St Joseph's Oratory

 

 Friday we took a little 2 hour trip with the Allens and the Conways to visit St Joseph's Oratory.  The Allen's are in a room that is filled with hundreds of votive candles.  Those of the Catholic faith light the candles and pray.

 This gigantic cathedral is very beautiful both inside and out.  It was founded by Brother Andre, who was a very loving and giving priest who dedicated his life to helping others.

 There are two gigantic chapels.  This is the inside of the one on the bottom.  The one on the top, in the dome is very modern.

.

In the hall of votives there are many sections such as this one.  There is a little stairway on each side where one can go to to top and light a candle that is up high.

Lining the walls in little alcoves are hundreds of canes.  These canes are canes that have been left behind by people who came in using them and after the prayers of Father Andre and other faithful ones, the people left healed.

                                                          Another section of votives.

                                            This is the inside of the oratory on the first level.

                                     Many beautiful stained glass windows line each side wall.

                                      The statue in the front is of Joseph holding baby Jesus.

                                                This is one of the organs.  It is huge.

Many people used to make a pilgrimage crawling to the church from many miles away and then crawling all the way to the alter.  I saw this woman who was on her knees crawling from the back of the church to the front.  She would stop every few feet and pray.

     On the 5th level is a museum.  This is an actual robe, hat and shoes that Frere Andre wore.

                                                         A model of the cathedral.

A wax figure of Frere Andre.  According to this and the size of his clothes, he appears to be a very small man.

This is the bed and furnishings taken from the hospital which he established and in which he died.

We looked through this gated wall into a little box filled with (formaldehyde?) or some other preservative that holds the heart of Frere Andre.

                                     The following are photos from the upper level chapel.

There are many wooden carvings and paintings everywhere.  

There are 7 levels in all, but we were only able to tour the first 5.  The others were closed off.

                                                       The view from the top.

The path to the left leads to gardens and the stations of the cross which depict Christ's journey to Gethsemane.

                     The Allens and the Conways with Papa at the entrance to the gardens.

Outside by the gift shop is this bell tower. As we were leaving some beautiful music was coming from those bells.

Busy Week

 Once again we had a busy, busy week.  On Monday and Tuesday I was busy preparing for transfers, training and getting phones ready for the 20 new missionaries. The phone became a real undertaking which resulted in many hours of work.  I had previously ordered new phones for all of the new missionaries and new areas.  On Monday I had each one activated with a phone number that was on the box which the phone was in.  I also registered each phone and recorded the sim card number with the phone company and on the church records.  On Wed. afternoon I began getting calls from missionaries that their phones were not working.  I quickly figured out that the company gave phone numbers from existing phones to the new phones.  Why didn't their system catch this?  So annoying.  I then had to call the company on Thursday, after they opened a few hours later because they are in a different time zone. I had to have them reinstall each old phone number to the old sim card.  Then we had to open a new line, with again another new sim card and set up each new phone with a new sim card and a new phone number as well as a new name.  What a job.  It took hours.  You would think that was the end of it.  Oh no, on Thursday eve. my own phone stopped working.  They had given my number to another missionary phone and shut mine down.  Friday I had to fix that mess.

Here is Sister Murcdoch.  She is such a great missionary. It so happens that she is a friend of my dear friend Sharon and she lives less than a mile away from where I live in the US.  What a fun coincidence.  I got to e-mail with her before she even came to the mission.  She is an awesome girl and I have had lots of fun getting to know her.  She and her companion were working with the young adults for this transfer and I saw her every day.  Now she is being transferred to Quebec City.  Sister Murdoch just arrived last transfer and she will already be training a new sister this transfer. 

Sister Bolanos is wonderful too.  She just arrived last transfer and this transfer she will be training a new sister also.  It is great and amazing to see the quality of the new missionaries that are arriving.

Elder Yunack is from Vauatu and Elder Beaumont is from Canada.  They come to the office every day.  Both are awesome missionaries.  I love to talk to them and all the missionaries and to hear their fun stories.  For example the thing Elder Yunnack misses most about home is going pig hunting.  He actually hunts with a spear and then they cook the pig for dinner in the ground.  All of our missionaries are so great.  Many come from other countries and they all learn to speak English and French as well as Quebecois.  Many of them also learn Spanish and we also have those who serve in the Chinese areas and so they learn Mandarin.  What an accomplishment!

Sister Bourdon is from France.  Sister Bousiere is from Virginia and Sister U-fa from Tahiti.  Besides being sweet and smart these sisters are hard workers. Here they are in their p-day attire ready to write e-mails home.
On Wednesday morning Sister Conway and I arrive at the mission home about 8:00.  We meet the new missionaries and then we get busy copying their personal things like drivers license, IDP, passport, and visa.  We have to do that as fast as possible because at 9:00 we begin training.  Each one of us trains in a different area.  The Elder Arhets and Elder Conway arrive and they do their training, Elder Arhets trains all of the driving stuff and Elder Conway the financial.  Sister Conway and I then rush back to the office where she needs to get out certain paperwork and I need to print boarding passes and pay for luggage.  Problems often come up.  This time we had four Tahitian Elders whose transfer flight to Tahiti from L.A. was cancelled.  This is a big problem because the next flight wouldn't leave for a few days.  Meanwhile we also have a temple session scheduled for 1:00 this same day.  At first Pres cancelled the temple session and we had to call all who would be attending not to go.  We also were going to call all of the parents who had to pick up the missionaries in Tahiti.  Finally, after many calls to travel and various people we were able to arrange for the LA mission president take the missionaries for a few days until they could catch their plane to Tahiti.  Of course I then had to recall all of the people who would be working at the temple to tell them that plans were back on.    

                                    Here we are with the outgoing missionaries at the temple.

                                                 Sisters Rojo, Gutierrez, and Limburg

 

Elders Pohue, Shaver, and Vanfau.  Elders Berdichevski-Poroi and Teuira were still inside talking to the temple pres.

After the temple we went to Schwartz's with the Howards to have dinner.  Schwartzes is a famous Montreal Deli on St Laurent.  It's a tiny place with table for 8 standing by the walls.  Everyone shares tables. They are famous for serving real smoked meat. The walls are lined with photos of famous people who have eaten there.  Unfortunately my battery on my camera died.

The meal they are most famous for is this sandwich along with fries and a dill pickle along with a black cherry soda.  We all ordered the same thing and it was delicious.  We did have to take 1/2 a sandwich home as it is quite large.