Letter #3

Letter #3

Sunday July 25 ,2010

Petawawa/Ottowa or somewhere in between as I am writing this on my laptop  in the car.

 

Hello dear dear family who I love so much,

 

Whoa, this has been such a wild ride this past week. We are actually on the road with Elders Perry and Meet right now. We are just coming home from Petawawa and are smack in the middle of Ottowa. It is such beautiful country. It is a combination of the ride down to Nauvoo, parts of Wisconsin and even parts of Missouri. I love this place. It feels like home but without my family and I am a mother of 80 young men and 10 young women. Now if I could just transport my family here this would be heaven.

 

The reason we went to Petawawa was two fold. The first reason  is that Nels and I have decided that we want to visit every ward in our territory of Quebec. We want to get to know the members and leaders of our church. We feel this will bring about a feeling of unity between the members and the missionaries. We also want to support all of our missionaries and let them know that what they are doing is very important to us even in the remote areas of the mission. Petawawa is a four hour drive. The second reason is there is a man by the name of Steve who has been investigating the church for 20 years. The two Elders that are teaching him now had something special about them, and it was just the right time for this good man. His wife belongs to a different church and is a very good woman. In fact his daughter and wife were there to support him. He tells of his conversion and the way it started was that he and his friend used to play pranks on each other and they used to order stuff and have it sent to the other kids. Things they saw on the T.V. or in magazines. So his friend saw an ad in the Readers Digest for a free Book of Mormon so he called and had them go to Steve's house. That was the beginning of many, many sets of missionaries. It was through the example of the members and their associations with them as well as the doctrine that made the difference in his life. He tried every other church but he kept coming back to the Mormon church. The reason he came to church for the first time was because the missionaries helped him do some work on his house. He wondered why they would have done that. He also realized that he either needed to take this seriously or just forget it because he had set a number of baptismal dates. He did not want to be baptized until he could really keep the commitments. He is a man of integrity. But he couldn't so he was baptized today. The two Elders that are with us in the car taught him, along with so many others.  It was such a great experience.

 P. who was also baptized has been running into the church for years and years. She said that every time she has run into hard times and had needed to find her way, she would randomly run into the missionaries or members. During her lifetime she has divorced and been involved heavily with drugs, had a huge falling away with her family, was on parole after having been in jail, lost custody of her children and only sees them on occasion, and was a lost soul. She has come so far. It is remarkable the change in her life. It is amazing what the woman has gone through.

 

Her story is one of so many we hear of day to day. People from all over the world, who have escaped near death experiences, genocide, starvation, witnessing the slaughtering of their family members and much more. I love Montreal as it is a place where the immigration laws allow "all" to come. I feel like "Liberty" should have a twin, here in Montreal who beacons all who are weary, scared, under attack, and are looking for a better life to come. Quebec will welcome you. It is a miracle to me to see so many people from so many different backgrounds come together and live in one place and do so, in harmony. Yes, there are the same problems that exist at home as a result of human nature and extreme need, but we see it every day as we drive around and see folks from all walks of life living in this great part of the world.

 

So enough of that, I want to tell you about two food things that are Canada's trademark foods…. Poutine and maple syrup. So, poutine is a huge and I mean huge plate of double friend thin French fries that have been fried to the point of being very crispy. Layer those on the bottom of the plate, now sprinkle with the famous white cheese curds, which are little blobs the size of a hazel nut, scattered all over the fries. Now top that with a very thick, rich delicious brown sauce and there you have it. Poutine! They love it over here. They sell it everywhere even McDonald's and Costco. According to the Elders, who as you may wonder about as far as being culinary experts, have informed us those are the sites to hit for Poutine. Along with the Elgin St. diner in Ottowa and Montreal Hot Dogs serves up a great plate of Poutine as well. The thing is, the missionaries have a tradition here. You have to finish the whole plate, especially your first time. Well, we did that and almost died. Especially because the told me NOT to get the regular Poutine but get a special like fried bacon and onions on top which is what I did. Oh my, I thought I was going to die. They were cheering me on but I must say that last four or five bites almost came back up. So now we have done it and we will never attempt it again. I must say eating with the Elders can be dangerous to your health.

 

The other thing is maple syrup. They have maple days where there are festivals in the spring when they harvest the syrup. They put maple syrup on EVERYTHING. I mean everything like eggs, roast, cereal etc. They also may maple slushies and popsicle type desserts. We are looking forward to next years harvest. Wynn, I know you wish you could be here. Love that REAL maple syrup.

 

Please know of my love for each of you. Forgive me for not being able to write a personal letter but know I think of you each individually as I write. I love this work. I love getting up every day as I know I have really important work to do. This is what we are supposed to be doing right now. I know that. I love my Father in Heaven and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. I know they live and love each of us. He knows us personally and knows of our needs. I am grateful to be able to pray to Him and feel of His love. I know prayers are answered. I love this work. It is true. It brings such change, goodness and joy to people's lives. It has to be right.

 

I love you all. I get to go teach with the sisters and after that we are going to visit an elderly lady from Iran who is a member and has been for many years. She is a Dr. but is retired. She is such an inspiration to me. Her name is Souri which in French, means mouse. But she is not a mouse but fierce in her testimony like a lion. She needs some help moving a few things. I look forward to this day.

 

Make it a great day and I will do the same,

 

Love, Mom/Shir