Almost Spring?

Welcome to another installment of the Mikkelsens in Canada blog post.

Walking on the Rideau Canal where they have 7.6 Kilometers of skating ice. Sister Mikkelsen is here on the right.

This will be a little shorter because we were late getting the February post out so there is not quite as much to tell this month.

One of our services is working with Bishops Store house
We use these wagons like shopping carts

This picture does not capture the red of this Cardinal.
He was singing a happy tune this day

A winter shot in the Arboretum Park through my eyes

Same shot through Sister Mikkelsen's eyes with her transitional
sunglasses on. You know the saying about Rose Colored Glasses

Let me start by saying that serving in the mission field is the best.  We have so many people that bless our lives and we see so many blessings for our family.  Miracles are all around us.  Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting and one of the friends that the Elders are teaching got up and bore his testimony for the first time.  He is on date to be baptized in the next few weeks.  When he first came he was very nervous about being there and didn't feel like he fit in and even decided to not come back.  But some great missionaries told him that he has a Father in Heaven that loves him and he came back.  Now he is bearing a strong testimony of the gospel and seeing miracles in his life. He said that he was in a low point feeling totally friendless when he sat by a wonderful sister missionary on the bus. She told me she was really not very good at bus contacting but she felt impressed to talk to him. I watched her wipe a tear from her eye as he retold that story yesterday.  She told me after that she and her companion were just going to get off the bus but when he sat next to her she was impressed that she needed to talk to him. She gave her companion the sign to stay on the bus and now we have a great young man that is ready to step into the waters of baptism. Oh the miracles we see.

We have been putting this bench in our blogs for awhile
This is the mid winter shot.

The winter here is awesome after 30+ years of living in the desert is has been a wonderful experience to enjoy so much snow. We have broken many records this winter.  I feel blessed that we were here to enjoy it with these wonderful Canadians.

This is one place they pile the snow when they clear our parking lot

A bright sunny very cold da.y Someone needs to trim those eye brows

They try and keep the fire hydrants open not always successful!
Notice the yellow flag sticking out of the snow which lets the plows
know where the hydrants are located

OOPS the snow plow didn't see this flag. At least the
valve had a breakpoint at ground level so that when this
happens we don't have a huge ice castle in the middle of the street

Now that March has begun we are starting to hear that it's spring and winter is over. I can believe that. We have been enjoying some very bright sunny days.  The temperature is still well below freezing but oh what a joy it is to walk in the sun light.

You can feel the spring in the air- look open water!

Yea there is still a lot of snow under that tree

In the summer this tree is so full you would never see Sister Mikkelsen

I made this wreath and hung it on our front door to encourage our
neighbors 

 We are so blessed to live on this world that was created for us and we were given everything we need to have to enjoy this Earth life.  It is interesting to watch people. You can tell those who embrace the season and those that just endure the season. Their faces are like a book that is easy to read.  As we walk in the mornings we try and make an effort to brighten those whose are just enduring the season. We see the evidence of spring sneaking up on us. The mountains of snow are beginning to shrink and it won't be long until the buds on the trees will begin to push through.

Another Cardinal singing for all he is worth

This last Saturday we traveled to the Sucrerie de la Montague (Sugar Shack) with the senior couples and enjoyed the afternoon visiting the Maple Syrup farm.  It was an original farm that has been producing Maple Syrup for well over a 100 years. They have developed it into a eatery where you come and enjoy a hearty lunch and tour the syrup making houses.  They make all their own bread for the restaurant in their wood fired bread ovens and all of the evaporators for making the syrup are wood fired. It is a small farm. They have about 25,000 trees and tap 3000-4000 trees each year.

Getting from the parking lot to the sugar shack

This is the hearth over the fire place. It was 20 long! Biggest fire place I have ever seen

They make all their own bread

The General store a must

These are the tree taps they use to get the sap to drip into the buckets
They hang the buckets on those hooks.

This is the wood fired evaporator to make the syrup 

The building that houses the bread oven and evaporator

Evaporator with doors to the the fire box.  They will use up to 4 cords of wood a day
while they are making syrup

Some of our wonderful senior couples. What a blessing they are to the work here
in Canada

 A tree must be 25 years old before they tap it for the first time.  It will get one tap. The older the tree the more taps they will put into it each year.  It is a labor intensive process. They have to wander all over the forest changing the buckets, sometimes twice a day, when the sap starts to flow. We were a little early, the sap is not flowing yet. It takes days that are 5 or 6 degrees above freezing in the day and 5 or 6 degrees below freezing at night to get the best sap flow. They have to collect 40 gallons of sap (Maple Water) to make one gallon of syrup. And if they want to make Maple Sugar it is almost 100 to one.

Sitting in the eatery waiting for our lunch

Here are more of the seniors couples

They advertised a hearty meal. It started with Bread and Pea soup
then we had the main course of Ham, Sausage, Bacon, Mashed potatoes
with meatball gravy, Egg Souffle', baked beans and Meat Pie.
Then it was time for dessert The picture above was sugar pie
like pecan pie but no nuts and pancakes smothered in maple syrup.
They also had jars of pickled beets sweet pickles and sweet salsa.
Good thing it was fast Sunday the next day

Interesting fact- after Joseph Smiths family moved to Palmyra NY this was one of the ways they made a living. From Joseph Smith paper page 9 BK3 we read this, "In the spring after we moved onto the farm we commenced making maple sugar of which we averaged 1000 lbs per year." That is a lot of maple sap to gather to make that much sugar.
Well I promised a shorter blog this time and so it i.s We just want each of you to know that our prayers are with all of you.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is wonderful and we are blessed to work with these inspired youth here in Ottawa.  They bless our lives everyday. Have a wonderful time serving where ever you are planted at this time.  "Lift where you stand"
Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen

Grandparents pages and Mission blessings see below.