Our Final Transfer ....

Today is Sunday, June 6, 2021

Happy Birthday to Preese Auburn Low who tomorrow, gets to blow out 5 candles!!

                                                AND

Happy Birthday to George Solon Low who turns 64 tomorrow!!

Our hour glass sand is sifting through at record speed, and as we complete our final month….almost everything we do, or think, we are so melancholy and say….”this is the last time we will be doing this…” We are filled with so many mixed emotions as we think about leaving our beloved MISSION, and all the incredible experiences we have had!! Our lives will never be the same. 

With tears that refused to stop, we barely survived our final transfer week…Here’s a quick rundown on some of our activities!!

Office meetings on Monday were wonderful as we geared up for the busy week ahead. Such an outstanding group of missionaries - our six seniors, and our four young elders all know how to work as a team, which makes serving together such a joy! Our new couple the Walker’s from Sylvan Lake have transitioned into the Canada Montreal Mission so well. Sister Walker has replaced Elder Trevino as head Secretary, and Elder Walker has taken over the Accounting from Elder Zhou, and although we miss our young Elders when they leave, we know service in the Office gets old!!  Elder Gibb coordinates vehicles, and gas receipts, and Elder Glenn takes care of all technology, and both are ready and willing assistants to Elder and Sister Roberts and all their housing needs! And Transfer Week keeps us all hopping!! 

Our Assistants Elder Dial and Elder Wang are experts at organizing the travel plans for every single transfer. We submit the Transfer, and they go to town on getting the plan ready, which includes purchasing train tickets, and letting every team know which vehicle goes where, and who is supposed to be in the vehicle!!

We celebrated as we welcomed seven new Missionaries; Sister Gorham (Creston, BC), Sister Pack (Taber), Elder Alzamora (Surrey,BC), (Elder Burnham(Coldstream, BC),   Elder Greep (Raymond),  Elder Ina(Coquitlam, BC), and Elder Lee from (Taber).  Montreal restrictions have relaxed somewhat, allowing us to have small groups of 8 outside…so we had little shifts of missionaries come and enjoy a simple taco soup, with fresh bun supper in our pretty backyard!! It was so wonderful to get to know them, and it was so fun to finally, after 18 months, have missionaries HERE!! While one shift was in our backyard, the other teams enjoyed the sunshine in the park across the street!  We have so missed having our Mission Home filled with missionaries!! 

Dearly departing 15 Missionaries included Soeur Margrin (Papeari) and Soeur Vaiho (Mahina) who both made it home to Tahiti!!!, as well as Sister Call (Sandy, Utah), Sister Cherniawsky (Glenwood), Sister Goodwin (Raymond), Sister Hiatt (Syracuse, Utah), Sister Irazoki (Bayonne, France), and Sister Olsen(West Haven, Utah).  Also Elder Alley (Batavia, Illinois), Elder Dial (Cedar Park, Texas), Elder Edstrom (Merlin, Oregon), Elder Forsyth(Edmonton), Elder Pinkney (Alexandria, Virginia), Elder Peck (Dundas, Ontario), and Elder Salmon (Okotoks) all returned home. Elder Hawk (Boston) returns home on the 18th. Although we can’t have a fancy farewell supper, we love our final interviews/visits, and feel satisfied sending each off with a snazzy bag lunch, a yellow good bye book assembled by our Office team, and a farewell letter from us.  Thursday night we loved our Testimony Meeting with this amazing group, and were inspired by their goodness, and their service; and are confident every one of this departing group have created deep covenant paths!  That makes us so happy!

Currently, with all that adding and subtracting, in field our total young missionaries serving is 108. The predicted missionary tsunami that will arrive when the borders open won’t be on our watch, but we WILL continue to watch, and pray from afar for this OUR dear Mission. We will be leaving a huge chunk of our hearts here….

We all celebrate every Baptism, and this week we had four!!

Alicia who was taught by Sister Hechmati, and Sister Vaiho, was baptized on Monday. 

Gloria, taught by Sister Gibb and Sister McLeod was baptized on Tuesday.

And yesterday Lukeson who was taught by Elder Reese and Elder McCrae, and Iraida was was taught by Sister Goodwin, Sister Cook and Sister King; were both baptized. So EXCITING!!  Now…we need to get them to the Temple!! Did you know that a new convert who takes a family name to the Temple has a 95% chance of staying active in the Church? 

Friday, our PDay we felt like real Montreal’ers hopping the subway down to the old city for a little visit to some ‘Old Churches’ Our first stop was to ‘Mary, Queen of the World,’ an incredible bascillica built between 1875 and 1894 after the manner of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Rome.  I loved the larger than life sized hand carved statues of the Saviour’s 12 apostles! The architecture, all the murals, the molding and the gilded gold work was impressive, especially since it was all created before power tools were even invented!!  

‘Bonadventure’ was our next subway stop but, with tall metal fencing all around the famed Notre Dame Cathedral we could tell it was still closed to the public…So.. we will be happy looking at photos on line!!

Such a fun adventure!!

Yesterday our diversion after the Baptisms was out to our favorite Botanix Garden Centre that sells probably every plant that grows in Quebec! Hundreds of shrubs, perennials, and annuals covered every square inch of this gardening paradise, and we felt like we were in heaven!! We bought a few english ivy, and two white Itoh peonies; which I planted as soon as we got home!! With people not travelling much, green thumbs are popping up everywhere in Quebec!! 

Last night we had another virtual Senior Kahoot Activity, all over zoom, and although it is not quite the same as being together, we all laughed and had a great time getting to know each other.  Oh, how we need so many more Senior couples!! Anyone wanting to have an adventure of a lifetime…we could help hook you up anywhere in Eastern Canada…think about Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, or even Maine…there are so many possibilities!!! One year, 18 months or perhaps 2 years…you get to choose!! 

After that fun party, our friends Eric and Kathy Jarvis (who were asked by the Church History Department),  zoom interviewed us for about two hours. I hope we conveyed our love and joy of this incredible three year adventure; and how serving our Heavenly Father together has been the best thing we have ever done. We have seen so many miracles that have strengthened our Testimonies, and solidified our lives on a consecrated covenant path. 

This upcoming week promises to be wonderful as well. Ottawa interviews, and Zone Conference will be great, and although Ontario is still on lock down, we will hold our ZC in Gatineau across the river. I was hoping to visit with family this last time…but will just have to be happy delivering drop by treats…(I’m not going to even ask if that is allowed!!!)  

We love and pray for all of you!! Have a great week!!

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

Keep Smiling!!! 

Canada Montreal Mission Miracles   June 6, 2021

Greenfield Park Elders (happened even before he was transferred to Greenfield park): “Also a little miracle for you to share with Sister Low. Me and Elder Day (before transfers) got our covid shots at the Olympic stadium. We showed up and we had 7 different interactions about the church and gospel from our tags. It started as soon as we entered the parking lot to the lady who gave us our shots, medical staff standing around d and finally the miracle, the last security guard we saw before we left.as we are walking out of the exit I see in the corner of my eye him starting to approach us. I turned and said hello and he proudly says that he was married in our church! I asked if it was in the temple and he said no just one of our meeting houses. He was married in Florida with his wife who he has since divorced from and has been living in Montreal for maybe over a decade. He was also Baptized in Florida with his wife and hadn’t attended or known where one of our churches have been the entire time he has been here. He never had his records moved and nobody know he’s here. I asked for his number and address and he turns out to be living in Brossard which is in my new are here in Greenfield Park! This was before  I even knew I was getting transferred here ! I told him I would get the missionaries there to contact him but little did I know I would be the one to contact him! How cool. Anyways this is the lord's work and his hand is in it always. “ 

Dows Lake Ottawa Sisters:

“As you know President we got rear ended this week. Everyone is okay except for the car is a little dented. Anyways it was p-day and we had just got finished washing and vacuuming our car. We were at a red light and then all of a sudden we felt a crash. The hit was hard enough to give us a little bit of whip lash but not to bad. We pulled over and got out and started talking to this guy. We got all of his information but it didn't take him long to say that he recognized our tags from when he was a kid. He would watch commercials about us. We asked to set up a lesson and he agreed. Our first lesson was amazing. He really opened up to us and told us that he needed something more in his life. He explained how his life was finally coming together. He had just bought his first car last week, got insurance two days ago and then next thing you know he smashes into us. He told us that there was no way this wasn't a sign from God and that he knew he needs to meet with us right now. 

It was so cool to see how literally God brought someone so prepared right into us. He was even willing to sacrifice a car and sore bodies to help this man. 

I don't want to make this super long but here was something else that was cool this week. In the morning Sister Olsen and I have started to play tennis. One morning two guys were playing in the court next to us and we  started talking. We got their numbers and set up a lesson.”

Victoriaville Elders:

“Obviously we will be talking soon, but this past week was good in terms of missionary work. I have been praying a lot for our friends. We miraculously had 7 people tell us they would come to church, and I was praying and even fasted that these people would be able to come. All of the sudden Sunday morning came around and all of them cancelled or didn't show up- except for one, Francis. And he had a great experience, it seemed like the talks were for him specifically, and lots of members presented themselves to him. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and he actually ran into some anti-church material, but happily he felt comfortable enough with us to still have a lesson and ask us some questions that were hard, but we did our best to respond. I really love him and hope that he continues to progress. We gave him the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and promised him he would find all answers in reading it and praying about it. I think he's going to do it. “

Kanata Elders:

“We were able to have a pretty cool miracle this week. We ended up accidentally calling one of the former mission Presidents because his number was in our area book, and anyways we called another lady named Barbara just a couple days after. Apparently she was really good friends with the mission president when they were out here and she said they had a really big impact on her! She wants to learn about the Gospel!”

Hochelaga Sisters:

“Another cool thing was we had a Bible drop off and we met the girl at the door who wanted the bible and then her mom was there too! Both me and Sœur McLeod were thinking about inviting everyone there to participate! So we were talking to her too and when we said we do Bible studies too she's like I love Bible studies and perked up! So we set up a time for a Bible study, and to introduce the Book of Mormon more on her day off. “

Drummondville Elders:

“The area is doing awesome! We have a Baptism this month! And our other friends seem to be progressing very nicely! We haven't found a whole of people but we are talking to new people and increasing our finding efforts so I'm confident! It was crazy though! One Sunday this women just walks into the church with her son and is like yeah I wanna be taught. So we of course were very excited! We found out that she is actually in Trois-Rivières area but we got to teach her and she already believes in the Church and everything as soon as she walked in and met the members she knew!! She will probably be on date next lesson! It's super awesome! She should have been on date this last lesson we taught her before we pass her off but I suppressed that prompting because of things the member was saying and other things. Honestly it's just a bad excuse I should have followed it and Elder Braithwaite felt the same way! So learned my lesson there. “

Baptisms and Birthdays!!

Today is Sunday, May 30, 2021

  Happy Birthday on June 3rd to Uncle Brent - 58 years and, 

Happy Birthday on June 4th to Uncle Bob - 66 years!!

Speaking of birthdays…thank you all for your sweet, kind wishes to me this past week..can’t believe at 67 how close 70 is!! Our amazing Office missionaries created such a fun surprise party, with the board room all decked out in red and white polka dot tablecloths with balloons taped on all the walls. Sister Mecham brought a big gorgeous bouquet of flowers, as well as a darling poppy bouquet she had ordered on line. Sister Roberts had made about 8 deliciously divine quiche that were such a scrumptious tastey touch of Quebec. Sister Walker’s fresh green salad with pink raspberry dressing was yummy, as was the lemon birthday cake.  We loved dining, and visiting together!! Highlights of this birthday week also included having personal visits with each of you….thank you for taking time for that..it really is all I needed!! 

The week was pretty predictable with Office Meetings on Monday, and Tuesday; and Wednesday our interviews/visits with Montreal Zone were delightful!  Thursday in person Zone Conference at the Mission Office gym was awesome with Elder Sutherland and Elder Harris Zone Leading, and Sister Vaiho and Sister Hechmati serving as amazing Sister training leaders. It is so thrilling to see enthusiasm for the work growing, as covid restrictions are being loosened! Still, all the Baptisms we witness are over zoom, and yesterday we watched two - Oliver from Levis and Andrea from Victoria!! 

And actually we got to watch a third…our Sadey Dawn Low was baptized last night by her Dad, and what a beautiful family Baptism with Porter giving the Opening Prayer, Walker speaking on Baptism, Berkley speaking on the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Hudson offering the Closing Prayer. Caylee led the music with Grandma Jubber on the piano. What a thrill to hear those sweet brothers teach and pray for their dear sister..again…we loved zoom!!!

Maybe you guessed our PDay activity would involve bicycles?  Loading up our bikes in the loaner Toyota van was much slicker than in the Highlander (which is out being serviced), and the drive out to Granby was lovely.  The beautiful bed and breakfast nestled in the forest was just a stones throw from the beautifully paved path which took us over hill and dale, through dense hardwood, and softwood forests. Lining the paved path were millions of stunning knee high queen anne lace! I wanted to stop and scoop up armfuls and create gorgeous bouquets!! Clusters of dainty tiny pink daisies often grew along side and it looked just like something out of a fairy tale!!! Oh such a ride!! We have loved having our bikes here; and have had so much fun exploring where we would never have been able to drive! 

Sunday Morning we were at the Granby building by 8:30 to zoom into Cornerbrook, Newfoundland Sacrament Meeting…oh how we love our Newfoundland Saints, and were so grateful to speak to our dear friends one last time..

Granby Sacrament Meeting began at 10am, and with a few tweaks, I gave a similar talk to the Cornerbrook one. Most of the saints speak both English and French, so I spoke in English, but bore my temoignage in French. 

Sandy and Mike Wong our dear friends in Granby invited us for an outdoor picnic along with our friends the Bergeron’s (who serve in the Temple.)  What a feast - barbecued salmon and chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob, coleslaw, broccoli, and cauliflower! Dessert was a raspberry pecan loaf, and a cinnamon cake! We were stuffed to the very brim, and so enjoyed the camaraderie with friends. Almost all our friends here are young adults so it was delightful to have a wonderful afternoon with these good folks. 

      

        Following are the exciting Mission Miracles!! 

Have a wonderful week…. Much love,  Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma and, Richard and Gayle,

May 30th, 2021 Missionary Miracles

St.Laurent YSA Elders:

“It has been a fun experience in the YSA ward and the work we have done recently with Brandon and Neo has helped me realize how my experiences and testimony can help others. It was very humbling for me in our last lesson with Brandon to have him ask of my conversion and why I decided to serve a mission, and have him tell me about his conversion and why he decided to be baptized. I learned a lot from his experiences and he strengthened my testimony of the Lords timing and path for each of us. I'm excited for the week ahead and we will see you in the office! “

Ottawa Dows Lake Elders:

“Here is a small piece of news I thought I would let you and Sister Low know. There was a lady I knocked in my first transfer that cursed us out at the door because she thought we were Jehovah Witness. She was taught a few lessons but she ultimately moved away and sent a text message saying she wasn't interested anymore. This lady then turned out to be someone we picked up the lease from when the Kennetts were switching apartments. We at that time had talked about this lady in our office meeting. I am giving a talk this week in Ottawa because it is my last week and I thought I would message her and invite her to watch. She agreed to watch it!”

Montreal Assistants:

“Fellowship- During my exchange with Elder SiIlito, we visited with Aldo Quelopana.  After a very edifying visit, he asked us “Do you Elders by chance know a Sylvester Akpore?” Why of course we do!! Elder Dial and I have actually been visiting him over WhatsApp and strengthening him. Through our love to him AND as we’ve developed a friendship with his 16 yr old son in Nigeria, Brother Akpore has invited us to teach his best best friend. Turns our Aldo was asking about Brother Akpore because he is his ministering brother but has struggled to say in contact. He asked us if we can give him some tips. Well, the incredible detail that we have not mentioned yet is that Brother Akpore’s best friend that we are to teach is Hispanic JUST LIKE ALDO! When we shared this detail with Aldo his eyes widened and began looking through his schedule for the week and told us that he’s busy this week and would love to join us in teaching any lesson next week with Brother Akpore and his best friend. There is a great joy found in supporting the brothers around us in their desire to minister and gather scattered Israel. Experiences like this where I get to see once again how every little detailed aligned perfectly for a life to be touched still astonishes me time after time.”

Monte Rey Elders:

“Of course I needed another Barber, so we selected an unknown one near us and went.  As soon as I entered the barbershop I heard the barbers speak Spanish!  One sat me down and was eager to speak in Spanish with me after it was mentioned, and we conversed away.  The topic quickly focused on who missionaries are (it was his first time seeing us) and I was blessed with the opportunity to share in sincerity of the blessing the Book of Mormon is to my life.  No sooner had I shared this, he asked for a copy without so much as an invitation from my part!(but from the Spirit's part of course)

We went to the car to get it, and with a prayer in my heart for a pen and pass along cards we opened the door to behold one pen and three pass along cards. Now Kique has a copy of the Book of Mormon and easy contact with us.  I know the Lord hears and heeds each and every prayer of the heart and fills our mouths as they are open.  I also know that His understanding of each of us is infinite and the blessings He tailors for us incomprehensible. He loves all of you Sisters and Elders."”

Victoriaville Elders:

“This week was amazing- I can't even right all of the miracles that we saw. But one of them I do want to explain- My whole time here I've felt like we need to find people in Thetford Mines. We put up some bible ads, genealogy help, and posted in groups on Facebook, and we got enough responses to do a trip over there. One of the people we gave a Bible to was actively looking for a church, and he was willing to drive an hour every week to come to it! He accepted a Book of Mormon and a video call lesson as well. I really hope that soon one day there will be a branch over there. I feel like God wants one.”

Levi Sisters:

“This week we were able to meet a couple new people, and hopefully we'll get to talk to them more. A woman named Nicole living in Lévis liked the Spanish page, and we sent her a message. She brought a question / concern that she had about Joseph Smith (Why is he so important in the church, shouldn't Jesus Christ be at the centre of your beliefs?) and we were able to answer some of those questions, (He's very important, because he was a prophet, and yes, Jesus Christ is at the centre of what we believe.) Yesterday morning I woke up with just a good feeling about her (we are talking with her from Sister Widdup's facebook account, and so I hadn't seen yet the message she sent.) We had sent her the scripture for 2 Nephi 25:26, and she asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon so that she could study it out for herself. We'll hopefully be dropping off a copy for her sometime this week.”

Dows Lake Sisters:

“This week we found another friend named Sammie this week. She is going through a hard time right now. When we asked her what her favourite thing to do was she said it was to smoke. She has thought about quitting, but really needs help because she has been smoking since she was 14. We had our first lesson with her and we taught her about prayer because we knew that if she needed help and was seeking peace, prayer was the place to start. She felt uncomfortable praying so we taught her how to pray and it was so powerful to see her change of heart. Right now I don't think she wants to admit it, but we know she feels the spirit when we teach her about Jesus Christ and His gospel. I'm so grateful that the gospel teaches us we can turn to Jesus Christ who is the true and everlasting source of peace. “

Isle d'Orleans and Quebec City Adventure

Today is Sunday, May 23, 2021 

Happy Birthday to Kaylee Victoria Low tomorrow!! 

The best news of the week is that….ALL ‘our’ diligent, hard work is paying off and we are thrilled to report Five baptisms this week including the Fuentes Family of three from Victoria Ward, Luna from Kirkland Ward, and Delphine from Montreal East Ward!!! 

We say ‘our’ work referring to the efforts of EVERY Canada Montreal Missionary!!

Wonderful meetings every Monday keep us coming back for more!! Our young Elders are so capable and do their best to keep things running smoothly.  Elder Trevino runs the front desk, answering phones, taking care of Richard’s correspondence, taking care of incoming and outgoing missionary travel etc. etc.  Elder Chadbolt is a whiz at missionary phones, and also coordinates all missionary service - (at food banks, thrift stores, homeless shelters,  etc. etc.,)where each missionary can serve up to 10 hours/ a week - that is a lot of service, and a lot of organizing!! Sister Little had this very well organized, and Elder Chadbolt is continuing her high standard. You would think with covid restrictions easing up it would be easy to keep this current, but it is a busy calling!  Elder Zhou is our accountant, (has an accounting degree from BYU!!) and he keeps our finances in perfect shape - we are always ready for an audit, thanks to him!!  Elder Glenn is a computer genius, and is currently helping the Roberts create spread sheets to keep track of Housing leases etc.etc. He also is ready and willing to help troubleshoot any, and every computer issue!!  Elder Gibb is the right hand assistant to Elder Roberts in moving beds, chairs, couches etc. etc.!! Sister Roberts, another one of my BFF is delightful and loves decorating, visiting, and thrift store shopping! She is a worker bee 🐝 and is doing a clean sweep of every apartment.  Being a native Québécois she can communicate with sassy landlords; and, every missionary is motivated to keep a spit spot apartments!  Yeah!!Elder Garside and Elder Wentzell keep perfect track of vehicles, oil changes, cleanliness, etc. etc.!! Young missionaries spend the day at the Office, and lest you think that is all they do….oh no…from 5 - 9pm every night they are finding, and teaching new friends…so they are multitaskers at their finest!!  Sister Mecham keeps our supplies filled and in top order.  She returns home the end of June.  Elder Opper keeps our medical issues in order… and currently is coordinating covid vaccinations for every missionary, which hopefully will be complete in the next few weeks.  Our new senior couple Elder and Sister Walker arrived from Sylvan Lake, Alberta last week, and have been finishing up their on-line training. This week they will have the hands-on, in-office training as they replace Elder Trevino, and Elder Zhou.  We are so grateful for the incredible service of every one of our Office team - it takes everyone cheerfully, working together, (which our team does) to make this experience such a JOY!! We are so grateful for the efforts of every Office missionary - currently serving, as well as so many that have gone before, that have worked so diligently to make this Mission experience so wonderful for everyone!!

Guess what we did the rest of the week??  Tuesday and Wednesday we had delightful interviews and visits with our Longueuil Zone. Tuesday in the Office, and Wednesday in Drummondville where we stayed overnight since Zone Conference was there in Drummondville on Thursday.  Late afternoon as we were finishing our last interviews with Sister Training Leaders, Sister Irazoki and Sister Davis, they mentioned that the whole zone were dressing in red the next day.  Our coordinating pink sweater and tie that we had packed were definitely not suitable for the zone photo!!  So…’Valuers de Village was just a few minutes away, and in no time we had selected 3 lovely ties, a sort of cute (but tired and pilly) red knit jacket, and a pile of beautiful doilies (which have nothing to do with Zone Conference, but I love to rescue handcrocheted or knit items!) Zone Conference was so good…the Zone leadership - zone leaders, and sister training leaders were such fabulous teachers teaching about the urgency to find, and how to be effective teachers. They practised what they were teaching, using creativity; and we loved the small group fun role-playing activity.  

Richard and I team taught about ‘Developing a Heart Like His; which really is a lifetime quest for all of us; but serving a Mission is a great way 

to get a jump start on developing Christlike attributes, with a focus on a change of heart.  Bishop Causse’s conference talk last year was our ‘prepare to learn’ reading. It is so fun team-teaching! We LOVE Preach My Gospel, and we LOVE The Book of Mormon, and all our teaching comes from those two great handbooks!!! READ THEM!!  

RED Longueuil Zone photo below

With a pause day on Friday, and Pday on Saturday it was a perfect opportunity to continue east from Drummondville to Quebec City for a little break. We hadn’t been there for over a year, and we were so excited be tourists!! 

Several friends suggested visiting Isle D’Orleans, an island in the St. Lawrence between Quebec City and Levis, and just a quick 15 minute drive over a great old bridge. The island’s microclimate has ideal growing conditions for apples, strawberries, grapes, and potatoes so besides the 6 little villages, and farmsteads the 42 mile island is absolutely covered with fields of apple orchards, strawberries, vineyards, and freshly planted potatoes!! Oh and wonderful groves of maple trees that are tapped for maple syrup!! Old Quebec is charming and definitely just like France! Quaint little shops with authentic ‘Made in Quebec’ souvenirs, and lots of cute eating stops were so fun! Most breads and pastries are absolutely delicious and we have to limit ourselves, but we are drawn to every boulangerie!! We had a delightful, relaxing couple of days. Friday night President Morin and his wife Collette drove over to our little island and joined us for a fun supper at a wonderful patio right on the St. Lawrence. On the 7th of June they head off on their third Mission to Africa!! Their first Mission they served as Mission Leaders in Benin, the second to Senegal, and this one is to Cote D'Ivoire! They have nine children who are stalwart members all here in Quebec. (FYI - Dad's companion Elder Kinghorn and Elder Whitely taught President Morin back in 1974!) We had such fun visiting!

And now it is time to get this posted, and get to bed!!

Have a wonderful week! Mission life is wonderful!!

We send love to all..

Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle

Photos follow the Miracles

 Canada Montreal May 23rd, 2021 Missionary Miracles:

Montreal 2 Elders:

“We had a cool miracle happen this week! 

Me and Elder Sillito had a lesson fall through and it was almost the end of Prime Time. So we went on the Instagram to like and comment on the pages. I started looking around and found a place in Instagram where you can search places so I searched Montreal shoes. And found this guy with some pretty sweet kicks so I shot him a message. Long story short I was able to set up a Bible study, and in our study he expressed how he didn't really understand the Bible at all and was praying something would happen were he could. It was just a miracle to me how we came into contact and his prayers were answered!”

Montreal 2 Sisters:

“Miracle time: yesterday we were doing service at a soup kitchen. There was a new volunteer with us and we'd only met her once before. Anyway, we started packing up some food with her and got talking. She knew a bit about our church because her boyfriend has been inactive since he was 18 (remind us to see how he is) so she had a bunch of questions. One thing led to another and she started talking about religions and God and specifically prayer. She had a bunch of questions about memorized prayers, how to pray, and why we pray. So we talked about that for a while!! And then Sister Jensen, bless her soul, asked if she would like to have a call to talk a bit more about God and our beliefs AND SHE SAID YES!!! So at the end of service we got her number and are going to set up a call. Wow. Talk about miracles!! You really can help people learn about God wherever you are. It’s my favourite thing!!!!”

Longueuil Elders:

“This week Elder Rees and I continued to be blessed in abundance for our efforts. Finding through Facebook has been a huge success as we continually pray for our leads ad. We have found many people who are willing to read the Bible with us and everyone of them so far that we have called have been open to receiving a Book of Mormon. One in particular I would like to share. His name is Ranel, he has a family and they are all from Haiti. In Haiti he had a good job and his wife was a doctor but because of political issues happening there they were forced to leave the country. He has been here for several years without work, but his wife does work. He is very humble and we will have a lesson with the whole family upcoming this Saturday. “

LaSalle Sisters:

“I also wanted to tell you and Sister Low about a miracle! We had a member give us food! That's the first miracle but the miracle I wanted to share was what happened when we went to pick it up. The pasta was left in the fridge in the church. And when we arrived, the Chateauguay Elders were inside. Because we can't use the church at the same time, we had them bring it out to us. They met us outside and this man drove up. He asked if we spoke French and I told him I speak a bit. He then asked if this was "the Mormon Church" He explained that he is from Africa and lived in the United States for a bit where he met the missionaries. He is new to LaSalle and was looking for the church. His name is Shabani. We got his number and shared it with the Hochelaga elders. What are the chances that the missionaries would be outside the church at 2pm on a Wednesday, the exact same time someone drove up looking for the church, and that one of us spoke any French at all considering LaSalle is an English ward? The chances are zero, it was by divine design. It was really fun to speak to someone in french!! And I know God helped me to understand him because I really don’t speak that much. And all this happened because Brother Simkovits bought us pasta. “

Villa Marie Sisters:

“This week has been so fast paced and so miracle-filled! This was a really cool miracle yesterday: unfortunately we have not found her yet but we met with someone who was contacted through Instagram! We were doing Instagram finding and looking through posts nearby and we came across this lady, I immediately found a common interest and that was fitness and nutrition! I messaged her saying I was into dietetics and I loved her page and her next text back was like let's meet and go for a walk and we can talk more! We were planning a lot before this meeting on how we were going to bring the gospel into our discussion, and how we can potentially find her. However it was a lot easier than we had anticipated, I had mentioned in our texts that I was on a mission and all that and right when we met up with her at the park she was super excited and she said like as well "when you said you were on a mission I had no idea what that meant so I did some researching on that too so I am excited to talk about your mission as well!" We went and sat down and we had a beautiful conversation, turns out too she is very religious and she really believes in incorporating God into her fitness business and is constantly praying for her clients and asked them what she can pray for. She also told us that she follows up after she prayed for someone specifically and I loved that, then like they can realize how prayers work if they noticed a difference or something, I learned a lot from her! Then she told us that she would love to refer her clients to us, because we had told her we once did a prayer call with someone! She was like ‘is there a number or a website?’ She said she misses church so much in person and we totally agreed with her, she also misses her bible studies, so without us even asking she's like we could do bible studies and make it a weekly thing! And she said she would be interested in checking out our church! She is English speaking, so we will have to pass her off to the English missionaries. She was amazing, the one regret maybe is that we didn't set a date, that has been something I have been really wondering this week, I know how important it is to set a return appointment in that first meeting and when the spirit is still strong, but like to what point do you push it to when maybe when it's not natural. I think maybe we can more go about it like "we can plan for this day". With Donna she said she would confirm with her schedule, but we are planning on either Monday or Friday next week. And we are going to pray to know how to introduce the Book of Mormon I think she would be very interested. She had lots of questions about our missions all that, and for her too she said at the end of the day, it's Jesus and He is the centre. “

Victoriaville Elders:

“I had a cool experience this week. After Studying all of the Doctrine and Covenants Prepare to Learns for Zone Conference, I was thinking, is the field really white? I have tried my whole mission to believe this and have faith in it, but despite every effort I put in things often seem to move slowly. So after my studies I prayed and sincerely asked God if this was true, what it was teaching us in Doctrine and Covenants. That very same day, we received an unusual amount of Lead ad responses, and one we had targeted just at Montreal said she was from Victoriaville!  It shouldn't have happened, but it DID as a response to a prayer. We quickly started up a very nice conversation with her, and she was searching for something greater in her life. Later that same day, we got a knock on our door, and it was our neighbour. Her key that has worked in her door

for 13 years didn't work this one time, and she couldn't get into her

apartment. So we helped her call the landlord, and in waiting for him to come, naturally we struck up a conversation. She was comfortable enough with us because the week before we had gotten locked out of our apartment, and had knocked on her door for help. We just got to know her, and we found out that her husband had passed away a few years ago after a 30 year marriage, and we were able to testify and give her a plan of salvation pamphlet, and she said of course I'll read it, I have nothing else to do! So yes, there are people out there that God is preparing. It was a beautiful answer to a prayer.”