Lifelong Discipleship

Today is Sunday, September 20, 2020

Tomorrow we celebrate the first day of Autumn!!!

With cooler daytime and evening temperatures, autumn is in the air, and the trees have started to show their fall colours; every shade of gold, yellow, orange and red. Living in a forest like we do,  we are in awe of the magnificent transformation everyday!! Oh how we love our adventure in Montreal!!

Zoom Mission Learning Conferences Tuesday and Wednesday were inspirational and motivational, as was MLC on Thursday.  We taught about three of our favourite topics: obedience, humility, and the importance of the Book of Mormon. Preparing, and teaching is so fun, and because our missionaries also prepare for these meetings, they teach us much more than we teach them!! Several days before our meetings, we send out ‘Prepare to Learn’s’ (that’s what we call them), which essentially are Conference Talks, and scriptures that we feel impressed to refer to.  President Ezra Taft Benson’s landmark trilogy talks were our focus this week:  “The Power of the Word”- April 1986, “Cleansing the Inner Vessel’- April 1986, and “Beware of Pride”- April 1989. All three are powerful sermons that we love, and will refer to them again and again. Look them up if you want a great boost, and motivation to do better! So I can refer to them over and over, I’m going to shrink, laminate, and retrofit them to fit in my scriptures!  We were peppered with so many outstanding comments which led to great discussions. Zoom breakout rooms that Richard is a pro at creating give everyone an opportunity to participate and share their thoughts, insights, and experiences.  Developing Humility, being 100% Obedient, and Daily Reading, and Studying The Book of Mormon is essential in being an effective missionary (and to be an effective Disciple of Jesus Christ),  so we continue teaching, preaching, and testifying. 

In addition, our goal of having EVERY MISSIONARY committed to lifelong discipleship, by being Humble, Obedient, and by being committed to Daily Reading The Book of Mormon, is always a focus of every meeting. We talk a lot about covenant paths…their own, as well as the one we want to help get our friends on. Teaching and Testifying of the Saviour, and learning to ‘Hear Him’ is what we love to do!! The Book of Mormon is the greatest tool to do just that. 

Wednesday afternoon and evening were more of our weeks ‘highlights’ when we got to accompany Elder Laigo (and his parents) and Elder McStravick (with his Mom who surprised him!!) in the 3:00pm Temple session, and Elder Lee and Sister Barfuss (with her parents) in the 7:00am session.  Yesterday we joined Elder Trevino (and his Mom) in the 10am session. It is so good to be back in the Temple!!

Our dear Elder Hawk (from Boston) who has been serving as our Mission Accountant got word on Monday that his Mom who has battled cancer for years was not at all well, and, not expected to live more than a month. Coordinating with his Stake President, and sweet benefactors, Elder Hawk flew home Wednesday night, spent a few short days with his Mom, and yesterday afternoon he texted us telling us that she had peacefully passed. Oh, how our hearts break for him. Such an emotional experience to break the news, and comfort these young adults….While we have been here, Sister Atkins Dad passed as well as Elder Forsyth’s Mom, Sister Boyle’s Mom, and of course my own dear Mom have all left their mortal journey. Because of our understanding, and testimonies of the Plan of Happiness, although we are separated, and the sting of death does sting, we still find so much PEACE, JOY and HOPE. Elder Hawk will return next Monday, and we are praying the customs officer will let him stay. We will be at the private terminal ready to collect him. 

Montreal is a real gathering place for Jews (in 2001 there were around 100,000); and we love driving around Jewish neighbourhoods, where huge families live. They seem to walk everywhere, with their beautifully groomed children, so we see so many of them. We found two darling children’s clothing shops that these cute moms shop at!! Our Friday PDay activities had a real Jewish theme. Visiting the Montreal Holocaust Museum which was filled with historical descriptions, along with hundreds of photos, video footage, interviews with survivors, and dozens of treasured artifacts was such a sobering experience. We were reminded again of the horrors of war…especially that war. 

St. Viateur is a bagel shop that has been here since 1957, and we arrived just as hot sesame bagels were getting pulled out of the wood burning oven. We bought two sesame, and one cinnamon-raisin bagel. Toasting, and lathering them with butter and cream cheese was a real treat!!

To finish off our 'theme day,' we watched ‘Waiting for Anya’ a lovely war movie with great acting, a pretty strong plot, and beautifully filmed in the French Pyrenees. Such a great, fun, relaxing day!! 

Today we are giving a short 15 minute presentation at our Area Presidency Training Meeting, on weekly call ins, so are gearing up for that. 

And tonight we are excited to have Michael and Kaylee, Tait, Solon, Haysten and Preese be our Mission Devotional presenters. 

This week is Week 6, which means Transfer Week! We are excited to welcome our new missionaries Elders Scott, Barton, Comin, Chin, and Sister Gottenbos who arrive Tuesday!! And with heavy hearts we will bid farewell to 11 of our finest….Elders Broadhead, Ford, Lee and Weinzinger, and Sisters Campbell, Fonseca, Gonzalez, Long, Milad, Scott and Sanchez…It seems to get harder and harder to say goodbye to our dear missionaries. Covid rules have not relaxed at all for having Mission Home Farewell dinners, Temple sessions, or overnight guests,  so our simple offerings will again be brown bag lunches, along with a goodbye letter. 

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20 September 2020 Canada Montreal Mission Miracles: 

Mandarin Elders:

A miracle I would like to share is with a member named Sun . We have met with him for some time and our relationship is really strong. We invited him to attend the in-person church meeting this week and he agreed to come. The only problem was that he has no way of getting there. We asked our some members to help including our Elders Quorum President, Brother H, but no one could. We decided we needed to start praying for Heavenly Fathers help in this. The very next day, Brother H said that his wife and children got the cold and would not be attending this Sunday, so he could then give a ride to Sun. We were so excited and gave a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father. We then got a call from Sun who said that he wanted to come and so he invited his friend (another less-active member who we are trying to get in contact with) to attend with him and give him a ride. Heavenly Father answered our prayers more than we could have asked for. I cannot wait for tomorrow to see these members once again!

Other set of Mandarin Elders:

Karen is the other friend we are teaching. She's been taught for some time ago and we are now teaching her again and would try to extend a date for her soon. We are also teaching her husband who doesn't have much knowledge of the gospel. When I explained to him how the gospel affects positively in our daily lives, he became interested to listen. Tonight we taught the first lesson and asked their family if they had anything "against being baptized in the name of the Lord". Karen immediately said that she wanted to be baptized. We then asked them to pray for a date. 

Ottawa sisters:

Along with the training... Sister Christensen and I have noticed that every single pday for the past 2 months when we go to the store at least one person comments about our tags or how they see "nice girls wearing dresses" at the store a lot. It's been cool to see how many people actually do notice and how it has been their introduction to the church!  

Kanata and Fallowfield Elders:

Hello! This week was great! We found a new person to teach in both wards and they are both very solid! We teach Lisa every Monday and Thursday and she always comes with wonderful questions. She wants to come closer to God and that's what we're here for! We had a miracle when we taught her last! We were teaching and she asks if her whole family can join the next lesson so that's amazing and then we told her about church and she said "can me and my family go to church?" and after picking our Jaws up off the floor Elder Nelson and I excited told her yes. She's progressing well and reads the Book of Mormon alot. Her and her whole family came to church! 

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Although I rarely get to send individual letters, or cards to you; know how we pray for you, and are so grateful for your love, your friendship, your loyalty, your prayers and your loving support of missionaries all over the world. Let us all continue to do our part in 'Gathering Scattered Israel;' it's what lifelong disciples do!

We send much Love,

Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Richard and Gayle

 

Keep Smiling!! CTR