Tonight we went to the Branch President's home for a Christmas Branch Presidency dinner. Above are the Maisonneuve's. He was the 1st counselor's until about a month ago. Bro. Maisonneuve served a mission in South Africa. He returned home in 2008 and soon after married Avril. Avril has a very, very interesting story. When she was 21, she wanted to go on a mission. She was called to serve at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. She happily went there and began her mission. Every day she woke up and thanked the Lord that she could be there and that she could serve. She was so happy. A few months into the mission she began to be sick. She tried to remain positive and tried to ignore her symptoms, but before too long she was so sick that she had to return home to Canada. her parents took her to all kinds of doctors, but they could not discover what was wrong with her. She became weaker and weaker until she could barely walk and could barely get out of bed. All of her body ached very badly and she even had problems talking. The slightest noise seemed like a roar to her and she kept getting worse and worse. However, throughout this ordeal she never lost her faith. Each day she would tell the Lord how much she loved him and how grateful she was for the blessings that she did have. She had several blessings, but she never got better. Her parents kept taking her to more doctors, but all to no avail. She suffered like this for 5 long years. Five years! And yet, she never lost her faith. Then one day she woke up and felt like she needed another blessing and that this time she would get better. Her Father and another Priesthood holder gave her a blessing and she finally began to get better. Suddenly she got better and better until she was finally healed. She submitted her papers to go on another mission and she was called to serve in the Los Angeles Mission. She happily and gratefully served and she says that she knows that God is a God of miracles. Now she has been married for a few years and she has a new baby Eva. She is so thrilled to have gotten her life back and to have been able to give life to a new little one. This couple has a strong testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they live what they believe.
Brother Pardieu is the new 1st counselor in the branch. He and his wife came from Haiti to have a better life. They came when she was expecting their first baby and they came with nothing. Now he is a very successful business man and she just graduated with her degree in nursing. They have 3 fine sons and are very fine people themselves.
This is President Lemble with his wife Rachel and their two children. Baby number 3 will come in March. Pres served a mission in France and Rachel served a mission in Spain. A friend of hers convinced her to try internet dating just one time. She did and she met up online with her future husband. They soon began to spend many hours talking on the phone. Then he flew to her hometown of Nevada and they spent 2 weeks together. She then flew to Montreal to meet his family and spend time there. She told me that as she was preparing to fly to Montreal she asked Phillipe to please be ready to go eat or to have some food ready for her when she got off the plane as it would be a long trip of many hours for her and she would be hungry. She was expecting that he would have a little snack for her, but when she saw him, he opened up a huge coat that he was wearing and inside of the coat, pinned to it were many things for her to chose from to eat. She said it was like a small concession stand
inside that coat. She thought that was very endearing. When she was getting ready to leave, she said to him that maybe she should move up to Montreal for the summer, get a job, and they could spend more time together. "Or" he said, "we could get married." She flew home and planned their wedding. He soon flew down and they got married in the Las Vegas Temple.
We have a very interesting branch. It is very small in number, but those who attend regularly have very strong testimonies of Jesus Christ and are very awesome people. Most of them have an accent of some sort or another. The branch Pres was born in France and then moved to Montreal. His counselor is from Haiti, the exec sec is Papa, an American now, but born in France. The branch High Priest Group Leader is from Jamaica. The mission leader is Quebecois. The Relief Society President is from Mexico. The gospel doctrine teacher is a Ukrainian young woman. There are members from other places too. It is wonderful to see them all have the same goals and the same love for Jesus Christ. The gospel really has a uniting influence on people from all over the world.
Our dinner party tonight was a lot of fun. The food was good and the company was even better. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
fun!
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