At the Mission Office

We were greeted warmly by our Mission President and his wife, President and Sister Leavitt, when we arrived in Halifax. They had us over to the Mission home for supper on  our first Sunday there, and introduced us to the Hendrickson's, the other office couple who are training us before they leave in 4 weeks.
We had a really good visit, chatted it up, watched a few mission videos, and got to know each other.
Next day, we went to the office, plugged into the "fire hose" and turned it on!

Elder Wiebe is pictured here with Elder Harding, as they tackle the finance and apartment end of things in the office. The Wiebe's, also from Calgary, were released two weeks before we got to Halifax, but Elder Wiebe very generously flew back to train Elder Harding for 5 days, as there was no one else who could do it.  They had 5 glorious days of uploading data into Elder Harding's head!  Right in the middle of the week, just to keep things interesting, the church auditor, who had not been to the office for several years, scheduled a visit and came by for a couple of days. You wouldn't want things to be boring in the office, now would you! But, in the end, Elder Harding said that it turned out to have its benefits as the auditor changed the way they did a couple of things and cut down on the work load, so there you go!

This is Sister Hendrickson with Sister Harding, and for good measure, we have the First Presidency and the 12 apostles right behind us --- that is a good feeling, as we need all the help we can get!  Sister Hendrickson is trying to teach me how to do the million and one things that come with the front desk. She is a lot of fun. President Leavitt adds a good deal of humour  to the office and is regularly checking in, and seeing how we are all doing, reassuring us that this is the Lords work, and we just have to do what we can, and trust that He will make up the difference. The learning curve is steep and there is a lot to figure out.  President Leavitt is working on getting some local help in to lend a hand, plus some of the young missionaries to come by and help us Senior Missionaries out, as the Mission Office is going from 3 couples down to just us. We enjoy rubbing shoulders with the young missionaries who come by the office. The AP's are working their hearts out with Transfers coming next week, and the "Tech"  Elders just have to walk in the room and our printer starts to work properly. The "Tech" Elders are called to take care of any technical problems and to do any technical things that Senior Couples can't seem to figure out... thank goodness for Tech Elders and AP's.

I read that the Halifax mission, like many Missions, had a large increase in the number of missionaries serving last year. That is  awesome, lots of young missionaries from all over the world who are excited about the work....to go along with that, and to lighten the load on the mission president, more Senior couples are needed everywhere.  We are called to be the "Leaven" in the mission --- we decided we will just try to not do too much damage -- ha ha! 

On the weekend, we decided to "unplug" from the fire hose at the office, and go sight seeing. We stopped at this farmers market and picked up some delicious and fresh fruit and veggies at a steal of a deal.

We stopped by this harbor for lunch --- beautiful, beautiful scenery here in Nova Scotia! Then we drove on to Peggy's cove. It was a super windy day, but I held onto Elder Harding and managed to not get blown away. Everywhere we go, Elder Harding tries to hand out a pass along card and get into a conversation with people about the Church. We are challenging ourselves to get better at talking to people, and during our companionship study,   we are talking about how we can be better listeners to those we meet, listen to them first, get to know people, see what is happening in their lives that is important to them, THEN share with them a short message that will strike a chord . For example, our waitress talked about her family quite a bit and how she missed them, and  a group of Mennonite ladies at Peggys Cove commented on my dress, seemed surprised to see another woman wearing a dress. It was fun to chat with them.... when you show a sincere interest in people, they will generally open  up and talk to you. Everywhere we go, people look at our badges and read "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"... we want to be sure that we let people know something about the church, about God and His interest in them.  The spirit leads us, we just have to have the faith to open our hearts and our mouths. 

Funny side note ---- people have the greatest sense of humor here! Elder Harding and I were asked to say the opening and closing prayer in Sunday School class .... the Class President, Brother Neiforth,  announced that we new , and they wanted us to say the prayers just to see how we would do!  Afterwards he gave us a 10 out 10! 

Time To Get Out of Dodge!

You never quite know how your prayers will be answered!  I was not looking forward to leaving Calgary, and was praying for the Lord to help me feel calm and settled, when an August snowstorm hit Calgary. Elder Harding and Fred Layton were, luckily, already well on their way out to Halifax with a loaded van, and I was making a few last visits around southern Alberta, after being at the MTC, when the storm came along. I returned home to Calgary to a real mess. The Large tree in our back yard had split in half and fallen!

The Challenge --- I was on my own to figure this out, or at least, it felt that way. In reality, I was not , as God was watching over us the whole time! We were so blessed that this tree fell the way it did. Nothing on our property was damaged, when it could so easily have fallen right onto our house, delaying me from getting  to the mission field and causing a lot more frustration.  

The Blessing -- God sent us an angel, in the form of "Monte", a friend of our daughter and her husband in New Brighton ward, who came and helped me out. He spent 2 hours cutting the damaged limb, and getting it off the fence and refused any payment.

Then, as Elder Harding and I spoke about who to call to remove the rest of the tree before it fell onto our home, we both felt impressed to call T. Strothers, who has a landscaping company. We did not know at the time that he had any connections for tree removal, we just felt we should call him. He said that he did have a guy, and when he checked it out, this man had only 2 days open that he could work.

Challenge --- it was Wednesday when the tree fell, and I had to fly out Saturday, plus, every other  single tree removal company that I called was booked solid for two weeks, or were not taking on any new jobs!

Blessing, or should I say Miracle --- this crew that Strothers knew had Thursday And Friday open and were able to come over and completely remove the entire tree.

Here is what the back yard looks like, just before I left!  So.... the Lord was watching over us, AND instead of being sad to leave Calgary, I was just so relieved to be "Getting Out Of Dodge" so to speak, with the tree taken care of and before anything else could come along to hamper me getting to the mission field!

The other part of the story is that our neighbor to the North of us heard a huge cracking sound as our tree split and fell at 5 am, Wednesday, Sept 10th, and so he got out of bed to see what had happened. When he saw our tree had fallen, he went and checked on his trees, and saw that a large crack was developing in a tree in his back yard, and it was starting to fall towards his house. If our tree had not fallen and woke him up, he would have gone off to work, and come home to a damaged roof and more. As it was, he had time to get a lift in, and cut down the tree before it could fall.   God works in mysterious ways!

Thank you to all who helped us deal with this --- good friends who let me lean on them, giving me emotional and physical support. You  are guardian angels. We are in your debt!

Cross Canada pictures

We hit construction all across Canada but especially in Manitoba and Ontario

Ontario was full of lakes and cottages and beautiful but two full days of driving to get through the province. 

There was some pressure on the trip.  A few stops to relieve.   That was nice of them to build this for us on the side of the road.

Unbelievable thunder and lightning storm.  Drove for 3 to 4 hours in the dark almost every night.  Dangerous with lots of watch out for Moose signs. 

Regina Temple

Montreal Temple.  Renovated because of mold

Before and after of Bay on Fundy tide in Truro Nova Scotia.   Amazing to watch.  It came in like a wave and turned this area into a lake.  Changed this creek literally 6 feet.

 After 6 days and 60 hours finally made it. 

Trip across Canada

The trip across Canada was quite an experience.  60 hours and 5 days.  Three of the days was over 15 hours each.   We saw the whole beautiful country.   My friend and Son in Laws Dad,  Fred Layton was my traveling companion.  You couldn't have asked for a better one.   He spoke to everyone and was a friend to all.   A terrific example to me.  I now have a new term.  The Fred Factor.

 The Van was packed to the hilt.  It was amazing what we fit in there.   Attached picture before and after of tire well.   We named the Toyota Sienna Van,  affectionately  Sister Yota and was grateful that we didn't have any problems.

 

 

 

Loving the MTC

 The MTC was a great experience for us.  We learned so much, made new friends with other senior couples who are at the same stage that we are at, and felt the Lords spirit being poured out upon us. A spiritual feast!

 It is a sacred priviledge to put on these Black name tags every day, to remember that all of our thoughts,                                words and actions need to be worthy of representatives of the Savior.

 Standing in front of the world map at the MTC, pointing to the Canada Halifax mission, we wished that we could have had our whole district join us, each of us pointing to where we were going, spreading out over the world.  It feels good to be a part of this. We are catching the vision of what needs to be done and what can be done. It is humbling to hear the stories of the other couples who are serving, and to hear about where they are going.

The Nielsons are two of our new friends --- we love them and all of the other senior couples whose emails we now have  so we can share not only our experiences, but also go to for advice and suggestions. This has been a busy  but fulfilling and fun week. Tomorrow Elder Harding and Fred (Thank you so much , Fred!) start the long  drive out to Halifax, over 52 hours of driving. I think that we have that van packed as full as it can possibly get!  Cool!  Sadly, the hammock did not make the final cut, but that is okay. We got a  lot of things packed in there.   I will fly out and join them in a few days.

Missionary Training Centre

It,s been quite a week in the MTC.  The night before we came we were set apart as fulltime Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and called to be representatives of Jesus Christ.    Quite a responsibility

The first thing that happens at the Missionary Training Centre is we received our Ministerial Certificate and our badges.  Elder and Sister Harding     Very sobering.  

We were a group of 116 "seniors" that had been called on various assignments throughout the world.   Russia, South America, Marshall Islamds , England, Germany, Somoa, various places in US and one couple to Canada.  Us.     The assignments were also varied including  teaching English, teaching High school, working with young single adults,  military Chaplain, ministry to correctional fascility, humanitarian work, office specialists and supporting local congregations.    The common element and purpose in all the assignments is to  help and serve the people where we are assigned and to envite them to develop a stronger relationship with our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.

We will do our best

They took two pictures because there was so many of us.   Here is the one we are in.

There Are No Coincidences in Life!

We are at the MTC now, and guess what.....it is not so scary after all! We are learning a ton and meeting so many other couples that are  experiencing the same things we are, it is incredible. But I need to write about one experience that we had today that stands out.
 Today , we met with a lady who I will call LP. She is a member of the church, who volunteers to let us missionaries practise our teaching on. She is an artist and loves to paint, so we had an immediate connection as I also enjoy painting. She had brought along a portrait to show us, plus a booklet of several of her pieces, including portraits of her mom and grandchildren. She is a very talented artist.    We began to chat and soon learned that she has a real life degenerative eye condition, that will likely mean she will slowly lose her sight in both eyes! We were stunned, and tears came to our eyes, then we all started to cry, for we could see what this would mean to her. We sat and wept together for a few minutes, then I felt to promise her that I knew that her HeavenlyFather was aware of her, that He knew what this meant to her, on many levels,  and that she was not alone, He would guide and strengthen her, and direct her path. I did not feel to tell her that this burden would be miraculously taken away, but only that as she continued to read the scriptures and pray to her Father in Heaven, She would feel His love for her and His awareness of her situation.  She mentioned that as she had been reading her scriptures, it was the paintings in the front of the Book of Mormon that caught her eye, some of them done by the artist, Freiburg .She told us how much she liked Frieburg, and Elder Harding told her about the painting above our mantel that Frieburg had painted , the one with the Savior  standing in the  boat, while the storm raged around Him, and He calmed the storm. Again, we all began to cry as Elder Harding bore his witness to LP that The Lord was mindful of her and would calm and help her. Well, we had by then been crying for a while, so we started to laugh at ourselves, and decided that we needed to drop the lesson plan we had come in with and asked LP what she would like to talk with us about that day.
  She said that she did not understand what she had been taught the week before abt priesthood authority, so Elder Harding pulled out his scriptures and the spirit directed the lesson and soon we were all crying again. It was beautiful....I asked LP to share with us what she was feeling and it touched our hearts as she opened up and told us some things. We exchanged email addresses afterwards ....it was an unexpected and beautiful meeting and LP said that although she has been doing this volunteering for some weeks now, she had not had this kind of an experience before...it was no coincidence that we met, I do not doubt that it was as much for us as for her. This is why we come on missions, to have these kind of experiences, with members, non members,less actives, it does not matter, for don't we all need someone to really listen to us, cry and laugh with us, and give us water to drink from the well of  Living Water!