The Holidays

Although winter time in Atlantic Canada is cold for the most part, we have a few warm memories left over from our holiday activities.

Thanksgiving:

Our Thanksgiving this year was filled with interesting people and delicious food. We were invited with the other senior couples except for the two couples in Newfoundland to the Mission Home for a Seniors' Conference that started on Wednesday evening and went through Thursday. Wednesday evening we had a delicious dinner and an enjoyable discussion around the dinner table. We don't get a chance to see the other missionaries often because most are some distance away from the mission headquarters. Therefore, it was really good to be able to share experiences and ideas. Our group consisted of temple missionaries, CES missionaries and us office missionaries. The leader and member support missionaries work in small branches trying to help strengthen them and they are having great success. President and Sister Robinson of the Halifax Temple also joined us on Thanksgiving.

Front row: Baures, Duncans, Simpsons, Sister Baines
Back row: Piersons, Lindquists, Foleys, Hunters, Nelsons, Robinsons, Elder Baines

There was lots of good visiting and lots of good food!


Elders Baines, Foley and President Robinson


Elder and Sister Lindquist


Awaiting the feast


Awaiting the food

Christmas:

For Christmas Eve we were invited back to the mission home to spend the evening with the young missionaries assigned to the Halifax metro area. The Simpsons' son and daughter-in-law and their three daughters were visiting from Cincinnati. It was refreshing to be around children at Christmas time.

Simpson Granddaughters


President and Sister Simpson


Let the games begin!!


Who wants that gift?


A captive audience

For Christmas Day we attended an inspirational church service and then had a few of the missionaries over for food and visiting. It was very relaxing and very enjoyable. President Simpson had given us a reading schedule of scriptures about Christ that we were to read each night during the Christmas season. It was an appropriate way to draw close to Christmas and to reflect upon the true meaning of the season with the young missionaries.

A lovely gift we received at Christmas

Our cute little tree


All that's left is dessert

Boxing Day:

This day is celebrated the day after Christmas. We were invited to a Family Home Evening group held by some members in our Ward. We joined them for a tasty prime rib dinner and some stimulating conversation. It is always interesting to have some of the long time members tell us their conversion stories. Many of the members in this area joined the church in the late 1960's and early 1970's. They have gone on to raise their children in the Church and now are seeing grandchildren also raised in the gospel.

A wonderful prime rib dinner with lovely people

New Year's Eve:

And last but not least New Year's Eve. We were invited to President and Sister Robinson's home for a night full of food, games and a movie. We had such a good time and a lot of laughs. We even made it to midnight. That was quite an accomplishment for us old timers. It was a great way to start a new year.

The Lindquists and a tempting meal

Lindquists, Baures and Foleys

Our love and prayers for a Happy New Year to All!!

Movers and Shakers

We have mentioned before that part of Larry's assignment includes managing mission apartments and cars. Last Fall we found ourselves on the road quite often looking for apartments for senior couples, replacing old furniture in the young missionaries apartments and helping to deliver 10 new trucks that were assigned to the mission.

In August and September we found and furnished apartments for two new couples assigned to the mission, the Duncans in Amherst, Nova Scotia and the Hunters in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Later at very short notice we also found and furnished an apartment for the Piersons in Halifax. It is so exciting to see these new couples come. They are needed very badly and make such a difference in the areas where they serve.

In early November we drove one of the new truck to the elders in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. On the way we dropped off a new dresser to the the Duncans' apartment in Amherst and shuttled their other dresser across town to the Amherst elders.

Lovely farm on the way to Amherst

Our Amherst Elders Meynders and Steward along with Elder Foley

The moving crew

We next drove to Summerside, PEI where we left the truck and picked up their car to be delivered later to St. John, New Brunswick, something like musical cars.

From Summerside we drove to Charlottetown, PEI where we were able to participate in an historic district conference. On Saturday night we stayed at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel which also was the venue for a big district dance. It was fun to see the room packed with people, all the way from babies to grandparents (like us). A fun Mexican buffet was the fare of the night followed by lots of visiting and dancing.

Everyone having a great time

We enjoyed watching the Duncans. They were great dancers!

Years of Arthur Murray??


The District President and Sister Aitken (front right)

On Sunday morning we were greeted at the chapel by some of our great elders. They helped park the cars for a well attended conference.

Aren't they cute?

During the meeting the New Glasgow District was disolved and its units were divided between the two stakes in our mission, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and St. John, New Brunswick. President Aitken was released along with his counselors. The hope is that these two stakes will continue to grow and get stronger and that a third stake can be added in the near future. Church headquarters felt that this was a necessary step in that direction. Some people were quite surprised about the change but the attitude seemed very positive.

It was a cold but very sunny day and after the meeting we had a beautiful drive around the island, across the Confederation Bridge, and then home through some scenic countryside.

Scene on PEI


More of PEI

Access to the island is either by bridge or ferry. The Confederation Bridge is quite a marvel. This 8 mile long bridge connects PEI with the mainland and makes travel to the island much easier. The toll for using the bridge is about $43 which may sound like a lot but the ferry toll at the other end of the island is about $70 and takes a lot longer.

Confederation Bridge


Yet one more lovely sunset on our way home

Also in November Elder and Sister Steffen arrived in Halifax from the MTC. The Steffens are from Fruit Heights, Utah and many years ago lived next door to Janice's cousin T.J. Jones and his family. The President was out of town, so we had the honor of showing them around the area for a couple of days before they left for their assignment in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Of course, we had to show them Peggy's Cove even though it was a very windy and cold day.

By the lighthouse


Beautiful Atlantic Ocean


Church at Peggy's Cove


By the temple at Church the next day

After sending off the Steffens, we sent home one of our lovely sister missionaries, Sister Tolliver. Her parents and younger brother came to pick her up which was fun because they live in the same ward in California as our niece Lori Sherman. We enjoyed meeting them and hearing how wonderful Lori and Dave Sherman and their family are (we already knew this of course).

Sister's Simpson and Tolliver

Our next November adventure was to drive the mission van and trailer to Annapolis Royal to vacate a missionary apartment. This area had been closed down and the apartment was left full of furniture and missionary "stuff." Elders Langford and Cordner from nearby Kingston met us at the apartment and helped us de-junk it and load the furniture into the van. We cleaned and scrubbed and finally headed with the full trailer in tow further down the coast to Yarmouth where we unloaded the desks and beds and reloaded it with the old beds and desks from the apartment there. By this time it was late and we were exhausted. Rather than drive five hours back to Dartmouth in the cold and dark, we took the elders for pizza and then we hunkered down in a hotel.

Elders Cordner and Langford at their finest


All packed up and ready to roll

One thing for sure on this mission we have met many wonderful people and seen many beautiful places and we NEVER get bored. We are continually impressed by all the great missionaries we are blessed to serve with, both young and old. We love President and Sister Simpson and feel honored to be able to try and make their load a little lighter.

Trip to Cape Breton Island

In early October we took a long weekend and went to Cape Breton Island. This island is about 4000 sq miles and is located between the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. It is noted for its stunning scenery and breath-taking vistas of shoreline, highlands and forests. It is circled by the Cabot Trail which is about a 200 mile loop around the northern end of the island.

Autumn is supposed to be the best time to visit the Island and although we did see some beautiful leaves they were not at their peak. Cape Breton, however, is very scenic and worth seeing at any time of the year.

Along the way we drove to Louisberg where we spent a fun night at a pleasant inn on the bay. Louisberg is well known for the Fortress of Louisberg, an 18th century French fort that was prominent during the French and Indian Wars. The Canadian government has reconstructed part of the original fortress which everyone says is a must-see. However, because of our tight schedule we could not fit in a tour of the fort. We are hoping to see it before we leave Canada.

On our drive to Cape Breton

The inn at Louisberg

One of many lovely rivers

The next morning we began our drive around the Cabot Trail. It was such a lovely day but started out badly. When we stopped at a convenience store we locked the keys in the car. Actually that turned out nice because the people there were very helpful. The owner and some customers lent us a helping hand. After about an hour we finally got the door open. Nice, nice, nice.

One of our favorite spots on the drive was a place called Green Cove. It was a beautiful clear day and the blue water and the green grass and the rock formations were amazing.

Green Cove




Interesting rock formations at the cove

Elder and Sister Foley @ Green Cove

We finished the drive around the trail and arrived in Port Hawkesbury about 5 pm.

Breathtaking views from the trail


An idyllic village


Port Hawkesbury

Elder and Sister Baures, temple missionaries from the Halifax Temple, were also staying in Port Hawkesbury that night, so we met up with them for dinner. We ate together in a local pub and it was really fun to have a chance to visit and compare notes.

Elder and Sister Bauer

The next morning was Sunday and we attended the Port Hawkesbury Branch. It is a small branch and they meet in a lovely little building. We have 3 elders there and they are loved by the members. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures.

After church we began our trek home. We decided to go the scenic way along the Atlantic coast. Beautiful but very long drive!

Funny little lighthouse on an island


Waiting an hour for a ferry to make a five minute crossing


Departure point for the ferry

An added reward for our long drive home was seeing a beautiful sunset as we neared home. A wonderful way to end a special weekend.

We covered about a 1000 miles on this trip and were happy that we saw such beauties of nature.