June 20-26, 2022

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 Chinatown

The noodle restaurant is across the street from the dumplings.  You can stand at the window and watch them make the noodles by hand.


Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal

Saint Joseph's Oratory is a Catholic minor basilica.  The shrine is dedicated to Saint Joseph.  There is a law in Montréal that no building can be taller than Mont Royale (the bump in the city that they call a mountain).  The only exception is Saint Joseph's.



Views of the city from the observation deck

Observation point on Mont Royale

While we were stopped we saw this racoon checking out the trash containers

We had a great visit with Simons.  The only problem is that the visit was much too short.

Friday was Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, a provincial holiday in Quebec.  Everything was closed, unlike at home where a holiday usually means a big shopping day.  We took advantage of the downtime to visit some ward members further out in the country.


We have members in Beauharnois, Saint-Stanislav de Kostka and Huntingdon, which is over an hour drive to the chapel.  The countryside was beautiful - dairy farms and corn fields dotted the landscape.

There was a tri-stake YSA conference in Montréal over the weekend.  We volunteered to help the YSA senior couple prepare food, serve and clean up on Saturday afternoon.  We made chili and cornbread from scratch to feed 200.  It was quite a hot day Saturday and we're thinking there was a lot of leftover chili.  But I'm sure they will freeze it and use it at a later activity.

Last Sunday John was asked to speak, via Zoom, in the Cornerbrook Newfoundland Branch Sacrament meeting.  It is a very small branch with no missionaries currently serving there.  The Branch President was provided a list of the senior missionaries and when he needs a speaker, he calls one of us.  Cornerbrook is one and a half hours ahead of us so their meeting started at 8:30 am Montréal time.  That allowed us to get to our Sacrament meeting on time here.  John spoke first, there was an intermediate hymn, then President Nelson spoke.  A conference talk broadcast, of course, but now John likes to say he shared the podium with the prophet.


Comments

  1. rustysimon55June 27, 2022 at 7:54 AM

    We loved seeing you two and enjoying beautiful Montreal.

    ReplyDelete

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