Baptism

At the beginning of this year we were coming out of a Dollar Store (our new favorite place)- when a man and woman approached us and asked if we were Mormon Missionaries and could we come to teach them out in Ingleside ? ( about 30 minutes NW of Cornwall and also in our ward). SHOCK!!
We began teaching the family - the father: Dillon Holcomb was a member but had been inactive for the last 15 years. His wife, Samantha, sons Ben and Max were all non-members. Just as Ben was about ready to be baptized, Dillon got a new job and the family moved to Kingston. (About 2 hours west of Cornwall- not in our ward or even mission) After meeting with the missionaries there, Ben was able to be baptized and invited us! We got permission to go and felt very honored to be asked.  Ben asked me to speak on the Holy Ghost and Elder Mahaffey said the opening prayer and was also the witness.  Samantha, the mom, is still working on a few things, but is anxious to be baptized as well.  What a wonderful day!!!  We've gotta start hanging out at those Dollar stores more often!

On the way home we had a good taste of Canadian road work.... We lovingly refer to it here as the Festival of the Orange Cones.  They come out every summer. We never see much work going on - but all the cones are out!  This was a great example. We drove for 10 straight miles - orange cones on both sides of the the lanes in each direction!!! No work going on- just miles and miles of orange cones!
Viva La Festivale !!!

Our 41st Wedding Anniversary

To celebrate our 41st Anniversary, we went to eat dinner at Quinn's Inn.

It is in a small town just north of Cornwall about 10 minutes, called St.Andrews West.  It was originally an old stagecoach weigh station along the only road between Toronto and Montreal in 1865.
It was owned and run by John MacDonald who went on to become Canada's first Prime Minister.

It is a charming old place with a lot of original brick walls. They also serve a KILLER Prime Rib, which we had and it was wonderful !  Happy Anniversary to us! This is the second anniversary we've celebrated in Canada.

Off to see the Changing of the Guard

In Ottawa, in front of the Parliament Building, they do a changing of the guard during the summer months of July and August. When we found out that it would be over in August, we determined with the Merpaws that we needed to go see it. We drove up to Ottawa & got there in time to line up around the grassy area in front of the Parliament Building. Because Canada used to be a British colony and is still connected, they have ceremonial guards at several locations and this is the daily changing of shifts.
The Bagpipers come first :

Next come the NEW guards that will be coming on shift.

There are commanders for each group:

The Bagpipers play while the new guard goes through their paces. There are also drummers and horn players.

Then, the old guard comes and goes through their paces:

Then they change places:

 And the new guards head for their posts.

The band then leads the Old guard back to their quarters:

All of this takes about 30 minutes. It really is stirring... not on the scale that the London changing of the guard is, but still exciting, nevertheless. Afterward, we had tickets to tour the Parliament building. We have tried 2 other times before & something always prevented it. So, third time's the charm.
We saw the MAGNIFICENT library...

and the House of Commons... which we were able to see because Parliament was not in session.

The middle spire in the building is called the Peace Tower.

Inside the peace tower is  the Memorial Chapel. Inside the chapel is a stand that holds the Memorial Book in which the names of all those Canadians who have given their lives in service of their country are written. Since we were there with the Merpaws, Connie looked up his brother's name, who died in WWII. Each day they turn a page in the book and when you find your relative's name, it will say on which date the page will be turned to display that name.  Kind of cool!

It was a wonderful tour. Here we are on the steps up to the Peace Tower.

Next the Merpaws took us to Rideau Hall. It is where the Governor General lives. The current one is David Lloyd Johnston.  He is appointed for an undetermined amount of time by the Queen - with suggestions from the Prime Minister.  He essentially carries out most of the Queen's constitutional and ceremonial duties. He maintains contact with the Queen and is sort of a figure head. Each time they replace one, they switch from Anglophone (english speaking Canadian) to Francophone (french-speaking Canadian). This home is where he lives, but parts are also open to the public.

Inside was this incredibly gaudy room called the Tent Room.  It literally looks like a circus tent inside.
The ceiling and walls are covered with a red-striped fabric... it's...uh.... interesting!

They seem quite proud of it. They also have a huge ballroom where many of the formal programs and meetings and dinners take place:

We didn't get to go through all of it, because the Governor General and his family were in residence at the time... but it's still pretty spectacular.  Hard to imagine actually LIVING in a place like this.
There are Guards at this home too. Much the same as in London, they don't talk or smile or show any responses. But they are also only ceremonial. If there were any trouble, THEY would not be the ones to respond.

The REAL security men all look like this:

 Of course, we HAD to get our pictures with the guard....

They have a changing of the guard here as well, but it is MUCH smaller:

It was a really fun day seeing a lot of Ottawa and their history.  On the way home, we stopped at one of the most famous Cheese Factories in Ontario - St.Albert's Cheese.  (Fromage).  

We watched them make cheese curds.  They use curds in poutine here - that's the fries with brown gravy and cheese curds. Now I know what they mean in the nursery rhyme ..."curds and whey".

Anyway, curds are made from the cheese, before it gets pressed into blocks or wheels. It sort of has the taste of mozzarella, but they call it 'squeeky cheese' because when you eat these small balls of cheese they squeek against your teeth. They are WONDERFUL !!!

It was a very full day & we were pooped from so much walking, but we had such a fun time!!

The Big Bang !

We decided that today would be the perfect day for us to go see a local site that everyone has talked to us about - Bolt Castle. It is on it's own island in the Thousand Islands area. It was kind of a rainy day, but was supposed to clear up, so we decided to brave it. (It is only open until the end of Sept. - so we knew we'd need to go fairly soon). We drove down to Brockville (about 40 min.) and crossed into the
US there at Ogdensburg.  Just after leaving the customs border crossing the road opens up into a 2 lane
divided highway. We had no sooner gotten onto the road when we began to pass the first cross street.
It has stop signs there & often people will cross half way, wait in the median, then cross the rest of the road. Except for today. An 86 year old man began to cross & never stopped. Had Elder Mahaffey not been very aware, he would have T-Boned us... but he turned just in time so that we collided in the front
end with his front passenger side. He never even saw us, so he never braked or turned.

This picture doesn't really look so bad, but it buckled the hood and front end so badly, we couldn't hardly open our car doors to get out. Many miracle happened after this. First, here we were in an unfamiliar city & didn't really even know what to do. But a post man stopped his truck and said he would call the police for us. We were really concerned about the elderly man, but he seemed to be fine.
When the police came, they cited him for failure to yield, so that we could use the police report when we notified our insurance. We had some letters to mail in the US, so we thought we'd just find the post office, mail them, then start home. Our day was pretty much ruined. After going into the post office, Roger noticed alot of fluid coming out of our car. The radiator had been punctured and was leaking.
We debated about trying to limp home, not knowing if the car would make it. We just didn't know what to do or where to go.  So, we did what ANY missionary would do... WE PRAYED!!! After the prayer, we drove the car around the corner and guess what was there??  A HUGE garage/body-shop ! So, we pulled in to ask if they would assess the damage.  Turns out that they told us the border wouldn't let a leaking car or newly damaged cross the border...so, we'd have to leave it there.  Next miracle was, they also rented cars!  We were starting to get a little rattled by that time... you know, the shock was finally dawning on us & so they kindly let us use their office to call our insurance company, and they arranged with them to do everything needed, including renting a car to get us home. (The insurance company said it was actually a BIG blessing that it occured int the states, because dealing with insurances over the border is a nightmare.- another miracle). So we rented the car and went home.
Several of the next days Roger kept having headaches, neck pain, nausea etc. so we went back to the
states to see a Doctor.  Several x-rays and tests later, this is how we walked out...

Turned out he had a concussion ! He had to wear the brace for a couple of weeks. It really helped. With medication and the brace he gradually got better - Next Miracle...nothing life-threatening occurred.  Th,ere were many more days of talking with insurances. police, body-shop, etc. but they decided not to total the car and fix it instead. $8,000+ later, I think the insurance company wished they would have totaled it, but now it's good as new. Last miracle - at least we know that we'll be going home in a safe vehicle now that the whole front end has been replaced!  We thank the Lord for his many blessings, even when it looks like adversity on the surface!

We arrived home just in time for....

ZONE CONFERENCES!!  Two days of serving 3 of the 5 zones we have here in the mission. (The furthest East zone in Quebec gets fed by the senior couple up there, and the furthest west Zone in Ottawa gets fed by a wonderful woman, Sister Boothe, who volunteers!)  Here is a picture of our zone- the Mount Royal Zone:

Front: E. Bagnall -ZL, Pohue- ZL, Jaquier, Glenn - AP, Tam, Babin, Bell, Rivera- AP, Holbrook, and Kastendieck.
Middle: S. Allen, Mahaffey, Limburg, Zuniga, E. Perdue, Mieville, Baker, Hansen, E/S Conway.
Back: E. Allen, Mahaffey, Bernier, Brown, Prawitt -DL, Smith, Russell, E/S Howard.

Here we are serving the luncheon. This was Elder and Sister Howard's first time of being in charge of the luncheons. They have just arrived to replace the Nobles as the CES couple. She's big into portion control, so she assigned us each to dish up a certain amount, instead of just having the missionaries serve themselves...she'll learn. Left to Right - The Allens, The Bendios, The Conways, the Mahaffeys, and the Howards.

ONE YEAR !!

These are the flowers my sweet companion, Elder Mahaffey gave me to mark our one-year anniversary in the mission field. We entered the MTC on Aug. 8, 2011 and today marks our one year date!

Down below, you can see our adopted pet.... Ellie the Elephant. We rescued her from the Missionary
Storage unit, shined her up and she's been with us ever since.... she'll go home with us too!
It's been a wonderful year of service. Certainly many different experiences! We're all set for the next 6 months!  Joyeux Anniversaire !!!

Ashlyn Elizabeth Monroe's blessing day

Before church, we went outside to try and take some pictures of the whole family while we looked nice!  (I know you all know how hard that is)  Of course, it was probably a gazillion degrees with a million per cent humidity! So, we didn't tarry long.  All the men/boys were sporting pink ties in honor of Ashlyn. (of course, Tanner didn't think a pink tie would be cool, so we got him to accept a pink and blue striped one.)

Jim and Shirley Monroe (Chad's parents) were also able to be there for the blessing!

Of course, we needed a picture with JUST the grand-kids! Can you tell that everyone is getting a little
tired of taking pictures?

Once we got to the church, Brooke wanted to take a few more shots... and, of course, we said YES!!!

Then each grandparent had to have another picture... Can you tell this little miracle baby is loved?
She has come along way from being 2 months early and only weighing 3 lbs. 15oz. Now healthy and strong!  What a miracle!

Then a picture of all the men who helped bless her:

Then right after church, we had to try for a few more back at home in front of the house.

Brooke has become quite the photographer.. here is a collage of some she took of Ashlyn:

She looked so darling in her dress and bracelet we gave her.

It was a magical day! We felt so privileged to have been able to come. We love our new little grand-daughter, Ashlyn Elizabeth Monroe.

All too soon it was all over and it was time to go back to our mission.  The next morning Tanner got up early to make us breakfast before we departed.  Thank you to ALL the Monroes for making our trip really wonderful!