John and Karen in the Canada Montreal Mission

Nothing spectacular to share this week - I'll just do a quick recap of the highlight of our days. Monday - Senior Missionary Council via Zoom.  We currently have 17 senior couples and 4 single seniors serving in the Canada Montréal Mission.  Five of the couples and two of the singles go home in the next three months and probably won't be replaced any time soon. Tuesday - We woke up feeling like we really needed to visit Agnes and not wait.  We arrived at the hospital as the nurses were changing the dressings on her infected bed sores/wounds.  We could tell it was extremely painful for her.  She was having difficulty breathing because of the fluids in her lungs.  She is on oxygen and has an IV drip to keep her hydrated.  Her face, arms and legs were all very swollen from the build up of fluids.  She had not expelled any fluids for five days at that point.  The resident came in after the nurses left and told Agnes they might consider dialysis o...

We had a big milestone this week.  Literally.  In the car.  We wanted the photo at exactly 100,000 but we were just starting to cross the Mercier bridge when it clicked over and there was no place to pull over until we cleared the bridge and all the off/on ramps. Our plan before the mission was to sell this vehicle, as we thought we would be using a mission car.  If you serve in the United States or Canada (and reside in either of those countries) you are asked to drive your own vehicle.  So our trusty Pathfinder is now nine years old and has never given us any trouble.  We hope it stays with the plan for another three months and gets us safely back to Utah. We have completed four of the temple preparation classes with this group of participants.  After class next week, Simon and Louise are traveling to the Congo to visit family so we will do the last class without them and finish their classes when they return.  Today after Bishop Storehouse, we ...

Some ambitious folks in the neighborhood by the food bank created a little ice rink in the park.  It's small and has a tree in the middle of the rink but I'm sure the kids have a great time on it. Saturday was our Stake Relief Society Anniversary activity.  We had a Spiritual Self-Reliance workshop and a class on food storage and preparedness.  We did three service projects and collected socks for a homeless shelter. Hygiene kits for the Native support group Writing letters to senior citizens in a care facility Fleece blankets for a children's home Wednesday was Zone Conference.  The focus this transfer was the Holy Ghost.  Five years ago this April, President Nelson was sustained as the Prophet.  I remember it well - we were sitting in our apartment in Sarajevo Bosnia with the young missionaries in our district watching the solemn assembly.  In his first talk, President Nelson said, "Let this Easter be a defining moment in your life.  Choose to d...

Happy birthday to me!  From President and Sister Harkness. We had permission to leave our mission boundaries and drive to Plattsburgh, NY for the day.  Plattsburgh is only 60 miles from our apartment and should take about an hour to drive. We didn't know that Monday was the beginning of spring break here (really, who has spring break in frigid February?).  The back-up at the border crossing was very long; it took us nearly 2 1/2 hours to get through the border.  We think most of the cars were on the way to Vermont to ski or driving further south to warmer weather.  That delay cut into our shopping time!  We didn't really have anything we needed , just a few things we wanted that aren't available here in Quebec. We went to a Walmart and look what we found there! Sisters serving in the New York Syracuse Mission The birthday bash at Texas roadhouse After dinner at Texas Roadhouse we headed home.  We stopped for gas on our way out of town - it was so nice ...