God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again

These past few days have been wonderful -- it feels like missionary opportunities are still coming to us, right up to the end, and we are feeling blessed indeed!
   We are committed to staying in touch with and continuing to encourage individuals whose lives are now intertwined with ours, for years to come!

 One of the traditions here in the mission field is for the Elders to exchange ties with each other when one or the other is leaving -- you sign the back of the tie, write a little message, and it becomes a nice keepsake.

Here is Elder Harding with two ties that he was given recently.

They are a treasured remembrance of our wonderful young missionaries!

We have spent some time going around and saying "Goodbye", sharing a meal, a laugh and a message with many people here in the Maritimes who have touched our lives and stolen our hearts.

The Stirlings, us in the center, Gail and Margaret behind us. 

Donelda,

Karen and Roger, next to Brother Neiforth,

Alice Green, and Glenda Neiforth,

Brother Green on the guitar. Easily one of our favorite things to do was to gather at the Neiforths every Monday evening, 6:30 pm for FHE, and if we were lucky, Brother Green would bring his guitar and we would sing together.

It was absolutely heaven sent to be in this group. Made us feel

so welcome, and lifted us every time with their kindness, friendship, kinship,  and music.

The Dartmouth Ward has also been a huge source of Blessings during our mission here. We often commented to each other that we felt at home, right away --- it was as if the Lord had planted us in a ward that reminded us of our Midnapore ward back home -----

We will truly miss these wonderful Saints.

The ward had a Cake Social and Farewell for us on our last Sunday, and gave us two gifts ---  one was a beautiful water color painting done by Karen Morrison, of two children by the sea, and a gorgeous Maritime Table runner -- we were so surprised and touched by their generosity.

Here are a few pictures of our beloved Dartmouth Ward members.....

Ralph and Margaret Corbin...

Sister Melissa O'Connor, lunch buddy

Sister Sandra Choo, R.S. President

Sister Teenia--- loves to laugh and hug!

Cecil and Gail Thurber, love gospel discussions!

Sherry Maclennan and Sister Pincent, fellow choir members and Sisters

Bill and Alice Green, Greta, with Teenia behind --- FHE friends!

Brother Felden, a long time convert and stalwart pioneer here!

Behind Elder Harding is Ralph Corbin, then Margaret, next to Robert and Sharma Wilhelm, with their daughter Shelby in front, and Brother Nieforth, Sharma's dad, in front.

Bishop Quist --- one of the most kind hearted men ever, nicknamed the "Crying Bishop", his emotions often overflow when he speaks. Wonderful man!

Brother Maclennan, stalwart ward member.

Sister Rose, new in the Primary presidency

The Feldens ---- Sister Felden does the dinner appointment calendar for the Missionaries --- long time converts and stalwart members here --- They are Bishop Quist's grandparents and Brother Felden said that Bishop got the crying from him! 

J.J. Choo, my hairdresser and good friend!

Brother Atwood, Elder quorom President

Frances Buott ---- she and her husband, Bill, had us over several times to share a meal and a good old chin wag. Good memories!

And of course, our wonderful missionaries, Elder Hart and Elder Astle. We have enjoyed having these two Elders over to our Apartment almost every Tuesday morning this summer for Ward Mission Correlation Meeting --- love these young men! Elder Tauffer was here before Elder Hart ... we loved him too!

Our hearts are Full!!

God be with you all until we meet again, Keep love's banner floating o'er you!!

The scenery is beautiful here  in the Maritimes, but the people are even more Beautiful!

A Day At Old Lunenburg

On our Last Weekend, we decided to take a day and go to Lunenburg. It is one of our favorite places to visit, a beautiful town on the harbour, with colorful old Victorian houses and the home of the famous Blue Nose racing schooner.

We called up our friends, the Wentzells,  at the last minute and invited them to join us for lunch in Lunenburg. Not only were they available for lunch, they took most of the afternoon and we spent it together, eating lunch,  and sight seeing --- it was a "fabulous" day ---- so grateful for these good people!

We took a horse drawn carriage ride to tour the town and learn a little about its history.

So much fun!

By the By, the owner said this horse drawn tour business is up for sale right now --- just in case anyone is interested in livin' by the bay!

 This whole town has been designated an historic site, and we thoroughly enjoyed going around and looking at the homes dating back into the early 1800's.

The trim on this house (called gingerbread trim) would have been expense to do, so we know that the owners were well off in their day.

This home has a "Widow's Walk" on the top, a railed off area where the wives of seafaring men would go to watch for the ships coming back into port.

If their men did not disembark from the ship, they knew that their husband had died at sea and that  they were now widow's!!

The homes are painted different colors and it is great to drive up and down the streets, just looking around.

This sign says the home was built in the 1800's.

You can imagine the time it would take to paint these...

 It is like a huge, real life "Heritage Park" except that people are still living and  working here.

Look at this view, down the hilly street towards the harbour. 

I particularly love this building, "The Academy".

It reminds me of  a building from "Harry Potter" or something! It used to be a school for grades 1-12, and my friend, Melissa O'Connor went here as a girl! They are currently doing  some restoration work, and moving the public library to the second floor. There is a wonderful ancient graveyard right next to it that we drove through, Saw headstones dating back to the early 1800's --- you know our fascination with graveyards! They just have an appeal.

 No thanks to that nasty bug that bit me while I was looking around and caused a loonie size sore on my arm to swell up----the little nipper!! 

There are several old churches in town. We were told that all of the stained glass would have been brought over by ship in barrels of molasses, to keep the glass from breaking, so only rich families could afford stained glass.

Jim Aullenbach is the organist at this church --- we know his family and we hear that he is an amazing musician, but we did not get to hear him this time around! Maybe next time!

A beautiful painting  on a city building....

.... and lots of tourist type places to  eat and shop. Tourism is big here, but the place still manages to keep a small town and friendly appeal that draws us back.

The view of Lunenburg from the golf course

across the harbour.

There was a rowing competition on between the U. S. and Canada ---we don't now how many times they went back and forth across the harbour, nor who finally won as we got hungry and left!  Not much stamina on our end I guess!

The magnificent Blue Nose two was in dock and we got to walk on board and look around. It was built after the original famous racing schooner, the Blue Nose one, which won every race she entered for about 18 years ---I believe her picture is on the dime.

We stopped and talked to one of the young ladies who lived and worked onboard and she admitted that she still got seasick when they left port and hit the open seas, but she still preferred to work here than anywhere else!

 View of Lunenburg from across the Harbour --- so scenic, it makes us want to live here!

This is a picture of the Blue Nose sailing in harbour later in the day --- see the fog rolling in ---- I can smell the sea, just looking at this picture again!

We decided to take a drive down to Blue Rock, a small town about ten minutes north of Lunenburg.

The waves, the rocks, the boats ----- there is no place that compares to this. The Maritimes truly has an appeal all its own.

Some very lucky people get to live here all of the time --- all though I hear it gets a bit windy by the sea in the winter! Still, wouldn't the summers be grand!

This could be us!! 

We loved our day trip to Old Lunenburg ----- it was a wonderful day, friends, sunshine, scenery like no other, and ice cream to end the day!

Feeling grateful for this day that God gave us, to appreciate the beauty of the Maritimes, to relax and laugh and enjoy being together --- it was a  wonderful day!