New Blood!

We got new archive missionaries this week! We took them around a little bit on Saturday to help them get the lay of the land. It's energizing to have new blood! Sadly, the new sister and I both had bad colds on Sunday so they didn't get to go to church their first week here.

There are 5 Joneses in the mission now! I joke with them that we are going to start taking over the mission.
 

This happened again. . .exactly one week after the same event last week. Both times it happened on a Wednesday. I'm taking a shower on Tuesday night this week...just in case.

Four of us missionaries went to lunch on P-day. I had to try poutine which is a local speciality at THE place to get poutine. The first time I tried it, it was a fast food version and it was awful. We didn't know it was a fast food kind of place. The second time I had it, it was a very boring version. After eating here at La Banquise, I'm never eating poutine anwhere else. Basic poutine is a bed of fries topped with squeaky cheese and gravy. But La Banquise puts all sorts of other things on it. The young sisters were so excited to introduce us to this place.

While we were eating, this young man slid into the chair near us. It turns out he was a missionary in this mission a few years back and now he's a pilot. That day he had a layover in Montreal so he had to come and get some poutine. It was fun to meet him and I'm glad he came to say hi.

This poutine had hamburger, bacon, fried pickes, and grilled onions. Yum!

I met a man in the metro last week who was handing out papers with a picture of Jesus Christ on them. I stopped and showed him my badge and to tell him that I'm all about Jesus Christ as well. He's a missionary for the 7th Day Adventist church and he's originally from Haiti. We could barely communicate because he knows about as much English as I know French. But I stayed and talked with him long enough to feel of his spirit. He is a good and warm man with a sincere heart. Then he made the mistake of giving me his card because he's a taxi driver. Well, I gave his phone number to the young missionaries who speak French so they can call him and ask if he's interested in hearing about our church and learning even more about Jesus. I had such a warm feeling for this man that when I returned from buying cupcakes at the store and saw him again, I gave him one. This is the second Hatian I've known here in Montreal and they seem to be incredibly warm, genuine people!

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I'm Thankful for Water and November Holidays/Seasons

Ohhhh, how I love these men...devoted servants of the Most High God! These six are now serving in the Mandarin branch. We got 2 additional elders because a new area was opened.

We got a wicked surprise this week. One morning we woke to no water. When I left our building to walk to the archives, the reason for our building having no water quickly became apparent. Can you see the water bubbling up through the pavement behind the orange cones? My apartment building is the white one, second from the corner.

The city workers were finally able to restore running water to our building around 11 pm that same night. But it did thwart a trip to the temple because the entrance to our parking garage was blocked.

The day after I arrived in Montreal, there was no water for me to take a shower so I decided to store water in jugs so I'd never have that surprise again. Luckily, I had enough water to shower AND flush the toilet. I was pretty happy about that.

Oh how I love snow! I feel like we're bouncing between Fall and Winter right now. And so I am also bouncing between Thanksgiving and Christmas in my holiday moods.

Here's another "holiday" we're bouncing around in...Veteran's Day. I've discovered it's a tradition in Canada to wear a red poppy on your lapel for the 2 weeks prior to Veteran's Day. A young man approached me in the metro with some plastic poppies and said his fraternity was handing them out and also collecting donations. I told him I didn't have any money on me but he gave me one anyway. The poppy on the lapel is a symbol of remembering those who have fought in wars. I like this tradition! I also like that the red draws attention to my nametag.  :)

After the young man gave me the poppy, I kept going. But a few steps later I realized that I had missed an opportunity to share the gospel. I went back and told the 2 young men that I was impressed that young people of their generation are doing good things with their time. Then I told them about our young men and the good that they are doing with their lives. And with excellent timing, 2 of our young missionaries just happened by so that I could point them out! They stopped to join the conversation. It turned out that one of the fraternity brothers is from Tahiti and knows one of our sister missionaries who is also from Tahiti! He said he'll pursue faith when he gets older. I strongly encouraged him to look up his high school friend when he is ready to focus on faith and to seriously consider learning about this church. Well, at least I dropped a seed.

Here's another interesting thing about Montreal that marks the changing of the seasons, the laying down of the rugs. During winter, entryways have rugs to protect the floors from the snow and salt that are tracked in on the bottom of boots. This is the entrance to the national archives. The first day, the rugs had been laid in the entryway to our apartment building, when the elevator door opened to the lobby, I didn't recognize where I was!

Here are the first hints of Christmas that I've seen in the city.

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Halloween Night Baptism Goals

I accompanied this group of fabulous missionaries to the top of Mount Royal this week so they could make a music video to use for digital contacting. It turned out to be really good contacting for me! One man walked up and asked what they were singing. I said, "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning." Turns out he's an athiest. But these missionaries were a great conversation piece for me. I talked to 3 people about the Church that day on top of the mountain. None were interested but it was not a waste of time because it gave me more practice and confidence in contacting.

Many people whose families have been in Montreal for a long time are Catholic but many have turned away from religion and are not interested in it. Most of the people we are finding and baptizing in this mission are immigrants. Many of our recent converts are from Africa. There was even a mother and son who were baptized that are from the Middle East!

Our mission passed our yearly goal of for baptisms this week! The goal was 348 and currently we're at 352!! Our young missionaries are finding, teaching, and baptizing with righteous zeal. They inspire me so much. Many of the people who are being baptized are not from Quebec. The Harknesses, our mission leaders, say that the Lord is gathering His people here so that they can find the restored gospel. How lucky are we to be in this spot at this point in time to participate in the Lord's gathering?!?

Halloween night we had a very holy meeting on Zoom. The Harknesses challenged each companionship to set new baptismal goals for November and December. One of our APs, Elder Verdon, said a beautiful prayer. Then we went into breakout rooms by zones. We prayed again as a zone for guidance. We asked that we would set the goals that the Lord wanted, not what we wanted. Then each companionship counseled together and set their goals. When we came back together as the whole mission, we compiled those numbers. This mission has the goal of 273 more baptisms before the end of the year. Astounding! 

The next day I decided that if our young missionaries were stepping it up, then I should too. I made some personal goals: 1) talk to 5 people on the street weekly, 2) find one person for the missionaries to teach weekly, and 3) capture 6000 documents weekly during November and December. Captures are important because they can ALSO turn into baptisms in the temple...though I will never know about them. These are lofty goals for me, but I'm just following the example of my young heroes. They made lofty goals which inspired me!

It snowed the day before Halloween. That's a little early...even for Montreal! They say the snow usually starts around mid November. I love snow so I'm good with it! Nothing really stuck or stayed around, but it is getting colder.

I LOVE blanket weather! There's something so snuggly about wrapping up in a warm blanket at the beginning of the season.

One of our new branch members went to the temple for the first time this past week. I'm so excited for him! The temple is such an amazing place. I want everyone to go there!

Ohhh, how I love transfer day. When we're introduced to the new missionaries, Sister Harkness goes on about how I come into the office to help out on transfer day and they're so grateful. The real truth is that our office staff and mission leaders allow me to come and help out a little bit in the office so that I can satisfy the craving I have to interact with young missionaries. We had one fabulous assistant to the president leave at this transfer and so we now have a new one.

I knew this missionary was getting transferred but I didn't know where. I've been able to see him whenever I'm at the office. He and his companion also lived in the same apartment building that I live in. I was sad he was leaving because I thought I wouldn't see him anymore. Come to find out, he's been assigned to the Mandarin branch where I attend church AND he's in my district as well! Woohoo! Tender mercy! I dearly love this young man, and I don't even know why. I DO know that he is an impressive young missionary!

Look what happened this week. I'm not sure how it happened. A Christmas tree just grew up right out of the floor of my tiny home with no explanation. There was nothing I could do about it. And the next day it sprouted lights!

 

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