a wonderful day...

We took a "partial" preparation day today. We went to Montreal to go to the temple. The temple is about 2 hours away. (Boy do I miss that 5 minute drive back at home in Utah) I don't know if I explained that the Montreal Temple is slightly different than others. At the beginning, a member of the temple presidency comes in and asks, by a show of hands, how many would like to hear the session in French, then how many in English, then how many in Spanish. And then the majority rules. Which ever language the most people want, the session is done in that language and the rest get head sets where they can choose to hear it in their own language. It's always fun to see which language we will hear it in. After leaving the temple we headed back toward the mission office. All the Senior couples had a movie night planned. But before we went there, we wanted to stop at a very famous Montreal landmark... St. Joseph's cathedral. It is still an operating cathedral, but is open for tours as well. This is what it looks like from the outside. The picture below is a mock-up it inside the cathedral. It is amazing architecture. It was built by a man named Andre Bessette - as a memorial to St.Joseph. It has the 3rd largest dome in the world..after the one on St.Peter's Basilica in Rome and one in the Ivory Coast. It was known as a place of healing and the story goes that everyone who came with crutches or a cane, was healed and then they put their cane or crutches on the wall and walked out.Andre apparently did so many wonderful things in his lifetime, and healed so many that they beatified him, then canonized him & made him a Saint last year. One of the less exciting things about the tour is that at one place inside, they have a glass case in which they have placed Andre's ACTUAL heart!!! Aaaaggghhh!! NOT my favorite part of the tour. Apparently it is to protect the Basilica. When they made him a saint last year, at the huge Montreal Stadium that was built for the Olympics, they actually cut out a sliver of that heart & took it to the ceremony! Roger said that was TRULY giving his all ! Outside, at the base of the huge stairway up, we see this:The sign reads : Reserved for pilgrims going up on their knees. Apparently, the center stairs, which are wooden - unlike the other stairs which are cement - are for people doing pennance and they must climb the stairs on their knees!! Makes our 10% tithing look a whole lot better!Then we went to the mission office to watch a movie that the Giles' children had sent them. Roger & I had seen it just before we left on our mission - 17 Miracles. It is the story of the Willie Handcart company. It is absoutely fabulous! I recommend you all see it if you can. We saw it in the theater, but I know that Deseret book now sells the DVD. But, I caution you... see it with a box of kleenex very close! It is a definite tear-jerker. We had a potluck of "nibbleys" (as our Sister Davis - from England/Australia calls them. Guess it's an English word for "treats".) It was a wonderful night. However, we had to drive home for an hour and a half, then get up the next morning & come right back to Zone Study. And since the Elders in our area are having trouble with their mileage (here they call them "klicks" ) we will drive an hour north & pick them up, then drive and hour and a half to zone study. We have zone study for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours and then have lunch all together, so by the time we drive them home, then go home ourselves, we have pretty much spent the entire day. Ahhh, the joys of being a missionary. However, on the way home, we found this cute little city called:of course I HAD to take a picture for Debbie Davis, since her Idaho Cabin is on Moose creek - but the thing we loved most about the town was that it had a cross-walk just for us: Yep, gotta get me one o' them signs...