September 5-17, 2018
After careful consideration it looks like this blog will become bi-weekly. We have found we have lots more to do and will only be able to post every two weeks. That will be a blessing for some of you. Less mail in your in box.
It has been a very eventful two weeks. It started off with a trip to Montreal to visit the Temple and then have a dinner with all of the couples in the mission.
Welcome to the Montreal Temple. The small temple in my hand was
3d printed by my nephew, Jared Noorda, and his son. It is a small night light
Yummy food at Montreal Restaurant
You've got to love Salmon!
All the couple in the Mission except one.
Pres. Phillips and his wife are on the far end of the table.
We had the privilege to meet our Mission President and his wife. The Phillips are great leaders and are doing an amazing job presiding over this great mission. They are on the down side of their mission and will return to Idaho this July.
There are lots of Senior missionaries in this mission. About half of them are involved with the Church history and family history department scanning records. It is a huge project that started about 10 years ago. They have been scanning official land documents from notaries for the past many years and are almost to the point were they will have access to the vital statistics of Canada. Each missionary will scan about 2500 documents a day, five days a week. It is a huge project. All of you indexers get ready for lots more records in the near future.
This is our group of senior couples The one in the white shirt was our guide. That is Elder Smith. They are heading home soon. This is their 4th mission.
We ferried our cars over to Quebec City
Large building on the left is a hotel that the Canadian Railroad Company built
so that their important guests had a place to stay.
There are several of these buildings across the country.
Sidewalk cafe and shops are big here
This mural was very well done
More sidewalk shops
Later that week we traveled to Quebec City and stayed over night and spent the day touring that beautiful city. It is like stepping into a European village. The area is very French and very little English is spoken unless you are a tourist and then you can find people that will help out.
We had to stop at the Christmas Shop
Very quaint court yard
This mural in on a flat wall very realistic.
The pictures speak for themselves. The area is wonderful and there are many large churches that are just beautiful. One thing we found out is that the people here are becoming more sectarian and so many of the churches are closing and being sold for government or local businesses. Some are being converted into apartment buildings. It is sad to see these wonderful old building being closed down.
This is very common it shows the priest working with the First Nation People
(The word Indians in not used here)
Testimony to miracles that have taken place at this church
The Lame shall Walk
The Quebec Falls was the highlight of the day. It is an impressive sight to behold. I hope the video works. It's exciting!
We have been enjoying the weather! We learned a lesson from a man we talked to on one of our walks. He told us you need to embrace the weather and love it for what it is. Every season has its blessing and we just need to recognize it and prepare for it.
This is the humid time of year that I'm embracing.
Even winter is a glorious time. He told us if you complain about the weather all the time all it will do is make your life miserable. So no more complaining about the humidity. We are just going to embrace it (or let it embrace us).
found this fun tree on a walk one day
This is part of an experimental farm near our apartment
No they don't grow rocks! This is a work of art.
This little guy caught our attention one morning. He had great balance
Our friend who told us to embrace the weather also taught about the parable of the trees. He pointed to several trees and told us that in the winter these trees will be taller. I asked how that could be. He told me that in the winter they will lose their burden of foliage and will then stand taller. Then in the spring the blessing of those leaves will return to take nourishment to the tree and the tree in response to that blessing will bow down a little in humble gratitude for that blessing. He then correlated that to us, how we too must bow down in reverence to all the blessing the Lord has bestowed upon us. I felt that was quite insightful.
This guy is beginning to lose its burden
This past week has been very busy as we have been involved with the youth in the Welcome Week. All the students are returning to the various universities here in town and they are all moving in. That does present a bit of an issue with the elevators while everyone was moving in. Two of our four elevators were out of service so people could use them to move their stuff into their apartments. So it was walk 10 flights of stairs or wait for quite awhile for one of the other elevators to show up. Another lesson in patience!
We have a wonderful bunch here at the Dow's Lake Ward and in the stake. Every night we had a different activity and we got to meet lots of new students. We also got to fulfill our CES call. Some might think that is Church Education System, but in reality it means Cook Every Second. The young adults have already fallen in love with Sister Mikkelsen's cooking. We have learned some new games and activities. These young people really know how to have fun. One night the Elders Quorum President put together an activity called Pub Trivia. (I guess in Pubs around the area it is a big thing) He had 10 rounds of 10 trivia questions and we were divided into teams of four. Our team struggled. We ended up with 28 points out of 100 possible. I really struggled with the Canadian History Category. I did find out that the original artist for the Superman character was Canadian. I also realized I didn't pay very close attention in history class because I knew very little about the War of 1812. And do you know what Koumpounophobia is? That's right. Its a fear of Buttons! I missed that one.
We completed our first round of Missionary apartment inspections. It was a fun opportunity. Some were really great. Others need a little assistance. All the missionaries are so great here we love them.
This was on one of the apartments we inspected someone in the stake made it.
We taught our first lesson last week. We team teach the Foundations of the Restoration class. It was great fun to have a class that Sister Mikkelsen and I can share together. We are learning lots about teaching and about each other as we learn to bounce off of each others comments. By the end of the mission we just might be a "couple teaching team". In the winter we might each have our own class.
Yesterday in church we had the retired Area Director of all of Canada Seminary and Institutes speak in Sacrament meeting. His wife spoke about revelation and how they had used it through out their life to make eternal family decisions. It was a perfect talk for our young people they are in the middle of the Decade of Decisions right now and need to understand that they can rely on the Spirit to direct them. We too can do the same thing in our lives. It would encourage you to start now to prepare yourselves for General Conference it's only a few weeks away.
To look for revelation in your life and ask in your prayers what else the Lord would have you do- Like serve a senior mission when the time is right. What a blessing it is to be here. This next two weeks will see us back to Utah for Jacobs wedding on the 22nd and a reception in Highland Utah and in Bunkerville NV. We hope to see all of you there. Have a blessed week the gospel is true.
Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen
Blue Heron these birds will begin their migration south in about 2 weeks
Welcome to week two! This is how our week began =)
Notice the Humidity 93%
People (the young missionaries, our Young Single Adults YSA. members...) have been asking us all week what Senior Couples do all day. I guess we haven't looked very busy yet. Actually, we haven't been really busy yet (It should pick up real soon), but I thought I'd fill you in on what we think it will look like.
Mondays, in the evening we have FHE (family home evening) with the ward. That usually consists
of a spiritual thought given by one of the youth and some kind of fun activity wth treats afterward. Those treats will sometimes be from us or Sunday leftovers from Costco. We usually have about
20-30 members come and it is so much fun. It usually ends up with a game of Bump (basketball) just before they head out the door. Monday mornings are filled with follow up from Sunday meeting assignments and prep for FHE.
Tuesdays are P-Day (preparation Day) Laundry, shop, clean, and sometimes a little sight-seeing. This week we toured the Parliament Building. It will be closing next week for 10 years so we were told to make sure we saw it and we're glad we did.
Got to watch a boat come through the locks on the way there.
aAfountain just outside parliament
Always at the ready!
While we waited we explored the architecture. Beautiful!
and the statues around the buildings
Loved these suffragettes! Women are People!
Tea Time
I think this was the Senate. The red seats are for the King and/or Queen when, if, they come.
This was (I think) a committee room where bills were debated
This was my favorite- the library. The only room that survived a fire in 1916
This is only part of the library many more books are stored elsewhere
All you Wood Badge people will understand the significance of this picture
The woodwork was spectacular
The building was absolutely gorgeous and the tour guides taught Canadian history and government 101 all the way through. So fun! We came back after Ward Mission Correlation Meeting on Friday with one of our YSA to see a laser light show where the history of Canada was projected up on the building. Hundreds of people sat on the grass to watch.
Parliament at night during the laser light show
Wednesdays will be spent preparing for Institute class which will be held that evening at 7:00. We will teach a Cornerstone class. Brother Carpenter, our Coordinator, will teach a Scripture course, and there will be a mission Prep class taught by a member of the stake.
Thursdays will hopefully be filled with community service and meeting/finding YSA from around the stake. This Thursday we went to a members house for a barbecue and game night. Ned made his famous salsa. They loved it.
Fridays we have District Meeting (we meet with the young elders and sisters), Ward Mission Correlation Meeting (the missionaries assigned our ward meet with the ward missionaries) and then there is usually a youth activity of some kind in the evening.
Saturdays will be full of shopping and getting ready for Sunday. The first Sunday we have Ward Council before church and a Break the Fast meal after church. Second Sunday is YSA Council before church. Third there's ward correlation before and a Munch and Mingle after and the 4th- I can't remember. We also get to help clean the church Saturday mornings and first and third weeks we get to help fill Bishops storehouse orders. That is fun! I love to help bring blessing s to sweet families in the stake. The church has a contract with a local grocery store and they deliver all the food to the church and then those with Bishop Food orders come in and fill the orders.
We sent out a survey asking to see if any students need to have an on campus daytime Institute Class. Several responded so we are trying to see if the university will allow us on campus. If they will, then one day we will teach a daytime class.
Seagulls lined up on the dock waiting for their turn at the fish
We love going for walks every morning. Here are a few more pictures of the things we see along the way.
We walked up to the church we see out our window.
Its a Greek Orthodox church with a statue of a Ukrainian Priest on the grounds.
It was all looked up that early in the morning so we couldn't find out who this
Ukrainian was. we will definitely have to go back.
Theses squirrels are black as ink. The fat ones look just like minks
There's marmots everywhere they are a little bigger than a cat
Sometimes we walk through a huge park. The parks are well taken care of and very clean
This is a huge past time here you see people walking around town carrying their paddles
But I think I would have to say that our favorite parts of the week are the meetings we have with either the leadership of the ward or the missionaries. You can tell that the most valiant servants have been saved for these latter days. We are humbled, and enriched every time we meet with them. Let me share a few of the lessons we've learned this week.
21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.
and asked us if we had ever felt that way. Lehi had just died, Laman and Lemuel were ready to kill him, he was feeling wretched and unworthy but then Nephi remembered the Lord's hand in his every breath and he rejoiced, felt renewed and ready to do the work he had been commanded to do. He felt the love of the Lord even unto the consuming of his flesh!
Other quotes from Pres Nelson's talk
"When I think of the Book of Mormon, I think of the word power. The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls."
"My brothers and sisters, how precious is the Book of Mormon to you? If you were offered diamonds or rubies or the Book of Mormon, which would you choose? Honestly, which is of greater worth to you?"
"My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, "
"Whenever I hear anyone, including myself, say, “I know the Book of Mormon is true,” I want to exclaim, “That’s nice, but it is not enough!” We need to feel, deep in “the inmost part” of our hearts,12 that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we would never want to live even one day without it.
Then one sister asked,"How can we learn to work with the Savior instead of just working for Him?"
An elder quoted Brad Wilcox, "We're not earning heaven, we're learning heaven"
From Acts 3:6-7
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
We learn
“Now in my mind’s eye I can picture this man, what was in his mind. ‘Doesn’t this man know that I have never walked? ... Peter just didn’t content himself by commanding the man to walk, but he ‘took him by the right hand, and lifted him up.’ (Acts 3:7.)
“Will you see that picture now of that noble soul, that chiefest of the apostles, perhaps with his arms around the shoulders of this man, and saying, ‘Now, my good man, have courage, I will take a few steps with you. Let’s walk together, and I assure you that you can walk, because you have received a blessing by the power and authority that God has given us as men, his servants.’ Then the man leaped with joy.
Today there was a Stake Picnic in Gatineau. These kids have fun wherever they go.
One of the Brothers from the ward there told us there used to be a senior couple
assigned to the ward a few years back. They had been such a needed support.
There's not enough senior couples to go around anymore.
Hopefully, some day, they can get the help they need again.
As we come to the end of week two we are so grateful for all our blessings. We are blessed to be a part of this work. We bear testimony that the things we are teaching are truly the teachings of our Father in Heaven and that as we live by these teachings we will find peace and joy in this life and in the world to come. As we read the scriptures daily we will be find the power and the inspiration we need to accomplish the work we have to do and as we share with others the things we are learning, the truthfulness of those lessons will find place in our hearts.
