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