God's Beautiful World

Sorry, long post today since I missed doing a post last week.

My Mother's Day was spectacular! The best part was that I got to talk to my missionary son and watch him in action at the church, interacting with members, getting a free meal from one sister (who I wanted to kiss!), and making arrangements for lessons later that day. On my mission I've had the most excellent Christmas, Easter, and now Mother's Day. Does a mission enhance your holidays? It kind of feels that way!

Here's another beautiful thing that happened on Mother's Day. Both of these men are members of the branch where I attend church. The man on the right lives with and is caring for his aged mother. The man on the left painted a picture of the mother and presented it to this brother on Mother's Day. It was all very touching. And the artistry is amazing!

This persisent friend of mine invited me to her graduation. She has been training for a year to be an LPN. She's a single mom and an immigrant from Nigeria. She's worked SO HARD this year, going to LPN classes in the day and French classes at night! I was so proud of her at graduation that I felt like I could have been her mother!

Here's a beatiful little spot in the archives building where I work that has been created JUST for me to have a quiet place where I can join a Zoom call twice a week at 2 pm to teach our friend from Ghana...the man who approached me on the street. I sit on the red couch on the right for the lessons. Our friend is very diligent about being at lessons and wants to be baptized but he's having a hard time making it to church. Part of the difficulty is that he has now lived in 3 different places since coming to Montreal: a hotel, a friend's place, and now his own apartment. Hopefully, now that he has a permanent spot, things will calm down and he can figure out public transport in order to get there.

THE FISH ARE BACK!! I've been waiting and waiting for these guys ever since the weather started warming up. This fish pond is along the street that I trek daily going to and coming home from the archives. I love to stop here and watch the fish. It's a peaceful spot in a very busy, noisy city. My three favorite fish from last year were the yellow ones. I'm pretty sure that two of them are back, but they are NOT yellow. They're kind of a pale, almost translucent color. I wonder if they go pale in the winter when they're indoors and then their color returns eventually as they spend time outside. More to come on this developing situation. 

Here's one of the fish that used to be yellow. Now it's as pale as the twirly seeds that have fallen into the pond. This fish's name is June. The word for yellow in French is "jaune". See the connection?

The Montreal seniors drove 2.5 hours to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival. We saw some beautiful tulips.

This was my favorite bed of flowers because of the color combination.

But most of the tulips we saw looked like this. . .

and this. . .   
There was even an entire bed that was only stems. All of the petals had dropped off.

One of the senior couples went a week earlier than the rest of us. They came back with some incredible photos. But they warned us that by the time we got there, there wouldn't be much left. Oh well! We were with great people and the Ottawa seniors provided us with a scrumptious lunch.

Here's one of my favorite missionaries explaining the history of the Tulip Festival. During World War II, Canada sheltered the Dutch royal family. The queen was pregnant and it's important for royalty to be born on native soil so the maternity wing of the hospital was temporarily declared Dutch until after the birth of the baby. As a show of gratitude, the Netherlands sent Canada 100,000 tulip bulbs. They continue to send 10,000 bulbs per year ever since then. Cool story, eh? (Can you tell I'm picking up a Canadian accent? 😂 Actually, the only times I've ever heard anyone say eh? in Canada, it's come out of an American's mouth.)

Parliament Hill in Ottawa was stunning! This where the national government buildings are in Canada. I felt like I was walking among castles and fortresses! 

The buildings have been under renovation for many years and will be for many more years. They are adding things like air conditioning and updating internet access. They're redoing the plumbing and electrical systems and making the buildings earthquake safe. It's a huge overhaul!

A nearby hotel. . .

I got to spend lots of time with these people during my weekend in Ottawa. I love both of them dearly. They are fabulous human beings. 💕

We saw and smelled about 50 different varieties of lilacs! I had NO IDEA there were so many kinds!

I had to get this shot just because of my matching shirt. Haha

Luckily, I made it home JUST in time to go to dinner with these lovely people. This young man is one of our former APs who finished his mission last December. I knew he'd be in town but didn't know his plans. On my drive home from Ottawa he texted and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him and his parents. They were taking an early flight the next morning! I FINALLY GOT TO GIVE HIM A HUG!!! It kills me that I can't hug these young elders that I love so dearly.

Pause for a little "Canada culture" moment. These two products do NOT taste the same in Canada as they do in the U.S. The Wheat Thins are much worse but the Kit Kats are MUCH better! The chocolate is superior.

The archives seniors went out for dinner and pie last Friday night. We ran into this beautiful feast for the eyes as well.

Here's a newspaper I found left on the table at the pie place. What we know as CMM is the Canada Montreal Mission. Apparently the greater Montreal is also known as the CMM. Haha

We will definitely  be visiting this pie place again!! The young missionaries told us about it. I've decided if you want to know the good places to eat in town...ask the young missionaries.

They're ripping up the sidewalk next to our archives building. Apparently, if you move to Montreal and you want to have job security, get a job as a construction worker!

This week our mission leaders asked the senior missionaries to assist in funneling electronic requests to the young missionaries. The office staff has been doing this but it has become overwhelming in the recent past. Just more evidence of God gathering his children in Eastern Canada! I'm thrilled to be able to help with this! It will only take me about 15 minutes each day. I go into the referral board and match the person's address to the missionaries in that area. Then I send off the referral to the correct missionaries so they can follow up with a contact. One of the sets of elders in my district had a baptism recently from a woman who requested a visit electronically!

I took a quick trip to the Insectarium this weekend. I am continually blown away by the HUGE variety of creatures and plants that God has created for us to live among!  They are spectacular!

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Our Mission is Popping

God has surely created some beautiful things on this earth to gladden our hearts and our eyes, like these  flowers along the road. Except He didn't create the "orange trees" further down the street.

 We had a spectacular day this week, one that called to me to eat lunch in the park across the street from our archives building.

My archives team showered me with love after Elder Gong encouraged us to tell our companions something that we appreciate about them.

Look at this humongous marriage contract we found this week! I didn't take the time to stop and read it but we assume it was for some people of great prominence! Look at the scalloped upper edge of the paper!

Our mission has an incredibly lofty goal for baptisms this year! Last year our goal was 248 and we went over that by about 100. The young mission leaders along with president and his wife carefully petitioned the Lord to know what our goal should be for this year. After wrestling with it for some time they came up with 691! 😮 Because this is God's work and He is actively involved in it and because we have obedient, diligent missionaries, I think we're going to make it! Our mission leaders say that God is gathering His children to this part of the world so they can make covenants with Him. And we are just the lucky ones that get to participate in His magnificent work!!

Do you see the "1" on the end of that 690? That's going to be the man on the street who is from Ghana that spoke to me. We had 2 lessons with him this week. The sister missionaries who are teaching him are allowing me to be in the lessons with them and it is SUCH A JOY! He accepted an invitation to be baptized on May 25!

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A Spiritul FEAST!

This week just kept getting better and better as I piled spiritual layer upon spiritual layer. On Thursday we had zone conference. That is always a spiritual feast, thanks to our amazing mission leaders, the Harknesses, and our young mission leaders who put great care into preparing.

Then on Friday I went to the temple of our God and had a sublime experience there. In the evening all of the senior missionaries met for dinner. There are some seniors in this mission who I have never met in person even though I've been here over a year! After dinner we all helped assemble sack lunches for the young missionaries for Saturday. I am so blessed to work with these covenant keepers. They are serious about the covenants they made with God in the temple!

Saturday we had a very rare visit from an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Elder Gerrit W. Gong, his wife, Susan, Elder Mathias Held of the seventy, and Bishop L. Todd Budge of the presiding bishopric visited Montreal this weekend. On Saturday morning Elder Gong met with our entire mission for two hours. That is a logistical feat in and of itself because our mission is geographically so large. It takes a LOT of arrangements to bring everyone into Montreal! We were taught important things in this meeting. And our missionaries were fantastic! Respectful, reverent, receptive, joyful. I love these young people and every single chance I get to be near them. Elder Gong and those with him took the time to shake every single missionary's hand. I admire his understanding of ministering in the Savior's way.

Saturday evening I attended a baptism in our Mandarin branch. Our Mandarin missionaries are working super hard! They are having a baptism every month which is difficult when they are only assigned to work with a small population of the community!

Sunday morning we had a special stake conference with Bishop Budge presiding. We heard from him and our stake leaders. Bishop Budge shared amazing stories with us about miracles that happen in building temples, his setting apart as a general authority, and his interactions with President Nelson.

And if that wasn't enough. . . my new friend who I met on the street a few weeks ago came to church on Sunday!! I introduced him to the sister missionaries. They got his number and all 3 of us will meet with him tomorrow night on WhatsApp. They will invite him to be baptized!! He was taught by missionaries for 3 months in Ghana so I feel like he is ready. He will need a review of all the lessons.

I also attended a baptism on Sunday night. I have a small connection with this man who is from Iran. One day, a few months ago, Elder B and I were chatting in the hall before church started about the ban of the priesthood for Black people. A. overheard us from a nearby chair where he was sitting and came to ask if he could join the conversation. I erroneously thought he was a member of the Church. Come to find out later in our conversation, it was his first time to visit our church!! 

Elder B told me on Saturday that he thought that man who we talked with a few months ago either got baptized or was getting baptized soon. Elder B said, "You should go since you're the one who taught him his first lesson!" 😂 What a "first lesson"!! I texted the missionaries who are currently teaching him and found out that he was being baptized the very next day.

Have you ever felt that your joy was so full that it overflowed? Too much to take it all in? I have felt sooooooo much love, joy, and peace this weekend! And those are the fruits of the Spirit so I know that He has been present in abundance. Sometimes I am overwhelmed that I have the privilege of having a MEMBER OF THE GODHEAD with me at ALL TIMES! What did I ever do to deserve THAT?!? 

That was my weekend. 

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