We went hunting this week. We decided to hunt down members on the role we have never seen. On Tuesday we went to the far northern part of the city to find Lidia Ruivinho. She didn't live at the address we had and the phone has been disconnected - LOST. Since we were in that part of town we stopped by to see the Gibson House, a 19th-century Georgian home of the city surveyor. We walked through a little park while waiting for it t open.
 |
| The Gibson House Museum |
 |
| Jane Hill, our interpreter |
 |
| Elder Wheeler at the park |
In the afternoon we tried to visit the de Oliveira family who have decided to change wards, but they weren't there either. On the way back we drove down Old Mill Road which ran along the Humber River. No mill, but a nice park.
 |
| Sister Wheeler along the Humber River |
Wednesday was another hunting day. We drove around the northern sector of our area to see where some of the active members live. We then went to the southern sector. We stopped by for a quick visit with the de Cruz family from Angola. The father still lives in Angola, but visited last month. Lucia is preparing to go to the temple. We would like to help Valdir to prepare for a mission, have Vania attend more often, and get Osvaldo to come at all.
 |
| Valdir (19), Lucia, Osvaldo (12), and Vania (17) de Cruz |
No one seemed to know anything about the Abreau family, but we were able to visit them in the afternoon. They are also from Angola. We thought it was a single mother (Maria Lusia) with two children, but we found that her husband, Fernando, had returned from Portugal two years ago. The family joined the church in Portugal. They stopped attending the Christie Ward since the ward speaks Spanish and they felt isolated.
 |
| Zaida (11), Maria Lusia, and Fernando Abreau with Sister Wheeler |
Wednesday evening we were invited to Azarias Soares home for dinner and to meet a couple that he wants to friendship. They are a couple about our age and have lived all over the world as missionaries for a non denominational church. They lived for six years in Brazil and knew a bit of portuguese. It was an enjoyable evening.
We were informed we were to have zone conference on Friday (our normal p-day) so we used Thursday to look around the downtown part (the tourist section) of the city. When we finally found parking(at the convention center) we found we were very close to the CN Tower so we decided to take the trip to the "Top of Toronto". It was a clear day and we got a good view of the city. We also walked around the streets of the downtown section to see what Toronto had to offer. That included the Mirvish Theater (with their own walk of fame) and a hockey hall of fame. We had lunch at a food court where a man asked where we were from. It ended up he was from Salt Lake, visiting Toronto for a convention.
 |
| The CN Tower |
 |
| Looking up at the CN Tower |
 |
| Our apartment building from the CN Tower |
 |
| Sister Wheeler in the CN Tower |
 |
| Roy Thompson Hall - where Sister Wheeler heard the Tabernacle Choir |
 |
| Walk of Fame at the Mirvish Theater |
 |
| Elder Wheeler at the Hockey Hall of Fame (we didn't go in) |
We had a wonderful zone conference in Oshawa on Friday. The emphasis was on being guided by the spirit rather than numbers for reports. There were really four zones involved, including all of the areas on the East side of the mission. We were able to see Elder Woodruff and Elder de Moura again. There were five couple missionaries (besides us) at the conference. They held a special session for the senior missionaries, which was very helpful.
We had ESL classes again on Saturday. Again, I had only one student, Xian Yu Xu. He has very limited English capability so Elder Wheeler needs to pull out all the Mandarin he can to teach the class. We talked about families today so we learned a lot about his family.
 |
| Xian Yu Xu telling about his family |
We decided to take a camera one day on our morning walk so you can see a few random pictures of our neighborhood.
We have had the full range of emotions this week, from being ready to go home to a spiritual feast. We realize we are still trying to find out our role here, especially with the Portuguese elders being pulled out. There were only two Portuguese-speaking men in priesthood meeting today (one was Elder Wheeler). But, we have been able to make contact with lost families, so we will see where it goes.
2 comments:
I like the pictures of your neighborhood. It looks pretty. Finding people is hard work. Sounds like they're keeping you busy.
our pediatrician drives a little car like that! (his wife bought it because she liked it but she has too many "traveling companions" to use it). I hope that the Portuguese speaking members feel how much you love them, and understand how much they would benefit from being as active as possible so that the Mission President will recognize the need for more Portuguese speaking missionaries. We had a branch in our mission who felt they needed more missionaries and they were told that they needed more members/investigators- They went to work! They grew, the reactivated, they got more missionaries. We will pray for you and your member's!
Post a Comment