It's Canada Day!
To celebrate, we sang their national anthem-the first verse in English and the second verse in French! Loved it! We love Canada and are so happy to be here.
This week was the quiet before the storm! The office was super quiet. There were times when none of us had much to do—even Elder McGee had a bit of down time! But that’s not to say there wasn’t excitement. Last week we had a fire in a missionary apartment up north. This week we had a fire in our apartment building! Pat had smacked his tailbone on a corner at the office and left around 3 because sitting was causing him too much grief. It wasn’t long until I got a phone call from him telling me that he was outside our apartment building because there was a fire. Apparently, one of the workers was doing something to the emergency exit and ignited the door! To access that exit you use the stairwell on our floor and on our side of the building. Smoke was pouring onto our floor. The Carlsons, who work at the archive and who live in an apartment kitty-corner to us, had the day off. Elder Carlson said it was like watching the keystone cops as the apartment employees dealt with this situation. At one point, one of the workers ran past his apartment, opened the door to the stairwell, entered it, and then flew back across the hall going down the stairwell on the opposite end of the hall. He returned moments later wearing a mask that didn’t have a respirator—only a piece of cloth covering where the respirator should have been. Meanwhile, he passed a fire extinguisher and fire hose that is directly across from our apartment! Firemen and fire engines began arriving. The emergency exit on the opposite end of the hall leads to an asphalt-tiled roof. People were going out there and then had no idea where to go. Several weeks ago, the seniors did a fire drill. We had been talking about where we would go and what we would do in an emergency. It was my turn to present the lesson, so I figured out how to get out of the building if we can’t use the elevators—not an easy thing to do. Then we went on a little field trip and actually exited the building using the routes I had discovered. When our building was being evacuated, Sister Carlson was on the roof telling folks how to get off it and down on the street level. The situation was bad enough that they closed down the Sherbrooke Metro station, the station that is attached to our apartment building. This is the door that caught on fire—to fix the problem, the workers just cut off the burned part. A couple of days later, they increased the size of the threshold by adding cement to what was already there.
To celebrate, we sang their national anthem-the first verse in English and the second verse in French! Loved it! We love Canada and are so happy to be here.
This week was the quiet before the storm! The office was super quiet. There were times when none of us had much to do—even Elder McGee had a bit of down time! But that’s not to say there wasn’t excitement. Last week we had a fire in a missionary apartment up north. This week we had a fire in our apartment building! Pat had smacked his tailbone on a corner at the office and left around 3 because sitting was causing him too much grief. It wasn’t long until I got a phone call from him telling me that he was outside our apartment building because there was a fire. Apparently, one of the workers was doing something to the emergency exit and ignited the door! To access that exit you use the stairwell on our floor and on our side of the building. Smoke was pouring onto our floor. The Carlsons, who work at the archive and who live in an apartment kitty-corner to us, had the day off. Elder Carlson said it was like watching the keystone cops as the apartment employees dealt with this situation. At one point, one of the workers ran past his apartment, opened the door to the stairwell, entered it, and then flew back across the hall going down the stairwell on the opposite end of the hall. He returned moments later wearing a mask that didn’t have a respirator—only a piece of cloth covering where the respirator should have been. Meanwhile, he passed a fire extinguisher and fire hose that is directly across from our apartment! Firemen and fire engines began arriving. The emergency exit on the opposite end of the hall leads to an asphalt-tiled roof. People were going out there and then had no idea where to go. Several weeks ago, the seniors did a fire drill. We had been talking about where we would go and what we would do in an emergency. It was my turn to present the lesson, so I figured out how to get out of the building if we can’t use the elevators—not an easy thing to do. Then we went on a little field trip and actually exited the building using the routes I had discovered. When our building was being evacuated, Sister Carlson was on the roof telling folks how to get off it and down on the street level. The situation was bad enough that they closed down the Sherbrooke Metro station, the station that is attached to our apartment building. This is the door that caught on fire—to fix the problem, the workers just cut off the burned part. A couple of days later, they increased the size of the threshold by adding cement to what was already there.
Quite frankly, the owners of this building dodged a bullet! It could have been catastrophic if the fire had not been easily put out because there are so many issues here—the fire alarms don’t sound on all the floors, the fire extinguishers haven’t been inspected in at least three years, the emergency exit plan is only posted at one end of the hall and is only in French in spite of the fact that many non-French speakers live here. Turns out that the emergency door, which is made of wood (another safety issue), burned about 10 inches from the bottom. So, what did the management do? Either they or the fire department put out the fire. Then the building folks simply cut off the part of the door that burned and built up the threshold with cement! OSHA would have a field day! We are hoping that this is a wake-up call and some of the issues will be addressed!
Poutine is a culinary delight enjoyed extensively here in Quebec. The missionaries have a favorite little restaurant that specializes in poutine—La Banquise. It is about a ten-minute walk from the office and easily accessible for the missionaries coming from the Archives and the apartment building. Tuesday 16 of us, including two young missionaries, headed to La Banquise where most of us enjoyed a variety of different types of poutiness, and where all of us enjoyed our time together.
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| The seniors at La Banquise with Elder Cortes and Elder Mullens |
Sister Puzey and I spent two mornings this week inspecting apartments. For the most part, the young missionaries keep their apartments tidy. We usually only find minor problems, and we enjoy being with them in their own space! On the days that we do inspections, we are on the metro five or six times. Depending on the time of day, it is very crowded. Here are some examples:
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| The Olympic Stadium on Sherbrooke . . . |
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| . . .also saw this stop sign that had some kind of "sock" on it! |
Friday was a special day: Our precious little Sarah turned five. We FaceTimed with her just after she was up for the day and again on Saturday so we could watch her open her gifts. Not only did we get to be with Sarah, but we also got to see Michael, Marianne, and Christopher. Also, we are also very grateful that all is well with Kristina and Kevin. Certainly do love our family.
Friday and Sunday we had young missionaries over for dinner. We also had the Evans and Sister Puzey join us—Friday we had a repeat of what we had done a couple of weeks ago when Elder Poirier and Elder Rossi were invited to dinner—Elder Rossi missed out because they were on exchanges, so we told him we’d do it again for him. Friday night we had exactly the same menu: lasagna, salad, and Sister Puzey’s fabulous apple crisp. Tonight we had two sisters. We fixed one of the zone conference menus so we could figure out proportions. Sister Puzey also made a French apple pie to see if it would be feasible to have the senior sisters make it and serve in November. It all turned out great. Pat proclaimed that the pie was the best apple pie he’d every eaten!
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| Elders Harvey and Poirier, Sister Puzey, the Evans, and the McGees |
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| . . . and the repeat performance with Elders Rossi and Poirier |
Yesterday, we went on a couple of adventures. First, we drove to Greenfield Park, an area on the south shore, and went to Fabricville. It is a fabric store like the ones I’m used to! I was able to purchase what I need to begin working on a little project. Then we took the metro to Côte des Neiges station and went to the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetary and found the mausoleum of Thomas D’Arcy McGee. Thomas D’Arcy is Pat’s great-great uncle and was one of the founding fathers of the Canadian Federation. We have known for a long time that his mausoleum was at this cemetery but didn’t know where it was. We were able to locate the exact location online and then found a map of the cemetery.
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| Thomas D'Arcy's Mausoleum - not enough light to get a good picture |
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| At the top of the mausoleum |
This cemetery is the largest cemetery in Canada. It is peaceful and gorgeous. Yesterday, it was also very hot. We ending up having to climb a lot because the cemetery is part of Mount Royal!
To help find our way around the cemetery, we had to use a map and dots on the road!
St. Joseph's Oratory is nearby. It is so large that we were able to see its dome while we were in the cemetery:
It was so hot and we had climbed so much that we had to stop at the Metro grocery store to buy water before heading home on the metro.
Now, Pat and I are just winding down getting ready to gear up for the next three weeks when we do arrivals, transfers, and departures and then two weeks of zone conferences.
Love to all.
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