One Month Left

I probably won't post this for a few days yet, but as I start this post (June 19th), we have 4 weeks and 1 day, less than a month, or just 29 days until we leave.  That is unbelievable.  Time has just flown and we have made so many wonderful friends and grown to love this beautiful part of the world that 18 months ago we didn't even know existed. In the next couple of blogs we will show you some of the wonderful friends that we have made.


We got the chance to celebrate the 80th birthday of a great lady -  Simone.  The past bishop and his wife had a little dinner party for her and we were invited along with the Sister Missionaries to the celebration.  We love going to their home - it is so comfortable and peaceful.  And their love for this sweet lady made it all the better.

Since there are so many apartments around here -- there are also lots of community gardens.  But one of the things that I have learned here is the way they garden.  Most of the ones I have seen are either in boxes or they are in raised beds.  They have this large pile of dirt that they garden in.  I have yet to see (except in the large strawberry farms or vegetable farms) anyone just digging rows in the ground and planting. Who would have thought.  

In this blog...   I will also show you some of our old friends....  oh wait,  they are more than friends...  they are FAMILY!!!  To start, the Beazers were here for a week the first part of the month.  They took a few days to drive here from Florida...  it was a good time of year for them to cool off and enjoy a cooler warm than they are used to.

Many of these pics are in places we have already shown you, but it is always different through the eyes (and camera) of new people.

The Coaticook Gorge was a children's wonderland for these rock lovers. The river was REALLY low... in fact almost non existent in this spot.  They had a wonderful time creating their own Inukshuk. There is a spot on the river side where there are a lot of different ones that gave them their inspiration

 

Then they got creative.  Well Lydia and her Mom did.  The boys and Iris were having too much fun throwing rocks.

And there were a LOT of rocks to throw.

Can you see the big Inukshuk that she is standing next to on top of the rock?  In the middle of the river bed?   Remember that...  you will want to scroll back to this a little later in the blog.

The suspension bridge from the top, and the bottom..  notice the people jumping off the bridge.  We thought they were bungee jumping,  but they were attached to a wire...  so not jumping, just sliding.

  

and of course there is the tower...  the one that Corbin climbed to the top of 7 times.  He has much more energy than I do!!

 The kids loved posing in the murals 

It is interesting to note that of all the people in Sherbrooke that we know,  the ones who know our family the best.....  are the members of the Family Home Evening Group. They played games, learned to play Volleyball and Just had fun playing together.  Brooke said that on the drive home....  Iris (Speaking of Josée Lachance)  said....   Mommy....  Sister Lucky is cute.    Even at 2 she has great memories of Sherbrooke.

Toward the end of the visit we went to North Hatley (on the list of Canada's top 10 most beautiful villages)  to play at the beach.  It was beautiful.  The sky was a bit overcast, the water was blue and the shoreline was a stunning and vibrent green.  They played and played in the water and the sand.

Look OUT...  within minutes....   we were plastered with rain.  We ran to a nearby porch and waited it out....  but the kids thought it was great. Notice that the shoreline isn't so green anymore!   You can barely see it through the rain.

After the rain -- we headed to the local Chocolatiére. 

Auberge La Chocolatière

 It is a little pricey, but well worth it.  They also have a B&B with a chocolate theme....  mmmmm....   tempting!!  

We really had a great time with them.   We did some geocaching, played at a great park, made cookies and Grandma Speakman Fudge, wrote letters to Grma Iris, and they swam in the pool where they were staying.  It was a wonderful week.

The day they were leaving was also the day that the Merryweathers were arriving.  Elder P and I drove to Burlington to pick them up. (Interrupting story....  Our SUV's transmission did a nose dive while the Beazer's were here...  so we took it in and they gave us a loaner.  But it only would fit 5 and if they were to give us a van, the only one they had didn't have plates, so we couldn't take it across the border. So, we used the loaner, and rented a small car and drove them both to the airport 2 1/2 hours away) back to the story.

Coming back from the airport we met the Beazers in Newport, just inside Vermont.  The families had a wonderful time together playing, eating Pizza, and just being together.  Then we went across the street to McD's and got some icecream and let them play in the play area there.  Why do you ask weren't we at a park or something.....  cold and rain.  So it had to be an inside play day.

The Beazers continued their 3 day trip home and we headed to Sherbrooke with the Merryweathers.

We will start their adventures with the murals.  They really got into becoming part of the picture.

We took a drive up north so Andrew could visit a  place for a project at Univ. of Utah.  While we were there we visited the beautiful Parc national de la Mauricie.  Wow....  what a stunning spot on this planet.  The kids had a great time playing in the sand and climbing on rocks when we stopped at the many lakes and rivers. It took over an hour to just drive from one end of the park to the other side, but we did it and a lot of stops to see the views along the way.  The mosquitoes we not kind.   We came away with polka dots.

Everyone who comes to this part of the world needs to visit Coaticook, the bridge, river, the cave, the tower, and icecream factory.  So we make sure we include it when we have visitors.  It is very interesting how every visit is so different.  The water level in the river changes dramatically depending on what the weather has been that week.   Beazers had a little rain, but not a lot and mostly in the evenings.  Merryweathers had a LOT of rain - and the river reflected that.  Remember when I told you to notice the rock that Lydia was standing by in the middle of the river? (you might want to go back a look after looking at this pic - they are the same rock in the middle of the river....)

 There are now 2 Inukshuks on the rock...  but it is the same place.  The river was high and moving fast.  Only 9 days difference.  The kids still had lots of fun playing in and with the rocks.  It was just a totally different experience.

This is the same place that Brooke was building her rock creations - now Josh and Nori are adding to them.

and every visit must include a visit to the Coaticook Ice Cream Factory.

 Once again Family Home Evening was a hit. Like last time the kids and Grandpa did the lesson. With them acting out the story and Grandpa Pete (Elder Pete) teaching.  It was fun during activity time to see them become good friends with the FHE group also.  Notice our 80 year old friend Simone - chasing Josh around the hall.   It was great fun for all.

We almost didn't have the time to go to the

Museum of Ingenuity J. Armand Bombardier

But we were very glad that we made it.  It had just reopened after being closed for a year or so for renovations and it was so fun that we had problems getting the kids to leave.   They loved it - and so did the adults.  I could put 20-30 pics here...  but I don't think you would appreciate that.  So, take my word for it - movies, driving a train, piloting a plane, creating and animating new machines, and getting your picture taken on your favorite snowmobile - a great time was had by all.

Lisa works at a wonderful camp for handicapped youth and she invited us out to see it.  Andrew was very interested since that is what his students at the U do.... create adaptive sports equipment.  It is called Camp Massawippi.  It was cold and the campers were just arriving, so we didn't get to watch them use the equipment, but we had a great tour and got to see some pictures of when the weather was good and the campers were out and about.

From the place that both families were staying we could see the steeple of the Sanctuaire du Sacré-Coeur-de Beauvoir. It had a beautiful setting in the trees and on top of the moutain with a view of the area including the city of Sherbrooke and a beautiful walk and an open air chapel.

 

Of course we got caught in a rain storm....  it was Merryweather week.  It rained every day!!

Beazers made it home safe and sound after a 3 day drive.  Merryweathers made it home wasted but alive after a 36 hour journey of cancelled flights, missed connections, more flight problems and 3 layovers.  Who said flying was easier???

Well, at this point (if you read all the way to the end) you think all we do is play around here.  The last couple of weeks there has been plenty of that.  But those are the things you take the pictures of.  All the other things that take up the majority of our time is not usually photographed.  But know that we are busy in the work.  We are organizing a fireside for this next Sunday, Jan is talking in church this week and teaching the RS lesson next week, we are still teaching Marriage and Family to a couple of families in their homes.  Elder P is training the new ward mission leader as he turns over the material and information for the ward.  We are still driving to the temple at least once a week, and overseeing the FHE group.  We have wrapped up the "To the Rescue" work and are preparing it to give to the new bishop.

We wanted to leave you with our "miracle" for the week.  While the Beazers were here our trusty SUV decided it was tired and the transmission went kaput!  It was a little tricky because it wouldn't go in reverse and we hobbled to dealership to have them look at it.  We were holding our breath because transmission problems are not cheap and all we needed was to have to pay more than it was worth to get it fixed so we could drive it home.  Well after discussion and research, it was discovered that the problem was listed under a RECALL that had been checked a few months back and deemed OK.  So,  The whole thing was fixed - at no charge.  What a blessing.  The next week - after we got it back, it was still not working quite right, so we took it back in and a sensor was misfiring and not communicating with the computer properly - They took care of that too.

We have been so blessed.  This car has had over 30k miles put on it during our mission, and it is tired.
#1 We are grateful that is it happening here, with a repair dept we have been working with and not when we were in the middle of the Canadian Prairie on the way home.
#2  The Recall totally took us by surprise.   What a gift and blessing.
#3  We were able to have loaners and rental cars to still allow us to do what we needed to in the ward and with the family.
#4  Hopefully all is well and we will be set up with our "trusty Steed" to get us home safely.

Life is good.  We are blessed.  God loves you.  And so do we.

Have a great life.

Love and hug,
Elder and Soeur Petersen