Keyboard Class

The archives was closed on July 1 for Canada Day so after senior district council one of the newest senior missionaries and I went to Jean Talon Market. She hadn't been there yet.

While we did celebrate Canada Day, the 4th of July was largely ignored since we were working at the archives that day.

Oops! Somebody is in the wrong season!

After listening to our new mission leaders at district council and the things they taught us, I know that we are blessed to have them as our new leaders. I look forward to the great things that are coming for this mission! They have already invited us to ACT on three invitations. This is the kind of thing that brings individual growth.

In other exciting news, we recently finished a music conducting class and started a keyboarding class this week. As everyone in the class received a brand new keyboard that they get to take home to practice with, the feeling was a bit like Christmas. There was lots of excitement! Wish me luck in teaching eight people at a time how to play the keyboard...in Chinese! Luckily, some of the students speak excellent English so they can translate for me.

This class is made possible by a grant from the Harman family (think KFC.) They provide the keyboards so that people can learn to play. It's possible for each individual to keep the keyboard permanently if they commit to 1) teaching someone else how to play after they have learned and, 2) playing at church. The grant program is set up so that everyone who is interested can participate in the music conducting class. Then the most diligent students move onto the keyboarding class. 

One of our boredom relievers at the archives is to announce to the entire room each time we finish capturing a box of documents by playing a song. One of the missionaries purchased these programmable buttons. We have each chosen a song to play when we hit the button. My song is the theme song from the movie "The Magnificent Seven." Whenever someone hits their button, we call it the sound of progress. One of the devious missionaries sneaks around and changes the song on someone else's button when he/she is out of the room.

Oh, and I captured some historical documents as well this week. 😂

The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth! Because of the Savior's Atonement, we can be perfect...eventually! We can change. We can grow. We are connected to our Heavenly Father through our covenants that we make with Him. Just felt like throwing this in.

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Changing of the Guards

The big news this week is that our mission leadership is changing. President David Harkness and his wife, Lisa Harkness, returned home on Friday, June 28th, the same day that President Craig Sorensen and his wife, Melanie Sorensen, arrived in Montreal. The Harknesses have been amazing leaders for this mission. They lead with very high expectations and much love. And the young missionaries respond in a powerful way because of the great love that they feel from the Harknesses.

The senior missionaries pitched in and one of the senior sisters quilted this wall hanging for them. It represents all (as nearly as we could guess) of the countries that have been gathered into our mission so that people could learn of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had a tearful farewell last Sunday night at our mission-wide meeting held on Zoom. The Harknesses left us with beautiful words of encouragement and love. And one of our APs sent us all off with a beautiful, heartfelt benediction on the meeting and the Harknesses' mission. These two stalwart servants of God have made a huge difference in this mission!

We're excited to meet and welcome the Sorensens. They have a gargantuan task ahead of them. Salt Lake calls us "a complicated mission", and we are! President Sorensen will not only be the mission president, he will also be the district president for two districts of church units. The Sorensens will be traveling by plane or car for 2 weeks out of every month in the mission. 

These are some of my favorite people on the planet. I get to see these elders every Sunday because we worship together in the Mandarin branch. They have been given a very difficult task. Not only are they asked to learn a complex language on their mission, but they only get to teach a small portion of the population here in Montreal. While other missionaries log huge numbers of friends they are finding and teaching, these patient elders work and work but only have few friends to teach. That doesn't seem to bother them. They continue baptizing anyway. I admire the way they deal with the challenging task they have been given.

Ah! It's already shoulder-high dandelion season!

And how about this coffee can garden? Kinda fun!

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