BE with God

We got another referral for the young missionaries! Another sister missionary and I went out to dinner and the waitress asked about our nametags. We asked if she wanted to come to church and she said yes. That threw us off guard a little. Then I asked for her phone number so missionaries who speak Spanish could call her and SHE SAID YES! That one REALLY surprised me! Usually they say, "Just give me the address to the church and I'll come sometime." This is my fourth find on my mission. Woot! Woot! That ONLY happens with God's help. He puts people in our way and all we have to do is open our mouths.

In general conference, a phrase that Bishop L. Todd Budge shared, screamed at me: "...when praying, what if we were to spend less time talking and more time just being with God?" I've spent the whole week pondering what it means to "just BE" with God. The more I learn about it, the more it seems to be a higher form of worship. When I'm "with" a person, what does that mean? I think it means I'm being present, attentive, focused on them and not distracted, as well as other things that I haven't discovered yet.

I felt SOOOO spoiled on my birthday! This sweet, sweet lady whom I've never met before in my life, was commissioned by one of my African sons to bring me flowers for my birthday. She joyfully made a difficult drive at night to bring me this BEAUTIFUL bouquet. I was VERY surprised, VERY touched, and VERY grateful!!

I also got to spend my birthday with young missionaries. . .couldn't have wished for a better gift! Zone conference had to be moved up a week so that it landed on my birthday! Can you say "tender mercy"?!? The entire zone sang to me and I was very touched by their love.

Our darling, HILARIOUS APs . . .

And here's a bonus selfie you ALWAYS get when you hand your phone to an elder to help you take a photo. I love these funny young men. They make my mission a joyful place!

Though I had many thoughtful gifts and birthday wishes, my very favorite was having these three together. I love these 3 young men and the one who couldn't join us. It was an absolute joy seeing them interacting with each other after such a long hiatus. It made my heart burst!!!

A very kind and generous couple treated us to "yam chah", a traditional Chinese brunch with lots of small dishes. It was SO nostalgic for the sister in the black jacket and me because we used to go to these kinds of meals with members on our mission in Hong Kong when we were young missionaries.

I squeezed in a quick drive to the countryside Saturday afternoon.

Oh, I almost forgot, I captured some documents too.   

Here's my new project. . . 151 boxes. I've never tried conquering something this big! And this one has some unique challenges that will make capturing difficult. Here we go! I'm up for it!!

Running total of captures: 426,964

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I Love Missionaries!

This is one of our security guards. He's from Senegal and I stop by to chat with him every day. He's practicing English with me and I'm practicing French with him.

I'm so glad I remembered to get this photo a week ago before transfers. I was afraid some of my Mandarin elders would be leaving...and they did. Two of them are gone now. But I'm really excited about the two who have been transferred BACK to the Mandarin branch!

We got TWENTY-EIGHT new missionaries this past week! That's a HUGE incoming group! It takes a lot of work to process that many. And poor Sister Sorensen was cooking for this small army for a few days.

I love being with the new missionaries on transfer day! I also love being there to say goodbye to our departing missionaries. One of the departing missionaries is from Star Valley and he knows I want to move there when I go home so his last words to me were, "See you in Star Valley!" He's such a good young man. He finished his mission as an AP.

And we discovered on the very last day of his mission that this missionary's grandparents lived in my ward! How did it take us THAT long to figure that out?!?

At the lunch on transfer day, one of our APs, Elder Jones, was introducing the senior missionaries. When he introduced me, he said, "Sister Jones loves missionaries!" I'm glad he knows that because it's true! I feel such a strong love for these amazing young people that I get to work with during this season of my life. I feel like they are the cream of the crop of all the young people in the world.

THIS! This is why Salt Lake says we're a "complicated mission." One of the senior misisonaries made this graphic.

OK, this will seem strange to many, but I find it fascinating. One day the edge of a paper sliced across my finger. I quickly looked at it to see if the paper cut was going to bleed. NO PAPER CUT! Then I started thinking that with the hundreds of thousands of papers that I've touched, how is it possible that I haven't had a single paper cut? When I was a teacher I got paper cuts all the time. I asked the other archive missionarie and they said they haven't had any either.

We googled it and found that because we are living in a humid climate, we're less likely to get paper cuts. Our hands aren't as dry. Dry hands get paper cuts easier. And the paper is more supple because of the humidity. On really humid days, I can feel the difference in the paper. Hence, no paper cuts for archive missionaries in Montreal!

I noticed this loose piece of skin on my thumb the other day and figured that must be the Montreal version of a paper cut. No pain. No blood. Just a hanging piece of skin.

There you go. A useless piece of information about paper cuts for you!

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His Promises are Sure

My missionary son had a wisdom tooth pulled that was giving him pain. Ouch! But he's tougher than nails. He was out proselyting the next day. Sadly, he's got one more wisdom tooth to come out, probably next week.

What a blessing that we can pray to God for help. Isn't He marvelous to be constantly available to us? What if our Father had "office hours" and we could only contact Him during that time? Or what if He was confined to the limits of a certain time zone? What if He slept and wasn't available during that time? I couldn't do a single thing for Prempeh this week as he endured this awful experience except to pray for him.

I finished reading this book this week. Our mission leaders invited us to read it before general conference and mark every reference to our Savior. They also gave us a printed sheet with promises from the prophets about ways our lives will improve if we read the book. I chose one promise that I wanted to see happen. I was a bit skeptical that it could happen but God, indeed, has made good on the promises He gives us through His prophets. I am a witness that God keeps His promises. My life is better for having read this book again.

Canada culture: We have these in Utah, but on a much larger scale.

The highlight of my week...

This is near a tiny farming community called Brigham.

Oh, and I captured some historical documents.

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The Creator of Beauty

I'm not sure what kind of a shrine this is. . .

But it got more elaborate the next day. 😂

Canada culture:  Sorry for the fuzzy shot, but this is what supreme pizzas are called in Canada.

President and Sister Sorensen invited all of the seniors who serve in or near Montreal to join them for lunch after our senior district council. When I asked them why they pay so much attention to seniors, president said that his aunt and uncle served a mission and were not welcomed to the mission, were hardly noticed by the president, and they left without any notice of the mission leaders. He said he strongly disagreed with that and decided it would NOT happen in the mission he served in! And he and Sister Sorensen have been good to their word. I feel SO noticed and respected by them. It's such an honor and blessing to serve with them. It's just nice to be noticed...not that we need accolades, just acknowledge that we're here and that what we're doing is a contribution to the mission.

Hmm, something seems to be missing here.

One of my Chinese piano students' mothers sends some kind of food for me every week. She is so kind. These are little twisted cookies.

The pinnacle of my week was a drive two hours from Montreal to a tiny town to see the leaves starting to change. I passed through Rawdon on my way and saw this beautiful scene.

Then arrived at Saint Côme thirty minutes later.

My happy place. . .

I'm so grateful that our Savior created a season (at least in parts of North America) where leaves change colors. It's magical! In the plan of the creation, it could have been that green leaves just fell off the trees as winter approached. But no, our Creator decided to delight us with magnificent beauty at the changing of the seasons. I praise His name for this beautiful creation of changing leaves which brings me great 

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One Cog on the Wheel

I've been thinking about this dear man a lot during my mission. My dad taught me through example that we take ANY assignment from our Church leaders, whether it's something we like or not. I'm sure there are many a bishop who are grateful for members of the Church like Harold Jones, members who will do literally anything asked of them. They don't hesitate to take the hard-to-fill callings. 

I'm grateful that my parents left us a legacy of hard work. While I do not always find joy in taking pictures of historical documents, I understand that it is an important piece in the gathering of Israel happening in the latter days. My parents taught me to get the job done whether I like it or not. I took this picture to remind me that I am just one tiny cog on a large wheel. But every cog is important to keep things running smoothly.

Canada culture: You think these are two common rolls of coins. WRONG! They are a MUCH sought after commodity in Montreal, and VERY difficult to find. We need them to feed the laundry machines in our apartment building. There's only one bank in the entire city that we've found who is willing to sell us rolls of "toonies" and last week when I went to get some at the branch near our archives building, they refused to sell me any. AHHHHH! Luckily another branch sold me some and I will not have to wear dirty clothes for the rest of my mission.

I helped gather food for the food drive again this year. People were very generous. And I got to meet four very impressive teenage girls who were on my team. 

We received some unexpected news this week. One of our archives couples will be transferred to Ottawa to replace a senior couple who is going home next month. That will change things up around here.

Greetings from Viger Avenue Est!

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Canada History

Montreal has all of these cool murals painted on sides of buildings. Here are a few I encountered this week.

Yay! Fall is just around the corner! I love how Jesus created Fall to delight us with so many colors! I get kind of tired of greeeeeeeen the rest of the year.

This weekend's excursion was to a historical village called Upper Canada Village. It's 2 hours west of Montreal. It's a working village meant to represent 1866.

There are craftsmen producing items from their trade. This is the carpenter.

This is the schoolhouse. I found it very practical that the benches are under the windows instead of in rows. That way the students get more light from the windows.

Here's the broom maker.

This is the sawmill.

I found the mechanisms of this mill fascinating. Running water from below turns the crank which makes the HUGE saw go up and down to cut logs into lumber. The saw is just to the right of center. You can see the sawdust falling from the cut.

We learned more of Canada's history by visiting this village. I love learning about Canada's history and seeing where it crosses over with the history of the USA, especially being so close to the border.

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