Loving the work

This week was a week of getting increasingly engaged in the missionary and new member work. In our Sunday Stake Conference Meeting, Elder Evanson from the new Canadian Area Presidency shared some of the key experiences he has had. One in particular was very important. He described how he had been called as a Stake President and struggled with the responsibilities of the calling. One day, he told us, he was feeling so down and crying to his Father in Heaven "I can't do this", and he heard in his mind "No you can't, but I can."

In our work here, as well as our efforts in life depend so much on His love, power, authority, inspiration, and light. We are finding that as we rely more on Him and less on us, that we are finding more success, both with the missionaries and with the new members with whom we work.

We have met a couple of times now with the Ward Mission Correlation meeting. It is under the direction of Brother Meraz, the first counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency. He is engaged and energetic about ideas that come to him and that we share. We can see the ward becoming more engaged in the missionary work, especially as it regards new members as they approach being baptized, and immediately thereafter. The keys, as President Hinkley taught us, are that every member needs a friend, a responsibility, and to be nourished by the good word of God. In so many cases, the “friend” of a new member, is the missionary that taught them. Or us. We have to work to help make sure that their friends are the members of the ward.

We’ve also been to a couple of the Ward Council meetings and are impressed by how the Bishopric and ward leaders want to know and help with the new members. Our role is to help the ward members and leaders see how they can be more involved in making the transition better. There are so many new and different things to learn and understand once a person has been baptized, and we often don’t put ourselves in their shoes – we expect that they will be able to put on that new pair of shoes that we have designed for them, and to just be able to run at full speed.

We’ve presented some ideas to the Ward Council about tracking some of the key things that need to happen with a new member that we don’t often think about – do they have Gospel Library installed on their phone? Do they have a church account and LDS Tools installed so they can see the members of the ward? Do they have a picture in LDS Tools so the ward can get to know them? Have they been offered a subscription to the church magazines, or shown how to access them in Gospel Library? Have they been invited to attend the YSA Ward and Institute, if they are of that age group? Are they added to the WhatsApp chat groups for their group – Elders, RS, YM/YW, etc. Do they have the Family Search App? Do they know how to get names to take to the temple to do baptisms for the dead? Have they been given the For the Strength of Youth or My Family Pamphlets and taught what they need to know or do regarding these? Have they been taught the new member lessons (retaught the missionary lessons, basically)? Have they been taught about Patriarchal Blessings? Do they know and understand what Come Follow Me is, and how to access and study the lessons? What about the fact that the class they attended last week (Gospel Doctrine) is different than the one this week – EQ or RS? There is so much we take for granted that we learned over years of being a member.

These are in addition to the ones we easily think about – ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood for brothers, temple recommends for brothers and sisters, ministering brothers and sisters assigned, a calling in the ward. There are a lot of things that we need to remember, and if we can help the ward remember them and make sure that they happen, then we will be successful. The real key is whether these new members can make the transition to being a member so they can continue to grow and learn along the covenant path to become a lifetime disciple of Jesus Christ.

Ideas for tracking new member events

So, a few details of the mission this week:

We have a Devotional each Tuesday. This week we heard testimonies from missionaries who are completing their missions. This is frequently the case, and we love to hear them tell how they have come to see Christ more fully and completely in their own lives as they have found and invited others to come unto Christ. They are truly growing and becoming disciples of Christ.

Our weekly service in the temple is sweet. We have a wonderful Temple Presidency who are completely committed to helping the members have a beautiful experience as they come to learn and worship in the temple and serve their kindred dead.

Toronto Temple

We attend the weekly District Councils with the young missionaries. As we see them teach each other, we are energized by their energy and love for the work.

We have participated in a number of lessons with the young missionaries and their friends – individuals being taught. We love doing this and sharing our testimonies of the love God has for them. Sister Lyon is so sincere in communicating through her spirit and approach that God loves them, and when she does that, you can see how much it touches them.

We’ve also taught a number of new members, and love to share God’s love for them. We had a wonderful lesson with Tony, a member of 3 months or so. When we had him install Tools on his phone and see himself there, he was so tickled. You could see how he realized he really was a part of the ward. When we finished, Sister Lyon gave him an abrazo, as is her nature, and he nearly cried. He said he hadn’t had a hug in a long time and didn’t realize how much he missed that simple act. Our Latin-American friends come from a culture of abrazos – hugs – between everyone. Sister Lyon is a perfect one to share the Savior’s love in that simple way.

We got down to Lake Ontario this week and were impressed by the diversity of nationalities and ethnicities of the groups of people at the park adjoining the beach. That diversity really is hallmark of the area in which we work and we see it everywhere we go.

Sister Lyon at the beach on Lake Ontario.

And lastly, we continue to find good food and good restaurants. This week we found a Greek restaurant, and were treated by the waiters and cashiers, etc. as cherished guests, even though they recognized it was the first time we had eaten there. The food was good, and the feeling in the restaurant was sweet and friendly. 

Missionary Work, Temple Work, Food and My Covenant Path

We went to our first Ward Council on Sunday. We were both very impressed with the bishopric and those ward leaders who were there. They are all desirous to help the new members and friends in every way they can. The meeting was all about missionary work and retention. We are so blessed to be working with this ward and these missionaries at this time. The love, energy and spirit in the meeting was wonderful.

There were quite a number of “friends” (we used to call them investigators) at church today. It was great to see ward members invite them to sit with them. Friendships are important in helping these new members feel like they are part of the ward.

We met with the full-time missionaries assigned to our ward in the afternoon. After we met together, the sisters had a video lesson scheduled with Jay, so they just took care of it here in our living room. We enjoy participating in their lessons, especially when they ask us to testify of Christ and His atonement.

We had some video chats with our children and grandchildren in the afternoon. We know that they will be blessed along with us as we serve here. We love hearing about their school, their talks in church, their mission preparation (yay Ellie! France bound in September), and everything else.

We’re trying to figure out good ways to keep track of the new members. We were put on the ward list as “out of area members”, which makes us visible in LDS Tools to the members. We can see their contact information, as well. We also figured out that new members have access to their own “My Covenant Path” information, and can keep it updated, which helps the ward leadership. We’ll teach new members how to use these apps, like Gospel Library and Tools to study and learn, and to become integrated into the ward as they progress.

On Tuesdays, we have mission-wide devotionals over Zoom. There are so many good ways that the missionaries leverage technology to stay connected. This was presented by a senior missionary couple who told us of some amazing miracles that have happened to them. In the mission here, we see and hear of many miracles each week. It’s important to both believe that miracles can occur, and recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives when they happen.

We also received more training about Welfare Services and Self-Reliance resources that are available for us and ward leaders to help meet members’ needs. There really are so many programs and resources that can help us teach self-reliance. Brother Erickson, one of our instructors, emphasized the importance of being “Savior Reliant” in order to become more self-reliant.

One of the ways that we get to feel more at home here is to find places to get good produce, groceries, and other supplies. Some things are available on Amazon.ca – the Canadian site for Amazon, but not all things we need are there. So, we might need to drive down to Buffalo to get some things like blood glucose test strips. I’m surprised that I can’t find them on Amazon.ca, but it might be that you have to have a prescription here and get them at a pharmacy. We’ll be checking into that soon to avoid the trip to Buffalo, if possible.

On Wednesday we had our first shift as Temple Ordinance workers at the Toronto temple. There were only 26 workers (brothers and sisters) on the shift, so it was quite different than the previous Utah temples we’ve served in. It was more like the Cochabamba Bolivia temple. The temple President, President Wong, and his wife, the temple Matron, were presiding, so we got to know them a little bit. They are gentle, kind, humble, loving, faith-filled people. It is a joy to serve with them. We have so many opportunities to see how the Lord blesses the members who come here to worship Him.

We’ve found a number of very good restaurants that are so culturally diverse. We had dinner between the Stake Conference Leadership meeting and the evening meeting at an Indian restaurant across the street from the Stake Center. Last Friday, we had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant that some members had recommended. The food was wonderful, and they had a singer – dressed in traditional Mexican attire – singing traditional Mexican songs in a beautiful tenor voice. It was fun. A week ago, we ate at a Turkish restaurant. There are so many interesting options – we’ll enjoy many more, I’m sure.

El Chorro at La Unica Panaderia

Chicken Fajitas

We also enjoy going to the District Councils with the young missionaries. They’ve distributed the senior missionaries, so we won’t gang up (or so it appears). It really is wonderful to see them teach and learn and interact. They are still so young (compared to us!), but so mature in their energy and desire to serve. We met a new missionary with a last name of Gunther from American Fork. On inquiry we found that, sure enough, he’s one of the Gunther clan that we knew when we lived there. He’s related to so many dear friends there in American Fork.

Thursday evening, we met with the Ward Mission Correlation group. The counselor in the Elders’ Quorum, Hermano Meraz, led the meeting and was completely on point. We talked about how we could work together better between the missionaries and the members to be more successful in retaining new members. We discussed inviting an Aaronic Priesthood young man, and a young woman to represent the youth, especially since one of our new “friends” is 16 years old. It was great to be able to interact with Hermano Meraz and see his ideas.

Our Stake Conference visiting authority this weekend was Elder James E. Evenson. He focused on the Covenant Path and encouraged ward members to get engaged in helping the missionary work, especially with the newly baptized members. There have been over 300 baptisms just in our Stake over the last year, so there is lot of work being done and work to be done. That’s part of our purpose here - to work specifically with the new members, and we find new and exciting ways to help all the time. We feel like we are exactly where we need to be right now, and enjoy being engaged in missionary work with both the members and the young missionaries.

Missionarying and a Tour of Downtown Toronto

Fast and testimony meeting on Sunday was great! I sat by Jay, the friend that we helped the sisters teach on Friday. He listened intently throughout the meeting.  He told me afterward with tears in his eyes that all the things the people said were relatable to him. It was a good meeting for him. After the meetings, we sat and had a good discussion with him and the sister missionaries. He had some questions about the Priesthood (the lesson today was from D&C 84). He is so sincere.

After that, we met with the sister missionaries and Tony, who was baptized two months ago. A young woman named Ana, whom the missionaries are teaching, was there as well. They both expressed difficulty with finding time to read the Book of Mormon. We gave them some ideas about how to learn and feel the spirit when they read. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from off their shoulders. They both smiled and relaxed and decided they could do it. The main focus of the lesson was that the scriptures are for them, not just to check off a task.

We came home and had a meeting (with food) with the missionaries. We learned from them how they keep track of their people and learned how we can see what they are doing so we can be ready to join them in lessons before their friends get baptized. That will help us know them so we can work with them, essentially as ministers, after they are baptized.

We also discussed how we can help them communicate with the ward leaders. It was so positive, and they were all very excited to have us on their team. It was getting late, and I asked them if they would like something to eat. Of course they did, so while Elder Lyon was finishing up with things, I got out the food. They really enjoyed it and ate most of it. 

I felt like we really can help them in their work and that together we can help these dear "friends" stay on the covenant path.

Old City Hall

On Monday, our landlady, Nyree, invited us to a tour of downtown to help us get to know the public transportation system and get to know Toronto. We left at noon and drove to the subway station near us. At the subway station, the workers indicated that we could get a Senior discount (from the CAD 3.30 fare each – about $2.40 USD), but we’d have to pay cash. Elder Lyon had two CAD two-dollar coins, called “toonies”– which they accepted as adequate and let us through the styles. They were very friendly.

We rode the subway south to Union Station, just off Lake Erie. Union Station is a beautiful building and has shops, businesses, etc. They have underground tunnels, elevated walkways, and at-grade walkways connecting the office towers of Downtown Toronto called PATH.

We saw lot of old buildings like the old city hall and old churches. Nyree was very knowledgeable and was a great tour guide. Just in front of the new city hall, there is a pool with a fountain in the center and on the other side of the pool are big letters TORONTO. It is a photo op which we took advantage of. In the winter the pool freezes over and people skate on it.

Molly and Nyree in front of the TORONTO sign.

We had lunch at a Thai cafe called Salad King. We shared 3 yummy dishes – spicey cucumber salad, eggrolls, and lettuce wraps. All were very tasty and the spicey was pretty spicey.

We continued our walk through China Town and past the University of Toronto. Nyree attended the University which is one of the very best universities in Canada. She showed us the street she lived on. It was a walk down memory lane for her.

China Town

We got home around 5:30, having walked about 3 miles. 

It was a fun lovely day. We got to know Nyree a little more and we got some good information about the city of Toronto as well as some Canadian history. 

District Council was on Tuesday. All four mission companionships taught us. I am so impressed with these young missionaries.

On Wednesday, we met with President Evershed at the temple. He is one of the counselors in the Temple Presidency. He was very kind. We visited for a while, and he set us apart as ordinance workers. Then he trained us. We really like him. We also got to meet his wife who is very lovely, smiley and warm. We came prepared to work with our temple clothes, but he encouraged us to just wander around and get a feel for where things are in the temple. We will serve every Wednesday morning from 9:15-2:00. I'm very pleased that our mission President, President Lee was encouraging about us serving in the temple.

Transfers are tomorrow and we wanted to see “our” missionaries before they moved to different areas. We went over to the church, saw them, took their pictures, and gave them hugs (me to the sisters). We will miss them. We have enjoyed working with them, but change is always a good thing in the church because it is done with the Lord.  

On Thursday, we had our second session of training on the Welfare and Self-Reliance program. Many, if not most, MLS missionaries receive this training so they can help the Bishop and Ward Councils by offloading some of their burden. One comment that was made was very impactful. Brother Erickson, one of our teachers, said he prefers to think of “SR” as Savior Reliance instead of Self-reliance. We will continually struggle until we rely on the Lord to help us find strength and peace and hope in our circumstances.

On Friday, we had a lot of things to do around here. Elder Lyon has created an app to help us track our new members and our responsibilities with each one. Our assignment is to help teach them the new member lessons, work with the Bishop to get the brothers ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and the brothers and sisters recommends to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead for their own ancestors. There are about a dozen individuals who have been baptized in the last year in this ward, and about half of them seem to have disappeared shortly after being baptized. There are another five or six with baptism dates in the next month, so we need to make sure we’re on top of things. So, Elder Lyon has built an app that will work on our computers as well as our phones and/or tablets wherever we are to note communications, check off tasks, etc. Hopefully it will help us be organized.

On the communication front, we’ve heard that T-Mobile will cut us off if we don’t spend at least a few days in the States every three months. That being a no-go, we’re converting our phones to a Canadian plan. Since we use Google Voice, our numbers (that we use for everything) won’t change, and when we get home, we can convert back to a states-based plan without disruptions. So, we chose to go with Freedom Mobile here. We’ve converted our phones with new sim cards, and everything seems to be working fine!

We had dinner at a place called “Bullger Burgers and Turkish Corner”. Elder Lyon got a burger and loved it! It had big shreds of mango and it had a spicy sauce on it. I got a dish that was basically a peperoni pizza without the sauce and not very much meat. It was good, but not as yummy as Charlie's.

We were supposed to join a lesson at the church with the sisters and Jay at 6:30, but he couldn't get off work. Hermana Brown is our new sister with Hermana Morton. She is darling and very enthusiastic and speaks Spanish well. They appreciated that we brought the portion of my pizza that I couldn’t eat.

Jay thought he might make it to volleyball at 7:00, so we hung around and helped set up the volleyball net with Tony and the sisters. We were there for a while and met some new members and friends. Jay wasn’t able to make it – we’ll catch up with him soon.

Saturday was the Barrio Black Creek picnic. I visited a lot with Hermana Isabel Zambrano who is the Primary President and the wife of the First Counselor in the Bishopric. She is darling and is from Venezuela. Her husband is very smiley and warm as well.

She introduced me to Hna. Meraz and I talked with her and her husband, who is in the Elders Quorum Presidency. Hna. Meraz teaches self-reliance and just finished teaching her first class last Wednesday night. She speaks very good English and feels like a friend and support to me. She wants us to come to their house for dinner sometime.

We also visited at length with Hna. Ana Ramirez (from El Salvador) who is the new-member and investigator class Sunday School teacher. She is darling. We have lots in common. She loves the temple and loves the Lord.

It was a productive and fun activity.

Figuring Out Toronto and Our Assignment Here

 

Finally, we get to start describing the ward and our “missionary” activities!

On Sunday the 27^th, we attended Sacrament Meeting in the Black Creek Ward. It is a Spanish-speaking ward and meets in a converted KFC factory (or so we’re told.) You’d never guess the previous use because it has been so completely refurbished, and very nicely so. But it fits no pattern of usual church buildings that we’ve seen. It has lots of big windows in nearly every room with nice drapes, and has a very unusual shape – the chapel and cultural hall are on the north side, with the rest of the building tapering to the south with two floors of classrooms, RS room, Library, etc. There is a baptismal font – on the second floor! All-in-all functional, but very different.

Black Creek Ward Chapel Front

Black Creek Ward Chapel Rear

We met the bishopric and a lot of wonderful people. We attended the RS and EQ meetings and felt very much at home here. The Latin Americans are always so welcoming.

On the last Sunday of each month, they have a “linger longer.” They had a lot of food, and the visiting was great. We are looking forward to serving with these dear people.

We had a zoom Meeting with all the mission tonight. They call it a “miracle call” where some missionaries have been asked to share a miracle story from the week. The stories were wonderful. It’s clear that the Lord’s hand is in this work!

On Monday, we went to Ikea and got some shelves and some kitchen things and some “prayer” rugs. We don’t have any carpet in our basement apartment, and these will keep our knees a bit younger, hopefully.

Then went to Costco for gas and Best Buy to get a printer and monitor and monitor stand. Then we went to our Senior missionary luncheon to say good-bye and hello to a few Senior missionaries. There were two couples leaving, and we were the only new ones. We got to meet the office staff, and our mission President and his wife. Sweet people all around. Since it was Sister Lyon’s birthday, they all sang to her. Serendipitously, it was also the birthday of one of the office Elders, so they had a cake already prepared!

On Tuesday, there was a mission devotional over Zoom. The senior missionaries who are leaving shared their testimonies with all the missionaries. President and Sister Lee shared theirs to close the meeting. They are a lovely couple from Hawaii and are so loving and welcoming.

Afterwards, we checked out all the grocery stores close to us that our new neighbor Mary Ann told us about. Very interesting and good, a fun adventure. Wal-Marts are plentiful, but there are a number of others with great produce and good prices.

Our Landlady, Nyree, has had senior missionaries here previously, and shares information and garden produce with them. She gave us some tomatoes from her garden. They are red on the bottom and green on the top. They are called Black Krim and are very delicious.  We visited with her out in her backyard. She has a green thumb and has made her yard beautiful.

Concerning prescriptions, there are a couple of options that the missionaries shared with us. One is to drive down to Buffalo (about a two-hour drive if the traffic isn’t too bad), pick up your medications at a Walgreens, for instance, do whatever other shopping you need to do, and return – another two-hour drive.

The other option is to go to a doctor here and get your prescriptions re-written so they can be filled at local pharmacies. We figured we’d give it a try to save time and gas money.

So, on Wednesday, we went to a nearby walk in clinic. It took a couple of hours, but we learned a lot. We had him re-order Elder Lyon’s prescriptions and went to Costco to have them filled. The clinic visit cost about USD 73 (CAD 100), and the prescriptions weren’t any more expensive than in the States. We have insurance that we can get reimbursement from, so the upside is saving all the travel time with little downside. We really liked this doctor. He answered all our questions and was very personable.

Our church building has two wards in it. The Weston Ward is English speaking. The Andersons are the senior missionaries for the Weston Ward. They have been here for 2 months. Their assignment is the same as ours. So we are learning a lot from them. We attended the class that they teach on Wednesday nights for the new converts and those working with the missionaries.

It was good. There were probably 10-15 New Converts there + the two employment sisters and the sister missionary serving in the storehouse. The elders came as well. Sister Lyon sat by Niki, a new convert of about 3 months. She was cute. She mentioned in class that she had gone to the temple last week with the group from the class and loved doing baptisms. It was her 2nd time going but this time she brought her own family names and felt so good about it all. 

On Thursday we were able to attend the Toronto Canada Temple. It was wonderful! We love being in His Holy House. After the temple we went to a lovely restaurant called Montana. We are learning our way around Toronto, and Sister Lyon is learning how to be a navigator.

Toronto Canada Temple

On Friday, we had zone council. There were 24 of us there – 18 Elders and Sisters assigned to our Zone, the 2 Assistants to the President and the two MLS couples.  We were very impressed with the way the elders and sisters conducted, presented and taught us, as well as the discussions and comments from everyone. Food seems to always be a part of every activity, so after the meeting we had lots of food, even homemade cinnamon rolls and watermelon and everything in between.

That afternoon we were invited to join the sister missionaries in teaching a 16 year old boy. He was amazing and knew so much and felt the Spirit and answered the questions clearly and sincerely. We were able to share our feelings about the Prophet and the Atonement and to bear our testimonies. We really enjoyed this experience.

That evening, we had dinner and visited in the Anderson's apartment. We had such a good time with them and the 3 sisters that were at our meeting on Wednesday. The food was yummy. We talked till 10. It was so fun to be with these dear people. they have led some very interesting, productive lives.

On Saturday, we helped our landlady fix a bathroom door that was scraping the floor (the humidity had made it swell a bit) and bought a cupboard / pantry that we brought home and put together. It is about 6' tall and will make Sister Lyon’s life so much easier. We had no place to store any food, just one small cupboard over the counter. We are making our little basement apartment into a comfortable home for us.

So, we’ve settled in, know the Toronto area around us pretty well, and feel comfortable with our assignment. We feel at home and excited to continue in this phase of our lives.

 

 

Travelling Cross-Country to Toronto

We're still a week behind on this blog, but we figured you might like to hear about getting here.

We got back from our quick trip to Toronto to get our Visitor Permission documents late Sunday night, so we just crashed and went to bed. We got up early Monday morning and started putting things in the CRV and packing up the remainder of what we needed. We were ready to go by about 1:00 pm, with the CRV pretty well loaded up. I could see out the back window over the suitcases and such through the rear-view mirror, but not by much!

We drove to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and stayed in a Hampton’s Inn there. We had hoped to stay at the Hotel Colorado – a very nice, restored, older hotel – where we had stayed before. Knowing it might be busy, I had checked for availability a week before, and sure-enough, it was all scheduled out. But, since we love the drive along I-70 so much, especially through Glenwood Canyon, we took second best. The drive was lovely and the weather was exceptional when we got there, so we took a stroll down the street to a Village Inn restaurant for dinner.

We heard from my brother, Ralph, and his wife, Marilyn, that they had arrived in Denver in their new home over the weekend, so we stopped there in Westminster on our way to Omaha, Nebraska. They showed us their home, which is a “10-minute bike ride” from one of their children and their family. So that’s nice for them. We had a nice visit, and a treat of yogurt and berries for lunch, and headed out for Omaha, arriving about 9:00 pm. Instead of trying to find a local restaurant, we just had a couple of salads sent up from Room Service. The salads were very good.

The next morning, we headed out for the Chicago area, staying just to the southeast in Merrillville. We had thought about staying closer, and attending the Chicago Temple, but realized that we didn’t want to leave late and drive late into the evening again. We got there early enough to stroll over to a Bob Evans restaurant for dinner. Since this chain doesn’t exist out in Utah, we thought we’d give it a try, and the food was very good.

We headed out the next morning for Cleveland – a short trip for a change. We stayed east of town in Beachwood and found another Bob Evans restaurant close. We chose Beachwood because it was very close to Kirtland, and we wanted to visit the temple there, since the church has recently purchased it and is in the process of renovating it.

We wondered how far along they were, so we visited the next morning, arriving before it opened at 10:00 am. But the missionary was just arriving, so he let us in, and gave us a personal tour of the temple. His explanation of the history and significance of everything was so much more complete than we had experienced before. When we came six years ago, it was owned by the Community of Christ church, and they did a wonderful job of maintaining and presenting the temple, but some of the things that happened there didn’t get explained very completely.

Sister Lyon and I at the Kirtland Temple.

Anyway, it was sweet to get our own personal tour, and see the things that are being done to reinforce floors and walls and preparing for further renovations.

We drove on to Buffalo, arriving just after noon – quite the short drive for a change. We checked out a Walgreens in anticipation of picking up prescriptions there every couple of months. Other missionaries had indicated that you didn’t have to have your prescriptions rewritten in Canada and could just drive down there to do it. We also checked out the UPS store, where many people in Canada have packages shipped to avoid customs, etc. Others had indicated that this was a viable option, so we just wanted to visit the store and make sure we understood the procedures. We’ve since learned that this might not be the optimal way to do things (we’ll explain in a future blog post).

So, we stayed there in Buffalo on Friday night, and had dinner at Smokey Bones in Cheektowaga (!) – a BBQ restaurant. Good food again. This will be our last night in the United States for a while!

On Saturday morning, we drove to the border. It didn’t seem too busy – the lines weren’t that long, but it took us about 40 minutes to get through. The border officer was polite and careful, and we continued on – after paying a 11.00 CAD (Canadian dollar) toll to cross the bridge (that will come into future considerations….. for a future blog).

The drive to our new address took over two hours. It might be that it was a Saturday, but the freeway was terribly busy. We’ve heard that the 401 Freeway in Canada – key to our getting to our address in North York – is the busiest in North America. We arrived at our new home – a basement apartment at 43 Gravenhurst, North York, Ontario. It’s a bit north-west of Toronto proper and is possibly the most diverse area of the greater Toronto metropolitan area, according to the locals. Lots of refugees from areas of Africa, among other countries, a significant Latin American population, etc. There are lots of restaurants with a variety of difficult to pronounce names. We just might try a few of them.

We met our landlady – Nyree – a bit later that afternoon. She is a wonderfully pleasant, educated person. She gave us the lowdown on the trash/recycling schedule, where the closest Wal-Mart is, where to get the best produce, etc. We can tell we’re going to enjoy living here.

43 Gravenhurst Ave, North York, Ontario

This is a picture of our address. The current owner has really rehabbed it, so it looks quite nice. We live in the basement, entering in the side door on the right. The basement has a walk-out to the back yard, which is really pretty.

Steps down to our backyard.

So that’s enough for this post. We’ll get into our first full week of living here, getting settled, meeting the mission President and his wife, the mission office staff, the missionaries, and our ward.