Transfer Week, NYO, Senior Zone Conference

Well the last three weeks have been super busy.  You know you are busy when you have to schedule time to do your laundry.

Three weeks ago was transfer week.  July saw 23 fabulous missionaries go home and 22 enthusiastic missionaries arrive.  We had a lot of zone leaders, district leaders and sister leaders go home.  Over half of the mission has new leadership.  It is so exciting to watch the young missionaries step up to the plate, learn new responsibilities and carry on with enthusiasm and vigor.  In August we will have about the same numbers as July coming and going.  The big challenge is the ones leaving as they leave on four different days.  We are having many go home a couple of weeks early to go to school.  There will be seven trips to the airport next month with the comings and goings.  President and Sister Shields car will probably go there on auto-pilot. LOL

Last Tuesday we went into Toronto with Elder and Sister Wolfley and attended a concert by the National Youth Orchestra and Choir.  It was amazing.  They were as good as any Philharmonic Orchestra.  They were ages 16 to 28 and from all across Canada.  The concert was held at the Royal Conservatory of Music at the University of Toronto.  It is a beautiful old building with a modern addition.

Friday and Saturday of last week (July 28 & 29), we had a Zone Conference for all of the senior missionaries.  Friday afternoon, we went to the Toronto Temple to attend a session.  It was just senior couples in the session.  The two temple workers who were running the session were Temple Missionaries.  It was a very sacred and special time.  There were a lot of very tender feelings while we were there.  After the temple, we went to the Mission Home for a pot luck dinner and some training by President and Sister Shields.  Saturday morning, we met at the Mission Home for some more training.  After a pot luck lunch, we had a field trip.  We went to the Credit View Cemetery where a placque had been erected a month ago honoring the early Mormons in the area.  We had Brother Everett Palin speak to us about the early Church History in that area.  We then went to a park in the Black Creek area, where early baptisms were held in the 1830's and 1840"s.  Brother Palin spoke to us about the history in that area.  Brother Palin is a fount of information about early church history in Upper Canada.  He was a counsellor to President Monson when he was the mission president here.

Family Visit - Part 2

Saturday was a big day - off to the Zoo.  We were there for nearly nine hours and walked 9.2 kilometers according to Mike's phone.  We were totally wiped by the end of the day.  There was a special panda exhibit with baby pandas (nearly 2 years old).  We saw lots of animals, birds and all kinds of critters.

Sunday was a quiet day with time spent at Church.  After Church, we went for a walk around the temple.

Monday was our last day of adventure, and we went to the Aquarium.  It is in downtown Toronto right beside the CN Tower.  Barbara loved the jellyfish.

We ended their trip with a BANG!  It was a fun day.  Tuesday morning they headed back to Calgary and we headed back to the Mission Office.  It was a sad morning.  We so enjoyed their visit and were sad to see them go.

Visit fro Heather, Bryan, Barbara and Hope! - Part 1

Tuesday, July 4th was an exciting day for us, here in Brampton.  Heather, Bryan, Barbara and Hope arrived from Calgary.  They got to their hotel just as we got home from the Mission Office.  We went to dinner at a restaurant right across the way from their hotel, Heritage Fish and Chips.  We then took them to our apartment (less than 5 minutes from their hotel) and gave them the penny tour - it is small.  We went for a walk around the small lake by our apartment.  We saw lots of ducks and geese.  There was a lady feeding the geese and she gave some bread to the girls so they could feed them too.  After the walk, the girls played at the playgrounds that are in our area.

Wednesday was a visit to Downey's Family Farm.  The girls had a fabulous time playing, running, riding and laughing.  There were also a lot of animals to pet and we enjoyed a wagon ride around the farm.  

http://www.downeysfarm.com/  There are lots of things to do there for most of the year.  You can pick berries right now and corn and pumpkins in the fall.

After the farm, we dropped the girls off at Brother and Sister Hodder's home.  The girls made some new friends.  We took Heather and Bryan to the Toronto Temple for a session and then to dinner.  When we picked the girls up, Barbara wanted to know when she could have a play date there again.

Thursday we were off to Niagara Falls.  We went to the Botanical Gardens and the Butterfly Conservatory that are in Niagara First.  We did the wagon ride around the gardens.  The girls liked the horse.  There were a lot more flowers in bloom from when Mike and I were there a couple of months ago.

Off to the falls.  It is so awe inspiring to see the majesty of Niagara Falls.  We took the tour behind the falls which was amazing.  We ended up on a platform very close to the falls.  WOW!!!

Friday, we were exhausted, so we went into the Mission Office for a couple of hours to tend to mission business.  We went there for a rest.  Keeping with a five year old, a three year old and their Dad really wears grandparents out!   LOL  Mom was OK.  In the afternoon we went to Chingaucousy Park - three minutes from our place.  It is huge with lots of fun things to do.  The girls enjoyed the merry-go-round, swings and the splash pad.

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!

Canada Day - Proud to be a Canadian

We had a tender mercy the other day.  I was doing some family history on Mike's family and found his grandparents, his dad and two of his dad's siblings in the 1911 Danish Census.  There were a lot of extras on the census that I could read as I don't speak Danish.  I sent John (Mike's brother) and e-mail asking him to take a look at it and let us know what else was there.  He speaks Danish as he served his mission in Denmark many years ago.  He e-mailed back and said he would look at it later as they were leaving that day for Utah to start their mission.  We didn't think they were leaving till August 1st.  We called them from the mission office and had a good visit with them.  They will be serving in the Adriatic North Mission as Welfare Specialists for 23 months.  It was so good to visit with them.  

Canada Day started out with a breakfast for the couples that we work with in the office and the couple that trained us:  Elder and Sister Cannon, Elder and Sister Wolfley, and Elder and Sister Youngberg.  We were missing our family tradition that we started a few years ago.  We feasted on pancakes, sausages and our special hash-browns.  We have lots of left overs, so we will feast again tomorrow morning.  We all had a good time and a good visit.

Late afternoon there was a pot luck dinner at the home of Ed and Sheila Ludlow. They host dinners for the senior missionary couples every month.  There were about 40 people (senior couples, young elders and others) there in total.  We dined on all kinds of salads, pickles, chips and back bacon on a bun.  Then we rolled up to the dessert table to top off our already full tummies.  Sheila goes all out for her dinners.  We all got small Canadian flags and pins to take home with us.  We ended the day by singing all four verses of O Canada and the Star Spangled Banner (in honor of the many Americans that were there).

We chatted with Elders Bybee and Payne who started teaching Chuck earlier that day.  Remember him from last week's post??  He called the mission office wanting to know how to join the church.  At his first discussion yesterday, he asked to set a date for his baptism.  It is July 29th.  We are looking forward to being there.

It was a quiet week at the mission office, last week.  Wednesday was really bad as all the computer programs that we all use, were down (US and Canada).  We all went home early.  This week we will be gearing up for transfer week which is in two weeks.

We are excitedly awaiting the arrival of Heather, Bryan and the girls on Tuesday.  We will be able to take a few days off to do things with them.

A Most Wonderful Sabbath Day

The weather these days is quite unpredictable - sunshine, blue skies, fluffy clouds, storm clouds, rain, downpours, lightning and thunder.  The clouds here are so wonderful to watch.  They are very different from what we see in Alberta.  They are all spectacular, just so very different.  More of Heavenly Father's wonders of this beautiful world.
Summer is here, I got a couple of mosquito bites as we were out walking.

Last Monday, Elder Swendsen and I both had messages on our phones (from the weekend).  They were a man who said his name was Chuck, gave his phone number and asked how he could join the church. WOW!!!  We gave the info to the APs who gave it to the Brampton Ward Elders. "Look at what happens on Sunday!"

Last week (Wed, Thurs & Fri) we had three zone conferences where we saw all 10 zones over the three days.  The missionaries are getting much better at cleaning their cars.  The top winner was on day 2 - the Ajax sisters left Elder Swendsen a 300 gram Lindt chocolate bar and a note thanking him for being the best vehicle coordinator in the world!  Their car was amazing - they had worked hard.  Treats and notes help too.  We so love meeting with all the missionaries at these conferences.  Their enthusiasm for the work and the strength of all their testimonies is amazing.

What a most amazing Sabbath Day!  So many tender mercies touched my heart.
1.  Sacrament Meeting - due to a Spanish multi stake conference, we met later in the day with the Brampton Ward for all 3 meetings.
The first two speakers talked about going to the temple a week ago when the husband received his endowment.  They shared such beautiful feelings and testimony.  The second speaker talked about the blessing of having a son on a mission.  The third speaker talked again about the blessings of the temple and how it has impacted his family.
2.  Sunday School - we checked out the Gospel Essentials class and there was no-one there.  I told Elder Swendsen that I had seen the Brampton Ward Elders walking down the hall with a possible investigator.  We found them in the Temple Visitor's Centre looking a movie about the temple.  We sat in with them.  After talking to this man for a bit, and all of us sharing feelings about the temple, we took him for a walk around the temple grounds and continued to talk with him.  Elder Swendsen asked his name, as we hadn't been told - it was Chuck.  We told him and the Elders that we had both received his messages and were glad that he was here.  The Elders are going to meet with him on Saturday.  He seems to be a golden contact.  He is from Nigeria.  The Elders are going to get a couple of their ward members, who are also from Nigeria, to be his fellow-shippers.
3.  Relief Society - We had a lesson discussing the Conference talk by Elder Sabin - Stand Up Inside and Be All In - we had an amazing lesson.  Several sisters shared some extremely challenging trials that they have gone through or are going through now - the faith and love of the Savior, the trust in the Lord for all to be well, or as it should be and the courage to accept what happens.
Needless to say, I came home overflowing with a testimony that has been greatly strengthened.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  Heavenly Father and the Savior love us more that we can fathom.  Our prayers will be answered in His time and according to His plan.