Winter Storm

 Today we had a big storm here in Montreal.  We picked up Sister Conway because her hubby was sick and we drove to the office.  There was such a huge snow drift blocking the driveway that we couldn't get in.  We had to drive around several blocks and drive into the lot through an alley.  The weather just got worse and worse.  After the missionaries finished their zone study and had lunch they got ready to go home.  Most of them took the metro because of the weather, but those that had cars were stuck.  Every single car was stuck in the parking lot.  It took the missionaries and Elder Arhets about 40 minutes to clear out enough snow to get those few cars out.  John phoned upstairs and told me to come on down with Sister Conway that we were leaving.  We did go down right away after closing down the office, but by then he had to leave because of the cars behind him needing to go.  He got stuck several times just going around a few blocks trying to get back to the office.  Meanwhile we were waiting in snow that was quite deep.  After we got in the car it was stuck again.  The Elders had to give us a push.  We started driving home only to find many streets closed down because of the snow.  We got stuck again and had to wait quite a while until a little snow plow came and got rid of the snow in front of us.  Even then the car wouldn't budge.  It took two people pushing the car and John accelerating to get it to finally move.  We got stuck several times more and people kindly would come and shovel out snow in front of the car and then push the car.  It took us about 50 minutes to drive 1 mile to our apt.  All throughout the streets we saw buses and cars that were stuck and everywhere we looked there were people helping each other out.  We were sure glad to get home.

 The previous day was boxing day in Canada.  It originally began in England when the wealthy people would box up their old clothes, things, and food and give them to the poor.  This tradition was continued in Canada and now it is a day of sales in all of the stores.  It is like American black friday on steroids.  We went to a huge underground mall with the Howards.  We ate lunch and then tried to shop, but it was wall to wall people in the stores and in the mall itself.  It was just crazy.  We decided to go home and play games instead.  In the center of one of the wings was this beautiful huge Christmas tree.

 Christmas day was quiet for us.  We did go out and have lunch with several of the senior couples.  We ate at Miami Deli.  It was nice to go out and visit with good people.  The rest of the day we spent Skyping with our kids and grandkids.  That was the best part of the day.  We sure do miss them a lot, but know that we are where we should be, doing the work of the Lord.

 I ordered a Greek plate, but was disappointed with the taste.  The chicken-k-bob was dry and not very tasty.  The salad and rice were good, but that's salad and rice.  Can't go to wrong there.  The huge potato chunks on the left weren't too tasty either.  Oh well, one of those things.  The important thing was that we could think of the Savior on this special day and that we could remember His great gift to us and to all mankind

Some Christmas Events

 Shortly before Christmas the Branch R.S. had an activity.  Here is a photo of the attendees.  There are more members of R.S., but it was a very snowy day and these are the only ladies who showed up.  The activity consisted of us making snowflakes and snowmen to be used as decorations for the Christmas party the following week.  We also wrote Christmas cards and notes to be distributed to the less active ladies.  Little finger sandwiches, cupcakes, cookies, hot cider and hot chocolate were served.   We had a really nice time together as we visited and crafted.  The party was a 2 ward and our branch combined party.  It was really nice.  The Spanish ward was in charge.  There was a reenactment of Christmas story which was done in scenes with singing in between each scene.  The primary sang and at one point a group of about 10 Black sisters came walking in from the side singing Hallelujah.   They all wore black skirts and red blouses and they walked their little Caribbean saunter swaying and singing as they walked across the stage.  It was wonderful.  I just loved it.  They sounded so good and they were just fun to watch.  Sadly I didn't bring my camera. :(  Papa and I cooked about 20 lbs of potatoes and made mashed potatoes.  They turned out really yummy although they nearly broke my little hand mixer.  

 The day after the party we had the Senior's Christmas dinner at the mission home.  We all gathered around 5:00 after church and had a big dinner together.  Everyone had an assignment.  Papa's and mine was mashed potatoes again for about 30 and also Southern Style Yams for 30.  Both dishes turned out great.  The table and the entire house was all decked out so prettily.

 The company was great.

 We sang a hymn and we also played the white elephant game which was so funny and a lot of fun too.

 While we were playing the seminary class from the Spanish ward came and sang several songs to us.  They sounded really good.

 Then they handed out a plate of goodies to each couple that they had personally made.

 When they were done, they walked around the circle of Seniors and each one shook hands with each of us and told us Feliz Navidad.  It was so, so very nice.

 Tuesday and Wednesday we had parties for the missionaries.  Each day the seniors did all the cooking for the missionaries.  It snowed on the way to the church.

 This statue is just around the corner from our apartment.  It is a guy squatting with his hands on his head,  I always think it looks sad as if he's in despair or something.

 We had 3 zones meeting on one day and 2 the next.  There were about 90 places set the first day and 70 the next.  The missionaries ate a ton, had a little act that each zone put on, watched a movie, played games, and had a gift exchange.  I know they had a ton of fun.

Cute little reindeer cupcakes were at each place setting

 I know most of these missionaries and they are all awesome young men and women.

 These 3 from the right are all from France.

 These 5 come into the office almost every day.

 Tons of desserts.       Elder Laguan wanted to take a picture with me so I was happy to oblige.

                                            We worked really hard to make it nice for them.

 Carving the turkeys and getting food ready.  Elder Arhets was not in a white shirt because he and Elder Conway had gone up the day before 51/2 hr drive to get some of the missionaries from Quebec City.  After the party, they had to drive them home.  The drive home was even worse because of the weather.  In fact they had 2 near misses, zero visibility and a horrible storm to drive through.  They ended up getting a hotel room and returning the next day.  It just wasn't safe to drive home. I was happy that they decided to stay instead of taking chances.

                                     Elder Osorio is from St. George, but originally from Mexico.

                              Here we have Spain, US. US., Chili and Mexico represented.

 These 3 are the California three.  Elder Fronk from Temecula, Elder Williams from Irvine and Elder Meng from Temple City.

                         Elder McMurrin is from Arkansas and Elder Fernandez from Utah.

John's Talk

Today was a most wonderful day at church.  John gave the best talk.  He spoke about how the spirit of Christmas has affected mankind, how people act more kindly with more smiles, with more of an inclination to be helpful and forgiving during this season of the year. He spoke of the babe of Bethlehem who was no ordinary baby and how through Him men's hearts can be changed.  He spoke of how 600 years before the birth of Christ, the prophet Nephi saw His birth.  In 1 Nephi 11: 18-21 we read, "And he said unto me: Behold the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the son of God, after the manner of the flesh.  And it came to pass that I beheld that she was carried away in the spirit; and after she had been carried away in the spirit for the space of a time the angel spake unto me, saying: Look!  And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.  And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father!  In a time that so many people do not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, the Book of Mormon confirms by revelation that God is the Father of Jesus Christ.

John then related a true story that he had read and that he had also read many eye witness accounts of. The events go as follows (a shortened version):  Over 100 years ago an extraordinary event occurred.  The German, English, and French armies were bogged down in a horrible trench warfare that lasted for years.  The battle lines were only 300 feet apart.  The men all lived in horrible conditions in the trenches: cold, wet, little food, dead bodies with many being used to help hold up the walls and provide insulation, rats as big as cats running around and eating the dead bodies, and other horrible things.   Neither side could move or they would be shot by sniper fire.  On Christmas eve 1914, The French and English troops saw that the German trenches were lit up with Christmas tress that had lit candles on them. The Germans began to sing Silent Night.  The English countered with their own hymn.  Soon the  English and the German soldiers were singing the same hymns in their own languages. Following is a quote from from the soldiers who were there, eye witnesses.  "I was gazing towards the German lines when suddenly lights began to appear along the top of German trenches.  They were Christmas trees adorned with lighted candles burning steadily in the still frosty air.  When we finished singing, the Germans began clapping. A German soldier shouted in English "No shooting tonight. Sing tonight, sing tonight.  A sign was put up that said, English soldiers, Merry Christmas.  Another sign said, Come out English soldiers and hear us sing.  Finally a German officer came out of the trenches and walked towards the English trenches, shouting in English.  I am a lieutenant.  Gentlemen, my life is in your hands.  I am alone and unarmed.  Will not one of you come out and meet me?  Gentlemen, I am waiting."  Soon the unthinkable happened.  German and English soldiers were getting out of their trenches.  At any other time, this would have been suicide.  They shook hand, wished each other Merry Christmas and were soon conversing as if they had known each other for years.  Where they couldn't speak the language of the other, they made themselves understood by signs. They were laughing and chatting with men who a few hours ago they were trying to kill.  They exchanged cigarettes and chocolates.  For a while they were not enemies, but friends under the influence of a super power.  An estimated 100,000 troops experienced the Christmas truce which spanned a hundred miles along the trenches of the Western Front.    The Spirit of Christmas, which is the spirit of Christ brought peace, love, and joy for a short while in the midst of the atrocities of war.  The next day the shelling and the killing started again and the war was back on.  Constant shell bombardment from both sides and sniper fire spread death everywhere and hope was nowhere.    

And so, a wondrous little babe was born to Mary in Bethlehem.  The greatest of all was born in the humblest of all circumstances and because of Him death has lost its sting and the grave its victory.  Because of Him we can be forgiven and we will live forever.  Because of Jesus Christ we can have the greatest gift of all life eternal.  And we can express our love toward one another and toward God by giving of ourselves, by serving others, and by following Him in all that we do.

Dinner at the Lemble's

 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.

Little Christmas Trees

 Well I'm back from a long absence.  First of all our internet was down and it took FOREVER to get it working again.  It finally took Elder Ellis to come to my house and figure out that I needed a new router.  Videotron, the company here that provides internet and TV service was happy to rent me one for a mere $397.00 a month fee.  I couldn't believe it.  When Elder Ellis was talking to them on the phone his response was, "That is out the window."  I bought a new router the following week for $40.00.  What a difference!   The other thing is that we are soooo busy every single day at the office.  We get there about 8:10 and work until after 5:00.  We are busy every single minute with only a 10 or 15 minute break for lunch.  John is responsible for everything that has to do with the fleet of cars.  I think the mission has about 48 cars now plus a van and a few trucks.  He is in charge of keeping them all in good working condition.  The past month he has been busy making sure that everyone has snow tires on their vehicles, sometimes buying new tires. He is also responsible for buying and selling cars.  Recently he has sold a couple of cars and has also purchased several cars.  This week he and Elder Conway, the financial secretary had to drive up to Quebec City with the van to pick up 10 elders and sisters and bring them down to Montreal for the missionary christmas party. The drive usually takes 3 hours, but because of the snow it took about 5.  The next day they drove them back, but this time it took closer to 6 hours because of the storm.  They ended up staying in a hotel because the storm was so bad the the visibility was about 0.  They drove home the next day.

Above is a photo of our little Christmas tree that I fixed up for some Christmas cheer.

Next is a little tree that I have on our table and below is my favorite tree sent to me by the Primary children from our ward.  I was so excited to open a package and find this cute paper tree inside.  Each star and little paper have a note written to us to wish us a Merry Christmas and to cheer us on our mission.  We also got some candy, a tie for Elder Arhets and some nice gloves for me.
The missionaries are always so excited for their mail and I sure understand why.  Whenever you get a letter or a package you feel so happy and excited.  I thought it was so super thoughtful of the primary and their leaders to send us something.  We do have a great ward.

                                                

My duties at the office keep me busy all day every day.  I take care of all the mail and all of the ordering of supplies.  When the supplies come in, I am in charge of putting them away.  When zone conferences come around, I take the zone orders and fill them.  Each zone gets their boxes of supplies that they pick up on conference day.  I keep the supply room in order too.  I am charge of all baptismal records, filling out and sending the forms to SLC and writing letters to the people who get baptized and to the missionaries who taught them.  I answer the phone, take messages, answer the intercom when people come to the door, which is often.  I am in charge of all of the mission phones and the phone bill. I take care of all the International driving permits for the missionaries.  I order all of the name tags and Books of Mormon.  I make copies of many pages of forms and information and put together the books for the incoming and outgoing missionaries.  John and I both do training of the incoming missionaries.  When it is zone conference, we go to the conferences and after the training missionaries there, we go and check each car.  The car check ups are very detailed and it actually take 2 people to do it.  Recently I folded about 650 Christmas cards, stuffed them into envelopes, put on labels and  addresses and hand stamped each one.  We, the senior couples, put on 2 Christmas parties for the missionaries.  We had to set everything up, cook everything, serve, and clean up.  Prior to that Sis Conway and I had to mark every single present that arrived at the mission home for the missionaries and put each package into it's proper zone along with keeping tab of who got a gift.  I also do various other things that either the Pres or his wife ask me to do.  This is just a bit of what I do. There is a whole lot more such as making phone calls, etc  I just can't even remember right now.  By the time we get home we're so tired that we have a simple dinner and then don't do too much else unless we need to go out and do some missionary activity or something like that.
Elder Arhets has been called to be the executive secretary to the Branch President so that keeps him busy too with calls, visits, etc.  Tonight he is out with the President delivering baskets of food to needy people that the branch has put together.  We have been collecting non perishable goods for about a month and at the last moment getting perishables to add to the baskets.