"Some Shockin' Good"

It is almost January-- does everyone else feel like the past month was a wonderful whirlwind of activity?
There are a couple of songs that are classic Newfoundlander songs -- "Isa by" and "Some Shockin' Good". Well, December has been "Some Shockin' Good!"  that is for sure.

Here is a picture of our Dartmouth District. Note the apple toss, caught in mid-air!  He was pretty happy about that!  See the many cameras lined up on the desk, as everyone wants a picture of this group. About half got transferred so this was a sweet, temporary goodbye. I usually do not like saying goodbye, I get quite attached to people, and so it was sort of hard to see so many of our group move, but everyone puts thier best foot forward, smiles and talks about opportunities ahead. Just a great attitude, that is infectious!

Here is one of our Zone conferences, held before Transfers, because it was so close to Christmas this time. The large white stuffed toy cow was the hottest "white elephant" gift there, as many usually  kind and considerate missionaries unashamedly took turns "Stealing"  the cow from each other!

  I Love these missionaries!

Elder Harding and I got real close to these two fine young men. They reminded us of our son. We were sad to see them go, but we vowed to stay in touch. Elder Harding can give them a big old hug, but I cannot hug                                                      them , so we settled for a "Hand Hug!"

The highlight of our month was having our son, Dallin and his wife, Marie, come out from Calgary to visit us!  We had five days of traveling and sight seeing -- it was a blast!  We went to Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, and to Lunenburg. 

 It was a cool, windy day on the coast, but we had such a great time!  We had "gospel discussions" as we drove from place to place,stopped and looked at amazing sights, and ate ourselves absolutely silly everywhere we went!

           It doesn't get much better!

We had to take a "Group Selfie" to capture the moment.

The best part, though, was when Dallin and Marie came with us to teach our Nepali Friends another discussion. What an amazing feeling to sit and teach the gospel to people you love and care about, With family that you Love and Care about!!  As soon as Dallin and Marie arrived here in Halifax, they wanted to get involved in missionary activities, coming into the office with us to work, despite the 3 hour time difference, from Calgary to here. Where ever we stopped to eat, one of us gave out a pass along card and tried to initiate a gospel conversation with people we met. Dallin challenged us to get a baptismal committment!!  He was all pumped up! But  to be able to teach a lesson with our family, involve them in our mission, and also to see them assist in teaching non- members, gave us an inside peak at what Dallin's mission was like!  I would not trade that experience for anything. It was a treasure.

At the Farewell Dinner and Testimony evening, one of the Departing missionaries words especially touched me. He was transferred into our mission from Ukraine 7 months ago, when his mission was closed due to political strife. He wept as he spoke about packing all his things, and boarding a train to leave the Ukraine, with 1 days notice, and waving goodbye to his Mission President and wife, and the ward members in the Ukraine. At the end of the evening, as we sang "God Be With You", he wept again!  What a life changing experience a mission is for these young men and women, and also for us Seniors. How amazed and Humbled I am to see the Lords hand in all of our lives, to know how He loves and desires to Bless us all. 

How grateful I am to hear about and experience these things---  

These last pictures are of a Christmas gift that our Friend, Elder Green, made for us...."ugly sticks"!  He did a fabulous job, turning these mops into traditional Newfoundlander musical instruments!

 Then he had to show Elder Harding how to play them. What  a riot!

Never a dull moment here, folks!  It is "Some Shockin' Good" in the Maritimes. Love to all!

December Blessings!

One of our favorite things to be involved with here in the Maritimes, is attending FHE with these fine people every Monday evening. Below you can see, Sister Brown,(Left), Brother and Sister Green (centre and right)The Greens work in the Mission Office with us.

We meet at the home of Brother and Sister Nieforth, below, (centre and right), and some evenings, Bill Green brings his guitar, and we all sing together. It is a lot of fun! The Green's regularly go to Senior Nursing homes and entertain the Seniors there. They are well known for their many hours of service.

Below, is Sister Harding and Greta, another fine member of our Dartmouth ward.

This is Brother and Sister Morrison, more wonderful Dartmouth ward members. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming to us, we feel like these people will be life long friends!

Another one of the highlights of our mission, is our District Meetings, Wednesdays from 10:00-12:00. This is our current District, going left to right, Elder Harding, Elder Henderson (DL), behind him is Elder McNabb , with Elder Densley tossing an apple in the air for good luck, next to Henderson, is Elder Corbett, Elder Ashby, (out for only 4 weeks), Elder Woodbury, Elder Johnonson (leaves in 2 weeks), Sister Howell and Sister Turner (our Sister Training Leaders ) and Sister Brown, who helps us in the office. What a happy young group of dedicated young people~

This past week, we had Christmas Zone Conferences, and that was so much fun!  We got to travel to New Brunswick with the Leavitts, stayed overnight, then attended the NB zones, watched Meet the Mormons" with the group, had a turkey dinner served by the Moncton Ward RS --- thank you!  Then we had a Talent Show -- everyone is highly encouraged to participate, and so the office staff all went over to the Mission Home and pre-recorded two songs with the Leavitts --"Isa by" and "Some Shockin' Good". It was hilarious!  Elder Harding was handed a brass sculpture of a lobster,, about 14 inches long, and he stood in the back, underbeknown to the rest of us, and bounced the old lobster merrily up and down in time to the music -- we did not realize this until we played it back!  What a fun guy!  We also contributed to the Talent show by doing a couple of other numbers, as it could not get any worse than what we had already done --- Elder Harding dressed up in old coveralls and told two Southern stories, reminscient of  his days as a Missionary in Florida, and I recicted, "The Touch of the Masters Hand", with Elder Waldie playing the violin part way through. We had a blast  watching the wide variety of Talents the missionaries came out with --- throat whistling, original piano songs, quirky dance and song routines, juggling, and so on. It was great!

The best part,of course, is when "Santa" comes !We all got to have our picture with "Santa" --- Elder Jason, a french speaking Elder from Qaudalope, really really wanted to be Santa this year --- so here he is , in all of his glory!  He came in on a trolly that you stack church chairs on, pulled along by two Elders --- "Santa" explained that he had spent the summer in the Caribbean last year, so his skin was nicely "tanned" --- many of the Elders were so happy to see Santa, they ran and jumped right onto his lap -- Santa was a very good sport, and said to several of them, "Oh my son, it looks like you have been eating a lot this past year!!"

 We drove back to Nova Scotia and did it all over again on Wednesday, then the Leavitts flew to NFLD and repeated the process on Friday!  So we Seniors are now a bit tired out, but a good kind of Tired!

Another highlight of our week, was Elder Katcher, of the 70, came and spent 3 days in our mission a week ago. We were able to hear him speak several times and have supper with many of the senior couples at the Mission Home with Elder Katcher.  These are some of our "December Blessings", for which we are grateful. 

We feel the Love of the Savior, and are grateful for this opportunity to serve Him.

May God watch over and Bless all of you, in all the good work that you do in your own circle of influence.