Halloween

Monday was Halloween which means November is here. We stopped at the stake center to get the mail and took it to Brampton in the morning. In the afternoon we had a district pumpkin carving activity.

Sister Hurst, Sister Hodgkin, Sister Camejo

Sister Fotheringham cutting away

Elder Woodruff, the mad knifer

Pumpkin carving time

Happy face :-)

Others played basketball

 No trick-or-treaters came to our apartment so we had a lot of good candy left over. There were some strange-looking characters who live four floors below us, however.

Balcony view of Elders Woodruff, de Moura, and Seabra

We had a third lesson (The Gospel of Jesus Christ) with Tony and Simone on Tuesday morning. Simone will be returning to Brazil for a couple of weeks to renew her driver's license so we will see Tony alone next week. They want to have Christ in their lives more so we hope that they will listen to the Spirit which we have felt as we have taught them in their home. We spent the afternoon getting our institute lesson then had ESL in the evening. Tony came to the class.

Tony and Simone Bahia 

Wednesday was a change in plans. We had very good zone and district meetings at the Toronto stake center in the morning. Elder Woodruff had an appointment for physical therapy on his broken ankle (which he broke just before we came) in Markham so we took him there in the afternoon. We didn't have time to drop him off after his appointment so he went with us for our third lesson with Marzia. He was very helpful. We had our institute class in the evening.

Elder Woodruff becoming physio fit

Two neighborhood friends

Thursday we taught our institute class. They want us to have questions and activities where the students kind of teach themselves. We think we were actually successful in that for this lesson. Most of the classes are scripture based but ours are mainly quotes but we made it work. 

Half of Friday was a preparation day. Following our past trend in seeing historic museums, we went to see Colborne Lodge, a historic house in High Park. It was the home of an early architect, engineer, surveyor, and statesman in Toronto. 

Isn't she cute with her long hair pulled back behind her ears?

Colborne Lodge

The maid in the dining room

The gathering room

 We quickly walked the length of High Park to see some fall colors (which were mostly gone) and the lake before meeting up with Elder Woodruff to take him for another visit to the physical therapist.

Two old men in the park

Autumn in Toronto

The lake

 While Elder Woodruff was in his session we took a walk through historic Unionville. It was a lovely village and even had a waterwheel.

Unionville firehall

Waterwheel in Unionville

House decorated like a ship

Ship entrance

 Saturday was an interesting day. We started with ESL as normal. Well, not actually normal since we had four new Brazilians show up. Since the elders came things have been picking up.

Portuguese class for ESL

As we were finishing we got a call from Marzia who was at the subway station waiting for us to pick her up for church. Could it be a misunderstanding between Sabado and Domingo? The elders picked her up and brought her to the church. We were able to give her the tour of the church then a lesson on the Word of Wisdom. She doesn't have a problem, but would like her husband to follow it. He did give up smoking about six months ago. In the afternoon Sister Wheeler had another baby shower (called a babe tea in Portuguese), this time for Emily Genoa. Marzia went with her and was able to meet several of the ward members. Unfortunately, she was sick on Sunday and was not able to make it to church.

Emily. Does she look like she's expecting?

We had our missionary coordination meeting Sunday morning during which we reviewed the Ward Missionary Process. It should help us be more organized. Elder Wheeler then went to PEC and was assigned to follow up on Spanish members living in Scarborough whose records are in our ward. He was also assigned to get together a Portuguese choir for Christmas day (there will also be a Spanish choir). After church we had a planning meeting for a ward party late in November with a Brazilian theme. It looks like things are moving on. We hope we can keep up.