October - a bit late

We’ve been a bit remiss in keeping up on the blog, so here’s an attempt to catch up a bit – most of this news happened in October. Maybe we’ll catch up on November and December by the end of the year.

We have been asked to provide the meal for Zone Conference that is held once every transfer (usually every six weeks). There are 3 zones with 80-100 young missionaries plus the office missionaries and Senior missionaries. The Senior couples have been assigned a zone to help with. Since there are no senior missionaries in the Kitchener Zone, we have been asked to work with another couple, the Flinders, to arrange the meal for their zone.

It is pretty far from both of us (about an hour to the west from our home – if the freeway isn’t too backed up!). So, in preparation for the assignment, Elder Lyon and I took a drive out to the Kitchener chapel to see what the kitchen had in it and to see what stores were close by, etc. We found a cute family owned/run pizza place right across the street from the chapel, so we ordered pizzas. They were very happy to work with us, and it felt like a win all the way around.

We enjoyed the drive to Kitchener away from the hustle and bustle of Toronto, with lots of beautiful fields and forests. The Fall colors were spectacular. The landscape of Ontario, like its people, is quite diverse. We love it. 

The conference went well, the family had all the pizzas ready for lunch, the Flinders made salad and pumpkin squares, and the missionaries didn’t complain, so we think it was a success! Our next assignment will be in January, because the local Stake Relief Societies prepare the meals for the December / Christmas Zone Conferences.

Kitchener Zone Conference lunch - pizza, pumpkin bars, and salad

Speaking of feeding missionaries, we feed the two elders and two sisters assigned to our ward every other week on Sunday to discuss the work, goals, plans, how we can help them, etc. We enjoy having them here. They have such good energy. It doesn’t matter what you feed them, just as long as there is a lot of it.

We have also been asked to inspect the missionaries’ apartments every transfer. We have 6 apartments to check so we do one every Monday. It’s been a good experience and helps us have another connection with them. We aren’t their parents, so we aren’t there to clean up after them – mostly to check safety issues, fire/smoke/CO2 alarms, and things like that, and to remind them where they can do better to be clean and safe in their areas. We hear too many reports of new missionaries coming into an apartment and finding it less than compatible with mission and missionary standards.

The members in our Black Creek Ward are from all over Latin America. Every year they have a celebration called “Día De La Raza”. Tables were set up all around the gym, each representing a different country. People from that country worked together to decorate it and brought beautiful things to display. I think there were 8 or so. Then we ate. Oh, how we ate. So much yummy food. Each table had foods from that country, and our plates were filled to the brim. Then came the entertainment. The Alcón family from Bolivia did 4 dances: the grandpa and grandma did one together, the grandma, daughter and granddaughter did two and the daughter who dances with a dance group did one by herself. The Young Women did a dance. The Relief Society did actions to a song of reaching out wherever you are from. We also participated with the Arellano and Madrid families. We performed “His Voice as the Sound” from the new hymns. Elder Lyon played the piano, Hermano Arellano played his pan flute and cana flute from Ecuador and sung with his family and the Madrids while I played my harp.

The Alcóns - from Bolivia

The Villaltas - from Guatemala

The Food - from all over!

Elder Lyon has started teaching piano lessons to Ethan Arellano who is 12 years old. There is a lot of musical talent in that family. I have been helping the Primary (playing the piano) as they practice for their Primary Program. I will not be playing for the program, just for the practices. It has been fun to be in Primary. We don’t have many children in the Primary, but they are very attentive and are learning good things and sing with enthusiasm.

October 13^th was Canada’s Thanksgiving Day. The Relief Society had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner with a program. We didn’t really celebrate much – I think we’re waiting for the November Thanksgiving Day to celebrate with the missionaries since most of them come from the United States.

Elder Lyon is very good at making things better, easier, and more functional. There were a lot of pass-along cards in the missionary closet with a place on the back for missionary phone numbers. The missionaries use their phones for everything. The chip and the number stay in the area with all the information on it that the next missionary will need. So, we went looking for a place to make a stamp with their phone numbers to stamp on the pass along cards.  We ended up in a very middle eastern neighborhood. The store was Print2Go. It looked very disorganized and crazy at first sight. You wondered how they could keep track of anything. But they were great. It should have taken them 3-4 days, but he made it for us right then and we went home with it. They were so nice and professional. We would recommend them. The stamps work perfectly with our cards. 

A stamped passalong card

The Stake Relief Society provided a wonderful activity that we both attended. It was a day of service to our ancestors, our posterity, and our community. There were two Endowment sessions we could sign up for at 10 and 10:30. There were baptisms that you could do without an appointment at 10 or 11 and then go over to the Stake Center next to the temple for some classes. They had two classes – one for family history and one for journaling. They also had a room where two sister missionaries showed a video of the Rome Temple and answered questions and took people on tour of the temple gardens. Then there was lunch of soups (about 7 different ones), salad, rolls, pumpkin pie, and apples They had hot cider as well as fruit drinks and water on the tables. The Stake Relief Society Presidency were out and about visiting with all of us. 

We were able to take Luz, who was baptized 3 weeks ago. She loved the experience and asked good questions. Elder Lyon is such a loving, kind, gentle teacher. We also brought Laura who moved from Mexico 2 months ago. She has been a member for 4 years. We were able to take our own tour of the temple gardens and had a good visit. It was a sweet activity. The soup and pie were good too.

Ana Laura and Luz at the Temple with us.

To thank us Laura invited us to the restaurant where she works. It’s called “La Pozoleria” (pozole is a Mexican soup). They had a variety of other Mexican foods as well. Very tasty.

The name says it all!

We have District Council every week with the young missionaries, and as Senior MLS missionaries we hold our own District Council once every 6 weeks. There are 10 MLS couples. It is good to get together and share what we are doing and get ideas and talk about what we are learning and ask questions and get some ideas. Elder and Sister Andersen instructed us on making good invitations (invitations to come to church, for instance, or to read the Book of Mormon. Not Birthday invitations… 😊). Elder Lyon and I were asked to give instruction on uniting with ward leadership and members to retain the new members, and the Chadwicks and Vanderwalls had a discussion on how to accomplish what we are trying to do in member retention efforts. The wards we serve in are so different with different dynamics and needs. We are so grateful to work in the Black Creek Spanish ward. They are so loving, humble and easy to work with.

We also teach a class every Thursday night entitled “Mi Senda De Los Convenios”, or “My Covenant Path”. It is especially for the new members, but we invite the whole ward and get quite a few from both groups. It is so rewarding when you finish a class and no one wants to leave because they are visiting with each other, often continuing the things we have discussed in class.

My Covenant Path Class map - early version, in English

Another assignment we have been given from the Mission is to help with the Christmas Program for the December Zone Conference. Sister Lyon is working with 2 other senior sisters. These sisters are real musicians and have conducted choirs and put together musical programs a lot. Sister Lyon loves music, but what she brought to the table was simplicity. So, we are having all the missionaries learn the Christmas hymns in the new hymn book. Each District can choose a song they will perform or have the whole group perform together along with a scripture to introduce the song. We have people who play the clarinet, violin, trumpet, etc. Hopefully it will be fun and less stressful than if it was a big production using only a few. These Conferences start December 2^nd.

We continue to work with our new members. Our ward has been good at giving them callings and it is so fun to see them progressing as they accept and fulfill them.

While inspecting the sisters’ apartment we learned that they needed trash cans. So, we thought we would just get some for them while we were out and about. While in the check-out line we saw boxes of colored chalk that would be a perfect gift for Elder Clement who had just instructed us in District Council and couldn’t find a piece of chalk that was big enough to use.  So, we had to get something for his companion, Elder Astle. He has been leading the singing in our district council and is very serious about his leading and works on it.

So, we looked all over and finally found an amazing music store called Long and McQuade. This store is huge. The basement sold drums and such, the main floor sold mixers and brass instruments, the third floor sold harps, violins beautiful things and batons. We found a very reasonably priced one for Elder Astle. Then we looked at the keyboards, which happened to be in a part of the store two buildings away. We have been toying with the idea of getting one and we walked out with one. It has come in so handy as Sister Lyon has been practicing at the church to help the Primary with their program and as Elder Lyon accompanies everyone.

Keyboard

Since transfers were coming the next week, Sunday would possibly be our last Sunday dinner with our missionaries, so we wrapped and gifted them with their “gifts”. They were thrilled.  

The end of October brought transfers – right on schedule. Our Sister Lynch got transferred to the Churchville YSA ward, which is still part of our District, and Elder Clement got sent out to the Hamilton Zone. They’ve both been wonderful to work with. Their replacements are Elder Innocenzi and Sister Stefan. It will be fun getting to know them and working with them.

The Etobicoke District with Elder Clement's selfie stick