Today is Sunday, May 16, 2021
Happy 16th Anniversary to Michael and Kaylee on the 21st!!
Another Mission Miracle....Mark got a Teaching position in Cardston at the High School teaching grade 9 Math, Math 10, and Math 20!!! Congratulations Mark!!!
Sometimes I feel like a broken record always reporting on the same things week after week, BUT our weeks are very predictable!! It makes planning very simple…, and although we have a lot of the same meetings, with the same missionaries, there is a lot to discuss, and plan, and everyday IS different, and it is never boring or routine!! The biggest problem looming…(the elephant in the room) is that our final weeks are zipping by far too quickly!!
Our Backyard Cardinal
Highlights of this week included Office Meetings all day Monday, Mount Royal Zone Interviews and visits Tuesday and Wednesday at the Office, with Mount Royal Zone Conference on Thursday in Drummondville, and Friday we held our Mission Leadership Council at the Office! Without exception the teachings our Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders give at every Zone Conference; we are in awe of their preparation, their knowledge and testimonies of the gospel, and their beautiful ways of teaching and inspiring every missionary to be and to do better! We just love listening to them teach!! Oh and every meeting we have, we always have a special musical number! Our Sister Williams from Cardston frequently is our pianist, and happily plays prelude for 45 minutes or so!! One time months ago she played ‘In the Garden,’ which many of you might remember it being was one of my Mom’s favourite songs, and ever after sweet Sister Williams plays it everytime she is on the piano (she knows it is one of my favorites too!) She wasn’t the special musical number, but every time she plays the prelude…it really is a special musical number just for me!! The organized special musical number ‘Because I Have Been Given Much’ sung in 7 different languages - English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese Mandarin, and Chinese Cantonese, had us in tears! We know our missionaries have been blessed with the Gift of Tongues.
Several notes I have taken the past week have inspired me, and maybe they will inspire you as well.
* It is our faith in Jesus Christ that unlocks miracles.
- Mountains in our lives will vary, the key is to have FAITH.
- We will remember our spiritual experiences for decades.
- The Lord will respond to our desire to increase our FAITH.
- We left behind great things, to do great things.
- We left a great thing to do a great and marvellous thing.
- Having a vision of what we are doing today will bless our whole lives.
- How have you seen your heart change?
- This is the WORK of the most WORTH.
- It’s not about being the best, it’s about being your best.
- Hard work always pays off.
- Every night, every morning…recommit to the work!
Departing Missionaries shared thoughts and testimonies:
- Sister Goodwin told us that she knows that what she will miss the most is the clicking of her magnetic name tag - wearing the Saviour’s name on her heart everyday.
- Sister Hiatt wanted to change, and knows her mission has helped her change. Her trainer challenged her ‘to find eternity in the moment.’
- Sister Call testified of the light and the Joy she has found, and is grateful she can take her testimony home with her.
- Elder Peck (reassigned from Mozambique) read the Book of Mormon the first time in the MTC..he learned to rely on the Saviour through challenging times…he was strengthened by the Saviour. He also testified that this is not the end of Missionary Work for any of us!!
- Elder Dial was 10 years old when his Dad passed away. He testified that the veil is very thin, and he has felt his Dad help him every step of his Mission journey. He testified that Families are sealed for Eternity because Jesus Christ overcame death.
- We must have sustained effort to accomplish our missionary purpose.
- If we are not reviewing, we are not improving.
- Are our Temple Recommends current? A symbol of our membership.
- Our homes are the centres of our faith and our worship. We must diligently work at it continually trying. Press on.
MLC on Friday afternoon with our 20 leaders was lovely, and although our time for breakouts was cut short, our sister training leaders were inspired as we talked about ways to be unified in our companionships, and how we can make our exchanges more effective.
Musical number was Sister Vaiho and Sister Hechmati singing ‘Come, Come Ye Saints - beautiful treat!
Yesterday we virtually attended two baptisms: Amanda in Montreal Ward, and Vanessa in the Levis Ward!!! so Exciting!!
Our 15 km bike ride out and around Bedford was wonderful. A small farming community about an hour and a half from Montreal, with beautifully groomed gardens, flowering trees, shrubs, and tulips in full bloom was great fun! The backroads are such a popular spot for so many cyclists - including motocyclists, and we loved the fresh air, and the stunning scenery. It was also fun to find a few cute little shops, and I was most excited to find a ‘Made in Quebec,’ thick oak/maple/ash charcuterie board!! It is a work of art and almost looks like quarter sawn wood! We love our little PDay adventures!!
Charcuterie Board is below
Last night we got to participate in the Montreal Stake Conference..and it was all in French!! 8 minutes speaking in French is my limit, and by the time I finished, my tongue, and brain were both in knots!! Not really, but it did stretch me to the max on my French pronunciation!! (FYI - I am on Day 316 of my Duolingo French streak!!)
And today we were up and on the road by 7:30am headed to Ottawa for their Stake Conference. We were #9 and #10, and that was their maximum! It is a very different experience speaking at the pulpit, and not seeing a single person in the chapel, or on the screen - (all nine others were behind us on the stand!) We sent our talks to the translators the other day, but early this morning I awoke with my mind racing, and knew I needed to give a different message, so while Richard was having a stake missionary correlation meeting with President Glowa as we were driving I brainstormed and jotted a few new talk ideas down on my iPad …thoughts about my Ontario roots…my Dad’s service as a young missionary in Ottawa, and about my Mom’s conversion, including being introduced to the Church by my Uncle Allen Hicks, as well as some suggestions for “Love, Share and Invite!” As some of you might recall I usually have my whole talk typed, double spaced, and printed ready to go, so this was stretching my comfort zone!! Having a basic outline worked well, and was liberating to not be exactly tied to a script.
I was bold, and even emailed my cousin Colleen Hicks, invited her to attend, and sent her the link! I thought I should practise what I was preaching…Love Share and Invite
This is the most lovely Stake Missionary Board…we have never seen a better one!!
It has been a wonderful week and we look forward to another great one. Longueuil Zone Interviews Tuesday at Longueuil Stake Centre, and Wednesday in Drummondville. Longueuil Zone Conference on Thursday in Drummondville and afterwards we are driving to Quebec City to see President and Soeur Morin. We will stay at the Chateau
FrontenacThursday and Friday night, and do some sightseeing around Old Quebec.
We love you all and pray for your continued happiness and joy!! Have a great week!!
Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Richard and Gayle
Keep Smiling!!
Canada Montreal Mission Miracles May 16, 2021
Greenfield Park Elders:
“ So I actually wanted to share something really cool that happened when we watched Amanda's Baptism.
So as a bit of preface, back like 2 or 3 months ago, during my time with Elder Earl, someone responded to our Book of Mormon ad, and essentially told us he was a less-active member in the Montréal ward. We were going to meet up with him after Inspections with the Mandarin South Elders at the Villa-Marie chapel, and he didn't show up. He got busy with something, but later that day we called him, and had a good talk for a while. He opened up a bunch and essentially said he wanted to come back to church after being gone for a while (he served a mission and everything) and he wanted the Book of Mormon for a friend. So we got him in Contact with Elder Noad and Elder Sillito and left it from there.
Fast forward to today, I was listening to Amanda's testimony and she said something along the lines of "if Abraham didn't talk to me" or something like that. I was thinking "Oh I wonder who Abraham is" then it clicked. Abraham was the name of the less-active member we talked to. So it was really cool to see the impact to what seemed to be a small interaction, to now he has a temple recommend, is going to church, and just baptized his friend! “
Victoriaville Elders:
“This week was again a little stressful because we were trying so hard to get these ads up as quick as possible, we definitely swamped ourselves. But now we have most of them up, only a couple to finish off. A cool little miracle we saw was someone answered to a Leads ad, so they gave us her phone number, but then her phone number didn't work, and he had no other contact method. But then she ended up messaging the page to have a conversation, it was cool! This week God gave me lots of opportunities to follow promptings of the Holy Ghost, which always feels so good. “
Montreal Est Sisters:
“We had several miracles happen this last week. One was with Delphine- she has a strong testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon. Sister Vaiho has been with her the whole way and Delphine had expressed to her in the past that if she were to be baptized she needed to be fully in. We had one lesson with her where we genuinely wanted to know what she is concerned about with getting baptized and how she needs to ask Heavenly Father what he wants her to do. We spoke as friends and worked through her concerns, it was pretty "casual"/ normal and the Spirit was very strong. We invited her to come to church even though she usually can't attend due to work. Work has been the main factor stopping her taking the step of baptism. She messaged us Sunday morning saying that she was feeling unwell and decided to take this time to rest and watch church. Not only did she come to church by zoom but even got herself to join us for sacrament! The sacrament was perfectly imperfect and the Spirit filled the room. At the end, we exchanged how strongly we all felt the Spirit. We took a moment to chat, Delphine was quiet and calm and most radiant! She told us that she decided to take Sundays off work. She said it is a small sacrifice and that now she can attend each week going forward. We have a lesson with her tonight to go over what steps Heavenly Father wants her to take next. “
Mont St. Hilaire Sisters:
“I have a quick little miracle to share with you today! For the two weeks that I've been here, it has been really hard for us to find new people to teach, especially in Mont-Saint-Hilaire because we only had 2 friends. We have been having lessons with the same people every week and I didn't feel like we were accomplishing our purpose to find primarily, teach and baptize. During our last weekly planning session, we've set a goal to find 2 new people, and we really prayed that we would find them. We had potential people in mind, but they have been Potentials for the past 3 weeks, so we weren't sure what was going to happen. However, on Monday, we had 5 lessons scheduled, and three of them were with 3 potential friends! We had them all, and we were able to set a return appointment with each of them, making them new friends being taught. It was such a miracle, because we found all of them before even 2.30pm! I know that God does miracles when we truly have faith. That is a testimony that I have.”
Monte Rey Sisters:
“The González family got baptized on Saturday and they are so excited to keep progressing in the Gospel. That night after their baptism we had a small lesson/FHE with them. We had gifted them some chocolate fondue from choco fav & some fruit, right after their baptism. We had bought some for us too. So we were "eating together" through a video call, it was such a happy moment. We talked
with them about how they felt before, during and after their baptism, and the words that kept coming up were anticipation, joy and a feeling of peace. The mom said that she had been baptized before in another church and that she had felt good before because it was a special occasion, but that she had never felt the Spirit so strong as she did this time. We were so beyond happy to hear that. Even the kids were able to feel the Spirit so strongly, it was good to hear their experience as well. They were just so thankful that we were able to teach them and lead them closer to their Saviour and to be baptized. They even texted us yesterday to ask about how and when they can start paying tithing. We are just so impressed by them, they are seriously our miracle family and we love them so much. I thought I had experienced joy before, but during their baptism I was so overwhelmed with joy and love for them. President, this family has my heart and I can't wait to keep seeing them progress and get sealed as a family in the temple. Thank you for the opportunity to serve here, I'm so grateful I got to find my friends.”
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