letter #16

Nov. 5, 2010

Somewhere between Quebec City and Montreal in our Acadia, I love that name

Letter # 16

Bonjour ma famille,

We are just returning to Montreal, after having been in the beautiful, magnificent city of Quebec City. Old Quebec should be on everyone’s TO DO list of places to visit. There is much histoire/history to experience. So many ancient, lovely buildings. We, along with 22 of our missionaries participated in a week long Symposium on Mormonism at the Local Jr. College. It was amazing. Before the Symposium, we flew to Kirtland, Ohio for a seminar. And now we are in the car on the way home to Montreal to prepare for a Stake Conference this weekend, Libby and Mark who will come tomorrow thru Monday morning as Mark is interviewing in Burlington, VT. and finally, and we feed and house them as well. Tons of food will be served in those 5 meals. Amidst all that we received notice that our chief couple who run the office informed us they must leave the mission this Wed. as they have a sick daughter. We are so sad for them and very sad to see them go. We pray for the Kite’s daughter Kelly who is 7 months pregnant. I know this letter should have gone out last Sunday but frankly…NO TIME.

We flew to Kirtland, OH. for a mission President’s and their wives seminar. We stayed for four days. We stayed at a Marriott Hotel close to the old Church historical sites in Kirtland where the very first Temple for our church was built. We visited many sacred sites and were privileged to partake of the Sacrament in that Temple.

Incidentally, Willard Marriott is an area Seventy and he passed us the sacrament. It was a sacred experience to partake of the sacrament in the very first Temple built in this dispensation. I am sure Nels will write about this so I will move on.

Well, skip 10 days and I am back again. I have not had a minute to write. So, this time we are in the Acadia, I just like saying that, driving to Ottawa. We have a zone conference up there with our missionaries tomorrow. We do training with them, meet with them, get feedback from them and eat together and generally enjoy being with them. I still have to prepare my training for tomorrow. It is on qualifying for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

We usually stay at a Comfort Inn or something like that when we go. We have yet to find a hotel where we would like to stay at each time we travel to Ottawa but I am sure we will find something.

So, we are invited to attend every single Stake Conference in the mission. That is so nice. However, if I were asked what my preference might be, I would vehemently reply, “Oh thank you, but I would not care to sit up on the stand but rather sit in the audience”. For some reason, it is felt that everyone would like to see us up on the stand. As a result, I am very aware of how I might appear to a congregation of 100’s. At least 800 people we are talking about. And because we are new, everyone is curious to see and meet us. Once again, this is the closest thing to being celebrities that your dad and I will every experience. And let it be known, I would NOT like being a real celebrity. That would be a very tough life. Anyway, as we were sitting on the stand the other day at a Conference in Hochelaga, QC. which was in French of course, I was horrified as I realized I was exhausted.

We had had 4 hours sleep the night before as we had a bit of an emergency with an Elder who jumped down some stairs…10 to be exact during a zone activity at the church. He had only been out for 6 weeks here in Montreal. Someone suggested that he do this and apparently he is a jumper anyway, so he jumped. He is a sweet, obedient Elder who just wanted to serve. I took he and his companion to the emergency room and after spending 6 hours at the hospital with him, then Nels and I took them to their apt. and waited for them to pack all his stuff up as he had to return home for an emergency surgery the next morning. We then returned to our home and made dinner for everyone, dad and I cleaned up and had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to get ready and feed him breakfast then take him to the airport…there was no time for sleep that night.

So, back to sitting up on the stand. As the meeting started, I realized I had a very warm outfit on. They cranked up the heat in that building and with the numbers of members there, it turned into a sauna. That was the first strike. The second strike was that I was not able to understand much as the Quebecois accent was running amuck in this meeting. I simply sat there in a vegetative state trying to keep my eyes opened. That was my goal for the evening. And third, we had just eaten a big meal as we missed all the others that day…so I was fighting with all my might to stay awake. Three strikes and I am out! I watched the minutes tick by. I tried lifting my feet off the ground, biting the sides of my cheeks, pinching my fingers, nothing was helping. And then it happened…the dreaded head bob. My head dropped slightly and then jerked up. This was a time for desperate measures. I pulled out my journal. I started writing furiously. I would look up at the speaker on occasion so as to appear as I was listening, and I was, I just did not understand anything. But I continued to take copious notes. You may ask yourself on what it was that I was taking copious notes on? Well, here is an excerpt of what I wrote. I only wish you could see the manner in which I wrote. It appears as if a very drunken sailor wrote in this journal of mine. There are words that go off the lines, that veer down the page, that turn into long lines. It is hilarious. Here we go…”I am sitting in a stake conf. It is 7:40 p.m….We are not speaking tonight but if I don’t write, I will seriously fall asleep. I can’t fall asleep, it would be rude and disastrous. Unless I keep writing I fall asleep. I guess it looks like I am taking notes. Mark and Libby came tonight. This is going to be impossible. It’s ten to 8 and we have an hour and 10 minutes to go. Every time I stop writing I fall asleep. WE are now on the fourth speaker. Oh help. People are laughing the speaker must have said something funny. One of the speakers just asked for some tissues, I think she asked again, and again. So one of the counselors went to get her those tissues and she has yet to use one. There is some sniffling going on. She just sat down without taking a tissue. A man is speaking and everyone is chuckling, something is funny. I don’t know what it is. Dang, just fell asleep. Nels just feel asleep. We are pathetic. I won’t last….. Anyway you get the idea. It was so funny after the fact. My friend said I need to keep chocolate in my purse and eat little bits during the night but that would be rude too. Anyway, looking back it was very funny but at the time, I can’t remember when I was that tired, not even on the road home from Portland to Montreal my first try.

We try to attend all baptisms, which are most always on the weekends. We attended a baptism on Saturday. There was a young man being baptized by the name of Patrick. He is from Haiti. He was a member referral. This elderly member who had only been a member for a month was asked by his friend, Patrick, to baptize him. After the talks, we all went in to witness the baptism. After the baptismal prayer, the man then proceeded to baptize Patrick . They descended the steps into the water and got into position for the ordinance of baptism. We were all gathered around the baptismal font. No one in the Bishopric or none of our Elders thought to practice going through the motions of the actual baptism with either of these two men ahead of time, so Patrick not knowing he was supposed to bend his knees, remained stiff as a board. As a result they both fell into the water. It was very funny and everyone started laughing including Patrick and his friend. They just tipped. So they tried it again by saying the baptismal prayer and down again Patrick went. Once again, they both fell into the baptismal font because Patrick failed to bend his knees as if her were about to sit in a chair. It was so funny as they fell into the font in slow motion this time. It was hilarious and every one broke into laughter again including Patrick and his friend. After much instruction from everyone, including the two witnesses, they tried it yet a third time and this time very slowly, very carefully and very successfully. When Patrick came up out of the water he had a huge smile on his face and the entire crowd erupted into cheering and Patrick raised his hands and said aloud "oui" which means yes! It was a wonderful time to be together and it will go down in history as one of the most joyous baptisms I've ever attended. I love this work, it was a joyous experience. I love how the members here in this mission support each other as well as all new members who are baptized.

We are looking forward to seeing our little grunting Acadia, Wynn, James, Libby and Mark for Thanksgiving. Can’t wait. We will miss the rest of you so much as we think of all the many things we are grateful for, you being in the forefront of that list.

I love each of you for so many reasons.

The gospel is true, whoop dee do. As said by my good friend Lynette M.

Love,

Mom, Shir, Soeur Cannon