Today is Sunday, February 21, 2021
Tomorrow February 22 is Jan’s 64th Birthday; and
Wednesday, February 24, Aaron celebrates his 43rd,
and on Saturday, February 27, 2021, Mom Low turns 94!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our dear loved ones.
With piles and piles and huge mountains of snow covering every surface in Montreal, we were amazed yesterday as we were touring about, down one of our favourite roads…Chemin Rockland, to see father and mother robin flitting around looking for bits of anything to build their nest. Probably with the crazy weather way down south, our beautiful songbirds longed for their Canadian summer homes, and figured they might as well be here as down there!! And,…this morning while ‘daydreaming’ at my desk…was thrilled for about three seconds to watch simultaneously a Baltimore oriole, and a pair of cardinals stop briefly on branches of our backyard horse chestnut!! So, although our world is white as white, we know spring is on its way!! We do wonder how long it will take for all our snow to disappear!! I can’t wait to see if the hundreds of white tulip bulbs we planted will actually find their way up - (at least the ones the squirrels didn’t devour!!)
A brief summary of our week goes as follows:
Monday Office Meetings were great as always….perhaps you might be interested in our ‘key indicators for conversion’ report:
3 friends Baptized
31 friends on date for Baptism
88 friends attended Church
56 new friends were found
It is always so fun to have our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders report on the success in their zones, and we love that one of our favourite responsibilities is to build them up, and rave about their hard work and success…and we find that so easy to do!!
After serving 21 months, our lovely Sister Leziah DePeralta, from Australia left to return home Wednesday morning. Knowing she is going to return to BYU Idaho ensures we will see her again!!
And Elder Kaden Birch from Cardston who was originally scheduled to return home next month received word that his Dad had gone into Palliative Care. We agreed that is was important for him to get home, and as quick as Thursday morning he was on a plane headed west. Without exception, every departure tugs at our heartstrings, and it does not get easier saying goodbye.
Tuesday and Wednesday we loved our interviews and visits with our bare bones Atlantic Zone. The morale, and enthusiasm is great there, although we have no missionaries in Newfoundland, New Brunswick or PEI. Our original Canada Halifax Mission when we arrived in June 2018 had 120 missionaries, and now, we have 21. (only in Nova Scotia) Covid has wrecked havoc with our complement and now our entire Canada Montreal Mission has 120 missionaries. We continue to pray for borders to open so we can repopulate all the areas we have had to close. Fortunately we have kept enough apartments to house about 50 more missionaries so we are ready for the tsunami, and hope it comes soon! Many missionaries that were originally assigned to the CMM were reassigned, and we have no idea if they will eventually come, or if they will stay in their reassigned mission. In any case we are ready and excited to receive every missionary who comes!
Thursday our Atlantic Zone Conference was inspiring. We were grateful to have President Glanfield attend the ‘in person’ Conference in the Dartmouth Stake Centre, and it was so fun to see the Atlantic Zone together, especially since they haven’t been together for a whole year. It was particularly lovely to see a photo of them together in front of the Temple. With the Halifax Temple in Phase 3, we are encouraging those missionaries to go every Pday!! (at least the ones pretty close.)
Thursday night we were the presenters at the Trois Rivieres Fireside where we got to teach and testify of the Book of Mormon, all in French!! Richard is a whiz with his French, and as long as I have a script I muddle through. Duolingo is helping me with my pronunciation. More than ten investigators, along with many members were in attendance, and the Branch Mission Leader was thrilled, as were we! Again we were grateful for zoom technology, where we could be together!
Friday we met with our new missionaries for our ‘New Missionary Orientation’ meeting, and were thrilled with their eagerness, and wonderful reports of their first two weeks. Every one shared sweet miracles they had experienced.
Sister Opper, a Senior missionary who was called to server here with her husband, suffered with MS was hospitalized for an infection, had a heart attack, was in an induce coma when they discovered she had had a stroke, and passed away in Brantford, Ontario. What a remarkable life, she and her husband had lived together, and we were so inspired as we participated in her beautiful funeral Friday afternoon.
Mission Leadership Council from 3-5 Friday afternoon was our last meeting of the week. I loved getting teaching, and testifying about the power of Prayer.
Saturday, Pday activities included treadmill running for me, cross country skiing for Richard, grocery shopping, watching the Primary Face to Face Presentation, and relaxing as we water-coloured! A great relaxing day!!
Speaking of watercoloring reminds me that several times a week, I’ve been spending about 45 minutes over zoom (of course) with teams of sisters from 9-9:45pm or so, watercoloring together! It is so fun to paint, but mostly it is just so great to visit, and unwind together!!
And today we spoke in Victoriaville Sacrament Meeting all in French; and were happy to attend our Westminster Ward Conference! (It’s pretty fun when Bella makes a peep, we know it is her, since there aren’t any other babies in the ward!)
Missionary Service is so fulfilling, and we continue to feel so very blessed to have this opportunity to share the glorious message of the Restoration! We love being so involved helping teach and motivate our missionaries as we all participate in the great gathering of Israel. We thrill to watch our missionaries grow and commit to a life of discipleship on their own covenant paths. Days always to be remembered!!
We are so grateful for your love, friendship, and support,
Have a wonderful week, Keep Smiling!!
Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle, Grandpa and Grandma
Elder Baird made this exquisite ceramic jar with a lid for us. He carved a beautiful tree of life, with an iron rod!!
Here are a few of our weekly miracles:
February 21st, 2021 Missionary Miracles
Hochelaga Elders:
« Also, a small miracle that you can feel free to share- we met a nice guy named Bruce at Moisson Montreal and he told us he's a genealogist. We talked a bit and I eventually asked him for help reading a marriage document. He and us have been emailing back and forth. We told him about RootsTech and he says he's going to look into it. Today he emailed us and says that he'd be interested in hearing more about what we believe and sharing a little bit of his beliefs so we are excited for that! »
Our Assistants:
« On the topic of member work we had the heart of a nonmember son change in the last week! When we first called Dmitri's father to have a lesson, his son with slight frustration related that we need to keep our commitments regarding having lessons as his father has been stood up before. Elder Dial with great patience and love bore the words and assured him that we would do so. The lesson went well and Dmitri committed to reconnect with friends so that he can invite them to come to church with him. Come a week later for our follow-up lesson, Dmitri picked up the phone when the lesson started and chastened us for forgetting to forward the church link to his father, which was indeed our fault. Following this correction we immediately found a permanent solution by signing up the emails of Dmitri and his father to the ward email list which merited an increase of love from Dmitri. What followed was absolutely unexpected. Dmitri's father was unavailable for a few minutes, and he asked us if he could ask us a few questions. "I've began reading the Book of Mormon" he said, and proceeded to list off what he saw in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, namely peace and happiness as key attributes in its members.
We answered a couple questions regarding the origins of the Book, and he promptly returned the phone to his father and informed us that he was on page 40 and would still continue and would be part of our lessons with his father. »
Victoriaville Elders:
« This is a miracle Sister Low asked for,
it was pday, and we were getting haircuts because it had been a while since the last time we were able to get them. The hairdressers in Quebec City only like taking cash for some reason, and one of us did not have bills, so we left and told the guy we would be back to pay him. We got the money, and were on the way back when someone from across the street waved at us. We crossed the street and we got talking. He told us he just lost his brother 2 days before. We got his number and went on with our day. That night we called him and we set up a time to meet. He then came to church the following Sunday and we are continually teaching him. Our area is small, and we pray everyday for miracles even during covid. We don't contact on the street, but we were able to because Heavenly Father putting him in our path!! «
Montreal Sisters:
« We also saw a huge miracle this week! Do you remember our friend Heidi that I was talking to you about in our interview? She is the one that kept saying over and over again that baptism wasn't for her but she FINALLY AGREED TO BE BAPTIZED!!! My heart is so full. I took your advice and invited Heidi to kneel down with us and pray about the Book of Mormon! You are right, they are really powerful lessons. She felt the spirit so strong and said that she needed to be baptized so she could continue to feel the feeling she was feeling right then. «
Laurier Sisters:
« Sister Gottenbos and I are getting ready for our friend Lisa's baptism on Saturday, and we are so excited for that! We had a lesson with her yesterday at the church, because we had to get her to try on the jumpsuit for her baptism. We looked at them and picked one, and she went to try it on, and it was perfect, but when she opened the door, she looked at us and cried, and we were wondering why. With tears in her eyes, she told us that she couldn't explain how happy she was, and how excited she was that she could finally join the Church of Christ. At that moment, we all felt the Spirit so strongly, and we also cried a little bit. We knew that this was the desire of her heart, and that she wasn't doing all of this because her boyfriend was a member. She has her own testimony, and we are so proud of her! We can't wait for her to receive the Holy Ghost! (you can share this experience with Sister Low, I think she would love this) »
Halifax Elders:
« So this week we were given a referral from Sister Mecham. This man named Luca has been studying with one of his friends in Utah for a long time now, and she invited him to learn with the missionaries. He tried to contact the missionaries by reaching out to the mission office. Anyways, we just recently had a lesson with him, and he told us right away that he wants to be baptized. The power of his testimony and desire is so evident!! The spirit is very strong when he talks about how the scriptures have changed his life. He knows all of the Doctrine, so we have decided to put him on date for two weeks from now. He wants to take lessons everyday, and for us to pray for him everyday in that he may have strength to overcome temptation. We are so very excited for him. You can share this miracle with Sister Low of you would like! »
Another great update Mom thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMasterful writing!
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