June 12-18, 2023

Happy Father's Day!

We were privileged to be at the temple yesterday when Angela received her endowments.  We dearly love this young woman from Columbia, who joined the church nearly two years ago.  It was during the pandemic - all her lessons and interviews were conducted via Zoom.  The first time she physically set foot in a chapel was the day of her baptism.  She didn't return again until we resumed Sacrament meetings in person in March of 2022.  She is married but her husband lives in Florida, where he attends university.  She is beginning her second year of nursing school here in Montréal.


Angela is in the center; Lawanda (RS president) next to me; Bishop Gagnon, his wife and mother on the right.  Our photographer was a 12-year-old and this was the best shot we got!

We also had three baptisms on Saturday.  We were late coming from the temple and didn't have opportunity for the usual baptism photos.



This is Juliana with her twins Emmanuel and Emmanuella.  All three were confirmed in Sacrament meeting this morning.  Sister Hughes and Sister Thompson are in the photo also.

The senior couple taking our place in LaSalle Ward arrived last week.  They have been accompanying us on all our visits and service this week.  Dave and Anne Dimond are from Springville, Utah.

Elder and Sister Dimond at the food bank
Sisters Hayes & Barlow (the zone STL's) with us on our last day at the food bank

Solomon and Wumi invited us for dinner Friday evening.  Wumi made spaghetti with a very interesting sauce.  It was tomato based and had shrimp, meatballs, sausage, corn and peas in it.  I was relieved that it wasn't super spicey, as many African dishes can be!  She did make a separate bowl of sauce for Solomon, who loves extra hot and spicey.  She must have done it right, as Solomon's head was sweating all through the meal.  They told us they had a surprise for us and were anxious to tell us that Wumi had bought a car!  We are so proud of them for working so hard to be self-reliant.  They both kept saying it was Wumi's car and that she had to make the small monthly payments but when we saw them at bishops storehouse Saturday and again at church today, Solomon was driving!

Wumi's hot red car!

We have had a week of goodbyes.  We visited those we knew would not be at church on Sunday (although Margo surprised us again!) and introduced Elder and Sister Dimond to many of our friends.


Sister Ross had a bad fall a couple weeks ago and was looking pretty frail when we visited her.   She broke 2 or 3 ribs and hurt one knee quite badly.  She seemed to be in pain but is soldiering on.


We had a nice visit with Margo, who seemed quite sad for us to leave.  She wanted our address so she can send us "very beautiful" Christmas cards and birthday cards.  We invited her to church, as we would be speaking.  She gave us all the usual excuses so we told her to call if she changed her mind.  She called us at 8:00 this morning saying she would like to come but only if we would take her home after an hour.  We picked her up and Dimonds took her home after Sacrament meeting.

We spoke in church today, along with Sister Drews, who worked in the mission office and leaves a week after we do.  There were four confirmations today, plus the Primary singing for Father's Day.  By the time the Sacrament was finished, we all shortened our prepared talks quite a bit.  Not sure how John and Sister Drews felt but I was happy about that!  During the announcement time Bishop Gagnon paid us a really nice tribute.  Much to our surprise, people were lined up to have their picture taken with us.

Necola Rodney and her mom Erma Rodney
Pat Donaldson
Joseph Smith aka Yousafi Shakir
Jacob Monette loves to hug Elder Cooper
Jacob and Josh Monette

Jocelyn, Rhodora, Jacob, Josh Monette
Dave Benson holding Teyah, Travis, Carter and Catherine
Solomon and Wumi
Mesguet, Zhurie and Sherece Mesidor

"Don't be sad it's over; be glad it happened."

















 

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