Today is Saturday, April 3, 2021,
and although she isn’t here we are still celebrating my Mom,
Patricia Maude McCormack Hamilton’s 89th Birthday!!
and…
Yesterday Michael Tait Low blew out 12 candles!! Happy Birthday Tait!!
20 New Temples announced!!! “A year for the record books!!”
“A Gospel of hope, healing, progress and Joy…be worthy and willing to prepare for the second coming, and Pray to know what debris to remove from our lives,” were some of President Russell M. Nelson’s admonition to all.
Along with many of you we were thrilled to spend our Easter weekend watching General Conference!! We loved all the references to our Saviour Jesus Christ, and all the encouraging words for us to get and STAY on our COVENANT PATHS! Temple reminders were lovely!
A few of my favourite one liners:
*”Our failures don’t have to define us….they can refine us.” Elder Uchtdorf
*”Be His Hands…Don’t love only in word…Love in deed.” Elder Uchtdorf
*”The sting of death is soothed by our knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.” Sister Reyna Aburto
*”The Gospel is a gospel of 2nd and 3rd chances.” Elder Gong
*”Sometimes when we wait on the Lord…it is a holy position.” Elder Gong
*”The Rabbit Effect story” by Elder Stevenson - we ordered the book!
*”Learn all I can about Jesus…his way is the true way.” Elder Newman
*”Teach by word and example.” “We can’t wait for conversion to happen -
we must teach.” “Look into their eyes.” “Role Playing can help fortify.”
*”Know what to do when the battle is raging.” Sister Joy Jones
*“God knows the details of the details of the details of our lives.”Elder Wong
*“The wiseman built his house upon the rock…where our foundation is built really does matter.” Elder Wong
*Do a one page essay on what the Saviour has done for me. We challenged our missionaries to do this…We will do it too! Elder The
*President Nelson has been ministering to 1000’s of 1’s…lets follow Him
Elder Wakolo
*Like salmon remember the very scents of where they were born, we can remember OUR divine heritage. Elder Teixeira
*”It is not up to you, it is up to God.” Elder Dude
*”If you desire to believe…act in faith.” Elder Palmer
Elder and Sister Gerard spoke at our Missionary Devotional and my favourite one liner was…”Make your days…days never to be forgotten.”
And…I add record your feelings about ‘those days never to be forgotten!’
Highlights for our past two weeks include:
*Monday motivating meetings with our Office teams of missionaries
*New Missionary zoom call with our 6 new missionaries
*Evening watercolouring from 9-9:45pm with teams of sisters
*Attending Kirtland District Council - amazing
*Getting our first COVID vaccination
*French Lessons with a trio of sisters - Soeurs Margrin, Gottenbos, Gough
*Attending the Temple with Elder Bagley - (who hadn’t been endowed)
*Speaking in Mount Royal Stake Conference last Sunday
*Attending virtual Baptism of Etienne - (Ottawa)
*Key Indicators for Conversion 37 friends on date. 74 friends attended Church last week. and…59 new friends found!!! We know the Lord continues to bless our diligent, hard-working, faithful missionaries!!
*Meeting with our dear friends and new CMM Mission Leaders - the Harkness’s. We meet with them every other Monday and talk about the in’s and out’s of Mission Life, and the Canada Montreal Mission!
Knowing that the Missionary Department are doing everything they can to help them get here is exciting!!
*Mission Leadership Council in person with all our leaders
*Two Marathon days of interviewing/visiting with Mount Royal Zone
*Mount Royal Zone Conference in Cornwall, Ontario
When we moved to Montreal almost three years ago we had eight zones, with over 180 missionaries, and now, after having so many missionaries return home…we have half that number of zones…only four, with 120 missionaries. Covid restrictions in Quebec, and in Ontario change frequently, so we rotate where we have Zone Conferences, depending on where it is open, and legal to meet. So the other day, although almost everyone had to make an hour drive out to Cornwall, Ontario, we were so glad to have our whole Mount Royal Zone of 42 altogether, and they were SO thrilled to be together!! Sweet, thoughtful Bishop Wilson and his wife Sister Wilson made delicious bag lunches for the whole zone!! He got right choked up as he expressed gratitude for missionaries
Ottawa interviews and Zone Conference is on our schedule for this week, and although Ottawa is in grey zone - we can meet together and again look forward to being together!!
Between sessions of General Conference today we were thrilled to witness two baptisms!! Jason and Valerie got married this morning, and were baptized this afternoon! It was lovely to have so many missionaries in attendance over zoom including some who had returned home! Back Story….Sister Twitchell from Meridian, Idaho and Sister Mendoza from Edmonton were serving together in Hawkesbury, and feeling pretty discouraged because they were not finding anyone….They were diligently working with social media, and found this elect couple….and today they were married, and began their lives on their covenant path!! Obedience brings forth the blessings of heaven!!
Have a wonderful week!! For many of you it is Easter break!!
Enjoy!!
Much Love,
Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle
Jewish Passover
Hochelaga Elders:
« Yesterday, I had just left the mission office with Elder Lacy and we wanted to go out for lunch before going home to our apartment. It was going on 2pm and we hadn't eaten yet. So we parked a few blocks away from La Banquise and started walking towards it. We were just about to cross the street when I heard very faintly somebody say "Temoins Jehovah" (I don't have the accents on it because I'm using a physical keyboard). Thinking we'd been mistaken for them, I turned around and the two men who had said that started talking to us. This was great news because they started the conversation so we had an open lane to talk about the gospel. After getting to know them a bit, we told them about The Book of Mormon and offered them both copies of it. One of them accepted. He wouldn't give us his phone number but he took ours and said he'd read it. So, in other words, if he keeps that commitment it is highly probable that he will be calling us back in the next few weeks. It was cool. I haven't been able to do anything like that in over a year. »
Montreal Elders:
Our area is doing well! You can share this story with Sister Low if you'd like. A few months ago me and Elder Laigo received a referral from one of our pages! We were able to meet with the man, his name is Cletus. We met with him a couple of times and with a strong spirit present we invited him to pray about being baptized! A few days later we followed up over messenger and he said he would like to be baptized. We kind of messed up tho because we didn’t set a date with him right then. We tried waiting till our next appointment. Well we didn't end up getting an appointment for another month or so when Elders Sillito and Orrego were here. So we had a lesson and set expectations. But unfortunately not a lot changed over the next couple of weeks, so we sent him a message asking if he really is interested. He got back to us and assured us he was. He was coming to church each week so we didn’t give up on him. But we just had another lesson with him on Monday and read 2 Nephi 2 and taught the plan of salvation to him. At the end of the chapter we asked him what he felt like he could do to show God his faith in Him, and he answered, "get baptized, read the Book of Mormon everyday, and continue with these bible studies"! It was awesome! So we went on to commit him to be baptized on April 24th!! We also are going to find missionaries to teach his family in Africa, as that is where his whole family is right now. Along with that he gave us his phone number so we can text or call him throughout the week and have better contact with him. It's truly a miracle and it's amazing to see how much he loves the gospel. “
Ottawa Sisters:
“Yesterday we had a lesson with our friend Emma. Her friend Meagan was in her room with her, but not in the camera. We were finishing teaching Emma the plan of Salvation and all of a sudden Meagan spoke up and said, "This is interesting, I like this." We were shocked she was there and we invited her to join. She didn't come over, but we could tell she was listening because she kept making comments. We invited them both to FHE and they both came. It was so exciting! “
April 4 Missionary Miracles
From a Sister who recently got transferred back to Ottawa :
« God answered 2 of my prayers this week & I wanna share about 1 of them.. kinda long but so special to me((:
I have been asking to be shown what the reason is for being sent back to Ottawa. I am happy to be here I just know God always has a purpose for doing things and I was curious what the purpose of this was.
Last Tuesday we got a message from a member in our ward; his wife isn’t a member and has expresses how she is not interested at all in learning previously. HOWEVER in his message, he said
"Hi Sisters. Would you be okay in talking to my wife this Wednesday instead of me. She says she's opening her door a crack to learning about the church and gospel. This is coming from her and not from me pressuring her. She only wants to speak with women and doesn't want me there."
This had us both stoked!! I had never met either of them before so this was all new and exciting to both of us.
Anyways, we had the lesson on Wednesday and it went so chill. we got to know each other and talked a little bit about faith and how when we show God the smallest bit of faith, He blesses us every time. After our call she texted us and expresses that she got this job offer that she has been waiting on for months and she received the email during our lesson!
ok ok ok so that was all so exciting, but the answer to my prayer came a few days later on Sunday. I wasn’t having the best day so this made the miracle even better ha(; we went too church & the husband of the girl we taught was there. he came up to me after church & told me his wife has sat in on a lot of his lessons with the missionaries but it has never sat right with her. he said he doesn't know what I said or did but she told him how she felt such a connection to me and the way I explained the answer questions she had for so long was exactly what she needed to hear. He said she journaled about it forever after. he had no idea that was exactly what I needed hear but it was. If teaching her is the only reason God needs me here again I am so happy to be here for as long as she needs. its so cool to know that we can simply ask God to answer our prayers. He does every time & sometimes not how we expect or want. «
Office Elder:
“It's been a great week so far and I just wanted to share one little experience in the office:
It was Friday morning and I had just finished a task that had been at the back of my mind for a few days. After that, I felt like each task in front me wasn't daunting at all. Throughout the rest of the day I just felt like the office work made complete sense in my head and I knew all the tasks that had to get finished, and even through I have to get a lot done before the end of next week, I have no worries about it! It really feels like the unknown variables of vehicle coordinating are falling into place and I'm in the zone. “
Champlain English Elders:
“We have had a super cool experience this week. There was this guy making some interesting statements in the comment sections of the ATL page. Because Elder Nelson and I are the first responders we messaged him and got a lesson set up. He was super cool at first but then he told us he was a lucifarian. He had an interesting discussion about the role evil plays in out lives and the need for opposition (sharing 2 Nephi 2). He still seemed interested and so we set up a return lesson and taught him the restoration and told him about how we have a prophet on the earth, then we extended in invite to GC. He was super excited about the idea of listening to a living prophet of God. He send us a link after and it was to President Nelsons talk about letting God prevail in our lives. He sent us the specific time that P. Nelson said that the members pray that the missionaries will come into contact with the people that are willing to let God prevail in their lives. He then said that he thinks that there is a reason we came into contact and he said he is super excited to hear what the prophet has to say this weekend. Just a cool experience that I thought I would share. “
Hochelaga Elders:
“Things seem to be going well here in Hochelaga. I am trying to make them go better though. Our friends are doing well, for the most part. Our friend Moussa, who was found through the Spanish page, is on date for May 15th, which is very exciting. He's 3 for 3 on church attendances and also pretty much memorized Moroni 10. I kid you not when we asked him how he liked the chapter he recited several of its verses with just a few errors and I know he wasn't looking at the words because when I mentioned that I wanted to read one of the verses together he had to open up his book to read it with us. We are really grateful to be teaching him. When we put him on date, he actually asked to be baptized before we invited him. He mentioned that he liked how 3 Nephi 11 says that we need to become like little children, be baptized, and endure to the end or something like that and then mentioned that his family had him baptized as a small child. Then the members in the lesson said that they were also baptized as children but were rebaptized when they joined the church because they needed to be able to make that conscious decision. Then we added on as well that this is the only church that has the required authority to baptize. Then he asked if he could be baptized. You can share that story with Sister Low if you want, by the way.”
Trois Rivieres Sisters:
“A cool miracle of the week is we put someone on date this week. We need to work hard so that we can be able to prepare him for his baptism. His name is Anthony and he is in Victoriaville he only speaks Spanish so that is something we need to work on with the leaders in Victoriaville because that is a French branch.”
Levis Quebec Sisters:
“At the moment we are running a Bible and Book of Mormon ad in the Lévis area. The last time we did that, we didn't have much success. We would organize something, drive out 30 minutes to go drop it off, and then they wouldn't be home, or some other kind of thing like that. This time around however, we've been actually meeting a lot of people, and a lot of them have been interested to learn more. Out of the 6 drop offs that we have had, 4 said that they would meet with us, and 3 have actually come to church. One of them is named Kenell, and he is pretty cool. He asked for a Bible because he had been raised non practicing Christian, but wanted to reconnect with those roots. He asked if there was a church service he could attend, and he came on Sunday. We asked him how his reading had been going, and he said that he had actually started the Book of Mormon, and he liked it, but would prefer to read it in his native language of Spanish. He works during the week, but we're hoping to meet with him on the weekend.
We also gave out a Book of Mormon, which was pretty cool because he was genuinely interested in receiving a copy. Turns out his Grandmother had been a member of the church, and he had been interested, but it had been in recent times that he wanted to learn more. “
Dows Lake Ottawa Elders:
“And Tea Laracy was actually found from the baptism. During the baptism, I had the opportunity to give a 10 minute presentation on the Restoration. Initially, I had tried to make it interactive, but after feedback from the Bishopric during the lesson, I switched to a lecture style presentation. Nevertheless, as I taught the doctrine of the Restoration, I invited everyone to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. After the baptism, I handed Tea, Etienne's sister, a Book of Mormon and immediately invited her to come to Church. She said that she'd be down, though her work schedule was busy Sunday. Nevertheless, she watched the stake fireside. I am trying to get her to sit in on the new member lessons I teach to Etienne. I have confidence that with some shepherding on our end, she will be a solid candidate for baptism by the summer transfers.
Alaa Alnafouri was met during Chapel cleaning. The boyfriend of Stefanie Morris, we connected the day before the baptism. As Stefanie was giving a talk, we pulled some strings and got him a seat at the baptism. He too very much enjoyed the baptism and the Spirit felt. He is not interested in converting yet, but we have made a good ally of the Church in that. The other big blessing from the baptism was Etienne's aunt. She too came to the baptism, and picked up a Book of Mormon after my presentation. She will be in contact with the Chapel Hill Sisters on that, so you can expect to hear about her from there if any future developments arise.
Finally, I asked Etienne's mom to start meeting with the Chapel Hill Sisters again. I know she dropped them for unspecified reasons, but after the baptism, she said that she would want to start meeting with them again. She mentioned the passing of her father as why she dropped them, to which I responded that it was exactly why she needed to meet with the Chapel Hill Sisters. She said she would call them, though I am sure if the Chapel Hill Sisters call her too and she picks up, that would be fine. “
Montreal Sisters:
“We had a cool experience today for P-day. We went to this place called Thomas Fruits that the AP's suggested to us. We have been there only once before and became friends with these 3 salesmen. Today when we went they remembered us and we were able to have really good discussions about what we do as missionaries and how we know God is there even though we haven't seen him. One of them said how he wished covid wasn't a thing so we could go to his house and meet his family. We jumped on the opportunity, got his number and set up a lesson. We also had really good conversations with 3 others and gave them pass along cards. It was cool to use our 30 second sermons and extend invitations that we practiced last zone conference. “
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