Stacks in the Basement

I had the rare treat of going to the storage rooms of the National Archives of Quebec this week. These are where the projects that we capture are stored but we never see these rooms. One of the staff retrieves the boxes and brings them to us.

See the big sheet of plastic on the shelves to the left? Since our building is so old (built in 1871) there are many places that leak when it rains or snows. There are many rows of shelves that have these plastic sheets to protect the documents from water damage.

Here are some old films. They are kept in COOOOOLD storage!

And old photos

My favorite book that we looked at in storage was a record of prisoners. I could have spent some serious time with that book if permitted! It was fascinating.

I've been working with some interesting books this week.

We heard an interesting story from this missionary who will go home next week. He never intended to serve a mission. He had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but just wasn't interested in serving. One of his good friends suggested they put in their mission papers together. They decided to leave their homes in Hong Kong and go to BYU-I for a semester and then put in their misison papers.

Then came an interesting turn of events. His friend decided to not go on a mission but he continued to pursue the charted course. His friend returned home to Hong Kong and this young man was called to serve in Canada and came on his mission.

I've seen a DRASTIC change in him since I first met him a year and a half ago. I was telling him this week that he seemed to be 16 years old when I met him but he is NOT the same man today. The big change started when he was called to be a district leader unexpectedly. He REALLY stepped up his game! Before that, he'd just follow his companions around like a little puppy. But all of a sudden, there was no one to follow around. Then a few months later he was called to be a zone leader. 

I have truly watched him grow from a boy into manhood...and it looks good on him!

The sister on the left is going home next week. She asked me if she should go to Ghana to do a humanitarian project after she goes home. I asked her why she wants to go to Ghana and she told me that she loves African people after serving here in Montreal and teaching many Africans. I told her, YES! GO! Africans have blessed my life in so many ways!!

Sadly, my capturing work ground to a standstill last Friday. The updated software wouldn't work on my computer last Tuesday so I jumped onto another computer that has a project that needs to be finished and informed my supervisor about the problem with my computer. Then on Friday, the software on the second computer quit working.

The funny thing is that Monday, November 11 is a bank holiday in Quebec--Remembrance Day, similar to Veterans Day in the U. S.--  and the other archive missionaries kept asking me for the past week if the archives building was closed that day, meaning we would have a holiday. I kept telling them no. As it turns out, it looks like I  will be having a holiday on Monday since I can't do any work, but the rest of them will be there working away.

Running total of captures: 441,312

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859