November Zone Conferences

Last week we participated in three days of zone conferences.  Elder Pieper of the First Quorum of Seventy presided.  Here he is at the right next to our mission President Patrick.  On Monday we were in Quebec City.  On Tuesday it was Mount Royal, Montreal North and South, and Longueuil North and South zones combined, and  on Wednesday it was Ottawa.  We did a lot of traveling between conferences.  It takes about 3 hours to drive to QC from Montreal and about two and a half hours in the opposite direction to go to Ottawa. We didn't get to hear too much of the conferences because most of our time was spent checking all of the mission cars.  Our mission now has 60 cars and that is a lot of work.  Add to that the cold weather and snow on Monday, -2C and very high winds on Tuesday and -2C all day Wednesday and you get two cold and tired people after all of the inspections are completed. Luckily my ink in the pen did not freeze this time so that was a real plus.
From what we did hear, we were very impressed.  One of the things Elder Pieper stressed was member involvement in missionary work and it's benefits on the family, the missionary, and the investigator.  He also really stressed how each individual has the right to receive personal revelation and direction in teaching and also in reading the scriptures.  He helped the missionaries to see how they can and should rely on the spirit and how they truly are representatives of Jesus Christ.
We loved seeing all of the missionaries and spending a little bit of time with them.  I love the missionaries and am so impressed with how wonderful they are. They are so young and yet they carry the spirit with them.  They know how to talk to people and how to teach the important principles of the gospel.  They are just great.  Here are some of the missionaries in Quebec City.  I love to get reacquainted with the ones that I get to know well.  It's always an exciting reunion.  The Sisters always give me the biggest hug and the Elders give me a great handshake and the biggest smile.

We have missionaries from all over the world, Canada, USA (Alaska and Hawaii) and many other states, Tahiti, Vanuatu, Mexico, France, England, Columbia, Chili Switzerland, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Peru, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and EnglandC.  It is amazing to see the talents and abilities of these young people.  They all speak at least 2 languages.  Many of them speak 3 and more languages.

We had a yummy lunch prepared by a family in the Stake.  We had chicken with rice and a sauce, salad and rolls.  This dessert was so delicious. I am a chocolate fan so I especially like this.

Our Tuesday conference was our busiest because we had 38 cars to do.  When we inspect each car,we have to check all sorts of things; tire pressure and depth of treads, all signals, brakes and brake lights, horn, seat belts, all of the levels under the hood, cleanliness of the inside, outside, and trunk of the car, certain paperwork that must be there and various other things.  We do have a system going now and so we are much quicker than we used to be.  It's harder when it's cold because of the bulky clothes we have to wear to keep warm and also because our fingers freeze.   It's all okay though because we are doing what needs to be done.  We don't mind at all. 

I was so impressed with Elder Pieper and also the fellow below who is one of the Stake Presidents.  They both got up and helped serve everyone else who was there when they were the ones who should have been served.  They both went around and made sure that everyone had their plates of food and that they have something to drink.  They also talked with those who prepared the food and thanked them.  They were the last ones to sit down and eat and then they also helped clear the tables.  Of course they weren't the only ones helping, but it was still very impressive that they would think to do that.

At this zone conference we had salad, mashed potatoes that had cheese curds in them, and meat loaf that had pistachios and other yummy ingredients.

                                                 Cream puffs were the yummy dessert.

A sea of young missionaries from all over the world wanting to serve the Lord, wanting to bring the gospel to the people of Canada, wanting to be the best that they can be.  They are the cream of the crop.
                                  This is part of our Spanish speaking delegation in Montreal.

This is our Chinese delegation hailing from China, Utah, Great Britain, and 3 from France.

Aren't these the best young people?  Looking at how clean they are and seeing their great smiles you can just tell how happy and wonderful they are.

Downtown Montreal

 When  we were driving home from the temple a few weeks ago, I took these photos of Downtown Montreal.  It's so interesting to see so many modern building right next to very old buildings.  This is the route a short ways after crossing the Champlain Bridge, turning on Sherbrooke and finally going on Berri which is the street we live on.

 We live in the white building.  Next to our building is a Metro stop.  We can access the Metro by going downstairs and into the basement level.  It's very convenient for wintery, snowy days.  We can just go downstairs and take the Metro to the mission office.  When we get to our stop, it is just a short walk across the street.  Our little Prius is so low to the ground that last year we got stuck several times in the snow.  A few times the missionaries got us out and a few times a little snow plow had to come and dig us out because we just couldn't get out of the snow.  We also had help a few times from people on the street who were digging out their driveways and would stop their work to come and help us.  Some of the streets get so much snow that it's nearly impossible to pass through them.  We noticed that so many of the people who live in Montreal are very helpful to those stuck in the snow.  We saw many, many cars being dug out or pushed with the help of people on the street.  There are also several little shops, a bakery, some medical offices, and a hair/nail salon there.  I love that I can just go downstairs for a hair cut or a mani or pedicure.

Halloween 2013

Here it is November and I'm just now writing about Halloween.    I have a good excuse though.  My internet was down and it was just fixed by Elder Bendio.   So, I'm back in business now.

We had a nice Halloween day at the office.  I bought lots of candy for the missionaries to eat all week long.  In the afternoon, Sister Patrick, President's wife, called and asked if we were going to be in the office around 4:00.  I said that we would be there.  She then said, "Don't tell anyone there, but the kids really want to come and show YOU their costumes."  Of course I was so happy to see them.  I was so glad they wanted to come up and show off a little in front of me.  

 Dan loves everything Harry Potter and I think he made a great Draco.

      Emily was a beautiful little Rapunzel.  She danced up and down the hallway she was so happy.

                                                        Here's Clifford the Big Red Dog.

                                              And we have a very happy Sherlock Holmes.    

The amazing thing is that Sister Patrick made all of the costumes herself. I think she did an awesome job.  She said that it is their tradition for her to make the kids costumes every year.  This year they used old costumes, but no one here in Canada has ever seen them so all was well.

 Here she is in her Halloween sweater.  I remember that I always had Halloween clothes to wear in October when I was teaching school.  I also have Thanksgiving clothes and Christmas clothes.  It's a lot of fun to wear " appropriate for the month clothes" when you're teaching little kids and they always love it.  I really did love teaching.  It was never a chore for me, but always a pleasure.

Sushi lunch and Sis. Nilsen's B'day

 Sister Nilsen and I found a yummy little Sushi cafe just a block away from the office.  Once in a while we run down there and buy sushi for lunch.  Yummy!!!!  I often get Salmon Make.  It is so good!  John doesn't like sushi so he will either eat what we brought from home or sometimes he gets a good old American hamburger.  One of his favorites.

 Today is Sister Nilsen's golden B'day.  I made a special rice pudding for her with rice, honey, goat's milk and eggs.  She is allergic to so many things that this was what I thought of.  It turned out really good and luckily she LOVED it.  I made enough for the missionaries to try too, if they were brave enough.  We had a ton of missionaries today because it was Zone Leadership day and all of the zone leaders, Pres, AP's and a few other missionaries were here much of the day.  A lot of the missionaries ended up liking it too.
Exactly at 11:00, the time she was born, we sang Happy Birthday to her.  First we sang in French and then in English.  We also gave her some nice gifts.  I think her day went really well.

 I also made lots of chocolate chip cookies for the Elders and Sisters.  They went like wild fire.  I barely had a chance to take a picture.  I was saving these for the Elders who helped me pack up zone orders this week.

 After their training, the missionaries came up and sang Happy Birthday to Sis. Nilsen.  You can see Pres. Patrick on the far right and his wife on the left in a red jacket.  It was so nice that they remembered her on her special day.

Brownies

A funny story from our babysitting adventure.  On Saturday I made brownies.  I forgot to take a picture, but these from google look about the same.  Anyway, today President's wife came to the office to thank us for taking care of the kids.  She said they were all happy, calm, the house was clean and everything went great.  She was happy and that made me happy.  Then she said that they loved the food that I prepared and they also loved the brownies.  She wanted to know how I made them and did I just use the brownie mix that she left at the house?  I told her that yes, I had just used the brownie mix.  "Well," she said.  "The kids liked yours much better and in fact so did the President.  What was my secret ingredient that I added?"  I laughed and told her it must have been the contest.  As we were finishing up dinner, Dan wondered who would be the lucky one to get the first piece.  When I told him that I hadn't even cut the brownies yet, he said that was even better.  Each person could cut just the size they wanted.  Then the kids said we should have a contest.  I quickly said that yes that my John and I would ask questions and the first person to reach 10 points would be the winner.  We proceeded to ask some very difficult questions; scientific facts, equations, literature questions, mathematical questions etc.  The older kids got all of the answers instantly.  They are all very bright.  Then I had to throw in a few ballet questions for little Emily to be able to get some points.  I asked what a pas de chat was.  She quickly showed me and got a point.  Then I asked what an arabesque was and she and John almost tied.  John was first, so he showed us an arabesque.  We all giggled at his manly attempt.  Then I had Em do it.  Of course hers was perfect, so we gave the point to her.  Everyone agreed that she should have the point.  We laughed and had lots of fun asking questions and the kids giving the answers and trying to beat one another.  It was a close contest, but John finally won.  We all applauded.  No wonder those were the best brownies ever.  They had to work to get them.  Haha.

A Babysitting Week

This week our mission president and his wife went to Pennsylvania for a mission president's conference.  They asked us to baby sit for four of their children, so we agreed. We packed our things and moved in for several days.  The kids were awesome.  They were so well behaved and they were very quiet too.  They are really very nice and very smart kids.  We had to get up at the crack of dawn every day to get everyone fed and then we drove them to their private school.  Then we went to the office and did our regular office days except we had to leave early to pick them up and take them home from school.  We also needed to take Emily to ballet a few times.

I feel badly that I made a bad decision once though.  One day as we were waiting to get the kids from school, Emily called me and said that she was in the middle of a soccer tournament and that there would be 2 more games.  It would end at 5:15 which meant she wouldn't be able to make it to ballet which is from 5 to 6.  She didn't exactly know which she wanted to do.  I asked her if she was playing in both games and she said, "Yes."  Then I asked her what would happen if she missed ballet and she told me that nothing bad would happen.  I questioned her if there would be points taken away or anything like that and she replied that no there would be no problem.  I couldn't reach the parents and so finally I let her stay and finish playing in the tournament.  It ended up being the wrong decision.  As it turns out, the ballet students are only allowed 3 absences the entire year no matter what the reason or they will be kicked out of the school and she had already had 1 absence due to illness. Her Mom was not very happy that she had missed ballet.  I am so sorry that I made that choice, but I really didn't know what to do.  She is a member of the soccer team and she also is in ballet.  It's too late now, but I sure wish I had known.  

Besides that incident we had a great week.  They family has an interesting way of doing scripture study.  Each day one of the older children picks a verse that seems important to them.  They read it aloud and then talk about the verse and what it means and how it applies to us.  Then we discuss it for a while.  It was a great way to have some great conversations and to emphasize and some important gospel principles each day.  After that we always had prayer.  

Some of the dinners I made for them were Chicken with mushrooms and spaghetti with a white sauce and salad, Pork chops cooked with apples and maple syrup sauce served on mashed potatoes, Loaded Nachos, and Creamed turkey on toast with brownies for dessert.  On Saturday morning I made pancakes and eggs.  They seemed to really like all of the meals.  Each evening a different kid helped with the dishes.  

Saturday we were supposed to go to the Biodome and Planetarium together, but John had hurt or pulled his Achilles tendon and has been barely walking all week so we couldn't go.  However, their parents allowed them to go by themselves and so we just drove them there and picked them up.  They had a wonderful time and enjoyed seeing everything.  

We had a great week, but oh so busy with the office work and all.  Also, I had kind of forgotten how much work it is to take care of a family and do everything else too.  I am tired today.

A few weeks ago we were asked to teach the temple prep class.  Here are our students.  We have only had 2 classes so far, but it's going really well.  The class members even take notes.  We are enjoying teaching this little group.

 Today was the children's Sacrament program.  Here is a picture of our tiny Primary.  Four families are represented here although I think there are a couple more on the roll.  The branch we are attending now is a little, struggling branch.

Mid Transfer

This week we had an extra transfer.  We had 6 new missionaries come in, all of them will be Chinese speaking missions.  Above are 4 of the Chinese speaking missionaries who met at the office for transfers and were so excited to see each other.  "Our family is together again!"they exclaimed.  One of them is the great grandfather, then the grandfather, the father and the newest one.  I love how they all consider themselves family.  The father is the original trainer and so on.  Of course now all of them will be trainers.   The work does go on.  We are having quite a few people getting baptized in the Montreal Mandarin Branch and now we will have 2 new areas opening up in Ontario.

The first time I got Chinese name tags, which I myself ordered, in all Chinese characters, I was so excited for the missionaries to be able to get them.  However, just a moment later I thought,  "Oh no. Now which tag goes to which missionary?  Haha..  I can't read Chinese.  They have to figure it out themselves.

These Chinese missionaries are from France, originally China but now Ca, U.S., Canada and Switzerland.  It's so fun for me to get to know Elder Riff.  He is actually the best from of one of our French Sisters from our last mission in France/Belgium.  Soeur Fritch is now married and has a little boy of her own, but they still remain good friends.  If's fun to have so many connections with people that we already know and people that we become friends with on the mission.

Each day those that live near the office come in to check for mail and to do e-mails.  Elder Fontaine from France, Elder Smith from Provo and Elder Fernandez from Toelle are some of those that come in quite often.  They are all awesome missionaries.

                                               Elder Renier in the middle is from Canada

                Sisters Ryser from Germany and Sister Zelaya  are always so cheerful and friendly.  I love to
                                     see them every day and to get a big hug from them.