Oh! The Heat!

It's was really hot here in Montreal for three days in a row. The hottest one hit 113 F for the "feels like" temperature. I don't do well with the heat. The AC in my apartment was working like crazy and could only cool my place to 76 F.

I shouldn't complain because my missionary son in Nigeria has little to no electricity to run the fans in their apartment. Often he goes to bed by 10:00 but can't sleep until midnight because it's too hot. Here he is with a washcloth on his head to provide some shade from the sun. He and his companion are waiting in a long line at an ATM on Pday hoping to be able to withdraw some cash. After an hour and a half, they found out the ATM ran out of cash so they'd have to go to another ATM. They waste SOOO much time on Pdays waiting in line at ATMs. We were chatting while he was waiting in line so that he could multitask.

I had a temple appointment to do sealings and I was thinking it would feel nice to be in GOOD AC for a few hours. When I got there I discovered the AC at the temple was broken. As I was kneeling at the altar, I started to feel light-headed. As soon as the ordinance was finished I quickly moved to a chair because I've heard many stories of people fainting at the altar while doing sealings. 

I didn't feel well the rest of the evening. And the next day I spent either lying down on the couch or my bed. Wow! The heat really knocked me out! I felt dizzy and very weak. I'm glad that's over with!

We had another false start to our vital records project this week. I'm sure we'll start...someday! 

One of the archives missionaries had a birthday this past week so we decorated her cubicle.

Last week I finished teaching a class on how to conduct music at our Chinese branch. about one fourth of the class was comprised of members of the Church. The other participants are just interested people in the community. It was a little tricky since I don't speak Mandarin, only Cantonese. So one of the bishopric counselors came each week to translate. In a few weeks I'll take the cream of the crop from the conducting class and start teaching them how to play piano.

The Harman family (think KFC owners) has a grant program that provides keyboards and manuals for students to learn how to play piano in hopes of building the musical abilities of church members. Then they can start accompanying songs on Sunday in our church meetings.

Canada culture moment...KFC is called PFK (Poulet frit Kentucky) in Quebec.

I felt like I was in Utah for several hours on Saturday afternoon. I joined a Jones family reunion via Zoom. It's always so good to be with my cousins. I'm glad they made the extra effort to include a few of us who couldn't be there in person. Thanks to those of you who planned it!!

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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.

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