Ice Storms Cannot Stop the Work of God

I cannot say enough about the young missionaries in this mission! They work SO hard! Just look at what they did last week! They found over 1400 people who are willing listen to their message. Once I asked the missionaries in our district how many people they think they talk to before they find one person who is willing to listen to the message they have to share about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Their guess was that they talk to about 20 people before they find one that is interested. If this is true, then our 180-ish missionaries talked to about 28,000 people last week! That's some serious diligence! AND they were out working in freezing rain. Ohhhh, these young people are stunning, I tell you!

God's hand is over this mission. He is sending people to Canada from all over the world to be gathered into the House of Israel. We are surely blessed to be called to participate in His work.

Another thing that I love about this mission is the trust that the Lord and our mission president place in our young men and women. This missionary has been in Canada for 3 months. He just finished his own training, and this week he was called to train a brand new missionary AND be the leader of a district consisting of 8 missionaries. And he's probably all of 18 years old. When I asked him how he was feeling about these new responsibilities, he said that if God had put trust in him to do it, then he'd try his best.

And here are some of the conditions we worked in this past week...freezing rain. This is a weather phenomenon that I am largely unfamiliar with. I only remember it happening once in Salt Lake City. It's treacherous travel! The fire alarm went off in our building on Thursday morning at 5 a.m. so we trekked down the stairs which dumps us out into the alley beside our building. The short walk to the front of the building was scary! It was very slick ice. By 8:30 when I left for the archives building, the roads and sidewalks had been plowed and salted so there were only a few dicey spots.

Here I am on a cold morning walking to the archives. But it's not a SUPER cold morning or I'd have my hat on to prevent what I've dubbed a WCHFHA (procounced Whichifah.) A WCFHA is a Wind Chill Factor induced HeadAche.

It was transfer week. I love seeing the young missionaries gather at the mission office to pick up their brand new missionaries or the ones who are passing through to their new areas. Transfers are nothing short of an act of God in this mission since we have such a huge geographical mission. I've heard that ours is the largest geographical mission in operation. The one that is larger than ours is in Russia. Our missionaries travel by metro, train, and plane to get to their new areas. And other missionaries who are staying put are assigned to pick up moving missionaries, house them for the night, and drive them to the train station or airport. It is a massive, intricate dance!

They're preparing for something in this park that I walk past every day. Looks like a valentine-y something or other.

Here's a little game that we play at the archives to distract ourselves from boredom. We call it the "Haystack Hunt". It's like hunting for a needle in a haystack except we're hunting for a tiny little something in a mountain of documents. Sister W found this picture on the internet and writes the item we're looking for on it because we tend to forget what we're looking for. After someone finds the item, we rejoice and pick a new item.

Recently we looked for a heart. Do you see the tiny heart punch in the brown stamp? Right now we're looking for blood, or anything that looks like it could be blood. Haha! Whatcha gonna do when you've been assigned a mundane (albeit incredibly  important!) task?

Funny side note about captures. . .Elder W has been trying to beat my daily number of clicks on the camera ever since he arrived in November. He's been picking up some serious speed in just a few months! But he hasn't been able to catch me yet. Yesterday when I spent the day helping out at the mission office, like I do on every transfer day, he got more clicks than I did. . .because I got ZERO! So he wrote on the back window of my car "I beat you, more clicks." 

I told him he's disqualified from the competition after pulling a stunt like that and wrote this on HIS back window. I'm not sure who has more fun in this mission, the young missionaries or the "seasoned" ones. 😂

Running total of captures: 208,020

CHRISTMAS!!!

One of the senior missionaries was particularly naughty this week and parked in "my parking spot".  He did not receive anything from Santa this year. Let this be a lesson to you, little children.

Some fabulous new friends visited us at the archives this week. This couple has the same assignment as we do but they are serving in Ottawa a few hours away. They wanted to come and see our operation in Montreal. They are both wonderful and she is definitely a kindred spirit!

The next day we all went to temple together. I drove with the new couple to help them navigate. The three of us were so enthralled with our conversation that I wasn't concentrating and my "autopilot" took over and had us headed to the meetinghouse instead of the temple! Huh! Lots of help I was!

After the temple we found a charming little restaurant in Boucherville that overlooked the St. Lawerence River. The food was exquisite! I forgot to get my bag out of our new friends' car before they left so my temple clothes are in Ottawa right now. Haha.

I was told that meat pie is a tradition around this time of year. It's for Christmas or New Year's depending on who you talk to. I tried some. It's OK.

All of us seasoned missionaries (senior missionaries) who live in the same apartment building went to brunch on the 23rd at Bistro Tot ou Tard which is just a few blocks away from our apartment. As I lagged behind the group on the way back, I looked at them and had a sacred moment. The thought came to me that I am with the covenant keepers. These people have made covenants with God in His holy temple to serve Him and build up His kingdom on the earth. They are serious about these covenants because they choose to serve and be away from their families at this time of the year. I also had this thought was when I was on pioneer trek with adults who chose to take vacation time away from work, walk until they had blisters on their feet, and sleep on the ground so that young people could form a stronger connection with their roots and gain an appreciation for the sacrifices that have been made for them by those who paved the way for them.

The branch Christmas party...ahhh, the branch Christmas party. Here are "wise men" and women sorting out tangled cords to headphones. I love the young elders who serve in our Mandarin branch!

Santa showed up on Sunday (Sunday?!?) right after church. I put in my request.

All I want for Christmas is. . .a hymn book?

Then we were finally to the big day! Fourteen of us crowded into one apartment to celebrate the birth of our Savior! I was over-the-moon happy to be with young missionaries on Christmas Day. They had been reminded by mission leaders to not overstay their welcome if they were invited to eat dinner with members. We told them that that rule did not apply to this apartment. We told them we wanted them to stay as long as they wanted to.

We had a Christmas message focused on Chirst.

We played a game where you stand on chairs and try to drop candy canes onto a string. 

It's harder than you think! The candy canes pop off the string!

We laughed ourselves silly while playing charades. We were trying to guess Christmas songs. When Sister W pulled "Santa Baby", she went over and sat on her husband's lap, gave him a kiss and started stroking his face. One of the young elders looked at her husband and said, "Well that was a win for you!!" We laughed long and hard!

A family in one of the wards invited us for dinner in the evening. They are from Barbados and Jamaica and cook THE BEST FOOD! My new favorite food is macaroni pie. I really enjoyed being in their home and getting to know them.

I had the opportunity to speak in church on Christmas Eve. I started by asking how it would be if someone gave you a brand new car for Christmas. What if you were given a big house? How about your own private jet with a pilot? Then I asked, "What if our branch president gave you his son?" Of course, I tied that in with the greatest gift any of us has ever been given, the gift of our Savior given to us by our Heavenly Father. I talked about how important this gift of our Savior is in every aspect of the Plan of Salvation, the plan that Heavenly Father created for us in the pre-existence, our life here on earth, and what comes after this life for eternity. Christ is vital to this plan and I am so very grateful for all that His Atonement does for me. And THIS is why I love Christmas so much.

This was one of the best Christmases of my entire life! When I told my friend that, she asked why. I think it's because I was so focused on the young missionaries and not on myself. I was worried that the young ones, especially those who had only been in Montreal for a week and a half, would have a difficult Christmas because it was likely their first time being away from home for the holiday. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to make sure they had an enjoyable day. It's good to think of others and not ourselves. It brings happiness. It's what Christ did. He was always focused on others and not Himself. I want to do that better.

Running total of caputures: 183,409

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 😂

Running total of captures: 162,284