Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Welcome to New Missionaries and Farewell to Departing Missionaries

Today is Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Saturday, March 27, Berkley James Low turns 15!!

Happy Birthday to Berkley!!


Last week was Week 6, which means Transfer Week, and although it is nothing like Transfer Weeks we had the first year and a half of our Mission where we got to have big Welcome feasts, big sleepovers, temple sessions, farewell Testimony Meetings, and Farewell feasts; 

we still get so excited to welcome our new Missionaries, greeting them at the Mission Office, and orienting them there. 


New Missionaries arrivals are:

Sister Kathryn Gough - Calgary (by Calaway Park)

Sister Samantha Heske - Spruce Grove

Sister Savanna Smetaniuk - Beaumont - arrived last week

Sister Mikaela Widdup - Barrhead-Geoff Smith is her Branch President

Elder David Dalton - Morinville, Alberta

Elder Xavier Flynn - Saint Philippem, Quebec

Elder Zachariah Johnson - Edmonton - arrived last week

Elder Brendan Pierson - Taber  


We do get to have in person farewell interviews, and visits with our departing missionaries. Tears always come so quickly as we have to say goodbye to our beloved ‘missionary family members.’ 

Thursday night, our closing Testimony Meeting with our departing group was a spiritual highlight.

Sister Katie Twitchell - Meridian, Idaho

Sister Anuhea Margrin - Tahiti (delayed departing until end of May,                                            because no flights are going to Tahiti)

Elder Braydon Barrett - Edmonton

Elder Kaden Birch - Cardston (went home a month ago to be with his

dying Dad, who passed a week after he returned)

Elder Damien Foster - Portland, Oregon

Elder Joseph Roper - Sacramento, California

Elder Benson Wu - Taipei, Taiwan (flying home tonight)


My Dad, Robert Anderson Hamilton passed away six years ago, so all day Saturday we reminisced about his remarkable life!! We know he and my Mom are still celebrating their reunion of Last April when she passed. 


Elder and Sister Roberts, Sister Breckenridge, and Sister Mecham joined us (oh how we missed our Sister Little…)for our Senior outing on Saturday where we travelled out to L’Erabliere du Sanglier ,(wild boar) a fun commercial maple syrup Cabana Sucre attraction.  Quite the menagerie of animals including horses, rabbits, gobbling turkeys, pheasants, and boars. Joining the big mama boars were about 20 adorable striped babies. (We did not go poking our fingers through the chicken wire fence.) Much of the traditional food that is usually served at the Cabana Sucre was available for purchase, and we loaded our baskets with maple sugar cake, maple donuts, tortiere, split pea soup, and sanglier sausage! We are having so much fun experiencing many traditional Quebecois activities (those that are open) and we are loving all the scrumptious food! We were reminiscing about our last year Cabana Sucre outing where we had probably two dozen of our amazing Seniors loving the all you can eat traditional feast with maple syrup in pitchers on the giant picnic tables, all the while listening to folksy French music and watching such fun toe tapping dancing…so glad we got to do that last March!


Sunday was such a great day, and we were able to do so much!!! Thanks to ZOOM!!

9am We both Spoke in Lemoyne Ward - French

11am Sister Little reported her Mission - Fairfax, Virginia

1:30pm We both Spoke in Mandarin Ward - English with translator

2:00pm Sister Twitchell reported her Mission - Meridian, Idaho

3:00pm Elder Birch reported his Mission - Cardston, Alberta

4:00pm Area Presidency Meeting with all our NorthAmericaNorthEast

    Mission Leaders

6:00pm Missionary Fireside in Bridgewater - we got to speak. 

9:00pm Mission Wide Sunday evening Devotional

Although it was a packed day, we always feel invigorated and so fulfilled as we share the JOY of the Gospel! 


Monday Office Meetings were wonderful, and our young new missionaries who have joined us are doing great!! 

About once month we get to Zoom visit with some of our dear friends who served as Senior missionaries here; and who have returned home. What a fun treat to visit, and catch up on their busy lives! Such inspiring examples of devoted disciples serving, serving and still serving!

Yesterday we had a bit of a pause day, and had appointments to have our first vaccination…our second appointment is July 13th…who knows where we will be?! 

Today we had a delightful visit to the Kirkland District Council, and joined the group of 11 missionaries as they met and discussed how to improve their missionary efforts.  With several new Atlantic Canada missionaries joining their district, they organized such a fun getting to know you game. We were grateful to be there!

And, this afternoon, we zoomed with our brand new missionaries for a training meeting.


What a marvelous experience it is to serve a Mission…we still comment everyday how incredible it is to be here rubbing shoulders with such incredible missionaries….young and old who inspire us and motivate us to be better!! What pure JOY!!


Have a wonderful week!

We send much love to all

Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle

______________________________________________________________


Miracles

Zarahemla Spanish Sisters:

Dear President. 

Miracles and miracles. My days are filled with miracles. :))

We have a baptismal date set! I am so excited. Mariel is golden and truly is changing and embracing the gospel in all the right ways. I am amazed at her spirituality and I am so happy I will be here for her baptism next month.

I somehow dropped my wallet on the bus. And lost it. And somehow just felt peace that it would be fine. I started going through the process of replacing it all. And I got a call and a stranger gave me back my wallet. I am just amazed.


Montreal Sisters:

We had a few miracles this week that really taught the importance of being persistent. Sister Pedersen and I have been trying to get into contact with a girl on AreaBook named Julianna. We always feel prompted to call her but she would never pick up. We ended calling this other person that was in one of the lessons with her and we had an amazing lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. Then the next day we finally got into contact with Julianna and so we are now teaching her, her son and her friend Andrea.

It was really cool to see how God just waits for the right moment.


From an Elder:

This week has been all kinds of long. It's been amazing, but really difficult.

Elder ____helped me a lot. He helped me to have a fresh perspective and be conscious of the faith that I have had up until now. In doing so I felt prepared to finally ask the Lord in a prayer of faith if the Book of Mormon was true. I knelt down, with a real intent and understanding of what faith is, and asked if it was true. As soon as the question left my lips, I felt an overwhelming joy fill my entire body. This is the first time I've received such a witness, and it meant so much.  

I've realized that immediately following this, that all sorts of difficulties followed. A person we were teaching decided to try quite hard to destroy any faith or confidence that we had in the Book of Mormon. I felt so blessed to have received the witness when I did, as I was able to simply stand for what I know to be true, testify with all the feeling of my heart, and be led by the Spirit to say what was needed to be said in that moment. >

_____________________________________________________________


















No comments:

Post a Comment