February 27-March 2, 2023

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 to pay $3.69 per gallon rather than the $6 we are paying here right now.  We were detained at the border again but not because of traffic.  I guess we need to be better liars or more creative with our answers.  When they heard where we live at the moment and how long we have been here, they told us we had to import our car, register and license it here and then pay the appropriate taxes.  After talking with the second agent we thought we might have to call President Harkness, who was in New Brunswick for Zone Conference, and get the church attorney involved.  That felt like we would be at the border all night so we decided to pray our way out of it!  After a few minutes, the agent came back and said because we were going home in four months, they would overlook it for now.  Tender mercies!

Plattsburgh was a nice diversion for a birthday afternoon.  It is located on the NY side of Lake Champlain.  It is an older town with lots of lovely old fashioned looking two-story homes that I love.  The main street downtown has bookstores and cute shops that we would have liked to wander through but discovered that most shops are closed on Mondays.  Thank you for all the cheery birthday wishes.

After service at the food bank on Friday we decided to explore a little of the underground city in Montréal.  We went to the Atrium 1000, which is an indoor ice rink that is open year round.  We didn't skate but had fun watching.  We saw a counselor in the previous Mount Royal Stake Presidency there with his children.

The Atrium is really a nice facility


I think this poor guy had a bad skating experience

When the Zamboni came out, we headed downtown for dinner with some of the office senior missionaries.

The church parking lot mountain continues to grow!

The Sisters have been teaching a woman for about a month.  She is bright and articulate and asks great questions.  Today was her second time at church.  The Bishop was conducting today.  Before he bore his testimony, he took time to explain what fast and testimony meeting is; as members how we fast and why and why we bear testimonies and how we should bear them (short and sweet).  When Ann Marie walked to the stand to wait her turn to speak, I was a bit nervous - you never know what new friends of the Church might want to say.  She bore the sweetest testimony!  She said that she couldn't say that she believed everything (yet) but that she loves how she feels when she comes to church.  She was very emotional today and didn't understand why or what she was feeling but when she took the sacrament she was overwhelmed with a feeling of peace.  The spirit was very strong.





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