We have had such an exciting week. Our friend, Mark is super motivated and had his interview with the bishop to get his priesthood ordination today. He has been so fun to teach and seems really prepared to move forward. Elder Glenn got him onto the Pathways application process so he can also further his education and get started on a business career soon. We have enjoyed watching Mark’s growth in the gospel. He asks great questions and has overcome a lot of his anxieties. On Wednesday of this week, we had our friend Pearl come over so I could help her get on the FamilySearch website. We got her account started and then plugged in the names of her grandparents. She really didn’t think there would be anything on her lines. Wow! You should have seen her face when all these ancestors populated on her lines. She was so touched; it made us both cry with excitement. Then I showed her how to set up the Family Tree app and how to upload pictures. She is hooked and can’t wait to learn more. I am having her over again this week to teach her how to get names ready for the temple. She wants to get her parents temple work done and has some friends who promised to do it for her. I hope that she will want to do the temple work herself someday, but she is not there yet. This is a good work to help her get to that point hopefully.
Another big highlight for our week was a baptism on Saturday. The missionaries have been teaching this dad of three, Mathieu. The ward mission leader has started a basketball night which has brought in a lot of friends including Mathieu. This has been a great tool for our missionaries to bring friends to the church for fun and association with the members. Mathieu has hopes to baptize his three children who are 7, 12 and 14 years old.
Just before the baptism service we had a RS activity where they demonstrated how to make a passion fruit cake, a Brazilian specialty of our RS president. She also demonstrated a chocolate mousse cake and a lava cake. It was a blast to have so many sisters in the kitchen together. We got to taste all of them and still had cake left over to share for the baptism and again in RS meeting today. Pictured are three of the five cakes. Also, the crowd in the kitchen got to be twice as big as pictured.
The Elders brought a Chinese family that they are teaching to tour the building and join in the class and to stay for the baptism. They came back to church today. The mother’s name is Lulu. She speaks some English, but her husband and son do not. We were able to visit with them and learn their story of immigrating to Canada. China does not allow any religion and the homework load for their 10-year-old son was keeping him up till 11:00 at night. He is much happier here but now has to learn French. They are really excited to learn about the church. The Elders got them a Mandarin Book of Mormon that they were really excited to read. Lulu and her husband had a lot of fun in the cooking class and seemed to enjoy the friendly atmosphere at the baptism.
We also had our institute class this week and we doubled our numbers again. We went from one student in the first week to two the second week and this last week we had four. If our luck holds, we will have eight this week. We spend a lot of time now putting together our PowerPoint lessons for the FHE group and the institute class. Our technical skills are certainly getting a boost. Our French study continues also. I was able to do the new name ordinance in French at the temple this week. Little by little, I hope to get to do them all in French. The temple workers on our shift are the sweetest people in the world. It really is a joy to work in a small temple where we feel so close to the temple leadership and the French-Canadian workers, some who don’t speak any English.
The ward here is growing and the work is going forward. We love the people and marvel at the faithfulness of so many members, both the new and the old timers.
Au revoir,
The Glenns