September 12-18, 2022

It is a cool and rainy day here in Montréal.  Only 55 F at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Sunset is coming earlier in the day - fall is on the way.  Fall is normally my favorite time of the year but I'm kind of dreading it this year because I know what will follow - another awful Quebec winter!

John has been helping one of the families in our ward with some home repairs.  They have a large home that has not been well maintained over the years.  The father had an accident a few months ago and is not working so he thought he would use his time fixing up the house.  John is teaching him some basics so he can do a few things on his own.  So far they have repaired some dry wall and re-hung the curtain rods in the dining and living rooms.

Monday after Senior District Council we drove to Vaudreuil-Dorion, where Elder and Sister Gothe live.  We coveted their large, roomy apartment but decided that having underground covered parking year round was a great benefit we wouldn't want to give up.  From there we went to Parc National d'Oka.  It is a beautiful park along the Ottawa River.  Coming from the north or east, you can drive all the way.  We approached from the south, which required a ferry ride.


The ferry captain's tower

The ferry holds 25 cars and leaves every 15 minutes.  It was about a 10-minute ride across the river.  There are two ferries that are constantly traveling back and forth.

A church on the opposite shore as we departed

We passed the second ferry on its return trip

That same church as we approached the dock

The park has several campgrounds, picnic areas, hiking trails and other recreation areas.  We found a nice picnic table right on the beach to enjoy our picnic.

The beautiful sandy beach

We like to take photos of our feet in every body of water we visit.  We have pics from all around the world.  Here's my feet in the Ottawa River.

The water was surprisingly warm

The river was slow moving and folks were swimming out pretty far

Sister Gothe and me standing in the river

The Elders preferred not to get sand in their toes


After our picnic we walked in the sand, waded in the water and played bocce ball for awhile in the sand.  Then it was time to head home.

The ferry wasn't as full on the return trip

A lovely ending to a lovely day

We went to the hospital for our weekly visit with Sister Smith and discovered that she had been moved to a nursing home!  It is further north in Montréal and we didn't have time to find her Thursday.  We did go after service at the food bank on Friday.  She is quite a lot further on the metro route and a longer walk to get to the nursing home.  We'll need to figure out the bus when the weather gets bad.  We understand that this is a temporary location - they are still waiting for an opening closer to her home in Verdun but this was the first opening anywhere that allowed her to leave the hospital.

We hurried back to the chapel to change our clothes and attend the baptism of Joshua Monette.  His dad has cancer and we have been doing their yard work Friday afternoons.

Joshua and Jocelyn Monette

Brother Monette is pretty amazing.  He had a chemo treatment earlier in the day and still had the energy to baptize his son.  Josh's grandpa in the Philippines gave the talk on baptism via zoom.  It was sweet to hear him give counsel to Josh and talk to him directly.  Technology can be so amazing!

Jocelyn, Joshua, Jacob and Rhodora Monette

We will begin our first Temple Preparation group on Tuesday.  There will be six in this group and we plan to have another class after the new year.


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