Little did we know that this would be so literally true! When we left Utah, our odometer read 92484.... Look what happened today...
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...
Thank you to The Kreys, The Monroes, and Misty for giving us a THRILL when we opened the mailbox and getting actual letters! Of course, the day after taking the picture, we also got a letter from Grandma Mahaffey... so thank you to her too! We have absolutely loved reading your letters! So, our official address is: 430 Cornwall Center Road # 3 - Cornwall, ONT, Canada K6K 1L9 - we will accept all mail gratefully! Also, thanks to the couple we got that were send to the mission office. If you ever send any packages - please send them to the mission office so that we won't have to pay duty on them. Mark them as "USED ITEMS" and send them to: 470 Rue Gilford, Ste. 300 - Montreal, QC, Canada H2J 1N3 - So, we're all set! Thanks again for everyone's prayers & thoughts... We feel your love & concern.
But this week, we've been seeing them like this:
And the trees are starting to look like this:
And when we woke up this morning it was 6 degrees ! (of course, that was in Celsius - which always throws me for loop seeing the temperature in Celsius ) In Farenheit that is 43 degrees. Still plenty nippy!
It will be fine for the first line, even wonderful for the second line - which is an all-male part, but the third line - which is a women's solo part ..... AAAAGGHHHH!!! You'll find yourself TRUELY doing a solo!!! And for FIVE verses no less !!! (and for an Alto like me to sing the soprano line... sheesh! ) Lesson learned !
They are a great family. Since they are both are converts, they are VERY missionary-minded. He is on the high council, and teaches the gospel essentials class for our investigators. She is in the Stake Young Women. Adam and Leo are 2 of only 3 YM in the ward... not very many. It is a small ward, only about 65 average sunday attendance. There are only about 15-18 primary kids. Pianists are at a premium... the organist for Sacrament meeting also is the primary pianist. Her mother plays for Relief Society. The whole ward is thrilled because our new investigator, Cait, can play the piano. Everyone here has been so warm and accepting! They also have high expectations for us, so that's a little pressure, but we're up for it! Homework for everyone out there... invite the missionaries to dinner this week!
While the mission home is in the province of Quebec,... Cornwall is in the province of:
We have a lovely apt. in a row of four-plexes only 1/2 block down the street from our church bldg. There are two apts. on the bottom and 2 apts. on the top...separated by the stairway up the middle.... and, of course.... we are on the 2nd level - left hand side as you look at our building.
You can get a better idea of what the building looks like by looking at the building next door-which doesn't have any huge trees in front.
Elder Giles & Elder Levitre - the office missionaries - rented a truck to move the furniture that they had for us in the storage unit. Elder & Sister Davis also came & helped. Plus 2 missionaries from Montreal, & our two Elders from Hawkesbury. We had plenty of people for the few pieces of furniture we moved. (this was cake compared with the move from Calif. to Utah! ) Thought you might like to see the inside as well. (I'm actually doing this so that I can keep a visual record on the blog so that at the end of our mission we can use all the pictures to make a book for us to keep reminding us of our mission... not to brag that we ended up with a very nice apt.) This is as you walk in the front door into the living room. You can see the dining room around the corner.
The doorway to the kitchen is just out of the picture on the left. Here is the view from behind the couch, standing in the dining area:
Here is the wall opposite the windows in the Living room - gotta have the family up on the wall. The doorway to the kitchen is on the right. Hallway back to bedrooms is on left.
Here's the Dining Room. Our wonderful Relief Society Pres. found us the table & chairs and also loaned us the rocker & ottoman that are in the living room.
Behind the curtain is a sliding glass door - with a small balcony. Here's our view:
Opposite the sliding glass door is a funky little pass-through window from the dining room into the kitchen. (see my cute little pumpkins? Gotta have that holiday decor... right?)
Here's the kitchen:
Directly opposite of the the front door as you come in is this little half-bath..
Next door down the hallway is the main bathroom. It's nice because it has the door into the hallway, but also has a pocket door into our bedroom.
Here's a couple of shots of our bedroom. I left the closet door open so you could see that we have a big roomy closet.
Across the hall is the laundry. This is wonderful, because most of the apts. we looked at all had one set of machines, usually in the basement, always coin operated. The going price here is about $2.00 for 1 washer load and $2.00 for 1 dryer load. Even the landlord said we don't usually put washers & dryers in the units, but some previous tennant left them, so we are leaving them for you to use. We really feel blessed to have them.
And there you have it! Our home away from home for the next 18 months. We feel very lucky to have it. Come on up to Canada for a visit anytime!
