Serenity with God

Nine people gathered at my apartment for Canadian Thanksgiving on October 14th. Everyone helped cook. The senior missionaries who work at the archives, invited two people who work in our building to join us: the secretary at the front desk who is Canadian, and one of the maintenance men who is from Algeria and has only been in Canada for a few months. It was fun having new faces!

Last year I celebrated and helped in the cooking of two Thanksgivings. I've decided that there will only be one for me this year. Two of them about a month apart was too much for me. It felt like overkill.

I have a new tradition surrounding Thanksgiving. You know how everyone says you can't put up Christmas decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving? Well, I'm going to start using Canadian Thanksgiving to apply to that rule instead of the one in November. I adore Christmas! And one of my Christmas decorations may have snuck out of the closet last Friday. Hehe. Nothing drastic yet, just a small beginning.

One of the missionary couples who was working at the Montreal archives moved to Ottawa because they were reassigned. They left the day after Thanksgiving. They will be missed and things won't be the same without them.

Canada culture: these potato chips are "all dressed". . . that's the name of the flavor, not to be confused with all of the other flavors which apparently are half naked!

I had the MOST GLORIOUS WEEKEND!! I spent two and a half days in a tiny town in the mountains. Yes! I found mountains! It made me very aware of how much I'm missing my Utah mountains.

I stayed in a tiny town called Saint Côme which is 2 hours north of Montreal. The place where I stayed had two dogs, so THAT was a bonus!

I spent several serene hours alone in the mountains. It felt so good to be out of the big city. It provided time for pondering, praying, and meditating. President David O. McKay was quoted in the most recent general conference as saying, "Meditation is one of the … most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.” It was good to spend some quiet time alone with God.

I was SO surprised by this tree! It looked almost furry. 

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that it has soft needles. They turn yellow in Autumn and fall off the tree! A quick Google search taught me that they are in the pine family. This type of tree is called a larch.

There was no Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints near where I stayed, so I worshipped with my Catholic brothers and sisters on Sunday. You'll notice I sat way in the back. 

When very young children play, they don't interact with each other so they're not really playing "together", just in a nearby space. It's called "parallel play." That's kind of what I thought of my worship on Sunday. I was "parallel worshipping." I worshipped in my way and they worshipped in their way. I'm grateful they were kind enough to share their space with me. And they didn't bother me because everything was in French so it didn't distract me at all from what I was doing. 😊 

I met up with this lovely lady later in the day. She lives in a chalet in the woods, what we'd call a cabin. She is the liaison at the archives building between Family Search and the National Archives of Quebec. She brings our projects to us and helps us when we get stuck with questions. She is one of the kindest, sweetest, most patient people I have ever met. Her demeanor lends a very calming influence to every conversation. It is such a joy to work with her!

Someday soon I hope to live in a similar setting. This is her driveway, for crying out loud! Wouldn't it be great to drive home to this every day?!? I told her if I lived where she lives I'd never come to the city, strictly work from home!

She and I spent a few hours walking beside a river together. I really enjoyed getting to know her better.

And lest you think that all I did was play this week, I did capture a few documents too.

Running total of captures: 429,602

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

BE with God

We got another referral for the young missionaries! Another sister missionary and I went out to dinner and the waitress asked about our nametags. We asked if she wanted to come to church and she said yes. That threw us off guard a little. Then I asked for her phone number so missionaries who speak Spanish could call her and SHE SAID YES! That one REALLY surprised me! Usually they say, "Just give me the address to the church and I'll come sometime." This is my fourth find on my mission. Woot! Woot! That ONLY happens with God's help. He puts people in our way and all we have to do is open our mouths.

In general conference, a phrase that Bishop L. Todd Budge shared, screamed at me: "...when praying, what if we were to spend less time talking and more time just being with God?" I've spent the whole week pondering what it means to "just BE" with God. The more I learn about it, the more it seems to be a higher form of worship. When I'm "with" a person, what does that mean? I think it means I'm being present, attentive, focused on them and not distracted, as well as other things that I haven't discovered yet.

I felt SOOOO spoiled on my birthday! This sweet, sweet lady whom I've never met before in my life, was commissioned by one of my African sons to bring me flowers for my birthday. She joyfully made a difficult drive at night to bring me this BEAUTIFUL bouquet. I was VERY surprised, VERY touched, and VERY grateful!!

I also got to spend my birthday with young missionaries. . .couldn't have wished for a better gift! Zone conference had to be moved up a week so that it landed on my birthday! Can you say "tender mercy"?!? The entire zone sang to me and I was very touched by their love.

Our darling, HILARIOUS APs . . .

And here's a bonus selfie you ALWAYS get when you hand your phone to an elder to help you take a photo. I love these funny young men. They make my mission a joyful place!

Though I had many thoughtful gifts and birthday wishes, my very favorite was having these three together. I love these 3 young men and the one who couldn't join us. It was an absolute joy seeing them interacting with each other after such a long hiatus. It made my heart burst!!!

A very kind and generous couple treated us to "yam chah", a traditional Chinese brunch with lots of small dishes. It was SO nostalgic for the sister in the black jacket and me because we used to go to these kinds of meals with members on our mission in Hong Kong when we were young missionaries.

I squeezed in a quick drive to the countryside Saturday afternoon.

Oh, I almost forgot, I captured some documents too.   

Here's my new project. . . 151 boxes. I've never tried conquering something this big! And this one has some unique challenges that will make capturing difficult. Here we go! I'm up for it!!

Running total of captures: 426,964

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I Love Missionaries!

This is one of our security guards. He's from Senegal and I stop by to chat with him every day. He's practicing English with me and I'm practicing French with him.

I'm so glad I remembered to get this photo a week ago before transfers. I was afraid some of my Mandarin elders would be leaving...and they did. Two of them are gone now. But I'm really excited about the two who have been transferred BACK to the Mandarin branch!

We got TWENTY-EIGHT new missionaries this past week! That's a HUGE incoming group! It takes a lot of work to process that many. And poor Sister Sorensen was cooking for this small army for a few days.

I love being with the new missionaries on transfer day! I also love being there to say goodbye to our departing missionaries. One of the departing missionaries is from Star Valley and he knows I want to move there when I go home so his last words to me were, "See you in Star Valley!" He's such a good young man. He finished his mission as an AP.

And we discovered on the very last day of his mission that this missionary's grandparents lived in my ward! How did it take us THAT long to figure that out?!?

At the lunch on transfer day, one of our APs, Elder Jones, was introducing the senior missionaries. When he introduced me, he said, "Sister Jones loves missionaries!" I'm glad he knows that because it's true! I feel such a strong love for these amazing young people that I get to work with during this season of my life. I feel like they are the cream of the crop of all the young people in the world.

THIS! This is why Salt Lake says we're a "complicated mission." One of the senior misisonaries made this graphic.

OK, this will seem strange to many, but I find it fascinating. One day the edge of a paper sliced across my finger. I quickly looked at it to see if the paper cut was going to bleed. NO PAPER CUT! Then I started thinking that with the hundreds of thousands of papers that I've touched, how is it possible that I haven't had a single paper cut? When I was a teacher I got paper cuts all the time. I asked the other archive missionarie and they said they haven't had any either.

We googled it and found that because we are living in a humid climate, we're less likely to get paper cuts. Our hands aren't as dry. Dry hands get paper cuts easier. And the paper is more supple because of the humidity. On really humid days, I can feel the difference in the paper. Hence, no paper cuts for archive missionaries in Montreal!

I noticed this loose piece of skin on my thumb the other day and figured that must be the Montreal version of a paper cut. No pain. No blood. Just a hanging piece of skin.

There you go. A useless piece of information about paper cuts for you!

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His Promises are Sure

My missionary son had a wisdom tooth pulled that was giving him pain. Ouch! But he's tougher than nails. He was out proselyting the next day. Sadly, he's got one more wisdom tooth to come out, probably next week.

What a blessing that we can pray to God for help. Isn't He marvelous to be constantly available to us? What if our Father had "office hours" and we could only contact Him during that time? Or what if He was confined to the limits of a certain time zone? What if He slept and wasn't available during that time? I couldn't do a single thing for Prempeh this week as he endured this awful experience except to pray for him.

I finished reading this book this week. Our mission leaders invited us to read it before general conference and mark every reference to our Savior. They also gave us a printed sheet with promises from the prophets about ways our lives will improve if we read the book. I chose one promise that I wanted to see happen. I was a bit skeptical that it could happen but God, indeed, has made good on the promises He gives us through His prophets. I am a witness that God keeps His promises. My life is better for having read this book again.

Canada culture: We have these in Utah, but on a much larger scale.

The highlight of my week...

This is near a tiny farming community called Brigham.

Oh, and I captured some historical documents.

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The Creator of Beauty

I'm not sure what kind of a shrine this is. . .

But it got more elaborate the next day. 😂

Canada culture:  Sorry for the fuzzy shot, but this is what supreme pizzas are called in Canada.

President and Sister Sorensen invited all of the seniors who serve in or near Montreal to join them for lunch after our senior district council. When I asked them why they pay so much attention to seniors, president said that his aunt and uncle served a mission and were not welcomed to the mission, were hardly noticed by the president, and they left without any notice of the mission leaders. He said he strongly disagreed with that and decided it would NOT happen in the mission he served in! And he and Sister Sorensen have been good to their word. I feel SO noticed and respected by them. It's such an honor and blessing to serve with them. It's just nice to be noticed...not that we need accolades, just acknowledge that we're here and that what we're doing is a contribution to the mission.

Hmm, something seems to be missing here.

One of my Chinese piano students' mothers sends some kind of food for me every week. She is so kind. These are little twisted cookies.

The pinnacle of my week was a drive two hours from Montreal to a tiny town to see the leaves starting to change. I passed through Rawdon on my way and saw this beautiful scene.

Then arrived at Saint Côme thirty minutes later.

My happy place. . .

I'm so grateful that our Savior created a season (at least in parts of North America) where leaves change colors. It's magical! In the plan of the creation, it could have been that green leaves just fell off the trees as winter approached. But no, our Creator decided to delight us with magnificent beauty at the changing of the seasons. I praise His name for this beautiful creation of changing leaves which brings me great 

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