenge though. 

Fine-tuning our daily schedule…just like our young missionaries do, has been so good for both Richard and I. Getting moving early every morning…reading, praying and exercising has been absolutely essential, and because of that we have been blessed with fabulous health!! So much of our days we spend sitting, sitting, and sitting, so getting at least a half an hour of vigorous exercise almost every day of the week has given us the stamina to keep up with our demanding schedule!!

This week’s report: Monday Office meetings were great, and before we knew it five o’clock rolled around, and we were on our way to the Airport to meet our four new missionaries..Elder Van Hauwaert, (Spring Coulee), Elder Peck (Hamilton, Ontario), Elder Burton (Cardston), and Elder Richards (Airdrie). The airport was barely starting to come alive as these four arrived. They seem excited to join our CMM family, and we are excited to have them here!!

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the day at home interviewing our 26 Longueuil Zone missionaries, and it’s just like visiting a bunch of old friends! I have them report on friends they are teaching, any new friends they have found, challenges they might be having, how their families are doing back home, how they are eating, what they are doing for exercise, and how things are going with their companions. I’m so grateful for the guidance of the Spirit as I counsel with these dear friends. 

Thursday Longueuil Zone Conference was wonderful, and maybe our best so far.  I think back to our first year of zone conferences, stake conferences, etc. etc. and how I was so nervous about every meeting I had to speak in…(I know that is why I got the double dose of Shingles!!) And now…everytime we get to teach, and speak, it is such a highlight….I just love it!!! I think I have even stopped shaking!! Really, we are just the facilitators for our meetings. A few days before whatever meeting we are having, we send out ‘prepare to learn’ assignments which are done…they study and come prepared to share their insights.  It really is a revelatory experience for all of us, and we always come away so inspired, and motivated!  Oh, to be a missionary for the rest of our days…WAIT…we CAN be missionaries for the rest of our days!! Let’s DO IT!!!

Friday was a needed Preparation Pause Day where we organized and prepped for upcoming transfers, and upcoming meetings. We treated ourselves to Wendy’s salads, and drove to the top of Mount Royal - (our mountain), and had a lap picnic beside beautiful Lac des Castors (which means lake of the beavers). With it being the first day parks reopened, we loved watching the park come alive with happy families picnicking, tossing footballs and frisbees, cycling, running, walking, and enjoying the sunny summery day, and we even saw a momma duck teach her eight ducklings to swim! A perfectly wonderful day!! Life is so very good!! 

Yesterday our official Pday we spent exercising, gardening, doing a few errands, and watercoloring.  It is such a perfect climate here, maybe extra humidity, but the weather is really glorious. I love driving around this charming city….I love the huge trees, shrubs, flowers, old architecture, and the great people, and soon we will get to meet and teach them in person!! Hurray!!

Tonight our Sunday evening devotional we are having story time, and paying tribute to “Faith of our Father’s.”  Here are the stories I told:

My Grandpa John Finlay Hamilton, was the father of 11 children, and supported his huge family running his own blacksmith shop. Early in the 20th century shod what my Dad said was a ‘world record’ 24 horses in one day..that is 96 hoofs!! He also made tools, fixed machinery for the farmers, and during the depression made sugar beet knives. He taught his posterity the importance of learning to work hard. My dad, his youngest child,  Robert, was the only of the seven sons to serve a mission, and upon his return, Grandpa told my Dad that during his two year mission, they were more financially well off than at any other period of their lives. But they were not well off most of his growing up years..my Dad recalled that they weren’t the poorest people in Magrath, but were the second poorest, next to the Miner’s.  He remembered being thrilled when they had bananas or oranges. In fact…his Mom Leah,  would bake for her next door neighbour Vada Brown just because she loved using the store bought ingredients Vada would provide. When the soles of his shoes had big gaping holes, he would make cardboard insoles.  So when I retell the story of my optimistic cheerful Dad…you can have an appreciation of his favourite scripture…

2 Nephi 2:25 “Adam fell that man might be, and Man is that he might have JOY!” Many mornings while getting ready for seminary, my Dad and I would share our one family bathroom…he would whistle while he shaved, and I would curl my long hair!! Many mornings he would remind me that man is that he might have JOY, and he would add…I am going to have that JOY, and he did…He was a master at looking outward to help everyone around to find that same JOY.  He was a gardener extraordinaire, and from dawn to dusk after retiring, found so much joy manicuring their magnificent yard. Mom loved water, and so he even dug a hole and built a beautiful swimming pool. I’ve never known anyone that worked harder than my Dad.. Two of his best qualities were his work ethic, and his ability, and gift at finding JOY…in everything!!  His FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE and JOYFUL OPTIMISM has been such a pillar of strength in our family.

My Mom’s Dad William White McCormack served in WW1, and saw action in a bloody battle called the Battle of the Somme. His ‘Keep Smiling’ motto is now in its fifth generation of encouraging optimism, and the art of looking for ways to be happy.. Really that is what it is…it IS our choice to be happy. To make the decision to smile, even when…no especially when it is hard, will change our lives. My Grandpa and his best friend Robert Morrow fought alongside each other, and possibly one of the most difficult experiences for Grandpa was holding Bob in his arms as he died. Still he carried on, and his Keep Smiling motto was his life’s mantra. Billy McCormack was a beacon of happiness to all who knew him. I am grateful for his example of fatherhood to my Mom.  

And there you have my tribute to a few of the Fathers that have blessed my life.

Miracle Corner:

Kirkland (West Island Montreal) Elders:

« Some miracles we saw: 

We got a bible referral and had a lesson with him, picked him up on Monday and taught him a great lesson then gave him a copy of the book of Mormon in english! So sweet, his name is George, he is from Egypt, and he is Christian. 

Another, we were walking out of the dollar store and the lady who tells you to sanitize your hand at the front of the store came to me and asked us for a bible study... like what! That was sweet, we'll definitely pass her off to the sisters. 

Then a member Simon Gonzales, called us up and told us that he has a friend that wants to get baptized... like I feel like I'm in a missionary movie where everything goes right hah. « 

Bridgewater, Nova Scotia Elders:

« I've never opened an area before, and Elder Day hasn't had an area before, so along with not being able to really leave our apartment (because of the mandatory 2 week isolation period from travelling outside the province) and not really having any formers in area book, that's made it a considerable challenge to find new people to teach. But we went to work trying to make quality content for the Facebook page, and trying to be diligent with the people we do have and the members in Bridgewater. 

On Thursday ( the 11th)  we get a call from a man named Gerard. He's an architect andhe was looking at some of the temples online when he thought  to himself "I wonder what this church is all about" soon enough he found his way to ComeUntoChrist.org and referred himself. He also was able to find The Book of Mormon online and has been reading it. He was in the latter chapters of Alma when he called us. We've begun teaching him and he has a lot of good questions.

I think this is a great little experience showing that when we work as hard as we can with what we've got, The Lord will bless us with success. »

Gatineau Spanish sisters:

« Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. we a had a really cool  miracle. We received a referral from a member who was visiting Ottawa. She and her 9 year old daughter (who are members) were staying with her non-member in laws. While they were there they shared the gospel with them by talking about the restoration and The Book of Mormon. They had a lot of questions and want to learn more about the gospel. We will be having a lesson with them this week and we delivered a copy of The Book of Mormon to them yesterday. They are so excited to start reading in The Book of Mormon. Overall it was a great week, and Sister Thomson is doing good . »

Villa Maria (Montreal) sisters:

« We've also been so blessed in our missionary work here in the Hochelaga ward. We got two amazing referrals this week that are so prepared to receive the gospel. One of them is a relatively new immigrant from Africa who goes to school all day during the week and works all day during the weekends, but she gets a half-hour break from 3-3:30 between classes Monday to Friday. We've been meeting during her breaks, which must be a huge sacrifice for her, but she is so excited to talk to us every time. It's amazing to see how powerful the desire of someone can be when they want to hear the gospel. And she gets home from work late on Sundays and goes onto the ward Facebook page to watch church. It's truly incredible. »

And that is our report of another wonderful week in the Canada Montreal Mission!! Oh how we love this opportunity to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries! There is no greater joy than this! Any of you that have a little inkling considering serving….we could make it happen, and we would love to find a perfect spot just for you!!

Have a wonderful week!!

with much love, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma

and Richard and Gayle.  Keep Smiling!!

"Stay on the Covenant Path"

Today is Sunday, June 14, 2020

Happy 3rd Birthday to Peter on Wednesday, June 17th!!

Happy Baby Blessing Day to Liesl Anne Low!!! 

Gardening really does have missionary application!! Planting seeds is what we are about…many, many seeds are planted in the CMM in such a variety of ways..but right now we pretty much do all our planting through Facebook posts, and through teaching virtually. Some of our teams are so busy they can’t teach everyone they have…others aren’t quite as blessed…Exciting to announce that four people were baptized this week!! The work goes on….

I know I raved about Maritime gardeners last year, and they were impressive,  but these Quebecois take gardening to an entirely new level!! Boulevards in Mont Royal are spectacular with maybe a dozen graduated beds - (each is probably 8’x40,’) along our main feeder Graham Boulevard.  Student gardeners transformed the beds in a day…layering up..a border of reddish begonia on the outside followed by dusty miller, strawberry fields - red gomphrena, and a tall leafy row of centrepieces.  Mont  Royal has a town centre like the centre of a bicycle spoke with many roads or boulevards coming off, and every main boulevard has a different colour scheme. Just incredible!! Driving around neighbourhoods ooooh’ing and aaaah’ing is such a fun relaxation activity!!  Can’t complete this gardening paragraph without mentioning a new favourite hedge… ‘Spirea!’ Stunning lacy white hedges with delicate white blossoms grow everywhere, and I am determine to find a corner to plant one next year!!  Zone Six is the perfect gardening zone!!!  Yony, our FM gardener came yesterday with a load of topsoil/manure mix and filled our new hydrangea bed; after our visit to the gardening centre, we planted perennials; veronica, lupine and sweet woodruff. To add a splash of colour I raided a few bubble gum pink petunia and added them to the new bed. 

Our Sunday evening Devotional tonight I’m feeling inspired to teach about the importance of making and keeping covenants, and creating our own well worn covenant path. Following is what I’m thinking about presenting…. President Nelson has reminded us about staying on the covenant path. As missionaries, it is what we strive to do everyday!  Our handbooks for being effective missionaries include The Scriptures - all the Standard Works, Preach My Gospel, Adjusting to Missionary Life, Safeguards for Technology, and Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ. These handbooks teach us everything we need to know to stay on the covenant path. - everything!! How are we doing? We have been taught to read from these handbooks everyday. Just reading is not enough…we must apply what we are taught. We have heard many times: “Obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings MIRACLES!!” 

We so desire to be blessed with miracles….but we need exact obedience…

As we follow with exactness the standards set for us we will see miracles!  The greatest miracle we will see will be our own transformation ..our very hearts will change.

And I love the Marlin K. Jensen quote: “When obedience ceases to be an irritant, and becomes our quest…God endows us with great power.” Isn’t that powerfully motivating…not for just as we are missionaries, but as we continue on our mortal journey. 

Page eight in our Missionary standards reads: “God invites you to dedicate yourself to Him throughout your life. Mission standards such as personal study, goal setting, and the righteous use of technology will bless you on your mission and help you for the rest of your life. Let the commandments in the scriptures and the principles in Preach My Gospel: A Guide to Missionary Service and the missionary standards become lifelong guiding principles. As you follow God’s commandments and standards, He will direct, bless and guide you throughout your life.” 

We love hiking… any where in the world…My favourite trails are where the forest floor is soft soil covered in evergreen needles, where there is elevation gain with fun switch backs, and where tree roots or rocks are easy to maneuver around. But we have done some hikes where the entire route was granite boulder climbing, and for me…that was the hardest hiking ever.… BUT..We kept saying to ourselves…we can do hard things..and continued pressing forward. The well worn paths are easier to follow, and we know it took much effort to create the well worn trail or path. That is just like a mission culture - our mission culture.  To create a trail or a path, much work is required clearing trees, digging out roots, moving boulders, building footbridges etc. etc.

Likewise, covenant paths for generations of missionaries to follow takes great effort.  This is our task - each one of us;  to establish, and maintain a mission culture of complete obedience; we must remove or take away anything that will detract from 100% obedience, and that is our challenge and invitation. Do you have anything that detracts you from being 100% obedient? Think about how we each can contribute to our goal of 100% obedience in the Canada Montreal Mission. 

Daily we make choices…so many choices..when to get up, what to wear, to be cheerful or grumpy.  After almost two years as mission leaders we have come to know that the most important role we have is to help motivate, to teach, to show, and to help YOU learn and experience the great JOY of life on a covenant path. It means to feel the JOY of obedience…of happily obeying Missionary standards of Jesus Christ…music, dress, schedules, and p’day activities.  obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles.  Establishing a life on a covenant path requires hard work, desire and commitment, but it is oh so worth it. PEACE, HOPE, JOY, TESTIMONY, and ETERNAL LIFE are the rewards of a life on a covenant path. I know that.  Let us each have our feet firmly planted on our own well-worn covenant path, standing, walking, skipping, and running in holy places, all day, everyday is my challenge for each of us..It is the right way, and the only way to find true happiness. 

Four new missionaries are to arrive tomorrow, so we are excited to do another Airport run!! And this week our schedule indicates that we have Longueuil Zone interviews as well as their Zone Conference. It will we great to have lots of visiting with these amazing missionaries..One of these days maybe I’ll make myself visit with them in French!! 

Missionary service is exhilarating and so motivating! Our testimonies of the Restoration, and the beautiful Plan of Happiness is what the world needs NOW!! And so we work. Everyday we have such purpose and such drive to help the work move forward.  

We love when our sweet missionaries share lovely miracles, and below are a few for your enjoyment!! 

Missionary Miracles June 14, 2020

Hawkesbury sisters:

We had a really great lesson with Rocko this week and taught him the restoration. It started out as a complete mess- we had a very hard time helping him and the members present get settled into the video call and all three of them had a bit of a hard time focusing, jumping around from story to story or from principle to principle. It was also Sis Mendoza's first time teaching the restoration so it was an interesting balance to help her feel confident teaching while also trying to help Rocko understand what everyone was saying. Finally, Sis Mendoza started telling the story of the first vision. As we recited Joseph Smith History to him, all three went completely silent and the Spirit was so strong it was almost tangible. Rocko then bore testimony that he believed what we were saying was true and that he really wanted to read the Book of Mormon - when he was on date, he had only read about four pages. It's moments like that that make the hard days all worth it. 

Lasalle sisters:

An actual crazy miracle! There was a young woman who sent a message on the Disciple of Jesus Christ in Montreal page that wanted to learn more about her purpose in this life. This young woman is a Spanish speaker, so they asked me to message her. We asked if she wanted to hear more about God's place for her and she said yes. We clicked on her profile to see where she lived and we noticed that she is friends with Sister Mendoza on Facebook! During our call with the Hawkesbury Sisters, we asked Sister Mendoza if she would like to do a Spanish lesson with me with the young women we wanted to learn more. Sister Mendoza just said yes with a huge smile! She was so excited and just happy!! We asked her who this person was since they are friends on Facebook. Turns out that she is her sister’s friend from Mexico! What a wonderful miracle! 

Dartmouth sisters:

This week Sister Murray and I were looking through the Area Book trying to figure out who to call.  She passed me the phone and I  started to look through the names. One stuck out to me and I turned to Sister Murray and said I think we should call her. I had such a strong feeling about here and felt like we needed to call.  We did and a few moments  later she reached out to us.  We did not talk long but apparently she had been longing to hear for the sisters.  It was good to reach out to her and meet her needs. She does not like to be pushed but hopefully with a little time and love we will be able to become her friends. 

Ottawa zone leaders:

As far as the area goes we've started to have some big success as of late! We found one person through area book finding, and we've been getting some good member work done. In fact on Friday after Zone Conference we had to go pick up some weights that the STL's and Sister Hall had found while cleaning out the Chapel Hill Elders apartment (which from their report was nasty) and we had all these weights in the bed of our truck and we were thinking of how we could get rid of them. Instead of taking them to Value Village we decided to ask the ward if there was someone who wanted them and we added a post on the Ward FB page. We got a call a few minutes later from the Bishop's son who serves in the Canadian Armed Forces and he has been looking for weights all during quarantine to keep in shape. He said that he'd come by right then! So he and Bishop Graham swung by and picked them up. While we were talking with the Bishop he was telling us about how his other son, currently reassigned to the Toronto Mission, has friend who wants to learn more, and had asked him if the missionaries are good ones. He told us that he felt we were good missionaries, and it felt SO good to hear that! It's awesome when the Bishop starts trusting you! So we have that referral that we're currently trying to work with! So that's been the exciting things in our area this week. We're doing our best to find and add to our teaching pool, as well as keep working with those that were being taught before we came in.

The Gospel is true. I again finished reading the Book of Mormon yesterday, and accepted Moroni’s challenge, and silently prayed to know if what I had read was true. Immediately I was overcome with the sweet assurance that it indeed was. As Joseph Smith said “The Book of Mormon is the most correct book of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”  I know this to be true. There is POWER in the reading of the Book of Mormon…..DO IT!!

I’ll send this off with much love…RIchard and Gayle, Dad and Mom, 

      Grandpa and Grandma…..Keep Smiling!!!!

Hurrah for Israel!! Fifteen NEW Missionaries arrive in the CMM!!!

Today is June 7, 2020 

Happy 4th Birthday to Preese Auburn Low and Happy 63rd Birthday to George Solon Low!!!

Saturday, June 13th, Preese’s Dad, Michael Robert celebrates his 37th!! 

Sunday evening devotionals are one of our weekly highlights.  Tonight, coinciding with the 76th anniversary of Dday yesterday, we are drawing parallels between War, Covid, and Missionary Work. Watching many WW I and WW 2 movies I have come to feel and understand the horrors, the loneliness, the homesickness, and the real despair of fighting, and killing. 
Years ago Uncle Max shared this amazing story with me. I’ll give a little preamble so the story has context.  

My Dad was the youngest of 11 children born to John Finlay and Anna Leah Anderson Hamilton;  their 7 sons and 4 daughters were raised in Magrath, Alberta.

Leah, my Grandma,  when calling for her children to come home for supper cupped her hands together like this, and whistled for them. Listen to the sound of this whistle…definitely not the sound of just blowing through your mouth, or blowing through your fingers!! All her sons were expert cupped-hand whistlers, and actually could whistle tunes. Grandma’s whistle could be heard all around the east end of town, and was in effect..the Hamilton family dinner bell…

Four of the seven brothers  Bill (Vere,) Jim, Max and Alvin served in WW II, and one of my favourite stories I love to remember, and tell, is the story of Uncle Max and Uncle Bill (or Vere as he was called.) Brothers in Wartime, they had no contact with each other for several years…until one memorable day when unbeknownst to each other, they were both in London, England riding the same red double-decker bus..Bill was upstairs, and Max was down. The Lord knew where they each were, and he orchestrated such a  joyous reunion.  Bill who was upstairs starting whistling, and Max downstairs instantly knew that the familiar whistle must be one of his brothers, and bounded up the stairs for a joyous, tearful reunion….just imagine that!! 

In our Sunday evening devotional last week we performed a puppet show  spoof on Little Red Riding Hood with a cute missionary twist. So many missionaries have raved about the craziness of the puppeteers, and the story line,  that we have decided not to retire the puppets forever!! I am far more comfortable creating the puppets than making them come to life…it is multi-tasking at its finest…moving the puppets mouths at the same time creating some silly puppet voice, and keeping track of which voice you did for which puppet, keeping both puppets moving, so they don’t look stunned or dead, changing props if need be,..and remembering to move their mouths while talking, all the while keeping hunched down behind the couch and blanket so no one knows who the puppeteers are!! It was such a fun variation from our normal devotionals… One of these weeks we are going to do a CMM Jeopardy Devotional; (definitely not with puppets,) and won’t that be memorable?!! Creating trivial questions is going to be so fun!!

A Banner week…office meetings, seven runs to the Airport to meet and greet 15 new missionaries, interviews, Area Presidency meeting, and two zone Conferences made the week literally fly by!!

Office weekly meetings were great, and again we were pleased with our Key Indicator report; with 29 folks on date for baptism, 62 folks at Church, and 33 new folks found to teach.  Considering that all our contacting is done over tiny phones, we are amazed, and thrilled!! Generally speaking morale is really good, but I must admit we, but especially they.. are getting tired of isolation. We pray that covid will hurry up and be gone!!

Tuesday, and Wednesday we zoom-interviewed our forty Atlantic Canada missionaries, and were so grateful for their enthusiasm, obedience and diligence, learning to be missionaries a new, normal way.  It is just delightful having these one on one interviews with every missionary, and to hear their miracle stories, some of which I will include today!

Atlantic Canada Zone Conference Thursday and Ottawa Zone Conference Friday  over Zoom were so good. What a miracle to see all our missionaries, and to have them participate in this inspired meeting. Sometimes there is a hiccup, and occasionally there is a lag, but we are so grateful to have this incredible technology available so we can see and hear each other… but no hugs, and no enjoying a meal together….hopefully soon!!

A quick report on new missionaries that arrived: some are brand new, and others are reassigned. We have been instructed to treat the reassigned missionaries as being our own, and,… that they will stay with us the rest of their missions even though they just might return to their original mission. What a fine new group we received:   Sister Driessen (Devon ), Elder Geisbrech(Maple Ridge BC ), Elder Nelson(Edmonton ), Sister Hawkes (Calgary), Sister Poihjoisrinne(Thunder Bay, Ontario), Sister Cherniawsky (Glenwood), Elder Bates (Edmonton ), Elder Fletcher (Claresholm), Sister Thompson (Raymond), Elder Day (west of Leduc ), Elder Noad (Magrath), Elder Hirsche (Lethbridge), Elder Ochoa (Drumheller), Elder Shipley (Raymond), and Elder Sudo (Lethbridge). Later in the month we will welcome 18 more to the Canada Montreal Mission!! Our numbers are going up!!! 

Here are several miracles that happened right here in the CMM!! Read on!! 

Mission Miracles

Fredericton Sisters:

WOW. WHAT A REAL MIRACLE. I CANT EVEN. JOHN WHO IS PARALYZED, WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!  This was his lasted message: I will think on it mostly just want to hear the basic stuff how I would join the church and what is required from me." What is this life President Low?! This is probably the Coolest thing of my entire Life!! Oh my goodness!! John is oh so cool! Oh my goodness. He wants to be baptized! He also said he had a sign to be baptized when his homecare person said she was a "mormon" in this words! Oh my goodness. This has been the coolest experience. 

Fredericton is the best. I cant even.  As you can tell its Saturday night. I've really been meaning to send this email. Anyways, we picked up 4 PEOPLE THIS WEEK. 4 WHOLE HUMANS WANTING THE GOSPEL. what Is this life?! I cant even describe the amazing beautiful miracle area this is. Anyways, to talk about the people, we picked up a lady named Tammie, she is so cool! She has been taught in the past, yet she is so open to the gospel! She said that she has never really liked talking with missionaries before us. She is so cool. And we have a follow up appointment with her in a few days!! Then we picked up our friend ‘Lovely’ who we met at the Froyo place!! She is so elect!! And so wonderful!! She is from India!! I love her!! The last person we picked up was Anne. She called us out of nowhere! And we set an appointment up! Anyways, 

so many miracles!!!

Hello President Low! 

It was so wonderful talking with you today, the miracle that I shared with you was that we went to get Frozen yogurt the other day and as we were checking out, the cashier asked us if we had a church just down the street and we said yes and she said, "I've been wanting to go to that church for a while, are the services open?" We told her no but that they should be opening soon!! And then we exchanged numbers and we have a lesson set up with her tonight!!

I love being able to see miracles happening in our every day missionary efforts. We were able to finish the Book of Mormon with our less active member, Jessica, and we are now restarting it and are also reading with her daughter. So when we catch up with her daughter we are only going to read with them 3 times a week and have them read together on our off days  to help build their testimonies and their relationship! 

I hope you have a wonderful week and I love you and Sister Low so much!

Longueuil sisters:

The restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ is what sets us apart and we should NEVER be ashamed to share that with someone. Even if that means, doors slammed in your face, you being kicked out of homes, or what I am most familiar with now is anti-literature being spit back at me through messenger. Thursday night this week I was sitting on the couch and a lady I had reached out to in the beginning of quarantine pieced together that I was one of those "mormons" my phone started BLOWING UP with voice messages from her telling me what I believe is blasphemy, and her literally scoffing at me and my beliefs. (Kinda rough, People are super willing to say harsh things when they can hide behind a screen... but the next day?? 

FULL. OF. MIRACLES.  I kid you not we spent the entire day sharing the message of Joseph Smith with people who replied with things like;

"Alright I need this Mormon Bible right now, can I get it on Amazon?""Yes, yes, this is true, it just is so much more clear than the Bible""I don't know what it is but something is telling me I have to keep reading the book"

I am so happy that God continues his work and that I have the honor of being a part of it! I know the world is way scary right now, but the only PURE and LASTING sense of hope and peace we can find is through Jesus Christ. In Honor of our African amis "AMEN, HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD" 

I am so happy to be a missionary, and I have been feeling that missionary fire more and more as the days keep comin!! 

This from the New Glasgow sisters:

This week was so cool! A member in New Glasgow, Sister Odo, messaged us and said sisters I need you to call me, I have a referral for you. We of course were so excited and we called her right after church. She told us she has a friend named Beverly and as they have talked throughout the years Sister Odo has shared advice with her which often leads to gospel discussions. Beverly called her Sunday morning and told her I am not interested in investigating your church, I am ready to join your church. She said that the advice Sister Odo gave her really helped her and she knew it was true. She asked for a Book of Mormon and a Bible because she wants to read them. Her husband JD found out we believe in eternal families. He said that he wants to have an eternal family and he wants to be baptized too. It is such a cool miracle. I am so excited to teach them and help prepare for baptism! Me and Sister Robinson really enjoyed your puppet show. Thanks for the fun entertainment!  

This from the Fallowfield Elders:

I will share one miracle. We met with a part member family, where the wife was a member. The Husband did not want to participate, but we did get to talk to all of the kids. The Kids were great and we had a great time bonding with them! At the end of the lesson, we challenged them to read the scriptures everyday as a family. They have been successful so far! They all read a chapter a night of the Book of Mormon. We reported this in missionary correlation later in the week, and to our surprise, we found out that NONE of the kids were members! We don't know if this is because of the father's wishes, but we are looking into it! We may have a whole family to be baptized! We are also going to try to help their family get engaged in family history. This way hopefully get the Dad involved and he will begin to feel the spirit and soften his heart.  

Office Elder

This is from a young elder who speaks mandarin, and whom we called to come into the mission office and be in charge of missionary apartments; this experience shows how the Lord directs every aspect of this work:

These past few weeks have been wonderful. I reaffirm my stance that being a missionary is better than being an avenger or a Jedi. There was a landlord named Liu Hai Yan recently who lost a rent check. While on the phone with her I asked what she had done over the weekend, she said she had been playing with her family. A little confused, I asked what musical instruments her family plays. She said none. After a few more awkward exchanges, I learned she had said that she had been praying for her family. Then, she without invitation declared she wanted to attend our church. I called a week or so later to let her know her replacement check was coming. She restated her desire to come to church and I also had the chance to speak in mandarin with her. I then contacted Elder Tung and Elder Wu and got them in touch with her. I felt it was very neat to be apart of that process. She also has a restaurant that is currently closed, but I am excited to go try it when it opens.

This from Elder Christopherson who was on his way home to Wyoming, May 22nd, 2020:

« Hey president Low, I hope everything is going well for you and Sister Low! I’ve been doing good, I’ve managed to keep busy and my mother has actually been really supportive of me living with my dad full time, which Is an answer to prayer. But I don’t think I ever told you what happened to me on my way back home. After a long series of layovers and flights I finally arrived in Denver, where I had a 4 hour layover before my final flight home. I had to print my last boarding pass so I was wondering around the massive terminal searching for some kind of desk, but as I was going I passed by three workers who were speaking a foreign language. I was quite a bit away from them, but it sounded like they were speaking French, which would make sense considering that they were of African decent. I debated about talking to them, but I felt a push and went over to them. I addressed them in English asking for directions, to which they looked more confused than I was. So I asked them what language they spoke and they said French, so I started speaking to them in French and they were soooo surprised. I then asked where they were from, and one was from Congo Kinshasa and the other from Brazzaville. I greeted them in their respective native languages, Swahili and Lingala and they were in Book of Mormon lingo “astonished beyond all measure.” During our conversation I discovered that they were meeting with missionaries but lost contact because of Covid. So we exchanged Facebooks and I now have both their numbers and plan on teaching them with the missionaries ASAP. That was a blessing, but when I got to my little terminal way in the furthest, most secluded area in the whole airport, I felt a yearning to find someone else who spoke French. I was restless and couldn’t sit still as long as I was a missionary. So I walked around the vast expanse of the airport, to absolutely no avail. (But some members of the church bought me Chick-Fil-a which was another amazing blessing.) I returned to my terminal, exhausted from the long day of travel and my fruitless expedition to find one last francophone. While I was thinking about all that just had happened a man came and sat a seat away from me, we casualty greeted each other and I thought nothing of it. He pulled out his phone and started talking to his wife. I listed to him and noticed that he wasn’t speaking English, but Quebecois. My jaw literally dropped, there was tens if not hundreds of other seats he could’ve sat in, but he sat next to me. As soon as he hung up I struck up a conversation with him and we spoke for an hour before I left for home. He was originally from Saint-Hyacinth but had been living in the USA for a good long while. We had a wonderful discussion in which it was apparent that he wasn’t exactly interested in the church, but seeds were planted. When I finally did get on the plane I was filled with more gratitude than I ever felt before. I was weeping because of the Lords mercy, He knew that all I wanted was an opportunity to contact people in French one last time. I hadn’t even asked for it in prayer, but He still knew that that was the deepest yearning of my heart so He granted it to me. The only reason why I can think He did that was sometimes during my mission I would pray for Him to grant me missionary opportunities as I returned home. He answered my prayers in a way could have never guessed! I love you both and pray everything goes smoothly with the new missionaries coming in! »

That concludes the wondrous, CMM Miracle corner!! We are so grateful for the many tender mercies our dear missionaries experience every day! 

And…thank you for loving and supporting us. Your faith and prayers, combined with ours certainly have been answered, as we feel such strength, and energy to daily ‘Go Forth with Faith,’ relying on our Saviour.

We send much love to all… thanks for reading!!!

Richard and Gayle, Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

!Keep Smiling!!