February 7-13, 2022

This week was transfer week.  Sister Quinton was transferred to Ottawa and Elder McStravik went home.  The missionaries receive their transfer notice by personal email late Sunday evening or early Monday morning.  The travel instructions are posted on a Google doc and travel takes place on Thursday.  On transfer week there is no District Council and the mission office is closed except for transfer related business.

The temperatures have been much warmer this week, between 28 - 34 F.  It has been overcast and rainy, windy with occasional snow flurries.  We are still walking indoors.  Until the temps reach the mid forties and the skies are clear, I'm opting to stay dry and warmer in the garage.

The top picture is our parking space.  The garage is large; three paths or roads with parking stalls on each side.  One lap around the garage is about 1/4 mile.  We usually do 10 laps or about 2 1/2 miles each morning.  The other residents look at us strangely and a few have made comments about we should be getting fresh air so we assume no one has used the garage for walking before.

Last week when we visited Sister Ross, she asked if we could make copies of a poem someone had given her.  She wanted it on colored paper with a fancy edging.  We said sure, not really thinking it through.  Our first thought was to go to a FedEx copy center or someplace like Staples and have them do it.  They all would copy but not do the fancy trim.  So we bought some paper and went to every store we could think of for scissors.  (I have several pairs at home in Utah that would work just fine.)  We finally found a pair of plastic children's scissors at Michael's and got the job done.  This is the poem.

We delivered the poems on Friday and finished scraping the ice off her steps.  The warmer weather really helped loosen the three inches of ice under the snow.

This is Sister Ross's home.  We noticed that many homes do not have garages or have only a one-car garage.  A lot of people have put these canvas or plastic shelters in the driveways.  Most of them are also enclosed at the rear.

And this is vivacious, charming Sister Ross.  She is originally from New Zealand and calls herself a "kiwi."  She came to Canada as a young adult, met her husband and has five children.  She joined the church in Canada many years ago, has been a temple worker and served a senior mission after her husband passed away.  She told us that when her children were young, she took them to have family pictures taken.  They weren't being very cooperative until the photographer told them to say "poopy pants" (rather than the usual smile or say cheese).  That made them laugh and that's what the family has said for picture taking since then.  So when I asked if I could take her picture and put it in the blog - after explaining what a blog is - she agreed but had to say "poopy-pants" when I took the pictures.  She is a delight to be around!

Did you know that Montreal is an island in the Saint Lawrence River?  There are eight bridges that connect to Montreal.  When I was doing a little research, I read that the name should be changed to Pont-real.  Pont is the French word for bridge.  Montreal was founded in 1612 and the first bridge, a wooden bridge, was erected in 1847.  We live south of the city, across the river.  While out doing errands, we decided to drive to the Montreal Temple.

The red pin near the top is the temple.  It is about a 40 minute drive from our apartment.  Châteauguay is near the bottom left of the map.  Our ward building is in LaSalle, about a 20 minute drive for us.  The ward includes Châteauguay, Kahnawake, LaSalle, Verdun, Dorval, Lachine and several other little communities not shown on the map.

When we go to church we cross the river via the Honoré Mercier (a former Prime Minister) Bridge.

I borrowed the picture from the internet, which looks much nicer than it really is.  It was completed in 1934 to connect the island from LaSalle to Kahnawake.  I don't think any improvements have been made since then.  It is ugly gray and looks like it might fall apart at any moment.  We just cross on faith.

I took the photos below on our way to church this morning.  The bridge doesn't look quite as pretty as above.  The sun is shining today but it was -5 F when we left for church at 9:15 am.

We finished our errands in the LaSalle area, then drove north and crossed the river eastbound via the Samuel de Champlain Bridge.  

This is also an internet photo but I snapped a couple pictures of the cables as we crossed.

This bridge connects Verdun to Brossard and was completed in 2019.  It was another blustery day but the first time we really saw the water.  It is usually overcast and foggy around the river areas.

We had visited the Montreal Temple nearly 20 years ago and I had forgotten about where it is located.  It is not in the typical quiet residential area surrounded by lovely homes.  The rear of the temple is adjacent to a busy highway that runs parallel to the river.

There is a chapel next to the temple and a few homes nearby but it appears to be mostly an industrial area.

The temple itself is beautiful, of course.  It was announced in 1986 and dedicated June 4, 2000.  It is the 86th operating temple of the church.

There are beautiful maple leaf designs above all the outside windows.  The maple leaf is the symbol of Canada.  It represents unity, tolerance and peace.  Montreal chose this theme for the building both for what it represents and to portray its location.

Saturday evening there was a Valentine's dinner at the mission office for the senior missionaries.  The office sisters did a great job putting together a fondue dinner and we enjoyed meeting the other couples.

We had a group picture taken (I will share it when it is shared with me) after dinner.  It was a little disorganized; which wall to use as background, how to pose, etc.  John and I looked at each other and said "where is Sister Melonakos when we need her?"  Sister Melonakos is our former mission president's wife who took thousands of pictures everywhere she went.  All the missionaries gave her a bad time about it but she always had us whipped into line and the pictures taken in no time.  We could have used her last night!

We went to church in person today.  We had to wear masks and show our Covid passport before we were allowed to enter the building.  It was so nice being in the chapel and we were allowed to have music and sing, too!  There were about 70 people in the chapel.  They still broadcast Sacrament meeting but have decided to discontinue classes via zoom.

"No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you.  He loves you with an infinite love." (Dieter F Uchtdorf)

We know this to be true!  Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow.