HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

We got home just in time to celebrate Canada's version of our Independence Day.  As it was Sunday, we sang their national anthem in Sacrament Meeting... O Canada. It was very stirring! I'll have to admit that it made me a little nostalgic for the US. They had this sheet music on every chair  (I think because MOST Canadians don't know the 2nd & 3rd verses! They usually only sing the first verse. Many of the members said..."We didn't even know there WERE any other verses !)

That night we went with the Merpaw to see the fireworks they shoot off over the St.Lawrence River.
We were appropriately attired in our CANADA T-Shirts!

We went to the small town next door to us - Long Sault (pronounced Long-Sue) and at right out by the river. We've NEVER been so close to fireworks in our lives! The roped off part of the lawn was where  all the machinery was and they shot off the fireworks from there. We were probably only 200 yards away!! WOW! It was really fantastic to be that close. We were even closer than when we went to the A's stadium to watch fireworks on Zach's birthday!

It was a wonderful evening. Everyone who came wore some kind of red & white. Everyone brought lawn chairs and just enjoyed the nice cool evening by the river. There was mostly families, no drinking, no loud music, and no one ruined it in any way. What a refreshing change!

Moving again???

Yes, more moving....After several days in the Sister Missionaries' vacant apartment and the Cannons' family gone, we moved back into the Mission Home for 3 days. Then our Senior CES Couple - the Nobles - went home. So we moved from the Mission Home into their vacated apartment. At least it still had all the furniture and dishes etc. They live on the 11th floor of this building.

It has a gorgeous view of St. Joseph's Cathedral out of the large living room windows:

We stayed here one week to finish our training of the Conways. Then, since the apartment was being vacated, we have to move all the furniture to the mission storage unit. (The NEW CES couple will be moving into the apartment building where the other senior couples live. Luckily we had several young missionaries to help us:

Elders Jaquier, Dalton, Smedley and Tam relaxing on one of the 3 couches that came out of that apartment!
We HAD to take a picture of the old and new CASH COUNT... outgoing Elder Mahaffey and incoming Elder Conway:

So... we are finally on our way back  to our home in Cornwall after 3 1/2 months and SIX moves!!  Our poor bodies are ready for our own bed and a little less hectic daily schedule! But, I will have to say, we truly loved working in the office!  Getting to know so many missionaries and feel of their wonderful spirit made it an unforgettable experience!

A very busy Sunday

Since we've been  working in the Mission Office, the President has asked us to attend the Kirkland Ward. It is about 30 minutes away from our apt. bldg. It has been wonderful to meet many new people. It is a much larger ward than Cornwall. These are two of the fantastic elders serving there:

Elder Williams and Elder Teuira. As we will be leaving soon and heading back to Cornwall, E. Williams wanted a picture, so I HAD to take one too.

Then, that night, we were back at the Mission Home for another Bienvenue Dinner to welcome our replacements in the office - Elder & Sister Conway - from Tooele, Utah - and the new couple taking over the Center for Young Adults in Quebec City - Elder & Sister Saintonge - that are from here.

We always have fun after dinner. President will ask us to go around room and introduce ourselves and then he always has something fun he wants us to tell about. Tonight it was our favorite scripture and why.

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful group of Senior Couples that we love!

What a busy day!

Since coming to Montreal we have moved several times.  First we came to train for serving in the office with the Giles, before they went home. We lived in their building in a vacant apt. we were preparing for another Senior couple to come- The Allens. (putting together lots of IKEA furniture!). Then, when the Giles left, we moved into their old apt. on the 16th floor.  When our replacements finally arrived - The Conways from Tooele, UT - they moved into the 16th floor apt.  We were supposed to go & live at the mission home while we trained them, but, of course, nothing is every easy!  President & Sister Cannon were having 10 members of their family come that week, so we had to move into an empty missionary apt. we were preparing for a set of sisters. We took our Aero beds-
(blow up mattresses) and our luggage and were off again to move into a totally bare apt.  Today we were at the Mission Storage Unit moving some furniture in and out. It is in a large Jewish section of town. (Right beside the storage building is the BEST Jewish bakery in the world!!!) It was Saturday - their Shabbat- Sabbath) and we noticed a large number of the men leaving their services. I have been so intrigued with some of their clothing as we have watched them coming & going- so I thought I would get a picture of them.  I saw one elderly gentleman walking alone, so I came up to him & said, Excuse me... wanting to get him to explain about their wonderful round bear-skin hats. He totally ignored me & kept walking. Not to be deterred, I said again, Excuse me, sir....  Nothing... he didn't look up, or at me, but just kept walking. These are very orthodox Jews & it dawned on me then, that women are not highly regarded among them & they would never speak to a Gentile woman!  But, I wanted a picture of their clothing...rats!  So, I decided to hide behind a huge bush and as they walked
past, I took several pictures, surreptitiously!  (I know, I know...

I am so intrigued by these bear-skin hats. They are called Shtreimels (Schtray-ml) and they are very expensive! Usually upwards of $1000. and only married men wear them. I don't know if they are hot, but they wear them winter and summer.

The Jewish religion requires the men to have their head covered, so some just wear regular black hats, and the young ones usually only wear the yarmulkes.

All have beards and most have the side curls - very Hasidic. 

After getting all the furniture moved, we decided we needed some lunch. The missionaries told us that the best burgers in town were at Burger de Ville.  It's a place similar to Fuddruckers in that you build your own burger with whatever you want on it. They were certainly right... It was great!!

It took alot to get Elder LeVitre to NOT go to his favorite place...McDonalds !!! AAGGHH!!  But
after eating, he decided it was pretty good! ha!
Since we couldn't get into the next apt. until after 5pm, we decided we would take the rest of the day and go sightseeing down in Old Town section of Montreal.  It is downtown, right on the St.Lawrence River. We parked right across from the Hotel de Ville:

The Hotel de Ville really isn't a hotel at all... It is City Hall. We dropped in to pick up a couple of city lapel pins... called epinglettes. The missionaries here all collect a pin from each city where they serve. Some cities charge for them, some give them away.  Here is the pin from Montreal:

The most famous street in all of Montreal:

The walkway down to the river is lined with restaurants.

with, of course... a little of the US thrown in....

All of the restaurants have inside & outside eating... and always alot of flowers!

 

Hotel Nelson is this amazing restaurant that has been reconverted from on old 1804 hotel. It was named after a patriot of the Rebellion of 1837 and the ninth mayor of Montreal. It is wonderful inside:

As you go down this street and turn the corner, you come to Rue des Artists, or Artists' Alley:

We were VERY tempted to buy a beautiful scene of Montreal.... It was very expensive, though,... and
as Roger says... We'll just have to haul it home!... (so romantic, that man of mine!)

 

It was a fun day. Still, we like Quebec's old city more. Montreal has not done as much to preserve their old section of the city as Quebec. What you cannot see in all these pictures are the tall smoked glass & steel skyscrapers right across the street.  It sort of ruins that old world charm. 

May Zone Conference & Fireside

No sooner had Lindsay, Cameron & family left than we had to help with Zone Conferences. The Senior couples always help with the luncheon (since none of the wards here are financially set enough to furnish the luncheons). This was the last luncheon the Nobles were in charge of. We will miss them so much! Today's menu: Sloppy Joes, potato salad, green salad, & fruit. The triangular Ciabatta rolls they sell in Costco here are very good.

This is the Mont-Royal Zone. There are 5 zones in our mission. This is the mission where we serve.

Back: Nobles, S.Limburg, S.Gutierrez, E.Teuira, Williams, Prawitt, Mieville, Brown, LeVitres, Us
Middle: E. Hayden, Bagnall, Green, Nzojibwami, Tam, Bernier, Dalton, Holm, Babin, Jaquier
Front:  E.McMurrin, Glenn, McRoberts, Neitz, Kastendieck, Pres.Cannon, E&S. Christensen - Area
                                          mental health Missionaries.

Then on Sunday night we were so thrilled to have a Senior Couple fireside at the Mission Home led by our temple president Pres.David Galbraith & his wife (center). He got his doctorate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, then stayed for the next 20 years working for the church to procure the land and build the BYU Jerusalem Center and be it's director for several years. He came home to teach at
BYU - then was called on a 3-year mission to be the temple president here. They go home the end of Oct. 2012. He is so knowledgeable about the middle east. The fireside was on the Arabic-Israeli conflict!  It was fascinating.
Back: LeVitres, Pres.&Sister Cannon, Nobles-(she is taking the picture).
Front: Allens, Galbraiths, Mahaffeys

Last big push for all the sites

Today is our last day with The Sanders family and so we're shoving in a huge day of sightseeing!
Our apartment is on the 16th floor and so everyday when we look out our patio window, we see the sight of the Olympic Stadium and Tower:

It was built for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. First stop was the Tower. There is an observation room on top.

It wasn't finished in time for the Olympics... only the stadium was... and it was finished 11 years later.
It is supposedly the tallest inclined tower in the world at 574 ft. high. We took a funicular to the top. It takes less than 2 minutes. The funicular car stays level as it goes up the incline. At the top is a panoramic view of all of Montreal.
Next stop was the stadium itself. The Stadium is called the BIG O - both as a reference to its shape, and the BIG OWE because of the huge cost to build it & keep replacing the roof. At one end is the swimming venue. At one end are the diving towers, both platform and springboard. The pool with the lanes is in the middle.  At the top left you can see a smaller pool where we watched the Canada's synchronized swim team practice.

At the other end is a play area for the young kids. You can buy a membership to use these pools.

The balcony above the kids pool (in the above picture)  is where we are standing in the photo below.

The indoor stadium is at the other end. It was originally used for the Montreal Expos baseball team.(now they have moved to Washington DC)  Now it is used fo soccer, indoor Arena football, and special events like concerts and trade shows.

The roof has been a big source of contention. Originally it had a retractable roof, but the snow caved it in.  Since then they have tried several roof designs, all with some kind of flaw & needing to be replaced. Currently it is made of some thick polymer material held in place by steel cords attached to the observation tower.

Next we drove by Habitat 67:

It was built by an Israeli-Canadian architect. It was originally conceived as his Master's thesis in Architecture at Montreal's McGill University. Then it was built as a pavilion for the Expo 67 World's Fair. Now it is an apartment complex.

12 Stories, 158 apartments and each apt. has its own private terrace.  The idea was to show how people could live in increasingly crowded cities and still have gardens, fresh air, and privacy in a multi-level environment.  But because it was so expensive to build - it never revolutionized the "affordable" housing market like they hoped it would.  It is also the site which ALMOST saw Lindsay and I arrested!!  It was kind of a drizzly-day, so we parked nearby & Dad & Cameron stayed in the car with the kids & Lindsay & I went to take pictures.  After getting a few shots over the loud speaker comes a blaring voice shouting... ARRET, ARRET  (stop! in french) NO PHOTOS !!!  It just about scared us to death and so we did what any normal tourist would do... We turned tail and RAN!  We made it back to the car laughing so hard we were crying! Sheesh!
   We decided to finish our tour with Montreal's most iconic landmark - St. Joseph's cathedral. It was founded by Father Andre Bessette who was beatified  (made a saint by the Catholic Church) in 2010.

There is a beautiful view up as you walk in. It is the 3rd largest dome in the world - modeled after St.Peter's basilica in Rome.

Father Andre was known for all the healings he supposedly did for people who couldn't walk. Here are all the canes and crutches left by the people healed.

Or you can light a candle .. there are a million available in displays like this one:

 

Of course, there is the EVER-POPULAR site of Father's Andre's  ACTUAL HEART - encased in glass, which he requested be kept here as a protection to the Basilica.

The view of the upper balcony:

and us on that balcony...

What a great time we had.... THANK YOU SANDERS for coming to visit us. We love you!
Hope you had as much fun as we did!!