Part 2 August and Sept

I forgot a really important event in the last blog.  It was Louise's 50th Birthday and we surprised her with a party in her room.  It was fun for her and for us.

She has won all of our hearts and we are blessed to call her a friend.

We were blessed to have our mission president give us permission to take a few weeks and go to California for all of the wonderful events that were going to take place.  So off we went.  

And yes.....  this is one of the reasons we went.  Miss Amelia Jean Owens. What a sweet bundle of joy and love!!

 She won her Grandpa's heart at once!!  They were buddies for all the time we were there.  And if she was at a point that was very sad.....  Grandpa would take her and she was immediately better.

 I love making quilts for these new blessings.  Using all the colors of her new room was fun!!

 She loves the outside.  So hanging out in the hammock was one of our favorite activities.

 She has such a sweet Mom.   Dani is a wonderful mom and doing really well with a new baby and a house full of people.

 Miss Millie has a wonderful daddy too!!  He is so loving and attentive.  She is a very blessed little girl. 

He also is a SF fan and makes sure that she wears her SF outfit on game days - just like her Dad.

Q was presenting at a conference in the lovely city of San Francisco, so Miss Millie and the rest of us went on her first outing and drove there to see him.  It was fun to get together and he bragged that he got to hold her first before the Aunts and Great Grandma that were coming the next week to see her. 

 It is true...  California is in a drought.  This is what a city park looks like.  Brown and brittle.  Sad.

 It was so hot that even the squirrels were trying to find some shade and cool off.  This one laid in the shade on the grass for almost an hour.

We were very blessed to get to spend some time with our great friends the Flinks.  What great people they are.  They are serving in the Sacramento mission, which is where Dani lives.  We got to go to the temple with them and then saw them a couple more time.  Wow....  We love these guys!!

 There was a bit of police excitement while we were there.  I guess some neighbors decided to take shots at each other with AK47s and the police didn't think that was a very good idea.  So there were oodles of police hovering around for about 4 hours making sure it was safe and the crazies were escorted away.

Then the Aunts and Grandma arrived and the real fun began!!

On Friday Evening J got his Endowments.  That is a series of blessing and covenants that an individual receives the first time they go to the temple. It had been a year since he was baptized and he had been waiting for that day.

 It felt so good to be together!!  

The next morning Dani and J were sealed for all eternity.  Then that sweet Millie was sealed to them.  They are an eternal family and as long as they keep their covenants and promises, they can be together forever.

 There were a lot of people who came to support them besides family.  All of the sister missionaries except one were there who taught him the lessons.  Only one of them is still on her mission - the others all came from Utah and Germany!!  The Mission President and his wife were there and well as lots of other friends.  What a showing of love for this beautiful couple and their new family.

What a beautiful family!!

The next day was Millie's day. Amelia Jean Owens was given her name and a Father's blessing in Sacrament meeting that Sunday morning.  She was so beautiful and her parents again had a lot of family and friends with them for support and a great show of love.

 Even though they are a family of 3, they are also a family of 5.  J's son Jeremy and his sister are living with Dani and J and they make a good team all working together.

We also had the blessing of getting to see my nephew Elder Joseph Speakman.  He also is in the Sacramento mission.  What a wonderful Elder and a sweet man.

And so comes to an end the wonderful trip to California.  We loved being with family and friends and being able to participate in these important events in Dani's family's life.

Things back in Sherbrooke were getting a little emotional.  One of our great friends had a grand baby die.  And Louise had decided that she was worn out and tired of fighting the enemy cancer.  So by the time we got home she was sleeping and never again woke up.  She was and is a wonderful lady that I still count as a great friend.  I know I have posted a lot of pictures of  her in the past, but here are a few from her video that show what a beautiful woman is now living with her earthly and her Heavenly Father.

I sure do miss her.

Our High Priest Group Leader does a Friday night gig at one of the local restaurants.  We went one Friday to listen to him and were pleasantly surprised at how good he was.  He sings old Country.  ie  Johnny Cash, Merl Haggert, etc...  Here is his poster.

 and here is a little clip from that evening....  it isn't long...  but you can get a feel for him.

That same evening we went for a walk on ANOTHER of the many walking/biking paths in this area.  As you can see fall is starting to blossom.  These berries were everywhere. 

 Elder Petersen had to get into the riverbed and see the water.  The granite walls and rocks were beautiful.

 There is not a lack of beauty in this place.  We LOVE it!!

 We went on an adventure with our District on Monday and the Grubbs were here to visit this week.  But I will put pictures of those adventures on the next addition.  So for now...  good night and God Bless.

August 2015

This blog is going to be a summery rather than details!!   There has been so much going on that it would be a book if I tried to tell you all the details!

We made a second trip to Coaticook....  this time for the evening tour.  If you want to get a feeling of what it is like, you can visit the web site.  http://forestalumina.com/   It is not as spooky as it looks in the video, but more of a Fairy garden with lots of lights and images.  We loved the sparkling lights on the trees and the granite cliffs...  it was breathtaking.  Thank you Agnes and Jr. for going with us.  It was fun to see it through the eyes of your young boys!

We also visited Blue Lavande.  Many acres of lavender. One of the largest fields in Canada. 

A fun adventure.  We got there 2 weeks after harvest, so it didn't look like this then...  but it was still beautiful and smelled great.

I had a Relief Society Project that lasted a few weeks during this time also.  We did some Kits for the Kenya project, Days for Girls.  It was a great project and a big learning curve for me.  But there were many dedicated women who gave a lot of their time to serve these young women.  

When we visited a member that is about a 1/2 hour north, we decided to stop at one of the local museums and we were pleasantly surprised with what we saw, both inside and out.

 Interactive outside art, where we left our message of God Bless.

Trees dressed as people

 

clay creatures that were incorporated into the natural environment

and inside, my favorite were the paintings that flowed into photographs.  Unique.

One Monday we took a hike with our district to Pinnacle Peak.  It is a pretty sweet hike, but the end is spectacular.  The Elders and Sisters particularly like it because those mountains in the distance are the good 'ol USA.    It is a beautiful view.  Yes that is our District leader sitting on the top of the cliff.  He wanted to go out to the end, but I told him his mother would shoot me if I let him.

Just before we left for California we visited the father of one of our members.  He is a retired Agriculture Professor at one of the local Universities.  Wow...  does his back yard show it.  He has about a 1/4 acre in the middle of a city block, but his whole back yard is garden.  It is amazing.

 He has all the regulars..like  tomatoes, peas, lettuce, beans, and squash - but much more!

and he also has things I have never seen before, like ground cherries. 

He also has strawberries, raspberries and lots of other bushes.

 Elder Petersen helped him do some weeding, picking beans, and harvesting garlic.

 Now, I know you won't believe me....  but these are a squash that looks like pumpkin, and they get pretty big, I tried to get a perspective so you could see the size, but it didn't work well.  The plants are huge and they are arbored up like grapes (to save space he said) and the vines are all UP.  Who would have thought you could get squash to grow UP?

 

 Needless to say, Elder Petersen loved being in and helping with the garden.

 Lately on our hikes and adventures I have discovered and become intrigued with Canadian Mushrooms...  I have taken MANY pictures of them. Here are just a few. ...  

This is the end of Part one of this segment...  California is next up.....  to be continued.........

The reason we are playing hookie

Isn't she beautiful!!  She is why we are playing hookie and we will be here for a couple of weeks. We have a bunch of stuff to tell you, but wanted to see our beautiful little Amelia and we will finish updating later.  Have a great week!!!  Love and hugs.

Summer in full swing!

Summer is always busiest at the end of July and the first of August.  I thought that while we were on our mission that it would change....  not a chance.   It has been a crazy and wonderful 3 weeks and we are barely into August.

We loved the Senior Missionary Conference.  We all met in Montreal on the 25th and went to lunch, drove to MT. Royal to get a picture of us all together looking over the city, tried to go the art museum downtown, but that didn't work out,  so it was off to the Mission Home where we got to know each other a little better and have a wonderful meal. (The young ones in the pic are the Patricks. President and Sr Patrick have 4 kids here with them and just had a daughter get married the week before.  Can you imagine doing all that while being the Mission Mom!!!)

We met some great people that day.  One couple of special note.  The Badouxs are from Namur, Belgium.  They are the first Senior Missionary couple to leave from their stake.  He is 87 years old!!!! (2nd from the right in the back row and his wife is just in front of him) They said they wanted to go on a mission, and that they wanted to go to Chicoutimi  in Quebec. (why you ask.....  because their daughter had moved there and their grandson lived in a neighboring city!!)  And they got it!!  They are 4 hours NORTH of the mission home .  What an amazing couple. They are great missionaries and we loved getting to know them and learning from their wisdom.  It was good to have some time with the other missionaries as well.  It was fun to find out that there were 2 missionaries that served in Elder Petersen's mission about the same time that he was there.  Elder Westover from Sandy and Elder Hatfield from Seattle.  Each of the missionaries have a great story and we are blessed to be here with them.

The next week was devoted to the missionary fireside.  The ward missionary committee (Ward mission leader and full time missionaries) put on one each year.  We decided to use the Pioneer theme and focus on both past and present pioneers.  We had a good turn out and those who attended seemed to have a great time.

 President and Sr Patrick were our guest speakers and they did a wonderful job of teaching about member missionaries.

 We sat around a pretend fire pit (ie: fireside) on blankets and camp chairs

 Sister Tehaamatai accompanied the hymns on the guitar

 Don't these Elders look fine in their pioneer vests!!

The fish pond is where the members got the stories they acted out for the activity. 

We had a photo booth in the Foyer to have family pics taken, and then we finished the evening with dinner and dessert.  The desserts were kind of fun.  We decided to have the members each make a recipe of one of the missionaries family favorites.  So we had a great variety of desserts from Tahiti, Georgia, Washington State, California, and Utah.

AND

during this whole evening...  I had my phone in my hand.  Not in my pocket, purse or sitting on the counter.  It was in my hand the whole time because Dani was in labor!!!  

Finally, during dinner we got the call and she had safely delivered our beautiful 

Amelia Jean!!!

What a beautiful family!!!!  We are so happy!!!!!  It was really sweet watching Elder Petersen worry about her during her day and a half of labor and then tear up when the news came.  He is a great Dad and Grandpa and New babies always hit the soft spot in him.

AHHHHHH....  life is good!!

Monday we did a District outing and took the missionaries to Coaticook.  It is one of the towns in our area and it is one of the places that is good for them to visit while they are here. It has the Longest Suspension Bridge in the World!!! 

There is a great walk that goes through the forest.  They have created an evening walk with lights that we will be doing next week...  we will tell you about that in our next installment.

The walk leads to the bridge,  and there is a

boardwalk along the river that created the gorge,  (it is hard to see how deep it really is....  but it is deep enough that some of us got wobbly knees and were ready to get off it)

a tower on the mountain top overlooking the whole valley, (can you see the missionaries on each of the levels?)

(here we are at the top)

a cave, 

and a trail along the river at the bottom of the gorge

 Leading to the river.

We were walking to the other part of the park and I decided that I didn't want to walk all the way and back (I was being lazy I thought) so Elder Pete and I turned around and walked back to the entrance to get the car and drive down to meet the missionaries.  Well, just as we got to the beautiful covered bridge to pick them up it started raining.  Before they got in the car it was raining REALLY hard.  By the time we had driven a block to the stop sign it had turned to hail and was coming down so hard that we had to pull over because we couldn't see the road.  This was a crazy storm.  The hail was not pea size...  it was almond or dime size.  They were huge and I have pox marks on my windshield to prove it.

(I hoped to insert a video of the hail storm, but have yet to get it from the Elders....  so I will post without it and hope to get it at a later point.)

If we had been walking back to the car at that point there could have been some serious body injuries.  So I guess I wasn't being lazy after all...  just following the spirit.

After enduring the storm we went to the FAMOUS Coaticook Ice Cream Factory!!

An update on Louise.  She is doing better than any of us expected.  She is mentally and physically back to the same point she was 3 or 4 weeks ago.  No one can explain it to us, or give us any information for the future... because they don't know either.  But we are enjoying every day with her and know that she is in God's Care.


We have a lot more to post, but we will go ahead and send you this one and put the rest in the next one.  We don't want to wear you out!!

Have a great day!!
Elder and Sister Petersen