October How We Loved You

Wonder Fall Time

Morning mist on Mooney's Bay

Breakfast time

Line up Boys it's time to Head south!

Fall path

Don't feed the Ducks

What a glorious time of the year.  It has been a wonderful month. The Fall Fashion Show has just been spectacular.  We were blessed with some wonderful warm weather and crisp days to help the leaves put on their show.  Sister Mikkelsen has been collecting some beautiful leaves the past few weeks and now we need to develop some type of way to display them.  We are thinking of creating placemats.  This is a project for another day.

The above pictures were taken on a walk
at this place. Those of you that don't speak
French thats blue sea.  But really it is a Bog.
The second Largest one in Ontario. There is a board
walk that takes you out across ponds and the bog
area.  You can't go off the walk or you sink.
It is one of the most amazing areas we have found!

This is the Experimental farm just down the road
from our apartment. The pictures below were taken there.
Over 1700 different trees. Some are very interesting.

We truly enjoyed General Conference at the first of the month.  What a blessing it was to listen to those inspired messages.  We had a double treat this year because two weeks later Elder Ballard and Elder Christofferson came out to the North America North East Area (NENA) and presented two days of discussions and firesides. On a Saturday morning from Sharon Vermont, the birth place of Joseph Smith, they did a training for all missionaries in our NENA area. They provided great insight and motivation for all of us missionaries as they discussed how we can better serve in our areas.  That Evening we had a YSA dinner and then attended a fireside for the Area Young Adults. To top off the weekend they provided another family Fireside on Sunday Evening.  Elder Ballard encouraged all of us to pray for our Nation. It is very evident that we need to pray and seek for divine guidance that those who are leading our nation might be inspired to make those decision that will bless us and keep us free so that we may continue to worship God. So in you daily prayers please add that petition to our Heavenly Father that we might receive the blessings that are needed.

We had Thanksgiving at the mission home it was Oct 15 here in Canada
there were about 40 people there for dinner.  President and Sister Low are the best.

Some of the senior missionaries

President Low bottom right Sister Low sanding in back

Last district meeting for this transfer.  We have a big district of 15
there was a triple this transfer.

Things have really picked up here in our area.  We are going full blast with our Pathway group we are almost half way through the semester.  We have 15 Wonderful people that we are privileged to work with each week.  We also launched our new EnglishConnects 1 class.  We have just completed the first three lessons and have had 8 people attend so far. More than half of them are not members of the church. We are using the missionaries as the instructors for this class.  They are amazing as they teach the English Language and share their testimonies at the same time.  We just finished an 8 week transfer so we have been with this group a little longer than normal.  We are blessed to get to know these wonderful youth.

Hogs Back Falls

Moony's Bay on cloudy day

Loved the mist covered web

Dew on the leaves

These are actually berries on the tree there are no leaves left on this tree

Wedding reception of Julie lots of our youth

Carloyn's wedding reception

We had another two of our YSA get married this past month and another one got engaged.  It is so fun to be involved with them as they are moving through their lives.  We have lots of opportunities to mix and mingle with them each week.  They are a delight to work with.  We have Family Home Evenings each week and this last Monday we did a Halloween activity.  We had a good group out and the games were fun.

The winning spaghetti mini marshmelow tower 24 Inches tall

lots of fun kids in our ward

Well this past month the weather has been great. The tomatoes on our deck have been producing quite well.  We had to cover them two nights to avoid the frost but they have been a blessing in our food preparation.  Last night the wind started to blow and a cold front has moved in and snow is in the forecast so the growing season has now ended and we are preparing for our long winter experience.
In closing we just want to tell all of you how much we love and miss you.  What a blessing it is to be on a mission.  So many blessings.  Our grandchildren are growing we celebrated two of their birthdays the past couple of months and they actually had a chance to meet each other for the first time. Riley and jonathan made it up so all three cousins have now met each other.

Happy birthday Mads

Mads and Aria meeting in Chicago for the first time

The fun French class at institute

 Our Jacob and his little wife had a baby shower last week and they are anxiously awaiting the arrive of their new little one.  He is due the first part of December.  So being on a mission brings the blessing of grandchildren.  We do miss them some but we constantly visit with them on FaceTime.

Our daughter-in-law Erika at the shower jacob and Mads in the background

My sister and Niece at the shower with Jacob and Natalie

Oh what a marvelous invention it is to have video messaging.  We hope each of you are well and as we move into this Holiday season we wish you all the best.  You need to get excited about this years "Light the World "Campaign that the church is sponsoring it will bless your life as you serve people this season "One by One".  We love you and wish you the best all of our love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.