September 2025
We need to catch up a bit – we’ve been pretty busy and the
blog has taken second place. So here goes!
Our Stake was blessed with a meeting for new members with General
Authorities from Salt Lake City early in September. The visiting leaders were President
Guory, one of the counselors in the New Canada Area presidency; Elder Webb, first
counselor in the general Sunday School presidency; and Elder Dixon, second
counselor in the Young Men General presidency. They gave wonderful talks. We
were also blessed to hear from 2 brothers who were recently baptized. They
gave good talks about their conversion and about love. One of them had only
been baptized in August!
One of the stories that was told by Elder Webb really
touched me. While serving in Mexico City as a young missionary a family was
taught by him and his companion. They were golden and knew the church was true
and wanted to be baptized. When the elders went over to give the discussion
before baptism, the brother opened the door only a crack and said he didn't
want to see them anymore and the baptism was off. Missionaries do not take
things like that lightly and one of them stuck his foot in the door. He let them
in and told them he couldn't be baptized because he was a schoolteacher and one
of his goals as a teacher was to teach his students that there is no God.
Hundreds of people turned away from God because of him. How could he be
baptized with that great sin upon him.
The elder had this brother read Jacob 2:8 "And it
supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God,
yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul." They testified of the
Savior's power to heal the wounded soul because of His Atonement and asked
him to kneel with them right then and ask God if He would forgive him for his
great wickedness. As he prayed to know great tears of joy poured out. The man
said as he prayed it felt like the scars left from his wounds were rubbed with
healing ointment and pained him no more. It was a very tender story.
The next day, Sunday the 7th, our dear friend
Laura Madrid taught the new member Sunday School lesson for the first time. She
has been a member only 9 months, as we detailed previously. Wow! She taught
with love and with the Spirit.
Zaid, a new convert, was there at church today and looked so
handsome in his white shirt and tie. Tony wore a white shirt today as well. He
heard his name being called from the pulpit to give the closing prayer in
Sacrament Meeting. He was surprised but did a great job. It is so fun to see
these new members accept callings and responsibilities and progress as well as
support each other.
We met the De La Rosa Family as well. They have been members
for a little less than 2 years and recently moved to the Black Creek Ward. We
asked if we could come visit them in their home. Sister De La Rosa invited us
to come the next day at 5pm. We received such a warm reception in their home on
the 30th floor of an apartment building near the church. She is a
single mother with three children. Ivan is 16, Camila is 13 and desires to
serve a mission, Santiago is 9. We had such a good visit with them. They shared
their meal with us. We left feeling full of good food and love.
Then we visited the Madrid family. We love them like our own
children. We shared some herbal tea and had such a good visit with them. They
had a very busy week and didn't get to study about Patriarchal
Blessings as Elder Lyon had asked them to last week. Elder Lyon shared
a "miracle with a word" with them. That's what I am calling it.
He had Laura pick a number between 1 and 15 for a book in the Book of Mormon. Then a number for the chapter and then
a number for the verse. Eric read the verse and chose one word
that stood out to him. The word was miracles. So, we spent the next few minutes
discussing miracles. That is the miracle of a word. The Spirit can teach you
things about one word and you can think on it and receive inspiration on that
one word from the Holy Ghost all day. They were quite surprised.
We talked about a lot of things. We discussed how they have
progressed so rapidly and well on the covenant path and Laura said they are in
the Lord's hands. I felt inspired to say that sometimes when we are progressing
so quickly and we have all these wonderful experiences, we burn out, and Satan
tries to discourage us. That is normal and ok as long as we don't let those
feelings take over but hold on to what we know and to each other and we will
get through. It was just a wonderful visit. Eric said a sweet prayer. Derek
came out and gave us hugs and as we left Edric came home from soccer practice
so tired. He hugged us too. Oh, what a sweet spirit in their home and what dear
children of God.
We were able to go to Zone Conference in the Toronto Zone,
held at the Toronto Stake Center. The Senior couples provide, prepare and serve
the luncheon. We also get to eat with the young missionaries. Helping in the
kitchen was so fun for me. My four sisters are having our annual Sisterette
(sister get away) this week and I was missing them. Being in the kitchen with
these sisters was almost like being with my dear Glidewell sisters.
Elder Stanfil, a General Authority 70 and assigned to be the
president of the newly created Canada Area, is touring the missions in Canada.
He wanted to meet all the missionaries personally, even us old ones. An hour
before the meeting started, he met with a handshake every missionary at the
conference. He was inspiring and informative. It was a wonderful conference.
On Wednesday nights there is a lot happening at the church.
While my companion was meeting with the ward clerk, I attended the English
Connect class. Before the class started I met Antonia and her mother
Blanca. They haven't been here very long, and it is very hard for Antonia in
school as it is all English and there aren’t any Spanish speakers. Antonia is 7
and cute as can be. Her smile was infectious. She wanted to be my partner the
whole time. At first her mother joined us. When we switched partners, Blanca
changed but Antonia just wanted to practice with me. We worked on pronunciation
and understanding. I can't imagine how hard it would be. She told me she does
have one friend at school who knows as much Spanish as she does English. She
hugged me and asked if I would come back next week. I told her I would try but
she could come to church on Sunday. Then I realized that we were speaking on
Sunday, and her mother got interested (they are not members of the church). She
said they will if her husband is OK with it. I hope they will come. I forgot to
mention Robert. He is 8 and wanted to practice with us too. He is a little
further along than Antonia. They were cute doing the clock together. I met his
family, mother, father, and tiny baby sister. These people are all working hard
to make a better life for themselves. I'm glad I went.
I made a fun connection today in the temple. I was at the
recommend desk with Brother Tse. I hadn't looked at his name tag, but he
described his son from China who was married to a Korean. They now live in American
Fork. I looked at his name and asked him if they ever lived in West Valley. Yes!
They were our neighbors there. When their baby was blessed in our West Valley
Ward, they gave out gift bags to people who had come for the blessing. I
happened to get one and took it with me when I met Kimberlee Hernandez and her
family. That was the key that brought us together. Her favorite Aunt who had
just passed away used to bring a gift bag like that with treats just like that
when she would visit them. I told that to Bro. Tse and he said he put those
gift bags together himself. Small World!!! I love the Tse's.
We made an appointment to go to the temple with Zaid to do baptisms. He wouldn't know if he could get work off until 6:30 the night before. So I planned to get wet if he couldn't come. But he was able to get work off and we had a lovely time with him. Elder Lyon baptized him. I got to be one of the witnesses. Zaid was asked to be a witness for other baptisms. It was sweet being there with him. We walked around the grounds and found a beautiful spot in front of the temple to take pictures. We had never walked around there previously. Our goal is to help these newly baptized members get a temple recommend and do baptisms in the temple within the first month of being a member. It’s not easy since they typically work 6 days a week, often 10-12 hours a day.
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| Zaid with us at the Toronto Temple. |
We had a lovely dinner with the Arellanos. They are so kind
and excited about the work and they are serving and loving and doing all they
can to serve the Lord. They have two sons. Ethan is 13 and Liam is 9. Sister
Arellano made soup and pasta salad. I brought fresh cut peaches from Costco.
Hno. Arellano is very talented musically. He played two different pan flutes
for us - not the small double pipes like mine, but the bigger curved single
layer. He played them so beautifully and if he has heard the song before, he
can play it. He also played a straight "Indian" flute. Hermana Arellano
showed us her beautiful embroidery and all of her mother's old patterns that
she rescued from being thrown out. Her mother has a business where she
embroiders blouses and things. She creates her own patterns and uses a machine
to embroider. But Veronica likes to do it by hand which is very time consuming
and beautiful and delicate. She has one blouse ready to go and she finished
embroidering on a tie for one of the missionaries that was here and since
returned home.
We decided that for the Night of Nations festival in our
ward we will make a group number and perform the song "His Voice as the
Sound". Hermano Arellano will play both his instruments as well as sing
with his family. I will play the harp, and Elder Lyon will play the piano. I
chose the song because I am learning it and might be ready by October. Hopefully
the Madrid family will join in the singing. It will be interesting and fun.
On Sunday Sep 14th I was given a sweet miracle.
We spoke in our ward. We had good discussions all week about our topic which was
missionary work. I had some inspirational promptings as I woke up a couple of
mornings. I knew what stories in the Book of Mormon to use and what scriptures
to use and what quotes to use.
I wrote it up the day before and translated it. I didn't get
a chance to time it but felt good about it, so we went to bed. We were going to
have 10-12 minutes apiece. When I timed it in the morning before church, it was
14 1/2 minutes. It was too late to do anything about it right then because I
had to work on lunch for the missionaries. We were having a meeting with our 4
missionaries after church, and I always feed them at this meeting. We had ward
council before church. It would have been so easy to read what I had written,
but that wouldn't have given me a miracle.
I have been very concerned about my Spanish. I don't hold
back but I don't speak very well either. So, I have been practicing. But to
speak on the fly in Spanish is scary to me. I prayed and prayed for a miracle
that I would be calm and not worry about me but say what He would want me to
say and that the Spirit would be what they heard. I was able to focus in the ward
council meeting on the needed discussions, gave the opening prayer, and even made
a comment. So I had no time to worry about my talk.
I felt calm. I wanted to go into a room and go over my talk
and cross things out and rewrite things, but instead I visited with the
members. As I sat on the stand, I was filled with an overwhelming love for all
of them. That is what I needed to forget myself and say what I needed to say.
It was a miracle.
I have prayed for the gift of tongues and believe it is one
I am having to work at. Little by little, line upon line. I am understanding
more every day. And thinking more in Spanish all the time. This experience
helped me in so many ways to have more confidence in myself and faith in my
Savior, and how love made the difference. I can do that.
Elder Lyon spoke beautifully and said the things we wanted
to say about members helping the missionaries and missionaries working with the
members etc. I love hearing him speak in church.
After our church meetings, we had a baptism. Erick has been
being taught for a month or so and was baptized that afternoon. We have been
working with the missionaries to be better prepared early in the week for these
baptisms so they can involve the ward more fully. It’s working. The Ward
Mission Leader conducts the meeting and members of the ward share talks on
baptism and the Holy Ghost. Because the members are alerted early in the week
(there have been times in the past when the members learned that there would be
a baptism in Sacrament Meeting an hour before the baptism). Now, they are
getting at least 4 days notice.
September 14th was our sweet granddaughter, Eleanor
Ricks’, farewell. She is going to be serving the people in Paris France. She is
fluent in French due to the French Immersion she has had in school since
kindergarten. We are so excited for her. She will be an awesome missionary. We
are also grateful for this connection we share as missionaries.
Later that week, we visited with a new member, Jonathan, and
his wife Sol, and their little almost-2-year-old daughter Soy. The Spirit is
always at these sweet family visits. My companion is so good at teaching and
loving and being in tune. As a senior missionary couple, we have experienced a
little more of life than the young missionaries and are able to share our
experiences that might help them in what they are going through. The Spirit
helps us know what they need and what we can share.
Hermana Alcon is a dear sister from Bolivia who lives in our
ward here. She invited the sister missionaries in our ward and us for brunch.
We enjoyed buñuelos and pastel de queso and api. Typical Bolivian food. Buñuelos
are like flat round donuts that you deep-fry in oil. Pastel de Queso is cheese
filled dough folded with a braid and deep fried in oil. Api is a purple or
yellow drink made from corn "meal". We usually had purple api in Bolivia,
but she made both colors and spooned one on top of the other. It looked really
pretty and tasted delicious. You drink it hot. She put powder sugar on top of
the pastel and miel de cana or molasses drizzle on top of the buñuelo. It was
so fun being in her home. She has a lovely home. I loved seeing all of her
Bolivian things.
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| Hna. Alcon and the sister missionaries. |
One morning I read the news in our beloved USA. It saddened
me and hurt my heart. It is just the opposite of the message of Jesus Christ.
It made me sad. So, I knelt down and talked to my Heavenly Father about these
feelings and what I could do with them and how I can help. He showed me in my
mind these young missionaries that we serve with. They are amazing in their
ability to teach others about Jesus Christ and to search the scriptures and
teach each other and us. They are learning to love in the Lord's way. His
children from all over the world, who look so different and believe so
differently and sound different. They love them all whether they want to hear
their message or not. They are learning how to be like our Savior. He is
teaching them. They are doing a great service for the people here, but
they are becoming the hope of our world. They are learning how to serve others.
Every lesson they give or person they teach they ask if there is anything they
can do to serve them today. They are the future leaders of the world. They are
hope because they represent the author of hope. They are young 18-22 years
old. They serve all over the world and young people from all over the
world are a part of this group of amazing young representatives, ambassadors of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It fills my saddened heart with joy. God is
in charge. He loves all of His children in every land, we are His and He indeed
has a plan, a marvelous plan for all of us. There is hope and joy and love
because our dear Heavenly Father sent His beloved Son to atone for every sin,
pain, evil, heartache in the world for everyone who has ever lived and will yet
live on the earth. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and
Eternal Life in the world to come. I love to testify of these things in the
name of my Savior Jesus Christ.
The Alcon’s had all the missionaries over for dinner on the
20th. Both elders and sisters from our ward as well as the elders in the Weston
ward were there. I think Elder Brewerton has a way of getting into people’s
hearts with his sincere eye to eye compliments. We ate out back on the
patio. Hermano Alcon grilled some yummy steaks and chicken legs and sausages.
We also had arroz con queso (a creamy rice with chunks of goat cheese), a green
salad, and llajua (which was perfect), and bread. Fernando was also there. He
is a wonderful young adult who was baptized about 2 years ago. He has an
amazing smile. He brought a tres leches cake to share. It was lovely being
there. The Alcon’s are so kind. Their daughter and two granddaughters were
there as well.
There are so many good people in this ward who are
progressing and serving. Fernando was just called to teach the Valiant class
with Hermano Madrid. I talked to him after, and he said the kids in the
class are so smart and know the gospel. They are being taught in their
homes.
We love being able to visit with all our children, pretty
much weekly, via Zoom, Facetime, Google Meet, and Whatsapp. Technology is
great, and we appreciate knowing enough to adapt to the particular need of the
person or family we are communicating with. We do appreciate that we got to
visit with our sweet granddaughter, Ellie, before she started her mission
experience at the MTC.
One day, we had to leave in a hurry to get to our weekly
Ward Mission Coordination meeting. Imagine our surprise when we got home and went
downstairs and couldn't open our door. We can always get in the outside door,
we use an electronic keypad, and we also have a key. But we don't have a key to
our inside basement door. We never lock that door when we leave. But for some
reason in our hurry to get to our meeting we did, and we were locked out, and our
landlady, Nyree, is on vacation for 2 weeks. We tried all we could and then I
called the housing missionaries. We figured that they would know if the mission
office has keys to our apartment. They have keys to all the young missionary
apartments, but they figure the senior missionaries would be more responsible.
Obviously not.
We tried to call Nyree and texted her as well, but she
didn't answer. We had talked to her about a key to the basement before she left
on her vacation, and she said she had one upstairs and would make a copy. She
wasn’t able to do that before she left, but we knew there was a key somewhere
in her house. We just hoped it was out somewhere visible. So, we checked her
inside door, and it was unlocked, so we went in to find the key ... awkward. We
did - we found a zip-lock bag on the table that had a key in it and written on
the outside was “apartment key”. It worked!!!! We didn’t have to call a
locksmith. Nyree left her door unlocked just in case.
As missionaries, we are a part of a missionary district. We
have District councils with the young missionaries every week, where we learn
from each other. We love being taught by the young missionaries. We talk about
goals and how they did the week before and set new goals and hear council from
the Mission President. Our District is the Etobicoke District, but they wanted
to change the name on their messenger account, so after voting, they named it
the “Lyon’s Grandchildren”. It might seem that we have a good relationship with
them – I hope so.
We have made some American Fork connections with a couple of
our Lyon’s Grandchildren district. Elder Gunther is related to our dear friends,
the Gunthers in American Fork. We know his grandparents and parents and uncles
and aunts, cousins, etc. Sister McMillan
is the granddaughter of our friend Connie Ault. Her mother was Becky’s friend
in school. Connie went to high school with Elder Lyon, and they reconnected
when she was planning the 20-year high school reunion and asked Elder Lyon to
help. Such a fun small world.
On September 26th and 27th we attended the Senior missionary refresher. They have these periodically. Friday night we met at the mission home and had potluck. President and Sister Lee are from Hawaii, and they made us a traditional entrée called loco moco. It is a hamburger patty over rice with a poached egg on top and brown gravy over all of it. It was pretty good. We played a crazy fun game. Imagine 40 people all talking to each other at once. Two couples sang a beautiful number, the Lees taught us, and then opened up a question answer session which was very helpful.
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| Canada Toronto Mission Senior Missionaries |
The next morning, we took an uber (which happened to be a Tesla) downtown to have a yummy breakfast at Fox on John’s with all the senior missionaries, not quite as many as the night before, but a big group, nonetheless. Then we had a few hours to spend exploring Toronto before meeting up at Rogers Center for a Blue Jays Game. We got a ride home with our dear friends, Sister GoodHeart and Sister Skelton.
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| CN Tower from the Blue Jays Stadium |
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| Rogers Center - the Blue Jays Stadium |
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| Us in reality |
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| Us with a bit of AI enhancement! |
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| Sister Lyon from the top observation deck. |
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| Look up the Edge Walk at the CN Tower. Sister Lyon wanted to do this so bad....This is looking down on the big bubble in the tower from the top, little bubble observation deck. |
Sunday September 28th, we woke up to the news that our dear President and Prophet Russell M. Nelson had passed away during the night. We will miss him, but we are happy that he is able to be together with his Dantzel and other family members who have passed on, as well as with his best friend, who he has served his whole life, our Savior Jesus Christ.
As indicated, we are so grateful for modern technology that
enables us to see and visit with our children while we are away. We love them
and miss being with them but are so happy to be here serving the Lord and His
children in the Canada Toronto Mission.
I love these updates! And the pictures! Love you!
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