Back to the MTC

 We spent 2 weeks at the MTC.  The first week we had Preach My Gospel training.  Above are our 2 teachers from the morning class.  It is amazing how wonderful these young people are.  They are all returned missionaries and they work at the MTC for their part time job while they attend school.

 We had an awesome group of senior couples called a district that we spent all week with.

 For the afternoon class we had Brother Lystrop.  When we were in the group mtg right after lunch, I looked to the back of the room to see the afternoon teachers.  There amongst them was Elder Lystrop.  He was one of the missionaries that we worked with in Belgium.  Whenever the Dutch speaking Elders had French speaking people to teach, they would call us.  We drive up to Kortrijk, pick up the Elders and go to the appointments.  Sometimes we would just translate.  Often John would teach the lesson and I would translate from French into English so that the missionaries would know what was going on.  Then they could add their own comments.  We had so much fun doing that.  When I saw Elder Lystrop, he in turn noticed me.  He ran over and gave me the biggest hug.  Then he asked what classroom we were in.  I told him room 38.  "Oh no, I'm teaching in room 41."  "Well" I said, "Why don't you ask if you can switch rooms?"  He did just that and they let him switch, so he was our afternoon teacher for the week.  We had lots of fun together.

 This darling couple is from Danville, Ca.  He is taking 6 mos off his job as an accountant so they can serve a little mission.  They will be serving in Washington D.C. MLS missionaries.

 This fun couple is from West Valley Utah.  They will be serving in the Salt Lake City West Mission.  Salt Lake has a brand new mission that has been divided into 3 or 4 sections.  They will be concentrating on working with the less active members.

 This couple is from Hooper, Utah.  They will be serving in Sierra Leone and Liberia.  There mission is humanitarian.  They will be building and digging wells, building outhouses, teaching sanitation, and putting together wheel chairs and teaching the people how to use them.  Because of all the wars and unrest in those countries there are a lot of maimed people who have the need of wheel chairs.   All 3 of these couples were so nice and so much fun.  We had a great time together.
Our 2nd week was office training.  It was very intense and I learned a lot.  Unfortunately I am having to learn a lot of different things out here in the mission field. My trainer at the office, Sister Levitre is awesome and so patient.  My head is trying to remember all the many things that I will have to be doing every day at the office.  It is huge trying to run a mission.  There are so many different things that need to be done.  I hope I will be up to it.

 One day we stopped to see baby Penny on our way home from the MTC.  She is the cutest little baby.

 We think it was very thoughtful of her to be born just before we had to leave so that we could meet our newest great granddaughter.

                                      
 Little Tatum likes being a big sister.

 Grandma Lana with her little granddaughter.  She arrived from Maryland just in time to attend the birth of this sweet baby girl.

                                                                 4 generations

 That friday Andrea arranged a going away dinner for us.  We went to Texas Road House and met up with Marchele, who was visiting from Florida and Trish.

We had a lot of fun talking and talking.  I hadn't seen Marchele for 4 years and so we had lots to catch up on and to talk about.

                       Oh, here is another picture of our MTC teacher.  He is an awesome guy.

 One lunch time we went to the Awful Waffle.  We were supposed to meet up with Jenna, but she had to leave early to study for a test.  Instead we got to see Emma.  It was fun to see her working.  Emma is such a great girl.  She is smart and pretty and has a great attitude.  She and Jenna and I actually had a wonderful "girl time" at my house when they came over for dinner.  We played a game, just the three of us, where we had to answer truth questions that we asked each other.  I loved it and I'm certain the girls enjoyed it too.

 Anyway, we had lunch with Ben Thompson another of our missionaries.  In fact, Elder Lystrop was Elder Thompson's trainer when her first arrived in Belgium.  I remember we had an appointment and Elder Thompson had just barely arrived from the U.S.  He was so tired and so jet lagged.  However, when we asked him if he was up to going to teach, he very quickly said yes.  He was just fine and excited to begin his service.  Well we got in the car and had to drive about 40 minutes to get to the appointment.  We had been driving for just a short, short time when I looked back and Elder Thompson was out.  He was sound asleep.  As soon as the car stopped though, he perked right up and was all set to go.  He was a great missionary.  It was awesome to see him grow from a young, excited young man to a mature grown man.

We had a wonderful, if tiring stay at the MTC.  We worked so hard and learned a lot.  The spirit in that place is indescribable.  Everywhere you go or look there are young missionaries, men and women, full of the spirit, happy, kind, polite, friendly, ready to work.   If only the world were more like that.  If only there were more people who had Christ at the center of their lives.  All of the world's problems would then be solved.

Drive to the Office

 Yesterday it rained all day and so the drive to the office was especially slow.  The drivers here are terrible too.  Everyone cuts in and out.  If the light turns red, they speed up to go through it.  No turning right on red.  Lots of blinking lights both yellow and red, signs we don't know yet.  We are taking a crash course in driving in Montreal.  The streets are beautiful.  There are many beautiful streets and boulevards that are lined with trees on each side.  Many of the leaves are starting to turn colors.   Many of the houses are beautiful too.

 Many, many houses and apartments have balconies.

 Today was a beautiful day with no rain and very pleasant weather.  Here is the same drive with no rain.

 There are lots of houses with very, very steep stairs.

 A photo of the church office building.  The office is on the 3rd floor.  The middle window, above the red car,  is where my desk is.

 By the office most of the buildings have these winding stairways going up three or four floors.  They look pretty, but are very slippery and dangerous in the winter.  And it gets really cold here I understand.  Many days with below 0 temps. I'm hoping for a mild winter like last year.

It's a lot of fun to see all the different architecture.

Exhausted

 Sister Canon (Mission President's wife) and Sister Levitre (the sister I'm replacing) chatting in President's office.

Saturday Sister Canon took us around Montreal for a little bit and showed us where some things were such as our apartment, the church, the office, some of the main streets, etc.  Then about 1:00 she and Pres. left to go to attend some baptisms.  We went to look at our apartment which is still occupied by the couple whom we are replacing.  They left some room in the closet for us so we unloaded some of our stuff.  It was a bit pain because, first of all, there is no parking nearby.  We are in a 16 floor high rise building which is right next to the metro.  In fact, we can get to the metro by simply walking down to the basement of our building and there is the metro stop.  We are in a very, very busy part of town with lots of shops, businesses, etc.  There is no parking in front of the building because there is also a bus stop right there.  We cannot park in the garage yet because we cannot have a pass until the Levitres leave.  Finally found a little spot to park just a ways down from the apartment which we weren't even positive we could park at, but we did and I tried to stay by car in case I would need to move it.  We would get a load of stuff.  Then we would hurry to the door of the building with John carrying as much as he could.  I would unlock the front door and then open and hold the inner door open.  Then I would hail the elevator and he would get in.  I would rush out to be by the car and John would go up to the 6th floor where he would have to set the stuff down, unlock the door, prop it open and then put the stuff in the closet.  We repeated this several times, but will finish unpacking later when we move in.  Meanwhile, we are living in the mission home.  So, part of our stuff is in the apt and the other part is in the mission home.  Not a very convenient situation.
Saturday evening we listened to the women's conference on the computer.  The talks were wonderful and we both felt very uplifted.
Sunday we went to two wards or rather one ward (french speaking) and one branch.  The ward had about 100 people attending.  It was very difficult to understand the people because they speak Quebecois.   It is a form of French but some of the words are totally different as well as the accent being very different.  I could not understand even 50% of what some people were saying.  Some of the people I did understand and most everyone could understand me.    They were all very friendly and welcoming and all wanted us to be a permanent part of their ward.  Then we attended the branch which is English speaking.  There were only about 40 people there.  They also were very warm and very welcoming.  There are people there from all over.  Several families are from Africa.   A young woman giving the gospel doctrine lesson was from the Ukraine.  She spoke perfect Russian and so I had fun talking with her.  I think this is the branch that we will be attending.  There is a lot of work to be done there.   The people in this branch also invited us to a pot luck that was held after church.  We attended and had fun meeting some of the members and chatting with them.
That evening President and Sister Canon had a dinner party to welcome us and President's parents who are also on a mission and just arrived 2 weeks before us.  Elder Canon is serving his 6th mission.  He is 86 years old and still going strong.  One of his missions was as mission president in Tennessee.  He is also newly married as of a year.  What an amazing guy.  The party was also a farewell for the Levitres.
We had a great time meeting all of the senior couples in this mission.

 Sorry this photo is so blurry.  Not sure why.  They couple at the right are serving in a center for young adults.  Pres is at the far right.

 There are the Canon's at the left.  He looks old, but he is lively and spunky.  She is too.  They are serving as member support and leadership training in a Cantonese branch.

 The couple with the wife wearing a red shirt are the Saintanges.  They are from Quebec and are serving as institute teachers.

 The MacAffeys are serving in the most western part of the mission even going a little into Ontario.

 The couple standing up are doing micro filming of documents.

 The Conways are the other office couple.  We will be working right next to them.

 The Levitres.  They are training us and will be here until about the 11th of Oct.  They are the kindest, most patient teachers.  We are lucky to have them train us even though my head is spinning.  There is soooooo much to learn and to do.  It is so much work.  I hope I will be up to the task.  John will be in charge of the fleet of cars.  The elders have named the position "The Car Tsar".  The fleet is worth over a million dollars.  He is working hard to learn all of his duties too.

 President and Sister Canon.  They are wonderful.  We are really enjoying getting to know them.  They have been so hospitable and kind.  I know the missionaries all love them.  They are great.Here

 Here we are the two new missionaries.

 The changing of the guard.  I sure hope I can glean all of her office knowledge.
We start at the office at 8:30 and work until 5:00 or later.  Oh my gosh, we worked so hard with hardly a break.  We did stop for a 20 minute lunch.  By the time we got home I was so exhausted.  I couldn't even imagine doing anything else.  I fixed a quick dinner and we were happy to relax and enjoy our meal together.