Letter #22 Mom/Shir

In the Acadia on the way to Rimouski from Quebec City

January 8-11, 2011

Letter #22

Dearest family of all time,

I pray this letter finds you happy, healthy and not stuck in traffic like we are at the present time. I am utilizing my time in the car. It is a luxury to have uninterrupted time to write. The past few trips I was writing and working on talks in French. I have now given three, ten minute talks in French. Don’t be too impressed as I use Google translator for everything. Then I have the lady who helps out at the house, Michele, check the translation. I check and practice my pronunciation on a French website and VOILA. We have now completed the “lecture circuit” and are in the midst of interviews. However we do have two talks coming up in English but I find that a joy to be able to speak in my native tongue.

Speaking of the lady who helps in the house we are very pleased to have found a woman who is able come during the week to help out with the house and transfers, her name is Michele. Up to this point in our mission, I have not had help during the week, only on Fridays, so this is going to be heavenly. It will free up time to study this crazy French language. Michele was a translator for Peugeot in France. She is from Paris and speaks Spanish as well because her husband is from Peru. She is a very nice lady and we are so grateful for her. She is married with four kids, one of whom will serve a mission next month. I would actually love to learn Spanish from her….but I will try and stay focused.

I can’t help but share this. I am sorry, but this caused me to I laugh out loud, literally. This has been so funny. This is a very common occurrence as we drive throughout Quebec. I asked dad for permission to send this and he gave it. This is dad/Nels, speaking to the GPS screen… “Where is this taking us..this is ridiculous..it’s taking us down into the old city….Oh great Rue Croix Rouge…where are we going….where is it taking us…she is leading us right into traffic….where on earth are we going….I can’t believe this…..no…noooo. where are we going…she is leading us around in circles, we are going around in a huge circle, where is she taking us. This is not right. I don’t know why on earth she would choose these back roads, I have no idea…it’s taking us down into old Quebec. You asked if there was a back way, maybe this is it. This is CERTAINLY NOT a way I would have chosen. OH my goodness, now it is back to the freeway. Oh my, this is so messed up. I think what it’s doing is …it’s trying to go around the freeway cause it’s congested but it’s not…It just turned me right noo…don’t’…please, it won’t let me go left...come on please let us go…OHHHHHH” OK, this is going to put us on the ferry. NOOoooo.There is NO WAY this is quicker than the bridge” OH my goodness this is taking us on a massive detour, I don’t understand. OK we are at the ferry…unbelievable! This is SO messed up. It’s too late now, well, I don’t know how often the ferry goes across, why it chose to use the ferry I will never know. See this is so messed up, why would it have us take the ferry on a day like THIS!! What ever...this is so frustrating! The bridge is so much quicker. We have lost an hour, at least an hour”. OK, this is me now, mom, but we started out an hour ago for Rimouski and President Cannon chose a different route than what the Elders suggested. He was quite upset with Jill the GPS voice. However, if you ask me, it was priceless. I have not laughed that hard in some time. Sorry it was at dad’s expense. On the bright side at least for me anyway, we took a ferry across an iceberg riddled St. Laurent river which was exhilarating. The ferry just plowed through mammoth islands of floating snow and ice. It was like being back in Norway. And the view of Old Quebec with the Hotel Frontenac in the background was breathtaking. Thank you Jill the GPS voice for taking us a different route so we were forced to take the ferry. It would have never happened otherwise. Dad is better now, at least for the time being.

We are driving on snowy roads with decent visibility and light snow, to Rimouski. It is one of the furthest locations of our mission. We are on a road that parallels the St. Laurent River. It is beautiful farm land with rolling hills and pine trees a plenty. It is a breathtaking view with the sun attempting to shine through an overcast sky. We are in the midst of interviewing all the missionaries in our mission. We decided to visit them in their apartments, which has been a wonderful experience, at least for us. It has been nice to see them in their own element, to see how they live. I must say, all of the apartments have been impressively clean. I expect we caused a bit of cleaning and organizing to go on that might not normally have occurred. I love our missionaries every one. They are kind, respectful, hard working, faithful, loving and full of goodness. We feel so blessed to have each of them assigned to our mission. The two we are visiting today rarely get to see any other missionaries because they are so far away. So we hope this will lift them in some way. At least they will know we love and care about them.

We attended a baptism in the Chicoutimi branch on Sunday. It was such a joyful experience. This woman Nancy and her son Yacoub were baptized. The branch has not had a baptism for two years so they were all in attendance. This is such a delightful, faithful, dear group of people. They have loved this woman and her two boys into the gospel. But she was so prepared to receive it. She had been a member of other churches and studied the Jehovah’s Witnesses, her X husband was Muslim, she studied Buddhism and many other churches, searching for truth. She was extremely well versed in the scriptures and was so anxious to hear from a representative of the Church that she stopped by the local Chapel and wrote a note on an envelope stating she wanted to be contacted. She is what is known as a golden investigator. She had checked out a Book of Mormon from the library and had read it before the missionaries visited her. She is a delight, and her son of nine years of age is the sweetest young boy. The branch really rallied around her and in celebration of her baptism that day made a huge lunch in her honor. They ate for some time after, laughing, talking and simply enjoying each other’s company. She actually made some very extreme changes in her lifestyle. She changed from the inside out. She is such a kind, intelligent, cheerful woman. I am so happy for her and I am grateful we were able to be in attendance, as we are with every baptism we attend. I love the weekends, it is when most baptisms occur. And we get to hear of the remarkable conversion stories. I wish I had the time to record each and every one of them.

I just called our sweet Elders in Rimouski to tell them that because of adverse conditions we are running a half an hour late and that we wanted to take them to lunch as they not often invited to D.A.’s (dinner appointments). When I called, they told me they were making a special lunch for US! Oh that is SO nice. Looks like Rimouski is 48 kilometers away. We are passing farm after farm. They are so beautiful. It is very remote up here. We just passed some horses standing in snow so deep it was up to their bellies. This is such rugged, raw country. We are still following the St. Laurent River. The visibility is about a quarter of a mile. I love adventures. And what is even better, I can type and watch the scenery at the same time. OK, we are back in the car, Nels just completed the interviews and the Elders apt. was sparkling clean other than a TON of mold. We need to take care of that. They made us delicious chicken and noodles seasoned with cheese sauce, peppers onions and salt and pepper. They said “This is a common missionary dinner”. It was so impressive. They had a table cloth on the table with mango juice to drink. We are the luckiest ever. How sweet was that? As a side note after the fact, our Quebec Elders made Arroz con leche, and another set made a taco lunch with homemade Horchata, Sisters fed us tuna sandwiches and muffins so we were well taken care of.

Sometimes when I write especially if it has been a few weeks, I can’t remember if I have written something in a previous letter or in my journal. So if I repeat myself or describe things that dad has already written of, please forgive me. The other night we were driving home late from a meeting. It had been snowing so the streets were packed, the lights seemed brighter and all the people were out. We were driving through a small city. Adults and yes, even children were out at that late hour. The snow was falling softly with huge flakes. They love to skate here and they all do so at every chance they get. It is such a healthy life style. I watched many families, older folks, youth holding hands and groups of what seemed to be married couples walking home with their skates tied together, hanging around their shoulders. It was such a quaint sight. I truly love this place. They are a very hearty bunch. There are so many wonderful people here who I would love to share our message with.

The snow removal infrastructure is quite an ”art” here in Quebec. They have so many options of how to remove snow it is amazing. They have these mini Quois Tanks the locals call them, that race down the sidewalks in every town and plow them clean. That is because everyone here walks wherever they need to go so the sidewalks must be cleared. Yes, some have cars but for the most part, when you go to church there are not many cars. The people here take the Metros (subway), buses or walk. You even see bikes out in this weather. I can’t figure out how they ride on ice but they do. There are seriously five to six different snow removal machines needed to clean up the snow. One to do sidewalks, one tractor to move it from the side of the road to 4 feet away from the sidewalk, one to gather the snow and push it up a huge hill of snow or one to drive over the rows of snow in order to suck it up and shoot it into a dump truck driving along side it or shoots it into it’s own bed or another truck that sucks it up and shoots it in your yard. Hence the huge snow mounds in front of every home. I know that was boring but if you lived here you would find this exciting.

I find that living this life so filled with thoughts of gospel principles, causes me to see things symbolically, more so than I ever have before. The problem is translating my thoughts to words. Dad does this so well, I should have him be my scribe. I find this putting a thought into words very difficult. For instance, we were on the way to Laval to see some Elders and the weather was a bit warmer today, 12 degrees. I found, that while driving, the windshield would become so dirty, I could not see the landscape clearly. I tried to ignore it so as to avoid cleaning it so frequently, but after time it became so obstructed I honestly wondered how dad was able to drive at all. How was he staying in his lane, staying on track? He would invariably turn on the windshield wipers and once again we had crystal clear visibility. I could, once again see clearly, and see the route which we were to take, whereas before I was unable to see at all. Just as the windshield, in the beginning of our journey was clean, so are we, as we are born into this life, clean and pure. Then as we grow older and “fall” from the grace of God, or sin, we have need to wash our windshields from dirt and wrong doing by way of repenting and using the Atonement daily in our lives. I see things much more clearly when I am trying to live as I know I should. I am able to see the path I should take. We start each day with a clean slate, assuming we apply the Atonement daily. Then one by one, droplet by droplet, little stains, little things occur that cloud our ability to see clearly. Sin, or wrongdoings, seem to obstruct our view, cloud our ability to do what is right. We start accumulating tiny spots, one at a time, so minuscule that you hardly notice them while they are coming at the windshield then before you realize it….obstruction occurs. It creeps up on you and is so subtle. The wipers and fluid are Jesus Christ and the Atonement. But it takes action, repentance, the action of turning on the wiper in order to clear our hearts, minds and lives of sin. Then and only then, can we have the Atonement work in our lives. I think we all want to see things crystal clear. We seek for clarity in all we do and say. Time to turn those wipers on again. Ok enough of that. That is my sermon for today.

We were able to finally take my first, (lovingly known as P-Day) Preparation Day together. Dad is smart enough to have taken a few to ride his bike but I on the other hand am a slow learner. While in Quebec City the Winter Carnival was going on. They had parades, Extreme Ice Skating runs through the city, ice sculptures etc. What the missionaries looks forward to each year is the construction of a new Ice Hotel or Hotel de Glace, which begins the first of Dec.with the production of 1600 tons artificial snow, as it contains more humidity than natural snow. This years theme was inspired by Mother Earth. The themes in the Hotel were those of underwater themes, animals, plant life....flora/fauna. It is just like a regular hotel but made of packed snow and ice. It has a front desk, disco, bar, ice slide,large Chapel, ice couches and chairs every where etc. Young couples are wed in the Chapel. They do place deer hides/skins/pelts on all the couches, chapel benches and bar seating. It includes 36 rooms, some of them suites. You can stay in the largest suite for $450.00 per person per night. That includes your own mini sauna and large hot tub outside the back door of your room. Yes, outside. The only thing in the room that is not made of ice or snow is the mattress. You sleep in sub zero sleeping bags. People come from all over the world to have this experience. Heavens to Betsy, You can come and sleep in my back yard for nothing. And I will provide dinner for free. We have enough snow to build an igloo out there so come on down ya'll. All in all it was interesting and turned out to be a perfect spot to snap a "few" pictures. I have not done that in a long time. The textures and imaging of sculpted, formed, cut ice was beautiful. So glad we went. Dad was freezing the whole time. I on the other hand was in my element. I felt like I should have strapped on a pair of skis.

Anyway, it is time to end. Please know of my love for this Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the Savior and my Father in Heaven. I am so hooked on reading the Book of Mormon. It all makes so much sense to me. It provides such happiness and offers wise counsel and guidance. My life has been blessed in every manner since I embraced the teachings of this Church. For that I will always be grateful. And for each of you who I love so dearly, I pray Heavenly Father’s choicest blessings to be with you. I pray for your safety, your health and your happiness. And that goes for my whole family. Your prayers and support are felt by us so absolutely, every day, it is as if your are carrying us. We are amazed by our health, stamina and ability to continue at this pace. We know it is not of our doing, but that of the blessings that come from your prayers and the love and mercy of our Father in Heaven.

Make it a wonderful week and I will do the same.

Much love,

Mom, Shir, Mema

Does anyone know of a site where I can easily, quickly load pix so others can view them? Please let me know if you have an idea for me. I would love to share the mission experience via photos! Thanks.

Pictures include, mom and dad eating lunch prepared by the Elders in Quebec, Ice Hotel pix,ice slide and little Quois tank cleaning sidewalks outside our door.