John and Karen in the Canada Montreal Mission

We thought since we entered the country on our Canadian birth certificates, we may as well get Canadian passports while living here.  We needed to visit the Canada Passport office Tuesday to complete a declaration of residency form.  We passed by some interesting sculptures on our walk from the metro to the office. The sculptures are located outside the Doubletree Inn, with no plaques to explain so I can't tell you anything about them.  The naked gentleman atop the chair in the third photo was probably sorry he left home without his clothes, as it was a very cold and windy day. The remainder of the week was all focused on John's surprise birthday party and the events leading up to it.  There's so much to tell - I'll just try to recap each day. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day:  Daughter Kim and her family were scheduled to arrive unannounced at our apartment for lunch.  She texted mid morning to say the kids were all sick and didn't think they should come to the ...

Winter has arrived.  We have had snow on and off since Wednesday.  No snow pictures - there isn't that much yet.  The biggest adjustment has been the drop in temperature and the accompanying wind.  This morning it was 26 F but felt like 13 F with the 22 mph winds.  We were talking with our friend Alex, who is from Russia.  Someone joked about the cold in Siberia and Alex said that Quebec is actually colder than Siberia.  So no more banishing people to outer Siberia, just send them to Montréal for punishment! On Monday we helped Brother Monette assemble his snow temple.  Not sure if that is the local slang for the canopies but all the church members call them that. The temple frame The temple covers their two-car parking/driveway area so it is pretty large.  He said that he and his wife put it up last year but I don't know how.  The three of us struggled with it - maybe because Brother Monette is still having chemo each week and the two o...

The beautiful park is naked again.  It looks like it did in January when we arrived, sans la neige. We have been surprised, but pleased, that winter has not yet come to Montréal.  The temps have dropped and we have had rain but no snow yet.  But we know that it's coming soon - the forecast is for snow on Wednesday. Only the squirrels are enjoying the park Zone Conference was last week.  We learned more about faith.  The scripture reference was Mosiah 4:9 "Believe in God: believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."  We were presented two questions to ponder: What would you do if you had more faith?  What are you willing to do to receive more faith? President Nelson taught us five things we can do in his April 2021 conference address, Christ is Risen; Faith i...