Mikkelsen's Canadian Chronicle : Spring has Sprung?

Winter wonderland

Spring is upon us. The mountains of snow are gone.

It has been an eventful month we have been richly blessed. We completed the Winter Semester of institute and have had a few weeks to gear up for the Summer Semester. We received direction from our Area Supervisor that busy missionaries are happy missionaries. We were directed that we should be teaching 3-5 times a week so this next semester we are adding a Friday night Family History class.

This is one of the fun places on Family Search where you can find wonderful
adventures that your assessors have done.

It is very exciting as we have been preparing to teach this new class. In the past we have been pretty passive about doing Family Search but as we have been watching training videos and working on our own lines we are beginning to catch the spirit of Elijah. I personally have found many interesting things about my family that I was unaware of. I always thought that I had no pioneers that crossed the plains but As I have been going back in the family history there were Plain crossing pioneers in both of my parent's lines. In fact one of my cousins son's posted an obituary of my Great Grandfather Lamberth Osborne that told how he handed the Golden Spike to Brigham Young at the completion of the Utah Central Rail line completed the year after the transcontinental Railroad. He was 16 at the time and had been working on the rail line from Ogden to SLC.

Utah Central RR engine and coal car from 1851

So many fun facts and blessing are had as we do what we can to find people on both sides of the vail.
We have had the wonderful opportunity to have new Senior Sisters in the Ottawa area. We have spent some time with them getting them settled. We took them to Montreal for a welcome dinner on General Conference Sunday. There were 25 senior missionaries in attendance.

Three of the senior missionaries were unable to attend

What a blessing they are to the work with in this part of the Lords vineyard. Some were heading home and some have just arrived. Each and everyone of them are blessing the lives of the people here in this mission.
We have been taking walks and noticed that the snow is finally gone. But with melting snow and rains come the flooding. We spent the day sandbagging homes along the Ottawa River the other day.

We worked with people from our stake and were all sporting the helping hands vest. They had a 100 year flood in 2017 and this year the water levels have exceeded the 2017 levels. They have even closed one bridge that crosses the river because the water is so high. What a wonderful opportunity to serve and help people during difficult times. At the home of an older couple the water was already lapping at the back door so we built a wall all around the house standing in about one foot of water the whole time. While we worked that day it decided to snow on us. Winter is still trying to linger here in the north county.

lots of water when the snow melts

We had a wonderful month in the mission. We had a record number of baptisms this month with 30. The members and missionaries worked really hard to get people to attend on Easter Sunday. We also had a record number of Friends in attendance at the special Easter Day Sacrament meeting. What a blessing to serve during these special holidays. We focus much more on the day and its meaning when we're in full time service. What a glorious Easter it was this year.

Sister Mikkelsen and I purchased some bikes so that we could increase our travel area.

The new rides

We walk almost everyday and are limited in the places we can go but with bikes we now can begin to explore some of the 800 KM of bike paths that surround the city of Ottawa. We made a 14 KM ride the other day. it was a lot of fun.
Sister Mikkelsen got the Gardening bug the other day and now we are farming our balcony 10 floors up.

The Tenth floor gardening spot.

I hope the bees can find us so that our plants can be pollenated. But the trees and flowers are beginning to respond to the warmer temperatures and the miracle of Spring is beginning to bust forth all around us.
We are looking forward to the full bloom of Spring as the time for the annual Tulip Festival is getting closer. We have been riding by some of the tulips beds and they are really starting to grow.

Can't wait to see this in a couple of weeks

Holland sends several million bulbs to Canada every year as a thank you for their efforts in liberating them during WWII. We watched them plant them last fall and now their efforts are manifesting themselves.
Well we hope each of you are doing well we love and miss all of you and want you to know that serving a mission is the best. We recommend this to everyone.

Activity with the youth after dinner at the bishops house.
They Jenga to new levels here!

Transfer day what a blessing it is to work with each of these
wonderful missionaries

District just before transfers. We lost two of these wonderful
missionaries but got great ones in return

Roasted 6 chickens for Institute dinner. We made a LOT of
gravy for Hawaiian Haystacks.

Institute dinner

The need is great and there are many ways to serve. Visit the church web site under serve and teach and check out the senior missionary opportunities. May you each be blessed as you serve in your areas of labors until next month we love you.
Elder and Sister Mikkelsen