An Appearance by Two Fabulous Elders

Look who made it into my blog!!! These two elders have been waiting and watching for WEEKS to see if their pictures would appear on this blog. FINALLY! Today their dreams came true! It is a highly sought-after honor in this mission to appear on Sister Jones' blog, after all. 😂 I love these two hard-working elders. They are devoted to God and to helping His children. And I am lucky to be serving in the same branch with them right now.

I was with some very lovely people at our branch president's house this weekend. He cooked us some fabulous food! We celebrated his son's birthday and had a beautiful discussion about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that our branch is led by an energetic, loving man of God. Some faces are blocked to protect their privacy since I didn't have their permission to post their pictures, not because they are in some kind of witness protection progam.

A sad thing happened this week. The general secretary in our mission lost her brother. He was only 54 years old and he died unexpectedly. When you are in God's service, He doesn't always protect you from difficult things but He DOES carry you through them. The secretary and her husband flew home to Alberta for the funeral. Our entire mission is mourning with them. She is pictured here with her husband. These two are dearly loved in this mission because of the genuine love that they show to our young missionaries and the rest of us! It's easy to give back love to someone who is so kind to you.

This was a fun little find for me! This week while I was clicking away, I saw a Chinese signature on a document! I'm really surprised I even noticed it because I generally don't look at what's on the documents because I'm moving along at such a quick pace. Some missionaries like to stop and read the documents, others of us just plow ahead as fast as we can, hastening God's work. Neither way is better, they are just different.

Speaking of plowing along, I had 10,303 "clicks"  in ONE week! That's a HUGE week of clicking for me and a number far beyond any I've ever reached in a single week! Thanks be to God for allowing me to work with Him in the vineyard. Numbers like that cannot be achieved without God's help.

I visited a small town called St. Hyacinthe this weekend and was surprised to find an African shop!

Our missionaries inspire me with their hard work and devotion to God! They are very fixed on their purpose to bring others to Jesus Christ. In the first two months of this year they have help 109 people be baptized. Our goal for the entire year is 691. If we keep going at this rate, we're going to do it! But really, GOD is going to do it and He's going to let us help Him. My goal is to find one (yes, you read that right) person for the missionaries to teach. I've found three so far, but none of them was really serious about learning more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. But I'm going to keep trying. . .with the young missionaries as my heroic examples!!

Running total of captures: 240,713

I Ran Away!

 I had some fun valentine surprises this week. Someone taped this fun valentine to my apartment door.

And here's what it said on the back. I haven't positively identified the deliverer yet, but I have my suspicions.

Some cute senior missionaries decorated my door! I felt loved by these kind surprises.

This project at the archives even seemed to be a nod to Valentine's this week. I've never seen so many ribbons on one project! Thankfully, one of the missionaries who prepares projects for capturing removes all of the ribbons for us so that it makes capturing much faster.

I had the chance to visit Ottawa this weekend! It's the capital of Canada and is actually in a different province than Montreal. However, it's only a 2.5 hour drive from Montreal. The first thing that I noticed as I drove into town was that ALL OF THE SIGNS WERE IN ENGLISH! I understood EVERYTHING!! It felt so bizarre. And it was so great at all of the gatherings I was in this weekend, I could freely talk to everyone because we all spoke the same language! THAT hasn't been the case for quite some time!

I was able to attend a baptism.

I spent a little time downtown.

Here's a delicacy that started in Ottawa, a pastry called beavertails. It's a fried dough with various toppings on it. I have yet to try one.

I saw some young missionaries that I haven't seen for several months!

and attend a fireside about race and the priesthood which had some really good music!

Conversation overheard with some of our senior missionaries. . .

Elder L: Our mission runs from the US border all the way up to the North Pole!

Sister F: So that means Santa Claus is in our mission??

Running total of captures: 230,410

Sick...Ugh

I've been plagued with a wicked cold this week. Because I didn't want to share it with anyone, I missed some amazing events: zone conference, a temple trip with senior missionaries who drove over from Ottawa, and a Valentine's party with the senior missionaries. Oh well, life is like that sometimes. The senior missionaries have been so kind to me this week while I've been sick.

I was, however, blessed to teach with some of our young missionaries this past week before I got sick. We taught a young couple that was baptized a few weeks ago about the importance of family history and how to use the FamilySearch website. God wants us to find our ancestors so that the entire family of God can be sealed together. Also, it gives those who have passed on the opportunity to make sacred covenants with God that bind them to Him. I love that God has made this a part of His all-wise plan so that everyone has the same opportunities.

God is hastening His work here in eastern Canada. Consider this growth in numbers of baptisms over the past 3 years:

January 2022    5    

January 2023    28

January 2024    48

We amuse ourselves with little games as we capture documents to thwart the monotony of camera capturing. Recently we hunted for an ink blot that looked like an animal. Do you see the hummingbird?

And since we see soooo much beautiful handwriting--because penmanship was an art form during the era from which our documents were created--we decided to look for illegible handwriting. When I found this chicken scratch, at first I didn't realize it was English! Most of our documents are in French.

The repetitive melting/freezing cycle here in Montreal fascinates me. It forms ice on top of the snow and can also make walking to the archives a bit treacherous.

What's this, you wonder? A thatched roof in Canada? Hardly. It's a humongous mountain of black snow behind a Walmart. This mountain was produced from the snow removed from the parking lot of a strip mall. You can get some perspective by comparing it to the height of the 4 story apartment building behind it.

Yep. It's still cold here in Montreal. However, I've noticed that the mugginess of the summer has bothered me MUCH more than the cold of winter. But that's generally true no matter where I am. I always prefer winter over summer.

Running total of captures: 224,566

Canoe Ride or Train Station? Or Both?

I got to talk to my darling missionary son, Elder Nana-Prempeh, on Monday. The internet network from Nigeria was really challenging. I'm convinced it was created to teach us patience. The phone log shows that we talked for an hour and 40 minutes, but in reality it was much shorter than that. There was a lot of time spent frozen and the call dropped 10 times.

He was a little nervous that they were going to travel by canoe to teach people who live on an island. The catch is that he can't swim. I'm grateful there are life jackets supplied by the mission that they keep in their apartment. 

Here's a short video of him on the water. It just feels so amazing to me that we get to serve missions at the same time!

Here's a beautiful building all lit up at night. It's right across the street from our archives building. We lovingly call it Hogwarts. For a long time we didn't know what it was but then found out it used to be a major train station with a hotel above it where travelers could stay. I've admired it many times in the day but it is truly in all its glory when it's lit up at night!

Here's a photo from back in the day. According to Wikipedia "Place Viger was both a grand hotel and railway station in Montreal, constructed in 1898 and named after Jacques Viger, the first mayor of the city."

Photo credit: https://www.vieux.montreal.qc.ca/plaque/horizon/gares/images/11_00_6b.jpg

I have a theory of why parking strips were invented. We don't have any here in Montreal. When there are puddles of water or piles of slush on the street and a car comes whizzing by. . .insta-shower. And it's not  a clean one! Also, one day I was walking near the curb on a crowded sidewalk and the side mirror of a bus passed by my shoulder within about 6 inches!

I went to the temple this week. I haven't been since before Christmas because of a series of unfortunate events. It felt soooooo good to be back! I love the House of the Lord! There's a feeling inside there that cannot be found anywhere else on earth.

Here's an interesting find this week at the archives! It's a blueprint for a bridge and it was longer than the tables we work on. Thankfully, we don't have to take a picture of this monster. One of the missionaries prepares the projects for us. She sets these aside for the archivist employees to capture because they have a setup that is larger than ours to capture huge documents like these.

Our Mandarin branch went to Chinatown for an outing on Saturday night.

At this restaurant, you build your own bowl and then they cook it all up for you. Can you spot the frog legs? The elders talked me into trying them.

I was lucky enough to end up at a table with these two.

Running total of captures: 217,422