The Branch and our Saturday

We finally have internet in the apartment and now I have to many things to catch up on.  I will try to write some catch up posts. 

  Perpetue is in the R.S. Presidency of this little Montreal East Branch.  She is a lovely woman from Haiti, the mother of 3 young boys.  Her husband is a computer consultant that solves computer problems for companies. He is often gone traveling with his work.   She and her family have lived in Montreal for a few years.  She is very spiritually inclined and is a great example to all.  The wards and branches in this stake were challenged by the Stake President to read the Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference.  She has taken this challenge to heart and is almost done.  She says reading this great book has helped her immensely in her everyday life, in how she treats her children and husband, and how she lives her life in general.  She read the part where we are not only counseled but commanded to read the words of Isaiah and to apply them to our life.  She stressed the word commanded and has encouraged the sisters to heed this advice and to receive the blessings.  We would all do well to heed her advice.

 These are the ladies who attended Relief Society last Sunday minus the two who left early.  They have been very welcoming to me.  Avril, the one in the middle is the R. S. President.

Last week we arrived at church for Sacrament and there were less than 20 in attendance.  After the Sacrament was over others started straggling in throughout the rest of church time.  We ended up with about 45 people attending.  This Branch is really struggling and has lots of needs and problems.  Many of the Branch members have said how excited they are that we will be there.  They had a Senior Couple before who left in the beginning of February and they did a lot for the Branch.  They were well loved.  They have been telling us that we will be able to help them now.  I hope we will be able to help out in someway, but it's hard to fill someones shoes who did so much and is so well loved.  Also, their calling was Member and Leadership Support to this Branch and our calling is the Mission Office.  We will do all we can and with the Lord's help we will have the energy and ability to work in the Branch also.

 This morning we woke up and were eating breakfast when we got a call from the Howard's asking us if we wanted to go with them and Sister Conway to the underground mall at McGill.  Montreal has several huge, huge underground malls.  We did want to go.  Here are just a few photos are of downtown Montreal on the way to the mall.

 There are many beautiful old building as well as many modern skyscrapers and buildings.

 At one time Montreal was the financial capital (the Wall Street) of Canada.  In order to preserve the linguistic and cultural integrity of French Quebec, one night armored trucks came and took all of the money out of the banks and took it into Toronto.  Toronto became the financial center of Canada as Wall Street is for the United States.  I'm not sure of the details, but will try to read about it and find out.

 There are many fancy stores on the way there.

 The mall itself it humongous.  It is 5 stories high.  This particular one has a lay out kind of like a spiral with many spokes all of which not only have many stores, but also lead to other corridors and other areas of shops.  I think I would have gotten lost by myself.

 We passed this shop that had many beautiful gelatos and macarons filled with gelato. The also had yogurt and sorbets.  On our way out we stopped and indulged.  I got a cup of 1/2 lime and 1/2 mango.  It was very delicious.

 This is a photo in one direction, but it really doesn't give any impression of how huge it really is.

 On one of the floors there is the biggest food court I have ever seen with food from many different countries. Here are just a few of the food counters.  I chose sushi and John chose a gigantic beef burritos which was served with french fries.  Both were very tasty.  I actually took more pictures, but somehow they are lost.

 This building is all glass and next to it is a stately old building.

 Contrast between the old and the new.

 This evening we were invited to have dinner at Rhiannon's apartment.  There is a huge market called Jean Talon Marche. It takes up a full block.  Around the edges of the block are stores.  Above the stores and shops are apartments and she lives in one of those.  Her apartment was so cute.  It's small, but very, very nice and is a desired area to be in. She can shop for fresh fruits and veggies every day.

 Here's Rhiannon.  She is the daughter of an English Mother (from England) and a Canadian Father (from Victoria).  She got the B.A. at BYU in Provo and then a double Masters in Victoria.  Now she is working on her doctorate at McGill University which is one of the top Universities in Canada comparable to Harvard.  Montreal has 6 other top Universities.  Rhiannon is a very pleasant, warm, highly intelligent woman.  She is the Public Relations Representative for the Stake here.

 She prepared this wonderful pasta with shrimp, veggies, and pesto sauce for us.

 Elder Mortensen is one of the new missionaries here arriving just a week or so before us.

 His companion, Elder McMurrin is a one year seasoned missionary.  We had such a pleasant time together.  

Last night we got a call from the counselor in the Bishopric asking us to speak in Sacrament.  And so here we are barely here and we have to give a talk.  That is one of the more difficult things for me to do.  I always stress so.