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

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!

Running total of captures: 341,310

Majesty in the Heavens

The highlight of our week HAS to be the total eclipse that we experienced here in Montreal on April 8th. We were right on the edge of the totality zone so our view of totality was only just over a minute, but it was still spectacluar! Last week we had debated about where to view the eclipse, maybe across the river, maybe in the park across the street from where we work. But in the end we realized we could see it from our own balconies. We opted for that since we knew that traffice would be awful that day. As I walked home from the archives shortly before the eclipse, I crossed two streets that are main arteries in Montreal, Rue Ontario and Rue Sherbrooke. They were both parking lots jam-packed with vehicles. The home viewing also allowed one of our senior sisters THREE wardrobe changes during the eclipse since the temperature changed so drastically. She started with long sleeves, got too hot sitting in full sun and changed to short sleeves, added a sweater shortly after totality because the temperature had cooled off so much.

Here's a cool photo that I found online taken from the International Space Station. The red dot is where Montreal is. The orientation is looking east toward the Atlantic Ocean. We had high, thin clouds during the eclipse. It's quite a miracle that those were the only clouds we had because Montreal is cloudy quite a bit of the time.

The next two photos are compliments of Hal Morris, one of the other senior missionaries that I serve with.

One of our senior missionaries said that it made her think of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, with everyone outside, looking up, shielding their eyes because the light is so bright...just like the glory of Jesus Christ is so bright that He is difficult to look on because of the brillance of His being. The awe, the wonder, the clapping, the ooohing and ahhhhing. Perhaps these elements will also be present when He descends from the clouds.

To me, this event felt like a reminder of God's majesty. I loved this quote that I saw online. (Except I don't love the grammatical error.)

This is the security guard that has stayed at the archives by far the longest and so we know him the best. He's been working at the archives since last July. We usually only have security guards for about 3 months and then they get assigned to other sites. We said goodbye to this one this week. I'm going to miss stopping by the front desk every morning to chat with him. He is such a good and kind man. He's also been a great source of someone who can answer questions about my French language learning and Canadian culture. It's a sad loss for us. He will truly be missed.

These are my people! They probaby get tired of me taking these pictures with them every time I happen to run into them. This guy is one of our new APs.

And I always joke with this one that she's my niece.

These trainers and greenies are making plans of which metro stop they'll go to for finding and making a goal of how many people they'll find in two hours. It's such a terrifying and great way to start the first day of your mission in the field!

I love being in the office on transfer day when the new missionaries arrive. There are lots of deer-in-the-headlight looks when they first walk in. But my days in the office may be numbered and it makes me sad. The former secretary and her husband were in the kitchen on the morning of transfers getting lunch ready for all of the missionaries after their morning of training. And I was upstairs in the office copying passports and visas as well as checking in the departing missionaries for their flights the next day. Now that we have a new secretary, I'll probably show her the ropes a few times and then the need for my help will become obsolete.

Way back in July of last year they moved us out of the rooms we were working in at the archives because they said they were renting those rooms out to an outside entity. Well, this week they built the wall on the left blocking off the cubicle space where they said our new neighbors were moving in. It seems like the move will actually happen now. We met a man who was bringing in desks who told us that it will be a new section of the Ministry of Education and will be focused on the protection of children. The bathrooms are at the end of this hall. Originally they told us that there would be a wall built right where I'm standing to take the picture and so we'd need to use bathrooms on another floor. Thankfully, this will not be happening.

Too bad this isn't a great shot. There is a guy with a power sprayer who is spraying the road with water. I've been wondering what happens to the tons of salt and gravel that have been spread on the streets and sidewalks all winter long. After googling it, I found out that they spray the roads and sidewalks with water to loosen the grime and then a Hoover-like truck comes by to suck up all of the debris. Here's a link to an article in the Montreal Gazette if you want to read more about it. The Jacques Cartier Bridge is the blue structure lit up in the background.

More Canadian culture: One of the new senior missionaries googled how to handle the milk-in-a-bag-challenge. Here's the answer! You just drop the bag into this perfectly sized pitcher and snip the corner of the bag. Voila! No messy transferring the milk to another container.

I've been missing this guy a LOT this week. He's been at the mission office in Benin City, Nigeria since Thursday because he went to pick up his greenie! Prempeh has been called to be a trainer after 3 months in his mission! I hope he will do all he can to teach his new companion how to be an obedient, hard-working missionary.

Running total of captures: 287,019