Today is Sunday, May 2, 2021
Jane Catherine Low celebrates her golden Birthday on the 6th!!
turning 6 on the 6th!! Happy Birthday Jane!!
Week 6 means Transfer Week, and what a whirlwind it was!! Nothing like Transfer Weeks pre-covid, but nonetheless it was a delightfully busy week!! Lots of teaching, and teaching, and training meetings. We do these meetings every transfer, but every six weeks we have new missionaries, new leaders, and new trainers so we reteach, and often highlight new focuses. Leadership teaching I seem to usually be assigned Christlike attributes, which I love to talk about!! Christlike Charity is absolutely essential as a leader, and as a rank and file missionary, so we talk about it alot!! ‘Adjusting to Missionary Life’ - a companion booklet to ‘Preach My Gospel,’ is full of wonderful survival suggestions for brand new, as well as for every missionary, and is an absolute read frequently reference! It covers everything from mental health and wellness, to physical wellness, including exercise, and eating, as well as homesickness, etc. etc. It is such an inspired resource for us to refer our missionaries to.
Sister Charity Rice from Bow Island, Alberta was our only brand new missionary to arrive this week. She is a delightful, well-prepared wonderful, keen Sister, and we are so grateful she came!! It was her first time ever on a plane so I think she was a bit weak at the knees!! Orientation was fun, although since Richard had to get his new crown cemented in, we had to leave early.
Transfers all went well! We have talked about using the train, and with Ontario is total lockdown, this week we finally decided to give it a go…and it worked out perfectly!! Border guards don’t patrol train borders like they do the highways, so the interprovincial transfers went off without a hitch. All missionaries did have all the proper documentation even if they had been stopped, but we were grateful they didn’t have the hassle.
Meanwhile back at the Mission Office our emotions were pretty tender as we had our final visits and interviews with our departing eight…and what an incredible group of covenant keeping Disciples!! We know they will each continue creating their own covenant paths…Oh how we wish we could turn to ‘special Returned Missionary YouTube channels’ and watch their progress!!
This weeks ‘Top shelf Returning Missionaries’ included:
Sister Ellerlie Goodliffe - Duschene, Utah
Sister Anuhea Margrin - Tahiti - delayed…. She's been serving 22 months!! , and is still smiling!!
Sister Monica Perez - Sun Valley, Nevada
Sister Chrisse Robinson - Herriman, Utah
Elder Ellis Duncan - Clovis, California - left last week - began BYU - Provo this week
Elder Jacob McCoy - South Jordan, Utah
Elder Samuel Noad - Magrath, Alberta
Elder Bradley Salvador - Fresno, California
Again we have been inspired by these great friends who have inspired and motivated us to be better, and to try harder!!
My friend Cindy from Bailey’s Moving in Bountiful contacted us again this week, and is organizing our move home…(we actually wondered if with our transfer from Nova Scotia two years ago they might forget us…but apparently they haven’t!!) Thursday morning, Luke from Allied Van Movers and I had a virtual tour where as I showed him what was being moved home, he was tallying up the number of boxes, and what types of boxes we need. Moving home will be much simpler than the move from Nova Scotia to Montreal!We basically brought almost the entire Canada Halifax Mission Home to Montreal, and then simplified, and recycled so much!!
We still can’t believe it is almost time to start packing again…
Yesterday, we had a lovely PDay, visiting the hairdresser, attending our FM friend Michel Morin’s son Jacob’s Baptism, visiting two of our favourite Garden Centres - Botanix, and Ferme Guyon, where we found some great annuals, perennials, and herbs to add to our beds!!
Our front beds with white tulips almost all in bloom are looking so pretty…I adore the white so much I’m going to plant some at home!!
Another highlight yesterday was our bicycle adventure out by St. Jean..it was a bit chilly so although we were headed in the direction of Mt. St. Hilaire, and apple blossoms, we only saw a few blossoming trees! As we were driving by a familiar looking place, I said…”that looks like your apartment from 46 years ago! ” Richard was so impressed because….it really WAS his very apartment!!!
This morning we drove out to Shawinigan where we attended our first in person Sacrament Meeting in 14 months! It was exciting to meet Sylvie who my brother Bob had taught about 45 years ago. She and her husband Claude attend the Shawinigan Branch. What faithful Saints there. The Sunday School lesson was fabulous with so much inspired participation! I understood some of the people some of the time, and, today I realized that my Duolingo’ing’ is definitely not teaching me everything!! Miles to go…..
Today we loved helping with a Missionary Sharing Time in the Henderson Ward! Another great blessing of Zoom is being able to Teach and testify clear across the country!!
Upcoming week looks fun with lots more teaching and testifying, and visiting and interviewing missionaries. Tomorrow we have Office Meetings galore, and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we get to meet with our Ottawa Zone. Because of crazy lockdowns in Ontario, we will hold our interviews, and Zone Conference across the river in Gatineau! Borders are patrolled so we probably won’t get to see the magnificent Tulip Festival….(so glad we went last year with our Senior Sisters!) Maybe it is online??
I’ll post this with much love to all…
Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom, Richard and Gayle
Have a wonderful week!!! Keep Smiling!!!
Maybe you would like to read a Miracle or two…
Miracles from the Canada Montreal Mission May 2, 2021
LaSalle Sisters:
“This week has been good. We've been grinding with calling people and reaching out on social media. Cool thing. This week we reached out to some potentials and we found a friend! Her name is Red and she's 17. She's the cutest thing ever and just loves God so much. We invited her to Youth night not thinking that she would be able to come and she accepted!! She's like "why not" she's awesome. She's just getting scooped up by the young women. Is already becoming pals with our new members Ashley and Jordan! It's the cutest thing!”
Gatineau Elders:
“Another amazing experience we had, that you're welcome to share with Sister Low or the Trumpet:
We got a phone call from a member who was very excited on the phone. She said he friend recently got out of a surgery in the hospital. This friend of her is not a member, but she said that she had a dream where she saw a homeless man, she for some reason recognized the homeless man to be an angel, and the angel smiled at her, then gave her the message: "look for the prophet Moroni who announces the coming of the savior" (crazy right? She's not a member!)
So she looked up Moroni on Google, found our church, and contacted her member friend we were on the phone with.... We referred her over to the sisters in Montreal to deliver a book of Mormon! Definitely one of the crazier experiences on my mission!”
St. Laurent Sisters:
“We had a cool miracle this week! A few weeks ago we reached out to this Sister in Houlton and then set up a lesson for the following week. Then we had a lesson with her and talked about family history and invited her to find a name to take to the temple. And she kind of brushed it off and said that her daughter would do it for her because she lives near the temple in Nova Scotia. And we were really sad about that. But we followed up with her this past week and she opened up and told us about a word of wisdom problem that she has been fighting with for years! But her doctor had just told her that she really needed to stop and she had been free of it for 5 days when we talked to her! And she told us that she wants to work towards going to the temple and being worth of it. And it made us so happy and we were so grateful that the Lord had prompted us to reach out to her 3 weeks before so that she felt that she could trust us!
I love you and Sister Low! (Feel free to share the miracle with Sister Low!)”
Levis Sisters:
“An incredible blessing this week aside from the increasing strength I have recieved from Heavenly Father this week, was a friend named Olivier. We have been talking to him for a few weeks after we gave him a Bible and we've started teaching him and he's been coming to church. Last night he texted us wanting to set up a lesson and when we asked him if there was something specific he wanted to talk about he said " I would like to know more about what it's like to be a member of the church of jesus christ of Latter Day Saints, and if I in the future can one day become a member of the church?". I was blown away. The light of Christ is so incredibly real, it's all around us. When people seek that light it only continues to grow and it's amazing to see the gospel change lives. This work is so amazing and so pure. The Gospel is such a light and I wish everyone could see that! “
Chomedy Elders:
“Anyway for this week it was good I had a great experience with the spirit on Tuesday when we had to do a social media training in the Montreal district. (Feel free to share this with Sister Low.) We couldn't get it figured out all day or the day before and we went to the Lord in prayer again. We had a lesson right before this that was filled with the spirit. When we finished we felt the spirit guide us to all the things we needed to talk about. It was one of my most evident experiences with the spirit guiding me.”
Champlain Spanish Sisters:
March 26, 2021
“It was around 10:50am when we got a phone call from a number no one recognized, we were in the middle of companionship study and decided to answer. A man answered and said "hello, I am Ocean and I am looking for someone to talk to about Jesus Christ." We answered and said "well we are the ones to talk to!" as the conversation continued he expressed his great love for Jesus Christ and God and mentioned that he had a rough life that he wanted to build back together. There was much wanting from him to try to find peace and happiness again. All three of us looked at each other and smiled so big, we mouthed "OH MYS" and even had a few tears. It was a moment some of us have never felt as a Missionary. The spirit was so powerful in this exact moment. We then noted how grateful we were to him for reaching out to us and having the desire to be baptized and to learn more. What a miracle. It's times like these that bring joy and happiness to a Missionary and all those around who experience it. Miracles can happen, just as simple as a phone call from a young man who has such passion towards Christ. “
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