Last Sunday of February 2018!

Here it is 10:20 on the last Sunday of February!  Can’t believe we’re heading into a new week, a new transfer, and a new month.  As of today, we have been fulltime missionaries for five months!

This week was pretty routine, busy as always, but routine. Three non-routine things that occurred this week were having a farewell dinner for an office couple who ends their mission on Thursday, picking up a senior sister at the airport, and having a welcome dinner for the sister that included two young elders.

The custom is for the mission president, his wife, and all the senior missionaries in the city to go to a restaurant when a senior couple or senior missionary finishes.  Seventeen of us headed to Bistro Tot ou Tard on Wednesday.  This restaurant is just a couple of blocks from our apartment building. Because we live right in Montreal, parking is difficult to find in this area.  One senior couple, our marvelous nurse and her husband, received parking tickets (costing over $50 each) the last two times they drove in from Hawkesbury to attend the farewell dinners.  We wanted them to join us so we needed to figure out a way to make it happen.  So simple.  We live about a mile from the office.  We have a car.  We could drive to work and they could drive to the office.  Then we could drive back to the apartment building, park the car, and walk to the restaurant. Problem solved!  Too bad we didn’t figure it out in November before they got the second ticket.  We had such a good time with the seniors.

Pat and I picked up a senior sister on a Saturday last December.  It was a nightmare because every time we tried to get on the freeway, the entrance was blocked.  Our ditzy GPS had us driving all over the city trying to get us to the airport.  We left early and arrived late, completely frazzled.  This time we decided we’d take the metro and the bus.  With three of us, the luggage would not be a problem.  So, Friday that’s what we did!  We were planning to leave right from work, but the sister’s plane had to be de-iced in Salt Lake.  That delayed her departure and caused her to miss her connecting flight in Toronto.  She was able to get a later flight out of Toronto into Montreal.  We hoped on the metro by our apartment building, went to the metro station where we were able to catch the 747 bus to the airport.  We were there in about 30-40 minutes.  We walked under a covered walkway to the terminal, met the plane, and reversed the process to return home.  It was so slick.  It was raining and cold, so I was very happy I didn’t have to drive in it.

We had invited the two young elders in our district to dinner this evening.  We typically have a potluck dinner to welcome newly arriving senior missionaries.  That meant that we would have to reschedule with the young missionaries or invite them to join all the seniors.  We left it up to them to decide—they wanted to come with all of us oldsters! We had such a great time with them and the seniors!  Here we are: Elders Sorensen and Fisher with Sisters Hyde, Chatterton, Iverson, Alp, The Holts, Drolets, Evans, Sister Puzey, the Carlsons, and the McGee

The ward that Pat and I have been assigned to attend had ward conference to day.  I love being in the wards up here—there is so much spirituality and diversity. Today the closing hymn was sung by all the men in the congregation.  It was amazing! Talks and lessons were all so well prepared.  We were richly fed, that’s for sure.

Transfer calls went out yesterday.  Although seniors do not move from location to location, we are sometimes moved from district to district and from ward to ward.  Pat and I have been moved into a new zone and a new district.  We will really miss the two sister missionaries and the two elders that we’ve grown to love so much during the last six weeks.

Our District: Sisters Louder and Davis and Elders Sorensen and Wensel

Group Hug!

Sister Terou and Sister McGee

German chocolate cake, from scratch, for FHE tomorrow - hope it tastes as good as it looks

Now it is 10:45.  Time to get this sent and me into bed—busy, busy week coming up!

We love you all.

Souviens-Toi

“Souviens-Toi” is a beautiful French hymn unique to the French hymnbook. The words are almost like a lullaby, spoken by our Heavenly Parents. The music is by Antonin Dvorak, can’t get much better than that. To say that the hymn is exquisitely beautiful is an understatement. I loved it when I was a young missionary so many years ago. I love it now. It is sung in the Canada Montreal Mission frequently. Last night we heard it sung in Chinese by a choir of Chinese men. We had gone to the Mandarin branch’s New Year’s celebration. Of course everything was in Chinese, so we couldn’t understand what was going to happen on the program until it happened. The number was announced and the choir began singing. Within three notes, we both knew what it was! I can’t describe the feelings that I had as I heard this hymn that I love so much sung in a language I can’t understand by faithful members of the church whose culture is so different from my own. It reinforced to me how we are truly all brothers and sisters in Christ’s church, regardless of our origins or our culture.

Saturday was a special day for the McGees. We are members of a district of two young sisters and two young elders. We were invited to attend the baptismal service of a brother that the sister missionaries had been teaching. What a beautiful experience that was. I was flooded with memories of baptismal services that I attended when I was a missionary in France. I saw the joy in the man’s face as he was baptized; I saw the joy in the missionaries’ faces and remembered the joy I felt as those I thought accepted the Gospel—there is nothing like it! Then to share the Chinese New Year with two of the senior sisters and the young Mandarin-speaking elders was the perfect ending of the day. We were so excited about the New Year celebration that we had to call Chris as we were walking to the metro station because he had experienced New Year in Hong Kong as a young missionary.

Sunday was a day filled with opposites—great joy and great frustration. We have been assigned to a new ward, one that requires us to drive until we sort out the metro and bus combinations that allow us to arrive on time and that do not require us to spend all day trying to get to or from the church. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the church this morning—Sister Hyde was the navigator. She missed one turn—it took us several minutes to wend our way back to the correct route—you just don’t go around the block and try again as you do in SLC. We arrived about 4 minutes late—not to bad. Church was wonderful, and the members were welcoming. Then the real nightmare began. It took us over an hour to get home. Together Pat and Sister Hyde were navigating—at one point we were going around in circles. Another time Lucy, our ditzy GPS, announced, “You’re going the wrong direction on the street!” We weren’t, but she was convinced we were! I was so grateful when we finally managed to get home. We invited the two sisters in our district and Sister Hyde and Sister Iverson over for dinner. One of the young missionaries has celiac disease and can’t have any gluten. On my trip to the IGA grocery store, I found a box of gluten-free spaghetti! Score! I made chicken spaghetti. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. (I’ve even learned how to make homemade condensed soup because the commercially prepared ones have gluten in them.) We had a wonderful time with the terrific young and the older sisters. President Phillips says all the time that the young missionaries are the best in the church. Our experience with them certainly bears that out. We have wonderful seniors here as well. All of us live in the same building in Montreal except for three couples: one couple lives and works in Ottowa, one in Quebec City, and one in Hawksbury. Pat and I feel so fortunate to be able to work with these amazing seniors.

As is almost always the case, the highlight of Sunday for us is Facetiming with Sarah and Michael! Oh, how we love those two little ones and how we miss them!

The rest of the week was pretty routine. I did manage to decorate a birthday cake for one of the senior sisters who works in the office with us—haven’t done that for a very long time—glad I can still do it! 

On Thursday Sister Evans and I did apartment inspections. Because it is so cold and snowy here, people put up shelters in the winter for the cars and entry ways. 

Sisters Louder, Davis, Iverson, and Hyde with the McGees

Sunday dinner

Olympic Stadium - saw this when we were doing inspections

Shelter - these are all over 

First birthday cake I've made in a very long time

We love being here.

Quiet Sunday Evening

Again we are at the end of Sunday.  I love Sundays. We are out the door by about 8:45 so we can take the Metro to the Ville Marie Chapel.  The chapel is located just across the street from the metro station!  Can’t ask for anything better than that. We typically arrive about 15 minutes before church starts giving us time to greet members and missionaries alike. I have stated how diverse Montreal is. The Montreal ward reflects that diversity:  today in Sunday School, the teacher asked how many countries were represented—14! The upside of that diversity for me is that although it is an English-speaking ward, there are so many people who speak French!

Our week was very busy but very routine until Friday.  Friday was something else.  There is a mailbox just a few feet from our front door.  I was returning to the building after mailing a few letters when I saw two sister missionaries.  They said they needed a hug.  I had seen them teaching someone as I left the building to go to the mailbox.  I asked them if they had had a tough time.  They had.  The individual they had been teaching must be experiencing some kind of mental illness.  At one point he told them he could fly. 

A short time later, a man came into the office wanting information about the young single adult (YSA) branches—this man was middle age and not eligible for YSA. He did not want to hear that and said that we were racist because he couldn’t go there.   There was a team of elders there whom he told to sit out in the foyer so he could talk to me-I guess he thought he could get the answer he wanted from me.  The elders refused to do that.  They told him that he was too old to go to YSA and that was the reason he couldn’t be a member of that unit—not because of the color of his skin.  Eventually, he left and our next adventure began.

Someone who claimed to be Alex Roy from Rogers called and said he was working with the Rogers’ employee I’ve been working with as we roll out smartphones.  He said that that person was out of town on vacation for two or three weeks. Then he said he needed a credit card number to guarantee payment.  I transferred him to the financial secretary who gave him the number—this guy was really smooth and convincing. Within minutes the bank had called saying they suspected someone was using our account fraudulently.  It was Alex!  The bank suspended the card, and Alex had the gall to call back saying he needed a valid number.  By this time we knew something was up, so we contacted Rogers to verify Alex’ identity—they didn’t know him!  So, we are going to have to deal with filing a police report on Monday so Rogers can talk to the police about the fraud that was committed using their name and information.

We finished our week by having Elder Higbee and Elder Fisher come to our apartment for dinner.  We love having the young missionaries here.  They are so genuinely good.  They try so hard to do what is right.  They are always so appreciative of anything that you do for them.  We fed them a simple meal of chili, cornbread, salad, and fresh fruit.  We finished the meal with lemon bars—Pat’s favorite. You would have thought by the missionaries reactions that we had rolled out a five-course banquet!  One of the things that they always do is leave us with a spiritual thought.  They are simply terrific.

In addition to a picture of the elders and our dinner, I’m attaching a picture of the snow we have here—these are two cars in the mission parking lot!   

With Elders Higbee and Fisher

Elder Higbee has a clock just like this one chez lei!

Heavenly Father is so good to the McGees!

With both of us having medical challenges in January, and both of us getting good results from the tests we had to have, we feel that we have been blessed beyond measure. Although Pat still has not passed the kidney stone, we think we are back on more of an even keel and can move forward with faith, courage, and determination!

We have two new couples working with us in Montréal! One couple will work in the office with Pat and me and replace the Holts who are leaving in less than a month. The other couple will work at the archives in record presentation. I spent a big chunk of Saturday afternoon helping them get basic things done: purchasing and loading metro cards, arranging for Internet service, and grocery shopping. When Elder and Sister Drolet helped us get those things done, it was such a huge blessing. It makes Montreal feel more like home. We now have 14 seniors living in our building and working in one capacity or another in the city. We all got together tonight to welcome the four new people with a potluck dinner. Our seniors are wonderful! Always feel so rejuvinenated after spending time with them.

My former school colleagues and friends have posted on Facebook that this week has been challenging for them. It must have something to do with the moon as it was equally challenging for us in Montréal. We have been so busy gearing up for the arrival of the two new couples, preparing for the smartphone roll out, and dealing with the everyday ordinariness of the mission office that we were feeling quite overwhelmed by it all. Sister Holt said as we were leaving on Tuesday after having what can only be described as a grueling day, “If this were a paying job, I’d quit!” I knew exactly what she meant and felt exactly the same way. While we love our work, it, at times, becomes very taxing and hard. This was one of those weeks. It was made even more difficult because Pat didn’t go to work at all this week; I was gone all day Wednesday; and Sister Holt was gone all day Friday. When we’re short-handed, those of us who are left really feel it.

I had an interesting experience on Wednesday. Although I had been gone all day at zone conference, we were having a Mission Leadership Conference on Thursday where the leaders among the missionary ranks would receive their smartphones and instructions on their use, and I had to go back into the office to make sure everything was ready to go. We work on the third floor of the building. The doors are kept locked and individuals wanting to come in must buzz and be admitted. It was about 8 o’clock when someone buzzed. There is a camera on the buzzer, so I was able to see that it was not anyone I knew—it was a lone, large man. There was no way I was going to let him in! When I didn’t open the door, he started ringing another buzzer that sounds throughout the building and is loud enough to wake the dead! He kept ringing these two buzzers for a good 15 minutes. When the noise finally stopped, I hoped he was gone but had no way of knowing until I went downstairs. I had driven to the office rather than taking the Metro because I had a trunk load of supplies for Thursday in the car, so I had parked in the back as close to the stairs as possible so I could unload everything. When it was time to leave, I walked down to the first floor and didn’t see anyone lurking about—good sign. I went to the back, couldn’t see anyone, and was able to get into the car without any problem. What a relief. Then I had to go get gas because my gas light had turned on and the readout said I only had 30 more miles I could go before running out of gas. From the time I had left zone conference and exited Costco after purchasing items for Thursday, it had started to snow. The snow was heavy and the roads were treacherous. Didn’t matter, I had to have gas. I was so glad when I finally pulled into the garage at about 9:00 p.m. What a long, long day.

Now, it is 8:00 p.m. on Sunday evening. We have spent a couple of hours with the seniors—always a pleasant experience, and we were able to FaceTime with Marianne and Sarah. Connecting with our precious family is always the best part of our Sunday. We love each of you and pray that you and yours will have a wonderful week.