The highlight of our week HAS to be the total eclipse that we experienced here in Montreal on April 8th. We were right on the edge of the totality zone so our view of totality was only just over a minute, but it was still spectacluar! Last week we had debated about where to view the eclipse, maybe across the river, maybe in the park across the street from where we work. But in the end we realized we could see it from our own balconies. We opted for that since we knew that traffice would be awful that day. As I walked home from the archives shortly before the eclipse, I crossed two streets that are main arteries in Montreal, Rue Ontario and Rue Sherbrooke. They were both parking lots jam-packed with vehicles. The home viewing also allowed one of our senior sisters THREE wardrobe changes during the eclipse since the temperature changed so drastically. She started with long sleeves, got too hot sitting in full sun and changed to short sleeves, added a sweater shortly after totality because the temperature had cooled off so much.
Here's a cool photo that I found online taken from the International Space Station. The red dot is where Montreal is. The orientation is looking east toward the Atlantic Ocean. We had high, thin clouds during the eclipse. It's quite a miracle that those were the only clouds we had because Montreal is cloudy quite a bit of the time.
The next two photos are compliments of Hal Morris, one of the other senior missionaries that I serve with.
One of our senior missionaries said that it made her think of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, with everyone outside, looking up, shielding their eyes because the light is so bright...just like the glory of Jesus Christ is so bright that He is difficult to look on because of the brillance of His being. The awe, the wonder, the clapping, the ooohing and ahhhhing. Perhaps these elements will also be present when He descends from the clouds.
To me, this event felt like a reminder of God's majesty. I loved this quote that I saw online. (Except I don't love the grammatical error.)
This is the security guard that has stayed at the archives by far the longest and so we know him the best. He's been working at the archives since last July. We usually only have security guards for about 3 months and then they get assigned to other sites. We said goodbye to this one this week. I'm going to miss stopping by the front desk every morning to chat with him. He is such a good and kind man. He's also been a great source of someone who can answer questions about my French language learning and Canadian culture. It's a sad loss for us. He will truly be missed.
These are my people! They probaby get tired of me taking these pictures with them every time I happen to run into them. This guy is one of our new APs.
And I always joke with this one that she's my niece.
These trainers and greenies are making plans of which metro stop they'll go to for finding and making a goal of how many people they'll find in two hours. It's such a terrifying and great way to start the first day of your mission in the field!
I love being in the office on transfer day when the new missionaries arrive. There are lots of deer-in-the-headlight looks when they first walk in. But my days in the office may be numbered and it makes me sad. The former secretary and her husband were in the kitchen on the morning of transfers getting lunch ready for all of the missionaries after their morning of training. And I was upstairs in the office copying passports and visas as well as checking in the departing missionaries for their flights the next day. Now that we have a new secretary, I'll probably show her the ropes a few times and then the need for my help will become obsolete.
Way back in July of last year they moved us out of the rooms we were working in at the archives because they said they were renting those rooms out to an outside entity. Well, this week they built the wall on the left blocking off the cubicle space where they said our new neighbors were moving in. It seems like the move will actually happen now. We met a man who was bringing in desks who told us that it will be a new section of the Ministry of Education and will be focused on the protection of children. The bathrooms are at the end of this hall. Originally they told us that there would be a wall built right where I'm standing to take the picture and so we'd need to use bathrooms on another floor. Thankfully, this will not be happening.
Too bad this isn't a great shot. There is a guy with a power sprayer who is spraying the road with water. I've been wondering what happens to the tons of salt and gravel that have been spread on the streets and sidewalks all winter long. After googling it, I found out that they spray the roads and sidewalks with water to loosen the grime and then a Hoover-like truck comes by to suck up all of the debris. Here's a link to an article in the Montreal Gazette if you want to read more about it. The Jacques Cartier Bridge is the blue structure lit up in the background.
More Canadian culture: One of the new senior missionaries googled how to handle the milk-in-a-bag-challenge. Here's the answer! You just drop the bag into this perfectly sized pitcher and snip the corner of the bag. Voila! No messy transferring the milk to another container.
I've been missing this guy a LOT this week. He's been at the mission office in Benin City, Nigeria since Thursday because he went to pick up his greenie! Prempeh has been called to be a trainer after 3 months in his mission! I hope he will do all he can to teach his new companion how to be an obedient, hard-working missionary.
Running total of captures: 287,019
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