Happy American Thanksgiving on Thursday the 26th!
#GiveThanks
What a perfect theme for this weeks blog! Along with you, we loved President Nelson’s simple inspirational devotional on Friday morning where he challenged us to “Give Thanks” in all things. Such a simple antidote to deal with the challenges we are all facing..for each of us to develop an attitude of gratitude…to GIVE THANKS!! Who knows how long we will continue to face the global covid pandemic, but, with the mind shift of looking for things to be grateful for, we will develop the faith that the future will be brighter…There is never a chance of overdosing on gratitude..
In 2008 when we travelled to South Africa with tour guides, and cousins David and Natalie Boucher, we had such a powerful lesson on gratitude, taught to us by the saints in the Daveyton Ward. Let me try and recount our feelings during this experience…On our way from Johannesburg to Daveyton we passed mile after mile, after mile, of the most humble ‘homes’ we had ever seen…most were wavy fibreglass panels, or plastic tarped enclosures, with some cinderblock partitions. Definitely third world living conditions. After being greeted by many, many friendly, smiling, beautifully groomed new church friends, almost all who lived in these townships; our group of about 50 tourists found places to sit in their lovely chapel, and began being enveloped by the Spirit. Of course the congregation were thrilled to have visitors from the USA and Canada - (especially David and Natalie who were old friends to many) There was such a feeling of fellowship, friendship, and brotherhood/sisterhood. We all felt it, and we were grateful,..we were so thankful to be there!!…BUT Richard and I were both unprepared for the opening prayer of gratitude that was offered. The brother who offered the prayer was unlike any we have ever heard… for over five minutes this humble man repeatedly used the simple phrase ….”We are very much thankful for….. our Prophet, for the restoration, for Joseph Smith, for families, and friends…etc….and the only thing he asked for was to have the spirit attend the meeting. Here was a man who lived in the townships of South Africa…some of the most humble of all humanity, and yet…he was so very much thankful for everything you could imagine, plus so much I had never even thought to express gratitude for. I think I remember opening my eyes in the prayer to see if he was accompanied by angels…What a profound experience. We were changed by the end of his ‘sermon.’ This prayer was a perfect example to us of how to ‘GIVE THANKS,’ and we haven’t forgotten it!
So, with that little preamble said…this week I’ll give you a ‘dose’ of what we are ‘so very much thankful for:’
Our Testimonies and our Faith
Jesus Christ - Our Chief Cornerstone
Jesus Christ - His Atonement
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
Prophets….President Nelson, the Prophet Joseph Smith
Temples and our Temple Covenants….eternal marriage
Construction of new Temples
Scriptures…especially the Book of Mormon…(we call it the keystone of our lives)
Baptismal Covenants
Patriarchal blessings
Family…Children - Sons and Daughters, Grandchildren, Parents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Brothers, Sisters, Progenitors
Pioneers
Missionaries in the Canada Montreal Mission, and missionaries everywhere!
The blessing of being able to serve.
Great true blue friends all over the globe!! Thank you ALL for your friendships!!
People who are such wonderful examples of consecrated, covenant keepers.
Power of the Priesthood
Seasons - all four of them ..sunshiny, rainy, snowy, or cloudy days.
Nature; water, rocks, mountains, trees especially hardwood ones.
Magnificent vistas all over this beautiful world.
Flowers - every kind
Freedom
Our Country
Music
Homes
Our Bodies, the ability to exercise, and keep healthy…our brains…
Free Agency
Food…honey crisp apples, and Utah peaches are near the top of our list!!
Seeds
Telephones, and computers
Christmas.. where we celebrate the birth of our Saviour.
Easter.. where we celebrate His resurrection.
We are grateful for the opportunity we have to serve, and every day express gratitude for this incredible experience. Most days I thank Richard for bringing me on this mission!!
Our week zipped by again!! Highlights included Office meetings, Interviews, and visits with Longueuil and Mount Royal Zones, Mission Leadership Council, and teaching New Missionary Adjusting to Missionary Life. We love that we can do our interviews, and have our visits in person. MLC also was in person right at the Mission Office Chapel. Oh how we are grateful we can be together!! (25 maximum)
Yesterday we loved our nine hour road trip ‘chasing covered bridges adventure’ with Senior Sisters Breckenridge, Little and Mecham! We were on back country Quebec roads through fertile farmland, around cow pastures, through manicured apple orchards, and vineyards, crossing huge and small rivers including the St. Lawrence, Richuleiu, Pike and Chateauguay Rivers, as well as many streams and brooks.. Two, classy, century and a half old functioning bridges (with Howe truss systems) which crossed the Pike and the Chateauguay Rivers were our reward!! Last year I had purchased some covered bridge commemorative stamps so it was fun to actually see one of the bridges up close and personal. Such a delightful Pday filled with lots of laughter, and lots of fun! We are so grateful for these dear friends. Photos follow!
Covered Bridges
The end of Lake Champlain
Behind us, across the Ottawa River is Oka
Chapel Hill Sisters:
« This week has been really good! We have been having so many amazing lessons. We had an incredible experience on Sunday with our friend James. We gave him a Book of Mormon on Halloween and his life got a little crazy so we weren't able to meet with him until this past Sunday. We didn't even ask him to read it and he just started goin! We taught the whole restoration and he finished the story for us. He had read Joseph Smith's testimony and basically taught us about it! It was one of the coolest lessons ever. He is so so prepared to hear the gospel and it's really exciting to watch him progress. «
Sisters in Ottawa:
« We dropped off a Book of Mormon at our friend, James' place. When we followed up with him about it, he said he has read the first twentyish pages!!! We talked to him about the Restoration, and after we shared Joseph Smith's first vision, he basically finished the story from the introduction to the Book of Mormon. We were just beaming the rest of the night. It was so wonderful. And we were also able to meet with our new friends Etienne and Mirella. Etienne loves the Book of Mormon too!! We followed the council from the MTC devotional and said the closing prayer on our knees and waited. It was a really good experience ! We were able to feel the spirit strongly and were able to help them recognize it too. The area is doing well, President! We've reached out to some of the potentials and friends the Chapel Hill Elders have sent us. It's all going really well ! «
Montreal sisters:
« Although there are some ups and downs which come from adjusting, I'm enjoying it here. I love that all the missionaries and other mission leaders say "love you" at the end of their conversations. It's different for me because I've only said that to my family, but I remember in one of the meetings, (I think it might have been you who said it, President Low, I can't remember) but it was mentioned that we are all one big family. I really appreciate the "love you"s because it solidifies that we are a family and we support each other. Thank you for making this mission so inviting and loving because although I miss my family like crazy, I have a new family here and that makes my heart happy. «
Bridgewater elders:
« One cool experience was we finally got in contact again with a potential. The first time we gave her a call she asked if we could have a prayer with her on the phone because she is having a lot of life troubles, after we prayed she told us that she would love to do this weekly, but we never got in contact with her again because she would never answer. We finally decided to call in the morning and we got in touch with her again. She told us about how she was trying to sell her house and move, but her realtor told her that the house would take probably a year or two to sell, just with how its been going, and after we prayed with her she put her house up for sale and within three hours she got offers of people wanting to buy the house. She was very excited to pray with us and told us when the best times were to call her so that we can continue doing this weekly.
We have another call with her on Friday. »
Montreal sisters:
« A miracle from this past week (feel free to share with Sister Low!) we were going through area book and re-contacting a lot of our referrals; we get a new referral every week, but most of the time when we reach out they don't respond. We contacted them all, with no response, so we decided to do some Facebook finding. I felt a little off, and I felt like I was just scrolling through social media. So I took a break and said a private prayer asking the Spirit what direction to take finding tonight. When I finished my prayer I heard the spirit say "you'll know when you see them", which, at the time I thought that meant that we'd find somebody specific on Facebook. I came back, opened up my phone, and immediately me and Sister VaughAn were getting contact after contact on WhatsApp and messenger; so many texts were coming in from the referrals we contacted that we couldn't even keep track of them all! It felt exactly like when the apostles cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and had their nets overflowing with fish--We ended up scheduling three lessons that night, and so far all of them have happened; and each lesson has been a powerful teaching opportunity by the Spirit; »
Kentville sisters:
« Miracle of the week: I had messaged someone named Roman on Facebook a little while ago but he told me that he was Atheist and stopped responding. I didn't think too much of it, but he reached out to me this week to tell me that he believes in God now! He's a high school student so I invited him to an online YM activity. I sent him the Book of Mormon app and asked if he would be interested in learning more about it (and if his parents were ok with it) so we could meet with him. He said he definitely wanted to learn more and that his parents would be delighted so we're going to have our first lesson with him on Wednesday evening! We are so excited. «
Our missionaries have learned to give thanks as they these experience these sweet miracles, and what a wonderful life lesson that is to be able to see the little miracles we each have every day!
Have a wonderful week!
As you experience your own little miracles, you will FIND JOY!!
#GIVETHANKS
with our love,
Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom and Richard and Gayle
Keep Smiling!!
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