February 21-27, 2022

At Senior District Council this week we learned that we would be doing missionary apartment inspections.  We thought we might not have that chore on this mission, as no one had mentioned anything until now.  Apparently the District Leaders or Zone Leaders have been doing the inspections - can you picture a 19-year-old conducting an inspection of another 19-year-old's apartment?  I can see how that wasn't working out!  So now the seniors have been asked to do an inspection once a quarter.  We don't really mind; the missionaries take the criticism fairly well and are pretty good natured about it.  We assumed we would be inspecting the apartments in our district but have been assigned to the Laval district about 50 minutes north of us.

We have continued to visit more of the older ward members.  Most of them have been pretty isolated during the pandemic and are not able to return to church yet.  I am not the most social person and I sometimes struggle with knowing what to say and how to comfort, console and uplift another in their circumstances.  We always pray before our visits to be able to see what we need to see and to understand what the needs might be.  I suppose people here are no different than anywhere else; we visit some that are in dire straights with illness or employment or other issues but they have a good attitude and keep going forward with faith.  Others have become so consumed with their woes that they cannot function.

Our friend Sister Ross had eye surgery this week.  She is having pain but doing fairly well.  We went over Saturday morning to clear her walks and had a nice chat with her inactive son.  He mentioned that "the church" had been there to give her a blessing.  He is a big help to her and we hope he will be agreeable to bringing her to church when she is well enough.

This is a huge mound of solid ice at the bottom of Ross' steps.  The downspout above the corner of the house is plastic and has cracked in the cold.  It has been dripping onto the steps since we were there a week ago.  It was way beyond what we could do with a snow shovel and scraper.  It will take many days of warm sunny weather to melt it.

Friday we had an appointment to do a temple session but it was a blizzard all day and we cancelled.  This was going to be my birthday outing and we had planned to stop for dinner on the way home.  We stayed in all day, watching the snow accumulate.  We all got a text from the Zone Leaders advising everyone not to go out unless it was essential.  Saturday morning we awoke to a brilliant, sunny day.

It was only 9 degrees F when we went out to clear the walks but the sun was shining!

We experienced our first heavy duty freezing rainstorm on Tuesday.  It happened so quickly.  We returned from an appointment and parked in front of the building.  We had a later appointment to teach with the sisters.  John went out to get his notebook from the car and came in covered with ice - literally.  We went out a few minutes later to move the car underground.  It was encased in a quarter-inch of ice.  We had to wait while the car warmed up a bit and scrape the ice off the windows to see well enough to get to the garage entrance.  We were glad when the appointment was cancelled, as there was no way we were driving back into the city on the ice.

We attended our first Zone Conference in this mission.  We decided to take the metro into the city with the young missionaries so we didn't have to deal with traffic and parking.  And they could show us the ropes our first time.  There is a station a few blocks from the chapel and we all met there.  This was the day following the ice storm and the parking lot at the metro was a skating rink.  John was at the kiosk paying the parking while I slowly tried to slide my way to the building entrance.  The truck with the salt/sand mix was coming by.  He stopped and told us to follow behind him.  He waited while John finished, then slowly started and sprayed a path for us to walk on.  What a kind gesture!

We purchased "occasional" rider tickets.  When the weather improves and we are able to get out more, we'll look into purchasing monthly senior passes.  The metro is only on the island and not out where we live yet.

Waiting for the train with our district.

Elder Cooper enjoying his ride.

I was chatting with Sister Harkness when these sisters came over asking if they could do a photo with us. I can't tell you who the sisters are, but here we are!

Mount Royal Zone Conference on February 25, 2022.  This is about the size of our entire mission when we served in Bosnia!  Zone Conference was held in the chapel located in the same building as the mission office.  The chapel is in the basement, the cultural hall on the main level, classrooms and offices on the second floor and the mission office on the third floor.  We know that a YSA branch meets in the building but not sure who else uses it.

President and Sister Harkness both taught us beautiful lessons on baptism.  The Sister Trainer Leaders and Zone Leaders taught us to properly fill out the forms, how to prepare for baptismal service, the interview process and other details.  They asked all the missionaries to write down issues that they have experienced right before a baptism.  They compiled the list and sent it out to us.  Our challenge this month is to discuss each issue and how we might resolve whatever the issue is.  Some of the list is pretty funny.  Here is the list - how would you resolve these issues?  Think like a 19-year-old.

▪︎Bad weather conditions ▪︎ They tell you " I like weed a lot" ▪︎Travelling ▪︎Child custody & Approval ▪︎Fear of Water ▪︎Didn't have a jump suit within the mission boundaries to fit our friend ▪︎The font plug wouldn't fit ▪︎They aren't comfortable with the baptismal interview questions ▪︎Relapse on a word of wisdom habit ▪︎No Hot water ▪︎you find out they had been baptized 3-4 times previously in various missions ▪︎Hesitant to share their real concerns with you ▪︎Baptismal water is brown ▪︎They aren't a legal citizen and can't get their documents finished ▪︎Worried about COVID not comfortable with in person meetings ▪︎The pipes are frozen ▪︎No family support ▪︎"10% of tithing is too much to pay" ▪︎Just found out about past sins that weren't previously repented of - Law of Chastity ▪︎You find out the morning of the baptism that her husband and her aren't legally married ▪︎Their spouse will divorce them if they get baptized ▪︎Has an anxiety attack as they are walking into the font ▪︎Their family will shun them if they get baptized ▪︎They find Anti- material and start to have doubts a day before their baptism ▪︎Doesn't have consent from a parent ▪︎The bishop calls you an hour before the baptism and says he can't make it ▪︎ she's pregnant and living with her boyfriend

One recently baptized sister had a myriad of challenges prior to her baptism. She told the missionaries that challenges aren't problems to solve, but solutions to find.

We just love being part of this experience, watching the young missionaries learn and grow and doing a bit of learning and growing ourselves.

I have been fascinated with the snow removal in the city. The streets are quite narrow and there is no place to put the snow when they plow or shovel. In the neighborhoods, you must park on alternate sides of the street on alternate days. That way the plows can come through and remove the snow on the one side; the next day they remove the snow on the opposite side. As I have mentioned before, it never warms up enough for the snow to melt so it stays where it is all winter. They truck the snow to the banks of the Saint Lawrence and dump it to eventually melt into the river. I was able to get some video while John was searching for a parking spot.

A big plow goes first, scraping the snow away from the curb. The dump truck goes in front of the snow blower. Another plow follows to scrape up the remaining snow and they circle back a second time to pick it up. Hope this video works.

An empty dump truck waiting his turn. We see this going on every day, all day long.

Okay, here's the food section. You all know how we love to share our food adventures when we travel. Montreal is famous for smoked meats; not sure how that came to be or why, I'll need to research that for another blog. On Thursday we had lunch with our Relief Society president. She took us to Province La Belle in LaSalle. We both tried the smoked meat sandwich.

The slice of bread wasn't large enough to hold the meat. We ended up eating the meat with a fork. And there were enough fries to feed a family of six! It was tasty but not fabulous. We'll taste our way through the city until we find the fabulous one!

On Saturday I got my birthday dinner at Robbie's Smokehouse and Burger Bar. It is located on the highway close to where we lost the windshield wiper last week.

The young Elders told us about this place. It's definitely all about the meat. John is in heaven.

My burger and onion rings (rings are my guilty pleasure).

John's smoked brisket.

The best part of the day was when we found a patisserie not far from our apartment. We have been craving some of the French pastries we both love.

The name of the patisserie is Obsession and I believe it may become just that. We bought three baguettes for dinner Sunday. They were still warm and it took all my self control not to tear into them right away. John's favorite pastry is mille feuille. The chocolate one is mine.

The missionaries had 11 friends (formerly known as investigators) at church today. We think that is pretty awesome. We asked about one young man who is on date for baptism later this month. Unless he has to go to prison.

Here's the group after the much anticipated birthday dinner. We brought the Sisters home with us after church. The Elders followed later in the Sister's car. They all brought food to contribute to the dinner and we had a good time. The trio of Elder's had an appointment this evening in Châteauguay and took the car again. We drove the other Elders and Sisters back to their apartments. I couldn't have asked for a better group of young people to spend my birthday with this year.

From Zone Conference: "We don't preach and teach in order to bring people into the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. We invite all to come unto Christ in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else can do this." (President Dallin H Oaks)