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