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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