Seniors and Technology

I don't have a lot to say this week. . .

My cute nail biter

What!! I waited until after Thanksgiving. That's the rule!

I love my Mandarin elders

A funny thing happened in district council, but maybe you had to be there to get the full hilarious impact. One senior elder excused himself to take a phone call because his phone was ringing. As he walked to the door, another senior elder said, "It's me." The first elder said, "No, it's some sisters calling me." When he got to the hallway and answered the phone, we could hear the conversation in stereo, one conversation on the phone and the other in real time, simultaneously. We're not sure who called who or how it even happened. We were all laughing soooooo hard! The young missionaries get a huge kick out of seniors and technology. I'm sure they think we shouldn't be allowed to use it.

God is good to me. I needed some healing this week and He provided it...on cue...just like He always does. I would like to share the details, but this is not the correct forum.

Running total of captures: 432,987

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Serenity with God

Nine people gathered at my apartment for Canadian Thanksgiving on October 14th. Everyone helped cook. The senior missionaries who work at the archives, invited two people who work in our building to join us: the secretary at the front desk who is Canadian, and one of the maintenance men who is from Algeria and has only been in Canada for a few months. It was fun having new faces!

Last year I celebrated and helped in the cooking of two Thanksgivings. I've decided that there will only be one for me this year. Two of them about a month apart was too much for me. It felt like overkill.

I have a new tradition surrounding Thanksgiving. You know how everyone says you can't put up Christmas decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving? Well, I'm going to start using Canadian Thanksgiving to apply to that rule instead of the one in November. I adore Christmas! And one of my Christmas decorations may have snuck out of the closet last Friday. Hehe. Nothing drastic yet, just a small beginning.

One of the missionary couples who was working at the Montreal archives moved to Ottawa because they were reassigned. They left the day after Thanksgiving. They will be missed and things won't be the same without them.

Canada culture: these potato chips are "all dressed". . . that's the name of the flavor, not to be confused with all of the other flavors which apparently are half naked!

I had the MOST GLORIOUS WEEKEND!! I spent two and a half days in a tiny town in the mountains. Yes! I found mountains! It made me very aware of how much I'm missing my Utah mountains.

I stayed in a tiny town called Saint Côme which is 2 hours north of Montreal. The place where I stayed had two dogs, so THAT was a bonus!

I spent several serene hours alone in the mountains. It felt so good to be out of the big city. It provided time for pondering, praying, and meditating. President David O. McKay was quoted in the most recent general conference as saying, "Meditation is one of the … most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.” It was good to spend some quiet time alone with God.

I was SO surprised by this tree! It looked almost furry. 

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it has soft needles. They turn yellow in Autumn and fall off the tree! A quick Google search taught me that they are in the pine family. This type of tree is called a larch.

There was no Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near where I stayed, so I worshipped with my Catholic brothers and sisters on Sunday. You'll notice I sat way in the back. 

When very young children play, they don't interact with each other so they're not really playing "together", just in a nearby space. It's called "parallel play." That's kind of what I thought of my worship on Sunday. I was "parallel worshipping." I worshipped in my way and they worshipped in their way. I'm grateful they were kind enough to share their space with me. And they didn't bother me because everything was in French so it didn't distract me at all from what I was doing. 😊 

I met up with this lovely lady later in the day. She lives in a chalet in the woods, what we'd call a cabin. She is the liaison at the archives building between Family Search and the National Archives of Quebec. She brings our projects to us and helps us when we get stuck with questions. She is one of the kindest, sweetest, most patient people I have ever met. Her demeanor lends a very calming influence to every conversation. It is such a joy to work with her!

Someday soon I hope to live in a similar setting. This is her driveway, for crying out loud! Wouldn't it be great to drive home to this every day?!? I told her if I lived where she lives I'd never come to the city, strictly work from home!

She and I spent a few hours walking beside a river together. I really enjoyed getting to know her better.

And lest you think that all I did was play this week, I did capture a few documents too.

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BE with God

We got another referral for the young missionaries! Another sister missionary and I went out to dinner and the waitress asked about our nametags. We asked if she wanted to come to church and she said yes. That threw us off guard a little. Then I asked for her phone number so missionaries who speak Spanish could call her and SHE SAID YES! That one REALLY surprised me! Usually they say, "Just give me the address to the church and I'll come sometime." This is my fourth find on my mission. Woot! Woot! That ONLY happens with God's help. He puts people in our way and all we have to do is open our mouths.

In general conference, a phrase that Bishop L. Todd Budge shared, screamed at me: "...when praying, what if we were to spend less time talking and more time just being with God?" I've spent the whole week pondering what it means to "just BE" with God. The more I learn about it, the more it seems to be a higher form of worship. When I'm "with" a person, what does that mean? I think it means I'm being present, attentive, focused on them and not distracted, as well as other things that I haven't discovered yet.

I felt SOOOO spoiled on my birthday! This sweet, sweet lady whom I've never met before in my life, was commissioned by one of my African sons to bring me flowers for my birthday. She joyfully made a difficult drive at night to bring me this BEAUTIFUL bouquet. I was VERY surprised, VERY touched, and VERY grateful!!

I also got to spend my birthday with young missionaries. . .couldn't have wished for a better gift! Zone conference had to be moved up a week so that it landed on my birthday! Can you say "tender mercy"?!? The entire zone sang to me and I was very touched by their love.

Our darling, HILARIOUS APs . . .

And here's a bonus selfie you ALWAYS get when you hand your phone to an elder to help you take a photo. I love these funny young men. They make my mission a joyful place!

Though I had many thoughtful gifts and birthday wishes, my very favorite was having these three together. I love these 3 young men and the one who couldn't join us. It was an absolute joy seeing them interacting with each other after such a long hiatus. It made my heart burst!!!

A very kind and generous couple treated us to "yam chah", a traditional Chinese brunch with lots of small dishes. It was SO nostalgic for the sister in the black jacket and me because we used to go to these kinds of meals with members on our mission in Hong Kong when we were young missionaries.

I squeezed in a quick drive to the countryside Saturday afternoon.

Oh, I almost forgot, I captured some documents too.   

Here's my new project. . . 151 boxes. I've never tried conquering something this big! And this one has some unique challenges that will make capturing difficult. Here we go! I'm up for it!!

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I Love Missionaries!

This is one of our security guards. He's from Senegal and I stop by to chat with him every day. He's practicing English with me and I'm practicing French with him.

I'm so glad I remembered to get this photo a week ago before transfers. I was afraid some of my Mandarin elders would be leaving...and they did. Two of them are gone now. But I'm really excited about the two who have been transferred BACK to the Mandarin branch!

We got TWENTY-EIGHT new missionaries this past week! That's a HUGE incoming group! It takes a lot of work to process that many. And poor Sister Sorensen was cooking for this small army for a few days.

I love being with the new missionaries on transfer day! I also love being there to say goodbye to our departing missionaries. One of the departing missionaries is from Star Valley and he knows I want to move there when I go home so his last words to me were, "See you in Star Valley!" He's such a good young man. He finished his mission as an AP.

And we discovered on the very last day of his mission that this missionary's grandparents lived in my ward! How did it take us THAT long to figure that out?!?

At the lunch on transfer day, one of our APs, Elder Jones, was introducing the senior missionaries. When he introduced me, he said, "Sister Jones loves missionaries!" I'm glad he knows that because it's true! I feel such a strong love for these amazing young people that I get to work with during this season of my life. I feel like they are the cream of the crop of all the young people in the world.

THIS! This is why Salt Lake says we're a "complicated mission." One of the senior misisonaries made this graphic.

OK, this will seem strange to many, but I find it fascinating. One day the edge of a paper sliced across my finger. I quickly looked at it to see if the paper cut was going to bleed. NO PAPER CUT! Then I started thinking that with the hundreds of thousands of papers that I've touched, how is it possible that I haven't had a single paper cut? When I was a teacher I got paper cuts all the time. I asked the other archive missionarie and they said they haven't had any either.

We googled it and found that because we are living in a humid climate, we're less likely to get paper cuts. Our hands aren't as dry. Dry hands get paper cuts easier. And the paper is more supple because of the humidity. On really humid days, I can feel the difference in the paper. Hence, no paper cuts for archive missionaries in Montreal!

I noticed this loose piece of skin on my thumb the other day and figured that must be the Montreal version of a paper cut. No pain. No blood. Just a hanging piece of skin.

There you go. A useless piece of information about paper cuts for you!

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