44th Wedding Anniversary Memories

Today is Sunday, December 13, 2020.

Although my Dad, Robert Anderson Hamilton passed away five and half years ago, I have been celebrating his 94th birthday all day reflecting on his remarkable life!!  

As missionaries, we have been focusing on the two great commandments…Love of God and Love of Fellowmen, and I realize that keeping those two great commandments is exactly what made Dad so remarkable…His whole life he loved and lived those two commandments; they were the hallmarks of his 88 years!! Today as I listened to Metropolitan opera star Stanford Olsen sing ‘The Holy City’ with the Tabernacle Choir, I smiled thinking about Dad (accompanied by Jan) and without too much coaxing would perform ‘The Holy City’ for appreciative family members! I know it isn’t imagining that he and Mom are doing missionary work, and continuing their ministering efforts on the other side of the veil together!! I also know they are enjoying ‘looking at the view’ together!! We are all blessed by their goodly parenting, and grandparenting!! Happy Birthday Dad!! 

Let me give a brief review of our week: Monday Office Meetings included Health Council, Social Media, Call In’s and Leadership training. My French tutoring with Alexa Fowers is progressing, and she helped prep me for the MTC Christmas Testimony Meeting which was Tuesday afternoon. We were in break out rooms with about 7 other missionaries …two others in our group were learning French - (actually they were brushing up on French from their first missions), two were headed to Iceland, and two were waiting to head to Italy; the gift of tongues is incredible!! Tuesday and Wednesday were Montreal Zone ‘in person’ interviews and visits, with ‘in person’ Montreal Zone Conference on Thursday.  

Highlights of our Zone Conferences included teachings, an exciting timed gift exchange, AND cute talent shows! Great musical numbers, flute, violin, piano, singing, clever commercials, dancing, colour guard flag waving, and even a silly puppet show 

Zoom MLC on Friday was also delightful, and we continue to be amazed at how the Spirit distills over in person meetings as well as zoom meetings!! Great leaders who are so willing to do anything and everything we suggest!! 

Friday we celebrated our 44th Wedding Anniversary, and loved reminiscing about that special day long ago…December 11, 1976!!  ‘What a Wonderful Life’ we have had together!!! We are grateful to be creating our own consecrated covenant path together, one that is wide enough for two, or twenty, or two hundred and twenty!! As our African friends said ‘we are very much thankful’ for the JOY the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings to us, and to all who accept the restored Gospel message. It is true.

Thank you for your kind prayers for missionaries the world over. We need, and we feel the power of those prayers. Let us continue to ‘Light the World’ with His Light. 

With much love,

Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Richard and Gayle

Keep Smiling!! 

December 13th, 2020 Missionary Miracles:

Sydney Elders:

« Second week in Sydney has been a great one! The Sydney area is booming with the Bible ads! It feels like everyday we get about three, which is good cause it keeps us busy! We've found service at the local Food Bank here in Sydney. It's been a great opportunity to meet lots of new people who are really nice. Cool miracle this week a Bible ad lady messaged me out of the blue wanting to learn about are church so that was really cool! We are looking to have a lesson this next week. « 

Victoria Spanish Sisters:

« A miracle that we saw happen today was that a lady reached out about a Bible ad we had made a while ago, she started asking if we did Bible studies, and pretty much what we did as missionaries, we had referred her to the Elders in her area, but she kept messaging me and asking a few more questions, she opened up about her own beliefs and how she feels like until now she hasn't really felt like she's found the right religion! She is so cool, she said how she was always open to learn about other religions,« 

LaSalle Sisters:

« We just had a really good lesson today with our friend Samni, whom you know. We have been meaning to have a call with them ever since that lesson we had you join, but they were always either busy or sick. But today, they were available and full of energy! We had a really nice conversation. We had planned to go over the Plan of Salvation this evening, but the Spirit directed  otherwise. We were talking about Church and the Book of Mormon, and I asked Joel if he had a favorite scripture. He told us that he loved the First Vision, when Joseph Smith prayed in the Grove to have an answer to his question. Joel is so inspired. Because of that, we went into talking about prayer, and God's love for us and we read Alma 18 : 32 which says that God knows the desires of our hearts. They were talking most of the remainder of the call. They expressed their gratitude towards the members, towards us but mostly towards God, and actually Samni was the one speaking the most out of them all. I have a feeling that he is ready for baptism, and if the Spirit directs us to invite him to be baptized in our next lesson then we will. They all have so much fun, I don't think I'm the only one thinking that him being baptized will unite their family and open the heavens more on them. We'll pray about it and let you know how it goes. « 

Fallowfield Kanata Elders:

« This week went well. Lisa's baptism was very good. We had Correlation Meeting in both wards, so that is nice. Hopefully things starting going full force pretty soon with the Correlation people helping us out. The experience of confirming Lisa was really cool. Right as I said "Receive the Holy Ghost" the Spirit poured out like a wave over me and my companion. Was very nice. Sunday (the baptism) was such a great day!! « 

Quebec City Sisters:

« We'd been having a tough week finding and reaching our goals one week. On the last day we expected to not have found anyone new despite our best efforts. We were planning for the next week and discussing new finding techniques when we got a random phone call! We answered and he opened with, " what is the Liahona?" We asked him who it was and he said his name was Michel and he had a Book of Mormon in front of him and wanted to know what the Liahona was. We answered and he asked a few more questions about the pictures in the front and then said He'd go read it. We got a call back a couple days later with another question, "How can you be sure this book is true?" We directed him to Moroni 10:3-5 and he said that it made sense he just had to ask! We then asked him, how he has a Book of Mormon and our number and he said he had been in the metro one day and someone had walked up to him handed him the book with our number on it and said "I think you’d like this" and walked away. An odd way of doing missionary work but effective! Such a miracle to meet and find Michel!  « 

Kirkland Elders:

« So we met with Danny as well. We decided to do what you suggested. We talked to him about prayer and we read those specific verses you mentioned. He was listening to us intently. Then we invited him to kneel and pray and ask God if he was really there. Well he didn't like that at first. He was really offended that we invited him to be humble when he thought humility was not the issue. he said something like, "For all you know, My mother could have been dying last night and I could have been praying. Yet you come to me and just address me for not accepting your message as I'm not being humble." Something along those lines. he then kind of challenged us and said 'Here is something you can try. Either of you go into a room for a 10 minutes and ask God if I prayed last night. Then come back and tell me." We just kind of said "How about you pray with us first." We assured him that no matter where he was in his life he could always be humble and pray to God. This wasn't us putting ourselves above you kind of thing." So, he refused to kneel, but he agreed to pray. He was actually a little embarrassed that he had never prayed out loud before. He said a really good heartfelt prayer. He was definitely still holding back a little, we could tell. But we all felt the spirit. We waited a little while after the prayer was over and just had silence. I think he was tearing up just a little and I asked him how he felt. He said something along the lines of  "You know, either this is all true or it's the biggest lie out there and it's giving people false hope."  « 

Levi sisters:

« This week we have been praying for unplanned opportunities to find. A few nights ago we received a text from a member. 

A member in the Lévis branch participated in posting for the 7 days of gratitude, and it led a childhood friend to contact her. This friend had not been raised in a religious home of any kind, but through some experiences, now has the desire to learn more about God. She contacted the member, and they had a really really good talk about life, faith and God. From what I have heard from the member this is someone who has been prepared to receive God, and she recognizes it! She knows it! We're having a lesson with her and the member this evening, so here's hoping that we can help her better understand who God is to her, and how much He loves her. « 

Greenfield Park Elders:

« This past Friday we received a referral from our Bishop, for a new friend of ours named Gabriel. He wanted to learn more about the church and the Book of Mormon. We set up a time to meet with him the next day, and also picked up a Book of Mormon for him because he was very eager to start reading! During our lesson on Saturday we got to know Gabriel and he expressed a very sincere desire to learn more about the gospel and how it can help him in his life. It made me so happy seeing him want to learn! We talked about the Book of Mormon and he gladly accepted the invitation to read and pray about it. I am so happy for him because he is seeking out the truth for himself and really wants to know. We haven’t had anyone referred to us like this before and it is definitely an answer to our prayers for the Lord to help us find those ready to receive the message of the gospel. I'm so excited to see Gabriel progress in the future!!« 

Fredericton Sisters:

« One thing that I can think of is that we got in contact with a lot of people this week!  Oh, and we received a referral a few days ago and his name is Chris. He is a self referral and he found us through YouTube. Which is awesome! We had our first lesson with him and he is so elect! He knew so much already about the church and really wanted to learn more! Let's just say I am so excited to continue to work with him. « 

Hochelaga Elders:

« Our friend, Ange will be baptized on the 19th and she is very excited and the other day she freely gave up coffee and tea. When we asked her if she would obey the word of wisdom she said "it's part of the deal isn’t it". She is willing to let God prevail and it has been such a testimony builder to see her progress in her faith. «