Surprise Visitor

We had a holiday this week. Victoria Day was on Monday. This holiday kicks off summer just like Memorial Day in the states. The branch celebrated by having a service project. We met at Mary's house to clean out her yard by pulling weeds, planting flowers, and drinking limeade. It gave us a chance to get to know the Sadore family better who just moved into the branch.

Sister Wheeler and Brother Holt in mint and oregano

Sister Wheeler's arm got some scratches on it from cleaning out this bed that later developed little blisters. It still looks sore but it is getting better. There must be something she reacted to in the oregano or mint.

Sister Sedore with Mark-James and Gabriella

Break time for Sister Holt and Sister Wheeler

Mary had some good limeade for us to drink

Following the work at Mary's we went to the church to straighten curbing and plant flowers.

Curbing duty at the church

Flower duty at the church

 This was followed by a barbeque.

Brother Sedore cooking the burgers

Since Monday was a branch service project we went to the church on Tuesday to clean out the primary toy cabinet. Many of the toys are broken and some are not age appropriate for the nursery.

The toys work OK for Elder Wheeler

Mark-James is getting ready to be baptized. His mother thought it would be a good idea for him to receive the missionary lessons, even though he is only eight years old, so on Tuesday evening we went to their house in Marmora and gave the first lesson. This was followed by dinner.

For our morning walk on Wednesday we went along the Trans Canada Trail. As we returned we found a construction sign that wasn't there a half-hour before. They were patching potholes in the road.

We were on call for hospital duty this week. President Holt was in the Campbellford hospital following surgery on his knees. Sister Holt has cataracts and can't drive, so we brought her to the hospital and took her back home to Havelock several times. On Wednesday President Holt was released so we took him home. By Sunday he was doing well enough to attend district conference at the church.

Ready for a ride home

We didn't know if we would be needed to take President Holt to Peterborough for a follow-up appointment on Thursday so we used the day as a planning day. We were able to call several families to get updated on their situations. We were also able to visit with Heather before she leaves for Europe, India, and Thailand. We gave her a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon to read on her travels and mark the passages referring to Jesus Christ. We had branch council on Thursday evening (instead of the normal Wednesday) with Brother McComb conducting. Maybe we don't do a lot here, but there were several members we knew and had updates on that are not known by anyone else in the branch.

For our preparation day Friday we broke down and went to one of the Toronto "biggies", the zoo. It was quite a drive to get there and even longer coming back (because of traffic). We had a good time walking around looking at all of the animals - it wore us out. We stopped in Coburg on the way back for dinner.

I thought of Richard - when we saw hippos in Africa

What's black and white and red all over? A sunburnt zebra

Butterly

Sister Wheeler petting the stingrays

They planted wisteria to match Sister Wheeler's shirt

And you thought you had a bad-hair day this Alpaca had just been sheered.

Every Monday morning we do laundry. Marina is always there first so we are able to visit with her a little. She lives on the first floor and has really made her apartment a home. 

Our neighbor, Marina, in her garden

Saturday was district conference. We rode to Kingston with Mary and Penny (a woman who will soon be living with Mary) for the adult session. We really enjoyed it. President and Sister Scott were there and spoke. We didn't get back until about 10:30 pm.

Riding off in the sunset after district conference

 Sunday was stake conference (district conference for us) for all of Canada with a broadcast originating from Salt Lake. It included talks by Elder Christofferson and Elder Packer. When we got there we had a surprise visitor. His name is Chris, from Ohio. He drives trucks and happened to be passing through Trent Hills. He is not a member of the church, but has been investigation on his own. All of the members of the branch greeted him warmly (the pot-luck dinner after meeting didn't hurt either). He encountered the church in Oregon and has a testimony, but has not been able to have any missionary lessons. We fixed that! We gave him the lesson on the Restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We reviewed with him what he needed to do to be baptized. We loaded him with a lot of reading materials (he is already reading the Book of Mormon and Gospel Principles on his Kindle). It was a wonderful experience being able to teach someone so prepared, even though he doesn't live in this mission. We have his contact information and can keep in touch with him as he prepares for baptism.

Chris, our new investigator