Time for a change

The month of June is over already! What a wonderful month we had serving here in the Canada Montreal Mission (CCM). As of Thursday June 27, 2019 the mission has grown in size.  On that day our new mission President and his wife, President and Sister Low, stepped off the airplane in Montreal and when they did they brought the whole of the Halifax Mission with them.

Our New Mission President and his wife The Low's

The two missions have been combined and now our mission includes all of the Halifax mission.  They brought with them 65 missionaries and lots of wonderful traditions. For the past month we have been focusing on how we could assimilate those new missionaries into this mission. It is a sad thing for them that the mission that they were called to, no longer exists, but all the wonderful things they have done and are doing are now part of the CCM. President and Sister Low have been serving for one year in the Halifax mission. Even mission presidents can sometimes get transferred.  So they have packed up the Halifax mission home and have brought it to Montreal.

President and Sister Phillips at our last farewell Zone Conference
We will miss them

Their first stop in their new assignment was to come here on Saturday the 29th of June. President Low interviewed all the missionaries from our zone.  What a wonderful opportunity to meet with him and his wife. They are wonderful people.  They stayed over night and so we had them over to our apartment for dinner on Sunday before they headed back to Montreal to meet with all the other 160+ missionaries under their inspired leadership. Change in life and in a mission is always a blessing. We loved the Phillips as they served with us the first half of our mission and are looking forward to being blessed by the leadership of the Low's the the second half of our mission.

Welcome Erik, Erika, and Mads. At Kings mountain hike Gatinuea Park

Other happenings this month included a visit from our son Erik and daughter-in-law Erika and they were kind enough to bring our little grandson Mads with them.  What a wonderful visit it was.  We had several fun adventures with them as we explored places in and around Ottawa.

Day trip to Bonnechere Caves about 1 1/2 hours away

Our favorite bench in the Fletcher park

"Hey Grandma tell me a story"

fun bike ride with Erik

Mads' first cruise on the Rideau Canal.  We
took a tour on an electric tour boat on the
canal that we skate on  in the winter

Parliament in the back ground

Governor Generals Home

Sad farewell at the airport

We love you guys

 The best part was getting to visit with them and enjoying Mads. He is such a happy boy and we loved getting to know him better.
We also were part of the Ottawa YSA youth conference which took place the last three days of the month.  We had over 150 youth from all over come and participate here in Ottawa.  It was wonderful to watch our youth take on the responsibility of organizing and then executing this youth conference.  Everything went off without a hitch.

Group photo of the youth at the conference

50 pizzas do fit into a ford Escape

Fun afternoon at the water park and youth dance that night

It is a wonderful blessing being able to work and teach with these young people.  We are amazed at their knowledge and understanding of the gospel.  Even those that are new to the gospel are so in tune with the spirit.  We had a young man baptized this month that has an amazing testimony.

Our friend that was baptized this month

Three days after his baptism he attended my institute class.  It was amazing to feel the strength of his testimony as he was introduced to new teachings in the gospel that less than a month ago he had no clue even existed.  He has challenges in his life but is willing to do whatever is required for him to grow in his testimony of the gospel even it it requires him to move out of his boyhood home. Let me share part of a post that he shared on Facebook.
"I just want to say that no matter what barriers I face in becoming one with God's church, I know I shall prevail. As some of you know my mother doesn't like my new found faith a... I just want to testify that the same God who made yesterday is the one that made today and he knows tomorrow so I'm not going to let this bring me down and will continue reading the Book of Mormon, practicing what Jesus Christ teaches."
What a blessing it is to see the strength of these young people as they grasp the gospel and grow in their testimonies.  

FHE at the local Garlic Farm service project

Great group of youth to work with

This is how you feed a 150 hungry youth on Sunday morning

Just a quick plug for senior missionary work. Being around these youth and the young missionaries is such a boost to us. We are the ones being blessed by their strength and dedication. If you want to grow your testimony and have experiences that will not only bless your life but your families life come on a mission.  Is it hard? Yes, but anything worth having always has a price attached to it. We love it here and yes, we miss our family, but this is where we need to be right now. There are lots of ways to serve so if for some reason you can't leave your home, talk to your bishop and Stake President they will have opportunities for you to serve at home.

Pathway is the best get involved

With that thought in mind, we just received a new Stake calling in Ottawa. We are now serving on the Stake Self Reliance Committee, as Pathway representatives.  So this fall we will be starting a Pathway group to help people improve their educational prospects.  If you only have 3 or 4 hours a week you could become a Pathway Missionary and work with a virtual group right from your home.  We have done this a couple of times and have friends from all over the world that we have worked with. Go to byupathway.lds.org and you can sign up to serve as a Pathway Missionary.  You would love it!
Well that pretty much wraps up the month. The summer weather has arrived and the area is just beautiful.  It is VERY GREEN here for people that have lived in the desert for so many years it almost hurts your eyes to see so much green.

This little guy found his home in the church
Dumpster 

Not a desert tortise

Mom and the kids out for a stroll

 It is with Sadness that we had to bid farewell to our long time Home Teacher, Bud Wolfe.  He blessed our family for more that 15 years as he faithfully served us.  We will miss him. He was called home this last month and is now serving as a full time missionary on the other side of the veil.  We love and miss you Bud.

We love all of you and hope you are all well.

Happy Fathers Day

July 1st Canada Day Picnic Sister Munsell by me Sister Well
by Janet.  They are the senior sisters in our area they work
as records preservation missionaries.

One of our youth heading to his first prom  The is a great young man