Friday Sept. 24, 2010
On the road to Quebec
Letter #12
Dear family,
Hello and how is everything going? It has been a week of birthdays in our family and good news about our upcoming grandbaby girl in Portland, Maine. Wynn had a good check up at the Dr. and she was informed that she will be induced on the eve of Sept. 29th, 2010 so she will probably have that adorable baby girl on the 30th. I plan to go find out as I am driving down to Portland on the last day of transfers, the 29th to spend some quality birthing time with the Stewarts. Thank you so much for letting me come and be a part of that. I cannot wait.
Right now we are in the car on the way to Quebec to show the Walkers around as requested. We have never toured Quebec so we asked a local Bishop who is a tour guide to meet us at the Hilton, have lunch and then show us around. Thanks goodness for Bishop Tremblay. With us it is going well, but so , so busy. We are currently on the way to Quebec to attend a Zone Conference.
In the car we have with us, Elder W. Walker of the Seventy and his wife. We picked them up at the airport Wed. night. They are delightful. They have been given this assignment to come and visit us, lift and support us and to teach us. And that has happened. We had a wonderful Zone Conference yesterday with 5 Zones. We had a wonderful congregation or army of missionaries sitting there in the Chapel, waiting for us to arrive, on time, at 8:45 a.m. I was so proud of them. They all looked so sharp and were so respectful and well mannered. Sheeeshhh, I sound like a mother.
This has been a very busy week in the business of sickness. Apparently Monday two of our Zones got together to have a few hours of ultimate Frisbee and soccer. By the end of the day we had some sick missionaries. And by Wednesday I had received 9 calls. They pretty much shared similar symptoms…fever, chills, sore throat, cough, and achy. I had one dear Elder, who I call Tallman, but his name is Hallmann, from Germany. He is 6 feet 6 inches tall. He is such a bright, cheery, kind obedient missionary. Everyone loves him. It was so sad to see him so sick. But he pulled himself out of bed so he could attend Zone Conference. And it is a good thing because Elder Walker chose to speak with him after. That was a great experience for Elder Hallmann. Anyway, today, it seems everyone is on the mend. I think I won’t get any more calls for this bought of sickness. Also there has been a drastic change in the weather and Elder Leman from France told me this usually happens around this time of year. At times all it take is a word of assurance and some reminders of what to do
I have a new favorite city….Quebec city. Oh my my it is one of the most beautiful, quaint, antique, romantic, and exciting. So we had a Bishop Tremblay show us around in the wind and rain. Even with terrible weather, it being so cold you could see your breath, we had a wonderful time. It could not have been more pleasant. There was a cruse ship that was docked down at the harbor of the St. Lawrence river so there were a lot of out of towners in for a visit including ourselves. I will include some pictures. The town was built in the early 16oo’s. So many wonderful old buildings made of stone as well as the cobble stone streets. And old Quebec is the only walled city where people live within the city walls in North America. The English built the city around the wall to fortify it against the Americans. This is also the famous cite of General Wolf from England and General Montcalm from France where they went face to face in battle, both got shot within the first few minutes and both died. This is the spot that President Hinckley wanted to see when he first visited Quebec. It was one of the first things that came out of his mouth when he landed here in Montreal.
I loved this city. I could have taken a million pictures. We are staying at the Hilton Hotel across from the Parliament building which is beautiful and near the Chateau Frontenac which is a magnificent hotel. And we are on the 7th floor in a room that has a breathtaking view of the city and St. Lawrence river. I feel so blessed to be able to be here. Tomorrow we will have our zone conference with the rest of our missionaries. I look forward to seeing them.
Fast forward to Sunday. Yesterday, we were with our Quebec and River South Zones. Oh I love these missionaries. They are so fun and full of life. I will include a picture of them with this letter. Our conference was inspiring and fun. The dear sister who agreed to make lunch for the entire group was misinformed about the time. As we were listening to Elder Walker I had this feeling I should go check on Sister F. and see if she needed any help. I went out there at 11:00 a.m. and no one was in the kitchen. I had a bad feeling, so I asked our AP Elder Corbett. He said it was probably fine….hmmm…I did not like that word probably. So I waited another half hour and went to see if there was any movement in the kitchen. NONE. I had him call her. To his surprise, she said she thought she was supposed to be there at 1:00. We were scheduled to eat at 12:00. Poor woman that call struck panic into her life. She said she was on her way. We waited by the door for her, to help for 40 minutes. In the meantime Elder Walker continued to instruct. He finally dismissed the meeting and we had approx. 46 very hungry folks wandered about. Sister F. finally showed up at 1:10 p.m. We started setting the tables, cutting potatoes to be cooked, mixing cold slaw and heating up boiling water for the potatoes to cook. There were 20 people in that kitchen and missionaries were flying here and there following orders. We finally sat down to eat at 2:00, 2 hours late. But we had a wonderful lunch together. This fine sister and her two daughters made carrot and potato potage soup, homemade rolls, and chicken ala king over a pastry puff ALONG with mashed potatoes. She also had cheese and grapes at each table. And for dessert, she had made two of the most beautiful mousse cakes I have ever seen. My point in telling you this is not that the lunch was late, but that these wonderful members, help us and aid in the work in so many ways. This wonderful sister had gone to so much trouble for our entire group and made it very special as we had a visiting general authority. I am so grateful for all our members do to support our missionaries and to help us with anything we ask them to so. This was an enormous amount of work and she did it happily, cheerfully and skillfully. I am grateful of our members. All turned out well.
After the zone conf. lunch and chatting with the missionaries we packed the car up and headed back to Montreal. It has been raining for three days solid and half way there around Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers), the clouds opened a bit a we enjoyed a ray of sunshine. It is amazing to me how light affects me. I am drawn to it. I seem to be energized by it. I seek it. It was so lovely as we now could see the colors of the leaves that are changing and with the recent rain the colors of the trees seemed to be neon in their new fall attire. I find it hard to understand the person who says there is no God. All one must do is look around at this beautiful, glorious earth. Even in the one aspect of a single maple tree outside our window. The changes this tree has gone through in color as we have been here is a miracle to me. Canadians love their Maple trees and now I know why. There are so many and this time of year is stunning and wondrous.
I will close with a worthwhile story President Monson shared with all the women of the entire Church last night at the General Board Relief Society Broadcast which is seen by women all over the world, in every ward as we all sit together and learn. I thought of my sweet girls, Emy, Libby, Wynn, and Tracie where they might be sitting in their wards and listening to the same thing I was hearing wishing they were there with me. Then as I thought more about that I wished my mom, and Sou and all my sisters in law and my nieces were with me. Oh how I love the women in my life. I am the most blessed woman I know to have the women in my life that I do. And that includes all my dear friends who are my family as well. I love you all. You are so dear to me. Now that I have strayed from that story I was going to tell you I will get back on track. I could never be a writer…anyway, he told the story of a young couple who had just moved in to a neighborhood. The young wife each morning looked out the window of their home and noticed the neighbors wash hanging on a clothesline. She also noted that the wash was dull and dingy and mentioned to her husband, “Our neighbor sure does not know how to wash, look how dirty her clothes look”. Day after day she would mention again to her husband, look at her clothes. She just can’t manage to get her clothes clean. Someone should teach her how to wash. Every morning she made comments about her neighbor not knowing how to wash properly. One morning as they were sitting eating, the wife said, “Oh look, our neighbor has finally learned how to wash, her clothes are finally clean” and the husband explained that while she was out, he had gone out and washed their own window as it had been filthy. President Monson went on to ask us, are we looking through a window that needs cleaning and by doing so judge others mistakenly? The Lord has commanded that we not judge others. We have a tendency to judge on appearances and that is not a great indicator of what lies within a particular human being. Anyway, enough of that. I loved Pres. Monson’s message.
I have so many other things about President Monson that we learned through stories told my Elder Walker but it is time to close. It is now Monday morning and I need to go attack the day and prepare for our now 19 new missionaries coming today. We just found out one of them returned home today as he was supposed to fly to Montreal. I pray he will be able to return to us. I have memorized names with faces and he looks like he would be a wonderful addition to our missionary force here.
I love you all. Thank you for your constant support and prayers in our behalf. They are felt and sometimes so real, I feel as if I am being carried. I am. By you and by the Lord.
Love,
Mom, Shir, Soeur cannon
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