Autumn Changes

As soon as I got to church today, I ran across the sister missionaries in the hall and they said, "There's someone who wants to meet you." What?!? I had a student in my online institute class from Cameroon last year who was called to be a branch president. He told me that one of the members of his branch was in Montréal. I wondered how I would ever run into her in this large city. Well...I ran into her at church with a little help from the sister missionareis.

The guy in the red cap was baptized on Saturday night. He is so  determined to stay on the covenant path all the way to the end of his life. I love his determination and committment. Why do we feel so good at baptisms? Before he got baptized, it was just a regular meeting for me. After he got baptzed, I was on Cloud Nine for the rest of the evening. Can you say HO.LY GHOST?

I also met this amazing young lady at the baptism who is originally from Massachusetts. Her best friend since 1st grade is a member of the Church and is currently going to BYU. This young lady is impressed with her friend because she can see virtue in her life. This young lady  only met our missionaries a week ago and has already committed to be baptized! Do you SEE how easy it is to be a missionary?!? Be good. Be kind. Live a life of integrity and virtue. Others will see you. They will know what you are about and will want it for themselves!

The back story on this photo. . .one of the assistants to the president is finished with his mission next week and I realized I didn't have a photo with them. Elder V, who took the picture, said I should stand between them so it looked like I had body guards. 

It was Sister C's birthday on Saturday and her birthday wish was to get out of the city so we drove about 45 minutes from Montréal to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. We found a picture-perfect church in nearby L' Acadie.

This is a rock house next to the church. I feel so blessed to be "above New England" in the fall.

Now HERE'S a tender mercy! While we were at lunch I randomly remembered that Sister M had been transferred to a town out this way. She had been worried about this transfer for a few reasons. When I checked the mission directory, I found out that THIS is her area! How random that I would have that thought at lunch in time to buy two very yummy treats to leave under the steps of their apartment building...or WAS it random? Whenever strange things like this happen, I see God's hand in it. I don't believe anything is random anymore. The reason we had to leave the treats in such a strange place is because the sisters live in a locked apartment building and they weren't home. We sent them this photo and told them to fetch the treats when they got home.

It's always interesting ordering from a French menu. I'm never sure what I'm going to get. This was touted as a sausage wrapped in a waffle on Google Translate. Turns out it was an "adult corn dog" with ranch dressing, BBQ sauce, and green onions. Very yummy!

We found a very fun small-town autumn market. Too bad I didn't have any cash with me or I would have bought some things.

These two just up and left us! What were they thinking?!? Just because their mission was over didn't mean that they had to leave!! They've been a daily part of my national archives experience ever since the day I arrived and they've taught me soooo much!

It's going to feel weird without them here. It will take some getting used to not having them around every day.

Halloween is just around the corner. This weekend we've seen a lot of adults in costume on the metro going to  parties in the evening. I decided my new contacting approach was to tell people I met that I'm dressed up as a missionary and then tell that I really AM a missionary. Nice opening line...don't you think? ;)

This fine, young son of mine got his mission call to the Nigeria, Benin City Mission!! He leaves on January 2, 2024 for the Ghana MTC. We've been studying Preach My Gospel together to help him prepare.

Running total of captures: 133,867

Fall Contacting

I feel like Montréal is in her full glory right now. There are some brilliant fall colors! Here's a shot from my balcony looking at Mount Royal.

I've been gathering red maple leaves for a project that will last from now until next Fall. I decided to decorate my walls with a few of them.

A morning shot of Mount Royal

Senior shenanigans continue in the parking garage of our building. . . it's always fun to see what my car will be decorated with whenever I drive somewhere, which is rarely. It's soooo much easier to navigate  Montréal by metro than by car. Gas is super expensive. I paid $50 for a HALF tank last week. Parking is hard to find and is expensive. And parking tickets are even more expensive, so I've heard. This really is a walking town so I rarely drive my car.

The one place I do drive to consistently is to the temple. I went there Friday morning for the first time in many weeks! Our temple has been closed for about 6 weeks while they removed and then re-installed the stained glass windows because of moisture leakage. It felt SO good to be back in the temple. I had a rush of memories as I entered the Celestial Room of the time I was in that room with my whole zone and our mission leaders. It was just us...no one else. The room was full. The young missionaries were so grateful to be there because it's the only chance they have had to attend the temple while they've been serving a mission. Our mission leaders thought it would be inspiring for them to be there and think about how their mission work fits into the entire plan that God has for His children...the full circle.

This is one of the archivists at the national archives where I serve every day. When you first see her, you think she's very young because of the way she dresses. But when you see her close up you realize that she's about 40 years old. I love that she has this kind of flair and just does what she wants to regardless of social norms.

I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THESE TWO SISTER MISSIONARIES AND MY ENTIRE YOUNG ZONE OF MISSIONARIES!!!  I have only recently begun attending District Council because when I first got here I was told that "senior missionaries don't attend those meetings." But then I was told recently that seniors can go if they want to. I want to!!! A few weeks ago I told the young missionaries in my district that I've been so inspired by hearing about their goals and achievements at a mission wide meeting we have every Sunday night. So a few months ago I started setting goals and keeping track of how I did with them.

Each week at District Council, each companionship's goals and progress towards those goals are written on the board and discussed. My name was in the table with smiley faces in each cell. I popped up and wrote in my goals. So last week I told the young missionaries that I one of my goals is to talk to people so that I can find one person. . .just ONE PERSON for the young missionaries to teach. If I ever reach that goal, I may increase it. 😄 The problem is, I've had a really hard time opening my mouth. This doesn't make any sense to me since I'VE DONE THIS BEORE! I WAS A YOUNG MISSIONARY! I KNOW HOW THIS WORKS! I think it's partly because I'm rusty and partly because it feels a LOT different when you're doing it by yourself than when you're with a companion.

My district gave me some really great ideas! I told them I have absolutely NO problem talking to someone with a dog. They told me to go to a dog park! Brilliant! They told me to strike up a normal conversation and then work the church into it. One sister who plays the piano starts playing on the public pianos around town and people gather to listen. Boom! Instant audience to discuss religion with!

And then these two wonderful sisters said they had a member lined up to teach a lesson with them that afternoon but the member backed out. They asked if I could go with them because one of their weekly goals has to do with the number of lessons taught where a member is present. I said of course I'd teach with them. Then they said we could practice contacting together on the metro since we were going the same direction on the way home. It was great!

For the past two weeks I've talked to zero people on the street. This week I talked to SIX! I hope I can keep up this momentum. And I "sort of" found one person for the young missionaries to teach. A guy from Congo, Africa approached me as we were getting off of a metro train to switch to another train. He only speaks French so our conversation was hilarious and we mostly used a translation app I have. He said he was being taught by missionaries from our church in the past and he'd been to church a few times. I asked him the name of the missionaries that taught him and he said "Elder". 😂 When we got off the second train, God sent sister missionaries who speak French to cross our paths just at the exact right moment. I handed him off to them because I was going to be late for the teaching appointment.

I've talked to senior missionaries about contacting and they always tell me, "We don't have to worry about that. That's for the young missionaries." But I keep having this nagging feeling (ie. a prompting from the Holy Ghost) that I will not fill the full measure of my mission if I do not try to do this. When I finish my mission, I want to feel like I have reached my full potential on this mission. So while contacting may not be for other "seasoned" missionaries, it IS for me!!

These two are my heroes! 💖(one for Sister H) 💖(and one for Sister L)

I ran across my two favorite "speed bumps in the sidewalk" while walking home this week. . .Brimley (left) and Jagger (right.)

This tree is across the street from the archives and I can see it from the window where I sit capturing historical documents. The photo does NOT do it justice! It was ablaze the day I took this picture in the full morning sun.

I stole this slide from one of our online mission meetings. DFT stands for digital finding techniques (I think.) Our mission is really on fire right now! A few months ago we were the 4th top baptizing mission in the world! Our missionareis really do work HARD! I feel like I'm in an African mission because of all the baptisms. 😮 Actually, quite a few of our baptisms are recent immigrants from Africa.

For a minute I felt like I was in Hong Kong...but only for one block.

 Running total of caputres: 128,195

Fall is Upon Us

I was in the mountains yesterday. I went to see the Fall leaves. They are pretty muted but I found this lovely little waterfall scene which was absolutly gorgeous. And even if the leaves were a little disappointing, being out of the city is NEVER disappointing...especially if I'm in the mountains! I had to drive nearly 2 hours from Montreal to get to the Laurentian Mountains, more specifically, Mount Tremblant.

Mount Royal is beginning to show her colors as well as the nearby neighborhood.

And I'm becoming obsessed with red maple leaves. I'm pretty sure that they'll always hold a special spot in my heart after this mission.

My birthday was last week and the other archive missionaries surprised me by decorating our room at the national archives. They brought me flowers and a card as well. I was very surprised!

The birthday shenanigans even extended to my car. 

October 9 was Canadian Thanksgiving. Everyone pitched in to create a scrumptious meal. 

One of the Canadian sisters made this traditionally Canadian cake. It has maple syrup on the bottom. Ohhhh, so yummy! I barely remembered to take a photo before I gobbled down the last bite!

Sister L made me a birthday cake which we were all too full to eat. So I took it to the archives the next day to share with the other 3 missionaries, our 2 security guards, and the janitor.

I joked on Facebook how I can legally start decorating for Christmas now that Thanksgiving is over. I think everyone thought I was kidding. But look what happened. . .

At District Council, our district leader always puts every companionship's key indicators (basically the weekly goals) on the board. This week he put mine and Sister C's names in the table with smiley faces in the squares where everyone else had goals listed. I think he did this because last week I told him that I've been so inspired at the incredible work done by the missionaries of the Canada Montreal Mission that I've started setting my own goals. They are different than the young missionaries' goals, of course. But one of them is to find one person for our young missionaries to teach. 

When I saw my name, I jumped up and wrote in my goals and how far along I was in accomplishing them. I like being accountable to someone else besides myself with my goals. And having someone else know about them will creat that accountability.

Running number of captures: 124, 728

Would You Go For a Four Hour Church Experience?

We had a bit of an adventure at 4:45 am this morning...the fire alarm went off. I dutifully put on some clothes and went outside into the rain. All of the missionaries from the building meet on the corner whenever we evacuate the building. There are 11 senior missionaries and 6 young elders in our building. Only 4 of us met on the corner. Wonder what happened to the rest of them?

Mount Royal...again. I know you've seen a bunch of pictures of this "mountain" but it changes all the time!

Missionary shoes...the top two are the exact same kind of shoe. Can you tell which is the seasoned missionary and which one is his greenie?

What on earth is this mess on my sliding glass door, you ask? Self preservation. That's what it is. Our building management in all their wisdom shut off the AC about a month ago. This week we had a 3 day streak of tempteratures in the 80s. This was my attempt to keep my apartment cooler by blocking the direct sun. I also hung a gray sheet in the window and pulled the curtains.I'd leave the door open all night and then trap the cool air in the morning. All to no avail. Every day when I arrived home, it was 80 degrees inside and there was no way to cool it down. On top of that, my fan broke the 2nd day. I had to resort to evaporation techniques that I learned while living in Africa in order to sleep. I put on a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in then got in the shower to get them drenched. All night as they evaporated, it cooled me off. And then the GLORIOUS rain came on Saturday and saved me!

See the yellow note on the bathroom mirror? It's a quote from Elder Gary E. Stevenson's conference talk. I decided every missionary in my zone needed one on their bathroom mirror so I printed it for them. You should have seen their faces when I told them that Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve wanted them to put it on their mirror and say it every day. 

Here's the quote in case you don't have it on YOUR mirror yet: “Wow, look at me! I am awesome! I am a child of God! He knows me! He loves me! I am gifted—gifted with the Holy Ghost as my constant companion!”

Here's a lovely fish pond that I stop by twice a day, to and from my walk to the national archives. It's such a peaceful setting. I've noticed as it's getting colder that the fish are sticking to the bottom of the tank. It's probably warmer down there. This week on one of my visits, a man stopped to talk to me. It gave me a chance to ask him where HE finds peace. He said he finds it because he is an artist. I asked him if he'd like to find even more peace by learning more about Jesus Christ. He declined, but I have a new friend. We even walked several blocks down the street together after our chat at the fish pond.

These lovely people visited us at the national archives this week. The two on the left are office missionaries and the others are their friends who came to visit them.

We had another stunning zone conference with the Harknesses this past week. I've been to two now and I'm pretty sure that every single one is going to be a spiritual feast. Sister Harkness teaches like a professionally trained educator. What a gift!

I love that some archivist, somewhere, put a little human touch on this label by making a flower out of the "i" in Mai (May.) It's the little things that amuse us at the archives. The really little things.

I finished a project that Elder F started before he was asked to work on a special project building a contraption for capturing books.

These are the boxes that I captured in the project.

Look at this charming streetlamp in front of the archives building. I've been listening to The Chronicles of Narnia as I capture documents and this lampost feels like it could come right out of Narnia itself.

Our tech elders love to Prank Sister C who works in the office because she's so fun. Here she is featured over and over again in a brochure.

I knew about this charming little park which is a block from our apartment but only visited it for the first time on conference Sunday. I needed to get out of the house after so much indoor time.

A new group was formed in our mission today in a small town called Thetford Mines! The members are on FIRE! After the meeting they swarmed the missionaries telling them of friends they have that they want to introduce to the missionaries so they can be taught. The missionaries also received several invitations to dinner so that they can meet other friends to be taught. They're so excited to grow this group into a branch! I was so touched when I learned of the faithfulness of these members of the Church. Many of them have been traveling one hour to church each week and then another hour home. Several don't have cars so they'd carpool. It's just too easy for me to go to church in Salt Lake City. Would I go if it would cost me 2 hours of travel time and 2 hours at church? Here's a photo of the group that met in Thetford Mines for the first time today.

Running total of captures: 121,558