Halifax Mission Month 4, October 2017
Fall has come to the Maritimes and it is as beautiful as everyone told
us that it would be! The deep reds of the maple trees and the bright oranges
and yellows of the other trees are contrasted with the deep greens of the
evergreen trees. We have enjoyed lots of walks in the woods close to our house
and drives along the ocean and through the province. We have had beautiful
weather the whole month of October, which is a longer fall season than normal,
as we have been told by those who have lived here a long time.
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| This is called a burning bush and it turns a deep red in the fall. They are beautiful! |
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| This is Bissett Lake. It is at the end of our favorite walk in the woods near our apartment. |
Fred has developed some new talents as we have served this mission. He
makes the best oatmeal that I have ever tasted and serves it with raisins, a
variety of nuts, and lots of cinnamon. (He puts bran buds on his as well but I
skip them.) We have that for breakfast most mornings, especially if we have an
early morning at the temple. Our apartment smells so good when he makes it!
He has also made lots of lunches and done a lot of
dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher in our apartment, so he usually washes and I
dry. I have appreciated all of his help in the kitchen!
We have enjoyed
being a part of the Cole Harbour Ward here in Dartmouth. The members have been
kind and welcoming and Fred and I have given talks in Sacrament meeting, taught
lessons in Relief Society and Sunday School, and have been called as Home
Teachers and Visiting Teachers. We have been invited to some of the members’
homes for dinner and have gotten to know them better. Many of them are first
generation members of the church and we enjoy hearing their conversion stories.
Each of them are unique and it has required sacrifice and courage for them to
join the church. We also attend a Family Home Evening Group every Monday Night
where we have a pot luck dinner and a lesson.
Our work in the
office at the temple has gotten easier and easier and we have enjoyed it more
the longer we have been here. Even when we are short-handed because some of the
workers are sick or unable to be there, we have learned to trust in the Lord
and He always makes sure that things go well. The Temple is truly His House! It
is always a joy to be in the service of the Lord. We can really feel the spirit
of the Lord directing us in the work that we are doing.
We especially enjoy
the opportunities we have to work with those who are coming to the temple for
their first time or to get married or to
be sealed to family members for Time and All Eternity, both those who
are here and those who have already passed on to the next life. What a blessing
to be able to participate in sealing Eternal Families. What comfort to know
that we will see those who have died again when we join them.
Because this is a
small temple, we have the opportunity to serve as office workers, ordinance workers,
and patrons at various times. We enjoy the variety and love being in the temple
no matter what our assignment is!
Fred has had some neat experiences. He helped one
of the younger temple workers by tutoring him in performing some of the
ordinances as a worker. He also helped one of the older patrons who had had a
stroke and couldn’t raise his arm. The patron felt bad about that but Fred
reassured him that the Lord only expects us to do the best that we can do and
the patron left feeling so much better.
Elder and Sister
Randall, one of the other missionary couples who served in the temple, have
gone home and their replacements, the Lovelands, arrived on October 25. They
will be serving for a year and we are training them to replace us in the
office. President Veinot anticipates that they will be able to take over from
us at the beginning of December and then he has asked us to serve as shift
coordinators for the month of December to give the shift coordinators a break. In
the Halifax Temple, the office staff make up all of the schedules and the shift
coordinators run the shifts – a little different from how things are done in
Calgary. Many of the workers here are from long distances, 3 to 4 hours away,
and so only attend once a month. And many have served as temple workers since
the Halifax Temple opened in 1999. They are very dedicated!
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| This is what we see from our living Room and Bedroom windows |
We feel that we have been so blessed to be able to serve this mission. It
has helped Fred and I to be closer to one another, especially as we have
struggled through some of the challenges that we have faced and as we have turned
to each other for help and comfort. It has also helped us to change our focus. Fred has always loved serving his clients and as we have served this mission, Fred has had to leave that to the younger men who have continued that service. It has
helped both of us to focus on each other, on our mission, on serving our Heavenly
Father, and on our family. It has definitely changed our focus as far as
material things go as well. I think when we get home, we will be content in a
condo with fewer things rather than in our big house.
We have also learned a lot about how the temple functions behind the
scenes, especially in the office. Because we are in a smaller Temple, we
have had the opportunity to do a lot more things and a lot greater variety of
things than we would have in a larger Temple. What a blessing!
And of course we have enjoyed all the fun that we’ve had together. We’ve
met new people, explored this area, experienced the culture, and had a whole new
experience in relationships and environment.
It has been great!
We have also visited
some interesting places this month. Our Home Teachers, Ron and Christine
Mepham, took us for lunch in the Rose and Kettle Tea Room at the Cole Harbour
Heritage Farm Museum near our home. It is the Heritage Park of Nova Scotia and
we had quiche made from farm fresh eggs and salads from their big garden. It
was yummy!
Me with Christine and Ron Mepham, our Home Teachers.
Later in the month, we drove to Kentville, a
smaller city that is about an hour and a half away from Dartmouth. President
Green had told us that they had a display of Pumpkin people, with stuffed
clothes and pumpkin heads. We enjoyed the drive out there and, when we got
there, there were five different displays of pumpkin people and so we walked
down the main street and saw all the displays. Each display had a different
theme, including a cowboy theme, a native theme, an airplane theme, and a ship
theme. They were really cute and we enjoyed walking through the town of Kentville.
We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful fall leaves.
We have also enjoyed some more seafood this month. We went out for
dinner with Elder and Sister Ercanbrack, who are also missionaries that work at
the Temple. We went to a restaurant called Boondocks in Eastern passage,
another suburb of Halifax. We had seafood chowder to start our meal, then Fred
ordered fish tacos and I ordered haddock with shrimp bruschetta on top. It was
so good!
This month, we also met another one of the temple
workers, Brother Nieforth, at Sam’s Seafood Grill. Each of us had grilled
haddock and it was delicious! Brother Nieforth was one of those people that
Fred felt that he had known before we came on a mission but that could’ve only
been in the pre-existence. He is a wonderful brother in the Gospel.
I even tried another new recipe with fish called haddock au gratin, which was basically haddock in cheese sauce. We loved it!
I even tried another new recipe with fish called haddock au gratin, which was basically haddock in cheese sauce. We loved it!
We are so grateful
for each of you, our family and friends and enjoy hearing from you. We hope you
had a fun Hallowe’en! (We didn’t get any kids coming to our apartment this
year.)
