Halifax Mission Month 3, September 2017

September started out with a trip to Kelowna to celebrate the life of Charles Burns, Kathy’s Mom’s husband. He had passed away after an extended battle with cancer and we received permission from our Temple President (who is also our Mission President) to leave the mission to be with Kathy’s mom and our family. Charlie’s passing occurred just before the scheduled two week semi-annual temple maintenance closing, during which time we have very limited duties and responsibilities at the temple. Charlie will be sadly missed as he was always a wonderful part of our family vacations to Kelowna and our family get-togethers. Fred and Kathy were able to spend a few days with Kathy’s Mom prior to the Celebration of Life and also a few days with our children and grandchildren who were able to make it out to Kelowna to celebrate the life of Grandpa Charlie. All of our children were able to get there except Michelle who had booked a flight to Kelowna, but it was cancelled due to forest fires in the Kimberley area where she lives. The fires were very close to the airport and her plane was unable to take off. We all missed her!

We appreciated the grandkid hugs and were happy to be able to see our family and extended family and to spend almost a week with Kathy’s Mom before returning to Halifax. Michael Hurdman, our oldest grandson, also turned 13 while we were out in Kelowna so we were able to celebrate his birthday with him and the rest of our family and extended family. We’re just glad that we don’t get any older, even though our kids and grandkids do!!

Grandpa Charlie's Celebration of Life

When we returned to Halifax, we refocused on the work of the Lord. Our mission has been a very interesting journey. The first 2 months of our mission were a struggle for us as we learned our duties in the office, got to know the other temple workers, and spent long days preparing the temple schedules. But as we have learned how to do the office work, we have come to enjoy it more and more. We love the other workers that we work with and appreciate their dedication to the work of the Lord. Our work in the office has become easier as we have figured out what we are doing and as we learn to have faith that the Lord will help us and as we learn to trust in Him and His inspiration and that He will make up the difference when we cannot.

We also see little tender mercies of the Lord as we serve. One day we were just finishing up our shift and we had the following experience:

President Green, one of the counsellors in the Temple Presidency, told us about a man who was not a member of our church who came into the temple looking for some help. The man had been to Cole Harbour Place to one of the government offices and they hadn't been able to do some faxing for him so they sent him up the street to see the Mormons. They said that the Mormons would do it for him and he asked if we could send a fax for him. Fred happened to be out there at that time so he took the piece of paper into the office to see if he could do the faxing. While Fred was gone, the man started asking about the temple and President Green told him that we do work here in the temple for our ancestors who have passed on. Just then, Kathy walked out into the foyer and then into the workers change room. The man pointed to Kathy and said, "You even have angels here!" He was very serious– Kathy must have looked pretty heavenly in her long flowing white Temple dress and her flowing blonde hair!

Fred wasn't able to do the faxing for him so President Green took him across the parking lot to the Stake Centre where they were able to do the faxing. This visitor not only got his errand done, but he had the privilege of stepping into a holy place and seeing an angel! (Fred’s comment, yes Kathy certainly is my angel!)

Fall is starting to come to Nova Scotia and we are enjoying the beauty of the leaves changing colors. They are as beautiful as we have heard! We took this picture of the temple and I know that there will be more color as the leaves continue to turn. The cloud formations were so pretty!

We have also enjoyed being a part of the Cole Harbour Ward here in Dartmouth. On Sundays, we usually attend the Gospel Essentials Class with the new members, the investigators, and the missionaries. Fred also sang in the choir and we attend a Family Home Evening Group on Monday nights. We also went to a corn bust with the delicious Maritime corn on the cob and Kathy has gone to a couple of Relief Society activities. We have been assigned Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching routes so we are starting to get to know the Ward Members. We are also assigned to give talks in October so they will get to know us as well!

We have enjoyed seeing some people from Calgary as they have come out to visit this beautiful area. Telesa Steedman from our Wednesday Evening Temple shift in the Calgary Temple and her husband stopped in Halifax to attend the temple and we enjoyed seeing and visiting with them.

Later in the month, Kerry Smith and Beth Sunada came and stayed with us for a couple of nights after a bicycle trip around the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton. They met us at the temple on Friday night and went through a session then came and slept in our apartment. On Saturday morning, we were working at the temple so they drove into Halifax and looked around, then in the evening we went out to Peggy’s Cove together. We enjoyed seeing the lighthouse and decided we would have dinner while we were there. However, a truck had had an accident and run into a power pole so there was no electricity in the restaurant. We only had three choices for dinner -- lobster rolls, seafood chowder, or a turkey sandwich. We chose the lobster rolls and seafood chowder and had a wonderful dinner of Maritime seafood. On Sunday, we went to church with Kerry and Beth. After church, we went to the beach at Rainbow Haven and walked in our bare feet on the soft, soft sand. It was so fun to watch the waves crashing into the shore and we had a wonderful time. Kerry and Beth had to go home that evening but we sure enjoyed our time with them.

Kathy, Kerry, and Beth

We have also had a couple of opportunities to explore this area little bit more. Near the beginning of September we drove over to New Brunswick to see the Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. We arrived at the Hopewell Rocks Park at about 8:30 but the park didn't open until 9 o'clock so we had to wait for about half an hour. When the park opened, we paid our admission fee, then walked down to the ocean floor. There was a guided tour starting at 9:30 so we joined in with that. The rocks were so beautiful – – we were amazed at all the rock formations and the dynamic impact of the ocean upon them. The tour lasted for about an hour and a half and we walked all along the shore and saw a lot of different formations that we were absolutely amazed at. We really enjoyed it and afterwards we did some more exploring and picture taking on our own. We stayed down there until about 11:30 and then we saw that the tide was starting to come in so we climbed back up the stairs and walked back up towards the information center. On the way, we stopped at a couple of lookouts so we could look out over the ocean floor and we could see the tide coming in even more. Because of the iron ore in the soil, the water looked kind of reddish and it was really interesting to watch it coming in.
We got our picnic lunch and started eating it at a picnic table but there were so many wasps that we were chased into our car, where we finished eating. Then we went back into the park and walked back down to the lookouts and to the stairs so that we could see the full impact of the tide being totally in. It was so amazing to us. The tides here are the highest in the world – up to 46 feet high! Our Heavenly Father has created a wonderful world for us to enjoy.

Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy - Before and After the Tide Came In

On Saturday, September 30, the temple was closed for the General Conference of our church. On Conference weekends, we get to watch broadcasts of our General Leaders from Salt Lake speaking to us and we have no scheduled church meetings. So Fred and I took our laptop with us and drove up to Cape Breton. We went to Fort Louisbourg and then drove around the Cabot Trail.

The scenery was so beautiful. The leaves have started to turn and out here in Nova Scotia and they turn very deep brilliant colors. The reds are very deep and the oranges are almost fluorescent. With the background of the green trees that haven’t turned yet and the evergreens and a few that are turning yellow, it is so beautiful!

The first stop that we wanted to make was in Louisbourg, a Canadian historical site. Louisbourg used to be a fort maintained by the French. It was conquered by the English then given back to the French and conquered again by the English several years later. It fell into disrepair and then in the 1960s some of the buildings began to be restored as a makework project for unemployed coal miners. Today there are quite a few buildings that have been restored including the King’s Bastion, where the governor and the soldiers lived, and the engineer’s house, as well as the gate leading into the fort and some of the walls. 

We went on two tours of Louisbourg. The first one was an outdoor tour that gave us an overall picture of the fort. It was a really cold day although we were grateful that it wasn’t raining, as there had been rain over the past few days. I had brought my winter coat but Fred had dressed in his shorts and sandals. He is such an optimist! But he kind of froze and I was nice and warm as we had our one hour tour of the fort.

Louisbourg Heritage Site

After our tour and a little looking around on our own, we decided to go for some lunch. They had a restaurant that served historically accurate food from the 1800s. We were seated at a long table with another couple across from us and four more people on the other end of the table. Fred and I both ordered the fish chowder and it was excellent. We were given bibs (diapers) to wear around our necks like they might have been given in the 1800s. We enjoyed visiting with the other couple that was sitting across from us and we very much enjoyed our soup. It warmed us up from the inside out! After we finished our lunch, Fred had enough time to change into jeans so he wouldn’t be so cool during our next tour. It started at 1:30 and it was called Time Travel. We were taken by a man dressed up as one of the soldiers that might have lived at the fort. He took us over to the bastion and told us about what his life was like. Then he loaded and fired his musket for us.

After that tour, we left Louisbourg and drove through Sydney and then to Baddeck. We arrived in Baddeck about 4 o’clock – and had about an hour that we could spend at the Alexander Graham Bell museum, another Canadian Heritage site. We went through the site and looked at the timeline of all of the things that happened in Alexander Graham Bell‘s life. It was very interesting seeing all the different things that he invented at the different stages of his life and the people that he was involved with. It was also very interesting to see some of his flying machines and how they were built and the process that he went through to create them. There were many artefacts in that museum and it was very interesting.

After that, we went and checked in at The Cabot Trail motel and immediately got the Internet set up on the computer and watched the Saturday afternoon session of general conference. It was great and there were some very inspiring talks.

On Sunday, we watched the priesthood session of conference from Saturday night, then went for a drive up the Cabot Trail to Cheticamp. It was such a beautiful drive. The leaves were starting to turn and the hillsides looked so beautiful with a variety of colours of leaves and trees. The first part of the trail there were a lot of farms and they were so beautifully kept. Some of the farm houses were older but well-kept and the yards had well-manicured lawns and beautiful trees. A little while later, we turned a corner and there was the ocean! The waves were crashing against the rocks and there was another kind of beauty there. It looked so rugged and we took a bunch of pictures as often as we could stop along the road. When we got to Cheticamp, we turned around and headed back to our motel so we could watch the  Sunday morning session of conference which began at 1 o’clock Atlantic time (10 o’clock Mountain time). The Sunday morning session always has a lot of beautiful music performed by the Tabernacle choir and we enjoyed the music and the talks. 

The Ocean Near Cheticamp on the Cabot Trail

At 5 o’clock Atlantic time (2 o’clock Mountain time), we watched the afternoon session of conference. Elder Hales had passed away in between the two sessions of conference, so there were many expressions of condolences to his family.

On Monday, we started driving around the rest of the Cabot Trail – the opposite way that we had gone on Sunday. We drove towards Ingonish and then around to Pleasant Bay. We stopped at the visitor center in Ingonish and got a map of the Cabot Trail and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The girl that we talked to suggested some places that we might want to stop and some hikes that we might like to go on. The closest hike (which was just across the street from the visitor center) was the Freshwater Lake Look-Off. We climbed a bunch of stairs to the top of the mountain and looked over Ingonish Bay and the freshwater lake there. It was so beautiful – the views were stunning!

View from Freshwater Lake Look-off

After that hike, we stopped briefly at Ingonish Beach and took some pictures and then we drove up to the Keltic lodge and hiked part way out to Middlehead. Middlehead is a peninsula out past the Keltic Lodge. We hiked around on both sides of the peninsula and it was extremely rugged. The water breaking on the rocks along the shoreline looked spectacular!

We made a few more stops along the coast because the scenery was so spectacular that we just had to get out and take pictures. When we got to Neil’s Harbour, we took a detour from the Cabot Trail and drove up to White Point. White point is right on the ocean and it was very rugged there as well. The scenery was so beautiful again. We went right down to the water and walked on top of some of the rocks to get some good views of the ocean.

From there we got to drive along the ocean until the road hooked back up to the Cabot Trail (which had driven more inland than the route that we took). The next part of the trail went inland and through a very mountainous area. There were some beautiful views of the mountain forests and the fall leaves. We had to stop and take some pictures of those too!

 Not far from our destination of Pleasant Bay, there were two hikes that we wanted to go on. The first was called Lone Shieling. Here we saw a replica of a Scottish crofter’s hut and hiked through a forest of 350-year-old sugar maple trees. It was only a 15 minute hike but we enjoyed it very much. After that, we stopped at MacIntosh Brook and hiked through the forest to a waterfall. That was about a 30 minute walk. The weather was very cold but gratefully we hadn’t had any rain until the very end of this walk.

After that hike, we drove into Pleasant Bay. It was still too early to go to our bed-and-breakfast so we went to the whale interpretive center, a very tiny museum with a little bit of information about whales. Then we drove down to Pleasant Bay Harbor and watched the waves crashing on the rocks again. The ocean is so beautiful to us and we can hardly get enough of watching it.

That night we stayed in a little bed and breakfast in Pleasant Bay. We were happy to get checked in as the weather had been quite cool today and we were anxious to start to warm up.

On Tuesday, we had a quick breakfast of granola bars and mixed nuts. The lady from the bed and breakfast, Anna, had said that she was going to leave some cinnamon buns for breakfast but we didn’t see any by the time we were ready to leave.

We got everything packed up and drove a little further down the Cabot Trail to the Skyline Trail. It’s a very famous hike that goes from the main road to a boardwalk and then down to a platform overlooking the ocean. It was a beautiful hike all the way out to the lookout point with all of the changing colors and it was a beautiful morning. At the viewpoint, we could see the valley, the highway, and the rugged coastline of the ocean. The view was breathtaking!

After our hike, we started to head home. Much of the first part of the drive was along the ocean. The ocean is so amazing to us and we love watching the waves crashing against the rocky shores. It is so beautiful. We love this area and are really enjoying our time here!

  

Here is our Inspirational Saying for this Month: