A Swarm of New Missionaries

My missionary had a birthday!

I finished prepping the project I've been working on!! I'm really happy about that because it took me an entire month and now I get to go back to clicking. While neither job is very exciting, I prefer clicking. I'd love to reach 1/2 million clicks by the end of my mission but this month of prepping may have thwarted that plan. Oh well, it doesn't matter. It's all God's work after all.

Here's the BIG news of the week...

TWENTY-EIGHT incoming missionaries! We haven't had such a big group ever since I've been here. 

And a FABULOUS group of seasoned servants of God went home to greet their families and friends. It's so darn hard to let these missionaries who I love go home!

The archive missionaries went out for dinner after we finished our work on Friday. We love this restaurant near the national archives. It's calle Nelson Garden (Jardin Nelson in French), but we call it "President Nelson's Garden."

On Saturday I drove down to a tiny town called Hemmingford near the US border. No, I did not consider crossing. No, I am not getting trunky. One of our couples who left the mission a few weeks ago told me about it. They know I love to visit small towns to get away from Montreal.

They told me they crossed the border just below Hemmingford. It's a super easy crossing with no waiting because it's out in the woods, not on a main highway. I think I'll keep that in mind for future reference!

This is one of the first signs Americans see after they cross into Canada, I thought it was hilarious! Welcome to the land of metric measurements, Americans. You're not in Kansa anymore, Toto.

I saw these signs on my drive home. Look at ALL THAT ENGLISH!! It turns out I drove through the Kahnawake Indian Reserve. No, they don't call them "Native Americans" up here.

Canada culture...orange AND pink traffic cones!

Running total of captures: 375,753

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

Is Jesus a Part of Your Life?

It was not a great work week, which was frustrating for me. I lost all of Monday to a chat with my missionary son and wicked insomnia. I lost part of Thursday at the archives because I gave it to these darling soon-to-depart missionaries.

We went to lunch together. I was blown away by their effective finding as we commuted to the restaurant! There is no fear! They talked to soooo many people on our way there...even one lady who was on the phone! One of the women they contacted was taught by missionaries in 2021 and attended church 24 times back then! She was taught all of the commandments. These sisters are SURE that 2024 is her "comeback year." There's no "dying on the vine" for these two! They are determined to be out doing missionary work the day before they catch a plane to go home. And no doubt they'll be contacting at the airport while they wait for the plane. These two are on fire for Jesus! 

I lost Friday at the archives because a water main burst in downtown Montreal, close to the archives building. I didn't wake up until late because insomnia didn't allow me to fall asleep until 4 am. As I was getting ready to go into the archives around noon, one of the other missionaries called to tell me that water to the building had been cut off so they were sending everyone home.

There was a lot of flooding caused by this incident. I'm hoping they'll spend the weekend cleaning up and getting things under control so we can be back at the archives by Monday.

                                                            Photo credit: CTV News

I was talking to this amazing couple (husband is on the right) who helped with FSY in Cameroon. He was one of my online institute students from West Africa that I taught in 2022. He became a branch president while he was in my class. 

He told me that they felt like the youth weren't paying much attention to the workshops, but were VERY focused on the fun and games. But then at the closing testimony meeting, they were shocked to find out how much the young people had absorbed. Aren't youth amazing? They surprise and delight us!

I love that our entire mission is reading the Book of Mormon simultaneously! We're barreling along so we can be done before General Conference. We're marking every reference to Jesus that we find. Pages 184 and 185 are the 3rd and 4th pages where I have nothing marked that refers to Jesus. 

I started thinking about WHY this is. I think it's because Jesus is not a part of the people's lives being mentioned. I wondered if Christ would be mentioned if people were talking about MY life! Will Christ be mentioned at my funeral? When people talk about me right now, do they ever mention our Savior in connection with me? If not, I'm probably not living my life the way I want to.

Running total of captures: 375,753

Running total of docs prepped: 8900

Carry On!

See this cute missionary? He's from Africa so he never participated in any "fun lockdowns" during Covid Days. Well, he's getting a taste of it now. He's serving in Nigeria and that county has been having protests against the government since August 1 and none of the missionaries in his mission can leave their apartments. Protests in Nigeria often turn deadly. They were instructed to buy enough food and other supplies to last for a month. The protests were scheduled from August 1-10 but they generally go longer. I'll talk to him tomorrow to see if they've found any freedom yet. He didn't even get to go to church! Well, all of us Americans and Canadians know what THAT'S like. He's being tried in the furnace of boredom. I HATE that furnace! But I learned a lot while I was in it.

I thought I was finally going to be finished prepping this project last Friday so I could go back to captures. As I finished box 22, I discovered there are REALLY 49 boxes! ARRRRRGH! The archive people just didn't bring all of them to me at once. As it turns out, I'm not even halfway through the project!! Ugh. Oh well, it's all God's work and I'll just keep plugging away.

This is one of my favorite hallways at the archives. On the wall is a panoramic view of Montreal city taken from the top of Mount Royal. Fun fact: Did you know that Montreal is just the French way of saying Mount Royal? So really our city is called Mount Royal.

Sister M and I had a big adventure on Saturday. In Quebec, we received almost 6 inches of rain on Friday from the leftovers of Hurricane Debby combined with a low pressure that met the storm over the Great Lakes. Well that storm headed up the St. Lawerence River towards us and dumped a LOT of water in 24 hours. 

The next day Sister M and I headed out to Shawinigan (about 2 hours from Montreal) and Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers in English.) We had NO CLUE that there was major flooding! 

There were roads that were closed, traffic that was crawling, we drove over 2 flooded roads. One was a dirt road that I was really hoping had gravel on it too. It was in between corn fields. Ummm, yep, we were off the beaten path. Then we hit a paved road...thank goodness! Nope. A short while later we were driving over a flooded road again. When we got to the end of that road we discovered that the road was closed from that end. The guy in the truck with the cones let us out. 

We ended up having a really fun day. We went to a military museum. . .

The tire on this monster is almost up to my shoulder!!

Ate at Holy Burgers. . .

. . .and found some fun little shops to explore. We also got lost a bunch of times because of rerouting due to closed roads that were flooded. We thought we'd be home around 3:00 or 4:00. Nope. We pulled into our building at 10:00 pm. 

Canada Culture moment: On our weekend travels we came across this truck. The sign says something like "stop here". After the oncoming traffic has passed, a person in the truck hits a switch and the arm with the orange flag goes up. Then you can drive on. Hmm, we have flaggers in the U.S. for this. If I ever want this job, I'm moving to Canada...you sit in a truck and push a button.

The world lost a great man this past week. My cousin, Charles, died of cancer at age 36. He leaves behind a wife and four very small children. It's so hard to be separated from people we love even though we know we'll see them again. 

Photo credit: MacKay Jones, the master photographer

It was really, really hard for me to be here and not be at the ranch with all of my cousins. It felt so strange because this Jones family GATHERS and SUPPORTS each other at times like this. It's a legacy that our parents left us. And it just feels so strange to me to be so far away instead of at the ranch to mourn with my cousins. But I know God is there for them. And He can comfort them in a MUCH more supreme way than I could anyway.

Running total of captures: 375,753

Running total of docs prepped: 6650

All That is Unfair About Life. . .

It's been a bit of a rough week: LOTS of insomnia, a hurt knee, wicked hot weather (104-106 the past three days.) The highlight of my week was spending time with these fabulous people at district P-day.

One of the other missionaries and I had to make a DQ run one HOOOOOT night.

And today my heart has been weighed down by the sorrow in other people's lives, people who I love. My cousin is dying of cancer any day now and leaving a wife and four very young children. People in my branch here in Montreal are suffering.

Oh how grateful I am for the Father's Plan of Happiness, a plan which includes sealing families for eternity and promises connected with temple covenants. I'm also grateful for both the healing and enabling power of the Atonement of the Holy One of Israel. 

One of my very favorite lines that can be found in Preach My Gospel is this: All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I believe that. I know that to be true. And I'm very grateful for it. God is good to us. He has not left us alone in this world.

Running total of captures: 375,753

Running total of docs prepped: 3717

It's All About The Book of Mormon

I'm sure these two pictures won't look very different to most of you, but it feels VASTLY different to me! I've switched from taking photos of documents to doing the prep work getting them ready to be captured. 

Camera captures

Prep work involves making sure you account for every numbered document, taking out oversized documents that don't fit in our camera range, removing fasteners (staples, ribbons, brads, rivets, straight pins, etc.), unfolding creases and dog eared pages. . .basically, trying to make everything perfect so the people at the cameras won't find anything to slow them down.

Prep work

My brother and his wife came to visit for a week. They celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in Montreal. It was fun to have them here. They stayed at my apartment with me.

A very kind family invited the senior missionaries to their house for lunch. They do it every year. I couldn't go last year for some reason. It's SUCH a beautiful setting about an hour away from Montreal. This is the little tea house in their lovely garden where we had lunch.

One of the senior missionaries and I may or may not have SPLURGED at a Belgian chocolate shop. We're blaming it on our mission president's wife. SHE'S the one who told us about it and said we HAD to go there!

We had the most amazing zone conference last week. It was all about using the Book of Mormon in teaching others about the Church. President and Sister Sorensen teach with the power of the Spirit! I was spell-bound the whole 3 hours! Sister Sorensen challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before General Conference on October 5...in our mission language. No big deal for me, but our Mandarin speaking elders nearly choked on this challenge. The two in our district did not just dismiss this mountain-of-a-challenge. One plans to read the Chinese alongside the English, which will take much longer, and the other one said he'd read it in the picture form. I admire the faith of these elders!

Sister Sorensen also asked us to mark all references we find to the Savior. I have done this once before but I'm doing it again. It is truly stunning to see how many markings you have on just about every page. There is also a "life problem" I'm looking for answers for as I read this time. Hence, the two colors of pens.

As great as zone conference was, the district council we had right after was even better! We've never had a district council right after zone conference but president wanted us to discuss what we heard and felt in zone conference and make some goals in connection with that. Our young missionaries talked about how the Book of Mormon has changed their lives and how much they love it. Several of them shared some very tender things. The Spirit attended in a powerful way!! 

My love for these young missionaries grew that day. Remember the Grinch's heart? Yep. About like that. I already loved them but now I love and admire them even more. Missionaries are powerful young people because of their obedience, sacrifice, and devotion to God and the people they serve. Sometimes I pinch myself when I think that I get a front row seat to all that they are doing.

I told my district that I love, love, love the Book of Mormon. We had a member of a previous stake presidency in Salt Lake who used to stand at the pulpit in stake conference and say with tons of enthusiasm, "I LOVE the Book of Mormon!" I remember thinking, "I don't love it, I just read it because I know we're supposed to." But when I finally chose to engage with that book in a serious way, my feelings toward it have changed. Now I can say with Pres. Barney, "I LOVE the Book of Mormon!!" Remember when Pres. Nelson said if you don't love the temple yet, go more often? Same thing with the Book of Mormon. If you don't love it yet, read it more and more and more! Look for answers to life's questions in its pages. Feel the power between its covers!

If you felt prompted to also take this challenge while I was describing it, come join us! You'll need to read about 8 pages a day.

Running total of captures: 375,753

Running total of docs prepped: 1700

Flooding

We have a new baby in our family! It feels strange missing weddings and new babies. But it happens to all missionaries.

This is CANADIAN Coca Cola. See the maple leaf on the door of the truck? I see this with a lot of American products in Canada, that they were produced in Canada.

My missionary had his first transfer last week. I'm anxious to hear about how he likes his new area. I got transferred this week too...to another district. My former district was dissolved so they moved me to another district. We meet in the room next to the one where our former district met so not too big of a change. The weird thing is that no one tells seniors things. I happened to notice it on the transfer board while I was in the office on transfer day. If not for that, I wouldn't have known and would have gone to meet with my old district, which no longer exists.

These were a glorious find...chocolate fillled croissants. I've heard about them. I found these in the Jean Talon Market in frozen packages. Yummy!

Here's one of our TWENTY-ONE departing missionaries this week. We don't usually have that many leaving at once. I didn't know many of the departing missionaries this time.

The night that our new missionaries flew in, we had a HUGE rainstorm left over from Hurricane Beryl. Our assistants to the president who were supposed to pick up the new missionaries were stuck on an onramp to the freeway for over 3 hours. They never did make it to the airport. They contacted the missionaries and told them to take taxis to the mission home.

Photo credit: The Montreal Gazette

Running total of captures: 375,712

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.

Running total of captures: 369,587