Our daughter, Angela, decided she wanted to spend Christmas with us in Canada and so she stayed 10 days through the Christmas week and got to experience some of the coldest days of our mission. We spend days walking the sites of Montreal including the port and the famous Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal where they have a once in a lifetime light show (but we were not allowed to photograph it), Quebec City, the LaSalle Ward Christmas party, working the Bishop’s storehouse the week before Christmas and what Christmas is like in another country. Here is a good time to address the fact that Canada, along with most of the world, is on the Metric standard. We don’t measure distances with miles but with kilometers, fluids are not measured in gallons but in liters, weights are not in pounds and ounces but kilograms and temperatures are in Celsius. The only exception is time: seconds, minutes, hours are all the same. Having said that, 0 degrees Celcius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit (which is what we deal with in the United States). Currently, as I am typing this, it is -10 C which is 14 F. While we were in Quebec for a day trip, it was -18C (-2F) and with the wind blowing it felt like -24C (-12F). The windshield wiper fluid froze in our car. We now have fluid rated at -30C and it still freezes. The coats we wore are rated for -30C and you might notice they have large fur hoods designed to hold your breath close to your face like eskimo coats. Just a few months ago, we visited Victoria Falls in Quebec with all their flowing water but this trip they were frozen.
Now for a little Christmas Eve festivity (It is best if you hum the music while reading the words)
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a missionary was stirring, not even a mouse;
The presents were stacked on the dresser with care
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The Young Elders were nestled all snug in their beds,
While Young Sisters had sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And Sister Morris in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,
When out of the wall, the fire alarm arose such a clatter,
Angela sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the closet, Sister Morris flew like a flash,
And pulled on her coat and drew up her sash.
The moon on the breast of eight inches of newly fallen snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my sleepy eyes should appear,
But three fire engines with men all in gear.
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Fire Captain Rick!
More rapid than eagles our building they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Pipeman! now, Tipper! now, Rapman and Warden!
On, JK! on, Bonnet! on, Tenor and Harlin!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the hall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the stairway the coursers they flew,
With packs on their backs, and Captain Rick too.
And then, in the hallways, I heard on the floor
The running and pounding on each little door.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the hallway Captain Rick came with a bound.
He was dressed all in yellow, from his helmet to his boots,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
With an axe in his arms and a bottle on his back,
And he looked like he was ready for anything in his path.
His eyes–how they narrowed! his jaw set his flow!
His cheeks tight and hollowed, his nose crooked from a blow!
His thin lips were drawn up tight as a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as black as coal;
He was fit as an athlete, accustomed to late night calls,
And I knew he had pretty much seen it all;
A blink of his eyes and a twist of his head,
He led his troops into the unknown dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Checking every floor for smoke, or hurt,
And finding the homeless people camping in the unfinished floor,
He called out to his troops: “False alarm boys, let’s soar”.
He sprang to his truck, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all blew like the down of a missile.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a safe night.”
Christmas 2024
Christmas this year was very simple without most gifts. The handmade Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus (above) were Angela’s gifts to us and will be cherished by us as our mission gift. We celebrated the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, as can only be appreciated by us, while serving in the mission field. We are serving the Lord in bringing his children to a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sister Harkness, the wife of President Harkness, challenged all of their missionaries that they presided over (prior to the end of their mission), to fulfill the words of Joseph Smith written in 1842: “…but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” That is the magnitude of our mission. We work with the young missionaries (both Elders and Sisters) who meet with individuals and families to teach them, testify to them, and pray with them that the Holy Ghost may confirm the truthfulness of what we believe.
So, how did the mission do in 2024?
As you can see, the mission did very well. Today the mission is growing at an extraordinary rate!
Let it snow. Let it snow… and it’s COLD!
Well, since mid-December it has consistently snowed every week!
Baptisms.
The work of the Lord continues onward with great success. Our Mission President even attended one of our baptisms and took a selfie picture.
Jude, Alex, Owen, and Sabastian
Adewunmi, Precious, Abagail, and Max
Temple Trips with New Members
Elder Morris’s right leg…
If you have been a long-time follower of our blog you have seen the slow decline of the use of Elder Morris’s right leg. He started using a cane a few months after arriving in the mission field, then graduated to a crutch but it has reached a point where corrective surgery needs to be done. Elder Morris had noticed over the months, that the right foot turned out just a little more than the left but now it is much more pronounced.
When we did an x-ray of the hip 2 months ago, the technician who read the results added his personal opinion: “One of the worst hips I’ve seen in my career”. His official report from December 2nd is: “On the right side, very severe osteoarthritis. Increased bone sclerosis at the level of the femoral head. There is a deformation of the articular surface of the femoral head with the impression of a large central geode on one of the images. The bone texture is heterogeneous and these are probably the stigmata of avascular necrosis. The joint space has almost completely disappeared. Laterally to the femoral head, we see in the soft tissues, a 7 mm calcification which could represent either a calcified bone or cartilaginous fragment or a non-specific calcification of degenerative origin.”
We were able to get into an orthopedic surgeon. In the initial meeting with the surgeon, he said: “How is this man even walking into my office?” The answer, of course, is with my trusty crutch that I use to walk everywhere I go every day. The doctor asked: “Do you want to be awake for the surgery?” Those of you that know me very well will not be surprised by my response: “you probably want me to be asleep because I’ll keep complaining that I can’t see anything”! Besides surgical scalpals, in hip surgery, they use saws, hammers, and drills! Who in their right mind would want to miss that opportunity?
Here are pictures of my left hip which was replaced like 6 years ago. my current right leg posture, and the x-ray of the right hip:
Surgery is scheduled for February 17th with up to a month of recovery. Everything will be handled here in Montreal. Surgery was a wonderful success. Elder Morris is now 10 days post-operative. He is no longer in terrible pain and today was able to attend Zone Conference.
2/12/2024: This was the day we entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah. It has been a year that is hard to describe. We have experienced the joys of missionary work through the Gathering of Israel in the Canadian Montreal Mission. We have met individuals from all over the world who have immigrated to Canada to gain a better life. Many of them have left their families in their originating country, to start a new life in Canada and pave the way for their families to come and join them. When we first arrived, we were astonished by the diversity of people to whom we had not had any previous exposure. By our accounting, we have met people from more than 60 nations! We work with these people every day and no longer see any differences in appearance. We show them we are all children of Heavenly Parents, who love them unconditionally. We have grown to love these people who, in some cases, love us in return and consider us as surrogate parents. It warms our hearts when a 50-year-old man or woman, greets us with the terms “Mama or Papa”. It’s an honor to be referred to in such a way.
These wonderful people already deeply believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible. They recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost as they sincerely pray. We love listening to their prayers because they pray from their hearts and their souls. Every word uttered in their prayers is genuine. Because of their sincerity, they receive answers to their prayers especially about taking upon themselves the name of Jesus Christ, that they will always remember him and keep his commandments and be baptized by those holding restored priesthood authority. Every Sunday, before church starts, we first seek out faces of people we have never seen before, to welcome them, and then seek out familiar faces to all worship together. We sit with those who are unfamiliar with the scriptures and show them how to download and find the Word of God on their phones. They especially love it when we show them the scriptures in their native language. They read The Book of Mormon, Another Testimony of Jesus Christ, and pray about its truthfulness.
The Book of Mormon is sacred scripture, and a companion to the Bible. Through prayerful study everyone can receive an answer to that truthfulness by the power of The Holy Ghost. We see this miracle every day. We are led today by a prophet of God named Russell N. Nelson who has prioritized Temple expansion across the world. Latter-day Saints believe that we must redeem our kindred dead ancestors by identifying them and performing sacred ordinances in the temple for them. There are currently 193 temples in operation and 9 under renovation, 52 temples under construction, and an additional 113 announced for a total of 367. The Church announces additional temples every April and October during our General Conference meeting, which is openly broadcast to everyone. Elder and Sister Morris are a part of the worldwide workforce adding over a million new names a day, we are told, to the FamilySearch Library. If you haven’t been to the FamilySearch Library in a while, it is the largest genealogical database in the world and is expanding rapidly, and is free to everyone.
President Nelson profoundly testifies that God never gives up on his children. Repentance is always open to everyone. All you have to do is approach him with a sincere heart. We testify that these things are true and now finish the first year of our mission with great anticipation for the upcoming year. It will be over too soon. We say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.