2013 Christmas party with several senior missionaries . . . . .

December 23, 2013. . Our first party with the "seniors" was held in the employment center/ cannery/bishop's store house, all in one huge building. . .  We had a ham dinner, mashed potatoes and gravy, (different? combination), rolls, salads and dessert. To give you an idea of a few of the senior's that we're serving with, let me introduce you to them.  Next to Darrell and I are the Rees'. They worked in the office and went home the first of January.  She was the office nurse, did referrals and supplies, and he was the fleet co-ordiantor.  Next to brother Rees is, a new convert, that one of the couples brought with the dinner, and next to him is Brother Robinson, (his wife is taking the picture), who are CES missionaries.  Next to them are the Trees,(she has got 3 "trees" on her jumper), and are over the employment center; next to them are the Kennett's who run the Bishop's storehouse, next to them are the Whiteheads, who serve in the temple as ordinance workers, and on the end are the Caldwells', who worked in the office. They left right after Christmas, and they are the ones that we moved into their apartment.   I replaced her position at the front desk, but some of the responsibilities of Sister Rees and Sister Caldwell were split prior to us coming in.  I handle a portion of each of their responsibilities that I mentioned previously in my first blog. Darrell took over all of her husbands responsibilities as housing coordinator, and financial secretary.

December-January update

Most of you have not heard from us since we left  Utah over a month ago! We wanted to get a quick  e-mail off to all of you, letting you know that we are thinking of you and surviving this very frigid, harsh winter here in Brampton, ON. Today, Jan. 7th it was a minus 24, with wind chill temperatures of a minus 30 to 40 degrees Celsius.  Today it was the coldest it's been in 70 years. It is a damp cold that makes you shiver all over, even when wearing layered clothing.  Today in the province of Ontario, there were 275 car accidents early this morning, due to the weather.  Since our arrival in Brampton on December 18th our lives have changed drastically. I would say Darrell and I have been" running", since the day we walked into President Scott's office on the 19th of December. As most of you know our assignment was to be member leadership missionaries.  We were very surprised when President Scott asked if we would be willing to work in the office. My first reaction was; this is not what we planned to do!  I had even brought my Bosch mixer, so I could make some bread for those cute little families in one of the small branches up North. I have been asked to manage the front desk, referrals, supplies and convert baptisms. Darrell is over all of the finances and housing.  Another couple in the office takes care of the fleets, and his wife, who is a nurse does the medical and transfers.  We have 295 missionaries, 11 districts, and in our stake, there is over 125 different ethnic groups. We leave our apartment at 7:30 a.m and arrive home after 8:00 p.m. We work Monday through Monday, taking a little time to do our wash once a week on Saturday, and shop for a few groceries, and attend church on Sunday.  I have never been busier in all my life! I have to keep thinking what my grandson Tyler wrote to us in a letter the other day, " the the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called."  We keep praying that President Scott was inspired to call us, and that we will become qualified for this new position that has been asked of us.   It is truly humbling and many times a day I ask my Father in Heaven to help us through the days and give us strength as we learning something in such a" magnitude". Hopefully, in the months ahead we can get back to a little bit of normalcy.  Someone once said, no matter what you thought your mission would be like, you will be surprised, and that we are!

When we get some time, we will send pictures etc. on our blog.

Crossing the border into Canada

I know the events I have just recently written about in my blog, are “old news”;   but as I have time over the next several months, I will try to catch up to where we are now in our mission.  I like trivia and detail, so I will share some of my notes that I think will be of interest to you from time to time of our Canada Toronto mission 2013-2015. 

WINDSOR TUNNEL

December 18th, 2013-The Detroit-Windsor tunnel is an underwater highway tunnel connecting Detroit, Michigan in the United States, with Windsor, Ontario in Canada. About 13,000 vehicles use the tunnel each day.  When Darrell and I drove through the tunnel, we were a ‘tad” bit nervous. We had been told by several of the people in the mission office to not say the word “work”, or you may be penalized by paying a fine.  The senior couple that came in just before us,  had to pay $300 to cross the border.  In their mission call, they were called to work in the office, whereas ours said that we were called to be member leadership support missionaries.  Even though ours didn’t say work, we were still very concerned.  In fact, one of the couples that were coming in to serve in our mission, had such a difficult time at the border, and were interrogated and grilled so harshly, they became forceful and were denied a visa. They ended up serving their mission in the Detroit area. As we stopped at the security booth; prior to going into customs, the border guard handed us a yellow sheet to take over to a building across the street. We then walked into the customs’ office, with our missionary badges on, dressed in our Sunday clothes; Darrell in his suit, and I in a skirt and blouse. As we walked up to the desk, they took our paper work and asked us to be seated.  We were invited to sit down on some chairs across the room. They didn’t seem too anxious to serve us, and seemed to be having a great time laughing, as we sat waiting for about 20 minutes to be waited on.  I was getting very fidgety and nervous because we had heard from others how very rude they were to senior missionaries coming into their country.  When we were finally called up, “Mr. Shauffer” looked at our papers for some time, with a scowl on his face, and then started firing questions at us.  “Who is paying you to come in?”(No one) Why are you here? (We are ordained ministers of God)  “Why do we need people to come in to Canada to teach us; if we’ve already got ministers here?”  (We are sure there are many churches teaching the gospel of Christ in Canada, and we’re sure it’s needed by all)  He then asked who told us to come. (Our prophet). What’s his name? (Thomas S. Monson). We then needed to show him our proof of income. He wanted to know why we received more Social security, than they get in Canada. (We said, we don’t know, maybe you need to move to the United States). He then wanted to know why on this yellow sheet it says you need a work permit. Are you getting a stipend? (No) Why did the border guard say that you needed a work permit? About that time, I figured this guy was just messing with us, and I was so proud of Darrell for talking so politely to this “jerk” and answering his pointed questions for over an hour.  Through all of this interrogation I was silently saying a prayer, hoping that we could soon leave and be on our way!  After an hour and a half of going back and forth, the border guard said, here’s your visa; you are okay to go!!   We grabbed our papers and almost ran out. We then stopped by to eat and spent the next 3 hours driving to Brampton. ON. We stayed at the Fairview Inn and slept very well that night!

DECEMBER 8TH THRU 18TH

Our journey to the mission field (Canada Toronto) took us past three of our children homes,  where we were able to spend two to three days with each of them before crossing into Canada.


We stopped at Troy and Christine's home in Washington, MO and enjoyed Addie and Chandler and their family. We did some shopping, went to a movie, and out to eat.  McCall is serving a mission in St. George, Ut. and Austin is serving a mission in Colorado Denver South mission.  

We then traveled to Burlington, KY to be with Britta, Makenzie, Avery and Emme. It was so nice to see the girls again.  I had "Mary Poppins" pay them a visit when we got there.  Mary danced around the living room  like she does at all the grand children's homes, and brought some unexpected gifts to 3 very sweet grand children. She had her large brimmed hat on her head and big carpet bag with her. The girls were excited to open a few gifts.  One evening  we went to a nearby community church and the girls  were able to do many hands-on Christmas activities. They enjoyed a hay wagon ride and liked to touch all of the animals at the petting zoo.  

Our last home to visit was  Chris and Sharon's home in Rockford, MI where we spent time with their two children, Connor and Trent  and their family. We went out to eat and enjoyed going to church with them.  Tyler, their oldest is at BYU. and Lexie is at Utah State, in Logan UT.  One evening we  went to Connor's and Trent's Christmas concert.  They are both very talented in the instruments  they play.  Connor plays the trumpet, and Trent plays first chair in all of the percussion instruments.

MTC WEEK CONTINUED . . .

(DECEMBER 2ND-6TH)

We had a nice experience getting to know the couples in the MTC.  Our trainers were well-qualified and motivated us and  inspired us to teach missionary work. They shared their testimonies  of focusing on the Book of Mormon and our Savior Jesus Christ.  They taught with the Spirit, and taught many lessons and concepts from Preach my Gospel. We did a lot of role playing, and did some with people that were investigating the church, even though we didn't know if they were acting or it was the real thing.  The couple on my right are going to serve on a military base in  England. He was very knowledgeable, and had a gift of telling  amazing stories on any subject that was brought up. The other couples s were called to CES missions in Arizona and Austria. 



All of the couples decided that the food at the MTC was not like  home-cooked food by any means! It was typical college cafeteria styled cooking.



The spirit at the MTC was phenomenal, and it was great to be around couples that were excited to serve the Lord.  Darrell and I are  willing to do what we are asked to do to serve the Lord.   I love what Marjorie Hinkley said once,  "I want the Lord to know that I was really here and that I really lived." She put her whole heart into whatever she did, and often she would get dirty.  I hope we will be remembered that we are willing to put our whole heart into whatever we are asked to do.  Senior missionaries are the best kept secret, They do it one prayer at a time.

 We were pleasantly surprised to get a visit from Cassie and Tyler, who are attending BYU, when we were doing our training at the MTC. 

 

 Monday December 2nd 

Darrell and I  are standing in front of the MTC building. We joined the  largest group of senior missionaries to ever enter the MTC in Provo.  We were thrilled to be a part of this group of 153 seniors, that included 9 sisters.