The Move is Finally Over!

Look who came to help me christen my new apartment...our La Plateau District! I finally have a place that's big enough to invite people over! Woohoo! We get to have district p-day once a transfer (every 6 weeks.) The young missionaries wanted to get together to make pizza and play games. All of us had SO. MUCH. FUN!! Can I say just one more time how much I LOVE BEING AROUND YOUNG MISSIONARIES??

The elders were kind enough to help me move some furniture when they were here on their P-day.

This is probably my favorite picture from P-day at my apartment. That's a LOT of consecration in one closet!

Because of Monday P-day activities, I didn't go to the archives. Then on Thursday when I was getting ready to go to our district council, I couldn't find my socks anywhere because my apartment is in such a state of chaos. So I made an executive decision to stay home Thursday and Friday to get things put back together so that I can function. The move has dragged on forever because I wanted to do it outside of my time at the archives. But that meant that I was working all day at the archives and all night at home and it wore me out. 

If you look closely, you'll see a pile of socks on the recliner. Isn't that where you keep YOUR socks too?

I finally finished the move and cleaning my old apartment by 10:30 on Saturday night. Here's what my old apartment looks like now. I hardly recognize it! It will be used as an emergency apartment for young missionaries if they need to be evacuated from their apartments...which happens more often than you'd think!

My one sad thing about the move is the view that I lose of Mount Royal and the lighted cross at night. Check out my old view. . .

. . .vs. my new view. One of my sons suggested that I blow up one of my photos of Mt. Royal and hang it in the window of my new apartment so it looks like I can still look out my window at the mountain. Not a bad idea!

Oh well, life's full of trade-offs. A wise friend once told me that there are advantages and disadvantages to every situation. The smart people take advantage of whatever situation they're in. I think I'll take advantage of my HUGE, new apartment and invite some seasoned missionaries over for a game night soon!

Here's the project I'm working on at the archives. Boxes with a green dot are finished. There are still about 12 more boxes to complete this project that are not even pictured. There are 80 boxes in all. This is one of the biggest projects we've done. I think one of the missionaries who left in November had a project with 90 boxes!

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Prempeh Champion is Going on a Mission!

I could not be prouder of my son. He has chosen to spend two whole years of his life in the service of God and his brothers and sisters in Nigeria. He will offer them the opportunity to come unto Christ and learn more about Him and His teachings. Prempeh Champion is well named. He is a champion of righteousness. He is good, kind, hard-working, faithful, considerate, loving, and a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. What a blessing he is in my life. 

I'll miss having the frequent contact that we've been able to have but I look forward to the discussions that we'll have when we are BOTH serving missions. What a unique opportunity to be serving a mission at the same time as your son! It wouldn't happen in a traditional family setup. Prempeh and I are blessed by this unique opportunity. I can't wait to hear about his mission experiences as they unfold and watch his spiritual growth as he serves. He only joined the Church 2 years ago and his life has changed in so many positive ways since that day. Prempeh also received his patriarchal blessing this week. What a tender thing that was.

Prempeh will enter the Missionary Training Center in Ghana on January 2, 2024. What a great way to start a new year! This photo is from when I visited him in Ghana back in March of this year. All he's missing is a name tag.

There's not a lot going on in Montreal this week. We only served at the archives a day and a half due to closures for the holidays. We had a 5 day weekend last week and we're having another 5 day weekend now.  The archives building was open on Wednesday but when we arrived on Thursday afternoon after zone conference, we found it closed. The security guards let us in anyway. They're our friends.

We had another fabulous zone conference. Every zone conference is centered around one part of our purpose as missionaries. This time we were taught about baptism. We were asked to think about the details of our own baptisms. That was a stretch for me because I was baptized 52 years ago!

I always love being around our young missionaries. I love them dearly.

Mount Royal got a dusting of snow this week. We only had one good snowstorm in December. Hope January has more to offer! I love snow!!

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Christmas is Coming

Just when you think Canada and the U.S. are quite similar, you open a package of cream cheese and find a blue piece of wax paper. Hmmm...

I had a few ornaments leftover that wouldn't fit on my tree so I decided to put together this wreath.

More shenanigans in the parking garage.

Worn out shoes on a hard-working missionary's feet

This guy up and left us at the archives! How dare he?!? He was the night guard and though his English was just about as good as my French, we managed to become good friends anyway because he has such a good heart. Whenever I was feeling frustrated or having a bad day, I'd get up out of my chair and go down to the front desk to say hi to him for a minute. It was always a guarantee to boost my mood. 

The whole room lights up when he smiles. I am going to miss him soooooo much!

I'm ruined. I'll never be satisfied with imitation maple syrup from now on. The real stuff is SOOO good!

Mount Royal

Welcome to my tiny home...all decked out for Christmas.

Getting tired of these pictures? I'm getting tired of LIVING it! But for the past 2 weeks I've been training myself to turn on the water in the sink to wash my hands BEFORE I flush the toilet. Well, this particular morning it paid off! It's much easier to let the waste accumulate in the toilet and then just do one flush before I leave for the day. Crikey! I'm starting to feel like I'm living in Africa again. Good thing I'm proficient at bucket showers.

The range I've had ever since I've been in Montreal has been pathetic. Three of the four burners barely heated up. And the top heating element in the oven was also very weak so the baking was VERY uneven. So they finally replaced it. Hmm, I wonder how I can find 350. The struggle with management is REAL!

A creche outside the Montreal, Quebec Temple

Here's our apartment building. Can you guess where I live? Come on, people! Where are your Christmas decorations???

It's been an incredibly busy week ending in a stake "Spirit of Christmas" music concert. Here's a link to my favorite performance. Are you surprised it's my African brothers and sisters?

My missionary work this week has been done mostly on Facebook since the digital finding young missionaries did a training for us old dogs on how to do that. The funniest exchange I had on Facebook...

Him: Are you married?

Me: Have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon? It's another testament of Jesus Christ, like the Bible.

Him: You didn't answer my question.

Me: I could arrange for someone to bring you a copy of the Book of Mormon if you'd like.

...he gave up 😂

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Halloween Night Baptism Goals

I accompanied this group of fabulous missionaries to the top of Mount Royal this week so they could make a music video to use for digital contacting. It turned out to be really good contacting for me! One man walked up and asked what they were singing. I said, "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning." Turns out he's an athiest. But these missionaries were a great conversation piece for me. I talked to 3 people about the Church that day on top of the mountain. None were interested but it was not a waste of time because it gave me more practice and confidence in contacting.

Many people whose families have been in Montreal for a long time are Catholic but many have turned away from religion and are not interested in it. Most of the people we are finding and baptizing in this mission are immigrants. Many of our recent converts are from Africa. There was even a mother and son who were baptized that are from the Middle East!

Our mission passed our yearly goal of for baptisms this week! The goal was 348 and currently we're at 352!! Our young missionaries are finding, teaching, and baptizing with righteous zeal. They inspire me so much. Many of the people who are being baptized are not from Quebec. The Harknesses, our mission leaders, say that the Lord is gathering His people here so that they can find the restored gospel. How lucky are we to be in this spot at this point in time to participate in the Lord's gathering?!?

Halloween night we had a very holy meeting on Zoom. The Harknesses challenged each companionship to set new baptismal goals for November and December. One of our APs, Elder Verdon, said a beautiful prayer. Then we went into breakout rooms by zones. We prayed again as a zone for guidance. We asked that we would set the goals that the Lord wanted, not what we wanted. Then each companionship counseled together and set their goals. When we came back together as the whole mission, we compiled those numbers. This mission has the goal of 273 more baptisms before the end of the year. Astounding! 

The next day I decided that if our young missionaries were stepping it up, then I should too. I made some personal goals: 1) talk to 5 people on the street weekly, 2) find one person for the missionaries to teach weekly, and 3) capture 6000 documents weekly during November and December. Captures are important because they can ALSO turn into baptisms in the temple...though I will never know about them. These are lofty goals for me, but I'm just following the example of my young heroes. They made lofty goals which inspired me!

It snowed the day before Halloween. That's a little early...even for Montreal! They say the snow usually starts around mid November. I love snow so I'm good with it! Nothing really stuck or stayed around, but it is getting colder.

I LOVE blanket weather! There's something so snuggly about wrapping up in a warm blanket at the beginning of the season.

One of our new branch members went to the temple for the first time this past week. I'm so excited for him! The temple is such an amazing place. I want everyone to go there!

Ohhh, how I love transfer day. When we're introduced to the new missionaries, Sister Harkness goes on about how I come into the office to help out on transfer day and they're so grateful. The real truth is that our office staff and mission leaders allow me to come and help out a little bit in the office so that I can satisfy the craving I have to interact with young missionaries. We had one fabulous assistant to the president leave at this transfer and so we now have a new one.

I knew this missionary was getting transferred but I didn't know where. I've been able to see him whenever I'm at the office. He and his companion also lived in the same apartment building that I live in. I was sad he was leaving because I thought I wouldn't see him anymore. Come to find out, he's been assigned to the Mandarin branch where I attend church AND he's in my district as well! Woohoo! Tender mercy! I dearly love this young man, and I don't even know why. I DO know that he is an impressive young missionary!

Look what happened this week. I'm not sure how it happened. A Christmas tree just grew up right out of the floor of my tiny home with no explanation. There was nothing I could do about it. And the next day it sprouted lights!

 

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Fall Contacting

I feel like Montréal is in her full glory right now. There are some brilliant fall colors! Here's a shot from my balcony looking at Mount Royal.

I've been gathering red maple leaves for a project that will last from now until next Fall. I decided to decorate my walls with a few of them.

A morning shot of Mount Royal

Senior shenanigans continue in the parking garage of our building. . . it's always fun to see what my car will be decorated with whenever I drive somewhere, which is rarely. It's soooo much easier to navigate  Montréal by metro than by car. Gas is super expensive. I paid $50 for a HALF tank last week. Parking is hard to find and is expensive. And parking tickets are even more expensive, so I've heard. This really is a walking town so I rarely drive my car.

The one place I do drive to consistently is to the temple. I went there Friday morning for the first time in many weeks! Our temple has been closed for about 6 weeks while they removed and then re-installed the stained glass windows because of moisture leakage. It felt SO good to be back in the temple. I had a rush of memories as I entered the Celestial Room of the time I was in that room with my whole zone and our mission leaders. It was just us...no one else. The room was full. The young missionaries were so grateful to be there because it's the only chance they have had to attend the temple while they've been serving a mission. Our mission leaders thought it would be inspiring for them to be there and think about how their mission work fits into the entire plan that God has for His children...the full circle.

This is one of the archivists at the national archives where I serve every day. When you first see her, you think she's very young because of the way she dresses. But when you see her close up you realize that she's about 40 years old. I love that she has this kind of flair and just does what she wants to regardless of social norms.

I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THESE TWO SISTER MISSIONARIES AND MY ENTIRE YOUNG ZONE OF MISSIONARIES!!!  I have only recently begun attending District Council because when I first got here I was told that "senior missionaries don't attend those meetings." But then I was told recently that seniors can go if they want to. I want to!!! A few weeks ago I told the young missionaries in my district that I've been so inspired by hearing about their goals and achievements at a mission wide meeting we have every Sunday night. So a few months ago I started setting goals and keeping track of how I did with them.

Each week at District Council, each companionship's goals and progress towards those goals are written on the board and discussed. My name was in the table with smiley faces in each cell. I popped up and wrote in my goals. So last week I told the young missionaries that I one of my goals is to talk to people so that I can find one person. . .just ONE PERSON for the young missionaries to teach. If I ever reach that goal, I may increase it. 😄 The problem is, I've had a really hard time opening my mouth. This doesn't make any sense to me since I'VE DONE THIS BEORE! I WAS A YOUNG MISSIONARY! I KNOW HOW THIS WORKS! I think it's partly because I'm rusty and partly because it feels a LOT different when you're doing it by yourself than when you're with a companion.

My district gave me some really great ideas! I told them I have absolutely NO problem talking to someone with a dog. They told me to go to a dog park! Brilliant! They told me to strike up a normal conversation and then work the church into it. One sister who plays the piano starts playing on the public pianos around town and people gather to listen. Boom! Instant audience to discuss religion with!

And then these two wonderful sisters said they had a member lined up to teach a lesson with them that afternoon but the member backed out. They asked if I could go with them because one of their weekly goals has to do with the number of lessons taught where a member is present. I said of course I'd teach with them. Then they said we could practice contacting together on the metro since we were going the same direction on the way home. It was great!

For the past two weeks I've talked to zero people on the street. This week I talked to SIX! I hope I can keep up this momentum. And I "sort of" found one person for the young missionaries to teach. A guy from Congo, Africa approached me as we were getting off of a metro train to switch to another train. He only speaks French so our conversation was hilarious and we mostly used a translation app I have. He said he was being taught by missionaries from our church in the past and he'd been to church a few times. I asked him the name of the missionaries that taught him and he said "Elder". 😂 When we got off the second train, God sent sister missionaries who speak French to cross our paths just at the exact right moment. I handed him off to them because I was going to be late for the teaching appointment.

I've talked to senior missionaries about contacting and they always tell me, "We don't have to worry about that. That's for the young missionaries." But I keep having this nagging feeling (ie. a prompting from the Holy Ghost) that I will not fill the full measure of my mission if I do not try to do this. When I finish my mission, I want to feel like I have reached my full potential on this mission. So while contacting may not be for other "seasoned" missionaries, it IS for me!!

These two are my heroes! 💖(one for Sister H) 💖(and one for Sister L)

I ran across my two favorite "speed bumps in the sidewalk" while walking home this week. . .Brimley (left) and Jagger (right.)

This tree is across the street from the archives and I can see it from the window where I sit capturing historical documents. The photo does NOT do it justice! It was ablaze the day I took this picture in the full morning sun.

I stole this slide from one of our online mission meetings. DFT stands for digital finding techniques (I think.) Our mission is really on fire right now! A few months ago we were the 4th top baptizing mission in the world! Our missionareis really do work HARD! I feel like I'm in an African mission because of all the baptisms. 😮 Actually, quite a few of our baptisms are recent immigrants from Africa.

For a minute I felt like I was in Hong Kong...but only for one block.

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Fall is Upon Us

I was in the mountains yesterday. I went to see the Fall leaves. They are pretty muted but I found this lovely little waterfall scene which was absolutly gorgeous. And even if the leaves were a little disappointing, being out of the city is NEVER disappointing...especially if I'm in the mountains! I had to drive nearly 2 hours from Montreal to get to the Laurentian Mountains, more specifically, Mount Tremblant.

Mount Royal is beginning to show her colors as well as the nearby neighborhood.

And I'm becoming obsessed with red maple leaves. I'm pretty sure that they'll always hold a special spot in my heart after this mission.

My birthday was last week and the other archive missionaries surprised me by decorating our room at the national archives. They brought me flowers and a card as well. I was very surprised!

The birthday shenanigans even extended to my car. 

October 9 was Canadian Thanksgiving. Everyone pitched in to create a scrumptious meal. 

One of the Canadian sisters made this traditionally Canadian cake. It has maple syrup on the bottom. Ohhhh, so yummy! I barely remembered to take a photo before I gobbled down the last bite!

Sister L made me a birthday cake which we were all too full to eat. So I took it to the archives the next day to share with the other 3 missionaries, our 2 security guards, and the janitor.

I joked on Facebook how I can legally start decorating for Christmas now that Thanksgiving is over. I think everyone thought I was kidding. But look what happened. . .

At District Council, our district leader always puts every companionship's key indicators (basically the weekly goals) on the board. This week he put mine and Sister C's names in the table with smiley faces in the squares where everyone else had goals listed. I think he did this because last week I told him that I've been so inspired at the incredible work done by the missionaries of the Canada Montreal Mission that I've started setting my own goals. They are different than the young missionaries' goals, of course. But one of them is to find one person for our young missionaries to teach. 

When I saw my name, I jumped up and wrote in my goals and how far along I was in accomplishing them. I like being accountable to someone else besides myself with my goals. And having someone else know about them will creat that accountability.

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