Out for the count

We were about ready to go to the stake cultural night last night when we got a phone call from the Portuguese elders for Sister Wheeler to look at Elder de Moura's tongue. Elder Seabra accidentally hit Elder de Moura in the face which resulted in a pierced tongue (we'll spare you the tongue pictures). They met us in the basement (we were going into the garage to get our car) and suddenly Elder de Moura passed out. We treated him for shock the best we could and got him back up to their apartment where his companions could give him a blessing and get him some medical care. Yes, he's OK.

Elder de Moura after a KO punch by Elder Seabra

We had a couple of special projects this week. When they discontinued the Scarborough Spanish Ward a while ago all of the membership records were sent to the Christie Ward, even though none of them attend our ward (you can imagine what this did for sacrament meeting attendance percentage). The bishop wanted to clean up the records so the Relief Society president tried to call all of them. Those she couldn't contact were given to Elder Wheeler to coordinate missionaries to pass by their homes to see if they still live there. This involved four different sets of missionaries outside our normal ward area. The zone leaders also asked each area to get information about female heads-of-household, prospective elders, and unbaptized children of record for our areas. We already had information for the Portuguese members, but the Spanish are spread across two areas so we agreed to get the information for the Spanish missionaries.

On Tuesday we had another lesson with Tony (Simone is in Brazil). We showed the Restoration video and talked about his reading of the Book of Mormon. He felt the name "Moroni" come into his mind so he skipped to the book of Moroni before completing 1 Nephi. We told him that was OK. He can feel the truth of the book as he reads it. He has a commitment working each Sunday until the end of December then will be able to attend church.

Wednesday we had a district meeting in the morning. The activity was instruction on how to bear your testimony quickly on the bus and mark a visit before you (or the contact) needs to get off the bus. Though this applied more to the younger missionaries than to us, it was interesting. We had an activity where we went into a room to find as many contacts (pieces of candy) as possible in three minutes. We found five, leaving one on the chalkboard unfound. I guess we need to start looking up instead of down.

We took Elder Woodruff to Unionville again on Wednesday. This time we were able to take a short walk around a small lake.

Lake at Unionville

A cold gull

Sister Wheeler among the rushes

We had another lesson with Marzia on Wednesday, teaching about the commandments. A friend of hers from Iran stayed to hear the lesson. Marzia as well as her friend agreed to each of the commandments. She didn't make it to church on Sunday, but did attend the Mission President's fireside on Sunday evening. It was unusual for us to have an investigator at the fireside.

The institute lesson this week was on developing knowledge and wisdom. We figured out how to make a picture of our slides, so you will get one of them here:

First slide of the lesson

Now that Thanksgiving and Halloween are over it's time to get ready for Christmas. The stores are playing Christmas music and a few of the homes in the neighborhood are decorated. It will be here before we know it.

Christmas decorations

 We got some free tickets for Black Creek Pioneer Village so we returned on Friday. We took the bus there (actually two long bus trips) and three buses (plus a subway ride) back. It was quite cool, in fact we encountered the first snow of the season. It was behind a building at York University where they pile frost from refrigeration units, but it was still snow. Actually Barrie (up north) and in Woodstock, (southwest) did have snow on Friday.

Tin smith at the pioneer village

Our guide for the "Behind Closed Doors" tour

First snow of the season

Subway station at Yorkville Mall

We had ESL again on Saturday morning where we found out about the stake cultural night tonight (instead of next week as we had planned).  Most of the time we can't understand the announcements of activities at church (since we don't understand Spanish). We were a little late (because of the de Moura mishap) and left early to get Elder Robinson and Elder Bruce back by 9:00 pm (pumpkin time for missionaries). We actually got them there with 2 minutes to spare.

Latin dance at the stake cultural festival

The bishop had asked Sister Wheeler to give a talk in sacrament meeting for today. After spending the week preparing the talk she found out that the bishop forgot asking her and other speakers were lined up. She will give a talk next month (on a different subject) unless the bishop forgets again. As Sister Camejo quotes the eleventh beatitude, "Blessed are the flexible for they will not be bent out of shape".