June - A Very Busy Month – Installment #1

We keep thinking that we will get this done before a month passes; but, so far we are a month and one half behind. We feel that it is still important to write.

 

This picture is the same picture we have been taking off our deck. This was taken June 3. The trees are getting most of their leaves now.








This is the same place we took a picture 2 months ago. Much nicer weather.

We are teaching institute this summer on Wednesday nights until August 12. We are really enjoying it. The YSAs are receptive and offer a lot to the class. In June we continued to teach in St. Matthew. It is a great experience to learn more about the Savior and strengthen our testimonies. We taught them that Matthew wrote for the Jews to show them that what was foretold came to pass through Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah that the Old Testament Prophets prophesied. We have been able to teach His parables, His miracles, the Mount of Transfiguration and Priesthood keys. We have been able to use power point, video clips of the Bible Videos as well as video clips of modern day Prophets and Apostles. These are very powerful resources and we are glad that we can use them. We have had about 8 in our class. On Wednesday night at Institute there also continues to be a mission prep class and a class Brother Turner is teaching. All in all there are about 25 students.

We were able to see the locks in action. We have a couple of locks next to our apartment that move boats between the Ottawa River and the Rideau River at Hogs Back Locks. this canal is called the Rideau Canal. We went for a walk down by the canal and over to the beach. Coming back the locksmith (ranger) was standing by the lock so I asked if boats have started coming through. He said yes one is coming in just a few minutes. So we ran home to get the camera. I mean Sister Payne walked fast but I broke out in a sprint. It felt good and we got back just in time to get some good pictures. We were able to see this huge boat that sleeps 200 and comes from Kingston, a city by the St. Lawrence Sea Way, up the Rideau River, through several locks including the Hog’s Back Locks by our place, to the Hartwell Locks. It is a five day trip up and five days back. As you will notice, this boat had to pull up its bough to get into the lock. It was fun and we stayed about 45 minutes watching the process. It was the first boat we saw going through the locks. One note is that the locksmiths crank the winches that move the gates by hand. There are no modern gages or radios or engineering or hydraulics or other high tech stuff involved at all.

 

 

 

That day we were able to talk to three people, one had been raised as a Mormon but quit going to church ten years ago because she works on Sunday for Costco. I think some good seeds were sown during this experience.

 

The ward during summer is small. We have about 35 to 45 YSAs in the summer. The Bishop told us that we would get to know the members that come in the summer better because it is so small. We are looking forward to that. We have a big diversity of members in the Dows Lake YSA Ward. Not only do we have several colors of skin, but we have every level of socio, economic, education, testimony, and church experience in our ward. It would be very challenging to any bishop; but, our bishop has been a bishop before, has been a counselor in the Stake Presidency and is very, very good at it. We are here to help him.

This month we got to go on a District Hike to Luskville Falls Trails. We have the Dows Lake Sister Missionaries, the Dows Lake Chinese Elders, the Chapel Hill Elders and the Chapel Hill Sisters. They are so great! We are so lucky to know such incredible young men and young women. The church is in good hands in the mission field. They are so ready to teach and preach the Gospel and their love for the Lord is very evident. We cannot say enough about them. It was about a 4 hour hike to the Fire tower at the top. There was a beautiful look out place with a view of the Gatineau valley.

 

The missionaries were so good to us. They seem to really enjoy being with us. We certainly enjoy being with them. Luskville Falls Trails is in Gatineau Park, a large park with several lakes, trails, as well as canoeing, kayaking and camping. Last month we went to Pink Lake.

So far our service projects have been, clean the meeting house every Saturday every other month. Also, we get to go help at the Garlic Farm. The money earned by this farm helps to supplement people with disabilities. It helps provide some housing and other expenses not covered by the government supplement. The land is owned by Canada and they lease for 1$ a year. The farm is run by a retired church member. Each ward in the stake volunteers one week at a time and other churches and charity service groups also volunteer time to help. This time we weeded. This is an ongoing project that many of our YSAs grew up helping with their families. Those that have been doing this for a long time feel a great satisfaction and love doing it. In our assignment, we would weed and then make sure the little garlic mound was covered with hay. This keeps the garlic plants moist and helps keep out the weeds. We had about 16 there. Sorry no picture.

We were able to go on somewhat of an historical tour. It was Open Door day in Ottawa so several historical homes, buildings and churches were open for public tour. We went to see the Royal Canadian College of physicians and surgeons that is located in an old nunnery. This is where they make the rules and regulations for the doctors. We also went to see the Laurier House the historic home of a Prime Minister. We also went to see the Saint Francois d’Assisa Church that was built in 1915.

 

We had another baptism this month. She is such a cute girl and travels 1 hour to get to church and Institute and 1 hour back home. She is the third baptism since we got here. It is great to see the Gospel change lives. She was baptized by her friend who helped convert her, at 6:00 just before Institute.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had three marriages in June of YSAs. Hopefully we will have more. They are all strong young people with strong testimonies and they will be a great benefit to both the church and the community wherever they live.

 

 

 

This month was Stake Conference. We had a sweet elderly sister that was recently baptized speak. What a powerful testimony. After the session the visiting area 70, Elder Jack N. Gerard asked new converts or those investigating the church to meet in the Relief Society room. There were about 12 with either the missionaries or a bishopric member there. It was neat to hear about their interest in the church. They were well taught by him and our Stake President, President Nemeth.

 

More to come

FINALLY IT'S SPRING - At least it's May

Yes, it is finally spring. This pictures show the view from our deck toward Mooney's Bay and the falls in early May. The trees are just starting to leaf out. They have been preparing the beach for summer fun.

 

The end of April and all of May were full. Every day something happened. On Mondays we work on our lesson and go to HEG which is Home evening group. The YSAs have fun playing different types of games at the meeting house. Sometimes we join them, but most of the time we watch. One night they had kick boxing and each YSA was pared off. Sister Payne was pared with the trainer’s assistant. Some looked like they had done this for a long time and some were very timid and shy.

 During the day we usually spend time taking the sisters and elders to Wal-mart to shop. They are bussing missionaries and don’t have cars. They would rather not have to bus their groceries because it would require two busses and so we take them. We have a lot of fun going with them and doing a little shopping of our own.

Tuesdays we finish preparing our lesson. We want to make sure that we know it well enough that we can be ready to teach with the spirit. It has been a really great experience to learn more about the New Testament and the Ministry of Jesus Christ. It has strengthened our testimonies and we hope it has done so with those who attend. We have anywhere from 3 to 8 or 9 every Wednesday night. We are using a power point to augment our lessons. We are also able to use the Bible Videos and little segments of the Prophets and Apostles for our lesson. It is a great experience for them to hear and see videos directly from the Prophets and Apostles. We had one YSA say that she liked the power point and the videos, etc, because she is a visual person and can learn better with the videos, power point, etc. One Tuesday, when Sister Payne was doing her facebook stuff, she found one of our YSA girls had posted her Testimony. It was very strong and to the point. We were impressed that she felt so deeply about Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith. Sister Payne complimented her about her testimony and she said that she had 14 responses and two were not members, so she felt good about having posted, since she is on our missionary committee. We love studying the New Testament. We are in Matthew and will finish that on July 8^th. We will study John after that until the middle of August.

As far as Institute goes this summer, many of the YSAs have gone home, others are always going places, like Dubi, Iceland, New Brunswick, etc and are in and out. Busy, busy, busy. It is hard to keep up with where they go. However, we did have a great spring/summer Institute kickoff BBQ. Elder Payne had signed up to give blood. It took over an hour to give his blood and he basically missed the BBQ.

Wednesdays we also have District meetings in the morning, as well as getting ready for our class in the afternoon. We have 5 sets of missionaries in our District including us. We are so happy to be there and be able to participate. These missionaries are wonderful (have we said that before). Their knowledge of the Gospel and their desire to serve the Lord is great! We learn a lot from them. We have learned a lot and hopefully have been an instrument in the Lord’s hands. After Institute, the YSAs like treats or some kind of food. They also like playing games inside and talk, talk, talk. It is a great way to socialize.

Several Thursdays we have had meetings with our CES Coordinator, Brother Turner. We discuss his review of last year’s accomplishments and this year’s goals. In one meeting he asked us if we would like to study the scriptures together. That was a great teaching experience. He is a really good teacher. He said when people think or talk about the Atonement, far too many people only talk about keeping the commandments, sinning and repenting side. President Benson emphasized that there is another side to the Atonement, that of changing our hearts and becoming more like Christ, the pure love of Christ and wanting only to be like him.

That was a powerful explanation of the Atonement. He then gave us Elder Bednar’s talk, “The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality.” He quoted President David O’McKay who said “The purpose of the gospel is...to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature.” Elder Bednar said, that “Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints---for good men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully.” We may mistakenly believe we must make the journey all from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.” We also read John 14: 15, 16, 17 and Mosiah 3:19 and other scriptures.

One Thursday we were able to take a bus tour of Ottawa and learn more about the beautiful buildings and cities here. We have to remember that this is the Capital of Canada, and is like Washington, D.C. It has the Bank of Canada like our Federal Reserve, the Canadian National Art Museum, the Supreme Court building

 as well as Parliament Hill, 

which is like our White House, etc. Sister Payne had a neat experience going to the Archives and found the paper that shows that her Grandfather William Hunter, who came from Scotland to Kemmerer, had signed up to serve in the Canadian Army during WWI. He left Grandma and two children to serve. Many Scots did the same thing because it had close ties to England. It was neat to find out that Grandpa did feel a desire to serve and came this long way to do so.

We have the opportunity to go places with our District. One Monday, their preparation (P-Day), we went on a hike to Pink Lake in Gatineau Park. 

We took Jessica, a new convert. Gatineau is a city and is actually in Quebec; but, is just over the Ottawa river from Ottawa and it is a French speaking section. Pink Lake is a very pretty lake and is surrounded by trees. There are lots of trees and green, green, green is everywhere. Of course they do not have to water.

Fridays are pretty much the same; however, one Friday was extra special because we had Zone Conference. What an amazing experience. We were with 28 sisters and elders being taught by the Zone Leaders, Zone Sister Trainers, President Patrick - our Mission President, and President Nemeth our Stake President and Brother Woolsey, the counselor over Ottawa. They are amazing and work so well together to further the work of the Lord in the Ottawa Vineyard.  The missionaries love to get together. We have lunch and of course the missionaries get their mail. Good times. We learn a lot, it strengthens our testimony and everyone goes away very full of ways to do our missionary work better.

Saturdays during May consisted mostly of cleaning our meeting house. One Saturday, late afternoon, we took a less active member to see his mother about two hours away. (It has been a great experience helping him come back into the church). He needed to get a copy of his passport so that he could get a job and it costs quite a bit of money to do so. He was hoping that his mother would help pay for it. She told us that she had been praying for a long time for him. She was surprised that we would make such an effort to bring him such a long way. Sister Payne gave her a big hug and explained that we were just trying to help her son come back to church. We visited with his sister and grandmother for a while. His mother expressed that we may just be the blessing she has prayed for to help her son. He is excited to learn more about the church and we have spent many evenings with him while the sisters have taught him beautiful lessons. He has born his testimony in fast and testimony meeting and is really glad that he has decided to come back to church. He told us that he had been praying for what to do and what church to go to when a friend he knew told him that she had joined the Mormon Church and he should look into it. He felt like that was an answer to his prayers and he called the sisters to teach him. He is a member but has not been active for over 10 to 15 years. We took him to Montreal and he applied for a copy of his passport. We were able to get his church records transferred to our ward and he was also able to get this birth certificate. It took 5 weeks for this passport to come. Patience is always a virtue. Hopefully, he will be able to get a job and won’t have to work on Sundays. We have enjoyed getting to know him better and are glad we are able to help. 

While we were in Montreal, we visited the mission office. Besides the offices, they have two YSA wards that meet in the building, one French and the other English.

We were able to see the Montreal Temple that is under renovation and is scheduled to be rededicated in November. 

We saw the beautiful tulips at the Tulip Festival and saw Antonio and Ana from our Dows Lake Ward.

This festival is about when Canada helped the Queen of Holland during the war. She stayed in Ottawa and had her baby here are well. They designated a part of the Hospital in Ottawa, Holland, so that the Queen could have her little princess in Holland. Otherwise, her baby would not have been able to be King or Queen of Holland. Each year Holland sends 1 million tulips to Ottawa. Ottawa adds to that amount Dow’s Lake area along Queen Elisabeth Drive is planted to the hilt. It is beautiful. They also plant tulips throughout Ottawa. 

Dows Lake at the tulip festival 

The festival lasts 8 days. We had fireworks 3 different nights and one just happened to be from Moonies Bay and we watched from our deck.

Julie and Eric and family were able to spend Mother’s Day weekend with us and go to church as well as see part of the Tulip festival. It was fun to have them here. When they got here we had walked down to the locks, walked along Moonies Bay and went to the water fall. This is the late May spring picture we took from our deck showing the lake and Moonies Bay. It has a beautiful sandy beach.

The kids went swimming in our indoor pool on Saturday night and we got to have David, Rachel and Daniel stay with us. We drove them around Ottawa and showed them the beautiful buildings. On Sunday, we had the Sisters and Elders come to eat as well as the Lentz’ and we had a lot of fun. The Elders stayed and skyped their mothers. We are really glad Julie and Eric and family could come.

Sundays are full as well. We have correlation meetings, ward council, Sacrament meeting, Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood meetings. Once a month, on fast Sunday, we have Break the Fast dinner and another time we have Munch and Mingle. We hope that besides feeding them, they actually talk to each other and get to know each other better and are spiritually fed through the meetings. On May 31^st we had a rebroadcast of the CES Fireside with Elder Robbins. We had our break the fast dinner just before.

Our Bishopric - Brother and Sister Martinelli  Bishop and Sister Dustan, Brother Pack

We had another baptism. This was Sister Matos and Sister Arizmendi’s baptism. Jessica, is a wonderful young woman. She was really ready to hear the gospel. She knew the church was true from the get go and she asked the sisters if she could be baptized. She is amazing. We are so happy to know her. She graduated this spring from Algonquin as a law clerk. She is now deciding what it is she wants to do.

We were able to go to the Gathering in the Grove over the US’s Memorial Day Weekend. We took 3 young women with us. One is from Brazil and the other two from Ottawa. It was a great weekend. When we finally got there Friday night, it was cold. We helped or rather watch as 3, 20 somethings set up the girls tent. We then stayed at the Manchester Inn. This was the same Inn that Sister Payne had stayed at 50 years ago when she went to The Pageant for the first time. Elder Payne was a missionary there and Sister Payne went with a group from Boston. No we did not meet each other at that time. We spent most of the morning in the Palmyra Temple and had a great experience.

While in the sealing rooms, a Vietnamese Sister was having her ancestors sealed. Two couples had been the Emperor and 

Queen of Viet Nam. We got to seal a chinese YSA’s grandparents together. We then spent time at the conference and listened a bit to Daniel Rona, their main speaker and a guide to Israel. After that we went to the Sacred Grove and met Eric.

He is the early morning seminary teacher and had been planning on bringing his class to the Grove the same day. We walked through with 4 of our grand-kids, we got to listen to their testimonies before heading over to Chill and Grill for these humungus ice cream cones. Ask us about them sometime.

 We got to stay at Eric and Julie’s before heading back to Palmyra to Sacrament Meeting. As we sat in Sacrament Meeting, we heard the Star Spangled Banner in the background and Sister Payne wondered why anyone would be singing that in Church in Canada, before she realized that we were in the USA. All in all it was a good trip.

Finally we see our Mooney's Bay view at the end of May. It is beautiful.

Like we said something happens everyday and even on a slow week we have found ways to help the Lord bless lives. We feel a great satisfaction in our missionary work. The Lord has blessed us and we love working with these young people. We hope we can find others whose mothers are praying that their children will go back to church as well. We hope that we can be an instrument in the Lord’s hands and help touch the lives of our Heavenly Father’s children, the YSAs that live in the Ottawa area.

Love, Elder and Sister Payne

Impressions

April 20, 2015

The difference a couple of weeks make. The rivers and lakes are starting to thaw.

 

Spring has finally come to Ottawa. We have had blue skies and reasonable temperatures. We have taken walks down to the river and have enjoyed views of the falls, lake, canal and locks. This is close enough that we can see it all from our 10th floor deck but we didn’t know how pretty it was until the weather got better. There are buds on the trees. This past week, however, is colder and rainy. Next week it should be better. It is interesting. When they say it will rain, it rains, when they say that it will be sunny at a certain time it usually is. There are no mountains to mess with the weather.

It is also interesting that I thought that our car was really called on this mission. We live only about half a mile from the our meeting house and less than a mile from the classroom at Carleton University and only about five miles from downtown but we still drive a lot. Since entering the MTC we have driven 4,552 miles. Since we arrived in Ottawa we have driven 1,621 miles or about 200 miles a week. Where do we go? Some of that is going to church or to the store. But most of it is giving people rides. We are often asked to pick up someone and give them a ride to church or take someone home from church. We pick up the Elders and Sisters and take them to the store or somewhere else on P-day and take them home again or to the Church or library so they can email their families. And sometimes we meet them for lessons with their investigators. Saturday we took an investigator home to see his grandmother in VanKleek. It all adds up. Actually, we like giving people rides as it gives us a chance to talk and get better acquainted with the young people we are here to serve. We couldn’t do this mission without our car.

The other thing I have been impressed with this week is the quality of local leadership the church has here in Ottawa. Yesterday at church a young woman spoke who just took out her endowments and who will get married soon. She talked about the role of women in the church. It was a fantastic talk and a fantastic testimony. I was very impressed with her readiness and couldn’t help but think that she will be a great church leader in her ward. After she spoke, a young man, who is a returned missionary, a student and who will get married in June, spoke. He talked about power and the keys of the priesthood. His talk was well documented and heart felt as he talked about fatherhood. He spoke with the spirit. I couldn’t help but think about what a great church leader he will be. Then I remembered that all three of the members of the bishopric in our YSA ward are past bishops in family wards and love these YSAs. They know that some of the YSAs have major hurdles to overcome but are willing to help each and every one. They truly know that these YSAs are children of God and it is important to help in any way to strengthen their testimonies and help get them back to Him.

When they realigned the ward boundaries at a Stake meeting, the meeting was organized superbly by the new stake president who is also a CEO of a national company here in Ottawa. And the mission Zone leader does his job well, he surely will be in charge of more things in the church and in business as well. Another example is the ward mission leader who comes, with his soon to be wife, to correlation meeting prepared with a book of progress reports and asks about individuals and makes follow up assignments. The teacher of our Sunday school class and the Elder’s president and the Relief Society president in our ward are all young singles and are so capable of leading. They are willing to learn and help. I am so impressed that the Lord raised up a whole generation of leaders and the church is not lacking in this area. It is a privilege for us to serve among them.

 The missionaries are busy teaching and are always bringing people to church. These investigators are being welcomed. It is easy for me to visualize the Church growing to double its current size in the Ottawa area because of the layers of leadership the Lord has in place.

We have HEG on Monday night (Home Evening Group). We had kick boxing. It was interesting.

We had an incredible experience with a beautiful Chinese YSA. She was baptized on April 12. The service was in both Chinese and English. Those in the program would say the talk in Chinese first and then in English. Her mother has supported her 100% and Sister Payne was able to have such a good experience and a good friendship with her mother.

 

 

After the baptism we had a Break the Fast dinner. These YSA’s have a good time together.

 

Brother and Sister Martinelli, one of the Bishop’s counselors and Elder Payne

 

 

 

 

 

Sister Dustan, The Bishop’s wife.

 

This was also the last Sunday Elder Mourier was here in Dows Lake. He was being transferred to Montreal. He only has 3 transfers (6 weeks each) left.

 

We are fortunate that Sister Matos and Sister Arizmendi and Elder Weber are staying and lucky to have Elder Jules as the new District Leader and companion to Elder Weber. He is from Alberta, Canada, but his parents are originally from Haiti and then Montreal. He speaks about 4 or 5 languages. He is a good teacher and he also has 2 transfers left.

On Friday, April 17, we had Institute Recognition (graduation) Night. We had around 50 YSAs that have taken Institute at least one semester this past year and went to class at least 70%. This includes the Mission Prep class as well as the other five Institute Classes offered each semester. A couple of the talks were given by the graduates. They were strong testimonies of the Gospel. After, we had an ice cream social. There were about 20 people there. It was fun for us to put the social together. We tried to make it special so that it would be a memorable evening. We had yellow strips of paper with each of the graduate’s names on the wall and used smiley faced balloons for the tables.  We had some great peanut butter topping, caramel sauce and strawberry sauce as well as the traditional chocolate sauce. We got the ice cream from Costco that was wonderful – Moose Tracks and Vanilla. After we took the names down we put them in the hall on our bulletin board. The YSAs went to Sky Zone (trampoline place) for an activity after.

Note the Bachelor for rent sign. No they don't rent Bachelors. It means that they have a 1 bedroom for rent.

 

 

 

We continue to have spiritual experiences daily and we love this mission and love the YSAs.

Love,

Elder and Sister Payne

An Exciting Couple of Weeks

April 10, 2015

 

On P-Day, we help the missionaries by taking them grocery shopping. Here Elder Mourier and Elder Weber are coming out of the back door of their apartment.

We went to Parliament Hill with the Elders and Sisters on P-day. Sister Matos and Sister Arizmendi are absolutely darling. They are incredible missionaries as are Elders Mourier and Weber.

It was really a neat experience. The middle tower was closed, so we got to go into the House of Commons. We went through several metal detector machines and had to check our coats and bags. We watched someone present a bill (not many MP – Members of Parliament there). This bill just happened to be to make marriage between a man and women part of the law of the land. We were only there for 20 minutes and have not heard anything else about it, but it was interesting.

 After Parliament. we went to get some Poutine. Poutine consists of French fries with a poutine gravy and cheese curds. It is a lot like mashed potatoes and gravy with cheese on top. At this little shop they had several different types of toppings with roast beef, chicken, pork or a Mexican style Poutine. All in all it was an interesting afternoon and a lot of fun with our District.

We are busy having a great time in Ottawa and want to share a few highlights. This week we taught our last class for the semester at Carleton University, but Algonquin College and Ottawa University still have one more week to go.

 Carleton University

Algonquin College

Institute graduation or Recognition Night is going to be on April 17^th. There about 50 students who will receive some level of recognition. It could be from one semester class to as much as 8 semesters of institute classes. We have been assigned to do an ice cream bar after the meeting. A lot of the students are now starting to go home or away for the summer to work so we will have a smaller crowd during the summer. We will have one wedding in May and three weddings in June. Things can be exciting around here.

This week we got to attend the missionary zone meeting and were so impressed with the level of leadership in this mission and it was so fun to be in the presence of so many great young missionaries. We also were able to attend the seminary in-service meeting with the early morning teachers. Elder Holland said that there is a throne in heaven for early morning teachers and I think they deserve it. But even better is the Seminary and Institute coordinator who is so great. We are going to go help Brother Turner with training at his home this Saturday for some Seminary students who are having a multi-stake activity.

We went to a farewell party on Friday for a darling girl, Kiffyn DeSouza. She will be leaving next week for a French speaking mission in St. George. If any of you go to the visitor’s center, she will be there.

 

We were told that we were going to have the fire alarm going off on a Wednesday during the day to test it and make sure it was OK. Unfortunately it also went off at 2:30 am and it was no drill. There were about 3 or 4 fire trucks and we walked down 10 flights of stairs and went outside in our pj’s, and warm coat. Sister Payne picked up her purse. It was cold and we finally went in the stairwell on the first floor to keep a little warm. We knew we could get out easily if needed. There was a family with a little baby and another with an 18 month old in the stairwell. The alarm finally turned off after about 45 min and we hiked back up the 10 stories to our apartment. They said that there had been smoke on the main floor, but they found no fire. Actually, not very many people left the building to begin with.

We have planned our lesson schedule for this summer and the school year and are now starting to read and prepare for those classes. It is overwhelming if you think too much about it, so we have to bite off only as much as we can chew at a time; but, progress is very exciting. We are going to teach the New Testament – the Four Gospels for Spring and Summer at the Institute (ward meeting house) on Wednesday nights. We hope to offer a couple of classes next academic year at each school, teaching the same subject so that more students can attend Institute. The thing is, we have only club status at any of the schools and we depend on the students to reserve study rooms. We, then come in and teach, or more like lead discussion groups, as invited guests of the club. I dream of a time when we will have enough students to justify a better facility arrangement.

On a personal note, the sisters asked us to invite them and a new member over for dinner so we did that. We learned her story. She has been a member only about eight months and lives on her own.  She has given up much for the church and is glad to have our friendship. She graduated as a civil engineer and was in the middle of a master’s program when she joined the Church. Her parents are atheists, are not at all happy that she joined the church. They stopped supporting her and have made it impossible for her to live at home. She works at Nordstrom ad Subway and is saving money so that she can finish the one year she has left this fall. We went to see her at Nordstroms and are grateful that we know her. We hope that we can help her even more. Several of these YSAs have given up a lot to join the Church.

We also followed up with the missionaries who we gave a referral to a few weeks ago. They reported that the lady we sent them to only wanted money to Haiti. Apparently she thought missionaries got paid for our work. Anyway it was fun for us to be involved.

Elder and Sister Christensen are French speaking MLS missionaries in Gatineau, just across the Ottawa River but are in the same Stake as we are. We were able to go to a great restaurant, St. Hubert, with them and enjoyed their company. The funny thing is they live close to Albion middle school and are in a neighboring stake. It is amazing to our members here that we can live so close, not know each other and not be in the same stake.

 

Most of the snow has melted but it is not yet spring here. It snows or rains a little almost every day.  We have had above freezing temperatures several days and the sun came out a few times but it is still cold, at least to us. We tell the locals that the weather is like living in the mountains of northern Utah or Idaho so we are used to it, at least the end of their winter. Everyone is ready for spring to come. 

 

Dow's Lake is still frozen

 

The Rideau Canal is still frozen.

General Conference was wonderful. We went to the Church and watched all four sessions, Elder Payne – 5. It was great to be around these wonderful people in this part of the Lord’s vineyard. We had a few investigators that came to a couple of the meetings. One is going to take the discussions and is very interested in the church. It was a great and powerful weekend.  

We Love You All,

Elder and Sister Payne