February Fun

The snow is beautiful this time of year

This was the coldest day this year

The longest February of the past four years is now behind us.  We have one young lady in our branch that was able to celebrate her 5th birthday this year.  She was born on leap day so even though she in 24 in calendar years. It is such a blessing to work with these youth we had some fun activities this past month. One of the fun times was a Home Evening Group activity were we went skating on the Rideau Canal. It is 7.4 KM of skiable ice. The longest skating rink in the world.

Skating with the youth

We didn't skate just walked with our ice spikes and trekking poles

The only problem is that this winter has been quite temperate so the ice is not as good as it has been in past years. But what a wonderful time it is. Another activity that the youth participated in was going to the Montreal Temple to participate in baptisms.  We had a good group and were blessed with good travel weather and great pizza at Georges a great eatery just down the road from the temple.

We love temple trips

Another of the great blessings we enjoy is working with wonderful missionaries. The down side to this is that you just begin to really love and appreciate them and they get transferred. This month was no exception. On this transfer day we had the largest snow storm of the year.  But all still went well accept for the missionaries that were flying in. Their flights all got canceled and they arrived a few days later.

District councils are wonderful

Sister Long left us to train a new missionary. She's the best

Transfer day at the bus station

We had a wonderful zone conference where we where trained by a wonderful mission president. President and Sister Low are such a blessing to this mission they are so loving and kind. This transfer they welcomed one of the largest groups of new missionaries into our mission that they have had so far. It is such a blessing to watch these young missionaries grow and progress. The opportunity to get trained by them each week at our District Council is wonderful.

Zone conference there is a lady in the stake that has been
serving zone conference luncheons for over 20 years thanks Sister Booth

The last district council before transfers

We continue to see our EnglishConnects group grow and progress as we continue to help people learn English. We had a fun activity this month. We discussed making pancakes and then went into the kitchen with 12 students and had three cooking stations and made banana waffles. They had a wonderful time and hopefully they will continue to learn and progress.

Working with our EnglishConnects class

The other wonderful blessings is working with our Pathway Group. They are over 1/2 through their one year program. Each of them is progressing in their teaching skills and also learning to be better disciple leaders in their wards. Right now they are working on group projects developing a business plan fro a lemonade stand. The things they are learning are incredible.
The stake had a wonderful Valentine activity. They had a stake dance.  Over 100 people attended. Several of our YSA kids came and were the life of the party.  The music was fun and there was a Carom like games set up for those who didn't want to dance.  The food was wonderful and the company was great.

We gave several of our neighbors on the 10th
floor a heart attack on Valentines Day

Happy Valentines day

Last but not least we were able to travel to Salt Lake the last few days of the month to be with our family as our son blessed Grayson Jep Mikkelsen. What  a wonderful opportunity to spend a few days being with some of our family and celebrate a wonderful day with them.

We finally got to meet Grayson in person

Grandkids are the best

Grayson Loves Grandma

We blessed Grayson in a special family event what a wonderful day

Proud Daddy (Jacob) and Grandparents

The proud parents

Being a Senior missionary has its challenges but also the blessing are wonderful.  We would not trade this opportunity, What a blessing it is to work with the wonderful people from Ottawa but also to see the blessings that come to our family. We hope that each of you are well and that the blessings of living the gospel of Jesus Christ are blessing your lives.  We love all of you

Erik and Jacob both have birthdays in March so this was
our birthday breakfast celebration at Sweet Lake Biscuits.

We are heading back in the morning so lookout
Ottawa here we come

Happy Hippo in the Ottawa snow

Welcome to the Winter Wonderful Land

We have been remiss in sending out a blog for December and January.  It seems like time just speeds forward and we are busily involved in the daily work of the Kingdom.  We love serving here and have found it very satisfying as we continue to develop relationships with the wonderful people of Canada.  What a blessing to be here and to be able to work with all these wonderful people.
Just a glimpse into our week.  But I'll throw pictures in that are totally unrelated just to break it up.

Light the World Treat plates ready to deliver

This is how Senior missionaries use their TV as a Christmas Card Display

Christmas Eve activity for youth that had no family in town
We could only find Daniel and Dante they are both from Mexico

Christmas Morning District Breakfast With a wonderful group
of missionaries. Great ways to spend Christmas morning

On Sunday we are blessed to be able to attend the YSA Ward and work with the wonderful youth of the church.  We start at about 10:30 with mission correlation and then attend Ward council on the first and third Sundays. Church at 1 and after the block we have either and meal with the youth or another YSA meeting. We arrive home about 4:30.  The rest of the sabbath is spent visiting with our family.

Christmas Eve Picture of Riley and Jonathan

Day after Christmas in Columbus helping Jonathan move

Riley our master builder

Quilt for our newest Grandson Grayson Born December 6th
The ears on the bears are floppy it was fun to make this quilt.
One down side fabric in Canada is very expensive!

Celebrating Jonathan's 33rd birthday while we were in Columbus

Monday we have a Senior Couples District Council where 21 couples meet together on a computer program called Zoom and we share our miracles and receive training from the mission president. In the evening we attend Home Evening group with the youth and there is always a wonderful activity.

Christmas gift from one of our Pathway students

The district transfer picture.  It's hard as these wonderful
missionaries get transferred out of our life. 

Creative missionaries making handouts for district
council. This is me after the resurrection
 minus the glasses and gray hair

Tuesday is our P day with laundry and cleaning and then we have a Zoom Faculty meeting with our area Coordinator and the other Institute couple in Montreal. In the evening we teach EnglishConnect 1 which is an English Language training program.  We work with the missionaries and we have anywhere from 3 to 8 people mostly non members attending.

This is our son Erik in an office just outside of the the Presidents Oval Office
Door on the right goes into the Oval office.
He is on the back row by the door.
His company is working on a project with several major business to improve education

Wednesday is our big day. We have District Council with the young Missionaries that is always a highlight, they are so intune with the spirit. We prepare all week to teach a lesson at Institute.  Sister Mikkelsen is teaching an LDS Hymns class.  They are exploring the church hymns and the composers and the stories behind the songs.  I teach the Eternal Families class.  It is one of the four required classes for Institute graduation.  It is an in-depth exploration of The Family Proclamation. The semester is 14 weeks long and we have 28 lessons so we teach two lessons a every Wednesday night. This is the most tiring day of our week but also the most rewarding.  To instruct these youth is a blessing I learn much more from them than they learn from me.

Grayson

Aria

Mads

Thursday we facilitate a Pathway class.  We have a stellar group of individuals from our stake that bless our life as they teach a gospel lesson and a university preparation lesson each week.  This truly an inspired program

We love the sisters!

Friday we have a Family History class at the church we teach a short lesson then work with the students in the Family History Library.

Little Chilly this morning frost on the eyelashes

Hogs Back Falls in the winter sunrise

Saturday on the first and third weeks we volunteer at the Satellite Bishops Storehouse.  We have a food delivery made to the church early in the morning and then we set up tables and stock all the food on the tables and the patrons take little wagons around and pick up the items that they preorder earlier in the week.  It is a great blessing to the stake.  The other Saturdays we help clean the church if it is our wards month.
So it may seem that we are very busy but we have lots of time to study and prepare during the day it is a wonderful time of our lives. Wonderful happenings this last two months we had a wonderful Christmas season with lots of service and Lighting the World activities.  Our youth handed out over 700 pass along cards with service ideas printed on them.
We made a quick trip to Columbus the day after Christmas to help our son Jonathan move to a new place. It was fun to be able to visit with them for a few days.  We have enjoyed several snow storms but nothing like last year yet.  The weather has been very mild so far but as they say wait a few minutes and it will change.

Mer Blue this is a Bog that we visited in the fall now it's
enjoying it's winter coat

Last Christmas we got this from two youth
it survived the summer and now it is blessing
our lives with its beautiful colors.
You have to keep it in the dark 12 hours everyday
for 3 months to get it to bloom.  There is a parable in that
sometime we have to struggle in the dark so that
we can grow and bloom also.

Snow flakes the size of 1/2 dollars. It was an amazing snow storm

Well I'll close it up now but just want all of you to know that being here is the best, and yes, we miss you and wish we could be with you but this is where the Lord would have us be at this time in our life. May you and your families be blessed as you continue to serve in His Kingdom.  We love you and wish you the best.
Elder and Sister Mikkelsen