John and Karen in the Canada Montreal Mission

When you live far away from home for an extended period of time, it is a treat to have family and friends come to visit.  Our good friends and neighbors arrived on Monday just as our Senior District Council on Zoom ended.  We took the rest of the day and Tuesday off to tour Montréal with Rusty and Christine Simon. Simons' first ride on the Montréal metro We rode the hop-on hop-off bus around the city and explored some of the sights with Simons for the first time.  It was a great opportunity for us to see more of the city, as we are usually underground on the metro. Poutine, Quebec's pride.  French fries, brown gravy and cheese curds. First poutine for Christine We had fun at an art display called "Les Touristes" by Elizabeth Buffoli.  The sculptures portray a group of tourists:  a couple, a grandfather and a child, a skater and a dog.  It was a gift from Paris to the city of Montréal on its 375th anniversary. Life imitating art Dumplings for lunch in C...

 Happy Father's Day.  We have had a nice, quiet day.  The sun is shining but it feels more like a cool spring day here.  It has been raining most of the week and the temps dropped into the 50's for a day or two.  The brothers in our ward received this cute gift at church. Immediately after the gifts were distributed, we could smell popcorn.  Some of the youth were in the kitchen sampling one of the gifts. Since I did a little tribute to my mother and grandmothers on Mother's Day, it's only fair that I do the same for my father and grandfathers today. This is my father, Eldon Delbert Tolley.  He passed away in 2000 at the age of 84.  He experienced some troubled years when my mother passed away leaving six children under the age of 13 and again later when coping with the difficulties of a blended family.  But his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ never waivered.  He was an example to me of a faithful and dedicated servant in the res...

The long anticipated mission tour took place this week, culminating with Zone Conference on Friday.   Elder Sean Douglas of the Seventy and his wife Ann conducted the tour.  They started on Monday in the Atlantic provinces and worked their way west. Elder Sean and Sister Ann Douglas We began with a group photo at 8:30, then they shook each missionary's hand and the conference started at 9:00 am sharp!  They are both great teachers but I was so impressed with Sister Douglas.  She was very warm and funny, talking about sheep and her dogs, all related to a gospel concept of course.  She taught us a little about sheep behavior - how they know and recognize their shepherd's voice and respond only to his commands.  She also talked about how they ignorantly follow the head ewe's lead anywhere she takes them - for instance, off the edge of a cliff.  My dad had a small flock of sheep and we always called them stupid but she was much kinder and called them ...

Today we had a district dinner at our apartment.  Sister Pollock will be going home next transfer and this was our last supper. I made lasagna and the missionaries brought salad, bread and dessert.  I made four pans of lasagna - a small one for Sister Giustini without meat, one to take to Sister Ross later and two pans for the missionaries.  There was about half of one pan left after dinner and we sent it home with the missionaries. I forgot to post our food adventure from last week.  After we hiked Mont Royale, we stopped at Schwartz's Deli for a smoked meat sandwich. Waiting in line outside the deli The place is a dive; only has eight tables inside and everyone is on top of each other during the experience.  It's world famous, so the waiter kept telling us.  May be, but we had never heard of it until our friends from Las Vegas told us about it. Inside of Schwartz's Deli The sandwich was good - the best smoked meat we've had here.  But it still doesn'...