We measure time in 6-week increments known as transfers. We had a huge one last week. We sent 16 missionaries home and welcomed 12! That means the office was hopping all week long. We were able to get everything done that needed doing—a feat in and of itself! Two glitches along the way: a couple of sets of missionaries missed their bus! When that happens, they basically have to do the work to get new tickets issued because they are in transit so I can’t purchase the tickets and email them as I usually do. I purchased over 50 tickets on Monday, so all things considered, only four missed buses was pretty good. The other glitch happened on Friday. I received a phone call from Sister Phillips telling me that an elder who was flying from Montreal then to NY and from NY to Europe didn’t have the proper visa. Ordering flights is one of my responsibilities, so I was really upset about this. Turns out that if a person who is a citizen of an esta (I have no idea what that means) visa-eligible country is going to be in the US to transit to another country, he/she has to have an esta visa. After talking with SL, we figured out what was needed; however, it was too late for me to get it. The elder was able to get it at the airport and make his flight—thanks in part to the flight being delayed. If these missionaries attended the MTC in Provo, which most of them do, they had an esta visa allowing them to come to the US. However, that visa is only good for two years and has expired by the time the missionary is ready to go home. We have missionaries flying to Europe and going through NY on the next two transfers—so we have started getting their applications submitted for new esta visas. Wish I had known about this a month ago; that certainly would have removed some of the stress of Friday.
Pat came down with some kind of crazy stomach ailment. He was up much of the night Tuesday and didn’t go to work Wednesday. Because we train the new missionaries on Thursday and he has to do a big part of that training, he had to go to work on Thursday, but he went home as soon as he could. Thankfully, he is feeling fine now.
I found another way to get to the Jacques Cartier Bridge! I was able to get to the south shore in good time for my shift at the temple on Wednesday. For the next several Wednesdays, the bridge will close at 8:30—so I can’t drive across it coming home. I can, however, take the metro and a bus and be at the temple and then again back home in about 35 minutes. That’s a lot longer for the return trip but about the same time to go. At least I won’t have to figure out how to use another bridge in the dark on my return trip!
The reason the bridge is going to be closed that Montreal is having an international fireworks festival. It is the largest in the world and started last night. Sister Carlson and I went up to the apartment building roof and watched it. It was absolutely spectacular! It was the opening event and will continue each Wednesday and Saturday into August. Different countries present a fireworks show. I think last night’s presentation was from Montreal. It has music synced to it as well. ABBA was the featured music last night. It lasted for about half an hour and was nothing short of amazing. I forgot to take my phone up, so I didn’t get any photos. I did find a picture online that represented what we saw.
Saturday we drove to Burlington, Vermont. What an incredible drive. The scenery was breathtaking. There are rolling hills covered in greenery from the bottom to the top—no wonder the state is called the Green Mountain State!
Our reasons for going to Vermont was to purchase shoes. For years and years and years I have worn SAS shoes. They are expensive and hard to find up here, so I went on line and found a store in St. Albans, VT that advertised SAS as one of the brands it carried. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they didn’t have the styles that I wanted. Instead, I purchased a couple of pairs that will work. My foot is very narrow and these are medium width, so the shoes don’t fit like I’d like them to—but they’ll have to do until I get home. Then we drove to South Burlington where we found a JC Penneys and where Pat was able to buy several short-sleeved white shirts. We couldn’t find them anywhere in Montreal. He ordered a couple online but was not happy with them. While at Penneys we found a couple of other items that we needed andvalso picked up a few grocery items so I wouldn’t have to go to the grocery store when we arrived back in Montreal. We did spent several hundred dollars. When we got to the border we were really hassled by the border agent. He said that because we were living in Montreal we should have to pay taxes on those items. After he lectured us for about 5 minutes, he said he was going to give us a break and let us enter without having to pay custom fees. What was so irritating about the whole experience is that for the last 10 months we have been contributing to the Canadian economy and not using any Canadian resource other than the infrastructure. We pay taxes on EVERYTHING-including postage stamps. So, in essence, we have been paying taxes to the Canadian government in addition to the US government. When we went to Plattsburgh a few months ago, we did not have that experience. The border agent looked at our papers and waved us through. There is a gentleman in our ward who works in the diplomatic corps for the States. I told him about our experience and made the comment that I thought it probably had something to do with what is happening in Washington with the tariffs imposed on Canada. He said that there was a lot of push-back. Unfortunately, we got caught in the middle of it! Not fun!
Then to add insult to injury, our ever-crazy GPS Lucy directed us back to Montreal via the Champlain Bridge. Once across the bridge we ran into massive road construction. At one point, we were forced off the interstate. Lucy was trying to get us back on the Interstate. We knew the general direction we needed to go and headed in that way only to end up at the Montreal Casino! We finally were able to get back on our side of the river and home—that, soon after having to deal with the border agent, made us decide we really did deserve a treat—so we walked to the ice cream store a couple of blocks from the apartment. On our way back, we saw a street event going on. We walked down the street and saw an amazing areal act! So we had the best of the best and the worst of the worst on Saturday.
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| Areal performance - amazing! |
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| Lots of folks enjoying the event |
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| The event was the Montreal Complete Circus |
Today we ended up being late to church because our printer took 20 minutes to print 4 pages! But we managed to get there. I usually play the piano for Relief Society, but today I was needed in Primary. So that’s where I went. Our neighbors, the Carlsons have a new toy—a dutch oven. They cooked a delectable bacon, sausage, potatoes, and cheese dish and invited us to join them. At church this morning, they ran into a couple who were up here to pick up a load of detergent bottle lids for the church who are from Brigham City, their home town. They also joined us for dinner. We had a great time. Just before we went across the hall for that amazing meal, we FaceTimed with Chris, Marianne, and Sarah (Michael was taking a nap). Always wonderful to be with our family.
As you can see tell, we had a very busy week. And as always, we are so grateful we are here. We love the Lord and love to be in his fulltime service.
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