Happy Thanksgiving Day everyone! The Senior Missionary couples all got together for Thanksgiving this year at the apartment of Elder & Sister Noble - from Arizona - (who, oddly enough, was in Dick Veatch's mission in the Great Lakes & so they served together). They are the CES missionaries and live in Montreal. We were each assigned to bring something so it wasn't very hard on anyone. To have some fun, I volunteered to bring some napkin ring/placecard holders that I made:
This is our beloved President & Sister Cannon. I had taken some pictures months before at a dinner where we were all present, and now they came in very handy... who knew?
There were 8 couples there... So we stuffed 16 people into this tiny apartment. But we had alot of fun. Of course, I was closer to some people and further back from others... So the head sizes varied immensly... thus having to adjust the hat sizes for everyone! ha! Here are the Pilgrims Mahaffey:
Elder & Sister Davis who live just 4 floors above, brought down their kitchen table & chairs & they also used a folding Costco table... but we got everyone in:
I brought some pumpkins I had used to decorate our apt. for November and The Nobles & Davis' had gathered many fall leaves and pressed them for some table decor. Cute, huh?
Here are President & Sister Cannon up front. Going around the table to the left - Elder Mahaffey, Sister & Elder Noble, Elder & Sister Levitre (Bountiful), Sister & Elder Davis (Australia).
Left & around: Elder & Sister Florence (from Alberta, Canada - doing digitizing records), Elder & Sister Giles (Midway, UT- office), Elder & Sister Cheney are absent from the picture because they had a few problems and arrived late...so, of course, I forgot to get their pictures!
After Dinner, Elder Levitre (who used to be in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 16 years) said he felt impressed that he should sing "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". It was wonderful! Then Elder Noble said he knew why he had felt such an impression - it was because he had felt impressed that morning to share some little known vignettes from the life of Joseph Smith.
He read from a book called Remembering Joseph by Mark McConkie (son of Bruce R.McConkie) where he had gleaned different stories about Joseph Smith from people who actually knew him -from the church archives. Amazing... I shouldn't ever be surprised because things of the spirit like this happen all the time here. I love it!
Then Sister Cannon gave each of us a laminated leaf from the Sacred Grove. They had just been there for a Mission President's Conference. The note says: Oct. 2011 Palmyra, NY - We could not bring you to the Sacred Grove, so we brought a piece of the Sacred Grove back for you. Create your own 'sacred grove' wherever you are. Psalms 46:10: Be still and know that I am God. - with much ove and devotion, President & Sister Cannon - CMM (Canada Montreal Mission) - Apparently she almost got into trouble... as she was heading out of the Grove with all these leaves, someone stopped her & said that taking leaves out was not allowed. But she said she had only taken the ones that had dropped on the path, she had not wandered off any paths to do the collecting, and did not pull them from the trees... they let her keep them! Yikes... we almost had to celebrate with the Cannons via Skype from Jail! ha! It was such a great day! When we came here we really discounted how important being with other senior missionaries would be. We thought we'd be fine out here in Cornwall just doing our work. But we have found that in just a short time, we have become very attached to these dear brothers and sisters. We find we love getting together, sharing a wonderful spirit, and commiserating with those who are in the same boat. Now that a few of these great people are getting close to going home, we really feel a sense of loss. We have been surprised that we have grown so close in such a short time. Now we truly look forward to seeing each other - even when we have work projects to do together. These are amazingly strong and righteous people and we share in the desire to serve the Lord. It's an amazing process of growth! We love how they have affected our lives!
Pretty amazing that it is almost the end of November, and we are just now experiencing the beginnings of cold weather. We hope that bodes well for the rest of the winter! Most days everyone else in our building is up and out... but wouldn't you know, this day we were the first ones to go out, and so this was our duty:
And, of course, we HAD to get one of us with the Cornwall water tower in the background:
Because it is 11-11-11 ! That won't happen again for 100 years! Here in Canada Remembrance Day is a holiday as well. But we are amazed at how patriotic everyone here in Canada is. Here the Veterans sell red poppies (a small plastic/paper like flower ). And EVERYONE it seems has one and wears it for about 2 weeks previous to Remembrance day. Most poppies are sold with just a regular silver straight pin in the middle, but a ward member gave these to us. They have a Canadian pin that has a locking back on it, so they stay on better.
One of our ward members said he saw President Obama on the TV talking to the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and he told him that in the States, we only wear our poppies on the actual Veteran's Day ??? WHAT? I told him that NOBODY wears a poppy in the states. We used to see some when we were kids.. they were a smaller red poppy with a white ribbon attached that said Veteran's Day, but that was pretty long ago. Now I never see anyone wearing a poppy. How about any of you? Anyone seeing poppies in your neck of the woods? It is really too bad we don't see any poppies, because we certainly owe such a debt of gratitude to all of those who have or are serving in the military to protect our freedoms.
So we have all donned our poppies... worn on the right side over the heart. These are the Elders that are in our area. Elder Lockhart is on the left. He's from So. Calif. Elder Garcia is from Canada and is making it his goal never to smile for a picture. He's doing very well at that ! They live and work mostly in Hawkesbury, (an hour away), but come to Cornwall about 1 night a week. Before we came here, this was the only missionary coverage they had. They usually have to find someone to stay with on that one night, but we got some aerobeds and sheets & pillows, so now they are going to begin staying in our apartment on that one night a week - hopefully so it won't be such a hassle for them. They still have dinner apts. with the members, however. So... have a wonderful Remembrance day & be thankful for our Veterans and current Service men and women.
She is 27 and already has a college degree in Music with a religion minor, but has gone back to college with a Journalism major. It has been amazing to see how throughout her life the Lord has been preparing her to receive the gospel, and to recognize truth when it was presented. Elder Mahaffey was able to baptize her and it was a magnificent experience for us all.
There were so many from the ward there and everyone brought something for the luncheon we had afterward. There was a ton of food. The Mission President & his wife (The Cannons) surprised us & came. They originally had a conflict, but were able to somehow change things around and come anyway. They were just newly home from the Mission Presidents' seminar in Palmyra New York . They had just visited the sacred grove and bore powerful testimonies about Joseph Smith and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. We asked Cait afterward if the day was everything she had expected it would be and she said.."Everything and MORE!"
Can you tell from the glow on these faces what an absolutely beautiful experience this was? Both Cait & Steve felt very comfortable in talking with everyone after the baptism and her new Visiting Teacher even came up & introduced herself. We feel so blessed to have even been a small part of this journey with Cait. 
How blessed we feel to be a part of this wonderful couple's lives and to have been able to see Cait accept the gospel. She's a fantastic young lady.