We just returned from a ward missionary fireside. Five returned missionaries in the ward spoke about their missions and showed photos of their experiences. Then we went into the cultural hall to see the keepsakes they brought home and enjoy food from where they served. We enjoyed food from Italy, Australia, British Columbia, The Netherlands and Philippines. We have several Pilipino sisters in the ward and they made several different dishes. They were all tasty and had exotic sounding names, none of which I can remember except the fish balls.
We continue with our attempts to find and visit with ward members. Some days don't feel very productive when the member has moved away and no one knows where they went. Or they have passed away and no one in the ward was aware of it.
This is Sister Smith, whom we visit in the hospital each Thursday. She has been in the hospital since we arrived in January. She has had a couple surgeries and has a myriad of health issues but always has a smile and a good attitude. She is from Granada and has no family in Montréal. We have to gown and glove and mask up before we enter her room. It was her birthday on Friday so we took a small container of brownies. She was so excited to have a homemade treat!
This is Montréal General Hospital. It is located in a very nice but older area of the city. It is quite a long metro ride for us, then we take a bus from the metro stop to the hospital. We could drive but the traffic in a city of 4.2 million people is pretty crazy and the price of gas is still over $8.00 per gallon so we have learned to use public transit or walk when we are in the city. There is a large park across the street from the hospital.
Last week while waiting for the bus we saw this group of children coming out of the park, then walking down the street to their school. We aren't sure which park it is or what they might have been doing in the park; an educational outing of some sort we guess.
Three weeks ago we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting today. We were all prepared and sitting on the stand. One minute before the meeting started, the counselor came over to us and started apologizing profusely about a scheduling conflict and could we speak another day? Apparently he forgot that the fourth Sunday is high council Sunday. So we removed ourselves from the stand and enjoyed the meeting in the congregation. The high councilor and his wife gave lovely talks. They are both from Taiwan and serve in the Mandarin branch. They served an MLS mission on mainland China in 2019.
We have started working in a food bank on Friday afternoons. The young Elders and Sisters in our district have been doing service there for awhile.
This is Mission Bon Acceuil, or Welcome Hall. It is a large warehouse-type building with many services. We worked in the food bank area.
The patrons come through the line with a colored ticket. We have a chart that tells us how much of each item is allowed per each color. My station had potatoes, carrots, zucchini, chicken broth, gallon water bottles, yogurt and individual size frozen pizzas. John distributed ginger ale, canned crescent rolls, oranges, frozen french fries, onions, whole wheat spaghetti and chick peas. There weren't many takers of the chick peas.
The young missionaries serve as runners. They replenish our supplies at the windows as we need them. We had a good time together and it was a good experience for us.
After the food bank, we met Sister Corbett (from the mission office) in Chinatown for dumplings. We went into a store and tried on hats while Sister Corbett shopped.
After Bishop's storehouse on Saturday, John went to Sister Ross's house to replace the rotted wood on her sun porch. Her son from Ontario was there for the afternoon and they worked together to get it completed. All that is left is to replace the siding and do a little painting.
These are the before pictures. I was home working on that talk I didn't give so don't have any after pictures yet.
Zone Conference was on Tuesday. President and Sister Harkness are both excellent teachers. We have been through all the points of the missionary purpose now. Tuesday we learned about enduring to the end. They referenced Elder Renlund's October 2018 conference talk "Choose You This Day." Here are a few highlights from our conference:
- We are not waiting for eternity, we are living it.
- We own our choices; agency is your power. 1/3 of the hosts of heaven gave up their agency to choose.
- Enduring to the end includes keeping the commandments.
- Obedience is NOT a checklist, a vending machine of blessings (put something in, get something back) or a buffet (eat all you want), oppressive, restrictive, hard or boring.
- Obedience IS practice, change, empowering, hearing, seeing, understanding (seeing through spiritual eyes), safe, peaceful.
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