We have had a tremendously busy week with our once a year or so Mission Tour with our Regional President and Seventy, President Alan Haynie and our mission leaders, President and Sister Sorenson. The week began with a wonderful Stake Conference with Elder Daines of the Seventy, that I spoke about in my last blog. Then on Monday afternoon we gathered with the other senior missionaries in the area for a quick mingle with appetizers at the mission office and the Sorensons and President Haynie joining us. It was an interesting chance to talk in person with them. The next three days were a whirlwind of activities. We made three round trips to the Montreal airport in commute traffic to assist senior missionaries who were flown in from the far outskirts of our mission, including Newfoundland and New Brunswick. We also hosted a senior missionary couple, the Spratlings, from the eastern tip of Nova Scotia in our tiny little apartment for two nights. It was all-hands-on deck to get the entire mission here for this special conference/mission tour. Three of the zones met on Tuesday and the other four on Wednesday. The Spratlings worked in the kitchen, and we were in the meetings on Tuesday. We worked in the kitchen on Wednesday, with our good friends, the Clarks, while the Spratlings were in meetings. We took the Spratlings to the temple with us on Thursday, as that is our day as ordinance workers, and their flight back was scheduled for later that evening. They were able to do a temple session and some sealings. What a treat for them as they are 5 hours away from their temple in Halifax. The Clarks also work at the temple on Thursdays with us. It is so fun to get to know these wonderful senior couples. We all compare notes on our different experiences in the many parts of the Montreal mission.
The conference was so inspirational to all the junior missionaries and we seniors felt so lucky to be included in this big event. Keep in mind that all of this was a bit of a surprise to our young missionaries as they only learned about President Haynie’s visit Sunday night. We as seniors were part of the logistics and have known about it for a few weeks but we couldn’t let on to any of the young missionaries what was up. President Haynie talked in depth about the mission call that Enoch got as recorded in the Book of Moses. We can all relate to feeling “slow of speech” and being unpopular. But Enoch rose to the challenge just as each of these young missionaries are striving to do. President Haynie also gave them many tips on how to work smarter and be more effective in their efforts to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. As a follow up to the week everyone in the mission was challenged to invite two people to church this Sunday. We invited our two and one has promised so far to be there. Yeah, another lost sheep found!
This group picture is our three zones. We are on the far right in front of the elders. Notice our fun aprons when we were in the kitchen, “Feed My Sheep”. We also found Elder Alred from our David and Sarah’s ward in Coeur D’ Alene. Tim caught up with President Haynie, who he graduated from high school with in Bountiful (Forever Bountiful Braves). Our temple buddies from Thursday. And lastly a picture of all the missionaries we fed on our day in the kitchen.