Friday 9 December 2016- 19 December 2016

Canada Montreal Mission

Friday 9 December 2016-19 December 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

The holiday season is upon us.  We have been invited out about once a week to member’s homes.  It is nice to visit with them and hear about the history of the ward.

Saturday, 10 Dec 2016—Christmas dinner in the Champlain Ward, the ward that meets in our building.  There is a picture of two ladies that I have attached.  The sister on the left is the one we have been working with; the one on the right is in the other ward. She just got baptized in November. 

Sunday 11 Dec 2016—After church, we had Ward Council.  All of the missionaries attend plus the auxiliary leaders.  They mainly discuss how people needing extra support can be helped.  It is a great opportunity to serve and help influence people’s lives in a positive way.  I volunteered to work on Christmas baskets given out to several ward members.  It was fun shopping for the items (mainly Christmas sweets).  I have attached some pictures.  In the grocery store, I would stop people and ask them if Canadians liked a certain cookie.  I figured Yule logs would be a hit and anything chocolate or caramel. 

Monday-Wednesday Dec 12-14, 2016—Elder Scott continued to help our friends as they do the finishing touches on their kitchen.  He worked on tiling the kitchen floor after their cabinets and countertops were put in.  I have attached a few pictures and will take more of the finished product to send.   On Wednesday evening, I worked again with the scouts and young women age 8-12 for a joint activity.  They meet together once every two months to do activities.  We meet with both wards.  Most of the kids are bilingual, but a few aren’t completely bilingual.  (If you think it is hard to understand an adult speaking French, it is even harder to understand kids…).  I drove as it wasn’t snowing when I arrived.  At the end of 2 hours, there was about 3 inches of snow all over the car.  It was a bit scary driving home in the snow with 4-wheel drive, but Elder Scott had been walking me through it every time he drives. 

Friday, 16 Dec 2016—There was a Stake Nativity activity.  This was a “live” nativity with real animals.  I have attached a few pictures.  They did a live presentation in English and in French.  It was open to the public and was quite well attended.  There are pictures of two shepherds that you might think look familiar. Our job was to direct the “weary travelers” back into the cultural hall to get hot chocolate and look at the nativity scenes after they saw the live presentation.  It was “very” cold outside—may -10 degrees.  Our fingers got so cold that we had to come in.  We brought 3 people to see it.

Saturday, 17 Dec 2016—We worked with two sets of missionaries and continued the move out of one of the elder’s apartments.  The Zone Leaders have a truck, which we loaded with “Good Will” items and sent it off.  (On Monday, Dec 19, after the Zone Conference, we helped a couple load the rest of the stuff and take it to a storage unit in Montreal.)

After that, we made 2 apartment inspections. 

Sunday, 18 December 2016—Our Mission President attended our Sacrament meeting and told a story that occurred at Christmas in his mission nearly 40 years ago in the south of France.  He and his companion converted a sister, then he was transferred and he went home.  During training to become a Mission President, he was at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah.  He met with Elder Causé, who is a General Authority of the church.  Elder Causé’s wife either knew this woman or knew a women who knew her.  When President Phillips saw the couple again at the MTC, she showed him an email that she had just received from a friend in France.  The woman had just died at age 90, but had remained active in the church for the past 40 years.

After church, we had cake, which we cut and passed out.  It was left over (and frozen) from our Ward Christmas party two weeks earlier.  I don’t think anyone cared about the reason; they just liked the cake.  When Cost-co scores the cake into 48 portions, it makes it easy to cut it quickly.

A friend asked us for dinner, then, right after, we went back to the church.  We met the youth from the church and several families to go Christmas caroling and hand out the “roses” that were made in October.  It was about -18 degrees.  I didn’t have thermals on and I must say it was COLD.  But, everyone seemed to have fun.  We went to one house where we thought a less-active person lived.  The sister missionaries had been trying to contact her.  After we sang French carols, the man offered to pay us.  (Apparently, that is the custom in some countries).  We said, “no, thank you.”  The sisters asked for the lady whom we thought lived there.  The man said that she had moved and that he was the new tenant.  The sisters got his contact information and he said he’d like to attend church.  A real Christmas miracle.  Afterwards, we came back to the church and had hot chocolate and cookies.  I have attached pictures.

Monday, 19 December 2016—The Zone Conference with our Mission President and his wife.  (Pictures attached.)  I was asked to get the lunch together—it was fun.  The elders and sisters got packages from home.  There were also presents for those elders and sisters who didn’t receive packages from home.  The President spoke of the importance of goal setting and of really understanding how the Atonement can make us happy and those of the people who missionaries teach.  I invite you to reread 1 Nephi 8:10-11 about the tree of life.  The fruit of which Nephi speaks is the Atonement, which can bring us happiness beyond what we can ever imagine.

The picture of Elder Scott is him in the women’s restroom.  Now, why, would you ask is he in the women’s restroom.  Well, I was in the kitchen at another ward preparing the lunch.  I washed my hands and noticed that the paper towel dispenser didn’t work.  I called Elder Scott and Larson (in the Montreal Mission Office) to try to fix it and make the paper work.  They “key” that opens the paper container didn’t work and you could see that the paper was stuck on the roller.  While they were working on that, I went down to the Ladies restroom only to find out that the two paper towel dispensers were also jammed and one of the handles on the 2 sinks was off and sitting on the counter.  Well, to make a long story short, he went about to his tools in the car, fixed 3 paper towel dispensers and even repaired the faucet!!!  The Mission President’s wife came in to check on the paper towel situation and was thrilled to hear that they were getting fixed.

The missionaries also got flu shots today—luckily we had already gotten ours.  Our sister missionaries had us hold their hand while they got their shots.  Apparently the lady was very good.  Everyone got OJ afterwards.

Of course, we wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.  We hope you have taken time to go to Mormon.org and watch the daily video about how you can be service to others, as was Christ.

Much love,

Steve and Rose Scott

PS—The other photo is of “Creton”—a mixture somewhat like pâté, if you like type of thing.  Elder Scott likes it.  He’ll have plenty of it.

Monday 28 November 2016-8 December 2016

Canada Montreal Mission

Monday 28 November 2016-8 December 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

We hope you are all doing well.  One of the most exciting things we’ve been involved with is the Christmas Initiative found on Mormon.org.  Each day, there are different videos that we can click on and find a different way to be of service.  Steve and I have enjoyed trying to be of service each day this month:

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-prayed-for-others

22-25 November 2016-- We had the opportunity to take two missionaries from our area to their new area near Montreal.  Once we dropped off our Zone Leader (who transferred), one of the elders there asked us to take him to the bus station in Montreal, which we did.  We also had another elder that we had brought from Gatineau to the bus station.  It is hard to say good-bye to these young missionaries.  They are so diligent, obedient, hard working.  We just keep thinking of our son on a mission and hope he is getting support in his efforts also.  (Some pictures are attached of these elders).

I was able to meet and spend two days with a French friend who I had met in Paris 45 years ago.  I may have mentioned that her sister was in my ward in Gatineau (our ward by Ottawa) and we invited them to dinner back in April.  She talked about her life growing up in Bretagne and having a brother who taught French at BYU.  I called her husband the next day to ask if he had a sister-in-law named Armelle.  He said he did.  What a small world.

Well, we had a wonderful time.  She had a picture of us 45 years ago and then we took one while we were there.  They spent most of their married life in Nice, then moved to Canada since most of their kids were there.  He is somewhat of a decorator and I enjoyed hearing about his exploits sending containers from French flea markets to Canada.  Armelle is from a large family who was converted to the gospel in France.  Her dad did not join when the rest of the family did.  One weekend, he went by bus to a regional conference in Paris and came back home and announced he was joining the church.  Imagine the influence of 9 active children and their families could have for generations!  Their sister was also the matron of the Montreal Temple here. (Some pictures are attached of our meeting).

On Thanksgiving day, we met at the Mission President’s home for a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner.  We enjoyed meeting together and eating food we were used to eating.  (I have attached some pictures of that dinner.)

26 November 2016—The youth in the ward went to an activity at an indoor wave pool.  When I first heard about this, I thought it would be fairly cold and then I asked, “is the pool indoors?”  We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I took one in the lobby.  We went to Tim Horton’s afterwards to get a do-nut.  Tim Horton’s is like Starbucks here—donuts on practically every corner!  We hadn’t gone there the first 6 months, but I have become fond of chocolate chocolate donuts.  Those are chocolate cake donuts with chocolate frosting.  I found out today (Dec 7^th) there there was also soup there—not bad either.

Week of 28 November—Elder Scott has been helping a member take out cabinets in his kitchen.  He had ordered new cabinets and needed a bit of help.  The cabinetmaker was surprised to arrive and find he didn’t have to take out the old cabinets himself.  (More pictures of this transformation).

Wednesday, 30 November—I met with the young women aged 8-12 to decorate the Primary room, do a cookie exchange and make a cookie basket for the sister missionaries. 

Saturday, 3 December—I was on the Christmas dinner committee. (No pictures attached as I was too busy to take any).  We had turkey, potatoes, gravy, salad, rolls, beans, peas, meat and chicken pies.  The later is a traditional holiday food here.  They are a meat/pork pie that they eat with ketchup here.  The Young Women decorated the room, different people (including me) cooked turkeys, there was a nice program and the High Priests and Elders cleaned up.  My feet were pretty tired at the end of the evening, but everyone had a good time.

Sunday, 4 December—I had an interesting experience of being able to attend the funeral of a man who lived across the hall.  We would say hello in the elevator for months.  He wife told me that he had cancer and wasn’t expected to live.  I found out that the funeral was next door (we live by a cemetery and crematorium), so I went.  It was a lovely service.  I had never known that people can bury ashes—I thought they kept them in an urn or distributed them over the ocean.  (I have attached pictures of the section of the cemetery where they bury the ashes.)  They had a lovely ceremony.  The sad thing is that she has liver cancer and probably won’t live long either.

Week of December 5-8—The elders asked us to take them to Cost-Co.  We had just moved them from one apartment to another last week.  This was needed as they were moving out of a member’s basement.  The new apartment is closer to 4 bus stops (they don’t have a car) and a main mall where they meet people.  It cuts out 1 hour commute a day when they have to come to the church for meetings. 

We have been spending time at our friend’s who are doing the kitchen remodel.  I helped paint the kitchen and dining room in preparation for her new kitchen cabinets.  It was a fairly small area, so it didn’t take too long.  We will probably repaint the dining room again as she wants the same color as the kitchen.  It shouldn’t take too long.  We will go there after our missionary district meeting tomorrow.

Next two weeks will be busy with Zone Conference, inspections of missionary apartments, making treats for the local missionaries and planning SKYPE time with our missionary son.

Our upcoming Zone Conference on 19 December will focus on the attributes of Christ:  faith, hope, charity and love, virtue, knowledge, patience, humility, diligence and obedience.  We are encouraged to select one and write a plan on how to improve that quality in our lives.  A great challenge.

Well, we hope that this Christmas season we can each focus more on the Savior and provide service to others.  Yesterday, I had an opportunity to hand out a #Lighttheworld card from the Christmas Initiative.  A less active member had asked us to go to the Arts and Crafts fair in our town as it was in the building where he is the Security Guard.  We planned our day to pick him up and take him there at 2:30.  Well, he cancelled, but I decided to go anyway as I told him I would.  I saw a Security Guard there and went up and asked him if he knew our member, which he did.  I ended up giving him a pass-along card and the address of the church.  So, you never know whose life you can touch if you act upon what the spirit prompts you to do. 

We love you and wish you the best this season.  Please take time to watch the videos every day.

Sincerely, Elder and Sister Scott

Also, we want to say happy birthday to our family members whose birthdays we may have missed these last few months and we have forgotten to say anything.  It is our missionary son’s birthday today also—we love him so much.  He is in the Tempe, Arizona mission and just got transferred from Yuma.  He is doing well. 

Taylor Scott—Today, 8 December

McKinley Keffer –granddaughter—20 October (5 years old)

Larry Collins—son-in-law—20 October

Eli Belk—Grandson—24 November (5 years old)

Boone Morgan—Grandson—November 13 (20 years old)

Indy Morgan—Grandson—September 6 (18 years old)

Ava Keffer—Granddaughter—September 1^st (13 years old)

Ethan Collins—Grandson—November 10 (13 years old)

Scott Morgan—Son-in-law—25 September

Franklin (Franks) Scott—grandson—8 October (2 years old)

Jon Scott—Son—29 September

And upcoming:  Laura Scott Belk—Daughter—29 December

We LOVE you all.

Also pictures of:

1. Steve’s triathlon medal for winning overall 2^nd place in the Ottawa triathons for 2016.

2. Saying goodbye to missionaries in our zone.

3. New missionaries in Laval area (near Montreal).

4. Got to see Sis. Fleming who was in our area and I didn’t get to say good-bye.  Saw her in the mission office.

5. Pictures of Armelle and me (now and then) and their house in Montreal.

6. Pix of new baby in our ward.

7. Pix of clean missionary apt. we helped them move out of.

8. Picture of cemetery where they buried the ashes of our neighbor.  (This was before the snow that is now everywhere.)

9. Our friends with their new kitchen.  Steve helped rip out the old cabinets and we painted.

Monday 21 November 2016

Canada Montreal Mission

Monday 21 November 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

Last week we went on Monday and Tuesday to a town west of Ottawa with some friends to visit their friends.  They have a house and a guest house over the garage.  They live on an island in the middle of a river.  They used to have foster kids, so the house and guest houses were really big.  I took a lot of neat pictures, which I’ll send.  We didn’t get there until late on Monday and had to leave about 2:00 on Tuesday, but we had fun.

On Wednesday, I met with our ward committee to plan the ward Christmas party.  It was moved forward from December 10 to December 3.  We got a lady in the ward to be on the committee.  She has been inactive and is recommitting to come to church. Elder Scott, as you know, is really into buying neat things off the internet.  So, he hunted for some fake veneer teeth to fit over her front teeth.  Her teeth are rotten due to maybe drugs, or lack of dental insurance. (Hope you are all brushing your teeth and flossing).  So, when you hook on the veneers, they kind of look like dentures.  You can’t really eat with them as they are over the top or front only of your teeth.  She got a lot of compliments at church.

Wednesday night we had YM and I had the young girls.  We made pizza again with the leftovers from last session.  Also, the girls did the sing-along like Jimmy Fallon does with themes like Star Wars and other songs.  I had never heard of it, but apparently the girls had and they enjoyed singing.  Apparently, there are apps that will double your face while you are singing.  I can see that I’m in a different era.   

On Thursday, we had a district meeting, then I took this same ward member to clean a prospective member’s apartment.  She is in the other ward, but we have visited with her many times with the zone leaders.  It’s been a month since we’ve known her and started to work with her.  In that time, she has started to read the Book of Mormon, started to pray, began to accept Joseph Smith as the prophet, stopped drinking tea and coffee, stopped Medical marijuana, etc.  I am so proud of her.  She really appreciated having us clean the apartment.  Her mother came over to see it later (we weren’t there).  Her parents had “disowned her” when she told them she was joining the church.

On Saturday, we picked up the ladies from our ward and the one who was getting baptized.  I made some apple crisp and brought some ice cream.  Another lady brought some egg salad sandwiches.  Another man also got baptized. 

Saturday night, we went to the Bishop’s house for dinner as his parents were in town.  I helped his mother with family history as I have several times before.  We found several new people, mostly children of great aunts and uncles.

Today, Sunday, we went to get the same lady so she could come to the confirmation of the new member in the other ward.  We left after her confirmation and went back to church at 1:00 after we picked up 5 people.  These people don’t have cars and probably wouldn’t come if we didn’t pick them up.  One is a family with some serious family issues, so if we didn’t take them, they probably wouldn’t get there.

Well, know that we love you all.  We are about at the 11 month point in our mission and we truly love the people here.

Elder and Sister Scott

The pictures:

1. Scenery from our trip west of Ottawa, Canada.  Very beautiful.  These are stained glass windows that the lady made from broken dishes.  She had also made an outdoor pizza oven and we ate this pizza—good.  The pictures of the family tree were made for the family by a relative.  I really liked them.  The bottom of the trees that look like elephant toes are where the beavers in the river have eaten the bark away.  Apparently they only want the top branches of the tree, but by eating away the bottom bark, the tree eventally dies and falls down.  Then, the beavers get their “reward.”

2. Pictures of the baptism with the zone leaders.

Wednesday 2 November 2016-Sunday 13 November 2016

Canada Montreal Mission

Wednesday, 2 November 2016 -  13 November 2016

Dear Family and Friends:

It has been a busy the last couple of weeks—but you were probably busy as well. 

On Wednesday, November 2, we had “Activity Day’s” for the young girls.  We made pizza.  I brought fresh mushrooms, bell peppers, pepperoni, Italian sausage, cheese and the dough to make the pizzas.  I thought they wouldn’t like the mushrooms or bell peppers, but they were the first to go.  We had fun doing it and you’ll see the silly pictures we took. 

November 4, 5 10, 11 were big missionary days.  On Friday, Nov. 4^th, we met the missionary couple from the mission office who deals with apartments.  We had to close an apartment in Fallowfield.  We brought two sets of missionaries to help us and we got the furniture loaded, everything cleaned in 3 hours (8 of us).  It was so great having the missionaries as the apartment was on the 3^rd floor and there was no elevator! 

The next day (Nov. 5), we had more apartment inspections that we had moved from the 4^th.  When we arrived at one apartment, the sisters told us they needed new beds, a new dresser, a new desk chair and 2 table lamps.  (Just so happens that all of this stuff was just moved back to Montreal the day before).  So, I apologized all over and asked if the mission office could bring some stuff back to Ottawa with the mission van as they were having a general authority come to our Zone Training on Thursday, November 10^th.  It ended up that the Assistants to the Mission President brought two twin beds, two mattresses and 2 desk lamps for the sisters.  We got an unused desk chair from another apartment, so we were able to get them set up Friday with the help of the district leaders.

On Monday, November 7, several ladies in the ward and I celebrated a friend’s birthday at a restaurant called “St. Hubert.”  This was only the 2^nd time that I had eaten there, but I couldn’t wait for the dessert—Pouding Chomeur—or Peasant Pudding.  It is really a light white cake with delicious maple, cream and butter sauce, topped with ice cream.  I’ve probably added a few pix of that also.

On Thursday, November 10^th, we had Elder Bennett from the Quorum of the 70 do an all-day training.  You knew that this was a man called of God as he had incredible energy, he had an outpouring of love for us and he shared many great stories and messages for us.  He really drilled in what it means to have our Heavenly Father love us, how there are people out there to hear our message and how we have a greater role to play in “helping” them come to the gospel.

I was asked to get lunch together, so we did sub sandwiches (from Subway), potato chips, left-over Halloween candy, cookies, fruit and water.  We ate as districts rather than in one big group. 

Some of the pictures of scenery are just taken out of the car window.  Some of the trees still have their colored leaves.  It is so much more gorgeous than it is in the pictures.  South of us live some Amish people and I got a pictures of their horse and buggy that they still use.  Very interesting.

Saturday, November 12, 2016—Our ward had a temple trip.  This was for the youth and the adults.  We got to take 3 adults—we were to take 3 youth also, but one forgot, one was sick and the other got a ride with someone else.  Steve helped in the baptistery and I got to do an endowment session with a man in our ward who was going through for the first time.  It was a really lovely experience for all.  I have included pictures of the different people who attended. It was so cold and windy, reminded me of winter (burr!!!).

Sunday, Today at church we had the Primary Program.  The primary is the church’s organization for children 3-12.  They learn gospel songs all year and hear stories and talks around the theme, “I Know the Scriptures Are True.”  The program was so enjoyable, the kids gave great talks and they knew all the words to the songs and sang them out with love.  Their last song was, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.”  It was so touching to hear them sing that song, one of my favorites.

We are continuing to love this experience and know it will be hard to leave all of our friends here.  We love you all and hope you’ll send us a note along with your favorite Thanksgiving treat.

The cute little baby is our newest granddaughter.  She is wearing a sweater that the lady I visit teach in Utah made for her.  Thanks Katrina!!!

The Scotts