Miracles Still Happen

This amazing missionary son of mine has experienced a HUGE miracle and I don't quite know how to express my gratitude to God for it. His companion has been really difficult to live with for the past transfer. I know, difficult companions are something everyone experiences on a mission. But his companion seems like he's just mad at the whole world, every day, for weeks and weeks! He's been miserable to live with! Sometimes he WAKES UP mad!

Ideas have been coming to me week after week to tell Prempeh to try: serve him every day in little ways, pray for him, pretend like something awful has happened in his life--something like his mother may be dying--which will cause you to feel more compassionate towards him, read the Book of Mormon like crazy! These ideas have not been from me. They are from the Spirit prompting me of ideas to share with Prempeh. How do I know? Because they're brilliant ideas! And I'm not that smart.

When I asked Prempeh a week ago how his week was, he said it had been a really good week. I was SHOCKED! Those words have NEVER come out of his mouth since he's been with this guy. I asked him what had changed and he couldn't give me an answer. We don't know why his companion has made a 180 degree turn, but he has! Life is SO much better for my missionary now! And I'm sure his companion is having a much better time too. They are starting to work together in unity finally, after 6 weeks. 

When Prempeh told me that he hopes that neither one of them will be transferred, I cried and cried and cried. Because all I've heard him say for several weeks is that he's just holding on until transfers and trying hard to be patient. That comment was very telling for me. It means he is truly enjoying their time together...FINALLY!!!

I've thought and thought about ways that I can show Heavenly Father how deeply grateful I am for this beautiful miracle. Our temple president pointed out a few weeks ago that he'd read in the Book of Mormon about a people who were grateful to be delivered. 

Alma 45:1 Behold, now it came to pass that the people of Nephi were exceedingly rejoiced, because the Lord had again delivered them out of the hands of their enemies; therefore they gave thanks unto the Lord their God; yea, and they did fast much and pray much, and they did worship God with exceedingly great joy.

They gave thanks to God, worshipped God, prayed much, and FASTED! I've never thought of fasting as a way to show gratitude, but I did it this week. 

I don't understand HOW God softens hearts. I still don't understand why He intervenes in some cases with miracles and not in other cases. But I'm over-the-top grateful for this lovely, lovely miracle in Elder O and Prempeh's lives.

Canada culture: It was 23 degrees F when I took this picture...just a vest. No shirt. No coat. Probably a homeless guy.

Happy Birthday, Elder C! Thanks for sharing your fabulous cake with our district!!

Another exciting night at "The Berri" building. The fire alarm in our building goes off so frequently! This time we were lucky. It was at 10 pm instead of the middle of the night which is when it usually happens.

These lovely senior missionaries invited me to dine with them at the Black Olive restaurant on Ontario Street in Hochelaga. Oh my! The food was so delicious! It's a Moroccan restaurant. And though the tajine wasn't quite as good as the ones I had while in Morocco, it was still very yummy. The harira soup was divine. But my favorite was the "thousand holes crepe" we had for dessert!

The insomnia seems to be letting up so that made for a good week of clicking! Another thing to thank God for!

Running total of captures: 484,350

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

Would You Go For a Four Hour Church Experience?

We had a bit of an adventure at 4:45 am this morning...the fire alarm went off. I dutifully put on some clothes and went outside into the rain. All of the missionaries from the building meet on the corner whenever we evacuate the building. There are 11 senior missionaries and 6 young elders in our building. Only 4 of us met on the corner. Wonder what happened to the rest of them?

Mount Royal...again. I know you've seen a bunch of pictures of this "mountain" but it changes all the time!

Missionary shoes...the top two are the exact same kind of shoe. Can you tell which is the seasoned missionary and which one is his greenie?

What on earth is this mess on my sliding glass door, you ask? Self preservation. That's what it is. Our building management in all their wisdom shut off the AC about a month ago. This week we had a 3 day streak of tempteratures in the 80s. This was my attempt to keep my apartment cooler by blocking the direct sun. I also hung a gray sheet in the window and pulled the curtains.I'd leave the door open all night and then trap the cool air in the morning. All to no avail. Every day when I arrived home, it was 80 degrees inside and there was no way to cool it down. On top of that, my fan broke the 2nd day. I had to resort to evaporation techniques that I learned while living in Africa in order to sleep. I put on a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in then got in the shower to get them drenched. All night as they evaporated, it cooled me off. And then the GLORIOUS rain came on Saturday and saved me!

See the yellow note on the bathroom mirror? It's a quote from Elder Gary E. Stevenson's conference talk. I decided every missionary in my zone needed one on their bathroom mirror so I printed it for them. You should have seen their faces when I told them that Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve wanted them to put it on their mirror and say it every day. 

Here's the quote in case you don't have it on YOUR mirror yet: “Wow, look at me! I am awesome! I am a child of God! He knows me! He loves me! I am gifted—gifted with the Holy Ghost as my constant companion!”

Here's a lovely fish pond that I stop by twice a day, to and from my walk to the national archives. It's such a peaceful setting. I've noticed as it's getting colder that the fish are sticking to the bottom of the tank. It's probably warmer down there. This week on one of my visits, a man stopped to talk to me. It gave me a chance to ask him where HE finds peace. He said he finds it because he is an artist. I asked him if he'd like to find even more peace by learning more about Jesus Christ. He declined, but I have a new friend. We even walked several blocks down the street together after our chat at the fish pond.

These lovely people visited us at the national archives this week. The two on the left are office missionaries and the others are their friends who came to visit them.

We had another stunning zone conference with the Harknesses this past week. I've been to two now and I'm pretty sure that every single one is going to be a spiritual feast. Sister Harkness teaches like a professionally trained educator. What a gift!

I love that some archivist, somewhere, put a little human touch on this label by making a flower out of the "i" in Mai (May.) It's the little things that amuse us at the archives. The really little things.

I finished a project that Elder F started before he was asked to work on a special project building a contraption for capturing books.

These are the boxes that I captured in the project.

Look at this charming streetlamp in front of the archives building. I've been listening to The Chronicles of Narnia as I capture documents and this lampost feels like it could come right out of Narnia itself.

Our tech elders love to Prank Sister C who works in the office because she's so fun. Here she is featured over and over again in a brochure.

I knew about this charming little park which is a block from our apartment but only visited it for the first time on conference Sunday. I needed to get out of the house after so much indoor time.

A new group was formed in our mission today in a small town called Thetford Mines! The members are on FIRE! After the meeting they swarmed the missionaries telling them of friends they have that they want to introduce to the missionaries so they can be taught. The missionaries also received several invitations to dinner so that they can meet other friends to be taught. They're so excited to grow this group into a branch! I was so touched when I learned of the faithfulness of these members of the Church. Many of them have been traveling one hour to church each week and then another hour home. Several don't have cars so they'd carpool. It's just too easy for me to go to church in Salt Lake City. Would I go if it would cost me 2 hours of travel time and 2 hours at church? Here's a photo of the group that met in Thetford Mines for the first time today.

Running total of captures: 121,558