 |
| Laval at sunset from the northern edge of the island. |
It's been interesting this week. On Saturday, Elder Burton and I attended two baptismal services, one in the Mandarin Branch and one in the Montreal ward. Even though we really didn't teach either of them, it was still good to see. The guy in the Montreal ward, a Nigerian man named Souleimon, even asked Elder Burton to baptize him since Elder Burton did his baptismal interview. Good times all around.
Shortly following the baptisms, a big old storm rolled in. Sunday morning, the wind was howling, it was -23C, and snow was swirling around everywhere. Elder Burton and I hauled our way over to church at 9:00 for a very small sacrament meeting. Elder Burton gave a talk, not because the speakers didn't show up but because the bishopric planned on having the missionaries speak anyway. They cancelled church after sacrament meeting to let everyone get home and safe as quickly as possible.
We spent the rest of the day running around the city to a couple of dinner appointments (one with the Filipinos and another with a nice sister from Ukraine and Cedric as a chaperone) and called it a day. The metros still worked fine since it doesn't usually snow underground, but walking around was quite the adventure.
The following day, it was again -20C and snowy, and Elder Burton and I decided to take a huge tour around the outskirts of Montreal to pass by a few unknown members. In the end, we spent probably six hours bussing and walking for miles and miles around Montreal suburbs. I felt like I was on some kind of arctic expedition. We were very, very happy to get out of the cold at the end of the day.
In other news, the art museum last week was massive and we got a sensory overload as we rushed through it. It had a much more impressive collection than I was anticipating. Everything from super abstract contemporary art to a piece from ancient Mesopotamia. Very, very cool. We don't know what we're gonna do this week because we have effectively run out of cool and nic
e things to go and see. We have to do some digging.
 |
| Outside of church during the storm. |
 |
| Elder Burton hiking through the park to take that cool picture of the Laval sunset. Note snow over boot tops. |
Love you all,
Elder Hadden
Dear Elder "T" Hadden: Thank you for your letters; more significantly, thank you for your unselfish and unflinching service. We've enjoyed following your adventures as your mother forwards your weekly letters to us. The latest note w/ the pictures of the snow storm and the below zero temps reminds puts me very much in mind of my first winter in Danmark. Despite the near Artic latitude up there, the Gulf Stream tends to help keep things relatively mild. However, my first winter during the week of Christmas we had a massive storm blow in from the northeast. The storm dumped two feet of snow as if we were up in Finland! Your note brought back vivid memories of slogging through wind swept snows and standing in pathetic plastic bus shelters--that acted more like wind tunnels--as we experienced bus delays due to the weather. That was the first time during my first six months that we did not ride our bicycles. Walking seemed to take two or three times the effort w/ our faces and toes frozen but our bodies sweating w/ the endeavor! How grateful I felt upon discovering the wisdom and warmth of those long, thick European scarves! Sometimes people let us in because they felt sorry for us as we stood out in the snow and covered in several inches of white! Obviously this is all most familiar to you. How lovely to need the Underground from time to time, eh? We didn't have a metro in the small town I lived in that first winter.
ReplyDeleteMonday the temperature here in Maryland dropped to -12C.; quite cold for Maryland. Supposed to warm up tonight and get up to 8C by Thursday!? (That means more rain here)
Thank you again for what you're doing. Keep up the great work. Know that you are always in our family prayers each night!
All the best,
Uncle Hank--Aunt Heather's husband