Zone Conferences

 Every three months we need to go to zone conferences.  The first one last week on Tuesday was in Quebec City.  We drove there on Monday afternoon and stayed at this very nice Normandin.  The drive up took about 3 hours.  Of course we arrived in the middle of rush hour traffic going home from work.  It was very cold up in Quebec City and the winds were very strong and cold.  We were looking forward to having a nice Thai dinner which we bought just by the Hotel, but the food was not tasty at all and in fact we couldn't even eat much of it.  That was after we spent almost $30.00 on it.  Very disappointing.  We will not be eating there again.

 As part of zone conference, the missionaries were given a lesson on how to cut hair.  Pres. was the guinea pig for the first conference.

 Elder Teuira from Tahiti actually did a great job.  When he first arrived at the mission, he couldn't speak any English and was afraid to even say a prayer out loud, but now he is one of the AP's.  He is such a pleasant guy with a big smile always on his face.

 Everyone in this particular zone speaks French.  Luckily for me I understood everything that was said.

 Papa is wearing a jacket because after we do our training, we have to go outside and inspect the cars.  Car inspections take quite a while because they are very specific and detailed.  It really takes both of us to do it.  Every single thing about each car has to be inspected.  We begin by checking the trunk to see if it is clean and if all materials are well organized in boxes.  Then I get in the car and taking the odometer reading and checking the seat belts and the cleanliness of the car inside.  I also look for 4 things in the glove compartment:  registration, accident forms and guidelines, insurance, and another certificate.   John is looking at the outside, checking it for cleanliness and damage.  Then we check all the lights.  When we check the brake lights, I have to be pushing on the brake.  Because some of the missionaries are so tall I am sometimes lying down almost totally on my back and stretching my leg out to reach the brake.  Then I turn the turn signal lights on and off.  Next comes the front of the car.  We check the lights and turn signals again.   John checks all the fluid levels under the hood and I mark down if they are good or if they need additions of any kind.  Finally he checks the pressure of each tire and I write that down and also the depth of the tire treads and I write that down.   You should see us.  John wears 2 jackets, a scarf, hat and a parka with big boots.  I have on tights, boots, a sweater, boots and a parka that is so big that I look like a bear.  The sleeves are so long that my hands don't even peek out making it a bit difficult to hold a pen.  

                                 The two couples on the right are from the Stake presidency.

                                             Elder Bagnall is one of the AP's

                                                        Look how tall Elder Teuira is.

                           This Elder wanted a picture with us because he is from American Fork.

                                        Wednesday we went to the Mount Royal Zone Conf.

                                  A whole new group of missionaries to be taught and uplifted.

 The black sister sitting with the sister missionaries is a fairly new member.  She goes out with the missionaries almost every day.  She is anxiously awaiting her mission call.

                                          Here I am instructing these awesome missionaries.

                                                       Papa has his turn too.

The senior couples help prepare and serve the meal.  Sister Howard on the far right does almost all of the cooking and planning.  She and Elder Howard work with the young adults and the center.  I think they have the best calling.  I loved working with the young adults and the missionaries 

 I see Elder Heder and Elder Ellis a lot at the office.  Elder Ellis is a computer whiz.  He used to work for the Apple store in Provo and he knows all about macs.  He has been able to help me a lot.  Elder Heder is from PG and lives very close to our house.

 The sad part of the story is that that day after conference and for the rest of the night and most of the following day about 50% of the missionaries both young and senior were struck down with diarrhea, stomach cramps and illness.  Luckily neither Papa or I got sick.  We think that it might have been that the kitchen was not clean.  We think that perhaps the cutting board was contaminated.  Unfortunately the 25 kgs or 34 lbs of pork loin, that was planned to be used for the following days conference,  had to be thrown away.  We didn't want to chance it being contaminated.

On Thursday we had the Isle de Montreal and the Rive Sud combined conference.  

 This couple is Elder and Sister Cannon.  Elder Cannon is the father of President Cannon.  Each of them has served several missions.  They are newlyweds.  They have only been married just a bit over a year.  Elder Cannon at one time served as mission president in one of the southern states (I forgot which).  He is 86 years old.  Can you imagine serving another mission at that age? In this particular mission they are working with the Chinese branch and so are both learning how to speak Chinese.  Both of them are very active both mentally and spiritually as well as physically.