Changing of the Guards

The big news this week is that our mission leadership is changing. President David Harkness and his wife, Lisa Harkness, returned home on Friday, June 28th, the same day that President Craig Sorensen and his wife, Melanie Sorensen, arrived in Montreal. The Harknesses have been amazing leaders for this mission. They lead with very high expectations and much love. And the young missionaries respond in a powerful way because of the great love that they feel from the Harknesses.

The senior missionaries pitched in and one of the senior sisters quilted this wall hanging for them. It represents all (as nearly as we could guess) of the countries that have been gathered into our mission so that people could learn of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had a tearful farewell last Sunday night at our mission-wide meeting held on Zoom. The Harknesses left us with beautiful words of encouragement and love. And one of our APs sent us all off with a beautiful, heartfelt benediction on the meeting and the Harknesses' mission. These two stalwart servants of God have made a huge difference in this mission!

We're excited to meet and welcome the Sorensens. They have a gargantuan task ahead of them. Salt Lake calls us "a complicated mission", and we are! President Sorensen will not only be the mission president, he will also be the district president for two districts of church units. The Sorensens will be traveling by plane or car for 2 weeks out of every month in the mission. 

These are some of my favorite people on the planet. I get to see these elders every Sunday because we worship together in the Mandarin branch. They have been given a very difficult task. Not only are they asked to learn a complex language on their mission, but they only get to teach a small portion of the population here in Montreal. While other missionaries log huge numbers of friends they are finding and teaching, these patient elders work and work but only have few friends to teach. That doesn't seem to bother them. They continue baptizing anyway. I admire the way they deal with the challenging task they have been given.

Ah! It's already shoulder-high dandelion season!

And how about this coffee can garden? Kinda fun!

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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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Playing with My Sister

This is what my cute missionary son does on our Monday calls...he reads me scriptures! He also inevitably ends up teaching me part of a lesson in each video call. He's SUCH a missionary! And I love what his mission is doing for him. It is deepening his conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and he is understanding the doctrines of Christ MUCH more clearly than he ever has before. 

I was a bit worried about him last week because he had malaria. That is ONE. TOUGH. ILLNESS. I've never experienced it but I've watched many of my African friends suffer through it. Thankfully, Prempeh has returned to full health.

My sister and her friend came to visit for 10 days! I played and played and played with them. It has been a lot of fun to take a break from the scanning day in and day out.

In Montreal we...

visited the archives building where I serve every day,

had lunch in Chinatown,

and saw the Notre Dame Bascilica.

This painting in the basilica always makes me smile. Look at the focus on the maple leaf! Both mother and child are looking at THE leaf. 

In and around Quebec City we...

visited the stunning Montmorency Falls,

drove around the Island of Orleans where they have six teeny, tiny chapels as well as a few churches. They were built before transportation was simple so that people would have a nearby place to pray without traveling a long distance to a church.

This is one of the tiny churches that has been turned into a boutique.

Here's my yellow dream home on the island.

My sister...

a very old and tipping cross to mark a grave...

Of COURSE we had to stop for some of the chocolate dipped ice cream that the island is famous for!

I found the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel that Quebec City is famous for! Last time I went to Quebec City, we never found it. This trip I realized that we had parked the car 1 block away from this famous icon. Duh!

We met these two fabulous people in a Christmas store. When she saw my nametag, she threw her hands in the air with a loud gasp. I knew that they were members of the church. We have this huge church family wherever we go. She gave me a huge hug. When I introduced my sister she said, "Well then SHE gets a hug too!" 

They told me they had given their driver a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it. They shared his email with me and asked that missionaries contact him to see if he's interested in finding out more. I promised I'd follow through with that.

A few minutes later we ended up at the checkout counter together. She insisted on paying for the Christmas ornament I was buying. What amazing and kind people! I will think of them every Christmas when I decorate my tree.

We flew to Prince Edward Island where we...
visited the house where Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote "Anne of Green Gables",

saw the kitchen where the book was actually written,

saw an upstairs bedroom that looked like it could have belonged to Anne Shirley,

walked through the "Haunted Woods",

and down "Lovers Lane".

We also visited a lighthouse on the island and went to church. Sadly, none of my missionaries attended the ward that I did. They had gone out to worship with the smaller branches on the island that day.

And then back home to Montreal.

I actually DID spend two days at the archives in the past two weeks! Our supervisor drove up from Pennsylvania to help us launch the new project of capturing vital records. Those were two frustrating days as we tried to figure things out, make adjustments to our workstations, and iron out the details. We'll get there. But I knew the beginning wouldn't be smooth. Better luck next week!

This week was our final zone conference with our mission leaders, the Harknesses. They will complete their mission at the end of June and the Sorensens will take the helm. There were some very tender moments at zone conference. They have been fabulous leaders. They love our young missionaries and pour their hearts and souls into helping them grow spiritually. They care for and love our young missionaries.

We had the opportunity to attend the temple with one of the zones in our mission. We couldn't attend with our own zone because it's a very large zone so they didn't have room for the senior missionaries in that session. I loved thinking about all of the consecrated lives in that room at the same time. We seniors sure do think a lot of our young missionary friends. They are stellar! I wish every young person in the world equaled their goodness and devotion.

A bit of sad news, the man who spoke to me on the street and who has been taught by the missionaries had to be dropped because he was no longer making progress. I accept that, because it's certainly his choice whether he wants to draw closer to Christ or not. Maybe the time is not right for him and he will make that choice later on. Even though the young sister missionaries need to move on, I will continue to text him to see how he's doing and pray for him. That's one of the luxuries of senior missionaries. We function more like a member of the ward than the young missionaries. We have different roles than they do.

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Another Missionary Miracle!

Some cute sister missionaries left this note on my car. We joked about how we were a trio because they were the first set of missionaries in Montreal to teach the man that approached me on the street. He has since moved and a 2nd set of missionaries is teaching him now. One of our "trio" went home this morning. It always makes me sad to say goodbye to these missionaries who I know and love, but they are headed into the loving arms of their parents, family, and friends. And they need to leave the mission to progress and grow in other areas. What an amazing spiritual foundation a mission can provide! It was that way for me. I'm pretty sure that I had a testimony before I served a mission, but on my mission the roots of my testimony went down really deep and wrapped around the bedrock of Christ, never to let go again. What a huge blessing that opportunity was for me!

Here's a fun shot of the interior of the National Archives of Quebec where I serve every day. We really do have an impressive building! Our room is on the 3rd floor which is the middle catwalk in the photo.

I finished another big project this past week...70 boxes!

We received word this week that the books containing vital records that we've been waiting for have finally arrived! This will be a new project that two of us missionaries will be working on. It's exciting to me because while the documents that we've been capturing, notary documents, are important, vital records are the gold of family history work. We've had a couple of false starts in the past few weeks saying the books were coming. But they actually arrived at the archives on Thursday! Now we'll have to muddle our way through figuring out exactly how these captures need to be done. The logistics will  be quite different from what we've been doing.

Look at these spectacular young, departing missionaries! They truly rock my world. I love being in district council with them. I love having brief chats whenever we happen to meet. I love watching them grow over time. I love how devoted they are to teaching others about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the courage they have developed in talking to complete strangers! I love their enthusiasm and their sense of fun. It's contagious. I love watching as they gain maturity while they serve. It's such a treat for me to see them on the last day of their mission.

I take a day away from the archives every 6 weeks to help out in the office on transfer day. I get to see the brand new missionaries walk into the mission office on their first day. I love to greet them. After making a copy of their passports, I put a sticky note in their passport that says, "Welcome to the mission! We hope that you will find JOY in God's work." 

I got to know this elder a bit better than the others pictured here because we were in the same district for a while, we served in the Mandarin branch together, and he has lived in our apartment building for the last part of his mission. It has given me a lot of opportunities to interact with him.

Canada culture moment: This cracked me up when I saw it in the store. Poutine is a traditional Montreal dish. It's a bed of fries with cheese curds sprinkled over them and then topped with gravy. That's the basic poutine. Then you can jazz it up with meat, veggies, coleslaw...whatever! I'm pretty sure you'd have to be in Canada to see a product like this on the shelf...poutine gravy.

The craziest thing happened today. There were two security guards who worked at the national archives when I first arrived in Montreal. I became friends with both of them but they left for other jobs about 3 months after I met them. I've kept in touch with one of them with occasional texts and phone calls in the past year. Well, he calls today and tells me he wants to get married again but he doesn't know where to find good women. I told him I couldn't really help him with any ideas because we usually meet people at church. I told him that I hear other people meet at bars or parties. He said he's not interested in the kinds of women that are in those places. I suggested that he go to some churches then. He said, "Yeah, maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll start going to churches. Maybe I'll go to your church." He said he wasn't promising anything but he might come sometime. I told him he was welcome anytime. We'd love to have him visit our church. 

Then a few minutes later he said, "No, I'm just going to make a committment. I am coming to your church tomorrow. Send me the address." I was thinking, "WAIT! WHAT JUST HAPPENED???" Granted, he's coming to church to meet women, not seeking for truth. But if he starts getting to know the women at church, he might realize that he's going to have to be a really good man in order to find a really good woman! So I'll meet him at church in the morning! Let's see what happens here. . .

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God's Beautiful World

Sorry, long post today since I missed doing a post last week.

My Mother's Day was spectacular! The best part was that I got to talk to my missionary son and watch him in action at the church, interacting with members, getting a free meal from one sister (who I wanted to kiss!), and making arrangements for lessons later that day. On my mission I've had the most excellent Christmas, Easter, and now Mother's Day. Does a mission enhance your holidays? It kind of feels that way!

Here's another beautiful thing that happened on Mother's Day. Both of these men are members of the branch where I attend church. The man on the right lives with and is caring for his aged mother. The man on the left painted a picture of the mother and presented it to this brother on Mother's Day. It was all very touching. And the artistry is amazing!

This persisent friend of mine invited me to her graduation. She has been training for a year to be an LPN. She's a single mom and an immigrant from Nigeria. She's worked SO HARD this year, going to LPN classes in the day and French classes at night! I was so proud of her at graduation that I felt like I could have been her mother!

Here's a beatiful little spot in the archives building where I work that has been created JUST for me to have a quiet place where I can join a Zoom call twice a week at 2 pm to teach our friend from Ghana...the man who approached me on the street. I sit on the red couch on the right for the lessons. Our friend is very diligent about being at lessons and wants to be baptized but he's having a hard time making it to church. Part of the difficulty is that he has now lived in 3 different places since coming to Montreal: a hotel, a friend's place, and now his own apartment. Hopefully, now that he has a permanent spot, things will calm down and he can figure out public transport in order to get there.

THE FISH ARE BACK!! I've been waiting and waiting for these guys ever since the weather started warming up. This fish pond is along the street that I trek daily going to and coming home from the archives. I love to stop here and watch the fish. It's a peaceful spot in a very busy, noisy city. My three favorite fish from last year were the yellow ones. I'm pretty sure that two of them are back, but they are NOT yellow. They're kind of a pale, almost translucent color. I wonder if they go pale in the winter when they're indoors and then their color returns eventually as they spend time outside. More to come on this developing situation. 

Here's one of the fish that used to be yellow. Now it's as pale as the twirly seeds that have fallen into the pond. This fish's name is June. The word for yellow in French is "jaune". See the connection?

The Montreal seniors drove 2.5 hours to Ottawa for the Tulip Festival. We saw some beautiful tulips.

This was my favorite bed of flowers because of the color combination.

But most of the tulips we saw looked like this. . .

and this. . .   
There was even an entire bed that was only stems. All of the petals had dropped off.

One of the senior couples went a week earlier than the rest of us. They came back with some incredible photos. But they warned us that by the time we got there, there wouldn't be much left. Oh well! We were with great people and the Ottawa seniors provided us with a scrumptious lunch.

Here's one of my favorite missionaries explaining the history of the Tulip Festival. During World War II, Canada sheltered the Dutch royal family. The queen was pregnant and it's important for royalty to be born on native soil so the maternity wing of the hospital was temporarily declared Dutch until after the birth of the baby. As a show of gratitude, the Netherlands sent Canada 100,000 tulip bulbs. They continue to send 10,000 bulbs per year ever since then. Cool story, eh? (Can you tell I'm picking up a Canadian accent? 😂 Actually, the only times I've ever heard anyone say eh? in Canada, it's come out of an American's mouth.)

Parliament Hill in Ottawa was stunning! This where the national government buildings are in Canada. I felt like I was walking among castles and fortresses! 

The buildings have been under renovation for many years and will be for many more years. They are adding things like air conditioning and updating internet access. They're redoing the plumbing and electrical systems and making the buildings earthquake safe. It's a huge overhaul!

A nearby hotel. . .

I got to spend lots of time with these people during my weekend in Ottawa. I love both of them dearly. They are fabulous human beings. 💕

We saw and smelled about 50 different varieties of lilacs! I had NO IDEA there were so many kinds!

I had to get this shot just because of my matching shirt. Haha

Luckily, I made it home JUST in time to go to dinner with these lovely people. This young man is one of our former APs who finished his mission last December. I knew he'd be in town but didn't know his plans. On my drive home from Ottawa he texted and asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him and his parents. They were taking an early flight the next morning! I FINALLY GOT TO GIVE HIM A HUG!!! It kills me that I can't hug these young elders that I love so dearly.

Pause for a little "Canada culture" moment. These two products do NOT taste the same in Canada as they do in the U.S. The Wheat Thins are much worse but the Kit Kats are MUCH better! The chocolate is superior.

The archives seniors went out for dinner and pie last Friday night. We ran into this beautiful feast for the eyes as well.

Here's a newspaper I found left on the table at the pie place. What we know as CMM is the Canada Montreal Mission. Apparently the greater Montreal is also known as the CMM. Haha

We will definitely  be visiting this pie place again!! The young missionaries told us about it. I've decided if you want to know the good places to eat in town...ask the young missionaries.

They're ripping up the sidewalk next to our archives building. Apparently, if you move to Montreal and you want to have job security, get a job as a construction worker!

This week our mission leaders asked the senior missionaries to assist in funneling electronic requests to the young missionaries. The office staff has been doing this but it has become overwhelming in the recent past. Just more evidence of God gathering his children in Eastern Canada! I'm thrilled to be able to help with this! It will only take me about 15 minutes each day. I go into the referral board and match the person's address to the missionaries in that area. Then I send off the referral to the correct missionaries so they can follow up with a contact. One of the sets of elders in my district had a baptism recently from a woman who requested a visit electronically!

I took a quick trip to the Insectarium this weekend. I am continually blown away by the HUGE variety of creatures and plants that God has created for us to live among!  They are spectacular!

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