The LIGHT in their EYES

Today is Sunday, January 24, 2021,

                            and in four days we get to wish our Megan...Happy 29th Birthday!!

With our 'baby' Megan’s Birthday this week, we find ourselves very melancholy reminiscing about the arrival of each of our wonderful seven children; the intense years of parenting; and now the incredible JOY of watching each of them, with their spouses parenting our 24 grandchildren!!! We have come full circle, and although our parenting now is totally different than it was when we all lived under the same roof, we still feel the responsibility of caring about, supporting, teaching, advising (if asked), and LOVING….all 38 of our dear family - almost 6 times our original number!! Our family are our MOST  prized possessions….how grateful we are for each of you!! 

A little trip down memory lane for some of you…When Megan started Kindergarten, her teacher Mrs. Liska noticed she only coloured with green and gold…she was a true LCI fan….loving going to every sports activity Aaron, David, Bradley, Michael, Mark and Jonathan participated in;…and now she continues to be such a loyal fan for Brendan, her brothers and her nephews!

The Montreal snow blanket continues to keep us ooohing and aaahing, especially as we drive around the city and see how these hardy folks embrace the cold; walking, cycling, sledding, snowshoeing, skating and cross-country skiing! Our temperatures have dipped, and today the thermometer reads -16 with humidity making it feel like -23. After bundling, and layering up, we love our delightful evening walks down to the Mount Royal town square! The lawn bowling pitch has been flooded and throngs of families with toddlers, and all ages of kids happily skate until the big flood lights get turned off right before eight. Richard was crosscountry skiing on Mount Royal yesterday, and reported hundreds of folks loving the activities on the mountain; someone had even set up rentals for skiing, skating and snowshoeing!! These Quebecois are happy, resilient folk who have not let covid slow them down with distanced socializing, relaxation, or fitness, and we are inspired!!

Perhaps you tire reading about our wonderful weeks that zip by on record speed! A brief review of this past week includes stimulating Office Meetings on Monday, and the rest of the week our time was filled with Montreal Zone interviews, Montreal Zone Conference, as well as Mount Royal Zone Conference. My teaching was based on a wonderful President James E. Faust October 2005 General Conference address entitled ‘The Light in Their Eyes,’ which is such a timely message for all of us now, as we go everywhere wearing masks, with only our eyes shining!! He shared the story of when President Ezra Taft Benson accompanied by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland then President of BYU Provo, were in Jerusalem making arrangements to lease the land for the Jerusalem Centre. In the details of the lease, it was written that there was/is to be absolutely no proselyting. He records that “after the lease had been signed, one of their friends insightfully remarked,” “Oh, we know that you are not going to proselyte, but what are you going to do about the light that is in their eyes?” “He was referring to students who were studying in Israel.” “What was that light in their eyes which was so obvious to our friend?  The Lord Himself gives the answer: ‘And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings.’ Where did that light come from? Again the Lord gives the answer: ‘I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’ The Lord is the true light.”

I love teaching and discussing the Gospel with our little band of believers, and we glean so much from our discussions. Another great nugget from President Faust’s talk: “Once when President Brigham Young was asked why we are sometimes left alone, and often sad, his response was that man has to learn to ‘act as an independent being…..to see what he will do…and try his independency - to be righteous in the dark.’ That becomes easier to do when we see the ‘gospel glow….radiating from….illuminating individuals.’ ”

The application of this great message applies to all of us…I am motivated just thinking about always living to illuminate the gospel glow!!  What a master teacher President Faust was! 

Monday evening Alexa Fowers, my MTC French tutor announced that with all the new French students, my tutoring will conclude February 1st. Tomorrow we are making a ‘Language Plan,’ so I’m excited about planning a way to remember what I have learned!! I’m hoping all my French connections at home will continue tutoring me!! Sister Lisa Harkness gets to learn French from Alexa. After French, we spent another delightful hour or so with President and Sister Harkness, who we are confident will serve so well here. We already feel like old friends!!! 

We have been waiting for months to get our teeth clean, and Tuesday morning we visited Dr. Abadi’s office where when we left, our mouths felt squeaky clean! When we heard that Dr. Abadi teaches at McGill Dental School, we knew we were almost in as good a hands, as our son Brad!!  Dr. Abadi herself cleaned my teeth…she knew it had been a while since they had been done, when she announced she was doing a ‘deep cleaning!!’

Last night we participated in our first virtual party with our Senior Missionaries, organized by Elder and Sister Bingham! I made puffed wheat treats as the ‘token refreshments,’ and will share them at the Office tomorrow. Sister Bingham had cute ‘conversation starters,’ where we shared info about our families, funny mission experiences, and favourite Pday memories. After an hour and a half of delightful visiting, and getting to know each other, we had to get on to our next Saturday activity, but it was so fun to hear about these remarkable, inspiring, consecrated Senior Elders and Sisters who are so happy to serve. How we pray they can soon physically come to us!!

We are still on partial lock down….until February 8th, although Quebec provincial government yesterday announced opening Churches for baptisms, and for maximum of ten to attend Sacrament Meetings. I’ll rave again about being so grateful for Zoom technology, where today we got to hear Kaylee speak in Sacrament Meeting, as well as attend Fredericton, New Brunswick Sacrament Meeting. Tuesday night we also attended Michael Tait Low’s ordination to the office of a deacon. We feel so blessed to be able to participate in these milestone events.

Your prayers for missionaries around the world are being answered right here in the ‘Canada Montreal Mission’….Thank you for both your faith and your prayers…We feel that power, and continue to be grateful for the power those prayers bring. 

Our service continues to bring us so much JOY. How thankful we are for this incredible opportunity! It continues to change our lives, and our hearts. 

Sending this to all of you with much love

Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle

All our outstanding teams of Missionaries also continue to amaze us with their obedient, diligent, cheerful, service….and love sharing their weekly miracles! Read on…

Miracles Week of January 24, 2021

Mandarin Central Elders:

«  This week has been great! I was able to put into practice a lot of lessons that I have learned the earlier week. I felt that Heavenly Father answered my prayers more as I tried to pray with more intent and sincerity. An example of this is we invited a friend to fast with us that he might know that God exists and loves him. A couple days later he experienced the "most peace [he] has ever felt" we were able to explain this came from Heavenly Father. Another amazing answer to prayer is we were praying to find ways to help our friend nina, because things have slowed down quite a bit with her, we found ways to offer service and her excitement for learning the gospel took new heights than ever before. Heavenly Father knows our hearts and is ready to respond as we are diligently seeking him. « 

Granby Elders:

« One cool experience that we had, is that we had a lesson with our friend Sylvia and the gift of Tongues decided to show off a little bit! Elder May testified of the commandments, and he spoke flawless french. It was really amazing to see how much he's improved over the last few weeks. He's dedicated, and i believe he'll be fluent in no time. 

We also are going hard at EdApp sessions! I wish I had these when i was trained.

Bible and Book of Mormon ads have been blowing up! We've now 3 or 4 people who ordered a book of mormon and we're now in contact with. 

One of which was an entire family who just moved from Cote D'Ivoire. They want to attend the church broadcast on Sunday so we'll see how that goes!!! 

We may see a primary being built up over here!

Halifax Elders:

« We ended up putting one person on date this week, Samuel Robinson, and he has such a strong desire to know the truth! I am really excited for him! Jalen continues to meet with us twice a week, and we have set up two of our members reading with him on a weekly basis of the Book of Mormon. He has started to say "our church" which really gets me excited. Jalen is someone who has been taught in the past, and he is here for schooling. We asked him about Baptism this past week and he said that it has been something on his mind a lot. The lessons we have with him always have the spirit so strong, and I feel like that really just shows the desire he has. »

Saint Hyacinthe Sisters:

« This week we found a guy name Ronald and he is so cool ! We've had 2 lessons with him and he has asked really good questions. One of the questions he asked was 'how he can come to know the truth for himself' ! We weren't able to answer his question right then and there because we had a another lesson right after but we told him in our next video call that we would answer his question. We are so excited about that!! I also put up a bible ad this week and with a day I got 9 responses which was so cool. I ended up having to take my ad down because they just kept on coming and we only have 4 bibles. One of them actually started asking me about my beliefs and we set up a video call to explain more about the church. 

Dartmouth Elders:

« I am here for him and I myself have found amazing faith and confidence in the Lord as I forget myself. I was even blessed in seeing a miracle during our exchange with Elder Drover. We were teaching a man who did not want to attend church because his daughter had passed away and it was extremely painful for him to revisit the chapel where they shared so many precious memories. As Elder Drover shared the closing prayer I prayed in my heart that he would receive a vision or message straight from his passed daughter letting him know that it was his desire that he attends church. I prayed letting heavenly father I had faith that he would work miracles and that I wanted it for no reason more than to bring this man peace and joy. As soon as Elder Drover closed the Prayer the man told us that he was actually reading from his daughters scriptures and that the Book had fallen to a page containing a note with his daughters testimony on it. I shared my testimony of miracles and angels and that I knew without a doubt that his daughters will for him was that he attended church and that he could do so in peace. I am so grateful Heavenly Father has gifted me with this opportunity to witness his love for his Children. »

Dows Lake Chinese Elders:

« Social media finding has also taken a new high this week. I have started 12 conversations in the last two days on Instagram. We have found one new friend on Facebook, and look to find two likely friends on Instagram as I follow up with them again later this week. On Facebook, a post I made on the worldwide unified group generated over 2,900 likes and over 500 comments. We were able to set up a weekly recurring video call with an inactive member from this, and reach out to many other friends and family of members in the Riverside Ward, and other members and friends across the mission and the world. It was amazing to see the ripple effect one simple action of sharing my testimony had on literally the entire world. « 

Quebec Sisters:

« We received a message from the Champlain Spanish sisters saying they had been messaging someone from their Facebook page who was interested in studying the Bible with us. We contacted her right away and set up an appointment within a few minutes! That was the first miracle. The second came when we were able to study the Bible with her and we had such a quick, spiritually powerful lesson. We really focused in on the commitment, which was to learn more about our message of the Restoration and keep studying with us. We found a new friend! When we scheduled a return appointment, our member presence fell through right beforehand, which was disappointing, but that didn't stop the miracles! We decided to study another passage from the Bible and teach about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved the study! And when we started talking about baptism, we studied about how Jesus didn't just go to any random person to be baptized, he went to John, who had authority from God. She thought that was really interesting, and then asked us if she could be baptized by someone with authority from God! Of course we then extended the invitation to her to be baptized into the true church of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She accepted! It was only the second time we've met with her! She was so emotional and thanked us, saying she'd actually prayed that very day to know where to go to be baptized. It was so incredible. I am excited to help her on her path to discovering the Restored gospel.« 

Laurier YSA Sisters:

« I have a testimony that fasting works. In my last three areas, when I have fasted to find people, we get a flood of referrals. God blesses me more than I deserve. Its just been really cool to see a direct answer to my prayers. We haven't had as much finding time as would be ideal, but I have been obedient and God is providing a way for us to find people. « 

Lasalle Sisters:

« We also have a new person on date! Her name is Angela, she is very sweet. She is related  to a member and she's so elect. At the beginning of the month, we set a goal to have a new person on date, and even though the chances were very few, we accomplished yet another one of goals. Faith truly is important in this work. We wouldn't have been able to do all of this if we didn't trust in the Lord and all that we do everyday. He's always with us because this is His work! « 

Laval Elders:

« This week, we met a man who was very thankful for the church and its family history records, he said that he isn't a man of faith, but he loves doing his family history. It's so fun being able to serve with other missionaries and get to know those who have been called to serve the Lord at the same time as me. 

This week we have put more thought into our social media efforts, and we filmed another video that will be up on Saturday. Our last video brought many people to the page and that encourages me to keep making content people will want to watch and will inspire them to learn more about the things that makes me happy. « 

Montreal Est Sisters:

« After we delivered cookies and del la Rosas to the Elders we got in the car and Sister Irazoqui noticed two guys behind us trying to dig out their car from the snow. Side note, when it snows here in Québec people will shovel out their driveways and trucks clear out the streets about a day after it snows so if your car has not been driven in than it's probably buried deep in an 8 foot snow pile. ... Back to the story, one of the guys we were helping had noticed us there visiting the elders before and he was curious about who were were and recognized my collègue's French, pas Québécoise accent. He had lived in Salt Lake, knew where Provo was, and was happy to hear that we were missionaries. We did not get his information to contact him, but it was a great unplanned opportunity to connect and serve! 

 

Trois Rivieres Elders:

«  This was an another great week here! We invited three people to be baptized, and all three of them accepted! One has selected a date, one is praying to choose a date, and one is deciding how she will tell her parents. It was almost unreal how great it was, every several lessons we couldn't help but just lie down and be amazed. I should say I really want to stay in this area. So much of our efforts are really showing fruit right now! One of the people who said she wants to be baptized has three children and a husband, but the husband isn't very religious. We are going to try to involve him as much as possible in the lessons so they enter the church as a family. »

Quebec Sisters:

« We had a busy week! We are teaching and talking to a lot of people, so we stay very busy!

We had our second lesson with one of our new friends this week, her name is Nathasha. We taught her the whole gospel of Jesus Christ and how we have the proper authority to baptize and she loved it and asked if she could get baptized! It brought her to tears saying that she had been praying to find the right church, she knew the scriptures said to be baptized but really wanted to find the right one and we were the answer to her prayers! Such a miracle!

Another miracle, we were talking to someone on fb this week who we found out had been taught and baptized by my sister when she was here and then went inactive rather fast, we were hoping to help her! « 

Greenwood Elders:

«  This week we saw some miracles! On Friday we had our first lesson with Audra and it went really well! We taught the first few principles of the restoration. She said she had taken the discussions before but just didn’t feel it was right at the time. So near the end of our call she was very straightforward and said she wanted to be baptized and sealed to her husband as soon as possible. « 

Sackville Elders:

« So On Sunday after church we returned to our apartment and then we got a call from our ward Clerk Brother Kang and he told us there's a man who just walk into the Chapel and told them he wants to learn more about our church and join our church!  And so Brother Kang hand the phone to him and we were able to set up a lesson that night and we taught him the restoration and

How to pray, and  then we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to start reading it and start praying on his own. Lastly we invited him to come to church on Sunday and have a lesson before church! He is so cool and awesome! Really down to earth, sincerely want to learn more! So we are so happy that God guided him to the church! We are excited to ‘walk him home!’ 

Have a wonderful week!!! Keep Smiling!!!