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